Cactus Jack / Dude Love / Mankind / Mick Foley vs. Triple H for the WWF Championship (Street Fight), from WWF Royal Rumble 2000
What's most appreciable here isn't what happens in the match but what doesn't happen. What doesn't happen is a game of oneupmanship typical of hardcore matches, with each trying to inflict the greater punishment. Both men are looking for the win here, and putting the other out of action would be just a lovely bonus. Trips is meek but motivated; Cactus, violent, creative, and conniving. There's a clear story here with clearly defined heroes and villains (unusual heroes and villains, too) that still manages to achieve lovely spectacle, and I don't know there's more I can ask out of wrestling.
10