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Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread

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#1 ·
#5,142 ·
Jericho/Mysterio feud was pretty great (though I do find their matches to be a tad overrated). Was one of the main things that helped kicked start the INCREDIBLE Summer of 2009 for Smackdown. Punk's slow heel turn and matches with Hardy, Morrison finally showing he can be good with a ton of great TV matches, Mysterio and Jericho having a very old school feud and series of matches, and some other shit I'm forgetting lol. Shame Raw was at one of its lowest points EVER in 09. Went to the Raw, ECW & SD tapings that November and Raw was shit (not even being there live made it very good) while the ECW & SD taping the next night was sooo much fun (REGAL VS CHRISTIAN, UNDERTAKER VS JERICHO FIRST TIME EVER).
 
#5,143 ·
I just got some WWE sets in the mail and a had a couple a needed to watch so I want your suggestions on which ones to watch first.

The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect (2-Disk)
The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection (3-Disk) Already watched the first disk several months ago
Nature Boy Ric Flair The Definitive Collection (3-Disk)
Mick Foley: Greatest Hits and Misses Hardcore Edition (3-Disk)
The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment (3-Disk)
The History of the Intercontinental Championship (3-Disk)
Bret the Hitman Hart: The Best There Is, the Best There Was, and the Best There Ever Will Be (3-Disk)

Suggestions?
 
#5,146 ·
Quick thoughts RE: Best TV matches of the last few years.

Agreed with Brye on Punk/Henry I for 2012, nothing has come close tbh in rivalling it this year. Wonderful babyface vs monster matchup, Henry kills it character wise and adds some wonderful little touches to his work, Punk bumps huge and builds to all of his signature offence wonderfully, especially the running knee strikes and the eventual kick which Henry does this awesome delayed 'will he won't he' bump off of. Crowd is red hot with the YES/NO chants actually adding to the strike exchanges, Punk's offence gets progressively better throughout and they do a sensational job at making what could ordinarily have been a BS finish feel organic via Henry's selling and protecting both men with neither man able to afford a loss.

Cena/Mysterio or Masters/Mcintyre would be TVMOTY for 2011. Cena/Mysterio was just a delightful babyface/babyface match with some great signature counters, and Cena selling the leg work superbly including the failed AA attempt. Perfect sub 15 minute match between two of the company's best and all the proof we ever needed that these two need to have a PPV match asap. Masters/Mcintyre was just a beautifully simple wrestling match built on superbly detailed leg selling from Masters and a creative and violent workover from Mcintyre. Throw in some excellent facial expressions and character work from Drew in reacting to different points in the match and them working an excellent callback spot to their 2 minute match in February on Smackdown and you have an incredible TV match with no faults to pick at.

Punk/Mysterio 02/12 Smackdown or Christian/Mcintyre 07/16 would be my 2010 TVMOTY. Punk/Mysterio has arguably the best transition spot and workover in the entire Punk/Mysterio series of matches and they work the Rey vs The World formula superbly with a hot finishing run which builds throughout Punk's workover and Rey's hope spots. Christian/Mcintyre is just a 2010 version of Masters/Mcintyre with Drew pulling out the transition spot of the year in suckering Christian under the ring and driving his shoulder into the ring apron. Mcintyre's arm work is creative and relentless and is the base of his offence for the entire match, Christian bumps, sells and works the injury into his repoitore of offence like only he can and sells the arm superbly after a tornado DDT from the turnbuckle.

2009 TVMOTY has to be Christian/Swagger for the ECW belt from 02/24 for me. Like a lot of Christian's matches in his reign, its built on superb selling on his behalf as well as he and Swagger working a brilliant veteran/rookie match with Christian relying on his intelligence and experience to manipulate the more dominant but inexperienced Swagger. Whole limbwork playing into the finish just puts the icing on the cake, with the earlier work feeling like it was important and tied in with the story of the match, rather than being aimlessly thrown it to plod the middle section of the match. Hardy/Punk Loser Leaves Town is a damn good choice for #2 though.
 
#5,148 ·
I honestly couldn't see you disliking them, though I suppose Masters/Mcintyre might just depend on how far limb selling and a consistent and creative workover impresses you. Like I know a lot of people like them and would call the match 'good', but for some there's just not enough entertaining moments in the match for it to be a TV MOTY. I love how they make Masters' comeback feel desperate and the difference between him winning and losing, and the way he adapts his signature offence to reflect his injury (hitting a one legged samoan drop for example) is just the sort of smart and savvy wrestling I've come to love, especially when the likes of Christian, Mysterio, Masters and Mcintyre were wrestling such simple and basic matches structure and offence wise, but managing to make them so engaging and without any fault that they easily surpass some of the more glamorous and quicker paced matches in my opinion.
 
