Hey Scott,
Last night in the Destination X live thread we briefly talked about the craziest bumps in the history of wrestling and where the Styles Clash into a table onto the concrete fit. For me I think it's the craziest thing short of Foley in '98 but others were saying that Edge/Hardy at TLC or Edge/Foley at WM were even crazier.
What do you and the rest of the blog think? What are, in order, the top 5 sickest bumps ever?
Thanks for the decade+ of wasted time man!
Well nothing is topping Foley in the Cell, obviously. ECW had its share of crazy stuff, like Brian Lee chokeslamming Tommy Dreamer through a bazillion tables. Foley also used to take mundane stuff and make it insane by taking flat back bumps onto concrete, so I'd have to rank his powerbomb bump against Vader on WCW Saturday Night right up there as well. In a way those kind of bumps are "sicker" than the cartoonish Cell bumps because they're right there in your face.
New Jack trying to kill Vic Grimes.
ReplyDeleteFoley's nestea plunge from the Clash against Mil Mascaras is hideous to watch.
ReplyDeleteSee, I can't call the Foley bumps "the best" because the whole point is NOT to hurt yourself but make people think you did. Sickest bump? Absolutely. But not the best.
ReplyDeleteI always liked Foley's bump against Undertaker at Revenge of the Taker '97 where he went head first making a huge hole in the table.
ReplyDeleteI was coming here to post about the same bump. That bump is still insane to me, but seems to get overlooked a lot.
ReplyDeleteBecause I hate this topic, let me be the one to say it:
ReplyDeleteOwen's bump from the ceiling to the ring at Over The Edge '99.
Sickest bump of the past, present, and future. Ever.
Shawn flipping over the top against Bret at WM12 and Bret through the table against Diesel at SurSer 95.
ReplyDeleteEdge hitting Foley with the spear through the flaming table is probably top of the list of insane things I can think of. I don't know who talked who into doing that bump, but I can only imagine what was going through both of their heads as Edge ran towards Foley.
ReplyDeleteMike Awesome powerbombing Tanaka from the inside of the ring to a table on the ground outside is always crazy to me.
I'm sure there have been worse death match bumps, but I'm not a fan of death match wrestling, so I can't rate that. I've heard stories about guys bumping on boards covered in sharpened pencils and other nonsense.
If they were in Philly, the "You fucked up!" chant would have been deafening.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Daniels taking Styles Clash at Destination X?
ReplyDeletethat wasnt a bump, that was attempted homicide
ReplyDeletehate the nestea plunge bump, cuz its just hurting yourself for no reason.
ReplyDeleteand plus against Mascaras... ugh
TOO SOON!
ReplyDeleteProp bumps:
ReplyDelete- Benoit diving head-first into a chair shot by Chris Jericho
- Benoit missing a suicide dive against Booker T and hitting the Smackdown announce table back-first
Prop-free bumps:
- Taka Michonoku gets ejected from the 2000 Royal Rumble.
- Paul London's shooting star press to the floor from the Snitsky clothesline in the 2005 Rumble
- Lita's botched suicide dive to Trish Stratus
- Akeem. Michaels.Clothesline. WMV. Nuff said.
If it's too soon to say that, then it's too soon to celebrate sick bumps!
ReplyDeletea bump doesn't kill you dipshit. Just watched X-7 for the first time last night(netflix rules the world). Can't say tlc was necessarily the sickest, but goddamn. . .
ReplyDeleteA bump *can* kill you dipshit.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need someone to define "bump" for me, because I'm pretty sure that something can be both a bump *and* attempted homicide.
ReplyDeleteThat was awesome. Similar was one of the Pit Bulls taking a piledriver through a table from Raven in The Only ECW Match Scott Ever Gave 5 Stars To and just punching a big hole in the table.
ReplyDeleteOr Rey getting darted into the trailer on Nitro. That was an awesome bump.
ReplyDeleteAny of Michaels' big back body drop bumps he'd take in the 90s, especially to the floor.
ReplyDeleteThere was a bump with Daniels and Suicide in Ultimate X at Bound for Glory 2009 where I was convinced I'd seen the former die in the ring. Thankfully the replay showed he was okay, but the first time you see it, you're stunned.
