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.