Bret-Piper may reach 4* for me on the strength of the commentary. I realize that's not to the credit of either worker, but it's still a timeless viewing experience because of that enhancement. Best commentary chronologically since Jesse's work during Hogan-Savage IMO.

Arn and Tully came to the WWF from the same organization that Steamboat came from in the 80s, and he didn't get buried either. Vince let these guys and Flair continue to do roughly what they had been doing and it worked. When he made guys get a bizzare and over the top gimmick (e.g. Windham, Luger, Harley Race, Steamboat 2nd WWF run) or become a parody of themselves (Dusty), they often weren't as over as they had been in JCP/WCW.

I truly believe Heenan was every bit as talented as anyone ever in the wrestling business when motivated (as in, before his WCW days). His commentary for a lot of early 90s matches was superb.

Wow awesome I never knew HBK and Savage had a championship match together.

SUMMERSLAM (1992)
Location: Wembley Stadium, London



Shawn Michaels vs. Rick Martel
(Go to 57:30 on video)

* I skipped past the summary package with a Sherri promo. Sherri added a stipulation that neither guy could be hit in the face. This was a fringe match selection, supposedly the aftermath was pretty funny so I included it. HBK was apparently The Narcissist before Luger. Pretty odd to have a heel vs. heel match. HBK lands a nice dropkick, then gets distracted by Sherri and is clobbered from behind. Martel goes for a twisting crossbody from the second rope that HBK dodges. Funny sequence where HBK yanks Martel down by the hair, Martel kips up and threatens to punch HBK in the face, and HBK wags his finger like, “No you don’t!” Then HBK pulls his hair again, Martel kips up and pulls HBK down by the hair. HBK kips up and threatens to punch Martel. Good stuff. Martel tosses HBK to the floor. Heenan: “Martel has a way with the ladies! So does HBK! So do I!” Vince: “What?!? ... Lady giraffes.” Funny. No one gets backdropped like HBK. They do a rollup sequence where both guys pull down the back of the other’s tights repeatedly for the ladies. I could do without that, thank you very much. I can’t tell if HBK went for sweet chin music and woefully misaimed, or intentionally kicked Martel in the gut. Probably the latter given he had just punched him in the gut, but it still looked odd. Oh wait, nevermind, I forgot the stipulation. I should just delete the last three sentences but I’d rather everyone know I’m an idiot. Martel charges into the corner and eats a knee. Both guys cheat to try to score a pin and tempers flare. They finally each slap the other. They threaten to punch each other and Sherri faints. ROFL. Heenan: “I know when a woman faints, believe me!” He follows up with “Give her mouth-to-mouth restitution.” Hahahaha!!! Both guys get counted out as they both try to help Sherri. HBK clocks Martel and they brawl outside. Sherri “faints” again. HBK goes back and lifts Sherri like a sack of sand to carry her back, her “moon” showing. Vince and Heenan are hilarious commentating. Martel clobbers HBK and Sherri takes a bump. Martel scoops Sherri up and carries her for a bit before HBK clobbers Martel from behind and Sherri takes another bump. Martel then comes out with a bucket of water and dumps it on Sherri. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!? The match itself was probably 2.5 or so but I’m bumping this to a 3 purely for the comedy. ... I want to give it 3.5, but that would be ridiculous.

WWE Title: Randy Savage © vs. Ultimate Warrior
(Go to 1:36:50 for match/promos)

