Tim Cooke

Rudo- you need to pimp all of the really awesome non Pride fights, especially from lesser known Japanese promotions. That UFC list above has just helped me make an order from Lynch. Tim

Show/Eddy was non title. Tim

Two great matches from 2004 that I hadn't seen until this weekend. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Jamie Noble (5/1/04 - WWE Velocity) 11:14 aired on TV. If this had the additional 7 minutes that Chavo/Rey Jr. from the Great American Bash on 6/04 had, it would be hands down the best juniors match I have seen from 2004. It didn't have those extra minutes but it is still fantastic. A good amount of mat stuff to open the match as Noble is very good at basic holds and Rey is more than competant on the mat. Rey gets some early flying offense in early in between settling down with side headlock takeovers to slow down the pace (which are more like judo throws than traditional side headlock takeovers). These segments are so cool and so out of the norm that it even includes Noble picking up Rey, Rey holding on, and floating over to hold on to the headlock. Noble takes over working on Rey's arm with lots of basic stuff, executed so well. His hammerlocks and arm bars are so crisp that they look better than working flashy, innovative holds. Noble ties up Rey's arm in the corner turnbuckle and dropkicks it in a great spot. It should also be noted that the crowd is very hot. No need to canned heat in this one as the people even pop for Rey's takeover after Noble lifts him up to try to get out of it. Rey's selling is excellent too, as has been the case with almost all of his WWE work (and his work prior too). In 1993, Rey could take a nice beating but it was mostly about trying to hit his spots. Fast forward to 1996 and his March match in Tijuana against Juventud Guerrera and you see Rey's selling in lucha at its peak. His WCW work was mostly a showcase of his spots but he could sell well enough when he needed to (10/26/97 vs. Guerrero and 12/27/98 vs. Kidman & Juve). His WWE work has taken his selling to some of the best in the US, finding a way to hit his high spots but remembering his injuries and making it all work together. Rey's comeback is awesome, with Noble giving him small spurts to get the crowd into it before going down the home stretch. Two of the best spots of 2004 come in this final run. Rey sprinboards off of the second rope into a flying body press on Noble. He rolls through (as does Noble) and Noble locks on a cross armbreaker for a nearfall submission. A great reminder to the arm work so that Noble's segment of work on Rey doesn't become meaningless. This is straight out of the 1/21/96 Samurai vs. Otani NJPW match. The final great spot is Noble locking on the tiger driver. He picks Rey up but instead of hitting the driver right away, starts running and looks to hit a running liger bomb. Rey reverses it with a rana and Noble lands perfectly in the ropes to set up the 619, which Noble takes a picture perfect neck bump for. The crowd is wild at the end, with the WWE being able to pan the arena because of the excellent reaction. Noble's best match ever (some of his end of WCW work was strong but was botched by opponents and being in 6 ways, etc.). If his FIP and ROH work can be this strong, it should be an awesome treat. And Rey Jr. is the best WWE style worker today. The WWE style is to hit signature moves to pop the crowd while not ruining the perception of wrestling by not selling. Rey does this plus he adds another layer of selling. And his UWF kicks to the chest (and his one Kawada kick to the face in this match) are so great. Eddy Guerrero vs. Big Show (4/15/04 - Smackdown) 11:20 airs on Smackdown. Non-title, if Show loses, he is gone from SD (to have surgery). This is worked in the same style as Brock/Eddy from No Way Out but I think it is actually the superior match. Eddy is as good here as I think he has ever been (even better than the JBL matches since Bradshaw brings a little bit more than Show to his matches). Simple story, worked so well with Show playing the monster role as well as as he has ever played it. No one is confusing Big Show with Vader, but for working a match where the mosnter has to be credible but also shows vulnerability to give the face some offense, he does it better than Brock did. First, Brock was all over the place with his punching and kicking in between moves. His kicks to the gut had too much daylight, his knees (when used for transitions) were no better than average (though his knees in the corner were usually strong), and his hand striking was forgettable to the point where I am not remembering it. Big Show doesn't fall into that problem as he bases his striking around headbutts, with Eddy selling them tremendously. This keeps his striking focused and allows for his other offense (mostly in the form of low end stuff) to look devastating without having to throw out multiple suplexes to produce damage (like Brock did- Brock's overhead releases worked more because of the way Eddy sold them...they don't work when the opponent doesn't know how to sell them). The whole match is Show dominating with Eddy getting quick spurts but always being cut off. Show is a monster and while Eddy is champion, he just isn't 500 lbs, so he can't go straight up with him. Eddy's comeback spots include poking the eyes, stopmping on Show's toes, a flying body press off of the top rope with Show catching him, a plancha to the outside with Show catching him which leads to Eddy escaping and ramming him into the ring post for the first major damage of the match. Show works on Eddy's arm, so Eddy has no chance of coming back. His arm work is extremely simple (to the point of using a nerve hold, with headbutts to the arm being some of the higher end work) but it is done well and sold well by Eddy. Another comeback spots involves Show lifting Eddy up by one arm again and Eddy gets out and is able to sunset flip but Show pulls him right back up by the neck. So in a great booking move, Guerrero, who has been booked as a smart champion, is on the outside and grabs a wrench. As Show brings him up, Eddy sticks the wrench in Show's boot, who feels it and gets distracted. Show finds out what it is and as he has it in his hand, the ref turns around and see's it. He takes it away and Eddy punches away. This leads to a beautiful tornado DDT on show and then another DDT, followed by the frog splash for the pin. An incredibly simple match that told one of wrestlings oldest stories but never got old, slow, or tired. Not one true rest hold either. Big Show's best performance ever (which was even apparent to Michael Cole, who kept saying how he has never seen Show so focused, kayfabe for working an intelligent match). Eddy was spot on, doing everything so right. And props to Show for taking the tornado DDT so great, looking like Shannon Moore did when Yang gave him one at Superbrawl 2001, only Show being 350+ heavier than Moore. As far as TV matches go, this is all I am looking for. It is a lot better than the JBL/Eddy cage match from Smackdown, which was very good and an enjoyable match, but got spotty in some cases and the frog splash off the top of the cage hurt the ending a lot for me (for logistical purposes). Tim

