Rants

What keeps a match from being 5-stars?

By Scott Keith on December 9, 2016

Hey Scott,


In your latest WrestleMania review you say, about the Savage/Warrior classic, " Still awesome, although the occasional goofed up spot and slightly anti-climactic ending leave it well short of perfection." (p.s. Savage/Warrior might be my favorite of all-time and I love the ending with the one-foot cover.)

That got me thinking about moves that have kept matches from going 5-stars, or in some cases, matches you’ve gone the full monty for despite having obvious goofed spots.

The first one that comes to mind is the TLC II Match from WMX-Seven. Jeff falling off the ladder, the contrived set-ups, all the interference from Rhyno, Lita,and Spike, plus a seriously underwhelming end. But you still went 5-stars.

Shawn/Taker W25 is another. Looks like Shawn totally blows that corkscrew moonsault, his crossface is super sloppy, his first super kick even kinda misses the mark.

Another one is the Bret/Austin WM13 match. One of my favorites, but at one point, Austin makes the ropes and Shamrock makes Bret break the hold. In a No DQ match? That always bugged me but I’ve never heard anyone mention it as a reason why the match isn’t perfect.

Question for the blog is: what are the spots that have kept a match from being otherwise perfect? Or, what blown spots do you overlook because the overall match is just so damn good it doesn’t matter.

​I dunno, normally I do a more holistic rating. I’m not sitting there picking out spots and timing the flow, I just watch a match and think "That felt like ****1/2" like I did with the TLC match last weekend. If there’s a sloppy spot or two it’s fine, but a bunch of them can definitely detract. Sometimes if the match is too short or too long, it can have an effect (like peaking the crowd 5:00 before the actual finish). ​Interference finishes drive me crazy (and that’s a big reason why the TLC match was only ****1/2, by the way) especially if they don’t make sense in context.

Really, to each their own. As they say, one man’s DUD is another’s classic. Just look at Miz.

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