My big stupid ****+ matches thread

[Hellowhosthat]

Since you're going through AEW chronologically. Want to hear the story on why that yearly PPV is called Full Gear?

When AEW first started, before it officially had a name, they held an event in Jacksonville in the parking lot of the Jaguars stadium to officially name the company. Throughout the night some of the people AEW signed showed up and talked to the fans, then when Hangman Page came out and talked to the fans, PAC showed up as a surprise while he was still under contract with Dragon Gate in his wrestling gear to confront Hangman.

After that on the Young Bucks Youtube vlog Being The Elite, Cody and The Young Bucks kept roasting Hangman for looking doughy and not "full gear ready" while PAC was jacked and "full gear ready". The bit ran for months until finally Cody cut a babyface hype promo on Hangman saying he was always full gear ready and always had it in him.

So basically AEW named their new yearly PPV event after a silly bit on a Youtube show and it ended up essentially becoming Hangman's PPV.

Pac certainly does always look full of gear lol.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Wrestlemania VIII - 5th May 1992

Ric Flair Vs Randy Savage - WWF Championship - ****1/4

Savage really is Mr Wrestlemania at this point as it seems to be his mission to make sure he's in the best match on the card every year and Flair doesn't disappoint in his 'Mania debut as the opponent.

I don't think many wrestlers quite sell being pissed off quite as well as Savage does, he looks so worked up in these kind of matches that it's fully believable that he'll let emotion take over and make a mistake which lets the heel take over.

Flair gets much better juice than guys ever got on WWF shows around this time (I can't remember but it might not actually have been approved) and does a great job when in control and selling the Savage comebacks.

Love the interference in this match too as Perfect doesn't overdo it and when they do the spot with the knuckle duster it gives us a great near fall. They then move on to the chair shot on the leg which Savage then sells the shit out of and it seems he's pretty much fucked until he takes a page out of Flair's book and uses the tights to get the roll up for the win.

Savage then continues to sell the shit out of the leg in the post fight beatdown and celebration too. What a guy!

 

[Hellowhosthat]

All Japan - 6th March 1990


Genichiro Tenryu/Stan Hansen Vs Steve Williams/Terry Gordy - Tag Titles - ****


Just a really good shit kicking tag title match with four shit kicking hosses. Obviously very stiff as you'd expect with these guys involved. Hansen keeps getting pissed off and storming in and nailing people as the ref tries in vain to keep control.

I think I just like the combination of stiff offence and the feeling that it could break down into chaos at any time with this one. Miracle Violence Connection start working on Tenryu's leg towards the end and then there's a very good angle with Hansen completely losing his shit and Jumbo coming out and getting involved post match defending Tenryu who has absolutely no interest in being defended by him.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Summerslam 1992 - 31st August 1992

Bret Hart Vs British Bulldog - Intercontinental Title - ****1/2

They kind of had to deliver with this match given the packed Wembley stadium atmosphere they were performing in front of and they certainly did. Perfectly laid out given that Bret was going into the world title scene after this so they had to put Davey over while keeping Bret strong.

Bret dominates a lot of the match as he should do, but that gets the crowd fired up for the Davey comebacks. Really good work with the sub threats with the sleeper holds and sharpshooters. I do kinda wonder if the way Bret landed on Davy when he went over the top rope was intentional or not to be honest but that looked cool. They started with kind of a world of sport/Hart family dungeon hybrid and then picked shit up as they got down the stretch.

The finish was perfect too, created a great moment without burying Bret which as mentioned they couldn't afford to do.

Likely Davey's best match, at least in singles competition and one of Bret's better ones and there's a lot to choose from with that guy.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

NWA Clash of the Champions 1 - 27th March 1988

Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane Vs Bobby Fulton/Tommy Rogers - ****
Just a great Southern style tag match with the Fantastics basically playing the Rock n' Roll Express to the Midnight Expresses err Midnight Express.

Wild brawl to start which gets an already hyped crowd even more hyped. Midnight then cut off the ring as they did better than pretty much any other team and give Rogers the Ricky Morton treatment. These guys are great at setting up the hottest of hot tags and there's a good descent into chaos with Cornette fucking up.




Ric Flair Vs Sting - NWA Title - ****1/2

This is a bit of a slow burn classic which takes a little while to get going but once it does it's brilliant. They've set up a time limit with perhaps the most random judging panel of all time. The crowd are absolutely off their nut for this one and don't care that the future of the world title lies in the hands of what the leave it to beaver guy thinks.

