What Did You Just Watch?

[OfLegend]

The Rock vs Booker T and Shane McMahon for the WCW Championship
Unforgiven 2001

There's a WCW wrestler in there somewhere...

Anyway, The Rock doesn't have many bad matches from this period, and this is no exception. Having carried "The Book" at SummerSlam, Ol' Flex finds himself in a more comfortable situation, as the handicap pretty much performs itself. Lots of Irish whips, lots of double teams, lots of chicanery, but also lots of excitement. What with the corrupt referee and following Test's interference, it's not hard to believe that the title could change hands, and while the whole against the odds comeback may seem a bit old hat nowadays, nobody pulled it off better than The Rock.

There's also some nice commentary from Paul Heyman, as ever.

J.R.: Booker T is an exceptional athlete, but he believes himself to be a greater champion than Ric Flair, and I'm just not buying it.
Paul Heyman: I happen to know that Ric Flair idolises Booker T.
J.R.: How do you know that?
Paul Heyman: Arn Anderson told me.

[tequillin]

Yuji Nagata & Kurt Angle vs. Travis Tomko & Giant Bernard - NJPW 18/2/07

Pre-package about Angle plays.

Nagata starts off with Bernard, Bernard gets a powerslam and then they both tag out. Good pop for Angle, as a USA chant starts and he goes behind Tomko and nails a german, turns round and gets a boot off Tomko to the face. He stands up heabutts Tomko, takes him down by the leg and goes for the ankle lock as Tomko escapes and tags in Bernard.

Bernard basically just demolishes Angle and keeps tagging in Tomko back and forth, until Kurt manages to tag in Nagata after hitting guess what, a german. Nagata goes mental and guts out all the punishment he gets from the big tattooed Americans. He tags Angle back in after avoiding a top rope move from 'Travis' hehe. Angle comes in and hits tonnes of germans on everyone until he gets smashed in the face with a hilariously huge boot.

Angle hits the top rope belly to belly, pulls down the straps and then Nagata and Angle put on their submission finishers at the same time to Tomko. Angle hits Tomko with the Angle slam, then can't do it on Bernard so puts him down and ankle locks the bastard. Nagata gets the win by submission via the crossface with leg scissored armbar.

Fun match but nothing really more. Angle just did his usual stuff. The simultaneous submission spot was pretty cool though.

[Boricua]

John Cena vs Edge, Unforgiven 06

After seeing it for the first time since the original broadcast, I say it holds up pretty well.

I also think John Cena's solemn exit and lack of celebration after the match was a nice touch.

[Roy]

The "Rowdy" Roddy Piper DVD.

I couldn't wait for this to come out and I wasn't disappointed. It's broken down nicely into 3 parts:

1) His story - and what a story it is; From living on the streets as a teen, to learning the bagpipes, to breaking into the business to headlining WM1 and his great personal feud with MR. T. It's all hear and what a life Hot Rod has had.

2) The matches - I loved Pipers fast paced fights he put across and I thought they really brought the audience to their feet because it looked like he was fighting for his life every time he went out there. It has his infamous Dog Collar match with Greg V, his WM1 tag match, his boxing match with T, his WM match with Bret, etc....

3) Piper's Pit - What a creation this was. His early stuff from the 80's is superb; Andre, Snuka and the coconut, Brother Love at WM plus more up to date stuff with Foley, HBK and McMahon.

I never truly realized how big a star Roddy Piper was and how much drawing power he had. People do say that Hogan made WWE succeed in the 80's but if it wasn't for the hatred Piper created then I doubt Hogan or WWE would have been as big as it was at this time. People really did come to WM1 to see Piper get the shit kicked out of him. One of the best heel's of all time no doubt about it.

A great DVD and a great story.

A must buy!

[bartman]

Shawn Micheals vs. Razor Ramon, WrestleMania 10, ladder match.

Pretty cutting edge for the time and (naturally) seems pretty tame in comparison to today's ladder matches.

This is what makes the match so great however: HBK and Ramon nail the psychology and story of the match with limited weapon use which took place during the WWE's kayfabe days.

There's a lot the wrestling world could take from this match today. TNA take note.

[bsu2k]

i usually don;t watch roh cuz people like that american dragon guy a just dull and boring. but I downloaded an amazing red match and thought it was great. Forget who is opponent was but bascially, Red carried him to good match.

Any1 know what happen to Red? Woulds love to see him back in TNA, maybe have another wrestlin clinic agianst Aj Style.