cactus

79. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW - 2/27/2000) (2020 GME Ranking: 54) This is how you groom a guy for a run at the top. Misawa is quickly becoming the grumpy Misawa that we all know and love. His best days are behind him, but he isn't about to let a young whippersnapper like Akiyama take his spot easily. He can still throw a mean elbow and an Emerald Flowsion will still put anyone away providing Misawa is able to hit it. Although this entire match could be described as a sprint, they really take things to 11 during the later stages of the match. Misawa pops right up after a couple of Exploders and Akiyama is forced to bring something new to the table. The '90s might be over and the glory days of AJPW are quickly coming to an end, but this deserves to be talked about when discussing any of the big King's Road classics. 78. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki (NJPW - 10/8/2012) (2020 GME Ranking: 33) This was two pros putting on a classic that goes against the established formula for what a 2010s NJPW main event should look like. There's not an overabundance of near-falls here, just simple wrestling that's ripe with psychology. Suzuki wants to tear Tanahashi's already-injured arm from his body. One of my main gripes of the modern NJPW style is that submissions never feel dangerous enough to end the match, but I could have easily seen either man picking up a submission victory as this match went on. 77. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 4/7/2013) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) I had forgotten how smug and arrogant Okada was when he was a baby Rainmaker. His facials here are so damn smackable. Despite his arrogance, the NJPW fans are starting to get behind him and start to wear tiresome of Tanahashi's goody-two-shoes attitude. This means Tana goes into John Cena mode and does all his signature taunts with a touch more pizzazz to really get under his detractor's skin whilst still being a babyface. Tanahashi lands a Fujiwara early and then spends the rest of the match working Okada's arm. Okada sells his injury well and I loved that he switched his elbow pad over so that he could hit his flying elbow without damaging his arm any further. Small touches like that go a long way. The exchanges we get during the final ten minutes are explosive and exciting, and never look cooperative or too cutesy. Throw in the molten-hot crowd and you got yourself an all-time classic. 76. Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS - 9/25/1996) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) The first match of the legendary Han/Tamura trilogy is the match that finally got me into RINGS. This was like watching two pissed-off octopuses going head to head. The matwork here is so quick I had to check to make sure my video wasn't sped up! Volk Han locks in a hammerlock in seconds and then decides to scoop Tamura up with it and drop him on his damn head! Tamura is outmatched here. Both guys are able to lock on a submission within seconds and the tide of the match can change with one wrong move. Tamura is eventually able to keep up and this pisses Han right off, so he decides to start laying in the strikes. Han lays in the palm strikes and kicks with a lot of ferocity. Not only was the matwork here god-tier, but the narrative of Tamura having to prove himself against a more seasoned opponent gave me something to really get my teeth into. 75. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kota Ibushi (NJPW - 8/12/2018) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) This was Salty Veteran Tanahashi versus Punk Outlaw Ibushi. Tana is pissed off at Ibushi and boy, does he let it show. Ibushi gave Tana an injury in a previous G1 by hitting him with the Lawn Dart and he attempts to go for this move again to try and secure a G1 victory. That pro-longed slap exchange was brutal and despite its length, it never outwore its welcome. You can expect to see all of Tanahashi's big bombs during the finishing stretch, but it never felt formulaic. My only criticism of this match is that the first 10 minutes just felt kinda there. Aside from that, this was an incredible G1 final, with an excellent atmosphere. 74. The Shield vs The Wyatt Family (WWE - 2/23/2014) (2020 GME Ranking: 44) What I love about this one the most was the pace. It was non-stop from bell to bell, but it never went too quick and started to feel like your run-of-the-mill spotfest. There's plenty of storytelling to help justify the high-end action. This is a stable versus stable match where it feels that every stablemate plays a role. Reigns and Wyatt are the leaders of their respective teams, Ambrose is the unhinged madman, Rollins is the calculated high flyer, and Rowan and Harper serve as the heavies for the Wyatt Family. Reigns trying to fight off the entire Wyatt Family by himself was a great way of having him look strong, even in defeat. 73. CM Punk vs John Cena (WWE - 7/17/2011) (2020 GME Ranking: 36) If I was doing this list in 2012, there would be a strong chance that this would be my #1 pick. There was something in the air during this night and everyone in that Chicago crowd was invested in this. Punk's sloppiness holds this one back from getting the full five stars from me. Slipping and falling on your arse during the biggest match of your career is going to take me out of the match. Aside from that, this was exciting with some well-placed overbooking which saw Vince McMahon trying to screw Punk out of the title. 72. Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takyama (AJPW - 5/26/2000) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) Whether he was slowly firing himself up as he takes a beating or if he was showing concern as he steps back into the ring after his arm was savaged, Kobashi's facial expressions and body language were on-point here. Takayama might not be the prettiest or flashiest worker around, but he makes sure his big shots look snug and he's a pro at knowing whether he should be smothering Kobashi or if he should be allowing him to start making a comeback. Takayama takes out Kobashi's chopping arm, so Kobashi has to improvise. This was smartly worked, with a level of physicality that you can expect from any big AJPW match from the '90s. 71. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 12/3/1993) (2020 GME Ranking: 48) Kawada's turned his back on Misawa and Kobashi and has joined forces with his former enemy, Akira Taue. Kawada starts this one off as an arrogant yet in control turncoat, but as soon as Kobashi starts returning his leg kicks, Massive Dickhead Kawada comes out in full force. The leg kicks from Kobashi send Kawada to the ground, clutching his leg in agony. It's redundant to say what a great seller Kawada is at this point, but this match might feature his best sell job. Him not being able to bridge on a German suplex because of his hurt wheel might be my favorite piece of singular selling ever. Taue plays his role as Kawada's heavy well by holding the fiery Kobashi back while Kawada stretches out Misawa. The finishing stretch is all kinds of fun, with non-stop action and constant momentum shifts. Excellent stuff. 70. Bret Hart vs Mr. Perfect (WWF - 6/13/1993) (2020 GME Ranking: 40) I used to think this was so much better than their Summerslam 1991 match, but my opinion on that changed this year. A rare face vs face for its era, this is both men's second match of the night. Mr. Perfect looks like the fresher man, as Bret's hand is injured after his match with Razor Ramon some 30 minutes previously. After the brilliant pre-match promo with the shit-stirring Mean Gene, they open their match with some crisp technical exchanges. You don't need me to tell you how technically sound Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect are. This really gets going once Hennig starts heeling it up. He starts off very subtlety, stomping on Bret when he's down to blindsiding him after assisting him back into the ring. The crowd turns on Hennig and the match transitions beautifully to a more traditional face vs heel dynamic. 