Wrestlers with largest timespan between 2 great matches

[Jetlag]

Who has a claim to have had great matches in 2 years the furthest apart?

 

Examples

 

Terry Funk -- 35 years

vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (1976)

vs. Jerry Lawler (2011)

 

Johnny Saint -- 35 years

vs. Jim Breaks (1973)

vs. Mike Quackenbush (2008)

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara -- 33 years

vs. Super Tiger (1984)

vs. Shinya Aoki (2017)

 

Jerry Lawler -- 30 years

vs. Terry Funk (1981)

vs. The Miz (2011)

 

Negro Casas -- 29 years

vs. Fuerza Guerrera (1986)

vs. Dragon Lee (2015)

 

Antonio Inoki -- 27 years

vs. Chris Markoff (1969)

vs. Vader (1996)

 

Hijo del Santo -- 26 years

vs. Espanto Jr. (1986)

w Villano IV vs. Hijo del Solitario & Angel Blanco Jr (2012)

 

Verne Gagne -- 24 years

vs. Billy Goelz (1950)

vs. Billy Robinson (1974)

[Boss Rock]

Jushin Liger-26 years

vs. Naoki Sano (1990)

vs. KUSHIDA (2016)

[Boss Rock]

Terry Funk is probably the winner though.

[Richeyedwards]

Giant Baba - 29 years

vs Bruno in 1967

w/ Akiyama vs Misawa and Kobashi 24/01/96

[Loss]

When was Minoru Suzuki's first great match? When was Muto's last one?

[superkix]

When was Minoru Suzuki's first great match? When was Muto's last one?

 

Probably 1991, although I really liked his match against Nakano from 1990.

[SmartMark15]

Atlantis - 31 years

vs. El Satanico (1984)

vs. La Sombra (2015)

[El-P]

Of course all depends of your acceptation of "great". For instance, I'd say that Lawler vs Miz match was "fun" or "good for what it was"…

 

I guess Tenryu must be somewhere in the conversation.

[Boss Rock]

I was thinking Tenryu as well, but I think his match with Okada was similar to Lawler vs. Miz where it was good for what it was rather than truly great.

[El-P]

I think there's a general tendancy to overrate older guys matches, honestly, because it usually fit a preconcieved, cool (and a bit snobish, let's admit it for once) narrative of "This guy at 55 is still better than any 30 years old worker". Whereas "This guy at 55 is still damn good" would be enough of a praise in a lot of cases.

[Loss]

I'd actually put Lawler at 1975 for his first great match that made tape. The Jack Brisco matches. There's also the Race and Dundee matches in 1977. No clue when his last great match was.

[Mrzfn]

With PCO clocking in a great match with WALTER 'Mania weekend, he's gotta be at 20+ years, depending on when you think he had his first one.

[sek69]

I think there's a general tendancy to overrate older guys matches, honestly, because it usually fit a preconcieved, cool (and a bit snobish, let's admit it for once) narrative of "This guy at 55 is still better than any 30 years old worker". Whereas "This guy at 55 is still damn good" would be enough of a praise in a lot of cases.

 

On that note, Negro Casas has certainly had some great matches the last 3 years, so pegging him at 2015 seems to be selling him short.

[Boss Rock]

 

I think there's a general tendancy to overrate older guys matches, honestly, because it usually fit a preconcieved, cool (and a bit snobish, let's admit it for once) narrative of "This guy at 55 is still better than any 30 years old worker". Whereas "This guy at 55 is still damn good" would be enough of a praise in a lot of cases.

 

On that note, Negro Casas has certainly had some great matches the last 3 years, so pegging him at 2015 seems to be selling him short.

 

 

Guy had a really good match with Sam Adonis of all people on New Year's Day. You're pretty much guaranteed at least one banger singles match from Casas per year.

[Mrzfn]

I liked his Lucha Memes matches with Aramis in March even better than the Adonis one, so yeah Casas is still going strong.

[Boss Rock]

Forgot all about that match. That was indeed a hoot.

[peachchaos]

Hulk Hogan - 23 years

vs. Bob Backlund (1980)

vs. Vince McMahon (2003)

[WrestlingFan]

Ric Flair 26 years

vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (1982)

vs Shawn Michaels (2008)

 

And he really may had a great match before 1982 that I didn't see.

[NintendoLogic]

Flairs 1981 match with Jumbo was better than the 1982 one.

 

How about Tatsumi Fujinami? 28 years between the Go matches in 1978 and the Nishimura match in 2006.

[WingedEagle]

Jushin Liger-26 years

vs. Naoki Sano (1990)

vs. KUSHIDA (2016)

 

If we're going multiman you can push this back a few years for Liger.

[Phil Schneider]

On my C+A Lawler I have the 1974 Fargo match listed as GREAT and the 2012 tag with Brian Christopher against Precious and Derrick King ranked EPIC so that is 36 years.

[superkix]

Masakatsu Funaki - 28 years

vs. Nakano (1989)

vs. Tanaka (2017)

[Jetlag]

The Fargo match is just a clip though, right? And yeah I forgot about that tag with the exoticos. That was a riot indeed.

[El McKell]

With PCO clocking in a great match with WALTER 'Mania weekend, he's gotta be at 20+ years, depending on when you think he had his first one.

That was his first one.

[Mad Dog]

What's Jeff Jarrett's first great match? At worst you're talking 1992 with one of the Moondogs matches and then 2011 with Kurt Angle.