All Time Favourite Feud, And Why?

[Sidebottom]

Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker in late 1997 / early 1998 was brilliant. Two mainstays for the best part of a decade who had never really touched, worked wonders together in the ring and produced some great build ups and angles and three brilliant PPV matches, with obviously the HITC match being head and shoulders above the rest. The two classics a decade later is the icing on the cake.

[Mr. Lacelle]

I always dug Austin/Steamboat, I don't think they ever had a bad match together. 94 Austin is one of my favourite wrestlers ever and you could see that Steamboat brought out the best in him. Someone made a comp set of their feud and I loved the heck out of it, just two awesome wrestlers putting on great matches each time out. I don't know of any two guys save Vader and Sting who never had a so so match between them.

[Dylan Waco]

Terry Funk and Ric Flair will always be my all time favorite for a litany of reasons, but Carlos Colon v. Stan Hansen just might be second. I listen to every Squared Circle Gazette show, and i would love for you guys to make time to watch that feud all of which is available on YouTube. The major angles surrounding it have been documented and when necessary translated on this board. I recognize you gents may not be able to get to it now, but if you want to see an all time great feud with wild crowds, great brawls, excellent gimmick matches and insane race baiting angles featuring the scummiest man alive Chicky Starr, this feud is for you.

[dawho5]

I second the vote for Hansen vs. Colon. Hansen jawing with the crowd in a baseball stadium is great. Especially if you give any credence to the stories wrestlers tell of how crazy Puerto Rican fans were.

[Johnny Sorrow]

"Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones and his Army. It's the first thing I saw the first time I ever watched the NWA/ Crockett on World Wide Wrestling and it was like the first time I saw the Dead live, it changed my world. So fucking awesome.

[soup23]

I know they had other matches Oj but those feel more like add ons and addendum. I sure they would have continued to feud but I'm not going to mark against a feud because the outside elements happening (Tenryu leaving) enriched it.

 

Misawa vs Kawada is a great feud and I feel like one of the biggest fans of the 5/1/98 match but there is a sense of " these guys again" when they enter the ring. Jumbo and tenryu didn't have the chance for that feeling to resonate.

[anarchistxx]

Samoa Joe vs CM Punk. Certainly not the best feud of all time or even close, especially considering it was barely even an actual feud given the dearth of angles and segments. Still, it was the first time I had felt actively involved as a fan in something which seemed massive, they were billing it as a Flair/Steamboat type thing. I loved the way it initially evolved naturally through circumstance and then built over the year into something massive. The hype for it was almost like a boxing match, with tons of promotion and a few good interviews and the 'real sports' type build where they focused on Punk's strategy.

 

The first time I can remember people referring to a modern match by the date. ROH at an absolute peak in terms of both hype and match quality.

 

Something like Kawada vs Misawa smokes it of course in terms of narrative, history, match quality and longevity, but I only ever watched that back on tapes and never felt connected to it in the same way. I wasn't desperately waiting for the DVD to see the conclusion.

[ohtani's jacket]

I know they had other matches Oj but those feel more like add ons and addendum. I sure they would have continued to feud but I'm not going to mark against a feud because the outside elements happening (Tenryu leaving) enriched it.

All right. I still think it's cheating though!

[anotherspammer]

A lot of good feuds highlighted in this thread. I also really enjoyed the Ogawa vs. Hashimoto feud, and it's one of the first feuds from Japan I really got into, as opposed to individual matches.

 

I've always loved Andy Kaufman vs. Lawler. I wasn't really a wrestling fan until I was 17 or so, but I was a huge Andy Kaufman fan and was always really interested in his wrestling stuff, even though I really didn't have much access or exposure to it outside of "I'm From Hollywood." Once DVDs made buying lots of old footage way more affordable, I got a comp of the feud and have watched it multiple times. Kaufman is perfect, as his Memphis/Lawler hate meshes with his eccentric reputation. I am pretty sure Kaufman didn't live in those houses, have hired help, etc. but it made perfect sense for a weirdo like him to waste his money just to taunt Lawler/Memphis with those things.

[Memphis Mark]

Well I cannot really pick just one. However one of my favorites is Dirty White Boy vs. Tracy Smothers. DWB was managed by the " King of the Hillbillies " Ron Wright . DWB and Wright rejected their Southern hertiage and moved to NYC . They became Yankees fans and moved into a penthouse overlooking Central Park.

 

" The Wild Eyed Southern Boy " Tracy Smothers was determined to take the Smoky Mountain belt from the DWB . After all DWB had rejected the South and sided with the North . All hell broke loose during the feud. DWB attacked Smothers on TV , handcuffed him to ropes and burned Smothers 's Confederate flag. During another contest wheel chair bound Ron Wright was possessed by Holy Spirit,. Thus allowing Wright to rise from his wheel chair lay Smothers's with a chain.

