Christian: Best Thing Ever

Christian vs. Jack Swagger - ECW 2/24/2009


Holy butts, this match rules. It's been a favorite of mine for a little while, and it was just as good, maybe a bit better than I remember. So much to like here: they establish the size dynamic early, and Swagger also establishes his mat superiority. But Christian is more experienced and smarter. I love how, because he had to work with rookies so often during his ECW run, he adopted this cagey veteran role and played it perfectly. He takes advantages of Swagger's mistakes and uses his experience to come up with cool counters. Eventually, though, he makes a mistake on the outside and goes shoulder-first into the steel steps, which means Swagger works his arm, which means Christian sells his arm, which means win. Christian's selling is phenomenal, and Swagger's work is engaging, too. It's especially fun to see how he uses his power advantage. He picks Christian up and smashes his shoulder into multiple turnbuckles, and then hits a shoulderbreaker. But Christian always finds ways to work in comebacks, frequently flying off the top ropes to try to overcome the size differential. Smart stuff. And of course, there's the brilliant moment where Christian hits a tornado DDT and then sells his arm like death. Great finishing stretch, too. Christian goes for the Killswitch, but Swagger counters and launches him into the post, and then goes for the gutwrench, which Christian counters into another Killswitch attempt, but his arm injury (now worsened thanks to the ringpost) prevents him from engaging it. So, in the end, Christian out-maneuvered him, but physical limitations prevented him from winning. Smart way to keep him looking strong after a clean loss.

****1/4

Christian vs. Jack Swagger - Backlash 2009


Holy butts, this wasn't far off from the ECW match. Size dynamic remains, but Swagger has managed to close a lot of the experience differential, which I thought made him look good and smart. In the first match, Christian hit most of his big spots fairly easily. Here, though, Swagger comes out with an arsenal of counters-- he catches the pendulum kick attempt and smashes Christian into the apron, and he counters Christian's first attempt at a tornado DDT. So, Christian no longer has the major advantage in smarts, changing this into a battle of regular man vs. genetic super-freak instead of a battle of experienced man vs. genetic super-freak. Swagger works the mid-section this time, and his work his again good, and Christian's selling is good, too. Really cool gutbuster spot. Even cooler spot where Swagger smashes Christian's back against the turn buckle and then hits a running powerslam-- smart variation on the spot from their last match, changing it up to target a new body part. Awesome. Finish was great, too. Christian may have been over-matched, but he proved to be tough as heck, and Swagger-- still inexperience-- got desperate and tried to cheat by exposing a turnbuckle, and Christian was, like, "Bitch, I've been cheating since you were rolling around with other adolescents," and then he exposed his own turnbuckle, which Swagger charged into with his face, setting up the Killswitch and a good pop. Can't beat 'em? Out-cheat 'em.

****

Also watched their Judgment Day match and thought it was a good match with a smart finish, but I don't remember it as well as the other two, and I definitely thought it was below them in terms of quality. Still a good match, but not the batch of awesomesauce that those two were.

Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson - Royal Rumble 2010


Thought this was a really really great match. My memory is pooping out on me, so I'm not going to recap a lot of the spots. I really just want to talk about the awesome dynamic. Christian goes out of his way to make Zeke look like a monster, and Zeke plays that role brilliantly, clubbing the crap out of the champ and tossing him around like crazy. Christian tries to be resourceful and cagey early, slapping Zeke to irritate him and then playing a cat-and-mouse game, but Zeke eventually catches and slams him. Really good offense from Zeke, mostly focused on the back, and good selling from Christian. Good hope spots and cutoffs, and a great theme of Christian coming off the ropes and throwing dropkicks and all that, because how else does he stand a chance against the monster? They'd set up a little story coming in, questioning whether Christian could actually lock in the Killswitch. He fails a couple times, but the way he finally hooks it, in a quick sort of counter, looks totally believable, and it's not really a move that generally looks good against bigger guys. They really just nail it though, and credit to both guys.

***3/4

A notch below the two Swagger matches from 09, and below the McIntyre matches from SD, and maybe behind Christian/Regal from BP09, but still one of the best matches of Christian's brilliant run since his return.