Samoa Joe vs. William Regal - UPW @ Santa Ana
Welcome to the first Hidden Gems review from the network. Today I'll be looking at a dream match of sorts. If you couldn't tell from the title, we've got Samoa Joe vs. William Regal from Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Now, this isn't going to be the Samoa Joe we all know and love, from as far as I can tell at least. This match is from late 2000, meaning that this is pre ROH Joe. But could he still give us a classic match? Let's find out.
The match started off with a wrist lock and didn't break away from it until the late minute and a half of the match. I'm not exaggerating either, it was a poorly paced technical match with Regal attempting to carry an inexperienced Joe about halfway through the match, and then seemingly giving up. The effort seemed lost, and the match was a great disappointment. It also doesn't help that the crowd was completely silent except for 2 girls who would scream whenever Regal showed some offense. In the end, Joe botched getting tripped, and tapped out to the Regal Stretch. I can give the match one star, but nothing more than that. *
