Due to the global pandemic and being a food worker, I’ve found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. Give me your guys’ favorite matches that aren’t obvious choices (Flair-Steamboat, Kobashi-Misawa etc)

Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan - Extreme Rules 2012 - Genuine masterpiece.

from Booker T's ROW Hyan vs AQA steel cage match. These ladies are two future stars.

Rey Mysterio Jr vs. Dean Malenko - Halloween Havoc '96 gets lost in the shuffle between GAB 96 and the July Nitro match but it's a strong culmination to one of the best rivalries WCW had.

Bill Goldberg vs. Perry Saturn - Spring Stampede '98 is one of the more underrated Goldberg bouts. Saturn throws everything at Goldberg and in the end Goldberg's raw power proves too much to handle. A great outing for both guys and it deserves to be on equal billing with the Halloween Havoc '98 and Fall Brawl 2000 as far as Goldberg matches go.

Shane McMahon vs. Triple H - Raw November 1999 is a really fun sports entertainment match that feels like an outline for a PPV match. When I was finishing up my WWF 1999 project I made the point that this should have been the formula for Shane's comeback match.

Rock n Sock Connection vs. The Dudley Boyz - Raw December 1999 - A 15 minute match smack bang in the Attitude Era - who would have thunk it? It was the Dudley Boyz first big break on the main show and they smashed it out of the park.

X-Pac vs. Kane - Armaggeddon '99 - Just a flawless cage match that does an incredible job of telling it's story despite Goliath being the babyface in this case.

Edge and Christian vs. The New Brood - September 9th 1999 - For my money the best television match of the entire year that kind of got lost after the ladder match. Never a dull moment and they put together some amazing spots.

Raven vs. The Big Show vs. Kane - Wrestlemania X-7 - Of all the matches on that card, this is by far one of the most entertaining and possibly the greatest hardcore match in WWE history. As disappointing as Raven's run was, I think he had an amazing run with the hardcore title and some of the matches he had around this time hold up beautifully.

Love Big Pete's picks!

Some of my standby favorites for sleeper GOATs are Shawn vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title at IYH#2 and Bret vs. 1-2-3 Kid for the WWF Title on RAW in July 1994.

I'll have to wrack my brain for some more obscure ones...

One of my go to's for this question is Goldberg vs. Jerry Flynn from Nitro in early 1998. Not even 5 minutes long it was MMA breaking out in the middle of a pro wrestling show. Just something very different for the time.

Sabu vs. Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow from August 1998- I've seen this match get some flack in the past but I loved it, everybody played their roles perfectly and showcased what was great about ECW.

Masa Chono and Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue and Kenta Kobashi NOAH January 2003- An oddball dream match that lived up to the billing. I reviewed this on the old board and is one of the better puro tag matches I've ever seen. It was neat to see Chono thrown into the mix with all that history between the other three guys.

Ric Flair and Arn Anderson vs. Ronnie Garvin and Dusty Rhodes from NWA TV early 1986- Maybe the most molten crowd in history? Also rare at the time that Flair got pinned cleanly on TV.

I'll see what else I can think of as well.

Jericho/HHH from Fully Loaded in 2000. Most brutal match of either man's career.

Benoit/Finlay from an episode of Velocity (I think) from 05/06. Wrestling just doesn't get any better.

CM Punk and Mark Henry had a great match on Raw back when Punk was huge.

There's a match between Show and HHH. I don't know if it's at a PPV or on Raw but it involved a cast if I recall. Always loved it and thought it was Show's best match outside of maybe the Mayweather match.

I really dug the Eddy/Batista match. Not his last match, but one of them. It's not on the level of Brock/Eddy, but I still enjoy it quite a bit. Crowd's kinda dead and quiet, but kinda fun in that slow methodical way. And it ends with a secondary move rather than a finisher or a roll-up.

Mar 28, 2020 22:03:07 GMT Todd said:

Benoit/Finlay from an episode of Velocity (I think) from 05/06. Wrestling just doesn't get any better.
.

This match always makes my list when submitting for favourite matches ever lists. So good. 

Toooooo many. But first...

I hate to be That Guy, but some of the matches listed (Rey/Dean, HHH/Jericho, HBK/JJ, and Bret/Kid) are pretty famous imo.

*No descriptions and I'll try limiting it to 20...ish 10...ish per decade 40 42.

Verne Gagne vs. Red Bastien- 1950s?

Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee- Memphis 6/6/83
Freebirds vs. Von Erichs- World Class 7/4/84
Ric Flair vs. Ted Dibiase- Mid South Wrestling 11/6/85
JJ Dillon vs. Alan Martin- 7/4/87
Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard- NWA Clash of the Champions 3/27/88 
Fantastics vs. Midnight Express- NWA Worldwide 5/14/88
Rougeau Brothers & Rick Martel vs. Rockers & Tito Santana- Summerslam 1989
Ric Flair & Sting vs. Great Muta & Terry Funk- NWA Halloween Havoc 1989
The Genius vs. Hulk Hogan- Saturday Night's Main Event 11/25/89 (just discovered this is Kenny Omega's all time favorite match and I guess that means I like Kenny Omega now??) 

