[1998-07-27-WCW-Nitro] Chris Jericho vs Dean Malenko

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Here it is - Dean's last chance! As much as this has been built up as a personal feud, they make some decisions in how to work this match that I don't quite understand. Jericho has worked so hard to be hated, yet he's busting out all of these highspots. Malenko is doing sunset flip-type rollups, instead of grounding Jericho and punching him in the face. They're playing it too straight, and the hatred that was there in the build, while not completely absent, is awfully subdued. This is a technically good cruiserweight match, but this feud demanded something bigger. Good match, but not the right match. This is so well-worked that I hate to bag on it too much, as they had the crowd biting on some of those nearfalls and pulled out some really cool new spots. But they had an issue, which didn't seem to matter at all until it was time to do the finish. I love the DQ I will say. Some may like this more than me, and I can see the argument for ranking it higher than I will.

[soup23]

I am with you Loss in that this feud really was built well with a semblance of hate but I almost got a feeling of lets get this over with already to this match. Jericho and Dean also are able to convey their roles superbly outside of the ring but still struggle inside the ring to get over their respective hatred and cowardice. The DQ does work on some level in that Dean knocked out Jericho but he gets the last laugh but I am split on that. Also, this really should have headlined the show or had a bigger role. (**1/2)

[Migs]

This needed more of a brawling style, and probably blood.

[PeteF3]

Going to disagree here--they didn't engage in a down-and-dirty brawl, but the moves they did despite being athletic highspots weren't designed to be pretty--they were designed to hurt the opponent. Just a little bit of extra velocity and oomph to add that personal touch. The big DDT off the turnbuckle was a great-looking move but it was also a move designed for Dean to break Jericho's neck. The near-fall afterward with Jericho grasping the rope at 2.9 was fantastic, one of the very best of the year. And a finish right out of Memphis, which I loved as a capper to all this '90s cruiserweight flippy-flop stuff. I actually like that Jericho wrestles clean and does highspots for most of this--*then* when that fails, he turns to the knucks. Just a simple change in psychology from Memphis-style cheating that I've heard Tully Blanchard talk about--he tried to open his matches by wrestling clean and only turned to cheating as a last resort. In the end, they cycle through an epic cruiserweight bout in the span of about 6 minutes but it only feels slightly rushed--this was one of the better TV matches of the year.