The first one that comes to mind for me is Raven vs Rhyno at Backlash 2001 for the hardcore title. This match was way better than it had any right to be.
Starcade 97 still hurts to this day because ALL they had to do was Sting start strong and explosive af, hogan gets control by "hulking up" sitng kicks out of the leg drop and wins clean in 3rd act come back. That's it, that simple and it would've been huge. It was so, so, so, ridiculously simple and somehow they screwed it up
It should have been max 10 minutes squash by Sting. Maybe one counter by Hogan with missing Stinger Splash on barriers, body slam, big boot, leg drop, kickout and Stings rise, series of punches, three Stinger Splashes, Deathlock and Hogan taps, the end.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention this as well, Sting said in his personal life this was his lowest point and he really wasn’t excited about the match which is heartbreaking because the build up was so great
*Sting vs. Hulk Hogan at Starrcade ‘97 has to be one of my least favorite matches in the history of wrestling. They literally spent 18 pissing months building up to that match and it ended up being one of the most stupidly convoluted finishes of all time when they just had one simple thing to do: have Sting go over Hogan clean as a whistle. Sadly, due to Hogan’s ego and the incompetence of Eric Bischoff, that didn’t happen. They literally had just one simple thing to do, but nope, they just had to ruin it at the last minute. It makes it even more frustrating that they even had a more complicated follow-up after that event. It was just such a massive waste of everybody’s thanks to Hogan and Bischoff. SMH.*
Have you watched the 'Who killed WCW' documentary on Vice? Bischoff said they changed the finish on the day because Hogan didn't think Sting's head was in the right place...😂
You mean Jay “never gonna be a main eventer” Uso? They need stop trying to make that a thing it will never happen. He doesn’t have the charisma to step out of the “tag team bubble”, it is what it is. His athleticism is good but he isn’t anything special over anyone else and he isn’t good on the mic at all and just uses these dumb modern day pop culture words and phrases.
@@ShockerTopper considering the love he gets in crowds and especially at france backlash, thats just a lie, he HAS the charisma, he has lots more charisma than Roman Reigns, lots more than any of the other active Anoai's and Fatu's
I put it down to the WWE style of wrestling. WWE has always been about story telling over spot driven matches. There has been some exceptions but its one of the reasons why WWE cruiser weights never got to the heights that WCW cruiser weights achieved because Vince never liked the fast paced style that you see in Japan or other promotions. AJ and Nakamura looked they were wrestling on slow mode.
@@LordDeBahs Three reasons. 1.) Creative control (they'd be sued), 2.) Bischoff was a Hogan sycophant and 3.) he had the belt (and thus, re-reference #1)
That Nakamura x Styles match was criminal. You know they were told tone it down. Maybe Vince didn’t want those guys to overshadow the main event, which these two would do. Easily. What a disappointment.
I was at that mania. Crowd fell flat and the ending came out of nowhere. Keep in mind to, that’s when mania was one night and i remember the show being like 6 hours deep before they even wrestled
Nakamura was never going to wrestle the same style he did in Japan. He went to the states to make money, he’s not interested in destroying his body for the pleasure of some sweaty marks.
@@OSEsean "Tell me you never watched-" man stfu and look at how many legends from Japan can barely walk and move properly at their FORTIES! No coincidence, they destroy their bodies for marks applause. There´s a reason Shinsuke has no problem being a jobber at WWE, no intention of leaving too.
@@zlinedavidHe went Wolfpack in June 98 and was born again August 98. He said he quit everything cold turkey. His personal life/marriage may have still been pretty rocky but he was off the junk
@@zlinedavid I take it this was the time Sting did his rant video for the Playstation thunder game? because Sting's rant vid in that isn't just phoned in, it's sent by carrier pigeon.
Tbf Hogan has never been known as good from a purely wrestling standpoint, he got to where he was because of his larger than life personality. Even his biggest matches were average at best. Anyone expecting Flair/Hogan to be a MOTY candidate were fooling themselves.
@@PhenomsServant4 There’s only one exception to that: WM3. Hogan slamming Andre was a moment in history. Doesn’t matter what the match was like, that moment alone paid it off.
Agree to disagree - their Bash at the Beach '94 match was pretty good. It's just not as "memorable" because it happened in kind of a lost period for WCW. Nobody really remembers anything from WCW before Nitro.
@@GeoGuy388it wasn’t that great of a match though,tons of media and hype and star power but that was it 🤷♂️ Hogan and Flair had some good house show matches apparently but nothing spectacular,we fans weren’t ever getting that with those two it was just star power
That HHH vs Orton match just made no sense. It needed to be a no DQ clusterfuck with interference from Legacy, The McMahons, hell have Batista return a couple weeks early if you are dead set on HHH retaining since Orton was the one who took him out at the end of the previous year. Instead 'if HHH gets DQ'd he loses the title' stipulation just completely killed the match midway through the show when it was added.
@@Kalel2.0or perhaps WWE didn't wanted to risk another ending to the Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle Wrestlemania 19 match.. especially considering their reckless all out styles
Mistico vs Rey Mysterio at one of the Rey de Reyes PPVs. Rey paused at one time to just stare at Mystico in disbelief, because Mystico was botching nearly every move.
In the dying months of WCW, Triple H vs Scott Steiner was at the top of my list of then current roster WCW vs WWF matches. I had images of Scott Steiner with his steel pipe and Midajah in his corner going against Triple H with sledgehammer and Stephanie in his corner going at it in some street fight main event of a PPV after a heated feud. It definitely tops my personal list of dream feuds/matches that were better left as just dreams.
It was also the worst shape Triple H was ever in. After a big injury, athletes can go a while when they return but eventually they're gonna rust for a while, and Triple H spent all of 2023 rusting, until his raw match with HBK at the end of the year. Long term effect of coming off that injury so quick, it eventually caught up to him. They must have had no idea how immobile Scott had become, both of them in the worst shape of their careers at the same time lol. Recipe for disaster.
One other thing to factor about Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask II/Mitsuharu Misawa that may have played into the match: Misawa did not like wrestling in a mask and being the Tiger Mask character altogether, so having to use a very different in-ring style instead of what he was best at. Also props to Kim Justice's vid and her excellent 4-part Misawa vs. Kawada series.
