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Superstar Sleeze

DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by Superstar Sleeze

  1. Kurt Angle vs Mark Henry - Judgment Day 2006 Much better stuff out of these two. Henry lays a little badmouth on Angle before the match. This is during the period where Angle both acted like a psychopath in the ring and was even more of a psychopath outside the ring. He really comes off an unhinged here at the beginning. I love it. Gives it a blood feud feel. Angle is out for revenge after Henry busted up his ribs real good (wearing tape). Loving the urgency from Angle just hurling his body at Henry. When Henry misses a seat drop he is right on him with a kick. Eventually all this running around leads to SPLAT when Henry RUNS over him with a shouldertackle. Damn. Henry beats the shit out of those ribs. With big slams. Angle gets some good hope spots like a DDT, a German and Angleslam. Anklelock countered, duh. Henry wants to splash him through announce table. But Angle gets up and is splashed up against post for the countout Henry victory. I would say that was the biggest victory in Mark Henry's career at this point. It looks like Mark Henry's gets injured right before the summer of 2006. They probably would have had Batista beat him like a drum around the horn in a revenge angle. Some real good stuff and not just Mark Henry's big man stuff, dug Angle's intensity. ***
  2. World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle vs Mark Henry - Royal Rumble 2006 After missing most of 2004 & 2005, Mark Henry was pushed as a main event talent on Smackdown. He was not yet Hall of Pain, Mark Henry, but there were glimmers of it in this performance. His facial expressions at the beginning of the match were spot on. From Angle trying to takedown Mark, what are you doing little man. To cat & mouse, his frustration. Angle punches and the way he catches the fist and breaks him down and lays the badmouth on him. Hall of Pain Mark Henry is inside there. He throws Angle up onto the ropes twice. Splash gets two. This match is built around Mark Henry being able to break out of the Anklelock. Yes seriously! The announcers are acting like they have never seen this before. Are you fucking kidding me? I liked Angle getting the German because it is the underdog babyface getting the slam. But then to do Angleslam just cheapens it. It does not feel like he is respecting Henry's size. Angle then just blatantly cheats. Wicked chair shots that Henry sells like a champ. Then exposes the buckle and holds the rope. Henry fought an almost completely fair fight. This was basically Angle resigning himself to the fact that Henry was the better wrestler and he couldn't beat him without cheating. It was really strange. Mark Henry gave a good performance. The ending sucked out loud.
  3. WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy - RAW 11/13/06 By 2006 (probably earlier), the WWE booking is doing nobody any favors with this constant booking of this match. These two don't have Flair/Steamboat chemistry nor do they have the ability to build their matches off each other. I think Todd Grisham is on commentary and he is atrocious. I am glad he did not stick around. Johnny Nitro uses the hair to take Jeff Hardy down. You know what it is there is not a whole of fun in these matches. Nitro misses a splash and then Hardy hits a dropkick (new spot). Jeff is spot to use the ten count punches and then that dropkick. Way to go for Swanton early. Jeff Hardy's baseball slide is really good. Like the Nitro kneelift to stop jawbreaker and Tidal Wave Kick by Nitro gets a two. Nitro is choking, good heel stuff. Nitro with reverse chinlock. I hate the elbows to end a chinlock. "Sometimes when you please a woman like that, she makes those noises." -Todd Grisham. Horrible. Nitro gets crotched. Hardy misses Whisper in the Wind. Awful modified slam by Nitro. Nitro mocks Matt Hardy with the Hardy Yodel, Jeff hits him with a powerbomb. Swanton Bomb! Ref is distracted. Nitro hits a corkscrew moonsault, but has a shitty pin cover and Hardy rolls him into an Oklahoma Roll to win. I wish someone would do this to Dolph Ziggler who also has shitty covers. Yeah, I am starting to get sick of mid-00s WWE. Nitro hits Hardy with a ladder to setup the ladder match next week on RAW. Jury is out if I will watch it, right now.
  4. WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro - RAW 11/6/06 Do you remember Paris Hilton? Do you remember Kevin Federline? Man, mid-00s nostalgia in ten years is going to be so sad. My high school years were a cultural wasteland. Nitro starts with a hammerlock, Hardy does the Bret escape, good start here with Jeff doing the dropkick and then splash. Nitro uses a leverage move to send him into the buckle and then choking into the ropes. Melina hair pull. Some good heel work here. Hardy hits a sling blade. Did Tanahashi do it first or Hardy? Melina trips and the ref calls for a DQ. Eric Bischoff is BACK!??! What the HELL?!?! He makes it a No DQ. I know I was watching. I have no recollection of this. Back from the commercial, Nitro is in a chinlock. Jawbreaker by Jeff. Tsunami Kick by Nitro. They both collide with a cross body. This match has just been there so far. Reverse mule kick by Hardy gets two. Front suplex gets two. WHISPER IN THE WIND! Two! Melina is choking Jeff Hardy and he whips her down. He goes for Swanton Bomb on Melin and Nitro crotches him and then belt shot. Nitro wins. Meh. I feel like Jeff Hardy could be better utilized but at the same time if Jeff Hardy was truly great he would find ways to keep having great match. This was not as bad as the Carlito match, but for something that was really more of an angle, it didn't feel big. It should have though.
  5. WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy vs Carlito - Cyber Sunday 2006 Nothing reminds me of how dreadfully dull the RAW midcard was in the mid-2000s than this match. I remember nothing about Carlito's working style, but this match certainly did not inspire me to learn more. He basically tried to snuggle to death. In addition to a very boring heat segment, the shine was terrible. They were just trading moves with absolutely no rhyme or reason. One would hit a move then the other would hit a move. No transition, no missed moves. It was just strange. Jeff Hardy hits a nasty front suplex. Swanton Bomb eats knees. Carlito hits a bunch of weak springboard moves. Carlito misses the third springboard. Whisper in the Wind! Carlito nearly kills him on some stupid top rope move. Swanton Bomb. JR says "what a match" I say "what a mess"
  6. WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy - RAW 10/2/06 There is a hilarious screw up early on. JR says "In the latest edition of WWE magazine, Maria says she likes having three way sex. Sorry I mean Melina." The deadpan tone of voice he uses because he clearly thinks this is stupid compounded with him fucking up the names had me laughing for like two minutes straight. Going to give Nitro credit again, way to go to back after Jeff Hardy crashes and burns on Whisper in the Wind. This is body psychology is strong. The dropkick to Jeff causing him to the hit the post hard is nasty. Plus he hits a crazy backbreaker. Great use of the surfboard too. The finish was fine too with Jeff reversing the surfboard and then hitting Whisper in the Wind. Nitro tries to hide behind Melina but Jeff topples both of them. I didn't like Nitro getting back on top after Jeff hit a move, but whatever. Jeff backdrops him off the top, cool spot and then Swanton Bomb. New champ. Fine match. I liked this one better because it was shorter, but still nothing amazing. ***
  7. WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy - Unforgiven 2006 I get it, he does look like Jim Morrison, but John Morrison was such a lame name. The crowd loves chanting "Nitro sucks" they really should have stuck with that. I remember Nitro/Morrison as a person with a great look but just never materialized in the ring. Soft Kofi Kingston offense is what I remember along with no standout charisma. This match I thought the offense was a bit better than I remember but yeah no charisma to speak of. The entrance is brash, but where is that cocky attitude in the ring. He is just so mechanical. Jeff Hardy is so insanely charismatic. He had the crowd rocking just doing armdrags from different angles. I will say there was on nice spot where Nitro goes for an armdrag but Hardy hooks the ropes and Nitro still goes through with the rotation. Well done. Some really great impactful dropkicks by Jeff here. Crowd pops for them. Back when crowds popped for stiffness instead of acrobatics, how nice! Jeff takes a totally nutty bump off the top when Nitro trips him up. Nitro works over the leg. I think he does an admirable job. At one point, he steps on Jeff's foot, and kicks the knee hard with his other leg. Well done. He was not Arn Anderson picking apart a body part, but it was solid. Again where is that charisma! Morrision misses a corkscrew moonsault. As much as I love Jeff, he does blow off the knee selling and hits whisper in the wind. Then hits the Swanton Bomb then decides to sell. Not digging that. Also there were way too many shots of Melina. She is hot. I get it, I really do, she is very hot, but I am trying to watch a match. Melina gets knocked off the apron. She hits Jeff with the boot, Nitro covers and wins. Solid finish to a solid match. Too long at 17 minutes & change. ***
