Talk about it here.

Pretty short, but high energy and full of crowd pleasing spots. I think the other Finlay matches were better, but it was fun to see Wright up and around a lot, as in previous matches I've seen him in, he's been more of a flashy mat wrestler.

Finlay working a hair pulling spot on the bald-as-a-knob Wright is one of the silliest things ever. That bit aside, this was certainly high-energy with another ultra-enthusiastic German (Austrian?) crowd, though I think Finlay-Benoit is still the best of the CWA matches so far.

I’m just a sucker for the multiple kip up and it was fun to see Finlay be on the end of it. Finaly seems to convince referee at one point to not card him by not letting the referee pull the card out of his pocket. It worked. This was on the quick side for CWA matches.

Fun little match with Finlay especially looking good to me doing a lot of little vicious things throughout this match. Always good to see Steve Wright as well. Finish was pretty weak though.

They sure do things differently in Austria, as Wright gets the clean win here with an armdrag/hiptoss combo, which is an opening gambit almost everywhere else.

 

The problem with these European matches for me isn't the round system, it's the inconsistent officiating. The worst example is the use (or lack thereof) of the top rope. At one point, Wright tries to pull the old shoulderblock from the apron/sunset flip over the top and into a pin combo, but the referee won't count. However, at other points in the match both guys perform aerial moves off the top and get counts. For those of you who are bigger experts than me in European wrestling (which is just about everybody on the board), can you explain exactly what the rules are concerning the ropes and how they can be used? At one point, the ref also refuses to make a count after Finlay runs into Wright's boot on a corner charge, which I've never seen before anywhere else.

 

The edits here were small, and I could still follow most of the action. I couldn't hear the ring announcer admonishing the wrestlers in English, though, which was a shame.

 

Pete's right about the "hair-pulling" spot looking ridiculous. I'm guessing that it was a staple of Finlay's act which Wright went along with just for laughs and crowd heat. By the way, does Wright remind anyone else of a taller and more muscular Baron Von Raschke?

I didn't like the ref immediately giving wright a yellow card for hitting Finlay on the apron only to allow Finlay to do the same multiple times and deliberately attack Wright between rounds with no punishment. Sign me up for more consistent officiating. It got better as the match wore on with the ref refusing to count Finlay's top rope stuff. And the ref allowing Wright to attack on the ground without continuation as Finlay had. Some really cool spots including the ridiculous phantom hair pull. The ref constantly blowing the whistle is something I could do without.