Who is "THE" Iron Man?

[TheOneBigWill]

Throughout Professional Wrestling, there have been Superstars and Athletes who could just naturally go long distances within matches, to become an “Iron Man”. At one point, in 1996, it became official. The Iron Man match was also deemed a “marathon” match. In which two Superstars compete in a contest, that goes for an ‘x’ amount of time, usually One hour, sometimes 30 minutes. And the individual who has the most victories, wins the match.

A lot of people have unofficially called Shawn Michaels the “Iron Man” as he was apart of the first official match. Yet I’m not as sold on him being the guy.

Triple H. was in two Hour long Iron man matches, whereas Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle were only in one Hour long match, and a draw 30 min. match. Guys like The Rock, Bret Hart and Brock Lesnar only competed once in the contest, yet each of them had impressive outings. (Only Lesnar won, however)

T.N.A. adapted the concept, but only with 30 minute matches. A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels were the original innovators for this Company, as each had two 30 min. matches, with Styles winning both. Meanwhile, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe had another, that Angle came out victorious in.

The overall record for points in an Iron Man match went as follows..

Triple H.: 9 (in two Iron man matches)

Kurt Angle: 9 (in one Hour Iron man, and two 30 minute Iron Man matches)

The Rock: 5 (in only one Iron man match)

Brock Lesnar: 5 (in only one Iron man match)

Chris Benoit: 4 (in only one Iron man match)

Shawn Michaels: 3 (in one Hour Iron Man, and one 30 minute Iron man match)

A.J. Styles: 3 (in two 30 minute Iron Man matches)

Samoa Joe: 2 (in one 30 minute Iron Man match)

Christopher Daniels: 1 (in two 30 minute Iron Man matches)

Bret Hart: 0 (in one Iron Man match)

On those calculations and notes, I’d say Triple H. would arguably be the best Iron Man, who’s competed in the “Official” version. By official, I mean the match with the title “Iron Man match”, not Superstars who’ve merely wrestled in hour long matches. (ie. John Cena/H.B.K. from Raw)

While Kurt Angle matches roughly the same amount of time Triple H. has spent in Iron Man’s, the fact remains Angle didn’t directly go for a full hour, plus. And the 30 minute Iron Man matches, to me, shouldn’t even count to begin with, as a lot of matches can and normally do (especially Pay per view matches) go for 30 minutes at a time.

So, I’d arguably go with Triple H. for being the only individual in the list, to compete in two actual Hour long Iron man matches. What are everyone else’s thoughts and opinions on who the true “Iron Man” would be? Please be sure to add your opinions and thoughts, and explain why you feel the way you do. Thank You.

 

[Mr. TM]

Well, The Iron Match, the epic battle of the squared circle. But what names do you think of when you hear Iron Man? The man who goes the distance.

Triple H does have many pins in the match, he has been in two of them, but he has also been beinned a fair amount of times. When I hear Iron Man, he is NOT the man I look at. He gets credit for the Hell In The Cell match, the Three Stages of Hell match, and a few others, but not for the Iron Man.

The most famous Iron Man matches happened in the WWE. TNA's three, though good, were not great. In fact, I really doubt there was actually a great Iron Man Match. But there is the one that inspire memories. Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels. The original, often immitated, never duplicated. Although I would love to give Bret Hart the name, it is Shawn Michaels, the man of 1001 titles. He is the Iron Man.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

But there is the one that inspire memories. Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels. The original, often immitated, never duplicated. Although I would love to give Bret Hart the name, it is Shawn Michaels, the man of 1001 titles. He is the Iron Man.

Shawn Michaels, to me, is a great option but not in my opinion the better one. He gets called the innovator of this match, and the "Iron Man" in the end, for mainly no other reason than because he was one of the original two who did it. That's not a good enough reason, infact, that's the dumbest reason of all.

Just like the ladder match concept. Shawn Michaels isn't the innovator in ladder matches, fuck, he's just the guy who made it popular because noone else did it. Doesn't mean he's the best at it.

Anyways, that's a different topic for a different thread. Back to the Iron Man match.

The reason I don't consider Wrestlemania XII's Iron Man match w/ Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels to be the best, is because it was slow. Obviously it went over an hour, but the fact is.. it felt like it went on 2+ hours. Because only the first 15 minutes, and the last 15 minutes of the match were exciting. The middle 30 were rest-holds and boring.

Triple H. and The Rock tore it up, for 1 hour, straight through. I can't recall a boring moment from that match. And the addition of multiple victories also helped.

Shawn and Bret never had a single victory, until H.B.K. won in the end. People originally jumped on board to that contest, likely thinking it was gonna be going back and forth with several points awarded throughout.. not one big "who's gonna get the first victory".

So, while Shawn Michaels does indeed deserve the credit of starting the Iron Man match.. he hardly deserves credit for being the guy that's "the" Iron Man.

 

[MattMoses]

If anybody ever cites Shawn Michaels as THE Iron Man because he was apart of the first official match, then label them an idiot. He wasn't even in the first ever official Iron Man match, WCW had held two previous to the WWE, and while they weren't contested for an hour, they were still billed as Iron Man matches and followed the same format.

The first WWE Iron Man match wasn't all that groundbreaking, nor was it all that influential. Many, many performers had wrestled to an hour time limit while Shawn Michaels had just broke into the business, and evidently the concept wasn't good or entertaining enough for the WWE to hold that style of match on a regular basis.

If we're going by people who have officially performed in Iron Man matches, then I'm going to say Kurt Angle. He was a part of what I consider the two greatest Iron Man matches with both Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels. The match with Brock Lesnar was spectacular. There wasn't one dull moment, the build-up was fantastic and the chemistry between the two was greater than that between any other two performers in other Iron Man matches. His match with Michaels at the RAW Homecoming was great as well. Hell, that match was better than any other one-hour Iron Man match save for Angle/Lesnar. So I'm going to go with Kurt Angle.

Outside of the Iron Man match, many performers have gone to hour-long matches and draws. Ric Flair being the most notable, having good to great matches with the likes of Harley Race, Butch Reed, Jumbo Tsuruta, Kerry Von Erich and Ricky Steamboat. I guess I'd unoficially consider him the Iron Man as he's never strictly fought under Iron Man rules, yet performed great in very lengthy matches with a diverse variety of opponents.

 

[JerryvonKramer]

I don't want to start any fights, but why isn't RIC FLAIR on this list? Hmm?

He had legendary Iron Man matches with Steamboat, Rick Rude, Sting, and god knows how many other people.

He's THE 60-minute man baby! Whoo!

Imagine my dismay to find that he's not even on the list of options! Why not?

Sorry, just needed to say that.