Interested to see what matches (primarily singles) people would say are the best/must-sees for people on that second, maybe third tier of great technical wrestler. We all know what Savage, Flair, Michaels matches to seek out, but curious about the following guys.
-Christian
The Orton series in 2011 produced some top-level stuff, but Christian as a singles guy has never really been a tippy top worker. The match with Jericho at WM20 was a near-showstealer also.
-Dean Malenko
Almost any of his Cruiserweight title matches in WCW, but the Jericho match at Slamboree 98 was pretty much the peak of his run. I also have a soft spot for the match with Scotty 2 Hotty at Backlash 2000. Plus there's reams of awesome Japan stuff in the Super Junior tournaments.
-Barry Windham
Ric Flair, 1987, pick any of them.
-Raven
His shot at the NWA title with Jeff Jarrett was amazingly built and one of the best things TNA ever did, and then of course there's a million decent brawls in ECW, including the Raven-Richards v. Pitbulls match that was the only ECW match to get ***** from me.
-Vader
Lots of WCW Sting matches in the 90s, lots of awesome "beat the shit out of each other" matches with guys like Stan Hansen in Japan, plus a crazy tag match with him and Bigelow against the Steiners that was on pretty much every comp tape of the 90s. Wanna see Vader take a Frankensteiner? There ya go.
-RVD
I've always been partial to the John Cena match, and the Lynn matches have grown on me over the years.
Malenko-Guerrero, Anything from 1995 ECW.
ReplyDeleteThose matches expanded my understanding of what wresting could be.
We've been glowing about this year's Summerslam's double-whammy of amazing main events, so this is a good time to remind folks that 2011 had two first-rate matches as well, one of which was a damn great Orton/Christian brawl, which was surprising since they basically feuded all summer so I didn't expect them to have a match that topped whatever they did before.
ReplyDeleteChristian's best match is probably the one he had with AJ Styles at Genesis 2006. Also, Raven had an insanely good singles match against Chris Benoit at Souled Out '98. Finally, for Vader: check if you can find his worked shoot against Takada. It's a fascinating watch.
ReplyDeleteWindham/Luger vs. Tully/Arn. Great match with an even better ending.
ReplyDeleteVader tore it up in WCW vs. Sting, the Flair title match and the brutal brawls vs. Cactus Jack.
iirc, RVD had an awesome ladder match vs. Eddie on Raw.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a fantastic match. Fuck that stupid fan, I wish he tried that shit on someone who would've beat his ass, like a Hardcore Holly.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian/Jericho vs. BookDust title change is one of my favorite tag matches.
ReplyDeleteChristian also had some great matches against Regal during his ECW reign.
I was really into the last RVD/Jericho match. Jerry Lynn probably deserves the nod as RVD's ultimate rival.
I've heard mixed reviews, but I remember really liking the Windham/Muta NWA title match.
The Raven/Saturn 'free the flock' match is an oft overlooked gem.
I'd just like to point out how my wrestling fandom truly grew:
ReplyDelete1. WCW vs. NWO Revenge.
2. Billy Kidman's Seven Year Itch.
3. Top Rope Moves.
4. Rey Mysterio.
5. Technical Wrestling.
6. Stevie Richards
7. Desire to push Stevie Richards to top of card.
8. EWR
9. Fan for life.
So thank you Billy Kidman.
Benoit vs Malenko at Hog Wild 96 is an interesting predecessor to his matches with Angle. Plus you get to see a bunch of fuck wits fail to appreciate art.
ReplyDeleteI'd put Malenko up there in the same ranks as Eddie Guerrero and Stevie Richards. He just never got the same push even though I feel that people bought into him as a credible guy.
ReplyDeleteEdge
Aside from the obvious TLC choices, any match involving Kurt Angle brought the absolute best out of him.
Shelton Benjamin
His debut on Raw against Triple H; the one where Shawn superkicks his head off.
Ric Flair of the Current Millennium (cheating, I know)
I personally loved his match with Undertaker; vs. Triple H in 2003 where they celebrated his career afterwards; vs. Angle on Raw in 2005; he had two great brawls with Triple H in 2005 on PPV.
I absolutely hate the RVD/Lynn matches.
ReplyDeleteRaven vs Benoit Souled Out 98
ReplyDeleteRaven vs Benoit vs DDP Uncensored 98
Raven vs Saturn Fall Brawl 98
Raven vs Jericho Halloween Havoc 98
Raven/Saturn vs Benoit/Malenko Spring Stampede 99
All of these are around the four star range. The tag match probably closer to five.
