10 Most Elaborate Works In Wrestling History
Those times where the wrestling business really did blur the lines of reality.
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00:00 Everyone, settle down because yes, we're doing it.
00:03 Is it a work?
00:04 Is it a shoot?
00:05 Is it a woot?
00:06 We'll never know, even though we always find out.
00:08 What?
00:09 Dunno.
00:10 However, the work shoot is something that wrestling companies have done a lot to differing
00:13 success.
00:14 So, I'm Simon from WhatCulture, please do hit that subscribe button, it'll make you
00:17 feel good, and this is the 10 most elaborate works in wrestling history.
00:21 10.
00:22 Brock Lesnar Pulverizes Randy Orton
00:24 Never forget that if he wanted to, Brock Lesnar could destroy everybody in WWE for real.
00:29 I could even go as far to say that there are few more legit warriors in history than Brock,
00:34 which is why at SummerSlam 2016, The Beast was told to smash Randy Orton's head in
00:38 the hard way and bust him open.
00:41 Yep.
00:42 This even tied into the finish as Lesnar was awarded a TKO victory, and this looked so
00:45 real other wrestlers thought Brock had just decided to do this because why the flub not?
00:49 Chris Jericho even confronted him afterwards enraged that he had just ignored the code
00:53 and was taking liberties.
00:54 It turned out he hadn't.
00:56 This was all pre-planned and Vince McMahon and Triple H had to break these two up as
00:59 somebody shouted "It's a work".
01:01 It seems to me that maybe we shouldn't be beating people up so badly, you scare the
01:05 locker room half to death, but what do I know, I can't even grow hair.
01:09 9.
01:10 Jeff Jarrett Attacks A Fan
01:11 At TNA Slammiversary 2005, Jarrett was all ready to take on AJ Styles in the King of
01:15 the Mountain match, along with about 45 other people.
01:19 Before the pay-per-view went live, though, which is where this gets really interesting,
01:22 Jeff was at ringside when a masked audience member insulted him, so Double J told him
01:27 to get in the squared circle.
01:28 As they did do this, Jarrett kicked the crap out of him, leaving Jeff to be arrested and
01:33 miss the main event.
01:34 Some will still tell you this was the real deal, but the dude was Sal Ronaro, a wrestler
01:38 who after the fact competed for the likes of Ring of Honor and the NWA.
01:42 It also handily meant Jarrett was out of the way so Raven could return and win the world
01:45 title.
01:46 So it was an elaborate work, although you can't fault TNA.
01:49 They did it.
01:50 People still think this was a serious situation.
01:53 8.
01:54 The Outsiders Arrive In WCW
01:55 When Scott Hall turned up on Nitro on the 27th of May 1996 and acted like he had broken
02:01 into the building, it was just awesome.
02:04 It got even better two weeks later because Kevin Nash then turned up, and it really felt
02:07 like Razor Ramon and Diesel had broken ranks and decided to kick WCW's ass.
02:12 And sure, after a short while it was obvious they were on the payroll, but that didn't
02:16 matter.
02:17 We planted that seed and we're gonna let it grow.
02:19 Even them using their real names was cool because people didn't do that in the mid
02:22 90s.
02:23 Everyone had to have some ridiculous title, like Duke "The Dumpster" Drozy, and yet
02:27 here were two guys just being themselves.
02:29 Blurred the lines perfectly.
02:31 The commentary team added to this as well by shouting things like "they're not meant
02:35 to be here" and even refusing to mention them by name, and it sparked a huge ball of
02:39 nonsense as the WWF then started to act like Diesel and Razor were coming back.
02:44 It caused such commotion Hall and Nash got more money from WCW, which was hilarious as
02:49 Vince McMahon was just throwing his copyright muscle around and was about to bring back
02:53 fake versions of these characters.
02:55 So yes, this means WCW worked themselves into a shoot.
02:58 They couldn't make it up.
03:00 7.
