Times When Overbooking/Shenanigans Didn't Ruin A Match

[fw91]

Watching the HBK/Taker A&E rivals special right now, and Kane in an interview says "Shawn and Taker were having a classic match and I was worried about ruining it." Obviously It didn't hurt the match one bit. Are there any other examples of a similar instance? I feel like everytime we don't get a clean finish these days, we are quick to slam the match by saying "endings matter" or at the very least "good match, crappy ending." so it's interesting to see if there's a contrast in thinking.

[Jindrak Mark]

HHH/Rock at Backlash 2000 will always be the ultimate answer for me and what I'm hoping this years Mania main event resembles.

The attitude era in general was the peak for this. A month after Backlash the finish to the Rock/HHH ironman match was great with Undertaker returning. Kane debuting during HiaC as mentioned. Foley winning the title from Rock with DX/Corporation brawling then Austin coming out to maybe the biggest pop ever and laying Rock out with a chair.

WCW's attempts during that time were never as good. Starrcade 97 should have been the greatest moment in company history but was a wet fart after the fast count shenanigans. Barely talked about but 2 months later during the Superbrawl rematch they screwed up again and had another shitty finish with Sting not winning clean. Disco Inferno had no business playing a role in the Starrcade 98 main event even as a goof to get beat up. This one didn't bother me as much as those but I also didn't like the DDP/Hennig/Karl Malone stuff during Hogan/Goldberg. The way it went down seemed like Hogan was in control hitting leg drops until he was distracted by the stuff going on outside then turned back around and was speared leading to the finish. It's like Hogan always needed some kind of out for a loss even as a heel.

[chrom]

Mar 10, 2024 20:00:19 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

HHH/Rock at Backlash 2000 will always be the ultimate answer for me and what I'm hoping this years Mania main event resembles.

The attitude era in general was the peak for this. A month after Backlash the finish to the Rock/HHH ironman match was great with Undertaker returning. Kane debuting during HiaC as mentioned. Foley winning the title from Rock with DX/Corporation brawling then Austin coming out to maybe the biggest pop ever and laying Rock out with a chair.

WCW's attempts during that time were never as good. Starrcade 97 should have been the greatest moment in company history but was a wet fart after the fast count shenanigans. Barely talked about but 2 months later during the Superbrawl rematch they screwed up again and had another shitty finish with Sting not winning clean. Disco Inferno had no business playing a role in the Starrcade 98 main event even as a goof to get beat up. This one didn't bother me as much as those but I also didn't like the DDP/Hennig/Karl Malone stuff during Hogan/Goldberg. The way it went down seemed like Hogan was in control hitting leg drops until he was distracted by the stuff going on outside then turned back around and was speared leading to the finish. It's like Hogan always needed some kind of out for a loss even as a heel.

Hogan got booking control when he signed a new contract in 98 so no surprise there.

[Renslayer]

Over the edge 98 is an all timer

[Pipe_Bomb2k13]

Punk/Cena at MITB has to be up there surely.

[LiamMcDuggle]

Luger/Hogan for the WCW title on Nitro. Yeah, nWo interference was happening every week and WCW finishes fell flat way too often, but Luger having to fight off the nWo and win that match helped make the moment.

The match would have still been good without the interference, but the fact WCW saw they did this trope too much and booked around it was fairly smart

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

On the note of the first Hell in a Cell, the storyline and promotion of the very first one was based on the idea of the Hell in a Cell keeping the participants in and interference out. Not only does the Cell completely fail in that regard with Shawn and Taker breaking out, but everyone else who the Cell should have kept out doesn't act as you think they would.

I always find it fascinating that when Shawn and Taker break out of the Cell, that D-X doesn't immediately try to interfere in the match since they are the main set of people the cage is there to keep out. Even weirder, Kane and Bearer wait until the match is contained back in the cage before interfering. Kane breaking the chain lock to enter the cage is a great visual, but he could have just went down when Taker was outside the cage before or after anyone climbed up.

It's perhaps the greatest match ever with obvious psychology flaws that everyone is willing to look past, because it really is that good.

[GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY]

Tlc 2 at X7

[theironyuppie]

Two good modern examples of gloriously overbooked matches are the Finn/Edge I Quit at Extreme Rules 2022 ("You taught us too well!"), and Sami/KO-Judgment Day at Payback 2023.

[Ben Wyatt]

Dunno if this counts, but Sami/Knoxville at Mania was a completely nonsensical mess in the best possibly way

[mrpeacock]

Shawn Michaels vs Mankind from Mind Games 1996. I used to hate the non finish of the match. But watching it back the match is AMAZING and then the finish is a wild brawl and the fans are absolutely going nuts for it.

[msc]

Picking an example not yet named, ECW had a main event for the TV title between monster heel Rhyno and underdog Kid Kash which ended in every face that Rhyno had injured all summer all coming back at once to cost him the title, which at one point led to a twenty man brawl. And a title change.

Despite having nearly 30 run ins, it was a cathartic piece of heel getting their comeuppance.

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

When Goldberg beat Raven for the US Title

[agent817]

Mar 11, 2024 3:52:05 GMT -5 GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY said:

Tlc 2 at X7

What worked about that one was that each of the teams involved had their unofficial extra member. The Hardy Boyz had Lita. Edge and Christian had Rhyno. The Dudley Boyz had Spike Dudley. Sure, they interfered in the match, but their involvements made things more interesting.

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

HHH vs. Rock at Backlash is the first thing I thought of. A lot of the Attitude Era doesn't hold up anymore, but that match is it at its best.

[nickcave]

Vince and Hogan was only good because of overbooking and shenanigans

[cassonova]

WeeLC was amazing because it was an overbooked mess.

[Jindrak Mark]

Mar 12, 2024 12:11:11 GMT -5 nickcave said:

Vince and Hogan was only good because of overbooking and shenanigans

Hogan's match with Sting at that one Bound For Glory too. That should've been a disaster. Hogan could barely stand up straight and Sting was pretty checked out by that point of his TNA run but they overbooked the hell out of it and it arguably stole the show. Sting's AEW matches too. It needed the extra stuff because he wasn't really capable of delivering a straight up singles match at that point of his career.

Austin's match with KO is another one. He had to wrestle in a shirt and have even more brawling, shortcuts etc than usual because it wouldn't be possible to have like a classic regular match with a bunch of moves like he could've in 2001. Fans still loved it though and got what they wanted.

[Psicofreak667]

ECW had a lot of moments that look bad on paper or even in hindsight, but the chaos and not knowing what was going to happen next was a huge part of the appeal, often moreso than the actual match. Like, ECW could start with Kid Kash vs EZ Money or whatever, and end with a staredown/pull-apart between Tajiri and Rhyno, and it would somehow work and be awesome.

[Urn Anderson]

An incredibly recent example, but Sting’s last match was even greater because of overbooking and shenanigans.