The Taboo Toosdeh (/Snitsky) cage match between HHH and Flair was improbably awesome. I usually don't care for bloodbath matches, but that was a pretty awesome, bloody spectacle.
ReplyDeleteChristian: 2006-2007 TNA PPV
ReplyDeleteMalenko: 96-97 WCW
Barry Windham: same 1987.. a lil of 88
Raven: 2003 TNA Character driven with some good matches
Vader: AJPW I cant remember the year, but when he won the Triple Crown 99-00?
RVD: Fall of 01, summer of 06, spring of 2010
me too.
ReplyDeletefell asleep each time
Raven was putting out good shit on ppv in 98.
ReplyDeleteYou dug his early TNA matches?
ReplyDeleteraven?
ReplyDeleteyea, good storytelling were the focal points. raven was probably at his best as far as moving in the ring, doing nothing but gettin the most out of everything.
i disagree.
ReplyDeletei chalk it up to usual WCW ineptitude.
Why would you go out to Sturgis SD to a bike rally and book a 30 minute wrestling clinic with no heat Between two nobodies?
Same reason you would book two black guys as babyfaces at a bike rally.
Because its WCW.
Lets be honest. Most crowds in most places weren't going to appreciate a half hour match between two guys that they have nothing invested in. The non-wrestling crowd just made it worse.
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna sound weird since theyre arguably the greatest acts ever but do we consider Rock, Austin, and Cena 2nd tier workers. I think after his neck injury Austin was dropped a peg (hate saying it since I think his in ring shit is so underrated) to just below to worker status. Think Rock and Cena are solidly entrenched in that level also.
ReplyDeleteRaven really had lots of great stuff from his debut till about halfway through his wcw run. The Tommy stuff, the fighting former champions stuff, the ddp/child murderer stuff. The only part that really had bad matches was Sandman. Because Sandman is one of the worst wrestlers of all time. Drink beers, cane self, cane opponent, sell, cane opponent, White Russian leg sweep. That's every Sandman match.
ReplyDeleteI think he meant rvd.
ReplyDeleteI've always felt that at their popularity peak, Rock was a better worker than Austin. I watched their sets back to back about a year ago and the brawly main events Austin was doing back in 98 hold no interest to me at all.
ReplyDeleteoh my bad.
ReplyDeletewhen he was the focal point of the promotion during the spring, he was putting on good matches cuz he was motivated
Austin really made a comeback as a worker after he came back in late 2000. His matches with Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit are actually pretty crazy.
ReplyDeleteits due to the opponents i think.
ReplyDeleterock had better workers against to make him look great
oh btw,
ReplyDeleteyou turned into jesse baker and trolled on calibers board?
What made Rock great is he absorbed what he learned from working with guys like Triple H, Benoit, RVD. His match quality kept improving and by 2001 he was a full blown top tier worker.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to thrown in the TLC match with Edge and also Austin's last Raw match which everyone seems to forget about.
ReplyDeletemeanwhile austin had slugs in 98 to work with.
ReplyDeletefoley
kane
taker
Turned into? I made two comments. And it was hardly pretending to be him. I just chose a name I found funny. Would it be better had I chose John Baker?
ReplyDeleteThe Foley matches were great.
ReplyDeleteA like for mentioning Revenge.
ReplyDeletethey are good, but nowhere near his 2001 run
ReplyDeleteOver the Edge 98 is very highly regarded, but I agree Austin was much better in 2001.
ReplyDeleteThat Spring Stampede match is a classic.
ReplyDeleteim not disagreeing, but the match was more story than work.
ReplyDeletewhereas the 01 shit was purely work
which brings me back to my point that it was the workers programmed with rocky/austin.
Going back to Rock, compare him to Sting. Sting would just let Ric Flair make him look great while not learning anything. Rock would learn shit while working with someone like Benoit and then take it into his next series of matches. Rock worked hard to become great.
ReplyDeleteI cant argue with that. My preference is Austin since I really like his preinjury work but his stuff and subsequently the main event format got real brawly during points. Both Rock and Austin can put out classic s given the right opponent.
ReplyDeletecalm down kid.
ReplyDeleteim just saying, dont give his site hits for the sake of a laugh. its not worth it.
im not in the mood to read caliber rant about how his site got trolled on here, curiousity piques and now he gets hits.
"23 people read my blog!"
not in the mood
Who had better matches with Angle or Hunter?
ReplyDeleteYea, he kinda reinvented himself along his run on top. I always wondered if it was bc he got more comfortable in his beat down body, or as you guys pointed below, just had better oppinents to work with
ReplyDeleteI'm not excited at all. I've been asked to leave him alone. And I'm trying to. But people keep asking about it.
ReplyDeleteIm not disagreeing with you Douglas.
ReplyDeleteIm just statng a fact Rock had better workers around his at the height of his popularity than Austin.
You bring up a great point.
ReplyDeleteDamn great point.
Also, I always thought J E double F Jarrett was a good-very good worker but cant think of 1 great match hes ever been in. Anyone?
ReplyDeleteThat's true. But he didn't exactly bust his ass trying to carry them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not blaming Austin. He found a winning formula and stuck with it. They're just not very exciting to watch years later.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard when you're not a main eventer. HBK?
ReplyDeleteNot at all. there were no carry jobs. If anything Taker carried Austin at SS98 after he got knocked out.
ReplyDeleteHe had pros in the ring with him who were over and knew how to work, as opposed to Rocky who had workers around him all making him a better in ring asset.
Dont think ive ever seen that actually. I was thinking more of his title WcW run. I know he was working with slugs, but he must have had some great WcW matches someehere.
ReplyDeleteEVery match with Angle after his wife died.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was on top in wcw, it was not conducive to having great matches.
ReplyDeleteYea. Shoulda clarified...was thinking more of his title run period in WcW. I know he was working with mostly trash but there's gotta be some good matches in there somewhere??
ReplyDeleteDude, they had Scott Steiner, Sid, and Bagwell available for great matches.
ReplyDeleteum you forgot long ass intro.
ReplyDeleteshitty punches
stand on barricade/slip off barricade
barricade in ring spot
something off the top rope thats shitty
not sure if thats sarcasm, or trolling.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember much about those matches, other than the ECW crowds wetting themselves trying to applaud generic chain wrestling sequences. Just because they wanted to show how smart that were to appreciate workrate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough not a 4 star classic by any stretch, the Nitro match where Flair wins his last World Title was damn good fun.
ReplyDeleteI think peoples response to their matches is more a testament to how ridiculously over RVD was more than "Phill Mutants" trying to prove how smart they are. WWE dropped the ball huge on RVD over and over.
ReplyDeletePoint taken.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's just due to physical mobility when they were on the top- Austin at the tippy top of his popularity coincided with his neck being at the worst. Other dude's have sort of beat around the bush on that, but I think it's important to just clearly say it- dude's neck was really limiting him, and he did take the garbage brawl to new heights.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't just RVD. I remember several ECW matches that would have the guts go through some generic chain wrestling sequence where they'd counter each other's moves, and finish up with them standing off facing each other, just so the crowd could applaud for the sake of demonstrating how much they liked technical wrestling.
ReplyDeleteI agree about RVD. I wasn't a huge fan, but the dude was over and brought a breath of fresh air.
You can only pick one: Sandman or Ray Stevens, who's the better worker?
ReplyDeleteI forgot which shoot interview it was but someone said the reason was because Bisch just wanted to ride his motorcycle. I'm sure it's more than that but it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteEWR actually converted me into a full blown smark and is why I started checking out the indy's. I remember first playing it and seeing the stats that guys like AJ Styles and Chris Daniels had and thinking, "how have I never heard of these guys? I'm gonna have to check out NWA-TNA!" And from there figuring out that they worked in Ring of Honor and then becoming a massive ROH fan for almost five years.
ReplyDeletecrippler ray stevens?
ReplyDeleteno question about it.
My Aunt Debbie HATES wrestling, but even she found the Jericho vs. Malenko feud interesting. The "Stinko Malenko" line had her laughing.
ReplyDeleteI agree once again, with your picks. The Vader vs Sting feud, may have been one of the best ever.
ReplyDeleteI remember my really young days reading the Apter mags and being blown the fuck away that over in Japan, Vader and Bam Bam were a team. During the era where WWF and WCW didn't acknowledge each others existence, to find out that two of their analogous monster heels were a team in Japan was just mind boggling. Too bad no one ever got them in the same place at the same time in America.
ReplyDeleteMark the TLC with Edge as one for both guys.
ReplyDeleteThe deeper I get into wrestling, the more I'm dumbfounded that anyone wouldn't call Ric the greatest of all time. He debuted in what, 1972!? And was having legitimately great matches in the '00s?! Nobody comes close.
