May 7, 20209 min read

30 Day Wrestling Challenge - Day 19 Favourite Storyline

Storylines are such an important part of wrestling and we have had been treated to so many brilliant, whacky, emotional and downright awful ones that picking a favourite is nigh on impossible.

The WSBF nerds have given it a go though - let's find out their favourites!

MATT CONNOLLY - THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF KANE

"And that.....That's gotta be Kane!" Words that are embedded in every wrestling fans head. Vince McMahon falling over himself on commentary only heightens what is the most impactful debut of all time. The dark sinister lighting. The menacing walk to the ring made him look every inch of the 7ft Big Red Machine that he was described as.

The super human strength to rip of the Cell door carried an intensity not seen before in the fed. Kane's first appearance is the greatest introduction to a character ever, not to mention how well his presence was foreshadowed. We are not hear to talk about the premier of Kane though. We instead focus on the most hellacious family reunion this planet has ever seen!

You all know the story so I won't go through it all and dissect what works and what doesn't. All you need to know is his name is Kane and he is coming to kill his brother. The biblical implications of this are there for all to see. The resurrection of a soul that Undertaker thought he would never see again. As I type these words I can see the parallel universe where this story plays out on Jerry Springer but that story lacks Fire and Thunderbolts and frankly too many of the characters are humans.

I need undead zombies with a Father figure whose names means he could only enter one profession. The thing is, I didn't even watch WWE/F at this point. I was bought up on a Wrestling diet of Monday Night Nitro because I have always attempted to be counter culture. Whilst I was getting gassed about Goldberg breaking dudes in half my friends would tell me that Austin would kill him.

They laughed at Sting because Undertaker would bury him . I said they were talking waffles and backed my Southern Rasslers. To my mate Louis this must of just sounded like "Challenge accepted". I can't put a date on it, but we sat down some time later and watched Wrestlemania 14. I can't really remember what I thought of all the matches but I remember being absolutely glued to the promo package for Taker/Kane. I bought it as 100% legit and to be honest it kind of terrified me.

I believed Bearer telling me Taker had attempted to murder his brother in a fire. I believed that Kane's face was hamburger meat under that mask. I had no reason not to trust that both men could control the elements. This story presented a side of wrestling that I had not seen on the other channel. I didn't think of the impossibilities I only dreamt about the next outlandish things these two could do to each other.

As a kid, that's the whole point! Long before you become cynical and care about workrate you want to see super heroes and super villains! Kane was what 10 year old me thought was the coolest thing on the planet yet I still wanted Undertaker to literally bury him in the ground.

Fellow Nerd group member Dom recently described how nostalgia is the strongest emotion he knows. He said it after 10 cans of Guinness but I think he was speaking the truth. Wrestling has been relying on it for years now and there are many instances of it damaging the future but the instant gratification of hearing the Taker Dong or Kane's Organ still have me buzzed every time.

I attended a Raw taping in 2018 and still went Bananas for Kane knowing full well his hips move with a lot less oil on them these days. The Kane/Taker matches were never really that good. The Austin/McMahon feud is the one that best advertises what is good about The Attitude Era but if I have to sit down and relive a character arc then please let it be The Brothers of Destruction's opening 6 months as deadly foes.

BRUM - THE GOLDEN LOVERS

This was a tough one to pick today as there are 3 wrestling storylines I get excited about for different reasons.

One I'll save for the "Favourite Feud" next week as it suits that more. Another is the rise, fall, and return of Jimmy Havoc but I guess that's more of a "run" than a storyline.

And finally, the one that I want to touch on today, which is the most ambitious and well executed wrestling storyline of all time: The Tale of the Golden Lovers; Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega.

Earlier this year, I wrote a 4,500 word essay on the fundamental cancers of wrestling booking and how it can be resolved. I don't think I can actually share it though because I'm worried it will read like the manifesto of the Unabomber.

In my frenzied scrawlings, one of the few examples I managed to pluck out which managed to achieve what a wrestling storyline could achieve is this one.

The beats of the storyline itself are quite simple. A person is inspired by another person. These people meet and become best friends. Jealousy drives conflict. Redemption leads to reunification.

And simple is good. I'm not a fan of poorly written Dan Brown style thrillers which eschew multi-layered characters and relationships for convoluted plots; hackneyed reveals; and turgid cliffhangers. I feel the same about wrestling.

The Golden Lovers tale didn't need bells and whistles because it had heart, nuance, and it had multi-faceted relationships.

The best example of this is at Invasion Attack 2015, where Ibushi was challenging AJ for his world title. Omega was the sole person to accompany AJ, and it was the first time that Kenny and Kota had been near each other in a ring in years.

Rather than hamming it up, it was played subtly with Kenny's conflicting internal emotions telling the story. The fact that AJ still won and the relationship having only an indirect role in the outcome is perfect.

In addition, this was still years before any embers of a reconciliation was on the cards. Patience, Iago.

I'd like to rattle on about the Young Bucks feud too, and how well it told multiple B-stories at the same time, but this entry is already far too long.

Before I ride off into the sunset, I want to touch on the perceived romantic element of the storyline. Like many others, I've always interpreted The Golden Lovers as a story about more than friendship. Not quite StrongStyle Mountain, but still a dimension of note.

The fact that (a) this wasn't explicit, that (b) the story works with or without it, and (c) that it was an element of the story rather than a driver of it, is way more ambitious than the notion of two male wrestlers having non-platonic feelings for each other in a storyline and it not being played for laughs.