ReplyDeleteCalm your tits.
ReplyDeleteIm just saying that Jack wasnt tryin to have a match with that boy.
The Spanish translation "Calme sus tetas" sounds much cooler.
ReplyDeleteHands down, my pick is Foley's bumps in the Hell in a Cell from King of the Ring 98.
ReplyDeleteYeah...it's a fine line. What do we celebrate for being "sick" and what do we denigrate for being too over the top/dangerous?
ReplyDeletehaha. Highly disturbing but probably true.
ReplyDeleteNot even close to the sickest ever but how cool was zigglers bump off a sunset flip at wrestlemania 28?
ReplyDeleteAre you referring to Netflix online, via the Wii, or both?
ReplyDeleteThat's what happen when you get throwed from a 20 foot high steel cage... twice.
ReplyDeleteWow...just watched it for the first time and what in the hell was the point?!
ReplyDeleteI dunno, Mickie James has got some super swyck bumps on her, or did have.
ReplyDeleteThe crazy thing about all of these bumps is that I don't think they can be truly appreciated unless you're watching them up close and in person. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, I never got a chance to see a live wrestling show until I went to college. After several WWE Raws in the nosebleeds I got a chance to sit 5th row at a RoH show. I vividly remember two guys botching a superplex spot and taking a fairly controlled bump to the outside onto the mats. I thought they had died. Even after watching hundreds of hours of Attitude Era WWF and seeing all the sick Foley bumps, TLC, etc., I was totally stunned by my first up close and personal "high spot." It gave me a much bigger appreciation for what these (crazy?) SoBs are doing out there. Also made me wonder what the people sitting ringside were thinking when they saw Foley's HitC bump.
ReplyDeleteI nearly jumped out of my chair when Benoit did that dive into a chair.
ReplyDeleteI know this isn't what the email-er had in mind, but in discussing "sickest", or "craziest" in the context of professional wrestling, I'm pretty sure we have to mention Foley taking multiple unprotected chair shots to the head at the 1998 Rumble.
ReplyDeleteOf course, "stupidest" springs to mind, also.
Yep, just purely insane on Mick's part. I always heard about those bumps from Foley's books, but honestly I've never seen much from his 1st WCW run. The Clash Bluray was the first time I've seen it. Apparently, he used to do that ALL THE TIME. Thank God he retired that bump by the time he got to WWE.
ReplyDeleteShane McMahon vs. Kurt Angle at King of the Ring
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Mf7SKDubU
Hitting the glass at about 8:30
the dvd actually. . .
ReplyDelete+1 for grim Misawa reference.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Just seeing the impact of a bodyslam or hearing the smack of a chop live and up close makes you appreciate that everything their doing is painful and dangerous. I thought The Wrestler did a good job of capturing that. During that match they were showing right at the beginning, I kept expecting one of those elbow drops or stomps to connect wrong, starting Randy's story off with an in-ring injury. That's exactly how it feels going to an indy show.
ReplyDeleteOk cool. I have the DVD also, lol.
ReplyDeleteI kept waiting for Shane's head to bust open like a melon. Just fucking crazy.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I remember just being amazed the first time I saw clotheslines up close...
ReplyDeleteYeah but theres a difference between an accident or incident(the owen-driver comes to mind) and a man falling from the ceiling. A bump is planned, or at least its supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteSome underappreciated ones:
ReplyDeleteTito getting decapitated by The Barbarian's flying clothesline at WrestleMania VI
Heath Slater getting squashed so hard by the Vader Bomb he splattered sideways (in fact, I think Slater is very underrated as a bumper, he makes everything look good)
Davey Boy Smith getting dropped from what looks like 3 stories on a Sycho Sid powerbomb from SummerSlam 96
Rob Van Dam's head bouncing 3 feet off the mat from a Tommy Dreamer piledriver at N2R97 (kind of phony looking in a hyper sort of way, but I always thought it was awesome)
I'm pretty sure you mean the 1999 Rumble if it's The Rock match, but IIRC Foley and Funk were trading unprotected chair shots in a "friendly" way at the 1998 Rumble which could be seen as equally stupid.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was nuts, though I kind of think doing it that early in the angle was kind of a bad idea. It's like they shot their wad too soon, you knew nothing nWo related was going to top that.
