Your Favorite Match

[RKO-Cutter]

No Gimmick

No List

No Game

Just tell me, gun to your head, what match would you say is your absolute favorite match of all time? Is it a match you've only watched once and refused to watch since at risk of losing the magic? Is it a match you watch all the time? Is it the go-to match you recommend to friends?

Tell me about it, and if you care to, tell me why

 

[mitamaking]

PAC vs. Sami Zayn NXT TakeOver: R Evolution

 

[TrailBlazerDude]

But I like gimmicks, lists, and games..

Without putting much thought into it, I’d probably go with Bret vs. Austin @ Wrestlemania 13.

 

[Generation.Now]

it used to be bryan danielson vs roderick strong from supercard of honor 2006. but i feel like my tastes have changed in the 16 years since i first watched it, to where a 60 minute match now seems like a chore to watch.


now, the match that i think of most fondly is jushin thunder liger vs naoki sano from 1.31.1990.

a brutal, violent, bloody war from two bitter rivals with some of the most intelligent and captivating psychology in any match I've ever seen. a real statement match from a young liger that demonstrates the qualities that made him one of the best wrestlers of all time.

 

[That90sguy]

First reaction is Tanahashi/Okada - Invasion Attack 2013. I loved the Okada/Tana story from beginning to end and it’s really hard to pick a favorite since they all build on each other, but this one captured the majority of what I loved about the feud in one amazing match.

 

[Generation.Now]

i considered that match! easily okada's best performance. its the best match in njpw history, imo.

 

[sH0Tz]

I'd probably go Undertaker .vs. HBK at WM26. I love the emotion of that match, whilst not the greatest technically, as a lifelong WWE fan that match always entertains me.

 

[AliRock]

Gotta be Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada and Taue July '95

Simply perfection

 

[lildeew]

I think of a match that would immediately pop in my head during a random casual conversation and that’s Angle/HBK @ WM21

 

[Serpent.222]

I think of a match that would immediately pop in my head during a random casual conversation and that’s Angle/HBK @ WM21

This has been my answer for years and I am frankly too unmotivated to check its veracity today. Though it has survived every rewatch previously.

 

[Vega-0021]

Team ROH vs. Team CZW, Cage of Death. It's probably the best booked match I've ever seen.

 

[Generation.Now]

Team ROH vs. Team CZW, Cage of Death. It's probably the best booked match I've ever seen.

roh cheated tho

 

[rocknrollsisyphus]

I’m just going to post the first match that came into my head: Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Gate of Destiny 2015.

It’s two of my favorite wrestlers squaring off in one of my favorite promotions, in what may well be the best war of attrition I’ve ever seen. They have fantastic chemistry, and they squeezed in so much pain and desperation and drama and ferocity that it feels impossible that the match only took 25 minutes from bell to bell.

And I’ll add that while I was typing my answer, I also thought of Akiyama/Kobashi from July of 1998. I don’t generally think of matches first when asked a question like this. I usually think of wrestlers first, and then work from there. But those two stand out.

 

[ptfrog16]

War Games: Sting's Squadron vs Dangerous Alliance. Wrestle War 92

 

[Killer_K1]

Edge/Mysterio vs Angle/Benoit @ No Mercy 2002. Never got more invested in a match and remember my cousin and I screaming at the TV cuz we wanted Angle/Benoit to win. Haven't really watched it again either to preserve the magic heh heh.

 

[bramabull92]

I feel like I beat this drum to death but it will always be The Rock vs Stone Cold at Wrestlemania 17. Such a perfect storm for me. 2001 was just a landmark year in general for a lot good and some bad reasons (weird to say that since I was only 8 years old but that year is so vivid for those reasons). I was raised on wrestling since I was like 5 but around the year 2000 is when I was old enough to like...actually understand what I was watching and I gravitated towards Rock like crazy and Wrestlemania 17 was such an event.

It was the first PPV that I got my mom to order. I remember she got mad at me because I told her it would only be $5 ( I really thought it was gonna be $5 cause that's how much it cost to order movies on PPV) but she stayed up with me to watch the match and she was rooting for The Rock too. I was mad depressed at the finish. It felt like they did something to a homie when they destroyed Rock with all them chairshots lmao. But yeah, after 20 years it still holds up as, imo, the best combination of spectacle, in-ring work, and storytelling that I ever saw in wrestling. I honestly hate that the finish kinda taints it now when people talk about it. But to me, that also speaks to the strength of the match.