Match Of The Year 2007 (Vote for your Top 3 Now)

gimmick

As its getting late in the year, and we all have seen some great contests, what are among people favourites. This will never give us a definitive list due to the varying tastes of different styles, but it will be good to see who has liked what, and how much. Please, dont just list, give a brief description of the match and reason you its in your list.

In no particular order.

Briscoe Vs Briscoe ROH Finale March

Briscoes had lost their newly won tag titles the previous night in an epic match with Naruki Doi and Shingo. They had also lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Titles in their first defense. After this they decided they had to man up and face each other. What followed was, IMO, the perfect match. They beat the ever loving snot out of each, few nice high spots and well placed rest holds. The ending was amazing. Normally a double KO would get booed out of the place, but this was met with a standing ovation.

The Briscoes Vs Ricky Marvin & Katoro Suzuki NOAH First Navigation January

The pace of this was insane. Marvin is very fast and innovative. the Briscoes are bump machines and not without their own innovation. Suzuki, like Marvin has some insanity in his arsenal. Throw all that together, we have a 26 minute match where the pace doesn't let up for a second, and you have an instant classic.

Samoa Joe Vs Takeshi Morishima ROH NYC February

Battle of the heavyweights here. Both men, for their size, are very agile. Bit of a stiff fest at time, but thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Its a very intense match which goes a good 20 mins. Hot crowd as well.

Money In The Bank Wrestlemania

Not usually a fan of trainwrecks, but this was good. Perhaps it was overcrowded, but it was full of moments, not least Hardys suicidal jump onto Edge. Plus Kennedys part was great also.

Cena Vs Michaels Raw April

Without doubt, Cenas best ever effort, though his lack of selling did annoy me big time. The fact it was a non title affair did make the outcome alot more doubtful. The fact this went the bones of an hour helped as well, as both men were allowed good offense time without making things look rushed. Sweet ending to this one and all. The thing i was most pissed off with was that I missed the opening few minute and didnt realise it was a non title affair.

The Briscoes Vs Murder City Machine Guns ROH May

This could only have been good. MCMG are one of, if not the best tag teams in wrestling at the moment. Both Sabin and Shelley are fantastic, and play the heels very well in this. Like all Briscoes matches there are an awful lot of close finishes, and this is no different. This match has no let up at all, and both teams go absolutely nuts throughout. Nice ending as well were true respect is shown for each other by both teams.

Marufuji & Ibushi Vs KENTA & Ishimori NOAH July

I had never seen Ibushi previous to this, but man did he impress me. Ishimori I thought was a flip merchant pre this, but I realised he has more than this. I knew what to expect from Maru and KENTA. This starts off aggressively, stays aggressive. Ther eis good work to KENTAs leg throughout which he sells well. In fact, he had no choice but to sell it well, as it was legit. But this match was stiff kick, stiffer kick and so on. Absolute must see this is.

rossie1977

well i am only going to comment on the matches i have seen live; for me the best WWE match this year was uuuuuuuuuumanga v john cena at royal rumble. great atmosphere, back and forth action (with me getting the roscommon flag on tv loads of times ).

The royal rumble match was probably the best ever, the last 10 minutes with taker and michaels was just great to watch and two texans (though most of the crowd in san antonio were mexican )

special mention must go to the zero gravity 4 way match that IWW put on at their supershow in march in clontarf. Those guys pulled out all the stops that night.

a-hole

imo the best matches came from tna this year my fiverate match was joe vs angle with all the gold on the line, then there was storm vs wildcat chris harras in a sputacular match(formally known as a tag teem of amw). then there was gerry linn vs saben vs chris danials.

ecw punk vs steven richards, amasing to see how punk addapted to the 3-7min matches wwe have no wonder hes never out of the power 25. punk vs alisa burk (cant remember the ppv). steven richards vs that vampire

on wwe there was cena vs michials in england. there was ray vs chavo i quit (the one ray won). londen &kendrick vs the hardies vs regal andthat other english guy and mnm in a lather match, that might have been last year i dont know.

i love roh but didnt get any of this years dvds as im still going through danials raign

