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Post by tetsujin on Nov 20, 2021 12:49:03 GMT -5
90-81:
#90: Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA - 13/02/2000: If only this had a better crowd, it would be much higher. Still, this is an amazing match with one of the best beatdowns Aja has ever gave to anybody, and think about the ground that covers. KAOURU had a pretty sympatethic selling and awesome offense against the monster. This is like a more serious and brutal version of Super Heel Masami vs Mayumi Ozaki from 1993, a match that I love, so you make an idea about how much I like this match. Feels like a slasher movie.
#89: Stan Hansen/Vader vs Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama (AJPW - 5/12/1998): One of the most underrated matches in 90s AJPW, and one of my favourites. This match tells so much in only, idk, 12 minutes? 15 minutes? Definitely not longer. Hansen and Vader are both beasts, but their glory days have passed a long time ago and now the only way they can control the match against the unstoppable Burning is by isolating them from one another. Any time Burning seem to counterattack, the monsters team up and regain control quickly. But, at the end, one of the best tag team combo spots of all time is enough to put the old giants away, it's kinda poetic. This match loses no time at all and is definitely a testament of both Hansen and Vader's greatness even after their peaks, and obviously Kobashi and Akiyama are perfect too. Gotta love Hansen treating Kobashi like a little bitch one more time, just like in the early 90s, trying to regain his bully status against him.
#88: Batista vs Triple H (Hell in a Cell Match - WWE - 26/06/2005): yeap, a Triple H match. And it is not any of the Cactus Jack matches, sorry. I think this is much better. This is probably the only time Triple H have put someone else over in a definitive, non polemic, humble way, so just for that this match is special. But seriously though, this has everything you want from a final showdown in a long-term rivalry: a good gimmick that feels special for the ocassion, a creative use of objects and violence, and a decisive clean win for the new superstar, Batista. And you know what? Triple H being Triple H kinda helps this one, just like in the Bryan match. The fact he's the one making the job and (what should have been) a passing of the torch makes Batista's victory so much satisfying. Please, give this match a chance. Definitely Batista's best and one of the three best HHH matches.
#87: Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue (AJPW - 6/12/1996): maybe a bit excessive in both length and overall action, but each one of this gladiators make a hell of a performance in the finals of the greatest tag team tournament in the world, so it fits. I've never been as high on this as almost anyone else, and agree that it might be a step below the other notorious 90s AJPW classics, but this is still incredible. You have angry semi-rookie Jun trying his best to prove himself against the world, Kawada being almost hysterical to put Misawa away again, Misawa looking to survive the biggest ounslaught of his life, and the MVP of the match, Akira fucking Taue demolishing everybody and being the ultimate anchor to Kawada.
#86: Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo (AJW - 22/08/1985): You can say a lot of things to argue this match is legendary: the fact Devil is 23 and Chigusa is 21 at the time, the strikes, the matwork, the character work... But, to me, the true greatness of this match is the structure. These two badass women don't stop fighting each other, not in a "go go go style" kind of way, but in a more slow yet still brutal way; there's almost no downtimes at all. This was a marathon for these two. By the end of the match, you can feel they're tired as fucking hell and any single strike could make the difference. They're perfectly selling the climax of a long, epic encounter, and it's so satisfying to watch. This is peak 80s joshi, by far, and one of the best long title matches ever.
#85: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW - 16/02/1997): epic beatdown to start things up. Then you add a great comeback and amazing highspots, and you have a Jrs classic like no others. This is to me what people see when they watch Liger/Sano from 1990 or Liger/Samurai: a furious Liger against cocky challengers who try to get on his nerves without realizing how dangerous that idea may be. The fact Liger gives us this performance only a week after the Otani match is ridiculous to me, what a legend.
#84: Kairi Hojo vs Meiko Satomura (STARDOM - 14/06/2015): One of those matches where you can tell they're having tons of fun. A total package with tests of strenghts, superb matwork, nasty submissions, even nastier strikes, highflying, wonderful underdog selling by Hojo and pretty cool facial language by Meiko. You know when people, myself included, say it surprises them how Tamura and Kohsaka went to an actual 30 minute time limit draw, because by the pacing of the match you couldn't even suspect it? The same happens here. They work this match like Devil and Chiggy did in 1985, but with the improve in fluidity and offense thirty years of difference can make.
#83: Shinya Hashimoto vs Lord Steven Regal (NJPW - 16/04/1995): One of the most underrated matches ever. People here love Hashimoto and Regal, but they had a bonkers match and nobody says anything?! C'mon guys. Give this match more love. It's exactly what you would want from these two: Hash work his kind of match, slow, short and meaningful, but Regal brings that nasty little matwork of his to the table, to make it even more entertaining to watch. I know 1995 is a year full of amazing matches, so this is under the radar, but please. Go watch this. It deserves more love.
#82: Diesel vs Bret Hart (No DQ Match - WWE - 19/11/1995): Well, speaking of amazing matches in 1995. You have the Pillars at their peak, Hashimoto with another really strong run, and yet Bret Hart still manages to bring a MOTYC to the competition in this year, and with Diesel of all people. This is an almost perfect David vs Goliath, if David instead of a slingshot had a pair of balls and said "well I'm gonna fuck his knees so bad he's gonna turn hell after losing". People don't give enough credit to Bret's selling when making a case for him, he's totally one of the best sellers ever and this might be his selling masterpiece. Incredible match.
#81: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 4/01/2015): it doesn't get much better than this for a Tokyo Dome main event. They worked this match almost perfectly, reflecting how they're equals now after three years of rivalry, how they put each other to their absolute limit and even surpass it, with clever callbacks to prior matches and a super satisfying finish (to me, at least) with a crying Okada not being able to stand up and dodge the final High Fly Flow in what was supposed to be the biggest night of his career. If you look at it retrospectively, you could argue Okada should've won here instead of delaying his final victory one more year, so they could have made the Naito story a year prior and we would have enjoyed his title reign prior to the god damned pandemic, but well, it is what it is. And the crazy part is, we still have two more matches from this saga on the list.
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 21, 2021 7:23:37 GMT -5
80-71:
#80: El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (Mask vs Hair Match - CMLL - 19/09/1997): In terms of greatness, this might be up there with Hash/Takada, Hogan/André, '01 Austin/Rock or '03 Misawa/Kobashi. This match feels special like no other when it comes to lucha libre: a 10-year-old rivalry, mask vs hair, one fall, it doesn't get any better than this. The actual match delivers obviously, and what I like the most about it is how they show the animosity between the two, with nasty matwork and constantly fighting each other, without turning the whole match into an out of control bloody brawl like many other generic luchas de apuestas. This is personal, but they don't ruin the tradition, they want to defeat the other as by the rules as possible.
#79: Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen (AJPW - 14/04/1983): If this had a more satisfying finish, it would be fighting for a top 10 spot, which is crazy. This is one of those matches that makes you feel guilty for liking pro wrestling: you have Stan fucking Hansen being the biggest sadistic in the world, and Terry, oh my. He's maybe the greatest underdog ever in this particular match. This is Lesnar/Cena almost thirty years before Lesnar/Cena. I don't know how Baba or anyone approved this but I'm so glad they did.
#78: El Hijo del Santo vs Espanto Jr (Mask vs Mask Match - Monterrey - 31/08/1986): more Santito's greatness. This match is truly iconic in lucha libre and specially in Santo's career: El Santo original and Espanto had a crazy rivalry for what I know, and the next generation carry that rivalry. Everyone loves the visual of children taking care of Santito while he rests between falls, that's how powerful this match is. Also, impecable structure: they actually use the 2/3 Falls stipulation to build a first, second and third act story, instead of just leaving the first two falls behind as quickly as possible like many other lucha matches. Magic match. And it's not even the better between these two.
#77: El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (Mask vs Hair Match - WWA - 18/07/1987): and even more Santito! Almost all of my favourite big matches of his are more or less at the same level, so I had to put them very close. This is my favourite Santo/Casas match: a crazier athletic exhibition than the 97 match, as both are ten years younger, and mindblowing matwork. There's not much else to say, the match speaks very well for itself and it should be even more recognized.
#76: Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine (Dog Collar Match - JCP - 24/11/1983): I'm actually cheating a bit here. I didn't rewatch this match for the ballot, but honestly, I remember it being super super crazy good, but at the same time didn't want to put it too high because it didn't sound fair for other super super crazy good matches, so yeah. I guess right outside the Q3 of my list is accurate for now. This match is a brutal masterpiece and one that ages better than most of the 80s classics, and even some of the 90s and 00s classics. Both guys' masterpiece, no doubt.
