Time for Moore, Shannon Moore

Recently, my brother Ben and I were having a conversation about TNA's show last Monday, which was pretty awful, according to him and I both. Anyway, we were talking about the X-Division Match between X-Division Champion Doug Williams, Kaz, and Christopher Daniels. In the story line, Kaz was supposed to receive an X-Division Title Shot at the next pay-per-view, but apparently he preferred to have it on free TV, and with another man involved. Anyway, Williams won, but out comes Shannon Moore, who attacked Williams and eventually drove him to the back. Eric Bischoff must have been impressed, because he, as one of the 82 people in charge of TNA, named Shannon Moore the Number one contender to Williams' Title, and the men will have a match on the next pay-per-view. Well, Ben did not care for this too much, heavily questioning why Shannon Moore would even be in TNA, much less be given a PPV title match. He even went as far as saying that Shannon Moore has never had one good match. Well, that sounded like a challenge to me, so I set off to prove him wrong, and find a good Shannon Moore match. However, there are some stipulations, as it can't be a multi-man or a tag-team match. Nope, it only can be singles, 1 vs. 1 matches. So without further adieu, here is a summary of what I've found.

Match 1: Shannon Moore vs. Paul London

This match is from 2004 and was shown on Velocity, where all of the B-stars wrestled. Moore has a mohawk, but at least it isn't the spiked mohawk look he has now. Anyway, this was a decent match, although it started off very slowly. Moore was portrayed as the power wrestler in this match, which makes no sense because he's about 5'7" and 170 pounds. London's not that big, but he's bigger than Shannon. Anyway, the match really didn't pick up until London hit a second-rope German Suplex from the tree of woe position. That's something you don't see everyday. After that, the pace began to pick up some. London hit some of his kicks and a leg lariat, but only gets two. Moore fights back, hits a variation of the Mooregasm (which is usually a swinging neckbreaker from the top rope, but this one is from the ground), but only gets two. They excahnge a couple of holds before London uses the magistral cradle on Moore for the three count. This match was ok, and like most WWE cruiserweight matches, probably needed another three minutes. I'll give it a 2.4 out of 5, not bad, but not that great either. Here's a video of the match here, although I think the video may have cut out a few seconds of the match.


Paul London vs Shannon Moore
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Match 2: Shannon Moore vs. Chavo Guerrero (WCW Monday Nitro 01/08/01)

This match is for Chavo's Cruiserweight Title. I wanted to like this match, I really did. But these two just didn't mesh for whatever reason. Moore messed up on a couple of spots, including a springboard attempt where he slipped on the rope. The match had its moments, but ultimately it wasn't very good. Chavo ends it with a brain buster that looked more like a powerslam.  I'll give it a 1.8 out of 5. Here's the videos for the match, and you get bonus backstage footage with the Harris Brothers!





Match 3: Shannon Moore vs. The Miz (Smackdown, 4/25/08)

This was a match in the middle of the mini-feud between The Miz & John Morrison vs. Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang. As I recall, it produced some good tag matches, but since I'm only doing singles matches, they do not qualify. John Morrison is at ringside doing commentary, since he is with Michael Cole and Johnathan Coachman, he is by far the best commentator during this match. Cole says Shannon Moore is a "pretty cool guy", so he's got that going for him, which is nice. Miz provided most of the offense, which is good because it plays to Shannon's strengths, which is bumping and making the other guy look good. The Miz hit a nice looking clothesline and a powerslam during this match, but couldn't put Shannon away. Match ends after Miz goes for his finisher, but Moore counters with a backslide for the upset victory. A short match, but everything was done well. I think that this is a good match, not an all-time classic, but good nonetheless. I'll give it a 2.80350 out of 5. Here, once again, is a video so you can see it.


 
Smackdown 25/4/08 The Miz vs Shannon Moore - MyVideo

Match 4: Shannon Moore vs. Jamie Noble (Smackdown 08/03/2007)

If this match were 10 minutes, it could have been pretty good, unfortunately, it was 3 and a half minutes, and most of that was Noble controlling Moore. Moore did hit a nice corkscrew moonsault press, but whatever momentum he gained was quickly squashed, as Noble hit a vicious looking jumping knee, and then put the Gutbuster on Moore for the three count. Afterwards, things got stupid as Hornswoggle came out to pester Noble.  Match was too short to really accomplish anything, so I'll give it a 1.820 out of 5. You can give it whatever you want, as here's the video.


Shannon Moore Vs Jamie NOble
Uploaded by takerman.

So, what have we learned? Mainly, that Shannon Moore has been used as little more than a spare part over the years, and most of his matches in the big time are going to be short battles where his opponent is the one delivering the majority of the offense. Which makes sense because Moore's not the biggest guy around. Shannon Moore is good at what he does, but other than his unique look, his wrestling doesn't stand out too much. Yes, he can hit some high-flying moves, but mostly he's just a steady hand who won't take anything off the table, but won't put too much on the table either. It's surprising that TNA decided to put him in the X-Division Title Match with Doug Williams, but then again, TNA usually doesn't seem to know what they are doing and besides, it could be a very good match, if they just let the two men wrestle for 10-15 minutes. But enough about all of that, the challenge was to find a good Shannon Moore singles match (to be honest, I made it a singles match challenge, as Ben just said no 6 man tags where Moore's hardly in the ring or something like that). I might have done that, or I might not have. I think I did, but you might watch these matches and think they're all sorts of terrible, and that I have no idea what I'm talking about. If so, that's cool, let me know and I'll try again in the near future.

Well, thanks for reading. If you have any ideas for the Canon Review, then let me know either by leaving comments on the blog, or by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com. I leave you with Shannon Moore's last WWE theme music, which I'd say isn't good at all.