10 Wrestling Matches Better Than The One Thing You Remember Them For
3. Mick Foley Vs. Ric Flair (SummerSlam 2006)
Known for: Octogenarian eats thumbtacks and barbed wire in an attempt to stay relevant.
Why it's better than that: Without wishing to damn this one with faint praise, its quality is especially impressive when you consider the age and condition of both men going in. Through countless sixty minute matches or sickening plunges to exposed concrete, both were utterly knackered by 2006.
The "I Quit" stipulation was perfectly ascribed: Both men had previously contested iconic iterations of it, and it prevented the match from sagging - the frequent breaks allowed the two to really get stuck in between refusals. And get stuck in they did, in ways which both wowed the crowd and stayed true to their characters. Flair chopping Foley's chest with his barbed-wire covered forearm was a particularly neat touch. Being two of wrestling's all time great stick men helped ramp up the entertainment factor, too. A crazed Flair, in a match highlight, remonstrated with a near-unconscious Foley that, "this is an "I Quit" match, not a lay around on my a** match!"
A full-on war in which you'd not guess the age its soldiers, Foley vs. Flair isn't the desperate work of couple of geezers who should be old enough to know better. The same definitely can't be said for their TNA reprisal, though.