2012 Match of The Year Thread

[Dylan Waco]

I don't necessarily want this to end up like Dean's thread at the DVDVR where almost every post is a youtube link, but with the Okada v. Naito talk in the other thread, Negro v. Casas and the awesome Santo/Villano v. Blanco/Solitaro tag hitting the web this week, and fun novelties like Tajiri v. Finlay and the soon to be Vader v. Necro, I figured this would be a good catch all for discussion on the subject as the year unwinds.

 

As of today my top ten would be:

 

1. Brock Lesnar v. John Cena - WWE Extreme Rules 4/29

2. Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV, TXT 2/25

3. Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, CMLL 3/2

4. Sheamus v. Daniel Bryan - WWE Extreme Rules 4/29

5. Daniel Bryan v. CM Punk - WWE Over The Limit 5/20

6.Fit Finlay v. Sami Callihan WXW 3/2

7. Sami Calihan v. Finlay - EVOLVE 4/13

8. Tajiri vs. Finlay, Smash 2/19

9. Black Terry vs. Chico Che, IWRG 1/29

10. Negro Casas vs. La Sombra, 2/20

 

Dropped out of the top ten on 3/15: Vordell Walker vs. 2 Cold Scorpio, PWE 1/28

Dropped out of the top ten on 3/31: Daniel Bryan vs Punk RAW 1/30

Dropped out of the top ten 4/2: Fuego/Valiente vs. Arkángel de la Muerte/Virus, CMLL 2/21

Dropped out of the top ten 4/3: Dolph Ziggler v. CM Punk 2/3 Falls Raw (house show) 3/25/11

Dropped out of the top ten 4/4: Derrick King/Frankie Tucker/Jerry Lawler v. Pokerface/LA Hustlers - MCW 3/2/12

Dropped out of the top ten 4/13: Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, CMLL 1/27

Dropped out of the top ten 4/17: El Hijo Del Santo/ Villano IV vs EL Hijo Del Solitario/ Angel Blanco Jr - TODO X EL TODO- 3/23/2012

Dropped out of the top ten 4/30: Chico Che vs. Black Terry, IWRG 1/22

Dropped out of the top ten 4/30: El Hijo Del Santo v. Angel Blanco v. El Hijo Del Solitario Todo X El Todo3/31 (Mask v. Mask)

Dropped out of the top ten 5/22: Mark Henry v. CM Punk - Raw 4/2

 

 

Not a good year so far for the WWE. Honorable mention to the two Show v. Bryan matches from SD, the second Punk v. Bryan match and the Smackdown battle royal which I really did love.

[FLIK]

Haven't seen enough to do a good 10 but I feel pretty confident in these as my top 5

 

3/4/2012 Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito

1/15/2012 Blue Panther, Atlantis & Solar vs Ultimo Guerrero, Felino & Negro Navarro

2/25/2012 Hijo del Santo & Villano IV vs Angel Blanco Jr. & Hijo del Solitario

1/8/2012 Nanae Takahashi, Meiko Satomura & Emi Sakura vs Ayumi Kurihara, Yoshiko & Tsukasa Fujimoto

2/23/2012 Fit Finlay vs Mal Sanders

 

Waiting for the pro shot Panther/Casas hair match to pop up to watch it, the Jan match & the 2 IWRG Chico Che matches are on my to watch list as well.

[Dylan Waco]

I liked Finlay v. Sanders on first watch but didn't feel like it was a great match.

 

Still need to watch that Jan. trios. I'll put that on the dock for tomorrow.

[Jingus]

and the soon to be Vader v. Necro

What? Where? When? HOW?

 

...I must remind myself that nowadays Vader is a slow, old, morbidly obese fellow who only seems to wrestle when he's tagging with his son (and he usually lets the kid do most of the work), so I must not get my hopes up. But still. BIG VAN VADER versus THE NECRO BUTCHER. Holy fucking shit. What wondrous times we live in.

