wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Paradigm Shifting Matches in WWE

May 26, 2017 | Posted by Mike Chin
WWE Survivor Series Montreal Screwjob Bret Hart Shawn Michaels Dark Side of the Ring, Bret Hart Earl Hebner Image Credit: WWE

Pro wrestling, and particularly WWE has changed over time. Some of those changes are gradual and barely noticeable as they’re happening. Others stand out, as we can more readily appreciate (at least in retrospect) the moment when something has meaningfully changed.

So, this week I’m looking back at seven paradigm shifting matches. These are moments that caused or represented a meaningful in overarching WWE storylines or how the company booked and did business. I was, ideally looking for more than just a new star getting pushed—for example, a face of the company like John Cena winning his first world title, unless it was representative of a larger change to boot. As always, my personal opinion and interpretations weigh heavily.

#7. Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 21

In 2005, Chris Jericho introduced the idea of Money in the Bank.

The concept of the six-way, every-man-for-himself ladder match had the potential to be a chaotic mess, but it was preceded by TLC matches with as many four teams going at it and thus felt like a natural progression, plus, WWE could do a lot worse than the initial slate of Edge vs. Christian vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin.

Not only was the match itself very good, but it introduced a huge new gimmick for the company’s world championships. While Money in the Bank, at first blush, came across something like a dressed-up number one contendership, the electricity of its first cash-in—Edge stealing John Cena’s title, and by extension a main event spot—completed the puzzle for one of the most exciting innovations in WWE’s main event scene. Not unlike the Royal Rumble, which started as a cool concept, and became one of WWE’s greatest institutions when the match started carrying with it a world title shot at WrestleMania, the first Money in the Bank Match, followed by its first payoff made it one of the most exciting new institutions in WWE history.

#6. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014

Cena-Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014 wasn’t the best match between the two, but it may well have been the most memorable. For, excluding a handful of hope spots for Cena, it was an incredibly rare main event squash. More over, it was a main event squash in which the heel demolished the thoroughly established face of the company.

Lesnar’s return to WWE from the mixed martial arts world, in and of itself, marked an important shift in the WWE landscape, his battle with Cena at Extreme Rules 2012 was an awesomely violent spectacle, and his win over The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 was historically important. This victory over Cena was shocking not so much for its result, but how it went down. The squash—particularly the blunt-force repetition of the German suplex—was representative of both where Lesnar had come from and where things were heading as WWE embraced a more realistic style. Lesnar squashing Cena set up Goldberg squashing Lesnar and, more broadly, the precedent that matches could end quickly, decisively, and unexpectedly, even at the highest level.

#5. John Cena vs. The Miz at WrestleMania 27

Unlike many matches on this countdown that rate on account of greatness, this one ranks on account of its shortcomings.

In 2011, The Miz main evented WrestleMania.

I’m actually relatively pro-Miz (and pro-Cena) but the fact remains that when we look at the pantheon of WrestleMania main eventers—and I mean guys who closed the show, exclusively—I’d argue that Miz’s combination pro wrestling star power and legitimacy rate behind only celebrities Mr. T and Lawrence Taylor, maybe King Kong Bundy and Sgt. Slaughter if you’re going to be a little generous. Regardless, the guy was OK as a main eventer for B-level PPVs, but comes across as a historical anomaly headlining the show of shows. Moreover, it’s not as though he and Cena were going to assemble a five-star in-ring effort to compensate for absence of it-factor.

So, The Rock got involved in the proceedings—the guest host of the show and the deciding factor in Miz stealing the pin. And thus WWE moved in a new direction. Since 2011, the list of main eventers has consisted of Cena, Rock, Brock Lesnar, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Batista, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Triple H, and The Undertaker. While the haters might question Reigns’s place on that list, he at least fits in to the extent WWE was clearly trying to build around him as the guy. The message? In particular through an infusion of part-timers and special attractions like Rock, Lesnar, Triple H, and Batista, WWE is dead set on having major stars top the card at the biggest show of the year. While Miz-Cena isn’t entirely responsible for this dynamic, I would suggest it’s important in highlighting the utility of returning legends and part-timers to keep the show feeling special.

#4. Steve Austin vs. The Rock at WrestleMania 19

Rosters change over time, and that includes the top stars of a generation either gradually receding or quite pointedly retiring. Let’s consider the case of John Cena. In theory, you might cite him defeating The Rock at WrestleMania 29 as his swan song. No, he didn’t retire, or even stop working full-time at that point, but winning a world title in the main event of WrestleMania after defeating an all-time legend with bigger star power who had beat him a year before—that read like punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. Moreover, from there we saw WWE start to move on to Daniel Bryan and then to Roman Reigns.

Rock-Cena: Twice in a Lifetime didn’t quite mark the paradigm shift, though, because the transitions didn’t stick. Like The Ultimate Warrior defeating Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6, the face of the company didn’t really change as Bryan was a reluctant pick for the guy and suffered career-ending injuries pretty immediately after he was anointed. For all of WWE’s efforts to get Roman Reigns over, he hasn’t really taken the reigns (no pun intended either) based on poor fan reactions, booking swerves, and one ill-timed Wellness Policy suspension. You can argue Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, or AJ Styles kind of stepped into the top spot of the company at different points, but there’s never been a clear-cut sense any of these guys being positioned as the man, singular, in the WWE universe.

But Cena? After Bryan went down to injury the first time, he picked up as champion to transition the title to Lesnar. He stepped in again as Seth Rollins’s top challenger for a periods of months, and then once again to transition the title from AJ Styles to Bray Wyatt.

