Welcome to the latest Roundtable discussion here at iFight365.com where this week, we’re asking the question: If you choose just three matches to put on a DVD for Christmas, what would they be?

Martin Smith: First up, Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania X

Come on referee, unhook his leg! - Jerry Lawler

In a time when ladder’s where used for window cleaners and titles were tossed around only once or twice a year, these two put on one of the most breathtaking and unbelievable matches in the history of wrestling. Nearly fifteen years ago and boy, that has flown by. This wrestling masterpiece still sticks in my memory simply because it was amazing.

It’s a good example where you have a bad guy versus a good guy and they fight over a title. Throw in a stipulation that means something and throw in a cool finish and you have a memorable moment in history. This whole contest was just superb and is essential viewing.

The WWF, as it was, couldn’t have picked a better two guys to fight in this stipulation. Razor Ramon was cooler than cool and Shawn Michaels was the cocky asshole who the girls loved to love and the boys wanted to punch. Ramon was represting those guys here – he wanted to beat Michaels so badly.

You also had the added element of Kevin Nash/Diesel at ringside. That was until Earl Hebner sent Diesel back to the locker room. Michaels, who clearly wanted to do anything to win, was now on a level playing field without Nash. That cheating git! He was now forced to fight fair.

The thing I loved much about this match is that it was a good decade before its time. Shawn Michaels was the brightest star in the sky and Ramon, although only a credible midcard performer, was a damn good wrestler and entertainer. The ladder match was something new, something special and something you would NEVER see at this time. It was years before anything like this became the normal.

If you ever want to see why Shawn Michaels was the man in his day, then watch this. Forget anything that Michaels has done post-2003 (and hell, I?d include the stuff with Flair and Jericho in that). This was really special.

The finish was as good as your ever likely to see. Ramon was basically on his last legs after a Sweet Chin Music (and one friggin good bump by Ramon that literally made you believe his head was taken off). Michaels mocked Ramon and then placed the ladder over Ramon and started climbing it. However, in an unbelievable moment, Ramon pushed the ladder and Michaels fell into the ropes, getting his feet tangled in between. Ramon then climbed the ladder and became the Undisputed Intercontinental Champion. Brilliant moment in wrestling history and one that has left me in awe for years.

Second, Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome from One Night Stand 2005

I’m getting pissed. You know something? I’d risk being put in a hospital to take a swing at that piece of crap! – Joey Styles on Mike Awesome

I actually had TLC 1 here and started writing about it. However, when I sat back and thought about it, it didn’t mean anything to me. A spot-fest, an unbelievable match and one of the best of all time. It just didn?t mean a thing to me. I started thinking about matches that made me sit up, take note, cry, laugh and all that sort of stuff. This one did that.

Masato Tanaka and Mike Awesome will probably never be in the top 100 wrestlers of all time. They both made their names in America with the ECW promotion and flopped elsewhere. Just look at Mike Awesome. He flopped everywhere, even though he was one talented bastard.

So, when the two met at the first ECW One Night Stand event under the WWE banner, it wasn’t expected to be more than a card filler. However, it was an amazing match and one that had the Internet talking for days after. It was a terrific match and represented the original ECW perfectly.

Awesome and Tanaka put on their best ever career performance here. It was just superb. Table spot after table spot, both men did each other very proud.

I couldn’t think of a more suited match for the return of the ECW brand. A must-see for anyone who wants to see the last ever proper ECW match under the ECW banner.

Third up is The Rock vs. Mankind from Royal Rumble 1999

I Quit! I Quit! – Mankind

I love this main event. A fantastic feud ended with several vicious chair-shots to the head of Mick Foley. With his family at ringside, Foley was forced to verbally submit after an unbelievable amount of punishment to his body.

With his hands handcuffed behind his back, Foley took seven or eight clean shots to the head. It was a good match, but it had some massive impact on the audience, who saw Foley dismantling before their very eyes.

I have no doubt that The Rock would never have got so over if it hadn’t have been for this match. He came across as one hell of a heel in this contest and his cocky persona left many fans literally hating “The Chosen One.”

An awesome feud and a great match, this is also essential viewing for anyone who wants to see just how a WWE main event programme should be pushed.

Mark Bright: For a question like this, I’m not actually picking the matches that i think are necesarily the *best* ever, moreso my favourites or matches that are important to me personally.

My first choice is one of my favourite childhood memories – Ron Simmons v. Big Van Vader from an episode of WCW Saturday Night (which I saw on ITV’s coverage of the international version of WCW Worldwide) in August of 1992. But with the caveat that if i’m getting the match I want the angles from earlier in the show that lead to the match as well.

