May 2006

IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar vs Giant Bernard - NJPW 5/3/06 Inokiiam ends with a whimper not a bang. Im pretty sure this is the last IWGP title defense under Antonio Inoki and it is a Smackdown 2002-03 match. Also 5/3 was a typical Dome show date and it was not a Dome show in 2006 showing how far the business has fallen. This starts interesting but gets progressively less interesting. Bernard throws a better clothesline than Brock. One of the few things Brock does not do well is throw lariats. Brock actually wrestlers small here which makes for a better match. Bernard is winning the clothesline war and using his bulk to bully Brock around. It is only on an errant …

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Finlay works a miracle by carrying green as grass 2006 Bobby Lashley to a good sixteen minute match (thirteen minutes shown). There's no room for fancy stuff here like the previous week's KOTR qualifier against Benoit. Finlay works a utilitarian match, grinding Lashley down with awesome looking heel offence and building the entire thing around anticipation for Lashley's comeback. Even when Lashley does get his few seconds of big power moves he still clearly lacks confidence in what he's doing. The guy should not have been on TV this early. Regardless though the finish rocks with Lashley just eating a chairshot and spearing Finlay for the win. *** 1/4

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Sacrifice 2006 - NWA World Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted vs AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels We get a pre-match interview from AMW, Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda's Totally Bitchin Rack. I totally forgot Jackie was with the company and apparently this was her exit as she announced she was pregnant and summarily fired. Charlie Haas is one lucky man. This match was pretty good and I really liked the energy of the babyfaces from the get-go as they got the crowd rocking. AMW worked a solid heat segment on Daniels, but nothing to write home about. The hot tag to AJ is where this one fell apart as Daniels totally neglects he had the shit beat out of him and just starts rattl…

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One of the most unique & ambitious matches to ever take place in the indies. It's a 15 minute match where over 10 minutes of it are spent in a HEADLOCK. The match starts off with some tight technical exchanges between the two, and then during a sunset flip pin attempt, Claudio counters that by ringing Bryan's bell, and Bryan immediately grabs his ear afterwards. Then the next time they lock up, Claudio gets the headlock in. Claudio has an awesome headlock, very tight & overall good looking. They tease Bryan getting out of it masterfully w/ him doing atomic drops & back bodydrops, only for Claudio to still keep a hold of that head. The PWG crowds reaction to it…

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Kurt Angle vs Mark Henry - Judgment Day 2006 Much better stuff out of these two. Henry lays a little badmouth on Angle before the match. This is during the period where Angle both acted like a psychopath in the ring and was even more of a psychopath outside the ring. He really comes off an unhinged here at the beginning. I love it. Gives it a blood feud feel. Angle is out for revenge after Henry busted up his ribs real good (wearing tape). Loving the urgency from Angle just hurling his body at Henry. When Henry misses a seat drop he is right on him with a kick. Eventually all this running around leads to SPLAT when Henry RUNS over him with a shouldertackle. Damn. Henr…