The Contentious Ten 09.26.11: Opponents Who Don’t Click Together

I’m starting the list off with a choice that will likely receive the most backlash, but I’m really interested to see how you guys feel about this one. From Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1992 and King of the Ring in 1996 to One Night Only in 1997, Shawn Michaels and The British Bulldog have had a number of high-profile matches over the years, and they, for the most part, have usually been at least decent. That said, I always felt as if there was something off when these two went against each other that held the matches back from being truly great. I can’t say for sure whether it was due to backstage egos or a clash of styles (or both), but I have never felt fully satisfied by a Michaels/Bulldog match. It might have also been a case of bad timing with regards to where their characters were at that point. For example, Michaels was a heel to Bulldog’s babyface for Saturday Night’s Main Event. The result was Michaels dominating the middle portion of the match with holds until Bulldog’s comeback toward the end. That right there played into the match as Michaels was typically at his best when taking a beating and making an exciting comeback. Not only that, but you’ll also usually find some coordination issues and mistimed spots throughout most Michaels/Bulldog matches.

As with the majority of Samoa Joe’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship run, his series of matches with Booker T during the summer of 2008 often go overlooked. While they weren’t embarrassingly bad, they were anything but the kind of match you want your rising World Heavyweight Champion to be building his name around. One theory would be that at this point in his career, Booker T wasn’t completely motivated enough to give you a respectable main event-quality match. I don’t buy that. He had left the WWE less than a year before this and was actually looking more engaged in the ring than he had in years. TNA was presenting him with pay-per-view main events- something he didn’t get very often during his time in the WWE. On top of that, one of these matches took place in his hometown of Houston, Texas. Long story short, the problem here had nothing to do with Booker’s ability or motivation. Same can be said for Joe as he was finally getting his run with the strap. So, what it really came down to was chemistry. Their styles didn’t mesh well and what we got were sub-par performances from two typically great performers.

By my count, Undertaker and Kane have only had two good matches together: Wrestlemania 14 and the first Smackdown after Wrestlemania 24. Everything else that came in-between and after has ranged from “bad” to downright terrible. Inferno, Triple Threat, Buried Alive, Hell in a Cell- just a bunch of underwhelming garbage, for lack of a better word. All those matches I listed (and others) were either clumsy, boring, botched, plodding or a combination of the four. At least the backstory was memorable and the promo work they gave us during their most recent feud was terrific, or else the whole program would have been remembered in a negative light. I just don’t know how you go from having such a good and exciting match at Wrestlemania to constantly delivering duds. I suppose there are some nights where everything (crowd, atmosphere, finish) aligns just right and you end up with a great match. Sad to say, that night was the exception and not the rule.

The funny thing is, John Cena and Big Show’s best match together was their United States Championship Wrestlemania 20 opener in 2004 when Cena was considerably less competent in the ring than he is now. But honestly, even that match was average at best. Here’s the thing- Show can have good matches with the right opponent and Cena will, more often than not, get a crowd invested in his matches. For whatever reason, neither one of those statements held true whenever Show and Cena faced off against each other during their renewed feud in 2009. Let’s take their Submission match from Extreme Rules as an example…quite possibly the single most boring match I have ever seen. I’d rather watch a five-minute version of Kelly Kelly vs. Vickie Guerrero- I mean, at least that’s only five minutes! This thing dragged on and on for nearly 20 minutes, and the end was never in sight. Maybe if they were able to create some movement or get the crowd involved I would have enjoyed it more, but that wasn’t the case. They can’t work a true little man/big man match because Cena isn’t what you’d consider an underdog little man; they can’t work a true power match because no one would buy into it. What we were left with was a hybrid of the two, and it just didn’t work.

A few years ago, this was looked at as one of those big-named, untapped rivalries waiting for a long program. We never really got that, but we were treated to a few pay-per-view matches between former Evolution members Randy Orton and Batista. Unfortunately, the matches were pretty much all boring busts. Keep in mind, this was during the time when many critics were down on Orton for being dull in the ring, but given the right opponent, he was still having some fun matches. However, his stuff with Batista seemed to always bring out the worst in him. Sometimes it was due to injury- as was the case for their Steel Cage match at Extreme Rules when Batista was heavily limited with an arm injury- but most of the time, it was for the simple fact that these two did not click together in the ring. You would think that the star-quality alone would be enough to drag these guys through to an exciting encounter ala Batista vs. John Cena, but instead, we were left with drawn out, dull matches that failed to get many fans interested.