Flair absolutely works his arse off in this one, I thought at the start that maybe Sting was a little too limited at this point for Flair to get a true classic out of but he picked his shit up and kept up with the pace great in the second half of the contest.

Really good work on the legs from Flair. They do some great shit with the figure four with dramatic turnovers and near falls with it and Flair having to hold on for dear life in the Scorpion deathlock at the end.

Difficult to imagine having a crowd like this nowadays where it seemed just about everyone in the arena fully believed everything they were watching was legit.

 

[Thrawn33]

Summerslam 1992 - 31st August 1992

Bret Hart Vs British Bulldog - Intercontinental Title - ****1/2

They kind of had to deliver with this match given the packed Wembley stadium atmosphere they were performing in front of and they certainly did. Perfectly laid out given that Bret was going into the world title scene after this so they had to put Davey over while keeping Bret strong.

Bret dominates a lot of the match as he should do, but that gets the crowd fired up for the Davey comebacks. Really good work with the sub threats with the sleeper holds and sharpshooters. I do kinda wonder if the way Bret landed on Davy when he went over the top rope was intentional or not to be honest but that looked cool. They started with kind of a world of sport/Hart family dungeon hybrid and then picked shit up as they got down the stretch.

The finish was perfect too, created a great moment without burying Bret which as mentioned they couldn't afford to do.

Likely Davey's best match, at least in singles competition and one of Bret's better ones and there's a lot to choose from with that guy.

Thought I remember reading Davy was hungover, drunk or high.

Further proof Bret was a true master of his craft

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WCW Bash at the Beach - 17th July 1994

Ric Flair Vs Hulk Hogan - World Championship - ****

I think this match is pretty underrated personally. I don't think it's generally liked by the workrate crowd because Hogan but watching it back I really appreciated it for what it is.

If you're looking for mat chain wrestling sequences or high spots then obviously you're not going to get that because Hogan but if you're looking for a good dramatic wrestling match with a hot crowd then I think this has you covered.

I suspect WCW fans wanted Flair to go over so that probably clouds it a little bit but for me the way they worked the match was the best way you could blend Flair's more classic NWA style with Hogan's more cartoony superhero style. Good establishing of Hogan's power advantage, good work by Flair to use his tricks to get an advantage, good random splash by Sherri and the Hulk up and comeback kinda worked without looking too ridiculous in this one.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF King of the Ring - 13th June 1993

Bret Hart Vs Mr Perfect - ****1/2

I actually think the more famous Summerslam match with these two is a little overrated but this King of the Ring one they had was the shit.

Much faster paced than the Summerslam affair with Bret using technical wrestling to get out ahead and Perfect getting frustrated with it. We're on a time limit with genuine jeopardy as Bam Bam Bigelow gets the tournament by default if it's a draw so there's some built in urgency for both guys here.

Great selling of the legs from both of them (Bret was still selling it in the final against Bigelow) as they go back and forth in a gruelling match with both guys getting on top. Love the finish which seems appropriate for such a see saw fight with both guys chucking the kitchen sink at each other.

I think Bret has one of the best one night performances ever on this card too. I think you could argue Sasuke had better matches in Super J Cup the next year but from an individual performance perspective I think Bret probably outshined him and although he was doing it with good guys in Razor, Perfect and Bam Bam those guys weren't Benoit and Liger.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Dynamite - 19th February 2020

Kenny Omega/Adam Page Vs Penta/Rey Fenix - Tag Titles - ****

I'm liking Kenny and Hangman as a tag team at the moment. I think Page being very serious is a nice balance to Kenny doing all his pointing and posing.

They'd had a couple of fairly good matches with SCU where they won and defended the titles and I thought they stepped it up another couple of notches here.

Lucha Bros can be great when working with the right teams and pretty mediocre when they're not but this was a good environment for them to unleash hard looking kicks and some good flippy shit to try and turn Kenny into Ricky Morton. Kenny is the right choice of guy to do that with for me as Page has a little more piss and vinegar in his comebacks.

Picked up the pace really nicely as the match progressed with some really exciting near falls and saves towards the end.

They got the balance of getting a load of exciting moves in while also actually looking like a wrestling match right in this one.


