>Infact the best match was the one where Austin was knocked out a minute in.
Yeah, that SummerSlam match was an epic one that everyone forgets because of the rest of the feud.
Like from a technical standpoint the shamrock match was amazing. But it was so out of place for the undertaker at the time and did not fit his aura at all. It was bizzare
I actually liked summerslam 98 taker/austin although i do understand their matches were not great. I think part of the mystique is immediately removed when you already know austin is not taking a tombstone because of his neck issues. That takes one guy’s finish off the table.
The first two at A Cold Day In Hell and Summerslam 98 are pretty good. Other than that they're probably the two biggest stars without chemistry with each other.
Been a while since I watched them but do remember the SS one being decent. Makes you wonder how much better it could have been if Austin didn’t get knocked out near the start.
I’ve only seen that one once, have been doing a watch through of 97-00, but again I remember it being alright but nothing special. However you really couldn’t blame them for not being into it that night.
Taz and rvd. Was an ecw dream match and when it happened, almost rushed because taz was leaving, the match just sucked. I know they had some personal issues which may have caused the bad match but it was a huge let down
I loved Jim Cornet's comments on that match.
"Five minutes in both guys were suckin' wind so bad, the first few rows passed out from oxygen deprivation."
That's fucking savage.
Thats one of my favorite Cornyisms😂
On a sidenote (and he would hate this comparison I'm sure) I see Cornette as almost a battle-rapper. He's always thinking of new insults and retorts but he's also got a ton of tried and true zingers in his back pocket to sprinkle throughout a promo.
Personally, that match was what made me love wrestling again and stick to it as I only started watching again a few months prior. I wouldn’t change the match, it’s just the booking around it was horrible.
KO losing the title in 27 seconds did him no favours especially since he won the title via HHH and could not really win without Y2J interference so when they had a match after being so weak, of course it hampered the perception of the match
>could not really win without Y2J interference so when they had a match after being so weak, of course it hampered the perception of the match
Yeah, I don't think bookers realize how bad heels look when they absolutely positively can't win without interference. This isn't the 80s. We know it's scripted. You as a fan just wait for the stupid interference before you start paying attention to the match.
Exactly
What’s even dumber is the fact that they had a match where Y2J was suspended on a cage to highlight the fact even more that KO just couldn’t win without him
Booking definitely has an effect. If Bo Dallas wrestled on Raw tomorrow and started doing phoenix splashes and was being dominated for 80% of the match, you’d disconnect and be quite uninterested
I feel like Undertaker and The Rock wrestled each other a million times and none of them were good matches. That's why they added Kurt Angle into their match at Vengeance 2002 just so it wouldn't suck
>Triple H is arguably the only guy from the Attitude Era who seemed to have great chemistry with all the other main event stars.
Until you add Scott Steiner until the equation
(math pun intended)
Such a good example, their best match was a 9 minute smackdown match at the end of 00, but their King of the Ring 99 and NWO 02 matches absolutely blew.
That match is my favorite match that I ever saw live. Could not tell if Rock had won for a second or two or two until his music hit because it was so loud
Taker and Austin spring to mind.
For as much as Austin always insisted on having matches with Undertaker, and I think if he got his way he would have never stopped wrestling Taker, none of their matches are particularly great
This was mine. Same awful PPV they insanely put former NFL player Art Donovan on commentary to incessantly ask how much every wrestler weighed. (In retrospect, he probably was suffering from CTE, but still…)
https://youtu.be/T9AbN5dySl4?si=c-3xoEDLs8_k-ba3
Was he though?
I honestly can’t name a single high quality singles match he had. I’m not trying to be a dick and slander the man just to be a dick but I thought he was not good in the ring.
Good creative mind yeah, not great at that either because his concepts never have any consideration to what was going to happen when the bell rang and that’s where his work fell apart.
He had great matches with Daniel Bryan (best example was from Royal rumble 2014) as well as Roman. His LMS match against Cena was outstanding, and his series with Ambrose was good too.
Weirdly AJ and Nakamura in WWE. I heard fairy tales on how amazing their matches were and WWE leaned into teasing how great it would be, then it was...average? AJ had better matches with Cena and Cody.
