[1998-06-14-WCW-Great American Bash] Booker T vs Fit Finlay

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Booker had an amazing night. This was another incredible match. Finlay beats the shit out of Booker in this one, working over his knee like clockwork and paving the way for Booker to win against all odds. Finlay's leg work is really brutal and unique. WCW had something special and it saddens me that his push ultimately went nowhere. This is great in a completely different way than the Benoit match was great, which makes both of them even more impressive.

[Childs]

Booker looked great in his early run of offense before Finlay took over and set a really grinding pace as he worked over Booker's knee. Crowd didn't care quite as much about this as the Benoit match, but it served as an excellent chapter two to Booker's story for the night. The finish seemed a little off, like Booker mishandled his counter to the tombstone and then Finlay went down too easily to one big move. But that didn't matter much in the big picture.

[soup23]

Have yourself a night Booker T. I though this was on par with the Benoit match even though the crowd heat wasn't there. I was amazed to see Booker try some new stuff including the dive to the outside. Finlay on offense was nasty and cranking out as much offense as he could stretching it. I loved the sequence with the spinarooni. They botched the finish but recovered well and the spike piledriver Booker delivered to finish this was nasty. Big moment for him. (****)

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW TV Champion Fit Finlay vs Booker T - WCW Great American Bash 1998

 

Off hand, I can't think of a better night in the career of Booker T and he really did look like a promising rising heavyweight babyface star. Who the hell was the Booker that absolutely clobbered Finlay with that wicked flying forearm and that awesome plancha. Wrestling Benoit and Finlay will make you an ornery sumbitch and I dig that, sucka! Finlay makes it known early unlike that sportsman, Benoit, he is going to take no prisoners when it comes to the knee. Finlay catches the Axe Kick and just wrenches the knee in 8 million different ways. He is just torturing Booker. Booker, who is not my favorite seller, actually is pretty good at crying out in agony as FInlay digs his own knee into Booker's. Booker shoving Finlay off and rolling over into a side mount and raining down fists was awesome. Just when Booker looks to make the comeback Finaly hits the kneecrusher. The layout and the work are here for this to be an all-time classic, but Finlay's very dry heel work does take this a level. Finlay's only way to get heat is to raise his fists in the air. You are a mean sumbitch, show some fire and this crowd to really hate you. It was ripe for the taking. Finlay wraps Booker's leg around the post. Now, Finlay is jawing with the crowd and takes his eye off the ball. This is very uncharacteristic and the crowd chanting Boring is much too harsh, but it was the wrong move. Booker pops up and hits his trademark moves to get the crowd rocking and rolling. The Spinaroonie was over like rover. Booker's botch on the Tombstone can be covered due to Booker's bum knee. Finlay is such a pro and strings together a makeshift finish run to get Booker to the piledriver finish and it is a nasty one to cap off Booker's epic night. Booker was on offensive fire, he was over and his selling was pretty good. Finlay working over the leg was a master class and was great in vacuum, but needed to do a lot more to get the crowd involved. It is such a shame Booker would have to take time off for his injury after Bash At The Beach because it seems like he was really putting the pieces together. ***3/4

[PeteF3]

I already said this, but it's officially ridiculous that Booker wasn't a main event babyface by the dawn of '99. For fuck's sake, he didn't even get the honor of being involved with Master P. Okay, staying positive: Finlay's leg work is incredible, as he runs through about 6 or 7 different leglock variations in the span of 45 seconds, some of which I've never seen before. Even the blown finish is forgivable--as Sleeze mentioned, it fits with Booker's hurt knee and instead of repeating the spot, they were pros enough to organically move to an alternative finish. I liked the Benoit match a bit better because it was more openly crowd-pleasing but this was still a worthy capper to the whole saga.

[TravJ1979]

I can't believe I dismissed FInlay as a scrub back in 1998. This was another great match and this may have been better than all of the Benoit series.

[Jetlag]

This may have been in some ways been better than Finlay/Benoit because this told a real story with Booker T coming in with a wounded leg from his match with Benoit earlier. So, of course, Finlay works a bunch of really cool takedowns and twists his leg up in all kinds of different ways. Probably the most matwork I've seen Finlay do in WCW, and how weird that it's against Booker T. I was ready to praise Booker for his selling until he made a doozy do comeback hitting his kicks and then they butcher a tombstone reversal completely. Booker T hits a ganzo bomb for the random but convincing finish.