Hold on, what?

Extreme Rules is tomorrow night and instead of previewing the event I thought I would look back at some matches that made people say "What the hell?" while it happened. A strange subject but one that popped into my head.

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997
Enough said really but I'll go into some details. If you're a wrestling fan, and if you're reading this you are, then you will know what happened in this match. I believe that no matter who you are when you were watching this match you said "What's happening" during the finish of this match. Now this has grown in legacy and is still debated about whether it was a work or a shoot but the only people who truly know are Vince, Bret & Shawn and they are playing it as a shoot and who am I to question that.

Kenny Omega in DDT
If you have not seen any of his stuff search them out on Youtube. Whether it's pulling off Zangriefs Ultra Combo on a blow up doll, wrestling in the sea or having a match with an 11 year old girl you can't help but question what you are watching. While those scenes sound weird, and they are weird the fact is that the fans in DDT love watching this weird stuff but their Japanese and in defence pretty much everyone else loved it as well.

Brian Pillman vs. Kevin Sullivan in a Strap match at Superbrawl 6
Let me set the picture. Kevin Sullivan is in the ring with a strap, Brian Pillman runs down and jumps on Sullivan. The two trade blows. Pillman then shoves the official and grabs a microphone, he yells "I Respect you, Bookerman" and leaves. The match didn't even last a minute and we all asked "What happened there?". Arn Anderson would go down and him & Sullivan tried to have a little match which didn't last long either.
This is one of the most infamous moments in wrestling history and was the launching pad to Pillman's Loose Cannon character. Even some wrestlers believe it was a shoot but Sullivan has said publicly that it was a work. Pillman was my first favourite wrestlers and is still one of my all time favourites and this match shows how great that character was. It got everyone asking questions and it remained that way for pretty much the rest of his career.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Taz at Living Dangerously 1998
The build to this match was simple. Taz was submitting everyone and was really the King of ECW. Bigelow came in as a veteran and established himself as the monster in ECW so this match was if Taz could stop this monster. This match was brutal and if you have the "Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD Taz actually does commentary and you get a good look into the match itself. Anyways near the end of the match Taz climbs on Bigelow's back and locks in the Taz Mission, the referee is behind them and cannot see Bigelow tapping out (very lightly), Bigelow throws himself backwards and the two go through the ring! The referee's reaction summed it up and he jumped back and threw his arms in shock. This was an incredible spot and one that ECW would show in it's opening videos for years. They tried to recreate the moment at Heatwave however it was through the ramp and seriously lacked the surprise as you had the feeling they would have to out do themselves. But back to the match. Nothing would happen for a good 30 seconds or so eventually Bam Bam would poke his head out and the crowd went nuts, he would then pull Taz out (who was legitimately out by the way) and quickly pinned him. What a way to beat a guy yet keep him strong, you have to throw him through the ring to beat him!

Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Brisco in a Hardcore Evening Gown Match at King of the Ring 2000
Did the title make you say what? These two Hall of Famers had to do a match in drag! The story of this match was that Brisco beat Crash Holly for the Hardcore title, he then went backstage and celebrated with Pat who was pouring champagne over his head. He would then smash the bottle over the his head and beat him for the title, this was when the 24/7 rule was in effect. On the next show Pat would hide in the women's locker room in drag aka dressed as a woman. Gerald would dress in drag and attack Pat, Vince McMahon saw this and made the match. I'm not going over this match but they used weird weapons, got stripped so show they were wearing bra & panties and ultimately Crash Holly would run in and win the title back. Just random and weird. Seriously when this match happened I asked myself, "What the hell did I just see?" and time has not changed that.