Sting was supposed to get a World Title rematch against Vader, but did a run-in on a Nikita Koloff v. Rick Rude US Title match to save Koloff from a 2-on-1 beating from Rude and Cactus Jack. However after Sting made the save, Jake Roberts ran in, making his WCW debut and laying out Sting with two DDT’s on a chair. Then WCW President Bill Watts and the greatest ring announcer of all time Gary Michael Capetta (the guy who announced Bobby Eaton as “Beee-Yoooo-Dee-Fulll Bawwwwwwwwwwwwby Eaton!”) are stood in the ring with a bunch of midcard babyfaces wanting to pick names out of a hat to replace Sting in getting the title shot.

Rick Rude comes down with Madusa and announces that they can’t have a draw for a World Title challenger without the US Champion because that title makes you the number 1 contender. The draw is made and it’s Ron Simmons, to a huge crowd pop. Then comes the match, and Vader was an unstoppable monster who destroyed everyone in his path, broke Sting’s ribs in a great angle a couple of months before the match where he beat him for the title, and in that match he utterly destroyed Sting to beat him easily. To my ten year old mind, there was no way Simmons could beat Vader. But – suddenly Simmons hits a powerslam seemingly from nowhere and wins the title. I can still hear Jim Ross’ commentary now “SIMMONS IS THE WORLDS CHAMPION” as one guy in the crowd is so happy he leapt over about four rows of people to get right to the guardrail. Great stuff.

My second choice is my favourite match that I’ve ever seen live, that being Eddie Guerrero v. Rey Mysterio from a SmackDown house show at the Manchester Evening News Arena in June of 2005. They taped the match that most fans online say is their feud highlight two days after this show, the SmackDown episode where they had a half-hour main event with Rey going over cleanly in a match that won Match Of The Year for 2005. But this house show match was better.

They worked essentially a similar match with more spots to get the crowd into things, and as it drew a kid heavy crowd (so kid heavy that John Cena got an ungodly gigantic pop for the main event that night, bigger even than Steve Austin’s appearance as special referee) so there wasn’t the smarkish cheering for Eddie that really seemed out of place given the feud in their other matches. And they play up to the kid-heavy audience too, for instance in one spot Eddie got the heat in order to start working over Rey’s back by bumping the referee, going outside and hitting Rey in the back with a chair. That’s so simple, and it’s a spot that might not have worked on TV but on a house show it got great heat and got the kids even more behind Rey than they already were. And Rey was BELOVED by so many of the kids in the audience that night, you literally had about 5 or 6 rows of people rushing to the front when Rey would have Eddie set up for his signature spots like the 619.

A beautiful match that went around 30 minutes, where the heel was a complete master, the best wrestler in the world at this point, and Rey was the ultimate underdog babyface. Their timing was perfect, the heat was amazing, the nearfalls towards the end textbook and it had a happy ending. Perfection.

My third choice is my absolute favourite wrestling match of all time – Bret Hart, Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman v. Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and The Legion Of Doom from WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede. It’s also my brother’s favourite match. He’s a kind of casual fan to the point where I haven’t had a conversation with him about wrestling for a couple of years and have no idea if he even still watches, but I remember for some reason, I think i had a school trip the Monday morning and had to wait a week to see the show. I didn’t watch it live but he did and immediately came rushing in to tell me how great it was (keeping me spoiler free in the days before I had the internet and had no idea what spoilers even were) and he was just marking out, so for a week I was super excited to get back from year 10 trip to Germany and watch this show. It did not disappoint.

From the individual entrances for the heels with the heat getting greater and greater before a near-riot for Austin, to individual entrances for the babyfaces with the crowd coming more and more into a frenzy before the arena literally was shaking for Bret, to the staredown to start the match, to the amazing job Austin did as the heel (in Canada), to the fact that Pillman was clearly having the time of his life cheating like a bastard and getting away with it to the greatest babyface reactions of his life, to Owen and Austin both being taken to the back with injuries then hobbling back out, to Bret being the ultimate good guy hero in an era where Vince Russo and his shades of grey bullshit were attempting (and unfortunately not long after succeeding) in making the pure babyface almost obsolete, to the great ending and celebration of the entire Hart Family afterwards.

It’s possibly the most fun i’ve ever had watching a wrestling match, and possibly the loudest live crowd i’ve ever heard. If I was told I could only watch one wrestling match ever again for the rest of my life, I would pick this one with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.

Phil Lowe: I thought this topic was going to be an easy one to write about, but I struggled to narrow it all down to a top three. In the end, I decided to go with three of the matches that I believe to be wrestling matches that were made great with the help of an electric crowd.

First up is The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan from WrestleMania X8. This match was awesome, although not because of the wrestling. But the crowd reaction and the way Hogan and Rock played up to the crowd make this so much fun to watch and its still one of my favourite WrestleMania matches.

Hogan, coming into the match as heel, found himself playing good guy within minutes as the Canadian crowd turned on The Rock. The match itself was watchable but nothing special in terms of quality, but the crowd helped to turn this into a huge, huge occasion. Just amazing to watch.

