[1994-08-05-SMW-Night of the Legends] Heavenly Bodies vs The Thrillseekers

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Sweet Jesus. It's been years since I've watched this. Seriously. How did Jericho pull this off? Good Lord. The match itself is pretty strong actually, as the Bodies do a really good job of carrying things. And they are working a really strong match before Jericho covers everyone around him in blood. But wow. Insanity.

[Kevin Ridge]

Jericho has to wrestle left handed and you can see him struggle at times to not use his right arm. Must have been tough to switch things up like that at the last minute. Jericho gets really bloody and they stop the match. But it restarts again and Thrillseekers pull out victory out of nowhere. The victory out of nowhere has popped up on a bunch of matches lately on yearbook.

[Exposer]

This has to be Jericho's breakthrough performance. He wrestled with one arm, still making his offense look effective and bled everywhere for an extremely compelling FIP segment. And yes, this match was good too with some nifty counters and double team moves from both sides.

[soup23]

Really good performance by Jericho and my second favorite Bodies performance besides the rock n rolls farewell match. Bladejob was really gory and Jericho did an admirable job of working with one arm. Storm's FIP section was fine but his offense was spotty in a lot of places and definitely was the worst worker in here. Real good southern style match that worked around its constraints to the best of their abilities.

[El-P]

I only had seen this as a handheld before, it's obviously much better on TV. MAn. Jericho tried a dumbass flashy move in training prior to the match (shooting star press I believe), and he fucked up his arm. You can picture the reaction of Cornette. Being right handed, cutting his forehead with his left hand (not to mention it was probably his first bladejob ever) result is the biggest bladejob fuck-up this side of Wally Yamaguchi slicing Akira Hokuto's forehead. Seriously, this is 10 and a half on the Muta scale. He painted the ring, his opponents and the referee's shirt bright red. Strong work from the bodies, mediocre work from Lance (surprise surprise) and a shitty finish which I really don't care for. I never liked that kind of finish anyway, and here it was really badly done, but I guess Jericho legit had trouble standing up after losing so much blood. Still a very good match, of course, and quite memorable. Agree it made Jericho look like someone special.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Just a terrible finish. But Jericho's performance makes the god-awful finish forgiveable.

[PeteF3]

Great performance by the Bodies, busting out all kinds of sick double-teams. And a fine performance by Jericho, who actually works pretty well with one arm. The one-armed bodyslam was downright impressive. Storm's strikes are absolutely laughable, stuff that would have Bill Watts seeing red, but as a FIP he's okay. Then the hideous blade job that turns this into more of a snuff film, or a deathmatch bootleg, than a wrestling match, to the point where it almost defies a traditional star rating. It was pretty compelling, as the Bodies are just total dicks in working over the cut, and you start to legit wonder how long Jericho can hang on. By the end Mark Curtis' shirt is half-pink and Jericho's prodigious blond hair looks like spaghetti in marinara sauce. Finish is wonky at best and would have been even without all the blood, but they accomplished what they set out to do. Sadly this is it for Jericho in SMW.

[GSR]

Chris Jericho had broken his arm practicing a shooting star press in the ring earlier that afternoon and wrestles with a soft cast on it. Jim Ross explains on commentary that he did it in a motorbike accident and he refused to have it put in a cast because if he did so, he wouldn’t have been able to wrestle here. Considering he was operating one handed, he did an excellent job; a nice one armed Rocket launcher on Lance from the top turnbuckle to the outside on the Bodies, some quality looking clotheslines and even a one handed bodyslam. The only thing that looked bad were some left handed chops. The Thrillseekers dominate early and are in the ascendancy over their more experienced opponents. It’s only a great little double team maneuver that turns the tide in the Bodies favor, from where they go to work on Lance and continue to wear him down. Superkick by Del Ray for a near fall and Prichard misses his falling back elbow from the top which give Storm the chance to make the hot tag. Jericho unleashes an array of kicks and punches on them before Prichard drags him out the ring and rams his head into the steel barricade. He is busted open and already there is a puddle of blood on the arena floor. The Bodies focus their attention on the cut and Mark Curtis takes a look at it a couple of times. By now Jericho’s blond hair has turned red and his face is a crimson mask, with him collapsed in the corner and the Bodies continuing their attack on the cut, Curtis takes another look before waving the match off. The bell rings and the ring announcer informs the crowd that the referee has stopped the match but Jericho is on his knees begging for it to continue. Curtis calls for the bell and he restarts the match. A matter of seconds after the restart, and with Curtis arguing with Cornette, Storm levels Del Ray with a superkick and he falls backwards over Jericho who rolls him up for the win. Unfortunately the camera completely misses the superkick and it just looks like a very sloppy roll up.

 

I thought this was a good match and between wrestling one handed and the blade job, an excellent, dramatic performance from Jericho. I know if I was in the audience or watching this live, I would have been seriously worried about him due to the amount of blood he lost here. The Bodies are very good, understated and almost the unsung heroes of this as they are clearly the glue that holds it together. The main criticism is the finish which again comes across as over booked, something that Cornette has a tendency to do. I would’ve personally not bothered with the whole ‘stop/start’ part of the match, especially when the pin comes so quickly after the restart. The camera completely missing the superkick doesn’t help one bit mind.

[Zenjo]

Jericho comes in with a seriously injured arm. You can tell it's legit when the opposition avoid it like the plague. Nice face shine segment to begin. The FIP with Lance was timed just right as well. I really dig the Gigolo's image BTW. The ginger mullet, the copious chest hair, the old school physique. Fantastic. Back to the match and I thought they were heading to the finish before the future Y2J got busted open. He bled a gusher, and with his injured arm couldn't shield himself from the blows. The Bodies pounded away until the referee stopped the assault. Unfortunately he then restarted the contest for a desperately weak pinfall. The journey was good however. A breakthrough performance for Jericho in his early career.

[JKWebb]

El-P's comments had me cracking up. I have never seen this match before today, but I do remember hearing Jericho talk about this during one of his podcasts at some point. I love how Jericho broke his arm in a "motorcycle accident" according to Jim Ross. Loving the team offense from The Bodies. They really put on an offensive tag team clinic here. Jericho gets the hot tag, and yeah.... wow... he gets busted open, and he is REALLY bleeding. I can see why this would be considered a breakthrough performance from Jericho. He shows a lot of heart, he sells really well, but who knows how he was actually feeling after losing all of that blood. Mark Curtis has to stop the match due to loss of blood. Jericho begs to have the match restarted, and Curtis actually agrees! The Thrillseekers get the surprise win. Good stuff! Very memorable.

 

#466 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-500-451/2/

[ohtani's jacket]

#466. The Bodies were good in this and everything, but I really don't need to see Lance Storm wrestle. This wouldn't have been all that memorable without Jericho's blade job. Ross was in his element here with the bah gawds coming thick and fast. It ended up being quite the spectacle, and the Bodies did an awesome job of working over Jericho's head injury. The finish was shoddy, though I did like Cornette kicking the bottom rope and hobbling about on his foot. Match gets points for being memorable.

[Alex]

Heavenly Bodies do a good job at carrying this, lots of fun teamwork between the two.  Yeah I can't stand Lance Storm in this either.  Chris Jericho doing left-handed offense was pretty amusing, and ugh, that blade job is beyond crazy.  I've been bored and watched a bunch of dirty motel videos on Youtube with roaches and and vomit and cocaine, and this blade job is the worst thing I've seen on Youtube this week.