Here's an entirely different type of brutality. These men don't need weapons to have a wild match. Instead, they take it back to the old school, having themselves a stiff, European style match that borders on a shoot on several occasions. Watch the match closely, and you'll see that both men were throwing legitimate strikes at various points throughout the match. They were hell bent on hurting each other, and they threw punches, forearms, elbows and kicks with that intent. When they weren't throwing stiff strikes at each other, they were locking in holds and submissions with extra pizzazz, trying to snap limbs like nobody's business. The fans in Tupelo, Mississippi had no idea how to respond to things. For one, it was Finlay's second match in WCW, with his first match taking place over a month before this, so they had no connection to him. Two, this just wasn't the type of match wrestling fans were used to seeing in WCW. There were long stretches where the crowd just sat and watched the entire thing take place. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz8krk_35-96-03-24-fit-finlay-vs-steven-regal-uncensored_sport You can look at this match as something of a clinic, with Regal and Finlay trying to show the world, especially the younger wrestlers out there, that you don't need pointless spots for no reason outside of a momentary crowd pop. They went out and made everything mean something. Every strike, submission, rest hold, transition... it was all with emphasis and with a point, showing why they are two of the best performers the business has ever seen, and we got to watch them at their early (in North America) stages here.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