Is this piece of art an indication of wrestling's future or a beautiful anomaly that we should cherish? I have no fucking clue.

SHAFI - UNDERTAKER v UNDERTAKER

For my favourite storyline we go back to the greatest year in wrestling history, I am of course talking about 1994. Now it may not actually be the best ever but it's the first year that I was able to watch all of the big 5 PPVs so it has a special place in my heart.

If you look up a list of wrestlecrap then this storyline will probably be on it, it was widely panned. But that doesn't change my mind, it just puts more weight behind the idea that idiots like company.

As a 7 year old The Undertaker captivated me. My dad was my hero and once in passing my dad said he liked The Undertaker. It was probably a throw away comment to make me be quiet but I took it to heart and never forgot.

My dad's endorsement coupled with the fact Taker was an unkillable zombie made him pretty much Godlike in my eyes. The only time I remember him losing was against Hogan at Tuesday in Texas and that was due to Hulk cheating!

My uncle was also a Taker fan and he leant me a VHS of Undertakers Gravest Matches. On it I saw the Deadman vanquish Kamala in a casket match at Survivor Series 92. There was no hinge on the casket lid back then and it was super creepy seeing Undertaker hammer nails into the lid trapping the Ugandan Giant whilst the commentators talked about suffocation.

Fast forward a year and Taker is named on the All American Survivor Series team against the Foreign Fanatics. The match would be the start of a one year feud with the WWF champion Yokozuna. At Royal Rumble 1994 Taker would get a chance to take the belt in his speciality match, the one that had vanquished Kamala.

Yoko was petrified of the big wooden box and the belt was destined to be Undertaker's again. That was until 11 dastardly heels would interfere in the match and stuff the Undertaker into the casket and cost him victory. That is not all they would cost him though as lightening would hit the casket and the Undertaker ascended to heaven.

At this point I didn't know that wrestling was worked. None of my school friends watched wrestling and I wouldn't own a PC for another 10 years, not that the Internet was a big thing then anyway. Therefore everything I saw was real.

Undertaker disappeared. In the WWF magazine and on the TV shows there would be reports of sightings but they were akin to Big Foot sightings and could never be verified. Where was the Undertaker and would I ever see him again?

In the summer on an episode of The Heartbreak Hotel, the Million Dollar Man dropped a bombshell. Everybody has a price and so does the Undertaker. I didn't believe him, Gods don't need money. Taker didn't even have any pockets for fuck sake! Ted was a no good bad guy and he was a liar!

That is until the next time he was on The Heartbreak Hotel and he brought a guest with him. It was the Undertaker! Fuuuuuuck!

Ted spoke about how he had been the one to bring the Undertaker to the WWF and now he was the one who had brought him back. I didn't know how to react. I didn't want to believe it but I was seeing it with my own two eyes. Why Undertaker why?

The story would take an unexpected twist. Paul Bearer started to claim that Ted's Undertaker was not real and that Paul was in contact with the real one. Percy had clearly put down the Pringle tube and picked up the crack pipe because Undertaker was with Dibiase whereas Paul was all alone.

This was a lot for my young mind to comprehend. Fortunately the WWF realised that and brought in Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun fame to help get to the bottom of the mystery. He didn't help a lot. Paul Bearer said that his Undertaker would be at Summerslam 1994 and the infamous Undertaker vs Undertaker match was made.

I waited with baited breath. There is only one Undertaker and he was with Ted Dibiase, what was Paul Bearer going to do?! Ted and his Undertaker made their way to the ring. Paul Bearer then came out alone with his Undertaker. I knew this going to happen!

He'd clearly taken one too many sips of the embalming fluid.

Paul then produced a giant urn from a casket and a light shone out from it. Then another Undertaker appeared from the entrance way! TWO UNDERTAKERS! MIND BLOWN!

I don't know how but I suddenly knew that Paul Bearer's Undertaker was the real one. It was probably because Vince on commentary said it was and I had no reason to doubt such an upstanding member of society.

What followed was an epic match which culminated in the Undertaker reversing an tombstone attempt from the Underfaker with that super cool thing he would do where the opponent falls backwards and Taker lands on his feet and his the tombstone. He would hit two more tombstones for good measure before picking up the 3 count.

After this match the Underfaker would never be seen again and real Taker would get his revenge on Yoko at the next PPV, Survivor Series 1994, courtesy of another casket match and Chuck Norris.

I loved this storyline. I'm probably the only person that liked this storyline AND Kane vs fake Kane (which admittedly was massively botched). I think it also demonstrates the importance of kayfabe and watching wresting through the eyes of a child as I never once questioned anything I was told.

Age and the Internet have taken some of the shine away from storylines as now I would know Brian Lee was going to be the fake Taker before it even happened. However it warms my heart that I have been able to share the greatness of this storyline with the likes of WSBF's resident podcaster JCH who has equally embraced it.

30 DAY CHALLENGE

DAY 1 - FAVOURITE MALE WRESTLER

DAY 2 - FAVOURITE FEMALE WRESTLER

DAY 3 - FAVOURITE MOMENT YOU'VE SEEN LIVE

DAY 4 - FAVOURITE TAG TEAM

DAY 5 - YOUR FIRST WRESTLING MEMORY

DAY 6 - FAVOURITE FACTION

DAY 7 - FAVOURITE PROMOTION

DAY 8 - FAVOURITE MANAGER

DAY 9 - FAVOURITE COMMENTARY TEAM

DAY 10 - FAVOURITE ENTRANCE THEME

DAY 11 - FAVOURITE MATCH