Cody Rhodes Vs Wardlow - Cage Match - ****1/4

Cody is the man when it comes to feuds at this point. Every time he's on TV he manages to make it mean something and this is a great piece of the Cody/MJF feud and I'm looking forward to Cody getting his hands on him at the PPV.

First time seeing Wardlow in the ring after just being a brooding guy on TV for a while and he can't be as good as he looked with Cody here otherwise I'm sure I'd have heard more about him but he was great as a power move guy here, just throwing Cody all over the place.

Cody made his comebacks by leaping off shit and having to fly a bit more than he usually does and there were some great spots with Cody getting stuck down the side of the ring and getting the cage rammed in his face etc. The outside elements played their roles well too, loved Arn slamming the door in MJF's face and even Brandi going after MJF too.

Really good job of debuting Wardlow in a match he had to lose to progress the feud but still having him come across as a massively legit threat even in defeat.

Finish was great, the huge, great looking, high risk spot for the babyface actually getting the finish for a change rather than being a transitional move capping off a match perfectly. Go figure.



Dunno why they suddenly went so nuts with great matches on a random episode of Dynamite but I'm glad they did.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Dynamite - 26th February 2020

Kenny Omega Vs Pac (30 minute Iron Man match) - ****

Great hard hitting iron man match. I think my only real criticism of this isn't from this match itself but more from the fact that (at least at this point) Kenny lets everyone kick out of all his moves apart from the one winged angel and as such I found it hard to get excited about a lot of his near falls as I don't think Pac is going to lose to something that Jack Evans and Kip Sabian kick out of. Outside of that, good and physical, some big spots worked in but without being ridiculous and the match slowed down for a bit after them as it should.

I thought Pac intentionally losing a fall by DQ to get enough damage in to take control was a great idea but then I didn't like that he kind of laid off Kenny for a bit after he'd got the first fall back. Some good drama with Kenny hanging on in the brutalizer at the end and going sudden death was some good booking.

 

[Thrawn33]

WWF King of the Ring - 13th June 1993

Bret Hart Vs Mr Perfect - ****1/2

I actually think the more famous Summerslam match with these two is a little overrated but this King of the Ring one they had was the shit.

Much faster paced than the Summerslam affair with Bret using technical wrestling to get out ahead and Perfect getting frustrated with it. We're on a time limit with genuine jeopardy as Bam Bam Bigelow gets the tournament by default if it's a draw so there's some built in urgency for both guys here.

Great selling of the legs from both of them (Bret was still selling it in the final against Bigelow) as they go back and forth in a gruelling match with both guys getting on top. Love the finish which seems appropriate for such a see saw fight with both guys chucking the kitchen sink at each other.

I think Bret has one of the best one night performances ever on this card too. I think you could argue Sasuke had better matches in Super J Cup the next year but from an individual performance perspective I think Bret probably outshined him and although he was doing it with good guys in Razor, Perfect and Bam Bam those guys weren't Benoit and Liger.

Makes me wish we had more Bret vs Henning matches over the years.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Revolution - 29th February 2020

Kenny Omega/Adam Page Vs Nick Jackson/Matt Jackson - Tag Titles - ****3/4

Absolutely loved this, this is how you do a faces vs faces tag match rather than just throwing it together.

You've got Page who's sort of part of the elite but is also clearly the outsider of the group at this point, partnering with Omega who's presented as a very different person to him and while they've been making it work as a team and won the titles they're now facing the Young Bucks who are Kenny's best mates and it would seem like Kenny is going to have a hard time facing them.

Kenny is booked as a competitor though so he's up for engaging in the contest in the spirit of the sport. Page is more hellbent on winning so he's prepared to do stuff which is outside the rules which Kenny isn't happy about in the early going and gets him to stop.

That causes a few miscommunications between them as the action picks up with the Bucks being the more fluid team and working better within the tag rules and dominating decent sections of the match but being vulnerable whenever either of the highly ranked singles stars tag in fresh.

They play that dynamic throughout the match and it works great with Kenny seemingly slowly moving across more to also being desperate to win. Some super exciting near falls towards the end and a match that you're never really quite sure which way it's going to go.

