The Wrestling What I Watched in 2007 Pt. 3, by S.L.L.

John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Edge vs. Randy Orton
WWE - 4/29/2007 - Atlanta, GA
WWE Heavyweight Title Match

Man, WWE and TNA suck at using text message polls. Vote for who you think is going to win. Whee. Cena gets 50% of the votes, because IT'S SO PREDICTABLE HE ALWAYS WINS YOU GUYS! Like it matters. A man dressed as a salmon could run in, get pinned by Cena, and win the Title as a result somehow. That would be unpredictable. Unpredictable doesn't mean good, and predictable doesn't mean bad. Most Cena haters seem pretty dense, but they could at least be dense and honest. Cena gets an overwhelmingly positive reception from this crowd, too, which I was not expecting. Can't say I have an explanation for that. Maybe the mechanics of the Fatal Four-Way causes the crowd to split in just the right way. I don't know. And on cue, a pocket of "Cena sucks" chants pop up. I feel grounded again. God, Michaels punches look so much better when Cena's taking them. It's almost like he's a good wrestler or something. There's some fun four-way spots here. Multi-man matches often stink, but the logic is that matches with an even number of men are better than those with an odd number, since everyone has someone to fight. But this isn't worked as multi-man matches usually are, where two guys are in the ring at any given time having "their turn" while the others are killing time fighting on the outside. This is worked as intricately Patterson-booked Royal Rumble type match, where combinations of wrestlers take turns running carefully orchestrated exchanges designed to highlight certain aspects of the match, the angles around it, and the wrestlers' gimmicks in general. Really felt like Hogan vs. Warrior style match where it's scripted move-for-move. Not saying that as a knock. Randy Savage is one of my all-time favorites, it's not like I have a problem with carefully scripted matches. There's a reason why that style came to the fore, it helps ensure a good match from guys who might not otherwise deliver. I don't know if that would necessarily be the case with this match, but that's why they do it, and they came up with some real good stuff here. Cena's F-U attempt on Edge into a 2-in-1 F-U attempt on Edge and Michaels into Michaels escaping into the RKO was really swank. Cena breaks up the pin but turns around into Edge, who dusts off the Impaler for two. Really great finisher exchange at the end leads to Cena getting his chin Sweetly Musiced or whatever, but he falls onto Orton for the pin and retains the belt. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better four-way. For multi-man WWE Title matches on PPV, not sure why Phil has the five-way from Vengeance ahead of this. Man, Cena was awesome this year. If only Jesus would let Shawn turn heel.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata
NJPW - 4/13/2007 - Osaka, Japan
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match

I'm excited at the prospect of watching this match like I'm excited by a bowl of rice. And not even a bowl of really good basmati rice at a fine Indian restaurant, either. Just a plain ol' bowl of rice. Still, I've been interested in both of these guys to some degree at some point in my life, and it is a pimped match, so maybe I will have to re-evaluate them in the '07. I did really like Nagata's match with Giant Bernard last year, and the general opinion of my internet street peoples is that Nagata has improved drastically since his days of being a less exciting, slanty-eyed Kurt Angle, so who knows? The big question mark here is Tanahashi, who hasn't excited me for a couple of years. During the build-up to this match, KrisZ reported....

"Yuji Nagata declared war on Hiroshi Tanahashi today regarding their IWGP Heavyweight Title match on 4/13 in Osaka saying that the fans of Osaka want to see matches filled with hatred and passion and that he knows he can deliver that but can Tanahashi."

To which I fired back....

"Knowing Tanahashi, I would assume the answer is an emphatic "no", but either way, I, for one, heartily approve Nagata's desire to bring the pain."

So you could imagine my disappointment at Nagata dominating the opening portion of the match with arm holds. Still, arm holds are okay. Won't fantasy book this like Jailbird Coey. It's Tanahashi who starts bringing the pain. Well, he tries anyway. His strikes are all flailing and awkward, and Nagata half-sells them accordingly. Then Nagata starts laying in the kicks and everything is right in the world again. Booking Tanahashi as weaker underdog getting the fuck beat out of him by angry Nagata is actually a really good way to cover for the fact that Tanahashi can't strike for shit. Tanahashi takes the advantage and slams Nagata's leg into the post, drawing some boos. He starts targeting Nagata's leg with dragon screws and a figure-four as the crowd seems to have turned him heel. Boy, this match is full of surprises. It works, though. They roll with it, and Tanahashi becomes the cocksure youngster who thinks he's the man, taking it to beloved "old man" Nagata, going after his legs with abandon. Nagata transitions rather smoothly for grouchy old guy brawling to sympathetic old guy selling, and it occurs to me that Nagata is really, really good now. Nagata gets caught in a flurry of kicks, but grabs a boot and drives Tanahashi into the corner with a kneelift. Putting him up top, he drops him with a super fisherman's buster that the announcers insist was an Exploder. Another running kneelift into the corner gets blocked and turned into a powerbomb by Tanahashi, but he can't put Yuji away. Tanahashi comes of the top with something, but Yuji gets the knees up, and you almost think that a major Japanese match in the 21st century is going to end on a roll-up, but it doesn't. Actual hot finishing sequence ensues, culminating in a pair of Nagata backdrops, the second of which is held for the pin and the title. Great match. This should steady my nerves, as I can go through the rest of these knowing that not all puro in 2007 was sad and disappointing.