Best of the Velocity matches #2

 Chavo Guerrero vs. Funaki, Velocity 6/8/2002

Nifty four and a half minute match. Chavo is like a slicker Arn Anderson here, targetting Funakis back with a variety of cool offense, including a nasty dropkick to the kidney and a big backbreaker. I also really dug his smooth Stretch Plum. Funaki gets some nice brief flashes of offense including a really nice reversal into a Magistral. Funaki ends up going for some convoluted move trapping Chavos arm behind his back only to get kneed in the face and a Brainbuster for the 3. Cool!

Randy Orton vs. Rob Conway, Velocity 6/18/2002

WWE rookie match! Conways first TV appearance. They start working some nice basic grappling, both guys having really nice firemans carries. Conway goes for an up and over and seemingly twists his leg on the landing. They signal for an injury, having a bunch of officials come out, Orton is young and sportsmanlike and – Conway boots him in the face! Really effective opening that good a great reaction. I assume Conway was leading this and he does a solid job continueing to lead Randy through the match. Randy has a really nice dropkick, and wins with a big crossbody off the top which rules.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Albert, Velocity 6/18/2002

Aw yeah! Are these two gonna be our Velocity godheads? This was really good big vs. Little match! Opening of this ruled as both guys took some recklessly awkward bumps. Chavo gets flung around by Albert a bunch to start, but Albert misses a charge and flies over the top rope splatting on the floor in nasty fashion! Albert ends up catch a Chavo plancha though and drives him into the ringpost. Chavo continues to bump like a freak, getting gorilla pressed into the ring (getting his foot caught in the ropes and tumbling awkwardly), then he eats the catapult into the rope spot by just flying with his chin into the rope! Alberts big backbreaker was another highlight. Loved the way Chavo made his big comeback making use of the turnbuckle pad that Albert himself exposed (Albert needs to cheat to beat Chavo in a 4 minute match!). And then that finish! This was a blast.

Tajiri vs. Hugh Morrus, Velocity 6/18/2002

Two great big vs. little matches in one episode! Tajiri is so fucking good in 2002, it‘s unreal. They probably knew Albert and Chavo would do a bumpfest in the previous match so they don‘t event try for that and so they just slug it out. Tajiris precise kicks targetting Morrus‘ leg are so good, he even hits a slick dropkick through the ropes on him. I really liked how they worked the size difference, surprisingly Tajiri is higher in the pecking order than Morrus so he dominates, but they also have Morrus shrug off Tajiris chops and leather him with big chops of his own because Morrus is bigger and thicker. Tajiri does the Tarantula and continues to yank at Morrus leg against the rope which rules. Tajiri goes out of his way to let Morrus look good. Morrus makes the most of his 5 minutes on TV, he hits a really nice powerslam where he comes up limping paying tribute to Tajiris leg kicks, he hits an absolutely gorgeous huge elbow drop off the top and once again misses a huge moonsault. Brilliant finish.

Tajiri vs. Albert, Velocity 6/25/2002

These two are on a roll with good matches on Velocity, so seeing them go at it for 4 minutes is really nice! Tajiri is great once again, firing away at Albert with kicks from left and right, just looking awesome landing unexpected kicks. Really good big vs. Little work as Tajiri gets launched by an Albert kick out to the second rope and continues to attack. Albert has solid enough power offense, including a really nice stalling butterfly suplex. Finish was great as Albert went for a Vader Bomb but caught another kick coming down. Totally unexpected as I thought Albert was gonna go over this time. Tajiri remains strong killing giants!

IWA Japan Grand Opening Stage Battle States 5/23/1994

 

Watch

Johnny Gomez vs. Hiroshi Ono

IWA Japan was basically W*ING 2 at this point, so we get all kinds of cool random Puerto Ricans working here. Johnny Gomez looked really good here, he had a bunch of good looking offense and did a neat job directing young nondescript future deathmatch bleeder Hiroshi Ono along. Ono didn‘t show much but he hit a nasty back suplex at one point. Gomez had a really nice thrust kick (always loves those) and the finish was really brutal looking with Gomez hitting a dropkick where he basically landed on Hiroshi Onos face. This went a bit under 5 minutes and was just right.