#75: Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee (Loser Leaves Town Match - CWA - 30/12/1985): Man, if this match wasn't clipped, I'm sure as hell it would be top 25 at least. That can be said about most of the Lawler classics, but this is the one were the clips hurt the match the most, because we don't see notorious transitions and the changes in the match are to drastic to not pull you out of the experience, sadly. But what we have, damn it is all-time great level. Dundee's heel performance is 100% one of the best ever, and Lawler brings his A game as well, doing what he always does but in a perfect way: selling, punching and making a huge comeback. The eye dynamic is pretty interesting and fun to watch, and we have some highlights like THAT Lawler bump. Out of all the matches that are clipped, this is the one that annoys me the most, by far.
#74: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS - 27/06/1998): I don't know why I put this so low, I guess there's too much amazing pro wrestling out there. A total masterpiece of matwork, with that all-time great first sequence that goes 11 minutes without a single rope break. The way they worked this match, I said it before, I would have never thought they were going for the full 30 minutes. Everyone loves Tamura and recognizes him as one of the absolute best, but Kohsaka totally looks at his level here, so I wonder how far they really are from one another, is it because Kohsaka worked even less matches or something? Anyway, fantastic match that should be taught in wrestling schools. This is how you grapple fuck.
#73: El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW - 21/01/1996): This match is rude as fuck. They do every little thing they can to piss off and hurt each other, at any time. They might we working some hold, and at the same time biting each other, or stomping each other, whatever. It feels super personal for no reason other than being a fucking prick, and that's Otani in a nutshell, so yeah. Super fun match with all-time great offense and character work.
#72: Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto (AJW - 2/09/1995): Just for visuals alone, this is a classic. Toyota comes in white, and Hokuto comes in a black wedding dress. She fucking dives to Toyota still dressed in black. Holy shit. The rest of the match is super amazing as well, the matwork looks soooo painful, and their screams add even more to that feeling. They beat the shit out of each other, hilariously brutal table spots included, and I don't know how people doesn't acknowledge this match more because they're two of the biggest joshi stars ever at their peak (more or less).
#71: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Yuji Nagata (NJPW - 13/04/2007): Closing this round with another Tanahashi match. Tana wasn't at his peak yet, but you couldn't tell just with this match. This is a performance of a lifetime by him, four years before his actual peak starts, that's surreal. Nagata also gives us his best performance ever here (sorry Kobashi, Taue and Makabe matches, you were all close to make it), so this match is basically a wrestling genious and a future wrestling genious at their full power for one night. It's Tanahashi proving he will be elite someday, and Nagata still teaching him a lesson or two. One of the most intelligent matches ever worked, with clever legwork and a brilliant balance between selling and coming back from Nagata. Also, it isn't as bombastic as some other Tanahashi classics, so if you're not really into second boom NJPW, I would say this match is still for you.
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Post by gramsci on Nov 21, 2021 8:21:16 GMT -5
I should have wait before submiting my ranking, reading your list and the list of other users has made me realize that I have forgotten to add some of my favourite matches. Kobashi/Akiyama vs Hansen/Vader is a match that I love, same with the 87 Casas vs Santito. Those would be on my list for sure.
Keep it up posting your list with the review for each match, it's a great read!
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Post by elliott on Nov 21, 2021 9:23:58 GMT -5
Oooh excited for Tetsujin's list with write ups!
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 21, 2021 10:43:45 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Here's 70-61 for you all:
#70: Team NJPW vs Team Ishin Gundan (5x5 Gauntlet Match - NJPW - 19/04/1984): Honestly, I ranked this at #70 and I still believe I went too low on it. There's no way a +60 minutes match, with a lot of participants and a very clever structure, with an all time great crowd throughout the whole thing, can't be top 50 AT LEAST. This match is fucking crazy, definitely my favourite multiman NJPW match ever. It might be the best "really long match that actually feels a lot shorter while watching it" match. A true masterpiece of combined ringwork and booking.
#69: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Volk Han (RINGS - 26/09/1997): A perfect conclussion for one of the best trilogies ever. You can see with ease that this time Tamura is not only ready, but he's kinda dominating Han. It might be not as intense, for a pure ringwork perspective, as the Januaru match, but when you're rooting for Tamura to finally defeat the man of the 1000 holds, nothing else matters. Also, this match has the absolute best cross armbreaker ever made.
#68: Johnny Saint vs Steve Grey (2/3 Falls Match - JP - 28/01/1980): Breaks/Cortez from 1981 almost made it, but at the end this was the only World of Sports match I felt right to include. It's a style that I love, but that I don't think ages that well. It's basically a matwork spotfest, for lack of a better term. However, this match is just undenniable. It feels like a great fighting game grand finals round, you know, when two guys seem like they're smashing buttons and the characters move like crazy attacking, blocking, dodging, comboing etc, but the more you look at it the more you realize, all those buttons they smash aren't random, they're actually pretty aware of what they're doing, they're having strategies and think even faster than they move. I felt the same with this match: this is a backf and forth grappling masterpiece. Remember Andrade/Gargano? This match is like that but with a much better story and funnier to watch because of more beautiful fireworks. A timeless jewel.
#67: Carlos Colón vs Stan Hansen (Bullrope Match - WWC - 6/01/1987): El wrestling de Puerto Rico is mesmerizing to me. Incredibly hot crowds, a great Ace in the figure of Carlos Colón, and you have incredible wresters showing up there like Funk, Windham, Martel, or Hansen in this case. I'm not really a fan of this stipulation, so you can guess how perfectly they made use of it here, considering how high I'm ranking this match. Carlitos is an absolute megastar against Hansen, who's far away from feeling like a generic monster heel against the top babyface of a company, bringing all of his personality and pressence to the match. Another violent classic by The Lariat.
#66: Ric Flair vs Barry Windham (JCP - 20/01/1987): Windham might be my favourite Flair opponent, or at least the only one that makes me doubt between him and Steamboat, and this is my favourite match of their series. It's also another match I'll never see in full, because of commercial breaks, so that sucks, but we have most of the match and it is a total delight. It has everything the 1986 match has, but better: Windham is more focused, Flair's heat segments are better, and the nearfalls are far more exciting. The actual finish is also better, so yeah. This feels like the true Flair/Windham masterpiece, and if this is the match that happened at the Battle of the Belts event I'm sure it would be remembered a lot more.
#65: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW - 25/10/1995): I get that, when you have the greatest wrestling saga at your hands, some "less than perfect" matches will flow under the radar. That said, it still bothers me how underrated this match is, specially when comparing it to 20/1/97 or the NOAH match. Yeah, it isn't as good as those, but it totally sets the tone of the story they ended up producing: Kobashi is too impacient and his burning spirit can be his demise, and Misawa teaches him how to work a title match as a marathon, not a sprint. When you watch the 20/1/97 match, you inmediately recognize Kobashi's grow as a challenger to Misawa and how he's able to control most of the match with clever strategies. Well, this match is the main reason that match's story works so well: because you see the before in Kobashi's mentality for a title match. Such an intelligent match that started the most legendary saga of matches ever.
#64: Volk Han vs Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS - 17/06/1995): Maybe the most underrated RINGS match? This shit is insane. For a style that focuses so much on actual ringwork, my favourite shoot style matches are the ones that balance that sports feel with classic pro wrestling characters and stories. Kiyoshi Tamura does that the best, but Han and Yammamoto are close second, and these two bastards totally nailed that balance here: it is the unstoppable veteran against a very promising, yet still kinda green, possible next big thing. They tell you that dynamic throughout the whole match and produce something super memorable.
#63: Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich (2/3 Falls Match - WCCW - 15/08/1982): Windham might be better, but Kerry has the actual best non-Steamboat Ric Flair match. I'm in love with this match: Kerry absolutely proves he's fucking ready to win the big belt, and Flair is becomming more and more insecure about his chances, heeling more and more as time goes on. At the end, you get a bloody mess Flair destroying KVE's leg with all the sadism he can think of, and the obligatory 80s "non contest finish because we don't wan't either man to lose" feels pretty organic here due to how both Kerry and Flair are left with no other choice than to say "fuck this, now you're DEAD!" and they brawl for eternity. LOVE this match.
#62: The Shield vs Ryback & Team HellNo! (TLC Match - WWE - 16/12/2012): This is the choice that surprises me the most. I never expected to be as high on a match like this. It's not like I love Kane and Ryback... But here we are. This is worked exactly as it should have: with The Shield executing his plan to perfection. They're making their debut, and everyone shines in a different way, it's a great in ring character's introduction for this trio. Bryan is one of the greatest of all time so obviously he adds a lot, but Ryback and Kane do not look out of place at any moment. I guess this kind of match, a tornado, No DQ multiman with the villains isolating the heros and beating their shit one by one, was the perfect setting for them. I've talked before about having the best multiman matches when balancing great ringwork with great booking, and this is one of the strongest examples of that. Also, you could argue about the historical value of this match, too.
