[peep4life]

That's cool Andy ^^^, probably how I would have felt if I had watched the match live and not known the results beforehand. Sometimes you have to forget about storytelling and psychology and watch wrestling for the reasons we watched it as a child, for that excitement of not knowing who is gonna win and what is gonna happen next.

[Benjo™]

Originally Posted by Andy3000

My MOTY is Shawn/Jericho. Not because it's a ton of stars or anything typically "smarky" like that, but because, well, I'll just copy and paste what I said last night:

HBK/Jericho... yeah, so, this is my match of the year. It may not technically be the best match to happen this year, but for me, its biggest strength isn't that it used excellent psychology, had great bumps, told a great story, was structured perfectly, had a flawless pace, or anything else that can be described as being part of a "top tier" wrestling match's "mechanics"... the reason is: the fact that the the last 5 minutes made me feel like I used to feel when watching a wrestling match involving my favourite wrestler, that could care less about psychology, storytelling, selling, and any of the stuff a "smart" fan may think of -- see: stupified mark that's so immersed in something that's completely fake while DESPERATE for the 45 year old Christian to grab a shiny belt from a hook, despite the fact I'd come across as mentally challenged to a stranger as a result -- puts this above and beyond everything else I've seen this year - including his match against a certain Ric Flair, which, for all intents and purposes, was pretty decent too, I guess. I'm not going to talk about its psychology, its storytelling, its pace, its structure, so on and so on, because frankly, this wasn't just a wrestling match to me - it was a motherfucking time machine that took me back to being a giddy child that nothing in hindsight should have the ability to do. Will its effect ware off when I watch it again? I'm sure it will, but I intend to wait as long as I can before watching it again just to savour the fucking awesomeness it provided me. I'm not going to give this any star rating, ninja star, snowflake, whatever you call it... and if you don't understand why, then you've completely failed to grasp everything that I've just said.

My exact thoughts on the match except i was rooting for Jericho . The last 5 minutes actually had my heart racing, which is something that hasn't happened to me for any match since Wrestlemania X7.

I think i'm going to watch HBK/Y2J for a 3rd time later tonight.

[GP_Punk]

What Andy described is basically the way i rate matches most of the time...

A mate asked me today why i liked the ladder match more than HHH/Hardy and my answer - after going through some storytelling comments to maintain my indy troll reputation - was that, end of the day, the ladder match made me sit closer to the edge of my seat and put a bigger stupid grin on my face than the other one.
Simple.

[Sheva7]

The Ladder match just had that special feeling, where you could feel the hatred readiating off the t.v screen, the storytelling and the match psychology was wonderful. I'm not sure whether it the MOTY so far, but it's definitly a MOTYC. I want to watch it once more before I give it a stars rating though.

[Ownage™]

Originally Posted by Andy3000

My MOTY is Shawn/Jericho. Not because it's a ton of stars or anything typically "smarky" like that, but because, well, I'll just copy and paste what I said last night:

HBK/Jericho... yeah, so, this is my match of the year. It may not technically be the best match to happen this year, but for me, its biggest strength isn't that it used excellent psychology, had great bumps, told a great story, was structured perfectly, had a flawless pace, or anything else that can be described as being part of a "top tier" wrestling match's "mechanics"... the reason is: the fact that the the last 5 minutes made me feel like I used to feel when watching a wrestling match involving my favourite wrestler, that could care less about psychology, storytelling, selling, and any of the stuff a "smart" fan may think of -- see: stupified mark that's so immersed in something that's completely fake while DESPERATE for the 45 year old Christian to grab a shiny belt from a hook, despite the fact I'd come across as mentally challenged to a stranger as a result -- puts this above and beyond everything else I've seen this year - including his match against a certain Ric Flair, which, for all intents and purposes, was pretty decent too, I guess. I'm not going to talk about its psychology, its storytelling, its pace, its structure, so on and so on, because frankly, this wasn't just a wrestling match to me - it was a motherfucking time machine that took me back to being a giddy child that nothing in hindsight should have the ability to do. Will its effect ware off when I watch it again? I'm sure it will, but I intend to wait as long as I can before watching it again just to savour the fucking awesomeness it provided me. I'm not going to give this any star rating, ninja star, snowflake, whatever you call it... and if you don't understand why, then you've completely failed to grasp everything that I've just said.

Star rating now.