Honestly, Bret Hart should’ve been the referee for the Sting vs Hogan match at Starrcade 97 from the start and whilst Sting locks in the scorpion deathlock, Hart calls for the bell immediately even though Hogan didn’t tap, a la the end of Survivor Series ‘97 which would’ve lead to a “Bret Screwed Hogan” storyline and would’ve been the beginning of the end of the nWo.
I was at wrestlemania 25 way back in 2009. I can personally speak to the crowd being exhausted emotionally after that Shawn Michaels / Undertaker match.
I would put Goldberg versus glacier on this list. Solely for the fact that glacier should’ve went over. It’s no secret as to WCW floundered after the mismanagement of glacier. They let him melt away.
I'm still trying to figure out what a lunatic fringe is and why was Dean Ambrose even near being a lunatic. He just came off as not really caring about much, but never a lunatic
He earned that nickname more from his FCW and Indie days, but WWE did a poor job carrying over that character trait when they had him on Raw & Smackdown
I don't know if it was an intentional nod, but I cannot imagine it was not; Dean Ambrose is from Cincinnati, OH. Cincinnati has a long standing radio station, WEBN, that throughout Ambrose's entire life has been a mainstream rock station with a veneer of wanting to be portrayed as counter-culture. WEBN's long standing nickname has been "The Lunatic Fringe of American FM" and I always figured that the WWE lifted that nickname for Dean. I actually listen to your shows while I drive, and caught this episode while driving not only through Cincinnati, but right past Heritage Bank Arena, the venue that the WWE (and AEW) air their locally filmed shows from. Got to watch Moxley have a heroes reception there the last time I caught some live wrestling. Thanks for another great upload!
At first I thought that nickname was kinda cool. In a "he's so insane, he's not just part of a lunatic fringe, he IS the lunatic fringe!" Then I heard LittleKuriboh describe an Ambrose vs. Sheamus match as "The Lunatic Fringe vs. The Psychopathic Mohawk" and I was never able to take that name seriously again.
I can absolutely second the Kim Justice recommendation. Her coverage of Japanese wrestling is second to none. I was never into it either, but she does an extremely good job of filling you in. Great great stuff.
Yeah, that's the thing about the 2003 match, is I don't think it's a match anyone was EXPECTING to be good, so it doesn't really belong here. Steiner had been a botch machine for years at that point, and HHH had clearly taken a step down since returning from his quad injury.
Early 1999. 2000 and after, Steiner’s body started to crumble like blue cheese. He could still (literally) muscle his way through a mediocre-to-ok match, but he was nowhere near the worker he once was. Shame too, because he had just come into his own on the mic.
It's bizarre because their backstage brawl was great, the short nitro match before Halloween Havoc had more fire than the PPV match. Then in 1999 they had a pretty decent title match on nitro as well as a good contest on Mayhem. They had some decent matches, they just both looked less than enthused for the match between them that had the most build up.
@@antology7Sting at that time was going through some personal problems and really wasn't all that invested in the feud.. while Bret surely at the time was coming to realize that leaving the WWF was the worst desicion he could had done.. It clearly showed they wanted to end it the second the bell rang at Havoc..
Bret vs. Sting--I don't have a problem with the match at HH, rather the build up. Sting vs. Bret should have been a top of the line, ppv main event. But--due to incompetence from Bischoff and Hogan--the dream feud was relegated to the midcard & both guys were stuck in factions they had no business being in. The fact that Sting and Bret only had 3 "official" matches is sad testimony to how WCW misfired... 😢
I think less is more here due only to WCW's booking and their ability to inevitably mess things up. Also, Wolfpac Sting with the gnarly long hair just wasn't his best look. I do like the Nitro and Mayhem matches the next year, though.
@@burntvirtueand the funniest thing about that Bischoff was late in phoning the ambulance Bret and Sting had to lay there beaten up in confusion as to where the damn ambulance was lmfao 🤣 it got there but took longer than it was supposed to hahaha
AJ VS Jericho at Wrestlemania, (also known as that the reason for that Infamous Kevin Owens and Vince "are we good?" gorilla position clip) Man that match was so disappointing, that entire storyline was great up until towards end when KO lost the title to Goldberg in like a minute. Then he and Chris had a boring match at mania. Which led to that infamous clip at gorilla position where after the match KO asked Vince "are we good?" Vince said no.
Basically every match Hogan had at Halloween Havoc, after Hogan/Flair in '94, fits this list. Especially Hogan/Warrior, but the cage match with Piper and the stallfest with Savage were also really atrocious.
One of the issues with Goldberg vs. Lesnar at Wrestlemania 20 was that Lesnar was a technical machine who had wrestled a 60-minute Iron Man Match with Kurt Angle the previous year. Goldberg had no stamina and had 5 moves in his arsenal. I don't know why anyone expected a great match.
All Cena vs Orton matches could fit this, right? Crazy heated blood feud between the top face and top heel and then the matches feel underwhelming even for an episode of Raw
This was frustrating and outright stupid as the match didnt even go longer than 2 minutes and just unjustified how they ended Kofi's reign in the most direspectful and insulting way all for a rematch from at that point 13 years prior that no wrestling fan asked for
I remember that Eddie Guerrero vs. Benoit match. You can see how Eddie is annoyed and he is just trying to go through the motions of the match, but not go out of his way to put on a great match. It was so disappointing to watch.
Build was horrible and didn’t make sense just warrior showing up in smoke and kidnapping the disciple that match was a trainwreck warrior was just brought in cause hogan needed his win back from wrestlemania
Just about everything Hogan did, during his career with WCW, was a sad attempt at recapturing the successes he had in the '80s. Who really wants to watch a broken down, middle-aged, man try to relive his glory years?
Best Eddie v Benoit WWE match was Vengeance '03. Austin and Taker Rock Bottom match didn't work because they had moved on to different feuds and pushed back into facing each other to fill a gap in getting to Royal Rumble. The Fiend was pushed slightly early for title that year and Survivor Series was a better show to put him Fiend over. The lack of interference in WM 25 match between HHH and Orton took from it.
I always saw the Bret Hart vs Sting as the big WCW vs WWF match in the 1990s. At least it happened. The two matches they had around Mayhem 1999 were good, but one happened on a random Nitro and the other was a screwy tournament matches (both very good). Halloween Havoc '98 was an incredible card on paper. The whole PPV is one big night of failed dream matches. And DDP-Goldberg, which was probably the best Goldberg streak match.
Why do people always overexaggerate Scott Steiner's physical transformation? Yeah he became bigger, but he was always jacked even before he was Big Poppa Pump. Dude was massive even during his WWF run in '92, even then being bigger than most guys in the business.
