Looking great in defeat

[Carbomb]

Undefeated Steak made an excellent suggestion for a thread, and it's worth discussing: which matches or wrestlers do you feel looked amazing in defeat, to the point where it would've made no difference if he (or even she) had won?

 

There are two obvious ones I can think of from the top of my head, the first of which being Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart at WM13. This match possibly had the most perfect ending (in terms of the story it told, and the storyline and consequences that resulted from it): a double-turn, which is always entertaining as it's so difficult to pull off; a face turn and main-event status for a man who went on to become the biggest name in wrestling since Hogan, thus contributing to the WWF turning the tide against a wCw that had been kicking its arse; and a heel turn for a guy in need of freshening up, complete with the unique, unprecedented and experimental gimmick of being a face everywhere except the US, leading to some of the most interesting storylines the promotion had seen in recent years.

 

The other one, of course, is John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, Extreme Rules. We got to see that Lesnar still had it, but most importantly, he looked like an absolute killer in defeat. In fact, I would argue that a win could even, from a certain perspective, be said to be detrimental to him at the time, because it made Cena look INCREDIBLY lucky to survive, let alone win - all of a sudden, there was somebody who was worth watching, because no-one had ever done that to John Cena before; people were intrigued by the potential of a re-match - what would happen if Lesnar got his hands on Cena again and didn't make the same mistake again?

 

Are there any others you can think of?

[air_raid]

Bret Hart at SummerSlam 1992. Dragged a crack-addled Smithers to a blinding match and looked so good in defeat that it convinced Vince to put the big belt on him. The match was great, as everyone who watched it knows, but not only did Bret get to look the great technical wrestler he obviously was, but he showed toughness by kicking out of Bulldog's powerslam, which I don't think had been done on TV very often.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The most famous ones are probably the submission match at WrestleMania 13 and the Rock/Hogan match at WrestleMania 18. Both of the losers walked out looking like the winner.

[drkopen]

Very early in their careers Cena lost to Angle and Orton lost to Taker but each placed them on the map thanks to their near misses over big names.

 

Building a babyfacy through narrow losses to established stars is some Cornette's big on. Its nice to see them doing it with pac (sorry to use his indie name but for the life of me I can't think of wwe name).

[wandshogun09]

I'll throw Sting vs Vader from the Great American Bash in 1992 into the mix. In fact, the Cena vs Lesnar match in the opening post reminded me a lot of this match, except the big bully won this one. Sting looked like he fought like his life depended on it but just came up short.

 

123 Kid looked great in losing to Bret Hart on Raw in 94 as well. The match was so good that they both came out of it looking good but Kid doing so well in hanging with the champ at that time really elevated him for me.

 

Also, as well as the more talked about WrestleMania submission match, I thought Bret vs Austin at Survivor Series in 96 went a long way to making Austin look like a legit main event level guy. Before that match, even after winning KOTR, Austin had done nothing but piss about with Savio Vega and Marc Mero. He came out of that first match with Bret looking like a handful for any of the main eventers of the time.

[Maverick]

Probably been discussed a million times on here but Jeff Hardy came out of his ladder match with Taker looking a real star, didn't do much for his career at the time though (probably his own fault.)

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

 

Hogan vs Warrior Wm6: literally the greatest act of sabotage and scene stealing ever! Its true that every fan watched Hogan leave as opposed fo Warrior celebrate! loss didnt hurt Hogan at all.

 

you could also factor in Hogan vs Rock

 

 

another would be Bret in his loss to Owen at WM 10

 

 

 

Razor vs Michaels ladder 2

 

and Savage vs Steamboat wm3

[wandshogun09]

Savage at WrestleMania 7 is surely another one. He lost to Warrior clean but despite the retirement stips, it was just the start of a fresh run as a goodie again. He was an instant mega babyface again as soon as him and Elizabeth reunited, setting his big return up for later in the year. Even with Warrior surviving about a thousand of Savage's elbows and still winning, Savage still came out of it like the Don and it was pretty much immediately forgotten due to the gloriously soppy post-match love-in.