I've seen both. The 3/6/04 match is my favorite of the two though I think it is decent step down from Rey/Noble. The thing about the 3/6 match is the commercial breaks really hurt the match. If I saw it uncut (or cut at a better time), it might be different. London also uses that goofy chicken arm into sit down bomb move that annoys me. For being a favorite of mine, that move and London's old stupid neckbreaker move from early ROH drive me nuts. Noble vs. London in ROH would be bazillie. Or even on WWE PPV if they had good build leading up to the match and were given time to develop. Tim

I finally got around to taking a look at this last night. The first fall is the strongest of the three falls with some good work by both guys. The start is the rockiest part of the fall with HHH failing to get with Austin on a headlock to start a rope running sequence and then a weird stun gun on Austin by HHH. After those problems, the match settles down with Austin going after HHH's arm, wrenching it at it while in an arm bar position. He also uses the Bobby Eaton arm ddt move as well. HHH takes over after a knee to the gut, which is a big flaw of the WWF/E style at this point and to the current time in terms of transitions. When it is time to shift momdentum, it usually involves a knee to the gut instead of a thoughtful transition. This occurs numerous times throughout the match, with Austin being a culprit as well but HHH being the prime suspect. Even with the lousy transition, HHH follows up with some smart work. He hits a swinging neckbreaker and then a regular neckbreaker to go after Austin's neck (from which he is only 5 months back from surgery). Those are followed up with some nice knees to the back of Austin's neck. Austin starts to make his comeback but is cut off by HHH taking out his knee and some subsequent knee work. The spot that stood out to me the most was before HHH wrapped Austin's leg around the ring post, he had Austin on his stomach and lifted the knee up to slam in on to the mat. Returning from the ring post, he starts to go for the same move again, but Austin turns over to his back, as if to make HHH mix up his leg work. HHH drops a few elbows on the knee. Austin's second comeback has some repeats of his first offensive spurt, mainly the thesz press and then the forearm drop. They do some good teasing of the finishers, which include the standard push Austin off after he tries the stunner. It is actually HHH who impresses here, not able to hit the pedigree because he remembers his arm is messed up and shows it well for the crowd. The only reversal of the pedigree you see these days is a quick application and a quick reversal with a back drop. HHH had the move locked on, tried to execute it, but his arm wouldn't allow him, so Austin was able to get the strength to reverse it. It should also be noted that HHH does some stooging, at least on his level. He runs away from Austin a few times, trying to escape via the crowd but Austin won't let him. This makes an otherwise illogical spot during the cage match okay. The streetfight is the second fall and is where the match goes south. The first 3/4's of the streetfight fall are good. With Austin leading the pace and being a good brawler, he is able to make this work well enough. There is some plodding here, with each guy leading the other to a different place outside the ring but nothing too bad. Austin makes sure to control for the first portion of the fall which is smart. The big spot of the fall is HHH going for a pedigree on Austin on the table, but once again his arm isn't well enough yet and Austin back drops him on to the spanish announce table. Back in the ring, HHH uses two more neckbreaker, including one on a chair. As much as the neckbreaker is a top 5 move for me, the first one HHH gives Austin here is ugly, with lots of space between both guys and it doesn't look good. The neckbreaker on the chair is better. The gimmicked items come out in full force here with the 2 x 4 with barbed wire and the sledgeghammer making their way into the match. At the very least, the way HHH uses the sledgehammer to win the second fall makes it believable that he didn't kill Austin, since a blow to the head when swinging a sledgehammer like that would do much more damage than just put a guy out for a 3 count. He grabs the top of the sledgehammer and barrels it into Austin's head. The cage is the third fall and it gets messy here. Way too much time spent putting the barbed wire into each guys forehead, especially since the selling and the blood didn't justify what they were doing in the end. When Austin gets on offense, HHH tries to leave the cage, with Ross yelling how escaping the cage isn't a way to win. Whether it was by smarts or by luck, HHH trying to escape Austin twice earlier in the first fall makes this spot at least make sense. Austin takes a nice bump on the ropes between his legs, even though he pounded HHH into the cage more while they were both on the top rope. Austin's bumping is the sole high light of the cage match, as he takes HHH's first throw in the cage really well, coming off the cage and bumping right over his neck. HHH didn't take a back bump once when he was thrown into the cage, instead doing the dizzy and wandering around sell. That is my main bone of contention in the third fall and it is the Shawn Michael's selling with wandering away and acting loopy and dizzy. This can work in doses but this is all HHH does for the most part in this fall, after bumping well (for him at least) in the first two falls. HHH uses a ddt on a chair but can't put Austin away. Austin is able to kick out of a pedigree and HHH does a decent frustration spot, not stooging in the way Arn or Tully would, but at least putting over the "what do I have to do to beat this guy." Austin uses a stunner on HHH to transition (which HHH takes poorly). The finish makes the 2x4 and the sledgehammer introductions from earlier in the match somewhat sensible. They both hit each other at the same time, with Austin falling down first and HHH falling on top of him (knocked out) for the three count. Ross starts screaming about HHH accomplishing what he set out to do in beating Austin even though it is apparent that HHH's sledgehammer had that much more of an impact, causing Austin to go down first and HHH was able to fall on top of him. This is just one of the many times Ross is laughable during the match, including mistaking a pedigree attempt for a stunner and referring to HHH as a purely technical wrestler before the Foley series a year earlier. I'll give HHH credit. Since he came back from his injury, he has never gone with a finish that would help his opponent as much as the finish here. It has almost always been finishing off his opponent because he could, not by luck (as was the case here). HHH and Hogan should write the book on the manipulation of the wrestling industry. This was much better than I remember it being, particularly the first fall, which was the best part of the 3 falls with structure, good selling, lots of heat, and a good story. Like I said before, the streetfight was good when Austin was leading the charge but after the big table bump, the match clearly took a turn. HHH, at his best, looked good when he had someone like an Austin to lead the match and structure it to get the maximum heat from the crowd and thus making sense for what they were trying to do. I think it would have been better to do a 25 minute one fall match with the wrestling/brawling portion early on leading to more brawling and then bringing it home instead of breaking it up into the three falls and getting the weapons involved so much. Having watched the Rumble match with HHH and Foley recently, this is a better match. The first fall is better than the sum of Foley/HHH and the 2nd and 3rd falls are the equivilent to what Foley did with HHH in January of 2000. That said, take Austin out of the match and replace him with someone else and it gets really dicey, really quickly. HHH did a good job with his portions of the match but I can't help but think this was in part to Austin doing such an excellent job. This isn't as good as Guerrero/JBL from Judgement Day for a wrestling/brawl, but it was a good example of Austin bringing a capable worker to something good. ***1/2.

