What's your favorite match?

[EZ: Brainy Bae]

I don't mean which one you think was the best ever done (though it could be both) but which one you like best and could rewatch more than any other. Specifically within WWE but it could be other promotions if it falls within the board rule.


For me it's probably still HHH/HBK at Summerslam 2002. Shawn starts out fast but then gets methodically picked apart for the first act. Hunter is targeting the back to make good on his promise of crippling him. Everything you know about selling goes out the window when the backbreakers (best ever done) and chair shots land with a thud and you see him wince so convincingly in agony. Most of Shawn's offense the first ten minutes is just him punching to fend off the beatdown he's getting. But Shawn believes in himself so much, and so does the crowd, that when he gets a lucky break and busts Hunter open he rejuvenates and dishes out the punishment tenfold. Shawn beats Hunter to a bloody pulp and rolls him up, only for Triple H to bludgeon him with a hammer to the back twice to the disgust of everybody.

Everything is elevated by for what I consider to be JR's most convincing performance. He reminds us how it's been four years and how he's just happy to see HBK back, but know this is a stupid match to return to against a killer and wants it to be over with halfway through. Then he's made a believer again and he is just SO damn good at every point. His post-match rant as Triple H laughs at his own villainy is brilliance.  ("He's going to rot in hell for what he did here tonight. Does he have no heart? Does he have no conscience? Do you have no soul? You son of a bitch!") Every time I watch it I just get lost in it again. I get why some don't like Triple H but this match shows why he was the most evil and despicable persona in all of wrestling.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Austin/Rock at WrestleMania X7. Never been more excited for a match. And how high on top both dudes felt at the time was insane.

[EZ: Brainy Bae]

May 21, 2018 0:41:33 GMT -5 Fade is a CodyCryBaby said:

Austin/Rock at WrestleMania X7. Never been more excited for a match. And how high on top both dudes felt at the time was insane.

It's still my vote for best WM main event. The crowd is white hot the entire time and it never slows down. I was around ten or eleven when I first saw it and it was the first time I remember being gotten by the 'finisher spam' (Had it even been done to that extent in WWE before that match?). Austin busting out the million dollar dream and ultimately aligning with Vince really showed how desperate he was to be champion again which put the title over more in my mind.

[67 more]

And emotion as mentioned in the original post is why there will never be as great a commentator as JR in his prime.

[Deleted]

Punk/Cena at MitB 2011.

Fantastic build, amazing atmosphere with lightning in a bottle luck regarding contract/location, the match delivered and I genuinely thought Punk would lose because it's cena and wwe has a weird "make hometown heroes lose" fetish,

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Probably the 1992 Rumble, if only for nostalgic reasons. From anything Attitude, I guess Bret/Austin at Survivor Series 1996 or the Cena/AJ matches at Summerslam and the 2017 Rumble.

[Deleted]

Piper/Bret Wrestlemania 8.

[Deleted]

Austin Vs Rock WM X7.

From the greatest prematch hype video to just the overall feeling of this match from the get go and both guys in the absoloute prime of their careers this was a match that lived up to everything one could want out of a wrestling match IMO.

[wakko]

Cactus Jack/HHH at Royal Rumble 2000. I am not the biggest HHH fan, but that match made him. Before then he was flirting with top level stardom. That match put him up there for better or worse.

[4real]

May 21, 2018 1:24:12 GMT -5 @cmprinny said:

Punk/Cena at MitB 2011.

Fantastic build, amazing atmosphere with lightning in a bottle luck regarding contract/location, the match delivered and I genuinely thought Punk would lose because it's cena and wwe has a weird "make hometown heroes lose" fetish,

Agreed, this is my choice too. This was the most excited I'd been for a match since the Attitude era. I honestly felt like a kid again. And I never brought wrestling shirts (unless I was at an event live) until I saw Punk's shirt at this show so it changed a lot for me. For that brief moment it made wrestling cool again.

As for the OP that match is one of the best feel good matches of all time. Going in I'm not sure if anyone expected Shawn to be that good again. The performance he put in that night was incredible and far exceeded expectations. Of course HHH deserves great credit and JR did a phenomenal job at the end for putting him over as the world's most evil man.

[DSR]

Austin/Bret, WrestleMania 13.

[Zone Was Wrong]

Weird choice probably but I'm going with Bryan/HHH or Bryan/Orton/Batista. I don't remember having so much emotion during a night than I did during those two matches. Honestly the HHH match was also my favorite of his as well (obviously) dude brought it during that match.

[clifford]

Cactus Jack/Triple H from the 2000 Royal Rumble.

I had been a fan since 1994, Undertaker/Yokozuna casket match scaring the shit out of 6 year old me, but I was a casual one at best, more interested than the action figures than the actual wrestling. But that Cactus Jack/Triple H street fight (along with the most badass debut of all time, and a tag tables match that blew my mind, both at the same event) is the match that made me a lifelong invested fan.

My favourite match of all time, I go back and watch it every few months.

Cena/Punk from MitB 2011, HBK/Angle and HBK/Taker from WMs 21 and 25, and the Jericho/Benoit ladder match from the 2001 Royal Rumble would round out my top 5 I think, in what order I couldn't pick. The 2 Gargano Takeover matches from this year would run them close however.

[Deleted]

HHH vs. Cactus at the 2000 Royal Rumble, followed by Austin vs. Bret at the 1996 Survivor Series.

[Jiren]

Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect Summerslam 91

[msc]

Singles - Owen v Bret Mania 10.

Really - Probably the Gimmick Battle Royal tbh, seen that hundreds of times, and Heenan/Mean Gene still crack me up.


But of all matches, all time, it's the 2002 Royal Rumble match.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I think I would have to say Cena/Brock at Extreme Rules 2012.

[TGM]

I absolutely love the random APA / New Age Outlaws match from Royal Rumble 2000. The Acolytes beat the ever loving tar out of Billy and Road Dogg who still manage to retain thanks to cheating. The match is less than four minutes and Billy eats the beat Clothesline From Hell I've ever seen.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Bret vs. Piper.

Though I watch Doink, Doink, Doink and Doink vs. Headshrinkers, Bam Bam and Booger a lot. It’s a fun match. Don’t care what anyone says.

[disorganisedchaos v:2]

I'm throwing RVD/Cena from ONS2 out there as well.