Wrestlers with largest timespan between 2 great matches

[brockobama]

I have zero real knowledge about his career before IWRG but Black Terry immediately came to mind when pulling this thread up.

[Matt D]

 

I am still quasi serious that I think we should do a footage-based "Greatest Peak Ever," with a 3 or 6 month period in mind and maybe no arguing between two peaks of the same wrestler. GWE focused on the whole career and GME focuses on one night. This would be somewhat in the middle (though you'd look at everything a wrestler did in that small period). I just think the arguments could be interesting and it could potentially put a whole different group of people at play towards the top (Guerrero becomes more interesting, for instance). I'm probably nuts though.

 

I'm envisioning 8-page threads on what constitutes "peak."

 

I'm sure we could keep it to 4.

 

Actually, I'm not. That's half the fun though (he says as no one believes him).

[ohtani's jacket]

Regal's best match before joining WCW was a 1990 handheld against Robbie Brookside. Finlay has the Young David match and a host of other great matches up until his gimmick takes over. He definitely has the advantage over Regal.

 

I have Grey's last great ITV match pinned as the Brooks match in '86. At some point, I should watch his 00s stuff.

 

I'm sure that if we had footage from the fault that a ton of British wrestlers would make the cut.

[ohtani's jacket]

Actually, the Regal match against Singh isn't bad. The one from Sun City in 1988.

[cheapshot]

If the footage was available I'd probably say Bockwinkel.

[Jetlag]

Finlay's last great match was the year he retired against Tajiri (2012). There may have been others that year but that's the Finlay Of the Year IMO. So that makes 30-29 years for him. Not bad.

[rainmakerrtv]

 

1989 with Terry Funk in Florida to Randy Orton in 2013 makes 24 years and puts Dustin in the upper echelon.

Is that Funk match readily available?

 

 

Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk (PWF 3/11/89)

 

From goodhelmet's Dustin Rhodes comp.

[Loss]

Great idea for a topic!

 

Along similar lines, which wrestler had the * shortest * time between two pretty great matches?

 

Examples: Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera (Texas Death Match, 5/19/80) and vs Dusty (5/27/80, in New Japan) - 8 days

 

Jumbo vs Misawa 4/18/91 and Misawa, Kawada, & Kobashi vs Jumbo, Taue, & Fuchi 4/20/91 - 2 days

 

Benoit & Jericho vs Austin & HHH (RAW 5/21/01) and vs E&C, Hardys, Dudleys (SD, 5/24/01) - 3 Days

 

(There is almost certainly an argument to be made for Kong or Hokuto and/or Kansai having done it within a few hours during the Big Egg V*TOP tournament...)

 

Manami Toyota had two matches rated ***** in the WON on the same day.

 

Edit: Both matches also involved Kyoko Inoue, Akira Hokuto, and Toshiyo Yamada, so I'm not sure why Toyota is the only one that gets cited in that case. Unless when he says that, he's referring to something different than the 12/10/93 back-to-back tags.

[zep81]

 

1989 with Terry Funk in Florida to Randy Orton in 2013 makes 24 years and puts Dustin in the upper echelon.

Is that Funk match readily available?

 

 

I uploaded it to YT as I couldn't see it online;

 

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Johnny Kidd was having great matches as far back as 1981 with Johnny Saint and Steve Casey and then had an absolutely terrific tag team match in IPW:UK, teaming with Doug Williams against Chris Hero and James Mason in what was billed as his 'retirement' match in 2016 - so a nice 35 year time span there give or take a few years. Hell Johnny Kidd had a match against Mike Quackenbush in Chikara in 2017 so it might be 36 years, but I've not seen that one. No reason to suggest it wouldn't be great though.

[Matt D]

 

 

1989 with Terry Funk in Florida to Randy Orton in 2013 makes 24 years and puts Dustin in the upper echelon.

Is that Funk match readily available?

 

 

I uploaded it to YT as I couldn't see it online;

 

 

Thanks a lot for posting that.

 

It's so interesting to watch that match vs the 1991 Dustin run and see how differently he was presented. For all the talk about Dustin being shoved down people's throats in 1991, he really wasn't. Funk did everything he could to help make Dustin there, bells and whistles (and plants with triple stacked signs) included. I like how Dustin's shine was basically just dropkicking Humperdink at the start of the match. That meant immediately as much if not more than a five minute in-and-out headlock exchange that he was on top of and it let Funk ambush him (babyfaces should always be punished for that sort of hubris) and start the heat right from the get go. Funk pulled out all the stops. When Dustin kicked out at two early on, Funk made sure to go flying out of the ring. Likewise on Dustin's whip reverse into the corner. Page, despite being the heel on commentary, made sure to put over Dustin's small package hope spot. And so on and so on. Dustin had SOMETHING, connecting to the crowd, showing some energy, selling, I think, quite well for his experience level, but this was the Terry Funk show, from mead ground-charge headbutts to strategically bumping himself through the ropes so that Dustin couldn't punch him to playing hide the tape with Dustin and Humperdink. Glad I got to see it. Thanks.

[Rah]

Actually, the Regal match against Singh isn't bad. The one from Sun City in 1988.

 

Regal vs Singh was held in Durban, South Africa (I believe it's Westridge Tennis Stadium)

[SmoothS]

Even though there is no film footage to show it, based on what I have researched, no one tops Lou Thesz when it comes to this topic. In the 1930's he was having many of the greatest matches of that decade and then even in the 1970's there is video footage of him teaming with Karl Gotch vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi in a match that neared 4 Stars in my eyes. Also him being a World Heavyweight Champion on & off from the 1930's to the 1960's must say something about the consistent quality of matches that he was having all the time. I just wish that there was video footage of him throughout all of those decades to expose it.