Skip to main content

Best year for in-ring performances?

Scott,
        I was looking at the Scott Keith ****+ website and saw 1992 had an astounding 21 matches of 4 stars or higher. Looking back I don't remember 1992 being THAT good. What would you say the best year for in-ring competition was? Not necessarily best storylines.

You're the only person who has responded to my friend request on Simpsons Tapped Out thus far, so you get your question answered!  rspwfaq on Origin, people.  I need to finish the damn boardwalk already!

I'm pretty surprised that 92 would be so high, actually.  You'd think 89 would be the obvious choice with two Flair-Funk matches and the trio of Flair-Steamboats.  Plus over in Japan shit was off the HOOK.  So we'll go with that.  

Comments

  1. While 2013 may not be the BEST year, I've been highly entertained by the in ring action this year. Various combinations of Punk, Cena, Bryan, Shield have brought the goods every time they've had a chance to. And that's just WWE. And there's still 3 months left to go. If not for Wrestlemania sucking and 2 Brock matches being wasted on HHH...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man I always try out Simpsons games (there's dozens of them) and I was severely disappointed with Tapped Out. But I hate all that Farmville type shit anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Considering Scott has reviewed little to nothing of 1989 Japan, not sure how that year would be 1. 89 Japan was fairly sub par, especially considering what would come in 90, 91, and 92.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 2000? Great WWE stuff, and WCW and ECW, while lacking star quality or good booking, had a bunch of young hungry sons of bitches putting in some fun matches.

    ReplyDelete
  5. if you can find it give the second SImpsons driving game a shot. Hit and Run or Road Rage. Whatever is the newer one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1993-94 Japan ruled the planet. You could make a case for 1994 as a great year, with 5-star matches from All Japan men and women, New Japan, AAA and WWF.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1996 had great WWE main events with the occasional undercard gem like the strap match, awesome WCW cruiserweight stuff and good ECW stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 3 months left to go until what? Survivor Series?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hit and Run. It was basically GTA: Springfield.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Pretty sure I added you on Tapped Out via Facebook way long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1994. Owen-Bret, Michaels-Ramon, Owen-Bret in a cage, and the consensus puro fan's pick for "Greatest Match of All Time," Misawa-Kawada.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Best Simpsons game bar none.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The end of the Wrestling Observer voting period?

    ReplyDelete
  14. just because he hasn't written a formal review, doesn't mean he hasn't seen any of it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yeah I like Hit & Run a lot. Be cool if they did an update.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The release of the Playstation 4?

    ReplyDelete
  17. '92 had a lot of Dangerous Alliance Matches in WCW.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Really? I personally nominate 2013 as the best "in-ring" year of wrestling ever. This month alone has us approaching 10 matches at **** 1/2 or higher. By my count we have (my ratings, YMMV):

    Ishii/Shibata *****
    Ishii/Tanahashi *****
    Nakamura/Ibushi ****3/4
    Punk/Lesnar ****3/4
    Bryan/Cena ****3/4
    Okada/Tanahashi ****3/4
    Naito/Tanahashi ****1/2

    And one could EASILY say the Makabe/Okada match from 2 weeks ago was ****1/2, as well. I personally couldn't go ****1/2 on that one because I thought their PPV main event was ****1/2 and this was a shade behind it.


    --------------------------------------------------------------
    If Meltzy ratings hold any weight for you, here goes another TWELVE matches at **** or ****1/4, in just this month alone. TWELVE, just in the month of August. With the exception of a match or two on this list I fully agree, as would anyone who saw these. They were all really easy to sit back and enjoy, and I personally am feeling NJPW withdrawl right now.



    Ibushi/Naito
    Goto/Okada
    Kojima/Tanahashi

    Kojima/Goto

    Tanahashi/Smith
    Naito/Suzuki
    Devitt/Tanahashi
    Makabe/Ishii
    Suzuki/Ibushi
    Naito/Anderson
    Kojima/Okada
    Tanahashi/Shibata

    ReplyDelete
  19. 2009.
    Morrison
    Ziggler
    Misterio
    Jericho

    On smackdown tearing it up on free tv over the ic title.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ooh, good call - maybe not THE best time ever, but certainly a great time for "Smackdown" and a great time for free TV matches.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I wanna say that was the year of the SES as well so punk was puttin on matches with hardy.