[Dylan Waco]

In Toronto for WrestleReunion.

 

Also Vader has looked good in every one of his comeback matches. I will expect he and Necro will have a sub-ten minute brawl that will effectively be a recreation of Vader v. Foley matches. I also would be shocked if it was less than good.

[soup23]

Here is my top ten having not seen Panther/Casas or Tajiri/Finlay yet.

 

1. El Hijo del Santo y Villano IV vs El Hijo del Solitario y Ángel Blanco Jr. 2/25 Todo X Todo

2. Chico Che vs. Black Terry 1/29 IWRG

3. Blue Panther vs. negro Casas 1/27 CMLL

4. VIRUS/ ARKANGEL DE LA MUERTE vs FUEGO/ VALIENTE CMLL 2/21

5. Negro Casas vs. La Sombra 2/22 CMLL

6. Chico Che vs. black Terry 1/22 IWRG

7. Okada vs. Naito 3/2 New Japan

8. Bryan vs. Big Show 1/13 Smackdown

9. Seikmoto/Okabayashi vs. Akebono/hama 1/3 All Japan

10. Smackdown Elimination Chamber 2/19 Elimination Chamber

[KB8]

Watched the Terry/Che caballeras and re-watched the lead in mano a mano. First match is fucking great; total bloodbath. There's a close up of them lying in amongst a stack of chairs after a Che tope where they're headbutting each other. It ruled. Also get close ups of bloodstains on the mat. They seriously fucking BLEED. Couple bits with the ref' annoyed me, but they were brief. Wasn't feeling Che in control much this time, either. He does a lot of preening and posturing, but it wasn't as good preening and posturing as the preening and posturing in the hair match. Terry's comeback was tremendous and kicked the match into another gear completely. The rope running spot was pretty jarring the first time I saw it. It wasn't jarring this time, but it still felt a bit out of place. Hair match is awesome and I liked it even better than the lead-in. Che was better here and Terry was who he always is. Not as much sickening blood loss, but still plenty enough to keep the vampire in us happy. Terry hurling a chair at Che's second after he'd been interfering in the first two falls was the best spot for the year. The schmozz overbooking towards the end is what it is, but I didn't hate it for the fact it led to Alan Extreme hitting a fucking CRUSHING tope on Che's second. If there were children or the elderly sitting in the first 6 rows they ALL would've been slaughtered. Actually THAT is the best spot of the year. Also more HEADBUTTS. Hair match might be my MOTY right now.

 

 

Might try and put a list together at some point. Then again, I say that every year and fail miserably.

[Dylan Waco]

Casas v. Panther pro-shot is up and it really makes me have to think about my top match which I had thought was pretty solid. First and Second falls are complete and a lot more intense on this shot. Plus it has the post-match with Casas douchebaggery turned up to 11

[FLIK]

Just finished Panther/Casas Hair match, thought it could have used another 3 or 4 mins at the end as they were just starting to really pick things up but otherwise great stuff. I'd have it maybe #4 on my list now

[Dylan Waco]

Just edited my top ten to include a super fun "high stakes" six-man tag with Lawler and friends v. local hooligans. I doubt anyone will enjoy it as much as me, but I thought it really came across as a big deal and the work was really well done

[FLIK]

8. Derrick King/Frankie Tucker/Jerry Lawler v. Pokerface/LA Hustlers - MCW 3/2/12

Please please PLEASE tell me that's POKERFACE of Velocity fame.

[ohtani's jacket]

I thought the Santo tag was significantly better than Casas/Panther. I actually liked the Chico Che/Terry hair match better than Casas/Panther.

[Dylan Waco]

I thought the Santo tag was significantly better than Casas/Panther. I actually liked the Chico Che/Terry hair match better than Casas/Panther.

I'm going to watch all of the top lucha matches back-to-back when my time opens up in May. On initial watch the Santo tag jumped out at me more than any other match.

