[dave 1981]

I was just watching the often forgotten classic between Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley at In Your House: Mind Games from September in 1996 and it got me thinking that everytime these two were in the ring they had a great match although they didn't wrestle enough times for my mind considering how great they worked together. So after watching that it then made me think about who else had great chemistry in the ring that you wouldn't expect to work well together but always did regardless of what stage they wrestled on.

Feuds like Michaels/Angle, Steamboat/Flair, Michaels/Hart, Benoit/Angle and Savage/Flair are the types of feuds you always knew you'd get a great match from because of how truly great they were in the ring but then you'll get something like The Ultimate Warrior having great in ring chemistry with Randy Savage and Rick Rude or Goldberg working very well with Diamond Dallas Page. When they first feuded and had their first match at The Royal Rumble in 2006 i never expected John Cena and Edge to then go on to have brilliant chemistry and in 2006 they ended up having a couple of Match Of The Yea contenders.

On the flipside there have been people over the years that despite being great in ring workers simply didn't click in the ring at all with the one that stands out most to me being Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle who were arguably the two best all round in ring performers in WWE in 2004 yet never clicked. The Undertaker was someone who didn't click with a lot of the top stars and his matches with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Ric Flair and Jake Roberts never living up to the hype yet he clicked well with Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar so list the people who surprised you most with their great in ring chemistry and then the people who disappointed you most with their lack of in ring chemistry.

 

[Emperor Palpatine]

Undertaker never clicked with Bret Hart? Aside from their match in 91 or 92 when Undertaker was super limited due to his gimmick, they always did great together. Same with Flair; their matches back in the early days of Undertaker's gimmick weren't great (though still entertaining imo), I'd put their WM match as a true great match and easily match of the night (Hogan/Rock was only better in terms of crowd reaction). As for Jake, again, early Undertaker, plus didn't they only have the one match at WM? Hardly got any time too. Totally agree with Undertaker and Austin though. Love their JD 01 and BL 02 matches, but most of their prior matches were usually mediocre at best.

And to the original question, surprising chemistry... hmmm... Henry Vs Big Show is probably the most recent I can think of. 2 fatties wrestling will usually entertain me a little more than the average fan, but honestly I thought they had some pretty damn good matches together.

 

[WashingtonD]

Kane and Rey Mysterio comes to mind

 

[Patrick Bateman]

The matches between Undertaker and Bret are classics.

 

[Undashing Rom]

Kofi kingston and Ziggler.

 

[ddp]

batista taker

 

[Carcass]

CM Punk and Mark Henry. Completely surprised me with their matches. They weren't great or anything but they were good. Miz and DB too. DB can put on a good match with nearly everyone, but I was still surprised how good Miz and DB worked together. When one turns face, I would like to see them feud again.

 

[lhama]

Golddust and Regal. That match was random as hell, but a pure clinic.

 

[ddp]

punk cena. they might not have necessarily had the chemistry considering i thought cena and miz had chemistry before wm27.

 

[The Pied Piper]

I was just watching the often forgotten classic between Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley at In Your House: Mind Games from September in 1996 and it got me thinking that everytime these two were in the ring they had a great match although they didn't wrestle enough times for my mind considering how great they worked together. So after watching that it then made me think about who else had great chemistry in the ring that you wouldn't expect to work well together but always did regardless of what stage they wrestled on.

Feuds like Michaels/Angle, Steamboat/Flair, Michaels/Hart, Benoit/Angle and Savage/Flair are the types of feuds you always knew you'd get a great match from because of how truly great they were in the ring but then you'll get something like The Ultimate Warrior having great in ring chemistry with Randy Savage and Rick Rude or Goldberg working very well with Diamond Dallas Page. When they first feuded and had their first match at The Royal Rumble in 2006 i never expected John Cena and Edge to then go on to have brilliant chemistry and in 2006 they ended up having a couple of Match Of The Yea contenders.

On the flipside there have been people over the years that despite being great in ring workers simply didn't click in the ring at all with the one that stands out most to me being Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle who were arguably the two best all round in ring performers in WWE in 2004 yet never clicked. The Undertaker was someone who didn't click with a lot of the top stars and his matches with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Ric Flair and Jake Roberts never living up to the hype yet he clicked well with Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar so list the people who surprised you most with their great in ring chemistry and then the people who disappointed you most with their lack of in ring chemistry.

