HHH/Cactus Jack vs HBK/Taker 1 is going to be the toughest first round match up for me. The HHH/Cactus Jack fued is probably my favorite fued ever and HBK/Taker is just about as close to perfect as a match can get. It's gonna be really tough.

same here

Well, the vote is currently at 17-0; obviously the only question with this one is whether the final result is unanimous. Glad this is getting good participation so far. I look forward to getting our first really contested matchup going tomorrow.

IMO that's a blowout too. Maybe not 17-0 though.

I hereby predict that Dan and I are voting different from each other on the next matchup.

Likely.

Just watched HBK vs Taker in HiaC for the first time. It was quite a fun war to watch. It's funny this match could get 5* seeing how it had one pin attempt before the actual pin. I'll leave real thoughts for when the match comes up later.

Ladder match. It blew my mind at the time, and is a match I can watch over and over again. Dislike HBK the person, but he is too awesome as a performer.

If I'm allowed to vote .. the ladder match. Up there with the GOAT matches imo!

Cheers guys

I watched both of the matches in the last 24 hours. The Owen/Bulldog match is awesome and really made me realise how much I miss the lack of good technical chain wresting in WWE today, whilst D.Bryan obviously has the talent and ability I don't think that WWE has ever really filled the avoid left by Benoit and Angle in that regard. Coupled with the quality of the wrestling was the story that the two told in the ring and the dynamic of them being tag team champions and knowing each other inside out added to that, reversing each other's trademark moves made the match less predictable and more enjoyable as a result. My only criticisms would be that I found the finish slightly anti-climatic and that it could have been even better on a bigger stage with a little more time.

From a nostalgic point of view Wrestlemania 10 is one of my favourite PPVs of all time, although the ladder match was only my 2nd favourite match on the card after the Bret/Owen cracker of an opener. HBK sells like only he can and Razor also does a great job of that too as they both worked hard to not only have a great match but to also establish a stipulation that is still so popular that 18 years on it has it's own PPV (MITB). For pure innovation, great wrestling, a creative finish and delivering it all on the "grandest stage of them all"™ I have to agree with everyone else and vote for HBK/Razor.

Sorry to ruin the unanimous vote.

Kidding aside, i seriously think the Bulldog Owen match is better than the HBK Razor ladder match. I get why i seem to be alone, the ladder match was important in the grand scheme of pivotal events in wrestling and it is the granddaddy to 2 of the other matches (3 inc the rematch) and the finish on the Bulldog Owen match didnt live up to the rest of it to tip it into uber awesome match territory.

However it stands up today as a really really great match with the solid wrestling, in ring psychology and storytelling that can only be done by two of the greatest the industry has produced.

However the ladder match would simply be viewed today as pedestrian. It was revolutionary for its time and i dont disagree with that, but i dont weight it so highly to get past the fact that most of its spots are reproduced in every ladder match since, most of them have been improved upon.

If we had those two matches in WM this year we would be talking about the Owen Bulldog match more than the ladder match. And the Owen Bulldog match was a midcard giveaway for a lousy belt and wasnt even the main event of that show from what i can tell from the commentary. Ladder matches have moved onwards and upward and yet somehow one on one matches have slid backwards. I guess that says more about modern wrestling than it does about these matches in their day, however i think being timeless is an important test and one the ladder match cant pass.

I vote Bulldog vs Owen. I accept its a losing vote as its like 20-1 or something. Screw you guys

I actually agree with a lot of what Phill said and it's why, after viewing it a couple of days ago, I'm pretty sure that HBK-Razor isn't going to be getting my vote for many more rounds. It doesn't hold up for me as well as a lot of the other old greats do. I'm definitely going to weight historical value reasonably heavily in a lot of my votes (I'm guessing more so than the rest of the voters), but given the number of matches that have historical value AND still hold up really well today, I don't think it's going to sadden me if and when this one leaves the field.

