Fit Finlay

[Guest si oem]

.

[Jetlag]

Finlay also has an awesome PPV match against a bigger heel vs. Mark Henry. He also does an excellent job carrying indy big guy Jon Davis through a long mat based contest during his indy tour.

[Jimmy Redman]

Can anyone provide a list of Finlay matches to seek out on the WWE Network? I want to re-watch some of his stuff but there's not a lot being pimped in this thread, at least not specifically named.

 

His best matches in WWE:

 

vs Benoit, Smackdown May 2006

vs Benoit, Judgment Day 2006

vs Benoit, Smackdown Nov 2006

vs Rey, Smackdown Nov 2007

vs JBL, WM24

vs Matt vs Morrison vs Miz, ECW July 2008

vs Matt Hardy, ECW Nov 2008

 

Can't really think of much else, maybe someone else can. Finlay's appeal is more of an Arn-type one, where he is a great talent, never has a bad match and can drag something solid out of anyone, rather than having blowaway singles matches.

 

Finlay and Rey had more matches in 2006 that you might like, but I wasn't a fan of those. He carried lugs like Lashley and Khali to watchable stuff. Some might be interested that he had a PPV match vs Regal at GAB 2006, but I have no idea if it was any good. There's a Cena match on Smackdown, Dec 2006, which probably depends on how much you like Cena.

 

Now that I'm writing this all out, there's not as much there as I expected. Like I said he's always solid, rarely bad, but also not often outstanding. He's the ultimate mechanic, to reference that thread we just had.

 

I'll probably rank him, but now I'm starting to wonder.

[Grimmas]

Can anyone provide a list of Finlay matches to seek out on the WWE Network? I want to re-watch some of his stuff but there's not a lot being pimped in this thread, at least not specifically named.

Any match vs Regal in 96 (Nitro, Uncensored)

His TV Title run in 98 as well.

[Matt D]

OJ's done a pretty effective hit on Finlay.

[Childs]

I don't think it's a hit exactly--more just a reality check that, as good as Finlay was early in his career and then late, he was pretty far from that for a big chunk in the middle.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'd hasten to add that I'm sure there are people who watch his work from Reslo or CWA and think it's great.

[Matt D]

I actually need to take a look at that at some point because I could be one of those people. I just don't have time before March.

[GOTNW]

From what pre-WCW work I've seen of his Finlay doesn't seem like some great euro-style worker (though there are glimpses of that) but him having good/great matches over a large period of time is definitely something that will help his case even though I imagine he won't rank very high for me.

[Dylan Waco]

I figured I would drag this post over from WKO. Back in 2009 I challenged EricR of Segunda Caida on this choice of Finlay for his number one spot on his WKO ballot. Here is his response.

 

I would say I'm probably guilty of putting Finlay at #1 as a "well I like him a lot" pick. But maybe I can explain why...

Everybody always points to Finlay as a "model of consistency", but I think it's more than that. YES, he might be the most consistent worker in the world, but I put him at #1 for the same reason I had him #1 last year: He always looked like the best worker in every single match he was in. j

He has had more opportunities in past years to have "MOTYs", but no matter what situation he was in this year, no matter the quality of his opponent, no matter the length of the match, no matter what...he was ALWAYS the best worker in the match.

Which is not to say that he is selfish, as I also think he makes other workers look their best.

~He had the only good Jericho singles match other than the Rey ones
~THEE good Ricky Ortiz match!! Good Ricky Ortiz match!! That did NOT happen with anybody else
~Had the best Ziggler match (9/17 was better than the Rey PPV match)
~Best Tyson Kidd singles match
~never wrestles the same match, and is able to work awesomely within time constraints. If the match is booked to go 3 minutes, he doesn't do the standard WWE formula and still work in a chinlock. His "under 150 second" matches against Drew McIntyre were very engaging and felt like that had tons of neat stuff squeezed into a VERY short amount of time.
~was able to work great singles, great tags (both tag work and his awesome apron work), worked the best two 3-ways of the year, and was able to have awesome 4-ways as well.

All of these matches were good to great IMO. There are a lot of stumblebums in mixed in there, and Finlay gave awesome performances each time out.

vs. Birchall (ECW, 1/27/09)
vs. Swagger (ECW, 2/3/09)
vs. Brian Kendrick (SD, 3/13/09)
vs. Kidd (ECW, 4/28/09)
vs. Zach Ryder (SS, 5/7/09)
vs. Tyson Kidd (ECW, 5/12/09)
vs. DH Smith (ECW, 5/19/09)
vs. Jack Swagger (SS, 5/28/09)
vs. Ricky Ortiz (SD, 7/3/09)
vs. Ziggler (SD, 7/24/09)
w/ Mysterio vs. Knox/Ziggler (SD, 7/31/09)
vs. Ziggler vs. Knox vs. Truth (SD, 8/7/09)
vs. Ziggler (SD, 8/14/09)
vs. Knox (SD, 8/21/09)
vs. Knox vs. Ziggler (SS, 8/27/09)
w/ Khali vs. Knox/Kane (SD, 9/4/09)
vs. Knox (Belfast Brawl, SD, 9/11/09)
vs. Ziggler (SS, 9/17/09)
w/ Morrison vs. Knox/Ziggler (SD, 9/25/09)
vs. Knox vs. Ziggler (SD, 10/16/09)
vs. Chris Jericho (SS, 11/5/09)
Drew McIntyre series

In particular, I would put the Kidd matches (especially the 5/12 match), Smith match, 9/17 Ziggler, Knox Belfast Brawl against ANY top matches of any other worker from 2009.

Finlay is my definition of what a wrestler is. He is the guy to beat every year. But I really don't think I was out of line saying he was #1 in 2009.

