10 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Star Ratings Dave Meltzer Got Wrong
8. Rey Mysterio, Jr. Vs. Psicosis - WCW Bash At The Beach 1996
Actual Rating: ****3/4, Revised Rating: ****
This match is an awesome entry in WCW's impressive canon of Cruiserweight action, but something is off with the scaling of this rating. Put simply, it's not quite as good as Rey's seminal Halloween Havoc match with Eddy Guerrero, to which he also assigned four and three quarters of a star. Then again, very little is.
The match is awesome, even by the sumptuous standards of the mid-90's cruiserweight landscape. It's impressive in its restraint, too; most of the flashiest aerials aren't deployed until each man has failed with the less risky entries in their repertoires. What lets is down primarily is the crowd, who are dead for all but the most breathtaking sequences. Without that rising crescendo to help ramp up the tension, the finishing sequence seems to arrive from out of nowhere.
The finish, though, to which the high rating is likely attributed, is awesome. Meltzer was big on inventive moves in the 90s. Mysterio, incredibly only 21 years old at the time, counters Psicosis' top rope Splash Mountain power-bomb into a Frankensteiner in unbelievably smooth fashion. Still, one move does not make a classic.