Best match you saw in person

[Guest hasbeen]

There was one for worst matches, how about something more positive. For me, best "pure" match, Steamboat and Flair in 1989 in Nashville, pretty easy pick really, or for best brawl, Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer in 1983. Best atmosphere was the night Rich and Austin Idol shaved Jerry Lawler's head in Memphis and nearly caused a riot.

[Aero 0]

Royal Rumble Match from 2004. For crowd heat alone, though, it would be the Cena-Angle first blood match from the first Raw of 2006.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

As far as workrate it would have to be a Cruiserweight title match between Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera at a 1999 Thunder taping (the last time I think WCW came to KY). However, if it depends on crowd heat it would have to be Hogan vs. Curt Hennig that happened on the same show as the main event. The Rupp Arena crowd effectively turned Hogan face that night after he had that weird title match with Ric Flair less than a week earlier at Uncensored in Louisville.

[King Kamala 0]

I've only been to about four house shows and two TV tapings (One Superstars in July 94 and one WCW Saturday Night taping in May 98) plus a half dozen or so indy shows so I haven't seen many workrate classics.

 

 

I'd say the best match I've seen was a Bret Hart Vs Owen Hart lumberjack match from the Superstars taping I attended (It's on a Coliseum tape). It's not as good as their other matches, but it's damn good nonetheless (I'd put it in the ***1/2-**** range) and probably the best lumberjack match I've ever seen (Which isn't saying much since lumberjack matches are my least favorite gimmick matches)

[DangerousDamon 0]

Since, I've been to so few wrestling shows, it'd have be Generation Next vs Sal Rinauro and Chad Collyer from Showdown in Motown.

[Zetterberg is God 0]

Either Austin-Benoit from the 5/28/01 Raw or the Edge-Kurt Angle cage match from the 5/28/02 SmackDown. Both were pretty damn good for TV matches.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Wow, hard to pick here (off the top of my head):

 

Michaels / Tatanka - WM IX

 

Austin / Page / Kanyon Vs. Angle / Undertaker / Kane - House Show

 

Angle / Lesnar II - SSlam 03

 

Team Austin Vs. Team Bischoff - SSeries 03

 

RVD / Mysterio Vs. The Dudley Boyz - SD House Show

 

Angle / Michaels | HHH / Batista III - Vengeance 05

[iliketurtles 0]

Royal Rumble 2003: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle. Period.

[Special K 0]

Easily WMIX Jericho v Michaels. Great match. The crowd was into it more than any other match besides McMahon Hogan., but it was cool, because they were pulling for both sides.

 

The pop was tremendous when they shook, and then they finally turned on Jericho with th low-blow.

 

And once Sabu almost took my head off. Good Times.

 

(addendum: that's what made ECW special. You were part of this underground thing, and getting socked by Sabu was an honor)

[Betty Houle 0]

Keep in mind I haven't been to see wrestling (outside of some piddly independent stuff) in over ten years.

 

I'll go with Steiners-Anderson/Eaton from a WCW house show in 1992.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Chris Benoit vs Steve Austin-SmackDown May 31, taped on May 29, 2001

[tigeraid 0]

So far I've only been to two WWE shows, both of which were absolutely atrocious.

 

Of the ROH show I went to, "Best match I've seen in person" is definitely AJ Styles and Matt Sydal vs. Do Fixer.

 

Though I suspect seeing KENTA vs Strong and Danielson vs Whitmer vs Jacobs in 2 days will change my mind

[DMann2003 0]

I have 4 choices

 

Bret Hart vs Mr. Perfect KOTR 1993

 

RVD vs Jerry Lynn ECW on TNN

 

William Regal vs Chris Benoit Pillman Memorial 2000

 

CM Punk vs James Gibson vs Christopher Daniels vs Samoa Joe Redemption 2005

[ISportsFan 0]

Probably Benoit/Foley/Benjamin/Michaels v. Evolution at Raw in April 2004.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Only being to two shows... I would say that watching John Cena vs. Chris Jericho live at Summerslam last year was awesome. Knowing that Jericho was on his way out and loving every second of the crowd cheering him on, drowning out and dueling with the Cena fans, and chanting "Bullshit" at the near Jericho victory late in the match.

 

 

Had Jericho actually won, I think the crowd would have probably been AT LEAST 65/35 in favor of Jericho holding the strap. You could tell he was enjoying it, especially the small group of fans on the far left of the hard camera who go BALLISTIC the entire match any time someone even TRIES to cheer for Cena.

[Darth Vader 0]

Evolution vs. HBK Foley Shelton abd I forget who else? It was right before Backlash 2004.

 

Edit: oh and Benoit, duh

[Angle-plex 0]

I guess Austin vs Michaels at WMXIV. I do remember a Michaels vs Bulldog match at a house show in '96 I believe and a Razor vs Jarrett ladder match at a house show in '95 also being good matches.

[humanoid92 0]

Bret vs. Owen in a 60 minute Marathon Match (Iron Man) at a house show in July '94. I can't remember all the details, but this has got to be the safe pick. Plus I got to slap Bret's hand and touch the belt afterwards.

