Category: Written Reviews

The Undertaker had a pretty good year overall in 2005, thanks to his feud with Randy Orton. His 2006 started off good too, as he had a near 5 star match with Kurt Angle at No Way Out for the title. Then it went downhill, starting with this match. Henry had cost The Undertaker the WHC in a rematch with Kurt on Smackdown, so this match was made, and for some reason it was turned into a casket match. There is no hype video, and I forgot most of what happened in 2006 lol, so I have no clue if there was a legitimate reason for it being a casket match. The only video they show for this match is how Henry cost The Undertaker the title on Smackdown a few weeks earlier lol.

This match didn’t have the best of feuds behind it, but at least they did a good job of building Henry up as a decent threat (though nobody in their right mind thought he would win lol), having him beat Angle in a non title match, put Angle through a table, take out Batista, and even put The Undertaker through a table. So at least they were half trying :p.

‘Taker does a good job of selling for Henry, really putting over his strength. The theme of the match seems to be “can The Undertaker knock Henry down?”, as he keeps hitting big clotheslines, and even Old School, but fails to take down the World’s Strongest Man.

Fun spot with Henry going for his Body Guillotine, where he goes through the ropes too, but The Undertaker moves and Henry goes right through the ropes and lands in the casket! He looks terrified at first, but gets his bearings and drags The Undertaker in the casket, and they have a brawl while being inside the casket.

Impressive spot with The Undertaker hitting his corner Last Ride spot, finally taking Henry down, which causes Michael Cole to bust a nut. This is then followed by an even more impressive spot, as The Undertaker hits his signature top rope drive, clearing the casket too, and landing on Mark Henry!

The Undertaker then shows us HIS strength, as he picks up Mark Henry and Tombstones him! All that’s left for him to do is roll Henry into the casket, and this one is over.

Like the majority of WrestleMania 22, this is an extremely fun match. It’s not one of his best, but it’s still got “watchablilty”, and a number of memorable spots. The match told a nice simple story, with The Undertaker trying to overcome the power of Henry and just take him off his feet.

Rating: **1/2

2 guys known for being pretty stiff in the ring. Usually ends up being pretty awesome :D.

Benoit goes for a Crossface early, and it was great to see JBL try to counter it by locking his hands together, only for Benoit to smash the fuck out of them with his fist. I dig shit like that, in case you didn’t know by now :P.

JBL seems to be focused on the back of the head and the neck of Benoit, which will no doubt help him to set up the Clothesline from Hell as well as take advantage of Benoit’s previously broken neck. JBL’s punches are epic too. Nothing fancy, just a big fat man throwing his fists into someone else’s face as hard as he can.

Nice to see some similarities between the Finlay/Benoit/Regal matches here as well, mainly with the stiffness that I already mentioned, along with how everything they do feels like they really had to fight to do it. One instance is a superplex by JBL. Before he is able to hit it, Benoit tries to headbutt the fuck out of him first to get him away, but in the end JBL is successfully in hitting it.

Pretty funny to see JBL hit the 3 Amigos (which in Keyfabe was disrespect, but in reality was nothing but respect for Eddie, as JBL was a friend of his), and then great to see Benoit bring them out as well to show JBL how they are REALLY done.

More of the “fight to do anything” with JBL making sure Benoit doesn’t hit another German suplex on him, followed by the Clothesline from Hell being reversed into a Crossface which is reversed into a roll up (with ropes for leverage)! JBL beats Benoit, and becomes the greatest technical wrestler of all the times!!!

Really liked this first time around, and I still really like it now. Plenty of what I like in a match, and hell, I’m even upping my rating a little!

Rating: ***1/4

Just 2 days before WrestleMania, 2 of the participants in the WHC triple threat are going one on one; and its Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio!

Both guys have a LOT to prove in this match, as getting a win this close to WM will do wonders for both guys’ confidence, and will give them a psychological edge going into the match (according to the commentators all the time, anyway).

