My brother was telling me about his coworker bringing up old school wrestling the other day, specifically the Wrestlemania IV tournament, and that got me talking about how I was actually more hyped for that show than Wrestlemania III. Then I started thinking about all the other matches I just HAD to see over the years. And now it's time for a year by year thread focusing on the matches that drew me in. I'll break it up into WWF and Other categories.

*This also morphed into the 3rd or 4th night in a row of previously-rare DRUNK POASTING~! Enjoy!

1987- Hogan vs. Andre- Wrestlemania III- Mainstream choice here even if I don't think I truly grasped the enormity of it at the time. I had only been watching wrestling for a few months so I just kind of assumed there was a match this big every couple of months. Little did I know....

1987 Other- New Breed vs. Midnight Express- Bit of a cheat here as I didn't learn about this until years later when a clip from a MX/New Breed match  popped up in the opening of an old NWA tape (New Breed hitting Le Bombe Rougeau on a Midnighter) and then JR, Schiavone, or some voiceover guy mentioned a house show match between the two teams on another old NWA tape. But OMG! I HAD to see this! They were my two favorite NWA acts in real time and for the past few years this has become my ultimate Holy Grail match that I'll search for every couple of months.

Honorable Mentions- Hogan vs Kamala- February Baltimore House Show, Savage vs. Steamboat- Wrestlemania III
Hogan vs. Kamala headlined the lone wrestling show I attended as a child. It was one of the extremely rare occasions where I was actually rooting for The Hulkster because I totally bought into Kamala as this dangerous, out of control wildman who might wreck all 10,000+ of us if he could survive Hogan and escape the cage    Savage/Steamboat had a great build and was the 2nd most hyped match at WM 3.

1988- Wrestlemania IV Tournament- Maybe the most hyped I've ever been for a wrestling show. I never, ever thought Hogan would lose the belt. The IC & Tag Titles may change on occasion but Hogan as WWF champ was permanent. Just as sure as the sun would rise in the east every morning, so too would Hogan remain WWF champ, always and forever. Rooting against Hogan was like Charlie Brown kicking the football, or Red Herring actually being the culprit on A Pup Named Scooby Doo. You knew it was never going to happen. Yet still you hoped. And then one magical February evening the impossible dream became a reality. Oh sure, it took a million dollars and some plastic surgery done in the name of evil, but still it happened. Charlie Brown really did kick the football one time (while invisible), Red Herring really was the culprit one time (naturally it was the one time Fred hadn't fingered him as a suspect), and Hogan actually lost HIS WWF Championship. We had now entered into uncharted territory....a Brave New World where the impossible had become possible.....and anybody from Dino Bravo (YAY!) to Hacksaw Jim Duggan (BOO!) might walk out of WM 4 as the WWF Champion. I genuinely believed this at the time. So my hype for this show was off the charts. Any one of 14 men might walk out as WWF Champion when it was all over. Oh yeah. I HAD to see this.

1988 Other- Midnight Express vs. Original Midnight Express- I hated the OMX and that cellphone wielding jerk Paul E. with a passion. They were a bunch of phonies who bloodied my boys! I wanted the MX to extract sweet, sweet revenge and leave those posers lying in a puddle of their own blood.

Honorable Mentions- Hogan vs. Andre- The Main Event, Midnight Express vs. Arn & Tully
While I never really believed he could ever pull off the impossible dream (Spoiler Alert: He did!), Andre had a better shot at it than anybody else. MX vs. Arn & Tully had an amazing build that turned me from a mild Arn & Tully fan into an Arn & Tully hater. Man, I LOVED the Midnight Express as a kid. It's a shame Arn & Tully bolted for WWF after only one match. This had the potential to be an all time great feud.

1989- Flair vs. Funk- Great American Bash- An extremely rare non-WWF winner. I was enthralled by this feud. It was the first feud where I loved both guys. Sure I wanted My Hero Flair to get revenge, but that middle aged and crazy nutter Terry Funk ruled almost just as hard as Naitch. Begged my parents to take me to this show. They declined. So naturally it was one of the first matches I sought out when I went into my "rent a wrestling tape every weekend" phase in 95-96. I was not disappointed.

1989 WWF- Hogan & Beefcake vs. Savage & Zeus- Summerslam- I actually wasn't all that hyped for Hogan/Savage at 'Mania. It seemed like such a foregone conclusion. But throw Zeus and that jabroni Beefcake into the mix and suddenly the outcome was in doubt. Yes, folks, I was a thee Zeus fan. Totally bought into him as this ultimate badass. Of course, I also thought No Holds Barred was a legit box office smash for like a decade  Ah, the perils of growing up a WWF fanatic. I also thought some mystery woman called Jezebel was going to debut in Zeus & Savage's corner (and maybe even help them win!) thanks to a Brother Love Show interview. AND Beefcake wasn't unstoppable like The Hulkster. I genuinely thought the bad guys had a chance in this one. *sigh* If only I knew....

EDIT

1989 WWF- Ultimate Warrior vs. Honkytonk Man- SNME 1/7- Thought this took place in '88 when I first did my writeup. This gets the slight nod over the Zeus tag match due to having a title on the line. I was desperately hoping that HTM could somehow find a way to upset the Warrior and regain his Intercontinental Title. Sadly it was not to be.

*Fwiw I had more interest in 4 or 5 NWA matches than any WWF match this year.

1989 Honorable Mentions- Flair vs. Steamboat- Wrestle War, Flair & Sting vs. Muta & Funk and Road Warriors vs. Skyscrapers- Halloween Havoc
Yeah, it was an NWA year. Flair & Sting vs. Muta & Funk in a THUNDERDOME CAGE MATCH~! is a fanfic dream come to life. Roadies/Skyscrapers was a well built irresistible force meets immovable object match in tag team form. While the climax of the Flair/Steamboat trilogy had the undisputed greatest hype video in wrestling history.....



Oh. My. God. I wasn't even THAT into Flair/Steamboat the way I was with Flair/Funk but I was still ready to part with every cent I had to watch their match after seeing this. It also went a long way towards making Europe my all time favorite band.

1990- Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior- I loathed both guys. Yet this still had Wrestlemania IV level hype with me. This was the ultimate (pun intended) Clash of the Titans. It was the talk of the playground. Strobe once described those conversations accurately as "Hogan never loses!" "But neither does Warrior!" This was the single most hyped match of my childhood.....possibly the single most hyped match ever.

1990 Other- Sting vs. Black Scorpion- Starrcade- I had gotten out of NWA/WCW at some point due to availability issues in my area but this feud also captured playground interest, which in turn captured my own interest. I soon found a grainy, barely watchable channel out of DC that aired WCW programming at the odd hour of 6 p.m. on a weeknight that I'd watch solely to follow the build for this match.

Honorable Mention- That Damn Egg- Survivor Series 
This was about as hyped as any match all year other than the two I listed above. Of course it resulted in the Wrestlecraptastic Gobbledygooker. Biggest letdown ever. This wasn't Wrestlecrap in hindsight. It was instant Wrestlecrap even to a gullible young Black Scorpion-loving wrestling mark like myself.

1991- Hogan vs. Undertaker- Survivor Series- More of a 7/10 draw than the previous few years of 10/10 draws as this was kind of a down year for my interest. 'Taker was my favorite wrestler and he had been built well enough to believably stand a chance against The Immortal Hulk Hogan (Spoiler Alert: He actually won!) so this gets the nod.

Honorable Mention- Warrior vs. Savage- Wrestlemania- I didn't REALLY think Savage stood a chance in this Retirement Match but, again, nothing else really springs to mind, and I feel like I should have at least one honorable mention for consistency reasons.

1992- Undertaker vs. Kamala- Summerslam- 'Taker was obviously a big draw for me during this period and, while he had clearly lost a step, not to mention most of his IQ points, and I was no longer afraid of him, I still remembered Kamala's monster run from my early days of wrestling fandom, which means he stood about as good a shot as anybody at giving 'Taker a run for his money. So this was a cool Monster Mash where I liked both guys and had doubts about the outcome. Too bad it sucked and this feud killed off Kamala as a serious threat to anybody ever.

Honorable Mentions- Piper vs. Mountie- SNME, Warrior vs. Savage- Summerslam, Undertaker vs. Jake- Wrestlemania

Piper/Mountie was Mountie's chance to regain the IC Title. It's also the infamous "Shock Proof Shirt" match that drove me up a wall. I was actually much more invested in this Warrior/Savage match than their more famous Retirement Match from the previous year due to the build with Perfect & Flair stirring up trouble and all but promising one of them was going to turn bad. I wanted to see Taker annihilate Jerk The Snake due to Roberts slamming the casket door on Undertaker's poor hand. Thankfully I got what I wanted out of that one.

1991-92 Other- ?? This period marked the nadir for my interest in alternative wrestling. I only remember watching a handful of WCW shows during this time due to availability issues in my area (fwiw I remember my man the Minotaur having a squash or two, a weird black & white Arn & Windham promo at a junkyard that I may or may not have imagined , the very un-WCW duo of Stan Hansen & Owen Hart, plus James Earl Wright. I distinctly remember seeing James Earl Wright of State Patrol because he got a big 1995 Barry Horowitz-style push in my action figure league at the time ). So.....umm....Reggie Bennett vs. that damn Lady X from LPWA, maybe? Or....did Patriot have any hyped matches against cool people in Global? I dunno....

*Writing about Royal Rumbles has become boring so I'll continue this tomorrow with or without the aid of alcohol.

These will be "lol" material to a lot of people but I had fantasy booking possibilities actually coming true during this time. Execution was another story...

1994- Hogan/Flair Bash at The Beach, Hogan and Sting(!) vs. Faces Of Fear on Clash Of Champions
1995- Hogan/Sting on Nitro, Hogan/Vader Superbrawl V, Savage/Sting vs Avalanche/Bubba, World War III battle royal (60 men! 3 rings!) 
1996- Road Warriors/Steiners on Nitro, Hogan/Piper Starrcade, Hogan and Savage vs. Arn and Flair on Nitro, NWO vs. WCW cornerstones War Games
1997- Hogan/Sting Starrcade

I was super hyped for all the Hogan vs Flair matches in WCW 1994, they did hype the fuck out of those matches and I wanted to see them really bad.

Taz vs Bam Bam Bigelow Living Dangerously 98, loved the build up to that match so much.

1993- Narcissist vs. Mr. Perfect- Wrestlemania- Great build. This could have went either way. Narcissist was Heenan's newest protege. He was red hot, knocking guys out left and right with his dreaded forearm. While Perfect was a former Heenan charge who was a few months into an equally red hot face run. Plus The Perfect Vignettes~! I was pulling for my new favorite wrestler, Narcissist, but still couldn't hate on Perfect. Nobody who saw those vignettes possibly could. 10/10 draw right here.

WWF Honorable Mentions- Foreign Fanatics vs. All Americans- Survivor Series, Undertaker vs. Gonzalez- Wrestlemania, Perfect vs. Flair- Raw Loser Leaves Town

Fanatics/Americans was another red hot feud (at least to me). Fanatics were on a path of destruction. Don't think any other group of WWF heels had ever been booked that strong up to this point in my life as a wrestling fan. Borga ended Tatanka's undefeated streak and was beefing with Top Guy Luger. Quebecers beat the Steiners for the tag belts. Yoko pulled off the impossible by squashing Hulkamania once and for all. And here they're up against a bonafide 1993 babyface dream team in Lex, Steiners & Taker. Had WWF not replaced my man Pierre with stupid Crush this would have been a 10/10 all time great draw. Still ended up being a 9.5/10. Not bad.
Taker vs. Gonzalez was another Taker freak show match and I've already explained how I was always into them. This time Taker is up against a goliath who has a whole foot on him! Can The Deadman pull it off? I had my doubts. But couldn't wait to find out!
Perfect/Flair is a bit of cheat as I somehow either missed it completely in real time, or forgot it existed. I first (re?)learned about it via WWF Magazine circa 95-96. It instantly became my Holy Grail match. I finally got around to watching it a few years later where it sadly failed to live up to the impossible ****** hype it had in my head.

1993 Other- Vader vs. Cactus Jack- WCW Halloween Havoc- I was so into this feud and even liked the infamous Lost In Cleveland stuff. Sure, it was weird, and didn't make much sense, but I dug it anyway. I was just all in on Cactus coming back to exact sweet revenge on that jerk Vader. Cactus could do no wrong in my eyes at this point. Sadly Vader eeked out the win with some help from that scoundrel Harley Race. And to think I liked that geezer as "The King" once upon a time!

1993 Other Honorable Mentions- Flair vs. Vader- Starrcade 1993, Flair & Arn vs. Hollywood Blondes- Clash of the Champions, Vader & Sid vs. Sting & Bulldog 

Flair/Vader- WCW did a great job of getting this over as Flair's last chance. He was older but, bah gawd, he was still the best damn wrestler who ever lived. Only Flair, and Flair alone, could end The Monster They Call Vader's year-long path of destruction. Why even that lovable maniac Cactus Jack failed to take down the monster when he had all the incentive in the world! But Slick Ric did! WOOOO! And all was well in The Magical Land of WCW.
Flair & Arn vs. Blondes was Flair's return match and I was all in on the Horsemen opening up a can of whoop ass on those good fer nothin' jerk Blondes.
Masters of the Powerbomb vs. Sting & Bulldog had the AMAZING mini-movie with beach volleyball, kids, and Cheatum the Evil Midget trying to blow up a boat. Anybody who ever saw that cinematic masterpiece would surely be ready to part with all their dimes. I was no exception.

