Colin Farrell’s Penguin Just Joined an Exclusive Club of Batman Villains

Colin Farrell’s portrayal of Oz Cobb a.k.a. The Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe is quite distinct. Farrell is nearly unrecognizable in this role, a plethora of prosthetics transforming him from a suave actor into the weaselly mobster we love to hate. Farrell has done such an impeccable job of embodying this character and […]

The post Colin Farrell’s Penguin Just Joined an Exclusive Club of Batman Villains appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s a new era for World Wrestling Entertainment, as Monday Night Raw has left the world of cable TV to jump exclusively to Netflix. Initially a replacement for WWF’s Prime Time Wrestling (at the time a roundtable discussion sprinkled with house show matches) made in response to the gradual death of NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, Raw redefined the company and became its flagship show. For over 30 years, over 1,500 episodes, and a phone book of in-ring talent, a whole lot has gone down and many shoulders have been counted to the mat.

In-between Yokozuna vs. Koko B. Ware and Lyra Valkyria vs. IYO SKY, there have been countless wrestling matches on Raw. Here are 10 that truly stick out as the very best ever in terms of in-ring quality and general importance in the grand scheme of things. Before you ask, no, none of these matches include The Great Khali. I know, I’m just as surprised as you are.

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Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair (1/25/93)

It only took the third episode of Raw for a great match to happen. Built out of the company’s sudden loss of The Ultimate Warrior, WWF used an episode of Prime Time Wrestling to build up a feud between Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair. Perfect’s realization that Ric Flair and Bobby Heenan were keeping him under their thumb made for possibly the best face turn in wrestling history. Their hatred reached a level where there wasn’t enough room in the company for the both of them. Hence, a match where the loser would have to leave the promotion. With Perfect refreshing his in-ring career and Flair being a recent WWF Champion, the winner didn’t seem so obvious.

It helped that in his brief WWF run, Flair didn’t do too many major singles matches on TV or even PPV. Having him go out with one of these, against someone on Perfect’s level no less, felt like a real treat and way bigger than something we’d expect to see from WWF Superstars or WWF Wrestling Challenge. With Flair out the door so early into this new show, it really felt like big changes were happening. Though funny enough, because this episode was taped in advance, Flair still wrestled a handful of matches for the company before leaving, including a Royal Rumble match that was shown live the night before this aired. It gets a little confusing.

Bret Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid (7/11/94)

Bret Hart and The 1-2-3 Kid are two names who really helped define Raw in its early days. The Kid’s jump from nameless jobber to popular midcard act really established how unpredictable the show could get, while Bret Hart’s time as WWF Champion really changed the game. No longer was it Hulk Hogan only defending the belt for special events or house shows. Now it was The Hitman being a fighting champion and taking on everyone from the likes of Skinner to Papa Shango.

Putting the honorable champion against the ultimate underdog was a masterclass in great wrestling. The two had fantastic chemistry to begin with, but then that was seemingly dashed with an early pinfall where The Kid had his foot on the rope and the ref didn’t see it. Rather than move on, Bret insisted on restarting the match and things kicked into gear. The Kid surprised Bret again and again with some slick moves and nearfalls, causing Bret to get noticeably frustrated. By the time it came to an end, you could see Randy Savage getting up to give it a standing ovation.

Mankind vs. The Rock (1/4/99)

It was the night when WCW shot itself in the foot so badly that they never recovered. Shortly after they ended Goldberg’s undefeated streak and championship run, they did a bait-and-switch main event on Nitro that had Hollywood Hogan become the new champ while reprising the New World Order and pissing off practically everyone. Meanwhile, as Raw was taped that night, WCW commentator Tony Schiavone infamously told fans not to change the channel by spoiling that Mankind was set to win the WWF Championship off The Rock. Many viewers heard this warning and responded, “Don’t threaten me with a good time!”

