My Favorite Match: WWE Superstars Tell the Stories of Their Most Memorable Matches (2012)

Written by Jon Robinson
Grade: D

A book like this should be re-done for the modern roster. I think it would be appreciated more. Plus, it gives them a chance to do it correctly.

Summary

The title is exactly what the book is about. It’s all about a selected group of WWE superstars’ favorite matches. The superstars chosen for the book are The Miz, Randy Orton, John Morrison, Shawn Michaels, Goldust, Jerry Lawler, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Sgt. Slaughter, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Mark Henry, Sheamus, Wade Barrett, R-Truth, Alex Riley, Zack Ryder, Triple H, William Regal, Jack Swagger, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Kane, Rey Mysterio, and Alberto Del Rio. The Miz picked his WWE Championship Match against John Cena at WrestleMania XVII, despite him getting a concussion and not remembering the match, Randy Orton picked his Hardcore Match for the Intercontinental Championship against Cactus Jack at Backlash (2004), John Morrison chose his match against Charlie Haas on Raw because Haas accidentally bumped ring announcer Lillian Garcia off the ring apron and got booed the whole match, Shawn Michaels selected his retirement match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XVI, Goldust picked the Hollywood Backlot Brawl against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania XII, Jerry Lawler chose his infamous match against Andy Kaufman at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1982, and Christian picked his Ladder Match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio at Extreme Rules (2011).

In addition, Cody Rhodes picked his tag team match with Ted DiBiase Jr. against D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H) at SummerSlam (2009), Sgt. Slaughter chose his Alley Fight against Pat Patterson at Madison Square Garden in 1981 but goes off on a tangent about his career and talks about his Boot Camp Match with The Iron Sheik much more, leaving the WWF to film G.I. Joe: The Movie, and his character turning into an Iraqi sympathizer upon his return. All of which had nothing to do with the book at hand.

Dolph Ziggler picked his World Heavyweight Championship Match against Edge at the Royal Rumble (2011), Kofi Kingston picked the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXV, Roddy Piper picked his Hair vs. Hair Match against “Adorable” Adrian Adonis at WrestleMania III, and Dusty Rhodes selected the first match of his trilogy for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship against “Superstar” Billy Graham at Madison Square Garden in 1977. Mark Henry chose his Casket Match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 22, Sheamus picked the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament against John Morrison on Monday Night Raw in 2010, Wade Barrett selected his match against John Cena at Hell in a Cell (2010), R-Truth selected his match for the WWE Championship against John Cena at Capitol Punishment, Alex Riley chose his match against The Miz at Capitol Punishment, Zack Ryder chose a match against Primo on an episode of WWE Superstars in 2011, Triple H chose his Unsanctioned Street Fight against Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam (2002), William Regal picked his Duchess of Queensbury Rules Match against Chris Jericho at Backlash (2001), and Jack Swagger chose his ECW Championship Match against Christian at Backlash (2009). Ricky Steamboat selected his iconic match against “Macho Man” Randy Savage at WrestleMania III, which he admitted wasn’t his favorite until much later because so many others told him how it revolutionized wrestling and inspired so many.

Kane picked his first match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XIV, Rey Mysterio picked his Title vs. Mask Match against Eddie Guerrero at Halloween Havoc (1997), and Alberto Del Rio chose his first match ever. This was a tag match back when he was known as Dos Caras Jr. where he teamed with his father Dos Caras against El Azteca and Hayabusa in Japan in 2000.

My Thoughts:

Asking professional wrestlers what their favorite matches are when looking at their entire careers is a great idea for a book. Even so, My Favorite Match: WWE Superstars Tell The Stories of Their Most Memorable Matches leaves a lot to be desired. There is massive potential here with the idea, but there are so many frustrating elements to this book that you can’t help but feel a bit annoyed as you question so many things about it from the structure to the content.

