[2000-11-11-WWF-Metal] William Regal vs Gangrel

[soup23]

What a hoot this match is. Gangrel is so much smoother than Saturn in the Raw main event I just watched. He throws a back suplex and Northern LIghts Suplex here early. Regal shows some craftiness with the elbows to the back of his head and his transition with the drop toe hold at multiple points in the match. Regal stretch was a good false finish and Gangrel was able to show a lot of fortitude before going down. The perfect syndicated match to keep your attention span at 11:00 PM. **1/2

[GSR]

William Regal makes an open challenge to any WWF superstar to come wrestle, nay grapple, him for his European championship.  That challenge is accepted in the unlikely form of Gangrel.  The inaugural season of the XFL is still over three months away and they’re hawking season tickets already.  Really looking forward to having that shoved down our throats!  Kevin Kelly says how you won’t see any closed fists out of William Regal, he will only strike with the forearm because that’s within the rules, although that doesn’t mean that he will always fight within those rules!  Regal kicks out of the Northern Lights suplex and a nifty little leg trip takes Gangrel down before firing away with some forearms to the back of his head.  Gangrel tries to fight back but Regal just grabs him by the hair, pulls his head down and repeatedly knees him in the face.  An uppercut floors the challenger and as Regal makes the cover he drives his forearm into Gangrel’s jaw as he does so.  Another leg trip and this time he transitions to the ‘Regal stretch’ forcing Gangrel to go to the ropes.  Gangrel briefly gets back into the match, holding onto the arm after reversing an Irish whip and hitting a Russian legsweep.  He’s only delaying the inevitable though, Regal ducking a swinging arm and picking up the win after that sweet Hangman’s noose neckbreaker.

Regal was fantastic here; everything he did looked like it hurt, everything was solid and everything had purpose.  I only watched this because of Chad’s review and while I didn’t like it as much as he did (this wasn’t a standout performance from Gangrel and even things which easily pop me like Northern Lights’ he didn’t execute crisply) I didn’t regret it and it was absolutely worth it to see Regal do his thing.