Comparing the Shawn Michaels .vs. The Undertaker matches

[The Newfie Bullet]

This is my first thread , so there will probably be a few mistakes.

I got this thread idea earlier this afternoon after I had watched both of these matches, my question to you is which one do you think is better and why, or were both matches at the same level?

Wrestlemania 25: This was an excellent match, without a dought the main thing that accually made this event feel like the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania.There was a perfect amount of reversals , high flying , and submissions. This match was also a finsher highlight feel with both men kicking out of several of the other's finishers.There were a lot of great spots such as Undertaker diving into the camera man and the match ending moonsault into a tomstone. There was a great atmosphere in this match and the commentary made it even better.


Wrestlemania 26: Great match with added stipulations , this match was career vs streak , and it was no dq. The in-ring action was great, there was a lot of highflying ,submissions , and finishers like their previous match. The emotion put into the match by both Hbk and Undertaker was great as well.I think what killed this match was the commentary ,Matt Stricker is a pretty good commentator but in this match he did a lot of shouting , especially when one kicked out of the others finisher. The crowd was also dead for the first part of this match ,they were silent during the entrances and the near falls and didnt really become alive untill the ending. The match was still good and it was all capped off with an emotional farewell for a retiring Shawn Michaels.

So overall i thought both matches were fantastic , though most people would say the WM 25 match was better I think the in-ring action for both was at the same level. Like I said earlier I think the only downfall to the WM 26 match was the commentary and the dead crowd. If J.R was available at the time I think the WWE should have called him up to join King on commentary instead of having Michael Cole and Matt Stricker there. However, I really enjoyed the emotion that took place in their 2nd match with HBK retiring and the handshaking and embracing and all.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[The Perfect Max]

I personally think the WrestleMania XXV Match was 10x better. The only reason being is that WrestleMania XXVI was just a repeat with an added stipulation. The only reason WrestleMania XXVI had emotion was because no one wanted The Undertaker to lose and no one wanted Shawn Michaels to retire.

WrestleMania XXV Match - 10/10
WrestleMania XXVI Match - 9/10

 

[TheCanadianBadassJB]

hmm...tough one, im going with 25. just like Max220298 says, 26 was pretty much the same thing with a slight twist. that's all there is to it

 

[Truly Phenomenonal]

Well, I would have to say that the WrestleMania 26 Match was better, I can certainly see the argument by saying the WrestleMania 25 match was better, and it probably was action wise. However the build-up and story for WrestleMania 26 made it more enjoyable.

 

[Loveless]

Honestly they're about even on the whole. 25 had the initial excitement, it had an Undertaker who could still move and a better build (though not finish) towards the end. However, the botched suicide dive took a significant energy out of it.
26 had a better build up to wrestlemania and a great act of final rebelllion to end the match but it was a slower match, it didn't have the same excitement of the previous year and as I remember, the crowd sucked.

 

[The Underking]

Both of them are on my top five favorite wrestling matches. But the fact is while Shawn vs. Taker II WM is in the top five. Shawn vs. Taker I WM is my favorite wrestling matches period. This was the first Pay Per View I bought since WM 23 I had four freinds and I just remember how at the time all of us were still casual fans. They start, the kick outs, the finish were all just great. I admit the finish for Taker vs. Shawn II was much better but the original match takes the cake.

 

[Derekscheapseat]

It all depends on what is more important to you personally. I don't think there was much of a difference in the two and I am definitely not one to be upset with a rematch. I really don't understand people's problem with the latter. To think that no rematch could ever live up to a great original match is ridiculous. Personally, I was happy that two true legends were put in a match together. Same thing with Trips and 'Taker last year. When I see a match like that on the card I know that if nothing else, I will enjoy that match.

Gun to my head I'd pick their WM26 match. We all knew Shawn was retiring (at least you should have) but when that 3-count actually happened, it became real. I went into that match assuming that Shawn would be one of those rare folks that actually stays retired and therefore the match had insane significance to me. I'm of course thrilled by the fact that I had Michaels pegged correctly(for now at least) and it is about time that I was sold on a retirement match that lived up to the name.

 

[mrpops]

Personally they were both 5 star/AAA/10 out of 10 matches. FACT!

Its simply a matter of opinion of which you perfered more. Ive thought it about it alot and i feel like the first match at WM25 was better. NOT because it was first, but because i perfer that style they did.

With WM26, they both said "well, our match last year was amazing but we cant do the same fucking thing or it will bashed for being too similar" "lets do something different".

And they did do something different....and they suceeded! Both are 10/10 matches.

But if i HAD to pick...i perfer the first match because i like that style more.

 

[boozinjedi]

I would have to say WM25 was better,
Because:
1.At the time,they might have had HBK actually end the streak.
2.It had to be the longest non-iron man match in Mania history!
3.You never knew when it would OR how it would end!
4.The entrances alone were amazing,Taker arising from "hell"..HBK decending from "heaven"

BOTH guys earned their money that night!!

 

[Trill Co$by]

Why are we limiting the HBK and Taker matches to just the mania showdowns? I must be having a long night at 2:23 in the morning but even still, my brain's working enough to know that their greatest matches, though they were gimmicks, were in the 90s when they didn't have the injuries piled on.

For example, Bad Blood 1997... the debut of Hell in a Cell which saw HBK again set the bar in pro-wrestling and Taker showcase why he was a future star... oh and the debut of Kane. 30 Minutes of straight violence and psychology for a match that nobody really seemed to be a fan of. Oh and if HBK's book is anything to go by, this is also where the mesh steel cage came into play for WWE.

Or how about Royal Rumble '98 where Shawn threw his back out (legit) and still found a way to continue the match before leaving for five years.

If you ask me, HBK and Taker matches are all amazing and a great part of that is because you can count the number of them on one hand which makes them a dime a dozen.

But yeah, of the two Mania matches, I would say that 26 was the better. It was more emotional in the sense that HBK knew he could be the Undertaker and everyone else also knew that if there ever was such a person then HBK would be it seeing as he was Mr. Wrestlemania.

 

[GameOver]

I agree. the two had only battled one on one several times up until the last 3 yrs and each match was great, which just goes to show why they are both legends, sure they weren't necessarily epic matches prior to the last storyline .

for me if i chose, i'd say the first one was the better match from a technical standpoint, and there was still a slim chance that HBK might actually pull it off

The leadup for the first one was better, but the emotion of the second match and the entrances and HBK's god ascending from heaven mode was off the chart compared to the first, as Shawn said it was like the pressure was off, he knew he was leaving and there was no pressure to have to go on after if it didn't end up being awesome wheras the first one they wanted to make it truly epic

choice WrestleMania 26 overall

a testement to Shawn too, 4yrs in a row b4 his back injury and 7yrs in a row after returning he had PWI match of the year and all but one of them was at WrestleMania's.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Both matches were great for different reasons. The first was more of a showcase between two legends trying to one up the other. Heaven VS Hell. Michaels VS Taker. Mr Wrestlemania VS The Streak. The match was one of the greatest of all time. While the second match was a tiny bit below the first in quality, it made up for that in its story. Shawn was determined to get revenge for his loss the previous year, he put his career on the line and went out in legendary fashion stealing the show one final time. The two matches are both 5 star matches. Both were by far the best of the show they were a part of, and both had amazing builds. When it comes down to it, I still like the first one a little better because the in-ring part was nearly flawless and the awesome entrances added to how great the build had been. That doesn't mean the second wasn't amazing too. There can only be one superior match out of the two, and it was the first one.