[Batman]

Maybe in a year we should do a showdown for the Match of the Year?

You may ask: Why not this year? And if next year, why start a thread about it now?

Well, I was thinking how it's easy sometimes to forget exactly what and when that one match was that you really liked. So we can use this thread to keep track of the matches we're considering putting on our nomination ballot at the end of the year.

So the wrestling year begins with the Raw after WM, and will end with next years WM. (ie no listing HBK vs Flair.)

What do you all think?



Here is the current and updated list of everybody's picks so far:

6 Mentions:
- Undertaker vs. Edge, TLC match, WWE One Night Stand, 6/1/2008 (Sergei, dxb, Riot Act, JETS kid, the Demko, and Lucky)

5 Mentions:
- Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle, Cage match, TNA Lockdown 4/13/2008 (Sergei, dxb, Eric O'Mac, the Demko, and Lucky)
- A. J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle, TNA Slammiversary 6/8/2008 (Sergei, Riot Act, Bread Guy, the Demko, and Lucky)

4 Mentions:
- William Regal vs. Randy Orton, WWE Raw 4/14/2008 (Sergei, JETS kid, Eric O'Mac, and Lucky)
- C.M. Punk vs. Edge, WWE Smackdown! 4/25/2008 (Sergei, Riot Act, JETS kid, and Bread Guy)

3 Mentions:
- Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, Sting, and Matt Morgan) vs. Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), and James Storm), Lethal Lockdown match, TNA Lockdown 4/13/2008 (Bread Guy, the Demko, and Lucky)
- Shawn Michaels vs. Batista, WWE Backlash 4/27/2008 (Sergei, Riot Act, and Lucky)
- Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man vs. Kaz vs. Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Chris Sabin vs. Johnny Devine vs. Shark Boy vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Consequences Creed, Terrordome match, TNA Sacrifice, 5/11/2008 (dxb, Riot Act, and the Demko)
- Kaz vs. Chris Sabin vs. Curry Man vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Johnny Devine, KOTM match, TNA Impact 6/5/2008 (dxb, Bread Guy, and Lucky)
- Motor City Machine Guns vs. Speed Muscle, TNA Impact! 6/12/2008 (Sergei, dxb, and Lucky)

2 Mentions:
- Matt Hardy vs. MVP, WWE Smackdown! 4/4/08 (Sergei and JETS kid)
- Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk, KOTR Semi-Final, WWE Raw 4/21/2008 (Sergei and JETS kid)
- C.M. Punk vs. William Regal, KOTR Final, WWE Raw 4/21/2008 (Sergei and JETS kid)
- Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle, TNA Impact! 4/24/2008 (Sergei and Riot Act)
- Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner vs. Kaz, TNA Sacrifice, 5/11/2008 (Sergei and the Demko)
- Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong, TNA Impact 5/15/2008 (the Demko and Lucky)
- Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, WWE Judgment Day, 5/18/2008 (Sergei and Riot Act)
- John Cena vs. Triple H, WWE Night of Champions 6/29/2008 (Sergei and Lucky)
- Team TNA (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, & Curry Man) vs Team Mexico (Rey Bucanero, Ultimo Guerrero, & Averno) vs Team Japan (Milano Collection A.T., Masato Yoshino, and Puma) vs Team International (Doug Williams, Alex Kozlov, & Tyson Dux), World X Cup 12-Man Elimination Match, TNA Victory Road 7/13/08 (Lucky and dxb)
- A. J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle, TNA Hard Justice, 8/10/2008 (Sergei and Lucky)

