Best of Finlay in WCW

 

Belfast Bruiser vs Lord Steven Regal, Uncensored 1996

These 2 guys getting 15+ minutes on PPV to shellac each other for our viewing pleasure, what a treat. This was an absolute walloping from the bell, both guys going full gusto with the malice and violence. Everything move here was high impact, from the clotheslines that’s hit with an audible thud to the soccer punts to the spine. Regal was unleashing these short palm strikes to the face throughout that looked like they could have broken Finlay’s nose. This was a battle all the way, with both guys grinding each other down. Regal hits a perfectly timed low blow in a split-second window, then towards the end gets his just desserts as Finlay really unloads on him with straight punches, which bust Regal’s nose up with colour. We get a stinkbag finish with the Bluebirds interfering for the DQ, even dumber was that Regal was in control when they ran in. Still, this was one of the stiffest, hardest hitting matches to ever take place in a WCW ring and a low key MOTYC. Good gravy what an ass kicking.

Belfast Bruiser vs Lord Steven Regal, Nitro 29/4/96 (Parking Lot Brawl)

This absolutely delivers what it promises. The PPV encounter was much more of a pro wrestling match, and at 17 minutes it was mid-tempo. This was more akin to a scrap outside a pub between 2 local hardmen. At 6 minutes it’s over quickly, but boy is it violent. The blow to blow action was great and Regal in particular has awesome punches. The gimmick is a big appeal and they do a lot of great spots with the cars – Finlay putting his leg through a window, throwing a tire at Regal, strangling each other with a seat-belt. It’s a better action movie fight scene than They Live, and these guys are actually slamming each other on car bonnets. Cap it off with a sick piledriver on the roof of a truck to finish and this is up there with the best sub-10 minute TV matches you’ll see.

Fit Finlay vs Chris Benoit, Slamboree 1998

Another total stiff-fest. Benoit opens things up with a massive chop to start and it doesn’t let up from there. Both guys were in each others grills constantly, and Benoit was super over at this point so the crowd was pretty hot for it. A real walloping, in particular all of Benoits chops were blistering and Finlay’s clotheslines looked like he was running Benoit over with a hurling stick. I think I preferred the Regal PPV match, but objectively this may have been better as it was faster faced, better structured and had a better finish. We get Benoit eating a chairshot on a failed suicide dive, which is a disgusting spot on its own let alone how often he did it. Booker comes out to distract Benoit, leading to Finlay dropping him with a ridiculously violent dropkick to the back of the head that I could have bought as knocking him out. Thankfully that wasn’t the finish itself, we got a one more burst in the ring, making it more ‘Booker fucking with Benoit’ than ‘Booker costing him the match’, which is infinitely more satisfying.

Ongoing 2022 Matches Of The Year list

#1. Hangman Adam Page vs Bryan Danielson, AEW Dynamite 5/1
#2. The Briscoes vs FTR, ROH Supercard Of Honor
#3. Bryan Danielson vs Jon Moxley, AEW Revolution
#4. CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Revolution
#5. Eddie Kingston vs Chris Jericho, AEW Revolution

#6. Ilja Dragunov vs Roderick Strong, NXT UK 7/4
#7. Jon Moxley vs Wheeler Yuta, Rampage 8/4
#8. CM Punk/Jon Moxley vs FTR, AEW Dynamite 9/2
#9. CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Dynamite 2/2
#10. Biff Busick vs Slade, Beyond Wrestling Day 91 4/2

#11. Hangman Adam Page vs Lance Archer, AEW Dynamite 9/2
#12. Jon Moxley vs Biff Busick, GCW Bloodsport 8 31/3
#13. The Briscoes vs Alex Zayne/Blake Christian, GCW Die 4 This 1/1
#14. WALTER vs Nathan Frazer, WWE NXT UK 13/1
#15. Arik Royal vs Kevin Ku, ACTION The Movement Begins! 4/3

Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka (Continued)

 Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Takaiwa & Makabe, 4/1/01

This was also very fun in the same way as the previous Makabe tag. Takaiwa is a step down from Liger as a partner, but him and Makabe clicked well and had some good teamwork together. This is all about the hierarchy of Makabe once again being the young lion taking it to the champs. Kanemoto & Tanaka are kinda just there for a lot of this, not having many big moments themselves but giving Makabe the room to have a big performance. I did like Kanemoto blasting him with a straight punch when he tried to interrupt an ankle lock though. Late in the match, there was a pretty hot strike exchange between Makabe and Kanemoto where Makabe got the better of it, going from pest to serious threat. Makabe has a lot of fire in his belly and he gets one last big hulk up attempt before getting put away, and this is a formula that just works.

Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Dr. Wagner Jr & Silver King, 3/2/01

Total showcase for the luchadores, which is really fun but there is a ceiling to how high an exhibition like this can go. The champs are total passengers here, though like the Makabe matches they provide a platform for their opponents to have a show-stealing performance. Wagner/SK have a bunch of fun highspots and teamwork, and Wagner is always a great personality to watch. They really translate well to the Japanese style, they hit hard, thrown bombs, were fired up and really eat the champs up for like 90% of the match. The only chances the champs had were catching them with flash subs and pin attempts. Couple big spots in particular like a huge top rope splash mountain on Kanemoto (dude got fucking launched) and a poison frankensteiner on SK (which he really could have sold better but whatever it was the setup for the finish). Really wish we got more of the luchadors in Japan, they really clicked in this setting and were a breath of fresh air in a scene which was fairly stale at the time.

Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Kondo & Hayashi, All Japan 3/1/13

A good decade or so after these guys were at their peak both in terms of ability and popularity, but they’re still an established team. This was an all-action go go go workrate tag, which isn’t the kind of match I get excited about these days, but to be fair they did that match well. There was enough fire and bad intentions to go along with the effort that I still enjoyed it, and Kanemoto was still a big star who felt important every time he was involved. There really wasn’t any let up in the pace, super fast moving, which at 20+ minutes can make everything feel like a blur, but they got good mileage out of the big nearfalls thanks to relying on saves and some tricky pin attempts that it didn’t stray into overkill at least. Probably still better than most modern matches of this flavour.

Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka

 

Kanemoto & Tanaka were one of the best juniors tag team in the history of New Japan's division. They were a key part of the early years of the titles in the late '90s and, along with Ohtani & Takaiwa and to a lesser extent Liger & Samurai, helped pave the way for a style which would take off in the 2000s. Here I revisit some of the best matches the duo had as a team. 

Ohtani & Takaiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, 11/10/99

I have to imagine this is the best juniors tag to ever take place at the Tokyo Dome, albeit quite an overlooked one. Four dudes with bad attitudes, fired up for a big event, and beating the crap out of each other. Every time I write about prime Ohtani, I feel compelling to gush over him, and he once again is larger than life both in the big moments (selling Tanaka’s kicks like he got his cage rattled) and the small ones (grinding his fist into Kanemoto’s face). Takaiwa is also a guy I appreciate more with age, he is a wrestling ball who crushes dudes with chest-destroying chops and massive lariats. Pretty hot home stretch with everyone hitting their big stuff and some big nearfalls, and I dug the finish with Kanemoto getting powerbombed into oblivion. New Japan’s MOTY for 1999.
 
Ohtani & Takaiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, 25/6/00

This was a total junior-weight war. Just a non-stop barrel of stiffness, intensity, hatred, beef, and more stiffness. These guys were just constantly bringing it and blasting each other. The Ohtani/Takaiwa team are a wonderful pair of shitbags with all their taunting and disrespect, and the moments they get their payback are fun. Takaiwa was in full wrecking ball mode and absolutely tearing through fuckers with his chops and lariats. Ohtani is fucking king-sized, everything from his facial reactions to things, to the punches to the face, the way he leads the end run, just a great reminder of how good he was as a Junior. End run is MEGA with Korakeun being RED HOT without it ever going too far, with some huge nearfalls and saves.