@@woobgamer5210 I don't think pre-white hair Scott could be called "reasonably buff" when he dwarfed most other wrestlers he stepped into the ring with. The guy was always a giant ball of muscle.
It’s not like Scott was a cruiserweight to begin with, but he put on probably 20-30 lbs of muscle between “Scott Steiner” and “Big Poppa Pump”. And when you’re 225-230 to begin with, that’s not easy to do.
Yeah it was no where near that long ago. I was thinking about that 2013 thing but I wasn't watching WWE at the time but remembered it being more recently than 2013 lol
18 months of build that led to sting vs hogan I remember every kid in school talking about that angle and match only to be disappointed like me in a match that was a mess and didn't resolve anything.
Without question Hogan vs Sting Starrcade 97….that build up was so amazing for it to be wasted in a match like that 🤦🏾♂️ and they had it too. Hogan should’ve worked and actually wrestled, with some nWo shenanigans involved but Sting eventually overcomes and beat him clean but no 🤦🏾♂️
- The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels at WWF One Night Only (1997). - Bret Hart vs. Diesel at WWF King of the Ring (1994). - Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting at WCW Halloween Havoc (2000). - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker at WWF Survivor Series (2000). - The Rock vs. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle at WWF SummerSlam (2000). - The Undertaker vs. Faarooq at WWF Royal Rumble (1997). - JBL vs. The Undertaker at WWF SummerSlam (2004). - Triple H vs. Booker T at WWF Wrestlemania 20 (2004). - Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly at WWF Royal Rumble (2004).
I was at that Rock Bottom match between Stone Cold and Undertaker in Vancouver. When they went to the area with all the dirt for the burial, nobody could see anything, so people started throwing their drinks and stuff, WCW style. I remember a guy seated near us nailed Taker with an empty soda cup at one point. That show really sucked.
since you mentioned the change to Mania xix... Triple H vs Booker T, wwe wanted it to be wwe vs wcw but it went into wtf don't you see the implactions wwe, that we all thought the Mania match was going to be this brawl but turned out to a meh/subpar match with an ending that nails the implications wwe didn't wanted hard on this match.
Obviously if you were watching wcw at the time You clearly missed out on the building up of THATS GOTTA BE KANE!!!! The real best storyline of all time!!!!
I knew forgot it too awesome!!! As I commented elsewhere about this I’ll never not laugh at Bret’s story about this,Bischoff forgot to call the ambulance so Bret and Sting were laying there selling the injury a lot longer lol 😂 and in confusion at one point 😂
@@woobgamer5210 I had antibiotics medicine with me. Plus I paid way too much money for those tickets to miss my one and only Mania show live. Not sorry 😂
The best thing to come out of the Nakamura heel turn was legit his heel theme. I know they tried to change it so people wouldn't sing along with it but they made such an underrated banger at that time.
Some off the top of my head Stone Cold vs Scott Hall Cena vs Theory Vince vs Bret Nexus vs Team WWE Goldust vs Stardust Jeff vs Matt Hardy Mox vs Omega exploding ring Hogan vs HBK
Sting Vs Triple H wrestlemania 31 Triple H vs Randy Orton wrestlemania 25 And most definitely Hollywood Hogan Vs Sting Starrcarde 97 Hollywood Hogan Vs Ultimate warrior Halloween Havoc 98
Love the shoutout to Misawa and especially to Kim Justice! I recently found Kim Justice's channel, and have been binging a lot of their content, especially their multiple hour-long videos on the Misawa/Kawada rivalry. Misawa is a legitimate contender for THE greatest in-ring performer of all time, and it's a real shame that his random match with Bret Hart (long before either wrestler truly came into their own) was a let down.
One match that felt huge, but didn't feel like it met expectations for me was Triple H vs. Hollywood Hogan from Backlash 2002. Two huge names in the company going at it for Triple H's recently won Undisputed WWF Championship, just didn't feel like it was as great as it could've been once the final bell rang.
Awesome video. Agreed with all of these. Also, the WM 12 iron man match. Some people love it but watching it on ppv I was kinda bored. And it became evident they were gonna go 0-0 after about 15/20 min
I like the Austin/Undertaker Buried Alive match. Huge improvement over the Mankind/Undertaker Buried Alive match. A lot of main event matches at that time were brawls, and I don't think Taker and Austin had a typical brawl. Definitely not a great match and I understand it being a let down, but I think it's fun.
I thought Nakamura vs Styles at WM had so much potential and I thought it was underwhelming. That match could’ve been so much better in my mind. I didn’t hate the match but expected a little more. This is a great list. I do agree with all these matches misfiring and a lot of them were very well done leading up to the match. The only one I give a break to is the Orton vs Triple H. The life of that crowd was sucked out the room and the match had to close the show after the greatest match ever seen arguably.
I disagree on The Buried Alive Match at Rock Bottom, on another note, I didn't care for the Triple H vs Sting hype, so they couldn't disappoint me there, but what got me invested was The nWo and DX coming out, even though Sting isn't known to be an ally to nWo, but if we look at continuity of the last time Sting was seen with two thirds of the three nWo Originals, whether we include their time in TNA or not, Sting was on good terms with both Nash and Hogan in both TNA and WCW when he was last seen with both as Hogan and Sting were on the same page when we last seen them together in WCW as both were representing The Millionaires Club against R&B's New Blood, and both were on the same page in TNA when they were feuding with Aces & 8s and neither one have been heel since, and for Sting and Nash, as both were stable mates in nWo Wolfpack, Main Event Mafia and The Band, even though Nash did one more heel turn in WCW after the R&B Era, both he and Sting were taken out by Scott Steiner as a final storyline appearance before the company got bought by Vince, while in TNA, Nash's final appearance was he and Sting quiting the company after 2010's Bound For Glory as they were two of the final three members of The Band as the group disbanded (Hall was in The Band in his final appearance too, even though it was before Sting joined, but it's still a possible connection)
When I think of matches that didn't live up to the hype, Sting Vs Hulk Hogan Starrcade 97 is the first one that comes to mind but for me, Randy Orton Vs Triple H Wrestlemania 25 is a great example of an amazing build up but the payoff and match itself being a massive letdown. The story was intense and the rivalry had become menacingly personal with the involvement of the McMahon family, the match itself however should have been an all out no holds barred war but instead, it was a regular singles match with a DQ stipulation plus they had to follow HBK Vs Taker which everyone knew was going to be damn near impossible. Such a shame as I felt that heading into WM25, Orton Vs HHH had one of the best buildups, just wished that their match which closed the show delivered
One of the matches I was disappointed in was JBL vs Finlay and WM24, the buildup was personal bc JBL was abusing poor hornswoggle and Finley wanted revenge only to get dominated in the opening match, that's one that passes off.
my 'knee-jerk answers' would be Sting v Jeff Hardy (when Jeff was clearly on a different planet) and Undertaker v Goldberg (when the "biggest hit" was Goldberg concussing Himself)...that, or Lesnar v Goldberg (for a similar reason)...
