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Post by Andrew is Good on Dec 25, 2009 15:50:59 GMT -5
This y ear's Undertaker match. I'm sorry. It wasn't that great. It certainly wasn't Match of The Year, and definetly not Match of The Decade, like I heard a few people calling it. It was a good match, but it was NOTHING mind blowingly amazing. I think one reason why people are saying that is because of the drama that was in the match. The part that is most memorable was when Shawn kicked out at 2 after hitting the tombstone, and the crowd started chanting "Holy Shit". I feel in wrestling, the false finished has been whored out. I'm excited for Gabe Sapolsky's new promotion and think he's a great booker, but one of his flaws is he whores out false finishes. And even Adam Pearce does it sometimes too in ROH. WWE does it sometimes too, but I'm kinda glad Undertaker waited over 10 years before having someone kick out of the tombstone. If I remember correctly, the last time someone kicked out of the tombstone at Wrestlemania was in 1998 with Kane kicking out of two of them, I may be wrong though. But every year, Undertaker finished his Wrestlemania match with the tombstone, and only one person kicked out. So, when Shawn Michaels kicked out of the tombstone and the reaction on Taker's face, the people thought, the streak is ending. Sometimes with the match, people think it's a given that Taker is going over. But, when Shawn kicked out, the whole dynamic was turned upside down. So, I think that's what makes the match such a classic, despite it just being something simple. But, sometimes it's the simple things that mean the most, and I wish more people took their finishers more seriously. And it's not just the two guys specifically I mentioned, but everybody nowadays whores out false finishes sometimes. But then again, Taker has multiple moves that can finish matches, so that's a good idea as well.
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Soultastic
El Dandy
Only an idiot can be completely happy.
Posts: 8,015
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Post by Soultastic on Dec 25, 2009 15:59:37 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, the last time someone kicked out of the tombstone at Wrestlemania was in 1998 with Kane kicking out of two of them, I may be wrong though. Edge kicked out of the Tombstone in WM 24.
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Post by Andrew is Good on Dec 25, 2009 16:03:30 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, the last time someone kicked out of the tombstone at Wrestlemania was in 1998 with Kane kicking out of two of them, I may be wrong though. Edge kicked out of the Tombstone in WM 24. Crap. It sucks, because I actually didn't see that match, and did the wrong thing of assuming. Oh well. At least every match ended with the Tombstone.
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Soultastic
El Dandy
Only an idiot can be completely happy.
Posts: 8,015
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Post by Soultastic on Dec 25, 2009 16:12:33 GMT -5
Edge kicked out of the Tombstone in WM 24. Crap. It sucks, because I actually didn't see that match, and did the wrong thing of assuming. Oh well. At least every match ended with the Tombstone. What was great about the Edge match is that he kicked out of the 3 main Undertaker moves (Chokeslam, Last Ride and Tombstone) and finally lost to the Hell's Gates. I remember thinking "holy crap, it's over...no, wait, WHAT?! YES! YES!" Unfortunately that kinda took the excitement out of Taker/HBK for me, since it happened the year before. The Taker/HBK match was fantastic, no doubt about it, but I do find it overrated. Both men have had better matches before and will probably have better matches in the future (well, at least HBK). It was a great match, but it was not monumental.
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Post by Hakumental on Dec 25, 2009 16:39:14 GMT -5
Wrestlemania XII, Ironman Match, HBK/Bret.
Keep in mind, I don't actually hate this match - I'm one of those precious few who actually does enjoy the thrust of the philosophy at work here. You can book an Ironman any number of ways, rack up some falls, and it really wouldn't have killed them to have one or two in this match - but one way you can do it is to create a contest of resilience, to make the stakes so incredibly high that neither is willing to surrender the first fall. You can make it a match between two virtually peerless wrestlers, both in their primes, both of similar physical and technical stature...and for one night, on the grandest stage on them all, with each man so close to the top of his game - they just can't find a way to put the other guy down inside sixty minutes.
That's what they were going for, mind you, and that's what I appreciate about the match. Do I believe the excellence of execution matched it? Frankly, no. It drags - a lot. I don't think the match really communicates this level of writing when the moments between the near-falls are so protracted and the near-falls themselves don't feel particularly intense to me.
And as much as I love the Big-Time feel of the prelude to it, I do feel a critical component to the buildup was missing from this match: Bret's mentality (in kayfabe). The burden is on HBK to make a fall and stay a fall ahead of the world champion. All Bret has to do to retain (seemingly) is keep Michaels grounded, deny him a fall, and run out the clock. Does he go that route - the smart but almost heelishly sly strategy of doing "just enough" to hold onto the belt? Or does he go for a fall and assert his spot at the top, risking that much more strength and stamina to prove he's the best? I think they got close to displaying this toward the end, but there's a fine line between subtlety and silence, and I think this ended up closer to the latter than the former.
That being said, I take nothing away from HBK's status as one of the very finest in the industry. Even one of his overrated matches is light years ahead of some of the roster's best.
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