When Legit Fights Break Out During Wrestling Matches

[mutamaniac]

Of course, Antonio Inoki vs Muhammad Ali is the most famous of these, it was supposed to be a work but quickly turned into a shoot, and they went a full 12 rounds. It was insanely boring, with Inoki peppering him with kicks to the legs and spending a ton of time on his back throwing front kicks. It was ruled a draw but most people who "scored" it years later give it to Inoki, but it's not like Ali got beat up or even close to it.

Inoki screwed up Ali's legs, but it's not like he was going to knock him out or anything.

 

[BigBiss]

Steve "William" Regal vs Goldberg

Regal was insulted that he was asked to put over Goldberg in a squash match during Goldberg's monster push, so he decides to fuck around and embarrass Goldberg with some chain wrestling and grappling. Regal was a carnival wrestler with a legit background, and was/is known as a legit tough guy/fighter Goldberg is clearly perplexed and has no clue what to do.

WCW fired Regal for this.

This is also one of my favorite Goldberg matches, if you watch it with out the back story it really has that MMA/Wrestling hybird feel .. and I think gave goldberg some extra dimension that they later tried to develop far less convincingly with his throw away matches with Jerry Flynn

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I honestly don't think Regal's goal was to show up Goldberg (ok, maybe a little), his goal was to have a give & take match and not get jobbed out. The problem was Goldberg was kind of lost and couldn't hang, even with the simplest of chain wrestling and basic grappling.

 

[XavierDZ]

Regal is a guy who likes to wrestle and when they told him to do as little as possible to put Goldberg over he shook his head and said nope I'm here to wrestle.

 

[mutamaniac]

Regal is a guy who likes to wrestle and when they told him to do as little as possible to put Goldberg over he shook his head and said nope I'm here to wrestle.

Oddly enough worked out well enough for him in the end since WWF picked him right up. If he stuck in WCW too long who knows where he'd be now.

 

[XavierDZ]

Regal would have been lost in the invasion angle if he didn't get fired then.

 

[FedEx227]

Oddly enough worked out well enough for him in the end since WWF picked him right up. If he stuck in WCW too long who knows where he'd be now.

Well, to be fair, Regal didn't really have a smooth transition. He got picked up by WWF right away, got saddled with the Real Man's Man gimmick, eventually left to go to rehab.

He then went BACK to WCW in 1999 before returning to WWF in late 2000.

 

[FedEx227]

Regal would have been lost in the invasion angle if he didn't get fired then.

He was around through most of it. He was the "commissioner". He was the first one to kiss McMahon's ass after the Alliance lost.

 

[EmpireWF]

Well, to be fair, Regal didn't really have a smooth transition. He got picked up by WWF right away, got saddled with the Real Man's Man gimmick, eventually left to go to rehab.

He then went BACK to WCW in 1999 before returning to WWF in late 2000.

Was fired, but the point is the same.

Also, when he was brought back to WWE, he was initially sent to their Memphis developmental where he worked with a young Bryan Danielson (who was about a year into his career)

 

[FedEx227]

Got his job or bump to the main roster with the fucking awful Pillman Memorial match.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Someone should post the APA vs Public Enemy match.

And Undertaker & Kane vs Jindrak & O'Haire.

Was it Jindrak & O'Haire? I know it was WCW guys and I know they got beat up for not shaking Droz's hand or something. It was O'Haire for sure, might have been Chuck Polumbo and not Jindrak.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Ohh...and Saturn vs Mike Bell

Bell was sloppy so Saturn gets pissed off and beats the shit out of him. Can't find the full match. Saturn gets punished for this with the moppy gimmick and his career is never the same.

When WWE signed the Radicalz, it was Saturn who Vince thought was the future star. Benoit, Malenko, & Guerrero were viewed as solid mid card workers. Vince's boner was for Perry Saturn.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Also, isn't Mike Bell dead?

I know one of the Bell's passed away. Don't remember which one. They were featured in "Bigger, Faster, Stronger", which is a steroid doc that everybody should watch. It's really good and wrestling is a big focus.

 

[FedEx227]

Mike Bell (one from the video) did die in 2008.

It's an odd documentary because you may think it puts steroids in a bad light, but it really doesn't. If anything it gives justification to those who use it. It's definitely worth checking out though one of my favorite docs ever.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Mike Bell (one from the video) did die in 2008.

It's an odd documentary because you may think it puts steroids in a bad light, but it really doesn't. If anything it gives justification to those who use it. It's definitely worth checking out though one of my favorite docs ever.

It has Floyd Landis still trying to convince the world he didn't dope. LMFAO.

 

[EmpireWF]

Saturn has explained that incident this way:

After being dropped on his head, he was out on his feet. When he threw Bell out of the ring, he took a bad bump. He got screamed at when he got backstage and knows he was wrong...but it wasn't a shoot.

 

[SuperKevin]

I forgot about Saturn's awful blond mustache

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

A few that I don't think that have been mentioned...

Rikidozan and Masahiko Kimura when Rikidozan goes into business for himself and knocked Kimura out.
Hulk Hogan choking out Richard Belzer by accident.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

What isn't shown...KENTA was working stiff with Taguchi, who is not any sort of real shooter. Nagata takes exception, tags in, and gives KENTA a good kick to the chest to let him know how he feels. KENTA decides to get sassy. Not a good idea. Nagata gets the better of him and basically beats him up as much as he can while still working. Things get...awkward. Akiyama is just chilling on the outside, like, 'not this shit again, if that little punk wants his face caved in, fuck 'em'.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

More KENTA. He decides to rough up Atsushi Kotoge, because Kotoge is the new guy (had just jumped from Osaka Pro).

This gets very uncomfortable.