  8. WWE Intercontinental Champion Umaga vs Jeff Hardy - RAW 9/3/07 Fun fact: This is the first match from the first RAW I watched at the University of Michigan my freshman year. This caused three dudes on my floor to all go "Is that Jeff Hardy? He still wrestles? Has anything changed?" This also right after the infamous App State upset (yes that was my freshman year and first game in the Big House) and this match is emanating from Ohio State. But the good news is that my boy, Jeff Hardy won the Intercontinental Championship! Liked this as a TV match. Umaga again generating hope spots for Jeff. Hitting the buckles hard letting Jeff try the ten count punches before pushing him. Nutty bump by Jeff taking a superkick off the apron and going splat on the floor. Again long Vulcan nerve pinch. Umaga misses the flying headbutt and here we go. Even though this is a Buckeye crowd, I liked them. They were popping for Jeff's nearfall (whisper in the wind). I tell you what I really dug. Jeff comes off the middle rope, catch and big out of control slam by Umaga. No reaction. Goes for the cover. No reaction. 1-2-KICK OUT! BIG POP! That's when the WRESTLER is over NOT the move! I LOVE THAT! This crowd wanted to see Jeff Hardy win the title. They were invested in the decision. Jeff knocks Umaga off the top rope who takes quite tumble. 1-2-3! Umaga bucks him off wildly but the three goes down in the record books for Jeff. Loved the finish. Protects Umaga, but it is very convincing because he took quite the spill. Really enjoyable. ***1/4
  9. WWE Intercontinental Champion Umaga vs Jeff Hardy - Great American Bash 2007 Umaga is the king of the missed move! I love it he uses his own missed moves to set up his opponents' offense. In order for you to defeat him, he needs to make the mistake. So Umaga retains his credible, but the onus is still on the opponent to put him away. Love the psychology. The heat segment is set up by a great Samoan Drop when Jeff tries to take it to the Samoan Bulldozer early. Then there is a loooooooonnngggggg Vulcan nerve pinch which drags this down. Once Umaga starts missing moves business picks up. Umaga slamming his groin into Jeff's knees. Going flying over the top rope. Missing his ass splash in the corner. Going flying into the steel post all set up great Jeff Hardy offense. Whisper in the Wind and the Swanton Bomb got huge pops and reactions for the two counts. Jeff was no slouch selling. He is the modern day Ricky Morton in my opinion, just insane babyface charisma. Umaga shoves him off for the Twist of Fate (I love how they left Jeff with one last move and then Umaga squashed his hope). Huge superkick, ass splash in the corner and Asiatic Spike which Jeff takes a nutty bump for to really sell it. Last five minutes are amazing. Umaga gets what it means to be a monster. ***1/4
  10. Thanks for tipping me off on this, brutha. WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels - Survivor Series 2007 Greatest Randy Orton match ever? I think most would say the Catcus match from Backlash 2004, but I think this one is definitively better. Is there anything else? While I do think Orton was great in this match, it was of course really the Shawn Michaels show. Some context: as an offshoot of the D-X vs Rated RKO feud in the beginning of 2007, Orton punted HBK to give his summer school vacation. Michaels came back in October and challenged Orton for the championship at Cyber Sunday, but Orton punched him in the balls to get intentionally DQ'd. So in the rematch, if Orton gets DQ'd he loses the title, BUT Michaels cant use the Superkick. This forces Michaels to wrestle a different type of match. There is a lot to love in the first ten minutes of this match. Michaels uses a ton of vice grips (cravat, front chancery) on the head and neck of Orton to control him and attempt to get an early pinfall. The hallmark of this was how tenacious HBK was applying these holds. Really controlling Orton and driving the knees into his head. Orton did a great job selling it all. It also shows that Michaels is going to try to win by taking it to the ground and outwrestling Orton. Orton's counter was punching him right in the face on a break in the corner. Great heel wrestling from Orton here. Then trying to goad Michaels into Superkicking him; Michaels fakes him out and chops him. Orton was really good at selling these fake out spots as Michaels knowing that as much as I love ground wrestling and tight psychology the live crowd needs something to pop them and so he hits a baseball slide and an Asai Moonsault, but the spots are really