Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

Best match you ever saw live in person?


joeg

Recommended Posts

The Thread Killer and Sweet Brown Koko's back and forth in the Jim Cornette thread got me thinking. What was the best match you ever saw live in person? We have a lot of people here who are in their 40s and 50s and who grew up in Tennessee and the Carolinas so I'm really looking forward to some of these answers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

My one and only live ROH show - Supercard of Honor II: BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs in a cage for the sheer spectacle of seeing something that insane live. The Dragon Gate match afterward was also incredible as a pure display of athleticism and acrobatics. I can't pick just one because it's apples and oranges, so let's call it a tie. 

I've attended various WWE events (house shows, Raw/Smackdown, and PPVs), one WCW PPV (Uncensored either 1999 or 2000 - they both had the same main event, and the fact that I can't remember which one I attended in person pretty much says it all), and ECW Living Dangerously 2000. But either there was very little that was memorable from an in-ring standpoint and/or my seats were too crappy to really appreciate the matches. (I had a perfect view of the Grimes/New Jack scaffold match, for whatever that's worth.) :P Out of all of those shows, the one match that sticks out in my memory is a Raw cage match with the Hardy Boys, probably against Edge and Christian, because that was cool to see live. I remember the entire show being a pretty fun night. No idea how it played on TV though.

There were some awesome APW indie matches I saw live too, but it's been 20+ years, so don't ask me which ones. Michael Modest and Christopher Daniels were always highlights though, and I loved a team back then called The Westside Playas 2000 that I'm surprised never really made it anywhere that I know of. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Cody - Dustin from Double or Nothing
  • Gargano - Almas from NXT Takeover Philly
  • American Dragon - Low Ki - Chris Daniels from the first ROH Show
  • Low Ki - Xavier Ladder Match
  • Bryan - Kingston Wrestlemania 35 (with honorable mention to Okada-White and ZSJ/Suzuki-Tana/Ospreay - NY Mania Weekend was crazy)

Also, I'm not sure one single match ranks, but I was at All In and I'm not sure I'll ever top that as a live wrestling experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've attended mostly WWF/E house shows and 2 TV tapings (RAW & Smackdown) and nothing really popped in my mind from those shows but the one I remember most was Kevin Steen vs Christopher Daniels in Quebec City in April 2004 for the defunct EWR promotion. The atmosphere on that night was amazing because of the duelling fans (lots of IWS fans had made the drive to Quebec City to cheer on Kevin Steen while Daniels mostly had the support of the Quebec City locals) and the match was truly fantastic as it was Steen's first breakout performance against an independent top star. Later that year, he went on to face AJ Styles and Steve Corino for the same promotion (that match with Corino is what got him booked for ZERO-1 in 2005 and the start of their friendship) and he also wrestled Samoa Joe on an indy supercard that same summer in a show that also had Colt Cabana, Chris Sabin and B-Boy booked on the card.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Feb 26, 1993, AWF, Melbourne: Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit. I still have never seen crispness like that. Being bookended by Junkyard Dog vs Don Muraco and Jake Roberts vs Jim Neidhart didn't hurt.

The Rock vs HHH vs Lesnar from Global Warning 2002 was a hoot live; I just realised I've never watched it on tape so that's something for my watch list.

Okada was a huge disappointment, in-ring-wise, on NJPW's 2018 Australian tour (Kenny Omega & Guerrillas of Destiny vs Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero). His offence was horribly weak - which, outside of the Rainmaker and his dropkick, I knew coming in - but seeing him go through the house-show motions, I came away realising there's two Okadas, and Big Match Okada is the only Okada worth watching.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a tough one especially if you're going on star ratings or personal feelings or what. Like, I almost bet it was a Hogan vs Slaughter match from 91 because so many of their series was so strong, but i don't remember anything but the finish.

The star rating challengers would be:

Angle vs Benoit - Royal Rumble 03
Undertaker vs Brock (cage match) - MSG 9-20-03
Styles vs London - ROH Night of the Grudges 6/14/03
Rollins vs Brock vs Cena - Royal Rumble 2015
Nakamura/Dillinger vs Aries/Samoa Joe - NXT 10/8/16

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw Hogan/Flair at MSG in the early 90s, but because I was only 7-8 years old, I don't really remember it. 

The matches I actually remember well and really enjoying were...

- The Hardys vs. Edge & Christian ladder match at No Mercy 99'. I was 15 for that.

