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No idea how anyone could dislike this unless they weren't into the style of their other matches. I quite enjoyed this and would slot it on the same level as their X-Seven match and above their two other Wrestlemania matches. I liked how they didn't try too hard to make the match feel epic by filling it with near falls or melodrama and instead went the route of it just being two legends having fun together. The beginning with some light hearted old man boxing cosplay set the tone pretty well. Still, the match didn't ignore their history of epics together and there were some nice counter-into-counter type moments alongside some references to past Wrestlemania matches. They both throw good punches and didn't shy away from using them, but they also sold them enough to keep them feeling meaningful. The Shawn Michaels and Kane interference stuff was also an entertaining way of filling time in between the big spots and covered nicely for possible holes in the main competitors' guys' cardio. It was funny seeing how easily Shawn Michaels got dropped by Undertaker's right hand when he tried running at him, and it somehow didn't stop being funny when it kept happening. The weapons dueling down the stretch was incorporated well and Undertaker's chairshots sounded nasty. Funny post-match angle as well with them initially going for a rehash of the ending to the match at XXVIII but then Undertaker/Kane being like "fuck this" and laying out H/Michaels.

This seemed a pretty natural thing to watch for Owen's birthday. It's these guys, so how could it be bad? It's not bad but it's not exactly the second coming of Wrestlemania X either. It suffers from the mythical Bret Hart house show effort. He pretty much sits back and gives Owen something like 80% of the offense before winning with a roll-up at the end. Before that, though, we do get a pretty decent shine with them trading slaps and Owen trying to cheat at any chance he can get. Owen does a pretty admirable job of carrying the action during his lengthy heat segment, though it does get old after a while seeing him work a bunch of holds without really escalating things. I did like how he seemed to always make some kind of effort to entertain fans while in the holds, doing stuff like posing while in a camel clutch or flipping off fans, which got a laugh from me. Another funny moment was when Owen tried to walk right after reaching the ropes off a reversed figure-4, but he just ended up slumping down. Flair flop done right.

