Digging into the back catalogue of my Watch Later playlist on YouTube with this one…
NXT Global Heritage Invitational Final: Joe Coffey vs Butch (NXT 9/26/23)
As I’ve said before, I was fairly into the NXT-1 in its first outing, but gotta say, this is a fairly underwhelming final. It’s also a bit sad to see how these two, once a main event of NXT UK Takeover, fighting here for the right to a third-tier singles championship. They work fine together and all, I just didn’t find this terribly inspiring, especially considering that Butch was all but guaranteed for the spot.
Rating: ***
NXT North American Championship #1 Contenders Match: Tyler Bate vs Axiom vs Dragon Lee vs Trick Williams (NXT 9/26/23)
It’s a four-way spot-fest, but hey, at least everyone is game for that. I find that these types of matches are a dime a dozen these days, especially if you pay attention to the American indies, so seeing a watered-down WWE version of it can only go so far. This continues the buy-in for Trick Williams, who seems to be decent so far; at very least, he had three good partners to get the most out of him here.
Rating: ***1/4
WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Tajiri (c) vs Rey Mysterio (WWE No Mercy 2003)
This was one of the first DVDs I ever purchased when I became a fan in Fall 2003, so I’ve seen this match a fair amount of times. It’s always a treat to see pre-heavyweight WWE Rey Mysterio, as there’s so much high-flying stuff he can pull out at this age that he eventually had to leave behind (for better or worse). 2003 Rey is also such a defined style fighter, so having a hard contrast with the striker Tajiri is a guaranteed good time. Tajiri, previously an underrated babyface, ably plays into his heel role, looking spectacular but in a less flashy way than Rey is allowed to. There’s a quietly amazing part near the end where Tajiri transitions into the Tarantula by scooping Rey up with his legs into the ropes, which blew my mind. This is an ideal WWE cruiserweight match of the time, great at any time.
Rating: ***1/2
It’s easy to forget, or just not know, how far John Cena has come as a professional wrestler since his initial push. The moniker of Big Match John is something that developed over the years and was a reputation shift that was hard for a lot of older fans (like myself) to jibe with, since he spent so many years as an unquestioned bad wrestler. In the 2000s, was John Cena deserving of the “You Can’t Wrestle” chants? No. Was he especially good? Also no.
This is a very meat-and-potatoes decent wrestling match, which is unfortunately the final match in what is meant to be a heated series. John is fairly fundamentally sound here, but he is sorely lacking in the why behind his moves. He’s got moves, but you can tell that even he isn’t really sure what each one means, or what even the story is. Booker, the veteran, can only do so much with Cena here and doesn’t seem to have much to add, himself. You can tell that modern John Cena would have a much different approach to this, an undoubtedly better one, so I’ve never been more appreciative of his growth as a performer than I am when I see him here.
Rating: **1/2
Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor (WWE No Mercy 2017)
An acceptable, if not exciting, use of 10 minutes. Nothing really wrong, nothing terribly right, nothing much to say.
Rating: ***
The Undertaker vs Mr. Kennedy (WWE No Mercy 2006)
What a dud Kennedy was, huh? He exists now as a fossil of what WWE was looking for in the mid-2000s: Big, loud, (preferably) white guys. They just have to hit the big story beats and it doesn’t matter what they’ve got in between. I’m no fan of Taker, but Kennedy has absolutely zero rizz here. The in-between spaces from spot to spot are vacuous and empty, filled with the most mindless punch-kick offense you can imagine. The Taker singles match was something of a rite of passage in the mid-to-late 2000s and this was one for Kennedy that he seemingly passed at the time, but let’s just be thankful that standards have changed for the better.
Rating: **
World Heavyweight Championship: Batista (c) vs Eddie Guerrero (WWE No Mercy 2005)
There’s a lot of discussion and grousing about storytelling in wrestling; specifically, how certain mainstream performers choose to tell stories with their physicality and facial expressions, and how it can stretch believability if done in a certain manner. In yesterday’s round-up, I mentioned how I find Will Ospreay’s brushes with acting to often be eye-rolling or overwrought, because a lot of his choices are often very obvious or just wildly broad, to the point of looking cartoonish. True, wrestling is a form given to exaggeration, but it’s when you see it done differently that you realize wrestling is not just one thing. It contains as many multitudes as the performers themselves.
