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Worst in the World: Sting vs Tony Palmore-Battle 7

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This match raises some questions. First off, who is Tony Palmore? Well, he's a professional kickboxer who won gold twice at the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations World Championships in 1978 and 1979 in the +84kg division. He is not a wrestler. That might raise the question as to why he's not only wrestling, but wrestling one of the biggest stars in wrestling in Sting, and how a match this bad could've been held by New Japan Pro Wrestling, widely considered to have the best wrestling in the world in 2020. Well, the answer to that is simple...Antonio Inoki. Antonio Inoki loved shootfighting, so much so that he tried his damnedest to mix it with professional wrestling during his tenure as the owner of New Japan, including pushing for his wrestlers to embark on MMA careers during a boom in MMA's popularity in the early 2000s. Poor Yugi Nagata, one of New Japan's top stars in the early 2000s, was truly fed to the wolves, as his only two MMA fights were losses against two of the legit greatest fighters in MMA history in Mirko Cro Cop and Fedor Emelianenko. Another aspect, however, was booking MMA fighters in wrestling matches and putting them over his own talent. Bob Sapp, a now-infamous MMA fighter accused of throwing fights late in his career, is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Even if you were an undercard wrestler like Tadao Yasuda, you could be skyrocketed to World Champion material just because you can punch good for real. Battle 7 pre-dates Inoki's hardest MMA push, dubbed "Inoki-ism", but you can certainly see signs of it with the Final Countdown BVD tournament. The four-man tournament saw Inoki himself and Sting each facing a legit fighter, with Sting taking on Palmore and Inoki facing Gerard Gordeau, a savate fighter who was the runner-up at UFC 1. It was horrible, with Sting vs Palmore being so bad that Dave Meltzer gave it minus 4 stars and won the Worst Worked Match of the Year for 1995. I can't see anything good come from this, so let's get into it.
The match starts with Palmore throwing punches and kicks at Sting...and that's it. That's the entire match. Palmore takes shots at Sting, sometimes he blocks it, sometimes he doesn't, Sting backs into the corner and the referee breaks it up. You can tell that Sting is way out of his depth in this match, as he spends the entirety of the match with his hands up ready to block at all times. Sting gets his first moment of offense 90 seconds into the match when he hits a hip toss and locks in a headlock, but Palmore quickly scrambles for a rope break. Back to Palmore striking Sting, including a pretty cool inside-out crescent kick. I don't know if that's actually what it was but that's what I'm going with.  Palmore follows up with more kicks and punches, which range from incredibly soft to stiff as sh*t, before he hits an axe kick. Sting avoids a kick attempt and goes for a German suplex, which Palmore definitely wasn't ready for as the two fall to the ground awkwardly. More striking from Palmore, another axe kick, and more strikes before Sting blocks a kick and locks in the Scorpion Death Lock for the submission win.

The Verdict

I don't even know how to rank this. 99% of this is Palmore taking shots at Sting, who has about three offensive moves throughout the entire bout. This hardly even qualifies as a match. On top of all that, it's painfully dull. This match is only 4:30, but it feels a lot longer. It's not the worst I've ever seen, not by a long shot, but it's definitely not worth checking out for yourself.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1. Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts-WrestleMania IV
  2. Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  3. Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt-WrestleMania 33
  4. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  5. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
  6. Triple H vs Sgt. Slaughter-D-Generation X: In Your House
  7. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  8. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  9. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  10. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
  11. Steve McMichael vs Reggie White-Slamboree 1997
  12. The Tag Team Fatal 4-Way Match-WrestleMania 13
  13. Tag Team Battle Royal-WrestleMania XIV
  14. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  15. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
  16. Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones-Clash of the Champions IV
  17. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
  18. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
  19. Jerry Blackwell vs Boris Zhukov-SuperClash II
  20. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  21. Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael-Halloween Havoc 1997
  22. The Great Khali vs Kane-WrestleMania 23
  23. Savio Vega vs Crush vs Faarooq-Ground Zero: In Your House
  24. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  25. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  26. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  27. Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
  28. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
  29. Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards-Unforgiven 2004
  30. Kane vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2009
  31. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  32. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
  33. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
  34. Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
  35. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  36. Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
  37. Dusty Rhodes vs The Honky Tonk Man-SummerSlam 1989
  38. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
  39. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  40. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  41. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  42. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  43. Stevie Ray vs Konnan-World War 3 1998
  44. Vampiro vs The KISS Demon-Bash at the Beach 2000
  45. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
  46. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  47. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
  48. Van Hammer vs Terrance Taylor-Clash of the Champions XVI
  49. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  50. The Undertaker vs Goldberg-Super ShowDown 2019
  51. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  52. Jim Duggan vs Big Boss Man-Royal Rumble 1990
  53. Meng vs Jim Duggan-Uncensored 1995
  54. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
  55. Sting vs Tony Palmore-Battle 7
  56. D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel
  57. Wendi Richter vs Leilani Kai-WrestleMania
  58. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
  59. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  60. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  61. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
  62. Kane vs The Great Khali-Breaking Point
  63. PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
  64. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  65. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
  66. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
  67.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  68. Super Invader vs Todd Champion-WrestleWar 1992
  69. King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart vs Yokozuna & Jake Roberts-Heroes of Wrestling
  70. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  71. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
  72. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
  73. The Knockouts Gauntlet-One Night Only: Live! 2016
  74. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
  75. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
  76. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
  77. Brothers of Destruction vs KroniK-Unforgiven 2001
  78. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
  79. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
  80. David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
  81. The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
  82. The Bushwhacker vs The Fabulous Rougeaus-WrestleMania V
  83. The Beverly Brothers vs The Bushwhackers-Royal Rumble 1992
  84. Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
  85. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  86. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  87. Major Gunns vs Miss Hancock-New Blood Rising
  88. Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda-RAW (7/8/2002)
  89. Triple H vs Scott Steiner-Royal Rumble 2003
  90. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  91. Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
  92. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  93. The Blacktop Bully vs Dustin Rhodes-Uncensored 1995
  94. Pat Patterson vs Gerald Brisco-King of the Ring 2000
  95. The Four Doinks vs Team Bigelow-Survivor Series 1993
  96. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  97. Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
  98. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  99. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996
  100. Kane vs The Undertaker-Judgement Day 1998
  101. Rebel vs Shelly Martinez-One Night Only: Knockouts Knockdown
  102. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/2010)
  103. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
  104. Seth Rollins vs "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt-Hell in a Cell 2019
  105. The Bushwhackers vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff-Heroes of Wrestling
  106. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  107. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
  108. Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
  109. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
  110. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share this post and leave any suggestions for matches you'd like to see covered here in the comments below. Next week, I take a look at another attempt to mix MMA and pro wrestling.
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Comments

  1. Otter EmpireApril 2, 2020 at 3:02 AM

    Doug Somers vs. Van Hammer Halloween Havoc 1991. A match where every move was a botch and the ending nearly killed a wrestler
    Or Perhaps Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole WrestleMania 27 I dont think I need to explain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CJ BiddleApril 3, 2020 at 3:34 PM

      Thanks for the suggestions! Cole vs Lawler is more than deserving of a spot in this series. I have a few entries already written, so it should be a couple of weeks before I get to work on these.

      Delete
  2. CassT2000April 2, 2020 at 3:47 PM

    Shockmaster vs Awesome Kong (Starrcade 1993)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CJ BiddleApril 3, 2020 at 3:35 PM

      Thanks for the suggestion! I should be getting the suggested matches up in a few weeks after a I post the ones I have already written

      Delete

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