Hulk Hogan at Uncensored
The bulk of this blog will be on this subject. WCW's Uncensored PPV usually consisted of a few matches that made you question what you were watching, Harlem Heat vs. Nasty Boys in a Concession brawl comes to mind. But when it comes to Hogan he's had more weird moments at the event then anyone else. So lets look at them.
vs. Vader-Leather Strap in 1995: The match goes pretty normally until Ric Flair, dressed in drag, would get involved. During the course of the fighting the strap would come off Vader and Hulk would put it on Flair, he then proceeded to touch the four corners, which was needed to win. Bobby Heenan, who was on commentary, stated "He's doing it to the wrong guy he has to do that with Vader" but the match would end and Hogan won. I guess they did this to keep Vader strong but it still made no sense.
w/ Randy Savage vs. Alliance to End Hulkamania-Tower of Doom in 1996: What's the Alliance to End Hulkamania I hear you ask, well it was a group of 8 guys! It had some big names in that group as well including Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Kevin Sullivan and Ric Flair. I can't remember everything that happened, it was a cluster bomb but it was a cage with several levels. Ultimately Hogan & Savage would beat the Alliance killing off 8 potential feuds in one match. I'm never a fan of handicap matches and I hate when things like this happen (I hated when DX would beat the Spirit Squad 2 vs. 5) and I really don't like the idea of 2 guys being able to beat 8! Especially when 2 of them had been World champions! But this is Hogan I'm surprised he didn't get Savage to turn on him and still beat them 9 on 1.
Team nWo vs. Team WCW vs. Team Piper-Elimination match in 1997: Surprisingly this was the match that made the most sense which involved Hogan at Uncensored. This was a Open the top rope battle royal which also involved pinfalls and submissions. The match would break down to the entire nWo team (which Hogan was in) and Lex Luger, Luger would eliminate Savage, Nash and Hall but would then lose to Hogan after getting spray painted in the FACE! My only complaint is that at the time they were building Luger to beat Hogan for the belt (for all of one week) so why not have him beat him here when Hogan's title wasn't on the line. Why? Because it's Hogan and he doesn't lose to anyone, well without serious bitching!
vs. Randy Savage-Steel Cage in 1998: Both men were in the NWO at the time but they were breaking up at the time, Savage had cost Hogan the title the month before. The match itself was going fine until Brutus Beefcake aka Hogan's Butt buddy, came into the ring. Hogan and Brutus faced off with Savage for seemingly forever until Sting came down from the rafters to help Savage. The face off continued for even longer until Savage clothesline Sting and left yelling "I don't like you and never will" to Hogan. None of that made sense. If Savage didn't want Sting's help he could of just left and let Sting attack Hogan without clotheslining him.
vs. Ric Flair-Barbed Wire Steel Cage First Blood match in 1999:
Sweet lord this was so confusing. The match was for the WCW title and Flair's career. Before the match it was announced that the only way to win was to make your opponent bleed. So the match started and pretty quickly Flair was busted open, not a little but a lot (shocking I know, who would of thought Flair would bleed). The match didn't end. Hogan got busted open, another shocker, it still didn't end. Hogan went for the pin and the referee told him he can't win by pinfall. So how would it end. Well eventually Arn Anderson threw in a tire iron which Flair used, behind the referee's back for some reason, locked on the Figure 4 and the ref counted 3! WHAT! I don't know what happened here but it was just confusing, if anyone knows the back story I would love to hear it.
vs. Ric Flair-Apple Pie Indian Strap match in 2000: First off I thought this was a "Yappa Pile Indian Strap Match" when Hogan cut that promo.I don't know what made that match a "Apple Pie" Strap match or why it was a Indian Strap but this was late WCW so who knows. So the match involves whipping each other, blood etc. etc. But it was the finish that got everyone asking questions, Hogan touched 3 corners he then hit a leg drop and pinned him, he then touched the 4th corner. So he basically didn't just want to beat Flair but overkill him. "Hey look not only could I win this match but I can pin him as well".
Summary: Hogan's a dick and I feel sorry for Flair. It was brought up on the LAW's Review-a-Wai podcast that Hogan was known for over doing backstage politics but you have to complain that Flair didn't play them enough and by looking at just this shows history you can see that's turn.

Well that's done. If you've given this a read thank you very much and let me know what you think. Do you agree, disagree or don't care? Let me know, always love talking wrestling.