Kadaveri

The only one of these I think is even close is Bret vs. Misawa. Bret's extremely talented and had a much lower quality of opponents to work with than Misawa, but Misawa's far superior output is just too much for him to compete with. AJ Styles is better than Shawn Michaels in every way. Far better on offence. More impressive high-flying. Doesn't do Shawn's goofy selling. AJ's been able to shine in a variety of settings and promotions including some very difficult ones like TNA, whereas Shawn got highly favourable booking almost all his career. Bryan had a tremendous presence and charisma about him that he was able to express in his wrestling to enhance everything he does. Benoit could never do that on that level and that always held him back.

Isn't her boyfriend/fiancee/whatever a makeup artist? Would explain why she's the only one who doesn't look like Heath Ledger. Her husband is Mikaze who is a costume designer, makes all her gear for her (and New Day and some others). Sasha's really into make-up and does hers herself.

Sasha Banks insisting on doing her own make-up is the smartest career move. What the hell did they do to Ronda's eyes.

This is a near perfectly laid out match. So many multi-man matches turn into clusterfucks as the format leans towards being more spot-heavy with all the extra components having to be in-sync with each other. This is about as close as I've ever seen four guys overcome those limitations, would only point out Shawn's moonsault and Cena's double diving leg-drop as the places where the timing was a little off (took a bit too long to set up). The action is relentless and has an incredibly hot finishing streak. It really helps that all these guys have flash finishers, so the RKOs, spears, FUs and superkicks can fly everywhere at the end without a moment's delay to set it up. They also overcome the usual limitation of four-ways by giving each guy a distinct character motivation that plays into the match. Orton's the youngest guy trying to prove himself and form alliances (as set up in the promo segments earlier in the show), but isn't that good at it. Edge is former tag partner in Rated RKO, and he's a piece of shit opportunist you can't trust for 1 second. See how he saves Randy from being piledrived on the table by Shawn so they can take him out, Orton gives Edge the thumbs up, only for Edge to take him out with the chair too. Ha. Cena's the reigning Ace and Shawn's the veteran desperately wanting one last title victory and is sure he can do it having beat Cena on Raw the past Monday. He's so focused on just beating Cena that he doesn't pay attention to the other guys in the match, leading to Shawn inadvertently handing Cena the win in that fantastic finish! Classic. Best Fatal Four Way match ever. ****1/2

Went and watched this one twice now to really take it in. This is an underrated WWE women's match from the period the audience were trained not to pay any attention. Mind you Jerry Lawler's really hyping these two as really good wrestlers even if he can't help himself fallinginto his usual antics. Melina's got some really good heel psychology, constantly finding ways to bend the rules to her advantage and has this almost permanently pissed off face about her like she doesn't want to be there. She fakes getting an eyelash in her eye to clock distracted Mickie out with a forearm, before using the ropes for leverage in a leg-locked double chickenwing (I think that's what it's called... looks cool and unique) until the referee pulls her off. I really like the transition to Mickie's comeback, she's in the splits and drags Melina leg across the ring so they're both in the splits facing each other exchanging strikes before Mickie basement dropkicks Melina down. Neckbreaker and crossbody from the top rope both get 2 counts for Mickie and the crowd is really into this now. Melina hits an eyerake on Mickie though and hits an inverted DDT for the dirty win. Match is only 9 minutes long, they do a good job of fitting in a lot stuff in that time without it feeling rushed. ***1/4

Well, Kane is still on the roster... Has anyone in history had more good matches with Kane than Daniel Bryan? Even that Smackdown casket match in 2015 was fun stuff.