ReplyDeleteMy favorites are still most of Shawn's in that Hogan match at Summerslam.
ReplyDeleteI'd say Foley getting slaughtered by The Rock crossed the line. One or two chairshots got the point across, once they got to about 6 or 7 it just became hard to watch.
ReplyDeleteThat Benoit/Jericho RR match once used to be my favorite ladder match. But now that dive through the ropes into a chair shot is the main reason I can't ever bring myself to watch that...
ReplyDeleteI guess this would qualify as a spot more than a bump...but Elix Skipper's cage walk/top of the cage hurricarana was insane.
ReplyDeleteI really wish Foley toned down the bumps when he became a main-eventer. He's one of my top 3 favourite performers and I know that was his style but he gets remembered for the crazy stuff more than his other talents. He was one of the best promos ever, a creative guy who really helped put others over and wrestlers like Bret Hart respected him as a pro wrestler (Mick was known as being able to really visualize and put matches together well) as opposed to a "glorified stuntman".
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I've ever been a fan been a fan of those really gigantic bumps. They either just look fake, like Kanyon getting tossed through the rampway, or they're just unnecessarily dangerous. Like HITC 2, I don't even consider that a wrestling match, it was just an excuse to try and murder someone on live TV. To me, the only difference between that and garbage like CZW is the size of the crowd.
ReplyDeleteSome that no one has mentioned yet:
ReplyDelete-Foley's backdrop through the cell and through the ring at NWO 2000
-Orton's back bump on to contacts at backlash 2004. Foley did it before in WWE, but at least he had a shirt on.
-Taker leaps over the ropes and lands head first at WM25, leaving a temporary "dent" on the ringside mat
-Kanyon off the triple cage and through the walkway at the Kemper Arena
-the "routine" bumps (hhh/race over the top rope bump. slaughter's chest first bump to the floor, any horrible thing foley did in the late 80s-early 90s)
My fav teased bump is kurt angle trying to german suplex someone off the apron and to the floor. A move so insane that no mainstream wrestler has done it... yet
The Lariat from Hell Slater took from Bradshaw at RAW 1000 was definitely a recent highlight. That officially changed my stance on Slater from "ignore this man" to "worth a look to see how he's going to bump/sell this move".
ReplyDeleteDidn't Foley take a similar one during his match against Michaels at Mind Games? I seem to recall him absolutely splatting head first through a table during that one too.
ReplyDeleteYes @ both of those.
ReplyDeleteShawn's bump there is just nuts, I love it.
Yeah I tend to agree. Bumps from guys like Perfect are worth more to me than Foley or ECW bumping. I'd rather watch an extremely talented and gifted athlete make a harmless move look sick than a regular guy take a sick move.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite clothesline bump is definitely Steamboat's off of the three huge lariats Luger throws at him at GAB 1989.
ReplyDeleteSecond runner up --- Shawn Michaels taking a clothesline from Demolition Ax at SNME.
These have probably been mentioned, but I wanted to get it out there anyway...
ReplyDeleteThe unprotected bumps to the outside make me cringe. Razor Ramon suplexing Shawn from the ring onto the floor while the back of Shawn's knee crashes into the guardrail at SummerSlam 95 is just sick. And that was like in the first five minutes of a 25 minute match! A good 3/4 of the times Savage or Angle get backdropped out of the ring are pretty sick, too. I still refer to getting backdropped and flipped out of the ring as taking the Savage way out. Obviously, there's a lot of crazy ECW bumps that are similar, but that's mostly due to botching/stupidity/poor planning.
On a related note, I fear what Ziggler might do in the future. He likes to do flashy bumps, but he also likes to do it in a manly way without truly protecting himself. That kinda sucks, to be honest--most of us respect his ability and don't want to see him get hurt. Puss out once in a while, Zigg, and protect yourself, dammit.
Nope. He was going to back suplex Shawn off the top rope through the table. Michaels countered in mid air. Still an awesome one.
ReplyDeleteI always liked Bret Hart running face first into the turnbuckles.
ReplyDeleteOh man I forgot the german off the apron faked spot. PLEASE nobody do that.