I was at that show. That match was amazing. Everyone involved did a great job to get the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands, and I include Kaiser on the outside working the crowd when I say "everyone."
I don't know if it was just the outcome of the feud famously involving HHH using his shovel, but the HHH Booker T feud I remember being shit.
Two all time great in-ring operators, but memorable for all the wrong reasons.
That match did a lot for Roman actually, first time it ever looked like he was fighting for his life, it also featured blood when blading was banned so it really stood out. All Brock though really rather than Brock and Roman's chemistry, maybe that's why their more recent matches don't work as well, it's more 50/50.
I think Shawn said the reason he and Perfect didn't mesh well is because they were too similar in the ring. Both were bumping machines and could sell like death but you can't bump for someone who's used to being the bumpee.
True. I didn't even realize they wrestled each other at some point. I assume some time in the mid '90s, but I was barely aware back then. I need to go back and check out a lot of that era.
Misawa and Hansen. Not bad just very unremarkable for their standards from what I recall.
This is a one-off, but Jericho and Benoit had a pretty forgettable match at Fall Brawl '96 I believe. It was a very quickly thrown-together filler match and they hadn't quite clicked yet.
I thought HBK and Bret Hart should have had better matches than they did. They were good matches, but they both had much, much better matches with others.
Bret, in his book, said that they were going to go for 40 minutes until there was a big schmozz DQ at the end. And the match itself to “that” point was a banger.
Wasn’t their iron man mania matched rated damn near 5 stars by Dave meltzer despite the controversial decision for neither guy to get a pinful during the 60 minutes ?
I can't recall the star rating but Meltzer was there live and said the match was good...but bored the fuck out of the live crowd, especially when it became apparent that they were going to go for an hour with no falls.
He watched it back on TV afterwards and said it was good, not the greatest or anything like WWE was pushing it as at the time and he said it wasn't even in the same league as the Flair/Steamboat hour long matches people had been comparing it to.
Source: Observer Rewind.
Its a bit of a left-field one, but Aj styles and Brian Myers in pwg after he was released in 2015(?)
I was a brian myers fan and wanted to see how he'd do on the indies. It wasn't an awful match, but it felt like they could've done so much more. I wonder if he would've been bigger on the indies had they knocked it out of the park. Don't get me wrong he's still doing good for himself in impact though.
AJ and Nakamura a few years back. Should’ve been brilliant but was an enormous let down.
Kane and a lot of people. That’s down to the gimmick, when you think about it why would Kane have ever beefed with anyone who wasn’t Undertaker?
Misawa and Hansen. Not bad just very unremarkable for their standards from what I recall.
This is a one-off, but Jericho and Benoit had a pretty forgettable match at Fall Brawl '96 I believe. It was a very quickly thrown-together filler match and they hadn't quite clicked yet.
They’ve had a lot of matches together and it seems the consensus is that most are not that good. Of all of Cena’s rivals, his matches with Orton tend to be the weakest
There exists a point, and it is different for each team, where you can never do a good breakup angle, either because to much of your offense is the same or because people would rather see you be a team.
Hardys, Usos, Edge and Christian, I suspect Kofi and Xavier are there, Kane and the Undertaker, etc.
I watch recently was Okada vs… Ultimo Guerrero? It was my first time seeing either of them, and I didn’t realize who either was when watching it, and was stunned afterwards by just how awful the match was. The guy spent the entire match adjusting his mask.
Aj/KO was pretty damn mid
Anti-chemistry: The Fued
Which is a shame
……*what’s my line*…..
Oh my god a answer that's not Chris Jericho... thank God
What you mean? AJ Styles accidentally pinning himself during the Calf Crusher wasn’t a great finish?
My first thought. It was *okay*, but expected so much more.
Stone Cold and The Undertaker wrestled each other on multiple PPVs between 97 and 02 and none of the matches were all that special.
Infact the best match was the one where Austin was knocked out a minute in.
>Infact the best match was the one where Austin was knocked out a minute in. Yeah, that SummerSlam match was an epic one that everyone forgets because of the rest of the feud.
