The best angle ever?

[Vice]

USA vs Canada has got to be up there. It was novel and creative and produced great promos and solid matches (the Canadian Stampede 10-man being its peak).

[carfire37]

As a pure WWE/F fan throughout the years, pre-internet days for me, the Deadly Game tournament and subsequent screw-job reveal of The Rock as a corporate man still does it for me today.

 

Brilliant swerve.

[Professor Paul's Bin]

The angle between Goldberg and Lesnar has to be up there with one of my favourites which started at Survivor Series 2003 and they built it in a few months involving Eddie Guerrero and Stone Cold. Wrestling at its best. However as we all know the match ended up as a disgrace.

 

The build up to that match was indeed sublime, probably my favourite ever. I was such a huge Lesnar mark for his whole first run (still love him now but nothing like that) and I was so invested in the lead up to that awful 'Mania match it was great.

 

This is one of my favourite moments in wrestling, ever! The Brand Split really made it special. I remember watching it thinking "FUCK! Lesnar is on RAW" and it was a massive deal.

 

 

You also had the brilliant hijack Lesnar did with Stone Cold's Quadbike where Austin ended up invading SmackDown. Great stuff. The whole angle made sense to why Lesnar invaded RAW and took out Austin for him being the reason he lost the title. It all fell into place nicely.

[herbie747]

The MEGA POWERS EXPLODE - starting with Savage's epic win at WMIV, and running a full year - and that's one of the few times when the word 'epic' is appropriate (note to hipster knobs - beards & zombies & ninjas are not 'epic').

 

 

Wasn't happy Hogan won at WM5, but what a great angle - this is when I first got into wrestling, just before WM4, so it also has amazing nostalgia attached to it for me.

[thegamehhh]

Cactus Jack debuting in the WWF in 1997 was epic

[air_raid]

I'd channel-hopped during your third paragraph. You've gotta keep 'em tuned in until the end, brother.

 

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully all posts become short and punchy, and threads degenerate into pointless list-a-mania. That makes for great reading.

[PowerButchi]

Short and punchy is the way (I prefer concise)! It's rare you get more than five sentences out of me!

[Undefeated Steak]

I usually read this forum on my phone at work so I prefer posts that resemble Wrestling Society X. Give me a drawn out Kobashi-Akiyama of a post and I'm usually out.

[Sheffbag]

2 for me and no youtube at work to link so if anyone can most appreciated

 

Heenan brings Flairs belt at the end of Wrestling Challenge. Even with reading PWI and WME as i did at the time this was still a "WTF" moment.

 

Lawler appears in a ECW ring - Dreamer pins Raven, lights go out, RVD sneak attacks Dreamer, lights go out again, Sabu is in the ring now double team on dreamer, lights out again, Lawler in the ring and the place goes apeshit

[zep81]

2 for me and no youtube at work to link so if anyone can most appreciated

 

Heenan brings Flairs belt at the end of Wrestling Challenge. Even with reading PWI and WME as i did at the time this was still a "WTF" moment.

 

Lawler appears in a ECW ring - Dreamer pins Raven, lights go out, RVD sneak attacks Dreamer, lights go out again, Sabu is in the ring now double team on dreamer, lights out again, Lawler in the ring and the place goes apeshit

 

Yeah, that first Heenan promo with the 'Big gold belt' was awesome.

 

[Cul]

Always thought the Rockers break up on the barber shop was an under rated angle.

[Wrasslin]

I am gonna plump for Kaufman Vs Lawler.

 

If not the best angle ever it is certainly the best angle featuring a non wrestler.

[Doctor Whos Next]

The episode of Prime Time where Mr Perfect turned face was an absolute masterpiece of storytelling. They managed to turn a perennial heel babyface over the course of a single TV show, with no prior build up (that I can remember?) and in an entirely studio setting.

 

I loved this angle as a kid... the first time I felt excited that a baddie had turned good.

 

They actually teased this earlier that year. I was watching it on youtube.

 

McMahon and the Babyface side of the Prime Time table brought up the fact that Heenan and Flair had put a clause in Mr Perfect's executive consulant contract that he couldn't compete against Flair, so couldn't enter the Royal Rumble even if he wanted to, and also wouldnt get a title shot should Flair win. Perfect teased being pissed off at Heenan who becomes more and more panicky while the Babyfaces egg Perfect on

 

The clip shows you next week, and all is well, with Gorilla Monsson suggesting that Mr Perfect was paid off.

