LOL at that abrupt ending.

wrt a great match, I think our best bet is Neville/Aries. They seem to have given the CW's time at RR and FL. Those were great matches. I don't remember if EC had one.

EC wouldn't have since cruisers are all on Raw.

Catching up, was this a joke I don't get? Or is Daniel Bryan really this highly regarded? IMO their match at 30 was terrible, Bryan did nothing but run around and kick HHH, and HHH was clearly past his prime. There were no bumps or anything. The main event wasn't much better, but tbf to Bryan, he was out of it for at least half the match and Orton sucks.

Woah, what? HHH/Bryan was fantastic.

Guess I'm do for a re-watch, maybe Daniel Bryan's kicking is an acquired taste. Like The Wire season 2 or something.

I'm definitely being serious. He's not as good in the 'E to call him the GOAT but his 2002-2010 indy run + WWE run is more than enough. That match vs HHH is so ****ing good. Love all of it.

Coincidentally enough, I'm going through The Wire again (3rd time) and am on season 2 episode 7. Funeral of D

Pretty sure you're in the minority with this.

I'm also a big fan of that HHH/Bryan match. I only saw it the once, but thought it landed north of four stars.

Corey Graves apparently spoke the truth about AJ/Shane on that Rosenberg show and called it out for being bad. Of course JBL said he loved the idea of the match.

I'm curious what your other 160 posts are?

Re-watching their match at 30, lets go for a pbp. This is definitely tl;dr.

-amazing HHH entrance, followed by sweet pop for Bryan. both playing their parts well, H the smug corrupt power, Bryan the underdog. definitely amped.
-H extends his hand, the crowd boos, Bryan kicks his hand away goes for a quick rollup, H looks mad, throws Bryan into the corner, Bryan reverses, 5 kicks, H out of the ring.
-Bryan extends his hand mocking H as H gathers himself outside the ring which leads to this amazing bit of commentary- JBL "what a disrespectful move", King "JBL have you been drinking milk from uhh, uhhh forgetful cows?" followed by silence. Bravo.
-H tries to favor Bryan's injured shoulder, Bryan immediately rolls around and reverses it, does a jump kick, followed by a takedown and then holds H on the ground in a headlock.
-H stands out of it, as he obviously could easily, throws Bryan against the ropes and knocks him down shoulder to shoulder on Bryan's hurt shoulder. Bryan immediately gets up and does a running knee followed by another take down and headlock.
-H tries to reverse it, followed by a botched move I'm not really sure what they were going for, but Bryan tries to make it look natural and jumps back on H and puts him in...another headlock. YAWN
-Two uppercuts by Bryan which leads to another headlock (not joking), this time standing up.
-H backs Bryan into the corner and drives his shoulder into Bryan's midsection twice before slamming Bryan's hurt shoulder into the ropes. Bryan immediately reverses, punches him twice, kicks him twice, H catches his leg and does a sloppy takedown.
-After a few moments on the ground, H drags Bryan to the corner from the outside to try to put pressure on the hurt shoulder, Bryan slips out of it then kicks H as he tries to re-enter the ring.
-Oh hey a sweet spot! Flying DDT off the apron by Bryan onto the outside.
-Another one, Bryan gets up on the top turnbuckle and does some sort of swonton-bomb lookin thing to H on the outside, both crash into the wall.
-Bryan goes for another spot off turnbuckle, H gets up and hits the rope causing him to fall, then H delivers a punch so hard that Bryan flies off onto the outside.
-H puts Bryan on the table, goes for the pedigree, Bryan gets out of it but H slams him face first by the shoulder onto the table. That had to hurt. Stephanie screeches a bunch.
-They tease a countout, Bryan rolls back in and H attacks the arm some more, holds Bryan in some sort of armbar on his bad arm. Bryan reverses and gets H out of the ring, Bryan goes for a dive out of the ring but H catches him and punches him in the face.
-H does a reverse slam on the outside of the apron so Bryan lands on his bad shoulder. He rolls around writhing in pain as Stephanie taunts some more. "You mess with the bull you get the horns Daniel." Shut up.
-They tease another count out, H puts Bryan in a "cross-faced chicken wing" as King calls it, favoring Bryan's shoulder. Bryan almost escapes then H puts him right back in the crippler cross-face.
-H puts Bryan in the corner, punches him twice, Bryan counters with punches of his own, then runs off the ropes and does a flying punch. JBL exclaims "what a punch by Bryan" strange since he's spent the whole match cheering on H. King shoulda been the one to say it.
-Two kicks by Bryan, then one by H and Bryan goes back into the corner. H throws Bryan into the adjacent corner by Bryan runs up the turnbuckle and does a backflip, H sees it coming, goes for a german suplex, which Bryan reverses into his own. 2-count.
-Another german suplex, another 2-count. Bryan goes for a third, H reverses and puts him in a standing crossface which he then turns into some sort of back slam which the announcer said "favored his shoulder" but looked way more like he landed on his head. 2-count. More Steph taunting.
-H places Bryan on the turnbuckle and starts punching him. He goes for a suplex off the top rope but Bryan counters which leads to the best spot of the match thus far, a sunset flip into a power bomb Cole calls it. Both down.
-2 running knees, which apparently are nothing because as he goes for the 3rd H delivers one of the strongest clotheslines I've ever seen sending Bryan flying.
-H goes for pedigree, Bryan sloppily reverses it with a takedown and a jackknife cover, 2 count. Bryan quickly gets up and kicks H straight in the face. Cole ejaculates.
-Bryan goes for a flying headbutt, H sticks his knee up and then puts a hurt Bryan into the crossface once again. After a bit Bryan reverses it into a pin, 2-count, and then he immediately puts H in a cross-face of his own. They tease an H tapout, but he gets to the ropes.
-H rolls out of the ring, Bryan delivers two flying headbutts sending H into the barricade and then four kicks before tossing him back into the ring, getting back on the turnbuckle and hitting H with a missile dropkick.
-5 more kicks and a two-count. Bryan goes for his finisher and H catches him and delivers a spinebuster, then the pedigree. Bryan kicks out so early that I honestly think he might have been worried about another screwjob. Literally kicked out right after 2. Talk about burying a move.
-Daniel goes for a quick roll-up, 2-count. H takes a bit too long before dragging him into the corner and punching him relentlessly. H taunts Bryan before another pedigree, but Bryan reverses it into a german suplex, 2-count.
-H still has his arms locked and sets up the pedigree again which Bryan is able to block by staying low causing a frustrated H to deliver 3 knees to the back of the head.
-H sets up a pedigree, which Bryan spins out of and kicks H in the face. He goes for another which H ducks and attempts to backslam Bryan but Bryan lands on his feet and hits a running knee. 1-2-3.
-JBL once again delivers a pro-Bryan line I think King should have said, and Stephanie slaps Bryan before H attacks him and crushes him with a vicuious chair shot to the arm against the ring post. Cole uses his awful somber-voice and all I can think is thank God he wasn't on the mic when Mankind got tossed from the top of the cell.