 

Also, Angle vs. Shane at KOTR 01. Total garbage match, sure, but really fun to watch live.

 

And I remember Diesel vs. Jarrett at a house show the week before the '95 Rumble being really fun. They did a Heartbreak Hotel segment earlier in the night with Jarrett to set it up. Nash was the WWF Champion and Jarrett was only a week away from winning his first IC Title. Throughout the match the Roadie and Michaels constantly ran interference. I was a big mark for A) Jarrett and B) Michaels as a manager (see KOTR 94, Summerslam 94, etc.) Good stuff.

[Guest sebbeh65]

- Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle, Hamburg, November 15, 2005 is probably the best match I have seen live.

 

Or

 

- Rob Van Dam vs. Eddie Guerrero, Cologne, Mat 1st, 2002.

[Frankie Williams 0]

Savio Vega vs Goldust, MSG house show, 1996......no joke.

[Kardo 0]

Been to about 40 Australian fed shows here in Melbourne, best match I've seen live is Jag and Havok vs. Double Impact. Fantastic back and forth 15 minute tag match about ****.

[Scroby 0]

Eddie vs Brock at No Way out 2004

 

Rey Mysterio vs Chavo at the same ppv.

 

Indy show: Kenny K vs Bruce Bukakke vs El Hijo De Chupacabra in a 3 way ladder match.

 

Indy Show: Bruce Bukakke vs Adam Thornstowe

[Guest BrokenWings]

Rob Van Dam -v- Eddie Guerrero in a ladder match.

[Tim Cooke 0]

12/19/99 - Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett (WCW)

12/07/02 - Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London (ROH)

04/12/03 - Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London (ROH)

06/24/04 - Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (ROH)

08/07/04 - Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (ROH)

10/02/04 - Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal (ROH)

10/02/04 - Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe (ROH)

07/23/05 - AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave (ROH)

10/02/05 - Kobashi/Homicide vs. Joe/Ki (ROH)

12/03/05 - Steel Cage Warfare - Generation Next vs. Embassy (ROH)

 

Tim

[The Buzz 0]

I've only been to 7 live events total since starting watching wrestling in 89. Three WCW House Shows, and Four ROH shows in the last two years.

 

I remember a good Rey Jr vs Psychosis match from one of the house shows, and while I'm not going to say it's the greatest wrestling to ever happen, I can say each time I go to an ROH show I come out with atleast 3 matches that I wanna say I was honored to see live.

 

 

Oh yeah, DDP vs Macho Man was a damn good match I saw at a house show back when Macho Man had that last excellent year in WCW i believe in 97.

[DCMaximo 0]

Styles/Daniels at International Showdown was pretty great, as was the Scorpio/Tighe/Williams vs Misawa/Tiger Emperor/Ogawa main event. While not in the same league, Robbie Brookside carrying some local fat lad in Leamington to a decent match was pretty fun too.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Maybe not the best, but by far my favorite.

 

Sabotage (DC Dillinger and Eddie Edwards) vs. Adrenaline (Chris Venom and Bryan Fury) for the NECW Tag Team titles, 3/13/04.

 

That match had so much heat going into it that I nearly pissed myself. I only started following NECW because my dad showed me an ad about 6 months prior, and I attended every NECW show in Framingham for nearly a year and a half. That's about 11 shows. It became my favorite promotion before it closed down so it could be restarted.

 

But the match was perfect. Both teams knew each other well because they'd been feuding for months, DC was on as the uber-prick, and Fury had the face-in-peril act down to a tee. Venom cleaned house like a champ for a bit with Eddie bumping his ass off, and the match was just intense. Adrenaline won after isolating DC Dillinger by throwing Eddie out of the ring and nailing their finisher (I forget what it was, they broke up a few months later so Venom could aim for the Heavyweight title), and...damn.

 

Come to think of it, that whole show was good.

 

Also, Joe Chece vs. Johnny Idol from...I wanna say June '05, or maybe July, and I don't remember the exact date...was perfect. Match starts, and in under a minute Chece cradles Idol for the 1-2-3. Idol - who's prolly the most hated undercard heel on the roster - wines and moans about restarting the match, so Chece agrees, and we all ended up getting a good old-fashioned 15-minute epic of back-and-forth action. The biggest highspot of the match was Chece jumping about 5 feet in the air to give a roundhouse kick to Idol, who just slumped off of the top rope and landed on his side. No warning to the move, just Chece got up from the mat and BAM! 5-foot vertical jump that ended in a roundhouse kick. ***3/4, easily.

[Jericholic82 0]

Easily, Benoit-Angle at Unforgiven 02(not their best match but this was the only one I saw live and it was way cool and I was shocked the LA crowd was that into it, cheering for both men), though Eddie-Edge from the same night comes close (The live crowd seemed totally behind Eddie, though he wa sthe heel, but it was LA so who knows)

[BigDawgCarl 0]

Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk street fight (it was cool to relive that on the Foley DVD)

 

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle Steel Cage match (the one with the missed moonsault...the Coliseum cringed in unison)

[Guest BarnacleBill]

Benoit/Angle at royal rumble 2003.