First of all, the selection of stars isn’t as beefed up as it should be. Instead of going big and asking guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan (no matter how predictable their choices may be), we get guys like Alex Riley and Wade Barrett instead. They didn’t even get the biggest star of the era in John Cena! How do you not ask him? Considering how short each answer is and how Cena was still a full-time member of the roster during this time period, there’s no reason as to why he wasn’t asked. You could’ve gotten his answer in a five-minute discussion with the author or even a phone call. You’re telling me you went out of your way to ask Dolph fucking Ziggler, but you didn’t ask John Cena? How is this possible? What about CM Punk? Also, when looking at the WWE tenures of guys like Riley and Barrett in total, and the fact that this book came out in 2012, they were only on the main roster two years up until that point. Asking a wrestler about their favorite match that early into their career doesn’t make sense because for fans, we’ve likely seen everything they’ve done. This question should be reserved for veterans with lengthy careers who have a lot of matches to choose from. The territory guys or wrestlers under Legends contracts would’ve been huge for a book like this, but we only hear from Dusty Rhodes, Jerry Lawler, Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, and Ricky Steamboat. Where are guys like Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Edge, Mick Foley, or Bob Backlund? With the exception of Lawler, the legends also only pick matches they had in WWE too. Though I could be wrong here, but was this a case of WWE trying to disregard the history of other companies and having these guys only talk about matches under the WWE/F umbrella? It’s just speculation, but when you consider how storied the careers of some of these guys were, I just felt like they were holding back their real answer.

Steamboat himself admits he didn’t consider his “Favorite Match” at first until years later. He teases his older favorite being one against Flair but assures us it’s the match against Randy Savage by the end of his entry. Why can’t he give us a little more? Clearly, he thought different years ago, so why not mention it? Plus, he’s had dozens of matches with Flair. I would’ve loved to know which one his favorite was! Why doesn’t he tell us about all the other matches that were under consideration? Sgt. Slaughter went off and started talking about all sorts of things. Why not Steamboat? Is it because it may have involved WCW? I don’t know. All I’m saying is that I would’ve let the veterans rattle off a few because of how massive their careers were. Sadly, each chapter/wrestler only lasted a couple of pages at that. There’s never enough time dedicated to the developing of the match, their mindset going into and out of it, and their real feelings. Considering how many documentaries and shoot interviews we’ve seen over the years regarding professional wrestlers (and how much they love to talk about this sort of stuff), My Favorite Match seemed like it only scratched the surface regarding the true details of their favorites. The other issue is that we want to hear from the bigger superstars of the WWE. Though we get entries by Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Randy Orton, a majority of the entries are by the midcard of the early 2010s. For superfans, this could be interesting because everything about the major stars is well-documented and this is a nice change of pace, but for the crowd who are in the middle, they probably won’t give a fuck that someone like Kofi Kingston loved being the fifth most important person in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match because it doesn’t really mean anything.

Also, you’ll notice how outdated the book is now. You’re telling me Kofi still holds this MITB Ladder Match in high regard when he won the WWE Championship years later? After all of the world title wins by Sheamus, do you honestly think he holds his King of the Ring win on Raw in that high regard still? I’d put a million dollars on Zack Ryder’s (or the current Matt Cardona) favorite not being the random match he had against Primo on Superstars. There’s no way Cody Rhodes’s favorite, let alone his “Top 5”, consists of anything before 2017 at this point, and John Morrison was clearly lying through his fucking teeth about that match against Charlie Haas on Raw. Yes, it was a funny ass moment, but you’re telling me that this was ALL-TIME FAVORITE MATCH EVER?

Fuck off.

My Favorite Match was just one massive, missed opportunity. Only a selected few of the wrestlers were actually worth reading, most of the book is completely outdated now because a lot of the wrestlers involved were young and have had a hundred better matches since, each entry is very rushed and not as detailed as you’d want it to be, some of the matches chosen by certain wrestlers felt like they were pressured by the WWE to pick them, and others I just flat-out didn’t believe. Even for wrestling fans, this is genuinely disappointing, underdeveloped, and underwritten. We were given a golden idea, but the execution was poor on almost every front.