All in all I was definitely wrong, despite a slow start and a lot of repetitiveness, that was a sweet match. The crowd was great, and both sides played their roles very well. I will say that the post I quoted said that H fought a great match because of his opponent, which I take issue with, I think he was just great. I really liked him using a more submissive style as a way to really stick it to Bryan, they told a great story.

To the point about Bryan in general, given the match I watched I still don't think I'll ever understand how people could be as high on him as it seems they are. I just don't find the submission/true wrestling stuff all that aesthetically pleasing and when you take that away you really just have a bunch of kicks and tricky pins. Cole called him a "submission specialist" and maybe that means I'm not exactly a wrestling fan and more of a fan of the show than the wrestling, because I know I am a bit sour on Bryan because of his lack of mic skills. All that being said, I just don't get how you could prefer to watch a Daniel Bryan match of peak Rock/Austin (among others).

I'm pretty sure that pbp was longer than my write up for the entire show

Edit: Which reminds me, I need to finish ranking all 32 main events and all time top 10 matches

Different strokes, etc.. As I said, I'm combining his indy run which had even less kicking so you'd probably enjoy that Bryan even less

To me, the "true wrestling" is the most appealing part of wrestling. This is because when they're doing true wrestling, it's leading up to something. It isn't just a bunch of high spots connected together which is what main event style is today in WWE. For instance, I bet you loved AJ/Cena at Rumble and SummerSlam. I hated those matches with a passion. They didn't build. They tried telling a story for the first five minutes of the match and then they devolved into finisher spamming matches.

My favorite matches are limb working matches and my favorite modern limb working match is Okada vs Tanahashi from 4/7/13 and if you can stomach a Japanese match, I'd love your thoughts on that one. It's the match I have as match of the 2000's

Also, love the effort put into the post but no matter how much I love that match, you missed my favorite part. The promo package to "monster".

That match is also a reminder that at the peak of The Rock's powers Vince/HHH decided back to back years that WM should be about Vince and a heel ending the night as champion. At least they got 30 right.

+1 to loving that "Monster" promo. Tremendous.

I think all time wwe promo packages for me is

HBK/Taker 2 Running up that hill



Monster
My Way
Hate Me Now



idk whats 5th

I dont recall if it was micks or jerichos book, but apparently the initial plan was rock over hhh in 2000, but rock wanted foley to get his mania main event and said we can do rock/hhh at backlash. which apparently worked out huge as backlash got a ton of buys

Well that's easy:


My list would be:
1. My Way
2. Punk, MitB 11
3. WM 26 HBK/Taker you linked
4. Monster
5. Hate Me Now

My runner-up to the top 5 would probably be Cactus vs. HHH @ Royal Rumble 2000. I can't find on YT but it's on DailyMotion. Starts off slow but the last 1:30 of the promo is epic and memorable if you've ever seen it before.

"Mick Foley, your blood with stain New York City"
"You're gonna make me bleed? It won't be the first time and it sure as hell won't be the last".
"I'm gonna tear you apart in New York City" - Mick

I was just looking for that very one on YT.

Most attitude era promos were great. My way= WM 17 ME right? If so that's my #1 as well. Highway to hell for summerslam '98 was good, one of the Austin first blood matches is great too, forget if its KOTR '98 or FL '99. Backlash '00 obv great too.

Interestingly enough whatculture just did the 10 interesting facts about 16 yesterday and one of them was that Foley & Rock had beef leading up to that WM. So your post is surprising.