Hunter v Steiner, both matches, but particularly the second, baffle me. First time, okay, you can see how it could go wrong. But by the second match, I was expecting the issues to be ironed out and two guys at that top level to be able to put on a component match. I still can't figure out what exactly happened.
you should do the reverse aka wrestling match that over delivered expectations despite little to no hype
Love this idea for a video
Great idea
Yes, this.
The first one that comes to mind for me is Raven vs Rhyno at Backlash 2001 for the hardcore title. This match was way better than it had any right to be.
@@ericwollam5532 big show v sheamus as well. And rock v hogan of course
Starcade 97 still hurts to this day because ALL they had to do was Sting start strong and explosive af, hogan gets control by "hulking up" sitng kicks out of the leg drop and wins clean in 3rd act come back.
That's it, that simple and it would've been huge.
It was so, so, so, ridiculously simple and somehow they screwed it up
It should have been a squash.
Well, there are 6 reasons that didn’t happen:
1. That
2. Doesn’t
3. Work
4. For
5. Me
6. Brother
It should have been max 10 minutes squash by Sting. Maybe one counter by Hogan with missing Stinger Splash on barriers, body slam, big boot, leg drop, kickout and Stings rise, series of punches, three Stinger Splashes, Deathlock and Hogan taps, the end.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention this as well, Sting said in his personal life this was his lowest point and he really wasn’t excited about the match which is heartbreaking because the build up was so great
Right up there with HHH V Sting
*Sting vs. Hulk Hogan at Starrcade ‘97 has to be one of my least favorite matches in the history of wrestling. They literally spent 18 pissing months building up to that match and it ended up being one of the most stupidly convoluted finishes of all time when they just had one simple thing to do: have Sting go over Hogan clean as a whistle. Sadly, due to Hogan’s ego and the incompetence of Eric Bischoff, that didn’t happen. They literally had just one simple thing to do, but nope, they just had to ruin it at the last minute. It makes it even more frustrating that they even had a more complicated follow-up after that event. It was just such a massive waste of everybody’s thanks to Hogan and Bischoff. SMH.*
Have you watched the 'Who killed WCW' documentary on Vice? Bischoff said they changed the finish on the day because Hogan didn't think Sting's head was in the right place...😂
@glencurtis6052 I'm guessing Hogan showed up and said "Yeah that's not gonna work for me, brother 😂
Least it was better than sting vs Jeff in tna
@@kal0247 I'm pretty sure that's exactly what he said 🤣
It was the best match in modern history until the bell rang...
Jimmy vs Jey Uso. Chemistry doesn't mean anything if neither one can carry a singles match. Also their time was cut which didn't help matters.
Honestly, it's a damn shame it didn't work.
They had a great run in angle at night 2 but night 1 was the drizzlings
I agree it sucks when the video package is better than the match itself
You mean Jay “never gonna be a main eventer” Uso? They need stop trying to make that a thing it will never happen. He doesn’t have the charisma to step out of the “tag team bubble”, it is what it is. His athleticism is good but he isn’t anything special over anyone else and he isn’t good on the mic at all and just uses these dumb modern day pop culture words and phrases.
@@ShockerTopper considering the love he gets in crowds and especially at france backlash, thats just a lie, he HAS the charisma, he has lots more charisma than Roman Reigns, lots more than any of the other active Anoai's and Fatu's
Their time being cut was a blessing. Did you really want even more super kicks? They stunk it up hard and were out of shape.
Triple H v Orton at WM 25 should have been no holds barred. It was a match limited by its stipulation
And they also had to go after hbk vs taker which didn’t do any favors. They got double fisted each 😂😂
It's a double whammy of it not being a no holds barred match, as well as Triple H would lose the title if he got DQ'd.
they made up for it at night of champions . that was a great match
I was so hyped for Nakamura vs. AJ too. It was so deflating. WM 34 as a whole was a big waste of time.
Between Asuka losing, taker vs cena, and the main event of Roman and Brock, WM definitely under delivered. Best match was the mixed tag
I put it down to the WWE style of wrestling. WWE has always been about story telling over spot driven matches. There has been some exceptions but its one of the reasons why WWE cruiser weights never got to the heights that WCW cruiser weights achieved because Vince never liked the fast paced style that you see in Japan or other promotions. AJ and Nakamura looked they were wrestling on slow mode.
@@gavinross4395 The NJPW matches tell a better story most of the time though
they probably knew they were going at it again at the next ppv... AND the next ppv... so save it for MITB or whatever
Worst Wrestlemania of all time
The 18 month build that led to Sting/Hogan immediately comes to mind.
It doesn't work for me brotha!
i dint understand why wcw didnt solve it by simply saying hogan is chicken wus and fears fight sting . simple solution , he would look like fool
@@LordDeBahs Three reasons. 1.) Creative control (they'd be sued), 2.) Bischoff was a Hogan sycophant and 3.) he had the belt (and thus, re-reference #1)
"too much black paint on your face paint, makes me think of those brothers I don't like brother" - Hulk Hogan probably
That Nakamura x Styles match was criminal. You know they were told tone it down. Maybe Vince didn’t want those guys to overshadow the main event, which these two would do. Easily. What a disappointment.
I was at that mania. Crowd fell flat and the ending came out of nowhere. Keep in mind to, that’s when mania was one night and i remember the show being like 6 hours deep before they even wrestled
Nakamura was never going to wrestle the same style he did in Japan. He went to the states to make money, he’s not interested in destroying his body for the pleasure of some sweaty marks.
@@Ian-Omega Tell me you never watched his matches in Japan without telling me
@@OSEsean "Tell me you never watched-" man stfu and look at how many legends from Japan can barely walk and move properly at their FORTIES! No coincidence, they destroy their bodies for marks applause. There´s a reason Shinsuke has no problem being a jobber at WWE, no intention of leaving too.