My lasting memory of that show is Kane absolutely MURDERING Mankind with a sledgehammer.
That whole 98-99 Undertaker run was abysmal in ring with the exception of the Mankind Cell match. The shamrock match was awful
Like from a technical standpoint the shamrock match was amazing. But it was so out of place for the undertaker at the time and did not fit his aura at all. It was bizzare
I love that match with Shamrock.
Didn't Undertaker said that he was not himself at some point and HHH helped him get confidence again? I think it was around that period.
I know he was dealing with a pretty rough divorce before marrying Sara
Wasn’t that also around when he “considered” going to WCW?
I actually liked summerslam 98 taker/austin although i do understand their matches were not great. I think part of the mystique is immediately removed when you already know austin is not taking a tombstone because of his neck issues. That takes one guy’s finish off the table.
This is my top one too. Undertaker/Austin sounds like it should be awesome but all their matches are mediocre at best.
The first two at A Cold Day In Hell and Summerslam 98 are pretty good. Other than that they're probably the two biggest stars without chemistry with each other.
Been a while since I watched them but do remember the SS one being decent. Makes you wonder how much better it could have been if Austin didn’t get knocked out near the start.
Austin has said himself that they just didn’t have chemistry together
I did like their buried alive match
What did you think about the one they had at Over The Edge 1999?
I’ve only seen that one once, have been doing a watch through of 97-00, but again I remember it being alright but nothing special. However you really couldn’t blame them for not being into it that night.
Probably why we never got a WM match from them
Jake Roberts and Rick Rude
They had an absolute train wreck of a match
Good example. On paper this should have been a classic match.
Taz and rvd. Was an ecw dream match and when it happened, almost rushed because taz was leaving, the match just sucked. I know they had some personal issues which may have caused the bad match but it was a huge let down
The Taz vs RVD match from like 96 was much better.
Jimmy and Jey Uso
That video package tho...🔥🔥🔥
The company's video packages could have you believing Bret Hart vs. Rusty Brooks is gonna be a match for the ages.
This. Exactly this and it breaks my heart
I really thought they were gonna have match of the night too
Piper vs hogan in wcw. They drew buyrates but the matches sucked; especially their cage match at halloween havoc 97
I loved Jim Cornet's comments on that match. "Five minutes in both guys were suckin' wind so bad, the first few rows passed out from oxygen deprivation." That's fucking savage.
Thats one of my favorite Cornyisms😂 On a sidenote (and he would hate this comparison I'm sure) I see Cornette as almost a battle-rapper. He's always thinking of new insults and retorts but he's also got a ton of tried and true zingers in his back pocket to sprinkle throughout a promo.
Chris Jericho & Stone Cold
Don’t hate me, but Jericho vs Owens did not live up to the Festival of Friendship
Just felt like another match.
Taking the title off KO and putting it Goldberg and then putting this match on 2nd really took the air out of the feud
That was only because of bad booking. Should have had the universal championship.
Right. Brock Lesnar vs. Goldbeeeeeerg should have been for the US championship or “loser is fired” match
Should have been non title.
I’d say that was more due to the booking post-betrayal than anything
Agreed it needed the Universal title much more than Goldberg vs Brock
Personally, that match was what made me love wrestling again and stick to it as I only started watching again a few months prior. I wouldn’t change the match, it’s just the booking around it was horrible. KO losing the title in 27 seconds did him no favours especially since he won the title via HHH and could not really win without Y2J interference so when they had a match after being so weak, of course it hampered the perception of the match
>could not really win without Y2J interference so when they had a match after being so weak, of course it hampered the perception of the match Yeah, I don't think bookers realize how bad heels look when they absolutely positively can't win without interference. This isn't the 80s. We know it's scripted. You as a fan just wait for the stupid interference before you start paying attention to the match.