ReplyDeleteAnd good call on Taker. Another instance where I thought someone might be dead or legit fucked up and then immediately sprang to his feet.
Can we take a moment to say Shane O' Mac was a bump machine?
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with you, but I've also watched this stuff around non-fans and they've eaten those spots up. The anticipation building to "when is he going to fall off the cage?" or "when is he going to land on the tacks?" seems to really draw in the average non-wrestling fan person if it's done right. I guess the lesson is, as always, you've gotta tell a story...
ReplyDeleteI'll go with dumbest...
ReplyDeleteHow are we 66 comments deep and nobody has mentioned Lesnar's (botched) SSP?!?!
ReplyDeleteFor the first time?! Did it live up to the hype for you?
ReplyDeleteOr Rey strapped to the stretcher...
ReplyDeleteAnother match I've watched with non-fans and they ate it up... I was expecting them to kill me for putting it on - I completely agree with you that it's too over the top to be enjoyable. I never know what will appeal to people with this stuff.
ReplyDeleteYes, we can. Although, he NEVER would have sustained that if he had been a regular wrestler.
ReplyDeleteHow about that bump WCW took after the Finger Poke of Doom?
ReplyDeleteEither Kenta or Misawa Tiger suplexed the other from the entrance way onto the floor (which is the same height as from the ring to the floor) in one of their crazy matches...
ReplyDeleteWell, I was there at KotR98 for the Foley/Ut HiaC match- I was not ringside, but I was on the side of the ring that Foley went off. I remember thinking they were going to do a bunch of teases and was totally take off guard when he actually went off. It seemed like foley was just in the air forever, like time slowed down. If you watch and listen the crowd is just stunned... there is no wild cheers or a massive roar, it is more the sound of everyone just inhaling and gasping in unison.
ReplyDeleteIn person the Cell did not look that high, but once they went to the top, you were able to get some perspective. The thing I remember most if that we could not see the announce desk so at first I thought he went straight to the floor. My response was more "I can't believe I saw that" than "holy shit!" In fact,I don't think we really felt that it was OK until Foley rolled off the streacher and went back towards the ring.
It actually looks better on video than it did live because of the multiple camer angle and because you can prepare for it and take it in, but live it just stunned me.
That's my #1 (outside of the Foley off the cage but that's like...in it's own league, that's not even a "bump" that's a legit suicide attempt)
ReplyDeleteWow...thanks for the first hand account. Fascinating, in its own way.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if they are the best, but a few contenders come to mind. HBK never seemed to hit the ringpost to announcers table Moonsault right, but (I think) in the the WM match with Flair he really hits it bad- like catchs too much of the front of the table so that it did not break right away.
ReplyDeleteThe Summerslam three way with the Rock, HHH and Angle when the table broke and HHH had Kurts hands tied so he had to take the full ride to the floor unprotected.
Kurt Angel vs Shane McMahon in a streetfight from King of the Ring when Angle kept overhead suplexing Shane in to a glass pane that would not break so Shane kept sliding down on to his head.
Also, the Hardy Boyz vs MNM vs Taylor/Regal vs London/Kendrick ladder match from 2006 when Mercury took a see-saw ladder shot to the face that just blew his nose open- that was brutal.
But for a non botched bump- there is a bump in the Summerslam 95 Ladder match between Razor and HBK when Shawn falls with his leg trapped in the rungs of the ladder that, to this day, makes me wonder just how he did not blow his knee out.
That'd be Misawa giving it. Just rewatched it....when the burning hammer is one of the tamer bumps of a match, there is a problem.
ReplyDeleteLa Resistance nearly killed Spike Dudley with a botched table spot. That was pretty nuts.
ReplyDeleteThere are some famous ones, and some not so famous ones that I like to look back on. Mick Foley's Hell in a Cell bumps are notorious for a good reason, and we can also throw in Shane McMahon's King of the Ring '01 glass spots as well for their cringe-worthiness. A few that aren't as often remembered include Chris Benoit's insane suicide dive into the table against Booker T back in 2005 I believe it was, along with the dive at the '01 Rumble headfirst into the chair. Triple H getting back body dropped at No Way Out 2001 in his match against Austin was crazy sick, and Randy Savage's bump of the same fashion at WrestleMania III was no slouch, either.
