Greatest Match Round 1: Guerrero/Mysterio vs. Hart/HBK Iron Man

[Everlong]

SquaredCircle's Greatest Match of All Time!

(3) Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio, Title vs. Mask, WCW Halloween Havoc 1997



VS

(6) Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, Iron Man Match, WrestleMania XII



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.

[Messiah]

Mysterio/Guerrero and quite frankly, it isn't even close for me. That is one of the most re-playable matches of all-time. It is the best WCW match I have ever watched (admittedly, not too many) and arguably Guerrero and Mysterio at their absolute peak.

Hart/Michaels wasn't bad, but it would have been even better if not for the Iron Man stipulation. As it was, I just wasn't interested in it nearly as much as I was Guerrero/Mysterio. Maybe I need to go back and watch it again, but I would be shocked if Guerrero/Mysterio didn't still get my vote.

[The Legend]

I fear that this battle will be decided without people giving Hart/HBK a fair chance and maybe not watching it at all because of its length. That's a real shame. It's the most memorable and fascinating match of my childhood. I love every second of that match. Every single thing both guys do in that match means something. The tension they build throughout that match with every nearfall is palpable. The ending is booked perfectly. Add in it the chemistry these guys had as great performers who had real tension with each other and this match is simply a masterpiece.

Guerrero and Mysterio is a fine match. It's a really good match, but you can find a cruiserweight match like this on just about every WCW PPV. With the action involved and everything else, it's fine, but it doesn't stand out.

[VaderBomb]

I fear that this battle will be decided without people giving Hart/HBK a fair chance and maybe not watching it at all because of its length. That's a real shame. It's the most memorable and fascinating match of my childhood. I love every second of that match. Every single thing both guys do in that match means something. The tension they build throughout that match with every nearfall is palpable. The ending is booked perfectly. Add in it the chemistry these guys had as great performers who had real tension with each other and this match is simply a masterpiece.

Guerrero and Mysterio is a fine match. It's a really good match, but you can find a cruiserweight match like this on just about every WCW PPV. With the action involved and everything else, it's fine, but it doesn't stand out.

You knows it.

[Viazon]

I just finished watching both match today.

The iron man match was a hugely entertaining match, there is no doubt about that. But as great as it was, it gets daunting watching a match for a whole hour. It started off with some decent ring based wrestling and had a fairly steady pace and I felt it never really properly got going until the half hour mark. Then it really hit top gear.

The Rey/Eddie match was considerably short in comparison but was a brilliant match throughout. It was so smooth and just flowed nicely. You could tell it was a match between two good friends who knew each other really really well. The chemistry they had was great. Both matches were fantastic, but I could find no fault with this match. So it gets the vote for me.

[Tom]

For me it is Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio, and it is not even close.

Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart, for me, is one of the most over rated matches in WWE history. The whole "Boyhood Dream" story was good, and I think WWE did a good job of gaining sympathy for Shawn in the build up to the match. But the match itself dragged. It had some cool moments but the Iron Man stipulation hurt this one more than it helped it in terms of quality. I think the fact that it ended 0-0 hurt it also. One of the things I love about Iron Man matches is the constant twists and turns in the scoreline, and how a character can drag their way back into the match over the course of the period. This match didn't have that though, and that didn't help my interest throughout. It is why Rock vs Trips and Brock vs Angle's iron man matches are so much better than this match in my opinion.

I have watched a lot of WCW over the course of the last year, and been exposed to a lot of the Cruiserweight matches from WCW during the period of 96/97. This was by far one of the best cruiserweight matches I watched during that period, and was certainly one of the best matches WCW ever showcased. The story was awesome, the spots were awesome and most of all Rey Mysterio was awesome. He was not only the best luchador WCW had in my opinion but the best underdog the company had as well, he was so easy to vouch for simply because of how good he was in the ring and how he presented himself.

People will try and argue that this was your typical cruiserweight match. I disagree with that entirely. The finish was incredibly well done, something you didn't see in every cruiserweight match in WCW. Some of the spots Mysterio hit were ones he pulled off for the first time in his WCW career. And the ferocity at which Eddie landed many of his moves did an awesome job of making you route for Mysterio. Eddie was such a hated character at the time, and you could feel that with every move he performed. There was much more emotion in both men's performances than in Hart vs Shawn in my opinion.

On a side note I would like to mention how good the commentary was in WCW back then. Tenay, Heenan, Schiavone, Rhodes etc did an awesome job of making every moment, every character trait mean a whole lot more, and that was incredibly evident in this match. It's something that's missing from WWE these days, and has been missing for a long long time.

So yeah for me it is Mysterio vs Eddie because the action was more exciting and consistent, the story was awesome, what was showcased was incredibly fresh and the commentary sold both characters perfectly!

[Everlong]

Hart/HBK is an incredible match. But I'm going Mysterio/Guerrero, for several reasons:

1) It is infinitely more rewatchable, probably a lot because of the length and pacing but also I think it's an example of two guys at the very top of their game coming together with perfect chemistry.

2) This was an example of two guys doing stuff in the ring that a lot of the mainstream wrestling audience had never really seen before.

Plus, this has just always been one of my two or three favorite matches ever.

I love the Iron Man match, but they're really tedious to watch when it's not in the moment. This is a case where the match probably suffers because I didn't see it live.

[SortaCreative]

If Hart/Austin is the best Mania match.

Hart/Michaels would be #2. It's absolutely incredible.