* Very few matches have had such a wide range of opinions, as this got anywhere from 2.5 stars to 4.25 stars in the half-dozen or so reviews I read. For all the crap Warrior gets (and rightfully so), this is his fifth match in the thread (Rude x2, Hogan, Savage x2). Skip to 1:43:15 if you want to bypass the promo stuff. Skip to 1:49:00 if you don’t want to be bored to death. Warrior shoves Savage down, but Savage hits a knee when they lock up again, then hits a clothesline, and another from behind. A flying axehandle is foiled by a shot to the gut. Warrior hits a delayed atomic drop, then a delayed inverted atomic drop. A clothesline gets two. Warrior hits two shoulderblocks but misses an elbow drop and Savage mounts and pounds before dropping a knee for two. Warrior hits a jawbreaker to get out of a sleeper, and Savage sells it great. A facebuster gets two. Warrior’s kicks to Savage in the corner are absolutely atrocious. A short-arm clothesline gets two (that’s another move I love). Savage uses Warrior’s tights twice to send him into the turnbuckle, then clotheslines him over the top to the outside. Warrior no-sells a flying axehandle and starts his rally routine, then for some reason stops it and a second axehandle drops him for two. Stupid. Savage tries a crossbody from the top and gets caught. Warrior hits a backbreaker for two. Warrior already looks gassed. About the third time he whips Savage to a corner and does his double arm pump crap, I want to shoot him in the head with a .357. In other words, I’m not enjoying myself now. Warrior holds a bearhug for about three seconds, then dumps Savage to the mat and covers for two. A semi-sloppy side slam gets two. Savage hits a small package out of nowhere for two. Savage hits a spinning neckbreaker to counter a backdrop attempt. A late pin gets two. Savage clotheslines Warrior across the top rope for two. Savage goes for a suplex but sells his bad back and Warrior starts clubbing it. Warrior’s trying to sell his own neck hurting, but it’s terrible. He suplexes Savage for two. Savage ducks a clothesline and Warrior sends himself over the top rope to the floor. Savage goes up top for a flying axehandle to the floor. It’s amazing that Savage’s knees weren’t totally destroyed after dropping all those axehandles and leaping over the top rope to the floor so many times, he was kind of a freak of nature. Flair and Perfect finally make their way to ringside. Savage goes for a piledriver, Warrior backdrops him but Savage turns it into a sunset flip for a nice two. Warrior clotheslines Savage for two. Warrior slams him and goes for his splash of doom but Savage gets his knees up. A double clothesline leaves them both down. Warrior eventually crawls over for a two, then Savage gets two. Perfect trips Savage to tease a Warrior turn. Warrior chokes Savage above his head and tosses him down. The ref takes a bump. Savage slams Warrior and goes up top for a flying axehandle, but no ref for the count until it’s too late and Savage kicks out at two. Warrior talks to the ref too long and takes a knee to the back, which drives the ref out of the ring. Savage hits a piledriver, then tries to get the ref back in the ring while Perfect gets Warrior up, then holds him and Flair blasts him with brass knuckles. Savage slams Warrior, goes up and nails the elbow. Ref is slow on the count and Warrior’s out at two. Warrior starts his hulk up. Vince: “Flair has a chair in his hand!” Heenan: “He’s looking for a place to sit!” LOL. Warrior hits three clotheslines and a flying shoulderblock, then presses Savage and dumps him, but Flair clobbers Warrior with the chair as he hits the ropes. Savage is confused at Warrior being out. Perfect trips Savage, who retaliates. Savage eventually goes up top for another elbow, but decides to dive for Flair on the outside and eats a chair to the leg. Savage is counted out as a result. Flair and Perfect try to snap Savage’s leg as soon as the match ends. Warrior eventually chases them off and helps Savage.

There’s a lot of side notes here. First, Warrior was reportedly asked to turn heel and refused, which led to this match ending getting rewritten, with Flair’s plan to make both these guys suffer as much as possible to make his own title bid more successful (which worked). Second, even though some of Warrior’s crap irritated the holy hell out of me here, this was a really well-paced match with a lot of solid moves/sequences and two-counts, and decent storytelling. I actually didn’t mind the ending at all (although I distinctly remember hating it when I watched it live). I’m going to give this 3.5 stars ... I’m debating 3.75 but 3.5 feels more correct.

I'll get to the Bret/Bulldog match tomorrow (I think).

Savage and Warrior just had this awesome, unexplainable chemistry. I have all three of their televised matches (including a champion vs. champion match at the Boston Garden from 1989) and they're all very entertaining.

Forgive me if it's buried within one of the huge walls of text within the thread, but what was the explanation for the fact that Warrior and Savage had a career vs. career match, yet neither of their careers ended? /macho king, return of macho man?

Savage marries Miss Liz at SummerSlam 91. In one of the reception gifts there was a snake inside from Jake and him and I'm pretty sure Undertaker crash it. Savage is mad, goes to the papers, and says "please reinstate me. i want to get my hands on Jake". reinstated.

Savage was kayfabe retired to the announce table for six months or so but got reinstated after Jake the Snake taunted Savage into the ring and turned his snake on him.

