Brian Damage
This Week in Wrestling: Week 35 of 2026
This past week was AEW’s All In event and from the looks of it, was extremely successful. It was headlined by Kenny Omega versus Will Ospreay which was said by some to be the “greatest main events in the history of professional wrestling.” Admittedly, I didn’t see the match in its entirety, just highlights. I am very familiar with their work overseas in New Japan however. No question on the abilities of both wrestlers. From what I saw, they put on one hell of a match. Dave Meltzer was one of those people who said the match was one if not the greatest of all time.
That statement led Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) of all people to disagree with Meltzer and point to Ric Flair versus Ricky Steamboat as the greatest match of all time. Some agreed and others did not. One that did agree with Rucker was ‘The Nature Boy’ himself. Ric Flair said that while Omega/Ospreay definitely delivered in quality, his matches against Steamboat were on a completely other level.
Certainly, the generation gap between wrestling fans showed with many “old school” fans saying Flair/Steamboat was the greatest and new school fans stating Omega/Ospreay is untouchable. Speaking as someone who watched that incredible trilogy of matches between Flair and Steamboat, I am a bit biased in saying they were some of the greatest matches in NWA and wrestling history. That is absolutely not a knock on the All In match. As I previously stated, I didn’t see the entire match. The storytelling in Flair vs Steamboat was phenomenal. The combination of that with great technical mat work and sprinkled in some aerial maneuvers make it a personal favorite.
At the end of the day, pro wrestling and what is considered to be the greatest of all time is very subjective. Everybody will have an opinion. Some will agree and others disagree. Love him or hate him, Flair is definitely considered one of the all time greats. Ricky Steamboat was one of the very best workers and sellers in wrestling history. Together their chemistry was really undeniable. To me, the comparison isn’t really that close, but that’s one opinion of millions.
Photo Gallery
Fatal Influence with and without makeup.
Shotzi Blackheart with a fake Lio Rush tattoo on her face…
Mother Wayne
Brooke Adams
Nattie Neidhart
Karissa Rivera
Thunder Rosa
Elayna Black
Megan Bayne
Kayla Becker
Video Gallery
Jesse Ventura showing off those acting chops early in his career…
CHICC
It is frustrating seeing sports & entertainment use phrases like ‘greatest [insert here for sport/entertainment] of all time’ or ‘greatest player/athlete/wrestler/match’ etc because its LAZY reporting by the company or broadcaster/writer/analyst etc.
Yes you can argue its personal opinion but it 100% is going to have bias rather than neutrality and there’s not much worse than bias when it comes to sports entertainment because it is centered around territorial fandom where ‘diehard fans’ would cater only to 1 brand/team/wrestlers while blindly ‘hating’ against what they consider ‘rivals’.
It makes sense that a current generation of ‘fans’ may not ever have seen Flair v Steamboat or even a more recent underated match from NXT UK between Dragunov v Walter for NXT UK title and the list is endless not limited!
The crazy part of why ‘greatest of all time’ is moot is because whenever its said nowadays it’s already overused & hyped in spite of how amazing the match(s) may have been!
Simplest reason being that you can guarantee that within less than 6months there’ll be many more sports entertainment ‘matches’ that will also be labelled ‘greatest of all time’ making it more necessary to stick to Top 10/20 hell top 100 even… anything BUT ‘greatest of all time’.
Brian Damage
Very well said.
Luke
For the record, it was Meltzer who started arguing with Hootie, not the other way around. I don’t know if Hootie knows or cares who Meltzer is and I don’t think he even replied to his reply.
Look, you can like what you like. If this was your favorite match of all time, fine. Personally, I’d rather watch King Kong Bundy vs the Duke. (If you know, you know.) Again, preferences. But let’s be objective for a moment. What’s pro wrestling supposed to be? Making fake look real. What did Omega and Ospreay do? They made real look fake. Now, if anyone has any objective arguments the other way, I’d love to hear them, because I really haven’t heard any from anyone, especially Meltzer, who never in his life went on record to state what makes a great match. I’ll even start you off: Ospreay’s entrance. The only thing that ruined it was Bobblehead Moxley. Dude could have just stood there or backed away after he gave him the flag, but no…
Another personal opinion: BD, writing about Meltzer is beneath you. You’re ten times the journalist he ever was and you can’t even dream to come anywhere near the idiot he is.
Objective question: Who’s the better wrestler? The guy who knows how to make thousands of people cheer or boo with a headlock, or the guy who’s either slowly killing himself with spectacular moves or mutilating himself in hardcore matches to crickets or laughter?
Signing off with what’s greatest of all time to me: Bret vs Owen at WM 10. (And yes, I saw Flair vs Steamboat.)
Off topic (but kind of on…): Am I the only one who prefers Fatal Influence without makeup?