Anyone who doesn’t know about the Steiner brothers in late 80s early 90s should go back and watch they were an awesome tag team
Scott's steiner screwdriver was nasty
When kane lost his mask 💀💀💀
I was there at MSG, Brother!!!
What a wet fart that turned out to be.
That was so disappointing, I've been an HBK fan since I was a kid I was so excited about seeing him perform again, absolutely horrendous lol
@@SeveralKenobisI still haven’t watched the match I’m not watching bald hbk wrestle
lol right. I was like hold up isn’t that my mayor?? lol
@@yoholmes273As was I. What should have been a big moment went over like a fart in church
That Goatee Sting was rocking at that time in the Wolfpack…🤦♂️ Yeesh!
So not a fan. Or attractive. And yes he is actually pretty good looking.
That was the point in his life Sting was the most messed up. He was drinking about as much as Hall at that point.
@@zlinedavidHe went Wolfpack in June 98 and was born again August 98. He said he quit everything cold turkey. His personal life/marriage may have still been pretty rocky but he was off the junk
Sting looked like the gawddamn Deviled Ham mascot. All he was missing was a little red pitchfork.
@@zlinedavid I take it this was the time Sting did his rant video for the Playstation thunder game? because Sting's rant vid in that isn't just phoned in, it's sent by carrier pigeon.
The first Bobby Lashley vs Brock Lesnar match was very, very disappointing. In fact, every time they faced each other was a let down 😔
Booked Terribly
For me, it’s any Hogan/Flair match. The biggest WWF and NWA stars of the 80s never had a memorable match that matched their profiles.
Had it happened at WM 8 I felt it wudda been Great
Tbf Hogan has never been known as good from a purely wrestling standpoint, he got to where he was because of his larger than life personality. Even his biggest matches were average at best. Anyone expecting Flair/Hogan to be a MOTY candidate were fooling themselves.
@@PhenomsServant4 There’s only one exception to that: WM3. Hogan slamming Andre was a moment in history. Doesn’t matter what the match was like, that moment alone paid it off.
Agree to disagree - their Bash at the Beach '94 match was pretty good.
It's just not as "memorable" because it happened in kind of a lost period for WCW. Nobody really remembers anything from WCW before Nitro.
@@GeoGuy388it wasn’t that great of a match though,tons of media and hype and star power but that was it 🤷♂️
Hogan and Flair had some good house show matches apparently but nothing spectacular,we fans weren’t ever getting that with those two it was just star power
That HHH vs Orton match just made no sense. It needed to be a no DQ clusterfuck with interference from Legacy, The McMahons, hell have Batista return a couple weeks early if you are dead set on HHH retaining since Orton was the one who took him out at the end of the previous year.
Instead 'if HHH gets DQ'd he loses the title' stipulation just completely killed the match midway through the show when it was added.
the only reason why it wasnt, is probably cause it was only a year and a half ago since Benoit... went rabid.
I honestly feel like WWE told AJ and Nakamura to tone it down so Ronda can look good in her debut match.
It also comes down to being limited by a safer and restrictive style that limited them in going all out
@@Kalel2.0or perhaps WWE didn't wanted to risk another ending to the Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle Wrestlemania 19 match.. especially considering their reckless all out styles
Mistico vs Rey Mysterio at one of the Rey de Reyes PPVs. Rey paused at one time to just stare at Mystico in disbelief, because Mystico was botching nearly every move.
*HIAC 2019 not 2013
Glad I'm not the only one who caught that
In the dying months of WCW, Triple H vs Scott Steiner was at the top of my list of then current roster WCW vs WWF matches. I had images of Scott Steiner with his steel pipe and Midajah in his corner going against Triple H with sledgehammer and Stephanie in his corner going at it in some street fight main event of a PPV after a heated feud. It definitely tops my personal list of dream feuds/matches that were better left as just dreams.
Good shout
They did it too soon scott wasn’t in ring shape or healthy
It was also the worst shape Triple H was ever in. After a big injury, athletes can go a while when they return but eventually they're gonna rust for a while, and Triple H spent all of 2023 rusting, until his raw match with HBK at the end of the year.
Long term effect of coming off that injury so quick, it eventually caught up to him.
They must have had no idea how immobile Scott had become, both of them in the worst shape of their careers at the same time lol. Recipe for disaster.
Post-‘98 WCW fans baffle me
One other thing to factor about Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask II/Mitsuharu Misawa that may have played into the match: Misawa did not like wrestling in a mask and being the Tiger Mask character altogether, so having to use a very different in-ring style instead of what he was best at.
Also props to Kim Justice's vid and her excellent 4-part Misawa vs. Kawada series.
Honestly, Bret Hart should’ve been the referee for the Sting vs Hogan match at Starrcade 97 from the start and whilst Sting locks in the scorpion deathlock, Hart calls for the bell immediately even though Hogan didn’t tap, a la the end of Survivor Series ‘97 which would’ve lead to a “Bret Screwed Hogan” storyline and would’ve been the beginning of the end of the nWo.
The end of the NWO? As if Bischoff would've ever wanted that.
I was at wrestlemania 25 way back in 2009. I can personally speak to the crowd being exhausted emotionally after that Shawn Michaels / Undertaker match.
I would put Goldberg versus glacier on this list. Solely for the fact that glacier should’ve went over. It’s no secret as to WCW floundered after the mismanagement of glacier. They let him melt away.
😂
😂🤣😂🤣😂
You’ve been in HBK’s fanny pack, haven’t you?
And now we have changing ocean temperatures... Coincidence?
A rip off mortal kombat character should've gone over? You ok mate? 😂
Cena vs Reigns at No Mercy 2017.
Super Roman was ludicrous.
I'm still trying to figure out what a lunatic fringe is and why was Dean Ambrose even near being a lunatic. He just came off as not really caring about much, but never a lunatic
Pg lunatic
He earned that nickname more from his FCW and Indie days, but WWE did a poor job carrying over that character trait when they had him on Raw & Smackdown
@@dukes1993724so true man
Whats a cult of personality?
Just as stupid.
It’s also a shout out to his hometown, Cincinnati. One of the most popular radio stations (WEBN) is known as “the lunatic fringe of American FM”.