When I think of “acting” or dramatic performance in wrestling, I think of a match like this. In less than 20 minutes, Eddie Guerrero and Batista carry out a story with their bodies that is both subtle and broad, allowing you to both grasp it immediately but also continue to find nuances as you return to it. Here, Eddie and Batista are in the middle of a (tragically unfinished) storyline where Eddie is chumming up to Big Dave before his PPV title match against him. Given that Eddie’s lifelong character, no matter what side he’s on, is that of someone who is deceitful and lies for fun, Eddie clearly can’t be trusted. However, Dave is receptive to Eddie’s out-of-nowhere friendship, to a degree that surprises even Eddie, which is part of a scheme on Batista’s part to get Eddie before Eddie gets him. His acts of friendship put Eddie in goofy WWE comedy situations that serve to embarass and undermine him, as well as inform the audience that Batista is wise to Eddie’s game and is beating him at it.
However, it’s in this match where Eddie’s allegiances become murky. Eddie begins to realize that, maybe, he actually does like Batista.
This beat of the story is played out perfectly here. After a bit of fun and games with each other in the initial moments, Eddie begins to get frustrated at Batista being obviously more physically powerful than him; however, Eddie uses his wiliness and creates an opening by weakening Batista’s lower back, which immobilizes him and allows Eddie to pour on the heat through submissions and limb work. Big Dave is able to come back, but never quite at 100%, further allowing Eddie to take more even footing into the end of the match.
There are two instances where Eddie goes to hit Batista with a chair. The first time, Eddie throws it away while shaking his head, but Batista catches him and angrily questions him. This distraction allows Eddie to begin his control. The second time, Eddie has Batista nearly dead to rights, and brings in the chair during an (unintentional) ref bump to wallop him with…but he can’t do it. Eddie ultimately throws the chair away, which Batista doesn’t even notice, before Dave drops Eddie with a spinebuster (Eddie had the Batista Bomb too well scouted) for the win.
Eddie Guerrero was not exactly a subtle performer, that wasn’t his charm. He exceled at playing a character that was bigger than he was, a persona of either a greasy heel or a beloved cheating babyface that anybody could understand once they saw him. You see that here, especially when Eddie gets the mischievous smile upon realizing that the ref is down. This is the biggest stage in wrestling, and everybody knows what that smile means. It’s not so much acting, as it is a signifier.
However, there are as many moments here where you can see how Eddie is not just performing, but he is doing the work to show where his character is. His jokey front that hides his frustration in the early-going. The slight shake of his head when he tosses the chair away. The muddled emotions on his face when he denies himself the opportunity to cheat. We can only wonder what exactly Eddie was going for here, because we never really got to follow up on the story before Eddie tragically passed away. Is he beginning to like Batista and can’t bring himself to hurt his friend? Is he doubting whether or not he needs to cheat to beat the World Heavyweight Champion? You could make the case for either; like with any good performance, and as a lot of modern wrestlers miss, there’s room for audience interpretation. At the end of the match, Eddie offers Batista a handshake, but when Dave looks away, he can’t resist that same devilish smile. For the first time, even though he lost, Eddie knows something Batista doesn’t, and it could end up costing Batista everything in the future.
There are so few actual wrestling moves and holds in this match, it’s actually kind of wild to break it down. Of course, there doesn’t need to be an excess of big moves or strike exchanges or anything we’re used to today. Eddie and Batista use all of the tools they need to get their story across, and they do it beautifully. This match, although short and not completely crisp (Dave’s acting would also improve from here), is captivating on a minute-to-minute basis. It’s not all Eddie, either. Batista is very likable as the genre-savvy babyface champion and is appropriately sympathetic when on defense. They both also leave a lot left to say, with Batista not winning with his finisher and Eddie missing the crucial final Frog Splash. You can imagine where this story might have gone; it may not have lived up to what people like me have in their heads, but so much work was done here to make you want to turn the page and keep going.
One of Batista’s best matches, if not THE best, and one of my personal favorites. Less is truly more.
Rating: ****1/2
I’m so happy to be able to write about great matches like this. I hope you had a good time, too.
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