Falls Count Anywhere

02-28-03

I've succeeded in capturing the lightning.

SmackDown!
An acceptable one, this SmackDown!, but not as strong a building show as RAW this week. There were some good matches, but nothing that made it a can't miss show.

The good out-weighed the bad, but still, I was not completely won over by this show. McMahon opened it, selling that he had The Rock in his pocket.

It was good, and got the crowd riled, but really, Vince has done better. This did do the most to advance the Mania Hogan/McMahon storyline, but I wanted another step. Still, there is time.

Eddy Guerrero (is my favorite wrestler) and Nunzio had a nice little match, what there was of it. Seriously, if you don't give Eddy 15 minutes every week, you've done far too little. I have to say, Eddy will never be a hall of famer, but he will have had more great matches than just about anyone on the planet. I think we're gonna see a rise in the star of Eddy Guerrero this year, and hopefully of Chavo as well. By the way, Eddy cheats to win in this one.

Benoit and Rhyno against Shannon Moore and Matt Hardy was a nice way to get Rhyno back. I think he'll be a nice addition, and I am pretty sure they have big things in store for him, but I hope they take their time. Not a bad event here. All four of these guys are great. Benoit and Rhyno win, and it feels right. I like that.

Brock is good. That's all there is to it. Team Angle is good, and always looks good working with guys like Brock. That said, this wasn't their best effort, and Brock isn't to blame. I really think these two will be something special in a year. The Superkick into the german suplex was a sweet spot, and these two have a Midnight Express circa 1987 thing going for them.

The segment that interested me the most had to be the Brian Kendrick five minute challenge with Kurt Angle. I am very much an Angle mark, but this was an event made by Kendrick. I was really into the count, and losing with two seconds, and Kurt doing the "you've got spunk…I hate spunk" bit afterwards was nice.

I am all for Kendrick getting a shot, and already he is showing signs of a future in the game, but after all they've put him through, he'll need to pull an Isaac Yankem and come back under a mask.

Torrie is awesome.

As far as the bad, none of it was terrible, but just lacked umph. I love Funaki, and Torrie is awesome, but the Torrie/Funaki vs. Nidia and Nobel wasn't my thing. Maybe it was the hint of the Dawn Marie feud continuing.

The Stephanie stuff this week was bad. I am one of the few who enjoy her, but this was not her week. Maybe it was the fact that Heyman seemed a notch down (see Tuesday's Falls Count Anywhere) and the two just didn't gel. I did like Kendrick segments, but they were for Brian and not Steph.

UT bores me. There, I said it. I don't want to hear him talk no more.

News
WWE's The World is closing. No big loss, except for the 30+ million that the WWE put into it. It was a big deal once or twice a month, and that just didn't do it. I remember the old WCW Nitro Grill in the Excalibur in Vegas. It had a great steak (I wanna say it was the Big Sext T-Bone) and some really nice atmosphere. Too bad they had to die the deaths that the downturn made.

No major injuries at No Way Out, which I think was the safest PPV in years. The Goldust angle is apparently getting a little heat from outside the WWE, but don't look for it to be too serious.

FlashBack!
Ask any long-time fan of the WWF what the best WrestleMania of the 1980s was, and they will all give the same answer: WrestleMania 3. And then ask them what the best match of the 1980s was and you'll still find agreement: Randy Savage vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3

Steamboat had come from the NWA after a long run, featuring several tag team title reigns, and a classic feud with Ric Flair that would end up running over 15 years. He was very popular, though I never understood why he didn't wrestle under his real name, Richard Blood. Steamboat entered the WWF around the time of WrestleMania 1, and had been a constant Intercontinental title contender during the Greg Valentine reign.

Randy Savage is one of the 3 or 4 best known wrestlers of that silver age, but at this point, he was an up-and-comer, after having spent several years blacklisted for wrestling in his father's ICW fed. Savage had won the IC title, and was known for being a flyer, as well as having the lovely Miss Elizabeth at his side.

Blood of the Dragon.

The two were programmed together for almost a year, with Savage always getting the better of Steamboat, especially on the big TV shows. They ran a famous angle where Savage used the timekeeper's bell to crush Steamboat's larynx. (Sidenote: as Steamboat was being wheeled out of the ring, he accidentally kicked a kid in the face, costing the WWF a large settlement.) The two were on a collision course for WrestleMania, though the hype was greatly overshadowed by the Hogan/Andre feud. The match would not suffer the same fate.

To really understand why this match was so good, you have to look at the WWF of the time. They were in a transition period, moving from the slow, mat-based wrestling that had always been favored by Vince Sr. to a more athletic-style. I have watched many old WWF tapes and my roommates always ask 'why are the ropes so loose?'. No one was supposed to come off them, well, at least not anyone who wasn't Jimmy Snuka. Guys coming off the top, doing slingshot maneuvers and even working around ringside was a rarity, though it was becoming more common.

The Savage-Steamboat match was a classic, a sign of what wrestling would become some five years later. Great psychology, as Steamboat kept working the arm, arm drags immediately going into armbars, each adding heat, each moving the crowd more and more. Savage hit his signature moves, the axe handle off the top onto the floor, the high knees, everything perfectly crisp. The guys worked a great match, and when Steamboat got the pin, the crowd let both men have the applause they deserved.

That match, that one match on the biggest show in the history of wrestling, is responsible for much of what happened in recent years. Guys like Jerry Lynn, Chris Candido, Sean Waltman, and Edge were highly influenced by this match. Watch Edge in the ring, and he still uses the arm drag the same way Steamboat did. Lots of matches have followed the same formulae as that classic, but few have succeeded in capturing the lightning.

Steamboat lost the belt to the Honky Tonk Man (he's cool, he's cocky, he's bad) and stuck around for a while before heading back to the NWA and winning the World Heavyweight title from Ric Flair, continuing their famous feud. Savage went on to bigger things, winning the WWF title at WrestleMania IV, and becoming one of the biggest names in the game.

Their famous match has always done well in Greatest US Match of All Time polls, though Mania matches like Austin-Hart from WM13, Michaels-Razor Ramon and Hart-Hart from WM X have all matched or topped the Mania 3 classic.

Still, it's a hell of a match, and one of the few from that period that really holds up against today's style.

Well, there's another Falls Count Anywhere. Back Tuesday for news, reviews, and a look at the classic ladder match that changed wrestling forever.

Chris Garcia