El Oriental & Crash The Terminator vs. Miguel Perez, Jr. & Winger

What amount of drugs could dream up this match up? And – this match ended up being kind of insane and great! Before the match Oriental cuts a promo where he mentions being the brother of the Moreno Sisters, which is kind of cute. Oriental always looks really good when I see him, and he looks really good here getting decent exchanges out of Winger. Then you get Hugh Morrus and Miguel in workrate mode – as both these big guys step up and do a bunch of athletic moves and bumping! Suddenly the match was chock full of memorable moments, such as Crash leaping to the 3rd rope and then hitting a great spinning crossbody – that misses – before Miguel hits an equally great spinning senton of the 2nd rope. Then you get the heavyweights bullying the junior guys around. The section where Crash stooges a bunch for Wingers lucha moves, then catches him on a dive before gently placing him down and getting back into the ring was so out of left field and great. He‘s CRASH THE TERMINATOR, face painted maniac with a skullet, but brawling with a smaller opponent is somehow beneath him, he just wants to wrestle him fair and square in the ring! Perez Jr./Oriental sections where also great. Perez hits a really crazy lariat that drops Oriental on his neck and then Oriental fires back with this awesome front flip kick in his face. Finish was way bigger than you‘d expect too with Miguel busting out a bunch of dives including a crazy huge Asai Moonsault, Winger eating a powerbomb on the floor and Oriental taking a giant chokeslam. For a second match on a card with a bunch of thrown together wrestlers this was about as good as you can ask for.

Dick Murdoch vs. Masayoshi Motegi

Another insane match. Is this Motegis biggest match ever? Bigger than him facing Liger? It definitely felt more meaningful. The first 10 minutes of this were really great and textbook stuff. Both guys were just chain wrestling, but Motegi was going after Murdochs arm like mad and Murdoch did all these neat maestro-ish touches, such as blocking a takedown attempt, sinking in Fujiwara armbars. Despite the size difference they meshed very well. When Murdoch was cutting off Motegi, he always clocked him with a bionic elbow or punch to the face, while selling the arm. Motegi hit these neat punches and kicks to Murdochs arm. Obviously Motegi was a bit limited in terms of what offense he could do to Murdoch, and that held the last couple minutes of this back a bit. Still I was shocked how good this was, as they did a bunch of really good intricate wrestling while keeping it tight.

Shoji Nakamaki vs. Kintaro Kanemura

This was the first match on the card that was entirely within the ordinary. Kanemura gets a barbedwire bat and brutalizes Nakamaki a bunch. Nakamaki makes one fired up comeback and hits a nice diving headbutt. Kanemura takes a nice clothesline bump, but soon goes back to beating on Nakamaki before pinning him quite easily. Good enough to keep things moving and put over Nakamaki as an underdog taking beatings, although I think Nakamaki never really did move on beyond that.

Silver King vs. El Texano

There aren‘t many Texano single matches around that I know of, so this was cool to have. Pretty much a stocky guy workrate match. Both these guys execute all their stuff at a ridiculously high level. Starts great with an amazing looking Texano punch in the ropes before they unroll a bunch of spectacular rope running sequences. All super tight executed. There are some great dives and Texano gets amazing height on a big splash. Not much of a story, but they went out to get pops, and that they did.

Headhunters vs. Nobutaka Araya & El Misterioso

 

Putting Misterioso in the main event?! You better believe it. This was sloppy, but fun. Pretty much a sleazy Twin Towers vs. Rockers match. Headhunters hit a bunch of stiff clotheslines and big body splashes. We get a bunch of cool Big vs. Little interactions between Misterioso, plus a few crazy high spots. Araya hits a huge moonsault to the outside, there‘s a flip dive from a Headhunter. The sloppy/unprepared moments, such as Araya violently lariating an unsuspecting Headhunter over the ropes may have added to the mayhem. The ending is pretty brutal with Araya taking a bunch of Headhunter splashes and a moonsault that seemed to knock him loopy before the doomsday bulldog finish. I always enjoy me some Headhunters and this was a fun main event to cap off this insane card.

 

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