Buddy Rose vs. Bob Backlund - MSG 8/30/82
I thought this was pretty great. Backlund rules the mat early on, which was really fun. It's been talked about before, but he really worked like he was the man, and the announcer puts over the fact that he was a former amateur champion, so it totally works. Couple really awesome things in the early parts: Rose has him in a full nelson, and Backlund just thrusts his butt backward and Rose takes this awesome tumble out of the ring, going butt first between the bottom and middle ropes. Later, Rose grabs the ropes to block an O'Connor Roll attempt. He turns around to celebrate but Backlund is already up and dropkicking him the face. At that point, Rose decides he's done with the mat stuff and starts throwing punches and this one crispy chop that sounds cool, and he smashes Backlund's face on some turnbuckles. That gives Rose the chance to control stuff on the mat, and so he works a headlock for a while. Too long, I thought, but it turned out to be ok because Backlund came back with a headlock on his own and the crowd went wild. For a headlock. The Man. And he wrenches the headlock like crazy and it looks so cool and the crowd loves it. He works the headlock for a while, and then Rose starts to comeback and smash his head around, and then Backlund hits a couple of his awesome monkey flips. Finish is actually really cool, as Backlund busts out a nifty counter to lock in the chickenwing.
On the whole, I dug this. I thought it dragged a bit during Rose's headlock sections and at some other points. No major complaints, though. I'd probably call it around ***3/4.
Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston - Chikara - We Must Eat Michigan's Brain 6/26/10
Danielson's entrance rules. They play the NXT song, and everyone's all wtf-ish, and then they play "The Final Countdown," and people go wild and throw ties and all that. The match is great, too. They work the mat early and Danielson does painful-looking stuff to Kingston's arm. Then he starts throwing these nasty kicks to Kingston's knee. Really awesome, and Kingston sells them well, too. He also sells frustration well, as he gets frustrated after a few kicks and just throws a forearm into Danielson's face. Forearm looked terrible, especially juxtaposed against Danielson's strikes, but the idea of it was excellent, as was Danielson's response. He just threw more and more kicks and really fucked Kingston's leg up. Really just tore away at it, and Kingston's selling was awesome, and Danielson brought all his hubris. It's so awesome that he could work a match like this in this veteran/universe-ruling titan role, and then turn around and work from the bottom against the Miz and be just as good in that role. Might've already said something like that when I talked about the Fish match, but fuck it, it's still true. Heck, it's even more true in this match because Kingston's fat and much bigger than Danielson, but Danielson works the match like he's a monster or something, and it's totally convincing. Also, kudos to Kingston for his selling being good enough to make him a convincing underdog despite the size disparity.
Kingston's offense isn't great, but he has some good throws and Danielson makes them look as good as they're going to look. Normally a dude just busting out random throws/suplexes would be stinky, but they work well as hope spots. There are some strike exchanges that I kind of liked. They were kind of awkward though because Kingston's strikes aren't that good. They aren't as bad as Kofi Kingston's, but they're probably only 40% as good as Danielson's strikes, and the disparity was awkward.
Fuck, I used "disparity" twice in one review.
Anyway, his chops looked a little better than ok, and everything else looked a little worse than ok, except this one clothesline that Danielson threw himself into at a million miles an hour and that sold it by flipping all inside-out and wildly, which was great.
Finish sucked a decent amount, but the match was still great, as were both post-match speeches.
Probably would call this ****. Two guys playing their roles really well. Awesome offense, really good selling. Even better because the size issue made the roles more difficult to pull off, but they did it anyway. Danielson's facial expressions were great. He really looked grumpy and focused at times-- like he was pissed about the whole WWE shit-- but he got in his fair share of the little comedy stuff that works well with a small crowd. He said Kingston was too fat for the surfboard. Not sure if I liked it more than the Fish match-- this benefited from being a bit more compressed, which cut the superfluous offense from Danielson, but the finish wasn't nearly as good.
Marty Jannetty vs. Shane Douglas - ECW Return of the Funker 2/25/95
I was interested to check this out because I think I saw it get love somewhere, and I really like Jannetty as a babyface and Douglas as a heel. Douglas is ECW Champ at this point, so this is a bit of a big deal, or something. Not sure how many matches Jannetty had in ECW-- I'll check now. He made several appearances in mid-95, according to Wikipedia.
Anyway, Douglas is known to be a dick, but he tells Jannetty before the match that he wants to wrestle a clean match because they used to be friends, and he offers a handshake. Jannetty does the smart thing and refuses for a while, and Douglas crosses his heart, so Jannetty finally gives in. Of course, Douglas tries to get in a sucker kick to the gut, but Jannetty catches and spins him. Early parts of the match are all about Jannetty rocking Douglas and Douglas taking breathers. Maybe a bit too much stalling, but Jannetty is great in the babyface shine role, and Douglas is maybe better in the stalling heel role. I'm sure some folks would watch a Shane Douglas match and complain about pace/workrate, but he's such a great character that I don't care. Jannetty teases the superkick a couple times and Douglas dodges it-- I liked how they built that up as a big move early on. After Jannetty's second attempt, Douglas went to the corner to stall/lure Jannetty in, and then he caught him with a kick to the dick. He then dumped Jannetty to the outside and kicked him in the face from the apron, which was awesome. But then Douglas tried to hit the same spot twice, and Jannetty punished him with a hot shot. They go to the outside and brawl, which is ok. Jannetty whips Douglas over the barricade and then dives into him recklessly and awesomely. They brawl in the crowd, which stinks because the camera doesn't get any of it.
