Last Wrestling Match Watched 2.0

[Crippler]

NXT 12/25/2013 – William Regal vs. Cesaro

Great opening minutes with both men trading out of hammerlocks and top wrist locks, Regal still looks better than the majority of the roster We comeback from the commercial and they do the test of strength and Regal fuckin’ bridges out of, AWESOME! This match feels a lot like the OhNo/Regal match with the teacher vs. Student, but this had allot more technical wrestling to it. That do this AWESOME sequence out of the test of strength, with Regal having him in the cravat snap marring him over but Cesaro bridges up grabs a hold of Regal’s neck in like a chin breaker position and flips him over but before the flip he has him delayed in the air before dropping him A few minutes later Regal does the GOAT talk to the ref while back kicking Cesaro but Regal makes a fatal mistake of turning his back on Cesaro and Cesaro gives him a nasty chop block that Regal sells like a champ as he rolls around screaming in pain. Cesaro now begins to work over again as we go to another commercial, UGH! Okay we are back and Regal is like half way through a comeback but gets absolutely killed with an uppercut followed by 9 smalls ones and one huge one. Cesaro hits the big swing for 8/9 seconds before gloating and gets cocky as he goes for the neutralizer but Regal backdrops out of it and drops the knee to the arm, and I should mention it’s the right arm AKA the arm Cesaro uses for the uppercuts. Regal now begins to work both arms to neutralize the strength of Cesaro and to stop all powermoves, he connects with a t-bone suplex but he’s too slow to follow up and it looks like he’s about to hit the running knee but it “buckles” so he has to put the brakes on and that allows Cesaro to headbutt him AWESOME! Regal goes for a butterfly suplex but Cesaro lifts him up and has him delayed in the air for a number of seconds before dropping him down in a pinning position but he’s in the bridge still for a 2 count. Regal is able to counter out into the Regal stretch but before he can lock it in Cesaro gets to the ropes. Both men are slow to get to their feet but when they do CESARO NAILS HIM WITH A PICTURE PREFECT DROPKICK! DOUBLE STOMP TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD! Cesaro then circles him like he feels he’s done too much and he begins to hesitate. It has that feel like he doesn't want to be the one to put his hero down but Regal uses Cesaro’s body to pick himself up so Cesaro puts him down for good with the neutralize for the win. Post-Match: Cesaro and Regal shake hands showing DAT RESPECT! Fuckin’ great old school match with great mat work, and it just elevated as the match went on with both guys selling the injuries throughout, so they at times had to switch up their offense. One thing I didn't like was how long it took Cesaro to finally put Regal down, I’m not saying end it right after the foot stomp because I liked the hesitation stuff but cut 30/40 seconds off it and it would have been perfect. ****

 

[Gimmick]

Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy - Cyber Sunday 2008
A great follow up to their match at No Mercy. It wasn't quite as good as that match, but there's still so much to like about it. The chemistry between both guys back then was just great, and seriously underrated. I liked how they continued on with the story of Jeff Hardy having H's number on a lot of occasions but ultimately getting caught out or out smarted by the veteran, which happened a good bit throughout the match. It got especially good in the final few minutes though. The way Triple H desperately tried to stop Hardy's momentum with sleeper holds and attempted Pedigree's was just awesome storytelling, and played its part really well in the ending when Triple H caught Jeff Hardy on the top rope, before delivering a Pedigree for the win. Great stuff from start to finish. 8/10

 

[Hot Rod]

Real Americans vs. Los Matadores (4/4/14 Friday Night Smackdown)

6/10

 

[Keith]

Sting VS. The Black Scorpion Cage match, WCW Starrcade 1990

This match was pretty sloppy, for two main reasons, one the guest referee Dick the Bruiser killed the pace with his counting (proving that the official can affect the flow of a match) and also because Ric Flair as the Scorpion was maybe trying to tone it down so not to give fans too many clues of who he is. Still the match has its moments, and is actually more solid than I remember. The closing stages are also very exciting, and the commentary throughout from JR and Heyman is priceless!

**1/2

 

[Keith]

Razor Ramon VS. The Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer)

Different kind of match for Ramon, as he had to work around Taker's gimmick, and instead of being the power man had to play the cocky/hit and run heel part which he did pretty well. Match was rushed, and I was never convinced the bad guy could win, but it was a decent brawl anyway.

***

 

[Chris]

NWA Starrcade '84 - NWA World Heavyweight Championship with Special Referee Joe Frazier: Dusty Rhodes vs Ric Flair (c)

This wasn't bad at all. A really hot match with a fast pace for 10 minutes or so. Dusty kept control for most of it but Flair ended up pushing him into the post which caused a bad cut and Frazier stopped the match. Meh finish to a hot match with the crowd but Dusty's promo after was like all of his.

 

[Chris]

WWF The Wrestling Classic (1985) - Junkyard Dog vs Randy Savage

This was the tournament final, and the booking up to this point was just terrible. Savage is the heel, but he had to wrestle more matches and was selling some injuries, and JYD was the face, yet he was fresh. The action was fine, but it drug along a little too much, and the ending was Blue because Savage got counted out because he was selling his injuries from his matches. Would have been a perfect finish if the heel won and the face was counted out. Oh well, Savage's heel work towards the beginning was still nice, this was better than I expected.

 

[Chris]

NWA Starrcade '85 - NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Dusty Rhodes vs Ric Flair (c)

This was actually really good. Both guys worked and sold some really nice leg work. It had a slow pace throughout the whole thing, but man was it fun to watch and the two guys worked the slow pace so well. The ending was hot, and the crowd was really into it. Small Package finishes are some of my favorite in wrestling if one right, and this one was. Highlight was Dusty's crossbody false finish because Flair took that guy's full fucking weight coming off the top rope. Dusty's post match promo was great as always, wish he had a longer one like on Starrcade '84 though.

 

[Chris]

WWF WrestleMania 2 (1986) - Steel Cage Match for the WWF World Heavyweight Chamionship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs King Kong Bundy

This was better than I remembered. Bundy was always a favorite of mine, and he worked Hulk's ribs pretty good here. The first couple minutes were really fast-paced and fun to watch, but then it started slowing down and bored me. It was just Bundy beating on Hulk and trying to get out the door a few times with Hulk stopping him every time. It picked up more when Hulk got in control again, but he did a terrible job at selling the ribs after the first half of the match, especially when he no-sells the Avalanche It was still more fun to watch than I remembered it being though. This would have been a solid main event, just not 'Mania caliber in hindsight; although, there have been worse.

 

[Keith]

^ Yeah its actually better than you would expect, and Bundy a better worker than I gave him credit for maybe his awful run in 95 soured me on him.

 

[Chris]

WWF The Big Event (1986) - WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs Paul Orndorff

This was pretty fun for 11 minutes or so. The first few minutes of this was some really fun brawling. It slowed down and Orndorff had control for most of the rest of it with his AWESOME heel work. The ending was kinda meh and a little confusing with the DQ, but I'm okay with it. This feud though

 

[Chris]

NWA Starrcade '86 - NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Nikita Koloff vs Ric Flair (c)

Nikita just manhandles Naitch towards the beginning with his power. Naitch's shit talking is fucking gold during this . Nikita's no-selling is on Hogan levels during this, and Flair just rolls outside every time Nikita gets up after something fast . Naitch finally ends up getting control after dodging a Russian Sickle, and Nikita goes flying over the top rope. Flair then starts working the leg like a BOSS as usual. Naitch's heel tactics are GOAT level by this point for sure, and this is just fun to watch. Flair stops Nikita's comeback and slams his head into the scaffolding stuff from the Skywalker's match before this one, and Nikita gets busted open. Nikita then makes another comeback after no-selling some shots to the head like he's a Samoan. Nikita then slams Flair into the scaffolding which busts Flair open as well. We get a Flair Flop Towards the end GOAT referee Tommy Young gets hit pretty hard by Nikita and falls out of the ring. Nikita then DESTROYS Flair with a Russian Sickle, but it looks like we're getting a Dusty Finish here. Flair takes advantage and a second referee comes in but Nikita kicks out at two after a knee to the back and then his the new referee with a Sickle . Tommy Young comes back in but Nikita pushes him down and he says FUCK IT and just calls for the double DQ because neither of them would listen. Like every wrestler comes out to separate these two. This was a fun match for the most part, but I'm really not a fan of the main event of your biggest show of the year ending in a DQ. The brawling afterwards was FUCKING awesome though.

 

[Chris]

WWF WrestleMania III (1987) - WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan (c)

I've seen this a few times before, and I've never been a fan of it, but historically it's one of the most important matches of all time. Andre was already almost too big to move by this point, but the feud itself was built up so damn well it didn't matter how good the match was. We start the match and Hogan tries to slam Andre right away to no avail. Andre works the back for awhile, and I'd be pretty bored right now if the crowd wasn't eating this up. Perfect example about how important a hot crowd is in wrestling. Thankfully Hulk finally gets a comeback going before I fell asleep, but it doesn't last too long as Andre catches him with a big boot. Andre keeps up his solid back work (which Hulk is obviously just going to no-sell soon) with a bear hug that they can work so much better than his forearm shots from before. Andre stuffs another comeback, and both guys end up outside. Hogan tries to hit a piledriver on the outside, but Andre throws him over really weakly, and they go back into the ring. Hogan drops Andre for the first time this match and the crowd goes absolutely nuts. Hogan then slams him and it's still mark-worthy Leg drop and this one's over. Not that great of the match, but the last 10 seconds are fucking amazing.

 

[Keith]

Royal Rumble match 1989
Not a great rumble match, but far from the worse and given it was the debut on PPV it proves solid enough and very eventful. Enjoyed AX and Smash starting, and the likes of Perfect getting a good run, the Hogan/Savage showdown and Dibiase trying to buy the match gave me plenty to enjoy.

***

 

[Chris]

NWA Starrcade '87 - Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair vs Ron Garvin (c)

Ron Garvin AKA the forgotten NWA Champion. This is a cage match so that means no heel trolling with Flair outside the ring Flair gets more cheers than Garvin FUN FACT: Garvin wrestled as a woman two years earlier on Starrcade '85, but anyway let's get to the match. GOAT Tommy Young is the ref here so that's a plus. Both guys exchange hard strikes to start the match, Flair with his chops and Garvin with his. "Garvin sucks" chant is loud as fuck as he takes control this guy's supposed to be the face here. This whole match has been chops so far, but we got a Flair Flop and then he took a back body drop Garvin is still in control and the crowd is getting behind him more at least. OH SHIT GARVIN STOMP Flair finally stops Garvin with a low blow, and now Naitch is in control. There has to have been at least 300 chops so far and it's only been 5 minutes. Flair starts his leg work now. Flair then hits a kneebreaker and OH SHIT HE HELD ON TO THE KNEE AND TURNED IT INTO THE SMOOTHEST FIGURE-4 I'VE EVER SEEN! Garvin ended up getting out of it after awhile, but he sells the leg like he was shot. Garvin ends up coming back after reversing an Irish whip and slamming Flair into the cage a few times. Naitch is busted open by this point. I guess Garvin's knee feels better now. Both guys end up on the top rope and Garvin knocks Flair off and we get another flop. Flair ends up coming back but only for a few seconds because Garvin just throws him off the top rope, and then locks in his own Figure-4, man everyone did this move in the 80s. Flair's out, but Garvin works his leg some more now while his has magically healed to 100% apparently. Garvin goes up to the top rope and hits a crossbody for a real close near fall, then a backslide for another. Both guys are on the top rope again and Flair crotches himself. A couple near falls by both guys and this pace is picking up nicely. Obligatory ref bump as Dusty was booking, but Tommy Young's a pro and isn't too fazed by it. The finish comes as Flair catches Garvin off the rebound and just Flapjacks him head first into the cage and into a pin. Not a bad match, and Flair looked so fucking good here. Garvin really just looked out of place though, and I'm a fan of the guy, but he played his part nicely.