ReplyDeleteThat almost qualifies as what is referd to as suicide by cop- where someone wants to die, so they charge a cop or jump the fence at the White House in the hopes that they will be killed. I mean WTF did Grimes think was going to happen on top of a scafford with New Jack- at best he was going 20-30 feet down too a piece of wood then to he ring.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of, I think there was a match from an ECW PPV with New Jack/Spike Duddly vs Balls/Rotten or the Duddleys (don't remember which)where NJ and Spike try a double dove from a balcony on to tables and Nj just compleatly overshoots it and basically bellyfloops to floor.
Yeah, it's hard to watch. But I still think Misawa is like...the best in-ring guy I've ever seen in my life.
ReplyDeleteI think non-fans react that way because, well, they're non-fans. We see wrestlers every week and almost start feeling like we know them, and start caring about them, and in a lot of cases grew up with them. Non-fans don't really give a shit, they don't have that emotional connection.
ReplyDeleteAnother example: I'm a huge auto racing fan, particularly Nascar. Non-fans see a big wreck, they say "Holy shit, that was awesome!". I see a big wreck and say "Holy shit, I hope he's OK.", because I'm in front of the TV every Sunday watching them and have a lot of respect for the sport and it's drivers (anyone who thinks that shit's easy, I'd like to see you try it). Or people who only watch the Super Bowl and think it's great, while real football fans know the game usually sucks ass. Non-fans just don't get it, regardless.
From the last TNA pay-per-view, Samoa Joe had Styles up in the muscle-buster position when Angle hooked Joe around the waist for a German suplex. The spot was more or less blown but holy crap, it still looked nasty.
ReplyDelete* Shelton Benjamin being launched off the ladder at WM24....Carlito's "holy crap" reaction shot really sold it as something special.
* Shelton springboarding off the ropes right into HBK's superkick. Looked like his head got taken off.
* Nunzio taking Goldberg's spear at the 2004 Royal Rumble. Probably the best-looking spear I've ever seen. Nunzio looked like he was hit by a truck.
* I think it was just from some random match on RAW, but I recall the Hardys setting up Poetry In Motion once on Bradshaw, but he just roared out of the corner and Clothesline-From-Hell'd Jeff out of thin air. Looked brutal.
The Mercury bump was horrible. I only watched that match once and after that I NEVER want to see it again, and not just because Jeff Hardy is in the match. And while we're on the subject of bad accidents, Sid nearly killing Pillman is one of the worst things I've ever seen. And of course Sid, genius that he is, does it AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteThe bump they took by not letting Goldberg getting his win back over Nash was even worse, IMO.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree. He may have won a bit too often, but even then it wasn't a big deal, cus ya know....Misawa.
ReplyDeleteThat match is more uncomfortable to me just for the fact that his kids are watching that happen in the front row, and they immediately know that something is wrong.
ReplyDeleteLook, I'm from Philly, and not even we are that fucked up to chant at something like that happening...
ReplyDeletePretty much any flaw you could throw at him (and there aren't many) can be answered with "But it's Misawa". Not many guys can say that.
ReplyDeleteI know it was already mentioned but my favorite clothesline bump has to be Michaels bumping off of Akeem in WM V. I remember watching that with friends and we rewound the tape several times for that one.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching it live. I thought he was life-threatening injured on just the first bump alone, that was the damndest thing I'd ever seen. And it just kept going from there because fuck it, Foley was giving you his money's worth, busted intestines be damned.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I cringe when people say "oh, it was a two-bump match" or "there was no chain wrestling". You're missing the goddamn point; you think Brock/Cena was a blurring between fiction and reality? Try a man going through incredible pain still trying to carry on the match just so we wouldn't be sucked out of what people paid to see. The storytelling isn't in whatever Taker and Foley are exchanging, it's a man pushing himself beyond the extraordinary just for our entertainment. There's a reason that night would turn him into the folk hero we know today. To * that because it was just "bumps" or "spots" (hi, Scott ^_^) is completely missing the point of why that match was incredible.
