7 Wrestling Matches Saved By Ridiculously Last Minute Changes
Saved before the bell.
They say nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute. Anyone who ever watched Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United or delayed packing for a summer holiday can attest to that (honestly, it's never a good idea to buy sun lotion in the airport).
Work expands to fill the time available, and for many, it can't even be started, let alone finished, until the clocks are ticking over to the eleventh hour. When it comes to procrastinating, humans give sloths a run for their money. When we get round to it.
In wrestling's ever malleable world, those final seconds before the bell rings can not just be creative fecund, but creatively inspired. Whether it's sudden panic over best laid plans going the way of Steinbeck, or a simple flash of brilliance hitting at the right moment, many of the squared-circle's last minute changes have put paid to the veracity of the Scout's motto.
Don't be prepared: just wing it. You never know what might happen.
7. The Undertaker Vs. Brock Lesnar (WrestleMania XXX)
Going into The Undertaker's annualised defence of his much-vaunted but latterly tiresome streak at WrestleMania XXX, the outcome seemed as predictable as a Russian election. Paul Heyman's hollow bluster would give way to the pair going through the motions, as those in attendance at New Orlean's Superdome sat on their hands in expectation of an eventual, inevitable Undertaker 1-2-3.
For twenty-five minutes and nine seconds, that's precisely how things panned out. Even three F5s from The Beast were nothing more than misdirection, lourddemain before his name was engraved on 'Taker's latest tombstone.
Three seconds later, Ellis Mbeh's eyes were wider than a witch's hat. The Deadman, incredibly, unbelievably, was buried.
Nobody saw it coming. Until the day of the show, neither did Brock Lesnar. So it goes that Vince McMahon, seeing the tired frame of his ailing mortician, decided it was time to put him in his own grave. On that whim, a humdrum paint-by-numbers plodder became one of the most talked about wrestling matches of all time.