Place to be Nation did a list of the 100 greatest matches in WWE history. I like making lists, and I've got plenty of time to waste, so I watched every match nominated and then submitted a ballot. Here's some stuff from that ballot that I put together.
I ended up watching close to 500 matches for this, most of which I had probably seen at least once before, but a lot of them, especially a lot of the 80s stuff, I watched for the first time. When I get to the stats later, you'll see the people who showed up on the list the most, and I'll talk about that a bit later, but there are some guys who aren't exactly heavily represented on here that bare mentioning.
The first thing worth mentioning is that not a lot of pre-Wrestlemania matches ended up getting nominated, and so I think its safe to say that there are big swathes of WWWF stuff that isn't represented here, and to be fair there's not a ton of 60s and 70s stuff around, but if a project like this comes around again, I'd be more inclined to look deeper into that sort of stuff. With wanting to watch everything nominated, there wasn't a ton of time to look beyond those nominated matches, but from limited viewing, it seems like Buddy Rogers might be worth looking into, and Pat O'Connor doesn't have many matches available, but I suspect if he did they'd all be pretty good. I'd be interested and watching more Bruno matches. I can already say that Bruno's blow-off match against Waldo Von Erich would have made my list if I'd seen it before submitting this ballot. The same goes for Ken Patera beating Pat Patterson for the Intercontinental title.
I hadn't seen any of Bob Backlund's prime before this, and the highs are pretty great. There's some stuff that stinks, singles matches against random tag guys and some of the other warm bodies can be interminable, but if you can get somebody in there that can bump around for Backlund, and somebody who is suited to have a long title match, he's great. He got three matches on my ballot, but there's a series of great matches with Greg Valentine, another great wrestler who had a ton of matches that just missed making this list, a very good match with a pre-Iron Sheik Hussein Arab, and a match with early Hulk Hogan that stand out.
Adrian Adonis has two matches on my list, and I'm not sure there are all that many more matches of his in the WWF that would be contenders, but he really stood out to me and as a guy who I would like to see more of. The same goes for Buddy Rose, who I'm sure when I get around to watching Portland will really shine, but he only has a handful of WWF matches, and most are way past his prime. In the same vein of guys who don't have matches that might make a newer iteration of this list, but I'd like to check out in other promotions, I'm pretty sure Sgt. Slaughter is one of the best wrestlers ever, and
I'd like to see more of his Crockett and AWA stuff. I also think that a deeper dive into early 80s MSG shows might end up having a few more Rick Martel and Tito Santana matches on future ballots, as they seem like real standout guys on the episodes of All Star Wrestling I've watched.
An unexpected source of great matches was the 80s women's division. The Jumping Bomb Angels are on my ballot once, but they have another match with the Glamour Girls on the first Royal Rumble that was very good and they are part of a great women's Survivor Series match in 1987. Speaking of the Glamour Girls, Judy Martin has a wild match with Desiree Petterson on a Boston Garden show that is pretty amazing and a Princess Victoria/Velvet McIntyre vs Wendi Richter/Peggy Lee match from MSG that really stood out.
Once you get into the Pay-Per-View era, there aren't a ton of matches that haven't been discussed at some point, and there are whole years that just kind of stink, like 1999 is a dud of a year, but there's a handful of things that stand out to me. Rey Mysterio single-handedly carries a great Elimination Chamber match, and makes a nondescript tag match with Kidman vs Haas and Benjamin into one of the best tag team matches I've ever seen, and a rematch that was also very close to making my list. He also has a series of matches with Andrade in 2019, one of which made this list, that are outstanding.
With all that said, here's all of the matches that I was either the high or low voter on.