 

DWB and Smothers had their blowoff match at the Bluegrass Brawl . The SM title was on the line in a Tennessee Chain Match . The chain was handed down to the DWB by Wright . The chain was blessed by Wright before the match .

 

Smothers won the belt in the match to many considered to the best match in SMW history .

 

 

Another gem was the war between Buddy Rose and Roddy Piper. Both men were heels who had a falling out soon after Piper entered the Northwest . Piper defeated bth Sheepherders, Williams and Miller , in hair match.

 

Piper took Rose hair after going thur the Sheepherders. That when Rose wore the wig sewned in a mask of TV . No one could get the mask off . Rose got even by burning Piper's kilt on TV .Piper finally took off the wig/ mask gimmick after Rose's hair grew back. Rose won the loser leave town match . In reality Piper went to MACW , but it wasa great end to the feud.

[JaymeFuture]

Well, two weeks on, and the podcast is finally up and ready. I want to thank everybody for their contributions, we got to a fair few of them on the show and took your picks for your All Time Favourite Feud, and had a blast talking about some classic rivalries. Featuring talk on Austin Vs. Bret, Flair Vs. Funk, Lawler Vs. Kaufman, Rock Vs. Mankind, Hogan Vs. Andre, Savage Vs. Jake, Misawa Vs. Kawada, Sullivan Vs. Mulligan, Magnum Vs. Tully and many, many more. Check it out if you like, feedback is always appreciated.

 

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/fva95j/SCGRadio21-AllTimeFavouriteFeuds.mp3

[Karl]

Dusty v Flair/Horsemen would be my go to. Had everything I could ever want.

[flyonthewall2983]

Mick Foley/Randy Orton. Foley had become this icon of pop culture (which he still is to some degree today), becoming someone audiences could relate to on as deep if not deeper a level than Steve Austin. For a young but impressive punk like Orton to tear him down really drew me in at a time when nothing else was, and maybe a time when they were still willing to let heels become genuinely hated. I don't have a blow-by-blow memory of everything, but I still think it's one of if not the best post-NWO angles ever.

[thebrainfollower]

Hogan vs. the Heenan family. I actually fell off the Ottoman at age 7 when Andre came out with Heenan. Loved Savage-Roberts a few years after that. Austin-Bret is a favorite as well. Of the WCW I caught Savage-Flair in 96 but that ended up going nowhere really. Those are the ones I watched live which I am convinced is necessary for it to be on my all time favorites list.

[flyonthewall2983]

Flair and Savage in WCW was better in 95, when they did the angle with Angelo. I wasn't watching at the time, but that was a pretty new angle to take, attacking someone's elderly father. And I've said elsewhere that I thought their match at that year's Great American Bash was better than their WrestleMania one.

[chrislatimer]

Sabu vs Taz will always be my favorite ever feud. The story was so well done former partners who split. taz comes back from a broken neck, turns heel and wants to fight sabu . in a stroke of genius for a whole year they are the never even in the same ring together and then November to remember 96 it finally happened they finally were in the ring together for a confrontation and the ecw arena marked the fuck out like it rarely did ever.

 

Yeah the subsequent matches sucked but the story and the build was paul heyman booking at its ultimate best.

 

 

[WingedEagle]

A few that have meant a lot to me over the years:

 

1) Hogan vs. Savage -- I first saw wrestling around the time of the SNME angle with Elizabeth, the Hart Foundation and HTM that cemented Savage's face turn. I was hooked. This carried me through Mania 4 and into 5, by which point I remember scratching out Savage's face on the cover of an old WWF Magazine because I hated him. Being 8 was awesome.

 

2) Sting & Co. vs. Dangerous Alliance -- We got cable in late '91 which meant I could finally watch WCW and not just read about it in Apter mags. Combine that pent up excitement with the mystery box angle at the Clash, Sting making it back from the hospital and then Dustin & Steamer in that tag against the Enforcers? The next few months were pretty damn awesome.

 

3) Raven vs. Dreamer and Sabu vs. Taz -- my interest waned a bit during high school but catching ECW late one night on MSG and seeing all of this madness got me hooked. Still look back fondly on that era as it was addictive, episodic TV before the monday night wars made it big.

 

4) WCW vs. NWO / Sting vs. Hogan -- I started getting back into things a bit when Nitro debuted, but heel Hogan was not something I was about to miss. Having this week to week with Austin/McMahon when I was busy prepping for the SATs and such may not have been ideal, but it sure as hell was fun. It all came crashing down pretty quickly after Starrcade '97 before peaking for another night with Goldberg in July at the Dome, but I was eating this up during '96 and '97. Shit was FRESH.

 

5) Austin vs. Vince -- Bret/Austin was great, and Rock/Austin had the highest peak, but all these years later this is the one that feels at least as big, if not bigger than it did then. Just out of this world even if it didn't produce any classics in the ring like the others. Although you can argue that the Foley matches and eventually Rock series all sprang from this. Plus Summerslam '98 was the first PPV I ordered in forever as it felt like the first truly can't miss event for me during this period and it was right in the midst of this.

