Matches that rule, but don't get pimped heavily anymore?(or never in some cases)

[Victator]

I think Hardcore Heaven 99 was a much better show along with Heatwave 2000 and November to Remember 2000. Aside from the main event, Hardcore Heaven 97 is a good show. It also had some technical problems. I do think Heatwave 98 was the one show where everything came together. Where all the matches are good to decent and the crowd is actually awake. Living Dangerously 99 is a good show, but the New Jersey fans are dead all night. 

[dok]

ECW One Night Stand 2005, Chris Jericho v Lance Storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d42Kz19iSfs

This might be Storm's best match that isn't against Jerry Lynn. It's the show opener and as you'd expect from these two it's mostly technical wrestling. Story is that these two have wrestled each other over so many years that there's no way Storm can outfox Jericho so first he tries being vicious, and then he goes for the outside interference. I'm a sucker for a match built around clever counters, it's the style I grew up with, and this really delivers. There's a genius bit for the fake finish that I've never seen elsewhere. Storm's on his back, Jericho goes for the Lionsault, Storm raises his knees. Jericho's figured out this is going to happen, and is ready to catch Storm's knees in mid-flight, stand up and turn him over into the Walls.

No punches or missile dropkicks I'm afraid, but Storm does a standing one where he gets so high that he'd be up above the fourth rope if there was one. It's a hell of a thing.

[SovietShooter]

Heatwave 98 is not close to the best ECW PPV ever.

 

 

Heatwave 98 might be the best ECW PPV ever, but it's not even close to the 14th best ever. Backlash 2009 is a pretty good show, but SummerSlam 2009 smokes it.

 

 

I am probably biased because I was there and it was the first ECW show that I attended, but Heatwave '98 was the best ECW PPV, save for perhaps Barely Legal.  Lynn/Credible, Storm/Candido, Sabu&RVD/Hayabusa&Shinzake, Awesome/Tanaka, Taz/Bigelow, Dreamer&Sandman&Spike/Dudleys. 

[Ultimo Necro]

Id like to nominate a random match that came up in my Youtube likes, a match between my 2 favourites, Center stage 1991 - Pillman vs. Cactus.

 

A sub 7 minute match that is one of the most watchable things I have seen in a long time, and going by the thread title, I have never seen pimped!

 

[ErinQuinn]

One of my favorite PPV openers ever was from Halloween Havoc 1998 with Jericho vs Raven; the crowd is ready to buy Jericho as a wise-ass babyface since Raven is coming off his big feud with Saturn, and the two go at a really fun pace. A gem from the WCW random match generator

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g6cFJOxV24

[The Natural]

smarkschoice did a poll for the Greatest WCW Matches of All Time. I sent a ballot and this was the find of the project for me:

 

 

 

I prefer this a lot more to the Beach Blast 1992

[Kuetsar]

 

My favorite unsung series of matches is Ricky Steamboat vs Steve Austin, culminating in their awesome match at Clash 28 which overcomes the Hulk Hogan bullshit & steals the show. Great swan song for The Dragon. I loved the intensity of Austin's bumps during his Stunning Steve days, he was my favorite wrestler in the world during his US title run, the matches with Steamboat were absolutely exceptional.

I think Steve Austin is strangely one of the most underrated wrestlers ever, he set the world on fire as a bad ass brawler, but he was an absolute workhorse in WCW.  Stunning Steve was a loathsome heel who absolutely brought it in the ring.  He was the guy you wanted to see lose, but were afraid your favorite good guy wasn't good enough to beat him.  Not to mention that the Stun Gun was the perfect pull a win out of nowhere move for a slimy heel.

 

I know its due mainly to his neck injury, but I would much rather watch a WCW austin comp. to a wwf one, especially if the bret matches aren't on there. . 

[Justin877]

"Stunning" Steve Austin was a heel of  a worker.  His series with Steamboat wer some of the best matches he had in WCW

[Brian Fowler]

I think Austin deserves a ton of credit for adjusting to the injury on the fly and recreating himself as a damn good brawler.

[Big Z]

When thinking of Daniel Bryan comps the other day, I harkened back to Austin's WWE career (seeing that Daniel Bryan is a hipster Steve Austin character). As fondly as Austin is remembered, I think he would have been thought of as a Flair/Hart/Guerrero level of worker if not for the neck injury. He was awesome from 1992 on in WCW and had a good number of strong WWE matches pre-injury. He still had strong matches post-injury due to his storytelling, but could not move like he used to and it limited his work range. Still, match quality wise, there is a definitely what if factor in his career evaluation.

[Big Z]

Here are two of Austin's slightly less heralded WCW matches:

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k7k8_steve-austin-vs-ricky-steamboat_sport

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k8i6_steve-austin-vs-brian-pillman_sport

[Stuttsy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O44-b7L_HLk

[Charlie M.]

I think Austin deserves a ton of credit for adjusting to the injury on the fly and recreating himself as a damn good brawler.

