isolated are you up to date on njpw stuff? what's your overall match of the year?

I too have had the idea of doing the greatest 5 star match of all time. A bracket would be sweet, though how would you even begin to rate the 16th best 5 star match vs the 1st 5 star match. Or, they would just have to be thrown into the bracket randomly with know thought on seeding, or of course, no bracket at all, lol.

This could also just be a personal thing - because that's really what it is. Some of my favorite matches of all-time aren't five star matches - Like Flair vs. Vader. In short, I don't really know where to start on a project like this.

Yeah, I'm caught up on NJPW. I know in the MotY thread I started, I gave O'Reilly vs. KUSHIDA ****3/4 and Ibushi vs. Nakamura 5*. I've given my MotY to the former. O'Reilly was and is one of my least favorite wrestlers of all time but that match is off the charts but, apparently, NJPW brings the best out of people. Perhaps I'll give it one more watch as I've only watched it once. I've watched Ibushi/Nakamura at least five times so maybe that says something about what should be my MotY .

For my top five I'd go:
O'Reilly/KUSHIDA
Ibushi/Nakamura
Tanahashi/Okada
Bayley/Sasha from Brooklyn
Triple Threat at RR

In my MotY thread, I do ****-****3/4 matches by 0-100. Figure out your 5* matches and rate them 0-100 on the 5* scale.

I can say that the match that I think is best ever will likely never change. That match is Kawada/Taue vs. Misawa/Kobashi - 6/9/95.

We've done it before on this forum. I'd be up for a reprisal (or a variant on the theme).

Mother of God. I didn't remember that Flair/Steamboat from Chi-town Rumble '89 got bounced by Bret/Davey from SummerSlam '92. That's an atrocious result.

Agreed. I have Bret/Davey @ SS around ***1/2 or less. Boring as ****. Another match that I loved as a kid.

Was Eddie/Angle at WM20 not even nominated last time?

Did Meltzer not like Eddie or something? I was looking for Eddie's 4 star PPV matches and he only has two from his WWE days (vs Lesnar and vs Angle).

Add Vengeance 2003 vs Benoit to that list.

It's fewer than I would have expected, but he's got about 10 4-star Smackdown matches, so I'm not sure the "not liking Eddie" explanation works here.

Oh, so his good WWE matches were on Smackdown?

And the list I was looking at doesn't include any Benoit matches, so that's why Eddie/Benoit wasn't listed. It's based on the Network and they don't make Benoit matches easy to find.

idk. It seems he has 22 4* matches between both companies (14 in WWF/E and 8 in WCW). He has 9 4* matches in NJPW and at least 2 in ECW (can't find list for ECW atm but I know his farewell with Dean was 4+ and a match with Scorpio (I think it was him) was 4*). 31+ seems like a fair shake. He does seem to have a ton of ***3/4 matches. I don't think that WM XX match is anything special though. I seem to have less of an opinion of Kurt than many on here though.

Iirc the the Eddie match that everyone loves from ECW is vastly overrated

I think it is but if I'm not mistaken LKJ and a couple of others here love that match. I think it's boring af. Meltzer gave that one ****3/4.

Meltzer loved Eddie and had been saying he was one of the best workers in wrestling years before he even went to WWE.

I have a new match to throw at 5 stars. Well, after WK last week, I have a few. But, this one's not from 2016.



Other 5* matches to be added:
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles - WK X
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada - WK X

Have you watched this?

Yeah, I gave my opinion two posts down from that post.

I find that I really can't remember it at all though.

iirc i really liked lesnar/punk until the heyman stuff towards the end

That's what kept me from giving it 5*. It's really meh and messes up the flow a bit. I didn't mind some of it but it became too much. I'm turning a blind eye to a small flaw to an otherwise incredible match.

cool cool
ill have to watch it again
obviously love everyone involved

Before acknowledging my entry, I have to say that there were a bunch of great matches in NJPW last year that I just never rated and I'm sure there's one or two that are 5*. I've watched Nakamura vs. Zayn a handful of times but have never rated it

I have to add Okada vs Omega from The Dome. A brilliant match with tons of high spots. I posted ten of them in the awesome gif thread. There were so many more. I know that I didn't need a rewatch of this to rate it 5*...though I have watched it three times. I was more excited and more sucked into this match than the match I have as match of the decade, Tanahashi vs Okada 4/7/13. Does that mean that I rate Okada vs Omega as MotD? Perhaps I should, but I don't want to. I'm such a Tanahashi mark. They're two different types of matches! The Tanahashi match was a limb working match and the Omega match was an incredible high spot match. They're different, damnit! They're tied for MotD because they're different types of matches....

I was on the edge of my seat forever. I was hoping that the match would never end. Despite wanting Okada to win, I was disappointed when he did because it meant the match was over. After the match, I was also disappointed that Okada won because it would've propelled Omega to even more acclaim than he had after the match. It did make sense for Okada to win after christening him as The Ace of NJPW at the prior Wrestle Kingdom.

I have yet to rewatch Naito vs Tanahashi and I don't think I can even rule this out as 5* yet.

I'd just have been happy settling for Vader not be completely wasted by the WWF when he switched

I don't remember this at all and I was definitely watching at that time. Marked it down on my list to watch because just from that pairing it sounds like I'll like it.

Looking back at recollection of matches I really really like, here's what I got.

WWE
Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit (Royal Rumble 2003)
2004 Royal Rumble Match
Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero (Wrestlemania XX)
Chris Benoit vs Shawn Michaels vs Triple H (Wrestlemania XX)
Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania XXVI)

NJPW
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki (King of Pro Wrestling 2012)
AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki (G1 Climax 24 Day 7)
Tomoaki Honma vs Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Climax 25 Day 16)
AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (G1 Climax 25 Day 17)
Tomohiro Ishii vs Katsuyori Shibata (WrestleKingdom 10)

I just rewatched this match. I don't see any reason why this match isn't 5* now. That calf crusher would've been a great finish but w/e, just builds the drama. Naito reversing the One Winged Angel into his Destino...OMG. So ****ing good. How good was the match in Red Shoes' opinion? I think he finished at the finish...





and then this great spot. "I'm going to use the apron....**** THAT!"


I haven't added it to my list but I'm trying to think of a reason not to. Kenny's selling is so good and on point.

That Naito/Omega match is my favorite match in the last 10 years