1994- Undertaker vs. Undertaker- Summerslam- Aww man. I was all in and then some on this one. The ultimate Taker freak show battle....at least until Kane came along. Way bigger than even Taker/Kamala or Taker/Gonzalez for me. I loved the comic bookness of it with Undertaker having to take on his evil twin. Plus you had the Taker/Dibiase history. And Undertaker sightings~! And Taker returning 7 months later from his ascension to heaven. Biggest draw for me since Hogan/Warrior, maybe even surpassing that since this time I actually liked both guys rather than loathing them. Even non-wrestling fans (I didn't know many wrestling fans during this time) knew about this feud, and were into it. This is another one where I was SHOCKED to learn people disliked it when I got online. 

WWF Honorable Mentions- Bret vs. Owen- Summerslam, Bret vs. Mr. Backlund- Survivor Series, Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz vs. Anyone

Bret/Owen Summerslam had a great 9 month build. Their slow burn breakup was great. Bret had been a fighting champ defeating all comers. But Owen had been building himself up by winning KOTR (just like Bret) and actually beating Bret on the very night "The Hitman" regained the WWF Title. I thought Owen had at least a 50/50 shot at winning this and escaping Bret's shadow once and for all. This would take the top prize most years. Yet it wasn't even the top draw of this particular Summerslam for me.
Bret/Backlund is similar to Bret/Owen in that Mr. Backlund had been built so well during his own middle aged and crazy stint that I gave him a shot at taking the title. Now I was still 90% sure Bret would retain, but the Mr. Backlund superpush cast some doubt on the outcome. And then he did it! All hail Mr. Backlund! All hail The King of Harts!
Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz was the original Avatar in that I was super intrigued by the character but never got to see him wrestle until well after the initial buzz had worn off. Hell, for the longest time I thought he had no televised matches. Turns out he had at least one. Still think "evil baseball player" is a potentially great gimmick. Of course, keep in mind I also loved the teacher and the pirate, thought the hog farmer was pretty cool, and don't think I ever met a wrestling aristocrat I didn't like.

1994 Other- Ric Flair vs. Lord Steven Regal- Marquis of Queensbury Series- My two favorite WCW wrestlers in a novel concept. The MoQ series consisted of 5 mini-matches on Worldwide over a 5 week span. A scoring system was involved. Regal was winning on points until Flair scored the pinfall to win the whole thing in the 5th and final match. I admit to being a little bummed out when Flair pulled it off. For probably the first time ever I was actually rooting against Naitch. It was Regal's specialty match, dammit! "When did Ric Flair turn into Hulk Hogan?"- 1994 Me. I was hoping Regal won this to set up a WCW Title program. Imagine if they had went with Flair vs. His Lordship instead of Flair vs. Hogan. WCW would have got all my dimes!.....and likely went out of business long before 2001 

Other Honorable Mention- Flair vs. Steamboat- Spring Stampede

I wasn't super into their 1989 feud, and certainly didn't think of it as "legendary," or really even remember it at all. But WCW did a great job at making that previous feud seem like a big deal during the hype for this one, which turned this match into a draw.

*Feeling under the weather so I'm just gonna keep knocking these out until I pass out again.

*I'm gonna skip 95 & 96 for now since there was a point where literally every Raw main event, most Superstars main events, at least 3 matches per PPV, and a bunch of WCW stuff were at least 8/10 draws. The Listmania will be immense. So I'll come back to those two years later.

1997 Bret vs. Michaels- Survivor Series- My favorite wrestler vs. my least favorite WWF wrestler in a match 20 months in the making. Oh yeah. You better believe I was all in on this one even before those awful rumors of Bret leaving (say it ain't so!) started.

1997 Other- Barely Legal- Bit of a cheat but finally seeing ECW itself after 17 months of hype was the big draw for me here. The fact that it featured such hyped matches as Taz vs. Sabu and the Funk/Sandman/Stevie/Raven story was just the cherry on top. 

Honorable Mentions- Bret vs. Undertaker- Summerslam, Michaels vs. Undertaker- Badd Blood, Canadian Stampede 10 Man Tag, Mankind vs. HHH- Summerslam
1997 Bret could do no wrong in my eyes. Attempting to regain his WWF championship or wrestling in front of his home crowd just peaked my interest even more. Rarely have I ever wanted to see a face destroy a heel as much I wanted Taker to annihilate HBK in the first Hell In A Cell. The specter of Kane lurking in the background just peaked my interest even more. Mankind vs. HHH was just a classic good guy vs. bad guy feud with me responding the "right" way for a change.

1998- Undertaker vs. Kane- Wrestlemania- The last great Undertaker Monster Mash had been built forever. The most "must see" match on a show full of must see matches.

1998 Other- Shane Douglas vs. Al Snow- ECW Wrestlepalooza- My man Leif had inexplicably caught fire, going from worst to first. Not only that, but he was about to dethrone my most hated ECW wrestler for the coveted ECW championship. I couldn't have scripted it better myself. Probably the ECW match I was most hyped for in real time. Too bad it turned out to be a letdown of Gobbledygookeresque proportions.

Honorable Mentions- New Age Outlaws vs. Hardcore Legends- Wrestlemania, Austin vs. Undertaker- Summerslam, Triple Threat vs. New Triple Threat- ECW
Outlaws vs. Hardcore Legends is another classic heel vs. face feud where I desperately wanted to see the good guys wreck the baddies, sending them back to jobberdom forever. Austin/Taker was the closest thing the Attitude Era ever had to a Hogan/Warrior style Clash of the Titans. New Triple Threat were simply three of the coolest, most badass dudes in wrestling. Plus I loathed the "real" Triple Threat.

1999- Rock vs. Mankind- Raw 1/4- WWF took the odd approach of announcing Foley had won the title on their website. It paid off. I simply HAD to see how the most deserving world champion in history finally won the big one. Bonus points for the other channel featuring two geezers who "couldn't wrestle" having a great big circle jerk while Shillvone bashing one of the most beloved wrestlers of all time backfires, causing a million wrestling fans to change the channel. This is the ultimate "WCW deserved to go out of business" moment.

1999 Other- Taz vs. Shane Douglas- Unlike Snow, Taz did not let me down in the 1b. most hyped ECW match of my real time fandom as he ended the original Reign of Doom. Hmm.....could shitty, overly long title reigns be another example of HHH copying "The Franchise?" 

Honorable Mentions- Higher Power reveal, Hardys vs. Edge & Christian- No Mercy Ladder Match, Mankind vs. Big Show- Wrestlemania, RVD vs. Lynn- August ECW Arena

I already loved the Hardyz, and liked E&C. I knew they could tear down the house if given the time. The only question is would they be given the time? Thankfully they were, and the WWF tag division, if not WWF wrestling itself, was forever changed. I was weirdly hyped for Mankind/Show due to Mankind's willingness to die and (stupidly) thinking Show still possessed his 1996 badass skillz. I thought this was gonna be something like Taker/Mankind Hell In A Cell. Boy was I wrong. RVD/Lynn was the rare ECW Arena match announced ahead of time. They already had two MOTYC. I thought this would be a 3rd, plus the end of RVD's long, memorable ECW TV Title run. 

2000- Triple H vs. Cactus Jack- No Way Out- Hell In A Cell- They had the Match of the Decade the previous month at Royal Rumble. HHH was now a made man and Cactus was crazier than ever. With the title vs. retirement stip in HIAC I thought this was bound to be another instant classic capped off by the feel good moment of Foley winning the title. Surely there's no way he'll retire at the height of his popularity?!?! Well, it was a classic match, but my man came up short, and was forced to retire (for 6 weeks because Attitude Era). 

2000 Other- Steve Corino vs. Justin Credible- ECW TV Taping August- Another rare ECW non-PPV match announced ahead of time. My interest in the promotion was rapidly fading. By this point I was more of a Steve Corino Fan than an ECW Fan. And here we have my guy going for the title against the hated Aldo. Surely THIS Reign of Doom would come to an end just as Shane's did against Taz the previous year. Nope. Credible retained. And this is the moment where my waning interest in ECW died once and for all.

Honorable Mentions- Any PPV Gimmick Match involving a combination of Hardyz, E&C, Dudleyz. Any PPV match involving a combination of HHH/Angle/Rock/Cactus. Plus Angle vs. ?? (Tazz) and NAO vs. APA at Royal Rumble

Umm...yeah...that's like 15 matches. So I was really into 2000 WWF, ok? 

2001- Austin vs. HHH- No Way Out- Three Stages of Hell- For some reason I (wisely) dismissed their Survivor Series 2000 DUD as an anomaly. The stipulation alone made this feel like an epic going in. And they delivered huge this time around. Total war with one of my all time favorite finishes.

2001 Other- Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki- ECWA November- Daniels had long been my indy hero. Ki was the Sabu of the 2001 indie scene. I drove to Delaware solely to see this match. I was not disappointed. And I now had a new thing to fill that void in my wrestling life caused by the death of ECW (and WOW!). 

Honorable Mentions- HHH vs. Undertaker- Wrestlemania, Angle vs. RVD vs. Austin- No Mercy, TLC- Wrestlemania, Angle vs. Austin- Unforgiven

HHH/Taker had a great build. Taker had never lost at 'Mania (first time The Streak became a thing!) and he was also the one guy HHH had yet to beat. Something had to give here. I was all in on the red hot RVD getting his first major title shot in a Triple Threat against Austin & Angle, two red hot greats in their own right. TLC matches between those 3 teams were starting to get the tiniest bit old but you knew they'd deliver a crazy actionfest back when I still loved such things. Angle/Austin was destined to be Kurt's coronation in his hometown less than two weeks after 9/11. This should have been one of the biggest things ever but for some reason I thought it ended up falling a little flat. 

*It's worth noting that not a single "proper" Invasion match even made my list of Honorable Mentions. Just goes to show what a cock up the Invasion turned out to be. WWF vs. WCW had been the ultimate fanfic-type thing in my mind since late '95, and even longer for many fans. Now WWF had the chance to FINALLY make it happened. And it turned out to be a dud of colossal proportions. Sad.

2002- HHH vs. RVD- Unforgiven- I had turned on HHH a little by this point. Simply giving him a made up title was a step too far. Meanwhile, I loved RVD more than ever. So in a throwback to my 90s self I talked myself into thinking RVD was winning this one. Plus it had been my dream match since some point in 2000. Obviously I didn't know about style clashes yet as this didn't come close to living up to expectations and the wrong guy won. Boo!

2002 Other- Ki vs. Dragon vs. Daniels- ROH- Yep. The very first ROH main event was the alternative wrestling match I was most hyped for in 2002.

Honorable Mentions- Flair vs. Taker- Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, HHH's Return, Benoit vs. Angle- Unforgiven, Billy & Chuck vs. 3 Minute Warning- Unforgiven

Flair vs. Taker featured two first ballot Hall of Famers in a Wrestlemania dream match with a great old school build. This Royal Rumble may have been the most star studded in history as it featured cool returns (Mr. Perfect!), major stars, WCW & ECW guys, and a recently returned HHH. Speaking of HHH's return, that would have been my 2002 winner had it been a match. I was beyond hyped for "The Game" coming back. Benoit/Angle is sort of a shoutout to the Smackdown Six as a whole, but it also was the SD6 match I was most hyped for. I was weirdly into the B&C vs. 3MW feud based on the awesome wedding angle.

2003- Raven vs. Jarrett- TNA 4/30- Only the 2nd ever non-WWF winner. The hype for this was off the charts. In fact, so great was the hype that this weekly PPV match held the TNA buyrate record for the longest time, even well into TNA's monthly PPV phase. It was 3 months in the making and the biggest possible "star" match TNA could have put on at the time. Plus Raven and especially JJ were longtime favorites of mine. My friend Bryan and I seriously considered driving to Nashville to see this. Good thing we didn't since yet another match I was hyped for turned out to be a disappointment, and the "wrong" guy won. 

2003 WWE- Either Angle vs. Benoit- Royal Rumble or Angle vs. Brock- Summerslam- Benoit/Angle was an anticipated ***** classic that delivered, and coupled with the HHH/Steiner dud, proved once and for all that Smackdown was the superior brand, which was something I weirdly cared entirely too much about during this period. Brock vs. Angle was just a good old fashioned beloved righteous babyface vs. hated dick heel match where I sided 100% with the babyface. 

Honorable Mentions- Daniels vs. Joe- ROH 9/20, AMW vs. XXX- TNA June Cage Match, Great Muta @ ROH Final Battle

Joe vs. Daniels was the ROH match I had waited months for. Was convinced Joe was merely a placeholder champ and this would be Daniels long-awaited coronation. Was gutted when I had to miss this show for reasons. Luckily Joe retained because I'd still be kicking myself had I missed Daniels big moment. AMW was the best tag team in wrestling. XXX rarely failed to deliver. And now they were taking it to the XTREME~! in a cage match. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd get to see the Great Muta live, but ROH made it happen.

2004- Benoit vs. HHH vs. HBK- Wrestlemania- The culmination of Benoit's loooong journey to the title and the coolest thing about it was how my Benoit fandom grew over the years as he got closer and closer to the title. I was all in on Benoit as champ since his Rumble classic w/ Angle the previous year. 

Other- The Teddy Hart Experience- Various Indies- Another cheat here but Teddy Hart, period, was the biggest alternative wrestling draw for me in 2004 and it wasn't even close. 2004 Teddy > 2004 ROH & TNA and I LIKED those promotions! Didn't matter who the Tedster was wrestling. I had to be there. The Teddy matches I ended up seeing live were a 3 Way w/ Evans & Petey for CZW, and a disappointing sub-10 minute brawl w/ Homicide all the way in New f'n Jersey. But those were just circumstantial. It could have been Teddy vs. Anyone within a 150 mile radius and I'd want to be there. The one I most regret missing out on is Teddy/Acid from CZW with one of the loudest indie crowds ever. Fwiw the Teddy/Homicide match in Jersey is the furthest I ever traveled to see a wrestling show. So does that make Teddy the greatest draw of them all? Maybe it does....

Honorable Mentions- Cactus vs. Orton- Backlash, Joe vs. Punk III- ROH, AMW vs. XXX- TNA Turning Point, Midnight Express @ ROH, Undertaker vs. Kane- WM

Cactus/Orton was Cactus/HHH 2.0 in build and result. It ruled the first time around and it ruled again here. Loved Cactus. Hated Orton. Plus this had the added bonus of Cactus coming out of retirement for his first big singles match in 4 years. Right up there w/ the WM 3 Way for THE draw of the year.
Joe/Punk III had a great build coming off two hour long draws. I hated Punk with a passion and usually rooted against Joe. Yet I still had major interest in this one. Call it sort of an indie version of Hogan/Warrior in the weirdest comparison ever   
See the 2003 entry for AMW/XXX. Rinse and repeat,
Like Muta the previous year, I never, ever thought I'd get to see the GOAT Tag Team (and Dennis Condrey) live, but ROH made it happen.
Taker/Kane was the last of the old school "Taker returns from the dead" matches that worked so well for me in the 90s. Plus this one had the added bonus of Taker reverting back to Proper Taker after 4 years of BikerTaker. Too bad it sucked.

Bret Hart vs. HBK at Survivor Series 1997. WWE was still finding it's way overall but their main event scene was red hot and all the animosity between Bret and Shawn really resonated on tv then throw in the fact that it was Bret's last show and wondering how that would all play out.

Hogan vs. Warrior at Wrestlemania 6. My young little brain could barely fathom the idea of these two going toe to toe and one would have to lose. One hell of a hook right there.

Rock vs. Austin at Mania 17. This was the next generation of Hogan/Warrior only with a better work rate. You had the two hottest babyfaces in the company going at it. Yeah it had a little taken off of it knowing that Rocky was leaving for hollywood but that is the only drawback.

Sting vs. Hogan at Starrcade 97. Probably the best built feud in wrestling history. I don't care if it was between two old fogies like Sting and Hogan, both guys played their part to perfection...then had it shit on with the horrible conclusion. Still not sure who was to blame but I have a strong feeling that Mr. "I only used my creative control card once" had a strong hand in having Sting look like a bitch. Maybe not but it was just weird. The whole structure of the match made Sting look inferior to the almighty hulkster.

Other mentions... Samoa Joe vs. Kobashi in ROH. Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle first match in TNA. Human Tornado vs Chris Hero in PWG.

A bunch of Undertaker matches, the match against Kane at Mania XIV, Undertaker vs Undertaker, Undertaker vs Yokozuna Casket Match 2 starring Chuck Norris, my fucking mind was blown with hype for those matches, would have given a body part to be able to see those at the time they happened.

I'll try to limit it to (mostly) those not mentioned yet:

Austin vs. Bret (Survivor Series '96): This was the first WWF match I was really pumped for in a long time. They went the HBO Boxing route with that build, and I couldn't wait to see it.

Bret vs. Owen (Wrestlemania X): Legendary build, and I happened to convince my pops to buy Wrestlemania tickets that year.

Bret vs. Flair (Souled Out '98): I can't describe the feelings me and my friends had before Bret's WCW debut match. It was so intriguing because it was such an absurd notion that he would ever be there. Even without the Screwjob, it was odd to picture, and then after, it was like what the fuck is this going to be? Anyway, I really wanted to see it.

Sabu & RVD vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki (Heatwave '98). ECW sold it well as a dream match with Hayabusa highlights that in a pre-YouTube world was mindblowing. I had to see this.

Sting vs. Jake Roberts (Halloween Havoc '92): Don't laugh, but this was the first well done "he doesn't work here!" angle I had ever seen with the Snake's surprise WCW debut, and then I had to see what the fuck Spinning the Wheel would bring up.

War Games 1992: I had seen War Games '91 sort of by accident, was just at my dad's house the night it aired, he had free PPV and I experienced one of the great gimmick matches ever for the first time, so by the time 1992 came around, and I knew what War Games brought to the dance, I really wanted to see this. I had also watched that year's SuperBrawl a bunch of times in the lead up, so I was totally invested in the Dangerous Alliance vs. WCW.

Austin vs. Vince (the first match on Raw): Don't let DX fool you, this is where the war was won.

Austin vs. 'Taker (SummerSlam '98): Those Highway to Hell/WWF music videos had me fired up for the whole show, but this was the match, man. This seemed way bigger than Austin vs. Michaels at Wrestlemania.

'Taker vs. Michaels (Hell in a Cell): Like War Games, I had to see what this crazy gimmick match would bring. I should have been equally fired up for the second Hell in a Cell with Mick Motherfucking Foley, but I was cynical about sequels never living up the first one and didn't even watch it. Bet your ass I was watching the Tuesday replay after I heard about that insanity.

Sabu vs. Terry Funk (Born To Be Wired): *Phantom of the Opera music* "There are those who say that the Terry Funk-Sabu barbed wire match was too extreme even for ECW and we would be hard pressed not to agree." The greatest ECW home video ad of all time, I had to see this.

I'm sure there are many lesser remembered matches that I HAD to see, but just don't remember having to see at the moment.

This won't be in any sort of order, but fuck it.

As much of a raging Lesnar mark as I was in 2002, him winning the Undisputed Title felt like a foredrawn conclusion heading into SummerSlam that year. Rock was a full-time part-timer by this point, so you knew he wasn't sticking around. But that said, Brock was so young/green/new on the scene... There was a bit of disbelief that WWE would go through with actually putting the belt on him. Then the hype videos for the buildup sealed the deal. I HAD to see Rock vs. Brock @ SummerSlam '02.

Funnily enough though, that isn't the match I had to see the most from that very same PPV. Shawn's return earlier in the year felt great but empty because it felt so certain that he'd never set foot in the ring again as a wrestler. Then the nWo thankfully died, and they ran that DX dissension angle with HHH. I was still in disbelief though. I was thinking maybe it was just a way to write Shawn off and turn HHH heel. But then we quickly learned that you don't hunt what you can't kill (even before Shawn tried to make that a catchphrase). Even more so than Rock/Brock or Rock/Hogan, I HAD to see HHH vs. HBK @ SummerSlam '02.

Jumping forward, I *had* to see Lesnar vs. Benoit II at 'Mania XX... Not getting the ultimate payoff to that storyline went a long way toward turning me off of contemporary WWE. Instead, as WWE trudged defiantly ahead into worse and worse mediocrity, I retreated into nostalgia and revisionist history.

Summerslam 1992, Wembly Stadium, Davey Boy Smith vs Bret Hart. Little Kash was litterally salivaiting at the thought of seeing his first wrestling hero winning the IC title in his home country.

Skipping 2005 for now. Oddly enough, the years with the most matches I HAD to see are 95, 96, 2000 and.....2005. One of these is not like the others. Chalk it up to being into 4 promotions instead of the usual 2 or 3, I guess.

2006- RVD vs. Cena- One Night Stand 2: Electric Boogaloo- I was a rabid anti-Cenite and who better to end my pain than longtime favorite RVD in front of a partisan "hometown" crowd? It's like they booked this just for me. Too bad I had some problems with the way the match went down, and this is actually where I started to come around on Cena just the teeniest, tiniest bit. 

Other- Joe vs. Angle- TNA- I was drifting away from alternative wrestling after a 2005 peak. Just didn't have the time for it anymore. This match drew me back in for a minute. Longtime favorite Angle leaving WWE was such a shock at the time. And TNA wisely paired him up with a still-hot Joe  who was in the midst of a long Tatanka-length undefeated streak. A true dream match, and one which still holds the all time TNA buyrate record (finally beating JJ/Raven, perhaps?). 

Honorable Mentions- HHH vs. Cena- Wrestlemania, Undertaker vs. Angle- No Way Out, DX vs. Spirit Squad & Flair vs. Foley- Vengeance

A surprising amount of draws for a year where I was drifting away from wrestling. Hell, even Foley/Edge, King Booker/Rey (Book goes for the title), and the initial novelty of seeing ECW guys on WWE programming (mainly Sabu) could go here. It's just that I didn't give a crap about most everything else. Anyway, HHH/Cena would have won the year had it not been for RVD/Cena. Taker/Angle was in Baltimore and I'm still kicking myself for not going as I fully expected the classic they delivered. I was weirdly into the DX comeback after loathing them back in the day. Plus the Sprit Squad were my boys. Match sucked (not sure what I was expecting, tbh) and that killed the rebooted DX for me. Was really into Flair/Foley at first but, again, this match killed my interest. Vengeance 2006 has to be in the running for biggest PPV letdown ever.

2007- HBK vs. Cena- Wrestlemania- After an awful 2006 from a quality/me caring standpoint, HBK regained his mojo again the instant HHH reinjured his quad. Plus Cena was still Cena (that "coming around" from the previous year was only like a boost to 2/10 from 1/10  :lol: ). So I had to see this (at a sports bar). Was gutted when HBK failed to seal the deal. The entire bar just died when Cena won  :lol:  It was amazing. 

Other- James Storm vs. Chris Harris- TNA- The brawl, not the blindfold match. Again, wasn't really into any non-WWE wrestling, but this drew me in based on being a longtime AMW fan. One of the best matches in TNA history. Michaels & Jannetty never had a bout this good.

Honorable Mentions- Royal Rumble, Undertaker vs. Batista- post Wrestlemania matches, HHH/King Booker- Summerslam

Pretty slim pickings here. I was intrigued by the Rumble as for once there was no clear cut winner. I was all about the vetetrans during this period and thought Shawn or Taker had as good a chance as anyone to take it. Loved their finishing confrontation. Got my money's worth. I slept on Taker & Dave's miracle 'Mania match going in so I made up for it by getting hyped for all their subsequent matches. In typical Baker fashion, my interest picked up as the match quality declined. Booker was a big time personal favorite in 06-07 and a returning Trips still worked for me (though nowhere near 2000 levels) so I was into this Clash of Kings. Matt/MVP would go here had Matt's untimely injury not postponed their big match until well into 2008 when my interest had declined a considerable amount. ECW Originals vs. New Breed- Wrestlemania was also a solid 6/10 draw which may not have meant much a few years earlier but is a pretty big draw for this time period.

2008- Michaels vs. Flair- Wrestlemania- The furthest I ever went to see a pro wrestling show was about a 2 hour drive to see Teddy Hart in New Jersey. 3 times I considered making a longer journey- Raven/Jarrett in Nashville for TNA, Matt Hardy/Daniels in Connecticut for ROH, and Flair/Michaels in Florida which also would have been my first (and only) live Wrestlemania. Flair/Michaels is the only one of the three I still regret missing out on today. Should have been there to see the GOATs last hurrah. Oh well. Obviously watched it live, of course. Wrestling was never really the same again for me without Naitch (TNA doesn't count).

Other- ?? Nothing captured my interest

Honorable Mentions- Jeff Hardy vs. Orton & JBL vs. Jericho- Royal Rumble, HBK vs. Jericho- Multiple, Edge vs. Taker- Summerslam

Hardymania had taken the WWE by storm and I was all in despite it not even being the best Hardy. Jeff got insanely, almost Daniel Bryan-level popular, for a few months there. It was crazy and I went along for the ride even if I hadn't previously cared about Jeff since like 2000. Was pumped for him to take the title from the always-hated Randy Boreton. And then he lost. Shame. Jericho had returned to much fanfare in late 2007 but who cares about that because THE WRESTLING GOD IS BACK!!!! YES!!! BUSINESS IS ABOUT TO PICK UP! Match sucked but, again, who cares because JBL HATH RETURNED! I was into all the Spawn of Flair stuff with HBK/Batista and especially HBK/Jericho. Just a classic babyface vs. heel feud with both guys at the peak of their powers. "Classic babyface vs. heel feud with both guys at the peak of their powers" could also aptly describe the Edge/Taker rivalry, and this one ended the way all big WWE feuds should- inside Hell In A Cell.