    Over in TNA styles, joe, daniels had the 3way while wolfe amd angle were tearin it up.

    Also dx had a good performance against Priceless, hbk and take had their classic at wm25.

    2009 was a good in ring year iirc

    ReplyDelete
  22. 21 **** matches in 92.. 18 **** matches in the G1 Climax this year, in the span of 11 days.. No, really..

    ReplyDelete
  23. What, exactly, are we talking about when we ask what "in-ring performances" mean? TraitorAlex, The Fuj and Ryan the Ry Murphy Murph (sorry, I can't keep it straight :-) are all pretty much correct, in my opinion -- But what's the criteria? Main event matches or a year with solid in-ring televised work? Crockett put on some amazing shit in the early to mid-80's as far as "in-ring" performances go -- But then again, so did WCW during the Monday Night Wars -- WWF had what some can call lackluster matches in the mid-90's in the midcard but brought it in main events -- And while I may not be qualified to commentate on U.S. wrestling, I definitely am not qualified to talk about Japanese or Mexican wrestling on this subject -- The Japanese are cool but they seem to enjoy beating the shit out of each other in a worked match while the Mexicans go out of their way to look like circus performers -- I do agree with Bret Hart when he wrote that everything should look like it hurts while it shouldn't (paraphrasing)...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Power_of_Hogans_HOF_RingAugust 25, 2013 at 6:22 AM

    2013 - calling it now.

    ReplyDelete
  25. That DX/Priceless match at "Summerslam" was fantastic. Absolutely loved it.


    Too bad that the rematch at "Breaking Point" was friggin' atrocious. Seriously one of the worst matches I've ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Off the top of my head ...

    Royal rumble 92
    War games 92
    Rude/Austin v sting/steamboat
    Sting v vader
    Rude v steamboat - super brawl 2
    Rude v steamboat - iron man
    Steiners vs fujinami/izuka (or something like that - where the steiners busted the kids orbital bone)
    Steiners vs mvc
    Pillman v Zenk
    Pillman v Scotty flamingo
    Bret v piper
    Flair v savage
    Flair v Bret
    Steiners v Anderson/eaton
    Pillman v liger
    Sting v cactus - falls count anywhere
    Simmons v vader?

    ReplyDelete
  27. I've always been far more of a WWE fan than any other promotion, so I can't really judge most other companies (and damned if I'm going to remember what years most WCW and ECW stuff took place), but I definitely think 2000 was WWE's banner year as far as in-ring performance. I mean, just look at the roster: Trips, Rock, Angle, Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, Foley, Saturn, Malenko, The Hardys, The Dudleys, E&C, Tazz, Rios... holy shit!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Power_of_Hogans_HOF_RingAugust 26, 2013 at 6:45 PM

    I want to add to this:
    Royal Rumble match, Elimination Chamber match, Punk-Cena from Raw, Punk-Jericho from Raw, Shield-Superfriends from EC, Shield-Hell No-Taker from Raw, Punk-Taker from WM, Punk-Jericho from Payback, both MITB matches, Del Rio-Christian from Smackdown, Christian-Orton-RVD from Smackdown, Shield-Usos from MITB, Ziggler-Del Rio from Payback, Orton-Punk from Raw, Bryan-Orton from Raw, Bryan-Sheamus from Raw, and on and on and on we go. Not to mention the more "epic" matches that have more debatable ratings, but are still iconic (Punk's series with Rock, Rock-Cena II, Cena-Ryback's 3 stages).

    ReplyDelete
  29. Power_of_Hogans_HOF_RingAugust 26, 2013 at 6:45 PM

    And that's not even going into some of the **** on Impact while they were clicking for a bit.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment