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QOTD #36: Women



Today’s Question: What’s the best women’s match you’ve ever seen?

My wife knows the divas as “nacho break”, but that hasn’t always been the case. We’ll talk all about this further tomorrow. Start by scrolling ahead or clicking Comments, otherwise stay tuned for talk about your memorabilia.


I was curious about your favorite parts of your wrestling collection. Here’s what you said.

DrFacts: A giant egg from Survivor Series 1990. It has not hatched yet.

And we’re off.

C BREEZY: Photo of Razor Ramon arm wrestling my dad

I dig this; not only because it’s so far outside the box of what we might consider your typical memorabilia, but it’s also such an awesome conversation starter.

daveschlet: Personally autographed picture to me from DX (HHH, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, X-PAC, and Chyna), also one from Jumpin Jim Brunzell, and one from Mr. perfect , Animal, and Ken Resnick I got signed at a Twins game. It was the program to the baseball game. I also have a Benoit autograph and picture of me with him from Axxess at WrestleMania XIX that I'm not super proud of now, plus my ticket stubs from WrestleMania XIX and WrestleMania X-7, autographs from Bobby Heenan, Gene Okerlund, the natural disasters, and William Regal from that Axxess (X-7).

That’s a whole lot of autographs.

byort: Signed 2x4 by Hacksaw Jim Duggan (and shards of an in-ring used 2x4), signed beauty school head by Al Snow, or a piece of Mr. Perfect's chewing gum. Take your pick.

While I can see putting the 2x4 on display, and giving the entire story to your friends – I truly don’t know whether to be amazed or disgusted that you have Mr. Perfect’s gum.

Piperfan01: I have a signed script from most of the wrestling stars of Ready to Rumble.

If it doesn’t include Sal Bandini, it’s worthless.

Garth Holmberg, C.C.: My collection of the Hasbro figure series is almost complete (off the cards) with the exception of the final series (featuring Borga, Yoko #2, Kid, Gunns, Bomb, and Crush #3) and a couple from the bloated sets that came out in 1992 (specifically Nailz and Owen). I'm going to say that's easily my favorite. Sitting on one of my shelves right now.

Now that’s a set worth bragging about. The only set I ever had was the WCW Grip ‘N Flip, and I wound up breaking them all open for the props, which I regret. Well, sorta. I used the props for the Jesus Christ Action Figure that I kept on my desk at work. I figured he’d been using the same gimmick for 2000 years, so I put a cowboy hat on his head that came from a bottle of JR’s BBQ sauce, and gave him the WCW Title from the Goldberg/Hogan set. The entire thing was scrapped, sadly, when I got an HR complaint about my insensitivity.

mrh610: My buddy got a broken hand from Taz at an ECW show in Buffalo. Does that count as memorabilia?

Not without the story behind it! You can’t leave us hanging like this.

Voth22: I have a program from an NWA house show where some of the "Young Guns" were signing autographs before hand- the three I got were Scott Steiner, Brian Pillman and Scott Hall (as well as local radio personality "Banana" Don). I also have a 64 Oz glass Andre the Giant mug I used to take to parties and drink out of in college.

That’s a killer trio of Young Guns. You picked wisely. Regarding the Andre mug, it was probably an impressive beast amongst the college crowd … but Andre would have drank straight vodka from it, and come back for a couple of 24’s later.

Jon Eks: I bought a set of 4 D-Generation X shot glasses way back when, that I loved. One was the "Two words: Suck It!," another was "down where? down HERE!," the third was the bar code, and the 4th one is one I can't even remember. During my sophomore year of college, my roommate and I were hosting some friends and I looked for them. My roommate, half in the bag, told me he and another of my friends accidentally broke two of them - the bar code, and the one I can't remember - and that he was really sorry. I was incredibly disappointed - not pissed because of how genuinely bad he felt - and got fucking hammered that night. I still sometimes wish I had the two that broke. I still have the other two, and I'm the only one who gets to take a shot from the "Suck It!" glass. I love those things.

Lenny Vowels: For today's question, I'm going with my original WWF DVD copy of Wrestlemania X-Seven. Pre-network, it was still the only way to watch the show in non-blurred full form, and I'll still watch it this way on occasion. Cost me a solid $30 on eBay several years ago, but I recall it spiking a bit higher after that.

