June 2000

Good heat off of this one resulting as a rematch from their BOSJ final two years before. I thought for them going short here, they packed a lot of punch. I have been pretty keen on Wagner so far as he brings the stiffness here going shot for shot with Koji and also the storyline development and heel mannerisms like the second time they spill into the crowd and Wagner comes back into the ring with a random purse he chokes Koji out with. A lot of sympathy gets put on Koji as a result and makes the kickouts of things like the space mountain seem important. Kanemoto starts relling off a comeback and is feeling it with the fighting spirit and huge reaction from the crowd. It r…

IWRG is really starting to become my comfort food lucha. This had some nice mixture of guys we are familiar with mixing it up with some other individuals. Felino and Scorpio in particular had a nice heated exchange with each other when given the chance and they even brawl towards the backstage area. Felino loses his mask on a splash mountain in the third fall but is able to pin Cerebro. Sagrada has a good bit of size on him that I always forget because I am used to Mascarita. Bombero ends up getting the win with what will become the Chikara Special and after a smooth looking DVD. Another lucha match kind of like the AAA minis that won’t make any MOTY lists but is enjoyabl…

In ring we have seen that Angle was short and sweet but man is his promos on point and him with E&C just works from an entertainment standpoint. Them running down the Bills and name dropping OJ is their best gag since Judgment Day. The match literally goes two minutes and ends with Christian eating a 3D for the pin. Nice win for the Dudley Boyz. ½*

A long HHH promo to start things off and a big DX celebration. Certainly not the best we have seen but a decent enough baseline promo with him sucking up to all members of DX. This results in Rock and Taker coming out and they still have some issues to work out. I thought HHH showing the “mistakes” Taker has made was smart in trying to pry in and tweak Rock. Rock and Kane backstage have a pull apart brawl. The match itself is fine and generic but with good heat. I do think this convoluted angle has stabilized itself somewhat with the in fighting between Rock, Kane and Taker becoming more compelling. X-Pac is the lost post like usual and goes down to Taker here. After the …

This starts out right away with Hardy getting a flurry in and hitting the Whisper in the Wind. He wipes out on a 450 and Benoit takes over. Benoit is brutal going after the midsection of Hardy with kicks and slinging him over the top rope. Jeff’s highspots are mixed in well throughout the match and he is able to hit a senton to even things up as we enter the home stretch. Jeff hits his swantom and Benoit is barely able to get his foot on the rope. They do good in putting over that Benoit couldn’t kick out protecting the finish. Benoit viciously reverses a German attempt into the crossface and that is it. Benoit offers a handshake and then pastes Hardy with the IC belt whe…

Good night for the Hardy’s as they hang with two of the best. This was a decent enough match but I think in comparison with the Benoit match earlier, its pretty easy to say who the better wrestler is at this moment between Benoit and Guerrero. This seemed more about interesting and flashy spots to fill the time than any sort of narrative. Eddy missed the frog splash but wins on a rana. **

This match is all about the Trish vs RIkishi dynamic as we get clips of Trish getting the stinkface to start things off. Trish throws powder in Rikishi’s eyes around two minutes in and the referee doesn’t call for the DQ then for some reason. Val is still displaying this more vicious persona as he has the steps on the outside that rams right into Rikishi. He also shoves the referee into the front row. Rikishi is bleeding as the referees rush in to break things up. This was good feud escalation and worked as an angle/match. ¾*

Burning continues to feud against each other and get a bit chippy as they have lost the title. I look forward to the NOAH debut and like how the main event on the first show was used as a catalyst for their devlopment as team mates because it feels like an engaging story arc to follow. Kobashi gets worked over on the leg a good bit here and Mossman impressed me with his power. Shiga is always undersized but he defends his mentors and really puts up a fight in the name of Kobashi. An overall really good semi-main tag where Kobashi and Akiyama showed some strong glimpses of hate against each other. ***1/2 ( 7)

