June 2000

Take everything I said about the CMLL tag and amplify it. This was incredible with Satanico and company being really spirited and showing up with their best performance in a couple of months. They just brutalize the tecnicos and fly around when needed. Garza, Lover and our favorite whipping boy, Tarzan Boy are mainly there to take a beating and provide flash but they deliver in spades. This was overall on of the best pure spotfest style matches of the whole year and the crowd was eating it up. ***1/2 (7.1)

Neidhart keeps bulging and bulging. Now that the lack of crowd heat and dark arena has been mentioned for MCW, I can’t not think about it while watching the matches. Match is decent with Anvil and Hughes getting some big man offense against Little who is a natural FIP. Krush also is the cocky leader of the trio. Lawler kind of stays out of the spotlight in this one but does come in for the big finish. Brawling happens all over the place and Lawler gives a great punch to Hughes where you can see the sweat flying. Lawler gets blasted with the belt from Krush and he picks up the pin. Russell is shocked that the King…. THE KING takes the 3 count. **

Derrick King and Corey have an awkward interview where it comes out DK is going to be married soon. I love the local feel of the promotion where he mentions a bridal shop and Corey without skipping a beat says “oh yeah off Hickory Hill”. Steel comes out and explains that his dad gave him a talking to after last weeks match when he took the short cut to achieve a victory. He promises to have a clean, technical match this week. I love premises like this in wrestling and they did a great job with it in execution. This gets 10 minutes which again feels like an eternity for Memphis studio wrestling of yesteryear. The work is solid, technical, and clean. The match ramps up in t…

Wolfie and Baxter cut a promo to start. Baxter will give $1,000 to recoup the check from Spellbinder that he hasn’t cashed yet and $5,000 if you put Binder in the hospital. What a goof Spellbinder is for not cashing the check. The match here wasn’t much and really a greatest hits type display for heel Wolfie D. The ref gets bumped and Seven and Baxter both run interference allowing Wolfie to pick up another cheap win. I did really like Corey and Dave on commentary and Dave mentioning that while he is sure Wolfie is really proud to be the champion, he shouldn’t be because of the way he keeps winning. *1/2

A really strong Multiman match. The faces come out hot and rock the heels. The heels get heat right away with Behrens ridiculous robe. AJ feels more comfortable as a heel here in his cocky persona. Michaels ends up getting worked over and they do a real good job of working over his leg and cutting the ring in half. Golden is a strong utility player in that regard and Bailey was directing traffic from the outside. Last few minutes are chaotic after the hot tag and it looks like the faces are going to be victorious until Steve Martin turns on the faces and his best friend in Michaels. A ton of trash gets pelted in the ring in a cool looking visual. This garnered strong heat…

Harry Smith is 14 years old here and wearing a hoodie so it is impressive that the match is perfectly acceptable. TJ has always been a solid worker in my eyes that never seemed to have that one great run that it seemed like he was capable of. We get interference from the Honor Roll faction and that is thwarted off by Ross Hart. Bad News Allen is on commentary with Mauro and in a pure heel role going after Harry. TJ hits a nice somersault diamond cutter but Harry is able to put his foot on the rope. A few moments later, Harry gets the surprise win. Afterwards, Davey Boy comes out to assist his son and they cut a promo. TJ’s faction is also upset with his efforts and they p…

Candido controls the arm of Daniels following a knee lift to the midsection. Daniels comes off the ropes and soon takes Candido down with a headlock, but his advantage isn't very long. Daniels does the move again and this time controls Candido for a few moments. Candido backs Daniels into the corner and continues to work over Daniels with strikes. Daniels sends Candido into the corner and Candido flips over the top to the floor. Daniels goes to the floor and slams Candido face first onto the apron. Daniels takes Candido out with a moonsault to the floor! Candido low blows Daniels but misses a chair shot. Daniels doesn't miss a chair shot over the head! Daniels misses a cl…

Hi Chad. This wasn't very good. It was muddled and sloppy and Yone really stunk it up (you know, aside from KO'ing Hidaka with the Muscle Buster). I love that the ref fucks up Yone's rope-run spot. Hidaka tries to do some of his junior-y things but Yone's so awkward in how he handles them. The exchanges between Minoru and Hidaka were copy-and-paste from any other match you've seen them together in. Oh, and Otsuka was there, too. Yone sells his fisherman buster like death. But again, not very good.

