I'm nearly 30 years old, and I still watch wrestling on a weekly basis. I openly admit that I love it and will be a fan for life. Why? Because honestly, wrestling is the best thing on television and it always will be. Its the only thing that truely combines both athletics and entertainment. I like sports, but I'm not "entertained" by them. "Real" sports I watch for the spirit of competition. Reality TV is scripted just as much as regular TV and movies. Wrestling I watch because of its athleticism, spectacle, showmanship, cheesy storylines, and larger than life characters.
I've been watching for so long that I'm one step away from being a "mark"!
With Wrestlemania 26 about a month away, I start to think about all the great matches I've seen over the years..as well as some shitty ones. I'll do a Top 10 Worst Matches eventually but for now, here's the best matches that I've seen.
Out of fairness, even though it's my favorite match of the year, I've excluded the Royal Rumble match from this list. Even when the Rumble is bad, it's still pretty good but I'm gonna keep it off the list.
So without further ado, here's my Top 10 Favorite Wrestling Matches according to me.
#10.
1990 Wrestlemania 6: HULK HOGAN VS. THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
-Out of all of the matches I remember from my childhood, this is one that still remains etched in my memory. I can recall every move, every pop the crowd makes, everything.
I remember watching this at my 10th birthday party. Even though it took place 3 days earlier, there was no internet or Monday Night Raw so you couldn't find out who actually won the match unless you saw it live. Half the room said Hogan was going to win and half the room said Warrior. If you were a 9 year old boy, this match was an epic showdown between 2 real life superheroes. In reality, it was the first time the two top babyfaces (good guys) had a match at a major pay-per-view. But really, who would win? Hogan was WWF Champion and Warrior was Intercontinental Champion? Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose!
In the end, Warrior press-slammed Hogan and won. It was the first time Hogan had been beaten clean so it really was a "passing of the torch" moment for the Ultimate Warrior. Hands down, the best match of Warrior's career (though he didn't have very many). Even though it wasn't the most techincal match and Warrior faded away into obscurity about a year and a half later, I still love this match. It was good storytelling, and epic battle, and just a fun match to watch as a fan.
#9
1996 Wrestlemania 12: BRET "THE HITMAN" HART VS. "THE HEARTBREAK KID" SHAWN MICHAELS
-Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time and despite all the angles he's been involved in, his best rival was without a doubt Bret Hart. Rest assured, I'm not gonna get into their1997 Survivor Series match and the fiasco that followed. I'm just concentrate on this match.
-HBK won the Royal Rumble that year (his 2nd consecutive) and was facing Hart in the main event for the WWF Championship. WWF started doing this "boyhood dream" angle for Michaels in his quest to become champion. At WM12 it was announced that he wouldn't just face Bret Hart for the title, but the match would be a 60 Minute Iron Man Match. An Iron Man match is a match set to go for a certain time limit and the man who gets the most pinfalls in the match wins. WCW tried this a few times on pay-per-view, but those were for only for 30 minutes. WWF had balls for saying they were going for twice that time! There was a lot on the line in this match.
1, Bret & Shawn legit hated each other.
2,The question of how do you keep an audience interested in a match that is going to last for 1 hour guarenteed?
3, This is the Super Bowl of wrestling...are you sure this is a good idea?
-In the end, it was. Bret & Shawn put on an absolutely show of great ring work. There weren't any gimmicks in the match, just straight wrestling. People were expecting them to chalk up a bunch of pins & submissions in the match. At the 60 minute mark, the score was tied 0-0. Gorilla Monsoon ordered the match go into Sudden Death and within 2 minutes, HBK hit Sweet Chin Music, and won his first WWF Championship in epic fashion.