My only tiny, tiny criticism of the match is that I don't think they needed to kill Page on the ramp quite as much as that if they were bringing him back to interrupt the finish as I think the locomotion suplexes on the ramp would have sufficed but other than that this was fucking great and probably just shades Cody Vs Dustin as my favourite AEW match so far.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Obviously the pandemic was shit for a lot of reasons but man I really hate how badly it interrupted things when they'd just started to get into the swing of things. I've got just past Double or Nothing and the covid era is a rough watch for the most part.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AJW - 24th January 1993

Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Aja Kong/Bull Nakano - ****1/2

Toyota and Yamada don't miss at this point in their career as a team. They're having to play the plucky small team against the monster team here and they do it great as usual. They're getting beaten up early as they should do but they manage to have a bit of success against Bull for a while when they can isolate her. Aja is a wrecking ball in this one and it becomes increasingly apparent that if Toyota and Yamada want to win they absolutely cannot afford to let Aja into the match. At times it looks like they might genuinely be able to put Bull away. Kind of the reverse hot tag in that it's not the babyface tagging in their partner it's the peril of knowing that they can't let the monster get going. Great kickouts and breakups in the kind of stretch that only mid 90s AJW tags seemed to be able to pull off.




Akira Hokuto/Mima Shimoda/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Eagle Sawai/Harley Saito/Miki Handa - ****

I believe this was the first LLPW/AJW engagement in the interpromotional war and while I think LLPW probably had the weakest roster of the three main joshi promotions this match is very hot as a result. Hokuto absolutely hates anything remotely related to LLPW and she's out to hurt everyone and is great as usual. Shimoda I think is arguably even better in this match, working one of the best matches at this point of her career and really coming up as someone who wants to step up to defend her promotion. The intensity builds pretty quickly and keeps going as both sides try and get on the board first. It breaks down into chaos at times but I think with these interpromotional fights consiering what was on the line that kinda makes sense. Kandori and Hokuto have words afterwards to set up their Dreamslam classic. I don't speak Japanese but I can't imagine they were saying anything nice.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Dynamite - 20th September 2020

Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler Vs Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus - ****

Really good stuff from FTR in this one, they understood how to work with Jurassic Express to get the most out of them as a team. Beat the shit out of Jungle Boy and have Luchasaurus there to take the hot tags. Luchasaurus actually worked like a big guy in this one, rather than trying to do flips alongside everyone else he generally tagged in and hit some high impact stuff to send FTR reeling.

Great cutting off of the ring from FTR and I think Jungle Boy has his best performance up to this point in his AEW career in this one as he's selling great, building up sympathy for the tags and then later on he's playing a great underdog trying to get roll ups etc on the heels and coming close a few times. I think in a full arena with a crowd responding to the near falls maybe we'd appreciate how well this match was put together.

Trent/Chuck Taylor Vs Santana/Ortiz - Parking lot brawl - ****1/2

I'm astounded I liked this as much as I did. I went into it with very little interest as I kind of felt this was a bit of a stupid feud but then somehow it ends in one of, if not the most real feeling and brutal streetfights I've ever seen. The complete antithesis of the ridiculous stadium stampede match in that it absolutely felt like these guys were willing to kill each other. I usually find Ortiz goofy as fuck but even he comes across as a brutal streetfighter in this one.

There's aggression throughout, everyone covered in blood and guys doing some pretty seriously risky spots but that make sense in the context of the match as long as they're willing to do them and don't look contrived or goofy. I could probably have done without Orange Cassidy popping out at the end as it's hard to take him seriously in this scenario but other than that I thought this was great. Loved the set up with the circle of cars to work inbetween, gave it a real genuine underground fight club vibe. I imagine everyone involved was feeling sore for a good while afterwards.

It's kind of frustrating that they immediately turned into a comedy act again riding off in Trent's mom's van after such a serious and intense fight but whatever, the match itself was great.

 

[sleepwalk]

Every generation says this.

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz used to criticize Harley Race for being too comedic and branded his stuff unbelieveable......

Universal things in wrestling, like bouncing off the ropes or going to the top rope would never happen in a real fight, neither.

Ironically, one of the wrestlers to popularize use of the ropes was Danny fucking Hodge who is about as legit as anyone who ever laced boots.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AJW Dreamslam 2 - 11th April 1993

Sakie Hasegawa Vs Hikari Fukuoka - ****1/4

It had to be daunting to try and follow a card as legendary as the originial Dreamslam a week and a bit earlier but this got the card off to a great start as even the undercard girls were firing on all cylinders and putting on great matches. I don't think I would have been expecting something as good as this out of these two at this stage in their careers but it was a nicely paced match and a particularly outstanding stretch where they were leaving it to the last microsecond to kick out of stuff and maximising the pop from the crowd. They did a great job of Sakie gradually taking over towards the end with Hikari just about kicking out of stuff and trying to get her last few hope spots off before she couldn't anymore. Great as a precursor to their involvement in Thunderqueen too.



