There’s nothing outwardly special about this, other than the super cool fact that someone booking television that week decided to put Harper up against three of the best of all time back to back to back. So when I saw that, I figured, what better way to build up Harper on the GWE list? Ballot stuffing my ass.
For background, on the main roster, the Wyatt Family had recently attacked both Punk and Bryan for unknown reasons, other than Wyatt gleefully saying “the devil made me do it”. While that fun bit never got any actual payoff, it was long surmised the “devil” was Triple H, and him using the Wyatt’s would be what originally drove the wedge against the Shield and started that program.
WE GO TO MONDAY NIGHT RAW, 11/4/2013!
This is the period where Punk is all but checked out. He’s pseudo feuding with the Authority thru the Wyatts along with Bryan, as mentioned above.
I wanted the full effect, so I watched the prematch video and intros and hell yeah, dude. Original Wyatts intro still fucks so hard.
March starts, and Punk charges Harper with a flurry of offense but Harper stops him dead with one stiff punch and takes over. Punk starts to fight back and runs Harper from the ring and tries for the tope suicida, but Harper again nails him with a huge punch from the floor and Punk collapses like a bag of kittens.
Harper then lets out a satisfied YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH before doing a gator roll. Fuck yeah dude.
Big control segment for Harper is cut off by missing a mafia kick in the corner, tumbling to the floor and Punk finally hits his tope as MONDAY NIGHT RAW ROLLS ON!
Back from break, we see Harper’s back in control thanks to mind games to Punk from Rowan on the floor. Harper’s really been focusing on the head and neck, doing a bunch of gator rolls and cross faces. Punk goes on his Bret Hart style comeback, ironically while wearing his own pink and black gear. He botched a running swinging neck breaker pretty bad, and you even see him audibly motherfuck himself. My dude is not well.
Punk goes up top for his Savage tribute elbow drop, but sees Rowan coming at him on the floor so he dives at him instead, allowing Harper to meet him with a KILLER big boot when Punk tries to regroup with his springboard sitout lariat. Harper then sets up for the discus lariat but Punk ducks and rolls through his legs with a modified roll up and gets the win!
The Wyatts beat Punk down, but D Bry with the shoulder tape runs out with a chair. Bray intercepts him but Punk gets the chair and nails all the heels to send them bailing. Crowd is MOLTEN hot for this, like insane.
MATCH RATING: ***1/4
BUT WE’RE DOWN TO ORLANDO FOR NXT, 11/6/13 (but taped on 10/10, fuck you):
Harper is here solo for this. I wasn’t aware the Wyatts were doing anything on NXT by this point, because I specifically remember a goodbye segment maybe 2-3 months before this. But, this is happening because the Wyatts attacked Ohno at some point in the summer and put him on the shelf for a while, and now Ohno’s back and wants revenge.
Hero is in incredible shape here. Not judging his later looks at all, but he’s ripped and tanned and looking for that main roster deal.
Ohno is all over Harper to start, so eventually Harper just gets him on the mat and starts standing on his fucking face. Harper was such a unique worker because, as a heel, he could control these matches at such a pace typically reserved for smaller or more technically based dudes, and he’d do it with insane stuff like standing on their face. He was just a level above.
Ohno finally breaks free of Harper’s onslaught with a big rolling elbow that Harper only sells by tripping to the floor, he doesn’t even go down! AND NXT ROLLS ON, AFTER THIS!
Back from break, Ohno is trying to wear Harper down with strikes and holding him off from taking control back at all costs. He leaps to the apron to avoid a charge but then Harper NAILS him with a running boot and Ohno goes to the floor hard. Harper continues to just beat on Ohno, slow and methodically, but it starts to go on a liiiittle bit too long.
Ohno finally starts making a fiery comeback with his trademark strikes and has it for a while but Harper AGAIN cuts him off and goes back to just punishing him. He hits two back to back running mafia kicks but after the second Ohno surprises him with a BRUTAL rolling role for a 2.999999
Harper is pissed and ducks Ohno’s next shot and quickly hits the Discus Lariat to score the win!
Went on a little long in the middle, could’ve trimmed 2-3 mins off this. But a lot of fun.
MATCH RATING: ***1/4
BUT WE’RE ON TO SMACKDOWN, 11/8/13!
This gets much more focused since Harper can go after Bryan’s injured shoulder and Bryan’s gonna fight like hell to defend himself. More awesome work by Harper using the gator roll and just powerful, clobbering blows.
Bryan is more spry than Punk or Ohno and doesn’t let Harper stay in the lead long, being the first man to successfully take him down on his first tope try all week. He then does the yes kicks on the floor but Harper catches the last one and just LAUNCHES Bryan bad shoulder first into the guard rail, AS SMACKDOWN ROLLS ON.
Harper is back in control when we return but not for long as Bryan again is too spry for Harper, softening him up with kicks and strikes to try and chop that big tree down. Harper will stop him with a big boot or forearm but Bryan keeps coming back for more.
Bryan starts to go on a run and tries for the Psycho Knee but HARPER CATCHES HIM WITH A SITOUT POWERBOMB AND A TWO COUNT. Harper tries to pick him up and go into the discus lariat, BUT BRYAN LATCHES ON TO HIS ARM AND BRINGS HIM DOWN FOR THE LEBELL LOCK! But Rowan attacks for the DQ!
It’s 3 on 1 but only briefly until Punk runs out and Wyatt immediately calls Harper and Rowan off with a smile.
MATCH RATING: ***1/2
I just want to note that while all this sounds like it was probably pretty awesome, immediately following Bryan/Harper was a recap of the Big Show/Authority feud where they were trying to push the Yes movement off to Big Show as their top babyface and pivot away from Bryan. So fuck this company.
The sad part is? The Big Show storyline is ACTUALLY pretty fucking good. But it’s done for nefarious reasons and at the absolute wrong time.
But this isn’t a post to bitch about WWE 2013-14 booking and their bullshit Reasons. Fuck them.
All in all though, this was a fun exercise to scratch the itch I had to watch some Brodie matches. Nothing overly special about this week, just some wrasslin
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