chemistry?

Breaking Good Chemistry?

Credit goes to cabspaintedyellow [what’s the meaning behind this name, btw?] for the idea on this post.

But who are two people who had fantastic chemistry that really had absolutely no right to?

Most recently I’d have to say Henry vs Big Show. I mean, who wasn’t just absolutely dreading those matches?

Also, I wouldn’t say that Cena & Punk had no right to great chemistry, but who thought they’d end up amongst the greatest of all time. They’re in Flair/Steamboat territory if you ask me. Hell, they were the only good thing about The Hangover III.

Steiner vs Goldberg from Fall Brawl 2000, and their following cage match on Nitro fit in as well. I mean, you wouldn’t expect these two to have good matches with anyone, let alone each other.

All About Chemistry

Hey Scott, 2 list/opiniony questions for you; Firstly, what pairs of workers had unusually great chemistry together? I’m using the word chemistry here to basically say that if wrestler X and wrestler Y are in a match together, it will be better than an average wrestler X match or an average wrestler Y match (so, you know, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels elevating stiffs doesn’t count as them having chemistry with the stiffs unless the match is great by Michaels/Flair standards, too). I think it also has to be more than just one match, because anybody can accidentally have a great night. I could only think of a few, but I fee l like you’d probably be able to think of a lot more for me to check out. Anyways, here are the ones I could come up with:
Bret Hart/Owen Hart Edge/Kurt Angle Punk/Cena Bret Hart/Steve Austin Cena/Batista Scott Hall/Shawn Michaels Rick Rude/Ultimate Warrior (Rude was generally a really good worker, but Warrior, uh, wasn’t…yet they had several great matches.) Savage/Warrior (borderline case, as Savage is basically in the Michaels/Flair tier as far as dragging good matches out of absolutely anyone…but WM7 and Summerslam are both epic classics even by those standards) Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels (both A+++ level workers, but they both seemed to hit another level when they went against each other) Undertaker/Shawn MIchaels (As far as I’m concerned, these guys had 3 ***** matches against each other, which is pretty much Flair/Steamboat territory, which reminds me…) Flair/Steamboat And, IMO, the absolute #1 no-bullshit "put these guys in a match together and they’re both going to overachieve" has got to be Rock/Foley. They were so good together it even extended to tag matches when they were on the same side.

Shawn-Undertaker is a pretty amazing case, because they had one ***** match in 1997, and then another one more than 10 years later when both guys were totally different workers.  That’s some impressive chemistry together.   In particular when the Royal Rumble came down to the two of them and they basically worked a 10-minute match together and tore down the house, I knew they had something special together. Flair and Luger had some great matches that were outside of the normal Flair broomstick formula (Flair + anyone was ***, and Luger got up to nearly ***** with him on a regular basis).  On a tag team level, the Rock N Roll Express and Midnight Express could get a good match out of a lot of guys, but those teams together was MAGIC.  Ditto for British Bulldogs v. Hart Foundation, where they basically all came up in the business together and had been refining their craft together for years. 

All About Chemistry

Hey Scott, 2 list/opiniony questions for you; Firstly, what pairs of workers had unusually great chemistry together? I’m using the word chemistry here to basically say that if wrestler X and wrestler Y are in a match together, it will be better than an average wrestler X match or an average wrestler Y match (so, you know, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels elevating stiffs doesn’t count as them having chemistry with the stiffs unless the match is great by Michaels/Flair standards, too). I think it also has to be more than just one match, because anybody can accidentally have a great night. I could only think of a few, but I fee l like you’d probably be able to think of a lot more for me to check out. Anyways, here are the ones I could come up with:
Bret Hart/Owen Hart Edge/Kurt Angle Punk/Cena Bret Hart/Steve Austin Cena/Batista Scott Hall/Shawn Michaels Rick Rude/Ultimate Warrior (Rude was generally a really good worker, but Warrior, uh, wasn’t…yet they had several great matches.) Savage/Warrior (borderline case, as Savage is basically in the Michaels/Flair tier as far as dragging good matches out of absolutely anyone…but WM7 and Summerslam are both epic classics even by those standards) Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels (both A+++ level workers, but they both seemed to hit another level when they went against each other) Undertaker/Shawn MIchaels (As far as I’m concerned, these guys had 3 ***** matches against each other, which is pretty much Flair/Steamboat territory, which reminds me…) Flair/Steamboat And, IMO, the absolute #1 no-bullshit "put these guys in a match together and they’re both going to overachieve" has got to be Rock/Foley. They were so good together it even extended to tag matches when they were on the same side.

Shawn-Undertaker is a pretty amazing case, because they had one ***** match in 1997, and then another one more than 10 years later when both guys were totally different workers.  That’s some impressive chemistry together.   In particular when the Royal Rumble came down to the two of them and they basically worked a 10-minute match together and tore down the house, I knew they had something special together. Flair and Luger had some great matches that were outside of the normal Flair broomstick formula (Flair + anyone was ***, and Luger got up to nearly ***** with him on a regular basis).  On a tag team level, the Rock N Roll Express and Midnight Express could get a good match out of a lot of guys, but those teams together was MAGIC.  Ditto for British Bulldogs v. Hart Foundation, where they basically all came up in the business together and had been refining their craft together for years.