[2000-10-29-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Rey Mysterio Jr & Billy Kidman vs Disco Inferno & Alex Wright vs Sean O'Haire & Mark Jindrak

[soup23]

Really fun opener. The spots were energetic and athletic and the pace never let up. I also thought they did a good job integrating the three way narrative of the match with one person not seemingly just standing around for too long waiting to get into position. Rey has really had a much better year than I would have guessed unmasked and with the devil horns. Jindrak and O’Haire continue to be the highlights of the NBT and seem poised to be main event stars. They end up stealing the win after a Seanton Bomb. This got the PPV off to a good start. ***1/4(6.4)

 

[GSR]

Mark Madden has the gall to describe Jindrak & O’Haire as the modern day Gene & Ole Anderson, then goes one better calling them potential Hall of Famers!  Three way dance rules are in operation here, meaning that one member of each team will be in the ring at the same time.  Kidman and Wright show a bit of unity in the early stages, working together against Jindrak.  The two of them whip him into the corner, however he leaps to the top turnbuckle, hops over the incoming Kidman before stunning Wright with a back elbow and laying out Kidman with a lariat.  His superiority doesn’t last long and they dump him chest first across the top rope.  Wright has had enough of playing nicey nicey, turning on Kidman, but ends up on the short end of a flying headscissors.  Tag to Rey who goes for the bronco buster, however Wright gets his feet up and Rey will be singing soprano for the next week!  Jindrak with a springboard clothesline to Disco and when Rey tries a springboard of his own, he plants him with a tilt-a-whirl.  O’Haire presses Rey over head, drops, catches and powerslams him to the mat.  That looked great.  Combination drop toe hold/leg drop to the back of the neck as the Knights and Animals team up once more on the champions.  Rey with a springboard splash to Disco and O’Haire breaks up the pin to save their belts.  After a Russian legsweep Disco signals for Kidman to land the big splash but he ends up taking him out with a flying back elbow instead.  Missile dropkick by Wright to O’Haire.  He sits Kidman on the top turnbuckle for a suplex, however Jindrak gets underneath him and we have a stacked up version.  Konan on commentary is putting this over strong, even the ‘Natural Born Cranberries’ too.  Triple tag sees three fresh men enter the ring.  The Filthy Animals end up on the outside and the Thrillers beel Kidman back inside before O’Haire presses Rey into the ring where he’s caught by Wright who hits a belly to belly.  Disco with a bulldog on Kidman and Jindrak pulls him to the floor to stop the count.  Pescado by Wright to Jindrak.  Rey counters the ‘Doctor bomb’ with a huracanrana, taking O’Haire over the top rope and back out to ringside.  A bit of shoddy camera work means we then miss Kidman and Rey’s respective dives.  The high paced action continues as Kidman spikes Wright with a ‘Tomokaze’ and Rey lands a top rope rana on Disco.  ‘Chartbuster’ for a near fall, Rey breaking that up with a springboard guillotine leg drop.  ‘Seanton bomb’ to the prone Disco, Jindrak keeps Rey at bay and the champs retain their tag team titles.  Post-match Wright attacks the Filthy Animals with a steel chair and when Konan leaves his position at the commentary desk to help out, the Thriller put the boots to him.  The save comes in the unlikely form of Sgt. A-Wall which is random as.

I thought this was a really good match and a great way to open the PPV.  Alex Wright continues to show what a talent he is and it’s amazing that he never got a run in the WWF after they bought out WCW.  According to Wikipedia he was one of the few who was under contract to AOL Time Warner and as result WWE couldn’t sign him.  Even today though in 2018 he’s still only 43 years old.  Fast paced, all action where everyone was with it and on the ball.  I’m really high on this and with only Nitro left to watch comfortably my ‘WCW Match of the Month’ for October (although Nitro does feature a Filthy Animals/Natural Born Thrillers tag so we’ll see if it holds on to the top spot).