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[1996-12-16-WCW-Nitro] Steven Regal vs Psicosis


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

The first few minutes of this is Bischoff and DiBiase taking over the announce booth and making Zbyszko leave.

 

Bischoff starts talking about the NWO taking over New Japan.

 

The crowd is REALLY into this match, even the somewhat basic armbar stuff at the beginning. I can't stress that enough. This match has more heat than almost all of the WWF PPV main events on this set. It took me by surprise.

 

Bischoff talks about how much he loves wrestlers who throw good kicks. Tom is proven right!

 

This is an outstanding match, maybe the best Nitro match of the year. These two do amazing things on the mat, and Psicosis puts on a tremendous babyface performance, selling his arm through his comeback. All of the false finishes get huge pops because they're built so well, and because this is an amazing crowd.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

This is seriously a great match, and a SPECTACULAR performance from Regal. This is THE kind of match to put in the corder of Regal as an all time top tier great argument. His offense and selling were both out of control good in this match. How he sold the neck off the top rope hurricanrana, how he generally sold being drained and out of it after Psicosis' pretty long run of big offense, it was great. At one point he has Psi on the mat and is hitting him with palm strikes to the head and he starts selling the palm. There's another point, shortly after that I believe, where he's sitting exhausted on the mat after having Psicosis in something and just starts kicking him in the head. Not to take anything away from Psi who was pretty good here himself, but Regal was as good as he's ever been.

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  • 1 year later...

Really good stuff. Great ? I don't see it. Regal's performance was great, yes, but Psych wasn't. Lot of sloppy executed moves on his part. To me the very heated crowd makes the match that much better than it is. I have no idea why this had so much heat either, as Psych really never was over in WCW (his match with Malenko at WWIII got crickets). This made for a super hot opener on TV. Sadly, Bischoff and DiBiase only talk about Piper and Hogan, which would be the usual ultra annoying element of Nitro during the nWo era : not promoting your hot undercard.

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  • 2 months later...

This was a good demonstration of the problem with live TV matches. The commercial break takes a large chunk out of it and either disrupts the flow, or in this case left me in the dark as to why the crowd were so excited. The commentary was beyond atrocious. Regal wasn't suited to bumping for Psicosis offence, but they did combine better than I expected overall.

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  • 9 months later...

WCW TV Champion Steven Regal vs Psicosis - WCW Nitro 12/16/96

 

Penascola, Florida sure loved them some Psicosis and they can be on my team any day of the week. The entire camera side of the crowd was standing for the majority of this match start to finish and literally every Psicosis spot got a decent to huge pop. You really could not have asked for a better crowd. Psicosis sold phenomenally, but on offense was decent at best, if really ripped it up this had potential to be of the elite Nitro matches (I am talking top 5-ish). The crowd was clearly on Regal's case early with USA chants and they were even amped for the opening armwork. Look, I love Regal's intricate armwork and Psicosis with a lucha background had no difficulty keeping up. That is over with me, but I don't expect the crowd to really respond. This crowd was going apeshit over the littlest details, it was awesome. As soon as Psicosis slammed Regal down on the arm, you would expect fucking Hogan had just slammed Andre. I honestly think Psicosis was bewildered by the reaction. His tope was sick as always. I thought Regal's selling was incredible in this match. Honestly, this match featured some of the best selling I have seen in a long time. My major malfunction with the crowd so hot, they were basically begging fro Psicosis to do something, but he kept stalling and looked unsure of himself. Stuff like waiting for Regal to get up only to hit a dropkick. Look, I get you needed to sell, but we needed a babyface shine. The early Guillotine Legdrop got a massive reaction and was a great nearfall. I love Regal throwing Psicosis on the bad shoulder and then he just pounces with a gritty facelock and palm strikes to head. Regal was a beast in this match working the arm tenaciously, but selling fatigue and pain simultaneously. Psicosis gets one more nearfall by throwing Regal off the top rope, playing to the crowd and hitting a top rope splash for two. Psicosis looks to go for a victory roll, but Regal slams him face first and applies the Regal Stretch to break the hearts of every one in that Penascola crowd. Tighten Psicosis' offense and have reach the potential I know he has and this would be an all-time classic. As is, I still thought this was fabulous from a selling perspective especially. In addition, I thought the Psicosis nearfalls meant a lot especially due to the crowd and that Regal's offense and ability to capitalize on mistakes was great. The crowd definitely tips the balance for me. ***3/4

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  • 1 month later...

Man, this crowd LOVES Psicosis. Even a simple armbar reversal gets a huge ovation, and there are lots of great near-falls that have you buying that Psic is really taking home the TV belt. Psic does his stuff pretty well but the match is held together by Regal, who sells great and of course does his usual thing of just constantly finding ways to brutalize his opponent even during down stretches. His punches and palm strikes look absolutely vicious. And a well-done finish, too. A lot of these Nitro matches run together for me but this is definitely up with Malenko-Liger as one of the better WCW TV bouts of the year.

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  • 2 years later...

This match really surprised and was pretty downright awesome. Regal ran the gambit from selling his ass off to controlling the action in compelling fashion. Psicosis was fine to me and the biggest dive of the match to the outside, he hit impressively. Ted and Bischoff on commentary and taking over the booth veered between talking about the match and putting them over to advancing the NWO storyline from a meta standpoint. ***1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [1996-12-16-WCW-Nitro] Steven Regal vs Psicosis

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