My big stupid ****+ matches thread

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Dynamite - 1st September 2021

Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler Vs Santana/Ortiz - ****

Once again the Santana and Ortiz wearing face paint = great match rule pays off. I don't know why but every time they stick that shit on it seems to be the precursor to something very enjoyable.

This seems to be a randomly hot period for the AEW tag division and frankly I think it's weird how this promotion can go months with nothing memorably good happening and then suddenly go on these little runs where there's a great match every week.

I don't know why they waited until so long into the Inner Circle Vs Pinnacle feud to have these two teams have matches with each other but they finally got around to it. This was the 2nd one and the first one was going in the right direction before Cash got hurt and they had to do kind of an abrupt ending.

This one follows on well from that and achieves it's potential imo. Neither of these teams are the flippy spot based teams that AEW is more known for although Santana and Ortiz are partial to a flip from time to time.

Because of that we get a pretty well structured more old school tag match which being a TV match gets time to breathe but also doesn't go on about 10-15 minutes longer than it needs to like a lot of AEW PPV tags tend to.

Heels cutting off the ring well, good hot tags, exciting near falls, just good old fashioned US of A tag team shit.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW All Out 2021 - 5th September 2021

Miro Vs Eddie Kingston - TNT Title - ****

Cracking match to open the PPV. Miro has really improved since they got him away from whatever the fuck he was doing with Kip Sabian and he's now being booked as the beast they should have been booking him as all along and it's working really well for him.

Eddie is a different kind of badass but the audience totally buys him as a badass and a threat to Miro in his own way through just being a pure fighter.

Miro really lets Eddie chop the absolute shit out of his chest to establish Eddie as a threat, his chest is bruised up to fuck by the end of the match and I bet that stung in the shower.

Eddie has his moments and then Miro will go on torrents of monster offence where he's throwing him all over the place and generally looking like a brute. He can't quite put him away and starts getting frustrated with his inability to get him out of there.

They do kind of an interesting turnbuckle spot with Eddie accidentally stripping the turnbuckle and then the ref being late to counting a fall because he was fannying about trying to get it back on which is different from the usual banging your head on a small bolt = death scenario. They use the ref stopping Kingston ramming Miro into it to set the finish up too.

Basically a good old hard hitting slobberkocker.



Matt Jackson/Nick Jackson Vs Penta/Rey Fenix - Tag titles/Tornado Cage match - ****1/4

This match is a weird mix of awesome moments and massive problems. I think for me the awesome moments win out but I could see how this match could split opinion.

To get the bad shit out of the way, there's a couple of minutes in the match where Matt gets up way too easily from an admittedly awesome looking top rope destroyer and they all stand up and start doing superkicks around in a big circle before all popping back up and doing some more. That bit was fucking stupid and took me out of it for a bit.

The finish doesn't really make sense either. Again it's a great spot with Fenix diving off the cage onto all three guys. The Bucks sell it like death (as they should) but Penta just gets back up even though he got hit as much as they did so they can hit their tag finisher, I don't know why they didn't just finish it with the cage dive.

I could probably also do without thumbtack shoes but I'm kind of at the point where I expect thumbtacks to factor into every match so I'm kind of past it and have to accept that in wrestling lore thumbtacks are somehow a deadly weapon.

Once you get past that, what you have is a spotty but amazingly entertaining affair with two teams who are great in this kind of environment where they can just pop off great looking moves and stunts. Penta gets some good juice coming from under his mask which really adds to the visuals and everyone is nailing all their high spots.

I think with a couple of minutes taken out I might even have preferred this to their ladder match, but with that couple of minutes of bullshit I just can't.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Dynamite - 22nd September 2021

Kenny Omega Vs Bryan Danielson - AEW title - *****

So this is what all the fuss is about.

I've mentioned that I've been kind of back and forth on Omega in other posts, sometimes I've really liked him, sometimes I've found him really annoying. This seems to be him wrestling to his potential and it's fucking magnificent.

