Greatest Match FINALS: Austin/Hart vs. Styles/Joe/Daniels

[Everlong]

SquaredCircle's Greatest Match of All Time!

(1) Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Submission Match, WrestleMania 13



VS

(2) AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe, Unbreakable 2005



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]

After a break (sorry, totally forgot!) IT'S FINALLY HERE

Which match is, in the opinion of our esteemed website, the GREATEST OF ALL TIME??

DISCUSS!!! VOTE!!! DISCUSS AND VOTE!

[VaderBomb]

Where's the poll?

[Everlong]

I don't know what you are talking about.

[The Legend]

I've done a lot of voting, but not a lot of commenting on the tournament to this point, but I'll really dig into both of these matches and be much more detailed for this one. I will say, surprised this is the championship.

[VaderBomb]

The triple threat is one of the greatest matches of all time. It's certainly the best TNA match and likely the greatest triple threat match that I've seen. All three guys (all extremely passionate wrestlers) absolutely tore the house down that night.

Hart/Austin, though. You can't beat it.

The best brawl of all time. The ultimate double turn. The best usage of a guest referee. The most iconic bleeding in existence. The two most exiting wrestlers to work for the WWF in the 90s telling one of the greatest stories ever told in the best match in WWF/E history. Although I've seen a few matches that are better, they're all AJPW matches and none of them had a chance due to lack of exposure.

Hart/Austin deserves to win this tournament. 100%

[Everlong]

Let's go people, it's the finals, let's get more than four votes in!!!

[Hanley!]

Despite a few matches staying in the tournament way too long, and others not getting far enough (in my opinion of course), I think this is a really good final.

The triple threat is the best match of its kind, featuring the best actual wrestling moves and sequences in the entire tournament. Just three great performers hitting every move to perfection, coming up with some very creative exchanges, and never opting for the easy way out by having someone just lying dead on the floor for prolonged periods.

The Austin/Hart isn't quite as perfect technically, but it features some fantastic brawling, excellent character work and some of the best in-ring storytelling in wrestling history. The double turn is executed perfectly. The match really brings fans along for the ride, and by the time we reach the end of the match we're willing to admire Austin's tenacity and look down on Bret for his sourness and his increasingly bad-tempered nature. It features one of the most iconic moments in wrestling history, one of the most iconic visuals in wrestling history and did something original by getting their upcoming star to the next level with a defeat rather than a victory.

It's a close contest, but I have to pick Austin/Hart because I consider storytelling more important than anything in wrestling. And while the storytelling in the triple threat was good, it can't compare to Austin/Hart.

[VaderBomb]

Seven votes and only two responses.

[War Daddy]

I loce SCSA but cant stand Hart. I vote triple threat.

[VaderBomb]

I just got done watching my childhood VHS of WrestleMania 13 for the first time in about two years and my god has there ever been another match in WWF/E that was as perfectly booked and articulated as Hart/Austin?

Every single strike from both men looks unforgiving. Once Austin starts bleeding, Bret legitimately pounds almost a dozen leveraged fists into his open wound. Every shot that Austin's skull connects with the steel post. Unreal. Tony Atlas getting hit in the nuts with Bret's foot after Austin sends Bret over the barricade into the front row is pure magic.

When Austin catapults Bret into the ring stairs? Probably the best stairs bump I've ever seen, and that includes Mick Foley. Sure Mick's had a few bumps that were more brutal but the way that Bret throws his body into them is unmatched on a cinematic level. The chair shots were revolutionary for the time and the fact that the first few minutes of the match takes place in the crowd was a game-changer.

The match is a total opposite to their strictly wrestling based match at Survivor Series 1996, but the wrestling isn't lacking by any means. The storytelling is top notch. The way that Bret works Austin's knee and Austin targets Bret's neck and back is poetic. Every move is as crisp as possible. Stunner at the most surprisingly moment, a perfect swinging neck-breaker from Bret matching the intensity of the early-bird Stunner. Perfectly executed slams, tight suplexes, snapping lariats! The work rate is so classic 90s WrestleMania but so different all at once because Bret and Austin take everything to the next level emotionally. Austin almost breaking the Sharpshooter only to be propped right back into it is a heartbreaking moment.

The commentary and crowd were the tops that night, only helping the overall experience. Don't even get me started on that blade job and blood loss or the moment after the match when Bret cowardly backs down to Shamrock and gives a PERFECTLY timed middle finger to a fan in the front row. Fuck, even the pre and most match mannerisms from all three men are perfection.

Hart/Austin from WM13 really does deserve to win this tournament. The emotional response that it demands is akin to a great film or book. They cut to Bret's daughter in the crowd covering her eyes as her father is being picked apart by a big bald vulture. I was crying while watching this shit. This is a match that I've watched probably over 50 times counting my childhood. It's still that fucking good.

[The Legend]

I'm going to start off with saying something obvious. Both of these matches are fantastic and have unbelievable moments and feats of athleticism in them. But I have to choose one to vote to win this tournament and that's exactly what I'll do. The match I choose to win this tournament as the best match ever is Hart vs Austin in a submission match at WrestleMania 13.

The reason I'm choosing this match over the triple threat is simple, unpredictability. That's not really to say one match had a more unpredictable winner than the other match. What was unpredictable was what we would see in both matches and the type of entertainment delivery both matches would give us.

