What's the best match you've ever seen live?

[Chui 0]

I posted this another forum and decided I'd post it here too.

 

Mine is Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles at the TNA house show I went to on 7/19/08. At all the WWE house shows I've been to, it always seems like the guys are just going through the motions, but all the TNA guys on this show worked their asses off. Angle vs. Styles was the main event, and they put on a hell of a show. They started on the mat, then had a lot of awesome near fall sequences. Finish was AJ escaping the ankle lock and hitting the Pele kick, then getting the win with the Styles Clash.

 

I've only ever been to 5 live shows (my 6th will be a SD/ECW house show on 9/13), and most of those were lame, so there's not exactly a lot of competition, but this really was a hell of a match.

 

So there's mine, now share yours!

[Youth N Asia 0]

Here's a shortlist

 

Jimmy Rave vs CM Punk from ROH's "Nowhere to Run" cage match in Chicago, IL

CM Punk vs Austin Aries at the 2005 (?) IWA TPI in Highland, IN

Jimmy Jacobs vs BJ Whitmer cage match, ROH, Detroit

Saw a great Simon Diamond vs Chris Sabin match at some podunk show in Flint, MI in 02

 

I honestly cannot name a single one or even remember some of them. Odds are most came out of IWA and ROH

 

Not the best match ever, but I was thrilled to get to see Abdullah the Butcher vs Madman Pondo live

[King Kamala 0]

I'm not sure what the best was since 90% of the shows I've seen were house shows and like the original poster said, the wrestlers on those don't always give the best of efforts. It was probably one of the matches from Chris Benoit and Booker T's Best of Seven series that I saw at a WCW Saturday Night taping a couple nights after Slamboree '98. My favorite though was a Bret Hart-Owen Hart Lumberjack match I saw at a Superstars taping back in August '94 (my first live show). The match is on a Coliseum Video (Wham! Bam! Bodyslam I think. I should know since I bought it on EBay a year or two ago).

[Papacita 0]

Probably HBK/Mankind at the end of the day (Mind Games). That and Rumble 04 are the easy answers.

 

I was at the Raw where HHH and HBK teamed against Taker and Mankind...wasn't the best, but it's probably my favorite match of all the ones I've seen (toss up with the Mind Games match).

 

There was also an HBK/HHH house show match in 96 that I remember being damn good.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

I've probably stated this before, but Colt Cabana vs. Homicide Chicago Streetfight at ROH Better Than Our Best was awesome to witness live. Of the handful of live wrestling events I'd never witnessed carnage quite like that in person.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'll go with HHH vs. Rock in the Iron Man match from 2000. Though a surprise runner up might be Bret vs. Hakushi from a Raw taping in 1995.

[fazzle 0]

Off the top of my head, I'd probably have to say Shane vs. Angle from KOTR 2001

[Diamonddust 0]

Good question...

 

The matches that come to mind off the top of my head are:

 

-The 6 Man Hell in the Cell match at Armageddon 2000

-The Rock vs. Mankind - Ladder match for the WWE Title at the Raw in Birmingham, Alabama the night after St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

 

Of the three ECW Shows I saw in Birmingham (Two house shows and Guilty as Charged '00), they were some fun brawls that took place that were exciting to see live, especially at the house shows.

[Aero 0]

Easily the 2004 Rumble Match, followed by Austin vs. Owen at Summerslam 97. The only other PPV I went to was No Mercy 2004, and it was just a very average show. I've never been to a TV taping or house show with any spectacular matches.

[Angle-plex 0]

Austin/HBK at WM 14 and Cena/HHH at Night of the Champions this year. Also a Austin/Regal strap match from a Smackdown taping a few years back was pretty good.

[haws bah gawd 0]

12/9/04 Smackdown Taping -

Booker T, Eddie Guerrero and The Undertaker vs. JBL, Orlando Jordan and The Basham Brothers

Not the BEST match per se, but this was probably the most fun I've had watching a match. Booker, Eddy, and Undertaker were all over as hell, and the crowd hated anything the Cabinet did.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

Kane vs. The Heartthrobs in a Handicap Beat the Clock match.

 

Well, either that or Triple H vs. Cactus Jack in the Cell at NWO 2000.

