Tommy Platinum

This one should be obvious from the title. Post the last wrestling match you watched and write a review of it. The review can be as long or short as you want, but try to add some detail rather than just one line saying 'it was good' or whatever. Obviously you can take issue with the reviews of others and discussion will develop from that. If you like, give a star rating at the end of your review, but it is not compulsory.

Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness, ROH World Title and Pure Title Unification Match - Unified

Just finished watching this a few minutes ago, and it was the inspiration for this thread. I watched their match at Weekend of Champions yesterday and Generation Now earlier today, both of which provided good build to this one due to the finishes, with Danielson losing the first match on a countout to Nigel after he used a steel chair to block Dragon's dive. The second match saw Danielson pick up the win after he crawled under the ring, came out the other side and surprised Nigel with a small package for the 3 count. Obviously these finishes did little to determine who the better man is, so we are left with a title unification match at Unified in England, with Dragon's World Title and Nigel's Pure title on the line. The first two matches were good but I was expecting this one to be a lot better than those, simply because they were designed to build the feud, and this one would surely feature a more definitive finish.

I wasn't disappointed, as I found it to be a great back and forth match with a lot of great wrestling throughout. Some typically good heel work from Danielson, and although the feud is based on wrestling, it got pretty personal early on with both men delivering slaps to the face. A lot of scientific wrestling at the start with Dragon getting the better of Nigel, eventually forcing him to use all 3 of his rope breaks. Danielson himself had to use one to escape a Tower of London pin attempt. After that the match eventually become more violent, with a lot of Nigel lariats (of course). I especially like his lariat when his opponent is on the ropes and he comes off the 2nd rope to hit them with it. It was cool seeing him use the cattle mutilation on Dragon too. The match really picked up when Dragon tried to win by countout by trapping Nigel under a table on the outside. Nigel made it back in and we had an epic exchange of right hands. The finishing stretch was incredibly dramatic, after they fought on the outside once again and Dragon pulled Nigel's head into the ringpost repeatedly. Nigel was busted open, and Dragon kicked him into the crowd before executing his signature dive from the top rope to the crowd to take out Nigel. This exchange ended with Nigel narrowly beating the count to make it back to the ring, throwing himself in with milliseconds to spare, and the sight of Nigel firing himself up covered in blood, when it looked like he had lost seconds earlier, was great. Nigel was incredibly intense in this match and we saw a dramatic exchange of headbutts, with Nigel getting the better of Danielson. He then kicked out of one of Nigel's epic lariats before Nigel found himself locked in the Cattle Mutilation for the 2nd time in the match, with no rope breaks remaining. Nigel managed to struggle out and almost stole a win by countering another Cattle Mutilation attempt into a pin attempt. Nigel refused to tap so instead Dragon started attacking Nigel with the brutal elbows to the side of the head, and considering the amount of blows to the head Nigel had already taken during the match, including those against the ring post which originally busted him open, it wasn't long before the ref had to stop it. Bryan Danielson wins the pure title and unifies the championships. I found this match to be extremely dramatic and it had amazing psychology with Nigel refusing to quit but being put away by the elbows at the end. I would give it ****1/2

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Flip

Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley - Intercontinental Championship Match (Hardcore Rules) - Backlash 2004

I've seen this match many times, and it is honestly one of my favorites. I don't think it's one of the best matches of all time, but I just love watching it. I'll start by saying that the only downfall of this match was that it had a predictable winner. The reason for that was that they made the match for the Intercontinental Championship, and Randy was made to be the next big thing, and it was obvious he would have a long reign. He did however lose the belt 3 months later.

Making this match for the Intercontinental belt though made the title look like it was very important, as both men went to extreme measures to win. It was a personal feud, but the addition of putting the belt on the line, added a new goal of Foley's.

The match itself was great. Randy took some nice bumps, and I was shocked as hell seeing him get thrown in the tacks. This match proved to me that Randy Orton could be something huge in the future. The story of the match was great, as Orton was the punk kid who spit in the face of Foley's awhile ago, and Foley was out for revenge. Orton had to prove himself to Foley during the match, and had to play by Foley's rules. Once Orton did that, it allowed him to pick up the win.