[Dylan Waco]

Edited in a new match at number nine. It's up on youtube and is the sort of match that makes WWE house shows so entertaining

[Dylan Waco]

I added Mark Henry v. CM Punk from tonight's (the night after Mania) Raw.

 

Really this was a fucking great tv match. Easily the best Raw match since Cena v. Rey, and honestly on first watch I thought this was the better bout even with the problem of a commercial that missed most of a Punk hope spot sequence. Both guys were really good in this. Punk actually sold the damage from Jericho's attack on his back and ribs last night better here than he did in their match. Henry was his awesome shit talking self and was really working some stiff shots in this. There were a couple of cut off spots in here that were absolutely sickening. Lots of good teases as it kept building and every time you thought the comeback was there it wasn't. Henry even gave us a nice belly flop bump. Henry's selling in this match was infuckingcredible as he was given Punk's shots enough to look like they had him on the ropes, but not enough to make him look like less than a monster. Punk working a Tajiri like flurry to bring him down with a high kick ruled. I also loved the stiffness of the Punk high knees and this is an instance where I thought the count out finish was brilliant as it re-established Henry as an ass kicker, but without totally killing Punk. Post-match stuff was great too. Awesome match.

[Jingus]

Punk actually sold the damage from Jericho's attack on his back and ribs last night better here than he did in their match.

Considering that painful looking suplex-to-the-floor he took flat on his back last night, I wonder how much of that was Punk selling and how much was "motherfuckin' ow, that's still tender..."

[Matt D]

Punk actually sold the damage from Jericho's attack on his back and ribs last night better here than he did in their match.

Considering that painful looking suplex-to-the-floor he took flat on his back last night, I wonder how much of that was Punk selling and how much was "motherfuckin' ow, that's still tender..."

 

He was selling. And it's all because we were bitching about the match so much on the board. Obviously. We made him do it through sheer force of will. I was into Punk-Jericho and that still annoyed me.

 

As for the note above me, I think there's been a decent amount written lately about universal traits, but if you just see things like psychology and pacing as buzzwords, then that's the problem right there. They're not, not if you back them up and explain HOW the psychology was good and what worked with the pacing and what didn't.

[Wahoos Leg]

I thought Punk-Henry was probably the best TV match I've seen this year, but I liked Taker-HHH and Punk-Jericho from WrestleMania better than both of them. Though I'll admit Taker-HHH was more about story than any actual wrestling.

[Ricky Jackson]

At least now I can say I've seen one of the matches on Dylan's list.

[El-P]

At least now I can say I've seen one of the matches on Dylan's list.

Ditto. A WWE one no less. And enjoying it to boot.

[FLIK]

I really wish people would use this thread to talk about their own MOTY picks as well, but that ship may have sailed.

Backlash like this always comes with the territory when you're doing any type of ratings/rankings.

 

I was thinking about this the other day and yeah, usually if someone makes a comment along the lines of some variat of "I enjoyed this match a whole fuckin lot" most ppl's response is usually "cool" and then they move on but so help you god if you drop five snow flakes on it or make a X > Y statement like "this is the 3rd best match of the year and there's been very few better in the last decade" it'll usually degenerate into a 3 page sub topic like we've got here

[Exposer]

I loved Punk-Henry. I find the argument that 95-98 RAW and Nitro had a lot better stuff to be odd. I watched a ton of that stuff for the SC polls and I can't really think of any matches from that period that were clearly better.

[Tim Evans]

I really liked Punk/Henry but i think I liked Hunico vs Tyson Kidd on Superstars better. Aj/James Storm might be better too.

[Dylan Waco]

I liked Hunico/Kidd. Good match.

 

Since more than one person has talked it up I should probably watch AJ v.Storm

[Loss]

Split off all the talk about standards into its own thread.

 

Let's keep this thread limited to just 2012 MOTY pimping. If you want to go more broad in scope, please post in the other thread, or start your own to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.