Most overrated WWE match?

deviniscool

The first one that comes to mind is Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock back at WrestleMania 18. I can understand that the audience participation was OFF THE CHART and it had Hogan at his best (which isn't saying much), but aside from one or two spots in the match, there just wasn't very much substance.

So in your opinion, what is the most overrated match in WWE history?

chopperbyrne

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Savage Vs Steamboat.

Very good match, but not the greatest of all time that some said it was.

Also Hell in a Cell with Foley and Taker.

Very entertaining, but not a particularly great match.

rossie1977

without question, hhh vs shawn michaels v chris benoit at Wrestlemania 20

i laugh out loud when i hear people (and i have heard lots of people) claim that it was the best wrestlemania match of all time :eek:

gimmick

In recent years i will certainly have to go for John Cena Vs Umaga at The Royal Rumble 2006. I honestly still cannot see what was so good about it. People say it showed Cenas intensity in choking out the monster Umaga with the rope. Apart from that the match is entirely forgettable. So much so, I cannot remember a single thing else about it.

Cena Vs HBK in the WM Main Event sucked also, but Im not sure is that even rated that highly.

Another one, is the Royal Rumble 1992. people say best rumble of all time and all, but i watched it a few weeks ago again and it was poor enough. Admittedly my enjoyment was almost destroyed by Hogans play acting at the end and that maybe shadowing my judgment.

Can people maybe add why they didn't like a match, so as to give this quite decent thread idea some substance.

rossie1977

cena and umaga was awesome live, umaga's running (announcers) table bump was sweet

flahavaj

Bret Hart Vs HBK Iron Man Match, Wrestlemania.

This match is decent but as 1 hour matches go, its really not that great at all. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't have the patience for a 1 hour match, in fact I quite like the slow build in matches.

The main problem i have with this match is that it seems like for at least the first 30 minutes, they're just filling time. The matwork is nice and smooth and all that, but it doesn't go anywhere, they don't really tell a story and the initial workin no way ties in with the finish. The crowd, as well, just aren't into this at all until the finish, it must be the most subdued a WWE crowd has ever been for a Mania main event. I think going an hour in this case was an ill-advised move and a mistake Vince will never make again in the main event for Mania.

Certainly if you're looking for 1 hour matches that are superior, then I'd put both Joe Vs Punk broadways above it as well as the Kobashi/Kawada broadway from '96(I think 96) in terms of using the hour to tell a clever story and also the ROH 4 way to crown the first champ in 02 and the HHH/Rock iron man match in terms of sheer entertainment and incident. Hell, Punk Vs Hero from IWA:MS, which goes 92 mins, is more enjoyable too as are some early All Japan matches from the 60's between Baba and the Destroyer, which tell such amazing psychological stories.

As i said its not a bad match at all, but I've heard it proclaimed as being some kind of a blueprint for laying out a 1 hour match and some kind of mat classic, which it isn't, at all. People tend to forget that the old NWA champs like Flair and the Funks used to work 1 hour matches 300 nights a year. Just because this kind of match was a rarity to the audience at Wrestlemania 12, doesn't make it great.

Vince135792003

gimmick wrote: »

Another one, is the Royal Rumble 1992. people say best rumble of all time and all, but i watched it a few weeks ago again and it was poor enough. .

The guy who worked the second hardest (next to Flair) in that match was Bobby Heenan on commentary. He was awesome.

I think it's sometimes hard to say what's over rated or underrated because matches are made for a given time and some hold up 10 years later and some don't. That doesn't make them any less great to me though.

For example Shawn Micheals versus Razor from Wrestlemania 10 might not look all that special now but at the time it was unbelievable. The fact that 10 years later Jeff Hardy and co. were doing even more amazing things in ladder matches shouldn't detract from the display Razor and Michaels put on in 1992.

Fozzy

deviniscool wrote: »

The first one that comes to mind is Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock back at WrestleMania 18. I can understand that the audience participation was OFF THE CHART and it had Hogan at his best (which isn't saying much), but aside from one or two spots in the match, there just wasn't very much substance.