2009- Undertaker vs. Michaels- Wrestlemania- One of the wisest booking decisions WWE made in the 2000s was somehow managing to postpone this bonafide dream match for so long. Until their awesome 2007 Rumble encounter (GOAT Rumble finish) they hadn't met since Royal Rumble 1998. And then WWE STILL managed to put off one of the last big dream matches for another two years. So I, like practically every other wrestling fan out there, was salivating when they finally did get around to booking it. Probably the last ever 10/10 draw for me is a match that actually went a long way to putting me off of wrestling. Everybody else was going on about how it was a ***** instant classic while I'm sitting here thinking it was better the first time around when it was called Michaels vs. Angle. Kind of figured if I couldn't even enjoy THAT what could I enjoy? So I pretty much stopped watching wrestling for a few years.

Other- N/A

Honorable Mentions- HBK vs. JBL- Royal Rumble, Jericho vs. Steamboat- Wrestlemania?

HBK/JBL was a match between two longtime favorites with a cool build and the novelty of Steamboat coming back to wrestle a red hot Jericho- also cool.

--------------------------

The entire concept of a draw changes at this point. Now instead of a match I HAVE to see going in it becomes a match I might bother to get up off my ass and look up on Youtube a few days later if I'm bored. 

2010- N/A

2011- Lawler vs. Miz- Hadn't watched or even followed wrestling in nearly two years when I heard about this on the radio, of all places. "Holy Shit! Jerry Lawler is wrestling for the WWE Title in 2011! I gotta see this!"- 2011 Me. And then a few seconds later...."But why John Morrison's luggage the WWE Champion?!? Did I mishear that?- Also 2011 Me. This match actually kinda sorta brought me back to wrestling for a month or two. I remember watching parts of that year's Elimination Chamber & 'Mania on a shitty stream, for example.

2012- N/A

2013- Cody & Goldust vs. Shield- Read about Goldust's comeback on PW and elsewhere. Was intrigued. Watched both their matches. The 2nd one ruled.
Honorable Mention- Goldust vs. Orton- Raw

2014- Wyatt Family vs. Shield- Elimination Chamber- Bray Wyatt was my dude during this period. Like 75% of the wrestling I watched in 13-14 involved him in some way. Plus I liked Rollins & Reigns in the Shield. The hype for this was so great that it even reached the periphery of the modern wrestling bubble where I resided.
Honorable Mention- Cena vs. Wyatt- Wrestlemania &/or That Other One

2015- Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe- ROH- I was a fairly regular ROH viewer at the time. This double title match had a great build. Babyface Briscoe was the ROH champ who hadn't been pinned in two years. Heel Lethal had been TV champ for over a year and he'd been slowly but surely putting his title over as the company's most important while calling Briscoe out more and more as time went on.  

Honorable Mention- Yano vs. Tanahashi Blowoff- New Japan- Yano was a master trickster and the most consistently entertaining man in wrestling. Tanahashi was the company's ace and my favorite of the New Japan Big 3. Yano kept getting the better of Tanahashi. This was Tanahashi's shot at revenge.
*I think this took place in 2015, anyway. Hope I'm not wrong!  :lol:

2016- Broken Matt Hardy vs. Brother Nero- TNA Final Deletion- Basically my New Generation Wrestling fanfic come to life and probably the best thing wrestling has seen in years.

Honorable Mentions- Broken Hardys vs. Decay- TNA Delete or Decay, Whitmer vs. Corino- ROH

Delete or Decay is probably the 2nd best thing wrestling has seen in ages. Corino/Whitmer was a match years in the making with old school build between two guys who hated one another.

2017- Either Broken Hardys vs. Young Bucks- ROH or Hardys return to WWE- Wrestlemania

*I'll do 95, 96, 05 and elaborate more on 2000 tomorrow. Not that anybody reads all this gibberish anyway  :lol:

1989- Flair vs. Funk- Great American Bash- An extremely rare non-WWF winner. I was enthralled by this feud. It was the first feud where I loved both guys. Sure I wanted My Hero Flair to get revenge, but that middle aged and crazy nutter Terry Funk ruled almost just as hard as Naitch. Begged my parents to take me to this show. They declined. So naturally it was one of the first matches I sought out when I went into my "rent a wrestling tape every weekend" phase in 95-96. I was not disappointed.

I've yet to see this match, but I was really looking forward to the Clash 89 match. I mentioned it during the WCW countdown thread that the company was stuck in '89 and that comes back to a Flair/Funk feud from 2000 where they constantly referenced this match and made it out to be the HBK/Hart aka the perceived greatest match of all-time. It featured on that really good Clash set and I recall enjoying it more than most.

Hogan/Flair Bash at The Beach

On TNT/TCM they would constantly play old ads hyping this match up. Watching the parade at Disney, the contract signing and the promos really provided some nice context to the show, and made the match up to be the ultimate goal for WCW at that point in time. Even in 2000, I thought it was cool to get that history lesson.

Hogan/Sting Starrcade

Even years after the fact, this is still my favourite build up of all-time. Kane/Taker and Jack/HHH take the silver and bronze.

1999- Rock vs. Mankind- Raw 1/4- WWF took the odd approach of announcing Foley had won the title on their website. It paid off. I simply HAD to see how the most deserving world champion in history finally won the big one. Bonus points for the other channel featuring two geezers who "couldn't wrestle" having a great big circle jerk while Shillvone bashing one of the most beloved wrestlers of all time backfires, causing a million wrestling fans to change the channel. This is the ultimate "WCW deserved to go out of business" moment.

That's a great shout. This is one of those matches I had to go back and see, not only because of the mark out moment but because of the huge pop. For my money, it's still the biggest pop of all-time.

2001- Austin vs. HHH- No Way Out- Three Stages of Hell- For some reason I (wisely) dismissed their Survivor Series 2000 DUD as an anomaly. The stipulation alone made this feel like an epic going in. And they delivered huge this time around. Total war with one of my all time favorite finishes.

This match felt bigger than the Wrestlemania main event. Not only was it the conclusion of their rivalry, but going in you just knew they were going to go all-out after their disappointing encounters in 1999 and 2000. An all-out war that more than lived up to the hype and led into the Austin heel turn as self doubt started to creep in.

2002- HHH vs. RVD- Unforgiven- I had turned on HHH a little by this point. Simply giving him a made up title was a step too far. Meanwhile, I loved RVD more than ever. So in a throwback to my 90s self I talked myself into thinking RVD was winning this one. Plus it had been my dream match since some point in 2000. Obviously I didn't know about style clashes yet as this didn't come close to living up to expectations and the wrong guy won. Boo!

You and me both, although this was the third time I was convinced they were going to put the championship on RVD. The first time was at No Mercy 01 after I read a cool theory about RVD winning the championship, splintering the Alliance, allowing WCW and ECW to be their own separate entities. RVD would hold the championship and Heyman would serve as the mouthpiece to preserve the angle longer. The second was when he faced off against The Undertaker on Monday Night Raw for the Championship and they did the fake finish with the title. Not only did I think he won it, I thought it was a test like Jericho's and it would only be a matter of time until they finally pulled the trigger. Then there was this match which I was OK with under the proviso that this was RVD's coronation moment, it wasn't and instead became the starting point for Evolution which I hated. Hell, I was convinced that RVD was going to win the Royal Rumble and challenge HBK (and when HBK lost it, HHH) for the title. My optimism had completely eroded by the time he and Kane became a full-time tag team and he became the new X-Pac.

Of all the 2002 RVD matches, his match against HBK on Raw seemed like a dream match. But then it never really got going and I can't recall them having too many matches after that.

I'd say TLC IV was my pick for 2002. Raw was aired on delay down here, so I remember reading about how amazing the Las Vegas edition was and couldn't wait to see the match. It's been forgotten over time, but I maintain it's still one of the greatest Raw matches in history.

Benoit/Angle was an anticipated ***** classic that delivered, and coupled with the HHH/Steiner dud, proved once and for all that Smackdown was the superior brand, which was something I weirdly cared entirely too much about during this period.

So did I, but that was largely because we didn't have SD from July of 02 to August of 03. I was convinced anyone who preferred SD was just being a hipster and there was no way the B Brand could be better than a show that had Austin, Rock, HBK, RVD, Goldberg, Jericho and Foley on it. It didn't help that whenever I read about SmackDown, it was about the stupid Mr. America storyline, all the silly McMahon angles and Brock squashing Indy darlings (Paul London in 2003 was the next HBK according to the dezians of GameFAQs).

Austin vs. 'Taker (SummerSlam '98): Those Highway to Hell/WWF music videos had me fired up for the whole show, but this was the match, man. This seemed way bigger than Austin vs. Michaels at Wrestlemania.

I'm reconsidering those medals. Austin/Taker was huge and piggybacked nicely off the Kane/Taker feud and worked on multiple levels. The match probably lost some luster after they managed to drag it out for another year to diminishing returns, but Austin/Taker was arguably the biggest match of the 90s.

Funnily enough though, that isn't the match I had to see the most from that very same PPV. Shawn's return earlier in the year felt great but empty because it felt so certain that he'd never set foot in the ring again as a wrestler. Then the nWo thankfully died, and they ran that DX dissension angle with HHH. I was still in disbelief though. I was thinking maybe it was just a way to write Shawn off and turn HHH heel. But then we quickly learned that you don't hunt what you can't kill (even before Shawn tried to make that a catchphrase). Even more so than Rock/Brock or Rock/Hogan, I HAD to see HHH vs. HBK @ SummerSlam '02.

It was crazy how quickly they got HBK over. He went from doing extremely little in the nWo (outside of giving Booker T one of the GOAT SCM) to all of a sudden becoming the biggest babyface in the company. It worked because you had all the elements. There was intrigue in watching HBK return, there was the catharsis of finally being allowed to boo HHH (something I wanted to do since the MSG return) and the build-up had been well done. I have issues with the match, but in terms of pure enjoyment, this was a blast.

1995

*Doing something different this time around. My fandom had never been greater than it was in 1995 going into 96. By about August, it got to the point where just about every Raw or Superstars featured at least one 7/10 draw, to say nothing for the pay per views. Plus I got into WCW again in September and they too had a bunch of must-see matches during the last few months of the year. So we're going Listmania for this one. Even a bunch of stuff that missed the cut would be a solid Honorable Mention in many years.

Winner- Goldust's Premiere- IYH October- I loved the old WWF introductory vignettes. They almost always got me into the characters and had me hyped to see their debut. And none were greater than Goldust. I HAD to be see it when The Golden One finally debuted regardless of when it happened or who his opponent was (fwiw, it turned out to be Marty Jannetty @ IYH October). Ironically I ended up missing that pay per view (ordering pay per views was still a bit of a crap shoot at this point) but my heart was in the right place. 

2. Bret Hart vs. Diesel- Survivor Series- The closest thing 1995 WWF had to a Hogan vs. Warrior Clash of the Titans deal. Diesel was nearing the one year anniversary of his own Reign of Doom. Yet Bret remained the uncrowned champ to many, including my cousin and best friend. Bret & Diesel had an inconclusive match earlier in the year. Something had to give here. Even though I was far from a Bret fan I was backing "The Hitman" all the way against the hated Diesel. This marked the beginning of the 15 month Great Bret Hart Reclamation Project where I sloooowly grew to love "The Hitman" again after being a hater since he turned on Jimmy Hart way back in 1988. Saw this one live. Was not disappointed.

3. Bret vs. Bulldog- IYH December- Bret had done it! But the rejoicing was brief because now he was going up against my man the Bulldog. This actually had a legit great build. Bulldog was red hot since turning heel in August. Commentary kept reminding us of Bulldog's win at Summerslam 92. Diana was backing Davey this time after being neutral last time around. Bret himself even admitted that Bulldog may very well have his number. So I went into this thinking Bulldog had a fair shot at winning. Plus there were Mark Wars~! with my Bret-loving cohorts. Ordered the show and also watched it on tape like a million times. Great match (blood!) even if the my guy didn't pull it off.

4. The Dean Debuts- Superstars 9/9- Same concept as Goldust @ #1. Fwiw, his opponent turned out to be The Kid- a much tougher debut opponent than usual.

5. Razor vs. Dean- Raw 12/4- In which Dean gets a shot at the IC Title. As soon as this was announced I knew where I was gonna be that Monday night. Wouldn't miss this for the world. The Mark Wars for this one were off the charts. My "friend" (more like a frenemy, really) Bryan (the portly fellow who was almost impossible to eliminate in backyard Rumbles) was the biggest Razor Ramon fanboy ever. I mean we had Bret fanboys, and Ahmed fanboys, even some Shawn & Diesel backers, and I was worse than any of them with my revolving band of heels, but Bryan's Razor luv was just ridiculous. So we went at it hard in the days preceding this one. It was bigger than a match. Pride was at stake. And I felt like the stars were aligned on my side. Dean had already beaten Razor. Razor took him down in the rematch. BUT Razor was also in the crosshairs of Sid & The Kid. So I convinced myself that the Million Dollar Duo were gonna cost Razor the match & the title. Sadly it was not to be. Razor won a short, almost squashy match, and I had to eat crow for a while. But the Great Baker vs. Bryan Mark War of 95-96 was far from over.....