#8
1987 Wrestlemania 3: "MACHO MAN" RANDY SAVAGE VS. RICKY "THE DRAGON" STEAMBOAT
-The Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, MI was packed to see the epic battle between Hulk Hogan & Andre The Giant for the WWF Championship. That was the match that put the asses in the seats. That was the match people came to see, but the match that is remembered just as much, was for the Intercontinental Championship between Savage & Steamboat. When it was first introduced, the Intercontinental Championship was given to the guy who was overall the best performer in the ring.
That could not have been more true than this match. 20 minutes of back & forth action that had you on the edge of your seat. In the end, Steamboat beat Savage and influenced a generation of wrestlers to come. Ask any wrestler under 250 lbs, and they will tell you that THIS is their favorite match of all time.
#7
2005 Unbreakable: "THE FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS VS. SAMOE JOE VS. "THE PHENOMENAL" A.J. STYLES
-Thanks to the internet, this was my introduction to TNA Wrestling. I had never heard of these three guys before and I'm not a big fan of 3-way and 4-way matches to begin with, so I wasn't even sure if I'd like this match. Usually with 3 way matches you see the occasional double-team move, but really it just ends up being 2 guys fighting with 1 down or outside the ring. To keep it interesting, the guy on his back for long periods of time keeps changing. This match was NOT like that at all! The action in this match never really stopped and most of it involved all three guys. It was fast-paced, exciting, and overall fun. To describe what happens wouldn't do it justice. Watch it yourself and see what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X64B7SK4-XQ
#6
1998 King Of The Ring: THE UNDERTAKER VS. MANKIND
-Because of the mid-to-late 1990s oversaturating my mind, I'm not a big fan of "gimmick" matches. The old ECW was a lot to blame for this with their hardcore matches with tables, and barbed wire baseball bats and shit. But WWF did their share as well.
-Hell In The Cell is basically a huge steel cage that covers the ring, half the ringside area and has a top on it. This was the 2nd ever Hell In A Cell match ever and also the 2nd with Undertaker. Mankind (Mick Foley) was a hardcore legend by the time he got to WWF after making his name in some of the most violent match in WCW, Japan, & ECW. But his WWF matches were relativly tame...until this one. This was going to end his on-again, off-again feud with Taker.
-I remember watching this live on pay-per-view. First off, the match STARTED on top of the cage. It took Foley a while to get his fat ass up there, then Taker comes down and looks up thinking how's he gonna get his 300 lb body up there too! They climb the cage and are fighting back and forth. I remember saying to myself, it would be awesome if someone got thrown off...but this is wrestling and there is no way they could pull that off. Suddenly, Taker grabbed Foley by the seat of his pants, and threw him off the top of the cage and onto a table a legit 16 feet below. The crowd went nuts. Foley was carried off on a stretcher and brought to the back. I figured, match is over.
-Then Foley comes BACK with the WWF medic telling him not to go. Foley, with a mouth full of blood and a loose tooth, climbed back up the cage. Now when two 300 lb men are walking on basically a horizontal chain link fence, there's gonna be some give. At one point Undertaker grabs Foley by the throat and chokeslam's him onto the cage and sure enough, the cage breaks and Foley takes the biggest bump ever as he falls to the ring. Now, most people only talk about the first fall, but the one I remember and respect was the 2nd one knowing how hard a wrestling mat is (even when you fall the "right way").
-Undertaker finally pins him after Foley is dropped onto a shitload of thumbtacks. There was a lot of legit worry for Foley in this match, and you can feel it. Its because of this match that forever cemented Mick Foley as the Hardcore Legend.
#5
1997 Wrestlemania 13: BRET "THE HITMAN" HART VS. "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN
-Overall, Wrestlemania 13 sucked. It was the end of WWF getting out of their "family friendly" phase they were in and ushering in the "Attitdue Era". Hart & Austin faced off in an I Quit Match..they even got submission specialist and top UFC draw (at the time) Ken Shamrock to referee. The match was damn good, there was great storytelling leading up to it, they had a legendary rivalry too.