Surprised there wasn't a thread for this. Really fun throwing sprint where everything feels just a bit more meaninful than it normally would with it being the last pre-split Budokan, one of the the HDA's last matches, and the crowd being completely rabid from the start. The HDA blitzes the other team from the opening bell with Taue doing a nodowa off the apron within the first few minutes and the match doesn't slow down much. It is a bit unfortunate that Ace didn't sell the move more and is in control just a few minutes later, but that's just the direction this style had gone at this point. Taue gets a shoulder injury and they wok over Kawada a bit while he gets it taped …

Another great match between these teams. After their dominating win in January, No Fear ahem has no fear and goes right after HDA. Taue has his shoulder taped up and they really pounce on that. This was really good action and Taue was awesome in selling the damage as the wounded warrior that was refusing to give up. However, Kawada got tagged in and is a man possessed. I am watching this match a little out of chronological order but between this and the forthcoming 7/1 Fuchi match, Kawada certainly has a fire under his ass and is back to a near peak level. He unloads a ferocious attack on No Fear here that culminates in him locking on a great sleeper/pin combo on Omori th…

CMLL comes back with a fun and fast paced match. Everyone was flying around here and wasting no time with Felino and Blue Panther in particular having great exchanges with each other. I loved the finish of Fuerza taking off his own mask and then handing it to Felino quickly giving himself the victory. That was clever as fuck and him and Felino sold it wonderfully. *** (5.8)

A lot of big men in this match. Alushe is a member of Los Boricuas. I'm not sure why but Pierroth fucking loves it. Match is short. Some nice dives from the big guys.

How can this match not kick ass with these pairings. This is the most spirited we have seen Casas so far this year as he is rocking and excellent goatee and goes right after Shocker. Rudos clean house and then do a boss strut. This pisses the tecnicos right off who come firing off, clean house and then do the strut themselves. Tremendous. Porky goes through some comedy segments and he is the king as the tecnicos take the first fall when Porky splashes Shocker. Rudos come back and take second fall quickly with some good triple teams and a nice dropkick from Zumbido. Third fall things get really violent and Emilio gives his most fired up exchange of the year beating the shi…

Pretty cool mano a mano between these two. Perhaps not as much hatred as folks would like but Villano was hell-bent on winning the bout and Pierroth was channeling his inner Jake Roberts by toying with Villano. Both guys bled but there was nothing decisive about the bout. If it had been longer and a blowoff match there's every chance it could have been great. It reminded me of Villano's work with Rambo the following year. Pierroth was one of favourite performers from the first half of the year but he disappeared for some reason after the Capos took him out -- an injury perhaps? Or some other health problem/personal issue. It was fun to see him snake his way through anothe…

We have finally hit Sewell NJ for CZW and have Garguilo and Hitman John House on commentary. Really feels like we are entering the indie era where I jumped on board now. Pain has a Ric Blade sucks led promo and has a super soaker to help cool off the fans. It was funny to see the commentary booth and see that House and Eric had to share one microphone. The cage gets used right away. Both guys scale the scaffold and Blade does a leap frog on the scaffold which was neat. He then botches a DVD but is able to hit it the second time. Pain comes back and hits a brainbuster on top of the scaffold. Both tease dives off the scaffold but hang on. Pain gets a sunset flip from climbi…

Worked like most three ways of the era with no psychology and all moves but there wasn’t any terrible botches and at one point Jet Jaguar gets elevated so high, he hits the roof and damages some of the panels. It was nice to see Noble in this type of match and being able to work a quick pace and stretch things out a bit. Lopez also may be one of those lost workers of the 2000’s as we have a good bit of stuff coming up from him in Wildside and Japan. Noble gets the win and because it is 2000, we have run ins after the match. **1/2

Everyone comes out wanting a piece of the King as he gives his interview. This leads to Reckless and Lawler and they have a pretty fun 3-4 minutes before the run ins start. I did get a sense in this match of the atmosphere hurting MCW as the quiet crowd and dark lighting didn’t make this angle seem near as fun as the stuff that happened on PPW today even though Lawler and Youth are superior workers. *

