JM's Elite Match Thread

For the sake of complete transparency, this is the only match of the Flair/Windham trilogy that I've seen. I'm a huge fan of what I've seen from Flair in this era and while this is one of the few Barry Windham matches I've seen, he played a fantastic underdog going up against the top heel champion in wrestling at the time. This was a very exciting old-school world title match, not much cheating from Flair here except for one spot where he grabbed the ropes while having the Figure-Four applied on Windham. I'm not sure how many main events Windham had been in before this or if the fans took him seriously as a contender for Flair & the NWA Title, but if not then this was absolutely a star making performance. Everything from his selling and his ability to get the crowd invested in everything he did, right down to his punches and the way he hit the ropes was phenomenal. On the other side of the coin, Flair was the glue that held the match together, always making Windham look like his equal and while still looking strong himself. They went for roughly 42 minutes with a great finishing sequence before the double countout, which would normally take away from such a long match like this, but this was just so well put together that I actually thought it kind of worked and set up the other matches well. If you think about it, it puts Barry over even more considering the fact that Flair couldn't beat a bloody and battered Windham even after 40+ minutes.

My final rating for this is ****1/2, I came very close to bumping it up to ****3/4, but decided against it. My star ratings are based more on how much I personally enjoy the match more so then how ''objectively good'' I think the match is, so when it comes to me ranking these matches against one another, my ratings are not going to line up at all. As for this match, I think it has a very good shot of making my top 100, considering my list will probably consist of matches I would rate ****1/2 and higher. Both men were fantastic and the fact that they were able to make what would normally be a disappointing finish work just cements how great this match was for me. I need to watch more stuff from the 80's, so if you have other reccomendations (especially more ''hidden gem'' type matches) from this era I would really appreciate it. Thanks for reading and I look forward to posting more soon!

Edit: Here's my official list, I'll be updating this as I go through my watchlist

1. Mitsuharu Misawa(c) Vs. Toshiaki Kawada (6/3/94)
2. Shawn Michaels Vs. The Undertaker (4/5/09)
3. Shawn Michaels Vs. The Undertaker (Streak Vs. Career) (3/26/10)
4. Samoa Joe Vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/1/05)
5. Bryan Danielson Vs. Nigel McGuinness (Unification Match) (8/12/06)
6. Ric Flair(c) Vs. Ricky Steamboat (2/20/89)
7. John Cena(c) Vs. CM Punk (7/17/11)
8. Mankind Vs. The Undertaker (Hell In A Cell) (6/28/98)
9. AJ Styles(c) Vs. Samoa Joe (12/11/05)
10. John Cena Vs. CM Punk (2/25/13)
11. Mitsuharu Misawa(c) Vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/24/95)
12. Super Generation Army Vs. Tsuruta-Gun (10/19/90)
13. Mitsuharu Misawa Vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (6/8/90)
14. Takeshi Morishima(c) Vs. Bryan Danielson (8/25/07)
15. Jumbo Tsuruta(c) Vs. Genichiro Tenryu (6/5/89)
16. AJ Styles(c) Vs. Christopher Daniels (2/13/05)
17. Ricky Steamboat(c) Vs. Ric Flair (5/7/89)
18. Shawn Michaels Vs. Ric Flair (3/30/08)
19. Bret Hart Vs. Owen Hart (3/20/94)
20. Akira Hokuto Vs. Meiko Satomura (4/29/01)
21. Daniel Bryan Vs. Triple H (4/6/14)
22. Gunther(c) Vs. Sheamus (9/3/22)
23. Cesaro Vs. Sami Zayn (2/27/14)
24. Bryan Danielson Vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/27/08)
25. Ric Flair(c) Vs. Barry Windham (2/14/86)
26. Bret Hart(c) Vs. The British Bulldog (12/17/95)
27. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada Vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (12/16/88)
28. Ric Flair Vs. Terry Funk (I Quit) (11/15/89)
29. Ricky Steamboat(c) Vs. Ric Flair (2 Out Of 3 Falls) (4/2/89)
30. Daniel Bryan(c) Vs. Kofi Kingston (4/7/19)
31. Final Burning 8-Man Tag Team Match (5/11/13)
32. Randy Savage(c) Vs. Ricky Steamboat (3/29/87)
33. Shinsuke Nakamura Vs. Sami Zayn (4/1/16)
34. Stone Cold Steve Austin(c) Vs. Chris Benoit (5/31/01)
35. Bryan Danielson Vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/13/21)
36. Samoa Joe Vs. Necro Butcher (6/11/05)
37. Bryan Danielson Vs. Eddie Kingston (10/29/21)
38. The Rock(c) Vs. Brock Lesnar (8/25/02)
39. Mitsuharu Misawa(c) Vs. Steve Williams (7/28/94)
40. Mitsuharu Misawa Vs. Takeshi Morishima (3/5/06)
41. Hulk Hogan Vs. The Rock (3/17/02)
42. Chris Hero Vs. Ikuto Hidaka (3/13/10)
43. Ricky Steamboat(c) Vs. Ric Flair (3/18/89)
44. Akira Taue Vs. Yuji Nagata (6/3/03)
45. Ric Flair(c) Vs. Ron Garvin (Steel Cage) (9/26/87)
46. Ric Flair(c) Vs. Ron Garvin (Steel Cage) (3/30/86)
    
47. Akira Taue(c) Vs. Jun Akiyama (1/22/06)
48. Charlotte Flair(c) Vs. Sasha Banks (Falls Count Anywhere) (11/28/16)