October 2007

Finlay vs Rey Mysterio - No Mercy 2007 Two of my favorite wrestlers of the mid-00s just going out there and kicking ass. It only takes a couple minutes to be reminded why Rey Rey is considered one of the greatest high flyers of all time. I love how Rey used kicks and dropkicks to the leg to set up his high flying moves. He is so great at making an opponent off balance whether it is through speed or attacking the leg. When he does let up, Finlay gives him no quarter throwing him hard into buckles. Again Rey uses a dropkick to the leg to stay on top. Finlay uses the skirt to blind Rey and club him. Then they use that great Rey slide on his belly spot to go into the post…

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WWE Champion Triple H vs Umaga - No Mercy 2007 The secret to great Triple H matches is keep them short. I thought was a really strong babyface vs monster match. You don't think of HHH being good in this role, but he actually sold the ribs well and worked hard. Umaga is amazing and even in his short run should go down as one of the all time great monsters. I loved the constant Umaga no sells when HHH went to the head (DDT, steel steps, facebuster). HHH keeps firing, but you cant hurt Umaga. He feels like a real horror movie character like the Creature of the Black Lagoon as he just keeps coming and coming. HHH gets a great hope spot with the Spinebuster and Pedigree to…

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Triple H - No Mercy 2007 It all came back to me watching this. Exciting period in wrestling because there was a lot of speculation they would bring back Jericho or Michaels back early to fill in for the injured Cena. What didn't come back to me was that Vince was apparently a regular character at this point feuding with HHH. He awards the title to Randy Orton with no match to get some heel heat. HHH insults Vince's manhood and finally gets this match. Basic pro wrestling match that is good but nothing too memorable. Orton trying to leave with the title almost immediately fits well with his cowardly character. Love that high knee as a c…

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Nasty, seedy psycho brawl as is Ians forte. Lots of disgusting punches and headbutts in this. I've never heard of Jason Dukes, but he handles himself well in this. He takes some absolutely stupid bumps including an absolutely reckless dive, and he generally had the right idea. He jumpes Ian at the bell and punches at his bandage (Ian is always bandaged), but soon finds himself eating a nasty beating that may have given me Hep C from watching. I really liked how he punched his way out of an armbar and then proceeded to take a Flair flop on the floor. As usual with Ian there are some amazing meth lab BattlARTS moments, such as ragdolling Dukes into the chairs with an arm dr…

Samoa Joe vs Christian Cage - TNA Bound For Glory 2007 WOW! This may be my favorite Samoa Joe individual performance ever! HE WAS ALIVE! I was just vibing off all his energy! It was charging me up! Dude felt like the biggest star in the world. His charisma was effusive and he just came in hyped, supercharged and was playing to the crowd so well. You got to watch it. He comes off like a total badass rockstar in this match. The Destination X match from earlier in the year for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship gets more hype but this match is way better and way more fun. There are so many great Joe moments but I think my favorite was he does his usual nonchal…

A first round match-up in the ROH Survival of the Fittest 2007 Tournament. It is a 20-minute time limit draw. Bryan's gameplan of wrecking Nigel's leg is extremely fun to watch, Nigel's selling is very good + his counter armwork is great & all the matwork in the match is just excellent. I could say that the match is a bit of gem, given that no one really ever talks about it. The time limit draw finish is definitely quite anti-climatic, but it is still a great match even with that. ****

When doing these sort of random watches from around about this time it's inevitable that you will eventually come across a match with Kaori Yoneyama (better known as Fukigen Death by more contemporary fans) given she's been literally everywhere and done all you can imagine and then some. This focused around Yone clearly not being in the same league as Amano; she's a crafty Jr heavyweight who lacks the height/weight/experience/skill to properly defeat her opponent in a straight-forward match. She instead decides to basically turn the pace up to 11 and make this into a High Speed outing where she can blindside and possibly win off sheer agility alone. Now with a lot of the …

El Generico comes down in street clothes and we find out that he is no condition to compete because of his shoulder injury. The PWG Champion Bryan Danielson storms down to the ring and tells Generico if he doesn't wrestle tonight, he'll never get a title shot. 'Serious Wrestler' Heel Danielson was so good, gutted we never got to see it in the WWE. Anyway, match starts and Bryan works on Generico's arm and shoulder and it's brutal. Think Zack Sabre Jr. style stretching and times it by ten. Generico gets a few hope spots in after he nails a handful of Helluva kicks, but Danielson eventually puts him away with Cattle Mutilation. This was very enjoyable. It reminded m…

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Rey Mysterio vs Finlay - Cyber Sunday 2007 Stretcher Match Coming off the heels of Finlay beating the holy hell out of Rey Rey by lulling him into a false sense of security by pretending to be so injured he was put on a stretcher. So the stretcher match makes sense. I thought this was a pretty good opener. No real shine as Finlay just suffocates Rey Rey from the get go. I thought they incorporated the stretcher well into the spots. They used it as a battering ram, liked how Rey Rey dropkick the stretcher into Finlay for a hope spot and the front suplex into the stretcher by Finlay. Finlay followed up with some good abdomen work before Rey made a quick comeback with a …

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