SPOTLIGHT: RIVALRIES IN WRESTLING
By Joel C Croyle on 4/20/2008 10:15 AM
Welcome back Spotlighters! With the baseball season getting underway and the basketball season now entering the playoffs there is much talk around the sports commentators of the nation about rivalries. Much discussion has taken place especially in the last week about there possibly being a Lakers vs. Celtics world championship series (don’t count out my Cavs yet…) and that brought up the word RIVALRY to me as it leads to wrestling. When people discuss great rivalries we think of Yankees vs. Red Sox, Ohio State vs. Michigan , The Cleveland Browns vs. the Pittsburg Steelers and the above mentioned NBA magic duo…Lakers-Celts. But what about wrestling? Because there are storylines can we say we have real rivalries? I think we can because behind the scenes there have to be guys who want to outdo the other one, want more time on the big stage with the belt…why did Ric Flair carry the belt over 16 times in various companies and Dusty Rhodes didn’t have as many runs…so lets look at some current and old-school rivalries.
Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair
This very well may be the best rivalry of all time. In front of the camera it looked as thought these two were out for blood. Dusty’s portrayal of the working class hero vs. Ric’s wine and dine rich pompousness was classic. Their matches were stellar, some of the best ever booked. You can tell these two wanted to outdo each other in every way possible in every moment they had to do so. Even when Dusty accepted his Hall of Fame speech there were hints of his rivalry with Flair.
Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boys vs. The Hardy Boyz
At first glance some people may not consider this a rivalry but if you go back and look at these matches you can see it. The biggest thing that makes this one a great rivalry is the fans. Anytime these teams all got together or even if was just one pair of teams, the crowd was totally into the matches. Imagine what it would be like if one week we turned on Raw and Jeff was back from his absence, Edge was moved back to the raw roster, and Team 3D and Christian showed up unannounced…add on that the tag titles had been vacated for some reason and you’d have one of the biggest rivalries renewed in history.
Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe
Now this one is a new rivalry but a good one that keeps getting better. These two have had four or five classic matches now. They are so good in fact that I hope that someday TNA puts all of them on a single DVD with Kurt and Joe talking “out of character” about the matches and what led up to them. The reason that this rivalry is like no other is that I think this one is purely based on technical wrestling. Kurt was a phenomenal Olympic wrestler and Joe seems to have a large background in amateur wrestling as well. They like to use holds and such. Add on to this the politics of any wrestling organization and you have a really good rivalry.
Batista vs. The Undertaker
This one still has a little road to burn before it officially becomes a true heated rivalry however it down seem like it is heading down that road. Every time these two get together they put on superior matches and that doesn’t happen often for “Big Dave”. The Undertaker brings out his absolute best and now these two have battled a bunch of times. The only problem is that the Undertaker took the belt two WM’s ago and Dave never really got payback. What if Taker lost at WM25 in his final match to Batista?
Kane vs. The Undertaker
The other reason it is hard to call Batista vs. Taker a major rivalry is because Kane is around. I think at the end of the day brother vs. brother wins out. We saw just recently Kane and UT get back in the ring on opposite sides and they had a really good bout until Edge interfered. I think this is a rivalry that could be instantly renewed and the fans would appreciate and I for one hope that it is Kane who does the honors when UT retires.
Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart
This would be another candidate for best rivalry because it had realness to it. I know that the WWF used the real relationship of Owen and Bret to decide where the storylines went but there had to be a little bit of truth in there right? Little brother wanting what big brother had is always a good way to go and it fueled this thing. If you add in The British Bulldog you get a three way rivalry. This rivalry helped even more to establish Bret hart and made Owen look like (and he was one) a great technical wrestler. It also helped build the European title, the world title, the intercontinental title, and the tag titles all in one foul swoop. It was an amazing rivalry.
Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage w/Miss Elizabeth
This one has been talked about so much I didn’t even want to really write about it but I felt I had to. If the stories are true this rivalry goes well beyond matches and storylines. It was about political power and behind the scenes antics. That all said, this rivalry propelled Macho into the stratosphere as world champion and it made for some classic storylines with Liz. In the ring, these two had memorable bouts and that it really all that matters.
Sting and the N.W.O.
Now I know it is a hard one to accept as a rivalry but seriously, who missed Nitro for the straight year that Sting didn’t even utter a sentence? Sting took on a group…one man fighting for his survival while carrying another group (WCW) on his back, even though he might not have cared too much, This is what George W. wants to be right now (Sorry had to say it, it is an opinion piece remember?) . This is a rivalry that if done correctly, could be the ending to Sting’s career. It would take having Nash and Hall back in WWE with Sting. You might need Booker T and a few other M.I.A’s as well but it would blow the roof of the place.
Trish Stratus vs. Lita
To me this is high up on the rivalry list. These two “divas” had the greatest female rivalry in the history of wrestling in my opinion. If you don’t believe me go and look at Trish’s retirement match in 2007 at Unforgiven against the mighty Lita, it was genius. Lita had been at Edge’s side as his companion and manager for a long while and hadn’t done a huge amount of wrestling, not to mention a few years before she had broke her neck. She was pure awesome in that bout and gave everything for Trish’s retirement. I would love to see Micki James get in a great rivalry with a superior female wrestler. It is one of the problems WWE has right now…too much diva, too much lackluster drama, not enough mat wrestling.
Closing
I do think the WWE has a lot of rivalry both in and out of the ring. Does it rival the MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA? I can’t say I know. I know that when OSU plays Michigan I don’t miss the game if possible…I can say the same thing about Lakers/Celts, Browns/Pittsburg and Rhodes/Flair. So maybe it is as intense, storyline or not. The truth is without rivalry sport entertainment would not have the word “Sports” in front of it and carry meaning to it…Who will have the next really big rivalry in Sports Entertainment? I don’t know, but I hope it comes soon, because we sure could use one.
