The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
One of the most unique ways of debuting a future main-eventer that I’ve ever seen - take someone who the audience has literally never heard of before, the commentators don’t even know anything about him, put him in plain black shorts, have him already in the ring with no theme music and no introduction, put him against an established midcard heel in what by all appearances should be a routine jobber squash, and have the rookie utterly DESTROY him. I remember watching this match live when I was 14 and being utterly shocked and confused by what just happened. Then the next week he did it again, then again, and again, and soon he had theme music and a big entrance and pyro, and next thing you know he’s on an undefeated streak, wins the US title, and then beats Hulk Hogan clean as a whistle on free TV for the world heavyweight championship. They really knew they had a star on their hands and they executed his introduction perfectly.
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Pinpointing a match that cemented Bret’s career can be difficult. Having been fortunate enough to watch it in real time in the early 90s, I can attest it was very gradual with a lot of great matches along the way. I also considered his match against Piper at WrestleMania 8, and the entirety of the King of the Ring 93. But I decided to go with the match in Wembley stadium against the British Bulldog. Bret had been seen as a star before this and of course he came into this match as the champion. But this was a wrestling clinic that Bret had to essentially walk Davey Boy through in real time. From what I’ve read and heard Bulldog was completely messed up all day before this match and had completely forgotten the plan like half an hour before they were supposed to go out. At least that’s the story most tell. Bret lost yes, but he made both himself and his brother-in-law look like major stars in front of 80,000 people in a less than ideal situation. I don’t think that was lost on people.
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Mankind vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell match, King of the Ring 1998
I struggled with this one, because Mick Foley had already unsuccessfully competed for the WCW, ECW, and WWF Championships. Not to mention he had established himself as the King of the Death Match in Japan. But he took an unholy amount of punishment in this match and just-- kept-- getting-- back-- up.
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Mankind vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell match, King of the Ring 1998
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Mankind vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell match, King of the Ring 1998
The Undertaker, Survivor Series 1990
Diesel vs. Bob Backlund, Madison Square Garden house show 1994
The former Master Blaster/Oz/Vinnie Vegas got a bit of a rub being Shawn Michaels bodyguard in 93, then won the Intercontinental title as well as Tag Team championship with Michaels. The two were the hottest heels in WWF at the time and Diesel’s size and attitude got him over so much so that he turned face after one too many superkicks from Michaels. Bob Backlund won the WWF Championship from Bret Hart three days prior at the Royal Rumble but was no match for a kick to the gut and a Jackknife from Diesel. His time with the belt wasn’t the best but he was able to spin that into a “Most Favored Nation” contract at WCW and the formation of the NWO.
Stasiak was once a well known wrestler. In 1975 he was pushing 40 and looking much older in when he won the WWWF title from Pedro Morales in order to avoid having Bruno Sammartino take the title away from another ‘face’. No idea why they chose him.
I recall Stasiak appearing on film possibly in one of the productions of Requiem for a Heavyweight, but cannot find any credits for him aside from wrestling shows.
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Mankind vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell match, King of the Ring 1998
The Undertaker, Survivor Series 1990
Diesel vs. Bob Backlund, Madison Square Garden house show 1994
Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet, Best of the Super Juniors 23
I commented on this match in the old WWE thread back when it happened in 2016. This was the first time I ever saw a “Holy shit!” chant from a Japanese audience, and the match went viral and put Ospreay’s name on the lips of wrestling fans all over, and lead to his match with Vader which got even more people talking, and eventually to becoming IWGP world champion.
The Match Makes the Man (or Woman)
Matches that made a wrestler’s career and turned them into a superstar
(Note: The person you’re talking about should be listed first)
Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Clash of the Champions I
Darby Allin vs. Cody Rhodes, Fyter Fest 2019
Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13
Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus, WCW Monday Nitro, 1997
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Championship, SummerSlam 1992
Mankind vs. The Undertaker, Hell in a Cell match, King of the Ring 1998
The Undertaker, Survivor Series 1990
Diesel vs. Bob Backlund, Madison Square Garden house show 1994
Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet, Best of the Super Juniors 23
John Tenta (Earthquake) vs. Ultimate Warrior, 1989
Not a match, but an event where Dino Bravo challenged Ultimate Warrior to a test of strength. Gene Okerland “randomly” chose Tenta from the audience to sit on Bravo’s back while he did pushups. When it was UW’s turn, Tenta dropped his entire weight (468 lbs) on him, establishing himself as a monster heel. Bravo’s career faded shortly after that.