Angle controls most of this match, and at one point he hits Rey so hard, his own mouth piece falls out :lmao. Don’t know why I found that so funny, but I did.

Kurt is nice and focused in this match, as he targets the mid section of Mysterio. Always nice when Angle is focused, because it usually means is isn’t hitting random suplexes over and over again lol.

Basic stuff here tbh, with Angle just working the body of Rey for a while, then Rey makes his comeback. The finishing stretch is fun, but doesn’t last as long as I would have liked. It all seemed to rushed imo.

Its not that there is anything BAD in the match, its all fine. Angle isn’t a lunatic, Rey’s spots are fine… but it was like they were going through the motions and nothing more.

Rating: **1/2

Already watched this one, and given it a rating, but fuck it, I’ll watch it again since I never really wrote anything about it (not specifically, as I watched 3 of their matches in a row and they all kinda merged together, so I talked about them as a whole lol).

Lol, poor Benoit, the guy never gets to face who he wants. First it was Booker picking Orton numerous times to replace him, now its JBL having Regal replace him. And thank fuck on both counts lol (though Benoit and JBL did have some good matches).

If you have seen any of their matches before, you have a good idea of how this one goes. Gritty, stiff shit with some cool mat work thrown in too, that isn’t always smooth, but that’s a good thing here. Makes everything they do look like a fight.

Loved the Regal throw/suplex thing he does, especially on the floor in this match, and man oh man, Regal booting Benoit in the head while its resting on the ring post is awesome as fuck. Benoit’s knees to Regal’s face are just as impressive, along with the chops to the forehead (shame Regal isn’t bleeding in this match though lol).

Finish is great too, with Benoit hitting a dragon suplex, then locking in the Crossface as Regal tried his best to fight it. I enjoyed this more on this watch, probably because I didn’t see 2 very similar matches straight after it lol. It was already a consideration for my list, but now its got a higher rating to back it up.

Also, this match AND Finlay/Rey on the same show? Fucking AWESOME.

Rating: ***1/4

Some nice, basic mat work to start things off, followed by Finlay just grounding Mysterio, and doing whatever he can to keep him there. Fucking loved the elbow to the face from Finlay when Rey gets back up and runs the ropes, looked about as manly as you can get in WWE (I’m guessing a spot like that in Japan would look even more vicious).

A nice clash of styles here, and a sign of things to come from them. Finlay is a vicious bastard, and Rey uses his high flying style the best he can given the beating he takes from Finlay, and the fact that Finlay is able to counter a lot of his shit.

You know what? Screw the whole “sign of things to come” crap I just said, this is basically what is to come lol, except their future matches (and the feud ender in particular) actually have a feud behind them. Finlay does a fantastic job at taking out Rey’s shoulder and just beating the living fuck out of him, and Rey’s hope spots are nicely timed, and his offence as the match goes on is pretty great too. He realises that his high flying shit won’t cut it against Finlay straight away, so he kicks and elbows the fuck out of Finlay first to wear him down, but Finlay always cuts him off before he can really get a rhythm going.

I think I may like this match MORE than their November 07 match! It gets plenty of time to develop, and ends up creating a story in the middle of the match, that is worked just as well, if not better, than their match in 07 that has the feud behind it.

Finish is pretty cool, setting up to WM. They continue the build to the title match as Orton interferes while Finlay has the ref distracted with the shillelagh, giving Finlay a big win going into MITB in just under 2 weeks time and keeping Rey looking strong still because he was cheated out of the win.

Definitely one of the very best SD 06 matches so far, and atm, given everything I have watched (including the random matches from later in the year), only the Angle/Undertaker and 2 of the Orton/Benoit matches beat it.

There is going to be a place for this on my list.

Rating: ***3/4

We have the SD WM ME all teaming together here, against the monstrous Mark Henry and the tag champs. Can they work together to get the job done?