I am becoming a pretty big Taira fan. He really attacks Usuda's leg throughout the match and it pays dividends with the submission finish. This was heavily mat oriented which is a good contrast to the strike exchange I saw Usuda have with Ikeda right before. He came in as the champion and seemed to have taken Taira lightly which was a huge mistake. ***1/4 (6.7)

Ono was just unreal here. He's wearing gloves, but MMA type ones and not the boxing ones I'm used to seeing him wear, but he throws all the boxing combinations you loved his 2010 run for as well as all the junior flash submissions you could think of. It was like watching a combination of 2010 Ono and the world's greatest Ikuto Hidaka, a really remarkable performance. Of course Ishikawa is no slouch either, his stiffness and high level matwork added to the match as much as you'd expect but this was more of an Ono showcase. There was no wasted motion, the match pretty much started with a nearfall in Ishikawa catching an Ono takedown attempt into a Guillotine, and from there…

Along with Cerebro and Vampire this is a classic apuestas match and an example of the throwback lucha style that could still be engaging in the 2000’s. There was little doubt as to whom was going over but little facets like the faceless red mask helpers of Silver Fox along with the crooked referee that didn’t try to be the star of the show like Tirantes helped things along. This escalated in a classic style of rudo onslaught, tecnico comeback, mask ripping, and submissions and pinfalls as the culmination. Atlantis does a nice dive in the third fall and does a nifty pin to put things away when he cant lock on the Atlantida. **** (7.8)

I really wanted to like this match since it was a swan song to Kansai in JWP but something just never came together. We do have some random annoying clipping but we get to see 80% of the match at least. Kansai is perplexing around this time period. I wouldn't say she is bad, but she is certainly one note and really relying on her kicks and pretty much nothing else. I hope a change of scenery will give her a little spark. It is tough to compare her to anyone else as I feel people like Toyota and Kong are providing much more output than her around this time. Maybe Ozaki but Ozaki is doing a different type of character to change things up too. Kansai looks the same and the k…

This was a ton of fun. There are minor things like interference from Mochi right in front of the referees eyes that dip it slightly below the great level for me but I really enjoyed the work that Mochi did on top and Fujita's sell job was tremendous. He had a lot of his body worked over and managed to sell both his leg and midsection wonderfully with it stunting his aerial moves that he tried to perform. I also greatly enjoyed the finishing stretch where it builds but also ends on the correct move giving the psychology of the match. Nothing was bloated or unnecessary. ***3/4 (7.6)

A weird start with the heel faction having a wrestler trapped and they put a cigar out in his mouth. The match starts proper and it is another great six man from these guys. Togo/Buffalo/QUALLT all mesh so well as unit and bring an evil focus to the match. Demeken is the main FIP and he does an admirable job building up sympathy to the big tag. The final is also impressive with everyone flying around and QUALLT spraying the mist to stunt Hoshikawa. Togo puts the match away after a pedigree and huge ass senton. Another killer six man that goes toe to toe in entertainment with the Toryumon stuff. ***3/4 (7.6)

I’m ready to put this right up there with Brock vs Goldberg as the greatest sub five minute match of all time. The pace is incredible and never lets up and it tells a classic story of striker vs grappler. Murahama charges in and gets leg locked immediately for one of his breaks. Delphin tries to shoot in constantly but that does open him up to the deadly strike game of Murahama. Halfway through the second round, Delphin locks on an insanely tight arm lock and Murahama is forced to tap giving him his first loss of his career in amazingly dramatic fashion. After the match, Murahama gets put over huge and the roster members come out to give him the recognition he deserved. T…

Good chance for both here to pad out their 2000 resume. I liked how HHH had a more brawling aspect throughout this match and when Holly pounds him down in the corner, he gets a big face reaction. Even with the sidewalk slam, that is presented as a decent nearfall. HHH has worked well at playing towards the strengths of his opponents in 2000 so far. The action goes to the outside and HHH flies Holly into the ring post. HHH takes over and is good on offense. I liked him adding the little kiss to Steph mid match for more heat. HHH gets into it with Tim Dwight. Holly has a good bit of offense at the end when Steph gets on the ring apron. Jericho rushes down and pulls her down…