Mr. Perfect vs. Tito Santana- SNME 7/28/90
Quebecers vs. Steiners- Raw 9/13/93
Ludvig Borga vs. Tatanka- Superstars 10/30/93
Quebecers vs. Bret & Owen Hart- Royal Rumble 1994
Rock & Roll Express vs. Heavenly Bodies- SMW Bluegrass Brawl 1994
Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund- Superstars 7/30/94
Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw vs. Henry Godwinn- Superstars 6/1/96
Dean Malenko vs. Disco Inferno- WCW Bash At The Beach 1996
Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk- Raw 5/4/98
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka vs. Taz- ECW Anarchy Rulz 1999
Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. Raven & Saturn- WCW Spring Stampede 1999

Triple H vs. Rikishi- Smackdown 1/6/00
HHH/XPac/Benoit/Malenko/Saturn vs. Rock/Mankind/Too Cool/Rikishi- Raw 2/7/00
Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit- Smackdown 5/31/01
Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki- ECWA 11/3/01
Kurt Angle vs. Edge vs. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero- Smackdown 12/5/02
Chris Jericho & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust- Raw 12/23/02
Brock Lesnar vs. Chris Benoit- Smackdown 12/4/03
CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave- ROH Nowhere To Run May 2005
Undertaker vs. Great Khali- Smackdown 8/18/06
John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne- WWECW 4/14/09
KENTA vs. Ricky Marvin- NOAH 10/15/09

Bully Ray vs. AJ Styles- TNA Slammiversary 2011
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano- New Japan Power Struggle 2011?
Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns vs. Usos- Money In The Bank 2013
Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns- Raw 10/15/13
John Cena vs. Cesaro- Raw 2/17/14
Jay Lethal vs. Kyle O'Reilly- ROH TV May 2015
AJ Styles vs. Katsuyori Shibata- New Japan G1 Climax 7/20/15
American Alpha vs. The Revival- NXT Takeover 4/1/16
Neville vs. Jack Gallagher- Fastlane 2017
Nick Aldis vs. Marty Scurll- NWA Crockett Cup 2019

*Tried staying away from PPV as much as possible and operated under the premise that every non-WWF or NWA 80s match lacks fame in 2020. 

Van Hammer vs Vinnie Vegas in the greatest worked arm wrestling match of all time.

Mar 29, 2020 0:36:20 GMT Baker said:

The Genius vs. Hulk Hogan- Saturday Night's Main Event 11/25/89 (just discovered this is Kenny Omega's all time favorite match and I guess that means I like Kenny Omega now??) 

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka vs. Taz- ECW Anarchy Rulz 1999

Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. Raven & Saturn- WCW Spring Stampede 1999

Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit- Smackdown 5/31/01

Kurt Angle vs. Edge vs. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero- Smackdown 12/5/02

Chris Jericho & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust- Raw 12/23/02


Brock Lesnar vs. Chris Benoit- Smackdown 12/4/03

[/i]John Cena vs. Cesaro- Raw 2/17/14
[/quote]

I'll cosign these.

Also agree HBK/JJ & Bret/Kid are too well known.

Still wracking my brain meanwhile...

Thought of a dozen more while taking a shower :lol:  Look, I've got nothing better to do tonight. So I'm spoiler tagging that post and shooting for 100. Most of them I have reviewed at one PW or another. Only a handful will be borderline famous. I knew all those random tv Match Reviews would come in handy one day.

Big Pete touched on something with WMX7 in that so many of the undercard matches hold up just as strong to the "more famous" matches.

So, while duh everyone loves TLC II, Vince/Shane and the hardcore triple Threat were great car crash spectacles as well with their own unique footprints and arguably better stories.

And Austin/Rock II with the wet fart heel turn gives the crash pad spot enough of a hall pass to make HHH/Taker equally entertaining IMO. In fact, for a long while in the immediate wake of WMX7, I preferred HHH/Taker over Austin/Rock II. That sledgehammer counter to the Last Ride and then Last Ride outta the corner mount punches... Had me hook, line, sinker.

Then there's Angle/Benoit. While their cage match on RAW and later RR2003 showdown are the more heralded encounters, their WMX7 outing as well as their Backlash and Judgment Day outings and then their Unforgiven outing in 2002 I think are all lesser heralded great matches.

Then you toss a little Rey into the mix, and Angle/Benoit put on a great sub-ten minutes triple threat on SD! in 2002.