69. El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (Mask vs Hair – WWA – 7/18/1987) (2020 GME Ranking: 55) Confession time: I'm not much of a lucha guy. I can enjoy a match here and there, but there is a limit to how much I enjoy it. I think that MS-1 vs Chicana brawl that everyone raves about is just okay. One exception to that rule is El Hijo del Santo. Although I prefer him when he's being a Mexican Shawn Michaels instead of a brawler, he's my guy when it comes to lucha. Both wrestlers put in a hell of a shift here. Negro Casas shone here because of his cocky demeanor and insane bumping. I'm surprised Casas didn't suffer any serious injuries from that mental crash and burn failed dropkick attempt that sends him violently snapping back from the ropes. The third fall sees them cram in more near falls than the Steamboat/Savage classic from a few months previous. Like that match, every single one of them felt like they could end the match and they never once felt excessive. 68. Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs Razor Ramon & 123 Kid (WWF - 9/28/1994) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) The Kilq working together to make each other look good created one of the best WWF tags ever. The crowd is molten-hot throughout and everyone plays their role to perfection. Despite being the much bigger man of his team, Ramon does a sublime job at being the face in peril and Kid is the rocket-fuelled fresh man. HBK puts in a top chickenshit heel performance and he sells Ramon's punches well. Diesel didn't stink up this match at all, but I'm wasn't a fan of him being knocked out for minutes on end after a single Sweet Chin Music. At least it put the move over as deadly, at least. 67. Yuki Ishikawa vs Kazunari Murakami (Battlarts - 11/26/2000) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) I had to squeeze at least one Murakami match on my ballot. I love that mad bastard. With his devilish facials and final boss aura, he reminded me of Brock Lesnar and he is here to make the Battlarts poster boy his bitch. Murakami brutalizes Ishikawa until Ishikawa is able to catch a leg and throw one of the best punches ever and change the tide of the match in one of my all-time favourite transitional spots. 66. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 1/4/2015) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) I remember being sick of this pairing by the time this match happened, but I really enjoyed revisiting it recently. These two start out trading tight headlocks on each other for the first five minutes, but the dynamic of the match drastically changes when Okada takes a cheap shot after a rope break and they start hitting each other with stiff forearms. They pop the crowd with some massive spots that you could easily see in the cheap seats. The Heavy Rain on the walkway and Tanahashi's barricade-clearing High Fly Flow were two of the biggest highlights here. I love how this match built up, but my usual complaint of the main event NJPW style still applies here. Submissions and roll-ups do not feel like a threat and you can bet your last dollar that this is ending after either a Rainmaker or a High Fly Flow. Despite my criticisms of the NJPW style as a whole, these two went out there and still managed to have one of the best matches of the decade. 65. Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (Hell in a Cell - WWF - 10/5/1997) I could see myself going higher on this if I rewatched this as I can't think of any criticisms of this match. Everything falls into place perfectly. Kane's debut is iconic. Shawn going to drastic measures to escape the cell made for one of his best performances ever. Undertaker works best in an environment like this, with all the bells and whistles hiding all his weakness as a worker well. Shawn's bladejob is disgusting and even if his cell bump was overshadowed by Mankind the next year, it is still a sight to behold. 64. Samoa Joe vs CM Punk (ROH - 12/4/2004) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) My list wouldn't have felt complete if I hadn't found the three hours to sit down to watch the entire Joe/Punk trilogy. Even though their second encounter is more celebrated, I think this was their best match together. Although Punk comes into this acting arrogantly, the fans are soon behind him after Joe cracks his skull open and he's still fighting his heart out. There's no time limit here, so Punk goes back to his headlock strategy once again. Joe knows this so he fires on all cylinders and busts out his biggest strikes, but Punk is able to hold his own against Joe. Punk gets some nail-bitingly close hope spots on Joe. After 2 and a half hours of total match time between these two, we finally have a winner. Seeing all the callback spots get satisfying pay-offs brought this one to the next level. 63. William Regal vs Cesaro (WWE NXT - 11/21/2013) (2020 GME Ranking: 46) If you're going to watch this match, make sure you watch Regal's pre-match promos. It sets the stage perfectly and it might be one of Regal's best. The matwork channels back to Regal's days working the WoS style of grappling. He throws in a kip-up to let us know that he's still got a lot of fuel left in his tank. After hitting the first strikes of the match, Cesaro is slouched in the corner and Regal illegally stomps on him whilst chatting to the referee. He's a babyface, but he's still the Villain! Both guys sell exceptionally well in this. Regal audibly screams as his knee is worked over, and Cesaro is always trying to shake off the damage that he's taken to his arm. The ending is WWE Epic Storytelling™ done right. 62. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW - 9/1/1990) (2020 GME Ranking: 47) For whatever reason, I was under the belief that this match pales in comparison to their June match. Thankfully that wasn't the case and this more than delivered. There's a lot of callbacks to their last match and the crowd is molten hot and they are dying for Misawa to shock Japan yet again. Tsurata puts in a wonderful performance. He's grumpy and pissed off, but you can see that he's starting to doubt himself. Misawa stuns the audience by kicking out of a Backdrop Driver, but how much more does he have left? 61. Adrian Street vs Jim Breaks (JP - 2/12/1972) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) After watching some Les Kellet matches to gently ease me into the World Of Sport style, this was the match that blew me away. Street's gay panic gimmick might not have aged well, but he's at least presented as a legitimate wrestler who just happens to be very flamboyant. I used to have an issue getting into WoS as I found that the round system stopped the action from flowing well, but I thought they made great use of it here. Breaks would constantly get close to locking on his finish, but the round would expire before he could fully lock it on and he'd have to break the hold. They built up the tension well, with things getting more aggressive and violent as the match went on and as they got more and more frustrated with each other. For those who find World Of Sport not gritty or violent enough for their tastes, I urge you to give this a watch. 60. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW - 10/19/1990) (2020 GME Ranking: 43) Taue and Kawada hate each other and start brawling whenever they are near each other. Kawada makes a point of throwing Taue out to the floor and slamming him in the crowd area, just because Taue did the exact same thing to him earlier in the match. This really shined when Kobashi is worked over by Tsuruta. Kobashi lands a lucky lariat on Tsuruta when Jumbo tries to save Taue, and now that Jumbo has got Kobashi in control, he's going to make him pay. Fuchi busts Kobashi's nose with a chair and Jumbo makes him eat some brutally stiff clotheslines. Kawada goes for the ace and the Korakuen explodes with joy. Both Kawada and Kobashi benefited greatly by being able to stand with the mighty Jumbo. This gives the 4/20/91 tag a run for its money and I think this might be another match that could jump ahead in my list if I give it a rewatch for next year's GME.

