History OnceOriginalNowCommon / ProWrestling

The short version: You pioneer a match concept, wrestling style, finishing move, storyline, character gimmick, etc., on a big stage in professional wrestling, you become iconic for it. Then other people come along and do that same thing better than you, and sooner or later it becomes routine for people to do it better than you, and the fans who came along with the better versions all around them see you one day and start thinking you're not that special because they see better all the time...all the while underestimating the fact that ''you made this thing get big in the first place''.

* The famous ''King of the Ring 1998'' Wrestling/HellInACell between the Undertaker and Mankind. Some fans conditioned to high-risk matches post-2000 view it as a two-bump spotfest, which would be missing the point of why it's famous. This was a time before TLC, et al. had opened up the WWE to potentially life-risking maneuvers, so a wrestler being thrown off the Cell through the announcer's table was truly mind-blowing (Shawn Michaels did a similar spot in the very first HIAC, but he was dangling off the cage and had a lot more control over where he was going). With that bump, it was assumed (correctly) that Wrestling/MickFoley had done great harm to his body, which had Jim Ross apologizing that the match was being called off, only for Foley to [[{{Determinator}} get back up and continue]], which culminated with Foley taking another breath-catching (unplanned!) bump ''through'' the cage (with a chair falling on Foley's face, knocking out his tooth). And yet he continued, with Jim Ross voicing legitimate concern to Foley's well-being and pleading for the match to end. The match was no longer a traditional bout, but a spectacular peek at what a wrestler was willing to put himself through for the entertainment of the fans, something that has been dulled away years later by other matches aping a formula that was born out of almost inhuman pain tolerance. Even Wrestling/VinceMcMahon was horrified, and outright told Foley he would never be allowed to take those kinds of bumps again.

* The famous ''King of the Ring 1998'' Wrestling/HellInACell between the Undertaker and Mankind. Some fans conditioned to high-risk matches post-2000 view it as a two-bump spotfest, which would be missing the point of why it's famous. This was a time before TLC, et al. had opened up the WWE to potentially life-risking maneuvers, so a wrestler being thrown off the Cell through the announcer's table was truly mind-blowing (Shawn Michaels did a similar spot in the very first HIAC, but he was dangling off the cage and had a lot more control over where he was going). With that bump, it was assumed (correctly) that Wrestling/MickFoley had done great harm to his body, which had Jim Ross apologizing that the match was being called off, only for Foley to [[{{Determinator}} get back up and continue]], which culminated with Foley taking another breath-catching (unplanned!) bump ''through'' the cage (with a chair falling on Foley's face, knocking out his tooth). And yet he continued, with Jim Ross voicing legitimate concern to Foley's well-being and pleading for the match to end. The match was no longer a traditional bout, but a spectacular peek at what a wrestler was willing to put himself through for the entertainment of the fans, something that has been dulled away years later by other matches aping a formula that was born out of almost inhuman pain tolerance.

* Wrestling/{{Sabu}} these days is known more for screwing up his moves all the time despite nearly every major wrestling show from 1996 to 2012 copying them, often without credit.

* Going back to at least 1937, the [[GimmickMatches steel cage match]] was once promoted as being among the most dangerous matches one could participate in that could shorten a wrestler's career. It seems relatively tame compared to later variations done by Wrestling/DustyRhodes, the Memphis territories, Wrestling/HellInACell, War Games, the Elimination Chamber, Wrestling/{{CZW}}'s Cage Of Death, etc.

* Wrestling/ZackRyder was best known as one of the first wrestlers to ever get a push solely by riding through internet popularity. Nowadays, the "Ryder Revolution" hardly stands out as [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] evoked this to a much greater extent two years later.

* With Wrestlemania now being held exclusively in large stadiums, [=WM3=] at the Pontiac Silverdome may not seem like as much a big deal today as it was back then.