#5,149 · (Edited)
I am a fan of selling/limbwork (someone recommended Regal/Ambrose from FCW a little while ago and I loved it) so I'm sure I'll enjoy these. The one-legged Samoan Drop is definitely something I'd pick up on and appreciate. I remember marking when Batista's arm had been worked over all match long and when he went to do his Ultimate Warrior-esque shaking of the ropes to signal for the Batista Bomb he did it with his good arm only. :eek:
 
#5,150 ·
Good stuff, like I said I doubt anyone would watch Masters/Mcintyre, Christian/Swagger and Christian/Mcintyre and come out thinking any match was below 'good', but Masters/Mcintyre especially for me would be the least likely to depend on just how much the selling and workover mattered. Mcintyre is really awesome as well at selling frustration, cockyness and fear throughout the match to reflect him being outclassed and then controlling the match, he also does this beautiful nip up after a drop kick and has THE PERFECT cocky smirk to taunt the audience.

BTW in amongst the Punk/Mysterio feud from 2010, there's an excellent Mysterio/Gallows match from Superstars in March before Wrestlemania 26. Gallows was formerly Festus in case you're unaware, and he's a really terrific big man worker who's got some brilliant punches and offence but is also incredibly agile in bumping and working a more frantic pace with someone like Mysterio. And when you take into account how good Mysterio is at working with lethargic big men you can imagine what he'll do with a more athetically capable big man like Gallows. Pretty sure Andy watched it last year after having it recommended to him by sterling for ages and came out very impressed, I'd go through his blog to try and find if he talked about it there but that would take a while and I'm meant to be watching a few matches tonight before bed for a Best Matches Of The Decade poll I'm doing.
 
#5,152 ·
Agreed, Superstars from 09 to mid 2011 was really the new ECW in terms of weekly consistent good wrestling which barely anyone saw. There's an awesome 13 minute Goldust/Regal match from August as well, takes place on the same night as Masters/Mcintyre from 2010 (which is very good but below their May 2011 match) and they just beat the shit out of each other and really work an awesome veteran matchup with both men relying on their experience and knowledge of the other in order to gain the advantage. Goldust also takes a bonkers bump off a missed crossbody through the ropes to the floor and generally puts in another excellent babyface performance (he was so underrated in that time, worked very well with Dibiase and Sheamus) and well, Regal is Regal.
 
#5,153 ·
Ah Christian/Swagger, what a wonderful match you are :). 2nd best MOTY for 09 imo. Gets better on every watch too.

There is at least on McIntyre/Hardy match from... 2010(?) worth watching while we're dropping some TV MOTYC picks. Last Matt Hardy matches worth watching (which is a shame because he's a fucking great worker). Some other great 2010 matches:

Christian & Kane Vs William Regal & Ezekiel Jackson - ECW 26/01/2010 - ****1/4
The Undertaker Vs CM Punk - WWE Smackdown 10/09/2010 - ****
Christian Vs William Regal - ECW 19/01/2010 - ***1/2
Drew McIntyre & Chris Jericho Vs John Morrison & R-Truth - WWE Smackdown 22/01/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs William Regal - WWE Superstars 14/01/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs Drew McIntyre - WWE Smackdown 20/08/2010 - ***1/2

Got a text document with quite a few 2010 match ratings. In fact, might as well just post all the ***+ ones lol:

The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania XVI 28/03/2010 - *****
Christian & Kane Vs William Regal & Ezekiel Jackson - ECW 26/01/2010 - ****1/4
The Undertaker Vs CM Punk - WWE Smackdown 10/09/2010 - ****
The Miz Vs Randy Orton Vs Edge Vs Mark Henry Vs Chris Jericho Vs John Morrison Vs Ted DiBiase Vs Evan Bourne - Money in the Bank 18/07/2010 - ****
Kane Vs The Big Show Vs Matt Hardy Vs Christian Vs Kofi Kingston Vs Cody Rhodes Vs Drew McIntyre Vs Dolph Ziggler - Money in the Bank 18/07/2010 - ****
Tyler Black Vs Davey Richards - ROH Death Before Dishonor VIII 19/06/2010 - ****
Christian Vs William Regal - ECW 19/01/2010 - ***1/2
Drew McIntyre & Chris Jericho Vs John Morrison & R-Truth - WWE Smackdown 22/01/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs William Regal - WWE Superstars 14/01/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs Drew McIntyre - WWE Smackdown 20/08/2010 - ***1/2
Batista Vs John Cena - WrestleMania XVI 28/03/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs Drew McIntyre - WWE Smackdown 30/07/2010 - ***1/2
Chris Jericho Vs Edge - WrestleMania XVI 28/03/2010 - ***1/2
Kofi Kingston Vs MVP Vs Evan Bourne Vs Shelton Benjamin Vs Christian Vs Jack Swagger Vs Kane Vs Drew McIntyre Vs Dolph Ziggler Vs Matt Hardy - WrestleMania XVI 28/03/2010 - ***1/2
Christian Vs Ezekiel Jackson - Royal Rumble 31/01/2010 - ***1/4
Rey Mysterio Vs CM Punk - WWE Smackdown 12/02/2010 - ***1/4
Goldust Vs Ted DiBiase - WWE Superstars 02/09/2010 - ***1/4
Kane Vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE Smackdown 15/01/2010 - ***1/4
Dolph Ziggler Vs Chris Masters - WWE Superstars 13/05/2010 - ***1/4
Kurt Angle Vs Mr Anderson - Lockdown 18/04/2010 - ***1/4
Christian Vs Drew McIntyre - WWE Smackdown 16/07/2010 - ***
The Undertaker Vs Rey Mysterio - Royal Rumble 31/01/2010 - ***
Triple H Vs Sheamus - WrestleMania XVI 28/03/2010 - ***
Royal Rumble Match 31/01/2010 - ***
Rey Mysterio Vs Shawn Michaels - WWE Smackdown 29/01/2010 - ***
Chavo Guerrero Vs Primo Vs Chris Masters - WWE Superstars 28/01/2010 - ***
Drew McIntyre Vs Chris Masters - WWE Superstars 26/08/2010 - ***
Triple H Vs CM Punk - WWE Smackdown 29/01/2010 - ***
Drew McIntyre Vs John Morrison - WWE Smackdown 29/01/2010 - ***
 
#5,154 ·
That Hardy/Mcintyre match is from 26th June I'm sure, pretty much the match that made me sit up and think, holy hell Mcintyre is awesome. He doesn't work as methodically here, its more of a brawl but given this is the feud ender I had no problem with that. Hardy throws some awesome punches and Mcintyre has a couple of really neat 'violent' spots, he also takes the bump of the year when Hardy kicks his leg from under him and he lands spine first on the edge of the steel steps with no way to protect his fall. The fact it plays off of a past spot in their feud where Mcintyre stomped on Hardy's head whilst he was resting on the steps only added to the brilliance behind it.
 
#5,155 ·
WWE Championship PPV Matches : 1992-1994

1992 Royal Rumble Match : **** 3/4
Ric Flair vs Randy Savage WM VIII : **** 1/4
Randy Savage vs The Ultimate Warrior SS 92 : **** 1/4
Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels SS 92 : *** 3/4
Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon RR 93 : *** 1/2
Bret Hart vs Yokozuna WM IX : ** 1/2
Yokozuna vs Hulk Hogan WM IX : N/A
Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna KOTR 93 : * 1/2
Yokozuna vs Lex Luger SS 93 : ** 3/4

The 92 Rumble is the GOAT, hands down. Features the most talent ever assembled in one ring, a mixture of consistent storytelling and compelling drama, and let's not forget what IMO makes this match so amazing ; The GOAT commentary performance by Bobby Heenan. This commentary performance was so amazing that this match was actually included on Heenan's DVD, that in itself is fantastic. The delivery of all of his pro-Flair lines and how he switches allegiances so many times only to have him EXPLODE at the end when Flair finally wins it. Flair stays consistent as a character throughout, and with Heenan he makes this match a VERY, VERY close to ***** match.

Flair-Savage is storytelling in the ring personified. Here we have two formula workers in Ric and Randy, and you let them go at it on a stage such as Wrestlemania ? This REALLY should have been the main event (again, I love you Hogan, but fuck you :p) but instead it takes a backseat to Hogan and SID (We'll get into how awesome SID became later)? Anyways, I love the whole "Randy's going to kill Flair" dynamic, but he can't or Flair will keep the title, kind of like Punk-Jericho from this years Mania, except Punk was champion so it was a little more effective there. The fact that Macho cheats against the dirtiest player in the game to win, and the leg work/subsequent psychology makes this in all time classic in my book.

