Psicosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. (Mexican Deathmatch)
Same rules apply as a Texas Deathmatch, pinfall leads into a 10-count knockdown. Seeing a preview for the Terry Funk edition of Back to the Territories with Jim Cornette based on Terry's dad's promotion in Amarillo gave me a sudden motivation to review this match.
Both of these Luchadors trained together. Rey lived extremely close to the border and would regularly cross it for his wrestling shows, starting when he was 14 years old, taking his homework backstage with him. I'm pretty sure that breaks like 8 laws these days. They were both trained by the original Rey Mysterio, this man's uncle, who's son also wrestles as El Hijo de Rey Mysterio. Psicosis has been through some name changes as per Lucha Libre tradition when a mask is removed, and because of this, I've not really kept up with him since he left WWE.
As a last note, this match is on Disc One of Bloodsport: ECW's Most Violent matches (also named ECW's most Extreme matches)
Paul Heyman introduces the match on the DVD, going from one extreme to the other. Considering the previous match was Ian Rotten vs. Axl Rotten in a Taipei Deathmatch, he couldn't be more right. He calls this match the highlight of the November to Remember 1995 event, and from what I've seen of it again, the Mad Genius is correct. Joey Styles flyin' solo on commentary.
Psicosis enters first wearing a leather jacket over his ring gear. Joey Styles basically says he ECW'd up for the occasion. Psicosis is mainly a AAA wrestler over in Mexico. Joey Styles takes this chance to just tell us Psicosis will be working heel tonight. Rey Mysterio comes out and they've dubbed over the music he used in ECW (“Sad but True” by Metallica) with his WWE theme for legal reasons. Rey Mysterio comes to the ring in an ECW/AAA cross branded poncho, and in ECW it works. Psicosis stares up the entranceway all throughout Rey's entrance from the middle turnbuckle. Rey Climbs the ringpost from the outside and is nose to nose with Psicosis. Psicosis jumps down to the ring, and Rey climbs over. Both men get prepared in this corner whilst Joey Styles hypes up the match using the word “extreme” every chance he gets.
The ring announcer goes through the rules in English and Spanish in a nice touch, before giving this match the special introductions treatment it deserves. Rey's giving up 60lbs to Psicosis, which is half Rey's bodyweight. Rey flips Psicosis the bird during his introduction and Psicosis charges to start the match. Psicosis leaps but Rey is able to move out of the way and he hits the turnbuckle. Rey picks Psicosis up and tries to send him across the ring but Psicosis reverses. Jumping headscissors takes Psicosis down, Psicosis gets up near the ropes but as Rey charges. Rey gets sent over to the apron and Psicosis charges but misses another running dropkick. He's really putting force into them too. Rey climbs to the top turnbuckle and barely gets a dragonranna for 3. Psicosis gets to his knees arguing with the referee and gets to his feet. It's not the longest of 10 counts either, so he got up at 5.
Both men stall for a second in their corner, Rey goes prone for Psicosis before sweeping his leg, sending him into the middle rope with his own momentum. Mysterio charges and gets sent over the top rope but again lands on the apron. It doesn't do him much good though as Psicosis hits a loud overhand chop. Rey slips out the back of a suplex and gets some speed up, he rolls up Psicosis and brings him out to the floor with a hurricanrana. Rey moves the guardrail nearer the ring, before trying to send Psicosis into it. Psicosis reverses the irish whip. Rey tries to spring back off the guardrail but slips and hurts his left knee, clipping his head on the way to the concrete floor. Psicosis being the sympathetic figure he is, throws a chair at Mysterio's head before rolling him in the ring.
Psicosis flies off the top rope with a missile dropkick. He brings Mysterio back up and slams him before getting back to higher ground for a moonsault. Psicosis gets the three count, and Rey's leg is troubling him. Mysterio is able to break the count just in time but gets squashed in the corner by a running dropkick. Psicosis picks Rey up in a military press and carries him across the ring, throwing him over the ring post ribs first. Psicosis gets a running start for a flying axe handle which brings Mysterio back into the ring. Psicosis panders to the crowd who chant “Rudo” at him. He sends Rey across the ring with an irish whip and lifts him overhead, letting him free fall face first to the mat. Psicosis decides he's not done and hits a pop-up powerbomb for the three count. Rey gets up again just before 9 in the corner. It's just been 100% Psicosis since Rey slipped on the barricade. Just no legwork. Maybe Psicosis thinks it's hurt enough, he's going for the “can't breathe, can't fight” side of the mantra now.