It turns out alright, though, because Douglas catches him on the way back to the ring, dropping him ribs-first onto the barricade. Great spot, and Douglas then worked over the ribs really well. Awesome moment where Jannetty tried a hip toss but couldn't because his ribs were hurt. Some awesome spots on the outside: Jannetty flies into the barricade; Jannetty goes face first into the ring post and flips like crazy; Jannetty takes a back drop onto chairs that don't give at all; Jannetty finally hits two super kicks, which was a nice pay-off on the build earlier, but they won't win him the match on the outside. He does hit a nasty one on the inside, but he doesn't go for a pin, which was frustrating. Still, I generally dug the finishing stretch. Jannetty was really rolling-- he hit a couple nasty elbows, and then Douglas went shoulder-first into the ring post, and Jannetty followed grabbing his arm and jumping over the top rope and yanking Douglas's arm with him. Douglas sold the arm well. Jannetty hit a DDT for a good near-fall, and then, in the midst of this big flurry, he goes for a rana, which Douglas counters into a power bomb, and then he stacks Jannetty up for an awesome out-of-nowhere escape.
So yeah, this match had great moments, including some really nasty bumps and good selling by Jannetty. I thought the pace was pretty sluggish at points, but that wasn't a major detractor for me. Still thought this was a great match-- no crazy/obnoxious spots, really sound structure, two guys working roles they play well, and a good escape for the champion. They used the extreme-ishness in a good way-- Douglas used the environment to come across as even more of a dick, and there was nothing too far out there, aside from the brief crowd-brawling stuff. ***1/2-***3/4? I don't know.
Bryan Danielson vs. Tim Donst - Chikara Faded Scars & Lines - 6/27/10
This was probably the weakest of the 3 Danielson matches I've talked about, but it was still good. Donst is his first opponent to work full heel, and he cuts a promo beforehand about how he's a "mat wresting machine" and the "new best in the world." He has Chikara's Young Lions Cup, which I guess means he's a bit of a big deal in that promotion. Anyway, this all means that Danielson has to give Donst a crap-ton. They work even in the early mat exchanges, and it looks good. Donst is an obnoxious prick, mocking Danielson and stealing his signature lines and moves. He slaps Danielson in the face, and Danielson's expression is perfect, and later he gets his revenge slap, which is nice. They also go to the outside for a bit, which was actually really cool because they continued to chain wrestle rather than brawling, and they tease a double countout.
Back on the inside, Donst gets to work a control segment, which is alright. I found him annoying, which would maybe have been a bad thing, but I knew Danielson was going to start laying some nasty blows into him, so I was ok with it. Donst doesn't focus much on a particular body part-- there's some rib work that Dragon sells expertly, and then he steals some of Dragon's moves, including some bad-looking elbows. Again, we have a guy whose strikes aren't nearly as good as Danielson's, but it was actually a little cool here because it felt rewarding. They'd go into strike exchanges, and Danielson would hit Donst four times harder than Donst hit him, which was way cool. Another cool moment when Danielson was eating forearms and yelling at Donst to hit him harder. Also, there's a really cool exchange where Danielson tries to jump up and lock in a triangle, but Donst counters and rolls through into a pinning combo, but Danielson counters again back into the triangle. It surprised me and it looked cool and fluid. Finish is good, too, as Danielson goes to his signature stuff to get revenge on Donst for mocking him and aping his moves.
So yeah, I thought this was really good, but it would've been a lot better if Donst were better. He played a douche bag pretty well, but his offense didn't look as convincing as Danielson's. Danielson worked from the bottom really well. The early mat exchanges were great because they established Donst as a legit threat without knocking Dragon off of his "best in the world" perch.
Maybe ***1/2.
Bryan Danielson vs. William Regal - Memphis Championship Wrestling
Not sure about the date for this, but I think it was some time in 2001. Regal talks shit before the match about how he's the WWF Commissioner and Danielson should just give up; Danielson talks shit about Brits. The match goes about 8 minutes and is really fun. All the mat exchanges look awesome, and there are neat little selling things, like when Regal sells some arm stuff early on. Regal is fantastic throughout, sneering at the crowd, condescendingly applauding Danielson for an escape, etc. Danielson works well as the smaller, quicker opponent. It was crazy how much smaller he looks here than against Kingston. It's also interesting seeing him in this role: instead of working as the superior mat technician/best wrestler in the world, he works as the student who has something to prove. He fills the role well and looks shockingly quick at different points. Nothing super great, but it was really fun to see these two go at it. If they get a 10 minute match on Superstars this year or any time, I'll go wild.
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