2005 Discussion

Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero - Street Fight - Smackdown 5/5/05
It's terrific: around the time of all the Rey/Eddie shit (I recognized Eddie's beatdown from after the match, actually), & Rey & Chavo don't like each other. It's really stiff for a match with so many swank high spots & prop spots. Rey hits everything really well; Chavo takes all Rey's stuff really well. Awesome spot where Chavo doesn't give over for a springboard rana, so he lands on his face & skids out of the ring. Not sure if he meant it, but it looked sick. Rey keeps pulling shit out of his hat to stay on top, & Chavo's increasing desperation to take over is excellent. Toying with nominating it, but as I remember nothing about their GAB04 match, I'm going to wait & rewatch that to see if I like it more.

Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio (Smackdown!, 1/6/05)
This is the only match off this particular episode that's worth watching really. You can't really ask for much more out of a 10 minute match. Both guys really put across the idea of the match being 'hold-for-hold' nicely. Eddie works the arm? Rey works the arm. Eddie locks in a sleeper? Rey locks in a sleeper. Similar in a sense to their March '04 match, but that match is way better and has way more significance. Rey works the major control segment here, and it drags in parts. He's never been the most engaging at control segments, but it's not any major complaint here because it only lasts less than 5 minutes. There's fun and games towards the end with Eddie's antics providing major lolz for the crowd. Rey one-upping Eddie laid the groundwork the beginnings of their feud since it revolved around Eddie never being able to beat Rey. There's nothing here that I'd consider essential viewing, but it's certainly not a waste of time. ***1/4

Eddie Guerrero, Batista and Roddy Piper vs Randy Orton, Bob Orton and Mr. Kennedy 10/28/2005
This was a blast. Nothing special quality wise but it's one of those matches where you don't watch it to rate it, you watch it purely for enjoyment. All 6 guys kept things simple both psychology and physicality wise. Piper was clearly out of shape and had his fair share of ring-rust but he still pulled out a good performance and brought across a really good FIP, albeit a short one. Dave and Eddie are over like rover here, I really wish Eddie's final face run lasted longer than a few weeks. The Orton's brought the simple dynamic of isolating Piper for most of the match, and just getting the crowd riled up. Out of anyone here, Kennedy was the most disposable, he seemed to be there to take Eddie's stuff and that was it. Granted, he was still a newcomer here and to be in the ring with all this talent could only benefit him. There's no 'hot tag' as such, but when Eddie and Batista clean house it's really neat. I'll always mark for a quality Frog Splash. I love stuff like this where the match itself is average, but the crowd are so hot that it brings the match to another level and makes it all that much more memorable. Really happy I watched this.

Eddie Guerrero, Christian and JBL vs Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit and Batista 10/7/2005
This is a 6-man combining three feuds right before No Mercy. It's not half as hot as the previous match with Piper either. Once again, Eddie's the star of the show. He has a nifty exchange with Benoit here and plays the cowardly heel down to a tee. Like when he gets tagged in to face Rey, he's all like 'God dammit! I thought I was finished with this motherfucker!' All 3 of the heels are cowards actually, nobody wants to be in the ring and it's like they're essentially kayfabe-ribbing eachother by tagging the other in. The match is about 10 minutes long and the faces are kickin' ass for the majority of it. The finish with Eddie saving JBL and sacrificing Christian was odd. He was putting over the will he?/won't he? thing with Batista really well. Those facial expressions kill me everytime. A nice way of keeping the faces over before No Mercy and nothing more. Pretty forgettable if I'm honest.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Ken Kennedy 11/11/05
Once again, not really a match to rate, more of an enjoyable segment. There's a little part where Kennedy controls the match and tries to overcome Eddie, but there's never really a sense that Kennedy has a chance of winning. Eddie's fun and games win out in the end. I know this is his last match and all, I guess there's no better way for him to go out than smiling and having fun. I miss Eddie so so much.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kenzo Suzuki - Smackdown 02/05/05
This match is in Japan and man, do the Japs love Eddie or what? They boo the shit out of Kenzo, hearing the Japs shout 'Kenzo saaaks' is way funnier than it should be. It's essentially a squash match but Kenzo managed to build up some good heat for himself really quickly. I can't tell if they just really hated him, loved Eddie that much or a mixture of both. Basic 5 minute match where Kenzo beats down on Eddie only for the tables to be turned on him, none of Kenzo's stuff really effective but he does drop a nice knee. He doesn't take the best suplex though, so the 3 amigo's looked a little sloppy. There's some subtle racism on commentary from Taz but it's all good fun. Nothing special here, only worth watching if you're doing an Eddie binge or something, which is exactly what I'm doing.