100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 75 - Andre the Giant vs. The Ultimate Warrior
Intercontinental Championship - Saturday Night's Main Event, 25th November 1989
Similar to my review of the Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant match from Wrestlemania 5.I feel bad for once again going for what I’d consider to be low-hanging fruit. At the time of the Wrestlemania 5 match, he was just under 4 years from his passing in 1993. Now we’re here six months later and his condition has deteriorated even since then. He is physically immobile, which not only makes for a bad match, but an uncomfortable one to watch.
Despite this being two of the biggest stars in wrestling history, and two of the most larger than life characters wrestling has ever produced, the most depressing thing about this match is there’s so little to it. I don’t feel like I’m watching two larger than life characters. I feel like these two could have had an entertaining match based purely off spectacle and aura in another universe. Instead we get a surprisingly bland match with very little energy - understandably by Andre, but even Warrior lacks any energy here.
I just don’t get why you book the match like this. There’s no doubt that Warrior vs Andre is a big attraction match, but making the match go nearly ten minutes is an abomination. Due to the limitations of both men, especially Andre, the match consists mostly of long, long choke holds by Andre and bearhugs by both. One of Warrior’s best ever matches would come four months later against Hulk Hogan, and that match had some long tests of strength and down time. But what that match does have is struggle - every test of strength feels like a herculean clash by the two biggest stars in wrestling. This match doesn’t feel like there’s a struggle - they just sit in holds for long periods of time. The only struggle is Andre trying to manoeuvre around the ring. The rare time they aren’t sitting in a hold, they’re hitting one another with low impact strikes that once again ruins any immersion that this is a mammoth spectacle. There’s no reason for this match to be half as long as it is - and if this was just a short attraction match, it would be nowhere near this list.
Once again, it’s a short review for the match because there’s little commentary to be had, in my mind. This is just a grim match where two men that weren’t capable of having a match this long with the other. The match ends on an anticlimactic DQ after Heenan runs in to try and attack Warrior.
Up Next - a catastrophic debut for one of wrestling’s biggest stars, and a potentially contentious pick.
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