Baker




1. Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlewar 1989





2. Sting vs Vader at Starrcade 1992





3. Edge vs Eddie Guerrero Smackdown 9/26/02 (No DQ match)





4. Lex Luger vs Barry Windham at Chi Town Rumble 1989





5. Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude at Beach Blast 1993




6. Randy Orton vs Christian at Over The Limit 2011





7. JBL vs Matt Hardy at Armageddon 2005





8. Booker T vs Jeff Jarrett at Bash At The Beach 2000



Dazz



1. Austin vs Rock at Wrestlemania 17





2. Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuiness at ROH Unified 2006





3. Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen AJPW Summer Action Series 1993





4. Katsuyori Shibata vs Tomohiro Ishii, NJPW G1 Climax 23.





5. Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins 30 minute Ironman match in FCW in 2011





6. TJ Perkins vs Kota Ibushi, Cruiserweight Classic Semi-Final Match





7. Kushida vs Hiromu Takahashi, Jr. Heavyweight Title Match, Dominion 6.11 2017.





8. TAKA Michinoku vs The Great Sasuke, IYH: Canadian Stampede 1997

Can't see myself ever voting against Dazz. The only match on his list I'm not sure about is Ambrose vs Rollins. Everything else is fantastic.

Threw Baker a vote for Eddy/Edge, love that match. Too bad it won't help...

I had to go with Baker. It doesn't get any bigger than Rock vs Austin in the Astrodome but the rest of Dazz's card drops off a little bit for me, I'm just unfamiliar with most of it. For me it comes down to Flair/Steamboat and Sting/Vader over Austin/Rock and Taka/Sasuke.

Baker
Flair/Steamboat is arguably the greatest match of all-time, so it's off to a great start. Sting/Vader had a tremendous rivalry and really you can't go wrong with any of their matches making the list. Clearly Bake is an optimist, and good for him backing the babyface, clearly Sting/Flair was the direction Bake would have gone with in future incarnations. I missed out on Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge. I'm sure the ideal lead-up to the match would have been tuning into SmackDown and being treated to this surprisingly fun match. Instead I heard about it as this amazing match from the best period of WWE TV and came away thinking it was good. I'm going to own the asshole couch QB monicker, but so far, Bake has a WCW theme going so I would have gone with Dean Malenko. I admire Bake's integrity, but JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero Judgement Day 04 seems like a better fit here. I'd be curious to know why the Beach Blast '93 match was picked over the other Rhodes/Rude match. On paper, that's a great pairing but the match itself was a famous 30 minute disappointment. Orton/Christian is one of those rivalries that's been forgotten over time, but really was the best series of matches around that time. Orton has always struck me as one of those guys who would work in any promotion and in fact would be better off out of the WWE and Christian at this point in time was one of the best in the biz. I have no recollection of JBL/Matt and haven't seen it mentioned outside of this. I might have to check it out for curiosity sake, but on the surface I'm questioning why Final Deletion or Matt Hardy/Edge wasn't picked. I had no idea that Bake had watched any WCW circa 2000. I could see why Bake would like this match, but I have no recollection of it being any good. Maybe it's because it was the second time they messed with Hogan and the match had this Russo stink to it? I haven't watched a lot of Double J, but if we're going with the short hair Jarrett, his matches against D'Lo & Chyna seemed like bigger deals.

Dazz
Off to a great start with Austin/Rock, that match was the end of an era and was a cool way to introduce a lot of these other matches. Danelson was the best wrestler of the 00s and the match against Nigel was a real crowning achievement for him and one of the best matches in ROH history. I don't believe I've seen Kobashi/Hansen but it isn't a stretch to believe it would be a good match and a nice compliment to everything else. Hansen maybe one of the best brawlers in the history of the biz, so coming off Austin/Rock, one of the all-time great Mania brawls, this would be right at home. The hits keep on coming with Shibata/Ishii. I'm conflicted on Ishii's style and find the bravado at times to be really stupid, but this was a career making performance and a big moment in modern NJPW history. I know Bake hated the match and explained himself well, but on a show like this it makes sense. I faintly remember hearing about that Ambrose/Rollins match at the time but I didn't watch any FCW. I wouldn't have a hard time believing that was their best match and their relationship together has been one of the more interesting parts of modern WWE. You're preaching to the choir with TJP and Ibushi. The Cruiserweight Classic was one of the best specials the WWE has ever put together and watching Ibushi in a WWE ring was a special moment. I've been a fan of TJP ever since I saw him work Davey Richards on a February 2011 ROH Live event and think he's one of the most under-appreciated workers in the biz. If only if he didn't dab, I'm sure more people would like him. I liked how the card became a cruiserweight show by the end, you almost have the best of both worlds going. I personally prefer the Lee/Takahashi or KUSHIDA/O'Reilly rivalry more for either guy, but they're among my favourite workers in NJPW right now so this match is a fair shout. The WWF Light Heavyweight Division was incredibly underrated and the Sasuke/Michinoku match proved the WWF could accomodate great junior heavyweight wrestling if they wanted to. Bonus points for giving Canadian Stampede a shout out, a Top 5 WWF PPV if I've ever seen one.

