Top Matches of the Decade – Part 1
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Since the sun rose on the twenty-first century, professional wrestling
has seen some amazing changes. The WWF became the WWE, the Attitude
Era came to a close, and Linda McMahon’s political aspirations led
to a return to the goofy gimmicks of days past. ECW and WCW closed their
doors for good, but ROH and TNA filled the gaps left behind. Though
wrestling fans have had to suffer through some truly abysmal moments-
the names Katie Vick, David Arquette and Mike Adamle will elicit
shudders for years to come- there have also been countless stellar angles,
promos and matches which will stand the test of time. With that in mind,
I’m bringing you a countdown of the fifty greatest matches of the
decade.
A few quick notes before we begin-
first off, I decided to limit each match up between a set of wrestlers
to one spot on the list, meaning one Jericho/Michaels match, one Styles/Joe
match and so on. Second, this list is limited to North American promotions,
due completely to the fact that I haven’t seen enough international
tapes to make a fair judgment. Finally, for all the smart alecs who
can’t wait to point this out- yes, I’m fully aware that the twenty-first
century began in 2001, not 2000. What can I say, I like round numbers.
With that said, let’s get started!
50)
Triple X (Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper) vs. America’s Most
Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm)- Six Sides of Steel Cage Match (Turning Point 2004)
After dominating the burgeoning TNA
tag team division for well over a year, the war between Triple X and
America’s Most Wanted came to a dramatic conclusion at Turning Point
2004. Inside the freshly minted Six Sides of Steel cage, the two teams
faced off in a match that held the stipulation that the losing duo would
be forced to disband. The match was brutal, with Daniels, Harris and
Storm all doing heavy color. The match culminated in one of the craziest
spots in TNA history- with Harris sitting on top of the cage, Skipper
climbed to the top, and with the crowd chanting “please don’t die”,
ran along the top of the cage and hit one of the craziest Frankensteiners
anyone had ever seen. In the end, after handcuffing Daniels to a ringpost,
AMW put Skipper away with a Powerplex. Daniels and Skipper were forced
to dissolve their partnership (at least for awhile), and Storm and Harris
cemented their position as the top tag team in TNA for years to come.
49) Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio (Summerslam 2002)
After making his WWE debut on Smackdown
a few weeks before, Mysterio’s first appearance on a WWE pay per view
ended up being the opening match of one of the best cards of the decade.
Angle and Mysterio worked at a lightning-fast pace, as the best pure
athlete and the best high-flyer in the sport worked together to showcase
all the things that made both of them so special. Taking advantage of
Angle’s rare size and strength advantage over his opponent, both men
pulled off one innovative, imaginative spot after another in a match
more than a little reminiscent of Mysterio’s legendary match with
Eddie Guerrero from Halloween Havoc five years before. The match ended
with a great spot that likely hasn’t been used before or since, with
Angle pulling off a unique counter to reverse a Frankensteiner into
an Ankle Lock, forcing a tap out. There were no losers in this match
though- both men came out of Summerslam looking like superstars. In
his first major WWE match, Mysterio showed a brand new audience why
he’s so often called the best little man in the history of the business.
48) 20 Man X Division Gauntlet Match (Victory Road 2004)
The opening match of TNA’s first
three hour pay-per-view, the first taste many new fans got of the new
product was appropriately a showcase of the always dynamic X Division.
The gauntlet match mixed home-grown talent with international stars
brought in for the World X Cup and a few familiar faces, including La
Parka, Psicosis, Spanky (Brian Kendrick) and Matt Sydal (a.k.a. Evan
Bourne)- sure, it was a spot-fest, but a spot-fest of the highest calibre.
Everyone had their moment to shine, including such highlights as a then-rare
seven-man “Tower of Doom” Superplex, and a phenomenal running German
Superplex from Chris Sabin . The match ultimately came down to Hector
Garza and Frankie Kazarian, the latter having made it all the way through
from the number one entrant spot. Though Kazarian was nominally a heel,
his incredible performance led to a split crowd, and when Garza eventually
pinned him with a surprise counter to an Oklahoma Roll, you could feel
a swell of sympathy from the fans who saw Kazarian come so close to
taking it all. With this match, TNA showed right from the start that
no matter what else is going on with the company, the X Division would
always have something special to offer wrestling fans, something that
they won’t get from the folks from Stamford. Six years later, that
still holds true- it’s just a shame how often the bookers in TNA tends
to forget it.
47) Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy-
Hardcore Match (Invasion)
At number forty-seven, we have the
rarest of things- a good match for the Hardcore Championship. A great
one in fact, as Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam demonstrated everything the
hardcore division should have been from day one, namely a way good wrestlers
whose matches were better when not constrained by traditional rules
to showcase their abilities, rather than a place to stick limited workers
who could use cheesy weapons as a crutch to cover for laziness or lack
of talent. Though a heel in theory, Rob Van Dam was already insanely
over with the fans who knew him from ECW, and this match quickly secured
him a place as one of the WWF’s most popular superstars, no matter
what side of the Invasion he was on. For Jeff Hardy meanwhile, this
match was his breakout moment, the first time he was allowed to showcase
his potential as a singles competitor against an opponent who could
go toe to toe with whatever craziness he wanted to dish out. More than
that though, this match was about making an impression, and if you’ve
seen this match, you’ll probably agree that Hardy and RVD were successful.
The spots in this match were so perfectly executed, they stay with you
years later- the perfectly timed Van Daminator that sent Jeff sailing
off the stage, the brutal DDT and German Suplex which would have broken
the neck of anyone other than RVD, and all capped off by one of the
most gorgeous Five Star Frog Splashes you could ever ask for. Simply
put, in the biggest match of both of their careers, Jeff Hardy and Rob
Van Dam stole the show.
46) Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim (Turning Point 2007)
The Knockouts Division was a surprise
hit for TNA when it burst onto the scene in 2007. By focusing on legitimate
wrestlers and no-nonsense booking, TNA legitimized women’s wrestling
in a way that was almost unheard of (at least in North America). Though
there were several breakout stars in the early of the Knockouts, the
division was largely built around Kong and Kim. Kim was the perfect
babyface champion- beautiful, but in a girl-next-door sort of way, her
looks always secondary to her athleticism and versatility in the ring.
Kong was her exact opposite- strong as a bear and booked like a force
of nature, maybe the best monster heel since Brock Lesnar. At Turning
Point, in their first pay-per-view singles match, Kong and Kim tore
the house down by simply beating the hell out of each other from bell
to bell. The match saw Gail using every trick in the book to try to
gain the upper hand, while Kong beat six shades of hell out of her.
Though the booking of the match was simple to a fault, it worked perfectly-
when Kim finally managed to take Kong off her feet, the audience all
but exploded. The match ended in a disqualification, after Kong refused
to stop beating on Kim in the corner of the ring, and shoved down the
referee; ordinarily, this would be an unsatisfying conclusion, but this
time it made the match ever better, as Kong went ballistic, obliterating
the referee with an Awesome Bomb, and taking out both Velvet Sky and
Angelina Love when they tried to run in to make the save. Kong ended
up delivering one more Awesome Bomb to Kim (onto a steel chair no less)
before being driven away by a small army of security guards. Things
ended with Kong standing in the ring, staring down at the broken, battered
and beaten bodies of no less than four victims- if that’s not an impressive
visual to go out on, I don’t know what is.
45) Team International vs. Team
Japan vs. Team Mexico vs. Team TNA- Twelve Man Elimination Match (Victory Road 2008)
The penultimate match of the 2008 World
X Cup, this was in many ways the definitive TNA match- it didn’t make
a lot of sense, but it sure was fun. The World X Cup was a somewhat
disorganized affair- the tournament’s scoring system made absolutely
no sense, and on the day Victory Road was held (weeks into the tournament)
only two members of Team Mexico had ever appeared on TNA television,
or indeed had even been announced. This four way tag team affair was
a product of the same mentality of the old WCW Cruiserweight division
that said “the booking doesn’t make a lick of sense, so screw it,
let’s just ignore it and go have a good match”. And they did- the
match ended up being twenty-odd minutes of pure, unadulterated fun.
Though the match was far from perfect (likely owing in large part to
the language barriers and stylistic differences between many of the
competitors), it was action packed, bringing the crowd to the edge of
their seats from beginning to end. Of course, this four way (which was
eventually won by Team TNA) in no way affected the ultimate victor of
the World X Cup, so the whole match was kind of pointless- but hey,
it was entertaining as hell, and isn’t that what really matters in
the end?
44) Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon-
Street Fight (King of the Ring 2001)
I’ve always had somewhat of a soft
spot for Shane McMahon. Unlike his overexposed father, his insufferable
sister, and his inanimate mother, I’ve usually found Shane to be entertaining,
in small doses. This match is a big reason why because frankly, it was
better than it had any right to be. Kurt Angle was competing in his
third match of the night, facing an opponent who (though talented in
his own way) was largely a non-wrestler. Angle and McMahon also were
cursed by inordinately bad luck. Early in the match, Angle took a Suplex
outside the ring and landed awkwardly, resulting in a broken tailbone.
