Strange Matches

[tiger_rick]

Is there a stranger match than the Hart Family vs. Shawn Michaels & the Knights at Survivor Series 1993? The match was obviously supposed to be Lawler and the Knights, building off his summer feuding with Bret before Lawler's arrest for being a nonce. Michaels himself hadn't been around after SummerSlam, leading to the IC title moving to Razor, so him being parachuted back in to this match out of nowhere was odd, even considering his prior history with Bret.

He was dropped in as a surrogate Lawler in another odd decision. Rather than build off his history with Bret completely and build a team of Michael's mates, they kept Lawler's team and the angle in tact, and literally just dropped Michaels in to crack jokes about Bret's parents and brothers. I'm almost surprised he didn't have to wear a crown!

The match itself was a backdrop for the start of the Bret and Owen feud, so is largely forgettable but I can't think of many other examples of someone just stepping in to pick up someone else's feud, promos and gimmicks in such a blatant way. 

What other match builds or matches puzzle you still? 

[gmoney]

There's also nothing stranger than seeing Bruce and Keith Hart wrestling in a WWF ring. 

[Supremo]

The first Punjabi Prison Match, sold as The Great Khali’s speciality match, ending up being The Undertaker vs. Big Show when Khali had elevated liver enzymes.

Should’ve changed it to the Big Show Bamboo Match.

[air_raid]

Team Canada vs Team USA at Survivor Series 1997. Phil LaFon, Doug Furnas (American), The Anvil (American) and Davey Boy Smith (English) representing Canada, against babyface Vader, Marc Mero who was on the verge of turning heel, Goldust who had virtually just turned heel, and Steve Blackman who nobody knew fucking anything about. One major player in the ongoing Harts story (Smith) tagging with a just-returned Anvil and disassociated Can-Ams who hadn't been on TV for ages, wrestling mostly men they weren't really feuding with (heavily damaged by The Patriot's injury). As if it wasn't messy/nonsensical enough, babyface (in Montreal) Smith cheats to win after Vader comes back from 4-1 down, and wins what turns out to be his last match in the company until 1999.

How do you think that booking meeting went?

"What are we doing with Davey after his wins this match?"

((shrugs all round))

[BomberPat]

Jonathan Coachman vs Batista, a last minute sub for Steve Austin, with run-ins from Goldust and Vader, has to be up there.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Jonathan Coachman vs Batista, a last minute sub for Steve Austin, with run-ins from Goldust and Vader, has to be up there.

I think they actually wanted Austin to do a job there

[simonworden]

Speaking of the Punjabi Prison Match, on the same show because of those liver enzymes Lashley got removed from his US title match with Finlay and was replaced by heel and Finlay's running mate Regal. I know they tried to explain it as a "ha ha" you have to fight your mate and there was probably some thought that they'd have a good match but there were probably plenty of better babyface options. 

Then again it was Smackers in 06. 

[The Dart]

14 minutes ago, simonworden said:

Speaking of the Punjabi Prison Match, on the same show because of those liver enzymes Lashley got removed from his US title match with Finlay and was replaced by heel and Finlay's running mate Regal. I know they tried to explain it as a "ha ha" you have to fight your mate and there was probably some thought that they'd have a good match but there were probably plenty of better babyface options. 

Then again it was Smackers in 06. 

I am sure originally it was a triple threat.   Lashley wasn't replaced with Regal.   Lashley was just taken out of the match and it was turned into a 1-1

 

I recently watched Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan Survivor Series 2018.   That is weird.

Bryan had just turned heel a few days earlier with no promos or anything since.   So, he comes out for the match as a heel, but then wrestles it completely as a good guy with the crowd completely on his side.

They seemingly didn't want to do Lesnar vs AJ two years in a row, otherwise they would have waited until after SS to put the title of D Bryan.  And the only reason they did AJ vs. Lesnar the year prior was because someone said "hang on, Lesnar vs. Jinder....are you sure?" a week before the match.

Edited July 8, 2025 by The Dart

[LEGIT]

I've never actually seen this match, but I remember reading Bushwacker Butch had a 10-15 minute competitive match with HHH in the Kuwait Cup in 1996. Strange 

[garynysmon]

As a kid I could never figure out how matches would happen on major PPVs when one or sometimes both wrestlers were actually involved in a feud with someone else.

Of course now we know that the reason was to keep house show business strong.

But take Summerslam 89 for instance, Dusty Rhodes coming out with Big Boss Man’s nightstick etc. Its fucking Summerslam, why isn’t he wrestling Boss Man rather than Honky Tonk Man (I think)?

Also..

The less said about the dreadful 1995 Royal Rumble with minute intervals between entrances the better.

[SoloJones]

37 minutes ago, LEGIT said:

I've never actually seen this match, but I remember reading Bushwacker Butch had a 10-15 minute competitive match with HHH in the Kuwait Cup in 1996. Strange 

There's a 20 minute (I think) Bushwackers vs Leif Cassidy and Bob Backlund match from the same tour which is similarly mad.

[Chico Torres]

1 hour ago, LEGIT said:

I've never actually seen this match, but I remember reading Bushwacker Butch had a 10-15 minute competitive match with HHH in the Kuwait Cup in 1996. Strange 

I watched it quite recently. Honestly one of the better HHH matches.

[Chico Torres]

2 hours ago, gmoney said:

There's also nothing stranger than seeing Bruce and Keith Hart wrestling in a WWF ring. 

Against the team of Greg Valentine, Barry Horowitz and Jeff Gaylord on PPV in 1993.

And Bret was wearing the amateur style singlet too.

Same show also had a great match between the Rock n Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies for the Smoky Mountain tag titles and the audience understandably were a little confused.

[mim731]

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Is there a stranger match than the Hart Family vs. Shawn Michaels & the Knights at Survivor Series 1993? The match was obviously supposed to be Lawler and the Knights, building off his summer feuding with Bret before Lawler's arrest for being a nonce. Michaels himself hadn't been around after SummerSlam, leading to the IC title moving to Razor, so him being parachuted back in to this match out of nowhere was odd, even considering his prior history with Bret.

He was dropped in as a surrogate Lawler in another odd decision. Rather than build off his history with Bret completely and build a team of Michael's mates, they kept Lawler's team and the angle in tact, and literally just dropped Michaels in to crack jokes about Bret's parents and brothers. I'm almost surprised he didn't have to wear a crown!

The match itself was a backdrop for the start of the Bret and Owen feud, so is largely forgettable but I can't think of many other examples of someone just stepping in to pick up someone else's feud, promos and gimmicks in such a blatant way. 

What other match builds or matches puzzle you still? 

The thing that always feels strange about this for me is Bret wearing a singlet without trousers, It feels wrong. 

[simonworden]

1 hour ago, The Dart said:

I am sure originally it was a triple threat.   Lashley wasn't replaced with Regal.   Lashley was just taken out of the match and it was turned into a 1-1

Wiki says it was a replacement but now you've got me second guessing it.