10 Wrestling Images That Meant So Much More In Hindsight
Wrestlers that looked picture perfect in the postscript...
Wrestling photographs are amazing.
For an artform that requires so much movement just to try and tell the stories it's supposed to tell, wrestling is so often best defined by a single frozen moment captured in a snapshot.
Often by design and occasionally by chance, these were once the preserve of the DVD sleeves or magazine covers. In a post-print era, they light up social media profiles instantaneously, trading over-the-counter sales for retweets and shares.
WWE and NJPW capture so many of these incredible split-second shots by design and in glorious high resolution with the aid of a crack photography squad, but some of the best ever photographs come completely by chance. Some don't even mean anything in the moment itself.
And these are those. These are the shots that weren't necessarily designed to be as iconic as they ended up becoming. Praise be for the unexpectedly important captures that gain meaning and power by the minute and hour.
Wrestling remains loaded with pathos, and it's impossible not track at least an element of it all amongst the heartbreak and triumph of it all. Even if it's not known at the time.
10. "I Had To Know..."
Shawn Michaels had just made a total fool out of Hulk Hogan, and they both knew that, but 'HBK's above remark was designed to sell the drama that had supposedly just unfolded between them.
In the end, what he "knew" was probably what he'd already assumed - that 'Hollywood' was too showbiz for 'The Showstopper'. Michaels and Hogan had agreed to more than just this one match, but 'The Hulkster' decided that it wasn't particularly for him after claiming his win.
It took one to know one.