#61: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi (NJPW - 4/01/2015): This is the big match I wish 10s NJPW took as a reference, instead of Okada/Omega 1. Not even 20 minutes iirc, yet one of the most brutal matches and compelling stories told in this new boom of the company. Nakamura's peak is tragically short, maybe two or three years, but OH BOY does he look like the perfect pro wrestler in those two or three years. It's actually insane how good he was, and this match is his (second) best proof of that. And Ibushi, man, he never has looked as good again: super focused, challenging Nakamura to retain not onyl his title but his overall place in New Japan. If not for some disorder when it came to the big spots, this would be even higher. It's also the first ever puroresu match I've ever saw, and here I am six years later, so hey, thank you Nakamura/Ibushi from WrestleKingdom 9.
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Post by Grimmas on Nov 21, 2021 12:15:48 GMT -5
I LOVE seeing lists from people whose views are completely different than mine and seeing their reasoning. Thank you!
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Post by mvz on Nov 21, 2021 22:15:12 GMT -5
Love reading this rollout, I am a big fan of quite a few of these matches and you are capturing what is great about them.
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 23, 2021 18:47:19 GMT -5
Glad you're enjoying the read folks. I'm back, ready to left the bottom half of my list behind. Here's #60-#51:
#60: Daniel Bryan vs Triple H (WWE - 6/04/2014): Yeah, sorry another HHH match. But hey look, another Bryan match! Honestly, this was the perfect match they could have made for the climax of the greatest pro wrestling story of our generation: Triple H perfectly encapsulates what has been wrong with WWE for so many years, and Daniel Bryan has been the ultimate underdog for a good amount of time. They feel like natural enemies. The match itself is amazing, with Trips arrogantly trying to out-wrestle Daniel fucking Bryan while also destroying his bad arm and finishing his career. And the match works not only because Bryan's insane charisma and how talented he is, but also because he's facing Triple H of all people. You'll always gonna be nervous when it comes to a Triple H match, specially a big Triple H match, specially a big WrestleMania Triple H match, SPECIALLY when it's a big WrestleMania Triple H match where he's fighting for a main event slot for the world title. But yeah, this was poetic justice made match and I'm super glad it exists.
#59: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW - 24/07/1995): I've always said the same: if you take the climax of the 3/06/94 match and the first half of this one, you have the absolute perfect classic this rivalry truly deserved. The body of this match is so fucking good, Kawada is at his prickiest and Misawa is so tired of him to the point you see him RAGE sometimes, it feels like the peak of their wonderful dynamic. Sadly the final part of this match was never close to the levels of the legendary 1994 match, and Kawada should have won here, 100% sure, but other than that this match is almost as good as all the other 90s AJPW classics and a clear contender to me for most underrated match ever.
#58: Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair (2/3 Falls Match - NWA - 2/04/1989): It feels a crime to put this match "so low", I know. This is an amazing match and both guys showed tremendous cardio and understanding and mastery of the basics, doing so much with so little and for so many minutes, it's really impressive. However, this is not even my favourite Flair/Steamboat match, which says more about how good these two were together than less about this match itself, iykwim. A terrific match only held down by so many other terrific matches being even better and/or aging better.
#57: Negro Casas vs El Dandy (2/3 Falls Match - EMLL - 3/07/1992): wow, two 2/3 Falls matches back to back, huh? Now that I'm going through my whole list, there's a decent bunch of 2/3 Falls matches, and that's ironic because, while I love this stipulation, I'm also so tired of it due to overexposition, specially in lucha. But here I am, about to praise a lucha 2/3 Falls match. As I should, because this match is fucking amazing: I think it was Ellioit who said it a long time ago, but the perfect definition for this match is "this is a dream match that actually happened". It 100% feels that way: two of the best luchadores ever going back and forth with pretty basic yet fabulous matwork, a great character work as both rudos try their best to stick to the técnico tradition when it comes to title matches, and a clever use of the gimmick of the match, something you barely see in México. This is a lucha libre masterpiece.
#56: Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker (WWE - 5/04/2009): I know this match isn't as high on everyone in these kind of circles, but for pure WWE fans this is, by far, the best match ever. And, while I obviously don't agree with that, it's hard to not get the appeal: these two super icons are competing at the biggest show of the year, throwing everything they have to each other. They both work this match with not too much of an ambition, it is just an exhibition match, but there's something special about watching peak Taker and peak Michaels working an exhibition match (their first singles encounter in more than ten years) in front of thousands of people going CRAZY for it. I love their dynamic together, i LOVE the fact that Shawn isn't really a babyface or a heel here, he's just doing his thing trying to beat Undertaker by any means necessary, he just wants to break the Streak. They push each other to their absolute limit, in a good way. There's a sequence when they're just selling exhaustion and try to get up by hanging on the ropes, crowd going absolute bananas, and man that feeling is what wrestling is all about in the end. The finish is fucking brilliant, also. I still don't understand how they topped this the following year.
#55: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW - 9/02/1997): Why is this so low? I clearly remember watching this match and thinking "my god, this is just perfect. Everything look like an all-time great something". Maybe I have to rewatch it because it honestly confuses me why this is outside my top 50, are they really 54 matches better than this one? That much? Damn. Well, this is Otani's masterpiece and one of the absolute best Liger performances: he shows dominance and cockyness like no other here. The finishing stretch is fucking crazy. Go watch this match!
#54: Shawn Michaels vs Diesel (WWE - 28/04/1996): Ok no, fuck 95 Misawa/Kawada, this has to be the most underrated match ever. Everyone says HBK had a great 1996, the WWE fans talk about the Ironman with Bret, the more "PWOesque" communities talk about the Mankind match... Poor Diesel, nobody cares about him. This match is insanity, there's no other way. It feels like one of those atrocious Dump Matsumoto matches I've watched but actually good, hell, more than good. You're watching a fucking carnage with fantastic pacing. Diesel controls the chaos he creates with such ease here, he makes himself look like the most dangerous monster out there. If Stan Hansen had this exact same performance against whoever, that match would be talked forever, and I know Kevin Nash is... well, not that interesting to watch, but something clicked for him this night. Shawn sells so fucking great, too, I've never been bothered by his selling but even if I were (and I understand why some people could), I would never be bothered by his selling in this particular match. Oh, and, EXCUSE ME THE ENDING? Hilariously crazy. Everything is crazy in this match.
#53: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS - 24/06/1999): Holy shit, this is starting to get really difficult. This match falls just a liiiiiiitle bit appart in the middle, just a tiny bit, because the beginning is all-time great and the last couple of minutes are INSANE. I know I say insane a lot in my reviews, but everyone who has watched this match knows that I'm more than right here. The atmosphere is mindblowing and they create one of the absolute best climaxes I've ever seen in any pro wrestling match. These two would absolutely kill their mothers before losing against the other and I'm so on board for it. Seriously, the beginning and final phase of this match are peak shoot style, and very close to peak pro wrestling as a whole to me. It's just that I'm not that invested in the middle part, if it were a more consistent match this would obviously be a top 10 lock, but when competing against the best of the best, a couple of a bit dull minutes are enough to push you back a lot. Still, this match creates magic. Absolute respect for both guys.
#52: AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe (TNA - 11/12/2005): Now that I think about it, this might be a bit higher than it should, but I rewatched it last week and damn, it is that good. AJ goes toe to toe against peak Samoa fucking Joe, a merciless juggernaut, and they have spectacular chemistry. Just look at how creative and fluid they are while going from spot to spot, how they use the enviroment, how organic it all feels. This is a masterclasss and definitely my favourite TNA match of all time. Well, outside The Final Deletion, but that's a whole other story. As a regular pro wrestling match, nothing beats this monstrosity in TNA history.
#51: Harley Race vs Terry Funk (2/3 Falls Match - NWA - 1/07/1977): This is it guys. The match at the doors of the first half of the greatest matches ever. I've never been as high on Harley as some people, but if he was half the good he was in this particular match, that would be another story, fellas. He's a vicious motherfucker who tries to transform Terry into meat pulp. And say what you want about crazy brawler, bloody underdog or hardcore legend, but, to me, no Terry Funk is better than "technical but kinda insane" Terry Funk. He nails it here. I remember the Piledriver that ends the second half as the most brutal regular Piledriver I've ever seen, and I'm not sure that's even the best spot of the match. A match so ahead of its time it's just ridiculous, holy shit.
