What do you consider to be the biggest wrestling match of your lifetime?

[Luten]

Easy answer for me:

Stone Cold VS The Rock, WWF Title, Main Event of Wrestlemania 17, and also the greatest Wrestlemania of all time.

Nothing will ever replace that match for me, it was a perfect storm, with a perfect build and the culmination of the attitude era.

The stakes have never felt as high ever since for me as a fan.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Biggest match in my lifetime... well obviously the answer to that is probably Hogan/Andre, but I was 2 at the time and didn't even know what wrestling was.

In terms of the biggest match as a wrestling fan, it is easily The Rock vs Steve Austin at WrestleMania 17. This was the 90s equivalent to Hogan/Andre except I was old enough to watch it live, and it was amazing. The entire event in my opinion was perfect. The perfect WrestleMania, with the perfect main event.

Obviously I didn't enjoy Austin turning heel... I was an Austin fan over Rock any day of the week. I still am. But nothing before then or since will ever be considered as big as that main event... not Rock/Hogan, not Rock/Cena. The business was as popular and as big as it was ever going to get, and that is mostly because of these two guys, going at it during the height of each of their popularity.

Nothing bigger.

 

[deadman talking]

i would consider hogan vs warrior to be the biggest match in my lifetime. im sure my age added to the match. it was the first babyface vs babyface that i had experienced as well. as a kid i was so conflicted as to who i wanted to win. hogan was the superhero godlike wrestler to me, but warrior so fresh and new and had a ton of momentum. seeing hogan lose was something i didnt know how to react to. no matter how much i liked warrior. it was for sure the biggest match in my lifetime.

 

[Grizzly0u812]

Biggest wrestling match of my lifetime would have to be Hogan vs Andre because of how they booked it, Andre was supposedly undefeated for what 15 years or something, Hogan was the champion for a while, WWF was centred around Hogan popularity

Now what would of happen if he lost at Wrestle Mania 3 to Andre, how popular and successful would WWF have been having Andre as champion, clearly if Hogan lost the title we would not have seen Hogan vs warrior or macho man vs Hogan, the tournament for the title ect, Hogan vs Sargent Slaughter and more, same goes with some of the wrestlers like piper, Mr. Wonderful, Bundy, Big John Stud etc, a lot of these guys face Hogan many times, Macho Man attacked Hogan Shortly after coming in to WWF and look how popular he because and why because Hogan had the title and was the guy.

I feel that Match would of changed a lot of wrestling Landscape if Hogan lost to Andre that night

 

[TheLittleOne]

Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior is my answer. the total package, the buildup, the spectacle, considering their abilities, they both delivered in ring that night. especially nothing else on the card had a must see or hype.. heck most of everything else fell flat besides Brutus giving Perfect his first televised loss, and Demo regaining tag belts turning Andre Face & the anti- heenan segment..
it was the first time a babyface made losing feel like a win, great job by hogan. he was on fire after wm6 and went into a super hot feud with earthquake with great house show matches with Savage & Perfect..

Rock vs Austin was the two most popular wrestlers during the most popular time period when the whole wwe was considered COOL amongst Pop Culture and every event had solid low & mid card.. these two had perfect buildup, great athleticism, but the finish was wrong place wrong time to the point most fans either dont recall it or just didnt buy it..

Rock vs Hogan ( i was there @ skydome) was Electric Pure nostalgia. i dont believe that would have occurred if austin or any1 else replaced Rock.. instead of it feeling like a battle, it felt like rock allowing all of us who were now young men 18+ live out that traditional Hulka-mania gimmick.. the phrase passing of the torch is often misused here.. again Nostalgia. rock already shared that torch with austin for years..
true passing of the torch took place at WM21 & again at WM30.

all the GREAT matches we recall from WM like Dragon/Savage, HBK/Bret, Bret/Piper, Bret/Owen,HBK/Razor, HBK/Taker, on & on were all almost perfect or perfect wrestling matches.. athleticism + story telling.

An example of a match closer to Biggest in Lifetime was BRET vs Austin WM13 since besides great in ring work, a torch was truly passed there, a great example of a rub.. took austin into the biggest star after that night. BUT it could have had better build and didnt need HBK on commentary .. plus not sure the "box office" comes close to others.

