There are some of us at 90min who have certainly never grown up properly and yet insist that professional wrestling is brilliant as a result. Because it is.
We have chosen football players, chosen end players for players and even connected clubs with some entrance music, but it’s time to try everything. What’s a gimmick without putting your brand on the line for the world to see? It’s time for some ruthless aggression.
Here the world of professional wrestling is combined with football again, here are 25 crossover feuds that would be enough to start a campaign that surpasses both WWE and AEW. We are so confident. Do you want? Come and get some.
Wiese is now built as a machine / TF-Images / Getty Images
The battle of two jacketed men who were tempted by a secondary sport. The battle you never knew you needed.
Imagine the scenes when Angle – straps on – flattens Wiese with a German suplex textbook, but the goalkeeper does not sell and locks a claw grip to knock out the Olympic wrestler.
Suarez has met his match, here / Masashi Hara / Getty Images
Mist is an underutilized trope in Western wrestling. We take it and Tajiri back into the spotlight.
This match ends when either Suarez or Tajiri blinds the opponent with the perfect blow. High ceilings.
Pogba is made for wrestling / Matthias Hangst / Getty Images
Pogba would make the perfect professional wrestler in WWE. Incredibly charismatic, a physical animal and insanely talented.
At the top of the card or bottom, he would make things entertaining and must see. A ten minute classic with Scotty 2 Hotty that involves flips, trips and every man who does the mask or some other dance to pop the audience. Perfect starter.
Holt briefly entered the wrestling industry after retirement / Mark Runnacles / Getty Images
We mentioned the Grant Holt Memorial Battle Royale when we booked Summerslam on a football card, but it’s time to take a snap.
Ten football players, ten wrestlers. Fringe and youth players, lower midfielders from all campaigns. The winner lifts a massive trophy by Grant Holt and receives a title opportunity / cup final start guarantee, at any time, any club.
You might need it, Roy … / Mike Hewitt / Getty Images
No nonsense, just how Keane likes it. No spam campaigns, no unnecessary storytelling. Only two industry psychologists go against each other without hindrance.
Seeing Keane work his way around a wrestling ring with more weapons than you might think would be interesting. Too bad he would be against one of wrestling’s biggest ECW alumni.
Sharp is a big Foley fan / Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA / Getty Images
After sharing breakfast together after Foley grabbed Sharp’s “Mr Socko” celebration in 2019, no friendly competition would go wrong.
Pinfall, submission or via the shared shutter can only one person rightly own Mr Socko after the result.
Rapinoe would make a good wrestler / Richard Heathcote / Getty Images
For as good as Rapinoe is at football, her character off the field has been quite polarizing. That’s exactly why she would be the ticket office in the square circle.
Put her in a handicap match against two of the ladies ‘divisions’ biggest talkers and athletes and see how the magic happens. Rapinoe would screw up the drama and benefit regardless of the result, heel or baby face.
Jericho would humble Kimmich / Etsuo Hara / Getty Images
From Lionheart to Le Champion, the man with a thousand gimmicks would face his football game; the man with a thousand positions.
What Kimmich may lack in charisma compared to Jericho, he makes up for with technical excellence and serious versatility, which gives us a match for the real technical grappling enthusiasts. Give Jericho a list or a plant to spice things up if needed.
The couple should try something new / Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
Mikel Arteta seems quite frustrated with his strikers in the football world, so why not send them away to be useful elsewhere?
Aubameyang and Lacazette have great chemistry together and would provide good babyface competition for AEW’s Young Bucks, who are disgusting in every sense. Hell, a brave show can get Arsenal fans back in place.
Aguero would flag for City again / Mike Hewitt / Getty Images
Mr McMahon vs. Donald Trump at WrestleMania 23 was nothing short of iconic, with Umaga and Bobby Lashley arguing when Stone Cold Steve Austin judged.
It’s time for a recurring inspection, but updated. With Sergio Aguero representing Mansour and Cody Rhodes representing Khan. And for the most part, Mike Dean can judge. Losing the billionaire will, of course, be bald.
Bundesliga has talent at its disposal / Visionhaus / Getty Images
What’s a wrestling extravaganza without a big, messy bragging rights fight?
Football fans argue for which league is best just as wrestling fans argue with which campaign is best. Three MVPs from each division show up and – no disqualifications – fight against it to see which of these elite groups is truly top trump. Send Shane Duffy over to the Premier League, just for the tackles.
Jimenez has whipped out a lucha mask before / Catherine Ivill / Getty Images
It is easy. Mask versus mask.
Jimenez has celebrated in the past by taking the iconic luchador tour and Mysterio wrestling most famous ever at this time. Big to small, this one has all the hallmarks of a classic. If Jimenez wins, he will have to wear a luchador mask in every football match he plays in the future. And he gets pyro.
When worlds collide / Nicolò Campo / Getty Images
The best versus the best. The very top of excellence in every industry that comes together for the bigger picture and fights against it.
