I saw you ranked last night's women's match as four stars. I certainly wouldn't disagree.
So is that the first time you've given a women's match four stars? I said the match from the last NXT special (Charlotte/Banks) was the best women's match I've ever seen. Last night may have topped it.
-Will
I also gave Trish Stratus v. Lita from RAW that rating (upon second viewing years later) and I think I gave one or two of the Jumping Bomb Angels matches that rating as well. I belive Stephanie v. Trish was shockingly great as well. But really, this shows how amazing that Sasha Banks has become and how effective their development system for the women really is. Unfortunately it's a total waste once they get to the main roster and have to do shitty skits with Jerry Springer and the Bella twins instead of wrestling.
Another great one recently, Taryn vs. Gail Last Knockout Standing. Shocked how well that came together.
ReplyDeleteThere were some other non-PPV Glamour Girls vs JBA matches that I had from torrent sites years ago that were as good as or better than the Rumble 2/3 falls match. One in particular I remember had the GG getting the win after Judy Martin hit one of the JBA with a really stiff over the shoulder powerbomb that looked really incredible for 1987.
ReplyDeleteI remember loving Alundra Blaze Vs Bull Nakano from Summerslam 1994
ReplyDeleteGail kim awesome kong was pretty good
ReplyDeleteWhere were the star ratings for this I didn't see those in Scott's article this morning?
ReplyDeleteAs a 12 year old, I thought Alundra Blayze was soooooo hot
ReplyDeleteThey are in his review a little further down the page.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if you can lace them up and put on a show when true talent in THIS business is about how much of a bitch you can be on an E! reality show
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll state the obvious and mention there are quite a few really great women's matches out of Japan. So I'll assume we are limiting this ranking system to matches only in America, or matches that have no more than one Japanese person involved. With that said, NXT has been pumping out some great matches (male or female). I'm just saying that there are more than one ***** match that has come out of Japan.
ReplyDeleteCrazy, I know, but TNA deserves mention here. Gail Kim/Kong was damn good and some of the best I've ever seen. Their women's division was fantastic until Russo came back and fucked it all up again.
ReplyDeleteSad but true. It's shocking how quick Paige went from NXT sensation having good matches to "just another Diva"
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think Scott's said before that he's never really followed joshi. I can think of more than a few Japanese women's matches on collections I have that would probably be 4*+ if I knew anything about rating matches. I'd love to see someone on here review a Shimmer DVD or Shine iPPV or something.
ReplyDeleteDivas are like the Cruiserweights. Could be good but seen as midcard comedy acts
ReplyDeleteI also lay a little blame on her too; even when she was given time at the outset on PPV, she looked Mordecai-levels of green that she didn't show down there. A cautionary tale that there's still a difference between working in NXT and the cuppa coffee in the big time, yeah
ReplyDeleteThat match on Raw in 95 was at or around ****.
ReplyDeleteThe Bellas are fine,put them into competitive matches with some of the other talented Divas and they can hold their own. The problem is time,presentation,announcing and fan disinterest after being conditioned to not give a shit for years.
ReplyDeleteRosa Mendes,Eva Marie & Cameron all deserve our scorn however. Rosa in particular is awful with all her time in the big leagues.
Needs more Bellas.
ReplyDeleteI find Lufisto to be pretty damn good, she had some awesome matches against Melissa in Shimmer.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great Natalya vs. AJ Lee match on Main Event probably around last March? It was in the build-up to Wrestlemania. It went about 15 minutes and it was really physical and competitive. That was one of the best Divas matched I'd seen in a long time. Also Paige vs. Emma at NXT arRIVAL was up there.
ReplyDeleteHer match with AJ at SummerSlam was probably the best match she'd had since she'd been called up, and it was less than 5 minutes long.
ReplyDeleteI think Nikki has improved drastically on the mic and in the ring. Brie is worse than ever on the mic, and is tolerable in the ring. I think the Nikki vs. Paige match at Fastlane could be pretty good, but it could also be a 30 second squash match when creative gets too lazy to have them tell an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteCameron is so clueless that I think ribs are constantly played on her. See her using the Codebreaker as a transition move and likely being the first person to use the Cattle Mutilation in WWE. And let's never forget her leg drop onto the prone Naomi where she demanded the referee count while Naomi was on her stomach.
ReplyDeleteKnockouts was the only good thing in TNA in 2007.
ReplyDeleteThe Bellas are over saturated garbage on a humid August day.
ReplyDeleteDoes Eva Marie even appear on Raw? Seems like all of her character development happens on Total Divas, making her even MORE useless.
ReplyDeleteIn her defense, I wouldn't mind being on top of Naomi when she was laying on her stomach either.
ReplyDeleteNikki is actually pretty big compared to a lot of the others and not just in bust size. She should ude more of those hard hitting strikes she's better at that than chain wrestling.
ReplyDeleteA lot of Indy girls are decent in general. There's a local chick named Athena that gets booked here all the time, she has yet to put on a bad performance. I've seen fun stuff from Candice LeRae too.
ReplyDeleteMaybe her next makeover has her dressing like Stan Hansen. It won't be weird at all.
