CSS Pro Wrestling Tournament: Greatest Matches Field of 64 Announced

After an exhaustive three day period of nominating all the greatest matches you could possibly think of, and then rec'ing each one you felt was deserving, the next Cageside Seats Pro Wrestling Tournament has its field of 64.

And the best part is it was all decided by you.

That means you get to bicker back and forth with each other (and we expect lots of that) regarding the matches that made it in and the matches that were left out. There's no questioning some deserving contests were not included in the final field and, really, more than a few were left off the list.

It surely has to do with the demographic here and the fact that this is, admittedly, a WWE heavy website. There are plenty of reasons for that, of course, namely the fact that in this day and age, at least in this area of the world, WWE basically is pro wrestling, much like UFC basically is MMA.

Still, that's not going to stop us from having an awesome time voting our way to the best of the bunch, and holy hell there are a LOT of incredibly amazing matches in here.

This should be super fun.

Without further ado, here is the field of 64. Look for the bracket within the coming days.

CAGESIDE SEATS PRO WRESTLING TOURNAMENT GREATEST MATCHES FIELD OF 64

1 seeds

Undertaker vs. Mankind, WWF, King of the Ring 1998
Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, WWF, WrestleMania 3
Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog, WWF, SummerSlam 1992
Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF, WrestleMania 13

2 seeds

Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz, WWF, WrestleMania 17
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, WWE, WrestleMania 25
CM Punk vs. John Cena, WWE, Money in the Bank 2011
Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon, WWF, WrestleMania 10

3 seeds

Royal Rumble 1992, WWF
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, WWF, Bad Blood 1997
The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF, WrestleMania 17
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart, WWF, WrestleMania 12

4 seeds

Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle, WWE, WrestleMania 21
Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. Chris Benoit, WWE, WrestleMania 20
Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon, WWF, King of the Ring 2001
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, WWE, WrestleMania 26

5 seeds

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe, ROH, Joe vs. Punk II
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko, ECW, ECW TV 1995
Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin, WWE, Raw 2005
Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect, WWF, SummerSlam 1991

6 seeds

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan, WWE, Over the Limit 2012
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE, Smackdown 2003
Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock, WWF, WrestleMania 18
Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz, WWF, SummerSlam 2000

7 seeds

Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero, WCW, Halloween Havoc 1997
AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels, TNA, Unbreakable 2005
Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy, WWE, Raw 2002
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, NWA, Chi-Town Rumble 1989

8 seeds

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart, WWF, SummerSlam 1994
Bret Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid, WWF, Raw 1994
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, WWE, WrestleMania 19
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H, WWF, No Way Out 2001

9 seeds

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, WWE, SummerSlam 2002
Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage, WWF, WrestleMania 8
Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz, WWF, No Mercy 1999
Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena, WWE, Raw 2007

10 seeds

Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit, WCW, Nitro 1999
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn, ECW, Living Dangerously 1999
Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H vs. Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, WWF, Raw 2001
Triple H vs. Cactus Jack, WWF, Royal Rumble 2000

11 seeds

Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior, WWF, WrestleMania 7
Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper, WWF, WrestleMania 8
The Million Dollar Team vs. The Dream Team, WWF, Survivor Series 1990
Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness, ROH, Unified 2006

12 seeds

Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair, WWE, WrestleMania 24
Hart Foundation vs. Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and Legion of Doom, WWF, Canadian Stampede 1997
Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat, WCW, Beach Blast 1992
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka, ECW, November to Remember 1999

13 seeds

Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE, No Way Out 2004
The Rock vs. Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle, WWE, Vengeance 2002
Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler, WWE, Bragging Rights 2010
Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart, WWF, WrestleMania 10

14 seeds

Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe, ROH, Joe vs. Kobashi 2005
Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit, WWF, Royal Rumble 2001
Chris Benoit vs. Great Sasuke, Super J-Cup 1994
Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, WWE, Raw 2003

15 seeds

Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL, WWE, Judgement Day 2004
Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF, Survivor Series 1996
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE, WrestleMania 19
Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard, NWA, Starrcade 1985

16 seeds

Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, WWF, WrestleMania 3
Sting vs. The Great Muta, WCW, Great American Bash 1989
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, WWE, No Mercy 2008
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, NWA, Clash of the Champions 6 1989

Matches that just missed the cut

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle, WWE, WrestleMania 20
War Games, WCW, Fall Brawl 1996
AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels, TNA, Destination X 2006
The Outsiders + 3rd man vs. Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage, WCW, Bash at the Beach 1996
Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect, WWF, King of the Ring 1993
Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue, All Japan, 1995
Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid, New Japan, 1983

Match we really wanted to include but just couldn't justify doing so

The Rock vs. Undertaker, CSS Pro Wrestling Tournament Semifinal

This match received enough rec's that it would have been an eight seed had we included it. I really wanted to do so, too, but of the many justifications I tried to make inside my own mind, they all fell short of bringing me to actually putting it up against legitimate matches that actually occurred inside a pro wrestling ring.

Of note

-- 55 of the 64 matches in the field are singles matches, though there are various gimmick matches throughout.
-- 49 of the 64 matches in the field took place under the WWF/WWE banner.
-- Only one Royal Rumble made it, the 1992 match won by Ric Flair.
-- Only one match that took place in Japan made the tournament.
-- Shawn Michaels is involved in the most matches in the tournament with 15.
-- Bret Hart is number two with 12.
-- Hulk Hogan actually has two matches in this tournament.
-- Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker is a two seed, a three seed and a four seed for three separate matches.
-- There are nine matches in the tournament that appear more than once, i.e., Michaels vs. Undertaker and their three separate matches, which makes it possible the Final Four could consist of all three Michaels vs. Undertaker matches.
-- That also means the tournament final could feature Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker going up against Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker.
-- Other examples of matches appearing more than once include Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, and Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
-- Hulk Hogan actually has two matches in this tournament.
-- The earliest match to make the tournament was Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard from Starrcade in 1985.
-- The most recent match to make the tournament was CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan from Over the Limit earlier this year.

There you have it, Cagesiders. Get pumped because this baby will be starting sooner than you think!