I don't consider that match overrated. I don't think the match itself was anything special, but I'm not going to criticise a match that was able to make the fans react in such a huge manner. Same goes for Kobashi vs Joe in ROH, and the first Dragon Gate 6-man tag they had there. I've seen better matches from those guys, but few managed to get such a reaction

Umaga vs Cena at the Rumble is one I'd agree with. I thought it was a run-of-the-mill match and not close to some of the other matches Cena had last year

Shawn Michaels vs Shelton Benjamin on Raw in some title tournament was very average I think. People remember it for the finish, which itself made no sense. It's a case of people saying that it was great because it featured one cool looking stunt. There wasn't much else about it that separates it from other average matches

gimmick

Vince135792003 wrote:

The guy who worked the second hardest (next to Flair) in that match was Bobby Heenan on commentary. He was awesome.

Very true. Heenans commentary was fantastic. Perfect heel friendly views throughout.

flahavaj

gimmick wrote: »

In recent years i will certainly have to go for John Cena Vs Umaga at The Royal Rumble 2006. I honestly still cannot see what was so good about it. People say it showed Cenas intensity in choking out the monster Umaga with the rope. Apart from that the match is entirely forgettable. So much so, I cannot remember a single thing else about it.

I loved this match. Its not a technical classic by any means, just an insane, hate filled brawl. Some of the bumps are madness, Umaga's splash straight through the ECW announce table for one. The finish though, is just great. The sight of Cena, the champion, who has tried to put the monster away with everything in his arsenal and faling, than having to resort to trying to choke him with the ring rope, is one that will live long in the memory. A great match that succeeded in making both men look awesome, which surely is what a good match should always do.

gimmick wrote: »

Cena Vs HBK in the WM Main Event sucked also, but Im not sure is that even rated that highly.

I thought this was great as well! The build to it was awesome, with HBK teasing and teasing the Superkick, so that when he finally did strike it seemed like something important. The last five minutes of this are classic HBK at Mania, drama, highspots, finishers hit and reversed.

gimmick wrote: »

Another one, is the Royal Rumble 1992. people say best rumble of all time and all, but i watched it a few weeks ago again and it was poor enough. Admittedly my enjoyment was almost destroyed by Hogans play acting at the end and that maybe shadowing my judgment.

Perhapds not the best Rumble ever, but pretty close. Definitely the commentary for this one is just fantastic and makes the event fly by. Its the roster that makes this, its literally a who's who of professional wrestling for the time. A virtuoso performance by Flair and Davy Boy who goes nearly 40 mins. I'll always have a soft spot for this one......"its not fair to Flair!!!"

gimmick wrote: »

Can people maybe add why they didn't like a match, so as to give this quite decent thread idea some substance.

Agreed 100%. Too many threads die on here because of one line posts or people not backing up their arguments.

Fozzy

flahavaj wrote: »

Certainly if you're looking for 1 hour matches that are superior, then I'd put both Joe Vs Punk broadways above it as well as the Kobashi/Kawada broadway from '96(I think 96) in terms of using the hour to tell a clever story

A little off topic, but this reminded me of the most fun hour long match I've ever seen. I watched it just before Christmas, it was a 6-man tag from All Japan around 1991, Kawada, Misawa & Kobashi vs Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi. I had no idea it was that long when I was watching but the time flew by. It felt like a tv series to me, the consequences of things from previous episodes would show up down the line and there was always some story to keep your mind occupied. It was so interesting

flahavaj

Vince135792003 wrote: »

For example Shawn Micheals versus Razor from Wrestlemania 10 might not look all that special now but at the time it was unbelievable. The fact that 10 years later Jeff Hardy and co. were doing even more amazing things in ladder matches shouldn't detract from the display Razor and Michaels put on in 1992.

This is a great point. Matches should always be judged in the context of the time in which they took place. As a side note, one of the most completely UNDERRATED matches ever must be the rematch of the ladder match they had at Summerslam. Definitely the better of the two matches, I only saw it a few months ago for the first time after reading HBK's book and its incredible, many of the spots stand up even today.

Fozzy

flahavaj wrote: »

I thought this was great as well! The build to it was awesome, with HBK teasing and teasing the Superkick, so that when he finally did strike it seemed like something important. The last five minutes of this are classic HBK at Mania, drama, highspots, finishers hit and reversed.