Reading Scott's reply and the comments I've started to realize that I don't think I've ever watched a bad RVD match, and honestly, I think his matches AVERAGE *** for me, which is pretty mind blowing.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing that separates him from an HBK though is that HBK could make any raw match a *** match, but then on pay per view you were pretty much guaranteed a ****+ bout. While RVD never stinks out the joint, he's had far less classic matches than Shawn or any of the all time greats.
You shouldn't expect anything less from a fan wearing an Edmonton Oilers jersey.
ReplyDeleteThe Rock is The Beatles of wrestling:
ReplyDeleteThe world struck gold with them, and they only really lasted six years.
He also went against Vince and The Rock when he was still pretty green.
ReplyDeleteFuj I sent you a fantasy football email and never heard back.
ReplyDeleteThis thread begs the question of chemistry.
ReplyDeleteTake Kane, for instance. He's never had a good match with Undertaker, either as an opponent or as a partner. Yet, his matches with Albert of all people were great little TV matches.
Batista and Taker had great chemistry, Taker and Edge had pretty good chemistry, but Batista and Edge really didn't click.
Matt and Jeff were great as a team, but their matches were not the best. Same thing with Edge & Christian, really.
Again, Vader and Sting were always awesome but not nearly as great with just anybody else.
I personally liked the RVD/Lynn series, but RVD vs. anyone else in ECW was usually the drizzling shits.
And for some reason, Christian/Orton always have good matches, yet I've seen them both have mediocre bouts with guys like Shawn Michaels.
It's weird how some things work out.
dude, I sent out all the emails.
ReplyDeleteMultiple times.
I even said check your junk mail
Yeah, I've always maintained that essentially any RVD match (with reasonable time) is gonna fall between **1/2 and ***1/2 because that's just the kind of wrestler he is. He's great at what he does, but he doesn't care about classics, he just cares about going out there, giving the fans what they want, hitting his spots, and clocking out.
ReplyDeleteA few GREAT workers have gotten more out of him but it's rare.
Different strokes.
ReplyDeleteAn Unmotivated RVD is almost as bad as Unmotivated Muta.
I'm going to add that TNA miss the chance at bringing in Tomko/Albert from Japan in 07-09 somewhere in that time frame.
ReplyDeleteThey were tearing up Japan and should have brought them over for a 16 week run and then put over some babyface team. Would have done wonders.
They brought Tomko and he got over as fuck doing all these Jap power moves on small wrestlers like Shark Boy and then dropped the ball.
Sandman, rite?
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Vader vs Cactus, but his stuff with Sting was great.
ReplyDeletedude he was still one the best workers in the company in the 00's. I can't fucking stand all the hate for Flair these days, I don't give 2 shits what the Grantland article said. I agree with him on Bret Hart, and the dude from Highspots is just as big of a huckster as anyone else in the business.
ReplyDeleteHHH and HBK were a weird case; there were some matches where it clicked the way you expected those two would, but then other matches, like the Bad Blood Hell in a Cell, where they looked like they were going off two different scripts. You'd think the way they'd know each other and the ceiling of their talents, they should've been able to put on a ****+ every time the way Cena does with Punk. Instead, it was like the Hardy vs. Hardy matches, where it seemed like at times they didn't know what to do when facing each other.
ReplyDeleteIt's just kinda sad what Ric Flair has become in his personal life, but I think he's still the greatest of all time, or at least #2 to Shawn.
ReplyDeleteI think they over planned Hell in the Cell, Last Man Standing, and the 3 stages of Hell match. They were trying too hard to make them epic. I think with Summerslam and the Raw match they just went out and had fun and called most of it in the ring.
ReplyDeleteFirst title change I ever saw live!
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird that brother vs. brother pairings haven't resulted in good matches. Hardy vs. Hardy and Steiner vs. Steiner were both shit. Even fake brother pairings don't go well. Taker/Kane usually sucks and Edge/Christian was just ok.
ReplyDeleteChristian may not be an elite worker like Punk or Bryan but he's definitely a consistent ***+ performer.
ReplyDeleteDeano's carry job at Backlash 2000 is incredible. Of course Raven's match with Benoit at Souled Out 98. And the awesome Flock vs Horsemen tag at Spring Stampede 99. Rey Mysterio has many good ones and not just with Eddy. Juvi had some great cruiser matches in 98/99
ReplyDeleteOwen and Bret did alright.
