Greatest Match Round 1: Michaels/Angle WM21 vs. Bryan/Sheamus ER 2012

[Everlong]

SquaredCircle's Greatest Match of All Time!

(1) SHAWN MICHAELS VS KURT ANGLE, WRESTLEMANIA 21



VS

(8) DANIEL BRYAN VS SHEAMUS, EXTREME RULES 2012



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

[Messiah]

Bryan/Sheamus was a very good match, but this one isn't very close. While I won't outright call it my favorite, Angle/Michaels may have the most replay-ability of any match in this tournament. Unlike other matches in this tournament, this match didn't rely on an exceptional moment or ending (of course, nothing is wrong with that) to boost it up a notch. This was outstanding throughout with a great finish. I figure Angle/Michaels will advance so I will go more in-depth with why I enjoyed this match so far. It certainly gets my vote here.

[Viazon]

Bryan vs Sheamus a brilliant match. Probably one of the best in the WWE for quite some time. But HBK vs Angle was just a show stealer. One of the greatest ring technicians against one of the greatest ring performers was always going to be a great match and they didn't disappoint.

[Everlong]

Yeah nothing against Bryan/Sheamus, it's a good match, but it probably wouldn't even sniff my top 100 and I'm actually really surprised to see it in this tournament. Michaels/Angle easily.

[KaiserGlider]

Easy elimination here in the first round. Bryan/Sheamus was a good match (perhaps unexpectedly, which may have contributed to its praise), but I don't know if it was even match of the night at that PPV over Brock Lesnar vs John Cena. Angle/Michaels is just a brilliant match on all counts, it deserves to be called one of the greatest matches of all time and I expect it to make it to the final 5 of this tournament.

[Circled Square]

I have fond memories of both matches. I'd make an argument that Bryan/Sheamus is a tad bit underrated. I have rewatched the Angles/HBK match multiple times, can't say the same for Sheamus vs. DB.

[SortaCreative]

Easy elimination here in the first round. Bryan/Sheamus was a good match (perhaps unexpectedly, which may have contributed to its praise), but I don't know if it was even match of the night at that PPV over Brock Lesnar vs John Cena. Angle/Michaels is just a brilliant match on all counts, it deserves to be called one of the greatest matches of all time and I expect it to make it to the final 5 of this tournament.

Just gonna quote Kaiser cos I have nothing more to add.

I like boobs.

There. I added something.

[The Legend]

Michaels vs Angle is on my short list to win this tournament and quite simply Bryan vs Sheamus isn't anywhere near that list. HBK and Angle put on an absolute athletic and storytelling clinic in that match that is still one of my best matches of all time.

[PorkChop]

Michaels vs Angle is the clear winner.

[Kirbi]

We watched Angle/Michaels yesterday and Bryan/Sheamus today. They were both very entertaining matches, and I'd seen neither the matches, nor any of their build, beforehand.

Angle/Michaels had a killer (if prolonged) finish. Bryan/Sheamus had a less good finish to me (I was for Bryan - I've never enjoyed him more than seeing him as a heel! They should've kept him that way, and had him control the crowd like a self-serving manipulator!)

But in the meat of the matches, Angle/Michaels dragged, and Bryan/Sheamus did not - it was consistently really entertaining to me and I didn't even have Angle in it, who's definitely my favourite performer out of these four guys.

Bryan/Sheamus for the win.

[Hanley!]

Yeah, I'm going for Bryan/Sheamus too.

I loved Angle/Michaels when I first saw it, and I still liked it a lot when I rewatched it yesterday. I would have guessed that I'd prefer it to the Bryan/Sheamus match. But having watched them back to back, I thought Bryan/Sheamus was better.

Probably a lot of people will go for Angle/Michaels on name value alone. They were bigger names, it was a more advertised match on a much more important show. That kind of thing makes a big difference to how a match is remembered, and justifiably so in my opinion.

But having watched the two matches basically back to back, I just found Bryan/Sheamus more enjoyable. The meat of the match had more going on. The matches actually had similar structures: starting with mat wrestling, moving towards more fast paced spots and ending with a lot of finishes and near falls. But weirdly I preferred the mat wrestling from Bryan & Sheamus. And while they didn't have the huge memorable near falls that Michaels/Angle had, the action during the middle of the match was better overall.

I preferred the face/heel dynamic in the Bryan/Sheamus match too. Both matches featured a split crowd, that actually favoured the heel slightly. But while Michaels worked slightly heelishly and blurred the lines in his match, Bryan and Sheamus stuck to their assigned roles and made the match work regardless of the crowd reactions. Bryan played heel very effectively in the match.

It might have just been the acoustics in the arena, but the crowd seemed hotter for Bryan/Sheamus too.

The one big plus to Michaels/Angle was the finish, which was electric. I remember jumping off my chair when I first watched the match, and it was still really cool on a rewatch. In comparison the finish to Sheamus/Bryan kinda came out of nowhere. It wasn't bad, but it was a little underwhelming.

These two matches are very close in my head, but while I'm probably more likely to remember the Angle/Michaels match, I found the Sheamus/Bryan match more enjoyable.

[EmperorWu]

I though I was the only one who was going to vote for Bryan/Sheamus there, when I saw it was 7 to my 1.

