Pretty strange group of guys to put into a four way. I hadn't heard hide nor hair of SWB in years. This was a bit disorganized as is the want of 4-Ways. There was less complicated spots, and more of the guys pairing off and pounding on each other. Obviously Ki and Finlay pounding on someone is a lot more compelling then Brown or Ciampa pounding on someone, and it was the most compelling when they were cracking each other. Unfortunately Finlay and Ki weren't really pair off with each other much, although it did make me want to see a singles match. As a whole the match was mediocre, I am happy I got to see it, but it never hit that third gear. I did really liked the finish with FInlay hitting the Celtic Cross on SWB and Ki hitting the double stomp and stealing the pin.
This really felt like a classic lucha trios match building to a big singles match. The match they were setting up was TAJIRI v. Finlay although this could have easily set up Finlay v. Fujiwara or Finlay v. Ohara as Finlay gets awesome sections with all three. Finlay has said that an early 80's match with Fujiwara is one of his favorites, and three decades later we get a glance of what that might have looked like, and it was awesome. I loved Finlay bullying Fujiwara into the corner and cheap shotting him, just to see Fujiwara fire back with this great "not in my house motherfucker" look on his face. Finlay pummeling Ohara to get under TAJIRI's skin was great, as was Finlay's interactions with TAJIRI. I don't really think of TAJIRI as a matworker, but he hit the mat hard here. The turks were mainly there as window dressing, although TAJIRI's berserker chopping down of Big Boy was one of the cooler finishes of the last half a decade. Great stuff, and one of the better matches of the year
Finlay Decked Some Fucking Blackshirt Who Was Cursing All The Yids
Fit Finlay/Dr. Kliever v. Ugly as Sin DOA 11/19/11
PAS: Really well put together southern tag. Ugly as Sin are a pair of big mangle faced dudes who have nice looking fundamentals and land all of their stuff with some real pop. I especially liked Big Ugly who was a Mexican guy with a really nice rudo build, he would have made a great Destructor. Kliever is really tall for an indy guy and also lays in his stuff, a couple of things looked a little awkward, but not enough to take away from the match. I liked his knee selling too, during his brief section of peril. Match opened up with the faces stiffing and bumping around the heels, and then we get a bit of heels beating on Kliever and a long section of them working over Finlay's arm. This is the second match in a row I have watched with Finlay as a beaten upon babyface and he does it well. I was also loving his sneak forearms for comebacks, as he hit a couple of corkers. Finish came a little abruptly after the hot tag, but that was my only real complaint. Good stuff and the DOA guys looked like they belonged.
Really enjoyable match which is very different then any other Finlay match on his comeback. Sanders looks older then Finlay and basically wrestles like a Leicester pensioner Gene Anderson. He looks like he reeks of cigarettes and he has a bunch of really tricky ways to tear up Finlay's arm. It is weird to see Finlay work as Ricky Steamboat, all selling and frustration. When he does get an advantage he does hit Sanders Finlay level hard, but most of the match he is being flummoxed. I loved the finish with Finlay finally putting one over Sanders and outsmarting the wily veteran, and you have to love a match where Fit Finlay has to outsmart a wily veteran.
DON'T Let Lawler Walk You Home from School, DON'T Let Him Meet You at the Pool
Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz WWF 8/27/00 - GREAT
ER: I don't remember this feud at all. This was right in the middle of my college years, so there were plenty of weeks where I was worried about doing things other than watch pro wrestling. Believe me, I still watched plenty of pro wrestling (and probably mentioned that too often to girls), but it's not like I set my schedule of classes up so that I could still watch Raw and Smackdown live (or I actually almost always did that). Either way, I don't remember this feud.
So the hype video alone for this is enough to make me go "GREAT" on this. I really loved Tazz egging on JR, JR slapping him and Tazz asking him for more, and then Lawler bursting through with one of the greatest punches man has ever seen. Tazz sold it great, too, sprawling out into camera men. The rest of the build up looked super fun as well, with Tazz shattering a window with a pipe (right next to where JR was sitting! Jesus!) and Lawler hilariously ambushing Tazz by jumping off some shelves covered in cardboard boxes and punching him, and Tazz hitting Lawler with a headset (with Lawler getting awesome color from it!).
Match itself is exactly what I wanted (except for a moment or two, although one of them was a MAJOR moment). Lawler jumps Tazz while Tazz is shit talking JR, and Lawler's run of offense to start is really well set up. Lead with a dozen punches, dropkick Tazz into the turnbuckles, and hit your awesome falling clothesline after he's stumbling back from the turnbuckles. Tazz' offense aged mostly pretty well, and 2000 Tazz may be worth some revisiting. His best looking move was his thrust kicks to a fallen Lawler. Now they were helped by Lawler leaning cheekbone first into them, but I loved how they looked, painful with a strong hint of condescension. Also I loved how every time Lawler transitioned back to offense it was because Tazz was talking shit to JR.
Tazz was real great at shit talking and JR was great doing it back to him. [as he's clubbing Lawler] "Look at him JR, you scumbag!" to which JR responds, "Yeah, I see him." He was like a high end Barry Darsow with the shit talking. Overall Tazz aged better than I thought he would, even pulling weird things out of his hat like a crazy missed swanton.
Then he had to go and no sell a piledriver like all of us expected he would. That was lousy. It COULD have derailed the match, but thankfully it did not. JR got involved in a way that perfectly wrapped everything up and this whole thing was just wonderful.
PAS: I am going to second the love for the build up, I vaguely remember this feud but don't remember it being this great. Lawler has the greatest sneak punch in wrestling, that shot on Tazz in the set up was as good as his 2011 Ted DiBiase jaw jacker. Man even seeing blood in WWF 2000 (not exactly 1986 NWA) really makes you miss it in the current action.
I was really surprised to see how much 2000 Tazz was bumping, I remember the whole shooter gimmick being a work around that Paul E. created because his neck was fucked up. So it is really weird to see him working the WWF up and down bumping style and even missing a top rope flip senton. The no-sell of the piledriver was gross, but I guess it set up the finish. Still reminded me why I used to hate Tazz after liking him for lots of this match. Ross smashing the water glass on Tazz's head was a great call back finish, and this is a perfect example of how to work this kind of blow off match, and another example of how badly they shit the bed with Wrestlemania.
