El Generico vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

[10.0] "It's not typical that the Rey de Voladores final would overshadow the final trios match of KOT weekend, in fact I daresay this is the only time it happened. But as good as FIST vs. Colony was, you just can't beat this absolute banger of a match. It's a wonderful match in any context, but the more you know about Waltman, the brighter the match shines. Debuting all the way back in 1989, Waltman first turned heads as "The Lightning Kid" on the fledgling indie scene of the early 90s, then memorably came to the WWF as 1-2-3 Kid, getting an upset win over Razor Ramon and gaining considerable popularity as a skilled high flyer and striker in a land of giants. Defecting to WCW to join the nWo, then defecting back to become a key member of DX, Waltman enjoyed a lot of success and seemed to be well positioned backstage as a member of the Klique. However over time his personal addiction issues affected his performance and fans grew tired of seeing him, birthing the term "X-Pac Heat" and leading to his 2002 release from the WWF. Despite several brief runs in TNA and appearances in other places, Waltman seemed to be in a destructive spiral from which he could not recover. He released an infamous sex tape of himself with wrestler Chyna, he would no show events, he would end up in rehab, and in 2008 he attempted to hang himself from an apartment balcony window. Thankfully, mercifully, he was in time able to turn his life around. Believing his body was too beat up for a long run, he predicted 2011 would be his last year of wrestling and sought to go out on a high note to redeem his legacy. This leads us to his CHIKARA debut in 2011, where despite a first round elimination in the trios tournament (in a highly entertaining match, it must be said) he fought his way to night 3 in the finals of RDV. The wrestling loving fans of CHIKARA fondly remember his wholesome days from the WWF New Generation and welcomed him with open arms, a far cry from the infamous days of "X-Pac Heat". Of course, it helps considerably to be facing off with El Generico, whom I firmly believe was the greatest wrestler in the world in the year of 2011. Despite this being their first and only encounter, there was immediate and tremendous chemistry between these two, as Waltman pulled deep on his veteran knowledge to find ways to keep up with a Generico who was nearly exploding with youthful energy. Despite their difference in era there is an odd connection between these two, as both made their names as scrappy underdogs who constantly surprised both fans and opponents with innovative offense, and both are masters of many different styles of wrestling. Waltman clearly phoned nothing in, just look at the great spot where he roughly smashes crotch first into the ringpost, look at not only the quality of the bump but how well it structures the match to create sympathy for Waltman without making Generico work against type to do something heelish. Waltman fought hard but in the end his exhaustion caught up to him, and while he clung to life in the match as tightly as possible there's no way to recover from the insane turnbuckle brainbuster. This was a wonderful match and it clearly meant a lot to Waltman, if someone were to say this was the greatest Waltman singles match I would be hard pressed to disagree, though his '94 match with Bret Hart is also extremely high tier. Waltman praised CHIKARA as the future of wrestling, and looking over the roster to see how many folks were signed later on the world stage I'd say he was right. Waltman made several more appearances but this is the one that really helped him redefine his legacy from a potential tragedy to a redemption story, and the quality of his performance here gave him the confidence to continue wrestling sporadically for an additional 10 years. Beautiful match, best one of a truly great weekend of wrestling."

[9.0] "One of the rare times I've willingly watched a Chikara match, and I found a version of this match that wasn't desynched to hell with the audio. Anyways yeah this was pretty damn good. Lots of cool back and forth and call backs to Waltman's previous spots that he hadn't done in years, I was darn near convinced he was gonna lock on the Buzzkiller. Generico is Generico in every way possible, he not as mean as he usually can get, in fact anytime he does something messed to Waltman it's accidental, except for his finisher of course. I think once they got past the friendly opening stretch it's were it got more interesting and then they started doing some wild stuff. Probably Waltman's best singles match. Four and a Quarter Stars out of Five."

[7.0] "Two ways to look at this one. First, it's a fun, high energy indies match with two guys who can fly around and who have a hot - if frankly too knowing, too cute - crowd behind them. It runs too long, but come on, it's fun, and these guys have charisma to the gills. The second way - and you add it to the first - is that this is Sean Waltman having gotten clean and giving being good another go (though he wasn't useless in TNA, of course). Apparently, at the start of this tour, the crowd did not like him, giving him the (dumb) X-Pac heat. By this point, they love him. He can still go, and he'll play the hits, and he puts the younger guy (Sami Zayn) over. At this point, there's another layer to the slightly too-knowing smark crowd - actually, deep down, this is still real theatre to them, because this is resurrected childhood. Hence Waltman's gimmick - he's the guy who had multiple great years in the WWF (the Bret Hart match, which informs this match, is referenced on commentary), and more or less the Kid who before that lit up the remnant territories with stuff no-one in the US was doing. It loses a little momentum at the end - they are pretty openly just moving to hitter bigger moves - and not everything is crisp, but it's very fun. 3.5/5"

[8.0] "This was a great match. Before doing some research, I never thought that this match ever happened, let alone that Sean Waltman was in his 1-2-3 Kid persona. They had a fun back and forth, with El Generico pulling off some nice moves. He even did a Razor's Edge, which was cool considering history between Razor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid. One small thing I didn't like was that after Kid gave Generico a second X-Factor, Generico got up only seconds later to attack Kid on the turnbuckle, which was a lack of selling, but at least it set up an X-Factor from the top rope. 1-2-3 Kid missed a somersault senton, which set El Generico up to give Kid the yakuza kick and the top rope brainbuster. This was fun, and a nice call back to the New Generation Era, even down to getting the same music for 1-2-3 Kid. ****"

[9.0] "This is such an awesome match. It's really remarkable to see two tremendous underdogs from very different eras going head to head like this. I love the clever touch of Generico accidentally low blowing Kid on the ring post to set up the heat and position Kid as the de facto 'babyface' without needing to compromise his own status as a squeaky clean underdog. A slightly generous rating? Perhaps. But this really did feel special, and it's quite a rarity for a match like this to come about at all, let alone be as good as this one when they do happen. I think that unique atmosphere really added something intangible to this encounter, and created a match that was greater than the sum of its parts. A wonderful ode to the career of Sean Waltman, and a match that I am very glad happened."

[10.0] "A fantastic match I mean it just incredible from the beginning to the end, incredible performance by both Generico and Sean, so many amazing spots during the match, that Brainbuster to the post was sick and of course an incredible crowd to make the match even better. One of the best matches I have ever seen in Chikara, just fantastic."

[7.0] "Good back and forth here with X-Pac (1-2-3 Kid) really impressing me although he was working with El Generico but still a good contest."

[8.0] "Excellent action in the early going, but it starts to fall apart a bit towards the end, where Waltman seemed too exhausted to do his moves properly."

[9.0] "An excellent match, featuring what may end up being the last great performance of Sean Waltman 's career."