****1/2

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Tommy Platinum

Yeah that was a fucking awesome match. Undoubtedly one of the matches of 2004 and it was great for Foley to prove that he was still capable of matches of that quality. I would probably rate it about the same as you. I too was shocked that Orton took the tack bump, but the whole match just showed what potential he had. When you look at a match like this being fought over the IC Title, it is kind of depressing. Orton's run just proved what an asset the IC title should be to the company, but instead we see it used as a prop to some joke character and nobody really benefits from it. Orton was turned into a star by his awesome IC title run, and this match was undoubtedly the highlight. They drew me in making it seem like Foley could win as the match went on, then bam, the RKO. Foley kicking out then getting another RKO on the barbed wire bat was probably a reference to the finish of the Rumble 2000 Street Fight with Triple H, when Foley kicked out of the Pedigree only to get pedigreed again on the tacks.

Great match.

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Tommy Platinum

Bump...

Triple H vs Chris Jericho (Last Man Standing match) - Fully Loaded 2000

So I finally saw this match, after hearing it being widely praised by a lot of people, some going as far as saying it is Jericho's best match. I don't know about that, but it was certainly very good. Steve said on msn that this might be the only time Triple H has made somebody look good in defeat. I can't think of any more times, but I'm not about to start bashing HHH, because he was pretty great in this match and made Jericho look very good indeed. The feud was pretty much based around Stephanie and Jericho's treatment of her (verbal insults, kissing her etc) as well as costing Triple H a #1 contendership match. I really enjoyed Jericho as the brave face underdog and its matches like this which make me think it was a terrible decision not to push him to the title as a face. He sold the injured ribs well throughout and I really bought into his struggle against the odds. Triple H dominated for the most part as you would expect, but I loved Jericho's refusal to stay down. One of my favourite moments of the match was when he taunted Triple H every time he got up, eventually giving a crotch chop and getting pedigreed. It was also great that Triple H cockily rested on the ropes as the ref counted Jericho, only for Jericho to make it to his feet and Triple H to go crazy and bring in a steel chair. The epic chairshot Jericho delivered to Triple H to turn the tide was also a great moment, and Triple H was BUSTED WIDE OPEN!~ This was a good example of the blood helping to tell the story and it served as proof that the young gun Jericho had given Triple H a hell of a beating in this one, even though Triple H was eventually able to pull out the win after a suplex through the commentators table, Triple H just beating the 10 count. I think this was a great underdog story with both men contributing a lot to make the match good and Triple H making Jericho look extremely good in defeat. Wouldn't go as far as saying it was Jericho's best match but it was certainly very impressive and would feature high on the lists of both men's greatest matches.

****1/4


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Balla

Mark Mero w/ Sable (Goldust) VS Vader

fucking terrible, goldust as sable was lols though

1.5/5

Sir Nicky Talent

ANNIVERSARIO DOS - CHIKARA - JUNE 2009 - F.I.S.T (Icarus and Chuck Taylor w/Gran Akuma) vs. The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant w/ Worker Ant) - Mask vs. Hair Match

This match-up showed where you can find great tag team wrestling with the match form missing on television. Four brilliant, young competitors of the future clashed in a feud that has long strained in CHIKARA. First off, the people who call Chuck Taylor untalented and overrated are completely wrong. Taylor dominated Fire Ant throughout most of this match, including an incredible move in which he bounce Fire off the ropes from the outside with a back body drop, spin him around, threw him on the barricade, and connected with a kick.

Icarus may be one of the best heels in indepedent wrestling. His refusal to draw and do flashy moves draws a wide hatred from the fans, alng with Chuck Taylor hating kids, this is a perfect stable.

Icarus and Chuck show a great amount of technical skill mixed with great chemistry and team work. Enough about FIST, though

The Colony played the card of the struggling face who ave to fight back. Soldier Ant was taken out of the match after getting an Omega Driver from Chuckie T onto a table. This leaves Fire Ant, who for a good portion of the match, rebounded with acrobatics and great chemistry with his opponents. Near the end of the match, Soldier Ant comes back, and the Colony defeats FIST

What I liked about this match up apart from how this shows two teams working together with their partners and their enemies, but it also showed a good, fast paced, winded match-up with technical prowess and high flying spots. Not to mention, several near falls.

