Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 119: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Billy Kidman (Nitro 3/15/99)

This is a match-up I’ve been waiting to see on the set since both men have worked well with Juvy, but didn’t seem to cross paths. This is Hip-hop Rey Jr., not the masked luchadore. Kidman is YOUR cruiserweight champion.

These guys are hitting a lot of big spots perfectly. Both graceful and impactful stuff here. They aren’t really letting the match breath, but the fans are hot and staying with it. Spot of the match for me is Rey going for his springboard rana and Kidman hitting him in mid-air with a stiff drop kick. What made it even better was the selling after by both men. A commercial break in the middle kinda kills my momentum as a chunk of the middle (the heart) of this match is lost. Kidman actually used a pedigree. That’s something you’ve only seen from one man this entire decade. Weird.

All the near falls are well timed, executed, and over, but at times I feel like they are running through stuff to fast for my tastes. That could be TV time constraints, but watching on DVD a decade later, it doesn’t help me to enjoy it more knowing that may be the case. At times they are definitely working a match for themselves in front of a crowd, instead of a match where they are interacting with a crowd, and that hurts it somewhat for me.

Awesome sequence at the end where Kidman reverses into a face buster, misses a pretty Shooting Star Press, and Rey hits the springboard head scissors for a near fall. All of this is really fun wrestling, but from a “work rate” perspective there is not much selling. I’ll let a fun match with a great crowd slide in this case. Rey wins a moment later with a bulldog off the top in seven minutes shown, so maybe ten minutes. Rey is the new Cruiserweight champ. 3 ½ and 6.8/10.