[fraserbee]

There's that awesome TV match HHH had with Taka Michinoku in early 2000 where Hunter made it look like Taka had a legitimate shot of beating him. Taka didn't seem much going on but came out as a guy who pushed the world champion hard. It never went anywhere and Taka pretty soon phased into a jobber but he looked good there. HHH was really good at that early in his career. Foley looked really good losing to him at KorR 97, rock looked awesome in the ladder match at Summerslam 98 and even Bob Holly was allowed to look like a star during that match they had on Heat in 2000.

Another who springs to mind is Kenta Kobashi's early career where he went without a win for years but gradually built up respect by his performances.

[Reznor]

Razor vs Michaels ladder 2

For me, that definitely wasn't the case. In my mind, Razor losing so decisively didn't reflect positively on him at all after winning so cleanly a mere 18 months earlier. I guess you could look at it from the perspective that the focus was more on HBK rocketing to a new level, rather than damaging Razor - but in doing so, it did effectively cement Razor as being a step below the top guys and it was back to midcard feuds with the likes of Douglas and Goldust after that.

 

He was obviously still popular, but with their reluctance to push him as a main eventer, he'd have had more benefit from turning heel on HBK in the ladder match, if not a few months before it. Their matches were always great (not forgetting the less well remembered ordinary matches they had), but we never did get anything with the roles reversed, which is a shame.

 

I'd disagree with the Bret / Owen one too. A main eventer lost to someone who was barely above enhancement talent level at the time, or at least a few months prior. There's not really any way to come out of that looking good. If Bret's night had ended after that match, his stock would have taken a fair battering. 

 

Guys wrestling against The Hitman will probably be a bit of a recurring theme in this thread.

[sammorgz]

There's that awesome TV match HHH had with Taka Michinoku in early 2000 where Hunter made it look like Taka had a legitimate shot of beating him. Taka didn't seem much going on but came out as a guy who pushed the world champion hard. It never went anywhere and Taka pretty soon phased into a jobber but he looked good there. HHH was really good at that early in his career. Foley looked really good losing to him at KorR 97, rock looked awesome in the ladder match at Summerslam 98 and even Bob Holly was allowed to look like a star during that match they had on Heat in 2000.

Another who springs to mind is Kenta Kobashi's early career where he went without a win for years but gradually built up respect by his performances.

Remember something similar when Essa Rios accepted Kurt Angle's open challenge on Heat for the World Title in 2000. They put on a great match.

 

My memory may be a bit off there though haha.

[fraserbee]

 

Razor vs Michaels ladder 2

For me, that definitely wasn't the case. In my mind, Razor losing so decisively didn't reflect positively on him at all after winning so cleanly a mere 18 months earlier. I guess you could look at it from the perspective that the focus was more on HBK rocketing to a new level, rather than damaging Razor - but in doing so, it did effectively cement Razor as being a step below the top guys and it was back to midcard feuds with the likes of Douglas and Goldust after that.

 

He was obviously still popular, but with their reluctance to push him as a main eventer, he'd have had more benefit from turning heel on HBK in the ladder match, if not a few months before it. Their matches were always great (not forgetting the less well remembered ordinary matches they had), but we never did get anything with the roles reversed, which is a shame.

 

I'd disagree with the Bret / Owen one too. A main eventer lost to someone who was barely above enhancement talent level at the time, or at least a few months prior. There's not really any way to come out of that looking good. If Bret's night had ended after that match, his stock would have taken a fair battering.

 

Guys wrestling against The Hitman will probably be a bit of a recurring theme in this thread.

You are absolutely right on both those points. Both Bret vs Owen grim WM10 and Michaels vs Razor from SS95 were both designed to get the guy winning over. Michaels vs Razor from Wrestlemania though is a good answer - HBK looked fabulous in defeat. That was the match which made him.

[W35ty]

Shelton Benjamin loss vs HBK on RAW.

 

Everyone will remember that superkick but i remember at the time people were raving about Shelton.

I can't remember much what he did after that.

[JohnnyChimpo]

Triple H v The Undertaker at Mania 27. Trips tapped out, but looked so dominant throughout the fight, and being the guy still standing at the final bell made him look the true winner. 

[Tommy!]

Jeff Hardy vs HHH.

 

I remember Jeff looking world class in there and loosing at a couple of shows.

 

They seemed to keep doing it before they gave Jeff the win in the end and sold him short after it, so undermined themselves a bit, but I remember one of those narrow scapes being the start of me seeing Jeff as one of "the top guys"