Wow, seriously? One Night Only 1997 & Summerslam 1997 with Bret Hart and Wrestlemania X-8 with Ric Flair are all "did not click" matches?

The only one I can agree with was Stone Cold. True, the feud was somewhat memorable, but any Taker/Austin is boring. But saying Taker/Bret or Taker/Flair "did not click" is laughable, I mean that.

BTW, his match with Lesnar is beyond overrated. Half of it was Lesnar giving Taker the beating of his lifetime, a pretty one sided and glorified squash match. Hardly ever "clicking" if u ask me, unlike the back and forth brutal action Taker provided with Flair or the wrestling clinic with Bret, so to speak.

Undertaker never clicked with Bret Hart? Aside from their match in 91 or 92 when Undertaker was super limited due to his gimmick, they always did great together. Same with Flair; their matches back in the early days of Undertaker's gimmick weren't great (though still entertaining imo), I'd put their WM match as a true great match and easily match of the night (Hogan/Rock was only better in terms of crowd reaction).

Agree with everything u said.

It always bothers me why so many people forget Taker's 1990's works.

As for Jake, again, early Undertaker, plus didn't they only have the one match at WM? Hardly got any time too.

Yeah, early Undertaker didn't really have that many memorable matches aside from Hogan, Kamala, and Yokozuna.

But I would say his match with Jake at WM 8 was probably as good as he would have had with Jake. The plus point of it was Undertaker gained the much needed knowledge of in-ring psychology from Jake.

Totally agree with Undertaker and Austin though. Love their JD 01 and BL 02 matches, but most of their prior matches were usually mediocre at best.

Yep, I agree with this. Though just a while ago someone just gave me a good explanation why their below mediocre match at Summerslam 1998 is often considered legendary or one of the greatest, I still cannot fathom the appreciation of it to this day.

But, while we're still talking about The Undertaker, I'd like to mention Taker/Batista.

Really didn't expect it to make it to Taker's top 5 feuds and series of matches ever (although I know Batista could deliver), but it did. Beyond awesome! Who would have thought a feud and matches with Batista can be memorable than with Austin?

 

[funnyfaces1]

Punk/Hardy
HBK/Kennedy

 

[dave 1981]

Wow, seriously? One Night Only 1997 & Summerslam 1997 with Bret Hart and Wrestlemania X-8 with Ric Flair are all "did not click" matches?

The only one I can agree with was Stone Cold. True, the feud was somewhat memorable, but any Taker/Austin is boring. But saying Taker/Bret or Taker/Flair "did not click" is laughable, I mean that.

BTW, his match with Lesnar is beyond overrated. Half of it was Lesnar giving Taker the beating of his lifetime, a pretty one sided and glorified squash match. Hardly ever "clicking" if u ask me, unlike the back and forth brutal action Taker provided with Flair or the wrestling clinic with Bret, so to speak.

As i said in another thread i made earlier today regarding 1997 i believe that 1997 to be the single greatest year in wrestling history from storylines to match quality to star power in the industry to having three companies doing great things. That being said though the match at SummerSlam between The Undertaker and Bret Hart wasn't really that good of a match and got by on the storytelling revolving around Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart and their match at One Night Only was a poorer version that was overshadowed by Shawn Michaels and The British Bulldog.

Of course this is all just personal preference but whilst The Undertaker and Ric Flair had a good match at WrestleMania 18 it wasn't as great as it could have been and didn't click like i thought it would especially considering The Undertaker was probably at his best as far as in ring work goes in 2002 due to his character change. I never said though that Undertaker/Hart and Undertaker/Flair were not good matches just that their chemistry wasn't anywhere near what i thought it should have been considering the people involved.

To everyone that has said Undertaker/Batista this is a perfect example of what i mean as who would have honestly believed that The Undertaker would have better matches with Batista then he ever did with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair or Bret Hart as i didn't. When you think of Bret Hart and Ric Flair you instantly think because of their in ring ability they will simply have a great match with everyone yet they didn't click with The Undertaker in the same way as Batista and Randy Orton did and Batista and Randy Orton are nor never will be as good as Bret Hart and Ric Flair were. Others that came to my mind earlier on were CM Punk/Jeff Hardy, John Cena/Umaga, Christian/Alberto Del Rio and Sting/Mick Foley as well.

