Dark Age

Yes, that's the match. It's very good, and maybe the best Raw match of the year. Wildpegasus has wrote a lot about it, so I'll let him go in to detail, but there's just tons of little things playing off on the SummerSlam match the night earlier. Benoit giving Orton a front suplex so that he couldn't get his feet up on the headbutt comes to mind. Just a really fun match.

Yes. The 25 minutes prior to that were really good too.

Oh, but that turnbuckle spot was great.

I actually thought it was pretty bad. Both matches last year SMOKE it. Orton NO-SOLD! the headbutt to my disgust, but I was even more upset with the fact that they didn't build on the swank headbutt spots from last year. I never get the feeling that Orton's building to the RKO. I mean, people actually like Orton using the chinlocks and headlocks and stuff because it seems like he's setting up for his finisher. I don't get that. I never think "oh, Orton's preparing for the RKO, cool!". I don't think Orton thinks "this will be some smart work leading to the finish!". It just seems like he's filling time. They look nice and realistic, but they don't really, ya know, do anything. Benoit's first german was better than it's been in a while, though. From then on it's just spot after spot, with no rhyme or reason. Benoit's sharpshooter sucked, again, and he knew it, hence his kneeling, which was actually mega cool. I appreciated the tease of the gutwrench neckbreaker that Orton does, but I'm being kind. It may be that he just couldn't lift Benoit. There was other things I liked, and other things I didn't, but I can't even remembr now. I'm probably being too hard on it because I expected so much after the good stuff they produced last year. I guess it wasn't THAT bad, but it was hardly good. You're completely wrong if you think it's the best SD match this year, though. Eddie/Rey, Eddie/Angle, Angle/Rey, and Angle/JBL, to name just a few, are all way better than it. Maybe I need to rewatch it, but I can safely say it wasn't anything special.

Feel free to destroy me.

Yeah, he did. I watched the international Heat earlier today, and he wrestled the first minute or so of the match in his glasses. It was great.

Triple H had a far better match that year (2003) with HBK in December on Raw. Booker T's recent match with Kurt Angle wasn't bad, but he moves far too slow in the ring for my tastes. He had a good gimmick, but its been played out. His last chance was in the spring of 2003 before Triple H buried him. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Now THAT was an overrated match, even if it was still quite good.

It wasn't the best match of his career. It was a good match, though, carried completely by Booker. Trips was gone in that match. It was HIS best match of the year, though I'm not sure about Booker's. But it's not even CLOSE to being the best of his career. And Coffey, even if you didn't like the Benoit series, it doesn't change the fact that it was a very good series of matches.

Because his opponent is better than him doesn't mean he was carried. That's something that's been annoying me for a while. People often jump to the conclusion that the better wrestler MUST have carried the match against a lesser performer. Not saying you, but as a whole.

The opposite.

Of course he can. He's Eddie fuckin' Guerrero!

To be fair, Rhyno was very over in WWE, considering his push, or lack of one.

Regal wouldn't get released anyway.

You quite obviously don't watch OVW.

I can see Tomko, Grenier, Scotty, Kazarian all going. Maybe more.

This is nuts. Richards, Venis and Sho-Fu are hangin' in there!

Question: how many of you are interested in this? Myself and ISJ (him more than me) are working on this right now, so I'd like to know who wants in.

No he hasn't.

I'm working on the international Heat stuff, as well as Velocity/Heat up until 9/21/02, and possibly a few random matches here and there. I'll post a match listing for the international stuff, and we'll decide what looks good.

And I never heard that Jericho was going to job to Test at NWO. That's news to me.

I was talking about the PPVs leading to WM19. You didn't name any "low carders" that he jobbed to. Test threw him over the top rope at the Rumble, after Shawn interfered. That's it.

I can take care of that.

Chris Benoit Vs. Rodney Mack (10/03/04)

I'll look for some other matches that Bob might have missed.

Velocity and Heat should be separate. There should be a 2002 Velocity tape/DVD, 2002 Heat tape/DVD, 2003 Velocity tape/DVD, etc. That's how I would do it.