1 Mention:
- Undertaker vs Festus, WWE Smackdown 4/11/2008 (Lucky)
- Gail Kim & O.D.B. vs Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed, Cage match, TNA Lockdown 4/13/2008 (Lucky)
- Chris Jericho vs. Umaga, WWE Raw 4/14/2008 (Sergei)
- Matt Hardy vs. MVP, WWE Backlash 4/27/2008 (JETS kid)
- Triple H vs. John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield, WWE Backlash 4/27/2008 (JETS kid)
- James Storm vs Sting, TNA Impact 5/8/2008 (Lucky)
- Finlay vs. MVP, WWE Smackdown! 5/9/2008 (Sergei)
- LAX vs Team 3D, TNA Sacrifice 5/11/2008 (Lucky)
- Kaz vs Petey Williams, Slammiversary 6/8/2008 (Lucky)
- Samoa Joe vs. Robert Roode vs. Booker T vs. Rhino vs. Christian Cage, KOTM match, TNA Slammiversary 6/8/2008 (Bread Guy)
- A. J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle, Lumberjack match, TNA Impact! 6/12/2008 (Sergei)
- Jamie Noble vs. Vladimir Kozlov, WWE Smackdown! 6/20/2008 (Sergei)
- Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong, TNA Women's Title Match, TNA Impact 7/10/08 (Lucky)
- Shelton Benjamin vs. Mr. Kennedy, WWE Smackdown! 8/1/2008 (Sergei)


Come on, everybody. List your MOTYCs!

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I can't read.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Did you think it was MOTY for every year or something?

[Batman]

Anybody else going to do this?

Keep in mind this isn't just to list matches you think might be a MOTY, but to list matches you think might make your top 25 or top 10, or however big we decide to make the nomination ballots.

ie, it doesn't have to be an all-time classic, just really good.

I've added the following matches to my list:

Chris Jericho vs. Umaga, Raw 4/14/2008
Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk, Raw 4/21/2008
C.M. Punk vs. William Regal, Raw 4/21/2008
Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle, Impact! 4/24/2008
C.M. Punk vs. Edge, Smackdown! 4/25/2008
Shawn Michaels vs. Batista 4/27/2008

[creepy]

Awesome. So it looks like at the end of the year, you'll have it down to your Top 180. Plus ROH, Japan and anything from special indy shows.




Sounds like a blast.

[Batman]

Hey, these are the one's I'm considering. I'll narrow to 25 (or whatever) at the end of the year....

And last week was an unusually good week--by me anyhow. I know you didn't, but I really dug the KOR tournament. I'm sure that weeks where I add five matches to my list will be pretty rare.

[creepy]

OK. I just meant it might be hard for everyone to vote for a Hardy/MVP match from an April Smackdown against a Christian/AJ match from a Fall PPV. People probably won't have every Raw, Smackdown, ECW, Impact and the like to rewatch.

But it might turn out to be fun to keep coming back every week/month when a match grabs you.




E: Maybe a match of the Month tourney would fly better?

[Batman]

Well, keep in mind that when I say narrow down to 25, I mean just for my ballot. That's not necessarily going to be the matches in the tournament. If a match isn't memorable enough to be on several other people's ballots too, it probably isn't going to make it to the tournament. If I feel (or anyone feels) strongly enough that a match that others have forgotten is being under-rated, I can always host it on youtube or something to try to convince people to re-watch it and give it another chance.

It's true that more recent matches are likely to get over-rated and early ones under-rated; that's just an inherent difficulty with doing a "best of the year" in anything. But there's a reason that isn't generally solved by just doing best of the month awards--"best of the year" just seems like a bigger deal.

[Batman]

Anybody who is willing to participate in this thread with me, by listing the matches you've seen since WM that you'd probably want to keep in mind as possibly going on your ballot for a MOTY Showdown after WM next year--if anybody does that I will owe you 5 (five!) exalts.

Anybody?

[Batman]

OK, so I added the TLC match from last week. I did not add the KOTM match from Impact. There were some cool spots, but I thought that the end with Curry Man stalling until Kaz got out of the penalty box was lame and contrived.

If you disagree, participate in this thread and make your own damn list!

Damn it.

Please.

[Byrntrigan]

I thought the Terrordome match was pretty awesome. One of the better gimmick matches TNA stole came up with.

I'd add that match so far, and Joe vs. Angle 5 for Joe's World Championship win as well.

[Batman]

An exalt to you for participating, the first of five, as promised.

I think I'll make that an incrementally decreasing offer. So the next person to participate gets four exalts, and the one after that three, etc. So hurry up and post, people!

I have added your choices to the master list in the top post. Matches that are under consideration by more people will be higher on the list, so we'll get a preliminary idea of which matches have stronger support.

Keep in mind that we are talking about matches we are considering including on a ballot of ten or twenty (depending on interest) matches. So, two is fine (considering we still have ten months yet to add more) but more would be fine, too.

