WHAT I REMEMBER MOST ABOUT BEING A WRESTLING FAN IN 2003
This column will be a slight departure from the last three. Instead of just listing three great matches, I’m going to take a look back over an entire year in Pro Wrestling and list a variety of memorable moments. I’m going to do my best to ignore star ratings and instead just list the things that made me laugh out loud, get all excited, or choke back the tears.
Next week, I’m going to put the cap on my celebration of Wrestling Appreciation Month by giving you the complete story of how I became a massive wrestling geek. The week after, we’ll begin our look back over the year that was 2004.
WHO ELSE IS CELEBRATING WRESTLING APPRECIATION MONTH?
In theory, at least, we all are.
and even Gordi from the Music Section.
And, as always, if you want to discuss your memorable moments from 2003, here’s where to do it.
MY LIST
1) Sadly, the most striking thing that happened in Pro Wrestling in 2003 was that an extraordinarily large number of wrestling stars were taken from us forever. I’ll get into this more deeply next week, but growing up in Western Canada exposed me to a lot of great wrestling at an early age, and Stu Hart probably played more of a role in making that possible than anyone else. I was also a huge mark for both Road Warrior Hawk and Mister Perfect at different stages in my development as a fan, and both Classy Freddie Blassie and Miss Elizabeth entertained me greatly in their own unique ways. Out of all the wrestling deaths in 2003, these were the ones that hit closest to home. Looking back over the last year, it seems that there were times when I was reading a different wrestling obituary almost every week.
Stu Hart
2) My second most memorable moment is a far happier one. On a very memorable episode of SmackDown! Rey Mysterio Jr. beat Matt Hardy clean for the cruiserweight title. The 06.05 SD! was shot in Anaheim, so it was practically a hometown crowd for Misterio and they really got behind him.. Adding to the excitement were Tazz and Cole, who were really starting to jell as a commentary team. The match itself was excellent, and the fact that the Cruiserweight Titles were being defended in the Main Event would have been enough to raise the match to Memorable Moment status, but there was something more. At the end of the match, Rey’s family came into the ring to celebrate with him. It was a rare display of genuine emotion, and one of the many times during the year that I complete forgot that I am supposed to be cynical and jaded.
3) The consensus North American Pro Wrestling Match of the Year was also one of my personal favourites. It’s always nice when “The Greatest” and “My Favourite” manage to intersect so nicely. I am. Of course, talking about the mat wrestling clinic that Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit put on at the Royal Rumble. The standing ovation and Benoit’s reaction to it were two more examples of the way that Pro Wrestling can transcend its perceived limitations and engender a deep emotional response.
4) The most talked about Puroresu match of 2003 was another that really brought out my inner fanboy. It wasn’t just the stiff action, crazy spots, and furious bumping that made this match stand out, it was watching two aging and oft-injured heroes prove conclusively that they still had everything it takes to put on a classic match. Misawa and Kobashi had been fighting each other on and off for thirteen years, so what they did on 03.01 shouldn’t have come as any surprise. Some of us, however, were worried that the match might not live up to our expectations. It did, and it was one of those rare occasions when being proved wrong felt very good indeed.
5) For old school fans like myself, the match listing on The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection sounded too good to be true. I wondered what the catch was going to be. There was no catch. This was three solid DVDs’ worth of classic matches and promos, in pristine quality. For fans who could remember when we were lucky to get even a couple of complete matches on our wrestling video tapes, or even a single decent match on a Coliseum video, this release was something we’d been dreaming of for years. Of course, it’s human nature to take things for granted, and there were already people who were ready to complain about some of the finer details of Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits and Misses, but for me the Ric Flair set seemed very much like an announcement from WWFE that they really do understand at least something about what their hardcore fan base wants.
6) Nobody expected Chance Beckett to go over Spanky at the ECWA Super 8. Everyone just assumed that Kendrick was going to meet Paul London in the finals. Beckett entered the match with a chin that had been busted open in his first round match against Sedrick Strong. Spanky opened the cut up further with a Superkick, which got the blood flowing and also got the majority of the crowd firmly behind the underdog. In my pick for the 2003 Indy Match of the Year, the star of Vancouver, BC, Canada’s ECCW made the crowd go nuts by beating the WWE superstar.
