Resident Evil

Twist the fingers backwards or dig your fingernails right into your opponents fingers.

Flair's one tough guy. He shouldn't be wrestling though as he's an accident waiting to happen in there. The WWE shouldn't even be allowing him to wrestle. Ever since at least 2004 I feel like Flair's going to injure himself severely in ever match he has.

I love the Tongan death grip too. When Meng slapped that bad boy on you knew it was over. He had that powerful presence in the ring so when a man that dangerous in there is around your throat area you better believe I'm going to buy that finisher. I remember watching WCW Saturday Night during Goldberg's undefeated streak where he faced off against Meng. I know Meng got the grip on but I know Goldberg came back and won the match somehow. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Goldberg actually countered the move. It was very protected which was another thing I liked about it.

THe major reason why the people's elbow was over was because of its stupidity and fakeness (especially for a finishing manuever)combined with Rock's charisma. The King who relished in the fakeness of the move on commentary also helped the move get over a good deal. I always hated that move because it was such a big slap in the face to wrestling fans. I like the Rock but I always detested whenever he completely exposed the buisness for a cheap pop.

Hey RRR Did you ever watch the mat wrestling in this (Benoit vs Regal New Japan 95) match? I think you'd enjoy it. Post Edited

Is it just me or is everyone's classics version of this match missing the Benoit attempted headbut and the backbodydrop of Benoit over the top rope by Eddie Guerrero?

Smackdown was a lot of fun tonight. The four highlights being of course Benoit vs Orton, Mysterio vs Henry , Finlay vs Funaki plus the footage of Benoit/Rey and Santo giving tribute to Eddie Guerrero in Mexico. The rest was passable but there was nothing else you really have to see. Mysterio vs Henry was another pretty good match that really picked up once Mysterio got on offence towards the end. I won't ruin it but I will say the transistion Rey uses to go from defence to offence was superb and is something everyone should check out. Really fun finising stretch here with Rey using all sorts of fun offence. I enjoy Rey more now than I did in WCW. He was great here and when it's all said and done he's going to be thought of as one of the best wrestlers of all time. The footage of Benoit/Rey and Santo I believe is on right before the Benoit vs Orton No Holds Barred so if you're not taping that's when you should make sure to be watching. Oh man, Benoit was Orton was awesome and even better than their match from two weeks ago. It wasn't a perfect match as there were a couple places that could've had improvment but it was still a great one. They even managed to get over the hurdle of making trash cans look effective for the most part (Why oh why does the WWE have to use trash cans for? Often too fake looking) and managed to produce a match that felt like a true struggle throughout. The structure was actually a little different (no doubt influenced by commercials) as they did more control segments than your typical match but still managed to make each one effective. There was also a great job done here of making Orton's clamp on holds look more effective than they ever have been before. I reccomend getting the tapes out for this match. Set your VCRs. Finlay vs Funaki was fun. Watch for the spot whre Finlay badmouths Funaki and Funaki retaliates. Cool spot.

That move is done poorly the majority of the time, actually. The logic behind the Irish whip is that you're supposed to be throwing your opponent into the ropes so hard that the momentum sends him running, and he turns around to avoid falling out of the ring. Notice how a Chris Benoit puts that extra umph into it where most guys just start running. Jamie Knoble would do that too. Actually, when I first saw Noble wrestle I immediatly thought he was a Benoit fan because of that.

I am so jealous right now. Tim, are you going to nominate some of these matches for the deathvalley best of competition?

Me too. I think one time if I remember correctly they were doing a long shot of the arena and in the bottom part of the screen you can see Kanyon diamond cutting some poor innocent bystander. I remember marking out for that as if there was no tommorrow.

Yup, I've seen them too Kawada. You're definitely right on that. All the more reason for him to have the title I think. Rey beating the odds and proving his skeptics wrong -- It just makes it all the more sweet and the story all the more rooted in reality. I don't think too many people would stop watching just because they think Rey shouldn't be champ. Overall, I can only see attendance increasing.