- But what stands out to me was going into this match it was clear which role each man played: Bret Hart was the clean cut good guy, Stone Cold was the rule-breaking bad guy. At the end of the match, with no one doing a traditional "heel turn" or anyone changing the way they perform, they traded roles. Austin became the biggest fan favorite in history while Bret Hart became a huge heel for the remainder of his time in WWF. I had never seen that happen before and hasn't seen it happen like this since.
-Its so memorable, that I often forget that Stone Cold lost! Speaking of Stone Cold...
#4
1998 Wrestlemania 14: "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN VS. SHAWN MICHAELS
-As a wrestling fan, there is nothing quite like seeing it live. But seeing Wrestlemania live? No words can describe the feeling.
-Austin won his 2nd Royal Rumble and was facing HBK at WM14. What also happened at the Royal Rumble was Shawn Michaels severly injured his back (legit) and was used very sparingly up until Mania.
-The match took place between my two favorite wrestlers and me also knowing both it was Austin's time to get the torch passed to him and how much pain HBK must have been in. And I got to see it live!
-It was great to see Austin win the belt live in Boston, but the MVP for this match is without doubt Shawn Michaels.
-Shawn Michaels didn't wrestle for 4 1/2 years after this match. Not to mention, Austin had chronic neck pain due to a piledriver he received wrong (thanks Owen Hart). To see how great this match is due to the pain the performers were in says a lot about how great they both are.
#3
1987 Wrestlmania 3: HULK HOGAN VS. ANDRE THE GIANT
-This is my definition of EPIC. I was 6 years old when I watched this. 93,173 fans came to see this match and it did not disappoint.
-The storyline goes that Andre was good friends with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. Then Andre becomes a bad guy by siding with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. This leads to WM3. Andre was 7'4", 520lbs, and "undefeated for 15 years". I was 6 years old watching this match and I was scared that Hogan was going to DIE!
-Not only did Hulk Hogan beat Andre The Giant, he BODYSLAMMED him!!!! HOLY SHIT DUDE!!!
-Even though Hogan had been champion for 3 years previously, this made him. Hulkamania was truely born at Wrestlemania 3. He owes his career to Andre The Giant and openly admits it.
-Like all of Hogan's matches, not great from a technical standpoint, but who gives a shit! It was awesome!
#2
2009 Wrestlemania 25: THE UNDERTAKER VS. SHAWN MICHAELS
-Shawn Michaels is "Mr. Wrestlemania". Every Wrestlemania he's at, win or lose, he steals the show (see this list!). The Undertaker has wrestled at 16 Wrestlemanias...and he's never lost. He's beaten Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Jake The Snake Roberts, Diesel, Ric Flair, Triple H, Randy Orton, Kane, Edge, Batista, and many more.
-The storyline leading up to it was epic and the match is regarded as the greatest match in the history of Wrestlemania. A must watch. After watching wrestling for as long as I have , I can watch as both a fan and as a wrestling nerd and appreciate. Its what happens when you put the two best performers in the business on the "grandest stage of them all".
-It looks like a rematch is happening this year. This time it's Undertaker's streak (now at 17-0) vs Shawn Michaels' career. They have big shoes to fill and personally, whatever happens, they will NEVER top this match.
#1
2008 Wrestlemania 24: SHAWN MICHAELS VS. RIC FLAIR
-I've always been a huge Ric Flair fan and there are so many great matches he's had. But after 30 years in the business, Ric Flair was told if he lost another match, his career was over. He wanted to test that at Wrestlemania against Mr. Wrestlemania himself.
- But something happened to me that I didn't expect...as a fan of 20+ years and knowing I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
-This match made me feel like I was 8 years old again. I didn't watch this match working out the logistics in my head or the choreogrophy or this spot or that. I know how matches are put together, how they communicate in the ring, call out spots and all that. And going into this match, I KNEW for a FACT that Flair was going to lose and end his career with a bang. But the match made me a fan again. I was a young boy watching wrestling for the first time again. Flair lost and got the biggest sendoff in history. I almost cried it was so beautiful how they did it.