Feb 22, 2018 11:34:57 GMT Big Pete said:

Baker
Flair/Steamboat is arguably the greatest match of all-time, so it's off to a great start. Sting/Vader had a tremendous rivalry and really you can't go wrong with any of their matches making the list. Clearly Bake is an optimist, and good for him backing the babyface, clearly Sting/Flair was the direction Bake would have gone with in future incarnations. I missed out on Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge. I'm sure the ideal lead-up to the match would have been tuning into SmackDown and being treated to this surprisingly fun match. Instead I heard about it as this amazing match from the best period of WWE TV and came away thinking it was good. I'm going to own the asshole couch QB monicker, but so far, Bake has a WCW theme going so I would have gone with Dean Malenko. I admire Bake's integrity, but JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero Judgement Day 04 seems like a better fit here. I'd be curious to know why the Beach Blast '93 match was picked over the other Rhodes/Rude match. On paper, that's a great pairing but the match itself was a famous 30 minute disappointment. Orton/Christian is one of those rivalries that's been forgotten over time, but really was the best series of matches around that time. Orton has always struck me as one of those guys who would work in any promotion and in fact would be better off out of the WWE and Christian at this point in time was one of the best in the biz. I have no recollection of JBL/Matt and haven't seen it mentioned outside of this. I might have to check it out for curiosity sake, but on the surface I'm questioning why Final Deletion or Matt Hardy/Edge wasn't picked. I had no idea that Bake had watched any WCW circa 2000. I could see why Bake would like this match, but I have no recollection of it being any good. Maybe it's because it was the second time they messed with Hogan and the match had this Russo stink to it? I haven't watched a lot of Double J, but if we're going with the short hair Jarrett, his matches against D'Lo & Chyna seemed like bigger deals.

I misunderstood the rules, thinking we'd have to book new matches in later rounds using the wrestlers we drafted. Every match after Flair/Steamboat was picked with later rounds in mind. That's why there are some "weird" choices.

Starrcade is my favorite Sting/Vader match. Great American Bash is great but it was more to establish Vader as a star (imo) whereas Starrcade was more of a star vs. star epic. I don't like their strap match nearly as much as their '92 PPV matches and every Sting/Vader after that was just a lesser version of their original classics.

I picked Eddie/Edge because I figured Edge would go pretty early while I could snatch JBL (& Matt) up later for Eddie/JBL and Edge/Matt in round two. 

Malenko was never on my radar.

I came across a Rude/Dustin match that I haven't seen (or don't remember) get better ratings, but Beach Blast is the most famous Rude/Dustin bout so I figured it's the one most folks might have seen. Plus I thought people might be tricked into thinking it's good because Rude! Dustin! 30 Minute Ironman! It's a pretty easy con. Picked them mainly just to set up Rude/Steamboat and Orton/Goldust in round two. 

Final Deletion was on my radar but Jeff got picked (vs. Umaga) fairly early.

I actually haven't seen JJ/Booker (or Orton/Christian) but both matches are fairly popular and those four guys fit pretty well into my plans. 

Here is what my Round Two card would have looked like if the rules were what I thought they were....

Flair vs. Vader- Starrcade 93
Rude vs. Steamboat- Beach Blast 92- Ironman Match
JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero- Judgment Day 2004
Matt Hardy vs. Edge- Unforgiven 2005- Cage Match
Lex Luger vs. Sting- Either Saturday Night 12/23/89 or Superbrawl 1992. SN is better but Superbrawl is the one more people might have seen.
Randy Orton vs. Goldust- Raw 9/9/13
Christian vs. Samoa Joe (steal)- TNA Destination X 2007
Jeff Jarrett vs. Bobby Roode (steal)- TNA Sacrifice 2007
Booker T vs. Barry Windham- Thunder 9/9/99

Baker's picks make so much more sense now. He was overthinking this tremendously. He was giving himself so many good options moving forwards too - beyond those he mentioned, in terms of JCP/WCW alone he could've had Flair/Sting Clash I, Flair/Windham Battle of the Belts, Flair/Luger Starrcade 88, Steamboat/Luger GAB '89, Vader/Dustin Clash XXIX and lesser stuff like one of the Sting/Rude matches, Rude/Windham King of Cable QF and Vader/Steamboat Human Cage. Or in this alternate universe, if he makes the final, he could steal Austin and Hansen from Dazz and gets Austin/Steamboat Clash XXVIII, one of the Austin/Dustin matches, Hansen/Vader eyeball match and the Hansen/Luger Bullrope.

Man, Baker-man's layout for his plans based on his misunderstanding of the rules has me kinda thinking that this twist would be a fun one for future iterations of this draft. Creates such a long game aspect to go along with the short and medium games that we played while drafting.

Dazz to get the vote from me here, both of these choices are excellent and worthy winners but I am going for my personal favourites between the two and Dazz seems to like the same kind of matches as me.

Joining Emperor in the final as a result of an 8-6 win, it's Dazz.