Final Two Shows (Disc One

Michael Shane v. Oz

I really can't stand Michael Shane and I'm not sure I even know who Oz is but this wasn't half bad. For workrate openers at house shows this was mercifully short and there was nothing overtly offensive.

Prodigy v. John Phoenix

This was really short squash. Prodigy worked stiff and they somehow blew the finish.

FBI v. Joey Matthews/Christian York

Lots of spots. Many of them relatively unimpressive. I expected more. Got less.

C. W. Anderson v. Jack Victory (Falls Count Anywhere)

I'm a pretty big fan of C.W. Anderson and on paper the idea of C.W. and Jack Victory exchanging punches for ten minutes is pretty awesome. But that's not what this was. Victory did take a big bump into the chairs and I thought both of the phone shots looked brutal but this needed more right hands and a lot less crowd brawling.

Tajiri v. Super Crazy

This was pretty good. They ran through all of their standard spots in a pretty quick match but they added a little flavor for the locals. I especially liked Crazy tightening his legs to try and block the tarantula and Crazy taunting Tajiri with Spanish curses from one side of the guardrail only to get kicked to shit by Tajiri was a pretty awesome spot. Not good enough to nominate but good.

Danny Doring/Nova v. Hot Commodity

This sucked. Best parts were listening to Hot Commodity interact with the crowd.

Tommy Dreamer v. Justin Credible

Lots of pre-match mic work and banter. Credible capstones his ECW career role as the guy who doesn't live up to his name as he is probably the least credible guy I've ever seen at delivering a solid promo and then working a match around it. I actually enjoyed Francine as a second here, but this was just filler.

Sandman v. Rhino

I enjoyed this. Sandman was really on his A game, getting the crowd going with his wise ass quips, selling the shit out of simple stuff like Rhino shoulder blocks, taking some really fucking big bumps, looking good on the mat early, et. Rhino tossing the hardware out of the ring just to piss off the crowd got a smile out of me as well. Nearfall segment at the end really seemed unnecessary, but I did like the finality of the piledriver as even the crowd seemed to know that Sandman wasn't getting up from that. Not quite nomination worthy, but worth watching.