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1 company, 1 year, 5 incredible matches


tiger_rick

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That was Angle's third and final match of the night. He faced somebody in the King of The Ring semi-final, then Edge in the tournament final later in the show, and then Shane in the streetfight before the main event.

 

I have a number of violent matches like that which 15 years ago I considered some of my favourites, but now am reluctant to even watch back due to that same violence.

 

Sabu vs Terry Funk Barbed Wire Match in ECW is another. It used to be one of the go-to matches I had for when mates would come round and rip the piss out of wrestling. Stick that on and they were usually into it.

Now the Sabu matches I prefer watching back are blood-free affairs like his 1996 stuff against RVD, Mikey Whipwreck, and 2 Cold Scorpio.

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Whilst probably not as good as 92 or 97, I'm going for 2014.

 

Bray Wyatt vs Daniel Bryan (Royal Rumble)

 

The Shield vs The Wyatt Family (Elimination Chamber)

 

HHH vs Daniel Bryan (Wrestlemania 30)

 

John Cena vs Brock Lesnar (Summerslam)

 

Team Cena vs Team Authority (Survivor Series)

 

Good array of different matches there, I love all of them.

That's an excellent list. WWE's nominations for Match of the Year on the Slammys episode of Raw were all over the place in comparison.

 

There was a cracking Shield vs Wyatt Family rematch on the Main Event after WM30 when that show still had a TV outlet. Just being a few weeks later really cemented the Shield as fan favourites, and you can really see Reigns as the breakout star they were hoping for in the promo afterwards with Rene Young.

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I remember seeing on a list somewhere that Meltzer rated a Kato vs. Michaels house show match at 4****. Seems unlikely!

I completely buy that. Orients v2.0/Bad Company could both put a shift in. There's a Jannetty/Tanaka match from MSG on one of the SuperTapes that's really good.

And a good one from 1993 too. You could actually do a 5 great matches of 1993 with Jannetty almost. He was absolutely brilliant that year. Might have a look.

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That was Angle's third and final match of the night. He faced somebody in the King of The Ring semi-final, then Edge in the tournament final later in the show, and then Shane in the streetfight before the main event.

 

It was Christian he knocked off in the semi. Which was a really nice minor element to the slow burn jealousy of Christian turning on Edge. It wasn't just that Edge won and Christian went out in the semis... it was that Edge beat the guy Christian couldn't. Attention to detail, cracking.

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I haven't seen Three stages of hell since it aired but I remember hating it.

 

 

Do you remember why? Genuine question because I rarely find myself disagreeing with your opinions on matches/events/etc.

 

At the time I was a huge HHH fan - i remember thinking that this was the man that had carried the company for the past year (or so) and now SCSA is back and is definitely going to beat the guy that had him run over and go back on top. I hated the idea of Austin being the main man again and couldn't see any way HHH was going to win and was genuinely shocked when he did.

 

I wonder whether my feelings from the time cloud my judgement on the actual match itself.

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I remember seeing on a list somewhere that Meltzer rated a Kato vs. Michaels house show match at 4****. Seems unlikely!

I completely buy that. Orients v2.0/Bad Company could both put a shift in. There's a Jannetty/Tanaka match from MSG on one of the SuperTapes that's really good.

 

And a good one from 1993 too.

 

I don't doubt they had good matches, just questioning how good. I'm pretty sure Meltzer gave 4**** to some of the big maches in 91 mentioned previously like Bret/Perfect & Warrior/Savage. No way it going to be on that level.

 

 

You could actually do a 5 great matches of 1993 with Jannetty almost. He was absolutely brilliant that year. Might have a look.

Great idea, I'll start that next. I'll try and leave Bret for air_raid!

 

 

I haven't seen Three stages of hell since it aired but I remember hating it.

Do you remember why? Genuine question because I rarely find myself disagreeing with your opinions on matches/events/etc.

 

At the time I was a huge HHH fan - i remember thinking that this was the man that had carried the company for the past year (or so) and now SCSA is back and is definitely going to beat the guy that had him run over and go back on top. I hated the idea of Austin being the main man again and couldn't see any way HHH was going to win and was genuinely shocked when he did.

 

I wonder whether my feelings from the time cloud my judgement on the actual match itself.

 

I remember thinking it was overly long and a bit self-indulgent rather than as bitter and hateful as it should have been. It should have been incredible but I always thought it was flat. From what I can remember, opinion seemed to be divided on here years ago. I'm going to rewatch it today. There's a chance massive expectation clouded my view. I hate Austin at that time too. He was fucking shit when he came back in 2000. Running roughshod over everything on what had been an incredible product all year.
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The year is 2003. The Company is WWE and it's the Ruthless Agression era.

 

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle, Royal Rumble

 

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, WrestleMania

 

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit, Vengeance

 

Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle, Iron Man Match, Smackdown

 

Team Bischoff vs. Team Austin, Survivor Series

 

Honourable mentions for Taker/Angle (Smackdown), Rock/Austin (WM), WGTT vs. Kidman/Mysterio (Vengeance) and Angle/Cena (No Mercy).

 

Smackdown 2003 was a solid programme.