DRakE

orton and trips klast man standing from no mercy :O

i thought it was brilliant

krudler

cena vs umaga at the rumble-just a great match with an inventive finish

money in the bank-mania 23- was there live and jeff looked like he killed himself with that dive

taker vs batista-mania 23, great atmosphere and it was FAR better than i expected,plus it was great booing everything batista did

cena/hbk- raw in april,obviously

cm punk vs john morrison for the ecw title, ecw...eh whenever he won it recently- great match,way better than the ppv offerings

can i add the royal rumble match itself? by far the best thing wwe have done this year,possible the greatest rumble of all time aside from the 92 one, the last 15 mins between hbk and taker are testament to how good wrestling can be when two guys who work well put on a great show

Minto

Starting with No Mercy's Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Orton. I thought it was great for a few reasons:
1. Both men are very capable of good to great matches.
2. Triple H was over as the face and the crowd booed Orton.
3. There was a great sense of unpredictability about the match due to the two earlier title switches.
4. And last but not least it, was the first WWE title match in almost two years that didn't involve John Cena, the last one I can remember is Edge Vs. Ric Flair in a TLC match in January 2006 on RAW. In fact it was the first PPV WWE title match not to involve him since JBL Vs. Big Show (Barbed Wire Steel Cage) at No Way Out 2005. And people say Triple H was overexposed in 2003, ha!

Oh yea, my other two are the Royal Rumble Match and Cena and Michaels from Raw in London (same reasons as mentioned above by others)

Fozzy

gimmick wrote:

Briscoe Vs Briscoe ROH Finale March

I'll have to give this another watch some time, I must have been drinking when I saw it. The story of the whole match was really good and well told, but I'm not sure if I'd put it right up there as one of the best this year

gimmick wrote:

The Briscoes Vs Ricky Marvin & Katoro Suzuki NOAH First Navigation January

This makes my list, the Briscoes have been better in their Japanese matches that I've seen this year than their American ones for the most part. I remember writing a review of it on the "Last Match You've Seen" thread, and I remember enjoying it a whole lot

gimmick wrote:

Cena Vs Michaels Raw April

On my list, probably the best WWE match this year for me, although it didn't really seem to hold up when I watched it again on the replay of Raw that week. It just looked way slower and more uneventful the second time around. Might have been something to do with all the ads, but my first viewing of it deserves its place on here. Cena deserves a lot of praise for it

gimmick wrote:

The Briscoes Vs Murder City Machine Guns ROH May

This match got me so frustrated with TNA. They were using Sabin reasonably ok but their mis-use/non-use of Alex Shelley has been criminal. Fortunately they got the chance to put on this brilliant match in ROH, almost makes up for them getting squashed by VKM in TNA. Great match altogether

I've got to add in a few more here:

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Yuji Nagata - IWGP Title, New Japan, April

This took place 12 hours before Cena/Michaels on Raw (if I remember right) and it was similar in a lot of ways. Tanahashi is the pretty-boy face who the fans haven't totally accepted and Nagata is the tough veteran who's better than ever now. The match must have went at least 40 minutes and I put it ahead of Cena/Michaels on Raw. I loved it

Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness - ROH's Second PPV

Just a technical masterpiece. It's a tie right now for the best singles match I've seen this year with Tanahashi vs Nagata. There's dozens of reviews of this match out there for anyone to read and Mr.Nice Guy's is the only one I've seen that hasn't been 100% positive! I'll just give a little mention to the match these two had at ROH's first Liverpool show this year too. The one in Liverpool wasn't as good, but it had the best comeback I've seen all year when Nigel got back into the ring after being carried to the back. The look in his eyes was so intense, I must have watched the ending to that match a good ten times when I first saw it!