SUMMERSLAM (1992) continued ...

IC Title: Bret Hart © vs. British Bulldog
(Go to 2:46:30 on video)

* For a LONG time, this was my favorite match ever. It totally blew my mind as a 12-year-old. Pretty awesome having Lennox Lewis bring out Davey Boy given what Lewis went on to achieve. Bret had a lot of pressure on his shoulders here, given Vince went ahead and put this match on last. Of course, he met the challenge and a couple months later was the top guy in the company. Bret gets shoulderblocked to the floor early, kind of a rare oversell from him. Bret takes Davey down with a headlock, gets caught in a headscissors and kips out of it, then takes Davey down with a headlock again and dodges the headscissors. Bret reverses a press slam into a rollup for two, then his a small package for two before hitting another headlock takedown, very nice sequence. Heenan foreshadows, "I think (Bret) might be getting executed tonight." Davey reverses into a hammerlock and drives in some knees before Bret gets up and buries an elbow right in Davey's kisser, one of many subtle heel moves Bret made to blur the babyface lines. Davey reverses an arm ringer with some gymnastics. Bret gets caught doing a leapfrog and winds up getting catapaulted hard into a corner. Davey ducks a clothesline and hits a crucifix for two, then puts Bret back down with the armbar. Bret slams Davey but he holds on to the armbar. Bret buries a knee into Davey's gut to a pretty big heel reaction. Bret motions as if to say, "You didn't like that? How about this!" and stomps Davey in the gut, then drops a leg before applying a chinlock. Davey elbows his way out of it, but runs into an elbow coming off the ropes. Bret hits a nice reverse atomic drop. Davey goes for another crucifix, but Bret reverses with a Samoan drop for two. Love sudden moves/pin attempts out of nowhere, they add so much to matches. Davey gets back in control and whips Bret to the corner, then the opposite corner, but runs smack into a boot before Bret pulls him up and bulldogs him. Bret goes up top but Davey gets there and slams him off. Then Davey goes up top and misses a diving headbutt. So many swings back and forth, great stuff. Davey counters a slam and goes to run Bret off the ropes and back into a cradle, but Bret dives down before the ropes and Davey is sent to the outside, drawing more heel heat. Bret dives over the ropes to try to crossbody Davey, who forgets to catch him and Bret has to wrap an arm around Davey's neck to save himself, leading to a vicious-looking bump. Bret then picks up Davey and rams him into the post. Back inside, Bret pumps his fist to a mostly heel reaction. Bret has a rare moment of hesitation before hitting a half-hearted russian leg sweep for two. Bret hits a couple euro uppercuts, then almost totally whiffs a standing dropkick (not Bret's best move, I think he bagged it altogether soon after this). Davey lands awkwardly on his hip and knee on a backdrop. A nice suplex gets two. Davey reverses a euro uppercut into a backslide for a two out of nowhere. Bret quickly gets back in control and hits a side backbreaker, then his second-rope elbow for two. Bret digs into his heel tricks again, lifting and dropping Davey by his braids. There's a bit of a dead spot here before Davey misses a wild swing and Bret applies a sleeper. Davey crawls to the ropes. Bret won't let go, it takes a third five-count from the ref before he does, and then he stomps Davey. Bret really did take to the heel role well. Bret applies the sleeper again and Davey drops down. The arm drops twice, but not a third time, and Davey raises up and takes Bret hard into the corner. Bret doggedly (no pun intended) reapplies the sleeper, but Davey lifts Bret again, and this time when Davey takes him back to the corner, Bret's head and neck whiplash off the top rope. Ouch. They slug it out briefly, then Davey "botches" a press slam and instead dumps Bret into the ropes for an ugly bump (even though it looked bad, I'm pretty sure this actually was intentional, it was a move Bret had done before in matches). Bret eats three clotheslines for two. A press slam gets two. A sweet delayed vertical suplex gets two. Bret takes his chest turnbuckle bump for two. Davey motions for the running powerslam, then hits it but gets only two to his (and Heenan's) disbelief, great stuff. Brett staggers to the ropes and Davey kicks him through to the apron. Davey tries to suplex Bret over the ropes back inside, but Bret reverses and hits a sweet bridging German suplex but gets only two. Heenan: "Are you kidding me?!?" Great, great stuff. Davey blocks Bret's suplex and crotches him (legit) on the turnbuckle, then superplexes him, but that somehow gets only two. A double clothesline takes both down, but Bret slides into position and applies the sharpshooter. Davey makes it to the ropes to a pop. Bret hits a euro uppercut, then Davey reverses a whip to the ropes and ducks for a backdrop. Bret does a sunset flip but Davey grabs his legs and falls forward for an amazing-looking pin and the title to a MASSIVE pop.

