1999 Discussion

Discuss 1999 in Thunder

There's also a La Parka/Eddy match from the 7/1/99 episode of Thunder that I liked as well, but not really enough to vote for. La Parka grabs a chinlock and starts fish hooking Eddy and pulling away at his face, so Eddy just bites his fingers and punches him in the chops. I want to vote for a La Parka match. That Bash at the Beach '97 match might be the one I end up going for. Juventud is also in that and my list needs tonnes of Juventud matches.

Chris Benoit vs. Ric Flair (Thunder, 06/03/99)
This was pretty good considering the sort of matches that Thunder is known for pumping out. It gets PPV match-esque time at 16 minutes but in all honestly, they could've made soooo much better use of the time. Yeah, they fit in all the Flair-isms, Benoit's bleeding hardway through the mouth, chops are stiff and the action keeps a pace, all sounds like the ingredients for a great match right? Well, I dunno, things just never felt like they kicked into that extra needed gear for me. I didn't get a sense that there was a whole host of heat behind this and it felt like it was just happening more than anything. The DQ finish didn't help things either, after all that time I at least wanted to see who could pull out the win. Things like losing count of the amount of back body drops Flair takes just took me out of the match and I found it hard to care by the 10 minute mark. Good, but should've been a whole lot better.

Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko vs. Horace Hogan, Brian Adams (Cage, Thunder, 02/18/99)
This was really good, not something I'd go out of way to get people watching but I certainly enjoyed it. The premise of a cage match on a TV show like Thunder seemed a little out there so I gave it a go and despite the seemingly dull pairing of Horace/Adams, this worked. The middle portion of the match is a little lacking and Benoit's FIP should've had more heat but I can understand why it didn't, it's not like anyone was gonna buy that Horace actually had a chance at going over Benoit. The beginning and finish though had the crowd acting as good as I've ever seen from a Thunder crowd. Benoit/Malenko were a great team and real easy to get behind, Horace/Adams worked better than I would've imagined but I'm still not crazy about them. The finish felt significant simply because it's a headbutt off the top of the cage, can't let that pass by like. I didn't even know this match existed and I genuinely thought that the Angle/Benoit cage match had the first super headbutt, but alas, no. Fair match for TV but would've underachieved on PPV in my view.

Billy Kidman vs. Chavo Guerrero (Thunder, 03/04/99)
As far as cruiserweight matches go, a lot of them tend to blend together but this one definitely sticks out. For whatever reason, these two just clicked on the night and produced some real quality in just under 10 minutes. I really liked the whole story going on regarding the cutoffs with Chavo continually doing them and then once Kidman gets his cumuppance, shit gets real. The finishing stretch had some great heat, there wasn't anything that we haven't seen before but it just felt right here. Two guys firing on not all, but most cylinders makes for a legitimately entertaining contest, yeah, even with Chavo involved.

DDP vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (FCA, Thunder, 04/29/99)
Yeah, this worked. I don't know if there's many matches between these two but I was glad to find one in the middle of DDP's title run. FCA is more of an excuse to use weapons and low blows than anything, but there is a nice bit of action around the announcers table too. Both guys went near-falls crazy towards the end, so much so that a 2-Count meant nothing by the finish. But I do like the idea of trying the pin as much as possible because it is a World Title match at the end of the day and even a fluke victory would've sufficed for either guy. The Savage interference at the end felt really random, and you'd think it might've lead to a Savage/Bam Bam match (which would've wet my appetite to no end) but it never happened. Not a classic by any means, but I'll take it over a random Jerry Flynn squash.