WWE Classic: Taboo Tuesday 2005 - HHH vs. Ric Flair

[SUN]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AiJFYegq0&feature=related[/youtube]

[Stanford]

Cool idea for a thread!

Do you have some comments on the match perhaps?

(Otherwise, we have a video thread)

[SUN]

I thought Flair was impressive here! The entire feud was superb and the promos where excellent. Felt like the IC title's burial, but other then that.. good stuff.

[whysoserious]

I'll watch the match later and comment. It would be cool to rotate between the frequent users to pick a classic match to post every week to discuss.

[Stanford]

It would be cool to rotate between the frequent users to pick a classic match to post every week to discuss.

My thoughts exactly.

Here's what I propose:

We do a sign-up thread. Anyone interested in submitting a match can throw their name in. If you submit your name, you have to review the match of the week, in as few or as many words as you want - plus give a rating of some sort, whether it's stars, numbers or letters. Everyone is welcome to review the matches. You only have to review each week if you've signed up to submit. (encouraged to, of course... Because hey, you're submitting a match to be reviewed... you should return the favor by reviewing others)

How does that sound?



And regarding the match posted in the OP:

Flair is one of my favorite wrestling personalities ever. I will leave a playlist of various classic Flair promos on and let it run for hours. I also have a huge amount of respect for him as a wrestler. His body of work is immense, and can't really be denied.

That said, he's not exactly one of my favorite people to watch wrestle. All his matches do tend to have the same kind of feel, and it's not of the kind that really appeals to me personally. All Hogan's matches are the same, but I'm a big fan of Hogan's work pre-WCW, and his stuff with WWE in '02. Flair's schtick just doesn't do it for me wrestling wise. On top of that, Triple H is a guy I really really don't like watching wrestle. So neither of these guys scream "fun match" to me.

The match itself didn't hit me emotionally. I felt the hatred between them before the match started, when they were both jawing at each other. But once the bell rang, I never really got the sense from either guy's body language that they truly wanted to kill each other. However, that could be because I didn't see any of the build for this match. The promos, the storyline; I just didn't get it. So it was hard to get an emotional response from it.

As far as the action goes, I thought Flair got busted open way too soon. They should have went back and forth a bit more before Trips started to really do some damage. At about the halfway point, I was already exhausted. It felt like half an hour had passed before before it got to the ten minute point. When Flair flipped the switch, things started to pick up. The last half of the match went by like nothing. He made a believable comeback by doing Flair type stuff, and piece by piece slowed Trips down to a crawl.

The finish was alright, and made sense. But I didn't have goosebumps. The whole match was sold well, and the second half made up for the (too) slow pace to start.

I'd give it a 7.5/10

[whysoserious]

I like you're summary of thoughts Stanford on the thread, I think we should also set a specific date to post the match, maybe every Saturday for the participant that signed up, giving a week to review the match and discuss.

Can't watch the match at work so will give my thoughts tonight when I get home.

[DGW]

I wouldn't mind watching some old Benoit, Jericho, Eddie, Owen when they were in Japan.

[Celtics_Champs]

We've stumbled onto sunthing

cool. I will watch, comment and sign up later.

[Celtics_Champs]

Is there anything grosser/better in the wrestling world than seeing Ric Flair with crimson hair?

Is there anything grosser/worse in the wrestling world than seeing HHH's awful mustache? Seriously, what was he thinking during that time period.

I enjoyed the match at the time more than I do now. I was a big evolution mark. So when HHH and Flair went at it for the IC title I was losing my ****. Good match I'd give it a 8/10, I like how stanford did out of 10. 5 star rating system is too hard.

[Christophersp10]

I will all be for under rated classics. Matches that never get discussed.


Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon from KOTR 2001 is one of the greatest matches of all time. The sick bumps, the story, the finish and the fact that Shane McMahon isn't a wrestler. Angle carried him to a 5 star match.

[whysoserious]

I don't think it needs to be under rated or classics. I already have a match/moment in mind to discuss. Everyone will have different reasons for matches to be memorable to them. Then it's open for discussion.

[whysoserious]

Thoughts on the match:
Love listening to Joey Styles still. Replace Michael Cole with him, please!
I still don’t understand when pin falls became a regular part of steel cage matches, no need for it or a referee in the ring.
Flair bleeds like nobody I can remember.
Good crowd involvement, a little slow paced but understandable based on length of match.
Why is the ref breaking a figure four when he grabs the rope in a steel cage match again?
Flair and HHH both know the psychology of working a match, telling the injury story and selling it.
Both of them bloodied in the figure four is an awesome visual.
Great effort by both men, could have cut off about 3-4 minutes.

I’d give it a 6.5/10. It was a good match, but not great and that’s just my opinion. I was debating between 6 and 7 so I went half-way.

[Stanford]

That's where I was headed in my ranking, but the last half of the match convinced me to bump it all. I also gave them the benefit of the doubt when it came to the background of the match.

[Coach Smiley]

I will all be for under rated classics. Matches that never get discussed.


Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon from KOTR 2001 is one of the greatest matches of all time. The sick bumps, the story, the finish and the fact that Shane McMahon isn't a wrestler. Angle carried him to a 5 star match.

I truly despise that match

[studcrackers]

Why?

[Coach Smiley]

I just thought Kurt gave him way too much it was unbelievable, first Shane is hanging with him on the wrestling mat and then taking insane bumps and kicking out, Kurt should have beat him in 2 minutes lol, Shane was just a spot monkey that got away with it since he was Vince's son and didn't have to wrestle 5 nights a week

the actual match would be alright if it was Kurt vs. another wrestler but Shane doing superhuman stuff that most wrestlers couldn't do had no psychology IMO

[jr lucosa]

Angle vs Shane was a great match IMO, I actually just rewatched it two days ago to watch Shane get suplexed into glass about 5 times

Shane didn't have to wrestle 5 nights a week but he always put on good PPV matches. I rarely walked away from a Shane McMahon match disappointed. Almost always I was pleasantly surprised because I would normally expect it to be like a Vince McMahon match, but Shane put on shows! I don't think he ever really was looking superhuman more than anything in most his matches he was a ragdoll taking sick bumps that you don't expect the million dollar boy to be taking.

One of Shanes more underrated matches was vs Steve Blackman at SummerSlam, either 00 or '01, theres a bump he takes that is just crazy.

[jr lucosa]

On to the match,

This felt like a possible borefest the first 7 minutes or so, HHH was just slowly picking apart Flair. It really picked up in the 2nd half and these two do a good job putting on a show together. When Flair gets after the Games left quad it really starts to pick up. The crowd was really into it too which is always makes it more entertaining.

I'll give this match a 8/10... I have a soft spot for Flair cage matches I attended Cyber Sunday the year prior to this where Flair and Orton put on a great one. It was after Orton left Evolution so they "hated" each other but after they went off air they hugged in the middle of the ring and held each others hands up, it was pretty cool.