Secondly I’d also go with the main event from WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede. There’s not much else to add to what Mark said of the 10-man tag team match either. The big difference between this and Rock-Hogan was that the actual wrestling was good here, but again the match (actually the entire show) was made great by the crowd.

If you’ve not seen this show and receive some money for Christmas, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a copy. If you’re in the UK you can get it on DVD via Silver Vision as part of one of the Tagged Classics series, while I’m sure some copies of it will be floating around via other retailers as well for those in the States and elsewhere.

Thirdly, I’ve gone for Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. This will always remain one of my favourite matches and as I’ve written about in the past, it is the match that got me hooked as a wrestling fan when I was a kid.

I was never a huge Hogan fan (in fact I wasn’t a Hogan fan at all really) but I just loved everything about this match at the time. The crowd added to it. The fact it was two babyfaces squaring off in the days when there was a clear divide between good and bad in wrestling added to it. Heck, even the commentary added to it. Is it a wrestling classic? Absolutely not. But I just love it.

Michael Campbell: Hmm. That’s a whole lot of wrestling, and a wide array of bouts to choose from. So I’ll go with three I either have not seen before, or I haven’t seen for a long time. At the moment, I’m in a mood for simplified, logical storytelling, heels that work the crowd, and old-fashioned ability. Oh and Rick Rude, but I didn’t include any of his bouts, because the list would be a mile long.. Anyways…

9/12/89
Ric Flair/Sting vs. Dick Slater/Great Muta
I don’t know where this is available, if it even is. But I really missed out on the majority of Muta’s run in WCW. The guy was simply astonishing, and anything I did see of him as a youngster, surely blew my mind. Plus, any of these bouts that I go back and see now… still blow me away. The combination of Muta, hard hitting Dick Slater, and stars, Sting and Flair, would undoubtedly have made this one a heated spectacle, and I’m guessing it took place during the short period when Sting was a member of the Four Horsemen. Essential viewing, that chapter of Sting’s career.

WCW Fall Brawl 2000
Bill Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner
I’ve never seen this match. NEVER. Now, I’m not a Goldberg fan. So much so, that in my inexperience, I slagged him off during his entire WWE run (which was a flop- due more to the booking than the performing) unfairly at times.

I’m also not a fan of Scott Steiner- who has spent most of his main event career being past it. although I loved his gimmick in 2000 that pushed him to the top of WCW. I also thought his stuff in the early Nineties was tremendous- but those days are long, long gone.

However, having not seen this bout- I’ve heard wonderful things about it. Phrases like “Bill’s hottest match” gave been thrown about, and supposedly it’s the sort of match that shows what we could get from WCW when Kevin Nash and the other clowns that booked it into the ground, were not involved. I’d like to see for myself, what the fuss was about.

WWE Survivor Series 1992
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart
I’ve got this on tape…but not on DVD. Since my VCR has got absolutely NO USE whatsoever, in like the last two years, I’m not digging this one out. It’s not the best match either guy has had- it’s not even the best one they’ve had against each other. But it’s probably the one between them, that I’ve seen the least, and I absolutely love to catch it in re-mastered, shiny disc glory. It was a glorious slow-burner, overflowing with old-fashioned storytelling , and exhibiting the kind of beautiful, athletic but simple wrestling that I still love to watch. Plus, it was Shawn Michaels first PPV main event.. And who would have thought that nearly 17 years later – he’d still be a headline act.

James Mustoe: As the proud owner of pretty much all of the Silver Vision VHS back catalogue, as well as all of the released WCW and ECW stuff, I would want to put a selection of 3 different matches from the original ‘big three’ out on DVD.

To this end I would want to put out The Steiner Brothers vs. Bret and Owen Hart from Wrestlefest 1994 on there. This is just an incredible thirty minute plus match that is one of the few times that the Steiner Brothers really shone in their WWF run, and also a real insight into what a Bret and Owen tag team could have been like. Spoiled only by a non-conclusive ending, which is a terrific angle in itself in reality, this is right up there as MOTY in terms of WWF’s product for 1994.

From WCW I would put on Sting vs. Big Van Vader in a strap match from Superbrawl 1993. This is one of the best matches from a series that set a really high standard for American heavyweight matches in the early 1990s. If anything, I would want to put their other matches on here as well, as spots in this match really play off others in their older matches, so you really have to see the whole series in order to appreciate it properly. Just a stiff and brutal classic here.

From ECW I would put on the finals for the ECW Tag Title Tournament that was held at the ‘Ballroom Blitz’ double shot card in August 2000 between Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke, and Taijiri and Mikey Whipwreck. Possibly the last real classic match that the Extreme promotion put on, this is a fast paced cruiser match that was way ahead of its time in terms of innovative moves an sheer spectacle. Again, I would recommend watching the whole tournament and following night’s card (with an almost as good rematch), as this was a show that really encapsulates what ECW was about in 2000.