I sold off the bulk of my WWF DVD collection about 8 years ago; but even at the time, the WWF versions of shows were going for big bucks for exactly that reason. I remember Royal Rumble 2002 in particular going for close to $100. The initial blurring was so goddamn distracting, that it was unbearable. Production improved over the years, but I’m thrilled it’s finally over.

TheGrailspiral: I'm an obsessive loser and I taped all WWF programing and ppvs from 1987 to 2003 (I just lost my love for it then)...more than a 1000 tapes, include some WCW and ecw. It's hard to lie when people see them on so many bookshelves.

I don’t think modern fans can understand the painstaking work it took to maintain a proper collection. I had every episode of WCW Nitro and Thunder from 1999-end on VHS, as well as every episode of RAW from 2000-2004. That took up a few hundred tapes, and tons of shelf space. I labelled each tape carefully, and, as the true testament, I watched every one of those shows live and carefully paused the recording during each commercial break. Years and years of effort. I eventually gave the entire thing away to my best friend, and I’m fairly sure they’re in a dump somewhere today.

Being an old married man, I don’t have a lot left. I have a CM Punk “Best In The World” hoodie that I’ll bust out in the winter time. I have a Monday Night Jericho t-shirt, and I wore it to the New York State Fair last summer. But the neatest thing I still have is the photo of Kurt Angle and I.

It came on the tail end of a TNA house show at the Bob Guertin arena in Hull, QC, with maybe 150 people in attendance. I was in the front row, and ridiculously drunk. I nearly got into a fight with Earl Hebner, who apparently did not care for the relentlessly mean heckling. My friend, having my best interests at heart, did his best to calm me down by constantly buying me more beer and giving me new insults to fling at Earl.

After the show, TNA was allowing fans into the ring to meet Kurt. Simon Diamond, who was working as a road agent, asked me to stop stomping on the ring steps so hard when I did my Vince McMahon impression (figuring this would be both my first and last time I’d ever step in a ring – still true). Finally I met Kurt. With all the questions we could possibly come up with after all the years of watching him on TV, I looked at him earnestly and asked “will you give me an ANGLE SLAM?”

He laughed, clutched me in quite tight (which I assume was code for, kid, seriously, shut up and sober up), let me hold the belt, and took our picture together for $20. (Which I handed over to Simon Diamond.) I still have it. I loved that night, and Kurt was the biggest star I’ve had the pleasure of asking to kick my ass.

The Earl Hebner story wound up as one of those embarrassing ones that got re-told at my wedding, and the Angle photo sits as the black sheep amongst my mountain of Atlanta Braves memorabilia.

I also have a Sonny Siaki autograph that sits at the bottom of a storage tote somewhere, which thankfully wasn’t brought up at my wedding because that’s far more embarrassing.

Enjoy the weekend BoD. Back atcha tomorrow.

Comments

  1. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 26, 2014 at 10:06 AM

    I was always a fan of Trish and Stephanie from No Way Out 2001.

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  2. Alicia fox vs Melina

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  3. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 10:13 AM

    Not counting joshi matches (which eliminates the SS95 4 on 4), the only good one I've ever seen is Alundra vs. Bull Nakano and Summerslam 94.

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  4. Lita vs.Trish Stratus, the match that main evented Raw in 2004.

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  5. Best women's match not expected to be good was Stephanie vs Trish from No Way Out 2001.

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  6. The gypsy fight from "From Russia With Love."

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  7. Oh, and I once saw an exploding barbed wire match between two chicks in FMW that was pretty cool, I guess.

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  8. I'm not familiar with Joshi, but I'm sure those matches are up there in terms of best overall women's matches.


    My pick goes to Taryn Terrell vs. Gail Kim - Last Knockout Standing from last year's Slammiversary.

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  9. DAMN beat me to it.

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  10. Trish vs Lita, for Trish's retirement is a long time favorite of mine. But going back even further, Jumping Bomb Angels vs. The Glamour Girls from the Rumble. Even as a young kid I was glued to that match.

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  11. The Jumping Bomb Angels' matches at Survivor Series 87 and Royal Rumble 88 come to mind.

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  12. At a TNA house show, I asked Earl Hebner if he gave Bret Hart his stroke. He just stared at me

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  13. Loved the Jumping Bomb Angels. I think their only fault was that they were SO MUCH better than all the competition, they were division killers.

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  14. Hokuto vs. Kandori, a brutal awesome match that competes with any male match from the time period.

