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[1993-10-24-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Steven Regal vs Davey Boy Smith


Loss

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Good match that was a bit too one-sided for my liking. It felt like Regal was gobbling up Smith, who has some pretty cool offense in his own right that being said Bulldog was on his way out so maybe that is why. The beginning felt like an exhibition, but it was pretty funny and good bullshit. Regal's offense was good, but dragged a bit and the finish was short, but decent. I preferred the Fall Brawl match against Steamboat.

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  • 5 months later...

Around this time Regal used to be my favourite wrestler. I still like him but not half as much as 20 years ago. There were some nice reversal sequences early on with Davey displaying uncharacteristic technique. His Lordship then worked on the ribs for a while before a quick tease near the time limit. It was okay but nothing notable in the context of the yearbook.

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  • 2 months later...

Jesse says Davey Boy Smith is a commoner and compares him to Jack the Ripper. Michael Buffer working the undercard. Regal has a great reaction after Bulldog does flip counter off an arm wringer and lands on his feet. Regal with his own cartwheel! Jesse does a better job of explaining what is going on in the ring than Tony. The early arm work was excellent. Regal kicks out of the running powerslam! Bulldog had the last minute or so but most of this was Regal showing ring superiority. Good stuff.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jesse with a shout-out to his daughter, whose favorite wrestler is apparently Davey Boy. Quite the comedown for Smith, going from challenging Vader to wrestling for the TV Title. Good stylistic match-up, though. Jesse really seems to enjoy watching this stuff--based on a call of an old squash match of his and the fact that he invokes his name every time Regal does the rolling senton, I think he's quite the Edouard Carpentier mark as well. The opening matwork exchanges are awesome and the rest of the match isn't quite as good, but Regal does provide some fun, positively Han-esque new holds--I loved him applying a grounded full nelson and then using his own legs to tie up Davey Boy's feet. Davey makes a really fun comeback in the last minute with two really hot near-falls. Davey busts out a piledriver as a desperation finisher attempt, but the bell rings at 2. Really good match--maybe even better than the Steamboat TV bouts. This year has been quite the resurgence for Davey.

 

Unintentionally funny exchange...

GMC: "Ten minutes gone by, there are five minutes remaining."

Schiavone: "DO YOU MIND?! I'm trying to do a broadcast here!"

 

He was actually talking to Sir William, but for a few seconds it seemed like some under-the-surface Schiavone/Cappetta heat coming to light.

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  • 3 years later...

Davey Boy was the star of the match here. For someone who was pretty much a walking muscle by now, he showed that he still knew how to wrestle well when the situation called for it, which in turn forced Regal to brawl in order to get the advantage. The last time Davey looked this good as a wrestler was when the Bulldogs first came to the WWF in '85.

 

They didn't do nearly as much with the commoner/aristocrat thing as I feared they would. That's a good hook for the prematch hype, but it falls flat once the aristocrat has to actually get in the ring and touch the commoner in order to wrestle him. As an aside, Regal needs another facial expression besides "I just swallowed boiling Liquid Plumr". I get that he's a lord, but he's been in the ring long enough to know that wrestlers, himself included, sweat whether they want to or not.

 

I wonder why Jesse still doesn't acknowledge that Jade from Minnesota is his daughter? He's past the point where part of his gimmick involves attracting women, and it's probably known to a lot of people by now anyway.

 

Dundee running around telling the fans to be quiet was a hoot. It's obvious he's having the time of his life with the Sir William gimmick, and unlike Fuller's Boss Hogg imitation, it doesn't require those fans who knew Billy from Memphis to swallow something ludicrous, He's always been an exasperating little cuss, even when he was a face; it's part of his charm. I can just imagine how annoyed Tony was with him for disturbing the broadcast, and I wish we'd been able to pick up what he said to make Tony flip out.

 

This match may have been a bit too technical for Tony to call correctly, which might be why we heard more from Jesse. Tony's really slipped as a play-by-play man from his JCP days. He's not quite in Vince's class yet as far as shortchanging the action in the ring, but he's a lot more comfortable with angles and storylines than moves. The sad thing is, Heenan coming in isn't going to help that situation whatsoever; in fact, since the Brain's most likely going to be focusing on getting his comedy over for a new audience, the announcing's likely headed to the edge of the cliff, if not quite over it. Put another way, Bobby's not going to be dropping too many Edouard Carpentier references. Their best team now for actually calling matches may just be Jesse and Larry Zbyszko, which as far as I know never happened.

 

I won't go so far as to say the finish was bad, but Davey looked like an idiot going for a slow-developing move like a piledriver with less than ten seconds left. Pee Wee Anderson cinched the deal by deliberately mispositioning himself, then leaping over both guys before starting his count. Why couldn't they have just had Regal stall out the time limit by tying Davey in knots? That was the story they'd been telling since at least the ten-minute mark.

 

I felt bad for Tony evidently having costume problems, especially since we only saw him on camera occasionally during the pay-per-view. I'm guessing Jesse approved the crack about his bald spot ahead of time, or at least didn't care enough to raise a stink about it.

 

Buffer works this match, but Cappetta does the main event? You're wasting the world's best-known ring announcer on a TV title match, ​Eric? No wonder you guys went out of business.

 

Line of the Night: Tony, after Jesse says that Regal's pounding the snot out of Davey: "Could you pick a nicer term?" It doesn't read like much, but I found his tone of voice hilarious, as well as a veteran wrestling announcer like him taking offense at the word "snot".

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  • 2 months later...

WCW World TV Champion Lord Steven Regal vs British Bulldog - WCW Halloween Havoc 1993

 

The opening bullshit around wristlocks and escapes was really fun and by far the best part of this match. Some really cool escapes and a good way for Bulldog to one up the cocky aristocrat. I It was cool to see Bulldog one step ahead of the self-proclaimed best scientific wrestler. After that, Bulldog gets distracted by Sir William and Regal takes over. Regal has some good offense, loved the Regal Roll and the shots to the midsection were nasty, but a lot of this was tied up in holds waiting for the time limit to expire smart but boring wrestling ultimately. I was surprised that they waited for the 60 second mark to start up Bulldogs comeback. Running powerslam and the piledriver cover as time limit expires were great down the stretch. Nothing to really go out of your way to see but perfectly fine wrestling. ***

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Really fun match with a lot of European wrinkles mixed in making it feel different. I thought this was a good showcase for Davey in showing his range as a worker and Regal in conveying how his style could get over with the WCW Southern fanbase and he could generate a nice heel reaction. Build to the draw was well done with DBS exploding in the last two minutes and running through a flurry of offense. Big coup for Regal kicking out of the powerslam and Randy Anderson timed the draw well by taking the long way to count the final pin. ***1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-10-24-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Steven Regal vs Davey Boy Smith

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