The last 4-5 minutes here are as good as any ending stretch to a match ever. The kickouts to the german suplex and the superplex, and the escape from the sharpshooter, built the suspense to unreal levels. There were really only 2-3 very minor flaws with the match (which I mentioned), despite Davey having gone on a bender the night before and not remembering most of what he was supposed to do (according to Bret's book). It's every bit as good as Savage/Steamboat and I gave that 5 stars so I'm giving this 5 as well. I'm not going to be super stingy with the 5s, if I think it was truly great, it'll get a 5. This was truly great.

Great match though obviously. Enjoying the thread.

My point is, I'm not going to think, "Well, only 1-2 matches ever can be 5s and everything else has to be a notch below." There's a threshold a match has to meet to be a 5, but if 15 matches get there, so be it. In my opinion, Bret/Bulldog meets that threshold.

Bell curves rule the universe. With that said, doling out like 10-15 5* matches over the course of a 30-year chronology is obviously fine since that covers a ****load of matches.

In a thread of supposed 4* or better matches, 15 5*s shouldn't be out of reach.

SURVIVOR SERIES (1992)
Location: Richfield (Ohio) Coliseum



Notes: You can make a very good case that more things changed in the WWE between Summerslam 1992 and Survivor Series 1992 than in any other span between PPV events in WWE history. Flair took the WWE title off Savage, only to drop it to Bret. Because of the steroids scandal and other factors, Ultimate Warrior and British Bulldog were out the door (among others). Reportedly, Vince wanted to do Bret/Warrior at Survivor Series … that obviously didn’t happen. The talent pool was starting to shrink significantly and Vince had to go in new directions.

Razor Ramon & Ric Flair vs. Mr. Perfect & Randy Savage
(Go to 45:10 on video)

* Perfect finally returns to the ring after more than a year out with a back injury, and his storyline going in here against Flair was pretty nice. Razor’s the new kid on the block here and he got a big push quick (see the note about the talent pool shrinking, although Razor did a nice job with his push). When Perfect gets introduced, Heenan goes on a rant that reminds me of Ralphie ranting while beating up the bully on A Christmas Story. Now that’s ... a Perfect ... reference. Razor drops Perfect with a shoulderblock, but Perfect uses a drop toe hold and rides Razor’s back as a taunt. Flair gets tagged in and he’s hot. He runs off the ropes and Perfect just decks him, then decks him again. A backdrop, a dropkick, two clotheslines and a few chops in the corner lead to Flair doing his Flair Flip, after which he runs into a Savage punch on the apron. Savage gets a tag and comes in with a flying axehandle. Savage cleans house for a bit before getting trapped in the enemy corner. Razor finally gets the upper hand with a two-handed chokeslam. Savage gets worked over for a bit and it’s pretty boring. Savage gets out of Razor’s abdominal stretch with a hip toss, then decks Flair on the apron, but misses an elbow drop. Flair sends Savage flying to the outside and Razor sends him into the steps before rolling him back in, where Flair gets two two-counts. Flair hits his knee drop before Razor tags in and applies a horrible half-crab. Perfect acts like he’s leaving the arena and abandoning Savage, then comes back to the ring. Savage has bladed (I guess from the steps). Razor decks Perfect on the apron, and when he comes in and occupies the ref, Flair and Razor pound on Savage. A chop gets two. Flair tries a hip toss but Savage reverses into a backslide for two as Perfect and Razor wind up in the ring for no real reason. Razor beats on Savage and drops and elbow for two. Razor hits a driving chokeslam (kinda a cross between a chokeslam and a Rock Bottom, actually) for two, with Perfect helping break it up. Savage hits a small package for two. Flair pounds on Savage some more, following a whip to the corner with a clothesline. Savage catches Flair up top and slams him down to set up the hot tag to Perfect. He slams Razor down hard with a hip toss, that had to hurt a little. Perfect beats up on Razor, then Flair runs in and takes a knee he woefully oversells. Flair and Savage wind up outside and Flair hits Savage in the head with a chair (kind of a power puff shot). Flair tries to blindside Perfect but gets caught, whipped to the corner, backdropped and clotheslined to the outside. Perfect winds up colliding with the ref (the video gets clipped here for some reason) and Razor sets up for the Razor’s Edge. Perfect reverses it by kicking off the turnbuckle and backdropping Razor. Perfect hits the Perfect Plex but the second official is late getting in and Flair saves the pin. Perfect then Perfect Plexes Flair but Razor distracts the ref. The first ref then counts but Razor breaks it up at two. The bell rings before Flair slaps a figure four on Perfect. Razor gets a chair and prepares to beat on Perfect but Savage breaks it up. Perfect gets the chair and smashes Flair and Razor. Savage and Perfect win by DQ. There wasn’t a lot memorable here and it was pretty boring overall. 2.5 stars for me.