Matches I was the high voter on:
AJ Styles vs John Cena - Royal Rumble 2017My Vote: 1
Finished: 41
Bret Hart vs Owen Hart - WrestleMania XMy Vote: 2
Finished: 5
Buddy Rogers vs Pat O'Connor - Capitol Wrestling TVMy Vote: 6
Finished: 189
AJ Styles vs Roman Reigns - Extreme Rules 2016My Vote: 7
Finished: 92
Adrian Adonis vs Bob Backlund - MSG House Show 1/18/1982My Vote: 13
Finished: 223
Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar - WrestleMania 33My Vote: 14
Finished: 127
World's Greatest Tag Team vs Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman - Vengeance 2003My Vote: 16
Finished: 157
Buddy Rose vs Bob Backlund - Madison Square Garden 8/30/1982
My Vote: 23
Finished: 301
Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan - Extreme Rules 2012
My Vote: 25
Finished: 126
Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle - Wrestlemania XX
My Vote: 32
Finished: 162
Glamour Girls vs Jumping Bomb Angels - Primetime Wrestling 11/24/1987
My Vote: 34
Finished: 177
The Shield vs Evolution - Extreme Rules 2014
My Vote: 38
Finished: 220
Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens - Battleground 2016
My Vote: 43
Finished: 286
Ember Moon vs Asuka - TakeOver: Brooklyn III
My Vote: 53
Finished: 243
Usos vs New Day - SummerSlam 2017
My Vote: 57
Finished: 400
Edge vs Rey Mysterio vs Kane vs Chris Jericho vs Mike Knox vs John Cena - No Way Out 2009
My Vote: 62
Finished: 415
Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton - WrestleMania 22
My Vote: 64
Finished: 424
Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens - TakeOver: Rival
My Vote: 70
Finished: 456
Rey Mysterio vs Andrade Almas - Smackdown 1/15/2019
My Vote: 71
Finished: 417
Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins - SummerSlam 2019
My Vote: 80
Finished: 483
Terry Funk vs Lanny Poffo - Madison Square Garden 7/13/1985
My Vote: 97
Finished: 552
Matches I was the low voter on:
Tito Santana vs Greg Valentine - Madison Square Garden 6/16/1984
My Vote: 93
Finished: 216
Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen - Madison Square Garden 8/7/1976
My Vote: 100
Finished: 250
I don't know how much the number of times a person appears on this list means, because I can say that, in general I think Daniel Bryan is a lot better than Shawn Michaels, even though he appears on this list less. There are people that are only in this list once that I like more than Steve Austin, who is on here 7 times, and near the top of my ballot multiple times. I do think that, given that Shawn is on here ten times, I probably do like him more than I'd like to admit, and that Brock Lesnar is better than I give him credit for. Kurt Angle and Triple H being on here 5 times a piece is also a bit of surprise, but they've had a ton of opportunities for great matches, so it isn't unexpected that they delivered in some of them.
The thing that stands out the most to me is Bret's twelve appearances. I don't think there are any matches on my ballot that are especially a reach, I was the high voter on only one of them, and that match finished in the top five of the final list. But I will say that I think there is something particularly about how and when I got into wrestling that make it so that I'm predisposed to like Bret Hart matches. I started actively watching wrestling, that is to say actually understanding what I was watching in 1993. Because of that, my conception of what a great wrestler should be, what a champion should be, what a great match is, is all based around the idea of Bret Hart. So, a Bret Hart match that delivers is almost an archetypal great match, and I'm more inclined to like that than almost any type of match, even after twenty plus years of watching wrestling.
Wrestlers appearing more than once:
12 Appearances: Bret Hart
10 Appearances: John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Brock Lesnar
8 Appearances: Daniel Bryan
7 Appearances: Steve Austin
6 Appearances: Roman Reigns
5 Appearances: Seth Rollins, Randy Savage, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Triple H
4 Appearances: Undertaker, Sami Zayn, Rey Mysterio, Sasha Banks, Hulk Hogan
3 Appearances: AJ Styles, Owen Hart, Johnny Gargano, Diesel, Adrian Adonis, Bob Backlund, Ultimate Warrior, British Bulldog, Dean Ambrose, Ricky Steamboat, Razor Ramon, Sgt, Slaughter, Bruno Sammartino, Edge, 1-2-3 Kid
2 Appearances: CM Punk, Andrade, Kofi Kingston, Bray Wyatt, Tomasso Ciampa, Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder, Roddy Piper, Eddie Guerrero, Batista, Randy Orton, Becky Lynch, Kevin Owens, Kane, Tito Santana, The Rock, Bayley, Christian, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair
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