The Reality of Wrestling: Best Moments of 2006 (Pt. 3)

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The Reality of Wrestling: Best Moments of 2006
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich

Note: These moments took place from December 1, 2005 to December 1, 2006

J.D.’s Top 10 Moments of 2006

Honorable Mention

Flair takes a superplex off the top of a ladder (Raw, 1/16)
Couldn’t put this in the top ten because I’ve become so accustomed to seeing Flair doing crazy shit in the ring since the start of 2005. Nevertheless this was a pretty cool spot and one of the better matches Raw had to offer this year.

Fans fill the ring with chairs during a TNA house show in Philadelphia (TNA, 6/9)
This one isn’t on my top ten for two simple reasons: number one is that this type of wrestler/fan interaction has been over played for years. And my number two reason is that I simply couldn’t find any place to put this moment on my top ten.

10th Place: A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels win the NWA Tag-Team Titles (TNA Slammiversary)
What can I say about this moment, it was just incredible to see a dream tag-team of that caliber win the titles and hold them for a decent amount of time too. Daniels and Styles winning the titles culminated a tag-team of two singles competitors that are the epitome of TNA. A tag-team this good hasn’t been formed since Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho became a tag-team in the WWE. Kudos to TNA for putting these two guys together and having them win the titles.

9th Place: Christian Cage wins the NWA Title (TNA Against All Odds)
It was one of the feel good moments of the year. Christian Cage winning the NWA Title was just a nice sight to see, not just because it proved that he could pull his own weight in the heavyweight division, but also because this was TNA’s way of sticking it to the WWE for not taking a chance on Christian like they should have. The crowd filling the ring when he won was also a nice touch too.

8th Place: RVD wins World Title (ECW One Night Stand II)
This one is on my list at number eight because I am a huge mark when it comes to R.V.D. and also because I felt a title win for him was long overdue. Also, seeing Cena get royally screwed over was also a pretty sight considering that, up to this point, Cena was getting pushed ridiculously in the WWE.

7th Place: Joey Styles quits RAW “live” (RAW, May 1)
Couldn’t put this as high up on the list as my colleague because, even though it awesome to see Joey Styles to a shoot on Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, it wasn’t as great as I thought it could’ve been. I feel that the WWE could’ve waited a couple of weeks longer to do this angle, instead of putting it as the starting point to the build up of One Night Stand II. Aside from that, Joey Styles poured his heart out on live television and it was definitely one of the better moments of the year.

6th Place: Kurt Angle ends Samoa Joe’s 17-month unbeaten streak (TNA Genesis)
Many people thought that when Kurt Angle joined TNA he was going to job to Joe right away and push Joe to the moon. I, on the other hand, wanted Angle to win because I felt that, if anyone should end Joe’s streak, he would be the guy to do it considering that I thought Joe wasn’t up to Angle’s caliber going into there first match. Although their match was good, it wasn’t fully what I expected, but TNA did do a great job of extending this feud into what is now going to be a 30-minute ironman rubber match between the two competitors.

5th Place: Shawn Michaels and HHH both doing the crotch chop at Wrestlemania (Wrestlemania 22)
This comes in at number five for me because I am a mark when it comes to Degeneration X, and although I think that they brought these guys back together a little too late, seeing the both of them do the crotch chop back to back at the granddaddy of them all was something I never expected and I went completely nuts over it.

4th Place: John Cena beats HHH at Wrestlemania (Wrestlemania 22)
I had to put this high on my list for top moments because no one, including myself thought Cena was going to beat HHH at Wrestlemania. Not only did the build-up to the match make people believe that HHH was going to come out on top, but also the fact that HHH had lost in the main event the past two Wrestlemania’s prior led people to feel that the WWE was going to let him win this one. As if Cena beating HHH wasn’t shock enough, but the way he beat him by making him tap out to the STF was even more shocking and left many people in Chicago speechless.

3rd Place: Kurt Angle beats Undertaker in a 4 star match (WWE No Way Out)
This had to be on my list because it was one of the most unexpected moments to come out of 2006. Who would have thought that an over-the-hill Undertaker and an injury-worn Kurt Angle could put on a match of this caliber? Not only did it exceed expectations by far, but also many people were labeling this match as a possible worst match of the year candidate before it started and it turned out to be the WWE’s best match of the year.

2nd Place: Kurt Angle joins TNA and literally butts heads with Samoa Joe (TNA Impact, 10/19)
GOD, was this unexpected. After finding out that Kurt Angle was fired by the WWE many thought, including myself, that he would at least take 5 months off before even considering joining another industry. But Kurt Angle proved everybody wrong when he showed up to TNA only one month after being fired and he immediately made an impact, no pun intended, when he came to the ring and punked out Samoa Joe which started a dream feud in the eyes of many wrestling fans.

1st Place: Edge & Foley go through a flaming table (Wrestlemania 22)
Had to put this at number one for a number of reasons. For one, the feud between Edge and Foley leading up to Wrestlemania was great and was one of the better ones of the year. Two, Edge and Foley put on one hell of a match at Wrestlemania and it will easily be in my top ten for matches of the year. Three, this spot was something that the WWE had never done before, at least not correctly, and it was the perfect climax to the match itself. And finally, this is my top moment of 2006 because the spot was executed perfectly and the sell that Edge made after the match was perfect. All I can say is, FOLEY IS GOD!