 

[8 Pound Gecko]

Orton/Sheamus

Bryan/Miz

 

[The Pied Piper]

As i said in another thread i made earlier today regarding 1997 i believe that 1997 to be the single greatest year in wrestling history from storylines to match quality to star power in the industry to having three companies doing great things. That being said though the match at SummerSlam between The Undertaker and Bret Hart wasn't really that good of a match and got by on the storytelling revolving around Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart and their match at One Night Only was a poorer version that was overshadowed by Shawn Michaels and The British Bulldog.

Well, alright. Let's say Taker/Bret at Summerslam 1997 didn't fully reach its potential due to the constant disturbance by Shawn Michaels (which wasn't as effective as Wrestlemanania 28), but what about their match at One Night Only 1997?

Of course this is all just personal preference but whilst The Undertaker and Ric Flair had a good match at WrestleMania 18 it wasn't as great as it could have been and didn't click like i thought it would especially considering The Undertaker was probably at his best as far as in ring work goes in 2002 due to his character change.

Well, I beg to differ here considering Taker gets better with age so obviously 2002 wasn't his best. And I don't know what do you mean by saying Taker & Flair did not click since the fact remains that the match was back & forth, bloody, got a hot crowd, and was interesting to watch. If they did not click I'm sure the match would have ended like, say, Taker/Gonzales at WM 9 or Taker/Boss Man at WM 15 or Taker/Henry at WM 22.

Even Meltzer rated it the same with Hogan/Rock that happened the same night. From the pace and the quality alone, it's obvious it's better than Taker/HHH at WM 27, any Taker/Orton, Taker/Diesel at WM 12, any Taker/Lesnar, and any Taker/Austin. It was as good as it could get.

I never said though that Undertaker/Hart and Undertaker/Flair were not good matches just that their chemistry wasn't anywhere near what i thought it should have been considering the people involved.

I'm not sure what you were expecting to see from the matches judging from your opinion. Are you expecting to see something like Taker/HBK or Taker/Angle by watching Taker/Bret? Or are you expecting to see something like Taker/HHH or Taker/Edge by watching Taker/Flair? Because this is a pretty subjective matter, but I would beg you to reconsider saying Taker did not click with Bret & Flair. Because his matches with the two were as good as they get and it's a shame if you do not believe so.

And as you can see, I agree Taker's potential with Austin was never truly fulfilled. Another one I'd say Taker "did not click" would be CM Punk.

To everyone that has said Undertaker/Batista this is a perfect example of what i mean as who would have honestly believed that The Undertaker would have better matches with Batista then he ever did with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair or Bret Hart as i didn't. When you think of Bret Hart and Ric Flair you instantly think because of their in ring ability they will simply have a great match with everyone yet they didn't click with The Undertaker in the same way as Batista and Randy Orton did and Batista and Randy Orton are nor never will be as good as Bret Hart and Ric Flair were.

Well, I guess that's just the one cold harsh truth those naysayers will have to live with. If they refuse to acknowledge the fact that Taker/Orton, Taker/Batista, and Taker/Edge >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Taker/Austin, then I feel nothing but pity for them.

 

[themottoyolo]

miz and bryan, even though miz carried him at times

 

[ecabney]

miz and bryan, even though miz carried him at times

:kobe

The Miss doesn't have the ability to carry anybody to a good match

 

[Crowking]

:kobe

The Miss doesn't have the ability to carry anybody to a good match

For real... lol at Miz carrying ANYONE especially Bryan. Really???

 

[jonoaries]

I think Angle/Guerrero was good chemistry, maybe not quite Guerrero/Benoit (the guerrero includes Chavo in this instance because the Chavo/Benoit matches were good too).

I think I was surprised at the lack of chemistry between Edge & Christian. I think their matches against each other just never quite gelled the way I'd expected. The same with the Hardys, I always expected brothers (or friends) to have chemistry like Bret & Owen or HHH & HBK.

I was surprised at Henry/Show, especially from last year. They both suck but put on some entertaining contests.

 

[Swarhily]

Orton and The Miz

 

[cuauhtemoc85]

MVP/Benoit