organic well set up because Orton bites so hard on the pump fakes. So many wrestlers knowing that they are going be faked out just go through the motions, but here Orton makes you believe that he believes he will be hit by the pump fake. Good stuff. Loved Orton rolling through a crossbody for two and then immediately decking him with a European uppercut. I loved the urgency there. Michaels shine ends with a Sharpshooter. Ten years since Montreal at this point. (I cant believe it has been TWENTY years as of this writing!). Crazy to think Michaels would be wrestling Bob Orton's kid for the championship ten years after the Screwjob. The Sharpshooter gets a good reaction of course. From there, Orton thumbs HBK in the eye and snaps his neck across the ropes. Great heel transition. Really good organic set up to the Hangsmans DDT. Orton has a solid punch and an amazing European Uppercut. I am starting to like him ten years after the fact. This is where the match does down a notch. First the customary Orton resthold and then the very basic Michaels comeback. The Michaels comeback requires both wrestles to go through the motions rather than feel it. Loved Orton's dropkick to stymie the comeback. Shawn's gets melodramatic after his elbow drop tuning up the band but it is a fake out to get a small package. Meh, overthinking it there. Just go for the pin. Too elaborate of a ruse. Then again I hate the whole I need to wait for my opponent to stand before I hit my big move. After this, the match gets awesome again. Michaels goes for submissions (Crossface, Anglelock) and Orton tries to punt his head off. Good stuff. The finish is awesome. Orton goes for the RKO, but Michaels pushes him off, hesitates on Superkick and that slight hesitation leads to BANG RKO~! First half was awesome, tenacious Shawn Michaels ground wrestling and Orton playing the heel really well. Great timed spots and sound psychology. Falls a little off the rails with some overly cinematic Michaels stuff, but comes roaring back with Michaels pugnaciously going for a submission victory but falling prey to the RKO when his instincts takeover to hit Sweet Chin Music. Magnificent. ****1/2
  11. Triple H vs Umaga - Cyber Sunday 2007 Street Fight Umaga is the greatest Hogan opponent, who never got a chance to wrestle Hogan. He has such a strong grasp of what it means to be a violent, unstoppable monster. He is athletic, but still vicious. His grasp on how a monster should sell and bump is strong. He is the best at weeble wobbles but don't fall down selling since Blackwell. I love he takes HHH's best shot over and over again and he just keeps coming. They try to go for too much too soon with the spear through the entrance set. No pop and no real setup. They settle into a great David vs Goliath match. It is is really a testament to Umaga that he can make HHH into a sympathetic David. HHH is teeing off on Umaga and he just wont go down. I love it. He gets the garbage can puts him down for two. He swings for another and Umaga counters into a Samoan Drop, Then it becomes the Umaga show, Absolutely brilliant heat segment. Umaga is completely laser focused on the abdomen and never lets up. So many great cutoffs to the ribs. Great selling by HHH too, but Umaga just rocked this heat segment. I liked Umaga going for the chair when he cant put HHH away, but HHH uses the low blow and a DDT on chair for a hope spot. But Umaga just flings HHH off with a huge sidewalk slam. The big spot of the match is Umaga running across the announce tables and splashing HHH through the table. Great sell by HHH. I think that would have been a great finish to set up a rematch. Umaga misses a flying headbutt. I liked how it takes Umaga hurting himself to set up HHH getting the Sledgehammer. They do a great job with HHH missing the hammer, Umaga going for the Asiatic Spike, miss, Sledgehammer, weeble wobble, Kick Wham Pedrigee! Good stuff there, but honestly they could have gotten more mileage out of this feud because this was amazing. Does anyone actually remember this feud? Because I sure as hell don't and I was watching at the time. This is the absolute best HHH has ever looked as a babyface. Umaga crushed it. This was not your typical great uptempo street fight, but HHH cant do uptempo. So that's neither here nor there. I thought they did a great job telling David vs Goliath working in great body psychology and selling and really making Umaga this very credible monster that really takes a lot before he will go down. ****1/4