Edge vs Randy Orton - Raw, week after Cena/Michaels

This was just a really fun match. I'm sure most people here have seen it. Edge was such a good heel, even though Orton was still acting as a heel he got cheered all the way

Bryan Danielson vs Go Shiosaki - ROH in Japan

Shiosaki's a competent wrestler, but not at the level of the top guys. Danielson made him look like one of the best. It reminded me of Ric Flair in the 80's, putting guys over and bringing them up to his level. The most impressive performance that I've seen from one guy in a match all year. Not taking anything away from Shiosaki, but Danielson did so so well. I'll give Cena vs Lashley at some PPV a mention here as well, since Cena did so well in getting Lashley to a good match there

TNA's best match was Harris vs Storm in that match on PPV that had a load of blood. ECW had their best match the week after WM with the extreme rules WM rematch

But so far my match of the year is:

gimmick wrote:

Marufuji & Ibushi Vs KENTA & Ishimori NOAH July

Just a wonder to behold. The stories they told during the match were awesome, with KENTA and Marufuji as former tag partners each trying to show up the other with their new tag partners. I'm surprised NOAH haven't tried to get Ibushi back for any shows after that tour, he pulled off some deadly stuff in the match. KENTA working the main part of this with a pulled hamstring (I believe) was an amazing job. There were some other good matches from the Juniors Tag League that this was a part of, but this one stands out head and shoulders above the rest, and every other match I've seen so far this year. I agree with gimmick that it's a must-see

I've still got a good few matches to get through that have got great reviews this year, but that's the pick of the bunch!

Mr.Nice Guy

Here are my favourite matches of 2007 in no particular order...

Cena vs Umaga (Royal Rumble)

Loved this match. Umaga's first great match in WWE and arguably Cena's as well. Lots of drama and emotion in this match and it was great seeing the Samoan Bulldozer get choked out. Umaga actually meant something at the time.

Royal Rumble match

Best Rumble I thought in years. The final moments with Taker and Michaels was edge-of-the-seat stuff. Good to see the 30th entrant finally winning too...

Rated RKO vs D-X (New Year's Revolution)

I'm not mentioning this because of the wrestling on offer (although it was a great match prior to HHH's quad injury) but I thought it was fantastic how Michaels single-handedly saved this match from disaster following said injury. Orton completely lost his head and didn't know what to do. Edge likewise was confused as hell. Then suddenly up steps HBK to take matters into his own hands by clocking the ref and beating the crap out of everyone with chairs. Then he went and put Orton through a table to send the fans wild. For me, this was the beginning of Michael's awesome run in 2007.

Edge vs Shawn Michaels, Street Fight (Monday Night Raw)

This was shortly after Michaels returned to singles competititon. If I'm not mistaken it was the week after the lousy Donald/Rosie segment. It was as if WWE were trying to make amends for that and these two did so by putting on a great match.

MVP vs Chris Benoit (Smackdown)

Thought these two had a wonderful match on an episode of Smackdown in the early part of the year and I don't feel I should discard it because of subsequent circumstances seeing as at the time I spoke very highly of it.

John Cena vs Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 23)

Another fine effort from Cena. Again great drama and emotion in this match and the right guy won.

John Cena vs Shawn Michaels II (Raw in London)

This stands as my favourite match of the year so far and it bettered the original. A career performance from Cena and it was almost an hour of non-stop great wrestling. Loved the finish too with Michaels getting the clean pin which received a huge pop. Awesome match.

Edge vs Randy Orton (Monday Night Raw)

This was a great match as it was heel vs heel and often these matches don't get over well with audiences but this match did. Great effort from both guys. I think Orton was on pretty thin ice at this stage of the year so this performance probably helped him in a big way.

Cena vs Edge vs Orton vs HBK (Backlash)

Probably the best fatal four-way match I've seen. Constant action and a clever little finish with Cena winning by the skin of his teeth.

John Cena vs Bobby Lashley (Great American Bash)

Another strong Cena performance in the main event. Plenty of passion and drama and Cena retained thankfully.

Incidentally I see from checking my matches that Shawn Michaels features in 6 of them and John Cena features in 5. That pretty accurately reflects my thoughts on the top two wrestlers of the year and with Michaels apparently back now, I'd expect him to feature at least once more in a great match before the year's end.

Vince135792003

With all thats happened in wrestling this year it seems way longer than 10 months ago that the great Royal Rumble ending happened.