If TNA has the patience and goes through with that booking idea, I will give them credit. But I don't know if they have the patience or smarts to follow through with a logical progression like you wrote out. Tim

Doom had the 12/16/90 Starrcade match against Windham/Arn that was excellent. Simmons and Reed also had a bunch of other singles matches that were very good as well. Tim

What nervous break down? Tim

Chavo/Rey Jr from GAB is a top 5 Rey Jr. match ever. Tim

Hogan threw out a bunch of pretty suplexes in his career, even as late as the Rock match from 3/02. Tim

Re: Riki Choshu "Great moves?! This is a guy who uses a shitty clothesline as a finish." Yea, because a lariat is bad Choshu was the leader in revolutionizing tag team moves with Yatsu and Animal Hamaguchi. Spiked piledriver, neckbreaker drop off second rope with someone holding up opponent, double snap suplex to name a few. Plus he was the first to do the sprint style matches, moving wrestling from 1970's mat based to the stuff we still see today. Tim

Eddy Guerrero vs. Bradshaw (5/04 - Judgement Day WWE) Has no one seen this because Bradshaw is in the match? I can't think of a WWE match this good in a long time. This really isn't a typical WWE match, minus the ref bumps. The first great thing is the video package. Regardless of his wrestling ability (more on that below), the JBL character is pretty decent. Hunting for illegal immigrants on the Mexican border is pretty great, right up there with Dusty in the locker room after the 3/13 ROH show "I smell somethin.....I smell somethin....they shit in our bags." The heart attack angle is goofy but heart attack angles in wrestling generally aren't the most thought out stories. Eddy starts out on fire, with an all out brawl on Bradshaw for what he stands for and more importantly, what he did to his mom. This segment was almost squash like, with Eddy just pounding on Bradshaw and Bradshaw bumping and selling pretty well. Most WWE brawls I see are usually very back and forth but Eddy gets a lot of time to just brawl. Eddy's punches look good as well and I have never really been a fan since his european uppercuts and forearms are generally top notch. All Bradshaw can do early on to slow down Guerrero is a side headlock takeover twice. The first small turning point is when Bradshaw is thrown out of the ring. Eddy follows up with a plancha but Bradshaw catches him and uses a fall a way slam on the floor to gain some advantage. He follows this up with a suplex on the spanish announcers table and then gives Eddy a back body drop in the ring. Eddy's back is a big target with Bradshaw then putting on a bearhug, only for Eddy to make a comeback and it really looks as if Bradshaw has nothing to stop the determined Guerrero, champion and defender of the people who JBL has ridiculed endless times. So then we have the standard WWE ref bump, though Eddy matches seem to have innovative ways to knock the ref out (his first Smackdown match this year against Rey had a decent ref bump). Bradshaw takes Eddy to the outside and waffles him with a chairshot and Eddy is bleeding a huge gusher, maybe the worst I have ever seen. So now Eddy is fucked. The blood is squirting out, leaving huge puddles all over the floor. Eddy could take Bradshaw's physical pain in the ring but now with a major blood loss, he is in deep trouble. The match turns much more WWE here with the nearfall section, though the blood helps a lot, as does the crowd really rallying Eddy. As I watched this with my brother, we both instantly saw how what was happening in the match got the crowd involved, unlike the WMXX three way, which had a crowd that was anti-establishment and sick of Trips/Shawn and new Benoit would at least make a huge bid for the title, so let's root for him. Here, it is the story in the match that is engaging the crowd. The ending was a surprise too. I knew it was a DQ, but didn't know that Bradshaw brought the chair and belt in, distracted the ref with the chair, and tried to use the belt, only for Eddy to get the belt and whack him right in front of the ref, to get DQ'ed. Made sense as Bradshaw couldn't lose since they knew they wanted to keep pushing him but also didn't make Eddy look weak at all. He wasn't using the belt because he was desperate, he used it for revenge from the out of the match story and the blood story. And post-match, Eddy continues beating on Bradshaw to the point where Bradshaw finally cowards away and escapes. Eddy was spot on in this match. His selling early on for the short back work was great. I usually don't like his locomotion suplex spot at all (reminds me of Shane Douglas doing that spot in 2000 WCW and taking 2 minutes to execute three simple back to back suplexes). But here he did them much slower as he couldn't spin around fast on this back to get into position for the next suplex. The bladejob was sick. No wonder he went to the hospital right away. But the bladejob added a lot to the match. A normal amount of blood would have worked too but the sickening amount here brought it up another level. Bradshaw was capable in this match. He bumped and stooged well (and often), didn't go to rest holds when he was done with his offense (which is a major WWE beef of mine), and was generally actually fun to watch. If he wants to be Stan Hanson very very lite, he needs to add the knee drops, but for Stan Hanson very x 5 lite, he was good. Just the opening section was something guys like Trips or Undertaker would have never done or if they did, they wouldn't have bumped as well on the floor for punches and let Eddy control that entire segment. In terms of performances, the Halloween Havoc match vs. Rey Jr, the 6/11-12/96 BOSJ Semis and Finals vs. Benoit & Liger are better than this. But after that? I'm not sure. That's how good this is. I didn't believe it even with people whose opinions I trust telling me about it. So so glad I got this. WWE MOTY.