The Hardys are mostly known as high-spot guys but here we have them working a fairly basic southern style tag match and it's really good. Cade/Murdoch wrestle like gritty old bastards which is a bit weird considering they're in their mid-20s here but they pull it off. Lots of cunning heelish tactics like cutting off the poetry in motion from the apron spoiling The Hardys signature spots. Jeff has a particularly strong performance here in the Face In Peril role and gets his revenge in the end when Murdoch's distracting the referee backfires. The Hardys 2007 run is definitely worth watching for the "Greatest WWE Tag Team" debate. ***1/2

I think you're undercutting how impressive Bryan was at getting over in WWE way above the level of his booking. Who else could become the most over guy in years from being put in a comedy tag team with Kane? Or the way how fans forced him into the Wrestlemania 30 main event because they just would not give up cheering him at every show as the top babyface despite him losing every significant match for 6 months? Even losing a feud to Bray Wyatt did nothing to hurt his momentum. Remember this was a guy who was supposed to just be an indie internet darling whose success wouldn't necessarily transfer to WWE. This is the reason why I have Bryan over AJ. As great as AJ is in every technical aspect of pro-wrestling (he'd still be high on my list) he's never got such a deep connection with the crowd that Bryan did, both on the indies AND in WWE. There's some intangible greatest about Bryan that's hard to pin down but can't be denied. Watch the Summerslam 2013 match with Cena or against HHH at WM30 for how the crowd is responding to Bryan. They all seem absolutely desperate to see him win that match and cheer for him with all their hearts as if the outcome was being decided right there in the ring and the more they cheer the more they can inspire him to victory.

Mustafa Ali has firmly established himself as the best guy in the tournament with this match. Another spirited babyface performance from him that makes this match so much better than the emotionally cold Cedric vs. Roddy match last week. Several spots here look really brutal just from the way Drew looks so vicious and angry with his facial expressions slamming Ali into the post etc... A one point in the match Mustafa loses his temper with Drew and hoists him up onto the announce table to hit him with something, only for Drew to counter and back body drop him straight to the floor. A lesson learned about letting your anger get the better of you. Great stuff. ****1/4

Yeah it's got a lot of positive attention since Triple H took over the show.

From what I've watched of 2004-06 WWE no woman had more good matches than Trish. Always looked like a solid worker both in terms of offense and selling and she had a very good habit of getting crowds into matches quickly that they seemed utterly disinterested in at the start. Considering the calibre of most of her opponents and the restrictions she was working under (had 1 match longer than 10 minutes in her entire career and very few even reached 5) it seems harsh to expect her output to be much better. Nobody else came close to having as good a match with Lita as she did on Raw 12/06/04 in 7 minutes.

The rule that you have to put both team members through a table consecutively is what makes this match work where most table matches don't. It's difficult to create drama in a "one fall" table match when they naturally end so abruptly. This format allows for switches in momentum to feel more important as whoever went through a table last is the team in peril. ****

This match doesn't get anywhere near as much attention as the Unforgiven match a few weeks before but I think it's almost as good. My takeaway from watching these is Edge deserves credit for being a 'gimmick match specialist'. He's not a very good wrestler otherwise, but he has loads of good performances in cage/ladder matches it seems unfair to dismiss it as mere smoke and mirrors. Dude just suits the more chaotic environment. Cena is working with an injured arm, which Edge immediately attacks right at the start with nastiness. Cena's selling is good. I've said this for other matches but I appreciate how Cena can sell a limb injury but doesn't take it to excessive levels where he acts like it's totally disabled when nothing's that bad's happened to warrant that. It's escape rules so Edge is mostly trying to escape the cage rather than beat Cena outright. There's a great spot where Cena catches Edge trying to climb out with one arm and bulldogs him off the top. My favourite part of the match is when Edge is almost over the top of the cage but Cena is pulling him down fighting with all his might. Crowd is popping for every bit of the struggle until Cena manages to pull Edge back into the cage. Lita and Lance + Murdoch now interfering all over the place to help Edge win but DX run out for the save. Lovely bit of choreography when Shawn Michaels superkicks Murdoch into the cage door which hits Edge in the head just as he was about to escape. Ha! Cena hits Edge with the FU and gets the win. Crowd is almost 100% pro-Cena here and loudly cheers this whole climax. ****1/4

The WON Awards are out, and the voters seem more of an isolated subset than ever. Like Raw got voted 'Worst TV Show'. Seriously.

Really exciting heated match from start to finish. I'm not sure whether it was even intended but that spot where Lita hits a DDT on no one because Trish grabbed hold of the ropes was really unique and looked so cool. **** Their best match.

Natalya/Corbin haven't been main event heels for the last 18 months.