- Samoa Joe vs. Rhyno for Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling in 04' or 05' (I think)? Not the world's greatest match or anything, but what was cool about it was the atmosphere. Either before the match or after, Rhyno came on the mic and said it was their first time wrestling eachother and called Joe the future of the business or something along those lines. It was a cool moment and, like lots of things that happened around then with Joe/Punk/Bryan/AJ, felt like wrestling fans were on the verge of an "indie revolution" that one could argue didn't actually really come into fruition for another 15-16 years. 

- Dolph Ziggler vs. Luke Harper at TLC 2014. I haven't rewatched it, but I remember lots of praise for this one when it happened, not sure if it holds up. This was another one where atmosphere was a factor. Ziggler is a Cleveland guy - even if he's billed from Hollywood, Florida, or whatever - so he had the crowd behind him 100% and this was the opening contest of the show, so the audience was very much into it. 

- Steve Austin defeats Kane to win the WWE Championship on RAW (6/29/98). Not a great match, but man, that building was so red hot for Austin. I was at Quicken Loans/Gund Arena/whatever for Hogan's return in 06' and for the Rock's in 2012 (I'm just guessing on these years) and both guys got standing ovations that just wouldn't end...but, seriously, the most over wrestler I've ever seen has to be Austin in 98'. I feel bad for wrestling fans of today who are too young to have witnessed Austin at his peak. He really was so damn over that you could have the highest rated show on cable just by having him appear and do shtick for 25 out of 120 minutes.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first Hell in a Cell would have to be mine. I was sixth row for it. 
 

Most fun I’ve had was Mitch Ryder vs Todd Morton at the second XCW Midwest show. I was shooting the show for a news story, and they basically worked the match for my camera. It was a blast. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't been to a lot of shows live besides House shows. I went to a Raw the week before CM Punk came back and I remember it being decent at best, but the match that was the best I saw live.

Dean Malenko vs Eddie Guerrero in 98 at a WCW house Show.

I also got to see CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane and Luke Harper vs Bray Wyatt was really good and was weird that Bray would keep leaving the ring to exclaim that he was The WWE World Heavyweight Champion. I still never understood it cause he never did anything like that during tv. So it was weird.

Also something random I saw at a house show. Luke Harper untied R-Truth's shoes while pinning him and I remember that being very strange and confused to why he did that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a great idea for a thread.  I'm a big fan of some of the discussion threads that have been popping up here at PWO lately, the Bret Hart/Bryan Danielson thread, the Greatest Rookie Thread, the Winning Streaks thread...and now this.  For a while I was worried PWO was starting to die off, but it's great all these new interesting threads that are popping up now.

I am going to have to give some serious thought to this question.  I've been a fan for 37 years now and have seen a ton of live Pro Wrestling in that time, so I'll have to give it some thought before I answer.  But I can tell you this...based on some of the responses I've seen in this thread so far, a lot of you guys have me beat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been to a lot of live wrestling shows over the years, it's probably either LA Park vs. El Hijo Del Santo from the Juster Atl Lucha show, Homicide vs. Steve Corino from ROH Better Friends Stiffer Enemies or Shinya Hashimoto vs. Steve Corino vs. Dylan Knight vs. Gary Steele. Low-Ki vs Rey Mysterio Jr. from JAPW is up there too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Perfectly Straightedge said:

 

Also something random I saw at a house show. Luke Harper untied R-Truth's shoes while pinning him and I remember that being very strange and confused to why he did that.

It's probably something that Harper did to pop the boys in the back. House shows are notoriously fun for stuff like that. I believe, my 2nd WWF house show I attended in 1997 featured a spot where Earl Hebner got into it with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and it ended with Earl chasing away Helmsley with a chair, all the way to the locker room and the crowd popped like crazy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

It's probably something that Harper did to pop the boys in the back. House shows are notoriously fun for stuff like that. I believe, my 2nd WWF house show I attended in 1997 featured a spot where Earl Hebner got into it with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and it ended with Earl chasing away Helmsley with a chair, all the way to the locker room and the crowd popped like crazy.

That's what I was thinking. I will say he was very fast at untying those shoes as well. Like I am talking one pull and had them unlaced. Which also brings to question why R-Truth didn't double lace his shoes and if Harper was able to untie a double loop that fast than he needed a prize just for that. lol

Actually at the same event was Stardust vs Goldust which wasn't their match in 2019 by any means but you could see they had chemistry though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...