New Footage Finlay: TAYLOR~! KNIGHT~! UNDERTAKER~! LASHLEY~! BATISTA~! BOOKER~!

Fit Finlay vs. Dave Taylor Portsmouth 3/14/95 - GREAT

MD: Say what you will about 21st century UK crowds, but these fans were pretty great on this night in 1995. I would have loved to be in there with them taunting Finlay and chanting for "Rocky" Taylor, all with this amazing familiarity. If the crowd was the star, the wrestlers more than held up their own. Finlay was opportunistic and unafraid to stooge but hit hard and riled the crowd up accordingly. Taylor was fiery and sympathetic with big comebacks. The finish was abrupt, a missed charge in the corner and a lightning-fast Fujiwara Armbar which is not something I usually think of as a finish to Finlay matches but it worked and it's almost a shame he didn't use it more often as a way to keep everyone on their toes.

PAS: This was a blast, a chance to see what these two could do with a big of time on a house show. Finlay was a big hitter as usual and Taylor keeps right up with him. That Taylor press slam was a killer spot, and I loved the flash Finlay Fujiwara armbar as a finish, can you imagine how much your shoulder would hurt with Fit fucking Finlay yanking up on it. 

Finlay/Mr. Kennedy/King Booker vs. Batista/Bobby Lashley/Undertaker WWE 10/22/06 - GREAT

MD: Batista's dad is the son of Filipino immigrants and this was a huge homecoming for him. There were moments (like the entrances) where it felt like WWE thought Undertaker might be the bigger star, and I do sort of wonder if Taker switched a few things around mid-match. In general though, it was a fairly big bomb house show main event with a heel side that was outmatched by the face side and that stooged accordingly. Booker, during this period, had such a unique, pronounced way of doing, while Finlay was able to draw upon some of his timing and tricks from his heel run twenty years earlier. We saw less of that in his "I love to fight" 00s run, but it makes complete sense against these opponents. The heels didn't want to get in there against any of them, and while there was begrudgingly loyalty to Booker, there wasn't respect or real deference. They worked in mini-heat segment on Batista, just to get the crowd riled, but most of this were the heels feeding and stooging, and then some heat on Taker (including Finlay being very effective at believably keeping control through constant grinding) to set up the big hot tag to Batista and the finish. The post-match, with Dave hamming it up, including that one last run into the ring, was great pro wrestling.

PAS: These kind of house show matches are so entertaining. Just big stars working a tried and true formula and sending the crowd happy. I was surprised at how effective Undertaker was at working face in peril, you wouldn't think that would be a skill he would have a lot of time to practice. Booker and Finlay were especially good at working him over, and I dug Booker teasing the Spinaroonie and flipping off the crowd. Batista wasn't as good a heater as I was hoping he would be, but I did love how over he was, and it would have been fun to see a Manilla territory built around him as Carlos Colon.

Fit Finlay vs. JD Knight 4FW 2/25/12 - GREAT

MD: Hey, it's Finlay mauling some poor jerk in front of a UK indy crowd in a No DQ match. All in all, a pretty satisfying beating, though I'm sad they never paid off Finlay picking up the expensive light to hit him with at the top of the ramp. That wasn't even a transition moment, and it led to some other solid brutality, so it's fine, but that would have been a real satisfying thud. Knight did ok working the desperation cheap shots in from underneath and he got to show some toughness in there, and the big affront of hitting Finlay with his own shillelagh to set up the final comeback and the finish, but this was primarily about Finlay beating the heck out of him, down to the insult to injury post-match shot, as it well should have been. Anyone know if we have that bloody Dick Togo match from a prior 4FW show they were talking about on commentary?

PAS: I thought this was an excellent version of the Fit Finlay touring ass kicking show. Little stuff which makes Finlay so class, like grabbing Knight by the chin, or cracking him with the broken chair piece. I wasn't completely enamored by Knight's offense (although the shillelagh shot looked great), but he took some monster bumps, including a big Psicosis corner bump, and a tope directly into a Finlay chair shot (and Finaly really wound up and swung for the fences too).  I do think that ring light was an unshot Chekov's gun, but otherwise this is what you want for a Finlay indy showcase.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY