[2000-04-30-WWF-Backlash] Dean Malenko vs Scotty 2 Hotty

[soup23]

One of those matches that is tough for me to judge. I do think it is really good and a hell of a surprise, but it is also one of those matches that really gets talked up most of the time and is even on WWE.COM’s list of 100 matches to watch before you die. In that respect, it is kind of become overrated to me over the years. Watching in the confines of this month as a whole though, they did a really great job crafting a wonderful match here. Malenko is relentless going after the knee and Scotty is a really strong FIP mixing in his crowd pleasing spots at the right time like the worm. The finish is also sudden and brutal as you get an implant DDT form the ropes that elicits a gasp from the crowd that is rare to achieve. I have Liger vs Pillman from Superbrawl II at ***3/4 and I can’t in good conscious rank this match ahead of that but it is right there and as close to brink of what I would call a great match as you can get. ***3/4

[Loss]

This was pretty great when Malenko was working over S2H's knee, both for Malenko's offense and Scotty's selling. It lost its way and became a get-your-shit-in match when Scotty had to do The Worm and they started trading bombs, at which point the leg was magically healed. I'm usually fine with abandoning limb selling, but not when it's such a sharp turn like that instead of a slow transition. The finish was great though, with Malenko reversing the top rope superplex into a DDT mid-air. They laid the foundation for a classic match, but didn't see it through. Still, the work throughout, even when they went off the map, was compelling. ***1/2

[Seabs]

Man even with a great limb work segment it's just so hard for me to get invested in anything that Malenko does. The leg work is good though and Scotty does a good job selling during the workover, it just needs Malenko to bring something more to the table in the personality/charisma department. Was a shame that they really blew the leg work off after spending so much time on it. I'm fine shrugging it off to do The Worm because it's The Worm and anyone who says it's a stupid spot is wrong because just listen to the reaction for it but they did too much stuff after where the leg work was totally neglected. Great finish though. At the time you probably see this and expect nothing and when you get this it's considered really great because it surpasses expectations by so much but since then it's kind of taken a life of it's own and that surpassing expectations thing is no longer there so when you go into it expecting something ranging from really good to great it's almost somewhat underwhelming.

[ohtani's jacket]

I must be the only Dean Malenko fan I know. I could watch him gobble up folks on the mat all day long. This match had people fantasy booking a whole new era of WCW style Cruiserweight classics in the WWF. That never happened but it was worth dreaming about as this match represented something rare in the WWF -- a solid undercard bout. Things were changing with the talent acquisitions from WCW, but if you grew up watching the WWF you'll know that the majority of the time they put all their eggs in the main event basket. This type of undercard bout was exactly what smart WWF fans wanted at the time. In some cases because they were just getting into tape trading but were still fans of the WWF or because they wanted the WWF to completely overtake WCW by replicating its undercard, which was generally considered to be one of the few advantages that WCW had over the WWF and something which stuck in the  craw of WWF diehards.

In the end, I guess it ended up being Dean Malenko's only Light Heavyweight match of any great significance. I wonder what would have happened to Malenko if he'd made it to the Smackdown Six era. Personally, I would have loved to have seen him take on all those guys. But I think my ultimate dream would have been for Malenko to end up in Japan working BattlARTS dates with Yuki Ishikawa and Carl Malenko. Like I said, I'm the only Dean Malenko fan I know.