  12. Rey Mysterio vs Finlay - Cyber Sunday 2007 Stretcher Match Coming off the heels of Finlay beating the holy hell out of Rey Rey by lulling him into a false sense of security by pretending to be so injured he was put on a stretcher. So the stretcher match makes sense. I thought this was a pretty good opener. No real shine as Finlay just suffocates Rey Rey from the get go. I thought they incorporated the stretcher well into the spots. They used it as a battering ram, liked how Rey Rey dropkick the stretcher into Finlay for a hope spot and the front suplex into the stretcher by Finlay. Finlay followed up with some good abdomen work before Rey made a quick comeback with a rana. Rey tried to get him across on stretcher and so Finlay thinks it is time to get the shillelagh (it was on a pole because that was a possible option). Finlay smashes him in the knee. They never stuck with one body part. It was too bad. I liked Finlay's knee from the apron to send Rey into the stretcher. The finish was the best part. Finlay is up against the apron. 619 that puts Finlay stretcher. Rey Rey then hits a somersault plancha while Finlay is on the stretcher. GREAT! Rey goes to push him across, but a TV cord impedes him. LOL! They actually improvise a good finish with Finlay missing with the shillelagh and then Rey flapjacking him onto the stretcher. Great use of the stretcher and the almost finish. ***1/2
  13. WWE Champion Triple H vs Randy Orton - No Mercy 2007 Last Man Standing The Game's hot streak is snapped. Way too long. Last two minutes or so was great. But it is a slog getting there. If you watch the Umaga match you will see it is built around Umaga being impervious to pain and HHH's injured ribs. They go to the injured ribs way too soon. So within the first minute Orton is working the ribs and HHH is selling. Ten minutes later Orton is working the ribs and HHH is selling. There is no sense of progression. The match is stuck in a rut. Orton goes for the RKO on the announce table that took Cena out. HHH pushes him off so he crashes through another one. Now we are in the one move per minute portion of the match. Way too much downtime here. Total false epic. The RKO on the chair was nasty and you can always count on a good, gory bladejob from Hunter. I liked the Suck It in defiance of Orton and then catching his foot on the punt with a GREAT HULK UP! Ok, here we go! HHH does kick some ass, they cut him off way too early. They do some bullshit. The finish is great. RKO on the announce table and Orton gets a decisive win. There is some good stuff in here no doubt and the finish is awesome. It is just a slog to get to it. ***
  14. Finlay vs Rey Mysterio - No Mercy 2007 Two of my favorite wrestlers of the mid-00s just going out there and kicking ass. It only takes a couple minutes to be reminded why Rey Rey is considered one of the greatest high flyers of all time. I love how Rey used kicks and dropkicks to the leg to set up his high flying moves. He is so great at making an opponent off balance whether it is through speed or attacking the leg. When he does let up, Finlay gives him no quarter throwing him hard into buckles. Again Rey uses a dropkick to the leg to stay on top. Finlay uses the skirt to blind Rey and club him. Then they use that great Rey slide on his belly spot to go into the post. Finlay decimates Rey's arm (always better than going after his leg). Good hope spots here. I loved Finlay's short arm clothesline and his clothesline cutoff to the 619. Finlay goes for the Shillelagh after using a smoke screen of taking off the turnbuckle cover. Rey mount his big comeback and he drops the dime while Finlay's head is between the ropes and Finlay takes a nasty bump from the apron straight back to floor. He lets us know a ruse. They put him on stretcher and then he hops off and beats the holy hell out of Rey Rey. I like the angle at the end to put some heat on the feud. They had a better match on Smackdown after this, but this is a good way to start the feud. ***
  15. WWE Champion Triple H vs Umaga - No Mercy 2007 The secret to great Triple H matches is keep them short. I thought was a really strong babyface vs monster match. You don't think of HHH being good in this role, but he actually sold the ribs well and worked hard. Umaga is amazing and even in his short run should go down as one of the all time great monsters. I loved the constant Umaga no sells when HHH went to the head (DDT, steel steps, facebuster). HHH keeps firing, but you cant hurt Umaga. He feels like a real horror movie character like the Creature of the Black Lagoon as he just keeps coming and coming. HHH gets a great hope spot with the Spinebuster and Pedigree to a huge pop. Umaga catches him with a Samoan Drop and begins some amazing rib work. I liked his Black Hole Slam and headbutt to abdomen which HHH sold really, really well which shocked me. I really liked the finish with Umaga missing THREE times into the buckles finally enough to daze him long enough to nail a Pedigree. I loved that Umaga is such a badass monster he had to hurt himself to give HHH the opening to win. This was a great way to demonstrate HHH's resilience. Surprised by how damn good this was. ***3/4
