Chris Jericho vs Mike Enos - WCW Nitro 9/23/96

 

This is a cult favorite WCW Nitro match from the early days when random midcard wrestlers were just thrown together and gold was born. Enos gives a really fun and engaging heel beatdown on Jericho. He just throws his body at Jericho with reckless abandon and is just mean & nasty the whole time. The climax is clearly the suplex onto the steel steps, which needs to be seen to appreciated for its brutality. It was an interesting strategy to let Jericho shine by taking a licking and keep on ticking as opposed to kicking ass as Enos was a lower mid-carder and Jericho had just debuted against Benoit. Jericho is very good at selling at this beating Jericho looked resilient, but I don't think it paid off and not much did with Jericho until found that amazing conspiracy victim character. Jericho's comeback is rough and tumble, but lacks a spark. The counter to the Frankensteiner with a SuperBomb was neat. Enos looks for the powerslam, but Jericho shifts his weight for the victory. A bit too flukey against a lower micarder for my taste. Booking aside this is a fun, little match where you get a cool Enos offensive power display and some good Jericho selling, but does not have much else to support it. This is more damning of Jericho's WCW run that this probably in his top 5 WCW matches, but still a fun match to check out and wonder what was to be if The Mauler got a push. ***

Yeah, this is supposed to be a shine for Jericho but what you come away thinking is, "Man, Mike Enos is charismatically challenged but is otherwise pretty fucking awesome." He unleashes a veritable shitload of cool offense, and keeps this pretty psychologically sound with some great focused work on Jericho's back. Jericho's win is rather sudden, but he did counter a move that Enos successfully pulled off earlier, so some points for that. Inconsequential though it may be, this is one of the better non-Yearbook TV bouts of the year.

Good catch brutha that Jericho countered a move Enos had already hit! I totally missed that on my late night viewing.

Super fun midcard match ion Nitro for sure.  Jericho s the "take a licking and keep on ticking" babyface is fine.  But it definitely does not stand out on Nitro.