Section got all screwy, here's the latest edition of the thread.
and STAIRS
and STAIRS
why the hell would you make that a hidden post??? No loss with that getting wiped from the web, I'm sure.*** hidden content ***
hello
It's the best Benoit/Orton IMO. 1/13/06 is pretty close. Found that No Hold's Barred overrated, though still very good. SummerSlam's probably the worst of the four and it's still also very good. Those two complimented each other so well.Eddie Guerrero v. The Big Show (SmackDown 4/15/04)
I made a list of all the WWE matches I want to watch for the 2000s, and this wasn't even on it. I had no intention to even watch it for the list and only did because a while ago I put it on the same disc as another match I have planned to watch. I am so glad I wound up checking it out again because it completely fucking blew me away. The first and only time I watched this was in 2011 and I thought it was 'very good not great'. 2011 me is a bigger piece of shit than I realised because this is clearly amazing. I was in complete awe while watching it. Show looked maybe the best he ever has. He's a huge, huge guy, but I'm not sure he's ever looked bigger than he has here. I remember a great post made by someone that said Show kind of always looked like a superweight instead of a giant, which was OK, yet you want a giant looking like a giant. I'll be damned if I didn't mistake him for motherfucking Andre here. While I think some of it has to do with how small Eddie is, he was really working perfectly. I adore how he found ways to chuck Eddie around with one arm, including that awesomely awesome awesomesauce one-arm Irish whip. The one-arm sweep while Show was on his knees and Eddie was standing was incredible, too. He practically stands on Eddie's head at one point. The head which held the brain of a genius. Guerrero, man. Goddamn Eddie Guerrero. I think 2003/2004 is really the first time he became a great babyface, but man did he become a GREAT babyface or what? His selling while getting pummelled was perfect. I think my favourite was how he cringed and yelled (I think he said something like 'oh GEEEEEZ') when Show had this monster armbar on (WITH ONE ARM). Or all the cool ways he found to slide across the ring when Show would throw him. He also found awesome ways to combat Show and make his comebacks. The dropkick to the leg so Show goes face-first into the turnbuckle was amazing and perfectly timed. He rakes the eyes, stomps on the toes, and even pulls at the chest-hair (!!!!) to try to get the match in his favour. I think things like that made Show seem like even more of a giant. It's like Jerry lighting Tom's tail on fire with a candle because Tom is so much bigger than he is and he has to do those things to win (or, whatever Tom and Jerry was about that wasn't 'winning'). The wrench being snuck into the boot is one of the more amusing Lie, Cheat, Steal spots and Eddie firing way like mad at the head to capitalise was bizarrely satisfying despite not really being a sneaky tactic. Similarly I think the ref 'bump' was better than most ref bumps. Show kicks out by throwing Eddie and Eddie lands on top of the ref; looked pretty legit as far as ref's being wiped goes. Then Eddie uses a low-blow (a sneaky tactic!) and wins with the frog splash. That really felt like a hard-earned and well-deserved victory (despite the SNEAKY). I only have like 5 matches on my list right now and HHH/Jericho LMS is at the bottom. I'm not sure that's as good as this. Really a phenomenally good match; close to being a top 5 for SmackDown. While I'm at it, this is likely a top ten for Eddie Guerrero. I might watch it again tomorrow morning.
(the next day)
I did in fact watch Eddie/Show again and yeah, I wasn't crazy, it's better than HHH/Jericho LMS. I definitely think it's a top ten SmackDown match, too. What's better? 1999 and 2000 don't have anything that impressive. There's a real good Austin/Benoit in 2000, but this is easily better. 2001 only has 5/31 Austin/Benoit, so that's one match. 2002 has nothing on level with it. I think in 2003 the 3 best WWE matches the whole year happened on SmackDown (Angle/Taker 9/3, Lesnar/Benoit 12/4 and Eddie & Tajiri/Team Angle 5/22) and I like Eddie/Show more than all of them. This is the best SD match of 2004 pretty easily. Rey/Eddie 3/18 is great but not as good. 2005 only has Rey/Eddie 6/23, which is obviously better. Eddie/Benoit from July isn't. 2006 is SD's GODYEAR, but I'd say only Rey/Orton 4/7 and Benoit/Finlay 5/5 are better. I'm pretty sure I'd have Eddie/Show over Benoit/Finlay 11/24, the best Finlay/Rey (3/24), the best Orton/Benoit (1/13), the best Rey/Henry (1/20) and Angle/Taker 3/3. So that's four SD matches I'd have over Eddie/Show. 2007 has the insanely great Finlay/Hardy which makes five. Finlay/Rey in November is a mayyyyyybe. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, that's six. What other really good SD is there from 07? Eddie/Show is better than Edge/Benoit, Finlay/Taker and Finlay/Kane (which I didn't adore anyway). Does 2008 have ANYTHING? Seems like it has a bunch of very good Matt Hardy stuff and then he and all of SD's better workers gets drafted to other brands. I haven't seen Rey/Morrison or Punk/Hardy (or if I did it was when it aired here), so I'll watch them. 2010 has McIntyre/Christian x2 and McIntyre/Hardy, but I like Eddie/Show more than all three. 2011 has nothing from memory other the Henry/Bryan cage, which I'll give another maybe/benefit of the doubt to. 2012 had some good shit but nothing great. I'll watch Del Rio/Show from this year sometime. So yeah, at this very moment, right now, I'd say at best there are 7 SD matches better than Eddie/Big Show, only five of which are 'definitely better'. (updated 2016 note: Austin/Benoit, Rey/Eddie, Finlay/Hardy, Finlay/Rey 11/7/07, Rey/Orton, Benoit/Finlay 5/5/06 are the SD matches I'd have above it)
Rey Mysterio v. Jamie Noble (Velocity 5/1/04)
This has been my baby for years. I watched it for the first time three years ago and adored it. Honestly, though, I hadn't watched it since then, so I was kind of worried it wouldn't hold up. It did. Noble makes a bunch of things look rugged and unco-operative. I'm glad he got a chance to go all out in ROH because he showed signs of what he could truly so here. There were multiple spots in this I had never seen anywhere when I watched this three years ago, and to this day I have only seen in this match. Fujiwara armbar countered by standing and throwing a dude into a turnbuckle? Really? A snap-mare into the ring post? Uh holy shit? An over-the-top-rope sunset flip into a Northern Lights suplex? Are you fucking kidding me? Noble does a great job targeting the arm, and uses the twisty Dean Malenko thing to get it started. Shame that perhaps the bulk of the arm work was during a commercial, but we still got tons of cool shit. Noble chucking Rey into the turnbuckle so his arm/shoulder gets ruined was highlight. The dropkick while Rey was against the turnbuckles was really cool as well. I loved how Noble's strategy was seemingly staying on the arm no matter how much Rey would come back with offense. He would just go back to that arm with the thought that it had to work eventually, and he'd kept on it too long to bother using big chunks of offense on anything else. Rey's selling sucked. HA! He's Rey Mysterio. Rey throwing STIFF kicks to Noble while having his own arm hanging there was beautiful in a sort of disgusting way. Noble made the 619 look better than almost anybody in history has (maybe anybody), I think, and he really flung himself in a way that might some off as cartoony. So that was impressive. I love this match so much and I cannot leave it off. Best cruiserweight match since Rey/Eddie at Halloween Havoc.
Watched Eddie/JBL again. Duh it's amazing. My #2 right now (of ten matches) and it could finish top 20. WWE MOTY for 2004 by a long, long, long, long shot.
Rey/Chavo GAB holds up as pretty fantastic. Rey attacking the arm was really cool and Chavo gradually selling it less and less after the work before seemingly yanking it during a small package was awesome. Chavo targets Rey's leg and really kills it. Stretches it around the ring post in a nasty way and finds great ways to counter shit into other shit, the latter shit in which he has Rey's leg tied up. Rey found some awesome counters as well, including a badass one from a Gory Stretch into a pin position. Rey kept the STIFF kicks coming and there would be so many times where he would dodge Chavo by jumping somewhere, land on the bad leg, and cripple himself so Chavo could get back to shredding him. Chavo giving Rey the Irish whip and Rey just collapsing was maybe my favourite part of the match. There was a lame 'both guys fall of the top rope spot' that was a like a bulldog or something, but otherwise this is really awesome. Could be my #100.
Randy Orton v. Chris Benoit (Raw 8/16/04)
Honestly during parts of this I thought it so great that I might actually rank it near Eddie/Show and Rey/Noble. I was actually getting worried that, come the end of the match, I'd have to decide between these matches (am I the lamest shithead ever or what?). Then the end of the match came and I got this stinking Evolution run-in which caused me to keep it off the list altogether. It wasn't a *horrible* finish, I guess, but I was just really disappointed that there was nothing better in their brain for this than Evolution distracting Benoit and Orton hitting an RKO. Orton won the match at SummerSlam clean, didn't he? I get Benoit has to look good, but he was completely fucking squashing Orton for the first ten minutes of this and Orton was turning face anyway. So yeah, about the squashing, it was nuts. Benoit knows how to squash dudes. This wasn't some WCW syndie squash either; this was the opening ten minutes of a match where he has to get his World Title back. I've mentioned I don't know how many times about how Benoit sells desperation with his moves and mannerisms, but here it was a new kind of desperation. Usually his desperation comes from working on the bottom, making sure his opponent's offense doesn't continue. Instead of that, here, we have him working on the top and making sure his opponent never gets on offense, period. Those chopppppps. He yells with each one, and Orton yells with each one. Orton also yells when Benoit gets to the outside and plants his knee on the steps. Benoit locks the sharpshooter in, and while Orton's selling sounded just the little bit goofy, I kind of bought it as him being in so much pain that he's making funny noises. He really put the shooter over; raking at his mouth to distract himself from the pain, and when Benoit let go he gave this 'oh my God' sigh of relief. He was eating such a shit-kicking that I was wondering how in hell he was going to actually get on offense credibly. Well a dropkick from the apron to the barricade did the trick. Orton targets Benoit's head/neck and really just does a great job while doing it. The headlock/chinlock/whatever looked brutal. Like Randy was seriously pushing his entire body weight on Benoit's, while tugging and squeezing the shit out of it. He sells the injured wheel throughout it as well, including a great moment where he yells 'goddamnit' when hitting a knee drop. Yeah, I didn't like the finish. Again, not horrible, but it made me go from 'possibly on the list great' to just 'great'. And we all know how 'JUST great' things suck. But no, I didn't think it was needed and seemed like something purely designed to get HHH back on top, since he spent a whole one PPV out of the main event. Still, this is pretty tremendous and on a good day I could see myself not as bothered by the ending.)