The 411 Wrestling Top 5 8.25.10: Week 89 – Cage Matches

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. Most of our topics will be based on recent events in the Wrestling World, looking at those events that make us think of times past.

So, on to this week’s topic…

Top 5 Cage Matches

For years, before the age of Hell in a Cell, Casket Matches, Last Man Standing, and I Quit Matches, the Cage match was the end all for the greatest and hardest fought feuds. Today, a steel cage has been replaced by some of these matches, but today we looks back at the greatest of matches fought behind blue steel bars or chain link mesh.

So what did our group of writers select? Let’s find out…

Ryan Byers

I should note for the record that, though there have been several variants on the cage match over the years, I decided that for this list I would focus on straight up cage matches in the traditional sense – no War Games, no I Quit in a cage, no Hell in a Cell – just good old fashioned, one-on-one cage matches.

5. Randy Orton vs. Ric Flair (WWF Taboo Tuesday 2004) – I probably like this match a lot more than some others do. I freely admit that. For those of you who may not remember the buildup to this particular match, it told a great little story, as Ric Flair claimed that he was going to take the much younger Randy Orton and break him into the wrestling business, truly making a man out of him. Of course, the Nature Boy got a little bit of heat when he phrased this in a vulgar fashion in a pre-match promo, in which he claimed that he had built a career on “making virgins bleed.” Whoops. Regardless of Slick Ric’s controversial phrasing in the buildup, the match fit its intended storyline very well, with Flair as the cagey veteran taking Orton to school in a match that his generation made famous, all followed up with the perfect babyface victory for the young gun.

4. Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko (WWWF Showdown at Shea 1980) – Most current wrestling fans probably don’t know as much about this one as they should just because of the falling out between Vince McMahon, Jr. and Bruno Sammartino which has resulted in the company’s one-time “Living Legend” becoming a virtual non-entity in the version of wrestling history that the promotion attempts to market today. However, at the time, this match was the culmination of one of the hottest feuds in all of professional wrestling, as Zbyszko had been billed as Sammartino’s prize pupil for many years until the moniker frustrated him to the point that he laid out his teacher with a chair. Many months later, the men put their score to bed in a steel cage in the middle of over 36,000 fans at Shea Stadium, making an indelible mark on the psyches of virtually all northeastern wrestling fans at the time.

3. Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong (AJW WrestleMarinpiad 1990) – Yes, I’m fairly certain some in the comment section will knock me for including a Japanese match on this list, and I’m sure there are a few more who will knock me for including a women’s match on the list. However, given that this battle was more emotional and hard hitting than almost all of the men’s cage matches that I’ve ever seen, I don’t feel too bad about selecting it. Kong and Nakano as wrestlers were both several years ahead of their time and their feud was the stuff of legend, with this match in particular highlighting how far ahead of the curve they were. This brutal bout featured the use of chains, kendo sticks, and pipes all five years before ECW claims that it started popularizing a similar style of wrestling in North America, and it culminated with an insane-for-the-time guillotine legdrop from the top of the cage by Bull. This one is worth tracking down if you haven’t already.

2. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WWF Summerslam 1994) – Forget cage matches, this would probably rank high atop a list of my favorite matches of all time, period. The brothers Hart always had great chemistry going up against one another, and this bout was no exception. Despite the fact that they were handicapped by a WWF policy which did not allow for blood, the inferior “blue bar” version of the steel cage, and the lame “escape only” rules, Bret and Owen overcame all of those limitations and put on a legitimate ****+ battle which rivaled their Wrestlemania-opening bout earlier in the year. Plus, storyline-wise, the match paved the way for the WWF return of “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, who was a welcome addition to a very thin lineup of top babyfaces in the company at the time.

1. Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (WCCW Christmas Star Wars 1982) – I don’t think that this match is as good from a pure “workrate” perspective as some of the others on the list, but I don’t think that there has ever been a cage match as historic as Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich’s showdown over the NWA World Heavyweight Title in World Class Championship Wrestling in 1982. All of the Von Erich boys had been super babyfaces in their daddy’s WCCW at one point or another, and the Von Erichs had frequently been backed up by their good friends the Fabulous Freebirds in their wars against the promotion’s nefarious heels. Leading up to the match, the Birds offered to assist Kerry in taking the NWA Championship off of the Nature Boy’s waist, but Von Erich declined the offer if it involved any outside interference. This resulted in Freebird Michael “P.S.” Hayes, who was scheduled to be the special guest referee for the match, feeling slighted and slamming the cage door on Kerry’s head at a crucial moment. This lead to Flair retaining his belt and further lead to a red-hot Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud. As a result, World Class became a super hot promotion and a heavily syndicated one which at certain points even rivaled the national popularity of the expanding World Wrestling Federation. It is rare that a single match can take a promotion’s popularity to the next level like this one did, and that’s why it tops my list.

LARRY CSONKA

5. Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (WCCW Christmas Star Wars 1982) – While this isn’t the best Flair vs. Von Erich match, nor is it a greatly worked match, this match gets include don my list simply for the fact that it is credited for kicking off the MONEY era for WCCW. Things were going well for the company, but when Michael PS Hayes FUCKED Kerry Von Erich, the Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs was ON, and one of the best feuds in wrestling history was born.

4. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (Summerslam 1994) – While their WrestleMania X match gets most of their hype in regards to their feud, and rightfully so to a degree, but the Bret vs. Owen cage match from Summerslam 1994 is up there in terms of great match quality. As Byers pointed out, two men that had great chemistry were severely handicapped (no blood, escape rules, bulky blue cage) but they made it work through smart psychology. The made you care, they had all of the tricks taken away, but when that happens, good workers can still thrive, and they did here.

3. SIX SIDES OF STEEL: AMW vs. XXX (Turning Point 2004) – When this match was complete, Mike Tenay said, “You fans are watching something special, this is one of the greatest cage matches not only in TNA’s history, but in wrestling’s history.” For once he was dead on. These 2 teams were able to really mix the great aspects of an old school cage match, beating the shit out of your opponent, ramming them off the cage, lots of blood, and then the new school, crazy bumps and dives. Elix Skipper was the craziest bastard alive with that tightrope walk on the cage, so much so that the crowd chanted, “PLEASE DON’T DIE!” The crowd was so into the match, and really helped make it a classic. It brought you in on an emotional level, they made you care. The funny thing was that they had a cage match previous to this, and while it was good, this was better.

2. WAR GAMES: Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff vs. Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton and Steve Austin (WrestleWar (1992) – As a huge fan of the NWA, WAR GAMES was the shit, and quite frankly, the good ones still are. While the format and quality suffered in later years, the 1992 match delivered big time. The funny thing is that to today’s wrestling fans, they would look at this lineup and shit all over it, but the fact is that this is likely the best of the WAR GAMES matches that the NWA/WCW ran. By this time they had the right talent, the right formula and just knew what they were doing. The Dangerous Alliance was hated, you WANTED to see them get beat down and you wanted to see them get destroyed, and WAR GAMES was the place to accomplish this. If you have not had the chance to see the match, you need too.

1. I QUIT STEEL CAGE MATCH: Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA (Starrcade 1985) – And to top off my list is one of my very favorite matches of all time, Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA from Starrcade. Tully Blanchard was a guy that never got to be the big star, but was a respected worker, and during this time, Tully was money. Magnum TA was supposed to be the next big star, and the feud with Tully Blanchard was a big step towards that. While I love some holy shit spots and big bumps, there is something to love about a well thought out, deliberate cage match like this. They worked hard, they built to a crescendo, and the ending to the match was, in my mind, perfect. Enjoy.