My first glimpse into what’s known in wrestling as “the shooter” came when I laid eyes on Ken Shamrock for the first time. Just an 11-year old kid seeing this guy who didn’t need some fancy moniker or eye-popping gimmick. Here’s this badass dude who could walk into any room and effectively kick the shit out of anyone in it. Honestly, there was something terrifying about it – but, you’re also reading the work of a guy whose first favorite wrestler was Doink the Clown, so I accept that many of you are probably squinting and/or calling me soft at this point.
But, when it came time to put on a big time program, “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” would shine as bright as a diamond. I always look back at his feud with The Rock as one of the greatest Intercontinental Championship feuds of the era.
It was just so heated and intense. There’s no better way to encapsulate the whole thing than one simple clip…
How is @ShamrockKen even alive after this? pic.twitter.com/WxIzO6QuUr
— RetroWWE (@RetroWWE1) March 21, 2020
Man, all these years later and this shit STILL hurts to watch.
Being a kid at the time, I legit thought Ken Shamrock was dead. I thought for sure that The Rock had just blasted the brains out of his ears. I was just learning about wrestling’s great secret at the time and didn’t understand that everything was a work. So, there was apart of me that also thought that The Rock genuinely hated Shamrock and took matters into his own hands.
I’m revealing too much of what a bitch I was back in the late 1990s. Let’s stay on task.
This thing is fucking disgusting. I honestly have no idea why it happened. I don’t remember the circumstances that led up to this. This chair shot, alone and in a vacuum, is all that exists inside my head. That’s the impactful impression it made on me. And, while I’m talking about the impression this chair shot had on me, I do just remember thinking, “The Rock is FUCKING BASTARD. How dare he?!?!?”
The big question is where does this chair shot rank in the history of chair shots? If you were to ask me to think of the most brutal chair shots in wrestling history, this one would probably be the first one I think of. That time that announcer got hit during the Hogan-Vince Street Fight at WrestleMania XIX comes to mind, too.
Regardless, Attitude Era Ken Shamrock was the fucking man, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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