Macho-Warrior II might be the least talked about classic championship match in WWE history. IMO Warrior's best title match, him and Savage just go back and forth exchanging big move after big move for nearly 30 minutes (by the way, this might be the most colorful match of all time if you look at what these two wear to the ring) , with Flair and Perfect coming to ringside and trying to start shit, only to become torn to bits by the end of the night. The near falls and counters were there, and I thought the ending was necessary given that neither man really deserved to lose here. Another 1992 classic WWF championship match.

Bret-Shawn from SS 92 for me, embodies everything good about their matches together, with a few smidges of the bad. For instance, I thought the latter half of this match was amazingly well paced wrestling with great holds and moves with substance. However, the first half of this match features badly paced action with too many raw holds that don't amount to anything. Seriously, the first half of this match means NOTHING, as we get Bret working the right arm of Shawn for a while, and it just goes NOWHERE. That really pisses me off with these two, as they just love to abandon psychology. Much better than the Ironman simply because the shit doesn't last as long, but when it's good, it's REALLY good. Their second best match together (behind SS 97 :) ) .

Bret-Razor was a very great but very formulaic match, in which Bret plugs Razor into his big man formula ; work on the legs with various holds, sell accordingly, and we'll have a great match. Bret makes Razor look pretty great here, and goes out of the ordinary in this one (complete with a beautiful suicide dive by Bret to the outside where he almost jumps straight into the railing at ringside) to get the fans off their feet. Bret wastes NO time trying to keep the big man down, a staple in his later matches against the likes of Diesel and Sid. Razor sells very well to his credit as well, and it's just another reason why Bret's matches were so awesome in this timeframe.

Now we have to get into the Yoko matches... WM IX actually was pretty decent, as Bret once again plugged Yoko into his big man formula. Obviously Yoko can't do what the likes of a Scott Hall or Kevin Nash could do, but he did his job in the sense of letting Bret do all the work and carry him to a decent Wrestlemania main event (albeit very short). The Hogan matches : The Wrestlemania match was fucking bullshit, and one of the WORST booking decisions that I have ever seen, while the KOTR match was every bit as terrible booking wise, but it sucked in the ring as well. It was a basic 80s Hogan vs monster match... in 1993. Summerslam 1993 vs Luger is probably Yoko's best singles match IMO, as Luger seems to drag the best out of monsters during this time frame. Luger kept it at his pace and Yoko actually hangs pretty good for.. You know... The fat motherfucker that he was. The ending makes NO SENSE whatsoever and is one of the biggest headscratchers ever, but hey, atleast it had ATMOSPHERE, and we got DAT CONFETTI!
 
#5,157 ·
Thought HHH/Lesnar was awesome. Heard people say it was slow and plodding and boring. Didn't think that at all, the match flew by for me. Also don't understand the comparisons to the Cena match. They couldn't possibly have worked the same kind of match. This worked just fine. HHH has always been built up as more of a badass than Cena who plays the underdog babyface role so often against bigger guys. Made sense for HHH to have the amount of offense he had. It didn't have the realness of the Cena match but come on what match in the history of the company does? Felt more like a legit fight to me than 90% of the WWE stuff I've ever seen. Only Cena/Lesnar and shit involving dudes like Finlay and Benoit feel more real. The psychology was perfect. HHH tried to hang in there with Brock, got overwhelmed, accidentally found Lesnar's weakness and a chance to win, but Brock still had too much for him. I actually think this goes perfectly with the Cena match. The beating that Lesnar put on him at Extreme Rules was so brutal that simple stuff like Hunter's early clotheslines seemed like a big deal (plus Brock flew over those ropes like a madman). The Cena match is better, that's for sure, but I enjoyed the hell out of this nonetheless. If I had to throw a rating at it I'd say 4 stars.
 
#5,159 ·
omfg Ownage(TM)

Spot on with everything you said. Early on in the Cena match (if we're really forced to compare), Cena's random wild punches weren't going to phase Brock, who took him down with ease. Brock opened the same way against HHH by charging him into the corner. HHH had to respond by surprising Brock and taking him off his game (clotheslines sending Brock FLYING over the top rope "like a madman"). The psychology (and Brock's selling) was perfect, and the bit you added about them being two separate matches is dead right. HHH's character is completely different from Cena's. Cena (despite always winning) is constantly built up as an underdog babyface (especially when facing larger, more threatening opponents), whereas HHH has been a badass ever since he acquired "The Game" persona. Heel or face, HHH's character has generally stayed the same. That being said, of course the matches weren't going to be the same. We're likely never going to witness a match like Lesnar/Cena again, but Lesnar/HHH was damn good.
 
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