2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project #2

 2 Cold Scorpio & Vader vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 10/16/2001 - GREAT

Scorpio and Vader had a great dynamic as a team. Scorpio the more elegant wrestler, while Vader is just this hulking beast. As partners they act as foils for each other in a really unique way. This went a little under 7 minutes, but it was laid out nearly perfectly. Everything Vader does looks like he‘s just killing dudes, bashing guys heads in with his arms, body checks that look like they run you over. The crowd even buys a basic back suplex from him as a nearfall. Between Scorpio and Vader laying guys you get some fun character moments from both of them. Ikeda and Sugiura are mostly blown away but they get in some good hopespots. I liked the brief Ikeda/Scorpio section a lot. Ikeda was teeing off on Scorpio with stiff lariats until Scorpio was able to get in some beautiful (probably much less painfull but still hurty looking) kicks. Finish was fun too as Vader randomly seemed to hurt his leg. It may have been a shoot but probably not because Vader kept working matches the next couple days, but it gave the illusion that Sugiura might come back against the monster. The match ended early like a few NOAH matches did back in the day, to remind the crowd that things are important. Not the epic you might hope for when you see Ikeda and Vader and Scorpio in a match but it was healthy booking and the match was still really cool without burying Ikeda and young boy Sugiura.

2 Cold Scorpio & Vader vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 10/19/2001 - GREAT

Another match with a really great layout. Basically Vader is this ridiculously overpowered, but slightly banged up monster. You buy that he can KO people with a random punch or clothesline, or that a random leglock from him might dislocate someones leg. At the same time he‘s vulnerable and you think a random leg kick from Saito might make him give out. Akiyama and Saito try to zone in on Scorpio, he‘s not really the weak link, he‘s just the only one there that they have a chance in hell against. Scorpio feeds really well into their stuff and also sets up Vaders monster spots extremely well while hitting some graceful offense of his own. But the whole match was basically about Vader being an unstoppable force, while Akiyama and Saito still get close to turning the tide. I imagine it‘s pretty difficult to work a match like this and make it compelling but they succeeded here. Great stuff, early NOAH was the best.

2 Cold Scorpio vs. The Goon, WWF 12/2/1996 - FUN

This was Scorpios WWF debut using the terrible Flash Funk gimmick. Nowadays I imagine a guy with spectacular highspots making his debut would just eat the other guy up busting out all his stuff, but here the Goon controls a bit while Scorpio gradually does his stuff. The Goon who looks like some bush league indy dude in his hockey gear has some fun brawling, a nice bump through the ropes and a really nice posting. And Scorpio was pretty much the most spectacular guy in the world in 1996, really busting out complicated dives and rollups on a different level. And because of the match layout he gets over as more than a highspot machine. Fun match despite the unfortunate gimmick.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project