These two wrestlers never really got along. Bruno Sammartino was World Champion in America and Antonio Inoki was Japan’s greatest wrestler. During a legendary 1970s match in Osaka they aired some of that acrimony. Antonio Inoki instigated by shooting in a few moves off script in an effort to out-wrestle Bruno “the Strongman” Sammartino.
The Strongman answered the aggression by trapping Antonio Inoki in a front face-lock, pounding him ruthlessly, and finally tossing him out of the ring. Humiliated, Inoki never entered the ring with Sammartino again.
June Byers vs. Mildred Burke
This contention goes way back to a 1954 “lady wrestling” contest. Then, Mildred Burke was a pioneer of the sport for women and held the NWA World Women’s Championship title, undefeated for almost 20 years. After years of her husband and promoter womanizing in front of her and flaunting his numerous affairs with other women in the business, she divorced him. His name was Billy Wolfe and he turned on her, vindictively, blackballing her from her career while she strove to hold onto her title. The legendary match between Mildred Burke and June Byers was supposed to settle this score. Byers won the first pin, but Burke prevented her from getting the second pin to win.
They fought hostilely with animosity, going after each other for over an hour until officials called the match without a winner. The press reported June Byers won, so she became the legitimate world champion. Mildred Burke didn’t concede a defeated and maintained her right to her title.
Spider Lady vs. Wendi Richter
This was a huge WWF event billed at Madison Square Gardens. It was there Wendi Richter would fight to maintain her title, having won the Women’s Championship on the first WrestleMania, when she stripped it from arch enemy Fabulous Moolah. When Richter hopped into the Madison Square Gardens ring with the masked Spider Lady, she expected an easy win. Instead, she received a legendary betrayal. Maybe it was because she asked Vince McMahon for increased compensation, or maybe her reign was up, because what happened next was unbelievable.
In the ring, dancing with Spider Lady, Wendi Richter started to get suspicious about who was behind the mask. She ripped it off and, lo and behold, it’s Moolah! Moolah pinned her and stole her title, after a ref who was paid to be in on the sabotage, hastily called the match for Moolah.
Shawn Michaels vs. The Harris Brothers
Back in the 1990s, Shawn Michaels was an arrogant son-of-a-gun, cocky, conceited and critical. When he made fun of The Harris Brothers, calling them wimps, losers, quitters because they couldn’t afford to go on tour with the WWE, Ron Harris was not going to take it. Infuriated, he grabbed Shawn Michaels by the throat and threw him against the wall.
Kevin Nash stepped in and diffused the tangle. One version of the story says Shawn Michaels began to sob as Ron Harris slammed him against the wall. The fandom likes that version.
Koji Kitao vs. John “Earthquake” Tenta
This scheduled showdown went completely off the rails of its script, careening into a mismatch with a grandstanding Koji Kitao dissing the sport of pro wrestling to the entire audience. It was March 1991 and WWF co-sponsored the show in Japan at the Tokyo Dome. John “Earthquake” Tenta was a former sumo wrestler as was Koji Kitao. In this match Earthquake was scripted for victory and Koji Kitao wasn’t having it.
Koji Kitao kicked the ref, grabbed the mic and announced that wrestling is fake, angry that he could take Earthquake in real life and unwilling to submit to the loss, fake or real. It was one of the strangest outcomes in wrestling history.