10 WWE Classics That Never Should Have Worked

There's nothing quite like great - really great - pro wrestling taking fans by surprise.

A WWE functioning at its peak knows how to book, promote and deliver an elite level of the artform, even if it routinely chooses not to bother. An exquisite presentation at such a level requires many moving pieces to sync up of course, but the occasionally beautiful marriage of performer and performance tends to create a dragon for addicted fans to chase for the rest of their lives after one first intoxicating hit.

Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior perfected a particular type of encounter in their transcendent WrestleMania VI main event. It rather tragically represented the end of WWE's first golden era domestically, but for a world still new to the World Wrestling Federation, the two cartoonish goliaths encapsulated precisely what Vince McMahon wanted from his dream sequence Superstars.

A snarky "...and then the bell rang" line would ordinarily follow that sort of set-up, but Hogan/Warrior was no joke. The match, against the odds, was so much greater than the sum of its parts that it enhanced the powerful auras of both to massive new audiences. Those that departed the wrestling bandwagon internationally did so because WWE couldn't keep pumping out Hogans and Warriors.

Those that stayed remembered the hit and were still desperate for more. To this day, WWE continue to supply the fix, even if they don't always intend to...

The very definition of this article's title, Stephanie McMahon and Trish Stratus breathless brawl was a gamble to book for the show, let alone ask as much of the talent as it did on the night.

Literally years before she was a competent in-ring competitor, Stratus showed flashes of the legend she'd become matching the genetic fire laying dormant within the expressive and enjoyable 'Billion Dollar Princess'. Playing the angriest version of herself when the narrative actually called for it, McMahon was outstanding in her role as a fired up babyface, perhaps revealing the great lost gimmick of the last 20 years. That, or Stratus really was entering elite efforts as early as 2001.

Built brilliantly from the bizarre thirst they both had for Vince McMahon at the time (though, not that bizarre considering who was crafting the angle), the pair kicked the f*cking sh*t out of each other for the good of the cause as if to raise the bar for the angle's grand payoff a month later.