03:01 The Return of Matt Hardy
03:02 I never really want a story to be born out of an affair, but hey ho, in 2005 this is
03:06 what we got.
03:07 Because yes, in what is a heart-wrenching tale, Matt Hardy found out that his girlfriend
03:11 Lita had been cheating on him with best friend Edge.
03:14 My word.
03:15 This was like something from a soap opera, and understandably Matt was so broken, ironically,
03:19 he went online to let loose.
03:21 WWE didn't like that, so he was let go.
03:24 Damn.
03:25 As you can imagine, the fanbase thought that was BS and started to make noise about this
03:29 at every show.
03:30 Edge got booed, Hardy chants rang out in all the arenas, and two months later this was
03:34 all switched around as Matt was hired back.
03:36 Madness.
03:37 At that point it was obvious they'd come to an agreement, but in the interim Hardy
03:41 was still turning up on programs unannounced, grabbing the microphone and shouting things
03:44 like 'Ring of Honor' into it.
03:46 This was enough to convince some people that maybe he had lost it, and who could blame
03:50 him.
03:51 To be fair, this was a great way to play off a real life situation and make it wrestling,
03:54 although their first match still irks me.
03:56 The cheater beat the cheatee so badly, the referee had to stop the thing.
04:01 I'm pretty sure it should have been the other way around.
04:03 6.
04:04 The End of WCW Hulk Hogan
04:06 Remember that tweet everybody still laughs about from Hulk Hogan when he went on about
04:09 not working yourself into a shoot, brother?
04:11 Well he should know about this, because he did it in 2000.
04:14 During a WCW's bash at the beach, the idea to begin with was dumb.
04:17 Hulk defeated Jeff Jarrett for the WCW World Title after Jeff laid down for Hogan because
04:22 he thought this whole situation was crap behind the scenes.
04:26 Vince Russo was involved too and the Hulkster yelled at him before storming off, but later
04:30 in the show Russo cut his own promo and when Hulk heard this, he wasn't happy.
04:34 He decided Vince had gone too far, sued the company and never returned.
04:39 Yes, that's how it all ended.
04:42 Unsurprisingly WCW would be out of business 8 months later and it was due to stupid things
04:46 like this.
04:47 No one understood what was going on and casual fans must have felt like they'd been slapped.
04:50 It was so non-inclusive it was ridiculous.
04:52 I swear they forgot the first and foremost thing about wrestling is it's meant to be
04:56 fun.
04:57 5.
04:58 MJF vs AEW
05:00 This one is still going on now as I speak and man, they have done a good job.
05:04 In 2022 the kayfabe line has been blurred and no one knows what the hell is going on.
05:09 It's been a very well executed plan, or maybe it's real, I've no clue.
05:13 In terms of what we've seen on TV, MJF is furious that he's been overlooked due to
05:17 the influx of ex-WWE talent, so much so he no-showed a meet and greet and almost missed
05:23 his match with Wardlow at Double or Nothing.
05:25 Even before then there were rumblings that he was unhappy over money and that come 2024
05:29 when his contract expired, he'd be more than happy to speak to WWE.
05:34 As of right now, Maxwell's merchandise has been pulled and he's not even on the website.
05:39 Clearly who cares because this has become the talk of the town and underlines exactly
05:43 what wrestling is, what makes it so compelling anyway.
05:46 4.
05:47 Russian Nightmare - Nikita Kolov
05:48 Nikita Kolov was an excellent heel.
05:51 A brutal Russian grappler, he is an example of how to book a bad guy and from the moment
05:55 he was introduced in 1984, everybody bored him as a monster, mostly because that's how
06:01 he was presented.
06:02 He only ever spoke in Russian which American audiences hated in the 80s due to the ongoing
06:06 Cold War and he fought everyone, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum T.A, Ric Flair, Sting.
06:11 Throughout all of that he never let his foreign stance go either, even outside the show.
06:15 And yet in reality, this man was Nelson Scott Simpson from Minnesota.