A great, hard-hitting, balls to the wall war. I'd say this is Tanaka's best match, maybe the best match Takaiwa's been in, and easily better than any Jr tag title match of the last 10 years, and you're bonkers if you think otherwise.

Kanemoto & Tanaka vs Liger & Makabe, 12/9/00

Cool story here as Liger is still LIGER, but Makabe is ranked way below everyone else involved, and Kanemoto/Tanaka are the far more cohesive unit. This one is all about young lion Makabe taking a whooping and showing heart and fire against the much more highly skilled, more experienced champs. Kanemoto and Tanaka are pretty awesome here, working as the heel side, cutting the ring in half, and getting some huge heat off of submission attempts. The second half is pretty much non-stop greatness, huge nearfalls, Makabe being a great underdog and busting out sick german sulexes and spears, and Liger running wild. Tanaka grabs a leglock on Liger on the outside to take him out leading to a truly great final stretch with Makabe going it alone against the champs and showing plenty of fire and heart and getting some huge nearfalls.

This and the before mentioned Ohtani/Takaiwa tag are 2 real hidden gems from this year. A great match, and despite this being during his young lion period I'd rate this as a better performance from Makabe than anything he showed as heavyweight (and I like a few of his big heavyweight matches). It's a shame he devolved into doing Bruiser Brody tribute brawls most of his career, because he looks like a great future prospect here, and the champs did an excellent job making him look like a star in defeat. I think this is the sort of match anyone could enjoy.

RIP Scott Hall

Scott Hall is a guy's impact on the wrestling world was left more by his personality and involvement in the nWo than what he did between the ropes, but he was no goof in the ring. A lot of his most well known and loved matches are widely established at this point - the ladder matches with Michaels, the Action Zone tag, the Rumble match with Bret, the Survivor Series tag with Flair, Savage and Perfect.

In tribute I decided to revisit a few lesser known matches from his prime years which I enjoyed a lot.

Razor Ramon vs Rick Martel, RAW 11/10/93

Hall’s first IC title win and man the crowd were red hot for him here. Both dudes just ooze charisma but Razor feels larger than life. To fair, Martel was really the workhorse of this match and I thought he was pretty great, probably his best singles match in the WWF too. He tried to clown Razor early on, and Razor slamming him about later was some amusing pay back. After the break we get Martel focusing on Razor’s lower back, with Razor doing a great sell of being whipped into the buckles over and over, a hard thing for a guy his size to put over without flying all over the place, and a pretty dramatic boston crab. This was a 10 minute-ish TV match so it doesn’t go too far into the nearfalls, but boy Martel got folded with that Razor’s Edge.

The Quebecers vs Razor Ramon/1-2-3 Kid, RAW 21/2/94

Could you think of 2 gimmicks on further ends of the cool spectrum than the Quebecers and Razor Ramon? Granted I am a sucker for how lame the Quebecers schtick was in hindsight. This is like 90% the babyfaces taking this all over the champs. Polo interferes early and takes a Razor’s Edge on the floor for his trouble. Again, the other 3 guys in this do the most of the heavy lifting, but Razor just reeks of star power and is by far the most over guy in the match. Him and Waltman had good chemistry together and Kid was just flying all over the place through his match. Waltman comes in with an injured knee which gets targeted a little but it never becomes that type of match. The Quebecers are a pretty un-fancy team but I always enjoy them using Pierre’s mass as a weapon and the future PCO taking the Edge was a pretty big bump for a guy nearly 300lb. We get a screwball finish to build to Razor vs Michaels at Wrestlemania but this was fun TV wrestling.

Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels, RAW 1/8/94

2 weeks before Razor challenges Nash for the IC belt at Summerslam he has a return match from Wrestlemania with Michaels, which was also HBK’s first match since that ladder match. This starts pretty hot and you can tell both guys are feeling really motivated, Michaels especially is racing all over the place like he just did a line before the match. These two without a ladder still make for a good match with Michaels being more athletic and Hall using his size and power. At one point Hall catapults Michaels over the top who flies into Nash, which was a very safe but cool and dangerous looking spot. Hall, the babyface, milking a bearhug was a choice move but the end of this was all pretty hot before the screwy finish. Mid '90s WWF isn’t a place for particularly creative or hard-hitting wrestling, but they do the formula well and get some hot nearfalls (in a 'this is a competitive match' way rather than 'trying to be epic' way). I’ve never been a lover of their Wrestlemania match but this was a worthy note in their rivalry.