I think Undertaker is making my list. He wasn't really on my radar until recently, but a few weeks ago I watched all his Wrestlemania matches in the span of a day and it made me a believer. I'd go as far as saying the Wrestlemania streak is up there with Baba's AJPW booking as some of the most iconic long-term storytelling ever done in a pro wrestling ring. When I started with the Snuka match, I had no plans of watching every match in such a short time period, but the uniqueness of his character work hooked me in and I just had to see how he would progress match-to-match. Watching it all in short order really helped in enforcing a loose narrative around Undertaker's overall career that further enhances the matches. In his first few appearances (VII-XI), he's the young phenom bulldozing through the top stars of the 80's. He gets his biggest test to that point at XII when he faces Diesel in a match that's also far more ambitious than anything he was seen in to that point, and he passes fine, leading into his title win at 13. XIV-XIX is the point where Undertaker has already been firmly established as a top level guy, meaning he is now someone that others are trying to take down to make a name for themselves. XIV also closes the book somewhat on his old school zombie gimmick by matching him with his brother, whose in-ring style feels like a mirror image of Undertaker from those earlier Wrestlemanias. The years following XIV see experimentation in his gimmick and his face/heel alignment, until finally he re-debuts at XX with a modernized version of his zombie gimmick and begins what can be called his prime championship years. This period also saw the first inklings of the Undertaker's streak as a legend in itself. Jim Ross drew attention to it during the entrances in the X-Seven match to sell what's at stake and Undertaker further drew attention to it in his celebration after his X8 win. This is also the period when Undertaker's entrances/post-match segments become longer/more elaborate. His matches start to feel like events instead of just incidental parts of the show. At 21 he beats Randy Orton fresh off his WHC win and then he follows that up by... beating Mark Henry in an obvious filler match. However, I read that the original plan for 22 was Undertaker/Angle and they were both pissed at that getting canned, leading to them treating their match at No Way Out 2006 as if it were an honorary Wrestlemania match. I slotted the Angle match into the marathon after the Orton match and it works amazingly well as a follow-up, featuring Undertaker showing all kinds of things he'd never shown to that point but also revealing his mortality with Angle scoring a rare clean pin over him. Undertaker's dissatisfaction with the finish and begging Angle for a rematch in the post-match led beautifully to his dual championship wins at 23 and XXIV. This era also saw Undertaker's streak further elevated, to the point where beating him at Wrestlemania is a much bigger deal than beating him outside of it. Accordingly, Batista and Edge both go at him with an urgency that almost makes it feel like they're the ones in the challenger role. Undertaker's usage of rope walking in these matches is another point of interest. It's the most ridiculous looking move in Undertaker's arsenal and accordingly, the older and more cartoony matches saw him get countered most of the time he went for it. Yet at this one point, when he's switched to a more athletic style and his legend is as strong it's ever been, he hits it successfully in almost every match. XXIV even sees Edge counter it twice only for Undertaker to finally get it on a third attempt, as if to reassert his legend. At this point I took another detour and watched Flair/Michaels on the undercard of XXIV. It doesn't involve Undertaker, but I feel it's a hugely important match to fully grasping Undertaker/Michaels and it's one of those beautiful bits of unintentional foreshadowing that it's on the undercard of Undertaker's final Wrestlemania world title win. Beneath the surface story of Flair/Michaels in the old star sticking around way past his prime and needing to be "put down" by someone who was still capable was a subtext that Michaels himself, with how he barely squeaked by and had some moments of sloppiness and close calls along the way, was nearing the end of his own road. This is a central theme to the second half of the XXV match and their XXVI match. By this point, Undertaker's streak has become mythologized as something far more important than any title in the promotion, so it's fitting that a show-off like HBK sets out to break it as a way to prove that he, unlike Flair, still belongs in the game. However, the facade of Michaels as Mr. Wrestlemania or the showstopper crumbles when, after Undertaker's botched dive in the XXV match, he begs the referee to stop the match or to give him a countout victory of all things. Conversely, there's an urgency to Undertaker's performance after that dive which goes beyond anything he'd shown up to that point. His reaction after that first Tombstone near fall cemented it as one of the best near falls I've ever seen for how it felt as if every Wrestlemania match leading up to it was building to finally seeing Undertaker defy his own character with such a raw display of shock. Michaels's need to reassert his character afterwards ends up his undoing, firstly in him giving Undertaker the opportunity for that first Tombstone by trying to skin the cat, and then in the finish when he goes for a late match moonsault and gets reversed into a Tombstone. After that masterpiece, which saw two of the longest running performers forced to break down and then try to build back up their carefully constructed characters in the aim of pursuing victory, Michaels isn't satisfied with how things ended. That leads into the XXVI match, where Michaels is basically in the same role that Flair was and Undertaker is the one putting him down. The ending in particular is a perfect parallel to the end of Flair/Michaels. I'd taken issue in the past with the match being no DQ but having no weapons, but in the context of this story it made sense that the stip was more about ensuring Michaels couldn't take the easy way out with a count-out or DQ and needed to beat Undertaker straight-up. When Triple H sets out to avenge his friend at XXVII and XXVIII, we are deep into the era of where Undertaker feels invincible at Wrestlemania. That makes it even more impressive that XXVII is the most human Undertaker has looked at any point in this entire marathon. First we see it in the stretch run, where Undertaker draws from his MMA fandom to do some remarkably detailed knocked out fighter type selling. Then comes the post-match where we get an awesome worked shoot stretcher job. That inability to leave the ring on his own power creates a brilliant role-reversal at XXVIII where it's finally Undertaker who comes in looking like he wants to prove he still belongs (this is sounding familiar). Sadly Michaels's ridiculous overacting made it impossible for me to enjoy the in-ring storytelling of the match in anything more than an ironic sense, but even still it's an extremely satisfying moment in the post-match when Undertaker accepts Michaels's help to get back on his feet and the three hug it out. After such an intense emotional high, the CM Punk match at 29 was maybe not the best follow-up tonally for how Punk almost comes across as a comic character in how cartoonishly evil he's portrayed. Still, it's a nice tribute piece to Paul Bearer and that more cartoony era of Undertaker. It continues to build Undertaker as an invincible force even in the face of a much younger opponent in the prime of their career. It also introduces