06:21 Nelson was just so committed to the work he changed his name to Nikita Kolov so nobody
06:25 could figure it out and he learned Russian to get this across.
06:28 If you want to say this is next level stuff you'd be right, because for years fans thought
06:32 he was from the East, even if they knew wrestling was predetermined.
06:35 That's where sports entertainment is at its best too.
06:38 You know the deal and are super smart, and yet you're still just a tiny bit unsure.
06:43 More power to this guy.
06:45 3.
06:46 The First Summer Of Punk
06:47 Less chatted about for obvious reasons, CM Punk's reign of terror as Ring of Honor Champion
06:50 in 2005 is a work of art.
06:53 Tapping into how the internet worked, it came out that Punk had signed with WWE just as
06:58 CM was preparing to fight Austin Aries for the Ring of Honor World Title.
07:01 This was at Death by Dishonor 3, so everybody assumed Punk was going to lose, and given
07:05 how awesome he'd been for the promotion, fans treated him like an outgoing hero.
07:09 We then used all of that for the ultimate swerve however, because not only did Punk
07:14 win the belt, he then cut a promo on the fans and turned heel.
07:18 This is flubbing great.
07:19 It totally took everybody off guard behind the scenes, CM had gotten WWE to agree he
07:23 could finish off his Ring of Honor work, but this gave us two months of madness.
07:27 You really have to see it.
07:29 Apparently he would drop the title to James Gibson before moving on.
07:32 This is how you make the jump.
07:34 The ultimate transition.
07:35 2.
07:36 Everything Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman
07:38 Superb this.
07:39 Even years later.
07:40 You can argue that it's never been topped.
07:42 In fact, Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman were so dedicated to this whole thing, it was only
07:45 after the comedian's death that it was revealed it had been a work.
07:49 Incredible.
07:50 Starting as Andy had been a lifelong wrestling fan and wanted to get involved, he declared
07:53 himself the intergender champion and started beating up women and acting like he was the
07:57 king.
07:58 Eventually Lawler took offence to that, obviously.
08:01 Who decided to smash Kaufman with a pile driver, which broke his neck.
08:05 The taxi star sold this perfectly, as he would go everywhere in a neck brace, with all this
08:09 peaking on the 1982 David Letterman show where they just went off.
08:13 F-bombs, thrown coffee, massive slaps.
08:16 Even Letterman thought they had lost their tempers.
08:18 It's quite the thing to see.
08:20 You need to go and watch all of this if you haven't because the pair basically tricked
08:23 the world.
08:24 Sure, it was easier to do that 40 years ago, but still, as silly as it sounds, this was
08:30 art.
08:31 1.
08:32 The Loose Cannon
08:33 If we are talking about working in the entire wrestling business, nobody beats Brian Pillman.
08:36 I mean, no one.
08:38 Starting towards the end of '95, when Pillman had been brought into the Four Horsemen, the
08:42 dude just started acting like a madman.
08:44 He began blurring the lines, even without permission, such as calling Kevin Sullivan
08:48 the WCW Booker live on air.
08:50 When he was fired in 1996, people thought something was up.
08:54 They were right.
08:55 While we didn't know it at the time, Brian had convinced Eric Bischoff to give him his
08:58 release so he could run amok on the indies before coming back a bigger star.
09:02 All of this had to be legit so nobody would know otherwise, and while Pillman did go to
09:06 ECW, he also used this to convince the WWF to give him more money, and he went there
09:12 instead.
09:13 This guy.
09:14 Know of any other elaborate works in wrestling history?
09:16 Make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
09:18 share the video and subscribe.
09:20 Then head over to whatculture.com where you can read articles like this with your eyes.
09:23 Make sure you follow us on social media @whatculturewwe or @simonathe316, and we do have other videos
09:29 I checked, and one of them is just for you.
09:32 My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you very much for joining me as always, and as
09:35 I've asked before and as I'll ask again, did I record this in my pants?
09:40 Maybe I did, maybe I didn't, or maybe it's a work shoot.
09:43 That didn't make any sense.