Welcome back to Dark Match Dungeon! As you’ll see in today’s edition, I’m sort of beginning to fudge around with what kind of footage I’ll allow in this feature. Why? Because here, I am the master of my domain expanding the parameters of what we could feasibly call a “dark match” allows for much more footage that we can use well into the future of this column. This takes us directly to the forgotten realm of Velocity, WWE’s old Saturday night programming. Velocity consisted of matches taped before Smackdown, which means that you could often count on seeing some indy wrestlers getting their first looks. And today, we’re looking at a match that could easily happen today if not for some injuries – Daniel Bryan versus Jamie Noble.
What To Look For:
- Tough Enough co-winner Nidia. You still doing okay, Nidia? We sure hope so.
- The oldest of old-school gear from Bryan. It looks like he’s about to go to Japan and win the junior tag titles with Curry Man.
- The crowd reacting like they’ve never seen European uppercuts before.
- Bryan’s backflip off the turnbuckles. Some things get even better with age, no?
- Josh Mathews calling a “roaring elbow,” indicating that he’s been listening to Joey Styles call matches for a little too long.
This feels like a real blast from the past, considering that both Bryan and Noble were on Raw last week. But if you keep going back into the archives for both of these guys, it gets pretty interesting. Jamie Noble would be released by WWE in 2004 and eventually show up in Ring of Honor to end CM Punk’s infamous “Summer of Punk” title reign. Noble’s reign, however, would end up being the shortest in ROH history after losing to… you guessed it, Daniel Bryan. From Velocity to The Authority, these two have been on parallel paths for over a decade. Time is a squared circle.
