10 Wrestling Moments More Important Than You Realised
Butterfly effects that changed WWE, AEW and the entire wrestling world.
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00:00 Think of this, something you do today could change the world.
00:05 No one ever knows when they're going to make a serious impact, so remember that.
00:09 You may be about to hit levels you never thought capable of.
00:12 You're basically a superhero.
00:14 This is the same in wrestling too, but it's way more dumb and therefore better.
00:18 So I'm Simon from WhatCulture, please do hit that subscribe button.
00:21 And this is 10 Wrestling Moments More Important Than You Realised.
00:25 10.
00:26 Christian Doesn't Answer His Phone
00:27 In 2001, Stone Cold Steve Austin rang Christian.
00:31 They both had weird senses of humour, so the rattlesnake began to ask questions, answer
00:35 them with the word "what?" before asking the question again.
00:38 He thought this was so funny, he decided to do it live on the microphone.
00:41 Here we are.
00:43 21 years later and crowds are still doing it, much to the child grin of many.
00:47 How mad is that?
00:49 No one ever thought Austin buzzing his buddy was going to do this, and what if he had picked
00:52 up?
00:53 Maybe they would have shared a joke and that would have been that.
00:56 Some wrestlers wouldn't be wotted out of arenas.
00:58 So a monster was born on this day, although fair play to Steve.
01:01 He made a fortune off this in merchandise just by printing one word on a t-shirt.
01:06 It's almost like he understands the wrestling business.
01:09 9.
01:10 WCW Fires Paul Heyman
01:11 Whoops.
01:12 In hindsight, WCW probably shouldn't have done this.
01:16 In terms of the fans, thank goodness they did.
01:18 Modern fans may only know Paul as Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar's friend, but a quick dip
01:22 into his history and you shall see he is an innovator.
01:25 Aside from being a decent manager in World Championship Wrestling, he was responsible
01:29 for ECW, a promotion so influential that it shaped one of the most successful periods
01:34 in all of wrestling.
01:35 It didn't last as we know, but it really caused some disruption between the top two
01:39 companies, and WCW must have kicked themselves for letting Heyman go in 1992.
01:44 He soon signed on as Eddie Gilbert's assistant at the new ECW, and while the E meant Eastern
01:49 at the time, it would soon be changed to Extreme and we'd never look back.
01:54 A proper moment, to say the least.
01:56 8.
01:57 Vince McMahon Pisses Off Ted Turner
01:59 Today this is known as Black Saturday, or the 14th of July 1984.
02:04 Using his money and power, Vince McMahon had done away with Georgia Championship Wrestling
02:07 on Ted Turner's Superstation and replaced it with his WWF show instead.
02:12 So far, so TV.
02:13 Fortunately, those used to GCW wanted nothing to do with the World Wrestling Federation,
02:18 so they just stopped watching.
02:19 Didn't see that coming.
02:21 It meant Vince and Ted started to have more heated discussions because ratings were the
02:24 be all and end all, and when Turner realised this wasn't going to work, he decided to
02:29 get more involved.
02:30 As I'm sure you can figure out, the WWF was soon booted off this, and it's when WCW
02:35 started to become a thing, and after a short while, that would be a viable competitor.
02:39 You couldn't write this stuff.
02:40 So if McMahon hadn't gone for this market, there's every chance none of this happens,
02:44 and I tell you, that totally changes what wrestling is today.
02:48 We may never have got that spark.
02:50 7.
02:51 Vince McMahon Fires Jeff Jarrett Live On TV
02:53 This is still mad if you watch it now, but one of the first things Vince McMahon did
02:57 after he bought WCW in 2001 is sit there on Monday Night Raw and fire Jeff Jarrett.
03:03 This wasn't an angle either which sucked for Double J, because he thought it was.
03:07 Nope, the real deal.
03:08 It meant when his contract ran out, there weren't that many options, and as he was
03:12 never going to go to WWE, he did what we all would do.
03:15 He started his own company in 2002.
03:18 Known as TNA, it has now been around for 20 years as it still runs as Impact Wrestling.
03:24 I don't think Jarrett envisioned that when he had this idea, and while he's not involved
03:28 with it at all anymore, it's still crazy.
03:30 I wouldn't say TNA ever competed with WWE properly, but it had its moments.
03:35 Also had its bad times.
03:37 See everything Hulk Hogan.
03:38 If Vince had decided to play ball though, maybe Jarrett doesn't have the spite in his
03:41 belly to wage this war.
03:43 That would also mean we never got that reverse battle royal.
03:46 6.
03:48 Dean Ambrose Gets Frustrated Wrestling Brock Lesnar
03:50 Okay so this is pure wrestling, but stay with me.
03:53 Before Jon Moxley was Jon Moxley, he was Dean Ambrose.
03:56 He had a plan.
03:57 At WrestleMania 32, he was going to have an insane match with Brock Lesnar, and that would
04:01 show everyone that his character needed a shake up.
04:03 On paper, this sounded awesome.
04:05 He even came up with some brutal spots that Brock could do to him, until Lesnar put the
04:09 brakes on that, and basically any and all ideas, because he wasn't into it.
04:14 Only half that he didn't want to work with Ambrose, and half that he was training for
04:17 a secret UFC return and didn't want to get hurt.
04:20 Treating Dean in this fashion was one of the earliest lightbulbs mentioned when Mox realized
04:24 he probably needed to get out at some point.
04:26 Obviously there's loads more to the story than that, and Ambrose was still around for
04:29 a while, but you gotta imagine that had Brock said "yeah cool, let's go bonkers", it may
04:34 have opened up other doors that the man was desperate to walk through.
