December 2003

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs Chris Benoit - Smackdown! 12/04/03 Holy shit was 2003 a great year for Free TV matches from WWE or what! The Mysterio match was awesome. I remember really digging HHH vs HBK on RAW from later this year. I need to refresh my memory on Angle/Lensar Ironman match. Benoit and "You Tapped Out " chants directed at Lesnar were wicked over. Why the hell did they switch Benoit to RAW for Wrestlemania XX? There was all this great build. Did they know Brock was leaving already? I am not going to complain because Eddie vs Brock is one of my all-time favorite matches. I really liked the dynamic of this match and I hate to start off on a sour …

Let's see if Kawada and Hashimoto can conjure up some magic to end the year. Hashimoto has really short hair. I'm not sure why you'd do that. It's like Samson cutting his hair. The Hashimoto vs. Kawada exchanges are pretty good. They would have been better during the mid-90s in a bigger setting, but for the most part they remind me of Hashimoto vs. Tenryu, and on the whole, Kawada vs Hashimoto is a match up you want to see from 2003 wrestling. I'll tell you this though: I'd much rather take Wataru Sakata to a fight than Kendo Kashin. Sakata and Kashin try to add something to the match with their exchanges, but it's a losing battle. Kawada vs Sakata was cool. They could ha…

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Great match. This was a revancha that started off like they were already in the third caida, and never let up. Really intense trios wrestling. Every exchange felt like they were fighting for the pinfall or submission. There was very little in the way of flashy moves or showmanship. This was all about winning the match. One of the more memorable Virus performances of the year. He really shone in this environment. Definite MOTYC as far as trios matches go. One of the top lucha matches as well. Make sure you watch the first match as well to get the full effect. And a Monterrey match without any bullshit! It's a Christmas miracle!

This was a great looking match on paper but was mostly a mediocre brawl with not one, but two, referee stretcher jobs. There was some slick running between the ropes from Felino and Black Tiger, and Casas vs. Wagner was good when they weren't busy fluffing about, but the finish was the kind of abject nonsense that makes people hate Monterrey. The ref started running the ropes like a madman and hit Wagner with a clothesline then counted the pin. The crowd loved it, which I guess should count for something, but how many great matches on paper have been ruined by Monterrey BS. I should know better at this point, but even if the matches are rarely above house show level, you …

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW 12/9/03 I don’t think the Shooters were necessarily the issue during the “Inokiist Era” (c. 2001-2006), I think more of it has to do with Tenzan, Kojima (though he had a lengthy AJPW) and to a lesser extent Nagata. Nagata is better than those two but he needs to wrestle someone better than him for him to be good. You can get good things out of Tenzan and Kojima against Tenryu but for the most part they are lifelong midcard acts that were forced to become main event acts because of the lack of star power. Tenzan to me is the most possible Nasty Boy. He looks and wrestles like a goon. He is the perf…

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs Rey Mysterio - Smackdown! 12/11/03 I don't think there is a wrestler that has debuted after 2000 with a higher wrestling IQ than Brock Lesnar (maybe AJ Styles, but it is close). Brock just completely and totally understands pro wrestling. It is a total shame that he hates travel. He works a classic Ric Flair vs Hometown Hero match (they were in San Diego), but stays true to himself and updates the style to 2003 flawlessly. Brock is so selfless in that ring that what you need to be as a heel. He is a monster, but he is never afraid to show ass and shine up anyone including tiny Rey Rey. They do a great job establishing that size differentia…

This was a fascinating match up. Perro Jr, who we know is going to be a force in lucha for several years to come, vs a game, but past his prime, El Dandy. The action is excellent, and Dandy is having a good night, but there's so much fucking about. I swear there's more fucking about in a Monterrey match than in an Attitude Era main event. Fast forward through the bullshit if you watch this one.

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Talk about it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksdMvdNHufQ&feature=youtu.be

This was a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be e a bunch of silly buggers between Parka and Park, but the first fall had a bunch of traditional matwork and rope exchanges, including one awesome exchange between Safari and Panther, where Safari got the better of Panther and Panther took it out on the ring apron. Even when they switched gears to the brawling part of the match, there were some really cool exchanges between Parka and Park, and some inventive use of the plastic white chairs at ringside. They kept the bullshit to a minimum, and, believe it not, sold me on the Parka vs. Park match the following week.

This was the first minis match I've seen in an age. It was nothing special by minis standards, but I was still pleased to see them do their thing. Octagoncito hit a sweet tope.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

This is a Fight Without Honor grudge match. Comparing this to the very good battle Homicide & Trent Acid had of the same match type earlier on the year, this is a level above. There's A LOT of truly insane spots, such as the springboard 450 to the outside through the table, Xavier's Arabian Press onto Walters who was laying on the ladder, Kiss-Your-X-Goodbye from the top rope & of course also that absolutely BRUTAL finish -- but even more importantly, on top of all that, I felt like these two here captured the true essence of a Fight Without Honor, which could be summed up to the one word of "dislike". That's where I think it edges out 'cide vs. Acid, which a…

Tenryu lowers himself to filthy WMF to teach their boy Mammoth a leason. I think I liked this more than Tenryu/Kojima, as from memory this had more awesome Tenryu moments, a bigger asskicking and young Mammoth trying to take down the legend. The opening moments had some fun tubby guys rolling on the mat moment before Sasaki decides to really go for it to which Tenryu responds by simply taking him down and torturing his bad leg a bit. However Sasaki won't let up and soon both guys are throwing punches. Mammoth decides to start the garbage brawling by taking the match to the outside to which Tenryu responds „Sure, you can have it“ and smashes a fucking bottle on his head. T…

This was really good. I've never had a strong opinion on Super Parka one way or the other, but he was fantastic here, stalking Park in the early going and beating on him relentlessly. The match was clipped, which hurt the ebb and flow a bit, but you got the general idea of Super Parka's dominance and Park's failed comeback in the primera caida. Parka was great at jawing with the fans, which helped punctuate the action. Park eventually made a comeback, and there was some great back and forth action once he'd leveled the scores. The match had a pretty high ceiling at that point, and I thought it might end up being one of the better lucha matches of the year, but then they b…

This is lowkey one of the best ladder matches I've seen. There's nothing hanging above the ring so it's just a ladder match because there a bunch of ladders around. Morohashi & Hashimoto are the tag team champions and they run wild on the other two teams with chairs for the first half of the match, until Morohashi catches an errant chair shot and KUDO pins him with a suplex. Hashimoto beats people up some more after they're eliminated. The two teams left are both made to have ladder matches. Particularly MIKAMI, who loves ladders. The crowd loves unmasked HERO! and he gets the pin after getting beat up all match, when MIKAMI misses a moonsault off the ladder. I really…

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H vs Shawn Michaels - RAW 12/29/03 Terrific match! I have a lot I want to say about this, but it is getting pretty late. Probably the greatest American 80s match not to happen in the 80s. HHH does one of the best Flair impersonations ever and I mean that with respect and admiration. He was a consummate heel champion in this match. Michaels was an awesome, awesome fired up underdog hometown babyface. Both of them were constantly fighting back at each other. HHH was was getting outwrestled early in a great shine, but Shawn earned it. Awesome transition to the heat. HHH worked a great heat segment. Great transition to Shawn's figure-4. N…