Great build, terrible match

[tiger_rick]

My input: Hogan vs Savage at Halloween Havoc 1996 is fucking dreadful but the build with Hogan coercing Liz into teasing Savage about a reconcilation to fuck with him and Savage's brilliant acting on Nitro is outstanding. Savage's "life is precious" line is incredibly delivered.

Go.

[Max Power]

I saw the thread title and came in to mention the exact same match. Hogan was the absolute biggest bastard ever in the build up and the interview when Savage took his shades off was fantastic. You were just waiting for him to smash Hollywood's face in and completely fuck him up.

The bell then rings and all Macho wants to do is dick about with Hogan's wig.

[air_raid]

You could just fill this thread with Hogan. Starrcade 97 was the most I'd looked forward to a match probably ever. Good job I already knew how botched the finish was and how it didn't even stick for 24 hours loooonnnnnng before I actually watched Hogan vs Sting because if I'd watched it live I'd have been dismayed by how crap it was. Even though by 1997 Hogan standards we should have known better, Sting still should have absolutely murdered him dead far worse than he did and not needed Bret Hart's help one bit.

[Richard]

Hart/Michaels Survivor Series 97. Come to think of it, I don't know what the general consensus is but their Ironman match was disappointing as well.

[AdamTH17]

On a recent, high profile note it has to be Bryan and Shane vs Zayn and Owens at Wrestlemania.

It wasn't even that the build was great. It wasn't even good. But it didn't need to be, you've got the story of the most universally loved wrestler making a heartwarming return! Daniel Bryan is back! One of the most beloved, most over workers in WWE history is making his return from a career-ending injury on the biggest show in wrestling. He's back and he's taking on two little shits who everyone wants to see get their comeuppance after ruining his beautiful return ceremony segment. How do you possibly mess Daniel Bryan's return match up? People in the arena are salivating at the thought of him running wild and battering the dickhead heels!

Easy. You have the first move of the match be one which takes him out for the first team minutes, have Shane McMahon work a control period for 10 minutes, and then give him his hot tag after the crowd have died a death.

Perfectly set up what has been a morbidly underwhelming return for him. I won't listen to any argument that the company deliberately holds him down for the sake of killing his overness.

[tiger_rick]

53 minutes ago, air_raid said:

You could just fill this thread with Hogan. Starrcade 97 was the most I'd looked forward to a match probably ever. Good job I already knew how botched the finish was and how it didn't even stick for 24 hours loooonnnnnng before I actually watched Hogan vs Sting because if I'd watched it live I'd have been dismayed by how crap it was. Even though by 1997 Hogan standards we should have known better, Sting still should have absolutely murdered him dead far worse than he did and not needed Bret Hart's help one bit.

Oh god, how did that not come straight to mind? I do find the majority of the build terribly dull in retrospect but given the length of it and the patience they showed developing the Sting character, I bet it was boner-enducing at the time.

[cobra_gordo]

Ambrose against Lesnar, street fight, Wrestlemania 32. Was so excited for this after the build up. Ambrose getting jumped by Brock as he's getting out of the car going in to the arena and them using fan phone footage was so different. The skits where Ambrose is speaking to various hardcore guys and gets a barbed wire bat off Foley and a fucking chainsaw off Terry Funk were great too. Then the match itself was complete bobbins, way too short and totally failed to deliver on the promised carnage and possible murder by chainsaw. 
Am I remembering right and Ambrose got booked to look a dick and lose quickly because he was off his tits at the HOF?

 

 

[SpiritOfTheForest]

Triple H Vs Randy Orton at Wrestlemania a few years back is the first one that comes to mind. Weeks of great build up with Orton looking like a sadistic killer booting Vince and Shane in the head and RKOing Stephanie and then the eventual encounter ended up being Triple H retaining after what was very much a damp squib.

After checking, that was 9 years ago. Good Lord.

[returner82]

Got to agree with Hart/Michaels at Survivor Series '97 and Sting/Hogan at Starrcade '97. I'm not an ECW fan, but wasn't Sabu/Taz at Barely Legal considered to be a big disappointment too?

[tiger_rick]

11 minutes ago, SpiritOfTheForest said:

Triple H Vs Randy Orton at Wrestlemania a few years back is the first one that comes to mind. Weeks of great build up with Orton looking like a sadistic killer booting Vince and Shane in the head and RKOing Stephanie and then the eventual encounter ended up being Triple H retaining after what was very much a damp squib.

After checking, that was 9 years ago. Good Lord.

That was a dodgy build up though. It had some great moments but some fucking abysmal ones like that house invasion and fat Shane slapping Randy about.

[JNLister]

"Am I remembering right and Ambrose got booked to look a dick and lose quickly because he was off his tits at the HOF?"

Story I always heard was that Lesnar turned up knowing he was going to be doing UFC in a few months so had no interests in doing anything that could risk injury.

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

Steiner vs HHH

Buildup was class! 

Match was the sh*ts

 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Oh god, how did that not come straight to mind? I do find the majority of the build terribly dull in retrospect but given the length of it and the patience they showed developing the Sting character, I bet it was boner-enducing at the time.

I first started religiously watching Nitro from the night after Uncensored 97 after only dipping my toe previously and it induced my boner to the point WCW overtook the WWF in my affections. "Will Sting show up and what will he do?" was one of the biggest factors for me in Nitro being the one to watch. And he was coming for Hogan.

But then it happened. Sting was rusty and looked skinny, the booking was crap, 97 Hogan was himself.

 

[Supremo]

4 hours ago, JNLister said:

"Am I remembering right and Ambrose got booked to look a dick and lose quickly because he was off his tits at the HOF?"

Story I always heard was that Lesnar turned up knowing he was going to be doing UFC in a few months so had no interests in doing anything that could risk injury.

Yep. Ambrose opened up about it on that Stone Cold podcast, but everyone forgot by the end of it because of how shit and awkward Austin made it because Dean wouldn’t talk about having a bad childhood or whatever;

Ambrose: I went to the ring that night pretty pissed off, but then I really started to enjoy … as I walked to the ring. I had no idea what was going to happen. Went out there with not much of a plan, so to speak.

Austin: What were you pissed off about?

Ambrose: I felt like I was pulling teeth to turn that match into something epic and so forth.

Austin: You’re an MMA fan just like I am, was it a disconnect in styles? Artistically, in the ring?

Ambrose: Artistically, Brock didn’t want to do anything, if we’re going to be perfectly honest. Brock’s gonna Brock.  He’s all about Brock. I had a vision for that match to be the craziest thing imaginable, you know what I mean, and I was trying to pitch everything to everybody and had every idea. I put so much effort in and so much work in, and other people did too, and I was met with laziness.

I kept thinking at the end of the day, ‘once we get in the ring, it’s all going to be OK. We’ll figure it out once we get in the ring.’

We went out there, whacked each other with weapons, I got suplexed a bunch of times.”

[HarmonicGenerator]

Speaking of Brock, I pick him and Samoa Joe at Great Balls Of Fire. The buildup for that was the most interested I’d been in Lesnar for years. We get to the match, it’s over in 10 minutes and 1 F5. Crap.