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 27, 2021 9:04:29 GMT -5
Top 50! Last time, I had a real hard time talking about some of the matches. They're all so incredibily good, it's hard to give them a "lower" rank. But listen, we're still at my ****1/2 matches. A ****1/2 to me is an excellent match and definitely something deserving a MOTY award or things like that, BUT, still a match that didn't feel like absolute pro wrestling perfection to me. They might reach that level in some parts, but not as a whole match. Why am I telling you this? Well, because this next round will have the last ****1/2 matches and the first ****3/4 ones on my list. A ****3/4 match is ALMOST a perfect match, a match that feels like a 5* BUT had something, some stupid or unfortunate thing, that made it imperfect... by the thinnest of margins. Still, we're now talking about really, really, really special matches in my eyes.
50-41:
#50: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki (NJPW - 8/10/2012): This is basically the total opposite of what you expect when thinking about "big 10s NJPW matches". There's not a single pinfall attempt in the whole match until the actual finish; that should tell you something. My absolute favourite matches have two or more wrestlers clashing not only in style but also in personality, and those two have very defined and radically different styles, and obviously their personalities are as opposite as you can imagine, so yeah, I obviously love it. Just from the very beginning, with Tana "airguitarring" Suzuki and MiSu's reaction, you know you're gonna watch something more than another epic big title match.
#49: Sasha Banks vs Bayley (WWE - 22/08/2015): Same can be said about this match, two super defined, opposite, and perfectly represented characters colliding against each other, but with a delicious "underdog in his/her decisive match" feeling to make it even better. Bayley was crazy good in late 2014-early 2016, and this his obviously her peak match, but Banks was even better, to the point I wouldn't mind if anyone said "she was the 2015 WOTY" or something like that. She's been excellent throughout her whole career and she's still so young, we don't deserve a prodigy like her.
#48: Masahiro Chono vs Keiji Mutoh (NJPW - 11/08/1991): I don't get why people don't talk about this match more often. Maybe it is because Chono became worse and Mutoh is a very divisive worker, you love him or you hate him. But c'mon guys. First ever G1 Climax grand finals, two young guys wanting to triumph and be the new face of New Japan for the upcoming decade. A super big match feel with great atmosphere, but my favourite part obviously has to be the ringwork. They work beautifully together: the structure is impeccable, with great pacing and sense of progression, and I was very interested in both guys strategies, they putted them on display really well. A work of art, a match you feel is worked with extreme caution and love.
#47: AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki (NJPW - 1/08/2014): This is one of those perfect sprints, exactly what round roubin tournaments matches need. But this is also super interesting because of the dynamic between the two: this is a heel vs heel, a chicken shit heel champion, yet extremely talented, against the lunatic master of torture. They gave us everything they had and encapsulated it in this less than 20 minutes odissey.
#46: Low Ki vs Bryan Danielson (Submission Match - JAPW – 7/06/2002): I guess the Round Robin match is more well known, but this has to be the better worked match. Two great mat wrestlers that you never recogonize as such, because they're also great (maybe even greater) in other ways, and they prove it here. Bryan wasn't at his peak yet, but it is unreal how he showed how great he would become when facing Low Ki, they had one of those chemistries that only a few pairings in pro wrestling have. We didn't get enough of these two, I tell you.
#45: Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase (Loser Leaves Town, Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole, Tuxedo, Steel Cage Match - UWF - 30/03/1985): There are better 80s matches in my list, but this still feels to me like peak 80s wrestling: you have an insanely stupid gimmick match as the final showdown in a long-term hated rivalry, and it becomes an instant classic in record time. It's unbelievable how good this match is, and I say that literally: you can't believe how good a match this stupid on paper actually is, you gotta watch it to understand it. In so little time they do so much with each element of the match, they give us the funniest cage match ever and one of the absolute best finishes and worked punches of all time. And those are just some highlights.
#44: Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair (NWA - 7/05/1989): Yeap, WrestleWar is the best of the series. It always have been the best of the series for me. The Chi-Town match isn't nearly as good as the other two of the trilogy, but has an excellent characters clash. Clash VI is all about athletic exhibition and proving who's the actual best wrestler, with some character traits here and there to armonizing it more. But WrestleWar not only has the higher stakes because it is the final match and feels like their ultimate battle, but because it balances their great personalities and their excellent level of ringwork in a way that makes it feel completed. And, if you're one of those guys that rank matches based on the overall experience, from the pre-match promo to the post-match angle (if it has one), this match also works for you in these kind of lists because it has one of the greatest post-match segments of all time courtesy of Flair and you-know-who. Fantastic match.
Ok guys. That was the last ****1/2 on my list. We're reaching almost perfection status from now on.
#43: CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar (No DQ Match - WWE - 18/08/2013): even with Heyman's interferences, this match feels perfect almost every single minute. Everyone who says Punk has weak offense, I assume they forget this match exists because no other indie darling has approached a fight with Lesnar better than him. He actually goes toe to toe with him, his way. 2012-pre Streak Lesnar is my favourite Lesnar, because he's a fucking monster and has final boss aura, but it doesn't feel unnecesarily overpowered like after breaking the Streak: he's able to show vulnerability more often while still looking like an absolute human demon. A bit of overbooking put this below the full five category, but damn, this is proof of both guys greatness. My favourite CM Punk match (well, I still have to rewatch the Joe trilogy, but other than the third match I don't think any of them come close to this).
#42: Brock Lesnar vs John Cena vs Seth Rollins (Triple Threat Match - WWE - 25/01/2015): Ok, remember that I liked pre-Streak Brock more than post-Streak Brock? This is the exception of the rule. This is the best triple threat match ever made, by far. Three different characters doing their thing as best as possible: Lesnar is a fucking unstopabble beast, Cena shows fire and has more guts than ever, and Rollins masters the balance between chicken shit opportunist and athletic prodigy able to take care of himself when needed. Andy they all three are interacting the whole time, it's not like, for example, the WM XX main event where they're just taking turns to work a singles match most of the time; here the three are on display the whole time. The spots felt fluid. Lesnar's table spot feels earned and actually makes his return to the match and victory much more satisfying because he suffered for it in the end, and also puts Rollins over as fuck. The Cena-Seth segment after Brock is taken down is a bit flat compared to the rest of the match, as I HATE their dynamic together (the SummerSlam! title for title match is an abomination, one of the worst big matches I've ever seen), but other than that this is as perfect as you could ask for.
#41: Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS - 22/01/1997): yep, this is the shoot style masterpiece. At least, the male shoot style masterpiece hehe. This is a chessmatch made mat wrestling, but also has brilliant character work that shows style can be as good of a storytelling tool as classic pro wrestling: Tamura's grow as a foe to Volk Han, his balance between confidence and carefulness, Han's desperation is shocking to me because he almost never looks desperate in his matches, but he still looks like a living legend that could change the match to his favour at any moment given the chance, a satisfying finish that leaves the door open for a final battle in the future... All of that in record time (just 12 minutes!) and with amazing crowd. I wanted a couple more minutes of this piece of art and my heart needed a Tamura win here, but that's just very subjetive stuff. This match rocks.
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 28, 2021 9:46:07 GMT -5
40-31. Today a couple of big fan favourites will fall, sooner than expected, so check it out.
#40: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW - 16/08/2015): If you think about it, 2015 is a fucking hell of a year when it comes to MOTYC... But, of all those matches, this is the one that shines the most. Another G1 grand finals,this time the last chapter in one of the most underrated rivalries of all time. Naka and Tana had great matches against each other, but this is the one where they managed to produce a, few botches aside, perfect bout. The callbacks to previous matches, the big match feel with the Ryogoku exploding, the tension and animosity between the two without going to an actual brawl... I don't know, everything clicked for me here. They had a lot of history together and they showed it perfectly here, and then went all out pushing through their limits to produce an epic climax to the... well, G1 Climax.
#39: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW - 3/06/1994): It feels like a insult when you see a match with this prestige at "just" #39. I know. This is Austin vs Rock for puro fans, the crowd is incredible, it is Kawada's third attempt against Misawa for the championships and he feels as ready as ever after winning the Carny... Context helps this match a lot, as it should. But then you have the actual match, and it's obviously amazing, but if I'm being honest, I've never seen it as a perfect match. I always have the impression that, in the first half, they're doing cool things but don't try to tell something with them. Yeah, it's cool that Kawada makes Misawa's ear bleed, but they don't do anything with it. Misawa works the leg, but that doesn't go anywhere either. Transitions are a bit simple, most of them. Then the second half comes in and it's possibly one of the best climaxes of any match ever, I specially love the final sequence: Kawada in the center of the ring, Misawa outside preparing for coming back, they're exhausted as hell but their stare says: "ok, we both know this is gonna be the last round; whoever gets it, gets it." So I get why this match leaves the impression of being one of the best ever, because that sweet final phase, but, I said it before, when it comes to beginning and middle I mostly prefer the 95 title match. A legendary match, for sure, but just a step below absolute elite tier stuff. It also doesn't help the fact 1994 is full of absolute masterpieces (more on them later!).