It’s fascinating to me how two brothers who have such an amazing chemistry together as a tag team can fail to find a way to click together as opponents. By the way, I’m not only referring to their first major singles match against each other at Vengeance 2001. I’m including their Extreme Rules match at Wrestlemania 25, their Stretcher match on Smackdown and their I Quit match at Backlash as well. I was excited to watch every single one of them, but none of them did anything for me. The reasons for that vary. When it comes to the first one at Vengeance, they didn’t give fans what they were expecting. Instead of a high-flying spectacle, they went for more conservative “wrestling” (similar to what Paul London and Brian Kendrick would do a few years later on Smackdown). The opposite was the case for the three other matches as they went with the expected- high-flying, weapons, spots and all that good stuff. It still didn’t seem to work though. The crowd didn’t buy into the “Matt betrays Jeff” storyline, Matt wasn’t 100% comfortable in his new heel persona and the result was a bunch of matches that didn’t come together as well as many thought they would.

Yes, Hulk Hogan was rarely having good matches at this point in his career. Yes, Sting hadn’t wrestled a match in a year. Both guys were well past their prime. I get all that, and it hasn’t stopped other wrestlers in their same situation from having strong and memorable matches. The bottom line is that Sting and Hogan do not mesh well in the ring together. Their two main matches in WCW (Starrcade 1997 and SuperBrawl 1998) were, to put it bluntly, turds. Forget about the horrible booking involved- the actual matches they put on were about as uncoordinated as you get in wrestling. That stems from the fact that they aren’t good opponents for each other; their styles don’t mix at all. Neither one is a good enough wrestler to cover up the fact that the other is limited. Consequently, we get a lot of stalling, chest-beating and no-selling to create some excitement. As I said, certain guys in similar situations as them have put on great matches despite the limitations. For example, look at Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley in both WWE and TNA. The difference there was that their characters played off of each other very well, whereas Sting and Hogan have been unable to find that same success.

Steve Austin and Undertaker have had more pay-per-view matches against each other than just about anybody. Not only that, but the matches spread over five years so we have seen them together at vastly different points in their careers. Whether it was Gothic Taker vs. Just-About-To-Breakout Austin, Ministry Taker vs. Prime-Austin or Biker Taker vs. Approaching-End-Of Career Austin, we’ve been treated to many different variations of the same match. While the characters were entertaining and the angles heading into the matches were engaging, the end result usually wasn’t very good. Sometimes, like in late 1998 and 1999, I expected a bad match and got a bad match. Other times, like in 1997 for the Cold Day in Hell pay-per-view, I expected a good match and got an average match. Their best match together was probably their WWF Championship match at Summerslam 1998, but when you consider all the duds in their long rivalry, you can’t consider them good opponents for one another. Again, certain styles and personalities don’t mix in wrestling, and that was typically the case for Austin vs. Taker.

Two guys who the WWE seems to always want to prove can have good matches together but more often than not always fall short- Triple H and Randy Orton. Okay, they’ve had one good match if my memory serves me correctly: Last Man Standing at No Mercy 2007, damn good match. Everything else though has constantly underperformed; the biggest and most infamous example being their Wrestlemania 25 main event. Don’t get me wrong, the build-up is always great. Whether it’s Orton getting dumped from Evolution or HHH chasing Orton through his house with a sledgehammer, they always get the biggest storyline heading into a show. Adding to that, their chemistry in those segments or skits is always there- they click in a non-match setting. However, when that bell rings, something changes, and I’m not sure why. Let’s face it, both guys definitely have talent inside a wrestling ring and have put on some incredible matches with a wide variety of other people. But when they’re in there against each other, it doesn’t come together. Maybe it’s that they try too hard to make their matches epic. They go on for way too long (unless it’s stopped short for a broken collarbone) and not much happens.

This might seem like an odd choice for number one, but the words “no chemistry” have never rang truer in my mind than when I saw Batista vs. Booker T at Summerslam 2006…and then again at Survivor Series 2006. You can attribute it to the fact that these guys had a real-life beef with one another or that they just didn’t work well together inside a wrestling ring. Whatever the reason, Batista and Booker T are like Reggie Bush and my beloved Miami Dolphins- it just doesn’t work. Botches, mistimed spots, sloppy execution, it all applied when it came to those matches. And to think, they main evented and semi-main evented two of the four biggest shows of the year! They never seemed comfortable in there, and it took a toll on the quality of the match. Batista and Booker T, more so than any other two opponents, don’t click in the ring together.