The two Benoit vs Kanemoto matches from 95 for me are the toughest matches where I have a hard time describing my feelings about them. They work so well but I have a difficult time describing why they work. I think I'll have to do a review of them someday. I feel they're two of the best examples ever if someone wants to show off how good a worker Benoit can be. There was a setup tag before the 3/95 Benoit vs Kanemoto match that really helped make the 3/95 match better. I am such a fan of the Ocean Cyclone Suplex and I don't understand why more wrestlers don't use it. I'm assuming it's hard to pull off but man oh man if I was a wrestler I would not hesitate for a second to use this as a finisher. Maybe my favourite move in wrestling. I really like Dan Ginnetty's commentary on the wrestling show he does because he looks at several things from the same perspective I do. I saw Kawada vs Williams from 4/16/94 rescently but didn't like it nearly as much as the match they had where Williams has his knee taped up. Villano III vs Atlantis Mask vs Mask was so, so awesome. Benoit vs Gedo from the 95 J Cup is so underrated. This is one of those matches where I completely forget that wrestling is staged as this just felt so real. I really get emotionally swept up in this one. Everything around the clothesline of doom (you know what I mean if you've seen the match) is terrific.

Bruce was kind of like the HHH of Stampede in that he was overrated kayfabe wise and would never get pinned (Once Stampede had the restart) but at least he didn't hog the spotlight as much and wreck an entire company. There was an angle where he stole the spotlight right before this but at least he knew to step back here and let the others shine. Edit -- I would've loved to have seen a slightly modified Smith charactor wise in All Japan. Just completely heeling it up.

Kawada and I like this match a lot too. I felt it was one of the better Stampede matches they had. Sorry to say this but it's Bruce, not Owen. This was the strongest Biff was ever booked in Stampede. For about a two month period they treated him very well. This was after a series of about 4 consecutive weekly bouts where Biff stood up to the plate against Smith and turned himself from a talented underdog into a serious contender against Smith. The last match before this being a truly great Hair vs Hair match. After the shenanigans of that bout in particular Wellington is justifiably in a rage and that's why in the opening seconds (well, what we see; the footage comes in at the 3 min mark) you see Smith literally running away from Wellington and according to Whalen not getting in the ring whenever Wellington was in there. That's what makes the ending meaningful too. Wellington finally catches up to Smith and gives him his just deserts. Afterwards, there is an interview with Wellington where he challenges Smith to a title bout. That which I have never seen is I believe the blowoff bout or the feud. Of course assuming it did happen. I would say the pecking order at the time was this. Bruce Hart > Smith and Benoit where if they had a match it'd be 50/50 on who'd win > Wellington > Commandoes (although Morrow would often be ahead of Wellington but not I believe at this particular time). I'm not too sure where to put the Assasin at.

For anyone not watching, there've been some thumbs up matches on Smackdown as of late. These bouts reviewed by Loss which everybody seems to be liking, Rey vs Henry which was very good, Benoit vs Booker, the Battle Royal Benoit vs Orton finals in the Best of 7 (though their other 2 matches beforehand weren't quite as good as this) and it looks like we have some real potential next week in the Benoit vs Orton No Hold Barred 1 Fall to a Finish match. Smackdown has been so much more fun to watch than Raw as of late. It's not even close from the limited footage I've seen. Sharmell who is the best heel I've seen in awhile and Melina > The Entire Raw roster. And that's just two members of Smackdown.

You're welcome. In a match like this it's kind of funny that with all sorts of cool moves one of the definite highlights when you think about the match afterwards was the fistacuffs NHL hockey style between Benoit and Eddie. I would not want to get in a fight with Benoit. The ring apron spot where Guerrero gave Benoit a backdropdriver on the ring apron scared me since the edge of the apron is so hard and is an area of the ring where people get severely hurt at. The commentator's reaction after Benoit hit the top rope belly to back suplex was superb. That wasn't Lyger? Was it? The ending of this makes 7/13/95 just a little bit sweeter! Won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't watched it yet. Great flow overall to the bout with both wresters hitting superb offence executed to perfection.

When's the contract up?

The second match is available from Freidlander for sure but I don't know about the first one. It was a title bout.

I was wondering today about a couple of matches that I haven't heard talk about before and than thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where someone asks about a match and see if anyone has ever seen it. Does it exist? Is the match any good? Is there anything special about it? Two matches I was wondering about: 4/6?/91 Osaka Gym: Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith vs Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi -- Title match. 1987 -- Bad News/Johnny Smith vs Maeda/Takada New Japan