...

Another great little series from 2001 is the Y2J/HHH/Jeff Hardy stuff involving the IC Title... HHH beating Y2J, Jeff upsetting HHH, and then HHH reclaiming the title are all great little matches that don't get the same hype and love as the earlier or later matches these guy would have with each other.

Speaking of great midcard title matches from that era, Kurt had a GREAT United States Title match against Rhyno in the fall of 2001. Think it might've been the match where Rhyno got shelved for over a year with a neck injury.

And speaking of Jeff, his RAW ladder match with Taker in 2002 always gets its due praise, but people forget the work Taker was putting in in general around this time. He put up a highly entertaining title defense against RVD om RAW with a nearfall that I recall biting on hard in real time. Then on SD!, he had a great match with Kurt to set up their Vengeance triple Threat. Then a year later on SD!, they do it again. Both matches IMO being better than the more famous No Way Out 2006 outing.

...

That's enough for now. Last shout I'll give is Tajiri/Billy Kidman from Backlash 2002.

:lol:

Mar 29, 2020 1:29:00 GMT 🤯 said:

And Austin/Rock II with the wet fart heel turn gives the crash pad spot enough of a hall pass to make HHH/Taker equally entertaining IMO. In fact, for a long while in the immediate wake of WMX7, I preferred HHH/Taker over Austin/Rock II. That sledgehammer counter to the Last Ride and then Last Ride outta the corner mount punches... Had me hook, line, sinker.

Then there's Angle/Benoit. While their cage match on RAW and later RR2003 showdown are the more heralded encounters, their WMX7 outing as well as their Backlash and Judgment Day outings and then their Unforgiven outing in 2002 I think are all lesser heralded great matches.

Then you toss a little Rey into the mix, and Angle/Benoit put on a great sub-ten minutes triple threat on SD! in 2002.

...

And speaking of Jeff, his RAW ladder match with Taker in 2002 always gets its due praise, but people forget the work Taker was putting in in general around this time. He put up a highly entertaining title defense against RVD om RAW with a nearfall that I recall biting on hard in real time. Then on SD!, he had a great match with Kurt to set up their Vengeance triple Threat. Then a year later on SD!, they do it again. Both matches IMO being better than the more famous No Way Out 2006 outing.

...

I am strongly with you on all the bolded stuff. Angle/Benoit from Unforgiven 2002 is super underrated. Benoit matches in general don't get talked up much nowadays....for obvious reasons.

Don't remember that Angle/Rhyno match you mentioned, but your mention of Rhyno, coupled with Pete's mention of Raven earlier, reminds me of the awesome Raven/Rhyno match from Backlash 2001. Best WWF Hardcore Title match?

Though I think you just killed my "100 under the radar matches" project by reminded me of late 2002-early 2003 Smackdown. I could probably come up with 30 from that era alone. AND I'm already going crazy with 95-96 tv matches. 

Mar 29, 2020 1:38:17 GMT Baker said:

Mar 29, 2020 1:29:00 GMT 🤯 said:

And Austin/Rock II with the wet fart heel turn gives the crash pad spot enough of a hall pass to make HHH/Taker equally entertaining IMO. In fact, for a long while in the immediate wake of WMX7, I preferred HHH/Taker over Austin/Rock II. That sledgehammer counter to the Last Ride and then Last Ride outta the corner mount punches... Had me hook, line, sinker.

Then there's Angle/Benoit. While their cage match on RAW and later RR2003 showdown are the more heralded encounters, their WMX7 outing as well as their Backlash and Judgment Day outings and then their Unforgiven outing in 2002 I think are all lesser heralded great matches.

Then you toss a little Rey into the mix, and Angle/Benoit put on a great sub-ten minutes triple threat on SD! in 2002.

...

And speaking of Jeff, his RAW ladder match with Taker in 2002 always gets its due praise, but people forget the work Taker was putting in in general around this time. He put up a highly entertaining title defense against RVD om RAW with a nearfall that I recall biting on hard in real time. Then on SD!, he had a great match with Kurt to set up their Vengeance triple Threat. Then a year later on SD!, they do it again. Both matches IMO being better than the more famous No Way Out 2006 outing.

...

I am strongly with you on all the bolded stuff. Angle/Benoit from Unforgiven 2002 is super underrated. Benoit matches in general don't get talked up much nowadays....for obvious reasons.

Don't remember that Angle/Rhyno match you mentioned, but your mention of Rhyno, coupled with Pete's mention of Raven earlier, reminds me of the awesome Raven/Rhyno match from Backlash 2001. Best WWF Hardcore Title match?

Though I think you just killed my "100 under the radar matches" project by reminded me of late 2002-early 2003 Smackdown. I could probably come up with 30 from that era alone. AND I'm already going crazy with 95-96 tv matches. 