04:37 Instead Jon Moxley did do that, but he just so happened to do it in a company called AEW.
04:43 5.
04:44 Mark Merrow
04:45 WWF signs Mark Merrow.
04:46 This story will make you laugh.
04:48 Kinda.
04:49 Not really.
04:50 But when Jim Ross signed Mark Merrow and introduced him to Vince McMahon, Merrow's wife just happened
04:54 to be present.
04:55 Her name was Rina, and Vince took one look at her and said "there's a star", and months
04:59 later we were introduced to Sable.
05:01 There was more to this though, because it all happened in 1996, when Mark also got the
05:06 first ever WWF guaranteed contract.
05:09 They're commonplace today, but 25+ years ago it was Scott Hall and Kevin Nash going to
05:13 WCW that started these off, meaning McMahon felt eventually like he was gonna have to
05:17 follow suit.
05:18 Therefore, even if the wild man gimmick didn't work out, Mark was still going to get every
05:23 single penny promised to him, and that's exactly what happened.
05:26 From this point on it became the norm, so while a big nod needs to go to Razor and Diesel,
05:30 it was Merrow who was the benefactor of it all, changing the way that WWF did business
05:35 forever.
05:36 It seems like it's only fair, but at one point it absolutely was not.
05:40 4.
05:41 Random Raw Divas Match
05:42 From 2015 to 2018, WWE got very strong with the Women's Revolution push.
05:47 It was long overdue and should have happened years prior, but we don't really talk about
05:50 the trigger to all of this, which was a random Raw in February 2015.
05:54 On that show we had Paige and Emma vs The Bella Twins, and it was over so fast I'm
05:59 not sure what any of them were meant to do.
06:01 It was also the final nail in the coffin as the hashtag #GiveDivasAChance started to trend,
06:06 backed up by legends such as Mick Foley agreeing the women needed more TV time.
06:09 So these 30 seconds got the attention of everyone, fans started chanting it in the arenas, and
06:14 before long the change was on and the female talent were finally being portrayed as they
06:19 deserved.
06:20 Even on the running order that day, this match was basically the least important thing on
06:23 the broadcast, so little did we know.
06:25 Thank goodness too, because it really was getting ridiculous.
06:28 3.
06:29 Medusa Trashes The WWF Women's Title In WCW
06:32 This is not here for the reason you're thinking.
06:35 Yes, Medusa joining WCW as the WWF Women's Champ and throwing it in the bin did spark
06:39 a lot of madness, but there was something else here that changed everything, because
06:43 look at it like this.
06:44 If this hadn't have happened 2 years prior, do you really think Vince McMahon would have
06:48 been that worried about what Bret Hart may or may not do with his title after the Survivor
06:52 Series 1997?
06:53 I mean, you can argue it either way, but it certainly does raise an eyebrow.
06:58 I would bet nobody would have even thought about this, because it only became a thing
07:02 after it was a thing.
07:03 And I'm not saying Medusa is responsible, and she has talked about why she did it a
07:06 lot, but the WCW/WWF war was so personal by this stage, I imagine it did play a part.
07:13 So if that doesn't happen, maybe we don't get the Montreal Screwdrop or the birth of
07:17 the Mr. McMahon character, and given how much we use that as a jumping off point, my word
07:22 it burns your brain.
07:23 2.
07:24 Chris Jericho Gets Chewed Out
07:26 Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were excited about WrestleMania 33, because as far as they
07:30 knew, they were going to be fighting for the Universal Title, so I can see why they would
07:34 be pumped.
07:35 The program in 2017 was great anyways, but this would be the icing on the cake, and then
07:40 Vince McMahon changed his mind.
07:42 After Goldberg's comeback the previous year had done the numbers, the championship was
07:45 switched to him and Brock Lesnar, with Jericho's match being moved to second on the card.
07:51 As Chris himself has talked about, this was the biggest slap in the face, because that's
07:55 an awful spot to be in.
07:56 At the very least you want to start the show with a hot crowd, coming after that just made
08:00 you feel like an afterthought.
08:02 McMahon also didn't like the match and told both guys this, so when it came to return
08:05 to WWE, Jericho decided against it.
08:08 It was clear how the company saw him, so he went to New Japan and became an even bigger
08:12 star and then helped launch AEW.
08:16 I will wager all the money that if Vince could do this over, he would tell Chris Jericho
08:21 he was the greatest person ever and make him all the champions.
08:24 The stress this has caused.
08:26 1.
08:27 Jake Roberts' 1996 Comeback
08:29 If you listened to either Jim Ross or Bruce Prichard, they admit this didn't exactly
08:32 go to plan.
08:33 Jake Roberts had star power, which the WWF needed in the mid-90s, but the Snake wasn't
08:38 in a good headspace and it showed.
08:40 Life is hard, man.
08:41 Tying into how he was trying to sort this, Roberts soon took on a religious gimmick of
08:45 sorts and while this was short-lived, do you remember what happened in the middle of it?
08:50 He took on one Steve Austin at the King of the Ring, and after being told Jake had cut
08:54 somewhat of a biblical promo on him after the semifinals, the rattlesnake dropped in
08:58 the Austin 316 line and he changed the world.
09:02 This means if we hadn't have gotten Roberts back, Stone Cold would have had no reason
09:05 to say this and it may never have been a thing.
09:08 Given how much money it made all involved, I bet internally they flippin' love the
09:12 1996 Jake Roberts return.
09:14 Who knew?
09:15 Now if any of the wrestling moments were more important than you realised, make sure you
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