But I had all of that in mind when I made my vote and still thought this first round vote was an easy one in favor of the ladder match. It would set a weird tone for the field if we waved history away THAT much. Also if a #16 beats a #1, it pretty well says that I did a ****ty job of seeding, so there's that.

a little off topic but, re: chain wrestling today

I think Primo is very good in this regard

HHH could put on a better match with a chain than 90% of the locker room. . .

It sort of was, but it was on a Raw in Europe. It was a taped show and I'm not sure it went on last.

I tried to sell the match the best I could on the write-up (I will endeavor to do this with all matches regardless of how I'm voting), but yeah it wasn't hugely meaningful.

It was cool though that Owen/Bulldog were tag champs, Bulldog won the European title in this match, Owen won the IC title from Rocky during the summer (in what was the official death of the original sucky Rocky Maivia), and Bret had the world title for that stable.

It seems like most of our likely voters know that we're under way which was the reason for a long voting window, so I think I'm going to post another match soon. I will adhere to the posted deadline of the last one and will wait until 9 p.m. to close the polls on the HBK/Razor v. Owen/Bulldog matchup, but in the meantime let's get some new action going.

I'm also thinking I'm going to post a couple of matchups per day in order to speed this up and allow us to finish the first round in a couple of weeks instead of a month. I'll still do 24-hour voting windows, but I'll just run them concurrently and I'll stagger out the starts of each poll (so in the ballpark of a new match every 12 hours). Also I'm going to randomize the order of the matches and will just jump all over the brackets like the NCAA tourney does rather than going straight up and down the brackets. Seems more fun to me.

People can object to my ideas or propose ideas as they wish. I'm open to suggestions/objections/complaints whatever (I recommend closing these with "you guys sucks"). Since it's clear where the first matchup is going, I doubt anyone will complain about getting another matchup going in the meantime.

I agree with Phil and if Owen Bulldog was on a bigger stage and had a real finish, I might have voted for that match. The story telling and dynamic is a lot better than in the ladder match in my opinion. I didn't really follow wrestling close till a few years ago, so I don't even know who's supposed to be the heel and who's the face in the HBK/Razor match. Commentating makes it look like HBK's the heel, but I just can't imagine Razor as a face. Maybe my opinion on the story telling would change if I knew what was going on leading up to this match.

I think that's a problem anyway of looking at specific matches isolated from the story line. Cena vs Punk at MitB wouldn't have been as great as it was without the promos leading up to it. And that's probably the case with every match.

Also I'm really looking forward to seeing most of these matches for the first time and thanks a lot to LKJ for organizing this. Should be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I agree that viewing them in a vacuum is bad. That's why I'm including the kayfabe back story to all of these matches in my write-ups.

Also when available I'll choose video clips that have the awesome WWF/WWE video package setups before the matches. WCW too, but they were never near as good at the promo videos.

NORTHWEST REGION MATCHUP #2:

#8 SEED: SHAWN MICHAELS V. CHRIS JERICHO (WRESTLEMANIA XIX)

Whole match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xInuy8TbNGo

In kayfabe, Jericho said that as a young man he idolized Michaels and that the greatest compliment that he got was being called “the next Shawn Michaels.” He said he once wanted to be just like him, but didn’t anymore. Jericho had gotten to pick his number at the Royal Rumble, and picked #2 so he could face off against Michaels who was #1. With Christian’s help he eliminated HBK from the Rumble, and this feud built from there.

This was the first Shawn Michaels WrestleMania match in five years since HBK dropped the title to Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV. Jericho vs. Michaels features fantastic ringwork and is one of the many amazing matches that Michaels put on after his return from serious injury.

VERSUS

#9 SEED: “MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE V. HULK HOGAN (WRESTLEMANIA V)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnfc3uhdthc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWjdwh_c2bE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00Cw-iPrC4

A year prior to this match, Hulk Hogan helped Randy Savage win the WWF Title at WrestleMania IV. In an angle that lasted the entire year, Hogan and Savage united as the Mega Powers but a rift took place over Miss Elizabeth and the main event of WrestleMania V (“The Mega Powers Explode”) was born.

