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Best of 7 series


Flyin' Brian

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Are they a good idea? A quick search reveals it hasn't been done much in modern wrestling history.

1. NWA - Magnum TA vs Nikita Koloff - Cornette talks about this a little on his podcast. He said that most of the matches were not televised, only 1 or 2 at the most. Of course, this was back when it was more important to sell tickets than get tv ratings.

2. WCW - Booker T vs Chris Benoit - For me this is the one that comes to mind when someone mentions a best of 7 series. I don't really remember how good the matches were though, but I enjoyed it at the time. 

3. WWE - Booker T vs Chris Benoit 2.0 - WWE went back to the well, this time for the U.S. title. Booker T was injured and replaced by Randy Orton, who went on to win the series. Don't know if you can really call it a best of 7 if the last three matches were wrestled by a different guy. 

4. WWE - Cesaro vs Sheamus - I don't remember much about this other than it happened. Two guys that can definitely go and are fun to watch in the ring. Probably worth a rewatch. 

There was also a best of 5 series between the Hardys and Edge and Christian in the WWF that was supposed to be a best of 7 originally before they cut it short. 

Might be fun to go back through these and look at the matches. Were they able to make each one different and stand on their own while also having callbacks and a flow to the action and storylines? 

Are there any best of 7's I may be missing? I'm not as familiar with Mexico or Japan, maybe they have had some there I don't know about.

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They had the final match in Melbourne, Australia, because "we knew we were no longer going to be able to do (it) in Los Angeles and Australia, which had always been on the back burner, jumped to the forefront". 

That they couldn't find anywhere closer than a 15-hour flight away always seemed odd to me. Must've found a good Aussie "money mark".

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3 hours ago, Flyin' Brian said:

2. WCW - Booker T vs Chris Benoit - For me this is the one that comes to mind when someone mentions a best of 7 series. I don't really remember how good the matches were though, but I enjoyed it at the time. 

It made Booker T, who was never a very good worker. It made him look about ten times as good as he actually was and better than he would ever be (he did improve in WWE, but its not like he ever was that great, as his peak was King Booker which had nothing to do with his in-ring work). People still think of Booker as better than he ever was, and that's because of this series of matches. Sort of a magic trick, really.

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The fact he was over has no correlation with his actual work. Harlem Heat was over big in 1996/97. In early 1998 he was so great he injured Rick Martel *twice* (then the job was finished by his godawful brother, leading to Martel's retirement). Booker T is one of the most overrated guy ever.

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I'm very interested to see what they do with 7 matches. I'm a fan of all involved and their work together, and I can't think of a single one of their match ups with one another that I haven't enjoyed on some level; at the same time, the matches between them aren't THAT different that it immediately springs to mind how they'd do 7 of them. Assuming we have at least one that goes on the short side with a flash pin and maybe one particularly long one, but other than that, don't see any obvious changes unless they add gimmicks.

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6 hours ago, El-P said:

The fact he was over has no correlation with his actual work. Harlem Heat was over big in 1996/97. In early 1998 he was so great he injured Rick Martel *twice* (then the job was finished by his godawful brother, leading to Martel's retirement). Booker T is one of the most overrated guy ever.

Never seen a negative reaction to Booker as strong as this.

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14 hours ago, Flyin' Brian said:

4. WWE - Cesaro vs Sheamus - I don't remember much about this other than it happened. Two guys that can definitely go and are fun to watch in the ring. Probably worth a rewatch. 

Really fucking good stuff. They even managed to get non standard finishes into those matches, like a ringpost spot targetting the back IMMEDIATLY leading to a submission finish.

Also it gave us The Bar which is a strong damn contender for one of the top tag teams of the 2010s. 

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7 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

The problem with declaring a best of seven series is that you're telegraphing that it'll go seven. 

Even though it's obvious, AEW is not telegraphing it. Notice that the last three matches in the graphic include the disclaimer (if necessary).