Akira Hokuto/Aja Kong Vs Shinobu Kandori/Eagle Sawai - ****1/2

Amazing follow up to the Hokuto/Kandori Dreamslam match and I think it only doesn't enjoy the reputation it deserves because it was a follow up to one of the best singles matches ever a few days before and one of the best tag matches ever was immediately after it on the same card. Hokuto and Kandori are still hot as fuck at each other and want to kill each other. Aja also wants a piece of Kandori to see what she's about but Sawai is all " don't forget about me motherfucker" and brings it to both of them too.

Some great stuff between Aja and Kandori here as Aja joins Hokuto in the fuck Kandori club. Hokuto's Dreamslam cut opens up again which adds to everything. They work some intense hate stuff with tags where they get you to really want to see the two girls about to face off do so. Then they go into some great near falls and the back and forth Hokuto and Kandori do the waki gatame at the end is great. Ultimately Hokuto should not have engaged her in that but as the leader of the fuck Kandori club she had to try.



Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Dynamite Kansai/Mayumi Ozaki - Tag titles - 2/3 falls - *****

The chemistry these two teams have together is absolutely ridiculous. Even most great teams take a little whole to start working optimally with each other but these girls bang out their second absolute classic in two attempts here. They go for the surprisingly quick first fall here to set the tone that this could finish at any time and then the second and third falls are insane as usual. The stretches in particular are some of the best in pro wrestling history. Toyota is on fire in this one, pulling out all her stuff and pulling all the tricky stuff off. Everyone else brings their A games too and the crowd is absolutely nuts for the whole thing. Love that they make absolutely sure to fucking kill Toyota before they try to pin her for the last fall. A fitting end to two spectacularly successful Dreamslam cards.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Wrestlemania X - 20th March 1994

Bret Hart Vs Owen Hart - ****1/4

Obviously a famous WWF classic. One time where a hot feud starting with a lot of technical wrestling makes sense because Owen would have wanted to prove himself as better at that than Bret. Very solid mat work, some great back and forth with the near falls. Owen getting the upper hand by working the leg, some great reversals with the figure four and sharpshooter and then Bret gets hit with the Davey Boy pin again. For a Wrestlemania opener, you can't argue with the quality of this, even if I do personally think they could have had something slightly better in them, maybe if Hell in a Cell had existed when they did the Summerslam cage match or something.




Shawn Michaels Vs Razor Ramon - Intercontinental title - Ladder Match - *****

You'd think that with all the crazy shit that people have done in ladder matches since this with the advent of TLC etc that this would be a match that might have aged badly but I think this holds up fantastically. I think the reason it holds up so well is that they work it as a wrestling match that happens to have a ladder involved and when they do use the ladder they use it in an impactful way and just about any of the spots could conceivably have ended the match.

Considering they didn't have a lot of previous ladder matches to go on they get come up with some great spots here and build genuine drama throughout. The ending to the match with Shawn getting tangled in the ropes is a great way to finish it too.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF King of the Ring - 19th June 1994

Bret Hart Vs Diesel - ****

Bret has certainly had matches that are better than this but I think this one might be his best achievement as it's difficult to see anyone else doing something as good as this with Nash at this point (with the possible exception of Shawn as I'm not sure it's really a fair comparison as Nash was a bit too much of a face by the time they worked together).

They work the David Vs Goliath stuff great with Bret first deciding to go after the legs to try and chop the big man off his feet and later trying to make quick moves around Diesel to get to sleeper holds etc with Nash winning all the power battles as he should do. Bret is one of the ultimate scrappy babyfaces and is refusing to go away down as Diesel pulls out all the stops to try and take his title from him. I'd probably rate this even higher except I don't really like the DQ finish. Also that turnbuckle pad really would not co-operate with Shawn lol.

 

[Prime LeVan]

I know you said you are sort of getting back into wrestling. Have you checked out the Black and Gold version of NXT? Truly some of the best wrestling I have seen in my decades of watching. It is a product of its time but it was also the best product on at its time.