For the only time ever (unless PSG have a say), Messi and Ronaldo join forces, while two of wrestling’s best technical workers join forces. One for the enthusiasts, this. Stupid it, have lots of polka dot golden belts to grab here too.
Michael Carrick would not be in Nani’s corner / Michael Regan / Getty Images
Stories are fun and great guys from different sports who light up each other are amazing. But deep down, we all love the stupid, flippant matches.
AJ Styles knows almost everything and is entertaining in every sense of the word, while Nani lit up the Barclays and gave Sir Alex Ferguson a heartbeat every weekend with his twists. Put them in a ring and let the magic happen.
Rome’s return was overshadowed / JUSTIN TALLIS / Getty Images
Nothing turns up a crowd like a real comeback story. And while CM Punk shocked the world by appearing on AEW, Lukaku did the same at Chelsea.
Let the two fight to see who has really proven to be the smartest business. However, Lukaku would come out with a disturbance with Chelsea striker Lauren James before he stood tall with some CM Punk ice cream bars to rub salt in his wounds.
Vardy would send Punk back to the UFC / Rey Del Rio / Getty Images
After losing to Lukaku, Punk turns his heel and pulls double duty on the show to get the most out of that return.
When he returns to his straightforward social gimmick, he has been humiliated by Leicester’s irregular strikers. Vardy – swigging vodka Red Bulls like a prime Stone Cold – comes out and gives Punk a little more humble pie.
Ramos is made for professional wrestling / Angel Martinez / Getty Images
If there is one stable of football players that can come together and stop one of modern wrestling’s biggest factions, it’s this trio of nutters.
Winning pedigree with Ramos, and all the aggression with Rojo and De Rossi. High ceilings. Weapons and much. We’ve seen what Rojo can do since he wrote for Boca Juniors. This one would go down in history.
Mourinho can give McMahon a run for his money / Justin Setterfield / Getty Images
It is not football at office level but Mourinho involved. Similarly, it is not ticket wrestling if McMahon is not looking to bend it.
Football and wrestling’s strongest and most entertaining characters. Ego vs ego. Arv vs arv. Imagine the campaigns and the stories in the construction of this. We would never see entertainment like it ever again. Losers also go bald, just for a laugh.
Looking at wrestling gold / Marc Atkins / Getty Images
A battle for brothers. Rice and Mount finally gets the chance to play on the same side and can benefit from history and England chemistry in a tough competition.
Tables, ladders and chairs. Experts in football vs experts in tag wrestling and fan favorites everywhere. Expect everything to be left in the ring with this one, but also a potential villain turn from one of Rice or Mount if they lose.
Built as a world champion / Alex Livesey / Getty Images
Two of football’s largest units. Akinfenwa and Traore would no doubt become champions in a few weeks if they ever went to WWE.
Put them inside the ring with two of wrestling’s biggest guys and it’s a fateful four way that can only end with the ring literally exploding. Ticket office.
‘Sergio, get the fire extinguisher’ / Pool / Getty Images
After losing De Rossi to the Bullet Club, Rojo and Ramos have gone as a duo in the hunt for the top of the tag team mountain.
Where is that mountain? Dudleyville, of course. Let go of two of football’s greatest psychoses against two ECW originals. Rojo will not sell that 3-D through the table and make the audience roar when Ramos comes in from the top line.
Bryan would have a lot to say about the finances of Messi’s transfer / Catherine Steenkeste / Getty Images
We’ve had a while -team show of the best versus the best, but this is where the money is.
When an unstoppable force encounters an immobile object. The tracks in every industry that do it, no time limit, full capacity. The story writes itself; bonus points if Bryan returns to his eco-warrior character and lectures Messi on the environmental impact of his PSG transfer.
Totti’s career is similar to the Undertaker’s length and history / Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images
Let’s pretend for a minute that Undertaker lost his line on WrestleMania 30 did not happen, for the best match – and humanity.
Totti is the Undertaker’s football equivalent – minus trench coats, dead tones and Harley Davidsons – so having two legends pitted against each other in a series versus row match is crucial. Gives the card the edge of tradition and heritage it needs.
A little shutdown will be required above a ring / Philipp Schmidli / Getty Images
Who does not love money in the bank? Add a bunch of football players to the mix and watch the carnage multiply by ten.
A mix of high-flying superstars and risk-taking, ambitious football players who are desperate for a shot with the elite. First to climb the steps and pick up the Ballon d’Or trophy gets one more in his CV; wrestlers get their usual title shot. But let’s hope a football player wins.
Becks has already had his style sorted / Mark Brown / Getty Images
This is it. This is what Vince McMahon’s dreams are made of. The ultimate franchise is facing.
Cena once teased David Beckham about a wrestling match at WrestleMania 30 way back in 2007, but do not think we forgot the offer, John. The time is now, and in the hybrid of the two sports, there can only be one franchise player. Men’s football versus men’s wrestling. A 40 minute clinic for the elderly. Sales of goods through the roof.
