NickBockwinkelFan
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| #1 Posted on 24.10.04 1540.52 Reposted on: 24.10.11 1541.07 | I saw that the RSPW Awards are approaching and was going through my tapes to find some candidates for Match of the Year. Here's what I have so far. I've never seen ROH and I haven't bothered with TNA for quite some time, so maybe someone else has thoughts for those two promotions. When trying to think back over a year, it's almost impossible to remember what went on (especially when you try to block much of it out). These are the ones I've seen and I think the Kobashi/Akiyama match is head and shoulders above anything since Kobashi/Misawa 3/1/03.
Kenta Kobashi vs Yun Akiyama 7/10 (NOAH) Tokyo Dome
HHH vs HBK vs Chris Benoit 3/14 (WWE) Wrestlemania XX NYC
Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero 3/14 (WWE) Wrestlemania XX NYC
Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama 4/25 (NOAH) Encountering Navigation 2004
Mitsuharu Misawa vs Satoshi Kojima 7/18 (All Japan) Sumo Hall Tokyo
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA 4/25 (NOAH) Encountering Navigation 2004
Eddie Guerrero vs Brock Lesnar 2/15 (WWE) No Way Out San Francisco
HHH vs HBK vs Chris Benoit 4/18 (WWE) Backlash Edmonton
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs HiroshiI Tanahashi 8/15 (New Japan) G-1 Climax Finals Sumo Hall Tokyo
Rock & Mick Foley vs Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Dave Batista 3/14 (WWE) Wrestlemania XX NYC
Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs El Samurai & Wataru Inoue 1/10 (NOAH) Great Voyage 2004
HBK vs Chris Benoit 5/3 (WWE) Phoenix, AZ Raw
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Yoshihiro Takayama 11/3 (New Japan) Yokohama Dead PPV
Royal Rumble 1/25 (WWE) Philadelphia
HHH vs HBK 12/29 (WWE) San Antonio, TX Raw
HHH, Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Batista vs Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, HBK & Shelton Benjamin 4/12 (WWE) Chicago Raw
Eddie Guerrero v. Rey Mysterio 3/18 (WWE) Boston Smackdown
(edited by NickBockwinkelFan on 24.10.04 1658) Promote this thread! | | BigSteve
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| #2 Posted on 24.10.04 1608.32 Reposted on: 24.10.11 1608.59 | The general consensus seems to be that the WMXX Triple Threat match was the best of the year, so I think that that is going to win fairly easily. | BigSteve
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| #3 Posted on 24.10.04 1608.33 Reposted on: 24.10.11 1610.00 | (deleted by CRZ on 24.10.04 1612) | JustinShapiro
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| #4 Posted on 24.10.04 1620.44 Reposted on: 24.10.11 1622.39 | OMG fun.
The Wrestlemania main event is going to win easy and I can't really predict the RSPW electoral college, but the Backlash main event should finish second. I can see Eddie/Lesnar finishing second too since it's a different match with the big moment. #4 should be the second Benoit/Michaels (which could actually be #1 with a real finish), but I foresee the combination of Wrestlemania and title match and Kurt Angle putting Guerrero/Angle up there instead.
Foley/Orton and Benoit/Orton are the only other PPV matches I'd consider that you didn't mention.
Other **** and better TV matches from my personal brain database:
Benoit vs. Lesnar, 12/4 Smackdown Benoit vs. Michaels, 2/16 Raw (superceded by the Phoenix match, but oh well) Benoit/Edge vs. Flair/Batista, 4/26 Raw Jericho vs. Christian, 5/10 Raw (cage) Benoit/Edge vs. Orton/Batista, 5/17 Raw Benoit/Edge/Jericho vs. Orton/Flair/Batista, 8/2 Raw Benoit vs. Orton, 8/16 Raw
The millions of Evolution tags sort of run together and thus none of them stand any chance of meaning anything vote-wise, but those are the three that stand out.
Look at the name that appears in all but one of those matches and you've got your easy Wrestler of the Year pick. (HHH is such a trickster; he'd gotten himself into my top three at the halfway mark.)
Shame on whoever booked Angle and Guerrero for only 13 minutes at SummerSlam.
The RSPW awards also include November, right? So you'd want Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff.
I think that about covers WWE.