6. Razor vs. Jarrett- Royal Rumble- Before The Dean was my awesome alliterative midcard heel of choice, there was Double J. I thought JJ had a fair shot at taking the belt from the already-hated Razor but I was still a few months away from PPV access. So I did the next best thing. I called my cousin to get the play by play   I was so pumped when I got the glorious news that Jarrett had done it. I may have even done some loud "YESSING" over the phone.

7. Razor vs. Owen- Raw 10/30- Same concept as Dean/Razor from a few spots above. This time it was long time favorite Owen winning a #1 IC Title contender battle royal the previous on week on Raw to set up the latest round of Mark Wars.

8. Michaels vs. Dean- IYH October- In which Dean challenges for the IC Title against the most hated man in wrestling not named Hulk Hogan. It's only this "low" because I didn't REALLY think The Dean (or anybody) was ever going to beat Golden Boy Michaels at this point. BUT the Dean had injured HBK with a sneak attack on Raw a few weeks before this, so at least there was the slightest chance of Douglas making the IC Title great again. I missed this PPV (also featuring Goldust's premiere), but perhaps that's a good thing in hindsight because seeing HBK back out of the match and Dean get the title only to have that damn Razor Ramon ruin everything with the aid of corrupt Commissioner Gorilla Monsoon would have made me beyond furious. There's even a(n admittedly slight) chance it would have killed some of my burgeoning WWF fanaticism.

9. Ahmed vs. Dean- IYH December- A real Clash of the Titans here....at least to my little clique   Once again the Mark Wars were in full effect with most everybody loving Ahmed while not recognizing the greatness of The Dean. Of course I had the complete opposite take as Dean ruled and the hated Ahmed was rapidly approaching Shawn Michaels-levels of loathing. This also felt like way too big a match to be thrown on an IYH PPV with little build. These were two of the hottest newcomers in the company! I would have totally accepted it as a big 'Mania match. Even though Ahmed had been presented as unbeatable I talked myself into thinking The Dean had a chance....or would at least deliver a righteous Board of Education-aided beatdown. See, because he had lost a bunch of big matches recently and after all that build there was no possible way they'd have him lose again, right? It sounded logical. Little did I know the office had already soured big time on The Dean. Anyway, I had to endure Douglas being replaced by that horrid Ric Flair ripoff, "Worst In The World" Buddy Landell. Things got even worse when that hack was squashed by Ahmed in under a minute. But who cares about that because DOUBLE J IS BACK!!! YES!!! And, even better, he gave that damn Ahmed a righteous beatdown! DOUBLE J! DOUBLE J! DOUBLE J! ***** segment.

10. Bret vs. Mr. Backlund/Undertaker vs. Bundy- Wrestlemania- Bit of a cheat but I had similar 8/10ish interest in both matches, they were both on the shame show, and I'm running out of room here. Bret/Backlund was a Submission Match blowoff to their long feud. I was backing my man Mr. Backlund. He lost and it sucked. But how was I supposed to know that going in? Taker/Bundy was another Taker Colossal Jostle and I've already explained how I was almost always into them. I didn't have a rooting interest in this one. Just wanted to see a Monster Mash. I obviously liked Taker but I was also still a Bundy Believer. Hey, a feud with Hogan that was big enough to main event Wrestlemania still went a long way in my eyes. Plus Bundy was fresh even though he was "old" since he hadn't been on tv for 6 years. This also sucked. And even in my mark days I should have realized that going in. Missed this show live because I still didn't have PPV access (though I'm fairly certain I called my cousin for play by play again). Finally watched it on tape late in the year.

*Damn. You know it's a deep year when such greats as Jean Pierre Lafitte, Lawler, Yokozuna, Horowitz, Hakushi, Avatar, HOG, Helmsley, Sid & The Kid couldn't even crack the list. 

*That went longer than expected. I'll come back to cover 1995 WCW tomorrow since the War Games entry alone is bound to be massive.

**Very Late Edit: Sid & Kid vs. Hakushi & Horowitz- Superstars 12/2 really should be on the list. The only reason it's not is because I thought it took place in early 1996 for some reason, and had a designated spot for it on that list. I was hugely into both teams and was thinking/hoping this was going to kick off the next great tag team feud. Perhaps with The Underdogs scoring the mighty upset?

Sting vs Bret at WCW Halloween Havoc 98 was another big one for me, and I can't lie, I was hyped as fuck for Hogan vs Warrior II. Add in DDP vs Goldberg and that show was must-scramblevision

Jan 14, 2018 5:13:31 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Sting vs Bret at WCW Halloween Havoc 98 was another big one for me, and I can't lie, I was hyped as fuck for Hogan vs Warrior II. Add in DDP vs Goldberg and that show was must-scramblevision

How bummed you must have been for Sting/Bret and Hogan/Warrior.  lol.  Hogan/Warrior is regarded as one of the worst matches of all time and Sting/Bret was a forgettable "dream" match.  But DDP vs. Goldberg was top notch...unless you got boned because WCW fucked up the timing the ppv feed ended before the match did. 

Halloween Havoc '98 was a Wrestlemania calibre card on paper. Not only did you have the matches Shin mentioned, but you also had Scott Hall vs Kevin Nash, the blow-off to the Rick Steiner vs Scott Steiner feud, Raven vs. Chris Jericho and a Cruiserweight double feature. Sure, it was a Disco Inferno double feature but he was up against prime Juvi and prime Kidman so it worked out.

I remember being blown away by the Steiners match and was so invested in everything. Bagwell interfered while wearing a Clinton mask, The Giant hit a missile dropkick and yet Rick still won the tag belts. I was looking forward to who his new tag team partner would be and why it didn't work out since one of the big storylines in early 1999 was the World Tag Team tournament. Instantly when I found out they gave it to some guy called Kenny Kaos, I realised it answered both those questions.

While some cards under-deliver, I still enjoy watching shows like Halloween Havoc '98 & Wrestlemania XX. If nothing else it just takes you back to that time and usually the production is top notch because they believe in what they're presenting (even if it doesn't pan out).

And on a separate note, I may have mentioned this before, but I enjoyed every single Halloween Havoc. Even the infamous '95 one has it's appeal (and isn't completely trash either).

1995 WCW/Other

*Since 1995 WWF got a post of its own I thought it only fair to do the same for 1995 alternative wrestling.

Winner- War Games- Fall Brawl- Storytime~! I was not a WCW fan from July 94-September 95. In fact, that period of WCW marked the first time ever in my eight glorious years as a wrestling fan where I actively CHOSE not to watch readily available wrestling on my television. Oh, I'd still give Worldwide a chance most every week. I mean, it came on right after Superstars. Why not give it a chance? But the tv would often be turned off after seeing what was in store for that episode- typically an endless parade of 80s WWF retreads with nuisances like Wright, DDP & Bagwell sprinkled in. The only WCW act I genuinely loved during that Dork Age were the Blue Bloods. I also dug the concept, though not the execution (again, way too many old WWF retreads), of the Dungeon of Doom. Yes, I was at the very least a quasi-DoD fan. On the other hand, even Flair had become just another guy after all those losses to Hogan, and the many embarrassing scenarios they put him in. And like all things WCW, the Flair vs. Savage feud was a lot cooler when it happened the first time years earlier in WWF. The episode of Worldwide that aired the day before Fall Brawl '95 changed all that....

A "breaking news"-style scroll appeared at the bottom of the screen where it would remain for the duration of the episode that made WCW great again. It read something like "DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL VADER HAS BEEN PULLED FROM THE UPCOMING WAR GAMES MATCH AT SUNDAY'S FALL BRAWL PAY PER VIEW. HE WILL BE REPLACED BY A RETURNING LEX LUGER." This really was big news befitting a "breaking news" style scroll. Lex Luger was back in WCW?!? And there's a War Games coming up!?! It lead to a conversation with whoever I was watching the show with (either my best friend Rick or cousin Jack. I forget.) They casually responded with something like "WWF & WCW must have made a trade- Luger for Vader." "What?!?" I responded, this whole concept of trades being entirely new to me. Then Rick or Jack proceeded to explain how trades between WWF & WCW happen all the time. They even rattled off a few of these trades as "proof." Sid for Rude from back in the day happens to be the one I remember. This concept made perfect sense to me. I mean it happened all the time in baseball, football and basketball. Why would wrestling be any different? I was kicking myself and feeling like a dummy for not having already known this. Being a day before the PPV, the show obviously featured a bunch of War Games hype. I guess the old "Hogan & SuperFriends vs. Monsters" story still held SOME appeal for me. Or maybe it was just a returning Luger & the novelty of War Games that captured my interest. I dunno. But Luger returning on a babyface dream team (albeit one I loathed) against the pretty cool Dungeon of Doom in a near-mythical WAR GAMES match became my first must-see WCW match in well over a year....

Later that day I met up with 3 wrestling fan brothers I had befriended over that summer. I had watched Summerslam at their house and they would be my best bet for ordering pay per views over the few months (a delicate process in those days that involved much sucking up to parents coupled with the occasional difficulties presented by rounding up $30). I told them about the BREAKING NEWS I had seen on WCW Worldwide and my interest in that War Games match at the upcoming pay per view. I also happened to make the mistake of telling them I had never seen a War Games match before. Their jaws dropped and this paraphrased conversation followed......

Brother #1- WHAT?!? YOU'VE never seen a War Games?!?
Brother #2- Oh, man! You don't know what you're missing!
Brother #3- War Games is like Royal Rumble....
Brother #1- And Survivor Series....
Brother #2- And a Cage Match....
All 3 Brothers Together- ALL ROLLED INTO ONE!
All 4 of us together- We HAVE to see this show!

And then I learned about the War Games where "Sid almost killed Pillman" (War Games 91). That had to be their collective favorite match. They were forever going on about that one. I also first learned about some badass giant called "Al Gontay" who ripped the cage door off to save his friend Pillman. Upon further questioning I discovered this "Al Gontay" character would later become Giant Gonzalez in WWF. The brothers then countered my skepticism by assuring me that "Al Gontay" was WAY cooler than Giant Gonzalez. Well, after all this hype it was settled. War Games was a 10/10 draw. And I was watching this pay per view even if I quite literally had to sacrifice an arm and a leg to do so.

And that's how after all those years it wasn't Flair and the Horsemen, or the Midnights, or Vader vs. Cactus, or the Dangerous Alliance, or Funk, or His Lordship, or even the dearly departed Black Scorpion who finally got me to order a WCW pay per view. Nope. It was Hulk Hogan, a post-Made In The USA Lex Luger, and the f'n Dungeon of Doom 

We did order the show. War Games itself was pretty meh. Hogan's squad (predictably) scored a relatively easy win. We did get a cool post-match with the Giant wreaking havoc and possibly breaking Hogan's neck with that neck snap move of his, which drew a gasp from me. This is where I first took notice of the Giant's badassery. It didn't last long this time around, though I'd buy into him even more a few months down the road.

This show is also where I first learned about Nitro and something called the American Males. I naturally thought Nitro simply meant American Gladiator Nitro had come to WCW....and perhaps he was in a tag team or stable called the American Males?    It would be another week or two before I realized Nitro was WCW's Monday Night answer to Raw and the American Males were just a tag team involving stupid Marcus Bagwell and his latest lame partner.

Even though War Games was a disappointment in the end, this show brought me back to WCW. There was that AMAZING Mr. Wonderful segment. I wanted to see where the Hogan/Giant thing went. I also got into the Flair/Arn/Pillman story. Started watching much more. Soon took to noobs and returning wrestlers like Benoit, Malenko, Norton & Disco Inferno, not to mention WCW's answer to Barry Horowitz in my man The Gambler. So this show had a big time net positive effect on my WCW fandom.

2. World War III- Shootist put it best- "60 men! 3 rings!" Allow me to add "For the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship with a Giant in every ring!" It was like a Royal Rumble, only bigger and better! Too bad it turned out to be an impossible-to-follow mess and massive letdown. But at least Hogan didn't win!

3. "Bob Boone Jr."- AWF (Where We Wrestle In Rounds)- After a week or two of 10/10 hype in my head rivaling even that of War Games or World War 3 it turns out the mythical Bob Boone Jr. is just 80s WWF heel midcarder Bob Orton. You cannot possibly realize how disappointed I was by this sub-Higher Power "reveal." I'm seriously talking like HBK/Vader, HHH/RVD, Douglas/Snow levels of disappointment here.

