10 Most Elaborate Works In Wrestling History
Those times where the wrestling business really did blur the lines of reality.
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00:00Everyone settle down because yes, we're doing it.
00:03Is it a work?
00:04Is it a shoot?
00:05Is it a woot?
00:06We'll never know, even though we always find out.
00:08What?
00:09Dunno.
00:10However, the work shoot is something that wrestling companies have done a lot to differing
00:13success.
00:14So, I'm Simon from WhatCulture, please do hit that subscribe button, it'll make you
00:17feel good, and this is the 10 most elaborate works in wrestling history.
00:2110.
00:22Brock Lesnar Pulverizes Randy Orton
00:24Never forget that if he wanted to, Brock Lesnar could destroy everybody in WWE for real.
00:29I could even go as far to say that there are few more legit warriors in history than Brock,
00:34which is why at SummerSlam 2016, The Beast was told to smash Randy Orton's head in
00:38the hard way and bust him open.
00:41Yep.
00:42This even tied into the finish as Lesnar was awarded a TKO victory, and this looked so
00:45real, other wrestlers thought Brock had just decided to do this because why the flub not?
00:49Chris Jericho even confronted him afterwards enraged that he had just ignored the code
00:53and was taking liberties.
00:54It turned out he hadn't.
00:56This was all pre-planned, and Vince McMahon and Triple H had to break these two up as
00:59somebody shouted, it's a work.
01:01Now, it seems to me that maybe we shouldn't be beating people up so badly, you scare the
01:05locker room half to death, but what do I know, I can't even grow hair.
01:099.
01:10Jeff Jarrett Attacks A Fan
01:11At TNA's Slammiversary 2005, Jarrett was all ready to take on AJ Styles in the King
01:15of the Mountain match, along with about 45 other people.
01:19Before the pay-per-view went live, though, which is where this gets really interesting,
01:22Jeff was at ringside when a masked audience member insulted him, so Double J told him
01:27to get in the squared circle.
01:28As they did do this, Jarrett kicked the crap out of him, leaving Jeff to be arrested and
01:33miss the main event.
01:34Some will still tell you this was the real deal, but the dude was Sal Ronaro, a wrestler
01:38who after the fact competed for the likes of Ring of Honor and the NWA.
01:42It also handily meant Jarrett was out of the way so Raven could return and win the world
01:45title.
01:46So it was an elaborate work, although you can't fault TNA, they did it.
01:518.
01:54The Outsiders Arrive In WCW
01:56When Scott Hall turned up on Nitro on the 27th of May 1996 and acted like he had broken
02:01into the building, it was just awesome.
02:04It got even better two weeks later because Kevin Nash then turned up, and it really felt
02:07like Razor Ramon and Diesel had broken ranks and decided to kick WCW's ass.
02:12And sure, after a short while it was obvious they were on the payroll, but that didn't
02:16matter.
02:17We planted that seed, and we're gonna let it grow.
02:19Even them using their real names was cool, because people didn't do that in the mid
02:2290s.
02:23Everyone had to have some ridiculous title, like Duke the Dumpster Drosy, and yet here
02:27were two guys just being themselves, blurred the lines perfectly.
02:31The commentary team added to this as well by shouting things like, they're not meant
02:35to be here, and even refusing to mention them by name, and it sparked a huge ball of nonsense
02:40as the WWF then started to act like Diesel and Razor were coming back.
02:44It caused such commotion Hall and Nash got more money from WCW, which was hilarious as
02:49Vince McMahon was just throwing his copyright muscle around, and was about to bring back
02:53fake versions of these characters.
02:55So yes, this means WCW worked themselves into a shoot, but they couldn't make it up.
03:007.
03:01The Return of Matt Hardy
03:02I never really want a story to be born out of an affair, but hey ho, in 2005 this is
03:06what we got.
03:07Because yes, in what is a heart-wrenching tale, Matt Hardy found out that his girlfriend
03:11Lita had been cheating on him with best friend Edge, my word.
03:15This was like something from a soap opera, and understandably, Matt was so broken, ironically,
03:19he went online to let loose.
03:21WWE didn't like that, so he was let go.
03:24Damn.
03:25As you can imagine, the fanbase thought that was BS and started to make noise about this
03:29at every show.
03:30Edge got booed, Hardy chants rang out in all the arenas, and two months later this was
03:34all switched around as Matt was hired back.
03:36Madness.
03:37At that point it was obvious they had come to an agreement, but in the interim, Hardy
03:41was still turning up on programs unannounced, grabbing the microphone and shouting things
03:44like Ring of Honor into it.
03:46This was enough to convince some people that maybe he had lost it, and who could blame
03:50him.
03:51To be fair, this was a great way to play off a real-life situation and make it wrestling,
03:54although their first match still irks me.
03:56The cheater beat the cheatee so badly, the referee had to stop the thing.
04:01I'm pretty sure it should have been the other way around.
04:036.
04:04The End of WCW Hulk Hogan
04:06Remember that tweet everybody still laughs about from Hulk Hogan when he went on about
04:09not working yourself into a shoot, brother?
04:11Well he should know about this, because he did it in 2000.
04:14Stumbling at WCW's Bash at the Beach, the idea to begin with was dumb.
04:17Hulk defeated Jeff Jarrett for the WCW World Title after Jeff laid down for Hogan because
04:22he thought this whole situation was crap behind the scenes.
04:26Vince Russo was involved too and the Hulkster yelled at him before storming off, but later
04:30in the show Russo cut his own promo and when Hulk heard this, he wasn't happy.