The best match in my opinion I've seen this year so far was Danielson/McGuiness. Michaels has been awesome though.

Double C

John Cena vs Randy Orton - Summerslam
I really cant see why this hasn't been mentioned yet. Brilliant match, brilliant excitement, brilliant atmosphere. It had it all. Orton was on fire and he handled the crowd being mostly on his side really well. Cena came out of it looking near unbeatable.

Cena vs Michaels II
Really incredible match too, great to see WWE let a match go on this long on Raw. What the WM match lacked, this had. Namely Cena selling. The WM match was going so well until Cena no selling his ankle injury ruined it.

Danielson Vs McGuinness - Driven
I made my thoughts of this clear in the Driven thread, I loved every minute of it. As Vince pointed out, It was a million little things that added up to one hell of a match.

Honourable mentions include HHH vs Orton, Shiosaki vs Danielson, Briscoe vs Briscoe, Briscoes vs MCMG's, Joe vs Morishima, Edge vs Orton, Joe vs Christian (or was that last year, i cant remember). I cant really think of any great matches TNA had and I havent seen much non American wrestling so that's about it.

btw, A-Hole, seriously, spell check!

Goebels

Number one is Nagata/Tanahashi from April.

Bubs101

John Cena vsMicheals- Raw
Great match, very entertaining and although there were a couple of rest holds it was brilliant wrestling for the majority of an hour. Especially considering the lack of preperation they had, Cena and Micheals did a fantastic job.

Benoit vs MVP (best out of 2 falls)
Brilliant match to end the feud and it was another great example of Benoit putting over new talent, often at the expense of himself. It was also a refreshing change to see one of these matches not go to the third fall

Team Angle vs. Team Christian
Although a bit of a spotfest I absolutely loved this match and thought it was better than both the Rumble and MITB this year. Aj's jump of the cage and Rhyno's Gore through the door were fantastic

Austin Starr/ James Storm vs. Chris Harris

For me this was the match of the year. After the sham that was the blindfold match they had to redeem themselves and they did with their Texas death match (or some other Russo inspired brilliance). Storm's finisher through the table. The spear through the ropes, everything about this match was class and it was a pretty long match with virtually no restholds.

Double C

Think you mean James Storm there Bubs. Yeah that was a great match, sh*tloads of blood. Good call to on the Lethal Lockdown, I had forgotten all about that. Definitely better than MITB, which I thought was the worst of the three so far.

Bubs101

Ooops, my bad, didn't bother researching so I had to guess

gimmick

Just like to add in Go Shiosaki Vs Davey Richards from King Of Europe Cup. Stiff kicks, good ground work, excellent psychology. Only problem I had with this was it ran way to short at around 12/13 minutes. Another 7/8 minutes and it would be a high contender (assuming it kept its intensity).

Also, I know it wasn't a match, but I thought it was one of the bets segments of the year. Unfortunately it had a bad end which has had massive repercussions, all of which were bad. I am on about about Edges Mardi Gras on Smackdown. I just thought it was very funny. Pity was, this is where Edge torn his pec and had to give up his title, a title which Khali then won :rolleyes:

flahavaj

From what I've seen so far, the main contenders would seem to be:

Cena/Michaels from Raw: I never thought i'd see a Raw main event nearly go the full hour. Thats not to say that long match=great match, but this was entertaining throughout and much better than a number of the 1 hour snooze fests produced in ROH last year.

Cena/Umaga: Royal Rumble. A career best performance from Cena here. The intensity, timing and effort produced by both men was just off the charts. The image of a screaming Cena choking out the monster Umaga with the ring rope will live long in the memory and told a great story of a babyface champ really having to dig deep inside to slay a seemingly unstoppable monster.

Marufuji/Ibushi vs KENTA/Ishimori. This is just a fantastic junior match with non-stop action right from the first bell. The Marufuji/KENTA interactions are just great and you can realy feel the crowd stir whenever they go at it. You just know these guys are going to have a rivalry thats gonna last for years. The two lesser lights in this match really step up here too. Frankly, i'd bnever heard of ibushi till i saw this, but boy did he leabve an impression. For such an awkward looking lanky guy, he really does pull off some great innovative spots, in particular he does a lovely variation on a moonsault that has to be seen to be believed. Best match i've seen all year.