ReplyDeleteAgree whole-heartedly on Kane & Taker. Never produced anything even approaching good, even when they teamed up and had the Edge & Christians of the wolrd bumping around for them.
ReplyDeleteDid Vader and Bam Bam ever face each other in their primes? That would have been an awesome big man match.
ReplyDeleteYeah I've never watched a Christian match and not been entertained. Big fan of his, Vince's weird hatred for him is dumbfounding.
ReplyDeleteRelated to that, I was thinking the other night about how some people get credited as being "good if he's in there with a good opponent". That's kind of a bullshit argument, right? Like if your matches are only good if the guy you're facing is good, doesn't the credit all go to him? How good can you be if you can't do anything worth watching unless someone better is dragging up the average?
ReplyDeleteI agree as a lot of Austin matches were very punch-kicky but since he cut such an amazing pace, his matches seemed awesome. Now, contrast that with HHH, who cuts a SLOW punch-kicky pace and you can see his limitations a lot more.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. Rock could have easily coasted on his mic skills and look but he seriously put his all into his matches.
ReplyDeleteMan, Albert. I gotta wonder who is getting in his ear. Because if you go back and watch his early Prince Albert stuff, and then his Giant Bernard stuff in Japan, the guy would just bust out these crazy ass power moves. I remember a Gorilla press into a Michinoku Driver, and a thing like Big Show's Hog Log except face down, plus a bunch more. And then every time he gets in WWE where he's working steady, he drops all that shit and just works like every other big man ever, and then he doesn't get over and ends up doing a comedy gimmick. Are people scared to bump for him or is it just typical bullshit old hack "you don't need nunna that shit"?
ReplyDeleteI still think if Shawn came back now, he'd be among the top performers in the world.
ReplyDeleteI did. I kept getting bounced. I'm assuming it's too late?
ReplyDeleteUnmotivated Muta still has an aura. Unmotivated rvd has thumbs and a good theme song.
ReplyDeleteBy the time they actually got to the Steiners wrestling Scott was well past his usefulness in terms of work rate.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like the stand-off applause breaks did start with Lynn/RVD, but at least they were deserved in those first couple matches. Some of the chain spots were breathtaking (I liked how the were chaining chair shots instead of headlocks). It was terrible when the stand-off became a trend, though, and made mediocre matches even more tedious.
ReplyDeleteHe had one with Shawn Michales for the IC title.
ReplyDeleteNot familiar with Raven matches in TNA, but I'm sure they were fine. Raven's never really been a bad worker.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I was asking about RVD. Maybe the matches were good, but I was just too blinded by my anger of him dethroning AJ to really view them objectively.
I just hate RVD...so there's that.
Windham's 1992 is actually better than 1987. Superbrawl 2 tag is a top 5 WCW tag of the 90's. Wargames is a top 5 WCW match of the 90's. Starrcade 92 tag is top 6-7 WCW tag of the 90's
ReplyDeleteyes sir.
ReplyDeleteit was first come, first serve.
Christian's TNA run is very underrated. Great matches with AJ, Abyss, and Joe and a really great feud with Rhino. I'll go as far as to say it was better than his single runs in WWE.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Christian's matches more now that he's slipped into the "veteran babyface" role, similar to Steamboat in WCW.
ReplyDeleteThis list needs to be redone but with tag teams.
ReplyDeleteChristian was very much a tippy top guy during his 2009 ECW run. And I agree that Vader is a second-tier guy, but I'd personally put him above Savage and Michaels. Raven would be 99th tier.
ReplyDeleteVader is the best "big man" of all time and one of the best heels of the early 90s. He's a legit "great" to me.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. It's kinda like what I tell people about why I hate Katie Holmes in Batman Begins; everyone is acting and she is "Acting", and I think that's the difference between a good HHH/HBK match and a bad one. You can try to set up all these epic moments and spots in a match, but if it feels like it's not a natural extension of said match, then it becomes the masturbatory worst kind of match. When they just went out and beat the shit out of each other at Summerslam and that great RAW match that ended in a draw, then you could see everything just click and engage the audience.
ReplyDeleteI really wish the E would release a Vader dvd set and put all the matches he had with Sting and Cactus on there. Throw in the Starrcade match with Flair, the Summerslam match with HBK, maybe even negotiate with New Japan for some of his early Vader stuff there. I doubt they could negotiate it, but I'd love to see some of his All Japan work after he left WWE, when he was broken down but the matches were good-great because Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada and crew would trade bombs with Vader. The last match on the set would be his return destruction against Heath Slater, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnd include a good documentary because Vader was shockingly well spoken in Foley's latest DVD set.