I attend a lot of ROH shows live. I am satisfied if I can get one really good match and 1-2 other average to good matches. Heck, even if I just get one blow away match and the rest of the card stinks, I am usually happy. So I go to Best Buy yesterday to pick up the Great American Bash DVD after watching the Eddy/JBL Judgement Day match over the weekend and really liking it. Plus, this has a Chavo/Rey match which I have been told is awesome yet no one talks about it. I pop it in when I get home and we watch the two feature attractions for the 19.99 DVD from the "Worst PPV of the Year." Backstory. I thought Rey and Chavo's Superbrawl 2001 match was really pretty fun, with Chavo looking really good and Rey really starting to come out of his Vince Russo coma. Haven't seen that in a while, but I figured this WWE match would be no worse than that, especially with Rey back at 1997-98 levels and Chavo better. The GAB match gets watched. And ends. And I am amazed. This is by far the best WWE Lightweight match ever. Rey really is the best WWE style worker going right now that it almost makes me want to go back and watch those Rey/Angle matches again. So many good things about this match: * It gets plenty of time This is the first time I have seen a WWE Cruiserweight match get the time it deserved so it wasn't rushed or had to resort to high spots only to end in time or was cut by a commercial, thus even if it had a decent amount of time, it wasn't able to be seen fully. * Based around a story, first and foremost Really basic and simple story. But it really doesn't have to be much more. A lot of the more intricate stories that I have seen in ROH fly over the head of the "smarter" wrestling fans (which is an irony) so with a WWE crowd, simple works fine. Rey's speed and quickness early allows him to pace the match and hit his spots when he wants to. Then Chavo attacks the leg and Rey is no longer in control. Simple, yet effective and it becomes very important to the ending run. * Selling Rey sells his leg so well. The kid who everyone christioned a spot monkey in 1996 (when that wasn't true either) is selling like he is Kawada's weird bi-racial son. Rey sells all the way through the matc, yet is able to hit his spots realistically in the end. He doesn't over sell nor does he shake it over so he can go 100 mph at the end. * High Spots This match certainly doesn't leave high spot/flying fans empty. Lots of really neat new counters that fit perfectly into the context of where both stand in 2004 as well as in the context of the match. And 1-2 high spots that fit right into Rey's knee being worked over. * Ending The crowd was more quiet than restless for this match. Not that they had any reason to be emotionally attached to either guy with the shitty way the WWE promotes them. They pop for Rey's spots early on, Chavo gets heel heat when he plays to the crowd, Rey's comebacks get pops. But the clincher is a nearfall spot late in the match as Rey goes for the West Coast Pop (Springboard Hurrincanrana) and Chavo counters it into a half crab, which the crowd buys as the finish because of the story they had presented throughout the match. I hate to keep doing this, but this is an example of the work in a match telling a story to connect with the crowd, not something like Trips/Benoit/Michaels. A WWE crowd buying a half crab as a finisher? Who would have thought? * Extras Rey seems to think he is now a kickboxer as he brings loud UWF style kicks to his matches. I saw him do it aganist Eddy last week on Smackdown but didn't know he was busting these out here. Rey vs. Ueyama in U-Style and then a pro style match in Tijuana with the evil Japanese invader. Oh, and the finish is something Indy fans will have seen numerous times but never done this well and at the perfect time for the finish. Best juniors match I have seen this year. ************************************ Strap match was good but flawed, where as the Judgement Day didn't suffer from virtually any huge flaws. I liked the idea of the lights lighting up around the ring but whoever was controlling them must have been watching the show on a delay or retarded. The match is a pretty good brawl. The strap will obviously make for limitations like most gimmicks do. Unlike Sting and Vader, they weren't able to wrestle their typical match with the strap being used as enhancement. This was designed to work around the strap match, not with it. That's not a huge negative but it does make certain that it won't reach the feats that Vader/Sting were able to accomplish. I liked how they established the hip toss with the rope choking the opponent early on, all leading to the big Eddy table bump, which was cool. The pay back chair shot was a nice touch. The build of the match was well done, with both getting around two turnbuckles early on before realizing they would need to do major damage before a 3rd and final 4th turnbuckles could be touched. The powerbomb on to the table was also a nice weardown Eddy spot from last match. A powerbomb with Eddy bleeding wouldn't finish him, but maybe a powerbomb through a table would at least let Bradshaw drag him around the ring. The finish is the problem. It's not so much the actual method of the finish, with JBL landing on the turnbuckle a milli-second before Eddy leaps over him and touches it. It was actually a complicated spot that required perfect timing and they did that. It is the Dusty finish that blows, especially when you see what transpires afterwards. When Angle comes out and announces JBL the winner after seeing the footage, Eddy gets on both knees and has a look of devastation on his face. I can only imagine how much more powerful this would have been if it was JBL announced as the winner right off the bat (which would be the correct call). Even better would have been Eddy as a second late, just missing the oppurtunity to touch his 4th turnbuckle. The way they both were able to touch turnbuckles at the same time confused me but I can live with it. They could have gone the Sting/Vader route with Eddy kicking JBL into the turnbuckle, thus losing the match even though JBL won by luck. Regardless, the finish sucked and the work during the match wasn't enough to make it more than ***1/2. Oh, and Eddy should have won the title back in the cage on Smackdown. That would have been the fitting ending, with JBL going to feud with someone else in the upper tier while Eddy stays champion. I am sure those Undertaker matches could have still been done without the title. Well worth seeing, especially Rey/Chavo. Tim

Well, if that is the explanation of the story, sublte burying commences~~!! Tim

"They don't remember HHH beating Benoit in his first match or that Edge and Christian are brothers, I doubt they've got a Tenay sense for back referencing matches given one is a lech who can barely remember he's at work and the other sounds like a senile football fan who calls every other move as a "sidewalk slam"." Not for them to remember, but Trips would have talked to Ross and gave him the key points they were going to try to hit upon. Frankly, 1986-1992 Jim Ross could have done this by himself. I doubt Jim Ross today could do that. Tim

Yea, I want to see the HIAC too but as my brother said to me yesterday: "If they really thought about those ideas, they would have had Ross and Lawler pimping it like crazy, which didn't happen." Tim