[HarmonicGenerator]

My pick for the best angle ever is one that started accidentally, and didn't actively become an angle until it was nearly finished, but retrospectively, was the greatest long-term angle we may ever see. It started when I was 3 and ended when I was 26. I'm talking, of course, about The Undertaker's Streak.

 

I'm classing the Streak as an angle even though, for most of its duration, it wasn't. By its end this year, however, it was the angle - the reason for Undertaker still wrestling, and one of the major selling points - if not the major selling point - of the majority of the past decade's WrestleManias. You could argue it was an angle that nobody knew was an angle until we were about a decade in. Taker slowly racking up wins against Snuka, Roberts, Gonzalez, Bundy, Diesel, Sid, Kane, Bossman and Triple H, and fans and WWE both begin to notice he has never lost at WrestleMania.

 

The first overt reference I personally remember is after the Ric Flair match in 2002. Taker, awestruck at the fact he survived an Arn Anderson spinebuster, stands on the apron and holds out all 10 fingers. 10-0. That's pretty impressive. It takes another couple of years for the Streak to really start to work its way into his WrestleMania matches, and for people to start to speculate about who might end it. This was a big part of the Randy Orton match, if I recall my own mind back then correctly. Orton was the Legend Killer, and the Streak (now at 12-0) was starting to become a legend, and a prominent aspect of the Undertaker's character, especially at 'Mania time. Orton could be the one to end the Streak. He didn't, of course, but it fuels another big part of what made this such a great angle.

 

The discussion and the speculation about who could end the Streak, and who should end it, and who deserves to end it, went on for at least a decade. It's been part of UKFF ever since I joined in 2007, I know that much. The best angles provoke discussion, and through its longevity, very few angles can compare with the Streak for amount of time spent talking about it. 2007, incidentally, is the point where the angle itself really kicks into gear, and becomes such a vital component of WrestleMania season.

 

The Undertaker's Royal Rumble face-off with Shawn Michaels, and his following match with Batista at WrestleMania 23 (15-0), show that he can still really go in the ring, particularly on the big stage of 'Mania. That feeds into the Streak angle - for the next half-dozen WrestleManias, Taker has one of, if not the, best matches of the night, even though the result of each one is a foregone conclusion. The drama is created through the fact the Streak might end, and everyone gets drawn in more and more through that fact. Even when it's a title match, it's really about whether Undertaker is going to lose this time. That's the angle they feed from year after year, and the challenge becomes how to keep that going.

 

Enter the Shawn Michaels matches, and a storyline encompassing the Streak that itself was a sublime piece of five-year long-term booking, beginning with that Rumble encounter and ending in 2012 with Hell In A Cell.

 

2009: Taker, now 16-0, faces off against Michaels, and he comes closer than anyone else has to ending the Streak. Taker puts absolutely everything he has into the match, and (I think) disappears for a bit afterwards.

 

2010: Michaels is being driven mad by the fact he couldn't beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania, and puts his career on the line against the Streak. Doubt begins to stir in people's minds. Undertaker won't lose, of course he won't, it's WrestleMania, but would they really retire HBK? Yes. Taker wins, Shawn nearly kills himself - "STAY DOWN!" yells Undertaker before ending Michaels - but he will not give up. He will not stop trying to end the Streak. But it can't be ended.

 

2011: Or can it? Triple H's turn now. You could write hundreds of words on this match alone. I won't, because ShortOrderCook already did that for me last year. Read that review, by the way. Anyway, the match contains one of my favourite wrestling moments ever: Triple H hits the Tombstone, and for a couple of seconds, everyone believes the Streak is over. Ending the Streak is a matter of pride for Triple H and he gives EVERYTHING to it. But like Michaels the year before, Undertaker will never give it up. He wins, but he can't even walk out of the ring. The Streak has consumed him, and he is sacrificing his body and his wellbeing to keep it intact.

 

2012: Hell in a Cell. Again, Undertaker looks gone. Each year he returns, each year he looks a little more worn down, a little more haggard, a little older - and more vulnerable. He can't keep up the level of work he has in previous years. The Streak becomes more precarious each time he defends it. Again, there's a moment where everything thinks it's over - Sweet Chin Music! Pedigree! - but it's not. He wins. Just. And needs help walking out.