YES!!! That Rhyno/Raven match is the one with the grocery cart gore, right? If so, then if not GOAT hardcore title match... Definitely most underrated for how good it is.

lol I got to 100 in a PM to myself. Don't know why I did it that stupid way. Maybe I'll post it later or maybe I won't. All depends on whether or not I feel like dealing with the stupid spacing and ampersand issues.

The Raven/Rhyno match was specifically the other match I was thinking of. Between that and the Wrestlemania X-7 you have arguably the two greatest falls count anywhere matches in WWE and quite possibly Pro Wrestling history. Raven/Kane/Show stands out specifically since I would always try to replicate the insanity of the match in the video games.

It gets overlooked but the 2009 Elimination Chamber match is the best Mysterio performance in the WWE and one of the better put together Elimination Chamber matches. I love the ECW spot where Cena the defending challenger gets ganged up on and gets eliminated early promising a new champion.

There was a Benoit/McMichael vs. Eddie/Jarrett match from Nitro 1997 that Big Evil recommended that's a nice piece of business. Jarrett/Eddie have good chemistry despite being a sub-par team, the match really fires up at points and the crowd is fantastic. Even with McMichael taking an eternity to hit a sidewalk slam, it's good fun and I kind of liked the Hart Foundation type dynamic they had going around. I liked how McMichael wouldn't wrestle, he'd just clobber and go all Stan Hansen on everyone.

I'm doing my man Brock and #BROCKTOBER disservice by not mentioning these unsung and surprisingly highly entertaining matches:

**in no particular order, except maybe order of obscurity (more to less obscure)**

27.01.2004
Brock Lesnar vs. Orlando Jordan (4:19)
WWE SmackDown #233
MCI Center
Washington, District Of Columbia

15.10.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Chuck Palumbo (6:30)
WWE SmackDown #166
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, Ontario

27.05.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Bubba Ray Dudley (5:50)
WWE RAW #470
Skyreach Centre
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

13.08.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Rikishi (5:41)
WWE SmackDown #157
KeyArena
Seattle, Washington

30.07.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Henry (2:43)
WWE SmackDown #155
Charlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, North Carolina

26.10.2002
WWE Title: Brock Lesnar (c) & Paul Heyman vs. Edge (20:00)
WWE Rebellion 2002
Evening News Arena
Manchester, England

21.04.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Jeff Hardy (5:32)
WWF Backlash 2002
Kemper Arena
Kansas City, Missouri

01.07.2002
Brock Lesnar vs. Ric Flair (7:00)
WWE RAW #475
Verizon Wireless Arena
Manchester, New Hampshire

18.05.2003
WWE Title - Stretcher Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. The Big Show (15:27)
WWE Judgment Day 2003
Charlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, North Carolina

09.12.2003
Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio (14:45)
WWE SmackDown #226
San Diego Sports Arena
San Diego, California

I just found an old email draft I was writing to chronicle my peak real-time viewership fandom. Some matches mentioned there that fit here:

In addition to the aforementioned Taker/RVD, Taker/Jeff, and Brock matches... Late Spring/Early Summer RAW 2002 also had a highly entertaining Austin/Flair match where no closed fists were allowed as well as I think a world title defense by Rock against Eddie Guerrero. Both worth checking out. I remember Rock/Eddie standing out as a turning point where I thought maybe WWE wasn't doomed after all.

Late Summer 2002 RAW also had the Last Hardcore Hoorah between RVD and Tommy Dreamer to unify the IC and Hardcore titles. All three of these matches are worth finding and watching. I think RVD maybe also unified the IC Title with the European Title against Jeff Hardy in a match worth finding too, like a consolidated highlight reel version of their matches from 2001.

RAW 2002 ends the year with a fun dream match between new WHC HBK and RVD, but the non-finish is a bit of a letdown.

In 2003 on RAW, we got a HHH/Booker T rematch for the WHC where I was convinced they were gonna "right the wrong" of WMXIX. Highly entertaining and compelling match for those of you not overly sensitive to that whole feud.

...

Now let's jump to SD!

Rey's hometown CW title win over Matt Hardy V1 in May-ish 2003 was GREAT, IMO.

A little later on in July 2003, Rey tags with Billy Kidman for a great tag title match against WGTT at Vengeance. I recall wishing this had been a longer lasting rivalry based on how fun that one match was.

Flair/Piper/Greene vs. Nash/Hall/Syxx from Slamboree 1997 is so much fun. The nWo happy to stooge for the faces in front of a rabid Charlotte, NC crowd. Fantastic main event.

Ric Flair vs Ted Dibiase Mid-South Wrestling - The angle is also known as  Murdoch Flair Dibiase (not sure about the order but you get  the idea) here is the back story. 

Flair vs Dibiase the match