NMB Wrestling Archive

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end Sunday morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Kurt Angle v Kane - WWF Smackdown 11/08/01 This was nothing more than each guy trying repeatedly to perform his finisher on the other, and the other guy finding reversals out of it every time, until Angle finally got the win. That's about all it was, as rarely do they try anything else, and when Angle does, it's not like Kane sells it anyway, at least in the early stages. The only reason Angle weakening the leg and ankle even factors into the match at all is because of Austin's interference with the chair mid-match, before he's eventually chased off by the Undertaker. Aside from a few kicks and stomps, ankle lock attempts, chokeslam attempts and one tombstone attempt,…

HHH v Chris Jericho - WWF Smackdown 04/05/01 My review last summer at TSM: Revised: In all other televised HHH/Jericho matches I've covered so far, they've started off with Jericho dominating the early stages, but here, we see HHH take control first; perhaps he felt he needed to look really good early because the bookers were feeding Jericho so many hope spots later. Regardless of why, it hurts the match, as the gap between the two has grown wider and wider over the previous year, and the crowd has less reason to care about this match than they would have just 12 months earlier. If it shows you how much heat he has lost, when HHH is in control, the crowd cha…

Steve Austin v Kurt Angle - WWF Smackdown 03/15/01 (No DQ) TSM review from last summer: Revised: Steve Austin v Kurt Angle ? WWF Smackdown 03/01/01 Holy shit, this is one of the best matches Austin and Angle have ever had, and it?s gone largely ignored. Angle was a wrestler possessed in the weeks following his loss to The Rock, and that aggression is here in spades. Angle is so effective in this role that it makes everything else he does look pale by comparison. The brawling nature of this match makes for a more fun outing, and this just may be the closest to Austin Versus Angle Done Right that we?ve ever seen. There are all sorts of nifty little advances …

HHH v Chris Jericho - WWF Smackdown 02/08/01 TSM review last summer: Revised: For all the ballyhooed drama between HHH and Jericho, both on screen and in real life, Jericho has traditionally been HHH?s best opponent, and this match is yet another show of evidence to support that. HHH surprisingly does a good job of giving Jericho credibility through allowing him to remain on offense for most of the match, and even though Jericho loses, he is allowed to get his heat back with a Walls of Jericho after the encounter was over. This was about as good as a throwaway seven-minute match between these two could possibly be, which means it had little to offer in terms…

The Rock & Chris Jericho v Chris Benoit & Big Show - WWF RAW 01/22/01 TSM review last summer: Revised: You would think more would be said about this match, but it has been largely forgotten. This is unfortunate, as it?s one of the best TV matches of 2001 with everyone playing their roles to near perfection. There is the problem of the match being isolated from all incidents surrounding it ? the wrestlers are feuding with each other at this point, but they?re not really feuding in this match. Jericho and Benoit show no ill effects of the brutal ladder match they had the night before, but they wrestle some really fun fast-paced sequences heavy on laria…

Steve Austin v Kurt Angle - WWF RAW 01/08/01 Here is the review I did when I covered this match at TSM a while back: Ok, now here it is revised: The buildup to this match was almost ridiculous, as even some main events on pay-per-view later in the year wouldn?t get the same hype. This was the result of a single elimination tournament and this episode of RAW was frontloaded ? and I do mean frontloaded ? with video packages and interviews to celebrate and promote this match. This would all be fine and dandy if the same match hadn?t happened just a few weeks earlier on the same show with the same exact finish to boot! That encounter and this encounter were only…

Chris Benoit v Matt Hardy - WWF RAW 06/14/00 This match got a lot of praise at the time, with some even going as far as to call it a TV MOTYC, but there were far better televised matches that year with more heat, and Hardy is so nervous here that it hurts the match a little. Granted, he's still sound, but he's also relying too much on his brother's trademark spots to get a pop, and both are having to work in front of a crowd that completely lost their energy when HHH pinned Chris Jericho earlier in the night. For that reason, the match doesn't have the heat it should, although Matt is a more complete wrestler than Jeff, as Benoit would learn. He has a reversal for nea…

HHH v Chris Jericho - WWF RAW 06/14/00 In an interesting bit of trivia that nearly everyone has forgotten, this segment drew an 8.4 quarter hour, tying it with the "This Is Your Life" segment in September of 1999 between Rock and Foley, and putting it in the top five quarter hours of the era. Perhaps that's a reflection of how red hot Chris Jericho was at the time, as he gets a Rock or Austin-level pop for his arrival, and the crowd completely turns on the show when HHH wins, as I'll explain later with Benoit v Matt Hardy. This is probably the Flair/Steamboat of relatively short TV matches, as they toss everything out there in a very short period of time, but they est…

Chris Benoit v Jeff Hardy - WWF Smackdown 06/11/00 This is too short to really be all that good, but it's delightfully fun, as Benoit takes great pleasure in destroying Jeff Hardy in as many ways as he can possibly find. Jeff teases comebacks at times, and his highspots are more crisp than perhaps I've ever seen them, even if he does them too often -- his 450, even if it was missed, look great, as did his somersault plancha and senton bomb. Benoit is just a great catcher for Jeff, but Jeff has a tendency to not be capable of doing much *except* climbing the ropes and taking the match to the air. Benoit does his best to keep him grounded and kicks him down in the corne…

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Chris Benoit v Chris Jericho - WWF Smackdown 05/04/00 Note to anyone who says Chris Benoit has no charisma -- watch this match! It's one of Benoit's more animated performances, as he argues with the ref, gives an incredibly surly look to the crowd when they start chanting "Benoit sucks!" and does all sorts of trash talking. Jericho is just as great a babyface ... in some ways. While I think the finish was intended as a payback spot, since they played the clip from Backlash of Jericho getting DQ'd for hitting Benoit with a belt, it didn't completely come off that way, as you saw the babyface cheat without being provoked and win the match. That's really my only complain…

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.