Brandon Baxter comes out in a douchy frat boy 2000 flannel and khaki combo. Corey is disgusted at them. Wolfie D delivers a nice promo too saying he is the top dog in PPW. Seven is out and there is problems in Camp baxter. Mr. Corey stirs the pot like Lance did in the Dream Machine leaves the Hart Family angle. Spellbinder appears to take the 15k from Baxter as he accompanies Wolfie D down the aisle. Spellbinder lays down and allows Wolfie to cover him with Baxter making the count. Binder thinks better of it and whacks D and he also had the check in his pocket which makes Corey giddy. This was a fun match with a ton of heel gimmicks including a chain from Baxter that back…

We get a quick promo from Dutch saying he is going to be the referee. Before the match even begins we have some referee bullshit but they aren’t even the officials for this match. Only Cornette gives a shit about that as he yells and marks out on commentary. A good four minutes of action and holy shit a finish on OVW????? That gets a bump in my book just because of how rare it is. Bolin Services of course both come in and do the beatdown. This shows the contrast in booking and making things count. This brawl isn’t that much different in the ring from the CMLL one I just watched but that one felt so much more organic and rare than this which we saw all the time in OVW with…

Zaps 1 and 2 did nothing for me as a gimmick and I thought the match overall was a mess. This reminded me of the January GAEA stuff with a bunch of anarchy and nonsense without much in the way of structure or thought put into things. It is a shame because the ZAPS minus the gimmick vs the JWP duo in a straight tag match is something that would have intrigued me. We also miss what looks like half of the match so the clipping is awful too. NR

Toyota turns in another strong 2000 performance. This was worked with a sprint in that it felt like a fully actualized match that accomplished everything it set out to in the minus 12 minute run time. Toyota does some prick moves like the Rick Rude hip swivel but she also shows a lot of heart and risk with the big dive off of the Korakuen balcony. The finishing run was exciting and not overblown and Toyota was also very clean with her performance tonight. A very 1993 feeling joshi match and that is a good thing. ***1/2 (7.0)

I like all four of these ladies but I didn’t like this match. The brawling felt really hollow compared to the previous match and the match ended anticlimactically in just over 8 minutes. There seemed to be some undertones between Devil and Toshie after the match so it looks like that story arc is continuing. *1/2

I always mark for Ozaki and Kansai teaming and this had a lot of good stuff in there with Kansai being dominant and Sato standing up to her opponents. Unfortunately, it also had some weak moments where the brawling again paled in comparison to the brawl earlier in the night and while Sato was energetic, she also was pretty sloppy in execution. The finish was definitive with Kansai looking for the Splash Mountain and then finally getting it for the pinfall. Afterwards it feels like an Oz/Kansai vs Crush Gals battle is looming and I do look forward to that. ***1/4 (6.6)

As much as I hated the previous match, this is another brawl on the same day in the same building that I loved. I think the opening of the heel trio just demolishing Nagayo’s arms set the tone for the rest of the match. Meiko was an animal in this match and her exchanges with Hokuto were tremendous. I also got a lot out of Karou’s facials as at one point, Ozaki is giving forearms in the corner and Koaru has the biggest grin on his face in pure delight. A chaotic and frantic match that ends with Hokuto getting the victory on Nagashima with the other members of her team looking on. This match had a brawling feel but it also clearly defined the factions that were waging and …

This was a good, energetic junior wrestling. Fujita has a lot of energy throughout this and really brings the speed and springboard moves to give the match some pop. It looked like he had the match well in hand until Sasuke gets his knees up on a splash, does some kicks, and delivers the powerbomb for the win. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more control from Sasuke throughout this being the veteran and trying to slow down Fujita. We do get about 7 minutes clipped from this so I will refrain from ranking and hopefully that was filled with more ground control by Sasuke. A promising match to watch from an energy standpoint but also a match that appeared to not …