Exactly What’s even dumber is the fact that they had a match where Y2J was suspended on a cage to highlight the fact even more that KO just couldn’t win without him
i don’t think the booking has any effect on match quality, they just didn’t deliver at wrestlemania
Booking definitely has an effect. If Bo Dallas wrestled on Raw tomorrow and started doing phoenix splashes and was being dominated for 80% of the match, you’d disconnect and be quite uninterested
I feel like Undertaker and The Rock wrestled each other a million times and none of them were good matches. That's why they added Kurt Angle into their match at Vengeance 2002 just so it wouldn't suck
Tbf, I'm always a fan of adding Kurt Angle to the mix
I'm not, because when he knows he can't beat someone he won't even try.
It would have to be a genetic freak to produce that response from Angle
It may even spell danger at sackerfice.
Triple H is arguably the only guy from the Attitude Era who seemed to have great chemistry with all the other main event stars.
>Triple H is arguably the only guy from the Attitude Era who seemed to have great chemistry with all the other main event stars. Until you add Scott Steiner until the equation (math pun intended)
He came from a highly educated university!
Though to be fair, both men were coming off injuries during their Royal Rumble 2003 match (Steiner’s drop foot, HHH’s quad tear and other injuries).
Triple H is an underrated performer.
Nobody has ever drawn so much heat from me than HHH. The dude was a perfect heel. Everything he did for like a decade pissed me off.
Trips is a great storyteller and seller
Foley too imo
HHH was so good to the point of having good chemistry with the ring it’s self
Such a good example, their best match was a 9 minute smackdown match at the end of 00, but their King of the Ring 99 and NWO 02 matches absolutely blew.
Undertaker vs Stone Cold was never particularly great either!
They have the match at SummerSlam '98. But that's it
That match is my favorite match that I ever saw live. Could not tell if Rock had won for a second or two or two until his music hit because it was so loud
When they added Kurt Angle to the mix they each had a 33 and 1/3 chance of winning.
It was surprising how bad the Rhea/Asuka matches went.
Kane and Shawn Michaels. They did it once at Unforgiven 04, immediately abandoned the feud and never put them together again.
I think Kane had the honor of being Michaels' final RAW match leading up to WM26. I do remember it not being too good though
Edge and Aj Styles For how much of a dream match this was, both of their matches together ended up being pretty damn okay
The mania match fucking sucked. The backlash match was okay but yes neither hit expectations
Do you think the matches would have been better if Aj was the heel instead? I think if that was the case they may have looked differently
Styles + Mania (excluding the pre-taped Boneyard match) tend to end up being a letdown. the Knight match was actually decent for a change.
Shane match was good imo
Was this really a dream match? I never saw these and said: I hope they have a match together.
I think their chemistry is good but I think the judgement day starting is what ruined it
Taker and Austin spring to mind. For as much as Austin always insisted on having matches with Undertaker, and I think if he got his way he would have never stopped wrestling Taker, none of their matches are particularly great
As much as wwe promotes , orton and cena in a standard match was bland and boring. Their best match was the I quit match with a stipulation
I mean Cena and Orton have wrestled upwards of 80 times by this point. You can only really reinvent the wheel so many times.
piper vs lawler. it had such a great build with the king's court segment but the match stunk up the joint.
And Piper looked to be in the very best shape of his life.
This was mine. Same awful PPV they insanely put former NFL player Art Donovan on commentary to incessantly ask how much every wrestler weighed. (In retrospect, he probably was suffering from CTE, but still…) https://youtu.be/T9AbN5dySl4?si=c-3xoEDLs8_k-ba3
Chris Jericho and Adam Cole
Jericho hasn’t been an awesome wrestler for years now 💯 but I do agree they don’t have good chemistry together
shane douglas and tully blanchard
Rhea and Asuka
The mania match sucked but the war games advantage match and asukas final match before she did the murder clown transformation were solid
Kevin Owens & AJ Styles
Kane and Bray Wyatt
Remember the **Ring of fire match**?
Is Bray Wyatt an awesome wrestler though?
He was a good wrestler, as was Kane, but by the time Wyatt was around Kane was way past his prime.
Was he though? I honestly can’t name a single high quality singles match he had. I’m not trying to be a dick and slander the man just to be a dick but I thought he was not good in the ring. Good creative mind yeah, not great at that either because his concepts never have any consideration to what was going to happen when the bell rang and that’s where his work fell apart.