Briscoes vs MCMG: This is the best of around a half dozen matches that the Briscoes could easily put on this list. Twon incredible teams put on a 40 minute exhibition of cleanly hit, fast paced spirint wrestling. Its a crime that a guy as talented as Shelley is stuck in TNA. He has the potential to be massive if used properly.

Danielson/McGuinness: The match from Driven is just incredible, even better than the Unified bout last year. I cannot speak highly enough of Danielson, the guy just has this ability to put on a classic match no matter what approach is needed. He truly is a modern day Flair in this sense (unashamedly robbed from Fozzy!).

Jimmy Jacobs/BJ Whitmer, Cage Match: Supercard of Honour 2: What an incredible way to end a feud. These guys just murdered each other in there. They bled buckets but more importantly concluded their feud with a match that told the story of all the agony the had subjected each other to in the last year, made little references to past fights and had a great ending with the right winner.

Honourable mentions must go to Danielson/Shiosaki, Joe/McGuiness and Briscoes vs Doi/Shingo from 5YF Liverpool, Briscoe vs Briscoe from 5YF Finale,Storm/Harris Last man standing and Marvin/Suzuki vs Briscoe from NOAH.

I need to see the Tanahashi/Nagata bout, if anyone could PM me a source for this, I'd most grateful.

Fozzy

flahavaj wrote: »

I need to see the Tanahashi/Nagata bout, if anyone could PM me a source for this, I'd most grateful.

I posted the video in the video thread just now, along with KENTA/Ishimori vs Marufuji/Ibushi for anyone who's interested

gimmick

Going to make a few additions to this

Nigel McGuinness Vs Chris Hero ROH Driven (Bonus DVD)

If this were on any other show this year, it would be spoken of as a match of the night, but this one kind of gets lost in the shuffle. Hero is such a fantastic heel and he plays it up so well and really gets himself over with his un needed flipping and press upping and generally showing off, acting the ass. The action is very solid, as would be expected from these two. It showcases the strengths of both in that its gets nice and technical with plenty submissions and reversals. For me, it was a shame the way it ended, but Im sure that was just to add to the storyline of Nigel,

Claudio

and Sweet & Sour Inc.

Nigel McGuinness Vs Bryan Danielson ROH Driven PPV

Not much more I can add to this without repeating whats others have said in this, and other threads. Loved this match, as I have loved all the matches I have seen between these two. Dragon has a new intensity which is amazing.

KENTA Vs Brian Danielson DRIVEN

My good GOD, what a match this was. i think it is even better than their effort at GBHN2 last year. From the off the intensity of this was off the charts. The stiff kicks and chops, the submission counters, the using of each others finishers. Felt like the match was only 7 or 8 minutes, so i was surprised when I saw it went over 20. Dare i say a better match that Dragon & Nigel? yes, I do. AWESOME.

Double C

I think Dragon vs Morishima from Manhattan Mayhem II needs to be included. Its the one where

Danielson injures his eye. I thought that would have happened late on it the match but it happened early and the fact that Danielson carried on is remarkable enough, but for him to have a spectacular match speaks volumes. He spends the whole match squinting out of one eye.

This match, along with the ones against Albright and Claudio really cement Morishima as, well, the fifth best ROH champion of all time. And thats saying alot! And I still have two more matches against Danielson and one against Nigel to see.
*rubs hands together gleefully*

Machismo Fan

Orton v HHH: Last Man Standing, awesome, great match, just like the old days.

James Storm v Chris Harris: Best hardcore match of the year, both these guys tried to kill each other.

Jay Lethal v Kurt Angle: Excellent match Lethal was thrown in with one of the best and looked as good as him.

Rhino v Angle v Christian: The iMPACT! match that went the whole episode. Good stuff.

Vengence 5 Way: Great match. Foley rules.