  16. WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Triple H - No Mercy 2007 It all came back to me watching this. Exciting period in wrestling because there was a lot of speculation they would bring back Jericho or Michaels back early to fill in for the injured Cena. What didn't come back to me was that Vince was apparently a regular character at this point feuding with HHH. He awards the title to Randy Orton with no match to get some heel heat. HHH insults Vince's manhood and finally gets this match. Basic pro wrestling match that is good but nothing too memorable. Orton trying to leave with the title almost immediately fits well with his cowardly character. Love that high knee as a cutoff by HHH. I thought Orton floating over and hooking the neck into his backbreaker was a great way to transition. Powerslam was a good cutoff for Orton. Orton's heat segment dragged. HHH made his comeback with big time clothesline. Then a nice superplex and spinebuster to big pops for nearfalls. Orton was damn good at selling and bumping for HHH. Multiple times the glassy eye selling or the way Orton would throw himself into bumps would catch my eye. Orton gets a nearfall off his Hangsman DDT. Lawler said "Vintage Orton", they have been saying that for at least TEN YEARS now! The RKO push off Pedigree attempt gets nuclear heat. Orton misses a kneedrop -> figure-4 should have been the finish! Orton makes the ropes. Orton runs into post and HHH rolls him up. Lame finish. Very well-structured with Orton giving a great selling and bumping performance. ***1/4
  17. Chris Benoit vs Finlay - Smackdown 5/5/06 The closest thing to fucking BattlArts in a WWE ring. Just sheer brutality. Benoit gets busted open from the top of the skull at one point and I don't have a fucking clue how. Finlay driving the point of the elbow into the wound is something else. The opening matwork is just tremendous defensive wrestling. A real treat to watch. Benoit is tenacious going for the arm into the crossface early and Finlay has so many good leg trips. FINLAY BLASTS BENOIT WITH A CLOTHESLINE! The whole crowd nearly shat themselves during that. Benoit drives hard into the post. Finlay worked a great heat segment on the arm. Everytime Benoit got a hope spot like a Sharpshooter or Crossface attempt, Finlay would wriggle out and then just be all over him with a frenzied assault. When Benoit did finally fire back with chops to send Finlay to the outside, Finlay goes all Terry Funk and starts throwing chairs into the ring. Awesome! Benoit gets a dropkick to the knee while Finlay is on the apron to take over, great spot. Benoit is a machine. Crushing Finlay. Finlay's gets a Irish Whip counter into buckles. Finlay's second heat segment is the only drag. Lots of chinlocking, I get it when you are dealing with Benoit you want to sap his energy and just try to contain him, but there are more interesting ways. Benoit blasts his way back into this. Misses his diving headbutt always a cringe-worthy spot. Shillelagh time? Benoit fights through it dumping him out. Ref grabs the shillelagh but Finlay jabs Benoit with the chair and then hits the Celtic Cross. Awesome asshole finish. Brutal match with an amazing finish. It is Benoit vs Finlay need I say more. ****1/4
  18. WWE World Champion Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit - Smackdown 2/6/03 Kurt Kobashi powerbombs Chris Misawa into the turnbuckles only for Chris Misawa to duck under and hit a German where Kurt Kobashi lands on his belly. I am so glad "This is awesome" has NOT been innovated yet. Even with this bit of campy excess, I still thought this was a really good match. There is an authenticity that Benoit brings to the ring that is sorely lacking in today's WWE. The way he wrestles in the beginning, he is just out to overwhelm you. He is the Russians at Stalingrad, no steps back, only moving forward. It is just a barrage of strikes, holds and suplexes. It never looks choreographed. He looks like he is wrestling a legit contest. Angle actually matches him for violence at the beginning. One thing Angle lacks in my opinion is that viciousness, that mean streak. He shows glimpses of it here and I think when you are in the ring with Benoit, you have to have that. Angle's heat segment does drag between a chinlock and some boring clobbering. Benoit is an amazing comeback. Those chops are scintillating. You cant take your eyes off him. I thought the submission chaining between the Anklelock and Crossface was done better here than at the Rumble. Angle runs up the ropes, but headbutts Benoit by accident busting him open bad the hardway. That's when the aforementioned All Japan cosplay happens. Benoit misses the diving headbutt and Angle goes for pin that should have been the finish but they do one more Angleslam to really call it. I liked this. It was your typically solid Chris Benoit match. ***1/4
