I know what an Iron Man Match is but I had to get on Wikipedia to remind myself of all the Iron Man Matches wrestlings had. Now that I've reviewed the list here's what I've come up with. I've never seen the WCW or TNA Iron Man Matches, but I've seen all the WWE matches except for Rock/Triple H. With that being said my favorite by far is Bret Hart Vs Shawn Michaels no doubt.
I could talk about how its was the first WWE Iron Man Match and the first one to be 60minutes and how it needed overtime. I could talk about Bret and Shawn as performers and their whole fued leading up to this match. All that stuff makes this match special and great, but thats not the real reason its my favorite.
Its my favorite because of the psychology. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat wrestled for 60 minutes multiple times, ending in a draw. HBK and John Cena had a match on Raw back in 2007 that was either a full hour or nearly was. CM Punk and Samoa Joe had two 60minute matches that ended in a draw in Ring of Honor. (I'm sure they're other examples too) My point is, that on certain occassions, two wrestlers can be so evenly matched, and determinded, that neither can pin or submit the other. That was the case with Bret and Shawn. I don't need to see multiple pin falls to get excited about an iron man match. 1-0, or 2-1 can do it.
My second problem with WWE's Iron Man Matches and their Psychology is this. Usually when guys like Cena and Orton or Rock and Hunter wrestle each other, it generally takes 20-30 minutes before one of them finally beats the other. So why in Iron Man Matches do we see guys get pinned every 10 minutes? The first pin fall shouldn't come till at least 20 minutes into the match and I could see how after 30-40 minutes the wrestlers get tired and beat up which could allow for more pinfalls during the second half of the match, but not the first. 6-5 and 5-4 is just too many pinfalls for me.