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Post by KB8 on Oct 4, 2019 8:12:55 GMT -5
I'll nominate this now before I forget and end up not being able to vote for it two years on the spin.
I should watch the Havoc match back to back with this because I'm not sure which one I prefer, but both are knocking on the door of my top 10. Even if I end up thinking the Havoc match is better overall, I know this is my favourite Eddie performance ever. He was the best in the world in '05 and this is him at the peak of his powers. His selling, his character work, his offence; all of it was off the charts. I mean, how many guys in wrestling history can put together a segment of offence like this? And you can include your fucking King's Roads and Strong Styles and whoever or whatever else. His work on the back of Rey is just out of this world here. Everything looks painful, it's 100% focused, it gets a ton of heat, it has its "peaks and valleys" (as in, he'll go from a camel clutch to a crazy looking backbreaker), and he knows exactly when to let Rey come up for air (and Rey is one of the best hope spot guys in history so you know THAT works). The longer it goes with him not being able to put Rey away the more desperate he gets, which means the crazy facial expressions get better and better and I'm all about folks making great facial expressions. All of the "little things" rule. Eddie putting on a full Nelson and shifting around so he can choke Rey with one hand while the ref' gives him a talking to about grabbing the tights with the other hand is great stuff (Rey also sells it by gagging and coughing, which ruled). While in the full Nelson he pulls back on the top of Rey's mask so the chin strap comes up and essentially chokes him. How awesome is that? Who the fuck does that? Eddie's also rocking a giant bruise on his hip, and there are a few bits where Rey will just punch or kick that bruise to get Eddie off him. He also works over that bruised side/oblique before Eddie takes over (with the awesome cheapshot), so, you know, that's another thing that's good about this wrestling match. I love everything about this.
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Post by elliott on Oct 4, 2019 15:20:27 GMT -5
2nd. How in the hell was this not nominated yet?  I would not argue if someone called this the best match these two had together. Or just the best Rey match ever. Or just the best Eddie match ever. |
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Post by microstatistics on Oct 8, 2019 19:07:45 GMT -5
Third. Yeah, surprised it took so long for this match to be nominated. Haven't seen it in years but will revisit.
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Post by superstarsleeze on Mar 26, 2020 9:55:07 GMT -5
Somehow I missed this when I searched. Adding a fourth vote in favor. This match rules! Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio - Smackdown 6/23/05 So I had some time between my tour of Schobrunn Palace in Vienna & dinner at that palace so I figured I watch me some pro wrasslin. But they closed halfway through this match so i had to relocate to this fancy ass restaraunt. I felt like kinda asshole with my headphones in watching this match, but I'm by myself & it is too early to eat. It was just a weird setting to watch this match and felt the need to give some context to this match review. I got a Mozart concert at the palace after dinner and am really hoping they play his hit single, Amadeus.  Onto the match proper, everyone knows this is a badass bout and one I watched lived and again about 5-6 years back. Let's get this out of the way, I prefer the Havoc match. Based on memory, I thought this would give the Havoc match a run for its money but the Havoc match has every bit the hate this match has. Eddie was cold & souless here. In '97, he has that heel sneer. What puts the 97 match over is the flawless execution, high velocity of the impact, and the efficiency. Now this match is still tremendous. Again before the match, a lot of adieu before the match, let's give a shoutout to this hot, traditional crowd. They were rooting hard for Rey. Hell they popped for an armdrag two minutes in. They were chanting 619 when REY was doing the ab stretch. When do you ever hear that. Eddie sucks was ringing throughout the match. The wrestlers & the story was over. People need to stop with this bullshit that today's crowd is how it has to be in a post-kayfabe world. It is 2005 and this crowd is every bit as good as a 1985 crowd. It can be done but we need better writing and wrestlers who are invested in the writing. Ok now onto the match proper, the story is simple Eddie turned heel in a violent fashion because he couldn't beat Rey in a clean, straight match. It drove him to insanity. This match is a representation of this turn as Eddie wrestles the first portion straight but is consistently bested by the quickness of Rey Rey. Rey hits a big springboard plancha to really kickstart his control. Eddie has a wicked bruise on his hip from a steel chair attack from a vengeful Mysterio from a previous episode of Smackdown. Rey uses abdominal stretch to work it over. The match kicks into the next gear when Eddie shoves Rey off the ropes and he takes a gnarly tumble off the top to the floor. Eddie has that mid-match metamorphosis becoming that sadistic sociopath Hell-bent on brutally destroying Mysterio. Again, he was bested by Mysterio in a straight wrestling match and this fueled his mid-match psychotic break. It was quite the heat segment and should go down as one of the all time greats. Focused on the back, Eddie expertly combines grizzly holds, sudden cutoffs and humiliation tactics all focused on the back and breaking Rey's spirit. To me the two bavkbreakers and the powerbomb were standouts. Rey sold well and timed his hope spots well. The first 619 tease got a huge pop. He really did a great job dragging out his comeback. Gradually having longer runs but Eddie would suddenly cut him off. Eddie sold his frustration of not being able to pin Mysterio well. Eddie misses the Frogsplash and that was Rey's big opportunity. 619->Drop The Dime! It was not quite as violent as I remembered. To me this was a really high end execution of a fundamental pro wrestling match. The mid-match heel turn by Eddie and Rey resislently resisting to lose and eventually winning to keep storyline going. Probably the 2005 WWE match of the year but I'll have to take a look back. ****1/2 |