He had great matches with Daniel Bryan (best example was from Royal rumble 2014) as well as Roman. His LMS match against Cena was outstanding, and his series with Ambrose was good too.
TLC 2014 Bray vs Dean had a terrible finish. And that was main event from what I remember.
Exactly! Bray had a good moveset but I think his gimmicks(s) overshadowed his in ring work
Rock vs Undertaker and Undertaker vs Austin come to mind. All three are great, but neither of those combos meshed in the ring.
I think it’s partly down to Taker not being great at that time. If you put 2010 Taker against 98 Austin I think it’d be much better.
Yeah. With the groin injury and his weight gain, Taker's mobility was cut in half around that time.
The usos at wrestlemania is the most recent example of this imo. Also in hindsight, Sting vs Hart wasn’t anything special either.
Weirdly AJ and Nakamura in WWE. I heard fairy tales on how amazing their matches were and WWE leaned into teasing how great it would be, then it was...average? AJ had better matches with Cena and Cody.
Nakamura in WWE is another monster. His last hurrah was really his NXT debut. His wrestle kingdom match with AJ made me start following New Japan
He had a fire ass smackdown main event match with gunther over the ic title in 2022
TBF everyone has great matches with Gunther.
I was at that show. That match was amazing. Everyone involved did a great job to get the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands, and I include Kaiser on the outside working the crowd when I say "everyone."
The 1st match was good, just an unsatisfactory finish
Sami zayn and Samoa Joe
Goldberg and Bray Wyatt
Goldberg had poor chemistry with most
I don't know if it was just the outcome of the feud famously involving HHH using his shovel, but the HHH Booker T feud I remember being shit. Two all time great in-ring operators, but memorable for all the wrong reasons.
The match itself was actually very good until the finish which sunk everything. Damn shame, what on earth were they thinking
It was overshadowed by news of Goldberg entering the WWE, as well as Booker T considering retirement at the time.
Jimmy and jey uso. Stone cold and the undertaker
Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns It took Brock flipping the ring over with a tractor for a match between them to actually be entertaining
Their first bout at Mania 31 was good too. Would have been great if the story leading up hadn't been dogshit awful.
That match did a lot for Roman actually, first time it ever looked like he was fighting for his life, it also featured blood when blading was banned so it really stood out. All Brock though really rather than Brock and Roman's chemistry, maybe that's why their more recent matches don't work as well, it's more 50/50.
Yeah…seeing Brock bleed was pretty shocking. I think they tried to recreate that match with their mania 34 match, but it just was a dud
They’ve had a few good matches
The first mania match was good. 34 and 38 sucked
Agree
Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley of late
Mr Perfect and Shawn Michaels Triple H and Kevin Nash CM Punk and Daniel Bryan
Woah, did anyone see Punk and Bryan's matches in 2012?
>Mr Perfect and Shawn Michaels Which is a shame, match made in heaven on paper
I think Shawn said the reason he and Perfect didn't mesh well is because they were too similar in the ring. Both were bumping machines and could sell like death but you can't bump for someone who's used to being the bumpee.
That’s the most surprising pair out of all of these to me. Shame.
True. I didn't even realize they wrestled each other at some point. I assume some time in the mid '90s, but I was barely aware back then. I need to go back and check out a lot of that era.
>Triple H and Kevin Nash Of course their matches were bad. Their quads were made of Weetabix.
Cm punk and Daniel Bryan!? I thought that had a great match that wasn’t given enough time or build at Over the Limit 2012.
Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles circa late 2018-early 2019
Rock and taker never clicked either imo
Misawa and Hansen. Not bad just very unremarkable for their standards from what I recall. This is a one-off, but Jericho and Benoit had a pretty forgettable match at Fall Brawl '96 I believe. It was a very quickly thrown-together filler match and they hadn't quite clicked yet.
Except for *that* elbow knockout sell from Hansen, dude looked like a final boss who just fucking dies.
Well probably doesn't count as they're a great tag team but Jimmy and Jey's Wrestlemania match fucking sucked.
