Call Regal Morbid, Call Him Pale He Has Spent Six Years on His Tale
Lord Steven Regal v. Arn Anderson 2/20/94-EPIC
Tremendous match, pretty much a textbook TV title style match. Both guys target a body part, Arn with the arm, and Regal with the neck, and they go after them. Lesser wrestlers working this style will just go back to the same holds (even Flair pretty much just works the leg in the context of the figure four), but both Arn and Regal put on a ton of different locks and they all look great. It makes inherent sense, if you can't get a submission with a cravate try a crossface, hammerlock doesn't work use and arm stretch. Arn works a great hammerlock, bodyslamming Regal, turing him into a pin while holding it. Regal meanwhile wrenched the hell out of Arn's neck, cranking cravates, cracking him in the mouth with crossfaces. The brawling in this match was great too, Arn has a really pretty right hand and Regal was just vicious with uppercuts and headbutts. Finish run was very exciting as they worked the countdown with Arn desperately trying for the belt and Regal stalling. The crowd was super into the match at this point, chanting USA and popping huge for Arn's spinebuster. Finish was pretty surprising, as Regal gets the pin by holding onto Dundee's umbrella with 15 seconds left. It was a twist in a good way as everyone was expecting either an Arn win or a time limit draw. 1994 maybe the best in ring year in wrestling history, and this felt on the level of the other great matches of that year. If this looks like something on paper you would like, go watch it, it truly exceeds expectations.
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL
posted by Phil @ 10:00 PM
1 Comments:
Something I really love about a lot of Regal matches from this period, and this match in particular, is the way that through his mannerisms and appearance he drops his aristocratic front as the match becomes more violent. As we all know now, he grew up working class and so working into his character in the ring that his pretensions to class are a facade as he regresses to his street brawling roots of viciousness to win a match is just awesome.
P.S. His match from Superstars last week against Danielson was great. Coupled with the Ambrose match, Regal has reasserted his position as the king of WWE affiliated internet wrestling television.
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