My Favourite vs. The Best

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“My Favourite” vs. “The Best”

Intro

I know that I promised you the last installment of my “Greatest Brawlers” series last week, but I am not happy with how that column’s looking right now, so I’ve opted to go with one of my emergency back-up opinion pieces.

This bit was inspired by seeing how often the phrases “The Greatest…” and “My favourite…” are used almost interchangeably on various wrestling forums. Writing my last few columns I’ve come to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to write about subjects that I love, like Pro Wrestling and Classical Music, with real objectivity. The best I can hope for is to keep reminding myself that there are sometimes important differences between what I personally enjoy and what truly stands the tests of greatness.

My Favourite

Favourite matches and wrestlers are based on personal opinion, and may be influenced by a number of factors, including who we watched the match with, whether we saw the match live as it was happening or on tape after we already knew the result, how old we were and what stage we were at in our development as wrestling fans when we saw the match for the first time, or how drunk we were at the time.

We usually know right away if a match is going to rank among our all-time favourites or not, and those opinions do not often change over time.

For example, the Bulldogs vs. Dream Team tag match at WrestleMania 2 remains one of my favourite matches even though the match is pretty dated, because every time I watch the match it brings back memories of my days as an innocent fan who really wanted the good guys to win. The kid in me still marks for the Road Warriors destroying, say, JC Wilde and Tommy Royal, even as the knowledgable columnist in me can recognise that it is nothing but a squash.

The Greatest

Greatness is not determined by any one individual opinion. Greatness can be judged by consensus, and ideally should be based on subjective factors. In terms of judging which matches are the Greatest EVER we should consider such factors as psychology, work rate, pacing, spots, bumps, stiffness, intensity, crowd heat, innovation, and historical importance.

Different types of matches need to be judged by different criteria. The 1/2/00 Yamakawa vs. Honma death match raised expectations of crazy bumps, blood, intensity, sick violence, and exciting risks being taken, and it is ranked as a great match because it exceeded those expectations. The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan in Toronto is in the pantheon because of great psychology and amazing crowd heat.

The greatest matches, true ***** classics, should meet several of the criteria, at least in theory. It is often necessary to have some historical perspective on a match before its greatness can be fairly judged.

Some are Both

Some matches, for example Steamboat vs. Savage at WM III, Hart vs. Austin at WM XIII, Dynamite vs. Tiger Mask for the NWA Jr. Heavyweight title, or the Kawada vs. Kobashi 60 minute draw from 1995, rank both on my list of personal favourites and on any reasonable list of The Greatest Matches Ever.

Great, but not My Favourite

There are some by-general-consensus great matches that do not rank among my favourites.

For example, while I understand why so many people love the HBK vs. Razor Ramon ladder match from WM X, the match simply does not engage me emotionally. Perhaps this is because I had already heard too much about it before I saw it, perhaps it is because of my personal bias against one of the men involved.



What could possibly be the source of my anti-HBK bias?

I am sure that most of you have seen matches that are counted among The Best of All Time, but could not get into them for whatever reason. After the Ric Flair DVD set was released, there were people on some message boards complaining that the 2/3 falls match from Clash VI was boring.

Among My Favourites, but not The Greatest

Even more interesting, in my opinion, are the matches that people love even though they are not considered Great Matches. I am not talking about matches that we think are underrated, I am talking about matches that we love even though I know that they do not deserve a ***1/2 star rating based on objective criteria.

The match last year where Spanky ALMOST lasted five minutes with Kurt Angle captured my imagination, and had me on the edge of my seat, forgetting for a moment that there is any reason to be jaded or cynical about Professional Wrestling. Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher from Cantanyo, PR, on 07/13/88 is kind of a formless and chaotic brawl, but I treasure my copy of the match because it was the last Brody match to be filmed before he was murdered. When The British Bulldogs came back to Stampede to feud with the Cuban Commandos, the resulting matches were not exactly classics, but it was Davey Boy and Dynamite, back in Calgary. That was good enough for me. I loved the build up for the Road Warriors vs. Midnight Express Scaffold Match so much that I have never cared that the match itself is laughably bad. Just before Unforgiven 2002, Benoit & Angle teamed up against Billy & Chuck, and spent most of the match arguing with each other as I laughed my ass off. Taz and Sabu had an ECW championship match that was little more than high spots alternated with both men lying on the canvas, and I loved every second of it. I am a big fan of both of the matches I have seen from the Tsuruta vs. Brody feud, despite the obvious mismatch in styles. There are number of blood bath matches that I will watch again and again, regardless of whether the psychology was sound or not, including such negative star gong shows as Invader #1 vs. Kamala.

Everyone is Biased

One of the reasons I love to read video reviews by Scott Keith, Tim Madden, Justin Baisden, Mike Campbell, or “Pegasus” Dunn is to get an idea of what new matches I should add to my ever-expanding collection. It is important to understand, however, that none of those writers tastes are exactly the same as mine. The same thing is true of opinions on music, television or comics. Once you learn a reviewers tastes and understand how they relate to you own, then their reviews can be helpful guides through the bewildering variety of entertainment options available to you.

I hope this column has been at least a little useful in revealing something about my personal tastes to you.

What About You?

What are some of the less than great matches that you love?

Which so-called great matches fail to cut your mustard?

You can either send me a note using the link below or meet me on the forums.

Next Week

I’ll either finish the “Brawlers” thing, or I’ll transcribe the interview I had with Bad News Allen on Friday in Vancouver.


Bad News: You ranked that beer bellied share cropper Stan Hansen ahead of me?