Every Step and Every Breath Brings Finlay Closer to Home

Fit Finlay v. Buddy Lee Parker WCW 1/31/98 -GREAT

PAS: Man alive what a perfect five minute WCW syndie match. Finlay was super at bringing another level of violence to these random studio taping matches and to Buddy Lee Parker's credit he steps right into everything, his forearms were just as nasty as Fit, and Fit was bringing it. Parker also broke out more offense in this four minute match then I ever remember seeing from him. He does a rope walk Cactus elbow in ring, and a a springboard plancha to the floor. Finlay calls an end to that match by just grabbing Parker with a chicken wing chinlock and tapping him. I almost went EPIC for this, but hard to do for a four minute match. Still this was a treasure.

ER: This match is actually very special to me and really is a watershed in my wrestling fandom. When this match aired I had just turned 17, my childhood wrestling fandom was turning into a full blown obsession, and my absolute favorite kind of wrestling was flippy floppy fliers. Cruiser stuff was all I wanted, ordering all my little Ultimo Dragon in WAR comps and all Rey vs. Psychosis stuff. My buddy James would tape episodes of Saturday Night because it usually had some luchadors on it, and that's how I saw this. As uncool as it is to admit now, I didn't not like Finlay when I got back into wrestling in high school. He was just one of those boring guys who just kicked and punched. And then this match. I had never watched something so violent! All the nasty strikes, choking, nostril ripping, hand stomping, throat crushing, just what the fuck? My friend says "I think they're fighting for real!" And I totally bought into it. This was the first time I saw Parker and he was like some weird rugged offense machine, thought he was awesome (and while I still think Parker was awesome, I also think he probably never looked this good in a match again) but Finlay was a complete revelation. From here on I wanted to see every single Finlay match in existence. Finlay was always in my top 3 guys after this. It's stunning how much my taste in wrestling started to change after this very match. Now I still like fliers and all sorts of wrestling, but this match completely opened my eyes to the fact that every style of wrestling can be amazing when performed correctly.