Chris Benoit vs Brad Armstrong - WCW Clash of the Champions XXII

 

Great showcase for Benoit and his offense. Really liked the chain wrestling early thought Brad Armstrong kept up well with Benoit using dropkicks and armbars to control the Canadian Crippler. The real value of the match is Benoit kicking ass it really felt like Benoit could have gone somewhere as early as 93 in WCW. He hangs Armstrong out to dry and then hits a wicked springboard reverse clothesline out to the floor as Armstrong was on the apron. Jesse marked out for that one. The Body was definitely a mark for Benoit. Benoit looked great kicking ass here. Benoit crashes and burns on diving headbutt. However a Dragon Suplex, which popped the crowd, Jesse and me. I don't think it is a Top 100 WCW match of all time like Smarkschoice says, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Perfect midcard match for Benoit to showcase his stuff and just competitive enough. ***1/4

Started slow, but Benoit got a lot of chances to shine here and Armstrong was game for all of it. Jesse was huge in putting Benoit over and I imagine that if Watts had stayed, Benoit would have gotten some semblance of a push.

Pairing him with Scorpio for Superbrawl (who'd just beaten Scotty Flamingo one match prior to this one) was the type of thing that'd get this style over. We may have seen a cruiserweight division (named or not) 3 years earlier. Hell, maybe Watts would have brought in Waltman before WWF scooped him up.