Childs

The card as of now makes me sad. It's very possible you come out of that thing without a single great match.

I'd be fine with them consolidating HHH and Shane into one shitfest.

I thought the 10/75 match that Bix posted all those years ago was their standout 70s match? It was certainly my gateway drug into WoS. You may well be right as I haven't watched them in awhile. I just remember them as a series that kept on giving rather than hitting an obvious crescendo. Actually, I wish Saint-Grey from Jan. 1980 had happened a month earlier, because then that would have been my '70s pick.

I don't know. I get what you're saying, but I wouldn't be excited about either of those as a featured match at Mania. Of the two, I'd prefer Cena-Corbin because at least that could have a greater point.

The 1985 match is definitely clipped. The video highlight package that goes with it features action that isn't in the match as broadcast. I still voted it No. 1 on the Memphis set, and it's on a short list of the greatest matches I've ever seen. But the clip is frustrating.

Do a lot of people have problems with you expressing opinions on WWE? That seems odd. I will say that if I know a poster's likes/dislikes/viewing history, I consider that when weighing his/her opinion on a question like this. I know Jimmy is a WWE lover first so I'm not surprised to see her pick Cena-Umaga. Doesn't in any way invalidate her opinion but it shapes my understanding of it.

I think that a lot of this feels more like 'best' match ever, and a lot less like 'greatest'. I don't think that's a relevant distinction for most people.

Is this the first all-heel ending in Rumble history?

So Orton really is going to win huh?

Oh they're trolling the crowd again.

Who's 30? Joe?

This is a nitpick but why have all the refs at ringside if they don't even try to keep Jericho in the ring? That aside, very fun early Rumble.

My god, they broke the sour Frenchman

I agree with all the PWG Cena criticisms, and yet I still enjoy watching those two. Can't help myself.

I know we say it time after time but AJ is so fucking good.

Really enjoyed the cruisers. Neville has found his calling in the bully heel role and Swann brought the requisite fire.

I hope the crowd doesn't take a total shit on the cruisers. It's actually a solid setup for the match.

Braun v. Roman could be really good. As we saw against Lesnar, Reigns is actually quite good at working from underneath.

He didn't derail the point of the finish. He was willing to die for his captain and die he did.

I think Kevin Owens was an interior decorator in a past life. Have never seen a wrestler who savors arranging furniture more than he.

I was surprised they didn't present Bayley as a slightly greater threat. Very good match though.

There's a separate thread for the Rumble. Let's keep stuff on tonight in there.

Reading the responses, it's clear this is a referendum on best style as much as best match. For example, Phil and I probably agree on 95 percent of matches. I'm rarely going to be cold to something he loves. But when parsing between accepted classics, he's invariably going to favor the perfect bloody apuestas match over the perfect All-Japan epic. I'm invariably going to go the other way. Same with Matt, who finds aspects of All Japan inherently distasteful. There's nothing wrong with any of that. It's just what struck me as I read the thread. Anyway, the answer is 6/9/95.

It just amazes me that anyone there would believe they need a Shane match on the show. The one last year made some sense, even if the result sucked ass. But it seems entirely unnecessary this year when they have plenty of story lines and plenty of name wrestlers to juggle. It's not like Shane-AJ would drive network subscriptions or come close to headlining the show. Why not use the Mania stage to launch someone like Nakamura in a standout 20-minute match? But Shane the wrestler is one of the things I hate most in recent WWE, so I can't pretend to think rationally about it.

Is the Lee-Wilkins match worth the commitment? Saw it did pretty well in the VOW poll, but 105 minutes? That's a high bar to leap over.