Finlay, He's Down by the Railroad Tracks, Sittin' Low in the Back Seat of his Cadillac

Finlay v Matt Hardy (Smackdown!, 1/20/06)

Hell of a debut; pretty much the perfect taste of what's to come. Everything Finlay does in this just looks super nasty, even the regular stuff you'd see every week. Matt ducks his head at one point, presumably to hit a backdrop, but Finlay just straight punts him in the chest and it sounds like someone let off a firework. Finlay's permanent sneer is why pro-wrestling is the best. He does that standing Bombs Away spot, he does a sort of mini Rocker Dropper where he digs his knee into Hardy's neck before ramming his face into the mat, he counters a baseball slide by trapping Matt between the ring apron and the edge of the ring and just starts cracking him with forearms -- practically everything is the nastiest variation of that move or hold possible. This is also 2006 so Matt hasn't flipped his tree yet (at least not completely), and regardless of what he's like now (last time I saw him was mid-2010 so I genuinely don't know how good or bad he is at this stage), 2006 Matt Hardy was fucking great and he more than holds up his end. Match gets thrown out because Finlay won't stop blasting Matt in the face, but Finlay isn't even happy with the way he gets disqualified so he goes and stomps his head into the ring steps.


Finlay v Chris Benoit (Smackdown!, 2/3/06)

Too short to reach the level of their best matches, but if the Hardy match set the table for what Finlay would be like in the coming year then this set the table for what the matches between these two would be like. Only goes about five minutes, but they really lay into each other; punching each other in the ear, throwing crazy forearms, cringe-worthy chops...basically the kind of stuff you expect out of them. Gotta love Finlay squeezing Benoit's trapezius muscle to try and break his grip. As an abbreviated version of a Benoit/Finlay shitkicking, this was boss.


Finlay Project