Anyway, again the corner becomes Rey's enemy as Psicosis hits a running splash, sending Mysterio to the mat. Rey gets picked up Argentinian style, and Psicosis charges into the corner, again crushing Rey's internal organs against the turnbuckles. Rey flips down to the canvas again and Psicosis walks out for a chair. He stares at the referee and throws the chair down. Great subtle heel move. Argentinian internal bleeding charge again by Psicosis as the fans chant “boring” due to not seeing Rey get concussed. Psicosis slams Rey down and climbs to the top, he hits the 1 ½ inverted moonsault on Rey's head and calls for the end. Psicosis gets the 3 count again and this time Rey can't use the ropes to get up. He still barely makes it before 10. (well, 1. They're counting backwards in Spanish, with Joey Styles throwing in where they are forwards in English at intervals.) with Psicosis urging him up the whole time. Charging dropkick to the chest by Psicosis and Rey's head hits the bottom turnbuckle. Rey gets to his feet in the corner as Psicosis backs up. Psicosis again hits a running dropkick to Mysterio.
Psicosis decides he'll use the chair now, and the fans approve. Psicosis hits a DDT to Rey Mysterio on the chair, before hitting him across the back with it. Psicosis lays the chair on Mysterio and hits a moonsault onto it. That gets Psicosis another 3 count, Mysterio showing great resiliency and timing here getting to his feet at the last fraction of a second. Psicosis hits a shoulder barge in the corner. Rey tries to crawl away but doesn't get far. Psicosis catches him and sends him across the ring, before hitting a basement dropkick. Finally, he remembered the leg! Psicosis taunts Rey to get up so he can beat him down more and throws the chair on top of him. Psicosis climbs to the top rope but Mysterio moves the chair over his knees! Psicosis lands on the chair, and that had to have hurt Mysterio too. Mysterio is the first to his feet and he sends the chair into Psicosis' face. Psicosis rolls out to the apron, and Rey has a second wind, also his knee's recovered since Psicosis barely touched it so he can run across the ring and he hits Psicosis off the apron with a springboard clothesline. Rey climbs out to the apron and a flying cross body sends both men into the crowd. Rey moves the guardrail again and hits a springboard moonsault plancha onto Psicosis! Rey uses a fans chair to get up, then as a weapon against Psicosis. Psicosis decides to take a walk through the crowd and Rey follows. They go to the back but I don't catch sight of them again until they come back to the first few rows just by the guardrail.
Psicosis' head meets the top of the guardrail and he gets his arm up way too soon for a chairshot to justify Joey Styles' reaction. (Not that I don't want them to be safe, of course.) Psicosis is sent back over to ringside and Rey brings the chair, hitting Psicosis across the back with it. Psicosis sent back over the guardrail on the other side of the arena, and as a reminder, ECW didn't have protective mats on their floors. It's all concrete these guys are landing on out here. Psicosis uses all his energy to try and get lost in the crowd, but Rey's right behind him. They go around the bleachers below where Joey Styles is sat. Another chairshot by Mysterio, to let Psicosis know he's there. Psicosis climbs to a raised stage area, and Rey follows. Rey creates some distance and gets a running start before throwing the chair into Psicosis' face. That chair is dented to fuck. Psicosis cleverly/luckily falls onto the chair and stops Mysterio being able to grab it for the time being. Rey takes even higher ground, right in front of Styles. Rey jumps off with a hurricanrana, and Psicosis lands on the chair again. Rey gets a North/South cover for 3 and celebrates with some fans in the cheap seats. They definitely got their moneys' worth! Rey Mysterio Jr. and the referee make their way back to the ring for the 10 count to start. Psicosis still down as Rey gets in the ring, Psicosis makes it up to his knees but slips off the staging area in exhaustion before he can break the count.
WINNER: REY MYSTERIO JR.
I've only seen two matches from this rivalry, this one and the return match at ECW One Night Stand 2005. Both of those matches do make me want to see more though, and at some point I shall have to look for more for a different project. Besides Psicosis not using the leg injury to his advantage for a stupidly long time, and Rey bouncing around like nothing was wrong with it just because Psicosis worked on his midsection instead, I'd call this a really good match. They showed the intensity of their rivalry, with the face even flipping off the heel pre "Stone Cold" era, much to the ECW faithful's delight. Rey was able to get a lot more wrestling for an ECW scale promotion, and that drew bigger companies to him. It's a shame WCW's formula with him was “Get beat up, hit one move, win.” but anyway. Psicosis was very aggressive against Mysterio here, going back to the knee out of frustration, with a high impact dropkick. One gripe I have with Lucha Libre is the amount of pandering to the crowd, but this stipulation hid it well with the 10 counts. – Rating: 7.8/10
Rey celebrates with the fans before leading them in and “E-C-Dub” chant.
No comments:
Post a Comment