 

 

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15 hours ago, strobogo said:

Never seen a negative reaction to Booker as strong as this.

Where were you when he did his TNA stint ? :lol: (which honestly I thought ended up being pretty ok, but I guess my standards were pretty low)

He's also a corporate drone dumbfuck, but that's beside the point. My opinion on his work really dropped when I went through my global WCW rewatch a few years ago.

Oh, and he obviously sucks at his job now :

 

WCW 2000 level right there.

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I’m pretty sure if I die and go to hell, my punishment will be sitting in a room, forced to watch Kenny and The Young Bucks fighting Death Triangle for all eternity.

We will know for sure if this Best of 7 Series is real, or if I actually am in hell very soon. If Mauro Ranallo calls the matches while Nickelback blasts over the sound system, it will be official and you will all be guests in my own personal hell.

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On 11/22/2022 at 1:29 PM, El-P said:

The fact he was over has no correlation with his actual work. Harlem Heat was over big in 1996/97. In early 1998 he was so great he injured Rick Martel *twice* (then the job was finished by his godawful brother, leading to Martel's retirement). Booker T is one of the most overrated guy ever.

What kind of shape was Martel in by that point? He would have been 42, and the last thing I remember him doing before that was the feud with Shawn Michaels in WWF.

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19 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Not best of seven, but Flair and Regal had that best of five Marquis of Queensbury cup, and I wanna say that Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes had a best of three series. The problem with declaring a best of seven series is that you're telegraphing that it'll go seven. 

That's one of my problems too, I think 7 is too much. 3 is great, 5 can be if it's done right. I remember those Marquis of Queensbury matches and they were fun. Rude and Dustin matches were great too, but I can't remember how many they had. 

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15 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Really fucking good stuff. They even managed to get non standard finishes into those matches, like a ringpost spot targetting the back IMMEDIATLY leading to a submission finish.

Also it gave us The Bar which is a strong damn contender for one of the top tag teams of the 2010s. 

The Bar was awesome. I definitely need to go back and rewatch those. 

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On 11/22/2022 at 1:45 PM, Migs said:

I'm very interested to see what they do with 7 matches. I'm a fan of all involved and their work together, and I can't think of a single one of their match ups with one another that I haven't enjoyed on some level; at the same time, the matches between them aren't THAT different that it immediately springs to mind how they'd do 7 of them. Assuming we have at least one that goes on the short side with a flash pin and maybe one particularly long one, but other than that, don't see any obvious changes unless they add gimmicks.

I'd think they would have to add gimmicks. Timekeeper's hammer on a pole match? :) 

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1 hour ago, Flyin' Brian said:

What kind of shape was Martel in by that point? He would have been 42, and the last thing I remember him doing before that was the feud with Shawn Michaels in WWF.

He was in awesome shape and had his best stint in term of in-ring work since probably Strike Force. Then he had to work with Booker and Stevie. Ended up with two concussions and a fucked up knee. Then retired because he was already making enough money with his other business. So yeah, fuck that idiot Booker and his inept brother.

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4 hours ago, Flyin' Brian said:

What kind of shape was Martel in by that point? He would have been 42, and the last thing I remember him doing before that was the feud with Shawn Michaels in WWF.

Yeah, it isn't fair blaming Booker T for bag of bones Martel disintegrating after not wrestling for several years.

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11 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Honestly shocked they didn't do that.

Martel got offered big money by WCW, so he opted for that instead. Hence Callis ending up as whatever he ended up being in WWF. Kinda screwed Callis, because he was too small to be seen as anything other than a manager. Wait...

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2 minutes ago, El-P said:

Martel got offered big money by WCW, so he opted for that instead. Hence Callis ending up as whatever he ended up being in WWF. Kinda screwed Callis, because he was too small to be seen as anything other than a manager. Wait...

Oh, I get why they didn't do it with Martel/Callis, I meant more in general. Like, how that gimmick never really materialized with other people? We got boy toy MEAT and Too Much, but no male models per se.

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