****1/4 Stars out of Five.

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Tommy Platinum

CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - IC title #1 Contendership Match - Armageddon 2008

This was the final of a tournament set up by William Regal to find a worthy #1 contender for his title. I liked the idea of the tournament to give the belt some of its prestige back, as wrestlers were willing to go through a whole King of the Ring style tournament just to get a shot at the gold. This was also interesting because it was the first time these guys had faced each other. Both were faces at the time of course, which provoked some awful King commentary (usually Armageddon is about good vs evil.. but these are two good guys). The match itself was very good, and although I need to rewatch Punk's ECW title win, for now I am going to say this is CM Punk's best match in WWE. I liked the chain wrestling at the start, but the match was basically about speed and counters. This started early with Punk countering 619 with an armdrag and Rey avoiding the Go To Sleep with the same move. There were a lot of cool spots in the match. I always love it when a wrestler locks in a submission, and when the guy goes to grab the rope, they grab that arm and turn it into something else. Punk used this on Rey, and it was cool to see. I think Punk should use more submission moves, especially now he is a heel and will dominate matches more. There were a lot of high spots, mainly provided by Rey, unsurprisingly, but Punk hit his cool dive to the outside. Maybe my favourite moment of the match came when Punk tried to lift Rey for a slam after throwing him against the ropes, but Rey spun round and turned it into an armbar. The finishing stretch was pretty impressive, full of near falls and finisher counters, before Punk finally managed to hit a pretty brutal GTS for the win. REY GOT FUCKED UP!!! There was blood all over him.

I thought long and hard over what rating to give this match... but I have to disappoint Ken by not giving it 4 stars. It was very good, but not quite great in my eyes. Hugely enjoyable match all the same. The search for a **** match (imo of course) in Punk's WWE career goes on.

***3/4

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Y 2 Jake

Samoa Joe vs. Booker T - TNA Victory Road 2008

Started off very well. I was loving the slow build up of the match. Then like most TNA matches it turned to shit. Why would banging the back of your head make the front of your head bleed?

They then had Joe beat the shit out of Booker. I've always thought that having the hometown hero look weak was counterproductive. Put them in a lesser match and have them win over having them lose badly in an important match.

Sting comes out to save Booker...maybe. As this is TNA you don't know what's happening. This is about the time that something better caught my attention. When I returned to the screen Sharmell was counting the pinfall and Booker was walking out with the title. If I remember from last year when I first watched it, Sting hit Joe for reasons unknown to everybody.

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Tommy Platinum

John Cena vs Batista - Summerslam 2008

I thought I'd rewatch this because I hadn't seen it since I watched the PPV live, and I've been giving it **** in threads left and right. Wow... I was wrong. I'm a huge fan of Cena (Batista not so much) and I still consider this a GOOD match, but it is not great by any means, as it has some key flaws and basically just didn't really have enough to it to be a great match. In all honesty, on watching it the 2nd time, Cena pissed me off in this more than Batista did. From his selling of the leg (sold it for a few moves then started jumping around, but this isn't too big of a deal) to, more importantly, his awful weak execution of the STF when he basically just rested without even trying to make it look painful (watch Benoit and learn, John), he wasn't all that great in this. The early going worked, with each man trying to prove they were stronger than the other, and a few power moves being used, and I liked the way Batista worked on Cena's leg after avoiding the first FU attempt, locking in the Figure Four and such, but most of the match was just a Cena power move followed by a Batista power move with no real flow to it. Yes, it was entertaining for the most part seeing these two powerhouses throwing each other around, and like I said, it was a good match, but I think it relied too much on the fact that it was Cena vs Batista to make the match exciting, because it wasn't that well worked a match. Like many "dream matches", they didn't bother doing too much interesting with it and it could have been a lot better. Finish was pretty cool despite the injury though. It's always great when Batista snaps. If they wrestled again I'd expect it to be a lot better than this. Good, but nowhere near great really.

***1/2

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The Postman

The Great Khali vs. Kane - Wrestlemania 23

Yeah, not great this one. I usually like big man matches, but Khali was still a year and a half away from becoming highly entertaining and Kane hasn't been able to bring it in years.

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"Fix him up so I can break him again!"