As I’ve recently been handling various top 10 list, I figured I might add a top 10 wrestling matches that I would have really enjoyed seeing if the times aligned, people could go back in time and were in their peak condition to produce a hot match whether it was quality or just for the heat and what ifs.
Steve Austin vs Stan Hansen
Two of the best brawlers of all time. Obviously, Steve Austin is one of the all time greats while Stan Hansen is considered one of the top brawlers ever and a legend in Japan as a gaijin for All Japan. Stan had a small run in WCW wear he gained the US title from Luger between 1990 – 1991. By the time Austin came in, it was close to when Stan would return full time to Japan. However, neither met and I imagine that with Austin at his height say in ’97 but having become the complete wrestler in ’96, having him vs a Stan Hansen from the early 90s would mean one heck of a wild brawl. Both guys being from Texas would mean a ton of tobacco spitting, beer swilling, bull rope strapping and red neck driven interviews. A real shame neither man had wrestled against one another.
The Midnight Express vs The British Bulldogs
This is another one of those ships crossing in the night deals where if the Midnight Express had jumped ship in say ’86 after the British Bulldogs won the tag team gold, they might’ve had one heck of a feud. I know from Cornette’s podcast he mentioned that Dennis Condrey probably wouldn’t have put up with Dynamite Kid’s shit. But if McMahon could have contained Dynamite Kid, I could see some classics between these two teams, hopefully before Dynamite seriously injured his back (although that WM2 match might’ve been the start of his back problems). The other side would be Captain Lou Albano vs Cornette in terms of the promo wars.
The Midnight Express vs The Hart Foundation
For this dream match, I would have preferred “Sweet” Stan Lane instead of Dennis Condrey around the ’89 period. The Hart Foundation would’ve been around that period too as they were one of the best tag teams with Bret really growing. So you’d see Bobby Eaton doing some magic with Bret as well as Stan. Anvil is the kind of odd man out in that he doesn’t fit the technical side as much but he’s got a lot of personality and would have been the person to verbally go on the assault/defense against Cornette from their team.
Doom vs Harlem Heat
Doom was too short lived of a bad ass African American duo with a smack talkin’ manager. But Ron Simmons and he had the common aspect of being football players, being burly guys with the same height, similar physiques and being solid muscle. They had a nice finisher too and both could wrestle, although I think Butch Reed was better overall. Harlem Heat became a longer last pair in WCW later on and probably had their best run once “Sister” Sherri Martel began managing them. In the case of Harlem Heat, both guys would match up nicely with Stevie Ray being the tallest amongst the four. Booker T would be more of the flyer wrestler to provide the excitement but the thing with Harlem Heat is that they’re more of the street brawler type. The natural story for this match would be the collegiate athletes of Doom vs the street savvy team of Harlem Heat. Of course, you can’t forget Peanut Head doing some truly outlandish promo work against Sister Sherri, who would scream her ass off and without question run interference and bump.
Nikita Koloff vs Hulk Hogan
This is one of those big what ifs. There might’ve been a rumor going around that time where McMahon wanted Nikita Koloff. He wasn’t a great wrestler at the end of the day, but he had that Rocky 4 Ivan Drago Soviet character down and may have been the most hated wrestler around at his peak. There’s no way Nikita would have beaten Hogan but the lead up would have been amazing. The promos would have been intense around ’86 when both guys were super hot. I think Hogan for me started to fade in ’86 because his gimmick was already getting stale and Orndorff, in turning against Hogan, actually looked like the good guy because of Hogan’s ego. However, if Koloff were in the WWF in ’86 at that time, he probably could have kept Hogan’s main gimmick fresh. Some may point out that the WWF had Nikolai Volkoff, who actually was a foreigner, but by this point, Nikolai wasn’t in his prime and didn’t physically look nearly as good as Nikita. Nikita was such a great character and he looked intimidating.
Doug Furnas/Phil Lafon vs the Steiners
Both teams were remarkably similar in my view. I think Furnas/Lafon were better wrestlers when it came to the business itself but the Steiners were collegiate athletes. Power-wise, both seem similar although I read that Doug Furnas was a legit power lifter. Also, if I’m not mistaken he did a very good Frankensteiner. The main difference is where both teams wrestled with Furnas/Lafon being AJPW guys and the Steiners being NJPW people. I think if we could’ve gotten both teams to wrestle in ’92 – ’93, it would’ve been excellent.
Bret Hart vs Terry Gordy
Terry Gordy is one of the best big men ever. Unfortunately, he developed a terrible drug problem and never recovered from an overdose. While he did eventually make his way to the WWF, by that point he was a shell of himself. Probably, Gordy’s peak was in the early 90s before the overdose. Bret Hart I think would’ve worked really well with Gordy because Gordy could brawl and do power moves/be technical. I imagine a less aerial version of Bam Bam Bigelow vs Hart would be close to what we could have seen between these two.
Bret Hart vs Eddie Guerrero
If you think about the equivalent of the Four Horsemen from the WCW cruiserweight division of Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero, the one guy I don’t think we got to see take on Bret Hart was Eddie Guerrero (don’t think Jericho fought Bret either but that’s not really a dream match for me). The Benoit vs Hart dedication match to Owen Hart now is marred because of what Benoit did. And Malenko did have a match against Bret that Bret hates due to how Malenko landed on Bret’s knee. I don’t know if that was intentional or not but ever since then Bret held a grudge. I feel that with Eddie, Eddie would’ve been more respectful but probably more exciting than Benoit and Malenko because Eddie could bring a wide variety of offense from lucha libre to mat wrestling to a good power offense. Like between HBK vs Bret for 60 minutes and a potential Eddie vs Bret for 60 minutes, I think this match would’ve done better to fill those 60 minutes with less tension from both guys.
Bret Hart vs Kurt Angle
From what I read, this is one of Bret’s personal dream matches and I couldn’t agree more. Kurt was a natural but the one thing I think he lacked was figuring out the in between stuff as opposed to just suplexing his opponents over and over. Bret’s real strength was his vision for how he could work with his opponents. Logically, he knew how to put a match together and could work with virtually anyone. I do think this is one of those situations where both guys might actually want to shoot in a ring (a friendly shoot) just to see how they would hold up in a one on one. With Bret, he had his father’s Dungeon and tons of experience so seeing how that knowledge can be applied to the Olympic gold medalist would have been a real treat.
Bret Hart vs Barry Windham
This is perhaps my personal major dream match. Take two second generation guys with similar backgrounds, a respect for the business with great endurance and being in periods that coincided. With Barry, I would want him from his ’87 or ’89 years where he had those classics with Ric Flair that would go 45+ minutes. Give him Bret Hart from around ’92 when he won the Intercontinental title from Mr Perfect Curt Hennig (whom ironically Barry ended up tagging with later on in WCW) and see what you could do. On the one hand, you’d have a 6’6″ Barry who could brawl, wrestle, fly and bump with the best of them. He could give a good promo both as a heel and babyface. He was good looking and had a reasonable physique where he wasn’t roided out. Bret was the consummate professional who could tell a realistic story, had the endurance, had that cool factor but could back up everything he said. What about US title with Barry vs Bret with the IC title as the stakes?