10 Wrestling Matches That Accidentally Filmed Things You Weren't Meant To See

WWE should have hired Don Callis for Hell In A Cell 2021...

Drew McIntyre
WWE

Homogeneity is the death of pro wrestling.

This is why WWE is mostly bad and created its own competition. The promos are all identikit ha-ha bullsh*t that aim for comedy but instead inspire total, cringing despair. The booking is directionless and repetitive. The matches transcend homogeny. They are not similar. WWE runs the exact same matches every single week. The match quality is generally good-to-very-good, outside of a staggeringly incompetent RAW Women's division, but they rarely mean anything and the imposed pace at which they are worked is often just boring. Solid isn't enough.

AEW is not a perfect wrestling promotion. While mostly excellent, it can even veer into the realm of the infuriating. How can a company that has mapped Hangman Page's arc so elegantly book Vickie Guerrero in a match?

But one glance at Miro's potential slayers underscores how well this company books and the extent to which range is embraced: Jungle Boy, Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy, Sammy Guevara, Kazarian: all are excellent, credible and totally different babyfaces.

NJPW's production is however so good that it should be the norm. It should be homogenised. The static, patient camera allows you to feel the snap of every move, the arc of every flight. Every wrestling company on the planet should rip it off.

And that is because North American pro wrestling is broadly useless at production...

10. Painted Cardboard At AEW Blood & Guts

Drew McIntyre
AEW

The discourse has thankfully eased.

What a sh*tty day that was to have picked wrestling as a hobby and created a Twitter account, Jesus f*cking Christ.

At AEW Blood & Guts, Chris Jericho took a tremendous, admirable risk to get the story over, and that story can be traced back to August 2020. Jericho, pondering whether or not to induct MJF into the Inner Circle, called his protege "soft". This act of sadistic violence proved otherwise, and it was arrived at through a continuation of the epic chess game on which the entire rivalry was premised.

None of this mattered or resonated because AEW's production team botched the shot.

You were not meant to see that that the "metal" covering the crash pad was in fact cardboard because AEW made what can technically be described as an "effort" to obscure it. It was a sh*tty effort, but an effort nonetheless. The entire landing area looked pathetic, and for a company otherwise pretty damn intelligent in booking its storylines, this was as thick as f*cking sh*t. Of course the impact was going to send the cardboard flying. A slight breeze sends cardboard flying.

Instead of the god's eye view, AEW filmed the impact in close-up, and Jericho almost cracked the back of his head open for nothing.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!