WWE Title: Bret Hart © vs. Shawn Michaels
(Go to 2:02:40 on video)

* This is kind of a forgotten classic ... not that it’s at the level of either guy’s best work, but it’s still a very respectable match. Bret’s promo drives me nuts with how many times he says “Shawn Michaels” for no real reason. Shawn hits a knee and takes Bret down but he reverses and rides Shawn to the ropes. A late break irritates Shawn and he shoves Bret, who shoves back. They exchange arm wringers with Shawn yanking the hair, but Bret kips up, reverses, takes Shawn down and works on the arm. Shawn hits a drop toe hold into a hammerlock, but Bret reverses it. Shawn eventually reverses it back, but Bret runs toward the ropes, drops down and Shawn goes flying to the outside. Bret slingshots Shawn back in and goes back to the arm. It’s a slow pace early. (Bret said in his book that Shawn asked for a slower pace in this match. I know that book so well I should be Bret’s publicist.) It picks up as Bret reverses a backdrop attempt and takes Shawn to the ropes for a rollup but Shawn holds onto the rope. Bret gets to his feet quickly and hits a crossbody for two befroe getting sent to the floor on the kickout. Bret gets to the apron, hits a shoulder to Shawn’s gut, then comes in with a sunset flip for two. Nice stuff. Bret works over the arm some more. Shawn cold-***** Bret to get out of the arm ringer. Bret reverses an irish whip but Shawn reverses a hip toss by landing on his feet. However, Bret ducks a clothesline and delivers his own for a nearfall before going back to the arm. Nice sequence. Shawn finally hits a stun gun to take control. Bret reverses an irish whip to send Shawn to the corner, but Shawn dodges and Bret rams his shoulder into the post. Bret does his chest-turnbuckle bump and Shawn gets two. A chinlock slows the pace again. So far it’s been 3-4 real good sequences and otherwise pretty boring. Bret gets out of the chinlock but runs right into a sweet dropkick in the mush for two. A backbreaker gets two. Bret hits a spinning neckbreaker but Shawn gets back in control with a punch. Another rest hold has me wondering why I liked this match so much previously. Bret works his way to the corner, drives a couple shoulders into Shawn’s gut, then Shawn reverses an irish whip and sends Bret to the corner but runs into a boot and Bret hits a bulldog. Bret goes up but misses an elbow drop and Shawn gets two. Shawn sends Bret off the ropes and hits a nice flying elbow for two. Back to the front facelock, sigh. Bret teases having passed out, then gets up and hits a small package for two. Bret gets whipped to the corner but leapfrogs Shawn and hits a back suplex. Shawn gets caught on a leapfrog and gets catapulted into the corner, his head hitting the post. Shawn gets whipped to the corner, where he lies on the top ropes, and Bret kicks him onto the top rope, where Bret crotches him repeatedly (I’ve always hated that whole sequence, cartoony bull****). Shawn gets launched in a backdrop for two. Russian leg sweep gets two. Side backbreaker leads to second-rope elbow for two. Bret sets Shawn up for a superplex but can’t make the cover. Bret applies a sleeper for half a second before Shawn sends him back into the corner, sandwiching the ref. Shawn backflips out of a back suplex and waistlocks Bret, who reverses, but Shawn runs to the ropes and drops down, sending Bret to the floor. Shawn backs Bret into the ring post. He breaks the count, then goes out and slams Bret on the floor. He breaks the count again, then rolls Bret in. Bret gets whipped hard to the corner and collapses, and Shawn gets two. A backdrop gets two. Shawn questions the ref and Bret rolls him up for two. Sweet chin music (still not HBK’s finisher) lands and Shawn calls for his finisher. He sets up for the modified back suplex but Bret bites him. A slugfest ensues but Shawn hits his finishing suplex. It only gets two. Bret comes off the ropes with a forearm and Shawn winds up stuck in the ropes. He gets unstuck and dodges as Bret flings himself into the ropes. Ouch. Shawn goes to the second rope and tries a dropkick but Bret catches him and locks in the sharpshooter for the win. Not as good as I remember it, it really drug for most of the first half of the match and there’s very little that’s truly memorable. It averaged 4.25 stars on reviews but I’m only giving it 3.5.