ReplyDeleteI remember Victoria and Trish having some pretty great matches as well.
ReplyDeleteI think what happened to Brie is similar to what happened to Matt Hardy during the Edge feud. One bad mic segment fucked everything up for her and she never recovered.
ReplyDeleteAthena has a killer finisher, too. And Candice and Joey are so awesome.
ReplyDeleteShe's still recovering from her implant rupture.
ReplyDeleteI should get out to a SHIMMER show some time. I keep putting it off. I wonder if Nicole Matthews is on WWE's radar.
ReplyDeleteWell Bryan did use it once back near when he returned after being fired
ReplyDeleteI can't wait 'til Shimmer hits the east coast again, I've wanted to see a show in person for so long. The across-the-board quality of their roster is insane.
ReplyDeleteWhat about that Sharmell/Morasca maahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa..*cough*
ReplyDeleteVictoria and... Someone, I forget who, also had a cage match as part of one year's Raw Roulette that made everyone go "wait, a women's CAGE match?" and that one was pretty solid as I recall, too.
ReplyDeleteThis. Put the presentation and booming on the company, but Paige looked greener than goose shit from the jump and only recently came into something resembling readiness. That's on her.
ReplyDeleteOddly, until she started using the rack attack, I never noticed how suited she is, body-wise, to just be TRUCKING her opponents.
ReplyDeleteShe's been getting those protein injections from John Cena.
ReplyDeleteI know this out of place but I have always been astonished at the brutality, workrate, pacing and overall quality of joshi. Some of the stuff they do to each other is legit some of the most physical wrestling I have ever seen. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteGoing to Japan, Manami Toyota v Akira Hokuta and Hokuta v Shinobu Kandori are two great wrestling matches that you can watch on YouTube that put the main roster Divas to shame...
ReplyDeleteThere were a few good women's matches on the mid-90s Raws back when it was more of a freakshow division.
ReplyDeleteMichelle McCool vs Melina from The Bash '09 was shockingly good.
ReplyDeleteGail Kim and Kong had a Falls Count Anywhere match on Impact that was absolute insanity.
ReplyDeleteMelina vs Alicia Fox was the first ***** women's match I've seen and most likely never to be duplicated again.
ReplyDeleteWTF? Are we forgetting about MElina vs. Alicia Fox? That was a classic!
ReplyDeleteDammit.....you beat me to it - by a minute
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlYIl55WRzc
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlYIl55WRzc this moment will live in infamy
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is WWE bends over backwards to keep her employed.
ReplyDeleteNot counting Japanese stuff, which blows most American women's matches out of the water, it's hard to top Hamada vs Sara Del Rey in Shimmer. Trish vs Victoria vs Jazz at WM was really, really good too.
ReplyDeleteThe Knockouts were fine under Russo. They didn't start falling apart until Bischoff and Hogan came in. Not saying they specifically were to blame for it, but that's when the cracks quickly started to show.
ReplyDeleteI've been conditioned to expect nothing in terms of moveset from Divas nowadays, so Bayley's Release T-Bone Suplex on Banks got a "holy shit!" out of me. it looked vicious. I never expected them to bust out moves like that in a million years. Fantastic match last night.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen last night's women's match yet, but since my favorite won the title, I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a mark for the m-f'n BOSS.
I wonder if this was sent it by Will from the Good Will Wrestling Podcast? HMMMM
ReplyDeleteSteve Austin's defeated posture made that segment sparkle.
ReplyDeleteQuick Google check suggests it was Lita: http://www.wwe.com/videos/lita-vs-victoria-steel-cage-match-raw-november-24-2003-26056690
ReplyDeleteThe Trish/Steph match is so good mostly because going in Steph hard hardly worked a real match and Trish wasn't anything more than a hot fitness model/manager. The Trish we all know came out of this match.
ReplyDeletePaige and AJ had some decent matches, and I think Paige had a random title defense against Naomi a few months back that was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteEmma and Paige had some great matches once, too.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to think that Charlotte and Sasha are fairly bulletproof--Charlotte's Ric Flair's daughter and Sasha's character is already pretty much perfect--but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much.
The best women's match ever is clearly Torrie vs. Stacy, "Bra and Panties" rules.
ReplyDeletePaige was every bit as good as Sasha and Charlotte when she was in NXT, but as soon as she got called up, she was doing hair pulls and idiotic 1950s cutesy women's wrestling spots.
ReplyDeleteOutside some good bouts between some combination of AJ, Nattie, Kaitlyn and Paige, the main roster women's matches are an embarrassment. At what point does Fit Finlay get some of the blame, if indeed he's the one laying all these matches out?
You mean Becky.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, sir.
ReplyDeleteClearly I've also been conditioned to consider Divas nothing more than interchangeable sets of tits.
Since people are bringing up joshi and whatnot, why not mention TNA? Gail Kim has had some fantastic matches with Taryn Terrell, particularly the ladder match and the Last Knockout Standing match, and she had some similarly great bouts with Kong and Mickie over the years.
ReplyDeleteI think Gail is the best North American women's wrestler, slightly above the NXT crop, Nattie and AJ.