Your Favorite Match From Each Year

[Barry Poppins]

The title is pretty simple, just make yourself a list of your favorite matches from each year, going as far back as you wish. With that in mind, let's get the show on the road.

1981: Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (Alley Fight) [House Show, May 4]
1985: Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard (I Quit Match) [Starrcade]
1986: Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff [The Big Event]
1987: Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage [WrestleMania III]
1988: Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage) vs. Mega Bucks (Andre & Ted DiBiase) [SummerSlam]
1989: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (I Quit Match) [Clash of the Champions IX]
1990: Lex Luger vs. Stan Hansen (Texas Lariat Match) [Starrcade]
1991: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect [SummerSlam]
1992: Sting's Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance (War Games) [WrestleWar]
1993: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect (King of the Ring Semi-Finals) [King of the Ring]
1994: Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart [WrestleMania]
1995: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Chris Benoit [Starrcade]
1996: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin [Survivor Series]
1997: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (Submission Match) [WrestleMania 13]
1998: The Undertaker vs. Mankind (Hell in a Cell Match) [King of the Ring]
1999: Mankind vs. The Rock [RAW, January 4]
2000: Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (Street Fight) [Royal Rumble]
2001: Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit vs. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz (TLC) [SmackDown, May 24]
2002: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. Booker T vs. Kane vs. Chris Jericho vs. Rob Van Dam (Elimination Chamber) [Survivor Series]
2003: Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho [WrestleMania XIX]
2004: Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H [WrestleMania XX]
2008: The Royal Rumble Match [Royal Rumble]
2009: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels [WrestleMania 25]
2010: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels [WrestleMania XXVI]
2011: CM Punk vs. John Cena [Money in the Bank]
2012: The Undertaker vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell) [WrestleMania XXVIII]
2013: Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk (No DQ) [SummerSlam]
2014: Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton [WrestleMania XXX]
2015: Kevin Owens vs. John Cena [Elimination Chamber]
2016: Asuka vs. Bayley [NXT TakeOver: Dallas]
2017: Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles [Survivor Series]
2018: The Women's Royal Rumble Match [Royal Rumble]
2019: Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan [WrestleMania 35]
2020: The Men's Royal Rumble Match [Royal Rumble]
2021: Seth Rollins vs. Edge [SmackDown, September 10]
2022: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins [WrestleMania 38]

 

[Comrade Khan]

2021 - Bryan Danielson v. Kenny Omega
2020 - best friends vs Proud and Powerful streetfight

 

[Chris]

Ooh will def jump on this, even if I haven't seen a lot of matches each year, I reviewed all the PWI (that I could find) MOTYs and WON ones until like 2017 so worse case I can just pick from those if I don't have one of my own

 

[Hoss]

1990 - Ric Flair vs. Sting - NWA Great American Bash
1991 - Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko vs. Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat - WCW Clash of the Champions
1992 - The Steiner Brothers vs. Miracle Violence Connection - WCW Beach Blast
1993 - Vader vs. Cactus Jack - WCW Halloween Havoc
1994 - Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon - WWF WrestleMania X
1995 - Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero - ECW Hostile City Showdown
1996 - Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin - WWF Survivor Series
1997 - Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin - WWF WrestleMania 13
1998 - Mankind vs. The Undertaker - WWF King of the Ring
1999 - Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka - ECW November to Remember
2000 - Cactus Jack vs. Triple H - WWF Royal Rumble
2001 - Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho vs. Stone Cold and Triple H - WWE Raw 5/21
2002 - Low Ki vs. Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles - NWA:TNA Weekly PPV
2003 - Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE Smackdown 9/18
2004 - JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero - WWE Judgment Day
2005 - Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - ROH Joe vs. Kobashi
2006 - John Cena vs. Edge - WWE Unforgiven
2007 - Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA - ROH Driven
2008 - Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels - WWE No Mercy
2009 - Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker - WWE WrestleMania XXV
2010 - Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker - WWE WrestleMania XXVI
2011 - CM Punk vs. John Cena - WWE Money in the Bank
2012 - El Generico vs. Kevin Steen - ROH Final Battle
2013 - CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE SummerSlam
2014 - Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville - NXT TakeOver: R Evolution
2015 - Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins - WWE Royal Rumble
2016 - AJ Styles vs. John Cena - WWE SummerSlam
2017 - Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate - NXT TakeOver: Chicago
2018 - Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte - WWE Evolution
2019 - Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody - AEW Double or Nothing
2020 - Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega and Hangman Page - AEW Revolution

 

[Hoss]

I was curious who had the most amount of my favorite matches so I went over the list...