I didn't expect to like that match better but I did. I liked the flow of it much better. They seemed to have physiologically a better match, it made sense and worked well. I've never liked Sheamus but I was so impressed by him in this one. And it was nice seeing Bryan being a pretty decent heel. Angle/Shawn was a great match with legends but the flow of it wasn't great for me. A lot of high spots but the chemistry seemed off. I think the names and event carried it a little higher. Even so the Bry/Shea match had a super fucking hot crowd. It was cool to see how much of the audience Bryan won over during the match. He came out to almost all boos, and by the end he might have had more than half the audience. BRy/Shea may not of had as many high spots but it had a better flow and was just a better match, IMO of course. I can't entirely articulate why I liked it better but I just did.

Thankfully now I'm in good company with Kirbi and Hanley! I was too tired to write a post after watching the match when I got home last night. So I was expecting to log on today and see someone saying, "Who was the one idiot who voted for Bry/Sheamus?"

[Tom]

Angle vs Shawn was awesome. Easily the best match at Wrestlemania 21. But did it amaze me or did it come close to exceeding expectations? No. It was great, but I expected that from the two guys who were arguably WWE's two best performers at the time. I am not trying to put down the match here because it was great. But I don't get the same replay value out of it as most people do, and believe Shawn had two better matches than it at the previous two Wrestlemania's.

Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan on the other hand I actually rewatched recently and it still remains one of the best matches WWE have produced in many years. I remember being shocked by how good it was, and I don't even know why I was because Bryan is awesome and Sheamus is one of the most under rated in ring talents WWE have got. It is, arguably, the best WWE match I have seen over the past three years. The action, I felt, was much more fluent and exciting throughout than Angle vs Shawn and I think the overall story was better to. This is not taking into account that Sheamus and Daniel Bryan have an insane amount of chemistry, much better than Michaels/Angle in my opinion. If this match had happened the previous month at Wrestlemania I truly believe it would be considered one of the best Wrestlemania matches in recent memory, maybe even the best in recent memory.

Angle/Shawn was great (as expected) with a superb finish but Bryan/Sheamus was a much more entertaining bout throughout, had a much more engaging programme and had better chemistry than Angle/Shawn in my opinion. So yeah, I chose Bryan vs Sheamus!

[Str8Shooter]

I don't know what you guys are on, I just watched the Sheamus/Bryan match and wasn't all that impressed. It was good, but the superlatives thrown around the last few posts made me shake my head

I was half falling asleep during it, mind you I was exhausted and probably shouldn't have been watching anything , but still. Maybe I'll give it another go after HBK/Angle.

[KaiserGlider]

I must say I like the direction this thread has taken. This is the kind of thing that will make this tournament interesting.

[Str8Shooter]

Watched both matches today, by the way the Network is fucking awesome for this kind of thing.

Angle vs Michaels I remember really liking back when it happened and I've seen the match several times through the years since but not lately. Both guys did some good technical work early on and I liked the story where Michaels was managing to keep up with Angle on the mat much to everyone's surprise. Of course it degenerated into more of your traditional match. The table spot was cool with the moonsault onto it. The match really kicked into high gear for the final 5 minutes or so. Both guys used everything in their arsenal and it was really the precursor to a lot of today's matches with the false finishes and finishers. The ankelock was a badass move, and HBK looked like a champ fighting tooth and nail but just couldn't get free.


Bryan vs Sheamus was solid like I said earlier, but to me it wasn't in the same ballpark. The two out of three falls stipulation didn't seem all that necessary and just tacked on because of the Extreme Rules PPV. I feel like those matches should be longer and more of a war of attrition, which this didn't feel like. I also felt like the falls somewhat ended abruptly too, like they wanted to do more but maybe they had time constraints. The crowd didn't seem as into it as the HBK/Angle match as well. Maybe it's just an "Era" thing, but they sat on their hands a bit for this, with Bryan not as over as he would get later and Sheamus not really over.

The Angle/HBK match had the crowd standing and applauding afterwards, which made me believe it was something special. Bryan vs Sheamus didn't seem like much of a big deal. Anyway, that's my two cents

[VaderBomb]

Sheamus and Bryan tell a hell of a story in this one and I'm a sucker for Two out of Three falls matches. Their match at Extreme Rules was one of the best in recent memory.

Michaels vs Angle is a great, iconic match but I've always found it to be a tad overrated. The crowd reaction was bigger for them because they were bigger names on a bigger stage but a big feel doesn't necessarily constitute a better match.

My vote goes to Sheamus and Bryan.

[Everlong]

Yeah I watched Sheamus/Bryan again just to make sure I wasn't forgetting its brilliance or something, I'd last seen it live and I'd last fully rewatched Michaels/HBK about a year and a half ago.

I'm pretty much with Brett here, I guess I just don't get the hype. It's a really good match, but it just misses an element of it being special, I dunno. It was just sort of there. I think one of the major themes about this tournament is going to be whether or not atmosphere should be considered when evaluating these matches. And while it shouldn't be the primary factor, it certainly plays a role, and when you compare these two in terms of their atmosphere it's not even close. I think the quality of action in the ring, at least in my opinion, is close enough where the atmosphere is a clear tiebreaker.