The BEST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2026)

Ahead of WWE Survivor Series 1996, the promotion filmed a vignette designed to hype the pay-per-view. It was beyond phenomenal. 

There was a “challenge accepted” element to the presentation, the sort of thing that drove the competitive magic of the Monday Night Wars era, in that it was a sort-of response to the New World Order’s paid infomercials. Oh, WCW, you’re doing stuff with anti-heroes filmed in black and white? We can do that too. 

The video package was created to build the match between loudmouth sociopath Stone Cold Steve Austin and the returning Bret Hart. In it, Steve Austin talked a lot of sh*t. In a fantastic choice designed to put that aspect of his character over, he talked so much sh*t that every line of dialogue was edited to start just before the last one ended. 

“I ain’t no sexy boy. I don’t dance, son.”

The ominous synthesiser soundtrack; the spliced-in footage of a violent, barking dog; the unsettling flashes of Austin’s deadly, unblinking eyes: this was a masterpiece that underscored the extent to which the WWF was about to change into an unrecognisably violent beast that would soon trap WCW in its maw. Then, Austin’s theme played over a simple black and white graphic: 

SURVIVOR SERIES

November 17. 

How did the pay-per-view not draw a million buys on the back of that? 

This was, at most, the third best wrestling moment of the year. Wrestling, at its best, is the very best thing ever. There’s nothing like it. What follows is a celebration of its endless wonder…

The angle in which Randy Savage finally snapped and battered Hulk Hogan is the only realistic choice here. 

On February 5, 1989, at The Main Event II, Savage inadvertently bowled Miss Elizabeth over. Hogan carried her to the back to receive medical attention. Hogan did the right thing, but it was not his place to do it, and Savage, with his flawed mind, was always going to interpret that as incontrovertible proof that Hogan was in love with his partner. The resulting scene in medical was phenomenal. Unbearably tense, Savage was as dangerous and unpredictable as the creature that would bite him two years later, and in an unconscionable act, he threw Elizabeth across the entire length of the room. That - the most dangerous bump taken by the person least equipped to absorb the impact - was genuinely horrifying.

It has to be the turn - but an honourable mention must go to Savage’s genuinely scary WrestleMania 5 go-home promo. Savage was an intensely paranoid individual, and drew upon every dark suburb of his mind to muster the maximum intensity. At the end of his spiel, he said that he hated Hogan’s guts - “and that’s what’s gonna be left all over the mat after WrestleMania 5!” 

The second Savage uttered those words, his face twisted into an unsettling ugly-crying grimace. Your parents and your friends would whisper that this wrestling stuff was fake. Nope: you could not be told that, looking at this guy’s face. The very last drops of this man’s conscience had just leaked out of his eyes; he was driven to kill Hulk Hogan with the vengeful motive of a real murderer.