Jay Lethal v Fallen Angel: These two put on a wrestling clinic.

4 Way at Backlash: Good action,very exciting.

flahavaj

Looking down this list so far and from what I've seen so far this list is gonna be the Bryan Danielson show, when you think of the McGuinness match, the Shiosaki match, the KENTA bout, and three apparently awesome Morishima matches.

He's is absolutely and undoubtedly the finest wrestler anywhere in the world right now and it's frightening how young he still is.

gimmick

^ Amen. He doesn't know the meaning of a poor match.

Best Wrestler In The World.

gimmick

Update to add in Shawn Michaels Vs Randy Orton

The stipulation to this added some real spice where HBK was not allowed use is Sweet Chin Music finsiher, and If Orton tried to get disqualified, he would loose his title. HBK started off the agrressor trying to weaken Orton with an array of headlock and headkicks from his headlock position. In fact, this match was dominated by HBKs various submission attempts, and it really looked like he had the title in the bag.

This was a fantastically timed match and for me, is certainly the WWE MOTY. Whether it holds up for the second viewing remains to be seen. if it does, it is certainly top 5 overall material.

Bubs101

Personally I found the use of a crippler crossface a bit tasteless. Just too soon

gimmick

Plenty of wrestlers used the Crossface before Benoit, so i can see no problems whatsoever with Michaels using it the other day.

Bubs101

But who used it while he was there? Everybody associates that move with Chris, it's his finisher ffs and it was just too soon after what happened

Tricity Bendix

gimmick wrote: »

Plenty of wrestlers used the Crossface before Benoit, so i can see no problems whatsoever with Michaels using it the other day.

So what if he didn't invent the move? There may have been other wrestlers who used it before Benoit, that isn't really the issue. For the vast majority of wrestling fans the crossface is synonymous with Chris Benoit, and he was the only high profile wrestler in the modern era to use it. I agree with Bubs.

rossie1977

i agree with gimmick, dean malenko made that version of the crossface famous in the states, benoit dead or alive doesn't have control over the move.

Tricity Bendix

rossie1977 wrote: »

i agree with gimmick, dean malenko made that version of the crossface famous in the states, benoit dead or alive doesn't have control over the move.

If Kurt Angle killed his family and committed suicide I would think it in poor taste for another TNA wrestler to start using the Ankle Lock. It wouldn't matter that Kurt Angle didn't invent the move, and it wouldn't matter that someone else made it 'famous' before him. Angle is synonymous with it.

Double C

I didn't really like the crossface being used either and I'm surprised he did use it. But I'm totally over the Benoit thing, so I really don't care. Bit of a moot point really.

Tricity Bendix

Double C wrote: »

I didn't really like the crossface being used either and I'm surprised he did use it. But I'm totally over the Benoit thing, so I really don't care. Bit of a moot point really.

Moot for you, because you say you don't care. It's a personal thing, I suppose, but I certainly do care about it.

Fozzy

When I first saw it, I thought Shawn just sorta got stuck and had to go for some sort of move, and that's what he came up with. Haven't seen it a second time though so I dunno. It fit well into the story of the submissions Shawn was going for though, pulling out all the most dangerous holds of the opponents that he's faced over the years. I honestly didn't think too much about Benoit when he did the crossface, but I kinda get the feeling that it wasn't Vince's call

Great match anyway, I'd put it as the best WWE match this year

Mr.Nice Guy

I agree that the use of the crossface was in poor taste. What were Benoit's family thinking watching that? Way too soon in my opinion.

On the Michaels/Orton match I thought it told a good story and was one of the best matches of the year. I do think Michaels had a better match with Cena though and that Orton's best one remains the one he had with Edge on Raw.

Double C

B.ie Polar, I meant my point was moot cos I kinda contradicted myself, no ill feeling was meant

As regards Orton's best match of the year, yeah Orton vs Edge on Raw was a great match, porbably better than the one from the Survivor Series, but Sunday's match meant a lot more because the title was on the line.
I think Orton's best individual performance however was against Cena at Summerslam, he was awesome that night. He also had a great one vs RVD in the stretcher match.