I don't know if it was an intentional nod, but I cannot imagine it was not; Dean Ambrose is from Cincinnati, OH. Cincinnati has a long standing radio station, WEBN, that throughout Ambrose's entire life has been a mainstream rock station with a veneer of wanting to be portrayed as counter-culture. WEBN's long standing nickname has been "The Lunatic Fringe of American FM" and I always figured that the WWE lifted that nickname for Dean.
I actually listen to your shows while I drive, and caught this episode while driving not only through Cincinnati, but right past Heritage Bank Arena, the venue that the WWE (and AEW) air their locally filmed shows from. Got to watch Moxley have a heroes reception there the last time I caught some live wrestling.
Thanks for another great upload!
You a local or just drive through the area?
@@zlinedavid I'm a local.
At first I thought that nickname was kinda cool. In a "he's so insane, he's not just part of a lunatic fringe, he IS the lunatic fringe!"
Then I heard LittleKuriboh describe an Ambrose vs. Sheamus match as "The Lunatic Fringe vs. The Psychopathic Mohawk" and I was never able to take that name seriously again.
I can absolutely second the Kim Justice recommendation. Her coverage of Japanese wrestling is second to none. I was never into it either, but she does an extremely good job of filling you in. Great great stuff.
Thanks to you and wb here I'm now a new fan.
Hogan vs sting starcade 1997😂
That had so much potential
HHH vs. Scott Steiner would have been awesome in 1999 or 2000.
WCW World Champion vs WWF World Champion
Yeah, that's the thing about the 2003 match, is I don't think it's a match anyone was EXPECTING to be good, so it doesn't really belong here. Steiner had been a botch machine for years at that point, and HHH had clearly taken a step down since returning from his quad injury.
Early 1999. 2000 and after, Steiner’s body started to crumble like blue cheese. He could still (literally) muscle his way through a mediocre-to-ok match, but he was nowhere near the worker he once was. Shame too, because he had just come into his own on the mic.
So you had a mayor, a injured deadman, a CEO and a multple time retired old man toy...what could possibly go wrong?
I'm not your old man toy, old man to-oy.
That head shot at 1:19 😂
Bret vs Sting was quite a dud
I enjoyed it
It's bizarre because their backstage brawl was great, the short nitro match before Halloween Havoc had more fire than the PPV match. Then in 1999 they had a pretty decent title match on nitro as well as a good contest on Mayhem. They had some decent matches, they just both looked less than enthused for the match between them that had the most build up.
@@antology7Sting at that time was going through some personal problems and really wasn't all that invested in the feud.. while Bret surely at the time was coming to realize that leaving the WWF was the worst desicion he could had done..
It clearly showed they wanted to end it the second the bell rang at Havoc..
Bret vs. Sting--I don't have a problem with the match at HH, rather the build up. Sting vs. Bret should have been a top of the line, ppv main event. But--due to incompetence from Bischoff and Hogan--the dream feud was relegated to the midcard & both guys were stuck in factions they had no business being in.
The fact that Sting and Bret only had 3 "official" matches is sad testimony to how WCW misfired... 😢
Still the best backstage brawl ever recorded though
I think less is more here due only to WCW's booking and their ability to inevitably mess things up. Also, Wolfpac Sting with the gnarly long hair just wasn't his best look. I do like the Nitro and Mayhem matches the next year, though.
@@burntvirtueand the funniest thing about that
Bischoff was late in phoning the ambulance
Bret and Sting had to lay there beaten up in confusion as to where the damn ambulance was lmfao 🤣 it got there but took longer than it was supposed to hahaha
AJ VS Jericho at Wrestlemania, (also known as that the reason for that Infamous Kevin Owens and Vince "are we good?" gorilla position clip)
Man that match was so disappointing, that entire storyline was great up until towards end when KO lost the title to Goldberg in like a minute. Then he and Chris had a boring match at mania.
Which led to that infamous clip at gorilla position where after the match KO asked Vince "are we good?"
Vince said no.
First one that pops in my mind is Hogan vs Sting 97 Starcade
Literally any Hulk Hogan match after Road Wild 96, and prior to Wrestlemania X-8, could make this list 😂
Hogan vs Luger was great
@@pleaseshutup7053 That’s what Road Wild ‘96 was.
All his ppv matches in 1998 were abysmal lol
@@MR.__G Superbrawl VIII was good, it's what Starrcade 1997 should have been
Basically every match Hogan had at Halloween Havoc, after Hogan/Flair in '94, fits this list. Especially Hogan/Warrior, but the cage match with Piper and the stallfest with Savage were also really atrocious.
One of the issues with Goldberg vs. Lesnar at Wrestlemania 20 was that Lesnar was a technical machine who had wrestled a 60-minute Iron Man Match with Kurt Angle the previous year.
Goldberg had no stamina and had 5 moves in his arsenal.
I don't know why anyone expected a great match.
All Cena vs Orton matches could fit this, right? Crazy heated blood feud between the top face and top heel and then the matches feel underwhelming even for an episode of Raw
The feud in general wasn’t even hot Kofi vs Randy was better and felt more intense
Cena vs Orton matches only got interesting if Orton won,
Not all. Their “I Quit” match from Breaking Point 2009 is probably my all time favorite “I Quit” match. 2007 Summerslam was pretty solid too.
@@CheknoEternity says more about you you like someone getting tortured for 20 minutes the ceba wind 30 seconds
HHH vs Sting was one of the most upsetting Matchs in history to me. They really did my boy Sting wrong
3:26 You weren't alone, my friend. You weren't alone.
Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez at Crown Jewel 2019
This was frustrating and outright stupid as the match didnt even go longer than 2 minutes and just unjustified how they ended Kofi's reign in the most direspectful and insulting way all for a rematch from at that point 13 years prior that no wrestling fan asked for
Where Brock treated being booked to win a scripted wrestling match like it "avenged" his real life MMA loss to Cain.
I remember that Eddie Guerrero vs. Benoit match. You can see how Eddie is annoyed and he is just trying to go through the motions of the match, but not go out of his way to put on a great match. It was so disappointing to watch.
Most of WCW matches from 1998 to 2001
No Hogan v Warrior at Halloween Havoc
Fireball ending 🔥 🤣🤣🤣
That’s not a disappointment. Thats more of an atrocity.
Build was horrible and didn’t make sense just warrior showing up in smoke and kidnapping the disciple that match was a trainwreck warrior was just brought in cause hogan needed his win back from wrestlemania
Just about everything Hogan did, during his career with WCW, was a sad attempt at recapturing the successes he had in the '80s.