Oratory. I think I have the quotes around here somewhere. ********************************************* from their WWW forum in the JBL/Eddy thread: on Shawn/Trips HIAC: "It wasn't the sort of match you could just watch and hope to be thoroughly entertained. You needed to be reflexive in the way you watched, thinking constantly. The throwbacks to previous matches, the references to different parts of the feud and their relationship as friends and partners all required thought to pick up on." People moan about the slow pacing, and granted it was slower than your average WWE main event, but it's not like it was Harley Race Vs. Ric Flair, either. I've said this before a ton of times, but the reason why I think a lot of people dislike the match is because they didn't "get" a lot of it. Besides the main story of the match, there were a ton of little reference to previous matches between Shawn and Hunter, to Hunter's older cell matches, to Shawn's previous cell match, to Shawn Vs. Hall at WM X. The way they managed to interlace not only previous matches of theirs, but other parts of their own careers is just genius and is better than anything I've seen in WWE this year. They achieved this so well that I can remember being in a chat afterwards with us (it was me, Bill and Seagull I think...and Newman agreed the following day) all agreeing that it had the feeling of Shawn's last match, and that if it was, it'd be a perfect capper to his career. HHH Vs. Shawn in the Cell is one of my favourite matches ever and easily the Match of the Year for me right now. I dunno, I guess if you need a match to be fast paced to enjoy it, then I could see how someone could dislike it but I thought the way they paced it fit the story perfectly and it wouldn't have worked as well otherwise. About the only criticism I have of it is that the finishing sequence could've been better. So yeah, basically, I think if you don't appreciate what they did then you're really missing out on one of the most skillfully put together matches in the last ten years. Scoot Newham: QUOTE To the untrained eye, the lesser fan, this match may have seemed to be a slow-paced ego-fuck, a bunch of old spots pieced together Frankenstein-style, making for a boring main event. Looking deeper, though, last night, Triple H and Shawn Michaels put on a match that can only be described as a classic, a match that took the legacy of both Hell In A Cell, and also their own, older, epic matches, and told a story as strong as any I’ve ever seen in wrestling. The pace was slow right from the off - which made sense, despite what some people will try to make you believe. See, the original Hell In A Cell explained this, as Undertaker came out with a slow, methodically paced offence that was still brutal. Why? Because of the hatred Undertaker had for Michaels - and thus, the hatred that Michaels and Hunter have for one another today. Why would either man come out in a rush, looking to finish the job early? It wouldn’t make sense in the context of the feud. Both men wanted the match for the simple reason of brutalizing the other, and the methodical pace made sense in that context. Compare this to the pace of someone who’d been forced into Hell In A Cell - Brock Lesnar for example - and you’ll see what I mean. After the opening portion of the match, Michaels, though in control, began to limp around the ring, as the announcers mentioned that it looked like his back was hurting. This segued into some offense from Hunter, who, playing off the injury, went right after the back. The psychology of the work on the back wasn’t just smart in terms of the injured body part in the match - it was smart on a larger scale, in that Hunter used the same moves that he’d used in his past matches against Shawn, simply because they worked in those matches. The backbreaker, side slam onto the chair, backbreaker through the chair, and the simple chairshot to the back all originated in Hunter’s original match with Michaels, and have been used many times since, always to devastating effect. Hunter then went further with the psychology, using a tactic that Undertaker had used against Michaels in Hell In A Cell I - the slamming of the back into the ringpost, and the cell corner alternatively. Again, smart psychology - it’d worked for Taker, and it would work for Hunter. The psychology of using moves and spots that had worked in older Hell In A Cell matches continued when Michaels got back on offense, as he attempted the piledriver onto the steel