Well, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to go THROUGH the Cell, with the chair clocking him in the face on the way down.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I remember that- they were standing there in the ring looking down with faces that just read "oh fuck I think he's hurt we are totally going to get in shit for this".
ReplyDeleteYes, you are.
ReplyDeleteYour town threw shit at SANTA CLAUS.
hmm... are we talking "bumps" or "botches"? because to me that's definitely NOT the same.
ReplyDeleteexactly. it also totally took me out of the match. I didn't care who won after that anymore, I only cared about Mick not being too horribly injured.
ReplyDeletebtw: you just explained one of the biggest reason why I don't care about "casuals". if you don't want to watch wrestling without the guys legitimately hurting each other, then fuck off!
ReplyDeleteI was pretty amazed when BJ Whitmer managed to Powerbomb Jimmy Jacobs from the top rope into the audience without either on of them dying. I think it happened more than once too and one of them was botched in a hideous fashion.
ReplyDeleteguido was a great seller. underrated worker.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it seems like perfects style took more of a long term toll than Foley's.
ReplyDeleteNot true, philly fans are awful. See irving, micheal
ReplyDeleteRock took a nasty Gore from Rhyno on a RAW in 2001 or so and made it look like he was broken in half.
ReplyDeleteHow so, do you mean his 91 to 93 back injury? True, although I just think that is somewhat bad luck; anybody can hurt their back -- look at Steamboat, with his career ending on a simple move. With all the moves Foey took landing on his back, it is surprising he never hurt it badly, but maybe landing flat helped.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I don't think any single move or stunt ever put Hennig in danger of dying instantly or turning him into Muhammad Ali like some of Foley's. Well, unless you consider snorting cocaine a wrestling move.
You can't even spell his name right. And he didn't die.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't order ppv, and could never find the dvd to rent or buy, so that's why its been so long. It lived up to the hype, and more. I don't watch much wrestling these days(haven't watched raw in a decade), although I have aton of dvd's. I love reading rants and all that, but after that event, I feel like breaking out the dvd's and watching alot more. . .
ReplyDelete6.0
ReplyDeleteWell, he was also the pioneer of a completely unsustainable style that left All-Japan and NOAH both unable to develop any new long-term, successful main event talent and turned a psychologically strong promotion into a headdrop-fest that eventually directly resulted in his death.
ReplyDeleteBut...yeah, "it's Misawa." Or something.
Michael Irvin was a Dallas Cowboy, he doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteSanta Claus isn't a real person, he doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteCombining posts here, but my top 5.....
ReplyDelete- Foley in the cell. DUH.
- Shane O' Mac Window Demolition. (I still steal Scott's "Shane is dead and pushing up the daisies" line from his rant)
- Orton on the tacks. Lawler freaking out in the match is priceless.
- Shelton Running up the ladder, and also running into the Superkick
- Awesome/Tanaka spots from One Night Stand. That was a suicide match.
Personal fav: Gillberg hitting the spear on Shane McMahon in a TV match (Heat?). Roof blew off the place because he actually landed it for a change.
Oh yeah, he fucked up Japanese wrestling and it will probably take a decade at least for it to recover.
ReplyDeleteBut goddamn he was a fantastic worker.
I was about post New Jack Vs Vic Grimes. There's an interview with Jack this month in FSM (I think) we're he admits deliberately trying to just miss the tables with Grimes because some crap between them.
ReplyDeletejim cornette scaffold match. enough said.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q84ZLPDTNE
AJ took a nice bump from Big Show when he bowled her over.
ReplyDeleteThinking outside the obvious:
ReplyDelete-On Nitro, Saturn took a bump off of a semi truck thought two tables.
-ECW TV Title match: Pitbull #2 jumps to the outside and crotches the freaking railing.
-ECW: Raven and Richards Vs Pitbulls: Pitbulls superbomb Raven through a table, but measure it wrong and the only thing that hits is his head.
-Big Show chokeslams Spike Dudley out of the ring to the floor. Not flashy, but damn it was sick.
I know the exact one you're talking about. He did his Stunner backwards somersault--which some call goofy and some call awesome--off of it, which looked amazing since he was selling a move that was designed to bowl him over in such a manner. Too bad that wasn't the finish of a huge match, because it looked so good that it should have been a legendary moment.
