You're Match of The Half-Year?

[Ez Money]

So just past half way through the year, what has been the best match, in your opinion, you have seen so far in 2011?

 

Up there I am guessing will be Triple H vs. Undertaker from Wrestle Mania and Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards from ROH Best in The World, but if you have seen any others better than these then please share the love so we can check them out if we haven't seen them so far.

 

Mine, from what I have seen was from NJPW and was IWGP Jr. Champion 'Prince' Fergal Devitt vs. Kota IBUSHI

 

EZ

[PowerButchi]

Chris Masters vs Drew McIntyre on Superstars in May - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx560rlH8zs

 

In my opinion, these two are the best in North America at the moment going on current form and this match was perfect in every way. Everything was done superbly. Masters sells like Morton or something. A brilliant TV match.

[Chris B]

No, YOU'RE match of the half-year.

[The Cum Doctor]

Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards is up there, but not quite there for me. I was a bit worried going in that they'd blow their load and overdo the nearfalls, but the pacing was spot on. I think the crowd might have killed the momentum at times as they seemed exhausted.

 

I did think two matches were better...

 

Team Osaka Pro vs. Team FIST - CHIKARA King of Trios Night Two : The Generico/Kid match seems to be the one getting most of the praise from people but this is the match for me that weekend. It was every bit as good as any trios/six man tag I have seen.

 

Eddie Edwards vs. Kotaro Suzuki - Pro Wrestling NOAH : This would be my #1. It was the Suzuki show for me, even if I do love Eddie Edwards.

 

EDIT: I should note that I do think The Undertaker vs. Triple H was a very good match and not that far below these matches. I didn't think it quite got there though.

[Ez Money]

ButchReedMark showing why the UKFF gets so much heat from elsewhere

 

EZ

[PowerButchi]

ButchReedMark showing why the UKFF gets so much heat from elsewhere

 

EZ

 

Sorry. Next time I'll have a Faux-Epic with lots of near falls and highspots.

[Carbomb]

ButchReedMark showing why the UKFF gets so much heat from elsewhere

 

EZ

 

Do we? Can't say I've experienced any of that. Except for that one bloke who came up to me in the street once, when I was buying a can of Dr. Pepper, and he said to me "I don't know how you can so casually buy soft drinks like that, after all the praise you lot have heaped upon Chris Masters and Drew McIntyre."

 

Ruined the rest of my day, that. Barely found the strength to crush the can and throw it to the bin for a 3-pointer.

[JohnnyChimpo]

Triple H v The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Dont care what anyone says, they surpassed the two HBK matches by a comfortable distance. At no point in the two matches with HBK (as wildly entertaining as they were), did I believe Michaels was going to win. But there wasnt a person watching in the world who didnt buy into the nearfall when Triple H hit that tombstone and stuck out his tongue. The matche up until that point had played out in a similar fashion to HBK retiring Flair, then Taker retiring HBK. The way both of them in the past were trying to get to their feet, too proud to just lay down, I started to believe we were watching The Undertaker bow out. Triple H was taking him round the back of the shed and putting him down, thats how much I bought into it. Trips was amazing that night.

 

Close second would be Randy Orton v Christian from Smackdown when Orton won the World Heavyweight Title.

[Ez Money]

No need to jump on the bandwagon, but if you are seriously saying the match you put is the match of the year in your opinion then fair enough but I would doubt it and as I said, the UKFF gets ripped on from many quarters and it's because of things like that.

 

EZ

[pol_pot_rick]

Chris Masters vs Drew McIntyre on Superstars in May - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx560rlH8zs

 

In my opinion, these two are the best in North America at the moment going on current form and this match was perfect in every way. Everything was done superbly. Masters sells like Morton or something. A brilliant TV match.

 

I'll 2nd this.

 

This was unbelievably great. I thought this was easily the best of their matches together and a serious MOTYC. In fact off hand I haven't seen a single match this year that I thought was this strongly worked in terms of both psych and mechanics.

 

Masters selling was f*cking unreal and was an insanely great one legged performance. Falling underneath a powerslam, tumbling when getting irish whipped, the way he even sold it hitting his awesome top rope shoulder block, but I think it was Drew's various attacks of the leg that really made things interesting. . .

 

Really loved the figure-four around the post because it was totally unexpected and the chop block was great too. All of the slick counters in this looked excellent as well and for a ten minute match there were several. My favorite was Drew's out of the blue dropkick. Who would've known that Drew throws such a boss dropkick? The little kip-up after it was pretty f*cking manly, too. It sort of reminded me of when Chris Adams would do that little front flip after his superkick, just so proud of himself. Drew should keep it as a sudden momentum changer.

 

Masters offense looked great here too and his chops continue to look and sound vicious. Loved the desperation samoan drop to kick off his comeback. They teased the finish of their 3 min SD match (11th Feb) with the backslide-future shock DDT which was great. Masters leg being a big problem for him and the reason why Masters did a grounded Masterlock was just the tip of the iceberg. Great, great match and one of the best of the year. Really thought this had a true escalating feel, starting solid and morphing into great slowly through a logical progression. We really need a 15-20 minute D-Mac vs. Masters battle. Why these two aren't being pushed highly anymore is beyond me.

[The Maestro]

Just off the top of my head I'd pick Ziggler/Edge from Royal Rumble and the Orton/Christian match from Smackdown a couple of months ago.

[Ez Money]

Thanks to those giving serious answers. Not being an arse, there is a time for comedy but it's not what I wanted at the moment

 

EZ

[PowerButchi]

Thanks to those giving serious answers. Not being an arse, there is a time for comedy but it's not what I wanted at the moment

 

EZ

 

Who's not giving serious answers?

[The Cum Doctor]

Thanks to those giving serious answers. Not being an arse, there is a time for comedy but it's not what I wanted at the moment

 

You're not saying what I was expecting.

[Dirty Eddie]

I thought the Masters/Drew match was a very solid effort, but I can't get too excited by it. It felt very old-school and wouldn't have looked out of place on a late 80s card, and I mean that as praise.

 

I vastly prefer the Christian/Orton match from Smackdown though (that Legend Killer mentioned) and probably the PPV re-match as well.

 

The Christian/Del Rio Ladder Match was also very good. Lots of unique spots, a rabid pro-Christian crowd, great booking of the finish and a happy ending.

 

Bully Ray and AJ Styles Last Man Standing Match was brilliant too. A Hell of a lot more than I was expecting.

 

I would also mention probably a couple of the NOAH matches from their tour over here, but that would be more based on being there live, than just impartially looking at the matches.