Really agree this match is underrated having just watched it. This is one of the most brutal WWE matches I've ever seen, not just in terms of what they do to each other but how vicious and hate-filled everything feels. It's uncomfortable to watch but I appreciate that's the tone they were going for, the announcers are pushing the angle that this has gone too far talking about how Flair seems to totally snap at the end. The match is a story of how destructive hatred can be, nobody came out of it a hero. ****1/4

Raw's ratings increased in absolute numbers two years in a row after Cena joined Raw and live attendance average went up 50% by 2007 from the 2002-05 era. Roman Reigns hasn't had a huge positive impact on business like Cena did, or even any noticeable positive effect at all. He's been solidly "good enough".

this is not right Minami toyota has 2nd most ***** matches of all time and she is female as much as she us disliked around here That doesn't contradict my point at all. Manami Toyota matches are exactly of the "had more 'stuff' in it, faster-paced with more big moves and kickouts at 2 etc..." style that Meltzer loves, so of course he throws all the stars at her.

It doesn't surprise me that Meltzer would like the men's match better. It had more 'stuff' in it, faster-paced with more big moves and kickouts at 2 etc... That's what he likes. He's just not very good at imagining that some people have different opinions on what constitutes "good wrestling" so he thinks people must be over-rating other matches because it's women or something.

No it was only based on the votes. The Cagematch rating is only given as a note of interest.

I thought this match was a potential classic for the most part. The arm work in the opening segment is interesting, violent looking and makes Taker seem like he has a strategy to win the match by taking away Angle's ability to lift. It pretty drastically goes downhill towards the end when Undertaker goes to the top rope so Angle can do his belly to belly off the top rope spot, when Taker never went for a top rope move outside this match. That Get My Shit In stuff that really takes away from a match more than enhances it. ****

Thanks Jimmy. How did you find out they were given fifteen minutes?

Triple Threat match for the WWE Title. My biggest gripe about this match has to be that it's supposed to be babyface John Cena defending against two heels, but only Edge is seriously trying to get heel heat here. It doesn't spoil the match but it does get aggravating. They work the triple threat formula quite well with Edge staying out of the action at the start, just getting involved to break up a pin attempt, at which point Cena and HHH decide best to beat him up first before HHH attacks Cena from behind. Cool spot where Cena gets both HHH and Edge up for an FU at the same time which gets the crowd to their feet even if it gets blocked. HHH does a ridiculous blade job from being rammed into the post by Edge. Not quite an Eddie '04 but 75% of the way there. He gets DDTed onto the table and that's him taken out for Cena and Edge to fight it out. There's another cool spot where Triple H gets back involved. Cena has Edge up on the top rope for a super-FU but HHH jumps in and throws them both down. A Tower of Doom spot that didn't seem contrived is a worthwhile achievement. It is a bit silly that Cena has Triple H in the STFU who is covered in blood mounting this heroic fightback like Austin in the Sharpshooter. But this all leads to a good finish where Cena actually outwrestles HHH and beats him with a roll-up counter. This feels more decisive in the context where Triple H was constantly pushing himself as a superior "wrestler" to Cena. ***3/4 Very good main event with some innovative stuff and good drama. I'm gonna disregard the post-match where a bloody Triple H kills everyone with a sledgehammer and stands tall roaring to close the show. Oh Hunter.

Just been watching through the 2006 stuff and didn't know about this match until now. They only get 4 minutes but really make the most of the time they've got. Makes me regret these two never had a chance to have a match longer than 9 minutes, they're clearly quite good and have chemistry, but every match I've seen so far feels more like a good prelude to a big blowoff which never happened. This is a decent brawl. It's impressive how quickly they get a tepid crowd into it, I'm talking 1 minute here. Trish is in control in the beginning of the match throwing nice forearms, a matrix escape into a hurricanrana spot and an Austin-style Lou Thesz press off the apron to the floor followed up with punches. Mickie works that she's afraid and spends the whole time cowering until she manages to throw Trish off the corner down to the floor (quite a big bump) and takes control of the match targetting Trish's hurt arm. Then Mickie chokes Trish, doesn't answer to the 5 count and gets disqualified and the match is over already! Damn man. **3/4 I think is a fair rating, but you know this would probably have been a really good match if it wasn't cut so short.