Mankind winning the world title was merely a detour towards a Steve Austin vs. Rock main event at WrestleMania XV, but it was still a huge deal. Mick Foley was beloved by the fans and the locker room, so seeing his hard work pay off in such a way felt beyond cathartic. Arguably the greatest fan reaction in all wrestling is when D-Generation X are brawling with Vince’s Corporation goons, only for the glass shattering sound from Steve Austin’s theme song to kick in out of nowhere. Schiavone joked about how that would “put butts in seats,” and he wasn’t wrong. Everyone in that arena excitedly stood up for that one.

The Rock, Cactus Jack, Rikishi, and Too Cool vs. Triple H, X-Pac, and The Radicalz (2/7/00)

People talk up what a disaster WCW’s freefall was in 2000, and for good reason, but on the other side of the coin, WWF was absolutely thriving. Not only were they bringing in some of the best WCW castoffs they could ask for, but they were hitting on all cylinders, even with Steve Austin’s lengthy absence due to injury. There was no better showcase of this than this 10-man tag that closed out this Raw on the road to No Way Out. Just don’t expect WWE to promote its existence, considering it was won by Chris Benoit.

The rivalry between Triple H and Cactus Jack expanded into their various allies gathering for this big tag match, giving us a big chunk of the roster from Nintendo 64’s No Mercy in action. The match isn’t a long one, but it doesn’t let up. Everyone gets to have their moment in the sun while the crowd remains electric throughout. The ending is a mere formality, as the brawling continues after the bell. The only thing that can put the carnage to bed? The surprise appearance of Kane to help the faces clear the ring. The Attitude Era wasn’t always as fantastic as people try to remember it, but times like this really show why the promotion was so unstoppable at the time.

Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy (7/1/02)

In the early 2000s, The Undertaker dropped the undead gimmick to be a big, mean biker guy, and it wasn’t his best work. It got worse when he turned heel, as he just felt like a worse copy of Steve Austin who would stop selling two seconds after taking any kind of damage. He was still a few years away from really hitting his stride as the maestro of the big time match, and it didn’t help that he won the Undisputed Championship in a terrible match against an over-the-hill Hulk Hogan. That said, when he faced Jeff Hardy in his one and only ladder match, things really clicked.

As part of an aborted attempt to split up the Hardy Boyz, Undertaker terrorized Team Xtreme for the sake of being a bully. He put his title on the line against Jeff Hardy, who was always on the cusp of being a singles star. The two played off of each other extremely well with enough hope in there to almost make you think Jeff was going to pull it off. It even gave us an all-timer Jim Ross call of, “Climb that ladder, kid! Make yourself famous!” while the camera work really did a great job of hiding Undertaker’s presence before his fateful comeback. Hardy looked tough in defeat, to the point that Undertaker gave him props, steering himself towards a much-needed face turn.

John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (4/23/07)

There were plenty of reasons to hate the never-ending stretch of John Cena on top. The frustration of seeing all the eggs in one basket, the burying of talent, the way someone could point out that he was in the wrong and he’d deflect it by saying “nice speech,” the way commentators would obnoxiously cheer him above all else, and so on. That said, when push came to shove, the guy could go. Look no further than his matches with Shawn Michaels, a guy who the fans really wanted to win the title off of Cena, even though Michaels was adamant about not wanting the real-life pressures that came with it.

After Cena retained the WWE Championship against Michaels at WrestleMania 23, a four-way was set up for Backlash featuring Cena, Michaels, Randy Orton, and Edge. The go-home episode of Raw was meant to have a Cena vs. Michaels non-title rematch, as well as Orton vs. Edge, but they ran into a snag. Orton was punished for some unprofessional conduct behind the scenes, and was sent home, meaning Cena and Michaels were told to stretch their match out to nearly an hour. And the madmen did it, having an absolute killer exhibition that would be Cena’s best match yet. Not bad for a last-minute change in plans.

