Batista & Rey Mysterio vs. MNM - Smackdown 12/16/2005
Match opens with a fairly lengthy babyface shine period, which I really liked. MNM are great at bumping around for babyfaces, and Rey and Batista complement each other well on offense. Rey flies around and hits his cool stuff and Batista comes in and thrashes both guys. But it's not like MNM just take the beating-- they're trying to cheat, trying to get control of the match. At one point, Nitro comes in and superkicks Batista as he's about to Batista Bomb Mercury. But Batista's up and clotheslining both of them to the outside to set up a slick Asai moonsault spot for Rey on both guys. Mercury's nose gets busted open-- dude has bad luck with that sorta stuff apparently.
The transition to MNM's control segment is really good-- Rey's going for a rana on Mercury, but Nitro grabs him from the apron and pulls him toward the ropes, setting up a slick slingshot powerbomb spot. MNM were really really great, btw. All 3 members. Mercury & Nitro can bump around and sell and just generally take a beating, but they can also cheat-- they always bring really fun old-school distraction tactics to their matches. Their facial expressions are good and they come across as legit dicks when they're in control. And Melina can scream and look angry at ringside when things go wrong, but she can also interfere when things start going well. At one point, she just grabs Rey and yanks him to the ground, and it looks vicious. Rey's FIP segment is very good. MNM focus on the neck, and Rey sells. Nitro hits a nasty-looking clothesline to the back of the neck. Couple great cutoffs, too-- at one point, Rey starts to channel his Eddie energy to hit that bulldog spot on Mercury, only for Melina to distract the ref so Nitro can come pull Rey back. Seconds later, Rey's punching both guys to get out of the corner and crawling around the ring to try to reach Batista. He crawls through Mercury's legs and then eats an enziguiri from Nitro. Awesome. Actual hot tag is good, too, as Rey hits a swank reverse rana from the top on Nitro, and Nitro gets all the way over and way across the ring. Batista comes in and rips people apart, and Rey hits a 619 that connects on both Melina & Mercury, setting up a Batista Bomb and a victory and a title change. Great tag match.
***3/4
Batista & Rey Mysterio vs. MNM - Smackdown 12/30/2010
Babyface shine period is slightly shorter here but still good. Batista roughs both guys up in the corner, setting up a double Brono Buster from Rey. Tazz informs us that Rey wants to rename the move the 1904 or something. Rey also hits a sweet headscissor spot on I believe Nitro. Transition spot to MNM control segment rules-- Rey's on the apron about to springboard, but Mercury distracts him long enough to allow Nitro to catch him with a superkick just as he's coming of the top rope, and Rey drops down, hitting his head on the apron and getting his leg tangled on the ropes. MNM then proceeds to rip his knee off. Mercury (not the legal man) locks the leg up in the ropes and then pummels it. When he comes in, he sort of figure-fours the injured knee while going for a pin, which I thought was a nice touch. Rey's selling is great, too-- at one point, Mercury Irish whips him and he just collapses, and Mercury points and smiles like an asshat. Great stuff. They do their usual good stuff, cheating and distracting and focusing all their offense, and it's perfect. Maybe even liked the FIP segment here better than in the last match.
Really great hope spot where Rey crawls around again and then tries to jump over both of them. They catch him, and there's a great visual of Rey's hand inches from Dave's. He counters with a double-DDT. Don't think the crowd really got that spot, though, because their pop didn't quite correlate to its awesomeness. They actually got quieter when he hit it. Then there's another awesome video of Rey crawling toward Batista with both guys right behind him, reaching out to grab him... but he makes it, and Big Dave starts thrashing dudes and Rey climbs to the top to 'rana Nitro from the apron to the ground, selling his leg the whole time and smacking his head on the apron. Didn't really dig the finish though-- ref bump looked really forced, and then Mercury has a chance to sneak attack Batista while the ref is out, but he doesn't cheat at all. He just jumps on Batista. KICK HIM IN THE DICK, JOSEPH. Mark Henry (hired by Melina) comes out and hits an awesome-looking World's Strongest Slam, which Batista sells like a champ, leading to an MNM victory. Good way to set up a Dave/Henry title match, I suppose, and the finish hardly took away from the total awesomeness of the match. Not really sure which match I prefer-- they both had tons of positives.
***3/4
No comments:
Post a Comment