Professional wrestling has two important components in order to ensure success: athleticism and quality storytelling. Both parts have to mesh together perfectly in order to produce a credible product for the fan to feel emotionally invested and entertained.
No matter how you try to make a wrestling match entertaining, there has to be some degree of audience participation and them buying into what’s going on. When fans start the proverbial ‘holy shit’, ‘this is awesome’ or any other chants during a match, that is one of the most direct ways to determine the presence of that emotional investment.
I came across a couple of matches that were somewhat outside the box, and for purist (like a Jim Cornette) would not even consider to be a professional wrestling match, but the degree of emotional investment and fan interaction were so positive that make you reconsider the traditional definitions of what constitutes a credibly entertaining wrestling match.
Here are five of the most ridiculous, strange but entertaining matches I’ve come across:
Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Briscoe, King of the Ring 2000, Hardcore Evening Gown Match
Maybe this was an inadvertent nod to the rights of transgenderism some 20 years before, but considering what we know now about the sexual orientation of the late WWE Hall of Famer, Pat Patterson dressing up in drag for a match against one of his best friends was not that surprising. This was during the heyday of the WWF Hardcore Championship under the ’24/7 rule’ when it was defended at all times. Briscoe initally won the belt from Crash Holly before Patterson stabbed in him the back to take the title.
These two ended up dressing up like women because Patterson was trying to hide from Briscoe in the ladies locker room and Briscoe went in after him. As the two brawled in the hallways, Vince McMahon came up and was so disgusted by his Stooges’ behaviour that he booked this bizarre match for the Hardcore title, and depending on your perspective this was entertaining as shit or left a bad taste in your mouth.
I thought Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler did some of their best commentary work in terms of calling a comedic match, and the ending was great as the former champion, Crash Holly, took advantage of the 24/7 rule and interjected himself during this contest, pinning Patterson after bashing him in the head with a trash can. To my recollection, no two other men have dressed up in drag to compete for any title since.
In all honestly, this was as much of a conventional match when compared to the remaining ones on this list. Here’s my number four.
Kenny Omega vs. a Nine Year Old Girl
According to Omega himself during a podcast interview with Chris Jericho which occurred prior to the formation of All Elite Wrestling, the current AEW Champion had tremendous challenges in how to do a wrestling match with a female child. It’s one thing to call moves on each other in the ring if you’re two equally grown men, but in this case the physical dynamic played into how moves were done in the ring.
The match ends in a time limit draw, so no conclusive winner was declared. Although Omega attempted to show sportsmanship at the end, he was met with a slap on the face by Haruka rather than a hearty handshake, and the Bout Machine left dejected. Some years later, Omega tweets that Haruka wanted a rematch; that has yet to happen.
Given that Omega has participated in some rather corny segments on AEW as of late, it’s not surprising to see this given that he actually went through having a wrestling match with a child…and managed to pull it off successfully without injuring the girl and actually making it look entertaining.
Kota Ibushi vs a Blow Up Doll
Perhaps following in his longtime friend’s footsteps Omega’s former tag team partner, New Japan’s Kota Ibushi, also competed in a rather unorthodox match during his days in DDT. Ibushi may have one upped his friend, however. Instead of fighting a child, Ibushi’s opponent was a blow up sex doll named Yoshihiko.
Ibushi really had to do the work by himself for obvious reasons. Here you can really see how some of the most fundamental wrestling moves out there have as much to do with the wrestler receiving the move than their opponent giving it, such as the 10 Code Reds (aka Canadian Destroyers) Yoshihiko “delivered” on Ibushi but it was really Kota flipping himself around. Or Yoshihiko’s “piledriver” which really required Ibushi to do a handstand and flip himself upside down.
Ibushi couldn’t pull off everything by himself. When Yoshihiko “did” a Suicide Dive onto the outside, a helper dressed entirely in a black jumpsuit came in, simulated the doll ‘clapping’ to build up fan reaction before the helper hurled the doll over the top rope, as though it was actually doing a tope suicida. Another instances is when the helper hoisted the doll to pound on Ibushi’s back when he was on the turnbuckle going for a high risk move.
The last few sequences were wild, and I thought it was better with an inanimate opponent because I don’t think Ibushi could have pulled these moves off with a real person; they really just involved him flipping so high up in the air. Kota ends the match with a Phoenix Splash for the three count.
Invisible Man vs. Invisible Stan (with Bryce Remsburg)
It’s quite a challenge feat of storytelling when one of your wrestling opponents is an inanimate object, but imagine the creativity and timing you have to convey…for a match where both wrestlers were ‘invisible’.
That’s exactly what now AEW referee Bryce Remsburg, the audience, the commentators and even the cameramen at this GCW match had to do when the ‘Invisible Man’ was challenged by ‘his brother’, ‘Invisible Stan.’
I don’t have much to say in terms of specifics, obviously because we were physically unable to see both “combatants” do anything. Remsburg was really the one who carried the match, which was based on his reactions and what fans and commentators understood were the typical mannerisms of referees during a wrestling match. They added a gimmick where Remsburg put on these special goggles that allowed him to “see” both “wrestlers”.
There was some outside interference from someone else, a dive off the balcony and even one of the “invisible” men going through a wooden door, which was conveniently broken in half, likely by someone pulling literal strings on a pre-cut piece of plywood. The match was won by the Invisible Men, and even though no one could actually see what was happening, you could hardly tell judging by the fan reaction.
PWG Battle of Los Angeles 10 Man Tag Team Match
The participants include Tommaso Ciampa, Pete Dunne, Chuck Taylor, Malakai Black (Tommy End), Matt Riddle, Jeff Cobb, Cedric Alexander, Brian Kendrick and the legend Jushin Thunder Liger; literally a who’s who of current wrestling talent, aside from Liger who recently retired. But frankly, it was these high caliber athletes doing some of the hilariously outlandish spots in a wrestling match that really got me, such as:
- A standoff between Ciampa and Liger, which started with Ciampa jamming his thumb up Liger’s ass and ended with everyone else’s thumbs up each other’s ass except Liger.
- The use of the slow motion button on a remote control, which apparently slowed down the wrestling, the commentary, and the fans for about 5 minutes.
- Ciampa being serenaded by the crowd with ‘I believe I can fly’ as the Psycho Killer was making up his mind whether to dive onto the outside of the ring, before turning around and doing a short splash on Cobb.
The match ends with an awesome sequence of signature moves and finishers, with Liger pinning Dunne after a brainbuster suplex.
Suffice it to say, these five matches have to top any list of some of the most funniest, ridiculous nonsense you can find in the professional wrestling world today.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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