#38: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Naoki Sano (NJPW - 10/08/1989): It annoys me how almost everyone prefer the January 1990 match. This is much more complete, because it has everything you could ask for in a good match: all-time great matwork, all-time great limbwork and selling, all-time great crazy spots, and all-time great character work. And every single one of these atributes are perfectly balanced in the match, there's no time you feel the sum of the parts is better than the whole, they crafted it all together to produce what should be an undeniable classic. This match also has the historical importance, being the definition of what peak cruiserweight wrestling can look like and inspiring a crazy amount of future cruiserweight wrestlers, so yeah. I feel bad for putting it at #38, this is a top 10 contender, but damn there are some many top 10 contender that sometimes it is what it is. But yeah, this match is a perfect definition of a total package. I have to rewatch it sooner than later because it might belong in an actual top 10, maybe next year.
#37: Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (No DQ Match - CWA - 23/03/1981): Ohhhhh boy. This is it. Gun to my head, this has to be the best Terry match ever. He's a bounty hunter coming for Lawler's career, viciously trying to retire him while showing his godlike overselling and lunatic character at his full power. Lawler doesn't need to do more than sell and coming back, as almost always, but he does it with an all-time great selling and punching performance, he's hard to deny as the best minimalist wrestler ever. When I hear the crowd for this I remember people liking the Empty Arena match more and my god, how wrong these people are. You can't prefer a no-crowd version of this clash when you value how powerful the crowd reaction is when Lawler is hulking up. Absolute insanity of a match and the best Memphis match we have in its entirety.
#36: Buddy Rose/Doug Summers vs The Midnight Rockers (AWA - 30/08/1986): It's hard to believe HBK was this good this early on his career. He's younger than me at this moment, for fucks sake, he only has two years of experience at this point! And look at him giving one of the best bloody selling performances I've ever seen. Obviously, Rose and (to a lesser degree but still great) Summers do an awesome job as the chicken shit yet vicious villain team, and Janetty is as good as Shawn at this point, so everyone contributed to one of the most spectacular shoutern tag matches ever. The violence, selling and overall action makes it a timeless classic.
#35: Can-Am Express vs Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJPW - 25/05/1992): Another huge fan favourite match with a surprisingly "low" rank. It's funny to me because I have this and the Rockers vs Rose/Summers back to back, and I do believe they're the two greatest southern tag matches ever made... But, elephant in the room, this happened in Japan, duh. Maybe the best crowd ever, thanks to Kikuchi being at his hometown, that elevates the match from excellent to near-perfect. Furnass and Krofatt did incredible, Kikuchi is one of the best FIP ever as it shows here, and Kobashi showing bits of his full potential... This is a match that every pro wrestling fan loves and it wouldn't surprise me that it's the match appearing in most ballots. A true instant classic.
#34: Brock Lesnar vs Eddie Guerrero (WWE - 15/02/2004): I know I said my favourite Lesnar run is 2012-WM XXX, but listen, his performance at his match against Eddie is his second best ever (can you see which the first one is?): he's young and athletic and he loves to show how much of a prodigy he is, and obviously he already was a beastly killer, so we have a more versatile yet still brutal Brock. And Eddie, my god. How much fire, how much tenacity. This is a match that inspires people. The Goldberg stuff didn't bother me as much as it does to other people, but it's fine you hold that against the match. Personally, of all people, I don't mind Eddie's big moment having a bit of lying, cheating and stealing, even when he's at the peak of his babyface run. One of the absolute best wins ever in the history of this industry, for sure, preceded by one of the best David vs Goliath ever.
#33: Mariko Yoshida vs Hiromi Yagi (ARSION - 18/02/1999): I started watching ARSION for the first time this year. In fact, this is the very first match I watched in 2021, and what a way to start. This has some of the best matwork I've ever seen, by far. Everything looked so legit, so calculated, so logical to the progression of the story... I know Yoshida is highly acclaimed in these circles and I definitely have to watch more of her, but Hiromi Yagi also nailed it here. As I said, I'm kinda new to ARSION so I don't know if I can call this match a shoot style kind of match, but it sure as hell looks like peak shoot style to me. Absolute masterclass of a match.
#32: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW - 14/10/2013): Everyone prefers Invasion Attack (and I do too), but Kings of Pro Wrestling is almost as good as that one. Honestly, it's even better at some points, specially the big match feel and high stakes, but those are because of great booking prior to the actual match rather than strengths of the ringwork itself, but still. Tanahashi's last chance against Okada, and Okada's fireproof to main event the Tokyo Dome as IWGP Champion. Neither one can lose, but one has to. How can you NOT be excited for this match knowing that!? Unbelievable. A perfect sequel to the Invasion Attack match, playing with the consequences that match had on their dynamic together. This match only suffers from the fact it was almost impossible to top the IA match, and therefore it doesn't look as perfect, but in a vacuum this is a legendary match that everyone should give love to.
#31: Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson (ROH - 23/02/2008): Nigel McGuinness' masterpiece, and the biggest "fuck you" to all of his detractors. He works a heel turn in the middle of the match, managing to turn the smark 2000 ROH crowd against him, and he co-writes one of the most intelligent in ring stories ever told. Obviously, Danielson is equally important in the match's success, as he promised before fighting that he wouldn't attack Nigel's head and keeps that promise throughout the whole match... whitout realizing it was a trap all along. This match is AMAZING, much better than the Unified match (which I also love, btw), and I'm gonna try to give it more attention by next time's GME in this forum, because it deserves at least a top 100 lock for everybody. Personally, this is a top 10 contender (and I'm still at the Q2 of my list, damn) and I have pretty clear this is the best match of Bryan's career. I can't wait to watch it again.
Next time, we'll do 30-21. And my boy, if Misawa/Kawada and the Can-Am vs Kobashi/Kikuchi matches dropping this early seems a lot, you're not prepared for what that 30-21 range has on it. We're starting to reach Heaven's doors.
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 30, 2021 9:41:21 GMT -5
30-21:
#30: Shinobu Kandori vs Yumiko Hotta (LLPW - 21/03/1998): those two stupid pinfall attempts in a no-pinfalls match are the only thing that put this outside absolute top tier stuff. This is one of the absolute best matches ever, and you can feel you're watching something that good since the very first tackle of the match, which is by far the most brutal tackle ever and one of the best starts of a match I've seen. They both fucking kill each other, the level of stiffness in this is up there with the best of Hansen, Vader, Kong, you name it, these two are up there too. This also has super high stakes, being an unification title match. Twelve near-perfect minutes of unbelievable action, elite level shoot work, and a very dramatic atmosphere.
#29: Randy Orton vs Mick Foley (Hardcore Match - WWE - 18/04/2004): if not for Bischoff denying us the fire spot, this would also be a perfect match. We often talk about Otani, Lesnar, Kobashi, all the 80s joshi girls, but you know who also was a pro wrestling prodigy at a very young age? Randy Orton. His performance here is out of this world great, and considering the style of the match, it's even more amazing to me. This is by far the best hardcore match ever, Foley's masterpiece both in violence and in consolidating someone else as a next big star. It's a shame WWE became PG later on, because this match should be remembered as a true classic and one of the most unique matches of the history of the company, but sadly they don't really talk about it. And I understand them, because there are moments in this match that would scare guys like Onita or Sabu. Fucking insane.
#28: Samoa Joe vs Kenta Kobashi (ROH - 2/10/2005): This is the "Jesus coming back to Earth" moment for pro wrestling fans. We all know the legendary welcome the ROH fans gave to Kobashi. This feels like the biggest dream match possible, specially in the mid 00s: the biggest draw in the bussiness at that moment, probably the best wrestler in the world as well, against the, at that moment, face of the indies boom the industry was living. The match itself is a masterpiece by Kobashi, looking maximalist while actually doing the absolute minimum, only relying on different chops combinations and a couple of lariats to take down the young beast. They never reached that final level of epicness, specially Kobashi didn't use some of his endgame tools (for example, I think a Moonsault would've been more appropriate to secure the win against Joe than a regular running lariat). The machine-gun chop spot is one of my all time favourites, and how can you not be entertained by this? The ringwork is fucking great and then you have the crowd making it an out-of-the-body experience.