[Byrntrigan]

Shit. I didn't even see the 5 exalt bribe. Shit - I should have held out for more ;D

I think we'll need to add them as we watch them, or it'll be really hard to remember matches all the way back.

[Batman]

Yeah, that's the whole idea of this thread. Except that I'm the only one who's been doing it for the first two months since WM.

[Batman]

All right, that's two of five exalts for dxb.

Want Exalts, too? Just list your favorite matches of the year so far since WM.

[Batman]

OK, that's 3 of the 5 exalts for DXB.

Would you like some exalts, too?

Come on, everybody likes karma!!

Just post your favorite matches since WM.

[Batman]

4 out of 5 exalts to dxb completed.

Post about your favorite matches this year and get karma!!

[Batman]

Final promised exalt to DXB.

Who wants karma?

[Riot Act]

Joe/Angle (Impact!)
HBK/Jericho (Judgement Day)
Edge/Taker (ONS)
HBK/Batista (Backlash)
Edge/CM Punk (SD!)
Terrordome (Sacrifice)

[Batman]

I have updated the top post to include your picks and have given you the first of four exalts. Thanks!!

[jetskid48]

I dunno if your looking for repeats, but I def agree on a bunch already said.

Jericho/Punk from the KotR
Taker/Edge - ONS
Jericho/Hardy - IC title match before Hardy suspension.
Punk/Edge - The one other people have been saying.
Regal/Punk - KOTR
Matt Hardy/MVP - 4/4

Cena/JBL - Judgment Day.......just kidding.

And whatever that great match was from England...Regal v. Orton?

HHH v. Orton v. Cena v. JBL - Backlash...at least half of it was tremendous...

Matt Hardy v. MVP - Backlash

I'll add the TNA ones later.

[Moreofabreadguyanyway]

Jericho vs. Hardy, RAW- not the one where Jericho won the belt before Hardy's suspension, the one either one or two RAW's after No Way Out.

Lethal Lockdown, Lockdown

Edge vs. CM Punk, Smackdown- the Smackdown that was the on the same week CM Punk made it to the finals of the KOTR on RAW.

X-Division KOTM, Impact 6/5/08

Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles, Slammiversary 6/8/08

KOTM, Slammiversary 6/8/08

Edit: I completely forgot:
Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle, Cage match, TNA Lockdown 4/13/08
CM Punk vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. John Morrison vs. Chavo Guerrero, ECW 6/3/08

And, since I've been advised to put down matches that I liked even if they've already been mentioned:
Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk, RAW 4/21/08

[Batman]

Man, I edited in the new picks in the top post, and my log-in timed out. I hate it when that happens....

I have given RiotAct a second exalt and still owe him 2. I owe JETSkid 3 and Breadguy 2. Thanks for joining the thread, guys!

The multiple exalt offer has run out, but I will still happily give a single exalt to anyone who participates.

A couple of rule clarifications. A couple of people mentioned Jericho vs Jeff matches that occurred
before WM. I'm doing this MOTY showdown with a Raw-after-WM to WM "wrestling season" rather than the calendar year, so those matches are not eligible.

Also, to answer JETSkid's question: Yes, repeats are fine, don't be shy about including a match just because it's already been mentioned. There are two reasons for this....

At the end of the year, you will be able to see all of the matches you thought were worth considering at the time. If you leave out a match because it had already been mentioned, you might forget that you considered it that highly by the end of the year.

Also, we will be able to see how broad the support each match has as we go along, which...well I find that kind of thing interesting, anyhow.

While it's definitely too soon to start ranking them, maybe we could indicate which is our "match to beat"--i.e. our favorite so far. That way, we can start to get a feel for depth as well as breadth of support. Edge vs. Punk has the most mentions so far, but even though it's one of my matches, for me it's in the middle of the pack.

My Match2Beat right now is the Joe vs. Angle cage match.

All right, I'll re-do editing the top post now.

[Batman]

Exalted JETS Kid. That leaves 2 each for Riot Act, Jets Kid, and Bread Guy.

[Batman]

Finally got around to updating the top post. Also gave Riot a third exalt. Still owe him one, and two each for JETS and Produce.