Cena's no-selling of his leg after Shawn had spent the start of the match working on it brings it down a notch in my book

rossie1977

gimmick wrote: »

Can people maybe add why they didn't like a match, so as to give this quite decent thread idea some substance.

i didn't not like my pick, i think it is(was) vastly over-rated by people, the crowd were dead until the end, everyone around me actually left long before the finish

run of the mill triple threat for me (with an excellent finish i will admit), had benoit not been involved and (or at least not won the title) most would not have rated it so highly at the time imo (thats only an opinion of mine i don't want people to bite my head off)

the triple threat at Wrestlemania 22 was a much more fun match imo, i was really enjoying it until the cut it short at about 8 minutes :mad:

flahavaj

rossie1977 wrote: »

i didn't not like my pick, i think it is(was) vastly over-rated by people, the crowd were dead until the end, everyone around me actually left long before the finish

run of the mill triple threat for me (with an excellent finish i will admit), had benoit not been involved and (or at least not won the title) most would not have rated it so highly at the time imo (thats only an opinion of mine i don't want people to bite my head off)

the triple threat at Wrestlemania 22 was a much more fun match imo, i was really enjoying it until the cut it short at about 8 minutes :mad:

Maybe the warm glow I got from the aftermath of this match has clouded my judgemant but i think this was a pretty damn good match! When HBK and HHH put Benoit through the table, I genuinely thought he was out of it for good and I marked like a little bitch for both his recovery and the finish (lets not forget Trips tapping cleanly, HHHaters!;))

There's another awesome little spot in this one that I'd never seen before, when Benoit has HBK in a submission (or maybe vice versa) and he's literally tapping when HHH makes it back into the ring and stops his hand hitting the mat. I thought that was a cool, unique innovative spot that I've seen used since and always makes me smile.

AlphaMale 3OO

I still think Michaels/Razor at WM10 stands the test of time. Its a fabulous match. I watched it at the time but had completely forgotten about it until I bought the WM Anthology (6-10). It built slowly and by the end it just sort of happened upon me how good it was. For a first ever ladder match they made great use of the ladder and it didnt require moonsaults from the top of it to make the match frantic and entertaining. The ladder even got bent up.

In the same WM the Owen vs. Bret match is considered a classic. It was good but got a little boring at times. The reason? I dont really know. It was just a little boring. Maybe too much mat wrestling. It was great to have Owen win it though.

Vince135792003

forbesii wrote: »

In the same WM the Owen vs. Bret match is considered a classic. It was good but got a little boring at times.

This is my point though. I watched that around the time and thought even at a young age how unbelievable the match was.

Now 15 years later, it may be a little less great (although I think it still holds up very well) but nonetheless, at the time it was a great, great match. You judge matches in the time period that they occurred in, not the time period we are in now in my opinion.

It's like saying Jack O'Shea wouldn't get on the Kerry team of today because he'd be too slow. Jack O'Shea is one of the greatest footballers of all time and should be judged by the standard of his era and not by todays because all athletic activities be it fake or real, evolve and progress over time.

dpddave

I've always felt HBK vs Angle at WM was overated. And most Benoit matchs, but then I wasn't a fan of his style of wrestling.

deviniscool

flahavaj wrote: »

The crowd, as well, just aren't into this at all until the finish, it must be the most subdued a WWE crowd has ever been for a Mania main event.

Did you forget entirely about the Jericho/HHH main event at WrestleMania 18? But I think that can be blamed on the fact that it was wrongly placed in the last slot on the card, and that it followed Hogan/Rock.

deviniscool

flahavaj wrote: »

This is a great point. Matches should always be judged in the context of the time in which they took place. As a side note, one of the most completely UNDERRATED matches ever must be the rematch of the ladder match they had at Summerslam. Definitely the better of the two matches, I only saw it a few months ago for the first time after reading HBK's book and its incredible, many of the spots stand up even today.

I totally agree with that match being vastly UNDERRATED. I heard very little praise about it until I saw it on WWE's recent Ladder Match DVD. The backdrop that Ramon took to the concrete at WM X pales in comparison to the suplex that Michael's took onto the barricade in the SS 95 re-match. The sequence at the beginning of the match where both men tease their finishers was also awesome. The only thing that kept the match from being a classic was the little slip at the end when Michael's botched the final climb to the title.

steveland?

flahavaj wrote: »

Bret Hart Vs HBK Iron Man Match, Wrestlemania.

This match is decent but as 1 hour matches go, its really not that great at all. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't have the patience for a 1 hour match, in fact I quite like the slow build in matches.