Soon afterwards, Angle and McMahon went for one of the match’s big
spots, a Belly to Belly Suplex through a glass section of the King of
the Ring stage dressings- only the glass didn’t break, and Shane took
a sick fall onto the top of his head. Though Shane crashed through on
the next attempt, a second pane of glass weathered two Suplexes without
breaking, before Angle finally said “screw this,” and just rammed
Shane headfirst through the glass. Needless to say, this was far from
a technical masterpiece, but it was a great brawl, with incredibly gutsy
performances from both guys. And besides, a McMahon was thrown through
a huge pane of glass- that’s bound to put a smile on most wrestling
fans’ faces.
43) AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams
vs. Chris Sabin- Ultimate X Match (Final Resolution 2005)
Ultimate X is unquestionably TNA’s
most exciting contribution to the world of professional wrestling, and
of the almost twenty Ultimate X Matches there have been to date, this
one is the best of the lot. For the first Ultimate X match to air on
a three-hour pay per view (and thus the first time many new fans would
have seen the gimmick), TNA put three of the most exciting stars of
the X Division in the six-sided ring and told them to go to town. The
match had all the incredible athleticism and acrobatics you would expect
from wrestlers of Styles, Williams and Sabin’s calibre, but unlike
most Ultimate X matches, this one also told a solid story. For a gimmick
that lends itself primarily to high spots, Williams and Sabin spent
an inordinate amount of time working on Styles’ arm, with the idea
being that he was somewhat of the favourite to win, unless they eliminated
his ability to cross the wires above the ring. The payoff to this was
excellent, as Styles eventually gave up on trying in vain to climb the
wires, and ended up winning the match with a wild springboard from the
ring apron, snatching the red X away from Williams and Sabin before
they could climb down from the wires to claim the victory. All in all,
this was an incredibly exciting match- in fact, it’s the match I usually
show people when I want to introduce them to TNA. For fans of high-flying
cruiserweights, this one’s an absolute must-see.
42) Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero (Wrestlemania XX)
Wrestlemania XX was unquestionably
a loaded card. The show was built around the Raw main event, a triple
threat World Championship match between Triple H, Shawn Michaels and
Chris Benoit. The show also featured a hotly anticipated match between
Chris Jericho and Christian, the return of the zombie Undertaker and
a “dream match” (in theory at least) between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg.
As such, the WWE Championship match between Angle and Guerrero was almost
an afterthought, but it ended up being the sleeper hit of the night.
The match moved like clockwork, a flawless display of reversals and
counter-wrestling with several brilliant false finishes, including Angle
kicking out of the Frog Splash, and Guerrero escaping a trio of Ankle
Locks. Near the end of the match, Eddie began to show the effects of
Angle’s repeated attacks on his ankle, clutching his foot in pain
and desperately loosening his bootlaces to get some blood flowing into
the injured limb. This turned out to be a trick however- when Angle
went in for the kill with a final Ankle Lock, he accidentally yanked
Guerrero’s boot clean off, leaving him dumbfounded and vulnerable
to a quick Inside Cradle. At the biggest Wrestlemania of all time, Eddie
Guerrero didn’t just pick up a win- he retained the WWE title, by
lying, cheating and stealing.
41) Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson-
Two out of Three Falls Match (Testing the Limit)
There are matches that are easily accessible
for fans of all types, no matter how obsessive or casual their interest
in professional wrestling may be. This is not one of those matches.
No, this incredible encounter is for the wrestling purist, the student
of the game, the devotee to the art, the sport and the science of professional
wrestling. Clocking in at a whopping seventy five minutes in length,
this three act masterpiece is professional wrestling’s equivalent
of the Godfather trilogy, or Wagner’s Ring Cycle- a daunting performance
to sit through, but one that rewards the patient viewer with a level
of almost indescribable excellence. Apparently channelling the spirits
of Karl Gotch and Georg Hackenschmidt, Aries and Danielson put on one
of the greatest displays of mat wrestling not just of this decade, but
of all time. Who wins? For once, I’m not telling- and I strongly urge
you to avoid the temptation to look it up on Wikipedia. Instead, pick
up a copy of this match on DVD, grab some popcorn and see for yourself.
Afterward, I’m sure you’ll agree that this match can be summed up
in one word- epic.
All Content © 2011 by Fight Media Inc. | Site Developed by Nautical Progressions
