Amazing Red drew a lot of comparisons to Rey Mysterio in the early 2000s for his ridiculously-paced matches, innovative maneuvers, and flashy daredevil style.
While you had better-rounded high flyers during that time such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and CIMA, Red was more in a league with pure flyers like Teddy Hart, Jody Fleisch, and rival Brian XL.
It’s similar to Rey who was more of a pure flyer until his career brought him into contact with a variety of superstars and he began to focus on his may game more. Mind you, injury and naturally slowing down had a role to play in that as well.
The difference between the two is that while Rey Mysterio became a big star at the biggest company, Amazing Red did not. Untimely injuries and sitting out while a slew of talent inspired in part by himself took over the indies pretty much kneecapped his career.
However, getting Red vs. Rey in 2015 was still a boon for any fan familiar with their late 90s and early 2000s high flying.
Amazing Red vs. Rey Mysterio: HOG At Last (NYC, 08/21/2015)
The eventual showdown between these two was a somewhat slower version of what fans of the two imagined in their heads. Mind you, that dream match is an early 2000s thing and it’s 20 years later.
Both men’s knees are probably dust and shards by now so no one is moving like they were in their teens and 20s here, folks. With that said, these two aren’t doddering around, limping, or moving around like 80s bodybuilder-wrestlers.
These two still had some gas in the tank in 2015 and still have some in the tank in 2022. The two started out feeling each other out and would lay down the general story for this match.
Amazing Red was a new opponent for Rey while Red grew up on Rey’s matches and knew his book cover to cover. Red was always promoted as the unexpected and he was truly that for Mysterio in this match.
During the bout, the two of them managed to counter each other’s moves with Rey utilizing experience and reflexes and Red using his knowledge of Rey’s playbook and reflexes.
For a mostly fast-paced, flyers’ showdown, that sliver of story worked for this one-shot. It’s not like Red facing Samoa Joe or Styles, those are known qualities. They’ve worked together in TNA, ROH, and elsewhere.
This was a first-time encounter for Red and Rey but they were both even. In the final moments of the match, Red didn’t get the fall following a Frog Splash and went for Eddie Guerrero’s Three Amigos locomotion suplexes.
On the attempt at the third, Mysterio slips out and sends Ref into the ropes with a head scissors. A 619 knocked Red back and perfectly in place for Rey Mysterio to climb to the top and beat him with the Frog Splash!
All-in-all, this was a very WCW-paced cruiserweight match with the trappings of a Northeastern indy and it worked. Again, this match wasn’t as fast as it would’ve been if they faced off between 2002-2004 but it was still a good display of the OGs showing they still got it.
It was as far from a sad OG match as possible and worth checking out.
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