[Jetlag]

This guy lately uploaded a metric ton of European era Finlay. Some of it has seeped out on various German handheld channels, but this is everything in one place and it has some matches that  I haven't seen online in forever, like the Scorpio match and him taking on Eddie Gilbert.

https://www.youtube.com/user/signsquad123/videos

[ohtani's jacket]

I have come around a bit on Finlay's German work. There is some decent stuff there, and it's definitely better than his matches with Paula. I still prefer the work from the beginning and end of his career, but it's worth seeing at least a few of Finlay's German bouts. 

[Matt D]

@EricR will have to make sure he keeps the counterpoint going by doing C+A on Finlay in Germany. We've hit a few of these for SC, but there's still a way to go.

[EricR]

Finlay is one of the few guys who have spent time as my #1 favorite wrestler, and his German stuff is my least favorite. There's a lot I haven't seen and I need to cover more as it's available. His WCW runs and his surprise WWF comeback were my favorite eras. I'm especially nostalgic for his WWF run as he went from a man who retired from injury and was already old, who then came back to be the #1 in ring guy in the biggest fed. I got to see several live Finlay matches from that run, felt like I was living my best life. 

[KB8]

Finlay was my number 49 in 2016, and while he wouldn't be quite as high on my list of straight up favourites as Eric's, Finlay at his most Finlayish is pretty close to my perfect idea of a pro wrestler. I actually don't love his WCW run as much as I feel like I should and I've found the European stuff to be more fun or good than great, but from his WWE comeback in 2006 and everything after that I love pretty much everything to death. Granted, that peak is short - and he was older than most people when they'd have their in-ring peak as a wrestler - but I thought he was the best wrestler in the world in 2006 and I didn't think he took much of a step down in the following few years, even if his opportunities to showcase it dwindled. I can see people thinking he doesn't have a deep enough resume, but to me he's a perfect "input over output" candidate. Put him in the ring against anybody from 2006 onwards and I want to watch it. Could be Matt Hardy, Rey Mysterio or Christ Benoit. Could be Gunner Scott, the Great Khali or Kenny Dykstra. Could be William Regal or Kane or Mr. Kennedy. Then there's the indie excursion where he gets to match up with all sorts of random folk from Sami Callihan to Tajiri to Murat Bosporus. 49 might be too high given my favourite stretch of his career is relatively short, but I'm struggling to think of any Finlay matches from that run that I'd say are actively bad and even the two-minute ones are fun because of him. So maybe it's not high enough. 

 

FIT FINLAY YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Steven Regal (WCW Uncensored, 3/24/96)

v Chris Benoit (WWE Judgment Day, 5/21/06)

v Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown!, 3/24/06)

v Matt Hardy (WWE Smackdown!, 6/19/07)

v Sami Callihan (EVOLVE, 7/26/11)

[HeadCheese]

Someone I have overlooked is Fit Finlay, I watched about a handful of Finaly matches yesterday. I remember liking him as a kid with SmackDown. Interested in checking out his World of Sport and going more into his WCW work. He feels like Greg Valentine where he feels rugged but, also can cowardly character stuff. The PWG match with Kevin Steen and CWA match with Eddie Gilbert are both really good.

 

[David Mantell]

Here in Britain you can tell peoples' age by asking them who Fit Finlay's sidekick is. Young 'uns say Hornswoggle. Old 'Uns say Princess Paula.  Probably also true in Germany/Austria.

Finlay's feud over the World Mid Heavyweight Championship with Marty Jones - including his defence against Steve Logan mk2 were MAGNIFICENT as was a Clean Match putting an on-his-best-behaviour blue eye (babyface) Finlay Vs fellow blue eye Davey Boy Smith in 1982 as an eliminator for a shot at Alan Kilby's British Heavy Middleweight Championship title. (Finlay went heel again to win the actual title but lost it back to Kilby in a return match, this cycle happening a total of 3 times))

During 1985-1990 Finlay was given a push as a bully boy heel, part of which involved a feud with him and Big Daddy stalking each other at shows.  During this period Finlay had a tendency to "work strong" and his technical skills went out of the window as he brutally beat down on lighter opponents. Jackie Turpin (brother of tragic boxing champion Randolph Turpin) got a decent match out of him, so did Johnny Saint and Chic Cullen (who won the belt off Kilby the course of losing the British Heavy Middleweight title to Finlay) but the other main outcome of this period was one of his poor helpless victims, 18 year old British & European Welterweight Champion Danny Collins who began a slow mission to get revenge. This started with Danny suffering some narrow competitive loses to Finlay such as at Croydon 1988 (for the "Mick McManus World Of Wrestling" videotape) culminating in 1989 with Danny winning the said Brit H-Mid title off Finlay - a year too late for ITV - plus a coda in 2012 when middle aged veteran heel  Dirty Dan Collins took it upon himself to beat down on rookie Fit Finlay Jr at a Croydon show "as payback for all the beatings your dad gave me!"

Finlay and Paula split up in real life in about 1991ish when Finlay was British Heavyweight Champion.  He later had a great match at a 1992 Euro Catch Festival with Jushin Liger (formerly Flying Fuji Yamada in the UK). Finlay and the UK Skull Murphy (Peter Northey , son of 60s star  Charles "Roy Bull Davies" Northey) were a pretty hot heel tag team in the early  80s and they had a passable reunion in the early 90s, mostly on Welsh Language TV.  Ike all good heels of his era, he had a one night blue eye stand against mega heel Kendo Nagasaki circa 1990.  Finlay's ring act with Paula pussywhipping him for losing falls - was a big hit with British audiences at the time although apparently many American fans find it unsettling.