4. Flair vs. Arn- Fall Brawl- This actually wasn't the huge 10/10 draw for me that you might think, though it absolutely would have been had it happened a few months later after I had brushed up on NWA/WCW history via the Apter Mags and renting an old school NWA/WCW tape most every weekend. As I mentioned in the War Games writeup, Flair had become just another guy, and while I loved Arn's WWF Brainbusters run, and would support him on the rare occasions he was with Flair, for the most part I had always viewed him as just another guy. Sometimes he was good. Sometimes he was bad. Sometimes he won. Sometimes he lost. All in all he was well.....kind of boring, really. You also have to remember that Flair & Arn weren't quite as joined at the hip as history makes them out to be. Arn went to WWF. Then Flair went to WWF. They did the Horsemen reunion for a little while in '93. Then they went their separate ways again before coming back together a few months before this match. So they had really only been on screen associates for about 2.5 years in the 7 years preceding this- that's only about 36% of the time....AND I missed most of their 90-91 Horsemen run which comprised the bulk of that time. So Arn vs. Flair just wasn't THAT big a deal for me in September of '95. More like a 7/10 draw, and I feel like much of that had to do with the last minute hype. To their credit, WCW did a great job at making this seem huge. In a nice touch, they had a bunch of wrestlers at ringside to sell the historic nature of the bout. Heyman would end up doing this a lot in ECW but this match right here marked the first time I ever saw that particular gimmick used. This match also worked in that I was super interested in these two again and wanted to see what happened next. I also hated that jerk Pillman for ruining it.

5. Benoit vs. Kensuke Sasaki- World War III- One of those classic 95-96 things where I talked myself into thinking the guy I wanted to win really was going to win. Sasaki was US Champ. He was also a part-timer with commitments in Japan. Benoit had recently debuted as the newest Horsemen. He was all but unknown to mainstream US fans (I had entirely forgotten about his failed 1993 WCW run until he randomly came back with a big press conference to announce he was the 4th Horseman in what I initially viewed as an almost Paul Roma-esque Horsemen moment) with nowhere near the star power of Flair, Arn & Pillman. So I logically thought the newest Horsemen would get the rub by winning the US title from the part-timer to solidify himself as a big up and coming star. Plus he had a ready-made feud with Sting, whose primary rivalry was once again with the Horsemen. Even jobbing to the Stinger in a feud as 95-96 Benoit inevitably would, would have done wonders for him as a 'name.' Alas, it was not to be and I was genuinely gutted when Sasaki won. Hell, I STILL think they should have given the title to Benoit here. It really would have done wonders for him as a 'star' and they could have made it a workrate title....or at least give that endless series with Guerrero an added hook. Plus my Sting idea was gold...GOLD I tell ya! Would have greatly preferred a Benoit US Title run to that random One Man Gang WOAT stint as US champ, Konnan, or Sasaki himself. Stupid WCW.....


*I'll cover 96 WWF, 96 WCW, or 2005 as a whole tomorrow. Whichever one of the three happens to tickle my fancy when I sit down to write after work.

1996 WCW

Sticking with Where The Big Boys Play....

1. Doomsday Cage Match- Uncensored- 10/10 draw for multiple reasons. For starters, we have a fanfic-style three tiered cage straight out of an American Gladiators fever dream. Then we have The Alliance To End Hulkamania. Now there's an alliance I can get behind. Then we have the 8 on 2 odds. Surely not even Hogan and his little buddy can overcome those odds! But what really put this match over the top was the debut of Zeus & Ultimate Solution at the end of the go home Nitro show. I was a Zeus mark from back in the day so I was thrilled to see Hogan's No Holds Barred nemesis descend from Mt. Olympus to once again make The Hulkster's life a living hell. And the Final/Ultimate Solution! Holy shit! Where did they find THIS guy!?! 10/10 all time great look. With some basic level competency and 3 months of push I absolutely would have bought him as a major threat to The Hulkster. Seeing the Solution also made me think there were just hundreds of these massive guys toiling in the indies that could be brought in at any moment with instant credibility. And that only made me even more disappointed in how the Dungeon was handled. More Giant & Ultimate Solution newbie monster-types and less 80s retreads, please.* So there was no way I was missing this. Top 5 draw in WCW history for me. Maybe even as high as #2 (Flair/Funk GAB was practically unbeatable). Too bad it turned out to be quite literally the worst match of all time, on the worst pay per view I ever saw. After wasting how ever many dollars I contributed, I vowed to never again order a WCW pay per view. A moral crusade admittedly made easier by the fact that a friend's dad's coworker would give us the next few months of WCW pay per views on tape the day after they aired. But I didn't know that at the time!

*Ultimate Solution actually competed in 80s World Class. But I didn't know that at the time either. He was brand new to me.

2. Sting/Luger/Savage vs. Outsiders & ?? (Hulk Hogan)- Bash At The Beach- Probably the best mystery partner angle ever and easily the most buzzworthy WCW match of my life up to this point. Even non-wrestling fan members of my clique were talking about this one. "Who is the 3rd man?" was the question on every wrestling fan's mind. Now I did stick to my vow to never again pay for a WCW ppv ("watching" it on Scramblevision and knowing I was getting a tape the next day made this easier) which is why it's "only" #2. But, yeah, this was a Really Big Deal. Going in I was almost positive the 3rd man was going to be Jeff Jarrett, with Bret Hart also being a minor possibility. I was pumped for this! And I sometimes wonder how my differently wrestling fandom might have turned out had JJ been the 3rd man. Would I have become an NWO fanatic rather than a hater? Might I have been more partial to WCW rather than the rabid WWF fanatic I would soon become? I think the answer to both of these questions is "yes." But Hogan was obviously the right call. This was HUGE. Biggest thing in years. I had to think about for it a day or so to let it sink in. Hogan going bad had been unthinkable during my first 9 years of wrestling fandom. And now he wasn't just a bad guy, but THE ultimate bad guy. It made a ton of money. It catapulted WCW past WWF for the first time ever. It birthed a wrestling boom. Hogan going bad was even a big enough story to be on the (local) news. Of course they did it in a condescending, tongue in cheek "Who cares about that fake crap?" way, but, still, wrestling just didn't make the news unless a celebrity or scandal was involved. Oh, and the 3rd man still should have been Jarrett, dammit!

3. Benoit vs. Malenko- Hog Wild- The first of its kind. See, for every draw up to this point I either had an emotional investment where I cared about wins and losses, or I wanted to see the Grand Spectacle (Hogan/Warrior, Taker vs. Bundy, Faker & Kamala, Flair/Funk). For this one, I took a "smark" approach for the first time where I was hyped for the match quality. This battle between my two favorite practitioners of "new style wrestling" had been a personal dream match since....well, a few weeks after they both came to WCW. Surely it was bound to either be PWI Match of the Year (1996 Bakerese for "5 Star Match") or a strong runner up to HBK/Vader. Sadly, it failed to live up to the hype in my head. I thought it merely good rather than great. And actually grew to actively dislike it in subsequent rewatches over the years.

4. Hogan vs. Flair- August Clash- aka: the match that killed WCW for me. Hogan beating my man the Giant for the WCW title a few days earlier at Hog Wild killed a lot of the good will WCW had built up with me over the previous 11 months. Few wrestling results have ever angered me more. That one result took my interest from like a 9/10 to a 3/10. I didn't want to see Hogan rule wrestling as a bad guy anymore than I had wanted to see Hogan rule wrestling as a good guy. I just wanted Hogan gone. For me, this was not just the ultimate Flair/Hogan battle, but the ultimate battle between good & evil. It was everything I liked about wrestling against everything I disliked about wrestling. And in true 95-96 fashion, I talked myself into thinking Flair was winning. Of course, in hindsight, that would have been idiotic, but 1996 wrestling fanatic Baker was hardly rational. Hogan survived Flair. And I swore off WCW FOR-EV-ER*

RIP WCW
1987-August 15, 1996

*I mostly stuck to this promise. The only WCW I watched until they folded were Flair's return promo in '98 that I had thrown onto a comp tape I bought, the Bret/Benoit Owen Tribute match also on a comp tape, a few minutes of a spring '99 Nitro at a friends house before Raw came on that I made him turn off , and the late night replay of a shitty 2000 Nitro episode with a Flair vs Jarrett WCW Title match because HOLY SHIT! Double J vs. Naitch for a world title! WCW or not, I could not possibly miss this dream match.

5. Sting & Luger vs. Blue Bloods- January Clash- Another classic 95-96 thing where I talked myself into thinking my guys were winning. Sting & Luger had just won the tag titles. I foresaw a short reign. They couldn't even get along! And the Blue Bloods were a credible duo who had somehow yet to win the WCW tag straps despite being the best tag team in the promotion. So I was convinced the Blue Bloods were taking this one when Luger finally turned on Sting once and for all. Logic was even on my side for once! Was gutted when the good guys retained. Not quite Hogan surviving Flair levels of pissed, but in the same ballpark. Dammit, WCW! Why you give the Blue Bloods no respect?

6. Sting vs. Lord Steven Regal- Great American Bash- I was all in on His Lordship's biggest match to date. Thought this was going to be the beginning of his long-awaited main event push. Now I didn't REALLY think Regal was taking this one.....but the possibility was there. Regal had always been kept fairly strong and Sting wasn't unbeatable like The Hulkster. I found it to be one of his most endearing qualities. So I had to see this (one day late on tape, of course). Sting won, and this sadly did not materialize into the heated, lengthy feud I was hoping for. Never again in WCW would Regal even sniff main event status.

7. Giant vs. Benoit- August Clash- The moment this was announced I realized it was a dream match I never knew I had dreamt about. These were two of my dudes. Benoit was one of the leading proponents of new style wrestling. Plus he was a Horseman. While Giant was simply the biggest, baddest man in all of wrestling. This had a cool little build too with Benoit squashing the 7 foot Big Ron Studd on Nitro to sell the idea of Benoit as a giant killer. Oh yeah. I was hyped for this big vs. little showdown. Giant won in 10 seconds. And I wasn't even mad! Giant was just THAT badass. Plus he hit a dropkick! Who can possibly be disappointed at seeing a 7 foot 430 pound freak hit a dropkick?!? Certainly not this guy.

8. Steiners vs. Fire & Ice- Great American Bash- This was a cool little feud. They wrestled a bunch of times on tv. Loved watching those matches. Most of them were inconclusive. This was the big "must be a winner" showdown. I respected the recently returned Steiners, and enjoyed watching them wrestle, but it was Fire & Ice who were my guys. This was a little Sting/Regal-like in that I didn't REALLY think Fire & Ice were taking it, but I definitely wanted to see the match, and the possibility of an upset WAS there. Like Regal in the match with Sting, I wasn't even really that mad when my guys lost because surely there would be rematches with the up and comers eventually getting over the hump. Well, also like Regal in main events, that never happened. Fire & Ice broke up soon after this. Sad.

9. Giant vs. Loch Ness- Uncensored- A classic WWF-style Monster Mash comes to WCW. I didn't really have a rooting interest in this one. I was just there for the spectacle, wanting to see a Colossal Jostle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Figured this would go to a draw as Ness was new and Giant had been kept strong since his debut a few months earlier. Instead Giant just annihilated the 700 pounder. Aside from the possible Hogan neck breakage at War Games briefly piquing my interest, I hadn't really been sold on the Giant.....until now. If he can do THAT to a 700 pounder (who was even bigger than Yokozuna!), imagine what he's capable of doing to a normal wrestler! I actually felt sorry for Loch Ness when this was over. Wrestling The Giant just wasn't fair, man.

Honorable Mention- Mr. Wonderful vs. The Horsemen- I wanted to make this a nice, even 10 but couldn't really think of anything worthy. Stuff like Benoit/Sullivan GAB, Arn/Hogan II on Nitro, and Dean/Disco Bash At The Beach were more like 5/10-6/10 draws than real must see Listworthy stuff. So I cheated with an Honorable Mention that never actually took place.

Mr. Wonderful was my favorite WCW wrestler in late 1995, surpassing even Flair & The Bluebloods. Hell, more than just My Guy, he was Our Guy, as Mr. Wonderful was one of a handful of wrestlers (Horowitz & Malenko being the only others I can think of) beloved by all 8 members of my wrestling fan clique. WCW did an angle on a December Nitro where the Horsemen (instigated by that jerk Pillman, of course) hit Orndorff with the dreaded spike piledriver on the floor. Wonderful did a stretcher job and would be out for a while with an injury. I was so into this angle. It even had me hating the Horsemen (at least against Wonderful). I kept waiting and waiting for Wonderful to come back and exact some sweet, sweet revenge as he vowed to do in his going away promo. Had this happened, and been done even semi-competently, it would likely have been #1 on this list. Alas, Mr. Wonderful never did return to take his revenge. His (real life) injury was too severe and he was forced to retire.

I do remember him popping up one time on Nitro a few months later in an awesome angle where he hit Pillman with a broom (Trust me. It's WAY cooler than it sounds) but that was it. Man, Wonderful vs. Horsemen is one of the all time great WCW "what if's"....at least to me, and probably me alone

*Now with NWA/WCW complete, let's take a look at the Top 10 matches in company history I was most hyped for.