Gimmick reinventions that actually worked
The Godfather
Charles Wright had been Papa Shango and Kama the Fighting Machine prior to this incarnation, and his pre-match promos had audiences shouting “Pimping ain’t easy!”
The original Sin Cara was an established star in Mexico, but he just didn’t transition to WWE’s style all that well, didn’t speak English, and had a reputation for botching. When he got injured in 2011, and again in 2013, they put Hunico in the costume instead and he did better as Sin Cara and a lot better than he’d done as Hunico.
(Honorable mention to Hunico’s tag team partner, Camacho, who went to Japan and became Tanga Loa.)
First introduced as 3rd generation wrestler Rocky Maivia and pushed hard in his rookie WWE year as a “blue chipper.” His athletic abilities were on display but the babyface character really didn’t work and fans showed it with “Rocky Sucks” chants. A heel turn with the Nation of Domination allowed the Rock to show his natural charm and charisma.
When they jumped to WCW in 1996, they used their real names and established the nWo, kayfabing a hostile takeover by their former company. This led to WCW winning the Monday Night Wars for about 1 1/2 years until they choked on their own excesses.
The Rock was also a repeat of Dusty Rhodes’ face turn to become the American Dream back in the 70s where Dusty introduced the People’s Elbow and the idea of the People’s Champion. There had been many highly worked heel turns in wrestling before then, but it was rare to see such a major face turn that went over so well. Despite Dusty’s unique and ground breaking type of charisma he was working on Gordon Solie’s Florida show with Eddie Graham and Dusty was the star of the show and he had never been an out and out face that I know of up to that time. The Rock had to make his name starting as a minor player in a much bigger promotion with a lot more competition, and had to make people forget his original ‘Rocky sucks’ face character and tedious heel turn in the Nation. Gotta give him credit for taking a good idea and making it so much bigger and better.
Started as a star-spangled babyface and it got worse when he became Sexual Chocolate. His House of Pain gimmick late in his career propelled him to the World Heavyweight Championship.
Two smaller guys going nowhere until they became Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty and changed the team name from Too Much to Too Cool. Decent run until Taylor got injured and Christopher (Lawler) thought smuggling drugs into or out of Canada was a bright idea.
ETA: Adding a dancing Rikishi did not hurt, until he decided to run over Austin.
As Husky Harris, Windham Rotunda was little more than a goober who was never going to amount to more than being one of Wade Barrett’s flunkies. After the Nexus petered out, they sent him back to NXT, paired him with Harper and Rowan, let him reinvent himself as a rambling swamp messiah, and he became one of the most memorable characters of the 2010s, even if he was saddled with bad booking much of the time.
Formerly known as “Stunning” Steve Austin and “Superstar” Steve Austin, as well as the Ringmaster in the WWF. Austin was picked as a star early on. And had a very successful tag team with Brian pillman. But was still seen as more as a successful mid-carder than a main eventer. One legendary promo later, followed by one legendary submission match with Bret Hart, and you have one of the greatest of all time.
The original version of the gimmick, a babyface gospel preacher group, was forced on them by Vince but the crowd booed them so much that they were turned heel and leaned into the hate by pretending to be oblivious to it while acting really goofy and silly. They were too good at being funny to hate any more, so the crowds starting cheering them and they were switched face again while keeping the new gimmick.
In which Cody tells the story of the worst match he’d ever been in, a six-man on Smackdown where he, Wade Barrett, and Ted Dibiase Jr. went up against Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara I, and Ezekiel Jackson, where a botched kickout on Dibiase’s part resulted in the match ending 15 minutes early, and what happened when Dibiase confronted Vince backstage afterward.
“Where’s that referee? HE WAS TRYING TO FUCK ON ME!”