Wednesday, 8 February 2017

6 Crazy Wrestling Leaps and Risky Entrances in Honor of Lady Gaga's Super Bowl Halftime Show

No that wasn’t Spider-Man leaping down from the roof of NRG Stadium in Houston Sunday night. Dressed in a Dazzler inspired superhero costume, Lady Gaga made the greatest entrance in the history of the Super Bowl halftime show, by leaping off the roof in a death-defying stunt. That move, along with the rest of her electrifying performance, blew up the internet (well at least till the end of the game when the Patriots crafted the greatest comeback in football history).

Hundreds of millions of viewers were wowed and amazed by her theatrics, but us wrestling fans had flashbacks of past similar in-ring feats and showmanship. Let’s be honest now, how many of you panicked for a brief moment seeing Gaga rapidly descend onto the field, hoping this wouldn’t be another Owen Hart tragedy?! Thankfully the stunt went off without a hitch as the grappling lines and harness did the job.

Lady Gaga’s leap has inspired countless memes, gifs and photoshopped pictures, that are amazing but also infused with classic wrestling moments.  In honor of her insane jump, we spotlight some of pro wrestling’s greatest leaps and high-wire entrances that would make Gaga smile! 

 

That’s Sting

Channeling her best “Crow” Sting impersonation, all that Gaga was missing as she was lowered to the field was a baseball bat and a black trench coat.


During WCW’s glory days of the late 1990s, the one person who stood up to and defeated the NWO was Sting. Ripping off Brandon Lee’s "Crow" appearance (white face-paint and all), Sting was known to hang out in the rafters like The Phantom of the Opera or Quasimodo, then he’d lower himself down to the ring and proceed to beat the crap out of any NWO member with his trusty baseball bat. Lady Gaga might think about adding that touch of flair to her entrance during her just announced ‘Joanne’ world tour.

 

Shane-O-Mac Leaps From the Hell in a Cell

At WrestleMania 32 last year we almost witnessed Shane McMahon kill himself as he leapt off the top off the Hell in a Cell right into an announcing table. That ‘OMG’ moment happened during his match with The Undertaker.  Shane taking high risks and incredible bumps isn’t new (as you’ll quickly learn), as just like his old man, Shane’s continuously sacrificed his body and gone to extremes to entertain the fans. 


Jumping off the top of a 20-foot steel structure might not be a regular thing Lady Gaga does in her shows, but if it’s at 10-feet, she might consider it. To keep her Little Monsters happy, she could do something similar to the ending of her Super Bowl show when she jumped off the stage and caught a football. FYI, that’s how you drop a mic!  

 

 

He’s Pointing Up To The Heavens

Vince McMahon’s favorite “Sexy Boy,” Shawn Michaels, innovated the epic entrance of coming down from rafters during a big show back in 1996. Maybe Gaga and her team were inspired to try her Super Bowl entrance after watching Shawn zipline down to the floor for his classic Iron Man Match with Bret Hart in WrestleMania 12. Not only was the entrance similar, but Gaga’s sparkling costume had shades of Shawn’s white and rhinestone attire as well.


As a ‘Thank You’ to Shawn, maybe Gaga can rerecord his theme song, giving it her energy. That’s nothing against the late-great Sherri Martel who provided the vocals for the original, but sometimes songs need a modern twist.

 

OMG Shane! Don’t Do It!

Shane McMahon returns and this time in a much scarier, more dangerous fall than the one he took last year.


While Lady Gaga is getting praise and high marks for her descent from the stadium roof, at least she was rigged up in safety wires, protecting her from a nasty, painful fall. Shane McMahon had no such luxury when he jumped off the top of the Titan Tron back in 2001. Hell in a Cell was 20-feet, but in this situation, the scaffolding next to the Titan Tron was at a crazy 50-feet. That replay moment occurred during Shane’s Last Man Standing match with the Big Show at Backlash. The icing on the cake was Jim Ross calling the match, adding his special “Bah, Gawd” flavor, which also creates gif magic!

Let’s be clear, Shane’s a millionaire who will inherit part of WWE when Vince kicks the can. There’s no reason for him to keep taking these scary falls that full-time wrestlers won't even do. That’s how much passion the man has for the family business.

 

That Must Be a 20-Foot Ladder

At this point it looks like Lady Gaga is cut from the same cloth as Shane McMahon and Shawn Michaels, as all three are risk-takers. This popular gif has Lady Gaga turning into Shawn Michaels during a Ladder match.


The clip is pulled from Shawn’s No Holds Barred match with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 22 in 2006. Stuffing Vince into a metal trash can and laying him on top of a wooden table, Shawn then proceeds to scale a 20-foot ladder. Doing some DX crotch chops for the fans before finally jumping down onto McMahon, as both men crash through the table. A high spot to say the least! The piece is enhanced once again by Jim Ross pleading with Shawn not to take that risk.

 

He’s Broken in Half!

You know the match. You’ve seen the replays. Yet it never gets old.

You can’t have a list of the most incredible leaps in pro wrestling without mentioning the grandfather of them all, Mick Foley vs. The Undertaker in 1998's Hell in a Cell. Foley got tossed off the structure then later in the same match, Taker sent him through the top of the cage as Foley’s body viciously crashed into the ring. Career-defining moments like that are what viewers will remember for the rest of their lives, just like Lady Gaga’s highlight at Super Bowl 51.

 

Get your wrestling fix any day of the week by visiting our Wrestling Wednesday page.



from Myspace - Editorial http://ift.tt/2kkMTIM
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)