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Post by KB8 on Apr 19, 2023 8:43:26 GMT -5
First time I've watched this in 10 years. It is, as you can imagine, still a wonderful bit of the pro wrestling, just two guys at the absolute peak of their powers having a sensational wrestling match. I've said this about three dozen times over the last 15 years, but Eddie's performance is one of the absolute best I've ever seen. It's right there with Fujiwara v Maeda in '87, Hashimoto v Tenryu in '93, Misawa in the '96 Tag League, Piper against Valentine at Starrcade, Lawler in the '85 Loser Leaves Town, Casas v Ultimo Dragon in '93, the Tonga Kid on any MSG card. He's a cold, twitchy mess on his way out and I don't know if it was the make-up crew working some magic or he went full method actor and didn't sleep for a week, but he had those bags under his eyes that I would have when I was doing a PhD and I too wanted to murder someone. His inability to beat Rey was literally giving him sleepless nights! I thought they managed to strike a great balance between highlighting the right aspects of a hate feud, while also reinforcing that at its core this was about WINNING. That's what Eddie's obsession stemmed from, the fact he couldn't beat Rey Mysterio in a wrestling match. If Rey's out for revenge then the best way to get it is to yet again beat Eddie in a WRESTLING match. It's not a blood feud in the way Slaughter/Sheik was, it was more like a Steamboat/Savage only with Eddie in a bastardised heel Steamboat role. Prolly. Anyway the urgency early on is great. There's no wasted motion, to borrow some cliché terminology. Everything is hit clean and it has snap and there's no daylight on any of it. Even something like Eddie yanking Rey into a drop toe hold or Rey whipping Eddie over with an armdrag has a little extra bite. Rey hits a running legdrop and I loved how he bounced off the ropes as quick as he could and landed with almost no vertical height on it, all the force coming in at a horizontal angle, just because it gave Eddie less opportunity to recover or sit up. Eddie takes no liberties in that opening stretch and even breaks clean a couple times, maybe somewhat surprisingly, but Rey still comes away with a bloody lip just from a tie-up. You know Eddie is going to let loose eventually, though. He's just building anticipation with smirks and faux-sportsmanship, waiting for that one moment, but through it all you can SEE how much he hates Rey. If looks could kill then Mysterio would've been in the ground six times over already. The work on Eddie's bruised oblique makes sense because that thing is a livid purple bullseye to be targeted, plus Rey is appropriately violent going after it. Then we get the transition with Eddie being unable to keep his temper in check any longer. Or maybe he never planned on keeping it in check anyway and just wanted to fuck with Rey, but however you slice it the shove off the top was great and the perfect dickhead move, the one they'd been building to all match. Then Eddie ramps everything up to 14. He goes after Rey like a demon and it's some of my favourite work of his career, and Cole's line about metamorphosis feels dead on. That switch is flicked and he's in kill mode now. It's not just the actual STUFF he's doing, not just how he works the control segment by going after the back, it's the way he does it, the way he puts across his own frustration when Rey won't stay down and how that frustration grows as the match progresses, the way he'll cut Rey off and that'll settle him down a bit, how he'll show how much he's enjoying hurting Mysterio, the shit-talking, the assuredness in the moment even though he's been bitten enough times that you know he shouldn't get ahead of himself, everything just lands perfectly for me. Then there's the blatant cheating, using the carny moves like grabbing Rey's tights so the ref' will admonish him which will then allow him to outright choke Rey with the other hand, Rey gagging and spluttering so it looks like Eddie has a proper handful of trachea. The part where he has Rey in a full nelson and uses the straps on Rey's mask to choke him is fucking incredible stuff. Those are the little things that put it over the top; things like Rey firing back by kicking Eddie in that bruised side and Eddie reacting to it exactly how you'd expect someone being kicked in a bruised side would react. The finishing run has all the selling and pacing and drama and everything else and you can see it slipping away from Eddie again. Rey's too quick and he's in Eddie's head and Rey will find a way, because against Eddie he ALWAYS finds a way. Eddie's maniacal laugh as the show closes is an absolutely brilliant visual. This might be the peak of 00s WWE.
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Post by lemming on Nov 26, 2023 16:04:10 GMT -5
In 2004, at Judgement Day, Eddie gave one of the greatest face performances in Company history. A year later and he was delivering one of the greatest as a heel. He was very, very good at the wrestling I think.
He is note perfect as the heel driven to obsession because he just cannot beat his former best friend. As KB8 mentioned above he looks like he's not slept in at least a week, and at times he has a vacant, detached look where you feel there's a dark internal monologue going on behind his eyes - or perhaps he's literally psychotic by this point and he's dialoguing with external voices.
At other times though he's very much engaged: specifically engaged with being as nasty as possible to Mysterio. Choking him while disguising it from the ref, exaggerating every clean break only to cheap shot Rey at a break later (one of my favourite transitions in any match), even trying to strangle him with his own mask. His every move and mannerism comes across as unhinged and dangerous.
Obviously Mysterio is a great himself and was fantastic here too, mining sympathy and explosive on offence - he just happened to be overshadowed on this particular day by Eddie being phenomenal.
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I would not argue if someone called this the best match these two had together. Or just the best Rey match ever. Or just the best Eddie match ever. 