Who really wants to watch a broken down, middle-aged, man try to relive his glory years?
Best Eddie v Benoit WWE match was Vengeance '03. Austin and Taker Rock Bottom match didn't work because they had moved on to different feuds and pushed back into facing each other to fill a gap in getting to Royal Rumble. The Fiend was pushed slightly early for title that year and Survivor Series was a better show to put him Fiend over. The lack of interference in WM 25 match between HHH and Orton took from it.
Not even watched yet. But hart vs vince 2010 pops to mind 😢
I agree. I purposefully skip that match in the dvd…it’s sad
Suzuki, Okada, and Tanahashi were reportedly in the crowd for Shinsuke vs AJ, and they laughed at Shinsuke's heel turn.
I always saw the Bret Hart vs Sting as the big WCW vs WWF match in the 1990s. At least it happened. The two matches they had around Mayhem 1999 were good, but one happened on a random Nitro and the other was a screwy tournament matches (both very good).
Halloween Havoc '98 was an incredible card on paper. The whole PPV is one big night of failed dream matches. And DDP-Goldberg, which was probably the best Goldberg streak match.
Why do people always overexaggerate Scott Steiner's physical transformation? Yeah he became bigger, but he was always jacked even before he was Big Poppa Pump. Dude was massive even during his WWF run in '92, even then being bigger than most guys in the business.
considering he went from reasonably buff to ultra popped out veins buff, he definitely took roids to get that jacked
@@woobgamer5210 I don't think pre-white hair Scott could be called "reasonably buff" when he dwarfed most other wrestlers he stepped into the ring with. The guy was always a giant ball of muscle.
It’s not like Scott was a cruiserweight to begin with, but he put on probably 20-30 lbs of muscle between “Scott Steiner” and “Big Poppa Pump”. And when you’re 225-230 to begin with, that’s not easy to do.
Wait didn't the Rollins/fiend feud happenned in 2019 (not 2013) ?
Anyways great vid brother as Always 👌
Yeah it was no where near that long ago. I was thinking about that 2013 thing but I wasn't watching WWE at the time but remembered it being more recently than 2013 lol
Well 9 is divisible by 3.... lol 😆 🤣
18 months of build that led to sting vs hogan I remember every kid in school talking about that angle and match only to be disappointed like me in a match that was a mess and didn't resolve anything.
Sting vs Jeff Hardy where Hardy shows up on drugs has to be on there
Me wrestling with all of my bills...huge letdown and definitely ended up under-delivering.
NOBODY expected steiner v. Triple h to be good in 2003.
Mr Perfect vs Lex Luger was a dream match for me in 1993. That's my first memory of being disappointed by a wrestling match.
Hennig’s fault. He blanked the whole match according to Luger.
Excellent video
Without question Hogan vs Sting Starrcade 97….that build up was so amazing for it to be wasted in a match like that 🤦🏾♂️ and they had it too. Hogan should’ve worked and actually wrestled, with some nWo shenanigans involved but Sting eventually overcomes and beat him clean but no 🤦🏾♂️
Sting at Starrcade 97 and the Undertaker listing the steak immediately come to mind.
The Fiend/Seth Rollins was the most pissed I'd been at a wrestling match in my entire wrestling fandom.
😂😂😂😂
Sting wasnt tan enough, brother.
but he got that "3 second tan"
- The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels at WWF One Night Only (1997).
- Bret Hart vs. Diesel at WWF King of the Ring (1994).
- Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting at WCW Halloween Havoc (2000).
- Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker at WWF Survivor Series (2000).
- The Rock vs. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle at WWF SummerSlam (2000).
- The Undertaker vs. Faarooq at WWF Royal Rumble (1997).
- JBL vs. The Undertaker at WWF SummerSlam (2004).
- Triple H vs. Booker T at WWF Wrestlemania 20 (2004).
- Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly at WWF Royal Rumble (2004).
I was at that Rock Bottom match between Stone Cold and Undertaker in Vancouver. When they went to the area with all the dirt for the burial, nobody could see anything, so people started throwing their drinks and stuff, WCW style. I remember a guy seated near us nailed Taker with an empty soda cup at one point. That show really sucked.
Bret Hart and Sting are two if my favorite wrestlers of all-time and two of the greatest of all time.
Great topic! I think this should be looked into even further. Love this idea!
since you mentioned the change to Mania xix... Triple H vs Booker T, wwe wanted it to be wwe vs wcw but it went into wtf don't you see the implactions wwe, that we all thought the Mania match was going to be this brawl but turned out to a meh/subpar match with an ending that nails the implications wwe didn't wanted hard on this match.
Sting vs Hogan was the best story buildup I ever seen
Obviously if you were watching wcw at the time
You clearly missed out on the building up of
THATS GOTTA BE KANE!!!!
The real best storyline of all time!!!!
There was a sting/bret street fight on nitro which was a banger. However there was zero follow up. This it is often forgotten.
I knew forgot it too awesome!!!
As I commented elsewhere about this I’ll never not laugh at Bret’s story about this,Bischoff forgot to call the ambulance so Bret and Sting were laying there selling the injury a lot longer lol 😂 and in confusion at one point 😂
Jimmy vs Jey Uso. I was there live. The fact that it was freezing cold and I had pneumonia amplified my disappointment for that match 😅💀
why was you at wrestlemania with a sickness that could've klled you
@@woobgamer5210 I had antibiotics medicine with me. Plus I paid way too much money for those tickets to miss my one and only Mania show live. Not sorry 😂
It's crazy that any of you thought the kane/taker v michaels/HHH was going to be good. I knew it was going to suck going in and it delivered
Right that might have been good 20 years ago lol
At least you weren't let down.
@@dr.snakes luckily I'm rarely disappointed in things because I've learned to expect so little from people
@anjetto1 When you expect nothing, and get everything, that's destiny.
As Kevin Sorbo would say to these matches "Disappointed".
In my head, DX vs BoD never happened and isn't cannon because it was at Crown Jewel, lol.
Same thing with any Flair match after WM24. Doesn’t exist IMO.
The best thing to come out of the Nakamura heel turn was legit his heel theme. I know they tried to change it so people wouldn't sing along with it but they made such an underrated banger at that time.
Sting vs. Bret Hart from ring perspective and storyline build. Breaks my heart that my favorite wrestlers from the '90s doesn't deliver some classics.
