Column: The Importance Of Wrestling "Dream Matches" Through The Years And In The Future.
When you talk about the ideal wrestling dream match, there are a number of legendary and iconic professional wrestlers from every era of the sport. Among these names are the obvious ones, the likes of the recent heroes of the sport; Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Bret "Hitman" Hart, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and to jump a little closer to the present, John Cena, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton and Batista.
However, despite popular belief of the common wrestling mark, these are not the men who laid the foundations of the world of sports entertainment. They are simply the men that took it to new levels of height in the world of modern media and television. The men who laid the very foundations of the modern world of sports entertainment as we know it are the main formula of the entire equation of modern professional wrestling; the likes of "Gorgeous" George Wagner, "The King" Harley Race, Lou Thesz, Ed "The Strangler" Lewis and Hard boiled Haggerty.
All of these men have played a significant role in the world of professional wrestling despite some of them going amiss and being forgotten and disrespected, especially by more recent wrestling fans who do not care to do their history lessons and care simply for the "high-spots" and the "blood and gore" aspect of the modern sports entertainment world. When the sport was still as it was rightfully classed; a sport, high-spots were not necesarry to get over because quite simply, the wrestlers had talent, the wrestlers had respect for the sport and they worked morning, noon and night to simply put on a great show to the fans, often getting the living hell beat out of them in the process, often being legitimatley hated, resented and often attacked by the fans for the gimmicks they portrayed, and on top of that, they were working with a real passion for a LIVING WAGE, not the million dollar pay checks that are openly and voluntarily given to every tom, Dick and Harry that barely has their boots wet in the blood, sweat and tears of the squared circle nowadays.
The history of the sport along with the hundreds of dream matches that have cullimated throughout the years is something that can never be erased and never will, however, with the growing population of Internet marks and smarks who think they know it from top to bottom, the ones who think that your Jeff Hardy's and your AJ Styles' are the greatest "wrestlers" of all time, that is when it turns from a simple fan-base to a blatant disrespect. You would not have your Jeff Hardy's and your AJ Styles' who leave the fans in shock and awe with their death defying stunts if the likes of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka had not performed the legendary cage dive, or if the Rock "N" Roll Express and the Midnight Express had never had a scaffold feud. However, it is these moments in "high spot history" that go forgotten with modern day wrestling fans and that in its entirety is a blatant disrespect for the very foundations of the sport itself.
It is no secret that professional wrestling reached the pinnacle of its success from the mid 80's through to the early millennium. In my personal opinion, from 1985 through to 2001. This was due to the obvious growth in the media world as television and radio became the top of the advertising world and Wrestling was being viewed as a fun and family friendly alternative to other sports such as the NFL and Soccer. It had something that everyone wanted; adults and children alike. From the flash and glare of the gimmick based icons of their time, the likes of The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Sting to the egotistical and simply hatable heel characters such as the likes of Ric Flair, Rick Martell. Ted DiBiase, Ravishing Rick Rude and Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig.
Of course; mixed in with the actual gimmick based characters were those often with a lack of gimmick, yet these were often the ones who put ont he show stealer matches of the night, the ones with the legitimate wrestling talent and the ones who were fully educated in the style of the past rather than the style that was quickly being garnished and groomed to become the sports entertainment style of the future. The likes of Rick and Scott Steiner, The Great Muta, Ron Simmons, Dustin Rhodes, Steve Austin and the up and coming Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko were seemingly the sole survivors of the pure-wrestling style of the past and were being forced to educate themselves in the way of the gimmick to simply earn the living wage, and to survive in the ever thriving yet the ever changing world of professional wrestling.
These changes were necesarry for business however. From the success of the AWA and the NWA in the 70's and the 80's which was based around the pure wrestling styles of the likes of Harley Race, Ric flair, Dusty Rhodes, Larry Zbyszko, The Funks and The Anderson's, all of whom had created their gimmicks and characters from the early years modeled after the likes of "Gorgeous" George Wagner, who was the first professional wrestler to use a gimmick, and not only that, a gimmick of a flamboyant and effeminate male in an uneducated world of homophobia and unnaceptance; that is something to fear and admire in the same sentence.
The early days of the NWA was based on a simple module. You get over with the fans, you earn cash and you do the same the next night. You bust your butt off in the ring, you go backstage and cut a promo hyping your next match or a feud and the deal is done. This was long before the need for overhyped blood and the "T&A" factor was needed, because simply, the wrestlers had paid their dues and EARNED their respect and knew what was required to captivate an audience without the need for it. Naturally, managers and mouth pieces were still used because as a famous man once said along the lines of, the key to every wrestlers success lies behind the mouth of a great manager. The likes of Fred Blassie, Skandar Akbar, gary Hart, Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart are among the host of names that fall under this iconic category that helped bring wrestling to the top of its game. Never underestimate the power of a mouthpiece, and this was shown in some of the greatest dream matches of all time, including The Rock "N" Roll Express versus The Midnight Express, Ric Flair versus Harley Race and Terry Funk versus Jumbo Tsuruta.
