Steven Regal v Psicosis (Nitro, 12/16/96)
Aside from Bischoff and DiBiase sucking a fat one on commentary (they're truly awful, never shutting up about Hogan and Piper and the nWo), this was aaawesome and definitely one of the best Nitro matches I've ever seen. Regal was fucking kingsized in this. His arm work at the start looked as nasty as you want Steven Regal arm work to look (Psicosis sells it like a boss during his comeback as well), he gives Psicosis a ton of offence (watching a truckload of Regal in WCW footage a couple years ago I thought he tended to smother some opponents a bit, but there was none of that going on here), and his selling when he takes back over is pretty much perfect. Psicosis hits a crazy guillotine legdrop where he basically lands with his entire body weight on Regal's face, and Regal spends the rest of the match looking like he's trying to shift his jaw back into place (that might not actually have been him selling). He stumbles around like he's been completely battered, and my favourite part of the whole match might be him selling his own hand when he cracks Psicosis with a few brutal looking palm strikes. Crowd totally ruled here, too. They're just all over Regal and everything Psicosis does gets a big reaction. They absolutely lose it when he hits his plancha, and DiBiase even stops rabbiting on about whatever for a second to point out that a Psicosis plancha looks fucking badass. When Regal takes back over he's even surlier than before, and reels off a killer punch combo in the corner down the stretch. The counter to the hurricanrana leading to the finish bounced Psicosis' head off the mat like a basketball, and god damn if that wasn't the hurtiest looking Regal Stretch you've ever seen. This is what you want in a TV match.
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