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The 2013 MOTYC Thread

371K views 3K replies 163 participants last post by  amhlilhaus 
#1 ·
#824 ·
WWE Wrestlemania 29

The Undertaker vs. CM Punk


KICKASS performance for Punk's theme song, no joke. Holy shit, anyone see Punk's reaction when Taker's music hit? This guy is amped and ready. Bell rings, Punk ducks some punches and... slaps the Undertaker!? Are you fucking NUTS!? This is gonna be good. I'm not gonna lie, I thought Punk legit made this match. His facial expressions, body language, taunts and gestures were all just amazing and brought life to a crowd watching with wide eyes. The dualing chants of CM PUNK & UNDERTAKER were so awesome and it really shows how the fanbase is sort of changing. Despite the announce table not breaking, the elbow spot is always amazing & looked REALLY painful on Punk's end. The picture where Taker sits up while he's in the Anaconda Vice & they're staring eye to eye is incredible, such a piece of art. The sequence where it was GTS into the rebound tombstone (which was of course a nearfall) was breathtaking. Thought it was legit over there. They managed to top themselves with the nearfall on the urn spot, that was even more amazing. Great back-and-forth sequence to end the match too. Punk just looked so good in this. Beautiful stuff.

**** 1/4
 
#826 · (Edited)
Punk vs. Undertaker ****1/4
This was so good after how horrible taker's mania matches have been in the past two years. Punk is just an incredible worker all around. The botched rollover from the Hell's Gate is probably the only thing that hurt the match, although I think its pretty clear Punk was legit hurt after the elbow.

Everything else on the show was pretty awful. I'm really surprised anyone thought anything else on the show was a MOTYC. I guess cena/Rock was maybe ***1/2, but HHH/Brock was just terrible. I only mention these because they were actually mentioned as MOTYCs on this thread.
 
#827 ·
CM Punk vs. Undertaker is **** in my books. Punk should of just transitioned into an Anaconda Vice from the Hells Gates instead of that botched pin attempt.

The ending sequence with HHH using the kimura and etc. was a good call in my opinion
 
#833 ·
CM Punk vs. Undertaker: ***3/4
Elements of this were tremendous, other parts were just there. Overall enjoyable and about what I expected. Actually I expected more finisher spamming so in that regard I'm glad it didn't devolve too much.

Enjoyed Rock/Cena, liked some of the call backs. They legit had me at one stage where I was sure it was over (the reverse finish to last year).

Brock/HHH, meh. Brock's aura is gone. He is just another guy now unfortunately because I loved that match with Cena last year. I wanted that Brock all the time.
 
#836 ·
The Undertaker vs. CM Punk was phenomenal, pardon the pun. ****1/4 - ****1/2

I give Brock vs. Triple H ***3/4. There were a couple hiccups, but a great match.

The Rock needs to retire. He embarrassed himself last night. Cena vs. Rock was a clusterf*ck. Cena's bad attitude was nice to see. I just wish we didn't have to sit through 15 minutes of chin locks and 67 false finishes. I don't see how I can even rate a match such as this. N/A
 
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#837 ·
I totally agree on everything you said about rock/Cena, but I think most of that applies to Triple H as well, especially last night. All the recent Triple H matches are the same. Weapon spot, then lie around, then weapon spot, then lie around. He and Rock both are just so plodding and dull now.
 
#843 ·
I thought Punk/Taker was brilliant, not going to lie. Punk was down right fantastic in it. From his stuff during Taker's entrance, to his stuff during his control segment to his stuff during the finishing run. Everything he did was great, and that's not just me being a big Punk fan talking, he was legit awesome in it. Punk and Taker are two guys who just know what they're doing in terms of controlling a crowd in the ring through their performances, and while Punk was the star, Taker was great too. Loved Punk being a fighting dickhead and not a chickenshit dickhead, that's exactly how he should be booked. He wasn't scared, he acted like he didn't give a toss and it ruled, usually that might be annoying but Punk makes it work here through his mannerisms and expressions. I absolutely adored the Old School spot, again Punk came off as a guy who knew what he was doing against Taker, he was the champion for over a year, he beat everyone, so he's going to be a threat to Taker kayfabe wise no matter his size because of his tenacity and skill in the ring and he played that role to perfection. I honestly thought the GTS no sell into the Tombstone was ridiculously awesome and I flipped my lid for it. This isn't anyone no selling the GTS, this is The Undertaker at Wrestlemania with his streak on the line avenging his dead father and fighting a guy he's learned through the course of the match is actually really fucking good and might have the win if he lets up for a second. The way he stumbled on to the ropes and then came off as almost possessed and threw Punk up like a child was just really cool to me. Plus I bought that near fall like anybody's business and Punk kicking out was awesome because I legit thought that was it unlike the HHH Tombstones the two previous years. I know people have kicked out of that move before at Mania (recently anyway), but that was HBK, Undertaker's greatest rival, and Triple H who'll obviously make himself look super human, I honestly didn't think they'd have Punk kick out of it. Table spot looked nasty on Punk's end and was the only slight blip in the match for me, it didn't look good for either guy. I really liked the Urn spot, played into the build up and even though that build was awful at least in didn't come off as completely pointless. Taker sitting up in the Vice was another super cool spot, and so was the tombstone reversals and Punk doing Taker's pose, once again coming off as a guy with no fear which is the exact way he needed to be booked in this match for anyone to believe he was a threat. Final Tombstone looked sick too. So glad it didn't turn in to a finisher fest in the slightest, Punk didn't get a nearfall with the GTS either and I didn't mind that, It wasn't really needed to get Punk over because he did that himself through his performance. Having a crowd vocally cheer for him at least 50/50 with Taker is testament to that. Yeah, I thought this was brill. ****1/2

