Not a popular opinion

Over the last 2 nights I've watched the 2 Shawn/Taker Mania matches and as I thought at the time I still prefer the 2nd one.

The first one had the gimmick entrances, the worst figure four I've ever seen attempted and a horror botch by Camerman Snuka, but still came out as an amazing match where Taker was in the ascendency for the most part and finally beat the resiliant Michaels.

The second one was much more even, less slick in its execution but without major man sausage-ups and with the streak/career stipulation had something riding on every pinfall attempt I found myself much more into it.

So, heres the main reason I think I'm in the minority for these opinions - the commentators for match 1 were JR, King and Cole. Match 2 had Striker, King and Cole.

I actually quite like Striker but its bloody obvious the other 2 hate him and at one point they can't even decide between them if HBK has just reversed a tombstone (he did, into an X-factor but none of them called it).

So just as Foley said all those years ago, Jim Ross can make a bad match good and a good match great - I happen to think in this case he made a great match one of the all time classics.

I can't think of the figure four you're talking about but the year earlier in HBK's program with Ric Flair, Jamie Noble taught Shawn an inverted Figure Four, it looked very awkward but it's a legit move

It was an inverted figure four HBK used so it looks abit screwed up.

Totally agree about the commentry, thats why I hope JR calls Rock Cena since it needs a commentry of quality.

Fair play, I missed the inverted figure four storyline (that was a sharpshooter back my day) but its not a legit move in the sense that there was no pressure point that I could see (and a year later he does a normal F4 almost as an admission that the other one didn't look good).

But yeah, that was the lesser of my gripes but I stand corrected.



JR definitely needs to be on commentary at Mania - Booker, King and Cole do not do it for me.

The weird pervy-face King character is just bizarre, as is the straight-laced heel play-by-play Cole. Booker is actually ok but as another face he doesn't really add anything to whats being said.

You can't beat a straight play by play guy with a heel chracter sitting next to him. Thats all you need - from Jesse and Tony to Gorilla and Bobby (and all combos inbetween), JR and the King (and Heyman with Ross) - all the best commentators need someone to play off (even ECW commentary got even better with the addition of Syrus)

I have always said JR can make any moment better and it is simply astounding Vince decides to constantly dump all over the best commentator he has ever had and the best play by play man we will see for a long time.

My commentary team would be JR, Regal and Striker. Regal is f*ckin hilarious and has made the transition from wrestler to commentator look easy as he is just that good with a microphone in front of him, Striker is also a great commentator and more importantly has built up an understanding with Regal and they blend well as a team.

Couple them with JR and I would mark the f**k out so much I would probably miss half the show!

Yeah could you imagine if Cole and Booker had done the Taker Mankind hell in a cell match.

Booker: I tell you Cole my boy Mankind has just had one bad fall dog, he's at the top of my fave five.

Cole: You know Undertaker is a deadman, the guys never had a girlfriend.

Just a point about Cole saying AJ is Bryans first girlfriend, I was fairly sure Bryan was doing Kim and The Bellas all at once last year.

DB is the Pumper of SmackDown! He's nailed more storyline chicks than Val Venis