[yankovic fan 0]

Jericho/Benoit Ladder match for IC Title Royal Rumble 2001.

 

 

 

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Off the top of my head, I'd probably have to say Shane vs. Angle from KOTR 2001

 

Hey, me too.

[bob_barron 0]

Benoit v. HBK v. HHH from Wrestlemania XX.

 

For ROH, I'd have to say Aries beating Joe for the title

[Burning Pirate Ship Sex 0]

Taker-Flair and Rock-Hogan, both at WM X-8

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Either Angle / Lesnar from SummerSlam 2003 or Team Austin / Team Bischoff from Survivor Series 2003. Both were awesome!

[MillenniumMan831 0]

While I remember having the most fun seeing ECW house shows at the Agora Theater, I really can't remember any standout matches there so I'll go with a tie:

 

- Hardiez vs Edge/Christian - Ladder Match at No Mercy 1999 . . . Not sure how this match has aged but it was spectacular to see live. At the risk of sounding carny, it was worth the price of admission.

 

- RVD vs Jeff Hardy - InVasion . . . I was so pleasantly amazed to see how over RVD was.

[Timmy8271 0]

Flair/HBK at Mania 24. Honorable mention to Steen/Generico vs Doi/Yoshino and the Dragon Gate 6 man from the Wrestlemania ROH shows.

[Dr. Zoidberg 0]

I've only been to two live shows, a Raw and a SummerSlam. But that SummerSlam just happens to be the one with RVD/Jeff Hardy's Ladder Match, Taker/Kane vs. DDP/Kanyon (which stoked me out quite a bit cos I've always wanted to see DDP live...mission accomplised), AND most importantly, Angle/Austin and The Rock/Booker T.

 

Angle/Austin was my favorite match. Shit was awesome live.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

I guess I'd say Angle/Lesnar from Summerslam 03 although I also enjoyed Finlay/Benoit at Judgment Day 06.

[The Tino Standard 0]

While I remember having the most fun seeing ECW house shows at the Agora Theater, I really can't remember any standout matches there so I'll go with a tie:

 

- Hardiez vs Edge/Christian - Ladder Match at No Mercy 1999 . . . Not sure how this match has aged but it was spectacular to see live. At the risk of sounding carny, it was worth the price of admission.

 

- RVD vs Jeff Hardy - InVasion . . . I was so pleasantly amazed to see how over RVD was.

 

I was at both of those PPVs and was thinking of posting the exact same matches. The reaction for RVD at Invasion was the first and only time during the entire Alliance storyline where I felt like WCW/ECW had brought in a legitimate star. Hard to explain, but if you were there you know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Hardys/E&C was a great match. I got to watch that from a friend of a friend's lower-level suite before getting tossed when security looked in our direction because some chick in the section in front of us took her shirt off and we had 30 people in the suite. Back to the nosebleeds for the main event. Doh.

 

The only title change I've witnessed was Chyna beating Jeff Jarrett in a "housekeeping match" or something equally as dumb. I'm hoping for something a little bigger when I go to Unforgiven.

[Diamonddust 0]

While I remember having the most fun seeing ECW house shows at the Agora Theater, I really can't remember any standout matches there so I'll go with a tie:

 

- Hardiez vs Edge/Christian - Ladder Match at No Mercy 1999 . . . Not sure how this match has aged but it was spectacular to see live. At the risk of sounding carny, it was worth the price of admission.

 

- RVD vs Jeff Hardy - InVasion . . . I was so pleasantly amazed to see how over RVD was.

 

I was at both of those PPVs and was thinking of posting the exact same matches. The reaction for RVD at Invasion was the first and only time during the entire Alliance storyline where I felt like WCW/ECW had brought in a legitimate star. Hard to explain, but if you were there you know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Hardys/E&C was a great match. I got to watch that from a friend of a friend's lower-level suite before getting tossed when security looked in our direction because some chick in the section in front of us took her shirt off and we had 30 people in the suite. Back to the nosebleeds for the main event. Doh.

 

The only title change I've witnessed was Chyna beating Jeff Jarrett in a "housekeeping match" or something equally as dumb. I'm hoping for something a little bigger when I go to Unforgiven.

