1991 Match of the Year

Ric Flair/Barry Windham/Sid Vicious/Larry Zbyszko v. Sting/Brian Pillman/Steiner Brothers WCW WrestleWar 2/24

PAS: Yes indeed this holds up really well, it had been years since I had seen it and had totally forgot that Zbyszko was in instead of Arn (was Arn hurt? Larry was fine but Arn is Arn). Opening of this is totally amazing, Pillman is the focus of this match and this is one of the great babyface performances in wrestling history. I loved him demanding to go in first even with the damaged shoulder while Ross describes how he has been and underdog his whole life. Pillman was really great at using the cage like a jungle gym, swinging into a headscissors, grabbing the roof for a dropkick ect., Windham is a big bumper, great bleeder and nasty fucker, everything you want from a heel in this match. Flair was a bunch of fun too, coming in and having a great chop exchange with Brian, taunting the other faces. Sting and Rick Steiner are both great houses of fire and the moment where the babyfaces even up the match is always one of my favorite parts of of Wargames. Sid was Sid, although turning the first powerbomb into a ganzo bomb did add to the nastiness of the finish, not sure if two regular powerbombs get us to a ref stoppage.

ER: Yes yes yes! This was what I needed after a dull day at work and lousy traffic. I'm lock step with Phil on this one, right down to wondering why Arn was hanging at ringside instead of being Arn in a WarGames. But whatever, this was an all time WarGames, filled with some great performances, and not just the wrestlers; this may very well be Jim Ross' best match call ever. You could not have asked for a better opening than Pillman/Windham, with JR saying all the right things about Pillman while Pillman unleashes every piece of offense he knows on Windham. Windham gets overwhelmed by Pillman and projects it to the back, scrambling, bleeding, bumping all over (good lord that bump into the second ring where he hits the top rope and flips over!). Then Flair comes in and they both go after Pillman's taped up shoulder. Everybody tightens up everything in this and it makes the whole thing play so well: Sting is potatoing people, Larry is working cheap shots and interference, Rick Steiner is stiff arming everybody and just when you think he can be selfish he bumps a Sid lariat right on the side of his head, Scott showed awesome fire from even before getting in the cage, having to be held back by Nick Patrick until the countdown was over. Everybody had some awesome star moments, with Pillman and Windham especially standing out throughout the whole massacre. The Sid finish was vicious, and Phil is right that after all Pillman went through it would have been kind of a downer if he had gone down to two regular powerbombs, so that ganso bomb was just an accidental high end finish. Blood, violence, theatricality, chaos, the amazing kind of wrestling that needs to storyline explanation and can be put on cold to liven spirits.


ALL TIME MATCH OF THE YEAR LIST