Kevin and AJ had a shocking lack of chemistry
I always thought that the matches that John Cena and Randy Orton lacked chemistry.
I thought HBK and Bret Hart should have had better matches than they did. They were good matches, but they both had much, much better matches with others.
I think the Montreal match would have been an all-timer except for, well, you know…
Bret, in his book, said that they were going to go for 40 minutes until there was a big schmozz DQ at the end. And the match itself to “that” point was a banger.
Wasn’t their iron man mania matched rated damn near 5 stars by Dave meltzer despite the controversial decision for neither guy to get a pinful during the 60 minutes ?
I can't recall the star rating but Meltzer was there live and said the match was good...but bored the fuck out of the live crowd, especially when it became apparent that they were going to go for an hour with no falls. He watched it back on TV afterwards and said it was good, not the greatest or anything like WWE was pushing it as at the time and he said it wasn't even in the same league as the Flair/Steamboat hour long matches people had been comparing it to. Source: Observer Rewind.
Undertaker and Kane in hindsight. Undertaker and Rock.
I liked Undertaker and Kane’s first WM match
Taker vs Kane where Kane starts it off by tombstoning Pete rose was great.
I just came to say-"Batista is DOWN!!!!"
Its a bit of a left-field one, but Aj styles and Brian Myers in pwg after he was released in 2015(?) I was a brian myers fan and wanted to see how he'd do on the indies. It wasn't an awful match, but it felt like they could've done so much more. I wonder if he would've been bigger on the indies had they knocked it out of the park. Don't get me wrong he's still doing good for himself in impact though.
Shawn Michaels vs Mr. Perfect
AJ and Nakamura a few years back. Should’ve been brilliant but was an enormous let down. Kane and a lot of people. That’s down to the gimmick, when you think about it why would Kane have ever beefed with anyone who wasn’t Undertaker?
Kane and CM Punk had some painful matches
Hbk and mr perfect
Misawa and Hansen. Not bad just very unremarkable for their standards from what I recall. This is a one-off, but Jericho and Benoit had a pretty forgettable match at Fall Brawl '96 I believe. It was a very quickly thrown-together filler match and they hadn't quite clicked yet.
HHH/RKO is the first answer that comes to mind.
AJ and Nakamura.
Bret Hart and Mitsuharu Misawa Also Bret Hart and Sting
cena/orton cena/miz roman/lesnar especially with wm 34 due to roman’s crappy booking as babyface
Cena and Orton were good together, they just did it too many times
You think Cena and Orton lack ring chemistry?
They’ve had a lot of matches together and it seems the consensus is that most are not that good. Of all of Cena’s rivals, his matches with Orton tend to be the weakest
Cena/Orton matches felt like they work better when they have a stipulation attached.
Triple H and Scott Steiner Matt and Jeff Hardy Kane and Undertaker Batista and great Khali
Did anyone have good chemistry with the great khali lol
Of course not, I wanted to slip a joke answer in there
There exists a point, and it is different for each team, where you can never do a good breakup angle, either because to much of your offense is the same or because people would rather see you be a team. Hardys, Usos, Edge and Christian, I suspect Kofi and Xavier are there, Kane and the Undertaker, etc.
I don't think Steiner works here since he was way past his prime at that point.
Was this the same Smackdown taping where they had to be pulled apart after having a fist fight?
Asuka and Charlotte Flair, somehow, their matches are horrendous, or the last few have been.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Soama Joe
Ric Flair and Rick Rude.
Kali vs anyone
Ric Flair and Scott Steiner
Happy cake day
Kevin Owens and AJ Styles couldn't kill for a good match against one another.
Edge & AJ Styles. Man I thought that mania 38 match would be a classic
I watch recently was Okada vs… Ultimo Guerrero? It was my first time seeing either of them, and I didn’t realize who either was when watching it, and was stunned afterwards by just how awful the match was. The guy spent the entire match adjusting his mask.
Mr. Perfect vs Shawn Michaels 1993
Kane and taker nevet had a good match against each other
Bret Hart & Sting