steps - the move that had enabled him to get back into the match against Taker. Here though, it didn’t work, as Hunter backdropped him right onto his already injured back. With Hunter back on offense, the trend of using older spots that’d worked in past Hell In A Cell matches continued, with Hunter slamming the steel steps into his head just as Lesnar had done to Undertaker in their Hell In A Cell, busting Michaels open, before spearing a bloody Michaels into the cell as Undertaker had done in HIAC I. The older Hell In A Cell matches weren’t the only ones that were referenced, though. When Michaels used a ladder to reclaim the advantage, the spots he performed - slingshotting Hunter into it, and mounting him, hammering the midsection with the ladder - came out of arguably Michaels’ most famous match, the original Ladder Match with Scott Hall. When Michaels climbed the ladder, and dropped off it with an elbow, driving HHH through a table, you couldn’t help but think back to the moment when the ‘real’ Shawn Michaels returned at Summerslam 2002, risking it all with an elbowdrop from the top of a ladder. And the table spot? Straight out of Michaels and Hunter’s 2/3 Falls Match at Armageddon 2002. Which brings us to the ending. I’ve heard various people comment that the ending was too slow, that the six minutes that it filled could’ve been shortened to three, and that both men oversold what they’d been through. Those people, for my money, are wrong. See, this match was built as THE closer for the Michaels-Hunter feud, the final blowoff after a series of matches over nearly two years, and a feud built over seven. Their last singles match came at the Royal Rumble, the infamous Last Man Standing Match that ended in a draw. With both men wanting closure here, it actually made sense to have such a drawn out ending. Whereas in the past, one Pedigree, or one Superkick would’ve been enough to keep the other man down for the three-count, here, due to the desperation of both men, one finisher was never going to be enough. When Michaels kicked out of the first Pedigree, it showed a level of desperation not seen in the Last Man Standing Match, when neither man could get up. And in turn, Hunter following the second Pedigree not with a cover, but with a THIRD Pedigree and THEN the cover showed both desperation, and a knowingness that it’d take something more than just one manoeuvre to keep Michaels down for good. At 47 minutes, the match was the longest non-Ironman Match that I can ever remember, I think. It’s certainly the longest match since the turn of the century, after some quick research. The aftermath was just as important as any part of the match. Like the finish of the match with Nash, Hunter was hauled out by Evolution, barely able to stand, let alone celebrate. But it’s Michaels’ ending that’s the important one. The scene of Michaels slowly getting to his knees inside the cell to applause, shaking hands with the referee, and waving to the crowd felt so much like Mick Foley’s exit following his Hell In A Cell match with Hunter - the match that retired him. It’s been mentioned that Michaels will be taking time off following this match as his wife’s pregnant, but this felt like more than that, more than an ending to a feud and a precursor for some temporary time off. It felt like the ending for Shawn Michaels. Now, I don’t think he’s really retiring, and if he is, it’s been the best kept secret in WWE’s history, but I don’t think he’ll be returning to Raw. Call it a hunch, but I think we might just see that Shawn Michaels-Kurt Angle match before both guys are done… So to end, Shawn Michaels and Triple H went into the Cell with high expectations, and I think they delivered on all fronts. From putting on a simply brutal, violent match within the confines of the new WWE style (which I’m behind fully - expect a column soon), to telling a story as strong as any I’ve seen in modern wrestling; from using the psychology of the injured body part, to the often forgotten psychology of referencing past matches, Michaels and Hunter delivered. I don’t think the match would be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine - it’s all opinion at the end of the day - which is why I won’t give it the full monty in terms of the rating. However, this is a definite Match Of The Year candidate, and one of those matches that won’t be forgotten in a long time. I’d say it’s the best Michaels-Hunter match of the lot, and a fitting closure to such a great feud. ****3/4

