Posted September 4, 201015 yr comment_5455322 Paul Diamond v. Bam Bam Bigelow I liked this for what it was. Diamond is cowering early and has to rely on a cheapshot to Bam Bam's leg to get in some offense. He works over the leg some before Bammer makes his comeback. Chastity gets hers first than Diamond gets the Greetings From Asbury Park. Solid match. Chris Chetti v. Justin Credible This was another fundamentally solid little match. I am starting to soften on Chetti a little as in general he plays a pretty good FIP and this was a good example of this. Really loved his sell of the jawbreaker from Credible and I thought he did a reasonably good job making Credible look good on offense which is not an easy task for any one. Finish was predictable but hardly bad. Al Snow v. Jerry Lynn Aside from maybe the Smothers match I liked a lot, this is the best Snow match so far. This was a very well structured match with Snow cheapshotting Jerry early, Lynn coming back with some really fiery offense, and Snow cutting him off well. Lynn took some really good bumps in this and I thought Snow was really good building the heat on Lynn slowly but surely. Pace was sort of up and down, but I really thought Snow did a good job working the head gimmick without letting it take over the match. Really enjoyed some of the cutoff and comeback spots here, especially Lynn's rana out of a second powerbomb attempt and an early spot with Lynn trying to go for a victory roll and getting drilled with a Snow Plex for his trouble. Lynn's comeback with the big dive was pretty cool and I thought down the stretch that did a good job of keeping it away from "your turn, my turn." There were a few really contrived spots involving a chair and this was probably needlessly long (a problem with lots of Snow matches), but overall this was a good showing from both guys who sort of excelled here at things they normally don't excel at. Axl Rotten v. D-Von Dudley Respectable brawl. Axl really is the find of this set so far as he is good in a variety of settings and rarely stinks up a match. Nothing special really but this was solid work from both guys. Shane Douglas/Chris Candido v. Doug Furnas/Phil Lafon This had some really good stuff and some really annoying bullshit. Loved Lafon in this especially his exchanges with Candido. Nothing to cute really, but they did a bunch of good looking stuff and Lafon was really laying in the forearms thick. I also liked that the Can Ams worked babyface here as the other guys are better heels and Furnas dynamic offense is more conducive to hot tag/explosive work which is exactly what you got out of this one. This had an awful lot of involvment from Francine which pissed me off because it always seemed to come right at the moments when the match was starting to look really great. Also the Can Ams working a headlock base for the first few minutes - while fine and well executed - struck me as totally bizarre given the context and setting. This is one of those matches where I can see a case for nominating it, but I can't imagine anyone fighting for it to end up on the set. FBI v. Tommy Dreamer/Spike Dudley Spike and MIkey come out first and I think I'm getting one of my all time wrestling dream matches until the FBI proceed to beat the fuck out of Mikey and Spike pre-bell. The beatdown is really good and they just destroy Mikey's knee while Spike is kept at bay on the floor. Still this pisses me off because it deprives me of what had potential to be one of the best matches in the history of the company. Spike ends up going to back and bringing out Tommy who had a bad wheel at this point as his tag partner. And naturally they go out and have a tremendous match in their own right. There is a lot of stuff to love about this, but one of the things I really love is that they went with a full on role reversal as Guido worked all stalling and schtick opposite Dreamer early and Tracy worked fast paced, high impact, workrate spots with Spike. Guido's early stalling was incredible as he took FOREVER to set up a test of strength spot before getting his ass kicked and when Spike comes in he just lights up Tracy with stuff. Spike ends up getting distracted by apron work and Rich gets a hold of him and just fucking destroys him with a crouching on the barricade and a nasty charishot. Spike's FIP is really great, with several teases, some good double teams, Dreamer desperately trying to get into the ring, et. When Dreamer finally gets the tag he goes highwire and lights up both guys including a really nice piledriver. They do a spot where he ends up pinning Guido but the decision is reversed because Rich had snuck Guido's foot on the bottom rope. Then Spike hits the acid drop, but Jeff Jones refuses to count because Spike isn't the legal man. Somewhere in there Dreamer gets clipped and Smothers rolls him up for the three. Finish is a bit off in execution, but I still thought this was a hell of a match. So good in fact that I forgot about the Dream match I lost by the time it was over. Blue Meanie/Super Nova v. PG-13 Pre-match mic work was better than anything that happened in the ring. This was a whole lot of bullshit that actually made both teams look worse. Taz v. Sabu Starts off with immediate wild crowd brawling including Sabu throwing Taz through a wall. These guys are punching and stiffing the shit out of each other early. Story of the match quickly becomes Sabu working Taz leg and to a lesser extent Taz going after Sabu's arm. I didn't think the technique was really there but I enjoyed the concept enough where I was following it and Taz's selling was pretty good so I was enjoying this. They would come up for some big spots including a really stiff Taz clothesline and a very good looking Sabu legdrop through a table. The problem was that this match just kept going and going and going. They were going around the horn with this match as this is essentially the exact same match they worked six days later and it's plagued by the same problem which is that these guys just don't know what the fuck to do to make a draw compelling. The last ten minutes of this are these guys throwing suplexes, meandering around, laying in holds, et. because they are desperate to kill clock. I am certain there are people who would like this - and I liked the first half of it a lot - but as a complete match this is far closer to bad than good. John Kronus v. Bubba Dudley Not atrocious. Bubba punched Kronus hard, Kronus bled, run-in, et.