Bumping this with my 2021 GME list. Seeing as the rollout to the 2021 GME list has started, I'd figure I'd talk you through my update list. 100. Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson (AJPW - 7/24/1976) (2020 GME Ranking: 95) I had seen some much great wrestling during 2021 that this classic fell off my initial ballot. When I was putting together my final ballot together, I decided to sneak this one at the end of my ballot as I needed to show some love to cracking stuff that AJPW was putting out in the 1970s. Robinson reminded me a lot of Fit Finlay in this. He has all kinds of ways to both put on a hold and to escape one. At one point, he uses his own head to wretch on Baba's leg! Baba's no slouch in this either, he knows exactly when to throw a big boot or chop to enrage Robinson into making a mistake. The two out of three falls stipulation breaks up the action nicely and causes the match to fly by. 99. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW - 25/10/1995) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) Misawa and Kobashi were my two gateway wrestlers when I was getting into puro about a decade ago, and I was surprised to see that there was a big match between them that I hadn't seen before. It's fantastic stuff, even if it's not as good as their NOAH or their 1997 AJPW match. I wish I wrote a write-up about this one as I'm struggling to remember what happened during this, but I do remember loving it after I had seen it and its finishing stretch was insane and full of those glorious highspots that you can expect between these two. 98. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura (AJPW - 11/29/1989) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) This was a late addition to my list when I saw Elliott rave about it. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I sat down to watch a Baba and Kimura match from very late in their careers, but I was blown away by this. Baba still has a fantastic wrestling mind with impeccable timing. He sells his beating fantastically well. Every time the veterans would make a comeback, they would have me marking out as if I was in the arena. Jim Ross would describe this match as 'bowling shoe ugly' and he wouldn't be wrong. Sometimes wrestling is more than just flawless execution of highspots and this match is a great example of that. 97. Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA - 12/11/2005) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) The 'AJ Styles only became great when he went to NJPW' discourse can get right in the bin and this match shows that even a young AJ Styles was still one of the best ever to lace up a pair of boots. This was superior to the much more famous Unbreakable three-way as this was a lot more vicious and had a clear face/heel dynamic. Joe looked like a world-beater here and those stiff kicks were made to look even more deadly by AJ's selling of them. Styles found some pretty creative ways to gain an advantage over his much bigger opponent. The finish was great with Styles looking heroic in defeat. 96. The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar (WWE - 8/23/2015) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) I wish I had time to revisit their Hell In A Cell match from later on in the year as I remember loving that when I saw that at the time, but this was still a total bombfest. This felt as if Undertaker was embarrassed by the shambolic Wrestlemania match and decided to put in a career performance in the rematch. He's all killer, no filler here. The trash talk here was top-notch. The shady finish wasn't brilliant, but I can forgive them seeing as they were desperate to protect Brock's aura. 95. Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne (WWE NXT - 5/20/2017) (2020 GME Ranking: 51) I have a soft spot for this match as it happened during a time when I felt hopeful about the UK wrestling scene. Since then, the #SpeakingOut movement happened and WWE has sucked the UK scene dry of any talent, but I can still look back at this match fondly. Bate is a fantastic plucky underdog and Dunne is a vile prick heel. Dunne works on the hand of Bate and twists it in ways it should not be twisted. That slugfest. Dune's elbows. Bate's barrage of aerial attacks in the lead up to the finish. J.R. sounding like he's actually enjoying the wrestling he's watching. It's good shit. 94. Dump Matsumoto vs Chigusa Nagayo (Hair vs Hair - AJW - 8/28/1985) (2020 GME Ranking: 32) I was disappointed that their '86 match wasn't as great as I hoped, but this one still holds up. This was my first time seeing Nagayo and she came across as such a natural babyface. The way she weaves some flashy counters into this hot as hell fight so effortlessly tells me that I need to seek out more of her work. Dump Matsumoto may not be as stiff as say Aja Kong, but she ups the violence by cutting open Nagayo with a chain and a pair of scissors. Even the poor referee ends up getting stabbed when he tries to break things up! The post-match hair shaving was incredibly emotional and it left the door wide open for a future match down the line. 93. Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (JCP - 3/27/1988) (2020 GME Ranking: 34) When I sat down to watch the first-ever Clash, I wasn't expecting this match to go hard as it did. This might be one of the best ever US tag matches I've ever seen and it totally eclipses the already excellent Fantastics vs Midnights match from the same show. Lex Luger gets a lot of shit for not being as good as his contemporaries, but he looks good here. The audience goes apeshit for his shine segment and even buy into some of the early near falls. Windham and Anderson are such great sellers that they can even make those double knockdown spots look believable. This doesn't even go ten minutes, but it never felt rushed. 92. A-Kid vs Zack Sabre Jr. (WWW - 14/4/2018) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) This hidden gem got the full five-star treatment from Meltzer and part of me believes that this match is the reason that A-Kid got picked up by WWE. Sabre working with a smaller guy allows him to look believable as both a technical wizard and a total bully. The grappling is the kind I like. Although it's snug and worked like a chess match, what I like about it the most is that it's rife with story-telling. A-Kid can hang with Sabre, and this pisses Sabre right off. Tension flare up and soon they are slapping the taste right out of each other mouths. 91. Al Perez vs Invader I (Street Fight - WWC - 10/26/1986) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) The first of three matches from Puerto Rico to make my list. This is a street fight that actually lives up to its name! The visual of both guys going at it in jeans adds a lot to the overall presentation, as does the grotty-looking Puerto Rican arena. These guys didn't even enter the ring and the ring posts were only used to smash each other's skulls into. The brawling here was fantastic, with every punch having urgency and they even threw in some ball shots when they needed to. Perez tries to straight-up murder Invader by throwing him down a stairwell. The atmosphere was chaotic and you got the feeling that someone might legitimately die. 90. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS - 6/24/1999) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) 2021 is the year that shoot-style finally clicked with me and Tamura shot right into my top 10 favourite wrestlers list. This was more of the same as their last match, but they dial the hate up to 11 and they get some nuclear heat from the Korakuen Hall crowd. Tamura slaps Yamamoto hard during the opening handshake and it damn near felt like the roof was going to come off the building. Although he acts smug, I couldn't help but find myself rooting for Yamamoto during the final few minutes of the rough strike exchanges. Both men were down to their final point and the next knockdown would decide a winner. Super gripping stuff! 89. Ric Flair vs Ricky Morton (Cage - JCP - 7/5/1986) (2020 GME Ranking: 81) Morton is coming into this with a face mask. Flair removes the mask halfway through the match and does a cocky strut wearing the mask before tossing the mask over the cage, leaving Morton defenseless. Because of Morton's god-tier selling, every bit of damage done to Morton's face made you believe that Morton is going to get disfigured if Flair keeps his brutal assault going. If someone somehow had never seen a Ric Flair or Ricky Morton match before, this would be the match that I'd use to sell them on two of the best ever. We get the big entrance from Flair, we get Flair doing some comedy spots as Morton pants him trying to escape the cage and we also get Flair as the smug ass-kicker as he jabs away on Morton's damaged face. 88. Orange Cassidy vs PAC (AEW - 2/29/2020) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) Although I've always enjoyed Orange Cassidy, I would have never expected him to make his way onto a list like this. Thanks to Darrenn for bringing this match to my attention. Orange bumped like a madman for PAC. PAC plays this straight and brutalizes Cassidy. That turnbuckle spot was downright disgusting. Orange's ability to do some of the stuff he does with his hands still in his pockets is incredible. Orange rolls himself out of the ring so he can get into PAC's head. I love that PAC has to use this trick to save himself from being pinned. Cassidy gets in some amazing hope spots and puts on an all-time great underdog performance. This is so much more than a silly, comedy match. 87. Dick Togo vs Antonio Honda (DDT - 1/30/2011) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) I was quite disappointed to see that I was the only one who voted for this as I remember it getting a lot of buzz online after it aired. This match had everything. Good punches, blood, work-rate, and a healthy dose of limb work that actually pays off. I like that Togo had urgency in everything he did, as it made every submission that Honda would lock on feel like it could actually end the match. I had no idea who Antonio Honda was before I saw this match, but I became a fan of his as soon as he dropped his strap and started attacking Togo with a flurry of punches that would make Jerry Lawler blush. 86. Carlos Colon vs Stan Hansen (Cage - WWC - 3/14/1987) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) More Puerto Rico goodness! If you've seen any of the Colon vs Hansen matches before, you know what you are getting: a firey bloodbath with some of the craziest fans you will ever see! This is escape-only and it reminded me a lot of the Slaughter/Backlund cage match from 1981 in that they both feature an ass-kicking babyface and a cowardly heel who just wants to escape the cage. This even features double ball-shots, with Hansen cutting off Colon's shine with a well-placed low blow. I know that not everyone is a fan of the finish, but I thought it made for a hell of a spectacle. 85. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart (WWF - 3/20/1994) (2020 GME Ranking: 52) Just a technical masterclass with unbelievable work-rate built around possibly my favorite storyline ever. Both Hart brothers have to resort to old Stampede tricks to try and outsmart each other. Bret just wants to get this whole saga over quickly, he doesn't want to fight his brother and has a championship match later in the night, so he's always going for quick pins. Owen is at his best when he's playing the bitter little brother and this might be his best-ever performance. 84. AJ Styles vs Roman Reigns (WWE - 5/22/2016) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) This was an amazing showcase of the talents of both Reigns and Styles. Their styles compliment each other well, with Styles having to be resourceful to take control of his bigger opponent. We've seen countless weapons matches during the last twenty years, but they actually managed to make all the big spots feel organic and even the barricade spot looked good! The only thing I didn't like was the crowd brawling spot as there is no way to make that feel fresh after WWE whoring it out every few months. Styles bumped like crazy for that announce table spot. The Good Brothers and The Usos soon get involved, but it doesn't detract from the action. All the close calls were convincing, with even the die-hard Roman detractors buying into the false finishes. 83. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiroyuki Ito (U-Style - 8/18/2004) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) Tamura is the ace of the promotion and Ito is the scrappy underdog who puts in the fight of his life. This match is quite story-driven, with Ito getting the better of Tamura and scoring two rope breaks early on. The fans are shocked and start to think that Ito might actually have a fighting chance and Tamura sells his disappointment well and his disappointment soon turns to anger as he starts slapping the piss out of poor Ito's mouth. Probably the best match under the U-Style banner. 82. AJ Styles vs Bully Ray (Last Man Standing - TNA - 6/12/2011) (2020 GME Ranking: N/A) AJ shows that he can brawl as well as he can hit his high spots. He was also able to throw a big flashy spot such as an enziguri or a 450 splash in here without it looking a lick out of place. Bully Ray is completely believable as a despicable scumbag. It's refreshing to see a Last Man Standing that didn't rely on weapon spots to pop the crowd, even the big table bump came about organically. This was a hate-filled bloodbath with a big bump at the end that would make Shane McMahon blush. 81. Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (WWE - 3/28/2010) (2020 GME Ranking: 53) My opinion on their Wrestlemania 25 match has changed throughout time, but my opinion on this one has been pretty consistent. I totally get why some people don't like this. The acting is gloriously hammy and the action is fairly slow in places, with both men spending a lot of time recovering from their injuries, but this is still one of the best retirement matches ever. Even with HBK's GCSE drama-level acting, he can sell you the urgency of the big moments and have you eating out of his hand. 80. Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (PWG - 9/4/2009) (2020 GME Ranking: 45) The story of Hero wanting to concuss Danielson led to a generous serving of stiff elbows, and boy were they stiff. He controlled Danielson by laying him out with a nasty elbow whenever he tried to fight back. This really put the crowd behind Danielson and sent a nice amount of heat in Hero's direction. They did end up a tad overused, making them feel not as dangerous as they were during the earlier portions of the match. Still, Danielson being the fantastic babyface that he is, this didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things.