Weird how agruably the 5 best WWE matches of the year involved Michaels, Edge, Orton and Cena, including the Fatal Four Way at Backlash.

rossie1977

Double C wrote: »

Weird how agruably the 5 best WWE matches of the year involved Michaels, Edge, Orton and Cena, including the Fatal Four Way at Backlash.

who were you expecting, khali, chris masters

i thought morrison and punk had a very good match on raw and batista/taker have really impressed me in their matches given their respective ages and limitations, hats off to both guys.

whats everyones top 3 WWE matches of the year??

for me its:
Edge vs Orton on raw the week after michaels/cena 60 minute (the ad breaks killed this match for me)
Umaga vs Cena at RR
Cena vs Lashley GAB

gimmick

Just bumping this one rather than start another MOTY thread.

Fozzy

Good idea, I'll edit the title to get people to vote. Same rules as the best wrestler of the year thread: Each number one choice will get 5 points, number two will get 3 points and number 3 will get 1 point

It was four days for the other thread I think, so I'll add the scores up on Monday

My picks go to:

1. Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness (ROH Driven)
2. KENTA & Ishimori vs Marufuji & Ibushi (NOAH July 15th)
3. Yuji Nagata vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (New Japan April 23rd)

The first one was a technical masterpiece, the second one was an unreally exciting match with a lot of stories and athletic performances going on in the ring and the third one was the old guy vs the young guy for the title with incredible performances from both

The match I enjoyed the most was Kobashi's return match, but I'm not going to vote for it as it wasn't as good as these matches in terms of in-ring work, it was mainly the occasion of it all. Not that the actual match was bad in any way

Bubs101

1 James Storm vs. Chris Harris

Texas Death match

For me this was the match of the year to end the feud of the year. After the sham that was the blindfold match they had to redeem themselves and they did with their Texas death match (or some other Russo inspired brilliance). Storm's finisher through the table. The spear through the ropes, everything about this match was class and it was a pretty long match with virtually no restholds. Not to mention the sick amount of bleeding. Proof that when TNA is good, it's brilliant


2 MR. Kennedy vsHBK- Unforgiven
This could be an over reaction seeing as it was just on a couple of days ago, but I really loved this match. The whole psychology angle with Kennedy's hand was great and I thought he was back on form here. Not to mention that it was definitly my favourite finish to a match this year, explosive Sweet Chin Music

3 The Royal Rumble
This was the Rumble I enjoyed most since Ernest "the cat" Miller danced around Benoit and Orton :D. Everything about this Rumble was great bar 1 thing. The fact that the final two went on for a good ten minutes was great, the "Rikishi" factor (i.e. everyone teaming up to knock one big guy out) was made more believable with Khali as opposed to some overweight samoan and the fact that the winner was truly surprising, I personally was convinced HBK would win in his home town.
The only problem was that the WWE built up the MIZ's! first Royal Rumble with an online diary only to have him last one second. TNA style booking

Mr.Nice Guy

My top 3 would be:

1. Cena vs Michaels (Raw in London)
2. Cena vs Umaga (Royal Rumble)
3. Michaels vs Cena vs Edge vs Orton (Backlash)

Vince135792003

It's really hard to pick my top 3 but here it is:

1. Bryan Danielson versus Nigel McGuinness

2. Shawn Michaels versus John Cena (Raw, 60 minutes)

3. The Royal Rumble (just for the last 10 minutes with 'Taker and Michaels)

gimmick

I want to finish watching Manhatten Mayhem II before I make any judgements. Plus, my list will remain very incomplete until I see TPI 2007, BOLA 2007, Man Up, and Final battle 07.

Double C

1) Danielson vs McGuinness - Driven
2) Danielson vs Morishima - Manhattan Mayhem II
3) Michaels vs Cena - Raw

Machismo Fan

1. Harris v Storm: Texas Death Match, Sacrifice

2. Orton v HHH: Last Man Standing, No Mercy

3. 'Instant Classic' Christian Cage v Kaz, Ladder Match, Genesis