#27: Akira Hokuto vs Shinobu Kandori (AJW - 2/04/1993): I told you. Hokuto/Kandori appearing this "early" might dissapoint most people, I know. I would be very glad if this match takes the #1 place this year, if any match can dethrone 9/6/95 this has every right to do it. I LOVE it, Hokuto's performance is definitely one of the best ever made by any pro wrestler. Iconic start, iconic finish, and trhilling action and drama between them. I know this is Hokuto's story, but Kandori deserves equal credits. She's an out of this world talent and she 100% belongs to the elite tier of women wrestlers. I guess it just doesn't click for me in a way 5* matches do, maybe it is because of some awkward minutes of the outside the ring brawling (I usually don't like those in joshi, same happens in Queendom), but damn, it's still a pretty high ranking for this classic. And the best part is, we still have a better Hokuto match to come.
#26: Buddy Rose vs Rick Martel (2/3 Falls Match - PNW - 20/09/1980): monster ranking for a match I'm surprised people doesn't talk more about. A perfect use of the 2/3 falls formula, as Portland and specially Buddy Rose usually do. The story surrounding Martel's determination for unmasking Buddy, and the later's PANIC to be unmasked, are translated into the match perfectly. Glorious legwork and leg selling by both guys, and one of the fieriest Rick Martel's babyface perfomances. At his very peak, this guy was as good as Lawler or Kobashi. Give this match a look, it will not dissapoint you. Portland was pure magic in late 70s-early 80s.
#25: Brock Lesnar vs John Cena (WWE - 29/04/2012): Another one of those matches that feel like the most special thing ever. This match can't be duplicated ever again: it needs a returning to pro wrestling, post-UFC Brock Lesnar, and a peak Ace of PG WWE John Cena to work as specially as it did. If only Cena earned his victory more, this would be a top 5 contender, no kidding. Unique carnage of a match. I'm not a Cena guy by any means, I don't get the guy and think he's way overrated, but when he has to deliver in big matches against better opponents he usually does in a BIG way, and this is not only a proof of that, but his most special big match ever. He fucking turned the Chicago crowd to his favour. What a match, I don't believe in a better option to start my (very hard to put together) Q1.
#24: Owen Hart vs Bret Hart (WWE - 20/03/1994): We all know Bret and the match needed the best of him to deliver and he gave us exactly that, but this is Owen's show. His heel performance is among the best ever. The story of one brother jealous of the other is so simple yet so relatable, and they told that story WONDERFULLY throughout the whole match. Their interactions, the facial expressions, the little details, everything is here. I love the fact Bret still refuses to hurt Owen and wants a quick, without much pain victory, looking for roll ups and stuff like that, but in the end he has no choice because Owen fucking wants to break his neck... And all of this, only for Owen winning with a craddle in the end! It's just hilariously genious booking.
#23: Américo Rocca vs Mocho Cota (2/3 Falls Match - EMLL - 27/01/1984): Another match I'm gonna try to give more recognition throughout next year. Américo Rocca isn't as good, he's just good enough to don't ruin the match, but Cota's carryjob is legendary. His performance is simply brilliant, what a fun guy to watch at his very best. He's some kind of a mexican Ric Flair in terms of character work when wrestling, I would say, but with much better background, as it shows in this wonderful technical display. I don't know which match I said it was the most underrated ever before, but this clearly is even more underrated. Nobody talks about this match, maybe because it happened in 1984 and that was Satánico's peak year? I don't know, but that needs to change. The rematch is also pretty good, but this is the one where they were inspired the most and my god what a spectacle. I need to watch more Cota.
#22: Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong (AJW - 20/11/1994): Big Egg Universe is one of the most important wrestling shows ever produced, and while Hokut's big moment is a unique moment, we all know this is the match that stealed the show. And for a reason: these two ladies are crazy and went through a lot to entertain us. Fantastic speed vs strenght battle, incredible offensive display by Toyota to keep up with Aja fucking Kong, who gives us one of her mostr vicious performances ever. The match is very simple and speaks perfectly fine for itself, we all know it, but damn it is as close to absolute perfection as it can get. I can't believe I ranked all of these matches, they're so close to one another...
#21: Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW - 29/07/1993): Hokuto and Kandori did their absolute best, but in the end, the 1993 MOTY has never changed hands from my point of view. This is not only one of the best matches ever in terms of offense, pacing and memorable moments, but also when it comes to character work. This is Kobashi finally showing us he's reached the level to defeat Hansen... And while he lost at the end, Hansen's attitude totally sells that story. He becomes surprisingly desperate as the match goes on, because Kobashi is so fucking unstoppable at this point... I've never liked the no-selling in the final exchanges in the corner, but it is the only nitpick I can find in a match as complete as this. Even no 90s AJPW fans love this match, it should be a lock for the overall top 10, even more than the Kikuchi tag match or stuff that hasn't aged as well like Jumbo/Tenryu, for example. Hope it is this year.
Ok, I was going to do 20-11 next time, but here's the thing. My lowest ***** match is at #14. Those 14 matches are the one who were #1 contenders, the absolute best matches of all time for me. It seemed unfair to me to separate some of them only because a top 10 is the usual thing to do. So next time, I'm gonna bring the last ****3/4 matches, the 20-15 spots, and then I'll release my top 14 matches of all time. Yeah, that sounds right.
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Post by mvz on Nov 30, 2021 10:32:08 GMT -5
These write-ups are great, and I really love this list of 30-21, classics, some things I haven’t seen in a long time, or in some cases ever. Great advocacy for the things you love.
I really wanted to find room for a Portland match (I failed), so I am thrilled to see Rose and Martel recognized.
Joe and Kobashi is one of those matches that I didn’t get to rewatch but it doesn’t not feel out of place in this level at all.
Keep up the great work!
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Post by tetsujin on Nov 30, 2021 12:55:54 GMT -5
Aw, thanks for the kind words! It's not easy to talk about these kind of things when there's so many more-than-great matches, even more with a language barrier, but I'm tryint my best to participate in the forum now that I have much more free time.
There were a lot of matches I couldn't vote for because I forgot to nominate them, so after the overall results I'm gonna bring more disscusion to the table, I hope.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 2, 2021 5:16:21 GMT -5
Let's do 20-15! Last ****3/4 matches on my list. I pretend to finish my list before the actual top 100 gets published, and after this one there's only the top 14 best matches of all time so we're almost there. Let's meet the best non-perfect matches:
#20: Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW - 24/01/1994): my 1994 MOTY and best ever Aja Kong match. Not only this feels like peak stiff wrestling, but also tells a fantastic and subtle story about Aja not being confident enough in her chances against Hotta. My favourite spot of the whole match might be the actual finish, that "fuck all of you!" spot Aja makes after getting the win says enough about her low self-steem and the ectasy she feels because he dodged the most dangerous challenger he has had at the moment. So, a perfect story and unbelievably violent action, that makes the match even hard to watch sometimes, gets this to the top 20 and it is by far the best joshi singles match in the 90s.
#19: Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude (30 Minute Ironman Match - WCW - 20/06/1992): Pro wrestling can be deep, it can be more sport-focused, it can be whatever, but in the end, the pleasure of watching a great babyface against a great heel is the core of the bussiness. And here, Steamboat puts on an all-time great babyface performance, and Rude puts on an all-time great heel performance. Everything clicked. Some people might criticize the fact there're too many falls, but honestly I don't mind them that much and think almost all of them are perfectly justified. Rude's strategy is infamous. The climax is absolutely dramatic. The both sell like gods. What a wonderful, timeless match.
#18: Antonio Inoki vs Billy Robinson (NJPW - 11/12/1975): this is peak strong style to me. Two of the all time great matworkers going all out, caring so much about the stuff they're doing, with tons of golden details and excellent sense of true struggle, giving value to every single hold and grab they try. This match is so fucking long, but they don't have a single downtime and managed to not lose me throughout the whole thing. The only nitpick I can have with this match is how fast Inoki recovers after a tombstone near the end, but besides that this is an absolute clinic of catch-as-catch-can. Just perfect technique.
#17: Bill Dundee vs Jerry Lawler (Loser Leaves Town Match - CWA - 6/06/1983): Ok. If this was full, I'm pretty sure it would be on my top ten. Hell, it could even be number one! This is the ultimate brawl. We all know punches are perfect, selling is perfect, yadda yadda, but they work this match with the feel of having the higher stakes ever and it is so exciting to watch. It might be even ahead of its time when it comes to Northamerican brawls. A perfect definition of an epic, climatic showdown, without the need of going too long or having too much bombs. Masterpiece.
#16: Stan Hansen vs André the Giant (NJPW - 23/09/1981): I don't like the finish. I got it, the match is fucking out of control because these two are titans, not wrestlers. That's why yo tease a no contest finish and you payoff the crowd with a reset. AFTER THAT IT SHOULD HAVE HAD A CLEAN FINISH, GOD DAMN IT. If it had one, specially if Hansen would've won, this would be a clear #1 contender to me. Still, with two no contest finishes, it's hard to deny the marvelous essence of this fight. This is truly specialy, Hansen in the need of working from underneath, a top tier monster bully performance by André, the absolute best spot of all time (yes, THAT ONE) and a crowd buying every single bit of it. This isn't a match, it's a mandatory experience for everyone claiming to be a wrestling fan.