This is the first-ever match for Monster Ripper (aka the future Bertha Faye) and you could easily make the argument that this is the best debut match ever. This was a total war with an insane amount of heat. Ripper and Kumano look like two of the nastiest school bullies and Sato and Ueda are over like Hulk Hogan in 1985. This wasn't pretty, but I'd say that is part of this match's charm. This isn't sloppy in a 90s AJW way, it's sloppy because these girls fucking hate each other and they don't need their shit to look pretty. Everything reaches boiling point during the final fall. I love the double-team moves of Ripper and Kumano. Monster Ripper uses her Monster Ass to cause massive amounts of damage. ★★★★½

I love the rules of this match. This is an ironman match, but the first twenty minutes consisted of four single mini-matches that allowed each team the opportunity to score some victories without having to worry about members of the opposing team breaking things up. This is wrestled under the JWP banner, so the AJW crew acts like total assholes by breaking up pins and just being awful in general. I don't think I've seen a match that makes wrestling feel like a legitimate team sport more than this match.Dynamite Kansai might be the only member of the JWP team who can stand toe-to-toe with Aja Kong and Kyoko Inoue, but the rest of the members stand a fighting chance if they are able to work together. Speaking of Kansai, this match was at its peak whenever she and Kong were bringing the hate. Every near-fall had urgency and the final few seconds of this match which saw Ozaki trying to get a fall and win the match for her team made for some compelling viewing. I'm usually someone who's quite critical of joshi, but I thought this was marvelous! ★★★★¾