Cold-(rhymes with blocks) getting censored is WTF ...

what WWF PPV matches would you honestly give a full 5* to?

Where we are at now, AJPW was putting on 4 1/2* matches like it was going out of style on consistent basis. Of what Dan has posted up so far, only the Flair Rumble would reach a real 5* for me (and I can't wait til wrestlemania X where there are 2 truly 5* matches on that card).

I honestly think that the general WWF/McMahon working style doesn't really lead to 5* matches (that and 5* matches should truly be rare)

I wasn't talking about any specifically, but there's a pretty good majority of matches within this thread that I've either never seen, or haven't seen in years and didn't know how good it was. I think the point remains though-- 30 years of (supposedly) 4*-or-better matches should probably lead to a decent number of 5's, especially when we consider that PPV's back then were fairly monumnetal occasions.

It's kind of a moot point anyway, since I'm going to rate things however I want, and to hell with the rest of you.

I mean that in the nicest way possible, of course.

Ratings are so obviously subjective it's dumb to argue about them.

ROYAL RUMBLE (1993)
Location: Arco Arena, Sacramento



Steiner Brothers vs. Beverly Brothers

* This match — the opening one on the card — actually averaged just 2.5 stars, but the Steiners have always been favorites of mine (at least before Scott became a steroid freak) so I’m giving this a chance. I have no chance getting Beau and Blake right. Scott can make things like a top wristlock takedown and a hip toss look frightening because of his strength and intensity. He hits kind of a half-tiltawhirl side suplex, didn’t turn it around the whole way. Blake (I think) hits a powerslam on Rick. Then he misses a clothesline, gets caught going for a crossbody and Rick slams him down. Scott tags in and hits a nasty overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Beau sneaks in and drops Scott with a clothesline as he prepares a gut-wrench slam of some kind. Blake hits a horribly weak backbreaker before Beau comes off the second rope with a double axehandle. A side backbreaker gets two. The Beverlys keep working over Scott for a bit, legally and illegally. A nice double underhook suplex gets two. Scott counters a suplex attempt with his own, but can’t get to the corner for the tag. Scott catches a Beverly with his head down, hits a double-underhook powerbomb and this time makes the tag. Rick launches a Beverly with a backdrop, then kills him with an absolutely INSANE release German suplex. Holy crap, this match is worth a watch just for that. Rick gets caught going for a superplex but winds up Steinerlining both Beverlys (the first one being particularly nasty). Scott tags in and goes to work, but gets caught doing a 10-punch on the second turnbuckle and is hoisted on a Beverly’s shoulders while the other goes up top. Scott counters with a victory roll while the other Beverly flies off and hits nothing, but the victory roll gets just two. No problem, as a Frankensteiner plants a Beverly right on his head (ouch!) for the three. OK, so this really wasn’t THAT great, but a couple stiff moves (most notably that ridiculous German suplex) make it worth seeing once. 2.5 stars is about right.

IC Title: Shawn Michaels © vs. Marty Jannetty
(Go to 15:00 on video.)