Orton starts things off by slapping the fuck out of Nitro, I guess to show his partners that he has come to play tonight, regardless of how he feels about them.

Rey plays the FIP, no surprise there. Henry traps him in the heel corner, and proceeds to stand on him. Orton pretend to be the good guy and tries to help out, but it only distracts the referee, allowing Henry to continue his assault. Orton continues to “accidentally” distract the referee, giving the heels the advantage. Pretty clever stuff tbh, and Orton acting like a nice guy is funny as hell to see.

The heel beatdown/control segment here is really good, combined with Orton’s tactics too. Far, far superior to the the big tag match the week before (and the same match as last week, but from a month before). I guess Henry having 2 guys to be in the ring between his turn makes things more interesting lol.

Rey finally gets the opening needed to make the tag, and both Angle and Orton want it. However, when Rey gets closer, Orton pretends to be fixing his knee pads, so Angle (with injured ribs), gets the tag (Orton has yet to be in the match btw). Angle and Mysterio take care of business, and Orton blind tags himself in, throws Rey out of the ring, and gets the pin! Making a statement for WM, no doubt.

Damn good tag match, much better than the week before, and a few of the other big tag matches on SD in 06 so far. Rey’s FIP shizzle was great, MNM did a wonderful job of beating the fuck out of him and preventing tags, and Orton played his part beautifully.

Rating: ***1/4

Here we go! Been waiting for this one for… well about an hour lol :p. But if this was 2006, I would have been waiting around 2 weeks at LEAST, depending on how much I wanted to see them have a big match starting when Finlay cost Lashley his match at NWO.

The lumberjack stip is used nicely, since the last 2 weeks they have ended up brawling outside of the ring and all over the place, so they are there to keep both guys IN the ring. Also, this is a MITB qualifying match.

Holy shit! Lashley charges into the ring and NAILS Finlay with a boot to the face, sending him to the outside! Finlay gets back up, takes out Funaki who is one of the lumberjacks, then gets back in the ring. He takes a beating, rolls out, gets shoved back in, rolls out, gets shoved back in, and again gets dominated by the raw power of Big Bob.

Finlay rolls to the outside again, this time he goes to the side where the heels are, so they protect him long enough for Lashley to get distracted by what’s going on, allowing Finlay to take the fight to Lashley for the first time in this match.

The heel lumberjacks come into play again, distracting Lashley long enough for Finlay to launch him into the ring post (something I remember seeing from one of their other matches later in the year).

Being the smart veteran that he is, Finlay keeps using the lumberjacks to his advantage, distracting Lashley, and even having them beat him up when he throws him to the outside.

Lashley’s comeback happens when Finlay drives himself into the ring post, a nice little callback spot from where Finlay took control of the match by sending Lashley into the ring post.

There are a lot of similarities with this match and the one they have in a few months time that I already talked about, except we don’t get the arm work so Lashley’s comeback doesn’t come across as retarded lol.

The heel lumberjacks also get theirs, with Finlay being launched onto them. Lashley goes to get Finlay and gets attacked, and the face lumberjacks just stand around and watch lol. Someone comes in with the chair, and gets speared to hell. The ref is distracted, and BAM. Lashley is put down by Finlay and his big, hard weapon.

I like the finish much more in this match, but I don’t think the middle part is as strong as their August 18th match (finally looked up the date lol). That being said, it was still a good match, and Lashley hasn’t looked this good since debuting. HOWEVER, based on this match, he doesn’t seem to improve over the year lol…

Rating: **3/4

Mark Henry & Randy Orton Vs Rey Mysterio & Kurt Angle – Smackdown March 10th 2006

This is a rematch from Feb 3rd, which was a good tag match, but nothing overly special. I wonder what they do this time around.

Ooooo, they announce the rematch between Finlay and Lashley for next week too :mark:.

