Month: September 2012

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