Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio WWE Smackdown 12/11/03
ER: Talk about perfect match atmosphere, perfect location, perfect opponents; every element that makes a match a classic was right out in the open, and we get the pure glee of watching two of the most charismatic performers of all time do their thing. Mysterio has the hometown crowd on his side, his entire family in the front row, and Lesnar has the unreal nuclear heel charisma that makes this whole thing feel like Little Mac taking on Mike Tyson. 2003 Brock is a top contender for my favorite wrestler of all time, and I challenge anyone to watch his performance in this match and not feel the same. This was the perfect heel for Mysterio to be going up against, and Lesnar knew it. I'm a high voter on modern Lesnar, and still think he's the most unique performer in wrestling, but you watch him in 2003 and notice so many details, so many little touches that he doesn't really bother with anymore. 2003 Lesnar is the complete package, the ultimate T-800, only this Terminator also knows how to stooge wonderfully for a 160 lb. man while being a big bumping lucha base.
The kind of swagger Lesnar brings to the beginning parts of this match was exactly the kind of swagger the crowd wanted to play off. Lesnar works crowds the way a top 80s territory heel would work crowds, and that's something he kind of skips past now. He mocks Rey's size, jaws with fans like it was a 500 attendance house show, makes Rey eat dirt on a couple of lock ups by merely stepping aside, a real jerk. But he's a jerk who is so good at showing ass, and you can see that once Rey initiates a cat/mouse game and tricks Brock into chasing him all around the ring and through. By the time Lesnar realizes that Rey is just trying to gas him out (it was a long and very well done chase), he gets this impotent anger across his face, rips the ring steps from their base with the body language of a frustrated teen (or adult, ahem, couldn't be me) throwing a video game controller. And Rey gets exactly what he wants, takes Lesnar out of his zone, and flies through the ropes with a dropkick that sends Lesnar and the stairs crashing into the aisle. Lesnar is so great at doing atypical bumps, no standard flat back bumps, he falls in a way that is theatrical while realistic, not comically over the top athletic bumps, but large unique bumps that only magnify offense. Not long after his sprawl into the aisle he takes a gloriously arcing bump over the top to the floor, and it's time we just acknowledge that somehow this massive pile of lunchmeat is better than anyone else in wrestling history at bumping to the floor. Oh, and this pile of meat will also kick you in the balls from behind and then laugh about it.
I loved the vulnerability Lesnar shows for Rey's offense, and the creativity he uses in setting it up. It's weird to think Rey's best foil might be a man twice his size and not Eddie or Psicosis, but looking at how Lesnar sets up all of Rey's offense and twists it in little ways at least has to put him in the discussion for best opponent. We get the added danger knowing that anything Rey snaps off could be reversed at any part of the process, so for every time Lesnar is taking a 619 or eating a rana as fine as any lucha base you've seen, there's equal (or better) chance of Lesnar catching one of those ranas and powerbombing Rey into the ringpost, or attempting to powerbomb Rey directly through the ring in the ugliest flattest splat of a bump.
My favorite little moment of the match was the way Lesnar got into position for the 619. I always appreciate creativity around setting up someone's trademark offense, the way Finlay would be off balance and drop to a knee before regaining his balance just in time to get plastered with Booker T's axe kick, instead of just bending at the waist waiting to take it. It's hard to come up with new ways to drape yourself over the middle rope to take the 619, and Lesnar shows just how smart his wrestling brain is here, setting it up in a way nobody else did and maybe nobody else could have: He's fighting with Rey on the apron, and Rey catches him with a kick as Brock is leaning down, and Brock - one of the most inventive bumpers in wrestling history - falls backwards, through the ropes diagonally into the ring, and in the struggle to gain his balance finds himself draped over the ropes, allowing Rey to pull off his tremendous 619 around the ringpost. It was a brilliant sequence. My only real complaint about the match was the finish could have used one tiny little hope spot from Rey, one little flash, and instead Lesnar flattened him with that powerbomb and bent Rey's body in horrible ways with a stretch muffler. But the complaint is minor, because Rey was getting so horrifically bent that it *should* have been the finish, I just wanted one tiny sliver of hope before the curtains fell.
PAS: Finding hidden gems is pretty much our raison d'etre here at Segunda Caida. You expect to dig up something off of a Japanese hand held or obscure lucha YouTube link, so it's weird to find a hidden gem on WWE Smackdown with two of the most praised wrestlers of the last 20 years, but here we are. This match has a pretty small online footprint, a PWO thread with two comments, no nomination over at the GWE board, it seems to have been forgotten to time. My goodness was this incredible, and honestly a career level match for two guys with incredible careers.
Hometown hero taking a shot at a dominant champ is a classic wrestling trope, and Lesnar is amazing as traveling Ric Flair here. He is great as a taunting jock bully early, the way he says "You're just a little guy Rey" chefs kiss, what a marvelous asshole. I love how Rey just sends him on a wild goose chase in and around the ring, until he gasses and infuriates Brock, and the pissed off rage when he can't get his hands on this little shrimp. He is such a master at portraying terrifying menace and surprising vulnerability. Brock's basing and bumping in this was incredible. It is like someone used a supervillain ray to supersize 1996 Juventud Guerrera. I am not sure anyone ever took a Rey Mysterio headscissors as well as Brock Lesnar, which is fucking bonkers considering how enormous he is. He is so good at eating offense in a way which doesn't make it look cooperative, he always seems completely flummoxed and out of control when he is getting spun around the ring, but also seconds away from wiping someone out.
Rey is of course a master, we get some of his incredible timing and athleticism, he gets thrown to the top rope and lands as cleanly as anyone ever has, and rips off a bunch of big spots, and he is also amazing at timing things perfectly to bring the crowd along. I actually had no problems with the finish, Rey gets a bunch of really plausible near falls on Brock with ranas and headscissors and Brock is finally able to to smash him and bend him into a horrible pretzel. I don't think Rey needed another hope spot, because he was less then a minute removed from getting the win. It wasn't one of those drawn out Brock beatings which sometimes drag down his post UFC stuff, it was a lightning strike.
Honda vs. Kobashi Review
Verdict:
PAS: I am pretty surprised that I am going along with Eric on this one. I was expecting a fun TV match that he was overrating due to his nostalgia for 2003 Brock, but this was a perfect match, with two incredible performances from two all timers. It was actually a similarly structured match to Kobashi vs. Honda, and while Honda might have slightly inched Rey in his performance in that match (no diss here, Honda's performance in that match is my favorite title challenger performance ever), Lesnar's dominant champ performance smokes Kobashi, and I really liked Kobashi in that match. The upstart takes this.
ER: The abrupt finish was my only complaint about this match, but the rest of it was classic pro wrestling with an unbeatable atmosphere and two larger than life performers. Honda/Kobashi had its own great atmosphere, but I thought Lesnar created and thrived within this atmosphere even better. The creativity, execution, and rabid crowd puts this one ahead for me. NEW CHAMP!
Labels: All Time MOTY, Brock Lesnar, Rey Mysterio, WWE Smackdown
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