I expect this to be a pretty short thread but I was curious what you fellas consider the top matches in SS history. Here are my top 5:

1. Austin vs Angle - 2001
The perfect desperate heel doing what he can to try to retain his belt against the angry face seeking redemption for the company.

2. Perfect vs Hart - 1991
Just perfection...even the commentary.

3. Edge vs Taker - 2008
The entire match is great but the ending in particular with Edge getting his comeuppance puts it OTT. ****3/4 for this one.

4. Punk vs Brock - 2013
This would be in a league of it's own if not for how much Heyman got involved. Of course, he should be involved but he didn't need to interfere like 3 times in the last two minutes of the match. ****1/2

5. Angle vs Brock - 2003
Story here was Brock and Angle being best friends after Angle's neck surgery but then Brock turned because Angle became champ and Brock wanted it. Helluva match. It's the perfect lead into their ironman match that happened 3 or 4 weeks later. ****1/2. Shoutout to the ironman for being damn near perfect as well. IM is on the network for anybody who hasn't seen it.

TLC easily

Michaels vs. Razor Ladder Match II at SummerSlam 1995 is great. Probably like 4.5*. Not sure where I'd rate it overall; I really need to rewatch some of those matches from the post-Attitude Era. But up to that point in the history of SummerSlam it was probably second only to Bret-Perfect.

I watched HBK/Razor II sometime this year for the first time. Hated it. Meltzer gave it ****3/4. Complete waste of time. I can't even describe how much of a let down it is.

I'm much in the same boat, LKJ. I stopped watching wrestling a couple months before WM X-7 and didn't watch again until around WM 25.

I'm going to make it a mission to watch TLC sometime before the start of the ppv.

I watched from 90-99/'00 and just got back into it last year so thanks for the list OP. Will check that out on the network

Owen vs Bret in the cage at '94 not being mentioned by now has killed some kittens somewhere.

Bret vs Taker from '97
HBK's return vs HHH from '02

Bret/Bulldog from '92 being missed has killed all the rest of them.

Jericho vs ****** 2/3 falls from SS 2000 is an awesome match.

This was great. That bump Lita took accidentally whipping her head into the ladder when Edge speared her was sick. Would put it on the ****1/2-3/4 level.

I tried watching this a year or two ago. I couldn't get through it. So boring.

I got through this but only because it was in the best match of all time tournament. Boring. Like **3/4 or less. Their match at IYH: Seasons Beatings blows it out of the water.

Ultimate Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man, Summerslam 88

Wtf? This is one of the greatest cage matches ever. And it's for the exact reason that both men WANT to win and you can see it. They try so often to escapr, just not something you see from a cage match anymore. It's glorious

This is exactly why it's boring. It's akin to watching Wyatt vs Cena in LMS match. They just trade the gimmick back and forth.

Would you rather they ignore the gimmick completely? If you don't want the match to go that way, then why have it in a cage to begin with

The point of the cage was to keep interference out of the ring due to Anvil's continued interference to that point. That said, it really should have been a "pin or submit only" situation.

I thought it was a pretty good match but way below the standard they set at WM X.

It's for sure not as good as wmx, but I'm a sucker for a good cage match, and its one of my favorites

"Good cage matches" is a really short list.

Right, which is why people living the gimmick of that particular match is so important. Steiners/money Inc is another of my favorites for that reason

I'm not match maker . I wouldn't have put them in a cage unless they were going to show hate. From what I remember from the original airing (a rare ppv i ordered), they wrestled like friends just going after the belts, not a match that was the culmination of a 9-10 month feud.

I can understand someone not liking Bret/Owen in the cage. I kind of prefer bloody massacre cage matches myself, although the old WWE-style blue cage sucks for that as compared to the steel wire mesh cages.

Not liking Bret/Bulldog from SS 1992 blows my mind, though.

I guess some people just don't like Bret.

Also, I think Rock/Brock 2002 deserves a mention at least.

I would not be in that category. I even liked his 95 RR match with Diesel lol.

I do love cage matches that show hate like Flair/HHH and Edge/Matt and a few HitC matches.

Cage stipulation should come from one of two places:

1. An intense hatred between the two participants where only locking them in a cage can keep the action in the ring.

2. A cowardly heel keeps slipping away from getting whats coming to him (getting himself counted out, purposefully getting himself DQd, etc) and the cage is there to finally prevent that.


Both of those should be the blow off to the feud, both of those should be extremely physical, and the only person that should be trying to escape quickly is the heel in #2 (before being caught and getting the hell beat out of him). Watching random cage matches where people just try to escape quickly just doesn't do it for me. Just do a different stipulation if you don't meet one of the two requirements.

Cage was there in Owen/Bret to prevent interference by Jim Neidhart, in part. But it wasn't an ideal stipulation.

Prevent interference can be fine, especially if it's in addition to #2 (IIRC the show/jbl had a cage to prevent the cabinet from interfering, and that worked fine). It just need to have one person NOT wanting to escape right away and let out their frustration on that person.

IMO of course

Escaping for a win is always just stupid to me anyway. I would still advocate for pinfalls and submissions in every cage match, with no escape win available.