    USian: Ignoring random Nakano matches in 90s WCW or the Jumping Bomb Angels, the infamous Trish vs Mickie WM match with the tasting gesture. It was awesome stuff until the botched ending.

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  15. BTW, if you can find them, when Daisy Haze and Del Ray were tagging they put on a bunch of really fun matches for Chikara. But, they were against the men so it doesn't quite qualify.

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  16. Jumping Bomb Angels v. Glamour Girls from Royal Rumble '88 for a North American match.

    For Joshi, Manami Toyota v. Aja Kong was excellent.

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  17. As great as the Lita/Trish matches were, Lita vs. Stephanie McMahon in the main event of raw is the greatest. Rock as the special ref. Interference from Austin and HHH, the hardy boyz, and the pop. First time women ever main evented raw and they stole the damn show.

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  18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlYIl55WRzc&t=0m6s

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  19. Sasha Grey vs Bree Olson

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  20. A main event in any arena!

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  21. Upvote for the Manami love.

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  22. Taryn Terrell vs Gail Kim Slammivarsary 2013 is the best Ladies match I have ever seen.

    Mickie James vs Trish Stratus at WM 22 is my second choice,

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  23. If it helps create interest in Joshi, Jumping Bomb Angel Itzuki Yamazaki trained Manami Toyota. So if you enjoyed those 80s tags, you can expect that pedigree in Toyota's match. Also, if you can find them, Chikara has had Manami, and Aja among others to their shows a couple years ago, and has some nformative commentary on their history.

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  24. I posted my favorite Womens match below, but in sake of keeping it to matches people generally have knowledge of, Mickie/Trish WM22 is my favorite for WWE. Great match aside from the botched finish, and the most electric and into a womens match you will probably ever hear from a WWE crowd

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  25. Sounds like something Russo would book.

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  26. Micke James v. Trish Stratus is probably the best women's match of this era. It had a very strong angle leading into it and the match was awesome. Mickie James in particular exclled in her role, and the crowd gave her a babyface reaction when she won.


    I always loved that they thought that Micke's unwanted advances towards Trish would make Mickie a heel.

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  27. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:06 AM

    Work, shoot, it's all the same thing...

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  28. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:14 AM

    Random: my stomach is totally fucked right now, think I ate some bad clams or something.

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  29. Chris Jericho vs. Chyna was a good one. The one where Chyna got a black eye.

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  30. ".....who...?" Most appropriate response

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  31. Mister_E_KindaBuzzedAllBecauseJuly 26, 2014 at 11:26 AM

    TNA had a few decent ones but I generally couldn't care less.

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  32. Anything with the Jumping Bomb Angels on WWF programming. Those little chicks blew my mind.

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  33. Oh, and AJ Lee vs an African American girl whose name escapes me in NXT. A fellow BoDer posted a link at some point, and it was awesome.

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  34. I advise against doing that. Feel better soon.

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  35. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:41 AM

    Jumping Bomb Angels v. Glamour Girls at Rumble 88, with honorable mention to Trish and Lita main eventing RAW, Mickie and Trish at Mania, Melina and Mickie at Backlash 07, and Charlotte vs. Natalya at NXT Takeover.

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  36. Then he ripped off his shirt, to reveal another shirt saying that he did.

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  37. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:44 AM

    Thank you for using the proper phrase "couldn't care less.". I hate when people say "could care less" (to quote Word Crimes, "That means you do care/At least a little")

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  38. Much like what Mister E said, I saw several good women matches in TNA, preferably ones with Hamada. Of course Beth Phoenix and Nattie had a good match on Smackdown a few years ago.

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  39. I liked the Gail Kim/Awesome Kong series in TNA, Mickie and Trish of course and Steph and Trish just because.

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  40. Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls @ Rumble '88. The women's Survivor Series match at the 1987 event isn't bad either...mostly because of the Jumping Bomb Angels. Honorable mention to Alundra Blayze-Bull Nakano at SummerSlam '94.

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  41. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:59 AM

    But they're free! Well, sort of, I mean, if I cook something I gotta make sure it's straight, right? So I toss a couple extra in, quality control and shit.


    Come to think of it it couldn't have been the clams, everyone else had some and they didn't get sick. My gut is fucked to begin with, this just kind of comes and goes.

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  42. I don't watch women's wrestling. Like ever. Even if the workers are generally considered "good", it's all fast forward material to me.

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