7) Speaking of Spanky, his Five Minute Challenge Match against Kurt Angle was one of those rare matches that really had me pulling for the good guy. The WWE production crew had the great idea of putting a little countdown timer in the corner of the screen, and that really added to the drama of the match. In case you’ve forgotten, the deal was that if Kendrick had lasted five minutes with Angle then Stephanie would have awarded him a WWE contract. Angle spent the majority of the match beating the crap out of Kendrick, who sold like crazy and kept coming back for more. When Kurt nailed the Angle Slam and got the three count with two seconds remaining, it was a little bit heartbreaking.
8) While Kurt Angle was doing his best to make a star out of Kendrick on SmackDown!, The Rock was doing much the same for Hurricane Helms on RAW. Their actual match was kind of an anti-climax, with Steve Austin distracting the Rock and Hurricane rolling him up for the three. The skits that led up to the match, though, were the best thing I saw on Monday Night last year.
9) I don’t get to see very much Lucha Libre. It’s not that I’m not interested, it’s more that I already have more than enough wrestling in my life and I’m reluctant to go down that road in case I never come back. Last year, though, a friend lent me a tape that had a couple of matches from the apparently epic Shocker vs. Ultimo Guerrero feud. What really stood out for me was that their matches seemed to focus almost entirely on telling a story in the ring, and I was left with a pretty strong idea of each wrestler’s character after just one match. It’s pretty much the only recent Lucha I’ve seen, and if this wasn’t the best series of Lucha matches in 2003, I frankly don’t want to know about it.
10) I am not a big fan of NWA/TNA. It frustrates me that they have never fully committed themselves to presenting a true alternative to the WWE product, and all too often they come across and Sports Entertainment Lite, That being said, I fully acknowledge that they have some amazing workers on their roster, and there have been a number of TNA matches that I really enjoyed watching. The June 25th Steel Cage Match between Triple X and America’s Most Wanted stands out as a truly outstanding encounter. XXX and AMW managed to pull off the kind of crazy spots that made Edge, Christian, and the Hardy Boyz famous, while demonstrating an awareness of the classic storytelling sensibilities of the classic NWA teams of the 1980s.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
I may not have marked out for these matches quite as hard as I did for the ones that made my list, but I sure appreciated the greatness of each of them.
11) The whole NJPW Juniors vs. NOAH Juniors feud. This carried over from the previous year, and gave fans of Puro highflying the chance to see a number of dream matches.
12) American Dragon Brian Danielson vs. Paul London 2/3 falls from Ring of Honor’s Epic Encounter. This was a minor masterpiece of workrate and timing.
13) The ending of the Takayama vs. Chono 07.21 IWGP championship match was kind of a let down, but everything else about this match was just terrific.
14) Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi 03.09. I am probably one of the biggest Nakanishi marks in North America, and even I thought that there was no way he could pull off a 60-minute draw. Well, he did, and he wasn’t carried either, he held up his end of a very entertaining match.
15) The Tiger Mask IV and Koji Kanemoto story, which saw the tag team fall apart after the classy veteran put his younger partner over in a very good match.
16) The spectacular finish of the 11.17 Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show match, which provided one of the most impressive visuals of the year.
17) The 02.08 Low Ki vs. AJ Styles vs. Paul London match, which was pretty much everything you’d expect it to be. The crowd summed it up nicely by chanting, “Match of the Year!” afterwards.
18) The crowd rioting at the same show as the above match, Ring of Honor’s First Anniversary.
19) Mick Foley returning to RAW, which was a total mark-out moment for a lot of people.
20) The John Cena vs. Eddie Guerrero Parking Lot Brawl.
Once again, I’d like to point out that these are just my personal choices. If your opinion is different, I’d genuinely like to hear it. The IP General Wrestling Forum is a very good place for that kind of discussion, as there are a lot of intelligent wrestling fans with a wide variety of tastes and opinions who post there regularly.
Mr. IWGP Yuji Nagata shakes hands with NOAH kingpin Mitsuharu Misawa
