We all have that moment where we remember watching the classics whether it’s Taker and Micheals at Wrestlemania 26, Bayley and Sasha Banks at Takeover: Brooklyn and of course, weelc from Extreme Rules 2014.
Now, I’m currently having that same exact feeling coming out of watching FTR having the Dark Knight level of greatness with Bullet Club Gold for the world tag team titles. Something that I’ve never felt before in quite some time.
The last time I can recall having that state of mind was when I watched FTR facing The Young Bucks at Full Gear 2020 for that exact same world tag team championship (it’s one of my favourite matches of all time, by the way).
Ironically enough, FTR’s match with The Jackson Bros reminds me of the 2 out of 3 falls match in that the in-ring psychology is GOD TIER. It really made you believe during the match that FTR was going to lose the title because of how well they sold the knee.
A great match, at least for me, includes telling a simple narrative without uttering a single line of dialogue and that bout HAD THAT. Let me give you an example.
“FTR’s knee was damaged, can they overcome it and retain the titles or the damaged knee is the catalyst of their loss?”
That simple, easy to follow type of storytelling made a match like this so engaging and that’s what makes professional wrestling such a compelling medium to watch. It’s the mastery of simplicity.
And yes, while it does lead to clichés being built along the way, the strength outweighs its weakness.
Speaking of in-ring psychology, I gotta give Juice Robinson and Jay White props too because the moment where Robinson shoved both guys onto each other leading to a blade runner to Cash Wheeler is, to put it bluntly, peak fiction.
The way both White and Robinson utilized FTR as weapons in order to get an upper hand in this encounter is just outstanding stuff and if that doesn’t tell ya that Jay White and Juice are the chaos emeralds, I don’t know what to tell you.
In fact, it got ya boy thinking, “Damn, Triple H fumbled BIG time on Juice Robinson”.
If you for some odd reason haven’t seen the match, GO WATCH IT! It’s literally the best match of the year and probably ever? Will see what the rest of the year has in store.
Check out my piece on FTR as a tag team on Love Wrestling CA here
