May 2000

These two factions had a pretty compelling match last week but this was a step back IMO. MIA has no heat from the crowd and Major Gunns has no charisma. You could tell they really tried to present her kicking Disco Inferno in the balls as this big spot but it got no reaction. Filthy Animals in some ways act like the faces here as a result and the match doesn’t ever really gain a flow and is just a series of eliminations. The only redeeming quality is that Chavo again looks good and motivated in this role oddly enough. Stasiak interferes at will halfway through this and that brings out Booker T in camo garb. The match sort of gets thrown out with MIA declared the winners s…

Cole and Tom Pritchard are on the call here. Dr. Tom is great here getting over the psychology of the match and showing the transitions that are being executed. The opening mat work was engaging and then we get the first shoot headbutt. From there the match is on with blood pouring down Regal’s face. The match is a sequence of tough power moves and stiff strikes. This was an important match for Regal as he was able to get some momentum after the last 2-3 years of being in neutral in his career. You could hear the Regal chants building and the crowd realizing they are watching a damn good match helps bring gravity to the proceedings overall. Regal hits a butterfly suplex f…

Some good mid card lucha again. Segura was the standout for me as he dives around in the third fall in beautiful ways springboarding off the ropes. Infernal is also strong on the rudo side with shrot punches and strikes that are compact and violent. Ciclon looked like his age was starting to get to him and I didn’t see much from Kung Fu jr. on the rudo side. The finish was exciting as it was a clean rudo victory which we haven’t seen much from this year. ***

Well these six had a MOTYC last time so can they top it here? This starts off much more restrained than the previous six man and you get traditional pair offs in the first caida. This culminates in Shocker and Villano III. Look at how much they milk the test of strength here including a wonderful celebration from the rudos when Shocker takest he advantage. Things pick up after that exchange and the Villanos end up taking the first fall right after the 10 minute mark. Classic lucha here. Second fall opens up with a really cool moment where Villano IV and Shocker square off and both throw a dropkick at same time. As soon as Shocker gets up, he gets punched in the face. Seco…

Jericho’s shirt is atrocious here. I don’t remember it so they must have cut their losses quickly. Good action here from these three. Jericho and Val bring the stiffness with some brutal chops against Holly. They create a union at the beginning of the match that quickly goes awry. I thought this made Holly and Venis look more motivated better than anything else so far in this mini push for them. Jericho in particular was more on point than usual as he was the ring leader for most of the action. Jericho locks on that brutal Walls over the ropes and Venis comes in with a nice legdrop to stop that. Jericho is able to get the lionsault on Val but Holly comes with the guilloti…

I guess Eddy and Chyna are full fledged babyfaces now answering the challenge of E&C here. I like the blue Guerrero tights along with Edge’s. After dogging Eddy for his Judgment Day performance, he is more energetic here and is FIP for E&C for a minute. Chyna gets the hot tag and gives a couple of good powerbombs to E&C. She actually looks less clunky versus these two than with anyone else I can remember. The crowd is popping for it and I don’t think it utilized crowd sweetening. Edge gets in a spear on Chyna and they get a DQ after a pretty weak shove. Eddy and Chyna clean house to finish off this fun segment. **

These two are quickly becoming the Awesome/Tanaka of the second half of 2000. Once again, they fly through as much as they can here in five minutes, but it is still five minutes and I would appreciate things being stretched out to 10-12. I stand by my theory that this has inflated Angle’s reputation somewhat in the beginning because while he hangs with these heavy hitters in these sprints, we haven’t seen any long form matches from him yet. Holly comes in and does the chair shot interference that he did on Monday night. Holly vs Benoit is set for Raw. *3/4

Opening dialogue between Taker and Vince. I wasn’t too interested in this but the jist is that Linda McMahon signed Taker to a fat new contract. Shane comes out for the match and is cocky against the Undertaker for some reason. Out comes Taker to his “Your Gonna Pay” entrance although can someone clarify if he had the Limp Bizkit theme and this is a dub in on the network? Not really a match as Taker beats up Shane until the numbers game of DX overwhelms him. Here comes The Rock and he helps Taker clear house of the whole regime. Shane is given a tombstone as the crowd is going ballistic. Why Rock is buddies with Taker here, I am a bit unsure. NR

Talk about it here.