Paul Heyman to the story, leading to XXX. As the climax of this story, XXX is the most brilliant piece of storytelling I've seen from WWE. After failing with CM Punk at 29, Heyman tries once more but this time by throwing his weight behind a former UFC champion. The Undertaker's entrance is the perfect set-up for his pride before his fall. I'd seen him make many big and drawn out entrances with his druids leading the way, but it was never as outright arrogant as what's shown here, where he's already burning Brock's coffin before the match has begun. This is the point where the streak has become a legend that towers over the Undertaker's own abilities as something that will never be broken, even in a case like this where it's an aging Undertaker against the best legitimate fighter to have set foot in a WWE ring to this point. Of course, almost as soon as the bell rings it's obvious that Undertaker is way out of his depth and the match takes on the shape of a funeral procession for the myth of The Streak. Lesnar makes good on his promises in the build-up that he's unaffected by the Undertaker's aura or his mind games and lays down a focused demolition of the legend with relatively minor moments of adversity. JBL and Cole have since claimed they had no idea that Undertaker was losing, but that's still hard for me to believe with how great they are calling the match as if an Undertaker loss is a foregone conclusion. Ditto the exceptional camera work that focused on angles portraying Brock towering over Undertaker and the quiet crowd that further reinforced the somber mood. Undertaker really has nothing to be ashamed of in his performance, either. Knowing his MMA fandom, I really can't think of a more fitting way for Undertaker to have ended his streak, which makes the negative fan reaction and Undertaker's dislike for his performance kind of sad to me. His slowness and inability to execute his moves as smoothly as before, taken with his incredible old man selling, is the most compelling portrayal I've seen in pro wrestling of an over the hill fighter who can no longer keep up. It's the same thing that's happened to so many greats in boxing or MMA who stuck around too long, but adapted uncompromisingly to the dramatized world of pro wrestling. Heyman's incredible pep talk to Lesnar towards the end further sells the gravity of the moment and feels like something you might hear from a trainer between the championship rounds of a big shoot fight. The moment Lesnar hits his 3rd F5 and gets the 3 count is pretty great even in isolation, but it really hits after seeing the 23 years of streak mythmaking leading up to it. There's an amazing duality to how the Undertaker's character, built on as many cartoony moments as any other in wrestling history, can create what feels like such a big statement on the importance of legitimacy in wrestling. It's like seeing tens of thousands of fans realizing Santa Claus isn't real all at once. After the match, you don't even need a promo to see that the Undertaker is contemplating retirement during that long walk to the back. After XXX, we've come full circle to Undertaker officially having his old yeller moment after having previously put down Michaels who put down Flair. Unlike those guys, he continues to attempt to try and hang on. His comeback starts with the Bray Wyatt match at 31. During the entrances, the announcers wonder which version of the Undertaker we'll see tonight. With how the sentence cut off, I could almost hear Vince screaming in their ear to shut up and not ruin Brock's win, but the implication was still there that XXX had to be an aberration and this was Undertaker's chance to make things right. He goes on to dominate Bray early on, but then he does a brilliant job of playing the shell shocked old man once Bray takes over. He wins, but only after going to war and trading finisher kickouts with a guy who 10 years earlier likely wouldn't have given him nearly as much trouble. Next is Shane McMahon, with the stipulation that Undertaker losing means he'll be barred from further Wrestlemania appearances. Undertaker's desire to stay in the game has left him reduced to a plaything that Vince can book in what's basically a freak show fight to punish his family. By the end, after witnessing Shane's big jump off the cell, Undertaker looks disgusted at himself for even being involved in it and, stipulation be damned, unwraps his gloves at the end as is common tradition for retiring MMA fighters. Still, he gets suckered back for one more shot at greatness at 33 against Roman Reigns. It's conclusively shown that what happened against Lesnar wasn't a fluke and Reigns reluctantly finds himself in the role of putting down old yeller. Afterwards, Undertaker fully removes his gear, again signifying that he's retiring. 34 is the point where the story fell off the rails for me, though it's late enough into things that it doesn't really detract too much. The backstage story I'd read was that Undertaker spent months training to get into shape for a long match with Cena, but then he was told right before walking out that he'd only be doing a quick squash and Cena had to convince him to go along with it. It felt like the company had entirely lost faith in Undertaker working a real match at that point, which it really shouldn't have as he was still pretty brilliant with his selling in the matches leading up to this. Even though it's something that would have been much better happening 10 years earlier, I think there was still real potential there for Cena and Undertaker to work a compelling legends match and it sucks that we were robbed of it. Still, the boneyard match with AJ is a satisfying conclusion to the near 30 year saga. It feels like a respectful celebration of the Undertaker's status in the industry in a way that the Cena match wasn't, and the ending with Undertaker riding into the night is as good a send-off for the character as any. Also, even though I think fans are dumb for not seeing the greatness in Undertaker's old man performances, it's still nice that he got to follow Michaels in leaving at a point where fans thought he had plenty of great (cinematic) matches left in him. I've tried to avoid focusing on match quality or ring work and just focus on the narrative aspects, but even just that ended in a way lengthier post than I anticipated. Speaking briefly on that aspect, I mostly fall in line with the consensus besides my love for those late career Undertaker performances. I was somewhat surprised at how good Undertaker looked in those early matches with his character work, and I thought him and Jake had surprisingly good chemistry with how their characters bounced off each other. I was also impressed with the XIV Kane match and reviewed it in more detail in the MDA. XIX was also a minor gem with lots of fun 2-on-1 spots and quality A-Train trash talk. The Triple H matches at XXVII and XXVIII were the biggest disappointments for me with neither really hitting like I wanted, except for the amazing post-match angles. I also want to draw attention to the way he varies his selling performances in his finisher trading epics from the Michaels series onwards. If you pay attention, it's clear he puts in a lot of thought in varying how he goes about performing spots like using the ropes to help himself up or the failed sit-ups. Rankings are below, though, for GME organization purposes, beyond **** I go in increments of 1/8 instead of the standard 1/4, so ****1/2 for me is probably closer to ***** for most people. XXV ****5/8 XXX ****1/2 XXVI ****3/8 NWO 06 ****1/4 29 ****1/8 XXIII 36 31 **** XIV X-Seven ***3/4 33 32 21 XIX ***1/2 XXIV XXVIII XXVII ***1/4 XII VIII *** X8 IX **1/2 XX ** 34 22 XV XIII *1/2 VII * XI