Some off the top of my head
Stone Cold vs Scott Hall
Cena vs Theory
Vince vs Bret
Nexus vs Team WWE
Goldust vs Stardust
Jeff vs Matt Hardy
Mox vs Omega exploding ring
Hogan vs HBK
Sting Vs Triple H wrestlemania 31
Triple H vs Randy Orton wrestlemania 25
And most definitely
Hollywood Hogan Vs Sting
Starrcarde 97
Hollywood Hogan Vs Ultimate warrior
Halloween Havoc 98
Hogan/Warrior wasn’t a disappointment, that was an embarrassment 😂
@@zlinedavidagreed that match was horrible it didnt even come close to capturing the magic of the Wrestlemania 6 match.
3:18 The Undertaker vs Triple H end of an era match with Michaels as the referee should have been the last one those three were ever involved in.
The lunatic fringe is him paying homage to I guess our hometown Cincinnati. The local rock radio station calls itself the lunatic fringe.
“From high atop Frog’s Mountain….”
I do like most Austin vs Taker matches in 98-99. That buried alive match was disastrous.
Love the shoutout to Misawa and especially to Kim Justice! I recently found Kim Justice's channel, and have been binging a lot of their content, especially their multiple hour-long videos on the Misawa/Kawada rivalry. Misawa is a legitimate contender for THE greatest in-ring performer of all time, and it's a real shame that his random match with Bret Hart (long before either wrestler truly came into their own) was a let down.
Hogan vs Warrior at Halloween Havoc 98!
That’s not a disappointment, that’s a train wreck.
Jericho vs. RVD 2002 at KOTR was pretty disappointing.
Wrestling bios you need to do video essay on Japan wrestling in general
One match that felt huge, but didn't feel like it met expectations for me was Triple H vs. Hollywood Hogan from Backlash 2002. Two huge names in the company going at it for Triple H's recently won Undisputed WWF Championship, just didn't feel like it was as great as it could've been once the final bell rang.
Kim Justice is a great RUclips channel BTW. Glad he is getting shouted out.
Nice shout out to Kim Justices Wrestling Road channel. 1 of my favorites.
Awesome video. Agreed with all of these.
Also, the WM 12 iron man match. Some people love it but watching it on ppv I was kinda bored. And it became evident they were gonna go 0-0 after about 15/20 min
Not to nitpick, but Sting would have quick dark matches after several Nitros well before Starcade '97 to send the fans home happy.
A fact I didn’t know. Thanks.
This could also become another series of videos
Ta muchly for the shoutout! :)
I like the Austin/Undertaker Buried Alive match. Huge improvement over the Mankind/Undertaker Buried Alive match. A lot of main event matches at that time were brawls, and I don't think Taker and Austin had a typical brawl. Definitely not a great match and I understand it being a let down, but I think it's fun.
Dx vs bros of destruction i believed was the turning point where Vince realized you can go to the attitude era one too many times
Rocky Maivia vs The Sultan really let me down.
Honky Tonk Man on commentary was pretty funny.
"GET HIM SHEIK! TEAR HIS CLOTHES OFF!! STRETCH HIM!!"
I thought Nakamura vs Styles at WM had so much potential and I thought it was underwhelming. That match could’ve been so much better in my mind. I didn’t hate the match but expected a little more. This is a great list. I do agree with all these matches misfiring and a lot of them were very well done leading up to the match.
The only one I give a break to is the Orton vs Triple H. The life of that crowd was sucked out the room and the match had to close the show after the greatest match ever seen arguably.
Orton v Triple H (Mania 25)
Goldberg v Brock Lesnar (Mania 20)
Fatal 4 way mainevent (mania 2000)
Shinsuke v AJ (Mania 34)
Jey v Jimmy (Mania 40)
Mania 2000 not just being HHH vs The Rock to this day pisses me off
I disagree on The Buried Alive Match at Rock Bottom, on another note, I didn't care for the Triple H vs Sting hype, so they couldn't disappoint me there, but what got me invested was The nWo and DX coming out, even though Sting isn't known to be an ally to nWo, but if we look at continuity of the last time Sting was seen with two thirds of the three nWo Originals, whether we include their time in TNA or not, Sting was on good terms with both Nash and Hogan in both TNA and WCW when he was last seen with both as Hogan and Sting were on the same page when we last seen them together in WCW as both were representing The Millionaires Club against R&B's New Blood, and both were on the same page in TNA when they were feuding with Aces & 8s and neither one have been heel since, and for Sting and Nash, as both were stable mates in nWo Wolfpack, Main Event Mafia and The Band, even though Nash did one more heel turn in WCW after the R&B Era, both he and Sting were taken out by Scott Steiner as a final storyline appearance before the company got bought by Vince, while in TNA, Nash's final appearance was he and Sting quiting the company after 2010's Bound For Glory as they were two of the final three members of The Band as the group disbanded (Hall was in The Band in his final appearance too, even though it was before Sting joined, but it's still a possible connection)
When I think of matches that didn't live up to the hype, Sting Vs Hulk Hogan Starrcade 97 is the first one that comes to mind but for me, Randy Orton Vs Triple H Wrestlemania 25 is a great example of an amazing build up but the payoff and match itself being a massive letdown. The story was intense and the rivalry had become menacingly personal with the involvement of the McMahon family, the match itself however should have been an all out no holds barred war but instead, it was a regular singles match with a DQ stipulation plus they had to follow HBK Vs Taker which everyone knew was going to be damn near impossible. Such a shame as I felt that heading into WM25, Orton Vs HHH had one of the best buildups, just wished that their match which closed the show delivered
One of the matches I was disappointed in was JBL vs Finlay and WM24, the buildup was personal bc JBL was abusing poor hornswoggle and Finley wanted revenge only to get dominated in the opening match, that's one that passes off.
JYD vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan at the Tipsy Too Saloon in '88
my 'knee-jerk answers' would be Sting v Jeff Hardy (when Jeff was clearly on a different planet) and Undertaker v Goldberg (when the "biggest hit" was Goldberg concussing Himself)...that, or Lesnar v Goldberg (for a similar reason)...
Hunter v Steiner, both matches, but particularly the second, baffle me. First time, okay, you can see how it could go wrong. But by the second match, I was expecting the issues to be ironed out and two guys at that top level to be able to put on a component match. I still can't figure out what exactly happened.
Now one that surpassed expectations…by a lot!