I need to see the HIAC. I have read reviews elsewhere saying it is the second coming of 6/3/94 Misawa vs. Kawada in terms of playing off of past matches and storylines. I just can't picture that in a Trips/Shawn match. Maybe I will be surprised. Tim

"I have a problem with this as the story of the match, because HHH and HBK don't take Benoit as seriously as they should." Ding Ding Ding - winner! Of course, I have read people give detailed analysis of how this did happen, when it obviously didn't. Tim

"i cant call that moty because i dont even remember it that well" I don't remember much about my 5th birthday but my parents tell me I had a great time. Re-watch the match. I thought AJPW sucked when I first started watching it but then I finally understood it. "...except for the blood. to me, that match, which I DID NOT want to see, and which had such a bad finish" What was bad about the finish? "had to make up for that by being clearly better than the other candidates to be moty. The title match from mania, which had mega heat, benoit winning the title, was much better and had the right finish." If mega heat involves the crowd dying mid way through the match, then yes, it did have mega heat. Benoit won the title in WCW as well against, of all people, Sid. And that match is better than the WM XX Main Event. There are a few decent qualities to the WM XX Main Event but I don't know if I would call it more than good. To quote my buddy Phil Schenider: "You could have stuck any shitty match on the front of that finish and gotten the same pop, and they basically did. All the Shaun v. HHH stuff was terrible, and it was a moment not a match. Beniot v. Sid when Beniot wins WCW title smokes this." Tim

"The DQ finish is still kinda weak. It was the best way to protect both JBL and Eddie that I can think of, but it would've been better if the match had been lower in the card so that the main event would be able to deliver on Vince's usually policy of letting the fans go home happy (because I believe the last image that fans at Judgment Day saw was Eddie getting carried away after passing out from the blood loss)." Ever since the downwards trend that the WWE has been encountering since late 2001, they have seemed to abandon the policy of leaving the fans happy at the end of the show. Part of this is Trips and his "must main event" philosophy. I think Eddy/JBL needed to be the main event just to get the feud started right. Any lower and it would have looked like a second fiddle. But I agree in most cases, you should leave the fans happy or totally shocked so they have a reason to come back. "Not Match of the Year, because the Great American Bash was better due to using the gimmick to what I thought was near-perfection" I watched the Great American Bash yesterday. It's a good match, probably around ***1/2ish, but as much as it plays to the strengths of a strap/bullrope match, it also suffers within the confines. Vader/Sting from Superbrawl III is the ultimate gimmick match for me (and happens to a strap match). They work the gimmick as well as it has ever been done, wrestling their match but at the same time adding in the strap spots. Eddy/JBL wrestled more towards the straps strengths than their first match strengths. It produced a lesser match. But the big thing was the finish. There is no reason that JBL shouldn't have been declared the winner without the Dusty finish. Eddy's facial expressions of losing the belt would have meant even more and it wouldn't have been so screwy. Now Eddy should have of course won the belt back on Smackdown in the cage to end their feud, but that defies WWE logic. "but reading your analysis made me appreciate the Judgment Day match a lot more than just for Eddie's bladejob." I loved the blood. It was a key to the match. But the structure of the match plus the smart way they worked their moves and sold was the real key for me. "And I agree that a DQ finish or a run-in does not guarantee a match not being great. In the case of Eddie/Lesnar that was previously mentioned, that run-in was amazing and though some fans thought it cheated the title victory for Eddie, they would soon come to realize that Eddie would be all about the cheating, even as a face." My problem with the Brock/Eddy match is not the run in, but the fact that the ref was down for WAY too long, despite the ref bump not being too severe. There are other problems with that match (Brock not having smart ways of killing time is the big thing) but the ref staying down so long made me groan big time. S_D wrote: "I only remember this match for Eddie's monster blade job and JBL sucking wind after 10 minutes. Match of the Year? My left nut." Well, at least you remember one of two things correctly. Eddy did have a monster blade job but JBL was NOT sucking wind. I can only guess that this is another SKeith myth, since he wanted to believe JBL was blown up. Watch the match, he wasn't. If you want to see someone sucking wind, watch Kurt Angle after the opening of the Benoit/Angle Wrestlemania 17 match. "Eddie's bladejob makes the match." I have had this debate at a few other boards. A good blade job in this match will do it. Eddy just happened to hit a huge gusher. A Rock blade job (very little blood) wouldn't have worked but any normal blade job would have had the same effect. The extra blood helped, but did it really make all the difference in the world. JBL's blade job at GAB was much less than Eddy's yet it was a good one, one that I can see Eddy doing and not having the Judgement Day match lose a step. The other thing is the underlying work. You could bleed buckets from the start of the match until the end, and blood would be the only attraction if you didn't know how to work. Everything they did in the non-blood segments was crucial to the bloody sections. Anyone can work a bloody match-see ECW. But to make it more than that, you need substance. Eddy/JBL had that. Tim