This was a decent enough work-rate sprint. Some of the big spots here were impressive, but they struggle to mean much as there is very little story here. Kyoko Inoue hits a big swing here that would make Cesaro blush and she impressed me here. It's clear she's the most powerful woman in the match and Cutie and Ozaki try to stop her from tagging back into the match. She eventually tags in and that's all the story-telling done with and this breaks down into a big spotfest. Like many of the other All Japan Women's matches of this era, this match felt like a mad rush with plenty of sloppy moments. You can have a lot of fun with this if you just turn your mind for twenty minutes and just be impressed by all the high spots. I just need that something extra in my wrestling. ★★★¼

This told the tale of the old guard brutalizing the cocky punk upstart and putting him in his place. I don't think I've seen a more vicious Finlay than the one we got here. He was a right bastard here and even basic things like his headlock takedowns felt gritty. Callihan makes the mistake of trying to rush Finlay straight away and Finlay quickly responds with a brutal forearm. Finlay doesn't take kindly to Callihan's attitude and brutalizes him with stiff forearms, stomps, and headbutts. I love Finlay being a grouchy old bastard who trash-talks Callihan and the fans who he views as being out of line. Sami shows a lot of fire whenever he would try and make a comeback and his missed dive to the outside was downright disgusting. They started to lose me during the end when Callihan was on equal footing with Finlay, but they wrapped this up nicely with Finlay having to bust out his old finish to put Callihan after his WWE finisher fails him. ★★★★¼

Bret Hart will face the champion at the next PPV and he's on guest commentary. Bulldog was having quite an impressive run since he turned heel, but expecting him to get a good match out of Diesel is a massive undertaking and he fails spectacularly. Bulldog always had the potential to be great if he's in there with the right opponent, but he wasn't known to carry people to good matches. After Diesel starts arguing with Bret, Bulldog chop blocks Diesel and starts a long control segment. Bulldog's beatdown on Diesel's knee is focused, but he bored me to tears. He locks on a Sharpshooter to mess with Bret, but his execution of the move was so sloppy that even Bret made a comment about how he couldn't put the hold on correctly. This is finally over when Bulldog takes things too far with Bret and they start brawling, giving Bulldog a DQ win over the champion. Diesel isn't pleased with this and ends up having a pull-apart with Bret, as the fans show their disapproval. Even the Sid/Diesel matches were better than this! What a depressing end to one of the worst PPVs that the WWF/E ever put on. ½★

This was meant to be Douglas versus HBK, but Michaels was injured by being beaten up outside a bar and is forced to forfeit his title to Douglas. Seeing Douglas doesn't have an opponent tonight, Ramon is doing double duty. This was a much poorer match than their In Your House 3 encounter, with an even weaker finish. This has a lazy performance from Razor. Perhaps because he was still tired from wrestling earlier on the show or if he saw how terrible this show was becoming and decided to phone it in and coast by on his charisma alone. He grabs an arm and works for a while as Dean tries to inject some personality into this bout by shouting his head off as Ramon tortures him. The horrible finish sees Ramon land a back suplex near the ropes. Douglas has his foot on the ropes, but the referee doesn't see this and counts the pin. Ramon becomes the first-ever man to hold the Intercontinental strap four times, but it's shame this milestone happened after such an underwhelming match. ★½

This feud started after LaFitte (the future PCO) stole Bret's jacket. It's a dumb way to start a feud and you could make the argument that Bret was misused throughout the majority of 1995, but this match is a hit! Bret starts the match by blindsiding LaFitte with a suicide dive so brutal that he nearly ends up breaking his own neck! These two bring the hate and trade snug strikes without the match breaking down into a straight-up brawl. LaFitte might be a big man, but he takes some insane bumps during the match. Not only does he end missing three big moves from the top rope, he also lands right on his arse after Bret dodges a somersault plancha to the outside. It's been over 25+ years since this match and PCO is still taking huge bumps like this, and that's truly insane! This match had big bumps and even bigger near-falls, don't sleep on this match! ★★★¾

Bulldog is replacing Owen, who has been missing since the show started. This is the first In Your House event to not feature Diesel in a singles match and it's also the first In Your House main event to not completely suck. Coincidence? I think not. There's an awkward moment where Bulldog struggles to get Diesel up for a suplex and I wondering if that was intentional sandbagging by Diesel or if it was just a botch. Michaels wrestles the majority of the match for his team and he's brilliant as always. I love the sumo stand-off that he and Yokozuna had and he ragdolls himself all over the place for Bulldog and Yoko. Yoko might be gaining an alarming amount of weight by this point, he's still able to throw himself around the place when he needs to. Like the Ramon/Douglas match from earlier on, this is yet another decent match hindered by its poor finish. Owen Hart makes an appearance during the final few moments and ends up eating a powerbomb from Diesel and taking the pin. This whole 'Owen Is Missing' storyline was just an excuse to give the fans a feel-good ending to the PPV as the titles would be awarded back to Owen & Yoko the next night on Raw as Owen wasn't technically in the match. ★★¾

Orange bumped like a madman for PAC. PAC plays this straight and brutalizes Cassidy. That turnbuckle spot was downright disgusting. Orange's ability to do some of the stuff he does with his hands still in his pockets is incredible. Orange rolls himself out of the ring so he can get into PAC's head. I love that PAC has to use this trick to save himself from being pinned. Cassidy gets in some amazing hope spots and puts on an all-time great underdog performance. This is so much more than a silly, comedy match. This is well worth watching, as is hearing Jim Cornette rant over this match. He hated it so much that he didn't even watch the rest of the show! ★★★★¾

I wouldn't quite say Bromwell is unlistenable, but most of the episodes featuring him as the host usually end up being filler ones that I can have on in the background. The one he did on Angle leaving the WWE was quite good. At least he doesn't have any of Conrad's worst tendencies. Ad Free Shows have been uploading some of their content to Youtube and I've had a fun time listening to Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling?. Hero comes off as the biggest wrestling nerd. It's nice to see guys who've been in the business for most of their life still being able to geek out about wrestling.