As the years went by however, the sport of professional wrestling continued to evolve with the time. Organizations such as Extreme Championship Wrestling began to form which based their style more along the lines of real life in exhange for the usual flash and glam gimmicks. Attitude, beer, smoking, women and violence were common sites in the old ECW, but one thing that certainly was not lacking was the quality of their wrestling matches which often put their soon-to-be rivals in the WCW and WWF to shame. ECW indeed bought a unique style to the world of professional wrestling which would soon rattle the foundations of the sport as in the late 90's, the WWF introduced the "attitude era", fronted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, a beer drinking, bad mouthed fan favorite, a style so obviously influenced by the popular ECW style. This lead to many memorable dream matches including the likes of Steve Austin versus Bret Hart, Steve Austin versus The Rock, and The Undertaker versus Kane.
This spawned the start of yet another new era, the monday night wars between WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Raw is War in which the two companies often traded blows at each other in attempts to beat each other in the television ratings. This was undoubtedly the most exciting and competetive era of professional wrestling thus far, which spawned yet even more changes in the wrestling styles. WCW, in an effort to keep the audience on their side, ebgan to bring in innovators of the mexican "Lucha Libre" style of wrestling which consisted more around that of high flying and dare devil maneuvers over the classic style of wrestling. The popularity of the high flying style bought many memorable dream matches to national television including the likes of Chris Benoit versus Dean Malenko, who battled in many technical masterpieces throughout their careers, Rey Misterio Jr versus Psicosis who collectivley have wrestled each other over 100 times having also trained together, and Jushin "Thunder" liger versus "flyin" Brian Pillman which was the first ever match in WCW's televised history taking place on the first ever Monday Nitro broadcast in September, 1995.
As the war continued to rage, so did the dream matches. We saw the likes of Ric Flair versus Hulk Hogan, Sting versus Ric Flair, Randy Savage versus Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon, The Undertaker versus Mankind, Kevin Nash versus The Big Show, then known as The Giant in a battle of the big men, Scott Hall versus Larry Zbyzko in a rematch dating back from as early as the AWA year of 1985 and Big Van Vader versus Shawn Michaels.
Another one that often goes amiss is The Steiner Brother versus The Road Warriors which took place on a WCW Nitro event in the 90's. These two teams are two of the most recognized and iconic in the sport because they were active not only in America, but they also toured regularily across Japan, yet the amount of times they faced each other can be counted on one hand. The match however goes amiss due to the timeline and the lack of hype it received; it was during the time when the nWo was set to take over the world of television. In 2001 however the feud was to be rekindled; with Road Warrior Hawk out with an injury and set to return in September 2001, backstage, Animal and the freshly reuinited Steiner Brothers were bringing forth plans for the first ever Road Warriors versus Steiner Brothers feud, however, their plans were cut short as in March 2001, WCW was bought out by the rival WWF putting an end to the 6 years of monday night wars.
ECW was also putting on amazing shows night in and night out. They threw together amazing dream matches left, right and center. The likes of Jerry Lynn versus Rob Van Dam, Sabu versus Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer versus The Sandman, The Sandman versus Raven, Raven versus Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas versus Taz. Shortly after however, ECW had gone bankrupt. This gave the WWF the chance to throw together hundreds of dream matches, many of which actually took place. The likes of Booker T versus The Rock, Steve Austin versus Scott Hall, Ric Flair versus Vince McMahon, Curt Hennig versus Rob Van Dam and KroniK, Bryan Clark and Brian Adams versus Kane and The Undertaker are among the immense list of interpromotional dream matches that came to pass.
Another promotion was being built from the remenants of WCW and the fallen World Wrestling Allstars however. Flying under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance, Total Nonstop Action emerged focusing on bringing a mixture of collective veterans and young talent to the plate. From 2002 through 2005, TNA bought something amazing to the table day in and day out throwing together immense dream matches. The likes of AJ Styles versus Jerry Lynn, Diamond Dallas Page versus Raven, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett versus Randy Savage, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy, and who can forget the awesome America's Most Wanted versus Triple steel cage match?
TNA bought in innovative styles and threw them together to create the ultimate dream match conception and many of them came to pass as the years went on. Some of them recently. The likes of Sting versus Abyss and Booker T versus Samoa Joe are recent ones; with a Sting versus Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash versus Samoa Joe matches in the works right now. as for the WWE in recent years, they are opening doors for modern day show stealers including Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels versus Jeff Hardy.
