[1997-03-16-WCW-Uncensored] Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko (No DQ)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Eddy hasn't turned yet, but the crowd is solidly behind Malenko and booing Eddy. They don't work their normal "technical masterpiece" and instead try for a little more hate and brawl it out. I like the change. Everyone is a little angrier in 1997. The match had some dull parts, but was really good overall, and I appreciated the effort. What held it back was that Eddy didn't have a big enough personality, even though surprisingly, Malenko carried himself like a star. The Eddy heel turn is overdue.

 

(As a brief aside, when they cut to the back, why does it not surprise me that Kevin Nash is enough of a douche to wear socks with sandals?)

[Childs]

I enjoyed the story of escalating dickishness by both parties. As I said elsewhere, WCW Eddy became a hell of a lot more interesting once he went dark. Their timing was off on several spots, which was surprising for guys who had worked each other so much. But the fact they developed an actual storyline overrode the flaws.

[soup23]

Very good match with a rough edge that both Loss and Childs mentioned. Eddy looked really good on his viciousness spots and showed a heel turn would be wise. His dive to the outside guardrail was great. The NWO beatdown derailed the commentators a little but they were able to tie everything together with SYxx coming down and eventually Malenko winning the championship.

[Kevin Ridge]

Maybe it’s the first match of the show but crowd were excited at Malenko’s entrance. Boos for Eddie. Rick Steiner laid out backstage surrounded by the NWO. Crowd is cheering for everything Malenko does. A big Dean chant too. The No DQ mach is more of them upping the aggression and not having to worry about count outs when they go outside the ring. I liked Dean hitting a low blow and Eddie immediately responding with one of his own. Malenko with the frog splash! Guerrero gets the Texas Cloverleaf. They play up previous issues with Syxx and tug of war over the belt. Eddy clearly tries to use momentum to swing belt at Dean but misses. Malenko hits Guerrero with Syxx’s video camera. Might not be the extra stuff you’d expect from these guys but I liked it.

[El-P]

Really good match, much more interesting than their so-called "technical masterpieces" to me. Odd that the crowd choosed to support Dean as he was portrayed as the more heelish one during the build, blaming Eddie for a mistake. I wonder if Eddie called an audible here, but he was excellent showing heel maneurisms. Malenko does show some personnailty here, as usual when he's in the fiery babyface role. The not so pristine execution made it look more a struggle than usual with these two.

 

Gotta notice Randy Anderson being already reinstated, making the grand angle in early 1999 with Flair "getting his job back" totally irrelevant.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW US Champion Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko - WCW Uncensored 1997

 

There is an absolutely hilarious Dusty rambling session in the middle of the match where he is commending Schivaone for making an astute observation, but just keeps going on about it and climaxes with calling him delungent. I was dying throughout the whole thing. He really needs to do some guest commentary in NXT or something because he was gold around this time.

 

Guerrero was portrayed on commentary as having a bit of a rulebreaking edge to him, but he was still nowhere near the glorious levels of his late 1997. For whatever reason, WCW crowds loved Dean Malenko. They must have seen him as a stoic badass, I dunno, the late 90s were a strange time. They definitely go for more of a heated fight feel than technical masterpiece. I love how Guerrero takes a bump early on the shoulderblock it is not a quick flat back bump, but a more realistic stumble, knock back onto your keister. Dusty notes that both men have mudhole stomping on their mind and have commenced to mudhole stomping early. In his roundabout, Dusty-isms way, he picks up on a good point. There is a lot of good mirror psychology. It is not just a fight, but a fight between two rivals that know each other well and want to one up each other. Guerrero takes his big catapult face first into turbuckle bump to give Malenko the advantage. Malenko goes to work on the knee with a single leg crab while we find out that Rick Steiner has been laid out by the Wolfpac. Guerrero cuts Malenko off with a dropkick to the knee. Guerrero knows Malenko is a master of the mat so he is going to beat him at his own game by destroying Malenko's knee. Guerrero is just excellent with great springboard moves on the knee, good submission holds like the STF and the figure-4. Guerrero rocks him with European Uppercuts and looks to dive onto him on the outside, but eats steel in a really nasty spot. Malenko drops him on the railing and now he is going to work on the arm because the arm hit first. Tony notes this and that is what triggers the ridiculously hilarious Dusty ramble. They do go a little overkill on the finish with a couple extra moves. I thought the finish stealing was perfect for the theme of the match. The crowd and I also enjoyed Malenko's trick knee acting up into a ballshot and when Malenko crumpled to his balls met Eddie's knee in a violent fashion. Tighten up the finish stretch to really focus on those elements and it would be excellent. Syxx getting involved was pretty lame because he was already Crusierweight Champion, but at least it did fit with the mirror psychology of the match as Malenko lifted Guerrero's title due to Syxx just like Malenko lost his due to Eddy's interference. I presume Eddy/Syxx was in the cards, but Eddy got injured. It is too bad Syxx did not have more matches with the WCW midcard, it would have been interesting to see what he could do with a Benoit or Rey on a PPV. But I digress, I liked the heat on each move and how they told a cool interwoven story of mirror spots. It was two competitive rivals that not only wanted to beat their opponent bad, they wanted to humble them by beating them at their own game. Put a hotter finish on this and you have a really excellent match. ****

[PeteF3]

Yep, I too liked this more than the ECW matches, because the match constantly felt like it was escalating and going places. There was a story here that went beyond, "These two are evenly matched." There was hatred, intensity, body part work, guys trying to show each other up, finisher-stealing back when that seemed really fresh, and more. Dean is as over as he'll ever be before the Jericho feud, and this match is a testament to just how hot WCW was up and down the card at this point. They didn't execute everything, but in a way that just added to the intensity and grittiness of the match--it was a fight, not a dance sequence. Even the NWO involvement doesn't overshadow the participants, as the production and the announcers do a very good job of balancing the backstage attack with the action in the ring. Schiavone in particular is still really good at this point.