Despite being fans of both wrestlers, I haven't seen this match before. There are some awkward moments during the opening exchanges, but they are quick to tighten everything up and put on a corker of a match. Hakushi has a lot of interesting stuff in his arsenal, especially when you think how basic a lot of the wrestling was in 1995 WWF. He pulls out an Asai Moonsault, Muto Handspring Elbow, and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. After a missed springboard splash, Bret starts to make his comeback and looks like a total star while doing so. Shinja keeps interfering, so eventually, Bret has enough and launches himself to the outside to take him out. Bret has to wrestle twice tonight, but he ends up twisting his ankle when leaving the ring. Even though you could tell that Bret was steering the ship on this night, they really dropped the ball with Hakushi. ★★★½

I know Sid isn't a good worker, but small things like him staring out Vince with a psychotic look or the crazy trash talk makes me love him. Whoever booked this played it smart by only having this go 11 minutes. Any longer and I'm sure they would have stunk the building out. Diesel was attacked by Henry Godwin recently and injured his back, so Sid works on it. Sid slaps a long rest hold on Diesel, but at least tries to keep it interesting by fish hooking or gouging the eyes whenever the referee is distracted. Diesel being able to Jackknife Sid made for an impressive spot, but he's not able to win with it as Tatanka runs in and causes the DQ. This wasn't a good match, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. ★★

Jarrett goes full Memphis during the opening stalling. The fans eat up all these house show-style antics. Shawn does some heel tactics such as gouging the eyes, but Jarrett sells them in such a campy heel manner that it never felt like the babyface was being the bully. Although Shawn was great in this, Jarrett worked his arse off trying to get HBK over. Vince is creaming himself over Shawn on commentary. They go for twenty minutes and everything got a lot of time to breathe. Jarrett works on a lot of holds but keeps bending the rules to keep things fresh whenever they needed to take a breather during this high-energy match. Shawn's victory made for a feel-good ending and I love the finish of Roadie accidentally tripping up Jarrett. I don't think Jeff Jarrett ever had a match as good as this one again. ★★★★ ¼

Looking at the lumberjack gives us a rare chance to see some of the worst gimmicks that the New Generation had to offer. We've got Mantuar, Tekno Team 2000, and Man Mountain Rock. We also have Triple H making his debut PPV appearance as one of the heel lumberjacks. The match opens with the usual lumberjack spots. Each wrestler takes a tumble to the outside and they get mauled for a few seconds. The actual action inside the ring was even more basic than Sid and Diesel's last title match. It's just a whole lot of punching and kicking and not much else. Diesel is coming into this with an injured elbow, but Sid never works on it. The only entertaining thing Diesel did was take an insane dive over the top rope onto the heel lumberjacks. I wasn't expecting that from him! Mabel attacks Diesel on the outside, setting up their Summerslam snoozefest. Shawn takes a big dive from the top turnbuckle and clears out a lot of the lumberjacks. HBK is more over than Diesel at this point. Much like their first singles encounter, they were smart enough to keep this short. If they went out there and tried to wrestle a 20+ minute match, then I would definitely give this a much lower rating. ★½

Double J & Roadie injured Kid's neck, so Kid rushes Roadie as he is making his way to the ring. This was a good opener with a lot of energy. Kid hits a lot of cool kicks on Roadie before he cuts him off with a powerslam. Roadie is still clearly green as he looks lost when he's on top, but Kid does a good job carrying this. They cut to Double J in the back and he's not paying attention to the match as he's more preoccupied with his concert later on during the show, We get an incredible finish here, with Roadie landing a piledriver from the top rope! Although it's not quite on the level of Bret/Hakushi from the last In Your House, this is still an enjoyable opener that showed off what a workhorse 123 Kid was for the WWF in 1995. ★★★

Joe is on his ROH farewell tour and Morishima is making his debut for the company. My video starts with Joe trading words with Nigel McGuiness. Morishima rushes down to the ring when Joe is distracted and they jumpstart this one. The fans popped big for Morishima making his run to the ring. The few fans who weren't familiar with Morishima are soon won over by him. On top of him being an incredible brawler who can stand toe-to-toe with Joe, he's also deceivingly athletic. He does a friggin' cartwheel and pulls off a top rope missile dropkick with ease! As always, Joe's stuff looks incredible. So incredible that it causes Morishima's nose to get busted open hardway. Morishima kicks out of the Muscle Buster! The referee might have botched the count, but that was a huge rub for Morishima. Joe locks on his choke and it's not long until it's lights out for Morishima. This was a good debut for Morishima, but I felt that he should have won this one. ★★★¾