-After watching wrestling for almost 25 years and knowing all that I know about it, this match made me suspend my disbelief. That is why its the best match I've ever seen.
I've been watching for so long that I'm one step away from being a "mark"!
With Wrestlemania 26 about a month away, I start to think about all the great matches I've seen over the years..as well as some shitty ones. I'll do a Top 10 Worst Matches eventually but for now, here's the best matches that I've seen.
Out of fairness, even though it's my favorite match of the year, I've excluded the Royal Rumble match from this list. Even when the Rumble is bad, it's still pretty good but I'm gonna keep it off the list.
So without further ado, here's my Top 10 Favorite Wrestling Matches according to me.
#10.
1990 Wrestlemania 6: HULK HOGAN VS. THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
-Out of all of the matches I remember from my childhood, this is one that still remains etched in my memory. I can recall every move, every pop the crowd makes, everything.
I remember watching this at my 10th birthday party. Even though it took place 3 days earlier, there was no internet or Monday Night Raw so you couldn't find out who actually won the match unless you saw it live. Half the room said Hogan was going to win and half the room said Warrior. If you were a 9 year old boy, this match was an epic showdown between 2 real life superheroes. In reality, it was the first time the two top babyfaces (good guys) had a match at a major pay-per-view. But really, who would win? Hogan was WWF Champion and Warrior was Intercontinental Champion? Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose!
In the end, Warrior press-slammed Hogan and won. It was the first time Hogan had been beaten clean so it really was a "passing of the torch" moment for the Ultimate Warrior. Hands down, the best match of Warrior's career (though he didn't have very many). Even though it wasn't the most techincal match and Warrior faded away into obscurity about a year and a half later, I still love this match. It was good storytelling, and epic battle, and just a fun match to watch as a fan.
#9
1996 Wrestlemania 12: BRET "THE HITMAN" HART VS. "THE HEARTBREAK KID" SHAWN MICHAELS
-Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time and despite all the angles he's been involved in, his best rival was without a doubt Bret Hart. Rest assured, I'm not gonna get into their1997 Survivor Series match and the fiasco that followed. I'm just concentrate on this match.
-HBK won the Royal Rumble that year (his 2nd consecutive) and was facing Hart in the main event for the WWF Championship. WWF started doing this "boyhood dream" angle for Michaels in his quest to become champion. At WM12 it was announced that he wouldn't just face Bret Hart for the title, but the match would be a 60 Minute Iron Man Match. An Iron Man match is a match set to go for a certain time limit and the man who gets the most pinfalls in the match wins. WCW tried this a few times on pay-per-view, but those were for only for 30 minutes. WWF had balls for saying they were going for twice that time! There was a lot on the line in this match.
1, Bret & Shawn legit hated each other.
2,The question of how do you keep an audience interested in a match that is going to last for 1 hour guarenteed?
3, This is the Super Bowl of wrestling...are you sure this is a good idea?
-In the end, it was. Bret & Shawn put on an absolutely show of great ring work. There weren't any gimmicks in the match, just straight wrestling. People were expecting them to chalk up a bunch of pins & submissions in the match. At the 60 minute mark, the score was tied 0-0. Gorilla Monsoon ordered the match go into Sudden Death and within 2 minutes, HBK hit Sweet Chin Music, and won his first WWF Championship in epic fashion.
#8
1987 Wrestlemania 3: "MACHO MAN" RANDY SAVAGE VS. RICKY "THE DRAGON" STEAMBOAT
-The Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, MI was packed to see the epic battle between Hulk Hogan & Andre The Giant for the WWF Championship. That was the match that put the asses in the seats. That was the match people came to see, but the match that is remembered just as much, was for the Intercontinental Championship between Savage & Steamboat. When it was first introduced, the Intercontinental Championship was given to the guy who was overall the best performer in the ring.
