Greatest Match Round 2: Punk/Cena MITB vs. Guerrero/Lesnar NWO2004

[Everlong]

SquaredCircle's Greatest Match of All Time!

(1) JOHN CENA VS CM PUNK, MONEY IN THE BANK 2011


VS

(4) Brock Lesnar vs. Eddie Guerrero, No Way Out 2004



VOTE NOW for which you liked better. Voting will last six days. In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by which match had more people commenting in its favor.

[Everlong]

Really looking forward to this pairing. I haven't decided myself yet which one I'm going to vote for, two matches that I enjoy a ton.

[VaderBomb]

The ultimate David vs Goliath match vs the most exciting WWE match and storyline of the 2010s.

Fuck.

Punk/Cena was arguably the more important of two equally great bouts, so that's my pick.

[Kirbi]

Only got around to watching today (busy week), and it's Guerrero/Lesnar for the win!

I'm not sure what I can say about this except that I thought it was a little bit more. More fun, more action, more surprising, more Eddie, more everything! For me, it won by a bit on pretty much everything (except STFs... it won by more than a bit there ).

[Hanley!]

This one isn't remotely close for me. It's Eddie/Brock by miles. Cena/Punk was a good match because of the excitement built around that angle, but technically the match itself didn't compare. And the pay off afterwards wasn't nearly on the same level. Cena/Punk's aftermath was an immediate let down, whereas Eddie/Brock gave us a great Guerrero title reign.

The crowd and the energy were both great in the Cena/Punk match, and I don't think you can or should divorce those from the match itself. But there was a great vibe and crowd reaction in the Guerrero/Lesnar match too. But on every other level, it was a lot better.

Guerrero and Lesnar are, in my opinion at least, just much better wrestlers than Punk and Cena. They're much less sloppy, much better at selling, and better at showing personality in the ring (I'm not sure anyone was better at this than Eddie). Technically their match was far superior. There was a broader array of moves, and the moves looked more polished. Eddie's submission work was good, and Brock looked like a beast with some of his power moves.

The story they told was also superior. If they were trying to tell this kind of story today (about how dominant the big guy is), Brock would probably take at least 80% of the match and the challenger would end up looking like a chump. See Owens vs Zayn as an example. In this match, both guys took about 50%, but Eddie's offense was all taking clever pot shots and exploiting lapses of concentration on Brock's part. It made both guys look great. Brock came off as a monster who couldn't be beaten by anyone head on. Eddie came off looking like the crafty, thinking-man's wrestler.

Both matches had exciting, dramatic finishes, but Eddie/Brock has always been a sentimental favourite of mine, and the post-match celebrations are really nice. I hope that match claws it back and gets a little further in the tournament.

[EmperorWu]

Eddie/Lesnar by a mile. I can't really add anything extra that Hanley hasn't covered. This match should not lose. Hanley made a great point about how much personality Eddie showed in the ring. This is a bit lacking currently especially with the faces.

I honestly think it was better. However I have to admit I'm too much of a mark for Eddie to ever vote against him in future match ups. He's my favorite of all time, I can't help it. Am I the only one who will fall, or has fallen into that trap?