#15: Ric Flair vs Rick Martel (AJPW - 21/10/1985): Sorry Kerry, I lied. Ok, I know I have no credibility at this point, but guys, listen to me: this is the most underrated match ever. It's the NWA World Heavyweight Champion against the AWA World Heavyweight Champion, title for title, in AJPW. Hows is this match not canonized!?!? One of the best heels ever and one of the best babyfaces ever, just like in Rude/Steamboat, but with a less cartoony focus, and an excellent display of both technique and character work. Yeah, obligatory no contest finish, but the big match feel of this match is unmeasurable. Imagine the WWE Champion Roman Reigns against the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito in an unification match today, WOULDN'T IT BE CRAZY!? Well, this was.
This is it guys. Next entry will be the last one, and it will feature the best 14 matches of all time to me. All of them are 5* matches, the only ones I have right now, and they all fought for the first place. It was really hard to leave most of these last matches out of the 5* rank, but idk, I can't give a perfect score to everything. Being almost-perfect is perfectly fine, but if everything was exceptional, nothing would be.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 6, 2021 15:33:32 GMT -5
Sorry for keep you waiting. Are you ready for the top 14 matches of all time?
#14: Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki/Dynamite Kansai (AJW - 26/11/1992): This match had a very difficult challenge to be perfect. 50 minutes long, a non-stop action approach which usually means bad pacing and/or selling and a lack of focus on characters, and a 2/3 Falls gimmick, a stipulation that always have the danger of devaluating pinfalls and ruin a match's pyschology. And holy shit, they did it. They had a perfect match. You have Yamada and Kansai fucking murdering each other as hard as they can, you have Ozaki with one of the absolute best heel performances ever made, and, the cherry on the top, you have Manami Toyota going through an anime redemption arc in this match. I love the fact that they went all out for nearly an hour and still made every strike, hold and big move mean something. I love even more that, after both Toyota and Kansai eat their respective pins, they are not forced to get pinned again and kickout, but instead they protect the first two falls finishes by letting them recover just enough to come back to the match later. It's something that always bothered me in lucha or big NWA matches, that "oh well, you couldn't kick out of a neckbreaker seven minutes into the match but five minutes later you can kick out of a fucking piledriver?" tendency. Nothing like that happens here, never. And my god, the action. The action is insaaaaanely good. The dynamic between these four is mesmerizing and they give all-time great tag team spots one after the one. I love the Camel Clutch on Toyota while Ozaki is fucking kicking her chest. I love Yamada spamming backdrop drivers to Kansai, each one of them looking so fucking uglier each time, and I LOVE the fact they look like shit because it sells wonderfully the titanic effort Yamada is doing to put Kansai to sleep as quickly and violently as she did. Damn, I even love the fact that the last pinfall of the match has some polemic and sets up a rematch. This whole trilogy is wonderfull, but the first match revolutionized what tag team wrestling could be for me.
#13: Tetsuya Naito vs Kenny Omega (NJPW - 13/08/2016): I'm probably gonna be the higher vote on this one, and this time I don't even believe it myself. I HATE Kenny Omega. I can't stand him. Dude is talented, but his bad tendencies are too much for me to enjoy: he's cringe as hell, he does too much shit in almost all of his matches, I hate the push he got and his fans are annoying and blablablabla. I hate him, you got it already. But I can't help it: this match is undeniably good, specially for a Kenny Omega match, and that might be because of two things. One, he didn't have most of his worse tendencies yet because he wasn't "the big bout machine" yet, the six stars Meltzer bullshit was still to come. Second, Tetsuya fucking Naito. Naito is the perfect foe for Omega: a guy who has no problem going at the pace and bombfest style Omega likes to go, but also brings very interesting character dynamics and dramatic selling to help give the match more entertainment and value. This is the best ever heel vs heel match, both are pieces of shit to each other, and then Naito forces Kenny to sell the leg and he delivers in a great way. Again, if this happened after the Okada Dome match, Kenny would have said "I'll do my all-time great midmatch 'you can't escape' spot without selling the leg", but again, Omega was just starting to get pushed, so he still cared about details like those. The fucking best false finish of a match full of crazy bombs is a Naito kneebar to Omega, because they worked around Kenny's leg so well. In retrospective, I'm 100% Naito should have won here to get his win against Okada and long title reign three years earlier, Omega should have never been a main eventer, and New Japan would have regain the levels of popularity of the 90s with Naito as its Ace, but hey, it is what it is. The match is perfect and also represents the rise of two of the most important workers of our generation, definitely the two that affected NJPW's scene the most (and later on, the US scene with AEW).
#12: The Shield vs The Wyatt Family (WWE - 23/02/2014): I know I'm gonna be the higher vote on this one, so hear me out. In a world where everyone thinks early 90s AJPW trios are masterpieces, there's no way anyone should think this is worse. It has everything people like about those matches: intense, non-stop action mixed with cool character work as the wrestlers show tremendous animosity between them. But these six guys encapsulated that essence in a way shorter match, producing a fight with no downtimes and never a moment when you're feeling a bit tired of what you're watching. This is a story about The Wyatts overpowering The Shield at their own game, showing why they're the most united faction at the moment. It's crazy to me, because this match is full of people I've never given 5* to any singles match of them, but together, with the right story, at the right moment, and with an all-time great crowd, they could have only produced a masterpiece. And they did.
#11: Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW - 2/08/1996): A trend I usually see when it's GME or GWE time, is the "Hashimoto is great and all, but he doesn't have THE match to rank it/him any higher" argument. Guys, look no further. This is THE Hashimoto match, and it's not even that close to be honest. This is peak minimalist wrestling: in just eleven or twelve minutes, they tell a wonderful three-act story with out of this world body and facial language. First, Choshu doesn't want to admit he's too old now and his overconfidence makes him receive a good old Hashimoto beating. Then, Choshu's fighting spirit, defying Shinya to try harder to finish him off, starts to put Hash in a bad mood and lose focus. And finally, when the chance arrives, Choshu turns the table and provokes a knee injury to Hashimoto, and it's game over. Choshu goes to idealist old guy, to vulnerable but badass almost defeated old guy, to fucking merciless and most clever wrestler in the planet, and Shinya reacts perfectly to all this development. Also, one of the absolute best finishes ever, everybody loves CHOSHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! This is both guys' masterpiece and it's a shame people don't recognize it as such.
#10: Espanto Jr vs El Hijo del Santo (2/3 Falls Match - UWA - 10/04/1988): Top ten it is! And what a way to start it, right? People like the máscara contra máscara match more, and I get it, but this is a no brainer to me: this match fucking rocks. Espanto Jr might be Santito's best opponent, yes, even better than Casas, I'm not exaggerating. Their chemistry is unbelievable: what a technical display, what amazing spots, what an intelligent finish. La primera caída alone is enough to make the top 100, it has perfect matwork and one of the absolute best finishes to a fall ever (seriously, it's an insane, jaw-dropping bump). Espanto is cheating so badly and he's being so ruthless, to the point the crowd is going so nuts that they start to GET TO THE APRON to live the experience as close as they can. I am not joking. Peak lucha libre, by far.
#9: Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue (AJPW - 9/06/1995): Surprise! This is not number 1. It still is my favourite match ever, the one I could come back any day of my life and put some random minutes of it and still find one or two great spots that make me thing "oh yeah, that's why this is so good!". Seriously, I dare you to go to YouTube, put this match, go to a random minute mark and watch a full minute of the vid. If nothing special happen in those sixty seconds, I owe you money. This match is the perfect example of how well storytelling can be implemented in pro wrestling, as you have four of the best workers ever putting on one of their best performances of their careers. Everyone knows why this match is perfect, but why didn't I put it even higher? #9 might seems too low for this match (and that statement is insane). Honestly, I don't like that much the fact Kobashi covers Misawa at ringside first, before the actual heart-breaking spot of him doing it in the ring with the Holy Demon Army fucking finishing him off with the Dangerous Backdrop + Nodowa combo. The Taue-in-peril segment early in the match might look a bit too "a day in the life" of these four at a tag team match, but not gonna lie, I like how... normal that segment is, they're manipulating the crowd into thinking this is gonna be another one of those great Pillars tag matches and nothing else. And then, they subvert expectations and we all know the instant classic that was born. So yeah, legendary match, obviously the best tag team match ever, the most ambitious story ever told in a ring and with some of the best moments ever produced, if not the actual best (I can't chose between Kobashi protecting Misawa or the actual finishing sequence after that, with Kawada finally pinning Misawa while both the crowd and the commentator lose their minds; both are truly iconic to me).
