Resident Evil Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Smackdown was a lot of fun tonight. The four highlights being of course Benoit vs Orton, Mysterio vs Henry , Finlay vs Funaki plus the footage of Benoit/Rey and Santo giving tribute to Eddie Guerrero in Mexico. The rest was passable but there was nothing else you really have to see. Mysterio vs Henry was another pretty good match that really picked up once Mysterio got on offence towards the end. I won't ruin it but I will say the transistion Rey uses to go from defence to offence was superb and is something everyone should check out. Really fun finising stretch here with Rey using all sorts of fun offence. I enjoy Rey more now than I did in WCW. He was great here and when it's all said and done he's going to be thought of as one of the best wrestlers of all time. The footage of Benoit/Rey and Santo I believe is on right before the Benoit vs Orton No Holds Barred so if you're not taping that's when you should make sure to be watching. Oh man, Benoit was Orton was awesome and even better than their match from two weeks ago. It wasn't a perfect match as there were a couple places that could've had improvment but it was still a great one. They even managed to get over the hurdle of making trash cans look effective for the most part (Why oh why does the WWE have to use trash cans for? Often too fake looking) and managed to produce a match that felt like a true struggle throughout. The structure was actually a little different (no doubt influenced by commercials) as they did more control segments than your typical match but still managed to make each one effective. There was also a great job done here of making Orton's clamp on holds look more effective than they ever have been before. I reccomend getting the tapes out for this match. Set your VCRs. Finlay vs Funaki was fun. Watch for the spot whre Finlay badmouths Funaki and Funaki retaliates. Cool spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Mysterio/Henry is a pretty good match, though Henry has to be one of the strongest wrestlers to make the least out of his size and power that I have seen. Reys comeback was done very well and smartly. Right now Nunzio had Psi down with a lateral press for the pin and when Psi kicked out Nunzio put a kimura on him. That's a spot I've wanted to see for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Benoit needs to say "fuck it" and go into full blown MMA mode just for me. The keylock-to-top-wristlock spot was so pretty. WWE should sign Kiyoshi Tamura JUST for them to wrestle forever. Benoit is doing a ton of little things that I am enjoying. He's fighting for everything. Randy has him in a headlock on the ground and Benoit is using his legs to tie up Randys and get better leverage. He was tying up Randys legs with the aforementioned Kimura spot as well. If Benoit got rid of the chops, I wouldn't mind. It's good to get the crowd into it, but it sorta hurts the flow of the match and takes you out of it. I like the more practical stuff Benoit does. I wouldn't mind one chop which sends his opponent down, but the ones that come after each other I don't like. Benoit using the chop to get Orton off of him was a good use of them. I like Benoits standing headbuts. Tazz has been miscalling moves at an insane pace in this match. Cole just pissed me off by ignoring what Tazz said about them calling so many great Benoit matches and instead talking about HHH in the Rumble. Very nice drop toehold spot on the outside. Benoit needs to steal from Ryo Chonan vs. Anderson Silva and do the flying achillies footlock. OOooh Orton raking the eyes was good. His knee drops I am kinda iffy on. He needed to do knees to Benoits from those rear chinlocks. Benoit really needs to work Ortons fingers for the psych to be complete. The camera work on the sharpshooter/orton punches spot was awful. Why show the back of Benoits head when Orton is punching him in the face? The Eddie Spots took away from the pacing of the match, IMO. Really shitty plunder. When Benoit does hardcore matches, I expect to see more than just trashcans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Finlay might just be my new favourite wrestler to watch. Goddamn. I wish they wouldn't package him so Irishly, or have him cut promos like the one he did after the match, or have such shitty entrance music, but his matches are so fun and him goin "C'mon Funaki!" was fantastic. They need to parallel him with Regal just so they can build up a confrontation. They could have a good toughfucker division with Bradshaw/Finlay/Regal/Benoit and maybe Angle if he ever decides to leave the land of spots just cycle those guys around with each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Evil Posted January 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Hey RRR Did you ever watch the mat wrestling in this (Benoit vs Regal New Japan 95) match? I think you'd enjoy it. Post Edited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DylanWaco Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Benoit would be about a million times better if he dropped the germans (or at least the insistence on using them in every fucking match) and the sharpshooter entirely. I could also do without the obligatory diving headbutt in every match. Benoit has been very good recently, and I'm looking forward to seeing this match tomorrow night even with the undoubtably terrible trashcan shit (I HATE that prop). Still I can't help but think that he would benefit immensely from a "less is more" approach to certain moves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 The trashcan stuff was bad because its a fucking trashcan and doesn't look like it would hurt a fly, but their selling of it was both great. It's messed, but the stuff that Benoit does to pop a crowd (germans, amigos, chops, flying headbuts, sharpshooters) is the stuff that I would like to see him do without. I like Highspots and there's a time and a place for them, I just would like to see Benoit limit them to matches that are built with them in mind, the epics where they do tons of nearfalls and the pace is generally slower and the crowd heat builds to the blowoff and Meltzer gives it *****'s. Because during his "regular" matches, they just seem to ruin the pacing he has going when doing all the fun chain wrestling stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 I just hope WWE gives us a Finlay-Regal matchup. I remember thinking their one WCW match was a shoot because of how they were just beating the piss out of each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Hey RRR Did you ever watch the mat wrestling in this match? I think you'd enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/w/William-Regal-vs....k&search=Benoit I didn't enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchistxx Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 I wish Benoit would only use the single German Suplex with the bridge pin regularly. If he's in a big match, he can bring out the rolling Germans, to much better effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Good summary, WP. I'd like to add to Mysterio-Henry that when they worked the cat-and-mouse spot, with Rey hiding behind the steps and then under the ring, the crowd did a great job keeping silent so that Henry didn't know where he was. I don't know if Rey got them to keep quiet (like Booker T did against Henry a couple years ago on RAW) but it worked. Camerawork for that spot was great as the announcers were clueless as to where Rey was. Ditto with your opinion on Funaki-Finlay. I'm LOVIN' Finlay's work right now. I only saw Benoit-Orton off and on last night so I can't really give a full opinon on it. If The Score here in Canada is doing their SD replay today at 3:30, I'm rewatching the whole show and especially that match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I haven;t watched SD! throughout in ages but is there always a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. next to Vince McMahon? Talk about your polar opposites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Wrestlers always refer to Vince McMahon as a champion of free speech on WWE TV, and they're expected to keep straight faces while doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cam Chaos Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Very nice drop toehold spot on the outside. Benoit needs to steal from Ryo Chonan vs. Anderson Silva and do the flying achillies footlock. It was actually a heel hook, although I do think since they use baseball slides to the outside and Storm used to use one to set up his single leg crab more people should attempt them as a transition to other holds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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