Yeah, i'd drop money in a second for a three disc vader set. The stories!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, Malenko and Guerrero were doing the chain wrestling-break for applause in their matches in ECW, which they carried over a bit from their NJPW stint. The difference is, of course, is that their chain wrestling deserved the applause and then they built their matches off those counters.
ReplyDeleteBig props for the Vader vs. Takada mention. Vader in UWFi was awesome.
ReplyDeleteIf we're just going by 2nd/3rd tier wrestler in terms of technical wrestling, I gotta bring up Jerry Lawler. Nobody would consider him a great technician, and none of his matches rate high in terms of pure workrate. But the man knows how to manipulate the crowd and build a match that gets them frothing at the mouth. His best work is probably the AWA title matches with Curt Hennig (and I've seen at least one with Nick Bockwinkle that was really good as well), the unification match against Kerry von Erich (shitty ending aside), the cage match with Macho Man in the 80s, some of the stuff he did with Eddie Gilbert in the early 90s was good too. And, of course, the match with Andy Kaufman; like Hogan-Andre, it's terrible in terms of workrate, but it's soooo entertaining.
ReplyDeleteUnmotivated rvd in TNA when you aren't feeling the whole "so bad it's good" aspect of the Van Assassinator?
ReplyDeleteI'd say his best work was his Loser Leaves Town matches against Bill Dundee. He also had great matches with Terry Funk and Dutch Mantell. It's a shame that most people know him as a cheap heat heel in the WWF, because he's one of the all-time great babyface workers.
ReplyDeleteHis ladder match with Benoit was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHe had a couple 4 **** matches in the WWF with Bret as well...not to mention the feud with Idol and Rich that spanned a series of 4 *** matches
ReplyDeleteI just don't get this. It's a difference in taste, and probably generational, but RVD has always been an at best average worker to me. He needs an outstanding worker to get any of his flippity floppity nonsense over.
ReplyDeleteShawn's incredible, but I'd give the nod to Flair based purely on quality + longevity and consistently doing the ol' "night in, night out" routine.
ReplyDeleteBut really, both guys wrestle like fish swim.
I wouldn't call Foley a slug.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of many "split tag teams" that had great matches with each other, so chemistry is a weird thing. (Michaels vs. Jannetty was great of course).
ReplyDeleteI don't know what "pure workrate" is but Lawler is an all-time great, hands down. LLT with Dundee (multiple times), 1-hour draw with Harley Race, and the series with Dutch Mantell in '82 are all truly great matches.
ReplyDeleteJarrett was actually at his best in the USWA. After that, the IC title loss to HBK is terrific (and I'm not a Michaels fan). He had a great AWA title match with Bockwinkel from very early in his career and an awesome match with Eddie Gilbert in USWA-TX in early '91. Those strike me as his best.
ReplyDeleteWhen Abyss attacks Christian at his house is one of my favorite things ever. "Come on Abyss, that's enough. You can't win the title from a dead man."
ReplyDeleteConsidering the amazing matches he put together with such a wide variety of opponents I would agree with you. It's ridiculous how mobile he is given his size.
ReplyDeleteThe break for applause can also be awesome and add to the flow. Almost like the wrestlers are taking a second to stare each other down and figure out what to do next/what might work (see: Benoit vs. Angle, for example).
ReplyDelete...what? Vader is second tier but he's above HBK and Macho?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Vince is "in his ear." As in Albert's told, knock that "shit" off and work WWE style so you don't show up the upper card guys. Which is too bad b/c WWE needs some monsters doing stuff like that instead of the formulaic Ryback matches.
ReplyDeleteHe must have been drunk. HBK and Savage are top 5 all time. Savage may be #1 in terms of ability, charisma, mic skills, and most important, being an equally amazing face AND heel.
ReplyDeleteI love me some Vader. It is just too bad Shawn Michaels was a dick, didn't allow for him to get a run at the top of the WWF, and how he was misused with the Federation.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first beer.
ReplyDeleteJust don't piss Jarrett off. Or he will crush your skull with a guitar.
ReplyDeleteTop 5? Jumbo, Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Flair, Funk, Guerrero, and Hansen are all easily above them. And those are just the no-brainers.
ReplyDelete