Although Punk comes into this acting arrogantly, the fans are soon behind him after Joe cracks his skull open and he's still fighting his heart out. There's no time limit here, so Punk goes back to his headlock strategy once again. Joe knows this so he fires on all cylinders and busts out his biggest strikes, but Punk is able to hold his own against Joe. Punk gets some nail-bitingly close hope spots on Joe. Joe locks in the sleeper and Punk appears to be out, so the referee calls for the bell. Ricky Steamboat, who is at ringside, stops the timekeeper from ringing the bell as he noticed that Punk's arm is still moving. This was a very creative spot. Punk still has a bit of fight left in him. Joe is so desperate that he goes for an illegal pin, which turns the ROH fans against him. That might have been my favourite part of this entire trilogy. Punk tries to claw his way to victory, but Joe lands a Dragon Suplex and goes back to the sleeper to finally wrap this rivalry up. After 2 and a half hours of total match time between these two, we finally have a winner. Seeing all the callback spots get satisfying pay-offs brought this one to the next level. I might be in the minority here, but I think this is the best match of the series. ★★★★¾

It's been over 16 years since this match has taken place and over 10 years since I've first heard of the legend of this encounter. Tonight was the first time that I watched it, despite being a massive fan of Punk, Joe, and ROH in general. Punk's strategy is the same as last time: keep Joe grounded and wear him out with a simple headlock. He's in Chicago, so he's also got the fans behind him this time (with the exception of the one asshole in the crowd who gets chewed out by Punk in hilarious fashion after loudly complaining about being bored). Joe tries to get Punk to break his cool by nailing him with big strikes, which eventually works. Joe controls Punk until he is able to land a desperation hurricanrana that sends Joe to the outside. Punk hits a flurry of big spots, but trying to attempt the hurricanrana again sees Punk get violently thrown into the barricade on the outside. Punk is able to fight back and get a number of convincing near falls by hitting some deep cuts from his arsenal. Five minutes is left on the clock and Punk is getting more frustrated. He attempts the Pepsi Plunge, but Joe keeps fighting out of it. I adored the final flurry of strikes, but I wasn't a fan of the finish. Punk should have hit the Plunge just as the time limit expired. Instead, we have a finish where Joe was about to win just as the time expired. The fans seemed annoyed by the finish. One thing that they did better here than their first match is that there are no spots in the match where it's obvious that they are taking a breather and the match was better structured overall. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't slightly underwhelmed by this given its legend, but it's still an absolute breeze of a match to sit through despite its mammoth length. ★★★★½

This was brilliant. All of Joe's ROH title defences have been done and dusted by the half-hour point, so Punk tries to wrestle this one smart by trying to keep Joe grounded with a headlock. This strategy works well from a kayfabe perspective and as a way to rile up all the smart fans by going back to rest holds! You can tell at times that they slowing the match down to catch some of their breath, such as the time when they each berate a Punk fan in the audience. At the 35 minute mark, you can tell that they are starting to run out of ideas. Things start to drag around this point. That is until Punk catches Joe in the sleeper and Joe has to fight to survive. Punk eats some downright disgusting kicks during this. This wasn't a perfect match, but they kept me engaged for 90% of the hour run-time and details like Punk not being to get a cover on Joe after the Pepsi Plunge and Joe not being able to hit either an Island Driver or a Muscle Buster gives us enough meat on the bone for them to go another sixty minutes again. ★★★★½

I still haven't seen Joe/Punk II yet. I'm going to change that this weekend, but do I need to see their first match to get the whole picture?

Man, any time you throw these four men in the ring together and you are going to get magic. We are just weeks before Kawada and Misawa have their iconic match and they really brought the hate to each other here. Misawa brushing off Kawada's trademark kicks are one of the many highlights to be found in this 40+ minute classic. Kobashi puts on a tremendous babyface performance here, and Taue looked like he was having the time of his life being a massive bully. This had so many ebbs and flows to it, and they never went overboard with the near-falls. It's a long watch with plenty of explosive moments, but this never felt excessive. A top 10 match of the 1990s, my only complaint is that their 6/9/1995 encounter is just a touch better. ★★★★★

Morton is coming into this with a face mask. Flair removes the mask halfway through the match and does a cocky strut wearing the mask before tossing the mask over the cage, leaving Morton defenseless. Because of Morton's god-tier selling, every bit of damage done to Morton's face made you believe that Morton is going to get disfigured if Flair keeps his brutal assault going. If someone somehow had never seen a Ric Flair or Ricky Morton match before, this would be the match that I'd use to sell them on two of the best ever. We get the big entrance from Flair, we get Flair doing some comedy spots as Morton pants him trying to escape the cage and we also get Flair as the smug ass-kicker as he jabs away on Morton's damaged face.★★★★¾

This was a mixed bag for me. I dug the small touch of Michaels showing up in his street clothes as it goes a long way to enhance the presentation. Jericho and Shawn had been feuding since the spring of 2008, but it reaches new heights when Jericho accidentally struck Shawn's wife during a confrontation at Summerslam. They brought the hate to each other. Lance Cade gets involved and tries to take out Shawn's already injured arm. Cade has HBK held down as Jericho is about to dive onto it from the top rope. In a brilliant transitional spot, Shawn pushes Cade back into the ropes, which in turn crotches Jericho on the top rope. Shawn then hits Jericho with a chair and he falls through the table set up on the outside. You could see that spot coming from a mile away. It's all Shawn from here on out. The referee stopping the match in an unsanctioned match felt like a dumb move, and I didn't care for HBK's over-acting during the go-home stretch. This match also needed blood (I don't count the few bits of hard-way color as blood) to really sell me on their hatred of each other. This didn't feel like your typical WWE weapons match, even if there's a lot of stuff that I didn't care for. All in all, this was a very unique match that's worth your time. ★★★½