John Cena - 4
Shawn Michaels - 4
Brock Lesnar - 3
The Undertaker - 3
Mick Foley - 3
Steve Austin - 3
Bret Hart - 2
Triple H - 2
AJ Styles - 2
CM Punk - 2
Eddie Guerrero - 2
Chris Jericho - 2
Dustin Rhodes - 2
Sami Zayn - 2

I guess you don't get names like "Big Match John" and "The Showstopper" by accident. What's shocking to me is that Flair, Angle, Danielson and Joe only appear once each, even though I consider them all among my top 10 favorite workers easily.

 

[Barry Poppins]

Yeah looking at my own list:

Bret Hart (5)
Triple H (5)
The Undertaker (5)
Mick Foley (4)
Steve Austin (3)
Chris Benoit (3)
Brock Lesnar (3)
Chris Jericho (3)
Edge (3)


There seems to be a common factor somewhere in there.

 

[Chris]

1980 - Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera, Texas Death Match
1981 - Pat Patterson vs Sgt. Slaughter, Alley Fight
1982 - Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid, August 5
1983 - Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid, April 21
1984 - Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen vs Dory Funk Jr and Terry Funk, AJPW World Tag League
1985 - Lioness Asuka vs Jaguar Yokota, AJW August 22
1986 - Barry Windham vs Ric Flair, Battle of the Belts 2
1987 - Flair vs Windham, Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Tournament
1988 - Ric Flair vs Sting, Clash of the Champions I
1989 - Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat, Clash of the Champions VI (the two out of three falls one)
1990 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta, June 8
1991 - Keiji Mutoh vs Big Van Vader, G1 Climax
1992 - Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue, Wrestlemarinpiad
1993 - Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki, Dream Slam II
1994 - Bret Hart vs Owen Hart, SummerSlam
1995 - Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa vs Johnny Ace and Steve Williams, AJPW March 4
1996 - Jun Akiyama and Mitsuharu Misawa vs Johnny Ace and Steve Williams, AJPW June 7
1997 - Bret Hart vs Steve Austin, WrestleMania 13
1998 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi, AJPW Anniversary Show
1999 - Misawa vs Kobashi, October 23
2000 - Triple H vs Cactus Jack, Royal Rumble
2001 - Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho vs Steve Austin and Triple H, Monday Night Raw May 22
2002 - Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio and Edge, No Mercy
2003 - Kobashi vs Misawa - NOAH March 1
2004 - Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama, NOAH Departure
2005 - Samoa Joe vs Kenta Kobashi, ROH Joe vs Kobashi
2006 - Bryan Danielson vs KENTA, ROH Glory By Honor
2007 - Takeshi Morishima vs Bryan Danielson, ROH Manhattan Mayhem II
2008 - Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness, ROH Rising Above
2009 - Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania
2010 - Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania
2011 - CM Punk vs John Cena, Money in the Bank
2012 - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki, King of Pro Wrestling
2013 - Brock Lesnar vs CM Punk, SummerSlam
2014 - Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville, TakeOver R Evolution
2015 - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi, Wrestle Kingdom
2016 - Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Wrestle Kingdom
2017 - Okada vs Kenny Omega, Wrestle Kingdom
2018 - Okada vs Omega, Dominion
2019 - WALTER vs Tyler Bate, NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff
2020 - Adam Page and Kenny Omega vs Young Bucks, AEW Revolution
2021 - Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston, AEW Rampage October 27

 

[Barry Poppins]

Alright fellas, what's your favorite match of the year so far in 2022? Also let's see some more lists!

 

[Samoa Looch]

Alright fellas, what's your favorite match of the year so far in 2022? Also let's see some more lists!

Either Danielson vs. Mox or... you know...

Spoiler

 

[Marty McFourth]

Alright fellas, what's your favorite match of the year so far in 2022? Also let's see some more lists!

If I had to choose one, probably Punk vs MJF.

Close second would be Yuta vs Mox on Rampage.

 

[Marty McFourth]

Either Danielson vs. Mox or... you know...

Spoiler

Yeah, this too. 2022 has been crazy thus far.

 

[Barry Poppins]

If I had to choose one, probably Punk vs MJF.

Close second would be Yuta vs Mox on Rampage.

Either Danielson vs. Mox or... you know...

Spoiler

You two got lists for previous years?

 

[Alexa]

Alright fellas, what's your favorite match of the year so far in 2022? Also let's see some more lists!

I would make a list...but that would be a lot of work. As for 2022 so far it'll be Go Shiozaki v Kaito Kiyomiya at NOAH Majestic 2022

 

[Marty McFourth]

You two got lists for previous years?

I'd have to think on it, but I'll try and cook one up one day for ya.