Ongoing 2022 Matches Of The Year

 #11. Arik Royal vs Kevin Ku, ACTION The Movement Begins! 4/3

Royal and Ku have been two of the better under the radar guys of the recent IWTV period, and this was a Ku’s biggest singles match to date as he challenged for the ACTION title. Lots of hard shots dished out and tight grappling. Ku in particular was really fired up his big match and was laying it in with his kicks and lariats. Royal has a pretty strong ground game for a guy his size and tried to grind Ku down, and the big Kobe on the apron late in the match was a nice big match spot in front of the 300 odd fans who were there live. I though the false finish was a bit unnecessary, but boy Ku was really going for it at the end and cranking up the violence to lead to a really satisfying finish.

#4. Eddie Kingston vs Chris Jericho, AEW Revolution

Two heavyweight veterans beating the crud out of each other. I was a high voter on the AEW Jericho vs Omega match - Jericho punching guys in the nose is better than him trying to do his 2001 routine - and this was more of that type of match. Kingston is one of the all-time greats at selling 'small' body injuries and the stuff with his orbital bone added a lot. Kingston is the type of talent who elevates everyone he works with, and in fairness Jericho delivered one of his best showings in years. He was matching Eddie blow for blow on the stiffness and I was taken aback by some of the head drops he took on those suplexes. Jericho's chest got turned to blue steak, lots of malice, and another really satisfying finish with Jericho tapping clean.

#3. CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Revolution

This was a match with lofty ambitions and I think they pulled it off. Of course the entrances alone are worth a mention for how great they were. Like the TV match I thought this went a few steps too long and had one or two ideas too many, but they got the stuff that mattered right. It was violent, bloody, hate-filled, and cathartic. The Dog Collar gimmick was used well and the tacks bumps were all appropriately brutal. I don’t think the body part stuff added much though, and it felt a bit tacked on to try and get another half a star rating. Unlike the TV match I didn't feel like the Wardlow story undermined the MJF-Punk story, and the finish felt like MJF’s chickens coming home to roost. It wasn’t enough that he beat Punk in Chicago, or that he had Wardlow over a barrel, he had to poke and poke, and the bear bit back hard. Minor quibbles aside this was still 2 of the most charismatic workers in the world having a big violent grudge match and it gets a big thumbs up.

#2. Bryan Danielson vs Jon Moxley, AEW Revolution

This may have suffered a little for following both Punk vs MJF and Jericho vs Kingston, which were two other high end violent slobberknockers, but again I felt they achieved most of what they set out for. I gave this a second watch without PPV fatigue and thought it was pretty excellent. Considering the build to this was all about violence and they telegraphed the blood so heavily in all the promos, the spot that lead to the double juice was surprisingly tame. All that said, this banged. I dug the matches they had a decade ago, but Moxley especially is a different beast now. He’s developed his skill-set insurmountably, especially when it comes to grappling, and that aspect of this match was all pretty great. Both guys really laid in the stiffness, and it avoided the pratfalls of the NJ style of you-hit-me-I-hit-you matches by way of sheer personality of the two guys dishing it out. This wasn’t two guys rotely going through the motions, this was a show of heart and pride. All of Danielson’s targeting to Mox’s mid-section was great, really loved the fake out of the head-kick to set up a gut shot, and Mox’s selling was pretty great while trying to fight back. Mox’s bladejob was another top tier crimson mask and everything after the blood was superb - every time he found a counter there was a sense of urgency. We all know Danielson is the best worker in the world, but Mox was with him every step of the way here and had one of his career performances. Cap it all off with an excellent finish, and an even better post-match moment with Regal, and we have another strong MOTYC.