CMLL is still moving along nicely. This starts with a big time rudo beatdown and Perro has color early on. Perro and Ano 2000 go after each other right away and are the main feud throughout the whole match. First fall goes easy to the rudos and then the tecnicos are able to make a good comeback in the second fall. The Dantes/Satanico vs Olimpico/Atlantis pairings are interesting in that they are interchangeable throughout the match and all are intriguing to one degree or another. The finish actually plays into this as Atlantis got the Atlantida on Satanico for the second fall victory and he locks it in the final fall until Dantes shoves him into the referee. With one refe…

Good, energetic short trios. The Guapos continue to gel and again Tarzan Boy is starting to gain some of his mojo back in the wake of the Satanico feud. He has a big dive here and looks really energetic. Casas has been interesting to watch in 2000. Certainly not bad but also someone that hasn't really had a spotlighted feud to sink his teeth into where we get some long form singles matches. ***

NWA Texas Junior Heavyweight title match with ‘Playboy’ Joey Corman challenging the champion, Samir. Some lovely grappling at the beginning between these two, ending with Corman taking Samir down and the shaven headed champion complaining to the official about a non-existent hair pull. Nice press slam into a Michinoku Driver by Corman and Samir takes to the floor for a chat with his manager after kicking out of the cover. He counters the attempted DDT with a fireman’s carry take down but then fails to connect on the dropkick as Corman holds onto the ropes. Death Valley Driver and this time Samir barely kicks out of the lateral press. A quick fire series of pin attem…

I liked that this didn’t insult the viewer by having any pretenses of it being anything but a hardcore match. Some of the weapons shots were effective but once again Oz Academy is probably my least favorite joshi promotion to watch as it is tough to get a sense of hierarchy and the stakes that are involved with each individual match. KAORU is asked to play a multitude of roles and while she does most of them well, I still haven’t seen that break out amazing performance that she conveyed in the Aja match. Here we barely got any glimpses of that at all. **3/4

This match should have put away any doubts of Spanky/Dragon being able to hang with established WWF names. D-Lo is presented as a touring star for the match and they perfect that role against him bumping huge for all his signature stuff. With Chulo, both Spanky and Dragon show lucha tendencies. These guys were close to ready to debuting IMO as a tag team on the big stage. It is amazing that they weren’t kept under WWF contract. Lita helps with some interference which is weird given the heel/face structure of the match and D-Lo is able to pick up the win. Spanky and Dragon brawl with each other to the back. ***

Straight Memphis stuff to start in this Jersey indy as Hit Squad act like they are leaving the ring for the count out loss and they also get shoved down by the referee. Metal Maniac and KC Thunder are about the most generic looking New Jersey indy guys you can imagine. Each looks to be middle aged and they work for the Newark Airport for their day job fueling the airplanes. The match follows a traditional southern template. Much like the Bad Crew vs Backseat Boys feud, I don’t know if I want to see a show full of this type of stuff but as a one off going through a multitude of footage, this is a nice change of pace. This shows some depth for Da Hit Squad as they hit their…

This is a match where the importance can’t be understated. I feel like we have given a good look at the indy stuff from the late 90’s on and it is tough to pinpoint when we reach our first true classic of the indies that wouldn’t look out of place at all in the ROH indy era. Mayhem vs Ki is usually slotted as that match but I think it is for sure this one. The match included brutal stiffness that was unmatched at points and reminded me of Necro and Samoa Joe’s best outings. The matwork was intense and brutal including the opening lock up that showed this wasn’t just going to be a run to the mill match. There were some flubs including a diving headbutt from Ki that whiffed…

Whereas the previous match was praised for building to the big spot and not overstaying its welcome, this was a big offender of that motif. It also began a theme we will see throughout the decade of deathmatch finales where everything seems like it has been done before and now the finale becomes a game of “can you top this” with a ton of winded setup and usually some flat results. This condensed to a highlight package of 5-6 spots would show some brutal stuff and it started off well with Corp using the beer bottle and breaking the first table with a great spot. If the match would have ended right there, bravo. Unfortunately, the match goes about 20 minutes past that point…

