This was The Kliq going out and tearing the house down, just four buddies having a good time, no phone cameras, no twittering, no instagramming, just living in the moment. I last watched it over a decade ago and it was one of my favourite US tags ever, and happily I can say it held up great. What a cracking wee wrestling match. We get a quick opening shine, two face in peril segments and one heel in peril segment, and that's basically your structure. Nothing complicated, just vibes. The opening is blistering as the faces get Diesel out the road and Razor hits the Razor's Edge on Michaels, who's saved only by literally being dragged out the ring mid-pin. Some of you heathens will say he should've sold it longer, but it happened early enough that I don't mind him being up and about shortly after it. Kid's peril segment was short but sweet, working some killer big man v little man stuff with Diesel, including the actual transition where Diesel countered a sunset flip with a HUGE chokeslam. Ramon's heat segment is the meat of the match and it's fantastic. If I'm being nitpicky I'd have liked for them to throw in a few more obvious hope spots, but I suppose Razor isn't quite Ricky Morton and all of the offence Diesel and Michaels threw at him made up for it. They also managed to cheat and sneak attack plenty, running some nice apron cut-offs while Michaels was buzzing about like a nuisance. Razor's punches have never looked better, the way he was really throwing them from deep, sometimes visibly exhausted, and in general this was one of his best pure babyface performances. Speaking of great performances, how about Big fuckin Daddy Cool?! This was such a fun Diesel performance. He looked super sharp, was really good at getting into position for things - which sounds like a back-handed compliment but really isn't - hit an amazing shoulder tackle like he was channelling Hacksaw Reed, then when they started targeting Razor's lower back he hit a GREAT sidewalk slam and even GREATER elbow drop right across the spine. Seriously, this was Abdullah the Butcher level great, just absolutely kidney-busting. I even dug his wonky abdominal stretch and I appreciate how he and Michaels manipulated Chioda's positioning so they could work the classic double ab stretch (and Michaels really leaned back like he was trying to pull Razor apart). The transition sequence is good with Razor hitting a chokeslam, Kid making a phantom hot tag while the ref' is distracted, then making the actual hot tag when Michaels hits Diesel with the superkick. I loved the timing on the superkick as it happened right as the ref' was putting Kid out the ring, so I guess we can call that poetic justice. Kid is a fucking nuclear house of fire and just goes tonto with the kicks and highspots. Awesome sequence where he hits a wheel kick in the corner, whips Michaels to the opposite buckle where he takes a huge pre-HHH bump to the floor, then stumbles into a somersault dive. Michaels was great at not telegraphing it as well, just walking into it with no hands up and eating it right in the face and shoulder. This was one of the best Michaels performances ever. He ruled as the speedy bastard counterpoint to Diesel's brute force, but he never overshadowed Kid on the other side, was great at running apron shenanigans, bumped like a freak as you'd probably expect, then had a great heel in peril run after Diesel went down, just trying to hang in there for his team until the big man could get back in the fight (as silly as him being out cold for five minutes straight might've been). His desperation sleeper was the best, the way he just flung himself at Razor and hung onto him like a limpet. And in the end he succeeds in buying enough time, as Diesel wastes Kid with a big boot and Shawn manages to steals the pin. I might still pick this as the best WWE tag match ever, you know.
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