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Post by bossrock on Sept 30, 2019 18:48:57 GMT -5
Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi/Hiromu Takahashi
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Stan Hansen vs. Terry Funk
Stan Hansen vs. Genichiro Tenryu
Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi vs. Holy Demon Army
Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama vs. Holy Demon Army
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 1, 2019 6:30:18 GMT -5
Tanahashi/Naito from 2017 might be the greatest wrestling trilogy of this century and it deserves some recognition. Like, the character work in all their three matches is fantastic and the feud really feels like one. Today, wrestling's feuds are all about facing each other a lot of times with different gimmick matches, but Tana/Naito made their characters shine and develop and, to me, that's the key.
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Post by Cap on Oct 1, 2019 11:44:40 GMT -5
I agree completely with Elliott's distinction. I guess I sort of assumed it, but probably should have laid it out.
Another I was thinking of recently...
A while back I tried to work my way through the Nigel/Danielson feud turned rivalry from ROH and wound up getting distracted. I still have probably 3-4 matches to watch in it. That is one that I think is really quality, produced at least 2-3 top end matches, and did its job in context (elevate Nigel a few times). Its also one that for me - even moreso than say Eddie/JBL - elevated a single match into the really upper tiers of my list. To me, Unified is their best. I know there are some differing opinions on this, but that is where I stand. That match is really launched by the white hot crowd and the subvertable expectations that they created. By that I mean that we often love when our expectations are subverted, but it can't just be done willy nilly. Sometimes we want them met or you dig yourself such a whole that doing anything other than what is expected becomes TOO nonsensical. Here was an example of ROH setting the table table such that we believed it was Nigel's time. He had gotten the best of Dragon a few times. It felt like a feud that was really elevating a star in Nigel. The match was in England so he had the home field advantage. They used all of that within the construction of the match and were still able to have Dragon win the match without absolutely deflating fans with the result. It gave us closure in the moment, but left the door open for them to transition into something that would resemble more a long term rivalry (at least in my eyes). I think it was really masterfully done, so much so that when I actually looked back at the unified match right before submitting my ballot I had some more nitpicky criticisms - mostly because I was watching it alongside the very best matches EVER - and it still didn't fall down my list to far because the story they were telling was so compelling and so white hot. Just really excellent stuff overall.
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