[2004-09-12-WWE-Unforgiven] Chris Benoit & William Regal vs Ric Flair & Batista

[cactus]

Batista might be the weak link here, but he's better than I remembered. Old Man Flair is very underrated in my eyes. He gets into a chop battle with Benoit and finds himself falling flat on his face. Flair does this multiple times, and it's a testament to his ability that he can do it without it looking hokey. Regal is more intense than usual. Evolution were responsible for taking out of his friend Eugene and he's looking for revenge. Even his stance screams intensity! This is a hard-hitting, physical opener that served it's purpose to pump up the crowd and then some. 

★★★¼

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a decent opener. Evolution have had better matches on RAW, but it's pretty cool seeing Benoit tag with Regal. Old man Flair has honestly been one of the highlights of 2004 for me, and I never thought I would say that. There were plenty of Flair vs. Benoit exchanges in this, and they ruled each and every time. It made me want to check if they had a singles match during this run. Regal was a bit of an odd fit, and not as good as I would have hoped for, but his main role was to square off against Batista, whom he didn't match up with that well. Benoit vs. Flair was good enough that it didn't really matter, but it prevented this from reaching the heights it might have if Chris Jericho or Edge had been Benoit's partner.