5 worst wrestling matches of 1995

#3. Sting vs. Tony Palmore - NJPW Battle 7

Tony Palmore was one of those people that made you wonder what on earth he was doing in a wrestling ring. He was a kickboxer who made his name in the 1970s, so what he was doing on this NJPW Tokyo Dome show is anyone’s guess.

And because his peak was two decades earlier, he was awfully unprepared to wrestle anyone, much less Sting.

Palmore was poor at everything he did, which was very little. His strikes were slow and weak, yet poor Sting had to sell for him. He even fell down during one of his own strikes, just like how Raja Lion did in that infamous nightmare match with Giant Baba decades ago.

It was awkward seeing Sting be shoehorned into a match with this kind of opponent, yet that was part of the booking that Antonio Inoki seemed to like. Unfortunately, Inoki didn’t learn from the mistakes he made with this match.

On the contrary, he’d double down on the ‘realistic shootfighters’ booking so much by decade’s end that it would almost kill NJPW completely.