10 Wrestling Matches That Are So Bad They Are Hilariously Awesome
4. Warrior Vs. Hollywood Hogan - WCW Halloween Havoc 1998
It’s basically impossible to find a list of the worst wrestling matches of all time, without this one popping up near the top. And there is a good reason for this – it is an absolute train wreck of an encounter.
This match showcased the absolute worst excesses of both these egomaniacs, and of WCW in general. Additionally, it also provided a perfect storm of everything that can go wrong in a single wrestling match, at the worst possible time.
Which is why it’s so damn fun to watch.
Firstly, watching these two wheezing windbags stare at each other, and then pace around the ring with all the explosiveness of a damp sparkler, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons.
You can feel the collective tension of both the crowd, as they realise that the match is going to be a disaster, and also the WCW production crew, as they understand that they have just given the WWF a huge boost with the inevitable failure they are witnessing.
It is the kind of awkward tension that Ricky Gervais would be proud to have in an Office special episode.
Secondly, the timing is just so poor, that it's almost artful. To be that out of time and that out of sync with each other, you would assume that Hogan and Warrior must have planned it as some sort of post-modern exhibition, that is aimed at deconstructing wrestling.
The perennial low point comes when Hogan pulls flash paper out of his tights and tries to light it on fire (to what end we are not exactly sure). Inevitably the paper blows up in his face and stops the match dead in his track.
The look of utterly bereft confusion on Warrior's face is so funny that it deserves to be immortalised in GIF form until the end of time.
Never has a match that was so hyped, gone so entertainingly wrong within the space of a few minutes. When Horace Hogan (you know – the amazing superstar nephew of the Hulkster) comes out and delivers a chair shot that has all the impact of a beetle burping, the Warrior goes down for a brutally anticlimactic three, and the nightmare is suddenly over.
Following the collective gasp of disbelief in the crowd (not so much at the result, but just at how crappy the match was) you can't help but giggle at just what a mind-bogglingly terrible piece of wrestling history this really is.
It is worth watching again just to see how truly awful both of these men were, at what they were supposed to be great at.