Surprised he didn't have a thread before. Based on my very limited viewing of the 2024 Chihiro match and 2017 Fujiwara, I think he's taken Akiyama's spot as the best current guy in Japan. Beastly grappler who's a total natural with his character work.

He probably realized how badly his case would fall apart trying to claim Vince forced him to do things to Janel when they were alone in a hotel room. Sleazy as hell, but much less stupid than trying to claim he's a victim.

I'm also not too big on a lot of early 80's Jumbo, but I still see him as a #1 candidate because of how strong his late-career is. Though I'd extend it to 85 or 86 because there's lots of great stuff in the Choshu and early Tenryu feuds. Part of it is stylistic in not being as high on the pimped Flair and Kerry stuff as I'd like but I think there is a real loss of energy in his work as well. The easiest comparison is his performance in the 1976 Terry Funk match to the one in the 1980 Carnival rematch. In the other direction, compare his performance in the Baba/Dory vs Jumbo/Tenryu matches in 83 and 85. The 83 one is barely good, but the 85 one is a legit MOTYC. It's unusual for a guy's work to dip in the midst of his physical peak, but it's not that strange when you factor in the booking conditions mentioned earlier. He'd gotten as far he was going to get in the promotion (his spot cemented by going over Dick Slater of all people), so it's normal that he'd lose some motivation in the face of a glass ceiling below Baba and the top gaijin. Choshu joining, Brody leaving, and Baba stepping back completely changed the main event booking in a short span of time, so the hunger came back after all that. It's also not all bad for early 80's Jumbo. I was impressed by the 1982 Robinson match. All of the above becomes irrelevant in the face of how great late-career Jumbo was. Jumbo's stuff during the Misawa feud is the best week-to-week run I've ever seen from a guy. The amount of great matches/performances he had just from what was televised in 1991 alone are more than most guys have in their entire careers. And the handhelds we have from that period also suggest he wasn't treating house shows as off nights either.