Angle and Orton start things off, and while it seems that Angle wants to get right into the wrestling, because of his “wrestling machine” gimmick, Orton is playing is slow and safe. He reminded me of his current Viper gimmick here, as he slithers around the ring a few times to avoid Angle’s takedowns.

Mysterio gets tagged in, and things still remain pretty slow. We transition into the FIP section of the match when Orton dropkicks Rey who is coming off the top rope. Henry comes in and tries to kill the midget.

Rey gets the chance to make a hot tag, but honestly, I don’t really care. The match has been so… dull so far, only going at one speed, even at the start. There was no build for the tag either, Rey took a small beating, then moved out of the way of a splash, and makes the tag. Angle comes in guns a blazing as per usual, and his sequence with Orton is really nice, but after that I just don’t care.

This match just feels… flat. Henry thinks so too, so he decides to fuck up the referee and bring out a table to make things more interesting. Angle ends up getting put on the table, while Henry crushes him through it from the second rope.

Lol, the stuff after the ref gets beat up is the best part of this match. Their match a month ago was decent and nothing more; this is even worse. Dull is just the best way to describe it tbh.

Oh yeah lol, lame Undertaker “voice” comes over the speakers and we get the announcement of the WM casket match :P.

Rating: *

Chris Benoit Vs Gregory Helms – Smackdown March 10th 2006

US Champ Vs CW Champ. Benoit is awesome, and Helms really stepped up his game when he moved away from the Hurricane gimmick. I’m sure I will be watching more of this matches as the year goes on.

Benoit tries to punch Helms in the face, and Helms backs away and tries to tell the ref to make Benoit stop, because he doesn’t want to get hit in the face. Awesome.

They lock up, and Helms gets Benoit in the corner, and guess what he does? Punches him in the face. Yeah, Benoit ain’t gonna take that, so he just grabs Helms’ face with his entire hand lol. Oh, turns out that Helms had a broken nose, which is why he doesn’t want to be punched there. I just thought he was scared of Benoit, which was a fun story in itself, but now its even better.

Really surprised at a lot of this match tbh, despite the fact that Benoit is indeed awesome and Helms was really good at this stage. Plenty of really nice sequences between the two as they fight for control, and a lot stiffer than I would have expected, since Helms isn’t someone I would expect to be that physical. Not on the level of Benoit Vs Finlay/Regal/Orton, but certainly more hard hitting that the average match.

Helms does a great job of constantly going after the neck of Benoit whenever he has the chance, and manages to escape multiple sharpshooter attempts all through the match as well. Benoit finally locks it in at one point, and even though Helms gets to the ropes, he has had enough and walks away. However, the SD Cruiserweights show up and send Helms back to the ring, where he gets put in the Crossface (which has to hurt Helms’ nose), and this one is over.

Really solid match, nothing to go out of your way to see for the poll, but if you get the chance, its a good way to spend 12 minutes (well, ONE good way to spend 12 minutes 😛 ).

Rating: **3/4

William Regal Vs Paul Burchill – Smackdown March 10th 2006

Burchill needs to bring back his pirate gimmick. Seriously, it was fucking awesome. This is his first match under the gimmick after threatening Regal with his big sword backstage for a couple of weeks. Yes, you read that correctly. 😛

Some nice arm lock exchanges to begin with, and Regal gets cocky and screams “I’ve got him”, only to get reversed. We then see some nice stiff offence from Regal as he knees the fuck out of Burchill’s face and then locks in a… reverse full nelson I guess. Awesome spot with Burchill going for a sunset flip, only for Regal to move out of the way, essentially making Burchill do a front flip onto the mat lol.

Burchill makes his comeback, and I am rather disappointed with Michael Cole. No mention of Burchill’s Swashbuckling style, though he did say he was a swashbuckler :P.

Finish is awesome, just because of the C4 (that is what they call it, right?) and its sheer magnificence. I enjoyed this match, didn’t get as much time as I would have liked, but we still got plenty of Regal’s awesomeness, and Burchill looked pretty great too.

Rating: **