WCW Saturday Night, Rome, GA
A request! Being a big fan of both these dudes I have watched this match before but in all reality I don’t remember much specifically from it. I suppose I could pretend that I do, but I don’t see the point.
Finlay is out with his lone shoulder pad, hair still long, but clean shaven. Meng has Jimmy Hart in his corner. Dusty Rhodes imagines this one will be hard-hittin’, and Tony Schiavone agrees.
Finlay is usually all up for a fight and is here, but he’s a tad more tentative about locking up with the larger Meng than he would be against just about anybody else. He’s not showing fear, more a sense of needing to figure out his plan of attack. This pretty minor bit of character work from Finlay puts Meng over as a tough motherfucker without them even touching.
Meng gets the first shots in, landing a series of blows in the corner, ending with a big headbutt. Finlay goes to the eye and starts throwing right hands, and then fires off a dropkick. Meng bounces right back up, so Finlay pushes him to the corner with a choke and throws some heavy blows. Meng coming right back. Finlay’s going with the European uppercuts, Meng with some chops to the chest.
Finlay feels the raw power of Meng on those shots, so he takes him down with a drop toehold and moves into an STF, then claws at the face some and Dusty starts to ramblin’.
Dusty on Finlay: “He’s got a kinda funny side. I set with him a couple times and talked to him. You know that English humor? He’s got some of it.” He then goes into a passive-aggressive congratulations to Schiavone for how many shows Tony works on and how busy he is these days. Great stuff.
Meng with a backbreaker. Mostly this is just simple brawling, a fistfight. Nobody’s selling much, they’re just slugging it out. Finlay rocks Meng with some shots finally and Meng goes down, then Finlay hits an elbow drop. Now we’re at the point where the subtleties of Meng’s work are putting Finlay over big; Meng doesn’t really sell for many people, but he’s showing reaction to Finlay’s blows.
Finlay goes for an armbar submission, but Jimmy Hart distracts and Meng catches Finlay in the Tongan Death Grip. Finlay does his best to fight out of it, headbutting, punching, headbutting again, but Meng takes him down to the canvas and pins him in the hold with the temporary paralyzation.
Good ’98 B-show stuff. Not much for star ratings scales here, but told a tight little contained story in the time they had, both guys made the other look tough (which is the main selling point of each), and even the TDG finish was a little bit unique.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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