More random stuff…

Tommy Dreamer vs. Lance Storm
(ECW Hardcore Heaven, 16/05/99)
This was surprisingly enjoyable. In the right context (big stupid brawls where he gets hurt a lot), Tommy Dreamer could be pretty good back in the day. Lance Storm is usually okay but pretty bland, but here he too shows actual aggression and I also like him wearing jeans to get over the ‘street fight’ aspect. Dawn Marie really was fucking beautiful back then too. They do a lot of fun stuff with a guardrail they drag into the ring, as well as the usual chairs and trash cans. A ladder is also used pretty effectively, with a fun spot where Dreamer is on the outside with the ladder resting against his face and Storm goes for a baseball slide, but Dreamer lifts the ladder up, Storm slides under it to the floor, goes for Tommy again, who again lifts the ladder over him, then blasts him in the face with it. Later, Storm has his head trapped between some of the ladder’s rungs and Dreamer smashes the end of it with a chair, which is pretty sweet. Dreamer then looks to have the match one after a big Death Valley Driver off the turnbuckles through a table, but for some reason Cyrus gets involved and breaks up the pin, setting up Francine giving him the bronco buster, and cat fighting with Dawn Marie. Oh and then Dreamer grabs Dawn (or ‘gets his hands on that bitch!’ as Joey Styles on commentary puts it), and piledrivers her to a huge cheer. Ugh. I guess it is ECW, what are you gonna do. Anyway, Storm recovers, smashes Dreamer in the head with a trashcan, puts it over his head and comes off the top with a spinning kick to get the win. Fun stuff actually.

The Rock vs. Chris Jericho
(WWF No Mercy, 21/10/01)
Really good WWE main event style match, with Jericho attempting to prove he was on The Rock’s level, and Rock just trying to defend his WCW title. Jericho hitting a Rock Bottom of his own and attempting the People’s Elbow was pretty cool, as was The Rock’s outraged reaction. The Rock Bottom through the announce table on Jericho was pretty sweet too, so was Jericho reversing a People’s Elbow attempt into the Walls of Jericho. I can’t really remember any more specific things that were good about this match, but I just think I really enjoyed it. The ending sequence of Stephanie McMahon introducing the chair which led to her nemesis Chris Jericho winning the match and the title was cool, as was Jericho’s Breakdown (full nelson forward Russian leg sweep) onto the chair, with doubts about whether or not it was intentional setting up Jericho’s future heel turn. Apart from what he’s doing now, this was probably the most entertaining I can remember Jericho being, and The Rock is just The Rock, so yeah, pretty awesome. Worth a watch.

Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs
(ROH Vendetta II, 28/06/08)
I’m clearly watching this Jacobs/Aries storyline in the wrong order, but whatever, I know what’s going on thanks to reading results and the ROH Video Wires and that. This was really good, at times they brawl all over the place, but they establish that they also want to out-wrestle and defeat the other man, so they mostly stick within the rules (except Jimmy’s dastardly antics), so we get a mixture of a brawl and a regular match, as well as mind games, including Jimmy provoking Aries by kissing him, which causes Austin to go mental and beat the shit out of him. At one point they brawl to the back of the arena, and Jacobs puts Aries in the End Time (guillotine choke), so Aries just drives him into a wall and then throws him down the bleachers and follows him with an elbow. Aries cuts his back pretty nastily, probably after Jacobs dives through the ropes and spears him into the barrier, so Jimmy spends a lot of time working on the cut: punching and kicking it, clawing at it, using foreign objects on it, even biting it. The end sequence of the match revolves around Jimmy’s End Time vs. Austin’s Last Chancery, with each man trying to force a submission. There’s a lot of other cool moves and stuff as well, obviously, such as Aries blocking a spear with a massive knee to the head, followed by several more, into the brainbuster, straight into the Last Chancery, which is broken up by new Age of the Fall member MsChif, who stomps on him and blows green mist on his face. Oh and I’[m not sure when it happens but at some point (before this, but whatever), Aries gives Jacobs a Death Valley Driver on the APRON. Jesus. Eventually, the Age of the Fall attempt to interfere, but they are stopped by the Briscoe Brothers, setting up the ending: Aries sets Jacobs up in the corner and deliberately, taking his time, murders him with four or five running dropkicks to the head. After a 450 Splash, Aries wins the battle. Awesome match, you could really feel the hatred, as well as the one-up-man-ship aspect of it.  

