2010 Pro Wrestling Thread

I thought Jericho was pretty over at the time. I mean, it happened a couple months before he won the undisputed championship, but he got a hell of a pop when he and Benoit won the tag belts from the Two-Man Power Trip, and when he held the belt for about five minutes after the fast count by Hebner. And I think that if you want him to get over as a legitimate threat, then he needs to win matches clean. The WWE prefers to build guys with squashes and interference finishes a lot of the time, which annoys me.

Regarding IV, there were so many rushed matches that nothing really stands out to me in reflection, and I remember a couple matches as being aggressively bad, like the Hogan-Andre rematch that ended in a double DQ. WM1 wasn't anything special, but it was the first, and II was OK, III awesome. IV didn't have much of anything to me. It's hard for me to rank the Manias though, as everything after X gets fuzzy in my mind. (Sad fact: I'm only 25.)

 

I haven't seen all 25 Manias, so it's really hard for me to rank them. Instead, I'll rank the top WM moments that I have seen. These are off the top of my head:

1. Rock vs. Hogan: The atmosphere of that match was incredible, especially since the fans were cheering Hogan when they were supposed to boo him. There was also the intrigue of whether old man Hogan could keep up with the younger generation. For this match, at least, he did.

2. Savage/Steamboat: The match that set a standard for a generation.

3. Undertaker/Michaels: The Streak has taken on a life of its own. Michaels put on a hell of a performance here.

4. Hogan/Andre: Not great for the technical drama, but legendary in its own right.

5. Hogan/Ultimate Warrior: A personal favorite of mine, as I was sick of Hogan by 1990. It was so intriguing to see two babyfaces match up. I, for some reason, kept thinking that Bobby Heenan would come out and Warrior would turn heel.

6. Michaels/Razor Ladder match: Another match that set a new standard

7. Triangle Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy flies off a 20-foot ladder

8. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart: Brother vs. brother, a great match

9. Shawn Michaels 'retires' (for now) Ric Flair.

10. British Bulldogs vs. Valentine/Beefcake: Tremendous match that was overshadowed by the Hogan/Bundy cage match and the football players in the battle royal.

11. Savage beats DiBiase for the belt: Yeah, the tournament was pretty lame. But I remember marking out big time when Hogan whacked DiBiase with the chair and Savage dropped the elbow for the win.

12. All the Money in the Banks. Great concept that's become a great tradition.

13. Butterbean nearly kills Bart Gunn: Funny thing was, Vinny Pazienza was the referee for the fight. He thought it was going to be a work, then nearly shit his pants when he found out it was legit.

(Just kidding).

Note: I've never seen the Michaels/Hart Ironman match nor the Angle/Lesnar match, so I haven't ranked them.



EDIT: I forgot about Michaels/Angle. I'd definitely put that around No. 10.

 

Michaels/Hart is considered great solely because of the time the two spent competing and rightly so. However, you could chop 40 minutes of out that match and have yourself a classic confrontation.

As for Angle/Lesnar, if Lesnar hit the shooting star like he was supposed to, that would have been amazing. As it was, the only amazing thing was that he didn't kill himself.

For me, my top five Mania moments are:

*) The opening to WM22. Strictly because this was the first Mania I ever went to, I was sitting five rows behind the commentators and I immediately became a kid again.

1.) Michaels wins Iron Man match at WM12. I was a huge Hart fan (still am) but the finish, coupled with Michaels achieving the "boyhood dream" really got to me. Great job by McMahon to sell that moment.

2.) Rock vs. Hogan, WM18. Like the poster above said, great, great reaction. I'd never seen anything like it and the atmosphere was truly special.

3.) Hogan beats Savage, WM5. I loved this Mania as it was the first one I ever watched live and I was a huge Hogan mark at the ripe ol' age of 4. I loved this angle and, looking back on it, it's one of the best friend vs. former friend storylines the WWE has done.

4.) Taker beats Michaels, WM25. I had a house full of people and we were only so-so on this Mania (Kid Rock? Really) until this moment. The match had everything you could want and, much, much more and it finally put the Undertaker over at Mania in a legit way. All 16 of his other wins were boring.

5.) Hogan beats Yokozuna, WM9. I don't know why, maybe it's the outdoor setting, but I loved WM9. I also vividly remember this moment as, being an eight-year old kid, I couldn't understand why Hogan's win wasn't the top story on all the local news broadcasts that night. I would find out a couple weeks later that wrestling was fake and my world was shattered but damn if that night I didn't feel something special about what might be the most bullshit ending to a main event WrestleMania match ever.

 

Best 5 WMs ever?

1. X7: Maybe the best PPV ever. Austin-Rock, HHH-Undertaker, TLC2, Angle-Benoit... Even McMahon-McMahon was entertaining.

2. X: Hart-Hart, Ladder Match. Two five-star matches on one card is pretty hard to top.

3. VII: I'm probably overrating this, but Flair-Savage is maybe my favorite match of all-time, and Hart-Piper was good too.

4. XX: Benoit wins the belt, Guerrero beats Angle, the surreal Goldberg-Lesnar match.

5. XIV: Austin-Michaels, Undertaker-Kane (for the first time), NAO vs. Cactus Jack and Terry Funk.

 

Shit, how could I have forgotten WM VIII?

Piper/Hart and the Savage/Flair matches were excellent. I also enjoyed seeing Undertaker as somewhat of a babyface for the first time. He had just turned a couple of weeks earlier against Roberts, so that was very intriguing.

 

Oh yeah, XX - I found that one ridiculously interesting from start to finish. IIRC, the entire card was strong, and you did have that utterly surreal Goldberg vs. Lesnar match. Man, when you consider that the WWE lost The Rock and Lesnar and SCSA to "other" pursuits in a short time span, it's amazing they didn't have more of a setback than they did, plus the Guerrero and Benoit deaths.

 

OK, I admit, I'm lurking just to keep up with you lunatics on here

Had to post again to do so though. So ...

 

Against All Odds sounded OK, nothing terrible, but nothing groundbreaking.

Pope won the tournament and got over as a big star, so he gets the match with Styles at Lockdown. He beat Desmond Wolfe in the first round, Matt Morgan (who might be going heel again after beating Hernandez in his opener) in the semis and Mr. Anderson in the final, despite being ambushed by The Band before the match.

Styles beat Joe when Flair interfered with Bischoff, making him miss Joe's pin. When Joe grabbed Bischoff, Styles hit the Pele kick and Styles Clash.

Nasty Boys beat Team 3-D in what sounded like an awful match, but it also brought back Jimmy Hart, who threw Knobbs a helmet to use for the finishing sequence. I could see Hart running a stable of old-school stars, as long as they didn't sniff the main event.

Also, TNA announced today that it's moving Impact to Monday beginning with a live show March 8. They'll alternate between live and taped every week.

 

TNA announced today they are going to Monday night starting March 8. They are going to have a live show that day, then have a live show every other Monday. This should be interesting.

 

I think this can only help them. They were doing flat 1.0s to 1.3s on Thursday anyway, so as long as they can keep costs low, I think they survive and possibly thrive with fans tuning in anyway on Mondays for Raw. WCW ultimately died because in addition to horrible booking, they were paying out tons of guaranteed money to horrible performers.

 

Well, that sucked.

 

Considering that it was just four weeks ago tonight that I broke two bones in my ankle, requiring a plate and nine screws, that angle with the Hitman was NOT something I enjoyed watching.