The whole rivalry between John Cena and CM Punk is full of awesome matches, but it all represents the desires of the fanbase vs. the stubbornness of Vince McMahon. While, yes, Cena was never going to budge as the man on top, it still meant a lot in terms of the kind of wrestler CM Punk represented. After years of WWE’s love for bulky former football players over smaller indie wrestling darlings, guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and later AJ Styles were able to endure the wrath of a company that absolutely did not want them to succeed. That Punk was able to get a few high-profile wins over Cena, and even have a lengthy world title run, was a miracle, even if he was still never truly the company’s headliner.

When The Rock returned, it was only a matter of time before he entered the title picture and won the belt off Punk. Cena won that year’s Royal Rumble, meaning that WrestleMania main event was written in stone. Still, they dangled the possibility of an alternative to the viewers by having one last Cena vs. Punk match for the #1 contender spot. Knowing it was going to be their last go, the two left it all in the ring, creating a grand finale to their feud. They even made waves by throwing in a piledriver, which apparently got them in hot water backstage.

The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family (3/3/14)

There was a truly magical time when you could turn on just about any episode of Raw or SmackDown and be treated to a six-man tag featuring The Shield. It was a glorious time with every single one being the match of the night. Then one day, WWE pitted the two big heel trios against each other as Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns found themselves facing Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan. Their first match was at Extreme Rules 2014, which was a true contender for the match of the year.

And so, they did a handful of rematches. The first rematch didn’t quite hit the heights of Extreme Rules, but damn was it a fantastic showcase. As their first match was ultimately decided by which team had stronger bonds and The Shield was starting to show cracks, the Raw match built on that by having Rollins lose his patience with his partners’ bickering and reluctantly abandon them mid-match. Rather than completely fall apart from this loss, The Shield rebounded stronger than ever, and proved it by beating the Wyatt crew on the inaugural episode of Main Event. Good times.

Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair (7/25/16)

There was no greater uphill battle in WWE history than the women’s division. Once a section of the show dedicated to sexual humiliation at worst or three-minute distractions at best, it took a long time for the promotion to finally treat its female talent with respect. Much of that came with NXT putting in the groundwork with acts like Paige and the Four Horsewomen. Even when those women came to the main roster, it took a lot of time and effort for them to overtake the likes of the Bella Twins and Eva Marie.

Even though there were still so few who got that spotlight, these superstars really proved themselves when given the opportunity. This especially goes for the rivalry between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks, who kept trading the Raw Women’s Championship back and forth. One of their best bouts was on this 2016 Raw (itself a kickass show overall), where Sasha was quickly able to use her Eddie Guerrero fangirl trickster skills to get Charlotte’s lackey Dana Brooke ejected from ringside. From there, the two kicked it up a notch with some excellent ringwork, earning the fans’ adoration, and ending with both a series of false-finishes, and Charlotte making the funniest angry face while incorrectly screaming that Sasha would never beat her.

Gunther vs. Chad Gable (9/4/23)

For years, WWE couldn’t quite figure out how to transition up and coming stars from NXT to the main roster. NXT was Triple H’s dog and pony show, and Vince never seemed to pay much attention to it. That meant that when a successful NXT wrestler jumped to Raw or SmackDown, Vince made his own uninformed decisions on what they were about. To many, graduating from NXT was a career death sentence. Just look at “Bearcat” Keith Lee, EC3, or Ember Moon. Chad Gable felt like the second coming of Kurt Angle, but due to his height, he got shoved into a comedy loser gimmick where he was Shorty G. The nigh-unbeatable and highly protected Gunther was eliminated from a Survivor Series tag match with little fanfare because Vince just didn’t get his deal. How can you build the future when so much of it was undermined by the whims of an old man who doesn’t give a damn?

As time went on and Triple H had more say on the main roster, this became less of an issue. Great wrestlers could be great wrestlers and not be punished out of spite and indifference. Gunther became the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion, and it extended into a sweet trilogy that reestablished what Chad Gable was capable of. The hard-hitting Ring General took it to the best grappler in the company, and they absolutely rocked it. Some of the best chemistry that had people biting down on it so hard that upon Gunther’s win, the first thing they showed was a little girl crying. And that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?

What are your favorite Raw matches? Let us know in the comments!

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