Hogan vs Andre should be many fans answer, but i started watching full time in 1989, obviously saw everything on VHS from 84-88 within one year, but i wasnt a LIVE fan for hogan vs ANdre..that had even better Build up than Warrior/ Hogan. didnt deliver in ring but didnt need to. the spectacle and Hulk's gimmick was red hot and the man who really helped sell WM3 was Bobby The Brain Heenan.

now the man who had me invest the most emotion..on multiple occasions for his matches / feuds was Randy Macho Man Savage.. he did the whole overall game better than HBK & Flair.. he made his feud with Jake Roberts so damn intense some of u might be too young to recall the media and the parents outrage, but it clicked.. same goes for his feud with Flair which got the pay off Roberts' feud missed... also goes with Honky Tonk ( who sucked!) Carried Warrior both in ring & storyline greatly.. helped be the perfect Heel to Hulk's gimmick and probably the first truly believable foe for Hulk besides Piper.. and the overall greatest story every told imo by the WWE was Randy Savage and Elizabeth.. seriously epic story began in 1985 when he chose her over heenan/ fuji / all heel managers.. ran full time till 89 when he used sherri to help him get crazy heel heat.. while Liz still appeared like at summerslam89 w/brutus&hulk, WM6 & SummerSlam 90 w/ dusty... then the best payoff ever in wwe at WM7 giving warrior a great meaningful win after great feud, turning randy super face & Miss Elizabeth returned Randy went on to be great commentator for superstars w/ Vince & Perfect or Vince & Piper.. then returned to great feud w/ Roberts.
if warrior didnt leave after SS91 WM8 would have been Flair losing belt to Hogan, Savage no holds barred with roberts, Sid & Warrior no contest! & Taker vs Shango.

sorry about the rant off topic, Randy Savage again still brings out emotion in me, anyone else..??? His Best match was wm3, Biggest was Wm5, best story WM7, Best house show performance was Face Savage w/ Liz defending title against upcoming Heel HBK w/ Sherri.. or FLAIR & HBK vs SAVAGE & BRET.. classic

since i ranted on , let me use this time to mention something on my mind i have heard NO 1 else bring up... the strange cameras added to the steel posts first seen at fastlane.. steel caps added to the top of the steel posts making the height look strange with the top rope and takes away the " head first slingshot" but i guess might capture cool footage & moments sometimes in a new method... i have an idea this is a bigger attempt by wwe to create a new way to watch a match either live or back on dvd/network.. imagine all four camera shots at once or using the app being able to switch YOURSELF to a different view.. this would allow the fans to capture the " HBK i'm sorry, i love you Superkick" in groundbreaking ways...

who else noticed this? who else feels it is something bigger than just used twice to replay a 3 second spot like at fastlane???

what say you?

 

[MrTDG]

The biggest match that I ever saw from start to finish in terms of build, the business it did, mainstream appeal, and my own personal investment into the feud would have to be the Mega Powers exploding at Wrestle Mania V.

I was a huge Hulk Hogan fan as a child in the 1980s but as the decade drew to a close, Macho Man eclipsed Hogan in my eyes. Th e match was 18 months in the making, much like the Sting/Hogan and Bret/HBK matches. It was arguably the best portrayal of wrestling meets soap opera. There were so many layers to this feud and many have revisited the feud as they got older and can totally see this from the Macho Man's perspective.

Hulk Hogan himself he made more money with the Macho Man than he did with anyone else. The numbers are there, the buys are there, and the only negative on this feud overall was the infusion of Zeus into the storyline. I remember people like Magic Johnson and other celebrities being asked who they thought was going to win. Their WrestleMania V match had the attention of the mainstream. Jesse Ventura's words before the start of the match "this is the main event, it don't get no bigger than this" really summarizes how I feel about this match.

I only wish that Savage and Hogan could've switched the belt (perhaps at SummerSlam '89). Can you imagine Randy Savage with his Macho King gimmick and being world champion at the same time? Hogan could've won the title back at the December PPV they did, replacing the Beefcake/Hogan vs. Savage/Zeus cage match.

 

[Waylon Mercy]

Hogan vs. Warrior at WM VI was huge. This was before the internet, and there really was a lot of hype about who was coming out on top. It doesn't rank among my favourites, but it is one of the biggest in terms of build-up.
Definitely, though, Stone Cold vs. Bret at WM XIII was one of the greatest moments I experienced as a wrestling fan. It was masterfully executed, with a double turn to boot. IT was particularly hardcore too, which brought out another side of the Hitman that I had never really seen to that point. I loved seeing that aggressive side of him, and that it was Stone Cold who brought that out of him.

 

[mizowns]

Hogan vs Andre is the biggest. It changed it all.
Hogan vs Warrior was two biggest babyfaces in that era, and was incredible.

But I have to say: Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs The Rock - was FUCKING AWESOME!

That was just insane. Look at the crowd man! They were going nuts! And the ring-psychology and all that stuff.

Fuck, that was WRESTLING

 

[Just Do It]

In my lifetime I'd say Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels from Survivor Series 97. It's been discussed to death and it doesn't need going into here yet again. If you don't know the story please use the search function of the board. But this match really did change the course of wrestling history moving forward more than any other match I can think of.