I didn't like most so of this. The "highspot brawling" here struck me as more a negative development than I positive one. It came across unearned seeing these guys selling like they'd already been wrestling for 30 minutes when they were only a few minutes into this one. Also, given how both guys throw good punches and have proven capable of working a blood brawl, I was disappointed seeing them just laying around between spots. Those last few minutes saved this one big. Undertaker's selling after Triple H's big chairshot to his head was tremendous, especially with how he imitated the fencing response. Triple H's character work after that was great and it looked like the crowd genuinely bought into him having a chance at ending the streak. The end is also an amazing angle and still has to be one of the best worked shoot moments ever done. Conflicted on how I feel about this as an overall package. It felt like they had a lot of ideas for the stretch run but weren't interested in planning how to get there, so they just said fuck it and worked the entire match like it was a stretch run.

Liked this a lot and have it as Undertaker's best streak match to this point by a fair bit. Great story with Kane basically playing the role of early 90's Undertaker against this current incarnation of Undertaker, emotionlessly walking through all of his opponent's offense like he's the Terminator. Really liked Undertaker's hope spots with Kane always having an answer any time Undertaker tried to set-up his signature stuff. I was surprised at the speed and intricacy of some of their counter sequences. Thought the punches from both guys looked good and Undertaker's rope-a-dope strategy was cool to see play out. Undertaker's missed dive was an obvious highlight, but it stood out how untelegraphed it was. Also probably the best finish they could have done as far as keeping Kane looking strong while still giving Undertaker a win.

Was dreading the worst going in but was pleasantly surprised with a fun and tightly worked cartoon match. It's a zombie vs. a giant, and they both play their roles well. Undertaker's selling here is underrated and they play up the size difference well with neat visuals like Undertaker standing on the turnbuckles next to Gonzales. Chloroform DQ finish kind of sucks but they make up for it in the post-match and Gonzales's terrified reactions were funny.

Not sure where the "this is better than remembered" type comments are coming from. This was bad and had no reason going this long. First few minutes and last few are alright, but it drags like hell in between that. No real hook to keep you invested and neither guy does much interesting on offense. The rest holds are also laughable in how blatant they are about it.

Feels like one of those guys who's just too good to leave off even with limited footage. Besides the Jesse James match, which stands as one of the best matches on American soil(tm) that we have on video, he was also known as one of the top tag team specialists when he was active. The Millers match also gets a rec from me. Footage I'm aware of w/ Roy Heffernan vs. Bill Miller & Ed Miller 1/24/1958 w/ Roy Heffernan & Jerry Graham v. Antonio Rocca, Miguel Perez, & Ricki Starr 1958 vs. Jesse James 6/8/1960 w/ Roy Heffernan vs. Mighty Atlas & Moose Cholak 7/13/1961 w/ Don Kent vs. Ben Justice & The Stomper 12/18/1971 w/ Don Kent vs. Leon Chandler & Bill Costello 5/5/1973 There's probably a lot more hidden away in private collections. Looks like he had a tour with AJPW in 1979 as well, though I don't think any of his matches got televised.

I've currently got him at 26 on my draft. There's still a lot I haven't seen, so he could change, but for now something that I'm certain of is that he has the "it" factor for me. Even with how he constantly got jobbed out in NJPW and AJPW, he has that ability to make you buy into him against anyone he's in the ring with. I currently see him as the best of the NJPW's 90's heavies and a huge blessing for AJPW after he jumped. Compared to his contemporaries, he was the best by far on the mat, had charisma out the ass, and could trade open handed strikes as good as anyone. Hash peaked higher and got more opportunities, but Hase blows him away for consistency/variety. He's done quite well for me just watching random NJPW matches with stuff like somehow pulling a good match out of Tadao Yasuda's debut or the aforementioned 93 G1 Chono miracle match. But I see his run from after the AJPW jump as the point where he leaves no doubt of himself as an elite level performer, and I think it deserves some in-depth talk here. So, here's some recommendations from that period as supplement to Loss's list from earlier. Lots of stuff I haven't seen even just from this period but should be enough for a starting point. w/ Misawa & Kawada vs. Taue, Akiyama & Kobashi 9/15/1997 - Awesome 60 minute 6-man that recaptures the energy of the Jumbo 6-mans while still feeling fresh thanks to Hase's role as the odd man. vs. Kikuchi 1/3/1998 - Some of the most tricked out matwork you'll find from 90's AJPW, made even more awesome by Kikuchi's trademark underdog selling. vs. Akiyama 5/1/1998 - First of Hase's AJPW Dome show epics and one of the greatest meat stick measuring matches. Two wrestling jocks from the same college going hard flexing their mat wrestling and then dropping each other on their heads. vs. Kawada 5/2/1999 - Second of Hase's AJPW Dome show epics and not far behind the Akiyama match in quality. Perfect combination of bodypart focused grappling, hot strike exchanges, and incredibly nasty head drops. vs. Vader 8/30/1999 - Great 11 minute quasi-squash that feels right at home as a sequel to their tags from earlier in the decade. Hase sells his ass off and gets the crowd huge into it. vs. Taue 9/4/1999 - Have only seen the JIP NTV version, but looks like a hella fun bomb throwing match adapted nicely to the size difference and both guys' unique movesets. w/ Izumada & Momota vs. Akiyama, Eigen, & Honda 9/18/1999- Again have only seen the JIP version, but way better than it looks on paper. Hase gels really well with Eigen mixing workrate wrestling and old man comedy spots. vs. Misawa 1/9/2000 - Already discussed extensively but well worth a watch if you haven't seen it. Impressive feat from these guys having a great match in the year 2000 that's almost 25 minutes of various Hase armlocks. vs. Fuchi 1/2/2001 - Basically the AJPW equivalent to a lucha maestros match. Great matwork and loads of fun moments from both guys. Watch the GAORA broadcast for the first 5 minutes then switch to the New Year Giant Series comm for the last 9 minutes. vs. Muto 6/6/2001 - Incredible matwork in the first 20 minutes or so. Muto gasses out and they have to switch to more straightforward bomb throwing, but still well worth a watch. vs. Tenryu 8/30/2002 - Awesome striking-based match that works for how careful both guys are in selling damage and varying their attacks as needed. Feels like a match that dudes working soulless forearms exchanges should study. vs. Kojima 10/27/2002 - First half is Hase gobbling up Kojima on the mat and it's glorious. Second half is fun bomb throwing with a passing of the torch feel.

Positives here for me are how they kept a fast pace for the first fall matwork, the handful of fun learned psychology moments, and the way they carefully build to/sold the flat back bumps. Negatives for me are... a lot of other stuff. Coming to this after having seen the 1997 match a few times, I was surprised how the stuff they were doing on the mat lacked the creativity and spontaneity of that match. The grappling was also too loose for my tastes in how easily they let go of holds. The clotheslines here almost resemble a hug more than a move that should down an opponent. The spotty selling and crappy transitions did not help things either. Wasn't feeling the extended nearfall trading in the 3rd fall and I was begging for things to end.

Who does this? I enjoy Ospreay's big matches for the high octane stunt shows that they are, but can't say I see more than superficial similarities between him and 90s AJPW.

I have no idea what "Pitchfork-style poptimism" means here. I don't see Sting as a shoo-in this time around. I'm not low on him, but there's just so many guys who meet similar criteria of "had a match series I like and was mostly solid for the rest of a long career." I like Vader/Sting, especially the strap match, but I don't think it's so great to guarantee Sting a spot. A few months back I watched Sting/Vader at GAB 92 back-to-back with one of the Vader/Kobashi matches, due to them both following a similar premise of Vader vs underdog who can do power moves. It was pretty jarring how much better the selling and offense was in the Kobashi match. Like I posted here 10 years ago, I continue to think the most interesting thing about him is how he managed to stay solid and not feel out of place in the main event scene even well into old age. Haven't seen his AEW run besides the retirement (which seemed more a case of great presentation than a great match), but I think he could land a spot if I really vibe with that stuff.