  19. WWE World Champion Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio - WWE Smackdown 1/23/03 The night after the famous Angle vs Benoit Rumble '03 match. Angle has Heyman with him as the build to Angle/Brock is beginning. Sounds like Rey Rey just made a return. Rey tries flying around at a million miles per hour to discombobulate Kurt, but gets caught with a brutal sitout powerbomb. Awesome vicious heat segment by Angle climaxing with sick headdrop German suplex. Rey's comeback has some really fun spots. I thought they would have been better served in the shine than in the comeback. But the spots are awesome and quite inventive. Angle gets his Anklelock and then overhead belly to belly. Rey dials up 619, but gets caught, but hits his bulldog. Gets caught on West Coast Pop and nasty finish with Angle ramming his head into the buckles and then driving back with him, roll through and Angle wins. Among Angle, Mysterio, Benoit & Eddie, WWE was loaded with TV talent. Lack of selling by Rey hurts it which is why the comeback would have been great as a shine. Individual moves by both men were awesome and the speed was great. Gnarly finish too. ***1/2
  20. Chris Benoit vs Charlie Haas - WWE Smackdown 1/23/03 Stephanie McMahon, at the peak of her hotness (she is still pretty hot), says the word "tonight" about 8 million times and then bends over and you get it. Benoit is such a great TV worker it is not surprising that there is no definitive list of all his great TV matches. This is a match that I have never seen pimped. I only watched it because it is on the same show as a Angle vs Rey Rey match that has been pimped. I was very impressed. This is such a breath of fresh air compared to the rote men's floor exercises that pass for pro wrestling today. This was intense, gritty competition to see who the better man is. The opening matwork was fast and furious with some great trips and counters. Benoit looks to get things going with a shoulderblock and clothesline, but before he can run away with the match Benjamin distracts long enough for Hass to slam his hand into the steps. Hass, who I liked growing up even if he was a little shallow in the charisma department, crushes this heat segment. Absolute laser focus on the left hand, wrist, and elbow. He is working great holds and keeping it moving. Benoit is amazing at selling. Truly a great seller. Well timed hope spots. Loved him trying to chop back only to have Haas wrench him down hard by the bad arm. When it comes time to make that comeback, Benoit just lets loose but never letting that left arm leave his side. Instead of rolling Germans we just get a release German. He cant hold onto a Crossface so he counters into a cradle for the win. That is the definition of finding a way to win all your weapons are taken away. Haas was great working on top. It was two wrestlers wrestling to see who the best was, Haas got the advantage in underhanded fashion and pressed it, Benoit ever resilient fought his way back and found a way to win. I love pro wrestling. ****
  21. It is sad but I think the Fashion Files are dead. It was can't miss hilarious for a long stretch. The last episode was boring and this episode actually sucked.
  22. Awesome powerbomb by Animal and he looked good. Hawk did a great dropkick too. This was a total squash and all of sudden Bangers take over. Double countout but they get to Doomsday Device which is a good compromise. Crowd is hilarious chanting Nitro sucks and Bischoff sucks during this shitty show with a skeleton crew with all the stars (Bret, Austin, Foley etc in Europe). Nitro was way better during this period. Now there is a sappy video tribute to Shawn set to Tell Me A Lie. What a shit show! Best part of this match is Lawler says Vince is out of touch. Doesn't know Nine Inch Nails & Marilyn Manson. Vince says some of it is fun. Then King says Butthole Surfers and Vince's "I beg your pardon" is hilarious and CRACKED ME UP!
  23. Sunny is the greatest female character of all time. She does a great Rude impersonation! Then does some Flair. Marlena is awfully normal sounding person. Just weird. This segment was right after ECW invaded RAW and HONKY TONK MAN was doing the reffing. Vince was so desperate. Sunny throws powder into her eyes. Setting up the this good Goldust vs Savio match I'm watching.
  24. They opened the show where ECW invaded the Manhattan Center in Feb of 97 filled with the Mutants against New Blackjacks. Weird choice for opener given the crowd but this was helluva lot of fun. Four big muthafuckas just hitting each hard and throwing them around. Barry Windham looked so weird with the mustache a lot like Dan Severn. They really should have pushed Bradshaw a lot sooner. Godwinns vs New Blackjacks was a lot better than the Stevie vs Guido match that followed.
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