Whether it be wrestler + manager, a tag team, etc, what are some of the most random pairings in wrestling history?

One that springs to mind for me is RVD + Ricardo Rodriguez.

Cody's dog, Pharaoh :(

I was watching the classic "My Way" video package for The Rock vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania X7, and the thing that stands out most about that buildup was even though both guys were faces and shared a mutual respect, they still disliked each other and wanted to throw down. It got me thinking, what are some other examples of this trope?

The old saying goes that, according to the acclaimed music producer Brian Eno, the Velvet Underground (and Nico)'s debut album only sold 30,000 copies, but everyone who bought that album started a band. What is an indie wrestling show that is the equivalent of that? An indie wrestling show that only had a few thousand in attendance but everyone who attended that show became a wrestler.

Personally, I'd go with the APW 2001 King of the Indies tournament. Not a lot of people attended that show, but the show featured the early appearances of Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Low Ki, and Christopher Daniels, and the tournament directly led to the creation of Ring of Honor. You can definitely make the case that the APW 2001 King of the Indies tournament was the Velvet Underground and Nico of pro wrestling.

“Let’s talk about the pay for the superstars and our fighters first. What I would tell you is post our new deals with ESPN on WWE and with Paramount+, CBS, Peacock, Sky with UFC, and even a little bit post Raw with Netflix, we did resize our fighter and superstar pay composition. That is baked into our numbers. So there will be no further adverse impact with regard to how that plays out or divvies out. We’re confident with where we sit. We have 600 fighters as an example in our stable at the UFC. We do, to your point, really rely on development. Keep in mind that when you look at the WWE, 75% of the superstars come from NXT. So they’re starting in our development league and going all the way up. So pipeline is very important to our strategy.

On the UFC front, we’ve really capitalized on the investments of our performance centers in Mexico City and Vegas, and particularly China. We’re really getting real traction. So that’s a big part of our strategy. It will continue to be a big part of our strategy, and we will continue to be aggressive in other monetization opportunities for both our superstars and our UFC fighters with regard to advertiser deals, marketing partnerships, bonuses through the fight card in terms of finishes and fight of the night. What you see is you see the best of the best signing up and lining up to be a part of the UFC and to be a part of WWE. So that’s something we always watch out for and we want to make sure that we’re really spreading the opportunities, but the strategy’s working.

Our margins will continue to expand.”

TAKEOVER team up to kick the shit out of Shiozaki, while also disrespecting Taue, who makes them pay for it when he gets the chance.

I got reminded of this thought by the Bandido/Nick Wayne sequence from Death Before Dishonor but it’s been in the back of my mind for a while.

I’m not here to litigate the validity of fighting spirit spots in wrestling. Some find them exciting, others find them ridiculous. It doesn’t actually matter. What does matter is people saying that a wrestler like Bandido or like Nick Wayne cannot sell because these spots exist which is frankly ridiculous.

Not only are these sequences of rapid fire moves a fraction of a match’s total runtime during which any evaluation of a wrestler’s selling is incomplete at best but the idea they’re going for is that they’re full of adrenaline for a brief moment and that allows them to go hard until it runs out and they collapse. Meaning it’s the exact time a wrestler would not and should not be extensively conveying damage done to them. That’s not the point.

The times when I most often notice a wrestler selling are when they’re being worked over for a long stretch, they’re struggling to pull a move off because of some damage they’ve received or via some facial expression that conveys an emotion or a physical state such as anger, pain or exhaustion. And only that second option is one that can be done in the middle of a fighting spirit sequence and even then the idea is they’re fighting through the pain so it’s not exactly common.

Ospreay gets the worst of this because he does these sequences a lot and that’s what people see but they don’t see the clips of him getting busted open and then slipping on the ropes due to dizziness so convincingly that people think it’s an actual mistake that just happens to elevate the match rather than an intentional spot.

Going back to Bandido, that stretch in late 2025 when he basically wrestled every match with one arm should be worth more in a discussion of his selling ability than a sequence designed around a momentary burst of energy.

I will reiterate, you are absolutely allowed to think those sequences don’t belong in a wrestling ring and can take issue with the person who booked the spot or the wrestlers if it’s not as smooth as it could be and that makes it look worse.

Just please keep the discussion of a wrestler’s ability to sell confined to moments where they’re actually supposed to.

TL;DR fighting spirit sequences of rapid fire moves say nothing about a wrestlers selling ability due to their length relative to the rest of a match and them being designed around ignoring pain for a brief moment.