[superdupersonic]

Originally Posted by Ownage™

Agreed. So many people in the discussion thread said the finish was horrible but I thought it was great given the context of the storyline and it made sense on more than one level. It really put over how close Jeff was that someone as dominant as Triple H would have to resort to a move like that to win. I think the problem most people had was that H had just been hit by the Twist of Fate and the Swanton but I didn't think it was unrealistic because Jeff took some serious punishment in the match and was so exhausted that he wasn't able to turn over and hook the leg, thus allowing the experienced vet to sneak one.

I guarantee that if the match had been Jericho vs. Jeff and it went down the same way, there wouldn't be insipid complaints about Jeff being BERRIED~!

[watts63]

CMLL 7/27/08
Volador Jr., Averno, Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Hector Garza, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Dos Caras Jr vs. Sonjay Dutt, AJ Styles, Alex Koslov, Mark Jindrak, Johnny Devine, Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley ****-****1/4

[GP_Punk]

Originally Posted by superdupersonic

I guarantee that if the match had been Jericho vs. Jeff and it went down the same way, there wouldn't be insipid complaints about Jeff being BERRIED~!

That's because the IWC is SMARTENED UP~! and knows all about HHH's BACKSTAGE POLITICS~!

In all seriousness, Trips has done his fair share of burrying, but he's been putting Jeff over all the time since the Elimination Chamber when he kicked out of a Pedigree with no cover delay.
Don't think i can remember the last guy to do that.
Unfortunately people think that "putting over" only means "getting pinned by"...

[stinger-splash]

Y2J Chris Jericho(c) vs ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ Shawn Michaels


Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

WWE No Mercy 2008


Apart from WM and classic matches, I don’t watch any WWE. This feud however made me watch RAW every Monday (or at least the segments between these two). The heat in this feud was amazing and especially Jericho has been awesome in his heel role. For the first time since WM I was really looking forward to see another WWE match. Ladder matches are one of my favorite gimmick matches and these two had some of the best ladder matches ever. A classic in the making?

The match had a quick start with both men going at eachother. After the first fury was unleashed, Jericho opened the match with a high risk move where he took HBK to the outside. Shortly after, he brought the ladder into play and the match became awesome. I loved when HBK jumped on the ladder on did a cross body on Jericho.

The match became brutal with stiff ladder shots where both man seriously damaged eachother. I marked when out of nowhere Jericho stamped on the ladder out of frustration and the ladder splashed in HBK’s face. Storytelling has been awesome so far. Once HBK took control he decided to further damage Jericho instead of climbing the ladder. After he delivered some brutal ladder shots to Jericho, he set him on top of the ladder near the announce table where they did a cool but strange move and both fell through the table. Hard landing for both.

Once back in the ring, Jericho kicked the ladder on Michaels in the corner. Strange selling from Y2J who climbed the ladder and tried to superplex Michaels. Like everyone could feel coming, HBK pushed the ladder away and Y2J fell. Now Chris pulls the ladder over him and HBK elbow drops the ladder . Logic please.

After this ugly part, they made up for it in the 5 final minutes. It truly was breathtaking with back and forth all the time and suspense in the air. Cade interference didn’t really hurt the match, but it didn’t add something neither. It was meh. The finishing sequence was awesome with both man pulling on the belt and HBK accidentally giving himself a headbutt.

Overall not as fantastic as I thought it would be, but still an amazing ladder match. The storytelling was great and so was the action. I really enjoyed watching this match.. They kept a high pace during the entire match and worked fucking hard.

Too bad there were some little ugly moments as well. I already noticed some like the predictable bump where HBK pushed Jericho from the ladder and HBK’s elbow drop on the ladder. I thought Jericho’s selling was pretty bad at some points. Like when HBK smashed the ladder in his face (he was standing forever with the ladder just under his face) and after the table bump. He was crawling and could barely stand and suddenly he was super fit and dropkicked HBK.
Apart from these smaller remarks, I enjoyed everything like I said. Great performance, great ladder match.

Rating: ****




That would make my WWE MOTY list:

1) Flair vs HBK *****
2) Taker vs Edge (WM) ****1/4
3) HBK vs Y2J ****
4) MITB IV ****
5) Taker vs Edge (HIAC) ****

[INVINCIBLE]

I agree with everything that Andy said. Jericho|Shawn Ladder match is my MOTY. I'll even give it a rating, snowflakes, NINJA STARZ~!, star rating, asterisks. Five synonyms? Yeah, *****