"2001 was a strong year for All Japan, but Mutoh's booking style of Americanizing the product and free spending ways hurt the company in the long run" Strong year in terms of drawing, good matches, both? Mutoh also didn't get the book until spring of 2002 at the earliest. He made his full time jump with Kojima/Kaz/KaShin at the beginning of 2002. Tim

I finally got to see the TNA cage match from the December PPV. Certainly wasn't awful but it won't be blip on the radar map for 2004/2005 match of the year candidates. The problems with the match are numerous. There was absolutely no build in the match. From Daniels blading 2 minutes in (most likely being told to do so) to the noticable lack of crowd heat in the first 14 or so minutes (due to the story being told so weakly) to the absurd nature of the high spots. Wrestling matches, like great songs, television shows, movies, plays, etc. all build from an opening to a middle portion to a climaxing ending. This match featured no opening and no ending, just a middle portion that served to represent all three portions of the match. There were no control segments to help the heat of the match. Besides the fact that most of the match consisted of "your move, my move", the lack of roles from the teams had a clear impact on the teams. Since the fans didn't know who to cheer and who to boo, the first 3/4's of the match was heatless. This killed the face in peril segment on AMW. Daniels did a little in trying to heel it up but Skipper was oblivious to that fact. The final 10 minutes was little more than the "your move, my move" wrestling that is flashy on first sight but won't hold water a few viewings later, none the less years later. Skipper's spot off of the top took so long to set up that I thought I was watching a bad ECW match where RVD would take forever to set up a spot that might end up looking decent but would kill any logic that the match had. This was followed by Daniels hitting a really pretty elbow off of the top of the cage. But guess what? It got no heat, since it wasn't placed before the more higher risked move. The lack of thought in designing the match was clearer than ever. I wasn't expecting epic selling but I expected more than, "I'll sell, okay you're down so now I will pop up." I am hardly a fan of the Ring of Honor Scramble Cage matches but at least they present a well built story, build the spots in order from smallest to biggest, and don't just run through everything in their arsenal in random fashion. The story of the TNA match with both teams putting everything on the line because they don't want to split up was good but would have worked a lot better if there had been some build. **1/2 for the hard work that everyone gave. But without smart and logical thinking and planning, hard work will only get you so far. Tim

Don't watch a lot of stuff on TV-more into getting the DVD's of shows. But for what I watch: Sunday: Arrested Development - 9.3/10 Monday: 24 - 9.5/10 *Even though the current season hasn't started, I mark so hard for this show that even big faults don't really make me like it any less* Tuesday: The Shield - 9.3/10 Tim

"How do we know? TNA has NEVER been consistent. You have to have long term goals, but those goals are reached through accomplishing a series of short term goals. Step 1) please crowd Step 2) follow up. I will say that I have no faith in TNA to properly book the follow up to this match. The booking will be all over the place, inconsistent, bad, and won't lead us anywhere. That's what Tna has shown me in their history. However, the question was only about this match, and I thought it was good. I don't think the points about well defined heel and face is realistic in 2004. Those lines were blurred many years ago, and now fans are condiioned to cheer whoever they like the best. I'm not saying it's good for wrestling, but it's hardly TNA's fault" Tim: Everything you say here points to an organization that won't suceed (and surely hasn't yet unless losing 15 million dollars is suceeding in someone's world). Tim