* HBK’s turn on Marty remains one of the greatest TV wrestling moments ever. Marty’s wrestling outfit is absolutely terrible. Sherri’s looking a little long in the tooth here (which she was). Do not want. Pretty standard stuff until Jannetty hits HBK with a knee lift that sends him over the top to the floor. Jannetty slingshots him back inside, then clotheslines him back out the other side. Nice sequence. Jannetty hits a suicide dive to the outside. He dives out again with a fistdrop. Jannetty tries another fistdrop from the top to the floor but gets caught. HBK drives him shoulder-first into the post. He rams the upper arm into the post a second time. Back inside HBK hits a weak shoulderbreaker, then pounds on the shoulder. Jannetty rolls outside and eventually gets slammed on the floor (his feet hit well before his butt/back). HBK hits a double axehandle from the top, then keeps working over the shoulder. Jannetty tries to rally but his backdrop attempt is countered by an armbar takedown for two. HBK slams Jannetty and goes to the second turnbuckle but leaps into a raised boot (and telegraphed it by jumping toward the foot, I hate that). HBK whips Jannetty into the corner but runs into an elbow. HBK recovers and tries for a running shoulderblock but Jannetty dodges and HBK hits the post. Jannetty gets on a roll but HBK uses the tights to send him to the outside. Jannetty blocks a suplex back in, and suplexes HBK to the outside (not as cool as you think since HBK landed mostly on his feet, but still cool). HBK then gets clocked by Sherri. Jannetty brings HBK in with a back suplex for two. HBK gets whipped to the corner and bumps to the outside. Jannetty slams his head into the steps. Back inside Jannetty hits a powerslam and goes up top. He jumps, HBK rolls away but Jannetty lands on his feet and catches HBK with a DDT but gets only two. HBK leapfrogs Jannetty in the corner, but Jannetty ducks sweet chin music and delivers his own, but gets only two again. HBK tries a sunset flip, Jannetty drops down for a pin, HBK counters but Jannetty rolls through and sets up for a slingshot that sends HBK into the corner/post, then a rollup gets two. HBK accidentally decks the ref on the backswing for a punch. Jannetty holds HBK for Sherri to hit HBK with her heel, but HBK ducks and HBK nails Jannetty. HBK hits sweet chin music for three. The ending with Sherri’s involvement was kinda a letdown, but the three minutes leading up to it were very good. The rest of the match was much slower paced than you’d expect from these two and somewhat disappointing. I’ll give it a 3.

I'll post the Bret/Razor WWE Title match early next week.

You're exactly right that they are subjective. Everyone will have their own scale. What I'm more saying is that x amount of 4* matches doesn't necessarily equate to y amount of 5* matches. 5* matches are extremely rare and it takes very special workers and storylines to achieve a 5* match.


It's a shame that the steiners in the early 90s didn't really get to show how awesome they were in the WWF. People now think of Scott as the roided up freak he's turned into, but he was a tremendous worker before that. I would've loved to have seen a match with the Steiners against Williams/Gordy in all of their primes. Give those 4 45ish minutes to work. Sit back, relax and enjoy what is likely to be one of the more insane tag matches you'll ever see. It's a shame that it never happened

they did face each other in their primes....twice. At a CotC in 1992 and at Beach Blast 1992. they were both awesome.

Ignoring the stylistic differences, which I agree makes it pretty difficult for the WWF product to compete against the better Japanese federations, you're also comparing one of the greatest 5-7 periods for any wrestling promotion ever against a pretty lackluster period for the WWF. AJPW was featuring Misawa, Kawada, Tenryu, Tsuruta, Kenta Kobashi, etc. Outside of NOAH's first 5 years no one could compete with that.

People are also going to look back on the 2011-??? batch of NJPW wrestling as some of the best ever. Just incredible stuff. i have only 9 matches from WWE as 5*.

Bret vs Austin - WM 13
Edge/Rey vs Angle/Benoit - No Mercy 2002
Punk vs Cena - MitB
Angle vs Austin - SummerSlam '01
HBK vs Undertaker - WM 25
TLC II & III
HBK vs Benoit vs HHH - WM 20
Austin/HHH vs Benoit/Jericho - RAW 5/21/01

could use a rewatch of some matches like Brock/Taker HiaC. Esp Bret/Owen which i haven't watched in like 2 years.

They had a great feud in 1992 with 2 ppv/supercard matches and some tv matches.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz8...lash-xix_sport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeEXVHBefmg