August 2005

I guess Smackdown is the place to be now. This was a decent Smackdown that served as a coda to a bunch of SummerSlam matches. Usually, you'd expect to see this type of match on a go home show, but here it was on the Smackdown after the PPV and a lot of the workers were selling how banged up they were. It wasn't as red hot as some of the more famous WWE six-mans but it was a fun bout. Batista doesn't look great as the Ace. He should really be working a program with a guy like Guerrero, imo, but they tried to put him over as an unstoppable badass with the finish.

Santo is back on CMLL television and we immediately get the power trio of Wagner, Santo & Mistico. This was a fun showcase for an unstoppable trio. Having Santo back in the mix is a boon. Mistico does some cool dives, and Ultimo holds things together on his side as you'd expect.

This was more enjoyable than recent rudo contra rudo bouts as it was a bit more up tempo and Perro was so popular with the crowd that he almost played a de facto tecnico role. The Anniversary Show was drawing closer so there was a bit more pep in everyone's step. I liked the brief exchanges between Tarzan Boy and Satanico. It's always nice when wrestlers remember that they hate each other's guts.

KENTA attacking Suzuki before the bell here was very well done, he just dashed at him and booted him in the head, and Suzuki's towel blocking his vision made for a great detail. KENTA brought great fire and his offence was as crisp as I remembered it to be. I loved the transitions Suzuki would use-the Front Necklock/Guillotine where he left KENTA hanging in particular was a fascinating visual, and he was at home when it was time to stretch KENTA, but I wasn't in love with the portions in the match where in the middle where he was outstriking KENTA. Due to their difference in stature KENTA had to sell really big for Suzuki and he did, but Suzuki isn't big enough and didn't…