Hart vs. Hart

Hart vs. HBK

Flair/Steamboat

Bret/Owen

Bret/HBK

I liked that look from Punk with the long hair and the beard. It did make him look like a cult leader figure. Though his current style is all right, I liked his look before his head was shaved.

Well, as long as I'm up obscenely early, I might as well throw another matchup onto the board. I flipped the schedule so that we could avoid any voting confusion by having two Flair/Steamboat matchups going simultaneously. That will now close out this round instead.

NORTHEAST REGION SEMIFINAL

#1 SEED: BRET HART VS. STEVE AUSTIN (WRESTLEMANIA 13)

Whole match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9UoP59dHMM

Hart v. Austin had a cakewalk in the first round against Benoit v. Angle...not a match most would register a shutout against, but Hart v. Austin is that damn good.

Bret Hart, a big-time babyface for the last decade in the WWF, was losing popularity while Steve Austin was gaining it. A star was officially born in this one as there was absolutely no better way to launch Austin all the way to the top of the company. The match is great, the story-telling is brilliant, and this is one of the finest matches of either of their Hall of Fame careers.

VERSUS

#5 SEED: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH 1992

Whole match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riaiVn12_rk

Royal Rumble '92 coasted through the first round as a #2 seed, but it still got dropped a few seeds on the urging of Chargers in 09. I could sympathize with his argument, so I dropped it. Let's see if I made the right decision.

The consensus greatest Royal Rumble ever includes 12 Hall of Famers, as well as The Undertaker and Randy Savage who obviously have Hall of Fame credentials. That’s nearly half the field, and doesn’t even make mention of the likes of The British Bulldog, potentially a future HOFer himself, or Sid, a former multi-time world champion.

But of course the story here is Flair’s epic run, and Heenan’s equally epic job on commentary throughout. He and Monsoon are just such a pleasure to listen to. For a bonus, stick with the video after the event, because Flair gives his signature promo from his WWF years at the end of it.

VOTING ON THIS MATCH IS NOW OPEN. POLLS WILL CLOSE AT 6:39 A.M. EST ON FRIDAY THE 10TH.

It isn't without regret, but for me it's time to say goodbye to the 1992 Royal Rumble.

Bret/Austin

bret/austin

heel austin is so awesome

Bret/Austin

Bret/Austin in a very easy decision.

Bret vs. Autism

Stone Cold Hitman's Hart

Bret/Austin doesn't even need my vote

Bret/Austin

Bret/Owen completes a thorough domination and shutout over Flair/Funk in order to move onto the Elite Eight.

When Flair/Steamboat v. Bret/HBK goes into the books in a couple of hours, I'll post the final matchup of the round. This has been a pretty dull round, albeit bookended by a first match that was hotly contested and a last one that I think might be as well.

hart/austin

The next round is going to have bloodshed, heel turns and fallings out imo.

Plz post the polls as public btw

Oh believe me, there was no chance of me doing otherwise.

Bret/Austin

Bret/Austin, sorry 92 rumble.

I never really saw the big deal with the 1992 Rumble match anyway. It's fun, sure, but not significantly better than some other Rumbles.

Bret/SCSA

SOUTHEAST REGION SEMIFINAL

#2 SEED: RIC FLAIR VS. RICKY STEAMBOAT (CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS ‘89)

(Almost) the whole match: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...ature=view_all
You'll notice that the clever pricks at WWE found part four and zapped it...which is weird, because part five has the whole ending sequence, so they just zapped part of a match and chose to leave the rest alone.
Anyway, that part four can be viewed here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xof...all-pt-4_sport

Sorry for the disjointedness, but you do get the whole match this way. Thanks as always to Chargers in 09.

I decided to seed all of the Flair vs. Steamboat matches more properly during the re-seeding, so they’re no longer staggered all within one region. This, the second match of their 1989 classic trilogy, didn’t have any real trouble eliminating Rey vs. Psicosis in the first round or with Angle v. Benoit in the second.

VERSUS

#3 SEED: EDGE AND CHRISTIAN VS. MATT AND JEFF HARDY VS. THE DUDLEY BOYZ (TLC II, WRESTLEMANIA XVII)

Whole match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlfCLgUG90k

TLC II vanquished the strong HBK v. Taker career v. streak match with relative ease to move on in this competition. This bumped them from a #5 seed to a #3 seed in this tournament. It then dispatched of one of the Bret Hart-Curt Hennig classics.

You want revolutionary? This match will deliver. They ironed out the kinks of the TLC format at SummerSlam the year before, and the rematch was what really delivered one of the greatest high-risk spotfests of all time. The three legendary tag teams of the Attitude Era face off in an absolutely awe-inspiring match.

Edge and Christian successfully defended their titles at SummerSlam in this format, but had dropped their belts to the Dudleys since. As I’m sure Jerry Lawler would tell you, the Dudleys only went into this match with a 33.3333% chance of retaining their belts, so who would walk away the victors?

VOTING ON THIS MATCH IS NOW OPEN. POLLS WILL CLOSE AT 12:44 P.M. EST ON FRIDAY THE 10TH.

I vote for Flair/Steamboat and will now go to the doctor's office to seek blood pressure medication just to deal with the 24 hours that this matchup will run.

TLC.