The 10 Seeming Insignificant Moments in Professional Wrestling
By Daniel Greig

No particular order.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #1
Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger � February 25, 1990

Back then; WCW was still referring itself as the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance). The 1990 SuperBrawl PPV (Pay Per View) was held on Ric Flair�s 41st birthday and the main event was supposed to be Flair vs. Sting in a match that would of ended in Sting winning his first World Title. But Sting hurt his knee a month before the match as Lex Luger was quickly turned babyface and put in the main event. The match was a 40-minute classic, which still looks great viewed today. However, it fooled a whole heap of promoters into believing that Luger was the new emerging superstar. As a result, Luger has been pushed down collective throats for years now, even though it has been long established that he cant work, cut a decent promo and cannot draw money. This is despite one of the most expensive pushes in wrestling � Vince McMahon took out a second mortgage on Titan Towers to fund the �Lex Express�, his biggest mistake since settling for Jim Duggan over Ric Flair in the late 1980s. What escaped bonehead onlookers was that in the SuperBrawl match, Flair was always �The Man� even though people were saying he was too old even back then. He has held nine more World Titles since that date.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #2
Tiger Mask 2 unmasks and becomes Mitsuhara Misawa � May 1990

The All Japan wrestling company has never been the same. Not long after throwing the mask away, Misawa defeated Jumbo Tsuruta for the coveted Triple Crown. Matches involving these two were absolute classics for the next four years, interrupted by Tsuruta being struck down by illness. The two set the standard for the company�s main events, which to this day are the best so-called �Old School� wrestling matches in the world. The death of Shohei Baba meant that Misawa took over as the All Japan booker in early 1999. Look no further as Mitsuhara Misawa as one of the best wrestlers of the nineties.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #3
The Rockers split � Mid 1991

Do you remember the Barber Shop? Possibly not, given that by 1990, the WWF Superstars show had disappeared from Australian Television. It defines all reasonable logic that someone thought that Ed �Brutus �The Barber� Beefcake� Leslie would be a worthy successor to the slot occupied by the immortal �Piper�s Pit�. Marty Janetty and Shawn Michaels were the babyface prototype Rock N Roll Express team of the World Wrestling Federation from 1988 to about the time I am talking about. If they were still together now, they would be the most hated heels in the promotion. They�re not, thanks to a dirt-simple-seen-it-a-thousand-times-before angle on the Barber Shop, where Michaels attacked Janetty and threw him through a window on the set. What followed was hardly dirt-simple. Michaels, as a singles wrestler became the best in-ring performer the WWF/WWE has ever had, and possibly one of the most controversial outside the ring. The logical first program between Michaels and Janetty stalled because the latter took a liking to illicit substances. When they finally hooked up about a year later it was on a new WWF TV show called �Monday Night RAW�. They feuded over the Intercontinental Title, which adorned the HeartBreak Kid�s waist at the time. To this day, their matches are the best seen on a weekly wrestling television show. Of course, Michaels got the nod and his road to superstardom has been well documented. Janetty went the other day and was last seen as a WCW Nitro jobber. The final act to the Barber Shop split was played out almost seven years later when Shawn Michaels dropped the title to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV. Despite his unquestioned greatness inside the ring, Michaels had earned a reputation for getting out of doing jobs (losing) in high profile title matches, including WrestleMania 13 in 1997 where he was supposed to drop the WWF Title to Bret Hart (just one of the many reasons these two hate each other�). The irony is that Michaels should have never wrestled in the WrestleMania XIV main event due to a serious back injury. He did and it cost him his career� well for a few years anyway.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #4
Hulk Hogan appears on Arsenio Hall � 1993

�I�ve only taken steroids three times in my life � to fix up injuries.� That is not a direct quote but it paraphrases what Hogan said to Arsenio Hall on national television. Hogan�s appearance was the catalyst for the Federal Investigation that almost bankrupted Titan Sports. Dr. George Zahorian had already been convicted of dealing steroids to WWF Wrestlers, and was accused of supplying directly to Hogan & McMahon. When the infamous steroid trial was played out, Hogan, under oath, had to admit that he had lied on the Arsenio Hall show. He testified that 80% of the World Wrestling Federation wrestlers used steroids. That one simple sentence caused a complete re-think in who got pushed in the WWF. It also became the �incredible shrinking world� where guys like Randy Savage, with out the aid of steroids, reduced to a normal size (Savage went from wearing nothing but tights to wearing a full body suit). McMahon also started pushing smaller guys like Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels and became the vocal point of the promotion backed up by the likes of Owen Hart, The Smoking Gunns and the 1-2-3 Kid. It also meant that Hogan�s days were over in the WWF. He quit the WWF and wrestled some big shows with New Japan before ending up in WCW in 1994. But never say never in professional wrestling, because Hogan was back in the WWE in early 2002. It�s a weird world we live in.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #5
Vader does a Moonsault � 1993

It happened in a six-man tag team match on one of those PPVs no one cared about in WCW. And then the 400-pound monster � one of the best heels in the history of the sport went and did a move reserved for small Japanese and Mexican high flyers. Suddenly, it was not enough for massive wrestlers to be all a tub of guts and move slower than a statue. �High flying 400 pounder� was not so outrageous. Pretty soon, huge guys who couldn�t do these stunts were dropping out of major promotions. Workers such as Bam Bam Bigelow were mixing planchas with their punches. Also the Big Show has won a match by doing a top rope missile dropkick. Vader now works a stiff and convincing style in All Japan, without having to take his feet off the ground.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #6
Tommy Dreamer piledrives Beulah � Early 1995