I'll start by talking about the triple threat. To be honest this match was always going to be the underdog in this final contest to me and I'd really have to be blown away re-watching it by remembering something I'd forgotten or the match being better than I thought it was. The reason being is triple threats are pretty much never a favorite of mine, and while this match is by far the best triple threat I've ever seen and it did a better job than most about being tight in telling it's story in the ring and breaking from convention some, this match still had too much predictability in spots and type of action.

The first 10 minutes of action were all predictable in having two guys gang up on one guy for a while and then switch roles with somebody else being ganged up on. You have to do it in a triple threat because it's hard to have three men fighting simultaneously, but it makes it predictable. A lot of the spots were exciting and fantastic to look at, but at the end of the day they were somewhat predictable still. All the same things can be said about the last 5 minutes of action with spots being designed to take guys out of the ring and having two guys go head-to-head in near falls and false finishes.

That being said, the best wrestling out of either of these two matches was definitely found in the middle 15 minutes of the triple threat. The moves and action that Joe, AJ and Daniels had was thrilling. The combination of moves outside the ring and inside of it was fantastic and the choreography of the the whole thing was somewhere between a master ballet and a cirque du soleil show.

Now for why I chose Austin vs Hart as the winner. Going back and looking at this match as if I didn't know anything about the match as a first time viewer, I found the match fascinating and thrilling. Not only did they deliver an entertaining product, but they did it in a fashion of giving me a bunch of things I would have never predicted seeing from the match. First of all, when you think of a submission match and a Bret Hart match, you are expecting a much more technical straight-forward wrestling match. It's somewhat surprising for them to go right out and break down into an aggressive brawl. The brawl was very effective and the crowd spots were better than most. Next thing you don't expect to see is a mid-match double turn, because WWE does them so rarely, so when gets executed flawlessly like this it blows you away. Finally, Austin passing out and Hart winning was the perfectly booked finish to help both characters in their new heel-face alignment.

Those reasons are why Hart vs Austin wins this tournament in my mind.

[Viazon]

I feel bad because I feel like I haven't really contributed in the latter stages of this tournament. However, seeing as this is the final, I had to have my say.

There are not a lot of matches that I have watched that I thought were better than the triple threat. It amazed me when I watched it the first time and after watching it again it was just as amazing.

I feel I have to echo a few of the statements made by others here. This was wrestling story telling at its best. And while some people may argue that this is a tournament on the greatest match and not the greatest feud. But I have always believed that a huge part of the success of a wrestling match is down to the story. If you have a five star match without much of a story line to it and you have a 4 star match with an amazing story line to it, the latter will always stand out more. And it's not just telling a story leading up to a match. It's telling a story while the actual match is taking place too. This is why I give my vote to Hart/Austin.

[Everlong]

I too voted for Hart/Austin. I had a feeling from the early stages that this match was going to win it all, and there were only a couple matches in this tournament that could have potentially toppled it for me.

I might be a bit biased in this vote because I am not (and never have been) a TNA fan. It's not that I dislike TNA, I just never took the time to watch it. So even watching this match, which I do whole-heartedly agree is outstanding, it doesn't strike the same emotional chord with me that Hart/Austin does. Another factor at play here that makes me biased is the fact that this match occurred when I was a very young and impressionable wrestling fan who was even more struck by the magical moments of wrestling than I am now, at the rare times we get them.

And simply put, there is no more magical moment in wrestling than the end of Hart/Austin. It created arguably the biggest star in history of the WWF/E, and at the very least the biggest star in its most important era. That shot of Austin refusing to tap out to the sharpshooter while screaming through a crimson mask has been replayed over and over again. It is the single most iconic image in WWE history, period, and there is a LOT of competition for that crown. And there's a reason why it's ascended to such a level... because this match is, in my opinion, the greatest story ever told within a single wrestling match in the WWE.

You have the cocky up and comer squaring off against the beloved, grizzled veteran who has performed on the biggest stage in the business over and over again. The newcomer seems in over his head but is unfazed, refusing to give up. The fans can't help but admire his tenacity and start to get behind him. The veteran begins to get frustrated, both at his inability to fully put away the newbie and at the fans' sudden support of him. Something finally snaps in him and he unleashes his inner darkness, and the fans' support completely shifts by the end of the match. It's so simple, yet it's so effective and it's done to perfection in this match. It's a story that'd been done before and has been done since, but never to such a degree and with the quality of performers in that ring.

Bret Hart is the greatest in-ring storyteller there's ever been and ever will be. It's not just a nickname, it's fact. His emotions sell this so perfectly, and Austin, who is a phenomenal in-ring storyteller in his own right (especially at that point before he'd been demolished by injuries), holds up his end of match really well. These guys had perfect chemistry with each other, but also with the audience.

It really is the perfect wrestling match. Maybe not the greatest technical match of all time, but it has literally everything you could ever want out of professional wrestling. It is the purest example of just how good pro wrestling can be when it's at a high point. And it's also really fucking depressing to look at it and compare it to what we have today.

[Everlong]

but cant stand Hart

Also, I'd like to hear more about this? @War Daddy

[War Daddy]

but cant stand Hart

Also, I'd like to hear more about this? @War Daddy

He was always just rubbing me the wrong way. Never wanted to move on from the 80s, had next to no charisma(to me), always needed to have his own creative powers, and for gods sake, wouldn't lose the title in Montreal forcing the company to make its own moves.

I also get that he was loyal to the WWE but when times change you move forward. Don't refuse to move just because your character lost its shine.

Also, being a HUGE Shawn Michaels fan has nothing to do with this.

[VaderBomb]

HART VS AUSTIN WINS THE WORLD!!!