Fab Five WWE Matches of the Week 8/31-9/6

1. Goldust v. Sheamus ECW 9/1

This has been such a great mini feud, and this was a hell of a final act. Watching the resurgence of Dustin Rhodes has been one of true wrestling highlights of 2009. He was tremendous here again, taking some very big bumps, great back selling and a big time babyface comeback. For an undercard feud on a 3rd tier show the crowd was pretty damn hot, "Let's Go Goldust chants, Yeah and Boo chants during the punches, this is really a testament to how great Dustin is at putting a match together. This was also by far the best Sheamus performance of this feud , he was really laying in all of his shots, and his attack on Dustin's back was really violent. I loved how he countered Goldusts drop down slam with a nasty kick to the kidneys. Finish run was great with ringpost bumps by both, really great exchanges and counters, and Sheamus hitting a brutal back breaker for this win. Really great TV week, and this was the highlight


2. Rey Mysterio v. John Morrison Smackdown 9/1

This reminded me a fair amount of the Rey v. Kidman matches in WCW, as Rey did a pretty spectacular job carrying an athletically impressive but otherwise underwhelming wrestler to a damn good match. Morrison brings some nice offense to the table, I especially loved his flipping mule kick. Finish was sweet too, as the missed reverse rana bump was nasty and it lead perfectly to Morrison's twisting senton. This kind of juniors wrestling really isn't my thing anymore, and I didn't like this as much as your other high end 2009 Rey, but it was still an excellent performance. Rey is neck and neck with Negro Navarro for my wrestler of the year, and it is too bad that we are going to miss a month from him.


3. Matt Hardy v. C.M. Punk Smackdown 9/1

I still can't get over how much they are letting Punk do his thing. He is main eventing Summerslam and Quoting Project X in his promos for fucks sake. I understood that his shtick would work in ROH I mean it is indy rock shtick in an indy promotion, but you wouldn't think he could still keep it indy now that he has signed with a major. Bob Mould booked WCW he isn't booking WWE. If they are booking for fanzines they should just go whole hog, I could see Nigel as an old school British first wave punk who doesn't appreciate preachy new school punks telling him he shouldn't slam dance or do drugs. Bryan Danielson is from Washington he could come in with a Calvin Johnson gimmick, can you imagine the heat he would get wearing atight t-shirt with a kitty cat on in, doing a little douchebag dance with his belly poking out.

This was another very solid match, I loved how they turned Hardy's gross injury into a storyline. Punk was great as a total bastard smashing his fat stomach, and Hardy did a great job selling like he was about to puke. I especially dug Hardy making a big babyface comeback and getting cut off with a Sano kick to the gut. I think with an actual finish this would have ended up above Rey v. Morrison as I much prefer stiff brawls to fancy junior wrestling.

4. Evan Bourne v. Chris Masters Superstars 8/31

Masters still isn't much (although I liked one of his punches), but this was a nice little big man v. little man match. Bourne bumped around big and had some pretty nice counters. I especially dug him flipping out of the Masterlock and landing a kick. Finish was pretty nice too as it was a believable way for a guy to beat someone so much bigger then him. I have no idea why Bourne is on RAW though, complete waste of a guy who could be at least carrying Morrison through workrate indy matches.

5. Big Show v. Mark Henry RAW 8/31

I always dig Godzilla v. King Kong match ups like this and both guy really convey a sense of mass and force. I really loved parts of this, the early shoulder blocks, the ridiculous truck collision spear and the nasty headbutt battle. FInish was pretty good too, as it did a nice job of putting over the right hand. Still this was only about a five minute match, and half of it was spent in a not very good headlock. Henry has a nice headlock and you buy that a guy that strong could squeeze the fuck out you head, but he didn't have great leverage and it just didn't look good. Still that was my only problem and I am amped to see these guys square off at the PPV tag.