Shows how amazing Danielson is too that he just shows up to the workrate based promotion and puts on what is in my opinion their best match up to this point in his very first match with them.

Omega is just the perfect foil for Danielson though. Danielson's technical execution has always been amazing and the crowd are hot as fuck to see him in a dream match but it's Kenny's performance as a heel that kind of elevates the match from what would have been a great technical showcase into an all time classic wrestling match.

He's not overdoing the pointing and talking to himself, he's doing it a little bit but he's doing it at the right times. He's selling Bryan as a massive threat who's come into the promotion that he has to take deadly seriously even though his character at this point in time is pretty arrogant.

He does have his moments where he slips into arrogant mode when he really gets the upper hand but Danielson always makes him pay for it and he always has to lock back in again to try and get back on the offence.

Action wise, they work an action packed match but without any stupid spots or ridiculous kick outs. Everything is really well paced and makes sense and their execution on pretty much everything is perfect so that nothing looks shoddy and nothing looks like guys co-operating. It's fully believable as a new guy to the promotion fighting his ass off against the established guy who realises he's maybe the biggest threat he's ever faced and has to work hard to shut him down.

My only minor, minor criticism is that while I think a draw was absolutely the right thing to do, I'd maybe have booked a more dramatic ending with someone recovering from a near fall or Kenny having to hold on in a locked in Lebell lock to send you away with that "fuck, I bet he gets him next time" feeling as it just kind of ended while they were still fighting.

Overall though I was totally lost in this as a contest and it was fucking great and this is the Kenny Omega I kept reading about being an all time great wrestler.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

AEW Dynamite - 22nd September 2021

Kenny Omega Vs Bryan Danielson - AEW title - *****

So this is what all the fuss is about.

I've mentioned that I've been kind of back and forth on Omega in other posts, sometimes I've really liked him, sometimes I've found him really annoying. This seems to be him wrestling to his potential and it's fucking magnificent.

Shows how amazing Danielson is too that he just shows up to the workrate based promotion and puts on what is in my opinion their best match up to this point in his very first match with them.

Omega is just the perfect foil for Danielson though. Danielson's technical execution has always been amazing and the crowd are hot as fuck to see him in a dream match but it's Kenny's performance as a heel that kind of elevates the match from what would have been a great technical showcase into an all time classic wrestling match.

He's not overdoing the pointing and talking to himself, he's doing it a little bit but he's doing it at the right times. He's selling Bryan as a massive threat who's come into the promotion that he has to take deadly seriously even though his character at this point in time is pretty arrogant.

He does have his moments where he slips into arrogant mode when he really gets the upper hand but Danielson always makes him pay for it and he always has to lock back in again to try and get back on the offence.

Action wise, they work an action packed match but without any stupid spots or ridiculous kick outs. Everything is really well paced and makes sense and their execution on pretty much everything is perfect so that nothing looks shoddy and nothing looks like guys co-operating. It's fully believable as a new guy to the promotion fighting his ass off against the established guy who realises he's maybe the biggest threat he's ever faced and has to work hard to shut him down.

My only minor, minor criticism is that while I think a draw was absolutely the right thing to do, I'd maybe have booked a more dramatic ending with someone recovering from a near fall or Kenny having to hold on in a locked in Lebell lock to send you away with that "fuck, I bet he gets him next time" feeling as it just kind of ended while they were still fighting.

Overall though I was totally lost in this as a contest and it was fucking great and this is the Kenny Omega I kept reading about being an all time great wrestler.

I think leaving it as a stalemate and never revisiting the match was the right thing to do. Once in a lifetime, two legends shown to be absolute equals. Rarely does that happen in wrestling, and looking back on this match it just makes it feel that little bit more special. 10/10 booking imo

 

[Based God]

AEW Dynamite - 22nd September 2021

Kenny Omega Vs Bryan Danielson - AEW title - *****

So this is what all the fuss is about.

I've mentioned that I've been kind of back and forth on Omega in other posts, sometimes I've really liked him, sometimes I've found him really annoying. This seems to be him wrestling to his potential and it's fucking magnificent.