Winner- Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk- Great American Bash 89
2. Doomsday Cage Match- Uncensored 96
3. War Games 95- Fall Brawl 95
4. Vader vs. Cactus Jack- Halloween Havoc 93
5. Sting vs. Black Scorpion- Starrcade 90

*Curiously 3 of the top 5 from the "wrestling company" were total sports entertainment spectacles. Guess that just proves I'll always be a sports entertainment guy at heart.

6. Sting/Lex/Savage vs. Hall/Nash/?? (Hogan)- Bash At The Beach 96
7. World War III 1995
8. Ric Flair vs. Vader- Starrcade 93
9. Midnight Express vs. Original Midnight Express- Starrcade 88
10. Dean Malenko vs. Chris Benoit- Hog Wild 96

*The Long March through the War & Peace of wrestling threads continues tomorrow with either 1996 WWF or 2005 as a whole.

2005

An odd year. WWE was fine. It had the usual post-2000 half dozen or so Must See matches. But the alternative wrestling scene was booming with ROH, OVW & TNA all having probably their best years. Plus the ECW nostalgia was running wild. So 2005 ended up having more must see matches for me than any years other than 95, 96 & 2000.

Winner- Angle vs. Michaels- Wrestlemania- Like Benoit/Malenko from the above post this was practically a surefire "five star match" going in, only this was even bigger since Kurt & Shawn were bonafide main eventers and not just midcard personal favorites. Even with no build this would have been a must see dream match. The build with Angle digging up Jannetty (for a cool match on Smackdown) and Sherri, coupled with that amazing parody of Shawn's theme, made this even more can't miss. Totally delivered for me at the time, though it would likely annoy me today. There's also something to be said for watching it in a crowded sports bar with like a hundred other wrestling fans split right down the middle going wild for every nearfall. Plus the guy I wanted to win won. No complaints!

WWE Honorable Mention

One Night Stand- I was naturally super into the ECW revival. Unfortunately I had to miss this show due to vacation. Damn you, vacations! First you cause me to miss IYH: International Incident and now this! Of course I bought the tape asap. It actually exceeded expectations. Didn't REALLY think this would go as well as it did. Great nostalgia show.

HHH vs. Batista- Wrestlemania- This was such a well done feud. Didn't really have a great rooting interest. I just wanted to see the spectacle/how it would all play out. HHH often failed at playing Ric Flair (at least post-2000) but this feud was one hell of a Flair vs. Luger. A strong contender for best built match of 2000s WWE.

Edge vs. Matt Hardy- Summerslam- Matt was the biggest, most sympathetic, most relatable babyface in wrestling during the summer of 2005. First his real life girlfriend cheats on him with his real life best friend. Then said best friend gets rewarded with a push while Matt inexplicably gets fired. Matt works the indies for a little while before coming back in a great moment complete with SHOOTING~! I, like all wrestling fans, wanted to see Matt beat the crap out of Edge. Unfortunately I had to miss this one too due to my restaurant job. But I rushed home to see the results certain that Matt left Edge a bloody mess in route to a resounding victory that made the world rejoice. Nope. Edge squashed Matt. Because stupid WWE hates Matt Hardy. 

Undertaker vs. Orton- Wrestlemania- Pushing it a little here as this is more of a 7/10 draw but they did just enough to make me think that damn Randy Orton might end The Streak. Say it ain't so! So I had to watch to lend Taker some moral support....or something. 

---------------------

Non-WWE wrestling featured a whopping FIVE 10/10 draws more or less on par with Michaels vs. Angle. That has to be some kind a record. Here they are...

Hardcore Homecoming- The poor man's One Night Stand. This took place at The Arena. Knowing I was going to miss ONS due to my planned vacation, I did the next big thing and got (super expensive) tickets to this one. Show was tons of fun and provided some closure to ECW....or at least the live ECW experience. Highlight was the Funk/Sabu/Shane main event w/ Foley as ref. Sabu had just recovered from some health problems so he was our hero that night. And the three pros in the ring gave us what we wanted- a Sabu victory.

Cappotelli vs. Jeter- OVW- Both Matches- I started following OVW religiously online once Heyman got the book a few months earlier. This heated feud between ex-partners was the cornerstone of Heyman's OVW. I was so hyped for both matches and kept refreshing all these wrestling websites hoping the results would finally be up  :lol:  Bought like 5 months of OVW tv when it came out so I could see this feud play out. It sounded like the most epic feud in years. After watching the tapes I can confirm that it was.

Daniels vs. Punk- ROH- This was just unfair on my wallet. My all time most hated ROH wrestler CM Punk had just won the ROH Title after signing with WWE. Now the rest of the ROHbots realized what I had always known- CM Punk was a snake. The very same night that jerk CM Punk won the belt my all time favorite ROH wrestler Christopher Daniels returned to confront the man who put him out of the company for a year and a half. So you have my favorite ROH wrestler vs. my most hated ROH wrestler with an ROH title being held hostage on the line in a match 18 months in the making. ROH is clearly getting ALL THE DIMES~! since they're apparently booking solely for me now. I saw the match in Philly. These two heated rivals competing for the ROH title in a heated grudge match 18 months in the making wrestled.....a boring technical one hour draw  :ugh: Move aside Snow/Shane, HHH/RVD, HBK/Vader and Flair/Hogan. We have a new most disappointing match ever. Honestly, this killed a lot of my interest in ROH. I only went to one more live ROH show in the 9 years following this. But that hype really was off the charts.

Daniels vs. Matt Hardy- ROH- Two longtime favorites going at it in another one of those dream matches I never knew I dreamt about. Daniels had just returned. Think Matt had already re-signed with WWE but was keeping his indie bookings and even plugged ROH on his surprise Raw return. Seriously contemplated going to this despite the fact that it took place in f'n Connecticut. It didn't get good reviews and by the time the tape came out I was over it. But, still, I was *this close* to driving all the way to f'n Connecticut to see this. That means it still counts.

Non-WWE Honorable Mentions

Rave vs. Punk- ROH Cage Match- As I already explained, Punk was my least favorite ROH wrestler. Ever. While the great Jimmy Rave had become my ROH hero while Daniels was away. The two men had a heated feud where Rave kept getting the better of Punk and doing all sorts of gloriously nasty things to him. This was the blowoff in stupid Punk's stupid hometown of Shitcago. Punk won but I still bought the tape. Great match. Very underrated in the ROH pantheon. It was similar to the famous Owen/Bret Summerslam cage match, only better because blood > no blood.

Embassy vs. Generation Next- Steel Cage Warfare- Embassy was my favorite thing ROH ever did. Generation Next were great in their own right. This was the blowoff to a heated feud between the two cool factions. Plus it was a War Games-style match. Obviously bought the tape asap. It lived up to the hype.

And since I'm here.....

TNA- It was a good year for TNA. Lots of 6/10-type draws. You had the AJ/Daniels/Joe stuff. Fun hardcore stuff with a resurgent Sabu and others. A Jarrett title defense or two. An AMW match or two. A lot of stuff I'd keep refreshing Meltzer's site or PWTorch.com for, but nothing truly OMG MUST SEE! Yet since I'm here I'll give the nod for biggest 2005 TNA draw to....

AJ vs. Daniels- Against All Odds- This was a 30 minute Ironman Match for the X Division Title Daniels had still inexplicably yet to win. I was convinced it was finally his time. So I refreshed the Torch and Observer websites a little more quickly than usual. Alas, it was not to be. Daniels once again came up short because every promotion hated Daniels for some reason. Seriously, ROH & TNA would never give him major singles titles regardless of how over he was. He kept ALMOST signing with WCW & WWF like every week for years. ECW jobbed him out during his brief run there. Poor Christopher Daniels. Why did the cruel wrestling world fail to see your obvious greatness?

Ken Shamrock vs British Bulldog was another forgotten hype that was huge for me and my little brother going into Summer Slam 97, we were Shamrock fans when he was in UFC and Bulldog was always one of our favorites, I was more hyped for their match than I was for Taker vs Bret(we had already seen them wrestle a time or two).

Hogan vs. Goldberg (Nitro): WCW's last hurrah. "Giving it away for free," blah blah blah. It was awesome.

Cactus Jack vs. Triple H (Royal Rumble): It's hard to explain the love people had for Cactus Jack. Not Mick Foley, Mankind, but Cactus Jack. He was the lunatic we fell in love with. Jack vs. Triple H for the title in a street fight, that PPV was one of the most hyped I was for a WWF PPV during the Attitude Era.

Hogan vs. Savage (Halloween Havoc '96): Heel Hogan vs. Babyface Savage was fascinating to think about. It changed the whole dynamic of a rivalry entering its tenth year.

I've put this off long enough. Time to wrap it up with The Year of the Draw....

1996 WWF

1. Shawn Michaels vs. Vader- Summerslam- My greatest wish in life circa 1996 was for Shawn Michaels to lose the WWF championship. I disliked him with Hogan-levels of vehemence. Vader surpassed Goldust as my favorite wrestler at some point during the year and I had long viewed him as my best hope for dethroning lightweight Hulk Hogan. This match actually had a really great build going all the way back to Vader's WWF debut at Royal Rumble. HBK had went through heel after heel, including the rest of Camp Cornette, dating way back to his face turn in early 1995. Vader burst onto the scene by destroying Commissioner Gorilla Monsoon and had weaved a path of destruction through the company, claiming such other notable victims as Yokozuna and Razor Ramon. He also ended Ahmed's undefeated streak, which while not exactly Borga/Tatanka, was still a really big deal at the time. Plus Vader pinned Michaels in a 6 man tag the previous month. I was like 90% convinced that Vader was about to end the long nightmare. My burgeoning smark self was also looking forward to what was bound to be a surefire PWI Match of the Year winner or runner up (to Benoit/Malenko) since it was the best big man in wrestling against the best overall wrestler. Match was a disappointment and the wrong guy won....eventually. Now I was definitely bummed out but not quite as bummed out as you might think. Vader did technically win the match twice which surely would lead to inevitable rematches. When it was over I thought this was just an early chapter in what was bound to be a long, epic feud with Vader eventually getting the title. If only I knew....Then again, perhaps it's better that I didn't know.

2. Goldust vs. Razor Ramon- Royal Rumble- The absolute peak of Mark Wars. The Dean may have been disliked, but Goldust was downright despised. The trash talk was off the charts going into this one. Having long been familiar with WWF booking patterns, I was fairly certain Goldust was taking this....but there was still enough doubt to effect my nerves. But he did it! Goldust is the NEEEWWW IC Champ! And The Kid being a part of the finish to screw that awful friend Razor was just the cherry on top. Much rejoicing was had. You better believe I rubbed it in. The Mark Wars would continue unabated, and sometimes I'd lose, but it didn't really matter, because Goldust and I won the Wrestlemania main event equivalent of the Great Mark Wars of 95-96.

3. Undertaker vs. Diesel- Wrestlemania- I disliked Diesel as a happy go lucky babyface champ in 95 but somehow managed to disliked him even more when he became the biggest jerk in wrestling after losing the title at Survivor Series. Plus Undertaker was a long time favorite. This had a great, Clash of the Titans-style build, and I was all in on The Deadman dishing out some righteous revenge on Big Daddy Fool. The "Diesel to WCW" rumors had already started. Now I didn't really believe them....yet...but just the thought of Diesel entertaining a WCW offer made me hate him all the more. The good guy stood tall in the end when 'Taker won a surprisingly good match that I thought was his best bout to date.

4. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin- Survivor Series- Not unlike Diesel/Taker in that I was 100% behind the good guy in this one. Austin picked up Diesel's mantle as the biggest jerk in WWF and even surpassed Big Daddy Fool when he blatantly violated the Heel Code by breaking his good friend Brian Pillman's ankle. Plus I was now officially a Bret Hart Fan. He was The Guy Who Stayed! So I was all in on returning hero Bret, the greatest WWF Champion of all time, shutting that punk Austin's big mouth up once and for all. This one also delivered with my guy standing tall after a classic scientific confrontation. 

5. Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Mr. Perfect- Raw 10/21- Could be even higher. For years I had looked forward to the Perfect Return. I'd get so excited whenever WWF teased it, and to their credit, they teased it a lot. I studied WWF commentary (and Apter Mags) the way religious people study the Bible, right down to forever looking for hidden meanings. So even a throwaway line alluding to Mr. Perfect return would get me excited for days. But the wait was finally over! Perfect was returning to take on HHH! And there was no split loyalty since Hunter had been boring since at least his loss to Warrior, if not before that when the HOG (& maybe Dumpster) feuds wound down. But instead of Perfect's triumphant return we got the Perfect Swerve. It was alright, I guess, because screw Marc Mero. But I couldn't help being a little disappointed. Getting a 6/10 moment when you're expecting a 10/10 tends to do that.

6. Shawn Michaels vs. Goldust- Raw 9/6- If Vader/HBK was my 1996 dream match, than Goldust/HBK was a strong 1b. For starters, this was just a natural feud. It was inevitable that the gay guy would eventually set his sights on WWF's premier pretty boy. Vader let me down but perhaps there would be a silver lining after all?  Might this be the light at the end of the tunnel? In true 95-96 fashion I talked myself into thinking Goldust was winning this to kick off the next great WWF feud. I was once again disappointed when HBK prevailed. This also marked the end for Goldust as a major player. Sad.

7. Shawn Michaels vs. British Bulldog- King of the Ring- One of my greatest fears in early 96 was that Bulldog was destined to go the way of Tatanka. He didn't really seem to have a purpose after losing to Bret at IYH December. Yoko got the better of him several times, and Ahmed punked him out even more times. Nor did Bulldog have the intangibles of Owen, who I worried far less about. Now my fears were assuaged the tiniest bit when Bulldog (& Owen) got what I considered a few PPV upset wins, but I was not the least bit excited when the Diana/HBK storyline thrust the flailing Bulldog into the main event of IYH May. Even 1996 me couldn't be talked into considering a Bulldog victory there. Surely this was Davey's last big match before his inevitable Tatankazation. But Bulldog/WWF again shocked me by wrestling the champ to a draw. And now with Mr. Perfect (another tease!) as special guest ref he had at least a fair shot at winning. Credit to WWF for turning a throwaway match I wasn't buying into at all the previous month into a legit draw I had interest in just one month later. Of course, HBK won (didn't he always?) but I never really worried about Bulldog getting Tatanka'd again after this. 

8. Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart- IYH February- This was the blowoff to the awesome "Michaels collapses" angle. Owen was in prime form during this whole feud. Now this is another classic 95-96 thing where a year earlier, or a year later, I never would have bought Owen winning in a million years. But I was just smart enough to be stupid in 95-96 so I bought into practically everything. A JR segment on Action Zone is what really sold me on this match. He laid out all the potential Wrestlemania main events and made Bret/Owen, or even Diesel/Owen (a rematch of IYH December where Owen technically won....and Diesel never HAD defeated Owen...), seem entirely plausible. Now I still thought HBK was winning (he did) but they planted just enough seeds of doubt to make me think Owen could potentially pull it off.

9. Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid- IYH February- If Goldust/Razor was the Wrestlemania main event of Mark Wars, this was the follow up Backlash main. Again, I didn't REALLY think Razor was gonna wear the diaper and suck on the baby bottle, but my god! The bragging rights if it did happen! So I had interest in this because the idea of Kid winning a Crybaby Match over Razor would have won Mark Wars for me in a Vaderesque squash. I wasn't even THAT bummed out when Kid was humiliated by that jerk, Razor. Goldust was still IC Champ, after all. So suck it, Razor fans! 

10. Michaels & Undertaker vs. Goldust & Mankind- House Show 11/2- This was the first (and last) house show I attended since way back in 1987. It was also an "Armageddon Rules Cage Match." Holy shit! Taker & HBK vs. Goldust & Mankind in something called an "Armageddon Rules Cage Match" seemed more like something we'd book as the main event of Summerslam in our action figure league than a real thing. So we were all pumped for this. Now I had long known that angles and title changes rarely happened on house shows but I didn't yet know that guys dogged it at house shows. So while I "knew" the good guys were winning at least I still expected an epic **** match. Instead I got....well, four guys dogging it in a sub ** match. Major disappointment. And the small crowd was just sad to see. This match/show actually depressed a little. And don't even get me started on the Sid/Vader negative star two minute Stretcher Match that killed Vader for me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To honor the Year of the Ironman Match (pretty sure it's on the Chinese calendar) I'm going with the first ever Ironman post~! since there were AT LEAST 25 8/10 draws for me in 1996 WWF. Good grief! One day I hope to find somebody who loves me as much as I loved 95-96 WWF  Oh, God. That was terrible. Anyway!

*In chronological order.....

Raw Bowl- Raw 1/1- Match actually sucked, and the "wrong" team won, but this was a unique concept at the time. Plus I thought Camp Cornette or (especially) Sid & The Kid were bound to win the belts here, so it also worked as a draw on that level.

Dibiase unveils his new Million Dollar Champion- Raw 1/8- I was so pumped for this. And as a bonus it took place on the Brother Love Show! Now I had no idea who this Ringmaster chap was but he had a fabulous name and I loved him immediately. He was nothing like that Stone Cold jerk who would show up later in the year. You better believe my best friend Rick and I touched the hand~!

Royal Rumble 1/21- The Rumble is always a solid draw. The big hook this year were the Michaels storyline (Will he win or collapse?) and Vader's debut.

Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett- Superstars 2/3- A huge match by Superstars standards considering they had a lengthy high profile feud in '95. Plus it gets Mark Wars bonus points since it's Razor vs. A Guy I Like. 

Jerry Lawler Calls His Own Match- Superstars 3/23- I can't remember if the build had Lawler announcing he was going to call his own match or whether it was just hyped as "Lawler is going to do something that has never been done before!" but either way it's Jerry Lawler doing something cool so I was all in on it.

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels- Wrestlemania 3/31- Closer to #25 than #11 since it seemed to be Shawn Michaels inevitable coronation as New Generation Hulk Hogan, but the novelty of an hour long match, which was something one only read about in Apter Mag articles about Ye Olde Days, held enough appeal to capture my interest. Plus is IS the main event of Wrestlemania, which always meant something....unless Sid was involved.....or Jericho somehow found himself in that position. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Shawn Michaels- Raw 4/8- I'd get excited for just about any Lawler match. Plus Michaels vs. Anybody was a draw. I think Mark Wars may have also been in effect vs. Chuck: our lone HBK fanatic. But I just remember being weirdly hyped for this throwaway Raw match where even 96 me had to have known my guy really stood no chance.

King of the Ring Tournament- 6/23- Like the Rumble, KOTR was always a solid draw. I wasn't crazy about KOTR being downgraded to only 4 wrestlers competing in a one night tournament this year, but I could live with it because surely my man Vader was winning, right? Wrong. Stone Cold won. And I'm pretty sure this is where I started turning hard on Stone Cold after already souring on him a bit since I loved The Ringmaster so much. 

Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty- Raw 7/1- Classic 95-96 thing where I talked myself into thinking my guy was going to pull off the upset. In this case, they had years of history to play with. Plus Marty had Leif (and maybe Cornette?) in his corner. I genuinely thought Marty was winning here to renew the Rockers feud and set him up as HBK's next big challenger. I was an idiot.

New Rockers go for the tag titles- Summerslam 8/18- New Rockers challenged for the tag titles a few times. I was into all of them. But this is the biggie. It's on PPV. New Rockers were the only one of the Big 4 (Little 4?) teams yet to hold the gold. So surely this would be their time, right? Nope. Wrong again.

Owen & Bulldog vs. Smoking Gunns- IYH 9/22- It's my boys Owen & Bulldog challenging the boring Gunns for the tag titles. I was obviously all in. And for once the good guys won. Much rejoicing was had.

"Razor" & "Diesel" return- Raw 9/23- I initially had this at #10 before replacing it with an actual match. I was so pumped for this. My main source of up to the date wrestling info was a Saturday night wrestling radio talk show I listened to. They offered 3 scenarios here- 1. Hall & Nash are coming back (unlikely) 2. Razor & Diesel will be played by new wrestlers (likely) 3. JR is getting a crazy person gimmick (somewhat likely). We all know it ended up being Option 2. I thought it was brilliant. Alas, I could not convince anybody else of its brilliance, and still haven't been able to do so even after 21 years of trying. How very disappointing.

Mankind vs. Undertaker- IYH 10/20- I wasn't really that into the Taker/Mankind feud. After years of buying any freakishly tall or fat freak show they put against Taker, I naturally don't buy into the ONE guy to ever get the better of him  I didn't love Mankind either. I mean, he was alright. I liked some things about him- separate intro & outro themes, the early 'puke' effects of the Mandible Claw. But he also kind of got on my nerves. I think it was all that damn squealing he'd do. Plus I just wanted loveable wild man WCW good guy Cactus Jack back. BUT after upsetting Taker at KOTR & Summerslam, AND getting Uncle Paul in a memorable swerve, I was finally starting to buy into Mankind....or at least this particular feud. Plus this being the first ever Buried Alive match added to its drawing power.

Bret Hart returns- Raw 10/21- Bret becomes The Guy Who Stayed. He even puts over the Two Terrors of Austin & WCW in a way because he's just that darn respectful. And he accepts Austin's challenge! "Aww hell yeah! You won't be talking anymore smack once Bret finishes kickin' yer ass, bitch!"- 1996 Me talking to an invisible Stone Cold Steve Austin

Mystery Partner- Survivor Series 11/17- I always got hyped for Mystery anything in wrestling. They almost always ended up being a major disappointment. Lots of names were being floated around for this big mystery man with Randy Savage's Very Important Name eventually rising to the top. Instead of Savage we ended up with 95 year old Jimmy Snuka, who I had zero attachment too since he was already like an 85 year old jobber with music when I first encountered him what felt like a century earlier, instead. Major disappointment.

*Well, there you have it. The Ironman Post is complete. Totally smokes the Ironman Match, by the way. I'll be back for one final TL;DR synopsis and then let this thread die.

Does anyone have our "Matches To See Before You Die" list from the old boards? The name of this thread reminded me of it. Or is it forever lost? I've not checked the Wayback Machine and I feel like I am poor at using it anyway.

Jan 25, 2018 18:55:10 GMT Strobe said:

Does anyone have our "Matches To See Before You Die" list from the old boards? The name of this thread reminded me of it. Or is it forever lost? I've not checked the Wayback Machine and I feel like I am poor at using it anyway.

Think I saw it on the Wayback Machine. Not sure how accessible it was. Might try to give it a shot when I get home from work. Gotta keep earning those PW Hero medals, at least in my mind! :lol:

And now for a Listmania synopsis post.

*Bold indicates the most must see match for that year.

1987 WWF- Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant- Wrestlemania
1987 Other- Midnight Express vs. New Breed- NWA Various House Shows

1988 WWF- Wrestlemania IV Tournament (or Andre vs. Hogan- The Main Event if we're being sticklers for the whole "match" thing)
1988 Other- Midnight Express vs. Original Midnight Express- NWA Starrcade

1989 WWF- Ultimate Warrior vs. Honkytonk Man- SNME 1/7
1989 Other- Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk- NWA Great American Bash

1990 WWF- Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior- Wrestlemania
1990 Other- Sting vs. Black Scorpion- NWA Starrcade

1991 WWF- Hulk Hogan vs. Undertaker- Survivor Series

91-92 Other- Reggie Bennett vs. Lady X- LPWA

1992 WWF- Undertaker vs. Kamala- Summerslam

1993 WWF- Narcissist vs. Mr. Perfect- Wrestlemania
1993 Other- Vader vs. Cactus Jack- WCW Halloween Havoc

1994 WWF- Undertaker vs. Undertaker- Summerslam
1994 Other- Ric Flair vs. Lord Steven Regal- WCW Marquis of Queensbury Series

1995 WWF- Goldust's Premiere (vs. Marty Jannetty)- IYH October
1995 Other- War Games- WCW Fall Brawl

1996 WWF- Shawn Michaels vs. Vader- Summerslam
1996 Other- Doomsday Cage Match- WCW Uncensored

1997 WWF- Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels- Survivor Series
1997 Other- ECW Barely Legal (or Taz vs. Sabu- ECW Barely Legal if we're being pedantic)

1998 WWF- Undertaker vs. Kane- Wrestlemania
1998 Other- Shane Douglas vs. Al Snow- ECW Wrestlepalooza

1999 WWF- Rock vs. Mankind- Raw 1/4
1999 Other- Shane Douglas vs. Taz- ECW Guilty As Charged

2000 WWF- HHH vs. Cactus Jack- No Way Out
2000 Other- Justin Credible vs. Steve Corino- ECW 8/26

2001 WWF- HHH vs. Steve Austin- No Way Out
2001 Other- Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki- ECWA 11/3

2002 WWE- HHH vs. RVD- Unforgiven
2002 Other- Low Ki vs. American Dragon vs. Christopher Daniels- ROH Era of Honor Begins

2003 WWE- Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit- Royal Rumble
2003 Other- Jeff Jarrett vs. Raven- TNA 4/30

2004 WWE- Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. HHH- Wrestlemania
2004 Other- The Teddy Hart Experience- Multiple Promotions (or AMW vs. XXX- TNA Turning Point if we're being sticklers)

2005 WWE- Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels- Wrestlemania
2005 Other- CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels- ROH Homecoming

2006 WWE- John Cena vs. Rob Van Dam- One Night Stand
2006 Other- Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe- TNA Genesis

2007 WWE- John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels- Wrestlemania
2007 Other- Chris Harris vs. James Storm- TNA Sacrifice

2008- Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair- Wrestlemania

2009- Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels- Wrestlemania

2010- N/A

2011- Miz vs. Jerry Lawler- WWE

2012- N/A

2013- Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins- WWE

2014- Wyatt Family vs. Shield- WWE Elimination Chamber

2015- Jay Lethal vs. Jay Briscoe- ROH Best In The World

2016- Broken Matt Hardy vs. Brother Nero- TNA The Final Deletion

2017- Broken Hardys vs. Young Bucks- ROH Manhattan Mayhem