The point is, the definition of dream matches changes as the years go by. Some prefer the technical masterpieces that culminated from the likes of Ric Flair versus Harley Race and Chris Benoit versus Dean Malenko, others prefer the high-spot matches that came to pass fromt he likes of The Hardy Boys versus Edge and Christian and Rey Misterio Jr versus Eddie Guerrero. With a bit of history and knowledge of the times past and how wrestling and the conception of dream matches has changed with the times, you are then able to make accurate decisions regarding potential dream matches. It is not ALL about the gimmick and the character and it is certainly not ALL about the high spots and the blood and gore. It is about the thing that is often lacking from professional wrestling in modern times; the wrestling itself, the feud behind it and the way the matches are hyped and put together. With that in mind; what are your personal dream matches? I have a few for you to think about:
Shawn Michaels versus Jerry Lynn –
Two true veterans of the sport with two very similar styles. Both men possess a great and vast style of the past mixed in with the style of the future, capable of pulling the show stealing high spots but also capable of pulling off the awe inspiring mat and technical work of the years behind us. I personally believe that these two men would have fantastic chemistry in the ring and could put on a series of show stealing matches night in and night out. This one would be proof that a dream match is not all about character as Jerry Lynn has never needed a major gimmick or character based persona to get over with a crowd. How many wrestlers can say that?
Kurt Angle versus Bret "Hitman" Hart
Kurt angle an olympic gold medalist and still to this day one of the greatest all around wrestlers in the world today possessing an awesome and innovative mix of character and personality, but with the mat skills to back it up. Bret Hart is quite possibly the greatest technical wrestler of all time, and one man he never got to face was Kurt Angle. I could see this played out in a "pass the torch" sort of match. It would undoubtedly be an awe inspiring masterpiece of a match, with the two men, even by thinking about it, having fantastic in-ring chemistry. What could have been...
Sting versus Shawn Michaels –
Sting is another man who I feel has a very similar style to that of Shawn Michaels. Both of them are amazing on the microphone and know how to work a crowd, yet neither of them have ever been given the chance to face each other in a match. In their style of ring work, they are very much alike and in their style of microphone work they are very much alike. If you want to delve into their personal lives also, they are both born again christian's, not that it has anything to do with the actual wrestling; but can someone say a perfect combination? I could see these two having a phenomenal Iron Man match.
Samoa Joe versus Dean Malenko –
Samoa Joe reminds me in many ways of Dean Malenko. Malenko was never a tall wrestler, but he was quite big in stature and could fly like anyone. When bought into WCW, he was labeled as a cruiserweight, much like Samoa Joe was labeled an X-Divison star upon entering TNA. They both have very similar styles being able to mix in ground and mat work in with a high flying style, and also an arsenal of power and ground moves to work their opponents no matter their style of wrestling. Pure wrestling is something missing in the majority of todays wrestling, and these two could EASILY bring something unique and special to the table.
Bryan Danielson versus Chris Benoit –
Bryan Danielson is another man who reminds me of Dean Malenko. Small in stature, tall in talent. Given the masterpieces Malenko had with the late Benoit, who is to say that Danielson could not have had masterpieces with Benoit given the chance? In my personal opinion, Bryan Danielson is one of the greatest wrestlers in the world today, and given the chance on national television, could easily create amazing dream matches with so many people. This one however stands high above on my list of dream matches. Much like Angle versus Hart, again; what could have been...
Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat versus Eddie Guerrero
The Dragon wrestled his retirement before Eddie had hit the mainstream world of television. This unfortunatley meant that the king of dream matches, Ricky steamboat, founding father of such masterpieces as with Ric Flair and Randy Savage, was unable to carry out and pass the torch to the future father of dream matches, Eddie Guerrero, famous for such dream matches as the legendary fan-cam match from ECW in 1995 with Dean Malenko, his matches with Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Jushin Liger and more. Both men educated by the styles of the past but familiar with the styles of Japan and the styles of the future, this would undoubtedly have been one for the history books.
Those are simply 5 of my top dream matches. Others include the likes of America's Most Wanted, The Steiner Brothers, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Christian Cage, Edge, Terry and Dory Funk, Abdullah The Butcher, Raven, Jerry Lynn, Rob Van Dam, Gorgeous George Wagner, Ric Flair, Randy Savage and more. Could you imagine AJ Styles versus Jeff Hardy or Bill Goldberg versus Steve Austin? Or how about Gorgeous George Wanger versus Ric Flair or Harley Race? Macho Man Randy Savage versus Shawn Michaels would be another, as would America's Most Wanted versus The Funk Brothers and Hulk hogan versus Steve Austin. The point is, as time goes on, more dream matches always pop up for a variety of reasons and no matter the reason, the dream matches are endless as are the list of names and for whatever reason you may consider it a dream-match, be it for the technical factor, the character factor or even the high-spot factor.
Dream matches are what keep the hopes and dreams of wrestling fans alive, they are what keep us watching, waiting and wanting more of. Without the possibility of dream matches and the ones that are actually carried out, just what is the meaning of professional wrestling? The fans make the sport possible, the wrestlers are the ones that make the fans possible. It is a two way system and if one of those systems fails, the sport as we know it dies. That is the undeoubted importance of the possibility of dream matches in the sport; it is what keeps the wrestling world alive!