As for other stuff from Mania, HHH/Bork was bad, Rock/Cena was pretty ridiculous but I didn't actually hate it. probably all down to Cena being fucking great in it with his expressions and mannerisms and slight heel tease stuff. The spot where he punked out the rock with the Peoples Elbow and stopped at the ropes and gave him that 'Bitch, please' look was legit amazing.
 
#844 ·
Great review Bubz.

The only thing I'll differ on is the table bump. Though it wasn't pretty, it was pretty violent, and whether Punk was in fact really hurt or not, I legit was worried about his well being. Watching him continue to fight through also hooked me some, not knowing how much was selling and how much wasn't. Old-school feelings.
 
#848 ·
Escorpion/Dorada wouldn't be anything I'd call MotY.

Great style, and Dorada is immaculate in his spots but that's ultimately what it was - a lightning match that allowed Dorada to just go out there and pop the crowd. I absolutely loathe stage dives at this point. They're over-used and contrived in how the other luchadore simply stands and waits to be bombed. I can only imagine comparing this to a "Top 10 Moves Of ...." video off of Youtube just in match form.

Perhaps deserves a watch to get oneself into Dorada, and I'll add this post to the one in the Lucha thread, but this really isn't a nomination-worthy match. A complete and utter spotfest but Dorada spotfests are, at least, extremely fun. Here's still hoping ***** Casas/Mascara Dorada lives up to my expectations.
 
#849 ·
Kinda surprised by the positive reviews for HHH/Lesnar. I thought it was really slow and plodding and it bored me on numerous occasions. A big disappointment in my eyes.

Loved Taker/Punk, think it just about gets a ****1/4 rating from me. I was a bit ticked off about Taker's no sell of the GTS (I could understand 'delayed selling' but to basically totally shrug it off was a bit much for my liking), but my God that Urn spot was just about the best nearfall I've seen in years. The way they set it up was PERFECT and for a split second I thought they'd pulled the trigger and Punk was gonna end the streak. Epic stuff right there. And I couldn't help but crack into a massive grin when Punk did Taker's top rope walk, that was joyous.

Don't really get all the hate on Cena/Rock. I was a big fan of the call backs to last year, especially the complete reverse of last year's finish, with Rock getting cocky and going for the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Genius, and I'm so glad Cena cut him off in the same way; that was another tremendous nearfall. Finisher spamming was a bit overkill, especially when they'd done such a good job of employing creative counters earlier in the match. Apart from that I had no real issues. Although seriously guys...can you try and hide the fact that you're both calling spots a little better? Every frickin' submission you could see them yabbering away to each other...
 
#853 ·
Matches 2013:

****1/4
-AJPW World Tag Team Championship Match: Get Wild (Takao Omori & Manabu Soya) (c) vs Burning (Go Shiozaki & Jun Akiyama) - AJPW 17/03
-IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Kazuchika Okada - NJPW 4/01
-IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Karl Anderson - NJPW 10/02


****
-All Asia Tag Team Championship Match: Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka (c) vs Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo - AJPW 3/01
-John Cena vs CM Punk - WWE Raw 25/02
-The Undertaker vs CM Punk - Wrestlemania 29 7/04/2013
-Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fuji & Dragon Kid vs Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & Ricochet - Dragon Gate 7/02
-AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship: Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka) (c) vs Burning (Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki) - AJPW 17/03
 
#856 ·
You weren't the first to do it so most already had it spoiled by someone else's sig in here. Sigh. I'm gonna have to start handing bans out for repeat offenders so just be extra careful in the future if you've been warned already. Especially with New Japan iPPVs. Leave it a week or so or make sure it's online for the masses to watch.
 
#862 ·
I'd feed your insides to my dog. And I don't even have a fucking dog.

No not yet. I'm gonna be playing catch up until I've at least got some assignments out of the way and I'm not behind schedule on everything. I can probably hold off a little longer on Okada/Tanahashi now I know the result (not nervosa's fault).

I won't add it to the title thread because it'll just confuse people even more and probably prevent people from posting good reviews. Just don't blatantly mention the result of a New Japan match that has only just happened and not hit the piracy walls yet (that sounds so sleazy) or have a spoilery sig so soon after.
 
#858 ·
Just grabbed Tanahashi vs. Okada from XWT (no sign of the full show yet). It's a thing of beauty & my new MOTY. Okada in particular is magnificent selling his decimated right arm with screams of agony every time he uses it & by shifting his elbow support from left to right. Tanahashi is better than usual with playing up the long-term effects of Okada's neck work & there's an incredibly dramatic sequence involving Okada's new submission. The finishing sequence is red-hot as you'd expect - can't wait to see the rest of the show. ****1/2
 
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