Shows how amazing Danielson is too that he just shows up to the workrate based promotion and puts on what is in my opinion their best match up to this point in his very first match with them.

Omega is just the perfect foil for Danielson though. Danielson's technical execution has always been amazing and the crowd are hot as fuck to see him in a dream match but it's Kenny's performance as a heel that kind of elevates the match from what would have been a great technical showcase into an all time classic wrestling match.

He's not overdoing the pointing and talking to himself, he's doing it a little bit but he's doing it at the right times. He's selling Bryan as a massive threat who's come into the promotion that he has to take deadly seriously even though his character at this point in time is pretty arrogant.

He does have his moments where he slips into arrogant mode when he really gets the upper hand but Danielson always makes him pay for it and he always has to lock back in again to try and get back on the offence.

Action wise, they work an action packed match but without any stupid spots or ridiculous kick outs. Everything is really well paced and makes sense and their execution on pretty much everything is perfect so that nothing looks shoddy and nothing looks like guys co-operating. It's fully believable as a new guy to the promotion fighting his ass off against the established guy who realises he's maybe the biggest threat he's ever faced and has to work hard to shut him down.

My only minor, minor criticism is that while I think a draw was absolutely the right thing to do, I'd maybe have booked a more dramatic ending with someone recovering from a near fall or Kenny having to hold on in a locked in Lebell lock to send you away with that "fuck, I bet he gets him next time" feeling as it just kind of ended while they were still fighting.

Overall though I was totally lost in this as a contest and it was fucking great and this is the Kenny Omega I kept reading about being an all time great wrestler.

It's been a few years and I don't remember why it was only a 30 minute time limit instead of the normal 60 minute time limit for AEW World Championship matches.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

It's been a few years and I don't remember why it was only a 30 minute time limit instead of the normal 60 minute time limit for AEW World Championship matches.

I was happy with 30 minutes if they were doing a draw tbh. I think with singles matches often the idea of an hour long match is better than the reality. 30 minutes was a good length for them to keep it constantly exciting without having to have any long rest periods with not much happening.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Badd Blood - 5th October 1997

Shawn Michaels Vs The Undertaker - Hell in a Cell - ****3/4

The first ever Hell in a Cell match is an absolute doozy. Going in there were no real expectations of what a HIAC match could be so you could have forgiven them for just working a cage match with a little bit of work using the space outside to run each other into the cage but they went much further than that.

It does start out like you'd expect with it being a cage match with a bit of extra brutality. Shawn does a good job of selling that he really doesn't want to be trapped in there with The Undertaker and he's getting beaten up for most of the early going.

They do some good momentum switches and Shawn starts to figure out different ways to use the environment to even the odds a bit such as taking the steps apart to smash the Undertaker up with them and looking for a chair.

They wanted a reason to go outside the cell and the way they set it up with the cameraman getting wiped out and needing medical intervention was done perfectly. Totally believable kayfabe way for them to need to open the door which allowed the wrestlers to crash through it when it opened.

The lawn darting of Michaels into the cage by Taker is great and Shawn gets some really nice colour before trying to flee to the top of the cell to get away. They do some good work on the top of the cage with Shawn being willing to bump up there even though that seems a pretty untested thing to be doing at that point. Shawn's fall off the cage through the table is great. Not as insane as Foley would do in the future, but entirely believable and he came down with quite a thud.

If I'm being ridiculously picky I suppose from a kayfabe point of view it maybe didn't make sense that HHH, Chyna and Rude didn't try to interfere when they were outside the cell but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time so whatever.

They finally go back inside and Taker is working Shawn over and looking like he's going to pick up the win when the lights go out and Kane debuts, which as far as a match ending via a run in finish is about as forgivable as it gets.

Excellent job by both guys and I think they instantly set the standard for Hell in a Cell as the new marquee match for brutal feud settling in the WWF

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Over the Edge 1998 - 31st May 1998

Steve Austin Vs Dude Love - WWF Title - ****

I would normally find booking this a bit too sports entertainy for my tastes but these guys make it work really well here.

We've got Mr McMahon as the guest referee and although the match starts out as a regular match we get mid match stipulation changes into no DQ and then falls count anywhere which I really liked in the context of Vince really wanting Austin to lose at any cost. Undertaker is out there to make sure nothing screwy happens.

While it's a normal match it's kind of just okay with the memorable moments being the announcers trying to cover for the crowd chanting "Vince is gay" by making out they were chanting "Vince is dead" and Austin stomping on Foley's fake teeth when they come out which was a really nice touch.

Once we go no DQ it gets good as that suits both guys. They have a bunch of cars in the entrance area for the stage setup which they use to do a bunch of bumps which are mostly fun aside from when Mick does a sunset flip off the car onto the concrete and I'd really like to know how they thought that would make any sense whatsoever.

It gets very attitude era towards the end with Foley accidentally taking Vince out then Pat Patterson taking out the ref to avoid an Austin win. Taker then chokeslams Pat and Gerald Brisco through the announce tables and fair play to those boys for taking that bump at their age.

Vince is willing to eat a pretty flush chair shot himself which they use for the finish. Unlike their last match where Austin counted his own fall and it made no sense this time Austin grabs Vince's limp arm and uses it to make him count the pin for him which is a great finish.

I have to admit I was very sports entertained.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF King of the Ring 1998 - 28th June 1998

Mankind Vs The Undertaker - Hell in a Cell - ****1/2

I'll preface this by saying that long term I'm not sure whether the legacy of this match was really a good thing for wrestling. Mick upped the ante of what a shocking bump would be going forward to a wild degree and I don't think it's fair to expect people to be as willing to put their body through what he was willing to put his body through in order to get over.

That being said the bumps Mick takes in this match quite simply make for some of the most compelling WWF TV ever. The shock they draw from the fans is quite something. When Mick flies off that cage there's no "Holy shit, Holy shit" chants. There's a brief rise, then a stunned silence while everyone asks themselves if that was supposed to happen and if Mick is okay.

Yeah I can see the argument that it should have ended the match but they give it plenty of time before Mick comes back so it's not like he pops up from it. Mick being Mick he only gets up to get choke slammed through the cage, although that spot was unintentional but I have to say it looked fucking cool.

Mick somehow works the rest of the match after that, we get the great camera shot with his bloody smiling face with something randomly in his nose and classic status is pretty much already assured by that point.

While the thumbtacks got a reaction as the crowd wasn't used to seeing them I don't think they were really needed in a match where a guy had already gone off the top of and through a cell. They could have saved the first appearance of those for something else imo.

All in all for better or for worse, it's hard to argue with this being an iconic classic and I think probably the most shocking match ever at the time it took place.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Summerslam - 30th August 1998

The Rock Vs Triple H - Intercontinental Title - Ladder match - ****1/2

This is the match that I think really cemented these two as the future of the promotion. They'd both been going in the right direction character and promo wise but neither of them really had that in ring classic under their belt and this proved they could both go in the ring.

It's a pretty simple ladder match as this was back before they got too gimmicky. They got a chair involved but there's no crashing through endless tables in this one as would become a staple of ladder matches in years to come.

It's just a good, physical ladder match where the main weapon is the ladder itself and everything they do with it looks good. The close calls with one guy getting close to the belt before being knocked off or pulled down are well done and they both come across as two exhausted guys trying to beat each other up to grab the belt rather than two guys working together to hit some choreographed spots.

I think it was quite a while before either of them topped this, even over the next couple of years when they become bone fide main eventers.

 

[Thrawn33]

WWF King of the Ring 1998 - 28th June 1998

Mankind Vs The Undertaker - Hell in a Cell - ****1/2

I'll preface this by saying that long term I'm not sure whether the legacy of this match was really a good thing for wrestling. Mick upped the ante of what a shocking bump would be going forward to a wild degree and I don't think it's fair to expect people to be as willing to put their body through what he was willing to put his body through in order to get over.

That being said the bumps Mick takes in this match quite simply make for some of the most compelling WWF TV ever. The shock they draw from the fans is quite something. When Mick flies off that cage there's no "Holy shit, Holy shit" chants. There's a brief rise, then a stunned silence while everyone asks themselves if that was supposed to happen and if Mick is okay.

Yeah I can see the argument that it should have ended the match but they give it plenty of time before Mick comes back so it's not like he pops up from it. Mick being Mick he only gets up to get choke slammed through the cage, although that spot was unintentional but I have to say it looked fucking cool.

Mick somehow works the rest of the match after that, we get the great camera shot with his bloody smiling face with something randomly in his nose and classic status is pretty much already assured by that point.

While the thumbtacks got a reaction as the crowd wasn't used to seeing them I don't think they were really needed in a match where a guy had already gone off the top of and through a cell. They could have saved the first appearance of those for something else imo.

All in all for better or for worse, it's hard to argue with this being an iconic classic and I think probably the most shocking match ever at the time it took place.

It truly is an iconic match, and with all due respect, Foley probably wouldn't be as legendary without it, despite all his insanity in Japan, that was the match that made him in front of a large 'Merican audience

 

[Hellowhosthat]

New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 7 - 4th January 2013

Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs Kazuchika Okada - IWGP title - ****1/2

Okay so these guys are really good. Apparently this isn't even one of their better matches and I still thought it was great.

Both guys seem pretty set in their characters. They have some solid old school mat work and do a bit of showing that Tanahashi is the stronger of the two with the shoulder bumps. The early pacing is pretty good, it's clear they're working towards a long match but they're doing enough that it's not boring.

They do a few forearm battles, I often hate these because guys will just do it to each other with neither of them selling anything but here they're both selling the blows so I have no issue with it.

Tanahashi switches to working the leg which Okada sells well all match. They work a style of match where for most of it it's about whether one of them can hit their big move rather than having a million near falls.

They still do a few excellent near falls and near subs. Okada almost tapping a few times then deciding against it is really nice stuff.

I really liked the duels over tombstones they were having where they were both trying to hoist each other into one too. Very much felt like a contest the whole match really as both guys gradually wore each other down.

Liked the finish too where Tanahashi realised he'd hurt Okada enough and managed to get a burst of energy together to hit his finisher to finally put him away.

Great shit.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF No Mercy 1999 - 17th October 1999

Edge/Christian Vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy - Ladder match - ****

The match that started it all in terms of WWF/E tag team ladder matches between two of the three teams that would go on to define them.

Rather than having the belts hung up we've got $100k in a bag and they're also competing for the services of Terri Runnels as their manager. Lawler got to see up Terri's skirt on Heat prior to the PPV and will not shut the fuck up about it all match.

The match is very much the prototype for the ones they would have over the coming years. There's several cool spots in there already such as the table catapult spot and quite a few moves off the ladders but we're not really into the insane spots just yet.

Because everything is relatively sane there aren't really any spots that take ages to set up and require people to sell for a ridiculous amount of time while that's happening so as a match everything flows pretty nicely.

Perhaps some of the stuff they hit in this match looks a little bit tame by modern standards but this is probably one of the most influential matches ever and was absolutely jaw dropping at the time.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Raw - 11th July 1994 (taped 1st July)

Bret Hart Vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF Championship - ****1/4

This is how you do a plucky underdog getting a shot at the champ match.

He never really developed into what he could have been but 1-2-3 Kid era Sean Waltman was a really good underdog babyface for the crowd to get behind. He was especially small for the time, but he made it work for him, getting upset wins over bigger guys and building a bit of momentum.

Bret gives him a title shot and although this is a face Vs face match it just works because Bret doesn't have to act like a heel for the crowd to get behind the Kid. He can even be honourable enough to ask for the match to be re-started when he had a pinfall but he knew that the Kid got his foot on the ropes before the three count.