P.C.’s Top 10 Moments of 2006

Honorable Mention

RVD wins World Title (ECW One Night Stand II)
This wasn’t quite the moment it was supposed to be. A clean win for Van Dam and this one makes the top 10. Since interference from Edge and a three-count from Paul Heyman (maybe getting ready for his new role within the company) makes it an honorable mention.

Fans fill the ring with chairs after TNA house show in Philly (TNA, 6/9)
A nice little tribute to ECW in an ECW city. Nothing more, nothing less.

John Cena beats HHH at Wrestlemania (Wrestlemania 22)
Shock value alone gets this one on the list as most saw “The Game” walking out of Chi-Town with the gold. What keeps this one from making the top 10 is that it wasn’t even the most memorable thing about the show.

10th Place: Flair takes a superplex off the top of a ladder (RAW, 1/16)
In terms of great T.V., this moment (and match) was quickly forgotten by a number of things involving both Edge and Flair, but this was the beginning of Flair’s year from hell (in terms of blood and highspots) and for that reason it is top 10 worthy.

9th Place: A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels win NWA Tag-Team Titles (TNA Slammiversary)
This is one for the Internet crowd. Of all the dream matches and dream teams that Internet fans wanted to see, A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels as a team was definitely one of them. Not only did this dream become a reality, but they beat AMW at TNA’s fourth anniversary show and would go onto save the company’s tag division with their feud against LAX. Styles & Daniels’ in-crowd celebration and the pop that their win got was what being a fan of wrestling is all about.

8th Place: Shawn Michaels doing the DX crotch chop at Wrestlemania (Wrestlemania
22)

A tribute to a time that is long gone? A test to see if a DX return could work? The questions of why HBK flashed the DX sign at Wrestlemania were never really answered. However, the fact that the Chicago crowd ate up this pro wrestling version of a historical reference and the fact that DX would be reformed a few months later makes the answer a little more obvious.

7th Place: Christian Cage wins NWA Title (TNA Against All Odds)
The best ending to a PPV all year, period. In terms of an ending image to a show, Christian Cage holding his newly won NWA title with fans packing the ring did create the illusion that this win was important and that Cage may be the next big thing in TNA. Considering the politics around Cage’s title reign (the sabotaging of it that is), this moment stands as one where things seemed right and to be going in the right direction.

6th Place: Kurt Angle ends Samoa Joe’s 17-month unbeaten streak (TNA Genesis)
Of all the people to end Joe’s unbeaten streak, few thought it would be Kurt Angle going into 2006. Granted, the match itself was great and may or may not have met the hype that the match was built around depending on who you ask. But this match was one of the only (maybe the only) to have a REAL big match atmosphere and the ending—no matter what it was—was going to get on this list.

5th Place: Jeff Jarrett winning the King of the Mountain Match and NWA Title
while the ring is littered with garbage (TNA Slammiversary)

Surreal may have been the best word to describe the Orlando crowd’s reaction to Jeff Jarrett winning back the NWA title in the “King of the Mountain” match at TNA’s fourth anniversary show. Garbage throwing seemed to be passé, but that didn’t stop the Orlando fans who had had enough of Jarrett and finally just snapped.

4th Place: Edge & Foley go through a flaming table (Wrestlemania 22)
Every Wrestlemania has a defining moment, one that sets itself apart from all other Wrestlemanias. No matter how mediocre the show (this year’s was just that), Wrestlemania has a “Wrestlemania moment” every year. This year, I believe that Mick Foley and Edge bringing a little ECW to the biggest show in wrestling was just that moment as the flaming table made its return to mainstream wrestling and did start Edge’s rise to the top while giving Foley one more opportunity to show that he may not be done yet.

3rd Place: Joey Styles quits RAW “live” (RAW, May 1)
This one took place around the time I was just about done with all WWE T.V. and it very nearly brought me back. Everything Joey Styles said during his shoot-style promo seemed real and was real whether or not Styles actually felt the way he sounded is irrelevant as he said the things that any Internet critic or writer or fan would have probably said given the opportunity. The few times that The E does try to do shoot stuff, they do make it interesting (Matt Hardy disrupting RAW last year).

2nd Place: Kurt Angle debuts in TNA, has face-off with Samoa Joe (iMPACT!, 10/19)
The one time this year that I felt giddy while watching wrestling on T.V. in a long, LONG time. Of the many fantasy booking dream matches that fans come up with, Samoa Joe Vs. Kurt Angle was easily at the top of many people’s lists. For me seeing the two face off on Angle’s first segment ever in TNA seemed fitting. The crowd heat and reaction to the whole thing made it seem that much more memorable as to me it was just that: memorable. Easily the best segment of T.V. in all of wrestling for 2006.

WINNER: Yoshihiro Takayama returns to the ring two years after suffering a stroke(NOAH Budokan Show, 7/16)
Whether or not you agree with this one, agree with the reasoning: this was a guy who took way too many shots in shoot fighting and wrestling that when he had a stroke it was expected by many; but for him to make a comeback turns it into a human interest story. Takayama’s wrestling career was done after he had a stroke in August 2004. After that, he became a part time announcer for NOAH even coining a now-famous quote, “I hope this never ends” during Kensuke Sasaki & Kenta Kobashi’s chop fight at last July’s Tokyo Dome show. Hearing the No-Fear music and seeing the big man himself return to the ring is easily my #1 moment of 2006. As Dave Ditch put it on his website in regards to this match, “He’s BACK, baby.”