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That was Angle's third and final match of the night. He faced somebody in the King of The Ring semi-final, then Edge in the tournament final later in the show, and then Shane in the streetfight before the main event.

 

It was Christian he knocked off in the semi. Which was a really nice minor element to the slow burn jealousy of Christian turning on Edge. It wasn't just that Edge won and Christian went out in the semis... it was that Edge beat the guy Christian couldn't. Attention to detail, cracking.

 

 

Well, yeah. That's how semi-finals work.

 

It's not so much attention to detail, as it is an entirely necessary consequence of the tournament format.

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Just cos I don't think I've seen anyone else do 04 WWE, and it's fresh in my mind cos I've been revisiting it:

 

1. Cactus Jack v Randy Orton, Backlash: legit one of my all time favs, partly due to the thrill of not really seeing a match like that before at the time, certainly not live, but just an all around thriller really. Orton was terrific, the spots were gobsmacking. The tease of fire and Bischoff saying he'll shut the whole show down. Just a blast

2. Eddie Guerrero v Brock Lesnar, No Way Out

3. Chris Benoit v Shawn Michaels v Triple H, Wrestlemania

4. Chris Benoit v Shawn Michaels v Triple H, Backlash: this one's tougher to watch today cos of the hometown video packages for Benoit and the focus on his family. Doubtless still a hell of a triple threat though and the Montreal screw tease went down a treat.

5. Chris Benoit v Randy Orton, Summerslam: Not a popular pick for this tier of match maybe? I thought it was great - I just wish it meant more, heel Orton playing up ending Chris Benoit's dreams and hard-fought reign just like that for a few more months could've been brilliant. Could've kept Benoit in the main event for a bit too.

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That was Angle's third and final match of the night. He faced somebody in the King of The Ring semi-final, then Edge in the tournament final later in the show, and then Shane in the streetfight before the main event.

 

 

It was Christian he knocked off in the semi. Which was a really nice minor element to the slow burn jealousy of Christian turning on Edge. It wasn't just that Edge won and Christian went out in the semis... it was that Edge beat the guy Christian couldn't. Attention to detail, cracking.

 

Well, yeah. That's how semi-finals work.

 

It's not so much attention to detail, as it is an entirely necessary consequence of the tournament format.

As the feud built from Christians jealousy over kotr win, you are missing what was good build. That was a great feud with lots of little build, like Christian always carrying the trophy around, and build to him using trophy to beat edge up with. So I'm with dopper on this one , it wasn't just how semis work or Christian didn't need to even be in semi as it was heel on heel match which was repeated again in final

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Well, yeah. That's how semi-finals work.

 

 

It's not so much attention to detail, as it is an entirely necessary consequence of the tournament format.

 

Point = missed. Good work.

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It's either Tiger Rick's WWF 1997 list or fraserbee's WCW 1992 list for me. Absolutely love both those periods and can't really separate them. Rick's list undoubtedly has the more significant matches but 1992 WCW was what got me into wrestling in the first place pretty much. It was awesome despite the booking being mostly a shambles and the revolving door of bookers at the time. Obviously, I knew nothing about all that at the time anyway.

 

So yeah, I don't even have a list of my own. I'd just be echoing one of the above.

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I'll go for a recent year that now one else has.

 

It's 2012, and WWE served us up the following (in chronological order, rather my order of preference):

 

Daniel Bryan vs Santino Marella vs Wade Barrett vs Big Show vs Khali vs Cody Rhodes (Elimination Chamber)

 

I'll bet this will be the only list with Khali in it, but this is one of my favourite Chamber matches, despite really only having the one winner before it started. A great underdog performance from Marella, and that moment when you thought he might actually win it after he hits the Cobra for a long two count... a great match.

 

Undertaker vs Triple H (Wrestlemania 28)

 

A brilliant match. At this point in the Streak, the biggest challenge was making you think that the streak was actually in danger. They'd done it the year before when Trips hit the Tombstone - this time around, the combo of Sweet Chin Music and the Pedigree  had me thinking Taker was losing. An absolute war.

 

John Cena vs Brock Lesnar (Extreme Rules)

 

Lesnar's first match in WWE for about 8 years, nasty as hell, and I found some of it kinda uncomfortable to watch (the knees to Cena's kidneys were just vicious), but strangely mesmerising at the same time. Lesnar didn't miss a step, and Cena did his part in making Brock look like a beast.

 

CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan (Over The Limit)

 

To be honest, I could have any of their matches. Despite WWE shoving in an AJ Lee love triangle and then putting Kane into the mix later on, when Punk and Bryan went at it one-on-one, it was always going to be excellent.

 

Shield vs Ryback and Team Hell No (TLC)

 

The biggest compliment I can pay this is that it wouldn't have looked out of place in the Attitude era. The match that made me think Ryback was more than the standard WWE muscleman, Reigns kept up with the action (although the improvement to what he is today is amazing), Kane puts in his best performance in years, Rollins takes the suicidal dive - my shout for the match of the year.

 

Honourable mentions to Sheamus vs Big Show, CM Punk vs Jericho's Streetfight, Daniel Bryan vs Sheamus, and I also enjoyed Rock vs Cena at Mania too.

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