ReplyDeleteThat was at the tail-end of the "Invasion" angle. Things were looking up for Rhyno at the time, as he was feuding with Rock and Jericho at the time, but - unfortunately - he was injured, like, a week or two after that spot.
ReplyDeleteI was always a big Rhyno fan, and was really excited to see him getting pushed, but it just didn't work out for him in the long run - by the time he returned, he had been gone about sixteen months, and it took him another year or so after that to really get his mojo back in the ring. I've always felt bad for him about that, definitely thought he could have been a bigger star, if even for a short time.
I still cringe thinking about those. Brutal.
ReplyDeleteZiggler is just asking to be paralyzed.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's sad is that he's an AMAZING seller, truly one of the best I've ever seen. He doesn't have to take legit bumps, as he can make pretty much anything look like he's just been hit by a truck. Guy could sell a papercut like death.
Taker at WM25 is one of those moments where time just seemed to stop - watching it now, he's not outside the ring all that long, but watching it live, it seemed like he was out there for ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteOne of the scariest things I've seen in all my years as a fan. I really thought he was a vegetable at that moment.
Nobody could sell getting dropped on their head like RVD.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely 100% agree.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the match was that Taker was going to dole out the biggest ass-kicking in history, and Foley was going to TAKE the biggest ass-kicking in history. Mission accomplished.
I just had the funniest image in my head of a conversation between Foley and Edge:
ReplyDeleteEdge: "I have a great idea for our match!"
Foley: "You want to spear me and we'll both fall through a flaming table?"
Edge: "... that could work."
I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that non-fans tend to look down at our pseudo-sport with disdain, due to it all being "fake", so when they see a person actually getting hurt, it blows their mind. It's so much more than what they initially thought.
ReplyDeleteSickest chairshot ever:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar_felxzSFA
Aw man, Cornette's face when he lands is just awful
ReplyDeleteTo this day, he's scared to death of heights. (His knee healed up nicely, though; he walks around on ROH TV pretty well.)
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I didn't even think of that. Even when they see someone get totally fucked up (as in hurt, not fucked up like Scott Hall) a lot of non-fans still think said wrestler found a way to fake it, because if it happened in a wrestling ring it has to be fake.
ReplyDeleteI was about 20 feet away from Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle at King of the Ring 2001 at the Meadowlands when Shane got dropped on his head. The funniest part is I turned my head just slightly for one second, right as Kurt went to suplex Shane. So I didn't actually see Shane fall live. (I have since watched the match on DVD countless times.) But I heard Shane's head hit the floor. It was seriously like this pop you heard throwout the arena. I honestly thought Shane was dead.
ReplyDeleteThan after Kurt tossed Shane through the glass twice, as they came walking back up the aisle(actually Kurt rolled Shane but whatever) I saw up close all these little cuts all over Kurt's body and blood all over him as well as over Shane's face.
Wrestling never seemed so real.
Foley is obviously the greatest bump man in the history of THIS BUSINESS. Just the fact that he would take bumps on a nightly basis that no one else would even consider. And he's still alive. Though I do think part of that has to do with the fact that he was never a big partier.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to get on a soap box here but I do want to just throw in the fact that as far as I know, every single guy that has died young had issues with drugs and or alcohol. Not to say that the bumps they took didn't factory in, but that all the injuries plus the drinking and drugs are what kill these guys so young. Foley is probably only alive today because he never got into that scene.
Now make to the crazy bumps. One that gets over looked is Angle doing the moonsault off the top of the cage against Benoit. I always thought that looked awesome. Of course 98 Hell in the Cell is legendary but I always liked the retirement match one with HHH at whatever that PPV was called because it was completely made save with like a mat under the ring. It looked real and Foley wasn't risking his life quite as much as the KoTR one. I have no problem with gimmick falls that are actually completely safe. Like Shane vs Steve Blackman.
But than you have ones like Rikishi off the Cell where he nearly died and was like bleeding out of his ears and shit and no one remembers. Or anyone taking sick bumps at Indy shows. That's just fucking stupid.
If your gonna risk life and limb at least do it on a grand stage where people will actually see it.