Eddie v The Rock!

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley (Tables Match) (Vengeance, 7/21/02)

I wasn't really feeling this to begin with, but it found a nice footing as it went along and by the end I was pretty well into it. They worked it largely as a straight tag, though structurally it was pretty much an extended beatdown right from the start. Eddie and Benoit working from above is fine though, because their offence looks great and any time Spike Dudley is eating that offence it's at least entertaining. The Dudleys weather the storm and start to find some openings, and I liked Bubba making a dramatic save just as it looked like Spike was getting whipped through a table. They don't really spend too long on the table stuff, actually. From that first tease with Spike to the finish with Benoit getting Bubba Bombed through one it's probably about two minutes of the match at most. But Eddie's elimination looked super nasty as the table breaks kind of awkwardly, and then of course Spike dies for our pleasure because that's what he does. This wasn't half bad. 

Eddie Guerrero v The Rock (RAW, 7/22/02)

I really love this match. It's about ten minutes tops and it wound up being inconsequential in the grand scheme of WWE in 2002, but it's Eddie and the Rock in a singles match and I love Eddie and the Rock, so how couldn't I love this? They cut a nice pace straight from the start and Rock's armdrags were as deep as I've ever seen them, really whipping Eddie over, practically horizontal as the point of contact. Eddie's control segment is pretty simple. He has four minutes to work from above, but rather than always going to the chinlock he mixes it up a little, with the chinlock, a tight headlock, the rare figure-four headscissors, really just trying to squeeze Rock's head as hard as he can. With the abbreviated length it means Rock's comeback maybe feels a bit less earned than it should, but you forget about that as he goes for the Rock Bottom and Eddie reverses it with an incredible armdrag right at the last second. He probably wasn't the first person to reverse a Rock Bottom like that and he's reversed similar moves in similar fashion before, but it came off perfectly here and it blew me away when I first saw this match years ago. That this was their only singles match and they never got a chance to properly stretch out on PPV is a travesty. It would've ruled.