So what does all of this John Cena talk have to do with a match that happened on the WrestleMania before Cena’s ‘Mania debut? For starters, maybe it’s not so coincidental that the final chapter of the Rock-Austin WrestleMania trilogy happened the year before Cena got to the big dance.

For Rock-Austin 3 marked an indelible point of transition. Sure, The Rock had already transitioned into a part-time role with WWE, but he’d become much more aggressively part-time after he finally picked up the duke over Austin (and then put over Goldberg) and made the transition to really being more of a movie star than a wrestler. He’d wrestle again at WrestleMania 20, then mostly disappear from the WWE landscape for over six years. And Austin? The other, arguably even more iconic face of the Attitude Era? This would be his final real match in a WWE ring (excluding come farces as an authority figure opposite Eric Bischoff).

Nine years later, the Triple H-Undertaker match at ‘Mania would be billed as the end of an era, and yet both guys continued their part-time schedules, and continued to wrestle at every ‘Mania for five years to come. While the Attitude Era was, indeed, over, Rock-Austin 3 marked the end of these two iconic performers’ WWE runs, and a transition into the great unknown with Goldberg on his way in for a year-long experiment, Brock Lesnar at the fore, and guys like John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista as yet untested as WWE looked ahead to embracing PG and really shifting the company.

#3. Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 10

While I’d argue that the WrestleMania 10 ladder match doesn’t exactly hold up in 2017, it was unmistakably both great and revolutionary in its immediate context. For here we had the two top mid-card stars of the day duking it out in a gimmick match that was new to the WWF and mainstream US wrestling on the whole.

Not only was this match great, and not only did Michaels’s losing effort offer yet another justification that he ought to be in the main event (he’d be in world title matches at three out of the next four WrestleManias), but the match marked a shift in WWF standards. The Falls Count Anywhere Match with the wonky rules earlier in the show was a departure from traditionalism. While it was entertaining enough, and demonstrated a willingness to think outside the box, I’d argue it wasn’t enough of a success to render change in the WWF. The Ladder Match, on the other hand, that was an unmitigated success that arrived on the top of so many match of the year lists that it had to get noticed and it did push WWE’s hands in a very early, small step toward the more cutting edge style of the Attitude Era.

But before Attitude, Ramon-Michaels opened the door to ladder matches becoming a staple for the Intercontinental Championship, paving the way for The Rock and Triple H to build upon the formula a few years later. Moreover, the match laid the foundation for the whole TLC phenomenon which would lead to Dudleys-Hardys-Edge and Christian classics and then an entire PPV brand. Ramon-Michaels was a direct forefather to Money in the Bank, launched eleven years later, before it, too, became a staple of WWE programming and got an annual PPV dedicated to it.

Ramon-Michaels represented violence, hardcore machinations, and the whole concept of a ladder match offering the platform for classic wrestling. An important legacy, indeed.

#2. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997

So much has been written about the Montreal Screwjob that I’m not going to belabor telling the story behind this match or how things went down (on the off chance you’re unfamiliar, just Google Montreal Screwjob and you’ll find no shortage of explanations short and long).

In devising this countdown, I considered ranking Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 for the double-turn that launched a megastar and cast a new villain that were perfectly emblematic of the Attitude Era to follow. I considered ranking Austin-Michaels from WrestleMania 14 as the anointing of Stone Cold and another arguable launching point for the Attitude Era (though with DX already around, and the foundation for Austin-McMahon solidly in place, that’s a tough sell).

While each of those matches in undeniably important, and the former in particular was an all-time classic, I’m giving this spot to the final Hart-Michaels match because it blurred the lines between reality and kayfabe so fundamentally. Montreal might have been swept under the rug like the original Wendi Richter screwjob, and largely scrubbed from history, but instead the WWF seized on an opportunity and embraced the intrigue of chaos and the worked shoot. The match led to the innovation of the Mr. McMahon character. Sure, Eric Bischoff had already started his heel authority figure shtick in WCW, but McMahon both perfected it and made it a trope through his portrayal of the megalomaniacal douche at the fore of a wrestling company. In addition, in showing Bret Hart the door, the match represented a hard turn away from traditionalism and purist pro wrestling, in favor of an edgier product.

Ironically, Michaels would end up disappearing from most of the Attitude Era when a back injury and various personal issues pushed him away from the ring mere months later. And so, interestingly enough, in addition to helping usher in Attitude, the heel authority figure, and worked shoot culture, this match also kinda-sorta functioned like Rock-Austin at WrestleMania 19 in ending an iconic in-ring rivalry and signaling the end of two top stars’ runs at the top of the WWF.

#1. Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik, 1984

WWE has, undergone its share of paradigm shifts large and small. I would argue that none was more definitive than when Vince McMahon Jr. took the reins of the company, Hulk Hogan became the face of it, and the WWF endeavored to take over the world.

As a historical footnote, Hogan-Sheik wasn’t nationally televised, and yet, emanating from the world’s most famous arena and the WWF’s home, Madison Square Garden, it was nonetheless such a key moment in wrestling history. Gone were the days of purism in pro wrestling in terms of traditional business practices and championing realistic wrestling, in favor of an entertainment juggernaut that appealed to the masses, represented by a muscle-bound super hero who mostly threw punches en route to a big leg drop to bring the world title back to an American champion.

WWE has had much better matches and matches in front of larger audiences, but I’d argue that the company is what it is—the biggest wrestling company in the world—based on this turning in point in professional wrestling history.

Which matches would you add to the list and how would you order them? Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13, Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon in their initial Raw confrontation, and The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 were my top runners up. Let us know what you think in the comments.

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The Magnificent Seven, WWE, Mike Chin