I should probably watch some bad matches so I can have some variety here.

Oh, I’ve just got to say that apart from Santino being as hilarious as usual, and the further comedy of THE GREAT CHARLI, that the best bit of Raw this week was the awesome eight man tag (Kane/Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase/Manu vs. Rey Mysterio/CM Punk/Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne). Way too much fun. That’s two weeks in a row I’ve enjoyed a match with Kane involved. Bizarre.

Stuff from all over

The Age of the Fall vs. Jay Briscoe & Austin Aries (No Disqualification)
(ROH Northern Navigation, 25/07/08)
This is a really fun crazy brawl, but it’s clearly intended to carry the storyline on rather than stand up on it’s own as an actual match. Not to take anything away from it though, as it’s wild and convincing in the hatred involved, and very entertaining, as well as being pretty good in doing what I just said (carry the story along). That was terrible English. The Age of the Fall are represented by Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black in this one, but it being No DQ, before long they call out the Necro Butcher to do the dirty work and turn it into a three-on-two match. Before long, an injured Mark Briscoe runs out to even the odds, and we get an unofficial six man war all over the building. Highlights include Necro attacking one of the Briscoes with pieces of scaffolding, several cool double teams, Mark’s karate shtick, Aries and Jacobs attempting to maim each other and loads of cool stuff I can’t remember. Necro ends up giving Mark a bulldog off the apron through a table, which aggravtes his injured wrist and sends him to the back, again giving AOTF the unfair advantage. They really beat Aries and Jay badly, heeling it up like jerks all the way. Eventually Jacobs orders Necro Butcher to “earn his keep” and blind Austin Aries with a bit of broken table, because he’s a nice chap like that. Aries however, has been telling Necro to stand up for himself, realise how badly Jimmy treats him, and be is own man, so Necro is conflicted and confused. Eventually he doesn’t attack Aries or Jimmy, throws the weapon down and stomps to the back, which allows Aries and Jay to destroy the distracted AOTF with chairs. Austin Aries then dropkicks the shit out of Jimmy’s face and splits open his lip (or this may have happened before, I forgot), and they follow up with a Doomsday Device and a Jay Driller on Black to give the good guys the win. This was good, the brawling was fun, the battle for Necro’s soul worked, Jimmy Jacobs is brilliant once again and I like everyone else too. I am also really strangely entertained by the Necro Butcher.

Super Crazy vs. TAKA Michinoku
(ECW Hardcore Heaven, 16/05/99)
Back when both these guys were good! TAKA is awesome in this as just a smug little prick, slapping Crazy and laughing about it, kicking him in the face just to piss him off, and bragging every time he outsmarts him. Super Crazy was still young and in shape at this point, so the Crazy Special (springboard twisting Asai moonsault into the crowd) looks pretty fucking awesome. There’s also a cool bit where TAKA sends Crazy flying over the ropes to the floor, and goes for his ‘no hands’ dive, only to land on the guard rail. Crazy’s Moonsault Trifecta is pretty cool, but TAKA kicks out, makes a comeback and hits the Michinoku Driver, but it’s not enough. He goes for another, which Crazy reverses into a spinning DDT (which TAKA sells awesomely), and follows up with a powerbomb and a bad ass cross-armed powerbomb for the win. This was surprisingly good, mostly because I forgot how great TAKA used to be, but Crazy holds his own too.   

