Match of the Day - The first time Big Show breaks the whole ring

Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE Championship match - Smackdown! (2003)

So here it is, the first time in the history of WWE that a slam was so powerful that it literally broke the ring.

To be quite honest, this was actually really awesome for my young elementary school mind at the time it took place. I remember going to school the next day, SD! was still on Thursdays, and telling everybody and anybody willing to listen. This was a big fucking deal. So, when I came back to wrestling after taking some time off to learn that this same exact spot was redone in 2011, I was furious! Now hear me out, when I say that the same exact spot was redone, I don't just mean that Big Show was in a match where the ring completely collapsed again, I mean Mark Henry (playing the role of Brock Lesnar) got Big Show up on the top rope and superplexed him in such a incredible fashion that the ring implodes.

Looking back on things now, I guess it makes more sense that Mark Henry could break the ring from superplexing Big Show since Brock Lesnar, a smaller individual compared to the 400+ pound World's Strongest Man, was able to in this match.

Theme results

Ring Destruction: The ring collapses. 

Match of the Day - The one where Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow go through the ring!

Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW World TV Championship match - ECW Living Dangerously (1998)

In one of ECW's most memorable matches, the TV champ, Taz takes on the giant journeyman, Bam Bam Bigelow in a grueling brawl at Living Dangerously '98. The most memorable part of the match, of course, is the finish that saw Taz performing his signature Tazmission on a standing Bam Bam Bigelow which leads to Bam Bam falling backwards - sending both himself and Taz under him through the ring!

From what I've read, and heard on Jeremy Borash's ECW documentary, Hardcore Forever, Terry Taylor admits that he saw this classic spot at the time and brought it to WWF where it was redone in the form of Big Show chokeslamming the Undertaker through the ring in 1999.

Here's a better look at Taz and Bam Bam collapsing the ring:

Theme results

Ring Destruction: A big hole in the ring filled with Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow.

Match of the Day - The first ever tag team tables match in WWE history

The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz - Tag Team Tables match - Royal Rumble (2000)

From my favorite Royal Rumble comes the double tables match between the red-hot team of The Hardy Boyz and Big Daddy Dudley's baby boys, The Dudley Boyz. These two teams along with Edge and Christian were redefining the tag division like no one else during this time and the desire to put each others' bodies on the line seemed to be the theme that went along with every match. This match was also an early precursor to the teams unforgettable TLC series as all three types of hardware was used during this non stop car crash.

I would also like to point out that the Swanton Bomb spot Jeff Hardy performs at the end of the match was later used again in another tag team tables match that was this time a six-man elimination with Jeff Hardy on the same team as Bubba Ray. The match also happened to take place at Madison Square Garden just as this match did three years prior.

Match of the Day - Now for a real deathmatch...

Jon Moxley vs. Brain Damage - Dining Deathmatch - CZW Tournament of Death 8 (2009)

Remember how I said that last deathmatch wasn't like the kind where the two wrestlers beat each other with fine-china until one has a near-death experience or something like that? Yeah, well this is that match with the china (there probably weren't that "fine") - among other things you would find in dining rooms, like: tables, chairs, grandfather clocks, and skilsaws (I'll get to that later).

But what was for dinner? Thumbtack cake, of course! At least that's what I've heard... and it makes sense really, not only because this is Combat Zone Wrestling, but because they wasted it by throwing it into each other's faces rather than eating it. I guess if they had eaten it, it would have been called a cake eating deathmatch.

I'm on a roll with bad jokes this week. Hah, roll.. like bread.

I'm sorry.

This match between Jon Moxley (Currently the US champ in WWE as Dean Ambrose) and the late Brain Damage is probably one of the best Moxley deathmatches and heavily talked about especially because of the skilsaw spot. There, I got to it.

Theme results

Food: cake!

Match of the Day - TNA's Hard 10 tournament: where everything's made up and the points don't matter

Hardcore Wednesday

It has come to my attention today that New Jack has retired from wrestling. I guess there's one less liability to worry about.

Rather than posting his retirement match (against Necro Butcher at this years' PWS Super Card), I've decided to just post this match instead for no reason other than I didn't want to post his notorious scaffold match with Vic Grimes yet or any match where he tries to stab his opponent to death.

That's New Jack's thing. Stabbing people to death.

New Jack vs. Sandman - Finals for the Hard 10 championship - NWA:TNA (2003)

Back in '03, TNA decided to add a little hardcore to their menu. So what better way to do this then by making a tournament revolving around a few ECW alumni mixed in with some guys who wrestled a couple times for ECW (Devon Storm, Vampire Warrior, Wolfie D) along with Mike Sanders and Sonny Siaki from WCW's Power Plant. But here's the catch - because this is TNA remember: there's got to be a catch on top of a catch - there was a point system.

A hardcore point system!

Apparently the way to win a match in this tournament was to get 10 points by using the weapons that were strategically placed around the ringside area and held by fans. The weapons that the competitors brought to the ring themselves did not count, however. Also, using a table was 5 big ones alone. So basically this tournament was just an excuse to see wrestlers get hit with random objects for five minutes like WWF's hardcore division circa 2000.

But it had a hardcore point system!

New Jack and Sandman, the two people hardcore enough to make it to the finals, battled it out in a back and forth struggle for points using the weapons they could find just laying around. Towards the end of the match, everyone loses count of the points and New Jack and Sandman make their way to the nearest balcony for New Jack to fall off of.. I mean get pushed off of.

Classic New Jack.

All that's missing is "Natural Born Killaz" being played on repeat throughout the duration of the match.

NFT will miss you, New Jack.

Match of the Day - Triple H's third match of the night on Smackdown! in 1999

Triple H vs. Mankind - Boiler Room match - Smackdown! (1999)

Flip back over to WWF in 2000 and you would see a lot of Triple H. This was at the height of HHH's push as himself and meant he was in the spotlight a lot. Some say it could be due to the lack of Stone Cold at times and others could say it was due to him banging Mr. McMahon's daughter, Steph, never the less, late 1999-2000 was all HHH.

On one Thursday night Smackdown! (remember those) in late 1999 though, There was a lot more Triple H than the normal Triple H show... See, Triple H that night would actually be in 5 matches! If he couldn't win 3 out of 5 of them that night HHH would not get his title shot he had won Yep, this was just his third bout here taking on his soon-to-be foe, Mankind in Mankind's specialty match, a Boiler Room Brawl.

A Boiler Room Brawl is when two competitors fight inside the confines of the arena's un-padded boiler room with the winner being the first person out of the room.

Triple H gets his second win of that night after escaping the boiler room unharmed thanks to someone pushing Mankind off of a high place for another Mankind super bump. I believe it was later relieved to be Chyna but I honestly do not remember when and how it was relieved...

Theme Results

Non-ring: a boiler room.

Match of the Day - Wrestlemania X-Seven's triple threat hardcore title match

Hardcore Wednesday:

Raven vs. Kane vs. Big Show - Hardcore Tile match - WWF Wrestlemania X-Seven (2001)

In one of the most memorable hardcore Wrestlemania, the hardcore champion, Raven must battle the two biggest wrestlers WWF had in 2001, Kane and the Big Show. 

This hardcore match lasts about a minute in the ring before making its way to the backstage area where many  memorable spots are performed including: Raven getting thrown through a glass window, Raven slipping and almost getting run over by the cart, and Kane and the Big Show going through a door then through a wall. The match ends at the entrance way when the Big Show and Raven both fall off the side of the entrance ramp into a cloud of smoke giving Kane the chance to perform what looks like a blind flying leg drop into the carnage to the side of the ramp. Kane ends up landing on the Big Show and gets the pinfall to become the new hardcore champion at the seventeenth annual Wrestlemania.

Overall a very enjoyable worked match!

During this match we also learn that Paul Heyman's favorite type of snapple is diet peach.

Match of the Day - The young and the ridiculous

Konnan vs. "Dangerous" Devon Storm - WCW Monday Night Nitro (1996)

One year before having a short run with WWF in their short-lived light heavyweight division, Devon Storm took to the skies, ropes, chairs, stairs, and what ever he could jump off of as the spot hungry, "Dangerous" Devon Storm in WCW to take on Konnan, the current US heavyweight champion at the time.

Both of these athletes would later reinvent themselves in WCW many years later as Konnan made a name for himself again as a member of NWO Wolfpac and eventually with The Filthy Animals while Devon Storm went on to be a bet more of an uncanny competitor as he donned the ripped jeans and went by Crowbar as he aligned himself with Zombie-hot but screams like a banshee Daffney and the Nature Boy's dysfunctional son, David Flair.

Konnan defeats Devon Storm with somewhat ease as he clearly was a very capable and skilled wrestler. Being a well-trained wrestler is not what get's you big in pro wrestler believe it or not, however, and Konnan would pretty much get overlooked through most of his career in WCW up until about the point where he just started wearing the street clothes and all that. One place he definitely wasn't overlooked at was Mexico considering Konnan was basically the John Cena of his day in Mexica.

That's a big deal I've heard.

Match of the Day - Sleeveless-flannel monsters ball match: Abyss versus Mick Foley

Hardcore Wednesday:

Abyss vs. Mick Foley - Monsters Ball Match - TNA Bound For Glory (2009)

Everyone's dream match, right?

Just watch.

Special guest referee: Dr. Stevie Richards.

Also features "Zombie Hot" Daffney taking a barbed-wire board bump. That was awesome *chants*.

Match of the Day - Shane McMahon: which way did he go? Answer: Down part 1

Shane McMahon vs. Steve Blackman - Hardcore Championship match WWF Summerslam (2000)

This Hardcore Wednesday match has the claim to fame as that match were Shane McMahon, being the spot junky that he is, gets caned off the titantron via "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman and his lethal kendo stick (it's really a singapore cane but whatever). A year later we saw the same drop at Backlash (McMahon vs. Big Show) but this time it was Shane-O-Mac jumping off the titantron rather than falling. The latter gets remembered a bit more while this match is really only remembered as that one match were Shane McMahon had the Hardcore title and the 24/7 rule was suspended so these two "marvelous athletes" could actually have a real (hardcore) match.

The contrast or Steve Blackman's use of weapons with his martial arts background and Shane McMahon's never-stay-down underdog attitude is also very fun to watch.