(edited by JustinShapiro on 24.10.04 2208) | The Vile1
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| #5 Posted on 24.10.04 1703.15 Reposted on: 24.10.11 1703.18 | Some other MOTY candidates and great matches that have yet to be named:
Chris Jericho vs. Christian on RAW-4/19/04
Edge and Benoit vs. Flair and Batista on RAW-4/19/04
Kane vs. Chris Benoit at Bad Blood-6/13/04
Edge, Jericho, and Chris Benoit vs. Ric Flair, Batista, and Randy Orton in a Six-man tag Elimination Match on the 6/14/04 RAW
| Screeching Weasel
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| #6 Posted on 24.10.04 2007.49 Reposted on: 24.10.11 2011.36 | For ROH, I constantly hear raves about Samoa Joe vs Austin Aries in the 1 hour match, and Joe vs CM Punk. Foley called the former the greatest match he had seen live on a recent WOL show. I did see the Kobashi vs Akiyama match, and it was very damn good. So that's my pick hands down, no other match can even come close IMHO. | orangeman
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| #7 Posted on 24.10.04 2118.17 Reposted on: 24.10.11 2119.31 | Kobashi vs. Akiyama was just awesome and I'd agree with the above post that there wasn't anything else really on the same level. | Packman V2
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| #8 Posted on 24.10.04 2121.35 Reposted on: 24.10.11 2122.25 | Guerrero vs. Lesnar. It took a PPV that I only bought because of DirecTV's Road to WrestleMania special, and thought it was gonna be a lacking PPV going in. That match singlehandedly changed my opinion of the whole show, and made the whole PPV worthwhile. HHH/Benoit/HBK a close second, but the nod goes to Eddy/Brock. | TL_Hopper
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| #9 Posted on 24.10.04 2133.42 Reposted on: 24.10.11 2133.58 | Honestly, I can't see it going to anything but the Wrestlemania three way. It's a fantastic match, but because it's Chris Benoit winning the World title, it's automatically an IWC favorite. | A Fan
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| #10 Posted on 24.10.04 2215.49 Reposted on: 24.10.11 2216.32 | I might be biased seeing it live, but I am picking this year's Royal Rumble. It was single greatest match I have seen live and I've been to a ton of events. I give it the nod, because it set up everything from Wrestlemania til now. It gave Benoit something to be remembered by winning it by being number 1 and going the full hour. The Undertaker cameo sent a chill down my spine, you had Foley coming in and eleminating Orton who was getting some good pops near his elemination espically helping Benoit eleminate The Cat and his boy. Brock F-5ing Goldberg was nuts. Everyone was used correctly including Big Show. It is what a wrestling event should be and it saved the PPV, because everyone pissed all over the HHH/HBK match. For my money, this is my match of the year if not my life.
I know that Benoit/HBK/HHH is going to win and I can't say I disagree with it. I would say that the Rumble should be a solid two or three. | Shem the Penman
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| #11 Posted on 25.10.04 0009.08 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0010.11 | No love for the Triple H / Benoit iron man match? No, it doesn't deserve to be first (that would, of course, be the three-way) -- but hey, the Kurt/Brock iron man came in third last year, and Triple H/Benoit blew that one away. | JustinShapiro
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| #12 Posted on 25.10.04 0009.08 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0011.11 | "I might be biased seeing it live, but I am picking this year's Royal Rumble."
It *was* the best Royal Rumble ever oh yeah I went there.
"hey, the Kurt/Brock iron man came in third last year, and Triple H/Benoit blew that one away."
Psychologically and in terms of telling a captivating story for 60 minutes, I thought Benoit/Hunter was a ton better, but the big thing Lesnar/Angle has going for it in comparison (besides being better athletically) is that the first 57 minutes weren't a setup for Zach Gowen coming out and costing Lesnar the match while Angle took a nap. So I don't think the 60 minute match was in the upper, upper echelon of this year's great matches, although it was very good.
(edited by JustinShapiro on 25.10.04 0116) | Freeway
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| #13 Posted on 25.10.04 0017.06 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0019.16 | HOW TO VOTE FOR THE MATCH OF THE YEAR:
Step One: Watch (more or less) any Chris Benoit match from January onwards.
Step Two: Pick one.
Seriously, Benoit has been ON this year. Because, in part, of him guys like Batista, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton and Edge have been having awesome years in the ring. | darkmatcher
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| #14 Posted on 25.10.04 0226.12 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0227.25 | No love for the Triple H / Benoit iron man match?
None from here at least. I didn't think it was very good, or rather just very disappointing. I thought Kurt-Brock was better and I was neither crazy about that match. I think the fact that I didn't even notice HHH/Benoit not being listed has to say something about how it underwhelmed me.