That could not have been more true than this match. 20 minutes of back & forth action that had you on the edge of your seat. In the end, Steamboat beat Savage and influenced a generation of wrestlers to come. Ask any wrestler under 250 lbs, and they will tell you that THIS is their favorite match of all time.
#7
2005 Unbreakable: "THE FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS VS. SAMOE JOE VS. "THE PHENOMENAL" A.J. STYLES
-Thanks to the internet, this was my introduction to TNA Wrestling. I had never heard of these three guys before and I'm not a big fan of 3-way and 4-way matches to begin with, so I wasn't even sure if I'd like this match. Usually with 3 way matches you see the occasional double-team move, but really it just ends up being 2 guys fighting with 1 down or outside the ring. To keep it interesting, the guy on his back for long periods of time keeps changing. This match was NOT like that at all! The action in this match never really stopped and most of it involved all three guys. It was fast-paced, exciting, and overall fun. To describe what happens wouldn't do it justice. Watch it yourself and see what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X64B7SK4-XQ
#6
1998 King Of The Ring: THE UNDERTAKER VS. MANKIND
-Because of the mid-to-late 1990s oversaturating my mind, I'm not a big fan of "gimmick" matches. The old ECW was a lot to blame for this with their hardcore matches with tables, and barbed wire baseball bats and shit. But WWF did their share as well.
-Hell In The Cell is basically a huge steel cage that covers the ring, half the ringside area and has a top on it. This was the 2nd ever Hell In A Cell match ever and also the 2nd with Undertaker. Mankind (Mick Foley) was a hardcore legend by the time he got to WWF after making his name in some of the most violent match in WCW, Japan, & ECW. But his WWF matches were relativly tame...until this one. This was going to end his on-again, off-again feud with Taker.
-I remember watching this live on pay-per-view. First off, the match STARTED on top of the cage. It took Foley a while to get his fat ass up there, then Taker comes down and looks up thinking how's he gonna get his 300 lb body up there too! They climb the cage and are fighting back and forth. I remember saying to myself, it would be awesome if someone got thrown off...but this is wrestling and there is no way they could pull that off. Suddenly, Taker grabbed Foley by the seat of his pants, and threw him off the top of the cage and onto a table a legit 16 feet below. The crowd went nuts. Foley was carried off on a stretcher and brought to the back. I figured, match is over.
-Then Foley comes BACK with the WWF medic telling him not to go. Foley, with a mouth full of blood and a loose tooth, climbed back up the cage. Now when two 300 lb men are walking on basically a horizontal chain link fence, there's gonna be some give. At one point Undertaker grabs Foley by the throat and chokeslam's him onto the cage and sure enough, the cage breaks and Foley takes the biggest bump ever as he falls to the ring. Now, most people only talk about the first fall, but the one I remember and respect was the 2nd one knowing how hard a wrestling mat is (even when you fall the "right way").
-Undertaker finally pins him after Foley is dropped onto a shitload of thumbtacks. There was a lot of legit worry for Foley in this match, and you can feel it. Its because of this match that forever cemented Mick Foley as the Hardcore Legend.
#5
1997 Wrestlemania 13: BRET "THE HITMAN" HART VS. "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN
-Overall, Wrestlemania 13 sucked. It was the end of WWF getting out of their "family friendly" phase they were in and ushering in the "Attitdue Era". Hart & Austin faced off in an I Quit Match..they even got submission specialist and top UFC draw (at the time) Ken Shamrock to referee. The match was damn good, there was great storytelling leading up to it, they had a legendary rivalry too.
- But what stands out to me was going into this match it was clear which role each man played: Bret Hart was the clean cut good guy, Stone Cold was the rule-breaking bad guy. At the end of the match, with no one doing a traditional "heel turn" or anyone changing the way they perform, they traded roles. Austin became the biggest fan favorite in history while Bret Hart became a huge heel for the remainder of his time in WWF. I had never seen that happen before and hasn't seen it happen like this since.