WCW right now is such a mess that everything just makes me glaze over and not pay that much attention to keep my sanity. Cat is awful on commentary and Awesome looks really disinterested out there as referee. Some of the moments where the match is actually a match is pretty good but there is the overbooking nonsense with Madaja and the New Blood that overall the match is mess. The Cat just essentially ends the match because why the hell not. Steiner then puts Awesome in the recliner when Jarrett nails him with the guitar and wins. Yawn. *

This was another good popcorn tv match and Jericho’s execution continues to improve. The spear on the outside spot they performed well here could have been a pretty big botch given the reputation of these two. The pace overall felt strong and Edge like Bubba earlier looked good enough to stretch out himself in a singles setting. Jericho is able to turn over Edge into the Liontamer and secure the win. **1/4

This was a strong singles effort for Bubba. He goes in there with Kurt and matches him pace for pace and shows off his high impact offense and bombs. He also does a strong job bumping off of Kurt’s big moves like the German. Angle is able to fly off and get the Angle Slam for the quick pin. Fun match. **1/4

Holy shit a halfway decent tag match that was worked straight. This was a welcome change and Steiner and Nash were pretty fun as a team. Steiner pinning Jarrett for the finish is presented as this huge moment with Tenay screaming. That seems really hollow since every match Jarrett has won in months has been through the means of screwiness. The crowd heat drops immediately after the match when Cat gets involved and the over booked nonsense resumes. More straight tag matches please, WCW. **1/2

This starts off right away as a brawl. Good heat and hatred from the get go. Kaoru is a straight brawler who can do some compelling stuff around Korakuen. Lioness gets sent down the row of chairs and Karou gives her a nice punch to send her over the railing. She then goes to work on Asuka’s leg with a chair getting slammed across the leg repeatedly. Back inside, the table of Asuka comes into play but that is used against her as more damage is done to the leg. Next time the action goes outside, Kaoru goes for a moonsault and Asuka kicks her with the injured limb. Asuka is able to take over now and that culminates in a double stomp on the table on the outside. Kaoru does go…

This was a good enough follow up on the apuestas match with everyone still going after each other especially Infernal and Ciclon. Infernal is wearing a bandanna to not expose his bald head which is a nice touch. Tecnicos come back and the match builds toward the bandana being yanked off which is a fun spot with Cerebro and Scorpio rubbing his head. Scorpio was spirted at times in this. The biggest detriment for me in regards to this match is that the tecnicos don’t do a ton here. Also, in looks like we only get the first two falls because both teams won one a piece and then the video cuts out. I won’t rank the match as a result. NR

Benoit is again pin pointing a body part in rikishi’s shoulder and going after it in this match. This was really fun and Benoit doing strongman spots like getting Rikishi up for the back suplex make him look credible. Rikishi then mounts a huge comeback, rolls through his big offense and wins the IC title to a HUGE pop. I had honestly forgot this happened so I popped as well. Nice celebration with Too Cool. Another strong Benoit tv match that goes less than five minutes. **1/2

Holly has had a good run here as a beater that is a heel but also doesn’t really have fans in their locker room either as the match with HHH showed. He forces Jericho to be more violent here and has some punches and chops that were really stiff for Jericho standards around this time. Jericho being able to beat someone like this helps increase his credibility and again raise his reputation in the eyes of the fans as more than a smartass. Steph coming out there also helps keep the feud overall alive between herself and Jericho and it is really developing nicely. Fun match. **1/4

E&C have a good set up tonight with the Elvis spoof. Lawler is eating it up on commentary. They were given a few more minutes than the title change match and as a result had a decent match although you still see E&C as workers trying to progress with things like Christian grabbing a chinlock for no reason. The finish was pretty fun with Edge diving in the Elvis suit but Scott 2 Hotty coming back with the ring bell and Sexay picking up the win in his hometown. *3/4