 

In the spirit of the thread, Austin vs Taker from SummerSlam 98 is way better than I remembered it being at the time.  I think it's because it followed the Ladder Match and they did a pretty "straight" match at a time when you would have expected a bunch of shenanigans. 

[BatistaWasRight]

Id like to nominate a random match that came up in my Youtube likes, a match between my 2 favourites, Center stage 1991 - Pillman vs. Cactus.

 

A sub 7 minute match that is one of the most watchable things I have seen in a long time, and going by the thread title, I have never seen pimped!

 

Man, I love Cactus from this period.  He takes so much from Pillman, yet you can believe that he's still going to win with just a few running elbows.

[Biz Smarkie]

I know that 1997 and 2000 are banner years for the WWE on both storylines and excellent wrestling, but was there any really awesome matches during the 1998-1999 russo period? I find the main event brawling all over the arena stuff to be boring, and have seen all of the ones that are on home video collections. Any hidden gems during this period?

[Marty Sugar]

The Giant/Meng match was going great and I was popping like crazy...and then, done. Shitty finish. Which is too bad.

[Victator]

I think the Val Venis vs Goldust/Dustin stuff is good. In particular the match at Breakdown. In a way I love the Val character because he was so polarizing. He was charmingly sleazy, while being a despicable piece of shit. The Dustin match had such interesting crowd reactions. They would cheer Val's schtick, but at were really into Dustin's comebacks. You also had Dustin trying to be a good person and fight by the book, stuff like avoiding punches and relying on basic wrestling. Val would take advantage, Dustin gets pissed and throws punches before calming down. The feud is an interesting allegory, with the Christian having to abandon God and embrace his sinful nature to defeat his enemy. Owen vs Shamrock in the Lion's Den is good. They did a great job of integrating wrestling shit into the cage. Shamrock using the wall as a springboard. Acolytes mauling the Hardyz and Michael P.Z Hayez at Fully Loaded 99. 

[cool arrow]

There was a battle royal on Shotgun Saturday Night from September '98 that's a lot of fun, especially if you can find the satellite feed.  (Spoiler: Jim Cornette uses profanity.)

[Victator]

WWF C shows are underrated. Until the commentary became unbearable talking about Raw and Smackdown. I mean if you are watching Velocity/Metal/Heat/Shotgun isn't it a safe bet you are watching Smackdown and Raw? Should the big shows be promoting the C shows that need viewership?

[bucky]

The Giant/Meng match was going great and I was popping like crazy...and then, done. Shitty finish. Which is too bad.

How is it a shitty finish? It's one of the most logical finishes I've ever seen. Meng goes for the death grip, Show goes for the chokeslam, and Show wins because of the reach advantage. It makes perfect sense to me. 

[J.T.]

The Finals of the ECWA Super 8 Tournament in 2001.  American Dragon (Bryan Danlielson) vs. Low Ki

 

 

Points of Interest:

 

1. I am in attendance as are some of the DVDVR Players.  None of us knew one another at the time.

 

2, To this day Rippa and I still laugh about not knowing what Billy Fives is up these days.

 

3. Everyone likes to riff on Low Ki for being a tad too stiff, but Bryan forearms the shit out of Low Ki a couple of times. 

[supremebve]

Id like to nominate a random match that came up in my Youtube likes, a match between my 2 favourites, Center stage 1991 - Pillman vs. Cactus.

 

A sub 7 minute match that is one of the most watchable things I have seen in a long time, and going by the thread title, I have never seen pimped!

 

My god that Cactus Clothesline was brutal, did Pillman not understand he was supposed to go with him?  It's funny seeing a young, fairly athletic Mick Foley, he was already a pretty good worker.

[Sublime]

I don't know how it holds up but I've always loved the Jimmy Rave vs CM Punk dog collar match from the first Manhattan Mayhem. I thought it was a good ROH brawl but gets overlooked due to all the other stuff on the card. The Shelly/Jacobs I quit match from Joe vs Punk II is another one that kind of got lost due to the card it was on.

[RandomAct]

Actually, there is a ton of quality stuff from 04-06 ROH that got lost in the wind for whatever reason.

[shoe]

02-25 1990 OLE/ARN ANDERSON vs TOMMY RICH/RANGER ROSS - NO FINISH SHOWN MAIN EVENT

It says no finish shown, but we see Arn give Ranger Ross a sloppy spinebuster and it ends but I bet that is the finish. I would say this is a top 10 tag match for the promotion during the year. This says a lot because their was a lot of great tag matches that year in WCW. The crowd was molten and Tommy Rich was being treated like it was 1982 in Georgia. This is tremendous and an all action 10 minute match. We get a nice shine to start. Eventually they put Ranger Ross in FIP and they just destroy the arm. Just some great tag working on the Anderson's with blocking and the arm work. Ross gets the hot tag to Rich and he's awesome in the hot tag, and eventually gets cut off and they work him over and Rich is great at the hope spots and his fire. He gets the tag to Ross and we work to the finish where the cream rises to the top. I loved this bout.