When Kid gets some momentum it's always via speed or via an unexpected reversal and I think the face pulls when Kid arm drags him at the start of the match is a great precursor to the rest of it.

Plenty of good near falls down the stretch, with some of the roll ups and counters having the crowd thinking the Kid could actually pull it off. Bret manages to shut him down in the end, but in a performance where he couldn't have done much more to build up the mid-card babyface while maintaining his credibility as champion.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I seem to have hit the character limit in the original post so I'll have to stop listing them there.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Royal Rumble 2000 - 23rd January 2000

Hardy Boyz Vs Dudley Boyz - Table match - ****

I love these early WWF tag gimmick matches between these teams. They were fresh so they weren't overly contrived and they were fast paced without being overly silly.

Most of the shit they do in this match would still hold up in a match in 2025. There aren't many people who rag doll their body around quite as effectively as a young Jeff Hardy and he's on absolutely great form here.

The camera crew and producers haven't quite got used to shooting this type of match yet which means they almost miss some stuff but I actually think it adds to the match in this case as there's a couple of occasions where Jeff flies onto the screen and through a table seemingly out of nowhere. Surprise motherfuckers!

The only thing that takes me slightly out of it is there's absolutely no reason for Bubba to take Jeff up onto the balcony with him other than for it just to be to set the finish up as he didn't even try and throw Jeff off and just stood in front of him to get hit with a low blow instead. I think they could have set Jeff's swanton bomb through the table stack finisher up a better way than that but it was a great finishing spot so I'll let it slide.




Triple H Vs Cactus Jack - WWF Championship - Street Fight - *****

I was thoroughly sick of the Attitude era brawls by the end of 1999 where most PPV main events would just go outside the ring for the whole match, having a bad brawl, doing some awkward bumps on concrete and the McMahons being involved.

This was something different though, from the moment Foley revealed that HHH would be facing Cactus Jack at the Rumble instead of Mankind and HHH's selling the moment as if he'd seen a ghost this match took on another meaning entirely.

HHH brings the fear with him into the match. He looks genuinely worried about getting into the ring with Cactus. It's a rare match where it's the heel that has to try and find a way to overcome his nemesis that actually works.

I think it's helped a bit by MSG having a small ringside area so there's no big ramp for them to brawl down so when they leave the ring it's for something short, brutal and great. HHH gets a nasty gash on his leg from being suplexed onto a pallet which adds to the match as much as his intentional juice later on.

HHH is slowly managing to prove he can hang with Cactus at points but then every time he does Cactus ups the ante, pulling out the barbwire 2x4 is a rare time I've actually enjoyed the use of that weapon although I wish they hadn't really obviously switched to a new one after the ref had tried to stash it with the Spanish announcers and Cactus demanded it back.

Everything other than that works. The announce tables never quite disintegrate in the usual way they do when people go through them which I think adds to the brutality. They do the call back to the Rumble the year before with HHH handcuffing Foley but this time the Rock is the guy to make a brief appearance so Foley can get free from them having being the guy who cuffed him the year before.

HHH is spectacular in this match, showing that he's truly elevated himself as a worker. The way he's staggering and selling when he's trying to pull himself up covered in blood is just great. The way Cactus challenges him to hit him with the chair with a mouth full of blood is just great.

Then we get to the thumbtacks, which are overused now but I'm absolutely fine with in the context of this match. They backfire on Cactus and HHH has to pedigree him twice, once into the tacks in order to get the win.

His victory is sold as him having given absolutely everything he had to just about scrape victory and he has to be stretchered off, just to get attacked by Cactus again afterwards.

For me I think this became the measuring stick for all future WWF no DQ style matches to be compared to. Astoundingly good performance by both men.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Raw - 7th February 2000

Triple H/X-Pac/Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko/Perry Saturn Vs Cactus Jack/The Rock/Rikishi/Scotty 2 Hotty/Grandmaster Sexay - ****

One of the most randomly great Raw main events ever I think. There was no real reason to think that they were going to go out and put on a TV classic with 2 Cool in it but these are the early days of Benoit and co in the WWF and they're keen to impress.

