Tommy Dreamer vs. Curt Henning (Heat, 05/05/02)
Tommy Dreamer continues to be the superworker of the B-Show set as he continues his weird ode to Ricky Steamboat bodypart selling. There was an actual story told in this match, as Dreamer starts by attempting to one up Hennig by doing his signature spots. He isn’t perfect though so he jacks up his knee, which he does a great job of selling the damage. Hennig is basically useless at this point, as he was always a big bump guy, but is too broken up to bump anymore so has to rely on his pretty shitty offense. Dreamer didn’t really need an opponent to make this match good though. The last two Dreamer matches and the Smackdown RVD v. Jeff Hardy match a while back are the only WWF matches in recent memory built around bodypart selling and the performances were both from ECW veterans, a promotion where no one ever sold anything.
Rob Van Dam vs. Justin Credible (Heat, 05/05/02)
RVD v. Justin Credible had some nice parts including a cool double leg takedown roll up by RVD. But Van Damn still has a really backyard look to some of his moves, and Justin seemed off too. Plus Van Damn hitting the world ugliest firemans carry roll which really hurt him considering the quality of the Finlay homage’s in the womans match. This match didn’t suck but I am going to start with a slightly higher bar in the Workrate Report Restart.
D'Lo Brown vs. Big Boss Man (Heat, 05/05/02)
The WWE celebrates the tenth anniversary of the L.A. uprising, by having the black man v. the cop match. Weirdly the brother goes over which I found weird in what is normally a politically reactionary promotion,. Even stranger this match was actually good as Bossman had nice punches for the first time since coming back, and D-Lo took some nice bumps including a nutty Jerry bump where he landed on his feet. I also dug the finish as Bossman hooked the top rope with the nightstick to block the sunset flip before the tough guy WWF ref nightstick kick. No Justice No Peace