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido
(ECW Hardcore Heaven, 16/05/99)
This was probably the first sign of Tajiri developing a personality, as he really revelled in kicking the shit out of Little Guido, who was also pretty good here as it was him attempting to prove he was more than a comedy act. There’s a lot of what would become Tajiri’s trademarks in this; the stiff kicks (which he REALLY laid in here), the handspring elbow, the Tarantula, and the tree of woe dropkick to the face, which just looks devastating. Guido also takes a nasty bump over the ropes onto the ramp on his face. Guido’s stuff mostly involves nasty slaps to the face and cool submissions (he does a really nice roll into a cross armbreaker), but eventually Tajiri does a spinning back-to-back stretch thing, kicks his head in again, and then finishes him off with the brainbuster. Good fun.

Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt (Ladder of Love Match)
(TNA No Surrender, 14/09/08)
You know how hard it was for me to admit that I enjoyed a Rob Van Dam match? Well, I don’t like Sonjay Dutt and I don’t like TNA as a whole, so this is doubly difficult for me, as this was a good ladder match. I was going to mock TNA for having a woman’s heart (and, you’d assume, other areas) up for grabs in a ladder match, but that one time Eddie and Rey had one for Rey’s son or whatever. There is one noticeable botch in this match which I am going to blame totally on Sonjay: Lethal goes to slingshot him into a ladder balancing on top of another ladder, but Dutt kind of…totally misses it. To be fair to Sonjay Dutt, he is quite a bit better than he was and actually shows some character since he turned heel. I hate TNA crowds though; why would there be duelling “let’s go Lethal/let’s go Sonjay” chants when Sonjay Dutt’s character has clearly been established as a creep who is obsessed with his best friend’s girl. There’s a lot of really cool ladder-related stuff in this, some we’ve seen before, but some we haven’t too (crotching Lethal on the rungs of a ladder, camel clutch on top of two ladders, dropkick with somebody’s head in a ladder). The ending, with So Cal Val shockingly turning on Jay Lethal and helping Sonjay win was somewhat predictable (in a ‘its TNA, so shocking swerves generally happen’ way) but that shouldn’t take away from this being a good match. Still, the highlight was probably colour commentator and general buffoon Don West excitedly saying that TNA should make EVERY match for a woman. Don’t say that too loud, they’ll have an entire PPV like that before long.  

Sid Vicious vs. Greg Sawyer
(WCW Worldwide, ?/10/90)
SID SID SID. This is just Sid beating the shit out of a jobber for a couple of minutes while shouting really loudly, mocking Sting, and just generally being amazing and Sid-like. He punches him to death, short arm clotheslines him on the outside, and then murders him (possibly literally) with the powerbomb. Come back soon, Sid!

ECW HARDCORE HEAVEN 2000

I ventured into the extension of my grandparent’s house the other day and found a few of my old wrestling videos, including a couple of ECW ones (as in, old school, proper ECW…I don’t have a tape of Colin Delaney’s best matches or anything). I’ve barely seen any ECW since then, but at the time it was something totally different to what I’d seen before, and totally awesome. Since then, I‘ve assumed that I’ve moved on and been exposed to more stuff, so most of it probably doesn’t hold up. Let’s see…

Unforgiven thoughts. Late, again…

Unforgiven was a week ago now. Myself and Jasp watched it and enjoyed the show, as well as our awesome chilli tacos we made. Hell yeah. Unforgiven was a show that was better as an overall show than individual matches, which is how normal people who don’t spend their time on the internet dissecting fake fighting tend to watch wrestling anyway. I have to pack my bags for a trip back up to Newcastle soon, so I don’t have masses of time, so here I’m going to attempt to give brief thoughts on the show, but then again this is me, writing about wrestling, so it probably still won’t end up being all that brief…

BELATED SUMMERSLAM REVIEW!!~

SummerSlam was two and a half weeks ago now. I was originally planning on doing this review straight afterward complete with the exciting back-story, in which my loyal companion Jasp and I had a weekend consisting of one last Legends huzzah and all the shenanigans that entails. But then, things happened. Such as Leeds Festival. So I decided I had better refresh my memory and watch it all again before I committed myself to any outrageous opinions on how awesome THE ANIMAL DAVE BATISTA is or anything like that. It was on 17/08/08 if you’re one of those people that care a lot about dates wrestling matches happened on. As opposed to dates with members of the opposite sex. BAM.