DR Ackermann

I watched the Royal Rumble 2000 match last week and I don't think it holds up at all. It just drifts. The crowd isn't even into it. Also, as much as I like Foley, he does have a tendency to completely no-sell things to get to the next spot. I was watching the Over the Edge 98 match the other day and he no-sells two stunners at the end so he can move on to the next spot. I think it comes down to lazy structuring so that he has no other choice.

You gotta have the Valentine vs Piper dog collar match from the first Starrcade

I'll look up the date when i get off work

There's a falls count anywhere between Dustin Rhodes and Cactus from late 92 that i like even more than the Sting match from that year

Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen AJPW 9.11.82 Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen AJPW 4.14.83 Nick Bockwinkel vs Wahoo McDaniel AWA 8.28.83 Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy AJPW 8.30.83 All of these are really good, especially the second Hansen/Funk match. I think that's one of the greatest matches ever. I think all of these clock in between 10 & 15 minutes.

I've been checking out some Faces of Fear matches on the network and they are a surprisingly good team. Their match with the Outsiders was the best match at Starrcade 96 and their match with Benoit and McMichael at Halloween Havoc was good too. Their were some awesome double team spots in that match.

I thought the Jericho match was fine, but not on the level people make it out to be. It wasn't great. I haven't seen the TAKA match in forever.

I was just watching the Steiners vs Gordy/Williams match from CoC XIX in 92 and thinking about this. The match is a little sloppy at times and that rough around the edges quality makes it seem much more intense and naturalistic like there's a real struggle. Some of the technical wrestling ends in a stalemate because there isn't a ton of cooperation and Gordy and Scott aren't able to execute a basic mat-wrestling spot and Gordy crushes Scott's skull into the mat. Its all really brutal and makes the match what it is.

You know what else doesn't hold up? Triple H's "amazing" 2000 run and his career in general before the injury. I've been watching his stuff on the network lately and I can't speak for his matches on RAW and Smackdown, but most of his highly touted PPV matches are weak or decent at best. The Foley matches from 2000 that I really liked as a kid aren't any good. The Royal Rumble match is decent and the No Way Out match is kinda blah. His Austin match at Survivor Series is pointless garbage. The best match I've seen from him in 2000 is the Backlash match with the Rock. It was actually really good until all of the overbooking at the end. It didn't ruin the match, it just turned it into something else. Speaking of the Rock, their famous ladder match that is supposed to be really good slowly gets worse and worse as it goes on. It ends up being pretty horrible by the end. Same for their strap match. Same for most Triple H matches in general. Good start then they get lost. Things don't tie together.

Lesnar vs Guerrero No Way Out '04. I've seen people call this one of the greatest matches ever and there is just no way. Eddie plays his role really well and so does Lesnar but something is missing. The match never gets into the next gear. The crowd is waiting to explode and it happens on a run-in. It just keeps building and building to the next level with out actually going to that next level.

Pandemonium.

Cesaro vs Lesnar could be pretty cool. Actually a lot of guys vs Lesnar would be cool. Lesnar is kind of the dream match fulfillment guy in the WWE at this point in that he's basically wrestling what were/would have been 'what if Lesnar never left and wrestled..." matches like Cena/Punk/Taker/HHH, even though he's wrestled some of them before.

Even if Evolution won it would have been a good move if things developed accordingly.

I think I was more forgiving to the Cena match because the right guy won, whereas the Bryan/Kane match felt pointless to me and lasted for almost thirty minutes. Don't get me wrong though, Cena/Wyatt was a huge disappointment in almost every way. At least the under card was inoffensive. Kind of a garbage show. The Shield/Evolution match was the one bright spot.

So which match was worse? Cena/Wyatt or Bryan/Kane? I hated them both.

The crowd seemed to really welcome the title change. Big E. didn't get much reaction at all.

I would also add Bret Hart vs British Bulldog from Summerslam 92. Its solid, but I don't think its exceptional or even especially good. I could actually mention a lot of Bret Hart matches here.

Vader/Flair from Starrcade 93 used to be one of my top 5 favorite matches. Its not anymore but I still like it a lot. I was surprised to see how many people think it sucks.

I'm going to re-watch it this week too.

Back in the day, did AWA fans know that Vern Gagne was also the owner of the company or was he just seen as the top star? What about AJPW with Baba and NJPW with Inoki?

NO ONLY ME! Is it highly regarded? I know people think its good, but I thought a lot of people could do without it. I think it's Bret's best match.

Agree completely. Based on his gimmick It felt like this was the way he was supposed to be wrestling for the last 15 years.

I really love Bret Hart's match with Piper at Wrestlemania VIII. I have a hard time seeing Bret Hart as an all-time great worker and usually find him very underwhelming, but I think this was the best WWF match of 1992. At least from what I've seen. I never really hear much about that match and it always gets overshadowed by the Flair/Savage match from that night, which I don't think is anywhere near as good.

I think you are right. The end result is why Austin/Hart is so great. They had a goal with their booking and the match executed that plan perfectly. The match doesn't exist in a vacuum, and if it did, then I agree, it would definitely be overrated. The last time I watched the match I was going through all the RAWs and PPVs of 1997 so I had the build and it was probably the most I enjoyed it. That same reason is probably why Tully/Magnum doesn't work for me. I've only seen it without any real context.

I haven't seen any of the build. I should probably check all of that out and then revisit the match.