 

As I've mentioned, this is a superb five-year storyline in its own right. But it works as a subplot within the larger angle of the Streak itself. I'd argue that since Orton, it's been in the minds of everyone watching, but as an audience, we've spent the Michaels and Triple H years investing more and more in it. Taker only really comes back now to defend it. One of these years it's going to end. It's the talking point. It's the angle that comes back year after year, with only slightly changed circumstances, but it never becomes old or repetitive, whether that's through different opponents trying different tactics, or different kinds of matches (Menry and the Casket Match), but most importantly, through the realities of Undertaker's mortality starting to come through the supernatural aesthetics. The Undertaker who plowed through Snuka and Roberts, the Undertaker who hit Kane with Tombstones in 1998 and 2004, even the Undertaker who main-evented against Edge, is no longer there. The Streak has been his constant, to throw in a LOST reference for no good reason.

 

But it's not just because of Undertaker. The Streak has been our constant, as fans. I said at the start that I was 3 years old when the Streak began. A hell of a lot has happened since 1991 in wrestling:

Flair came to WWF.

Hogan left.

Bret became champion.

The New Generation.

Michaels became champion.

The nWo.

Austin 3:16.

The Monday Night Wars.

The Attitude Era.

Rock vs. Austin.

WCW goes out of business.

The Invasion.

The Brand Extension.

Angle, Benoit and Guerrero.

Cena, Orton and Batista.

Punk, Sheamus and Bryan.

Generation after generation,

show after show,

WrestleMania after WrestleMania,

 

and the constant is the Streak. It's always been there. Undertaker does not lose at WrestleMania. It's a fact, it's a concrete certainty. No matter what else happens in wrestling, we know this.

 

Enter Paul Heyman. He doesn't get it done with CM Punk and urn-related mind games (21-0) but returns the following year with Brock Lesnar. Lesnar has been an absolute force of nature since returning in 2012, and Undertaker, once again, is looking ever more frail and physically spent. The angle of the Streak, this time, is whether Taker can withstand the brutality of a match with Lesnar. I personally didn't think he could, but he would still find a way to win, even if Brock destroyed him for the entire match. It's WrestleMania. The Undertaker DOES NOT LOSE AT WRESTLEMANIA.

 

And then he lost.

 

I remember the moment vividly. I had lost interest in the match itself, waiting for the three count and the 22-0 graphic. F5. 1. 2. 3. "The streak... is over." One of Michael Cole's best ever calls. Matter of fact, understated, but filled with a stunned sense of finality. The cameras showing the fans' faces in utter shock - and none of us can pretend our faces were any different. My jaw was open, hands over mouth, for ages afterwards - I can't remember anything about the Divas match that followed, or most of the main event for that matter. The silence of the stadium, filled only by Heyman shouting in disbelief to Brock. Then the groan as "21-1" came up on the screens. It was over.

 

Wins and losses are practically irrelevant in modern WWE, they're so interchangeable. But never has a single pinfall loss meant more to us as a generation than at WM30. People on here at the time equated it to Bruno losing the title, a level of involvement with wrestling we thought we'd lost.

 

But it took two decades to build up that involvement. That first decade, or decade and a half, of the Streak not really being an angle, was completely necessary for the last few years where it really was. That's why I'd class the whole thing as one big angle. It's something we're never likely to experience again, and for the investment given to it over such a long period of time, by the company and by the fans, as demonstrated by the reaction when it ended, showed us all why we're fans of this mental form of entertainment in the first place.

 

The angle has ended now. Brock beat him. But has it really? The effects of it can keep on going. People have mentioned how Heyman's getting a little bit tiresome with it now, but every single time I hear him say that HIS CLIENT, BROCK LESNAR, CONQUERED THE UNDERTAKER'S STREAK, a part of me can't help thinking "fuck you, Paul Heyman. Just fuck you. I hope somebody beats the shit out of you for boasting about that. How DARE you gloat about ending the Streak. Fuck you, and fuck Lesnar too". How long they can keep this aspect of the Streak angle going, I'm not sure. Until a brave young contender defeats Lesnar, maybe, and beats the man who beat the Streak?

 

I'm not sure. And I may have made absolutely no sense in the preceding forty million paragraphs. But I think the Streak, unintentional as it may have been, was the best angle ever, and I hope I've explained why I think that sufficiently. The end.

[Undefeated Steak]

HarmonicGenerator, that's one of the best wrestling-related posts I've read. Agreed with you on every word.