 

6) Misawa vs. Jumbo / Kawada -- totally different from the others as I didn't watch it in real time, but when I started getting Japanese tapes and then DVDs, this is what blew me away. Like nothing I had ever seen before. Watching the '94 Yearbook now and getting close to the 5/21/94 tag, which was the first big match I saw from this bunch and remains an all time favorite both for that reason and because of just how damn awesome it was.

 

Will think harder another time and see if I left out anything huge.

[Microstatistics]

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet but Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda for me and pretty easily at this point. All time classic matches, great singles matches, diversity in terms of how their matches are worked, variety in terms of roles (face/heel), hierarchy etc + tons of tremendous interactions in tags and multimans and longevity.

[Boss Rock]

Not sure if it's my absolute favorite, but I loved the Matt Hardy-MVP feud of 2007-2008. Maybe the last slow-burn midcard feud WWE has ever done. Lots of twists and turns with Hardy first chasing him in title matches, then needing to overcome ridiculous challenges like basketball, burger eating, and boxing (Evander Holyfield!), then joining together as a tag team, then MVP turning on him when he realized Matt was getting too close to the U.S. title. Matt costing him MITB at Mania and then finally beating for the title the following month was super satisfying.

[Boss Rock]

Some other favorites:

 

Bryan-the Authority: Never have been more invested in a feud than this one. The literal WWE machine trying to hold back Bryan made for excellent TV and had the most satisfying conclusion of any feud I've seen.

Misawa-Kobashi: Some incredible matches and an amazing multi-year story of Kobashi FINALLY besting him in a 1-on-1 match after years of falling oh so short.

Misawa-Kawada: Great matches and odyssey for Kawada even if he ultimately fails in the end.

Hansen-Kobashi: Another great multi-year story of Kobashi coming closer and closer every time to beating Hansen (Kobashi is one of if not the greatest underdog of all time).

Hansen-Colon: Tremendous brawls and violence. Hansen was great as the despicable heel and Colon was a terrific fired-up face.

Okada-Tanahashi: While I wouldn't go as far as some who say it's the best feud of the 21st century, had some great matches and was an awesome battle for supremacy.

Kamaitachi/Takahashi-Dragon Lee: Match for match might be the best feud I've seen, at least when it comes to the 21st century.

Flair-Steamboat: Classic series of matches.

Flair-Funk: All-time great brawls and showed Flair's range as a fired-up face. Funk was also terrific.

Tenryu-Hansen: Violence. Pure, unbridled violence.

Satanico-Dandy: Arguably the best lucha feud and best aspuestas match of all time.

[peachchaos]

Surprised Lawler-Funk hasn't been mentioned. I could probably watch the No DQ match every night. Criminal that we don't get a blow off, but the promos and the Empty Arena Match are enough and of course the heat lasted decades.

 

When people talk about Flair-Steamboat, I know they're referencing the 89 feud but the 70's stuff is a different beast in terms of heat. There's no 5 star match but the TV angles and arena clips give the picture of the ideal blood feud playing out.

 

Slaughter-Sheik is also up there.

[Boss Rock]

I do love the Lawler-Funk stuff. Funk calling Lawler a "lover of chickens" has to be one of my favorite promo lines ever.

[fxnj]

Not sure if it's my absolute favorite, but I loved the Matt Hardy-MVP feud of 2007-2008. Maybe the last slow-burn midcard feud WWE has ever done. Lots of twists and turns with Hardy first chasing him in title matches, then needing to overcome ridiculous challenges like basketball, burger eating, and boxing (Evander Holyfield!), then joining together as a tag team, then MVP turning on him when he realized Matt was getting too close to the U.S. title. Matt costing him MITB at Mania and then finally beating for the title the following month was super satisfying.

Great pick. That was the feud that made me a wrestling fan.

[joeg]

Foley vs HHH

Funks vs Abby and Sheik

Misawa vs Jumbo (and all of the little side feuds)

Misawa vs Kawada (and all of the little side feuds)

RVD vs Jerry Lynn

Raven vs Sandman

Raven vs Dreamer

Burning vs Sterness

M2k vs Crazy Max

Kaientai Dx vs Michinoku Pro

WAR vs FMW / Tenryu vs Onita

WAR vs NJPW

NJPW vs UWFi

[Microstatistics]

My favorite mini (and some full fledged) feuds, excluding many of the usual suspects.

 

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto

Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori

Marty Jones vs. Mark Rocco

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Jack Brisco

Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle

William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shinya Hashimoto

Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Nobuhiko Takada

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Eddie Guerrero (as Black Tiger II)

Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Tajiri

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu

Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker

Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai

Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith

El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger

Vader vs. Sting