-Its so memorable, that I often forget that Stone Cold lost! Speaking of Stone Cold...
#4
1998 Wrestlemania 14: "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN VS. SHAWN MICHAELS
-As a wrestling fan, there is nothing quite like seeing it live. But seeing Wrestlemania live? No words can describe the feeling.
-Austin won his 2nd Royal Rumble and was facing HBK at WM14. What also happened at the Royal Rumble was Shawn Michaels severly injured his back (legit) and was used very sparingly up until Mania.
-The match took place between my two favorite wrestlers and me also knowing both it was Austin's time to get the torch passed to him and how much pain HBK must have been in. And I got to see it live!
-It was great to see Austin win the belt live in Boston, but the MVP for this match is without doubt Shawn Michaels.
-Shawn Michaels didn't wrestle for 4 1/2 years after this match. Not to mention, Austin had chronic neck pain due to a piledriver he received wrong (thanks Owen Hart). To see how great this match is due to the pain the performers were in says a lot about how great they both are.
#3
1987 Wrestlmania 3: HULK HOGAN VS. ANDRE THE GIANT
-This is my definition of EPIC. I was 6 years old when I watched this. 93,173 fans came to see this match and it did not disappoint.
-The storyline goes that Andre was good friends with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. Then Andre becomes a bad guy by siding with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. This leads to WM3. Andre was 7'4", 520lbs, and "undefeated for 15 years". I was 6 years old watching this match and I was scared that Hogan was going to DIE!
-Not only did Hulk Hogan beat Andre The Giant, he BODYSLAMMED him!!!! HOLY SHIT DUDE!!!
-Even though Hogan had been champion for 3 years previously, this made him. Hulkamania was truely born at Wrestlemania 3. He owes his career to Andre The Giant and openly admits it.
-Like all of Hogan's matches, not great from a technical standpoint, but who gives a shit! It was awesome!
#2
2009 Wrestlemania 25: THE UNDERTAKER VS. SHAWN MICHAELS
-Shawn Michaels is "Mr. Wrestlemania". Every Wrestlemania he's at, win or lose, he steals the show (see this list!). The Undertaker has wrestled at 16 Wrestlemanias...and he's never lost. He's beaten Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Jake The Snake Roberts, Diesel, Ric Flair, Triple H, Randy Orton, Kane, Edge, Batista, and many more.
-The storyline leading up to it was epic and the match is regarded as the greatest match in the history of Wrestlemania. A must watch. After watching wrestling for as long as I have , I can watch as both a fan and as a wrestling nerd and appreciate. Its what happens when you put the two best performers in the business on the "grandest stage of them all".
-It looks like a rematch is happening this year. This time it's Undertaker's streak (now at 17-0) vs Shawn Michaels' career. They have big shoes to fill and personally, whatever happens, they will NEVER top this match.
#1
2008 Wrestlemania 24: SHAWN MICHAELS VS. RIC FLAIR
-I've always been a huge Ric Flair fan and there are so many great matches he's had. But after 30 years in the business, Ric Flair was told if he lost another match, his career was over. He wanted to test that at Wrestlemania against Mr. Wrestlemania himself.
- But something happened to me that I didn't expect...as a fan of 20+ years and knowing I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
-This match made me feel like I was 8 years old again. I didn't watch this match working out the logistics in my head or the choreogrophy or this spot or that. I know how matches are put together, how they communicate in the ring, call out spots and all that. And going into this match, I KNEW for a FACT that Flair was going to lose and end his career with a bang. But the match made me a fan again. I was a young boy watching wrestling for the first time again. Flair lost and got the biggest sendoff in history. I almost cried it was so beautiful how they did it.
-After watching wrestling for almost 25 years and knowing all that I know about it, this match made me suspend my disbelief. That is why its the best match I've ever seen.
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