Grade The Match With LJL

[Little Jerry Lawler]

With all the success that KB's PPV review threads have received, I have to decided to do my own but different. I will review matches instead of PPV's and will give you readers my honest opinions on what grade I will give said match.

Match #1: Eddie Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield- Great American Bash 2004

Backstory
Eddie Guerrero became champion at No Way Out 2004 defeating Brock Lesnar and went on to successfully defend his title against Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 20. A few months later Kurt Angle would become the GM of Smackdown and he decided to have a series of matches to determine who would be the #1 contender. JBL turned heel around this time and he would become the #1 contender to the WWE title. He and Eddie Guerrero had a bloody match at Judgment Day in which Guerrero would win by disqualification. JBL was furious and he demanded a rematch and got one at the Great American Bash in which the stipulation would be a Texas Bullrope Match.

Promo
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Match
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Grade
This match was great though not as great as their Judgment Day. They put on a great performance and the crowd was really into it. All that being said, I will have to give this match a B+ and it pains me to do it. One reason I don't give this a higher grade because I didn't particularly like the finish. I would have rather had JBL win clean but it was a precursor to his title reign when he cheated to win in almost every title match and spawned Eddie's feud with Angle. Another gripe I had is that this match should have gone last but instead we get Undertaker vs. Dudley Boyz in the main event. I understand the whole Paul Bearer situation but you could have done that in the middle of the match and it would have had the same event. This match deserved to go on last and the fact that it didn't left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I highly recommend this match as well as their Judgment Day one and you will not be disappointed.

 

[TLC]

Wow. I can't believe nobody has poster in this thread yet. I think its a pretty good idea. Well done LJL. Anyway onto topic I pretty much agree with most of what you said except a few things.

Unlike you, I actually prefer this match to there battle at Judgement Day. It may just be the face that I am a sucker for a bloodbath, even though that occured at Judgement Day, I think I just prefer it if the match actually lets you hit them with chairs etc.. It makes it a lot more entertaining it my view.

You also touched on the ending and about how you would of liked it if JBL won cleanly. I feel the complete opposite of it. I feel that it was a perfect ending to the match as it showed a lot of what JBL's reign as World Heavyweight Champion was all about, getting the win by any means even if it means cheating, scraping out a win by a smudge etc.. So I believe it was the perfect way to end the match and he got a lot of heat for it as well. If I was pissed off with him at that point, the crowd must of been fuming.

That's all i've got to say on this match really. Again good idea.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Match #2: The Undertaker vs.The Rock vs. Kurt Angle- Vengeance 2002



Promo
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Match
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Grade
This match gets an A+ from me. This was the best triple threat match I've ever seen for various reasons. I thought it was cool that they did each other's finishers around the beginning of the match as it set the tone for what was to come and got the crowd entertained from the start. The ending was phenomenal with all three hitting their own finisher and getting very close pinfalls. I thought this match was done perfectly and is really one of the overlooked matches this decade.

This didn't affect my grade but there is one thing that has stuck under my craw and still does. Why did The Rock need to win this match? I understand that they wanted a big name to drop the title to Lesnar so why didn't they stick with the Undertaker? If Taker would have won at Vengeance, he would have defeated Ric Flair, Stone Cold, Hulk Hogan, HHH, Rock, and Angle in consecutive U.S. pay-per-views. That is one hell of an accomplishment and he also beat RVD and Jeff Hardy to retain the title and I believe those three of four months were the best of Taker's career. Of course, Undertaker feuded with Lesnar after Rock left but I always wanted to see Undertaker drop the belt to Lesnar, preferrably at Hell in a Cell.