The main problem i have with this match is that it seems like for at least the first 30 minutes, they're just filling time. The matwork is nice and smooth and all that, but it doesn't go anywhere, they don't really tell a story and the initial workin no way ties in with the finish. The crowd, as well, just aren't into this at all until the finish, it must be the most subdued a WWE crowd has ever been for a Mania main event. I think going an hour in this case was an ill-advised move and a mistake Vince will never make again in the main event for Mania

I'd have to disagree with your assessment there (my opinion by the way. Before someone jumps down my throat, I appreciate that the above is your opinion )

I remember well watching the lead up to that match as it was about 6 months after I first got into watching WWF and about 6 months before I lost interest for a long long time...

The vignettes shown in the lead up of Hart and Michaels training, Michaels giving promos on how it was his childhood dream, introducing Jose Lethario all added to a huge build up to the main event which is something that's kind of non-existent these days because it wasn't the type of match you'd have predicted would happen. I may be wrong because it was 12 years ago but I don't think Michaels was really seen as the type who could carry the WrestleMania main event at the time. Sure the previous year he'd "headlined" WrestleMania but after that match they had Bam Bam Bigelow vs Lawrence Taylor with Salt'n'Peppa singing Taylor in! Now I was pretty young at the time but I remember Shawn as the underdog going in and they pulled out every trick in the book to get him over as a huge star and a potential main-eventer in a lead up that seemed to last forever while maintaining the credibility that we could very well see a brand new champion who was hugely over with the audience. Hart and Michaels had great heat coming into the match and I think it paid off.

When's the last time you remember an original main-event at Mania where it didn't involve either a Triple Threat, John Cena or Triple H? At the time this was a completely new concept

When Lethario came out to Michaels music on his own and then pointed to the rafters I had goosebumps when HBK came down on the zip line. That shot from the rafters of him descending with hundreds of camera flashes has been used in WrestleMani highlight reels for the past 11 years and for good reason. It looked epic!

The lead up in the ring was great and the introduction was fantastic. Having Gorilla Monsoon in the ring, hearing Earl Hebner before hand explaining the rules, telling Michaels and Hart how if they didn't break on the 4th count they'd earn a disqualification, padding each of them down and so forth set it up as the spectacle it was meant to be.

I don't think the 1 hour match was ill-advised at all, sure a 1 hour match now where there's no pinfalls, submissions, DQs or countouts mightn't go down very well now but at the time it was great as they sold the fact that Hart didn't expect Michaels to be able to pull off a calculated, slow burning, mat-based match and expected HBK to take stupid risks in the hopes of scoring some points. When the timekeeper got superkicked it looked like his head had been taken off. The camera work was spot on too because you didn't see it coming at all and the cameraman was in the exact right spot to catch Michaels leading in and pan around to get the contact.

Hart's selling of shock when Howard Finkle announced that Monsoon had ordered the match to continue was brilliant. You can see him mouthing "this is bullsh*t" and basically acting fantastically.

I rewatched it again the other day as a mate gave me the Michaels From the Vault DVD and I loved every minute of it. To me, it was a marquee match, something new that hadn't been done in the WWF at the time and set the standard for any subsequent Iron Man match, none of which I think has lived up to the standard set by this match. It set Michaels up as the main event and showcased his versatility. He could go from having a high flying match up to a lower paced mat wrestling match, could sell a ladder match to an iron match to a regular one on one, one falls match. It takes a special kind of performer to pull off so many different kinds of matches and still seem believable and I think HBK pulled this match off spectacularly.

As you say, Vince probably won't book another match like this as the main event at Wrestlemania ever again but, at the time, it was special and felt like a one-off, huuuuge match!

Again, just my 2cents

Otis Driftwood

Personally I feel that the IWA Japan king of the deathmatch 95 that culminated with Foley vs the Funker is wildly over rated.

But,as has been said,the fact it was 15 years ago must be taken into account.

I just couldnt get into any of the matches.Could be because I had seen the CZW TsOD and CsOD and was expecting something totally mental.

krudler

i'd go with the Iron Man mania 12 match as well, both men have had matches leagues ahead of it, the highlights of the match on the wrestlemania 16 dvd look like is one of the most exciting matches ever when its anything but, has a great ending and last few minutes but the rest is as dull as ditchwater