Pre-match mic work and opening explosion from Smothers were both really cool. The height Candido got off of his dropkick bump was nuts. Candido offers his hand and Smothers post him with an atomic drop and then beats him from pillar to post before taking a huge bump of his own off of a missed corner charge. Candido hits a nice legdrop off the ropes and they end up running a couple of the really snazzy spots they unloaded at Sunday Bloody Sunday before going to the floor where Candido takes over. They keep up with the on the ropes theme from that match as well as there are tons of awesome spots using the ropes, including a good inside out splash from Candido and vice versa from Tracy. Also loved Tracy's baseball slide and his firing up of the crowd before it. The up and down tempo of this was really excellent as they used a headlock as a base, but it was done really effectively with Candido arguing with Curtis which fed Tracy's hope spots. Really loved Tracy's back elbow off the ropes as Candido took a huge bump off of it and the proceeding spot with the teased superplex, Tracy blocking it and then Chris hitting him with the top rope frankensteiner was really fucking awesome. Candido eventually got caught on the top rope and ate a slam ala Flair to set up Tracy's full blown comeback. Finish here was great as Candido tries to pull the trunks down on Tracy for a sunset flip, Tracy sits down on him for a nearfall, Chris completes the roll up for a nearfall and Smothers ends up rolling forward for the clean finish. This was probably even better than the match from Sunday Bloody Sunday.

This was another bad ass bout between the 2. Both men really bump hard for one another. Some of Candido's bumps are sick. Him taking that inside out suplex all over the circuit, and the Cactus Jack clothesline bumps are amazing, plus their are so many more. This bout went about 20 minutes which is the longest one I've seen them work. Their bouts can be a little samey, but the added time gave it a different feel. It gave Candido a chance to really heel it up, and for Smothers to work underneath and rally the crowd behind him. I also loved Candido's snap suplex that caused a hush to go over the crowd. They believed that hurt like hell. For me a minor quibble was the headlock Candido clamps on before the finish. To me it seemed like we didn't need it. It didn't hurt the bout for me or anything though. An easy nomination.

"Wild Eyed Southern Boy" Tracy Smothers vs. Chris Candido (1/8/94)

 

Smothers tells Candido he is going to kick his ass and he backs it up by pounding on Candido who was bumping all over the ring. This led to some really solid fast paced action with both men trading the advantage and hitting some big spots before Candido would work a headlock on the mat but it was far from boring though as Candido kept the pace up by arguing with Curtis throughout along with cheating plus Tracy was working hard in his hope spots. The build to Tracy's comeback was well done and when he got it he was fired up leading to a fun finish sequence with Tracy coming out on top. This was good stuff and moves forward.