These guys will have a long rivalry in IWA-MS in 2001 and this is a pretty good launching point as the work here was simple and nothing look too contrived. The chain was utilized and the strikes were brutal looking. I appreciated the lack of each person just grinding a sharp object into the other. The finish is the one “big” spot of the match and is Corp hitting the boot camp from the apron through a barbed wire table on the floor. This was more in the style of a thinking man’s deathmatch and not just a hack and slash gore fest. ***

Clips from last week’s show, where Wolfie D clocked Randy Hales in the head with the Power Pro belt and Ali came to Hales’ rescue. It sounds like the title ended up being held up, and today Ali is to face an opponent of Brandon Baxter’s choosing for the belt. As Dave and Corey speculate on who it may be, Baxter joins them and says how when he claimed to be at the hotel earlier, that was a lie. He went and bailed the rightful champion out of jail, the man who’s going to beat Ali and regain what is rightfully his, Wolfie D. Ali and Wolfie trade blows in the middle of the ring, but with Ali coming out on top, Wolfie goes to the eyes. Ali ducks a clothesline and nails…

The commercial version for these matches is part frustrating with the clipping but also endearing with the interviews and clips interspersed to give us a bit of context. We get to see most of this and I really enjoyed the way it was worked. Taikawa gets his leg worked over for a big portion and he continues to sell the damage even performing some of his high impact moves. This also had some stiff action on the outside with the clotheslines into the guard rail. Finishing stretch has Taikawa looking like things are firmly in control until Kanemoto is able to kick the leg and trip him again. Kanemoto is able to roll through from a middle rope move and lock in the ankle lock …

Bailey says in this house, there is only one deity and that is him. We get our first look at heel AJ. Behind the RNR stuff, this is probably the best Wildside stuff we have seen. AJ worked well as a heel showing ass and him and Golden not initially being on the same page. Dazz was always someone that I wanted to see more of just based on the compilations I got in the early 2000’s. Styles does a great job of cowarding away from him when Estrada makes the hot tag. Finish with Dazz and Styles is the most fast paced sequence of the match and they built to it well. AJ was able to show his athletic flash as a heel well. Double clotheslines end the sequence. Dazz gets the sunset…

Easy to compare Spanky and Dragon and who is looking the best so far but tonight the choice was easy. D-Lo is probably a better worker that Chulo but not by an extraordinary amount. This match had a much clearer face/heel structure and Danielson worked well to show himself looking competent vs D-Lo while also building up sympathy during his heat segment even though Brown was much larger. I think Dragon has grown by leaps and bounds even since January and this was another notch on his belt as he looked credible in there with a former IC champion from WWF. ***1/4

The tag match from the night before is split off into two singles matches. This had some moments of glimpses but was pretty sloppy overall. Chulo is someone that definitely has to have someone reign in his spottiness and Spanky is not the person to do it. Lita seems to have much more heat than Chulo and even executes a better moonsault at the finish. **1/4

Shiga is all of sudden becoming an interesting figure right at the split of AJ as him and Hashi go after each other to start things off and it is really entertaining and not that far off from the fired up Kikuchi segments you would see in early 90’s AJ tags. Kobashi and Taue come in like the older brothers that tell the younglings that it is time for serious business. They have a good exchange with each other and Taue gains the advantage by sending Kobashi into a headbutt with Hashi. Hashi takes over on Shiga for a long time here. Hashi is an interesting performer with much more of a wrestling base. He almost seems like he should be mixing it up with Otsuka in BattlARTS. …

Shocker is the captain but doesn’t have his Gaupo friends so lets see how he works with some other opponents. We have Felino and Villano III on the opposite side so I am optimistic. This was used a backdrop to set up a good bit of stuff to come and mainly Villano and Shocker. Villano gets his arm worked over at first. I thought Ciclon and Infernal showed a good bit of fire here with Infernal blading and bumping around all over the place. Felino and Cerebro get into the fun a bit with Cerebro getting his mask raised. I keep enjoying the back and forth on the nut shots between Shocker and Villano. The refs refuse to believe Shocker as he winces in pain and then the finish o…