The story was as compelling as they come, the atmosphere was excellent, the commentary by Jesse and Gorilla was top-notch, and as Hogan matches go, the ringwork was pretty damn good too. Certainly a lot of that is due to the work of the legendary Randy Savage.

VOTING ON THIS MATCH IS NOW OPEN. POST YOUR VOTE IN THIS THREAD; THE POLL WILL CLOSE AT 4:22 P.M. EASTERN TIME ON TUESDAY THE 10TH.

And yeah that one wasn't random, I went with it since I had already foreshadowed it last night and honestly because I watched both matches last night and so they're totally fresh in my mind. But I'm going to randomize the rest of the field and jump around the bracket.

Here is the spreadsheet for live-tracking this competition...I'll ask our mods to throw it into the OP at their leisure: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...zNtMnRrUXphNHc

I will populate the rest of the schedule after I run a randomizer. But first I'm going to write up a vote for this matchup.

This is actually pretty tough for me all things considered. I will rewatch both matches tonight and hand in my vote, but as of right now I don't think it's going to be easy.

My vote:
Hogan v. Savage is actually a reasonably easy vote for me here. My reasons are as follows.

1. This was the culmination of one of the greatest angles the WWF ever put on. The Mega Powers joining and then breaking apart was just awesome story-telling, and Hogan, Savage and Miss Elizabeth sold it to perfection. Jericho/Michaels was just a very standard modern storyline that runs from Rumble to Mania. Nothing too compelling about the story.
2. Historical context: back when the belt meant everything, these WrestleMania main events for the world title were beyond huge. The atmosphere and build for this match was awesome. This was the show. Michaels and Jericho had like fourth billing on its own show.
3. This factor is pretty unfair to Jericho and HBK, but I stand by it as a valid point of judgment. Basically…HBK was so ****ing good and put out so many amazing matches that their match fails to truly stand out in his catalog. It’s really damn good, and I enjoyed the hell out of rewatching it…but ultimately largely blends together as one of Shawn Michaels’ many great matches and doesn’t matter that much to the history of wrestling.
4. The work of Jesse and Gorilla on Hogan v. Savage is amazing and blows away the commentary work by JR and Lawler on Jericho v. Michaels. This is of course in part due to the prominence of the respective matches. Hearing Jesse rip Hogan to shreds for so long is priceless.

Take Hogan v. Savage out of wrestling history and it changes the landscape. This was only the third world title change in more than five years in the WWF. This, as Joe Biden would say, was a big ****ing deal. Take Michaels vs. Jericho out of wrestling history and it affects very little; there was no title involved, the angle wasn’t long-term, and you’re simply left to look at like 15 other great Michaels matches that mostly all pretty much kept up with this one.

To be clear again, I say none of this as disrespect to Michaels v. Jericho. It’s awesome. But the main event of WrestleMania V gets my vote.

Watched Macho vs Hogan a month or two ago and it was pretty poor...it shouldn't be in this competition imo so by default I'm going with Jericho and HBK.

Watched HBK/Jericho for the first time last night and wasn't blown away but it was a very good match. Both guys going to their adversaries finishers was neat and the near falls were great. HBK really killed this match for me by doing two nip-ups in about 20 seconds after Jericho worked on his back for a solid 5-8 minutes.

Mega powers was an amazing story but, the match was a let down to me. I think that is why we see an epic wrestlemania main event like savage vs hogan only as an 8 seed. With that build-up, it could have been one of the best ever, but the match itself fell flat.

Hbk-Jericho had not even half the story, but the match itself outdid the story.

I vote hbk-Jericho.

Easy vote for HBK/Razor ladder match. I love Owen and Bulldog, but the ladder match was so far ahead of anything else in that time period. It was revolutionary, and Michaels bumped and sold perfectly.

2nd vote is a little tougher, but I have to give the nod to Savage/Hogan. I love the Michaels/Jericho match a lot, but watching these two in context, Savage/Hogan was a much bigger match. It was well worked, especially the closing five minutes where Savage works the throat and neck beautifully.