The Ten Greatest Unintentional Comedy Moments in Wrestling History

One of the reason’s I love professional wrestling is the numerous emotions it puts you through. Sometimes, it’s moments of elation, like last year at Money in the Bank when CM Punk defeated John Cena in one of the most satisfying matches ever. Sometimes, it leaves you deflated and sad, like last night after the scare involving Jerry Lawler (get well soon Jerry. The wrestling world is nothing without you). Most of all though, wrestling is great at making me laugh, and not all the times intentionally. Indeed, wrestling is one of the best sources of unintentional comedy out there, a fact that makes the product even better to me. Sure, none of the moments are great in the classical sense, but if we can’t laugh at the mistakes, then there would be nothing to correct. Plus, then things like Plan 9 From Outer Space wouldn’t exist. Who honestly wants to live in a world like that?

Thus, I’ve compiled a list of the ten funniest unintentional comedy moments in wrestling history. Like my last top ten, this is all opinion based, so feel free to agree or disagree with the choices. With the exception of one of the moments, I've posted all the links below. Enjoy!

10. Big Boss Man crashes funeral of Big Show’s father (11/11/99)-Part of the reason wrestling fans love the Attitude Era so much is not just because of captivating storylines, but also because of the failures the era produced, which were more than often hilarious. If Rock and Austin were the two men that represented the good, the Big Show and Big Boss Man represented the bad, being featured in everything from angles of poor taste to just plain ridiculousness. Thus, it was only fitting the two would feud together, leading to one of the oddest moments in Smackdown history when Boss Man interrupted the funeral of Big Show’s father (who had been dead for years) and stole his casket. If the beginning of the segment seems to have really poor taste, than the ending is even worse, as Big Show rides his father's casket as Boss Man drives away, launching numerous internet jokes and one of the funniest wrestling columns ever, Ridin' With the Bossman.

9. Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martell blindfold match (3/24/91)-With an incredible build up and featuring two incredibly talented workers, Jake Roberts and Rick Martell’s match at Wrestlemania VII promised to be a fantastic payoff to a great feud. That is, until WWE decided to blindfold both men, giving way to a real life Road Runner chase. The match itself is awful, but the confusion of the two performers, Roberts’ pointing his finger around the ring every five seconds and the Guantanamo Bay like hoods placed over both of them throughout leads to some amusing action. Other highlights include Martell being hopelessly over the top at all times, and the wonderful commentary by Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, helping to make the match feel even sillier.

8. The Final Twenty Minutes of Monday Night RAW (2/13/12)-If there is any wrestling event that personifies what it’s like to watch Tommy Wisseau’s The Room, the go home edition of RAW before Elimination Chamber this year is that event. The final twenty minutes of this show, prominently featuring John Cena, Eve, Zach Ryder and Kane (though a solid CM Punk-Miz match does take place in between all of this) is so amazingly awful, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a film adaptation one day. I mean everything you could think of happens; a women running into an ambulance obviously set up as a trap, a overtly dramatic dive from said ambulance followed by an over the top make out session, a subsequent over the top reaction to said make out session, a self righteous promo blaming a third party for the reason of the make out, the near beating of an injured wrestler, and finally, the injured wrestler being thrown off the stage in his wheelchair. The best part of this whole segment? The wheel chair folds perfectly upon landing. I wish I was making that up. Actually, no I don’t.

7. Beaver Cleavage Angle (5/99-6/99)-Another example of the Attitude Era gone wrong, Beaver Cleavage was intended to be the beginning of a singles career for the former Headbanger Mosh. Instead, the Leave it to Beaver inspired character last a grand total of a month, providing wrestling fans with some poorly constructed sexual innuendos (“mother’s milk” anyone) and comedy that was so bad it went all away around back to being transcendent. If the angle had lasted a month longer, it would be in the territory of some Nicolas Cage movies.

6. The Giant runs over Hulk Hogan’s motorcycle (9/17/95)-For all the flack given to some angles WWE has run, no company produced more wackiness than WCW. Always a hit and miss with the storylines, perhaps the goofiest example was a feud between WCW Champion Hulk Hogan and newcomer The Giant back in 1995. What looked to be a solid feud at first slowly dissolved into a Monster Jam wet dream, starting with this moment here. During a Hogan promo cut in a North Carolina road, The Giant would come in on a monster truck and run over Hogan’s motorcycle. Fans screamed in horror, The Giant laughed as if he had created Frankenstein, and Hogan banged against the monster truck like a child in dire need of candy. It’s a scene so surreal, so out of control and so inexplicable (seriously, why is a wrestling promo being filmed in the middle of the road) that David Lynch couldn’t tell you what’s going on. Somehow, it isn’t even the funniest moment on from this feud.

5. “And the beat goes on” (9/19/87)-The late “Macho Man” Randy Savage will go down in history as one of the most colorful superstars of all time as well as one of the greatest in ring technicians we ever saw. Despite that, his promos had a tendency to range from bat shit crazy to full on insanity, and thus his promo from a 1987 episode of Superstars breaks into the top five on this list. Appearing absolutely out of control, Savage would go on a soliloquy that would include references to bridges, forks in the road, choosing right over left, and numerous references to a beat that went on. Oh, and Honky Tonk Man gets a brief mention as well. The best part of the segment though is “Mean Gene” Okerlund playing the whole thing straight despite the absurdity of Savage throughout. He literally makes the whole thing work.

4. Ultimate Warrior Wrestlemania 6 Promo (1990)-The only person able to top Savage in terms of strangeness, Ultimate Warrior’s promo on Hulk Hogan leading up to their huge match at Wrestlemania VI is perhaps the strangest promo of all time. Sure, Savage’s promo was nuts, but Warrior takes it to a whole new level, rambling about Hogan’s plane taking a nosedive on its way to the big event. No seriously, the whole promo is basically about Hogan taking the controls of his plane and killing himself. It would be a tad more understandable if Warrior was a heel, but the man was one of the biggest good guys in wrestling at that point. Thus, like the rest of Warrior’s promos, it made absolutely no sense in the slightest, but was highly entertaining. It also gets bonus points for Warrior pronouncing Hogan as “Hoak Hogan.” Millions of wrestling columnists are thanking you Warrior.

3. The Osirian Portal Uses Hypnosis (11/13/10)-The only reason this moment is number one is because I’m not fully sure if it’s supposed to be intentionally amusing or not. Even still, there’s no denying that The Osirian Portal’s hypnotizing move against The Runaways in CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling) is one of the strangest and downright funniest moments to ever take place in the wrestling ring. The commentary is only made better, with one of the men yelling such classics like, “He’s using hypnosis!” and, “This is the most illegal move in the history of…wrestling!” I swear that man is the yelling Jim Nance of wrestling announcers. The lone low point; one of the wrestlers from the locker room (who were also hypnotized by the way) suddenly starts doing a striptease at ringside. There is no amount of anything in the world that could ever take the scarring image of that moment out of your head.

2. Hulk Hogan throws The Giant off a roof (10/29/05)-If the motorcycle segment between Hogan and Giant was the Troll 2 of the feud, this moment is the feud’s Wicker Man (starring Nicolas Cage). Taking place after a Sumo Monster truck match between the two (I’m not joking, there does exist a Sumo Monster truck match), The Giant would corner Hogan at the top of the Cobo Center (where this match took place) and was prepared to toss Hogan off the building. Hogan was able to counter however, and The Giant was wobble his way off into the river, as the announcers went nuts and Hogan reacted as if he had forgotten his wallet. Hilarious stuff, made more so by the fact that The Giant would later face Hogan in the main event for the WCW Heavyweight belt and was COMPLETELY fine. I guess falling off a tall building for him is like falling to a floor for us. The morale of the story kids; only have a Sumo Monster truck match on a roof if you’re over seven feet tall. Otherwise, it’ll end poorly for you, and just be funny for the rest of us.

1. The Shockmaster debuts (8/18/93)-Perhaps the most infamous debut in wrestling history, and most certainly the most hysterical, nothing comes close to beating the debut of The Shockmaster. Set up to be a major face alongside the likes of Sting and Davey Boy Smith, The Shockmaster debut was supposed to be blockbuster, as shown by him bursting through a wall on his first appearance. Instead, the wrestler tripped and fell as he broke through the wall, losing his helmet (which looks like what a stormtrooper prostitute would wear) and thus his credibility. Laughter, shock, and numerous other things could be heard as this happened, and shockingly, it only continued to spiral when The Shockmaster talked. Voiced by Ole Anderson (even though Fred Ottoman was the wrestler portraying Shockmaster), the debuting wrestler would deliver one of the worst pieces of dialog ever. Like, it’s Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor bad. By the time it’s all over, you will either be rolling on the floor or trying to contain your laughter like Sid Vicious is. No doubt, The Shockmaster’s debut is the King of Kings of wrestling fails.