 

I've said it here before, but I'll say it again. I was at the Smackdown in Birmingham the night after ECW got put into the Invasion angle. RVD worked a dark match, and I swear he easily got one of the best reactions of the night. The crowd went nuts for him, and Birmingham was a town without ECW TV for quite some time.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Angle/Austin was my favorite match. Shit was awesome live.

 

Phenominal. That's my favorite match ever.

[Scroby 0]

Eddie Gurrero vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE title at No Way Out. One of my favorite wrestling moments ever.

[pochorenella 0]

I'll second HHH vs. HBK vs. Benoit from WMXX. I thought I'd have a heartattack during that match. Austin vs. Rock from WMX-7 is a close second, although I had a "limited view" seat. And HBK vs. Flair from WMXXIV this year holds a very special place for me. Just so emotional.

 

I've never been to a TNA match, but for ROH I'd have to say the 6 man Dragon Gate match from the Mania weekend show.

[Gert T 0]

Benoit v. Regal from the 2000 Pillman show. I am sure it may not have held up as well on the DVD as it was live, but all the elements together made it my fav.

 

 

[cabbageboy 0]

How could I forget HBK vs. Flair from this year's WM? Maybe it was being so far from the ring, I dunno. Great match though.

 

Diamonddust, you stunned with that RVD comment. I had no idea he worked any WWF dark matches right before debuting in the Invasion (aside from that brief 1997 ECW crossover). I even read the internet at the time and never heard about that, so I was in total shock when he and Dreamer attacked on that fateful Raw.

 

It will be bittersweet to see those Alliance Era Raw shows on 24/7 in a few years, just to see how insanely over Van Dam was and how WWE eventually cut him off at the knees.

[Jingus 0]

I had a weird dichotomy with live shows. I got to see about a billion TNA shows in a row, which was great for countless X division matches where they just took some combination of AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Low-Ki, Jerry Lynn, Kid Kash, Paul London, Chris Sabin, and various others and basically told them "okay, go out and wrestle for fifteen minutes, and be awesome". That shit was off the chain. Almost impossible to pick just one standout match from the bunch.

 

Of course, problem was, you had to sit through a whole TNA show in order to get that one or two cool matches. Hope you love you some Invincible Jeff Jarrett, Fat Road Dog, Aging Harris Twins, Believe-It-Or-Not Seriously Pushed Disco Inferno, and of course More Russo Than You Could Possibly Imagine. And you also had to be in the same building and thus breathe the same air as Jeremy Borash. Ugh.

 

 

Meanwhile, for a mid-sized city, Nashville often seemed to get oddly fucked over when it came to WWF, WCW, or ECW events from the late 90s onward. Once WCW stopped running Starrcade there, they only swung through about once per year for fairly inconsequential shows. WWF has only done one PPV there in over a dozen years; aside from that and some house shows, the only thing that comes to mind is that we got to see the Katie Vick atrocity live and in person. Meanwhile, ECW only ran there once. I missed the show due to some personal stuff, and thus also happened to miss Masato Tanaka beating Mike Awesome for the title. Oh, I coulda killed my girlfriend for that one, if she hadn't already been alarmingly passed out from some mystery illness in my car as we were about to leave for the show.

 

And down in the South we really don't get any of the smarkish superindy shows like ROH, or even IWA. I went to a few NWA Wildside shows, and those were decidedly a step up from the Nashville scene, but still a far cry from PWG or Chikara or ECWA or any of the more workrate-oriented feds. It's mostly all local guys you've never heard of, with the occasional old Memphis vets or some poor schmucks who moved to the area for TNA doing guest shots. We'd get random talent bouncing back and forth occasionally, I saw Chuck Taylor wrestle about a hundred times, and most of the lower-priced TNA regulars swung thru the area too. Match quality tended to be incredibly inconsistent for a variety of reasons, especially since most of the actual pros tended to treat the local shows as paid vacations and tended to be a bit lazy in order to save themselves for their "real" jobs. Probably the best local match I ever saw was Jerry Lynn taking on a guy named Chris Michaels, just a perfectly-executed mix of technical spots and ol-fashioned Tennessee "he's got a chain!" bullshit.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Either Samoa Joe/AJ Styles from RoH War of the Wire, or Sabotage/PRIDE from NECW in March '04.