Edwin

Steve Austin, Hawk, Animal, Goldust & Ken Shamrock vs. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Brian Pillman & Jim Neidhart (WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede - 7/6/1997) A friend of mine rewatched on this on the WWE Network yesterday and was reminding me of how great this was and man 19 years later and this match is still great. Hot Canadian crowd with a big fight feel. Everyone player their parts perfectly in this. Austin however was the standout. Everything from his entrance where he gets booed and he flips off the crowd, until he gets escorted by the security and he still doesn't care and still proceeds to flip them off. Add in blood to this match and it would've been pretty much something booked out of 1980's WWC from Puerto Rico. The tree of woe beatdown by the Harts was great and got a huge pop from the fans. Owen and Austin no selling the previous knee injuries were the only minor irks to this and Shamrock seemed lost in there at times and made for some awkward instances, but aside from that, this was great. Replacing Shamrock with virtually anyone in this match would've made it so much better. I would've personally had replaced Shamrock with Mankind even if it didn't make as much sense storyline wise although I don't exactly remember all of the storylines from back then.

I partially agree with this, but there's other guys who've never been portrayed as shooters and they pull this off really well. DBryan is one of the best I've seen incorporating real grappling skills into the wrestling world. The Gracies for example did horribly the couple of times I saw them in New Japan. Back to Lucha Underground, Jim Cornette seemed to be overly critical of it:

Just watched AJ vs. Nakamura and it was very, very good. I liked Styles faking he re-injured his back and attacking Nakamura from behind, plus I like how they constantly built on Nakamura going after Styles' previous back injury. Glad this wasn't such an over the top trading finisher/bomb fest as it seems to be the normal thing in a lot of big singles matches from Japan. Other things I really dug were Nakamura's Bomaye's. Also AJ's running knee spot and springboard elbow are neat spots he usually pulls off. Flashy, yet effective and he really gets them in. Nakamura transitioning from the armbar to the triangle armbar and AJ countering with a single-leg Styles Clash was a clever reversal which I'm sure I've seen him pull off in others matches I'm forgetting. The throwback to the Nakamura/Takayama Tokyo Dome match from 10-11 years ago where Nakamura bum rushes into a vicious knee to the jaw was awesome. That's a spot that I've seen Nakamura take several times since then in big Tokyo Dome matches and he really just dives into his opponents knee and it looks brutal. The only flaws I can bring up against this is why is AJ going for Torture Rack Bombs after he came back from a back injury which Nakamura had also attacked previously and the striking exchange one-upmanship that is be expected as it's a concurring trend there, however they were really leading those elbows in, specially Styles who you could really hear his elbows landing on Nakamura's jaw. Other than that, this was excellent overall and my current MOTY.

You're not interested in Shibata vs. Ishii? I haven't followed New Japan regularly in years, but on paper this match seems like it can be excellent.

I hope they fill in the gaps for 1993. It sucks because I'm watching the TV shows from 93, but got cut off before and after Novermber to Remember and November to Remember from that year isn't on there. 1993 ECW was nuts. I had seen some stuff here and there previously, but never had the chance to follow them as closely during those times. Anyway... There's one TV episode with Don Muraco, Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Snuke vs. Terry Funk, JT Smith and Abdullah the Butcher which is a match straight out of a WAR semi main event from Sumo Hall.

That is going to be amazing.

After the Rock's endless segment from last night, I think would could possibly get New Day vs. the Usos and the Rock.

This list from around this time period pretty much until about 2006/2007. Except I'd replace WWE with New Japan, DDT and Toryumon -- Dragon Gate plus misc. CMLL, AAA and MMA. Then I just felt out of love with wrestling and just focused on MMA and am now watching wrestling regularly again, but just WWE.

So yeah, that went just as expected. Well, at least the expected winner.

Glad they went back to the ring...

I marked out big time for AJ. And lol @ the Kane being the greatest performer in Royal Rumble match history line from Michael Cole.

I thought we'd get Charlotte & Sasha vs. Becky & Bayley, but Sasha putting the beating on Charlotte ended that.

That match wasn't good either. Becky's rolling armbar from the top looked very weak. Charlotte didn't help it look good either. The Rampage vs. Arona triangle into powerbomb spot looked weak too. Plus Charlotte hitting Flair was really awkward. Sasha attacking both was better than the entire match. I guess Charlotte vs. Sasha or a 3 way match for WrestleMania.

No love for the LMS match or Big E's performance in the tag title match?

I thought it wasn't that good. I'll give it to them, they did do an excellent job making up for the botched Infrared/Yoshi Tonic/Whatever it's called. The result came out of nowhere specially after del Rio kicked out of the first Salida del Sol.

Agreed on both accounts. I also agree with Big E being the highlight and his should block through the ropes being awesome. I liked the finish too.

That match was very good. I really dug KO rolling out of the ring to get on his feet to break up the count. Something very simple, yet very creative and original. The finish was somewhat predictable. Once the tables got stacked up early in the match, you knew a spot there was going to conclude the match and once KO climbed up to the top, you knew Ambrose was going to get that spot, but it didn't really drag down the quality of that match one bit.

She's milked more than that... Amirite?

I also dislike Ian, but it has nothing to do with him being out of shape or unathletic. I've seen a ton of his matches, but I honestly don't get the appeal. A guy I really dislike is Tommy Dreamer. Sure he fit his roll perfectly in ECW and all, but he just never appealed to me. His matches were pretty meh and very repetitive. His post ECW stuff was even more unappealing to me than his ECW stuff. I can honestly say this is something I felt with a ton of ECW guys like Sandman, Balls Mahoney, etc. Guys I felt were very limited, but based mostly around the characters Paul E. created for them. I guess you can highly credit Heyman for making something out of a bunch of very limited guys. I completely understand why they were appealing to the Philly crowd and why they got over, but they were just never appealing to me and it has nothing to do with disliking garbage wrestling as I'm a big fan of FMW, IWA Japan, BJW, etc. but I honestly prefer watching someone like Onita or Hayabusa than Dreamer or Sandman.

This is the correct answer. I remember years ago Rob Naylor making a HL of them squashing jobbers mostly that was epic. Sucks I haven't seen that online in years. The other obvious picks: Demolition and the Road Warriors who were great in squash matches too.

That 8 man tag was the most thrown out thing ever. Ambrose and Kalisto as a tag team isn't particualrly something I would've ever thought would happen ever either.

That was a pretty cool match.

Stephanie said maybe someone the WWE Universe hasn't seen could win the Royal Rumble... Is that a sign that maybe AJ Styles makes his debut in the Royal Rumble match as it's been rumored or is this something that's already been reported is not occurring? Sure if he debuted he won't win it, but maybe he does make his debut during that match.

Soccer has been booming a lot in the US and is only going to continue grow specially in the last 4 or 5 years. The MLS is just continuously growing stateside with things like David Beckham starting a new franchise in Miami and more American TV channels picking up foreign EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A matches. I don't think it's farfetched that it could be the second biggest sport in the US within the next 10 years. This reminds me of that one time when Dana White said that the UFC was as big as the NFL and that it was almost as big as soccer...