I was thinking on this earlier, and I wanted to get everyone's thoughts. Who do you think are the greatest heels (or greatest heel period) in professional wrestling past or present? You can give reasons if you would like.
Yes, there was the cage match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but do people remember that match in the same vein as an Austin/Rock, Rock/Hogan, Hogan/Warrior, Warrior/Savage or Savage/Steamboat? No, and that's kinda the point
*Taps finger against chin, in deep thought*
I wonder what Austin/Rock, Rock/Hogan, Hogan/Warrior and Warrior/Savage has in common that the Austin/McMahon steel cage match doesn't.
*Continues to ponder*
Welcome to the magic that is Wrestlemania. The one event of the year that can help any major match be remembered for years to come. For as memorable as Rock/Austin from WM 17 is, do people remember their following night's cage match on Raw nearly as well? What about Ricky Steamboat/Savage? They even had another PPV match at the Wrestling Classic. Does anyone even mention that? Warrior/Savage had a rather good follow-up at Summerslam 1992, but people only talk about their Retirement Match. And of course, there was the Montreal Screw Job sequel, where Rock faced Hogan for the second time with people not remembering it well compared to their Wrestlemania classic.
Had the Austin/McMahon cage match have happened at Wrestlemania 15 (Let's say Rock vs Foley in some sort of gimmick match is for the belt) for just the second time in history (First match on Raw in 1998 where Dude Love returned as a heel), it would have been huge and still remembered today.
In some ways, McMahon wrestling so little is a positive. It meant there were less matches, each one feeling more important and would be remembered easier. Just because McMahon wasn't a full time wrestler meant we had to be depraved of that big final showdown.
Yeah, but that's kinda my point though. The biggest matches of all time are almost invariably occurring at WrestleMania, because that's the touchstone for each and every year. It's the measuring stick by which other matches are judged, and because of McMahon's limits as an in-ring performer, you never truly got a blow-off for the feud. It just kinda dwindled into nothingness until WrestleMania X-7 and the disastrous turn.
Also, the Savage/Steamboat match at the Wrestling Classic was held about sixteen months before the WrestleMania III match. It's only natural that people remember the superior match that came after, you know?
I feel old if Ted DiBiase, Owen Hart and Curt Hennig are considered old school. :