#8: Akira Hokuto vs Meiko Satomura (GAEA - 29/04/2001): I wasn't ready for this match. I still can't believe how insanely good it is. This is the best "GOAT veteran putting over the next big thing" match ever. The flow of the match is just... perfect, sorry guys, I know I repeat myself a lot but at this point it cannot be any other word than that: perfect. They do one amazing thing, and then follow it up with another amazing thing that also makes total sense, it's hard to explain with words, but it is a match that manages to never, ever suspend disbelief. At least, to me it was like that. Meiko is a fucking prodigy, there's no other reason as why she works this greatly in this match as early in her career, and yes I know she had Hokuto as her dance partner, but this is by no means an Hokuto carryjob guys. In fact, technically this isn't even Hokuto at her peak! And she still looks as good as in 1993-95! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THESE TWO WOMEN!? Why did they produced this absolutely unflawed match at a point were neither of them was at their best? That's the magic of being some of the greatest wrestlers ever, I guess.
#7: The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels (Streak vs Career Match - WWE - 28/03/2010): Some people say Savage/Warrior (and obviously the beautiful post match) is the best example of Vince's sports entertainment vision. I think those words belong to this match. This is not a championship match nor it needs to be, this is one of those extremely rare scenarios where a world title looks small in comparison: the two greatest across-the-eras stars in the company, possibly in wrestling history, putting on the line the most precious thing for each of them. The Streak was at his popularity peak right here, and the build up to Shawn putting his career on the line because of the pure obsession he has to be the one who breaks it was brilliantly done. After the WM XXV instant classic where they showed off for half an hour, they didn't need to do that again this time, also the stakes are much, much higher, and that's why this match starts with way more intensity and urgency, and oh boy I LOVE IT. HBK gives us the performance of his life, I would say a lot of things about it and how greatly he reflects the conflict his character goes trough in this particular match and rivalry,but let's be honest: Superstar Sleeze did it way better that I could ever imagine to do, so go read his particular review of the match because it totally nails why this is so special. Also, that fucking finish might be the best ever. Just perfect storytelling in just a minute of (almost) non action, just taunts and selling... Well, and the fucking most brutal Tombstone ever made. Peak WWE guys, by far. Trust me.
#6: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 7/04/2013): this is modern 20/1/97, but has a more personal feel. The peak of the greatest rivalry of our generation and the best Tanahashi big match, and thinking about how I consider Tanahashi to be the best big match worker ever, that's a huge statement. He starts to do his usual legwork strategy, but Okada is so ahead of him, that he changes quickly and goes for the arm, the Rainmaker arm, and it pays off beautifuly with that heart-stopping spot and nearfall. And then, Okada manages to come back in the most believably way possible. The matches between these two have a lot of callbacks, personalities clashes, perfect attention to detail and maximum struggle, and this one is the absolute best of their series. This is a match that even 10s NJPW haters tend to like, so if you're not really in that train, go watch it anyway, it will 99% probably gonna work for you too. And yes, I said they have a lot of callbacks and that obviously would be impossible to get for new viewers, but that doesn't mean the match relies on callbacks to make this chapter of the saga work. Au contraire, this match quickly stablishes who Kazuchika Okada is and who Hiroshi Tanahashi is, in the same way as, for example, the Hansen/Kobashi 29/7/93 match does. This match works perfectly in a vacuum and only gets even better (better than perfect!!?!??!) with context, so yeah, go check it out. Out of this world masterpiece.
#5: Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 20/01/1997): You all know why this match is this good. As I said, the Invasion Attack Tana/Okada match is basically a modern version of this match when it comes to structure and plot devices, but that one had two rivals that didn't like each other, and this one is worked between two guys that are best friends, but know what they have to do to win the big one. Kobashi's growth as a main eventer is outstanding, everything he tries in this match works perfectly (for example, those arm-submissions as false finishes), Misawa gives us his best selling performance ever, everything from the apron spot to the end of the match is wonderful, brilliant, perfect pro wrestling, GOD I LOVE THIS MATCH SO MUCH. We all know this match, so no more words for it. We still have four better matches to go. How crazy.
#4: Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 15/04/1995): The thing that makes me love this match so much, to the point of putting it above every single other 90s AJPW classic, is the character dynamic: this is closer to a northamerican "monster heel vs babyface underdog" kind of match than a japanese "two great fighters going all out" kind of match, and to me it's a perfect mix of both worlds. Misawa doesn't work like the final boss of the company here, he has to fight from underneath, and Taue is soooo fucking good as the mountain to climb... It's still a 90s AJPW classic and you're gonna feel it, but at the same time is the most different of the 90s AJPW classics because of that change of tone, and how they perfected it within their own style. Everyone loves this match, but you always see it a step below 9/6/95, 3/6/94, 29/7/93, 20/1/97, etc, and sorry but 15/4/95 is exactly at the same tier as all those other matches: a clear #1 contender to the greatest wrestling match of all time. Fuck it, it is the best 90s AJPW match of all time.
#3: Kazuchika Okada vs Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW - 9/04/2017): I will never forget watching this match for the first time ever, right as it was happening. And now that Shibata is back again (kind of?), I enjoy it even more. Shibata's performance is one of the very best I've ever seen, quite probably the best performance. I'm not joking, it is that good. He does whatever he wants with Okada, the unbeatable champion, the prodigy kid, and forces him to break his limit in pure Dragon Ball style if he wants to beat him. You want to give me a Rainmaker, the instakill finisher that has led you to this huge success in your short career? FUCK IT MOTHERFUCKER YOU BETTER TRY HARDER BECAUSE I'M NOT FUCKING FALLING!!!!! Best spot ever. Almost best match ever. This is even more special if you consider Shibata's journey, from one of the future Musketeers to his real-life rivalry with Tanahashi, to betraying the company and go to the MMAs, to return and slowly but surely regaining the company and fans respect. And it all climaxed in this match, his very first IWGP Heavyweight Championship match, against the living legend kayfabe-wise Okada was. And I know Shibata's performance is godly, but props to Okada: he nailed his role as perfectly as Shibata did his. He took a fucking hell of a beating, to the point I don't even think he had the need to sell anything, and managed to come back in the most believable way possible. Okada doesn't win this match, he barely survives it. I'm so glad people gives more and more props to this match as time goes on, soometimes when I watch some of this best matches ever that are from ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, whatever years ago I think "man, I wonder if people back in the day realized they just watched one of the best matches in history, past and future?". But I watched this match live and I knew I watched one of the best matches in history, past and future, so know I know what it feels like. And its sooooo satisfying as a pro wrestling fan.
#2: Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig (AWA - 21/11/1986): I said it before. Minute by minute, this might be the best match ever. There's absolutely not a single thing they do that doesn't contribute to the perfection of the match. This is a story about Curt Henning demonstrating to everyone how he's ready to take Bockwinkel's place both as the best technician, the most intelligent guy, and obviously the world champion. They structured that story perfectly in this one hour match, and because of that I'm always fascinated about how quickly time goes on while watching this. Again, this is a sixty minute match worked mostly around matwork, so it's not like it's easy to make it look shorter. But they did it. The level of excellence in this match is so high, that the ref bump is the absolute best ref bump ever and the ref's selling might be up there with the bet Kobashi or Liger performance for a couple of minutes. Also, I like how the ref bumps serves both as a false finish, as the crowd thinks some shit is gonna happen, and also to demonstrate how Hennig refuses to cheat and will put Bockwinkel away by his own methods. That aged poorly later on in the company's history, sadly, but hey, as for this match alone that bit of the story is amazing. The time limit draw is a bittersweet ending for both characters: Curt didn't won the title, but Bock needed to defeat him maybe even more than Henning needed to win here, so there's that. The rematch should have been almost as good and with a climatic, feel-god victory for Hennig, but that's another story. This math represents absolute perfection to me, basically a chest match of the highest level but between the ropes. But there is still one single match that managed to be even better than this one...
#1: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (NOAH - 1/03/2003): I wrote about why I consider this the greatest match of all time in its thread, so go read it if you want. I'm only gonna say that this is the match that manages to make me FEEL the most, by far. The best possible climax for the best pro wrestling rivalry ever, the true definition of what pro wrestling can bring to the table. Perfect isn't enough in this case. This goes beyond wrestling.
Thanks so much for reading until the end guys! What do you think about my list? Hell, what will I think about my list next year? This will always be a work in progress, the beautiful part is in the journey, and I enjoyed this ride a lot. Can't wait to watch more stuff, rewatch some other stuff, and going throught my next top 100 again. But right now, I'm super satisfied with what I have. So hyped for the actual GME results and how my first ever ballot affected it.
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