Up until this point in time, the unwritten law in wrestling was that men didn�t physically attack women, especially not for babyface heat. I remember in the mists of time, Jim Cornette hit a valet in the stomach with his tennis racket. Elizabeth suffered �verbal abuse� from Randy Savage in the �Macho King� days of Savage. And that was as far as it went. But it was Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) who tore up the envelope. Dreamer got an incredible face reaction for the move (he was feuding with Raven, who had Beulah as his valet at the time) and from that point on, abuse of woman was not so unthinkable. It was okay for women to attack men in the WWF, as Chyna did the most. It was okay for Sable to bury her own husband�s (Marc Mero) career. It wasn�t until Steve Austin gave Chyna the Stone Cold Stunner to end No Way Out PPV in February 1998 to a huge pop that the WWF finally overcame its squeamishness. In his final age in the WWF, Jeff Jarrett beat up most of the women on the roster, and started his WCW tenure doing the same thing. The Dudley Boyz put the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young (both in their mid 80s) through tables and they threw Mae Young of the stage. As morality plays, professional wrestling has been screwed ever since that night Tommy Dreamer piledrove Beulah.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #7
The Royal Rumble 1996 opens with Sunny naked in a bubble bath.

Similar to SIM #6, the opening montage of the Royal Rumble of January 1996, spotlighted the new �Adult� direction of the World Wrestling Federation. The scene shown Sunny (female valet) naked in a bubble bath, sponging herself down. The WWF cartoon era shriveled so quickly after that night, as Sunny became the first of a long line of women marketed by Titan Sports for her sex appeal. When you think of Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler & Torrie Wilson, it was Sunny who started it all that night in the bubbly hot tub.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #8
Eric Bischoff sees Rey Mysterio wrestle at the Peace Festival � June 1, 1996

This was the first time Eric Bischoff saw Rey Mysterio Jr. wrestle. The World Wrestling Peace Festival was organized by Antonio Inoki and took place in Los Angeles. The interpromotional card included wrestlers from New Japan, WCW, AAA and EMLL from Mexico and a number of minor Japanese promotions. The only reason Bischoff was there was to accompany the WCW wrestlers � Sting, Lex Luger, Chris Benoit, the Giant and others. But what Eric saw impressed him as Rey teamed up with Ultimo Dragon to defeat Psicosis and Heavy Metal. Bischoff signed Rey to a WCW contract and the Cruiserweight Division was on fire. Many of AAA�s workers followed Rey including Super Calo, Psicosis, La Parka, Juventud Guerrera, the Villanos and Hector Garza. Adding to that was Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Ultimo Dragon & Chris Jericho. When the luchadores� contracts prevented them from working in their homeland, it caused the collapse of Antonio Pena�s AAA, which at one stage in the mid 1990�s, was the hottest promotions in the world. Apart from Rey Mysterio the Mexican�s were used as jobbers or comedy roles in WCW. Their careers, reputations and masks ended up in taters. Maybe it would have been better if Bischoff missed the Peace Festival to see a really long movie or something.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #9
Bret �Hitman� Hart vs. �Stone Cold� Steve Austin � WrestleMania 13, March 1997

This was a classic five star classic, which included the often-tried, but rarely successful double turn, which in this case was extremely successful. Before the match, Austin was a heel � but he got over with the hardcore fans. Bret was a babyface, who had months before signed a $20 million lifetime contract. Austin rewrote wrestling history. He became incredibly popular and Vince McMahon found the new �Hulk Hogan� character he was looking for all these years, and had no resemblance to a cartoon character that Hogan was. The �Austin 3:16� t-shirt is the biggest selling piece of wrestling merchandise in the history of the business. As for Bret Hart, his heel character was a great hit, playing that role in the US while being a hero in Canada. It was so good that in July 1997, the WWF scheduled a PPV in Calgary where the face heat for the Hart Foundation was so strong that for one night only, Austin returned to his role as a heel along with other babyfaces, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and the Legion of Doom. The five faced Bret, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, British Bulldog and Brian Pillman in a ten-man tag team main event, that blew the roof of the SaddleDome.Of course, for Bret Hart the year ended as rememorable it started. The �screwjob� of November 9, 1997 was Bret�s last ever appearance in the World Wrestling Federation and saved Vince about $17 million in wages over the next 19 years. As history shows, Bret went to WCW and was buried.

Seeming Insignificant Moment (SIM) Number #10
Sting descends from the ceiling for his ring entrance � March 1997

Sting was the hottest babyface in WCW in 1997 as he took on Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the nWo. Because he didn�t work or do interviews, Sting�s entrances had to be pretty memorable, so dropping from the rafters in his black �crow� get up and baseball bat became regular. Let�s fast forward to that horrible night at the Kemper Arena on May 23rd, 1999. Owen Hart dressed as the Blue Blazer, fell to his death when his safety harness failed. What the hell was Owen doing descending from the ceiling? Well, copying Sting�s popular entrances was probably one of the main reasons. It�s not unreasonable to assume that if Sting had never made his ring entrances that way two years earlier, there would have been no reason for Owen to do it that night in Kansas City. But Sting wasn�t the first guy to enter the ring from the roof. Ranger Ross, curtain jerker from the late 1980�s did it on the same card that Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat wrestled their 55-minute, two out of three fall classic. But that was a one off. Sting popularised it, the World Wrestling Federation copied it and Owen Hart paid a terrible price for it. Rest in Peace Owen, my friend � Daniel.