Finlay Rode All Night and He Rode All Day, Eastward, Long on the Broad Highway

Finlay & William Regal v Matt Hardy & Gunner Scott (Smackdown!, 6/16/06)

Man, the Regal/Finlay combo was such a great short-lived team. This was a cracking little match, and Finlay and Regal are just kingsized in it. Everything they do looks totally brutal -- even being pinned by one of these guys has to suck. Their work over on Hardy was awesome here. Finlay backs into the corner and does the bit where he complains about having something in his eye, so the ref' tells Matt to stay back while he checks him, and while this is going on Regal sneaks in and blindsides him. Instead of that being being the transition to the FIP segment Matt fights back and hits a plancha on Finlay, then they transition for real when Hornswoggle (he didn't have a name at that point so he was still just the little bastard) pops out from under the ring and whacks Matt in the plums with the shillelagh before Regal comes around and hits a running knee to the head. At some point Matt gets a busted up mouth, and there's a great visual of him lying on the floor gurgling blood Fujiwara-style (he winds up on the floor in the first place because Regal runs across the apron and shoves him off the top rope). Matt's a really great FIP in general here. Dude was sort of quietly one of the best wrestlers in America for a few years there, maybe even the world. He's a trainwreck of a human being and he went and got fat and started videoing himself shooting his girlfriend with tasers and shit, but week in-week out he was consistently good-to-great during this run (think I've called him the Tito Santana of the 00s a few times...I should start a Tito Santana project. Tito of the Day!). Albright was fine as well. He didn't do a ton, but he got hit in the face a bunch and he caught Finlay with an awesome looking single-leg at the start. And that shillelagh shot at the end probably hurt like a bastard and he took that shit like a man. Also, was JBL drunk on commentary during this? Because he was fucking amazing. He literally gets up out his seat and looks absolutely overjoyed at the little bastard appearance. "It's the little bastard! Bring him back out! I want one. I've got money. I've got a black Amex card, I'll buy one. I want a little bastard." He tears into Cole the whole way through (and Cole rolls with it like a trooper) and says a bunch of sexist shit about Ashley Massaro and how women shouldn't say anything, period. This whole thing fucking ruled.


Finlay Project