Rank the Iron Man Matches

[LongLiveTheStreak]

In this thread, you are going to rank the four Iron Man Matches to take place in WWE history, From best to worst. Lets take a look at them:

Wrestlemania 12 Shawn Micheals defeated Bret "Hitman" Hart one fall to none in sudden death overtime to win the WWE Championship.

Judgement Day 2000 Triple H defeated The Rock by a score of six falls to five to win the WWE title.

Smackdown 2003 Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle five falls to four to win the WWE title.

Bragging Rights 2009 John Cena defeated Randy Orton six falls to five for the WWE Championship.

My ranking from best to worst:

1. Bret vs. HBK I imagine everyone will vote this one the best. It was so good that if professional wrestling was real and unscripted, that is exactly how two wrestlers would wrestle a 60-minute Iron Man Match.

2. HHH vs Rock The only one of the four with blood. Except for Bragging Rights in which the match was stopped until Cena's bleeding stopped. I feel that HBK's work as guest referee helped this match alot.

3. Orton vs. Cena This was a no DQ, no count out Iron Man Match. Aside from the match being paused to stop Cena's bleeding, this match turned out to be really brutal and violent. Cena's use of the steel steps and giving the AA to Orton through the commentators table was amazing.

4. Lesnar vs. Angle I just watched this match for the first time, and I did not enjoy it one bit. One of those matches that should have been a classic, but wasnt. Brock spent a lot of time outside the ring taking 9-counts and he got 3 of his five falls in cheap ways(low blows and shots with chairs and the title belt.) The worst match of the Lesnar/Angle series.

So IWC its your turn. Rank the four WWE Iron Man matches in order of best to worst.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

#1 HHH vs. The Rock - Entertaining from star to finish, shame about the finish. Good Undertaker return, but a DQ and title change is lame.

#2 Lesnar vs. Angle - Very good match, but it was on TV. You can have good TV matches, but I don't think you can have great TV matches. Ad breaks really ruin the flow of anything over 15 minutes.

#3 Cena vs. Orton - Good, but it was a 30 minute match stretched over an hour.

#4 HHH vs. Benoit - Good but totally forgettable.

#5 Hart vs. HBK - A fine example that a classic match doesn't necessarily have to be any good. Also proof that technical wrestling can be really boring even when it's between two great talents.

 

[ThePh3nomonal1]

I couldn't agree more with you list, mine would be the exact same as yours for pretty much the same reasons.

Definitely the best was HBK Vs Bret, it was the first and in my mind the best by far.

The second would be Triple H vs Rock which was another great match that I believe I gave on DVD somewhere.
Third for me is Cena Vs Orton, wasn't anywhere near as good as the 2 above it but was still better than the awful Lesnar Vs Angle match you mentioned. So that's my list, BTW you should make more threads like this one but best other matches like Hell in a Cell or Elimination Chamber.

 

[ckoneagain]

Don't know whether you've missed it out on purpose but HHH vs Benoit Ironman from Raw was pretty good, but anyway, id go with Bret vs HBK first as you say its a given that everyone will vote that as best, then i'd go with Orton vs Cena, HHH vs Rock, Benoit vs HHH and the Lesnar vs Angle, which yes, was just awful!

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Wrestlemania 12
HBK beats Bret Hart by one fall in sudden death:
A sentimental pick but a classic match for me as well. A match I recall seeing that really got me hooked into wrestling. I do hear a lotta IWC overlords on this site and others saying that the crowd was dead and what not. Well it came across as a great match to me and I was glad HBK won.


Judgement Day 2000
Triple H defeated The Rock by a score of six falls to five to win the WWE title:
Great match. I was surprised by the amount of pinfalls, and the amount of foreign objects. Stellar match but the end was bogus until the AMERICAN BADASS came down!!
Couldn't believe that was Taker!!
My reaction..... I bought the American Badass (History of Rock album) cassette by Kid Rock.
I still know the entire rap


Smackdown 2003
Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle five falls to four to win the WWE title:
Loved the match. Brock could play the p*ssy heel well. His intentional disqualification and the following pin was genius match-scripting.


Bragging Rights 2009
John Cena defeated Randy Orton six falls to five for the WWE Championship:

This is the most recent match and I can't even recall it properly, it's that forgettable for me.

A shout out to the 30-minute Ironman match between HBK and Kurt Angle that ended in a draw. Absolutely Terrific!!!

 

[Super Strudel]

I vaguely recall Benoit and someone - possibly Trips...? - having one as well. Might have been on Raw.

Personally, HBK and Hart is first. The buildup and the moment itself, Shawn breaking the glass ceiling, make it too good not to be.

That being said, Angle v Lesnar was fantastic. I remember watching Lesnar redeem himself by not tapping, having been getting a lot of stick for tapping at their last PPV match.

Daylight between those two and the rest, mainly because I cannot recall them very well.

 

[The Brain]

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels

24 years of watching wrestling and this remains my most anticipated match. It’s certainly not for everyone, but I loved it. The true brilliance was a 0-0 tie as time expired.

The Rock vs. Triple H

I was pleasantly surprised by this. It was no surprise to me that Hart and Michaels could go 60 minutes, but I had my doubts here. My doubts were much more with Rock than HHH. I think HHH carried a lot of the match and it delivered above my expectations.

Chris Benoit vs. Triple H

Apparently this isn’t as memorable as the others seeing as how it was left out of the op. I thought this was a good solid match that held my attention the whole way.

John Cena vs. Randy Orton

I went into this with the same expectations I went into for Rock vs. HHH. The concern is how two guys are going to be able to go sixty minutes without being boring. I think these two did a good job. I liked how Orton was trying to use some different strategies like tapping to the STF before it was locked in and running out the clock toward the end.

Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar

This was a disappointment. It’s not that it was bad, but I was expecting a lot more. When I watch a 60 minute match between to of the greatest mat wrestlers ever I don’t want to see weapons and cheap count outs or disqualifications. This would have been ok for two other guys but I expect more from Angle and Lesnar.

 

[Pone]

Are you restricting this only to Matches that went 60 min?....Cause Angle and HBK put on a nice 30 min match on a raw a few years back...it ended in a draw but still pretty good

WM12 is the best of course and i have to say angle/lesnar was the worst mostly due to the fact that two armature wrestlers going head to head for 60 min turned into a brawl with lots of waiting around and cheap shotswhat happened there?!

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm going to have to agree with Jake's list except maybe switch 3 and 4. The Benoit/HHH match just exemplifies the overshadowing with Benoit as they had to have Eugene in the finish somehow. I loved the HHH vs. Rock especially with HBK being the referee as an X-factor. Undertaker returning was awesome although I didn't like the DQ finish. I know HBK/Hart is considered a classic but it was just boring to me and I couldn't get into it at all. There are good classics and there are bad classics. This one falls in between.

 

[pepentorresHHH]

lets see....
My favorite would have to be HHH vs The Rock....this match was entertaining and fast paced the whole match and it ended with a twist i didnt see coming...besides it was completely different to the only one that had been see before back then with A LOT of falls

then the brock lesnar kurt angle match.... it was kinda dissapointingbut gave me something new at the same time because I expected more out of this two but was suprised in a good way because i expect a technical mat match and we got a brawl...

then i have to go with hbk and hart ....it was good and considered a classic to this day.... but there are too many rest holds....nobody can forget the end or hbk not tapping out despite the clock expiring...

then i have to go with hhh vs benoit....this 2 delivered on everything i expected of this match and was very solid..... the only problem for me was the eugene and evolution interference....i wanted this two to finally settle it on their own....

then hbk vs kurt angle.... again great match by these two...but i wanted to see more than just 30 minutes

finally orton cena is the last....this match just didnt do it for me..... cena can barely make an entertaining match for 15 or even 20 minutes...and you give him 60 minutes??!?!....orton had to carry him the entire match and the 60 seconds to recover from each falls just killed the flow of the match IMO....

 

[LongLiveTheStreak]

I never saw or even knew about this HHH/Benoit Iron Man Match on Raw. Was it an actual Iron Man Match or did they just wrestle for an hour? Because Cena and HBK went at it on a 2007 Raw for 60 minutes, but it was not announced as an "Iron Man Match." Can someone post a link?