It's helped by being set up as a 5-2 handicap match with the heels set to face just Rock and Cactus, then Rikishi and 2 Cool come down to join in and the crowd goes nuts and we get this insane atmosphere throughout the entirety of the match.

We get some good brawling with everyone involved, some hot tags that the crowd are well up for (particularly the Grandmaster Sexay to Cactus Jack one), everyone hitting their moves at a good fast pace, Benoit hitting a German suplex on Rikishi and the Radicals actually going over for a change in their early WWF career.

Then after the match Kane comes out and things go even more nuts.

Just good old chaos.

Dailymotion link here.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF No Way Out - 27th February 2000

Triple H Vs Cactus Jack - WWF Championship - Hell in a Cell - ****1/4

When watching this it's kind of nice to pretend that this actually was Foley's retirement fight and that he wasn't shoe horned into the Wrestlemania main event a month later and then made comebacks when he was too broken down to do so because it's just the perfect send off.

It was always going to be hard to try and top their brutal street fight from the Royal Rumble the previous month but they had a bloody good go at it.

Cactus has been promising to jump off the top of the cell onto HHH in the weeks leading up to this, so HHH has made sure the door has about 10 padlocks on it so Cactus can't escape the confines of the cell. They start out working good but pretty typical Hell in a Cell stuff by throwing each other into the fence, doing some stuff with the steps, getting a chair out etc etc.

Then Cactus throws the steps at HHH and misses, but the steps fly past him and slightly break a corner of the cell. Cactus sees his opportunity to get out of the cell and just charges through it (giving himself a nasty hard way cut on the arm in the process) and he's got his wish to work outside the cage.

Cactus has stashed a barb wire 2 x 4, he attacks HHH with it so HHH flees to the top of the cage to escape. Cactus tries to follow but gets his hands stomped on, his face raked with the wire and he crashes through the announce table before he can get on top. HHH looks down shocked but of course Cactus is the same guy who's been thrown off the top of a cage before so this isn't going to stop him and he slowly recovers and drags himself back up.

Once they're on top they do a few bumps on top of the cage. Cactus sets the 2x4 on fire which is a pretty wild thing to see in a WWF match. Cactus gets to land a shot with it and then tries to DDT him on it.

HHH backdrops him though and Cactus goes crashing through the top of the cell. They've actually intentionally gimmicked in this time and they've also gimmicked the canvas and as such Cactus crashes through it and ends up in a hole in the canvas in an incredible visual. HHH sells the shock well and although I kind of think that could have been the finish, Cactus manages to crawl up but only into a pedigree for the finish.

Mick then refuses help as he wants to leave on his own terms and turns around as he walks up the entranceway to a crowd of people chanting his name in a fucking beautiful scene for a guy who'd basically given his body to the art of pro wrestling.

Let's just call this the retirement match of the real Mick Foley.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Backlash - 30th April 2000

Triple H Vs The Rock - WWF Championship - ****

This is some peak sports entertainment right here.

Obviously they weren't going to go for a technical wrestling clinic but both these guys can be great when the match and situation surrounding it is well booked.

Going into the match Stone Cold was supposed to be the special guest, however he's had some "travel issues" so Shane McMahon gets appointed as guest ref as we stack the deck against our babyface. Rock and Triple H do typical back and forth Rock and Triple H stuff for a while before Shane refuses to count a pin.

They then do a great spot where Shane tries to stop Rocky rock bottoming HHH on the announce table to Rock just grabs him too and Rock bottoms them both at the same time.

Cue more McMahon shenanigans but then the glass breaks, the pop goes nuclear, Austin comes out and dishes out some chair shots and sends Hebner down to count the final pinfall. I think Austin's neck might have been that fucked at this point that he couldn't even go down to count to three but that man can always get a reaction.

Just a great example of the heels stacking the deck against the babyface and him having to overcome it with the crowd buying in to every second of it.




Figured this would be on Youtube but apparently not. Obviously on Netflix.