04:34He decided Vince had gone too far, sued the company and never returned.
04:39Yes, that's how it all ended.
04:42Unsurprisingly WCW would be out of business 8 months later and it was due to stupid things
04:46like this.
04:47No one understood what was going on and casual fans must have felt like they'd been slapped.
04:50It was so non-inclusive it was ridiculous.
04:52I swear they forgot the first and foremost thing about wrestling is it's meant to be
04:56fun.
04:575.
04:58MJF vs AEW
05:00This one is still going on now as I speak and man, they have done a good job.
05:04In 2022 the kayfabe line has been blurred and no one knows what the hell is going on.
05:10In terms of what we've seen on TV, MJF is furious that he's been overlooked due to
05:17the influx of ex-WWE talent, so much so he no-showed a meet and greet and almost missed
05:23his match with Wardlow at Double or Nothing.
05:25Even before then there were rumblings that he was unhappy over money and that come 2024
05:29when his contract expired, he'd be more than happy to speak to WWE.
05:34As of right now, Maxwell's merchandise has been pulled and is not even on the website.
05:39Ultimately, who cares because this has become the talk of the town and underlines exactly
05:43what wrestling is and what makes it so compelling anyway.
05:464.
05:47Russian Nightmare Nikita Kolov
05:48Nikita Kolov was an excellent heel.
05:51A brutal Russian grappler, he is an example of how to book a bad guy and from the moment
05:55he was introduced in 1984, everybody bored him as a monster, mostly because that's how
06:01he was presented.
06:02He only ever spoke in Russian which American audiences hated in the 80s due to the ongoing
06:06Cold War and he fought everyone, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum Tierre, Ric Flair, Sting.
06:11Throughout all of that he never let his foreign stance go either, even outside the show, and
06:15yet in reality, this man was Nelson Scott Simpson from Minnesota.
06:21Nelson was just so committed to the work he changed his name to Nikita Kolov so nobody
06:25could figure it out and he learned Russian to get this across.
06:28If you want to say this is next level stuff you'd be right, because for years fans thought
06:32he was from the East, even if they knew wrestling was predetermined.
06:36That's where sports entertainment is at its best too.
06:38You know the deal and are super smart, and yet you're still just a tiny bit unsure.
06:43More power to this guy.
06:453.
06:46The First Summer Of Punk
06:47Less chatted about for obvious reasons, CM Punk's reign of terror as Ring of Honor Champion
06:50in 2005 is a work of art.
06:53Stepping into how the internet worked, it came out that Punk had signed with WWE just
06:58as CM was preparing to fight Austin Aries for the Ring of Honor World Title.
07:01This was at Death by Dishonor 3, so everybody assumed Punk was going to lose, and given
07:05how awesome he'd been for the promotion, fans treated him like an outgoing hero.
07:09We then used all of that for the ultimate swerve, however, because not only did Punk
07:14win the belt, he then cut a promo on the fans and turned heel.
07:18This is flubbing great.
07:19It totally took everybody off guard behind the scenes, CM had gotten WWE to agree he
07:23could finish off his Ring of Honor work, but this gave us two months of madness.
07:27You really have to see it.
07:29Apparently he would drop the title to James Gibson before moving on, and this is how you
07:32make the jump, the ultimate transition.
07:352.
07:36Everything Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman
07:38Superb this.
07:39Even years later, you can argue that it's never been topped.
07:42In fact, Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman were so dedicated to this whole thing, it was only
07:45after the comedian's death that it was revealed it had been a work.
07:49Incredible.
07:50Starting as Andy had been a lifelong wrestling fan and wanted to get involved, he declared
07:53himself the intergender champion and started beating up women and acting like he was the
07:58king.
07:59Eventually Lawler took offence to that, obviously, who decided to smash Kaufman with a piledriver,
08:03which broke his neck.
08:05The taxi star sold this perfectly, as he would go everywhere in a neck brace, with all this
08:09peaking on the 1982 David Letterman show where they just went off.
08:13F-bombs, thrown coffee, massive slaps, even Letterman thought they had lost their tempers.
08:18It's quite the thing to see.
08:20You need to go and watch all of this if you haven't because the pair basically tricked
08:23the world.
08:24Sure, it was easier to do that 40 years ago, but still, as silly as it sounds, this was
08:30art.
08:311.
08:32The Loose Cannon
08:33If we are talking about working in the entire wrestling business, nobody beats Brian Pillman.
08:36I mean, no one.
08:38Starting towards the end of 1995, when Pillman had been brought into the Four Horsemen, the
08:42dude just started acting like a madman.
08:44He began blurring the lines even without permission, such as calling Kevin Sullivan the WCW Booker
08:49live on air.
08:50When he was fired in 1996, people thought something was up, and they were right.
08:55While we didn't know it at the time, Brian had convinced Eric Bischoff to give him his
08:58release so he could run amok on the indies before coming back a bigger star.
09:02All of this had to be legit so nobody would know otherwise, and while Pillman did go to
09:06ECW, he also used this to convince the WWF to give him more money and went there instead.
09:13Know of any other elaborate works in wrestling history?
09:16Make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
09:18share the video and subscribe.
09:20Then head over to whatculture.com where you can read articles like this with your eyes.
09:23Make sure you follow us on social media at WhatCultureWWE or at Simon at 316, and we
09:28do have other videos I checked, and one of them is just for you.
09:32My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you very much for joining me as always, and as
09:35I've asked before and as I'll ask again, did I record this in my pants?
09:40Maybe I did.
09:41Maybe I didn't.
09:42Or maybe it's a work shoot.
09:44That didn't make any sense.