[SmokeAndMirrors]

Rhodes Scholars vs Mysterio/Cara on RAW was a really solid match. Worth checking out.

[Clique]

Originally Posted by Hohenheim of Light

Sheamus vs. Big Show was well beyond anything I expected. Brilliant, brilliant match.

I don't think anyone expected it to be such a quality match. It's probably the most surprisingly great match of the year. I honestly didn't expect much from them together but they proved me and many others wrong.

[JoeRulz]

Sheamus/TheBigShow = Goldberg/Steiner (FB 2000)

Both shockingly good matches.

[WOOLCOCK]

I wouldn't call Sheamus/Show shockingly great. Sheamus works well with anyone who has a distinctive style, e.g Ziggler's pace, Bryan's striking/submission game, Barrett and Tensai working stiffer and Show is definitely a guy who excells as the dominant giant laying a beating. I didn't think they'd have as good a match as they did the first time around, but both guys' styles had me expecting something very good. Be interesting to see what rematch they do, I'd imagine a gimmick match could be booked and it'll be interesting to see how they develop the story from the first match. Guessing Sheamus will have more offence this time and the story might revolve around Show being impossible to put down, rather than Sheamus being unable to control the match.

[Choke2Death]

Am I the only one who was not surprised at how good Sheamus/Show was? I expected it to be MOTN along with Orton/Del Rio and it looks like that's what happened.

[Hohenheim of Light]

Enjoyed Ryback's outing in the Cell as well. Far from great, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

[WOOLCOCK]

Aye, its a shame it had to be a Cell match, since as far as an actual angle goes it was well worked with Punk working smartly to outfox and take advantage of any Ryback slip up, whilst establishing he was pretty much second best in any straight up exchange with Ryback. Ryback looked good enough throwing Punk around whilst Punk retained a sense of intelligence and danger whenever he could engineer a route back into the match.

As I said though, just a shame it had to be contested under the Cell where as a match you expect/demand so much more than advancing an angle and developing two characters. I'm not sure if it would be as heckled if it was a straight up match in the middle of the card, and Sheamus/Show main events: though I suppose the World Title has been so overshadowed by the WWE title in terms of presentation and card placement that putting it on last at any PPV thesedays seems unthinkable.

Heyman was excellent though as the vocal strategist as well as selling the fear and destruction Ryback possessed.

[Clique]

Originally Posted by Segunda Caida

I wouldn't call Sheamus/Show shockingly great. Sheamus works well with anyone who has a distinctive style, e.g Ziggler's pace, Bryan's striking/submission game, Barrett and Tensai working stiffer and Show is definitely a guy who excells as the dominant giant laying a beating. I didn't think they'd have as good a match as they did the first time around, but both guys' styles had me expecting something very good. Be interesting to see what rematch they do, I'd imagine a gimmick match could be booked and it'll be interesting to see how they develop the story from the first match. Guessing Sheamus will have more offence this time and the story might revolve around Show being impossible to put down, rather than Sheamus being unable to control the match.

You would tell me before Sunday Sheamus and Show are having at or near a four star match together I wouldn't believe it. The combo didn't look that appealing to me on paper. Great job from both men. I agree it was nice seeing Sheamus work from the bottom against the giant. Heavyweight throwdowns can be super fun (i.e. Taker/Batista, Taker/Show, Show/Henry). I wonder how well Sheamus would work with Taker?

[WOOLCOCK]

Huh, guess perceptions on the match just differ from person to person. I looked at the HIAC card and Sheamus/Show immediately jumped out to me as MOTN, seeing as both men aren't afraid to work stiff and take big bumps but also have enough of a wrestling brain to incorporate a story in between the violence in order for it to add to a match, rather than be an exhibition of who can hit harder. I can see people being surprised by just 'how good' it was though. Even I would have expected them to work better the more matches they had, but now I'm struggling to see how they can realistically better the HIAC encounter, which is pretty much top 5 for WWE this year, or at worst top 6.

As for working well with Taker....I don't know tbh. The problem is Taker won't work heel, which leaves us asking how well Taker and Sheamus could lay out a face/face match with escalating violence. Show and Henry are excellent at working as the big men bruisers who work their size and seemingly indestructive power as a story into a lot of their matches, and as a result guys like Sheamus who work well from the bottom are almost always guaranteed to click with them.

Sheamus however would realistically work more of a default heel when wrestling Taker, and from what I've seen Sheamus is far better as the hard hitting badass working from the bottom, than he is the bully beating up victims. Same with Taker, I think he's far better working as a face and working from the bottom to make his size and power the difference maker than he is the guy working as the base for a babyface to make a comeback against.

I just get the feeling Taker and Sheamus both work better in the role they were put in against Big Show, rather than essentially cancelling each other out. I think both work better when they have that monster base to work against, as a face/face match I think they could work well but definitely think they both shine in face/heel settings compared to face/face.

[zep81]

Watched the first Elimination Chamber (Survivor Series 2002) earlier, first time in years I've seen it, love Kane in this one, Jericho and even Van Dam too, like when Kane threw Jericho into the chamber glass.

May watch Summerslam 2003 chamber next.