Maybe I'm just not into Iron Matches. Even so, Scott Keith gave it the lowest star rating of all the major Iron Mans so at least I'm not alone.
Originally posted by Freeway420 Seriously, Benoit has been ON this year. Because, in part, of him guys like Batista, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton and Edge have been having awesome years in the ring.
You're not really lumping Michaels in with those other guys are you? I mean, I can't recall Michaels ever needing someone to have a good match..not even since his return. He's continued to sometimes be a carrier type if you ask me.
With many Raw Tag Matches having been mentioned, I don't see the point of adding them to contention. I doubt any of them will win...also there's something about that period of rather formulaic matches with different combinatons of the same guy...that really made it hard for me to tell them apart. Can't be just me, can it? Its not even like when SD was doing it, when there weren't as many guys being blatantly carried..or as many guys being used for that matter. Even so I still have a hard time remebering those apart. Guess I'm saying that I think a MOTY should have a unique and memorable appeal. Also, that I find Raw's wrestling over the last year to have been a bit overrated. For that matter, the WM XX tag match is QUITE overrated. I decided to give it a second and third viewing, and both times I didn't see more than a *** effort, work wise anyway.
Finally, I personally think the May 3 Benoit-HBK match was better than the WM three-way. Yes, I know I'm weird. | Oliver
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| #15 Posted on 25.10.04 0804.03 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0804.55 | I liked the drama at the end of JBL and Eddie's strap match, myself. | samoflange
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| #16 Posted on 25.10.04 0944.48 Reposted on: 25.10.11 0944.59 | "HHH, Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Batista vs Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, HBK & Shelton Benjamin 4/12 (WWE) Chicago Raw"
Is this the RAW where the overrun was close to 25 minutes long? I don't think this was straight up MOTY quality, but if there were a separate catagory for "special" matches like this, this one would definately take the cake.
And by "special" I mean things like 4 on 4 tags, Rumbles, tag team fatal four ways, etc, where there are lots of opponents in a non-traditional type of match.
My picks for MOTY, having not seen any of the mentioned Japanese matches, would agree with many others here, namely Eddie/Brock and the WMXX Triple Threat. My favorite moment of the year is definately Eddie and Benoit in the ring to close out WMXX. And thats right up there with Bret's WMX post-match celebration for best moments ever too.
(edited by samoflange on 25.10.04 1046) | spf
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| #17 Posted on 25.10.04 1125.25 Reposted on: 25.10.11 1129.01 | Even though it's not out on DVD yet, I'm going to go with the 1 hr CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe draw from ROH in Chicago last weekend. The crowd was hot as hell for the entire hour, they worked a match where even though I had a fear they were going broadway early on, they never made me feel like I was watching time being wasted...when it comes out on DVD it's a must-see. | Net Hack Slasher
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| #18 Posted on 27.10.04 0032.58 Reposted on: 27.10.11 0033.13 | I have to go with the Wrestlemania main event. It really was the defining moment of the year. The event, the crowd, the work in it, the victory. Everything just worked perfectly, and I'll be honest I was the biggest critic of the triple threat match going in thinking the HBK would totally overshadow Benoit in popularity but MSG crowd really picked up on it being Benoits night and came through.
I didn't really like the HHH/Benoit iron man match. I liked Angle/Lesnar iron man match much better... I see mention of Jericho vs. Christian Raw matches but no mention of their Wrestlemania match. I would call it maybe one of the more underrated match on the card.
Now where oh where do I put Goldberg vs. Lesnar WMXX match, as it was a match that at the same time was one of the greatest yet still one of the worst things I've seen in a wrestling ring. Actually around the ring was great, what was going on inside was total crap... That could have been a shoe-in to win worst match until they decided Tyson Tomko and Stevie Richards a last second match on a PPV. | tomk
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| #19 Posted on 27.10.04 0122.55 Reposted on: 27.10.11 0123.05 | Eddie Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield from 5/16/04 is easily the best WWE match all year and really the only one deserving of MOTY consideration.
| Screeching Weasel
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| #20 Posted on 28.10.04 0035.02 Reposted on: 28.10.11 0035.11 | F this post. KObashi vs Akiyama was the greatest match of the year, there's no way any REAL fan who has seen this match would say otherwise. If you are a WWE droid who only watches that product, you are truly deprived. Akiyama vs Kobashi may be the greatest match...of all time. |
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