July 2000

The usual good mini action although with a singles there was less hiding here. Most of the spots looked excellent but there was a couple of rough looking ones as well. Overall, this wasn’t much more than a popcorn opener to introduce the Japanese crowd to the lucha flavor and minis action in general. **1/4

This was some Tirantes bullshit away from being a great match. As it is, both of these guys continue to have wonderful chemistry each other with Apache dishing out a beating and Sevilla being the better Tarzan Boy than Tarzan Boy in 2000. Some of the nearfalls Oscar created here was excellent with the highlight being the code red off the middle rope. Tirantes is awful and slow counting but at least in Japan it still seems novel and gets a reaction. Apache ends up winning and in a fun moment, he goads a couple of ladies into kissing him as he heads to the back. ***1/2 (7.2)

A good fundamental match with Jarrett working over the leg a good bit leading to a nice figure four spot. Booker's selling was strong here giving the damage that Jarrett was doing some gravity. This is probably the most credible Jarrett has looked with the belt actually. Finish has Kanyon coming out in DDP attire and hitting a Diamond Cutter on Booker allowing Jarrett to get the win. Afterwards has Cat starting the match again and I still can't figure out his character. Booker lays out Kanyon and then goes back on the attack. Jarrett has his guitar ans smashes it over Miller's head before leaving with the title. **1/4

As wasted as Rey is in this role, at least he looks like he is having some pride in his in ring work between this performance and Monday. This is a relevos suicidas match and does a pretty good job of getting that stipulation over with the regular tag partners having some animosity against each other based on the match structure. The leg drop from Rey in particular was a highlight. Storm continues to be put in a good position early on in the company. **

Another Scorpio classic. Great lucha with logical limb work and fluid moves throughout the match. Niebla gets his arm worked over on the first fall and does a neat reversal using the referee to counter. He ends up getting the win by tying up Scorp and Scorp having to submit. The second fall starts with Scorps leg getting worked over like crazy and he sells it beautifully. Some more discussion over whether Scorp fouls or not making his comeback in the second fall and the referee does a great job hesitating before making the count. Niebla hulking up by doing a little shimmy really works for me. Scorp does another wonderful job off of the pinfall sequence having to gather hi…

This was neat to see Crazy as a rudo considering how awesome of tecnico he has been in ECW. This had a lot of good action especially between Dandy and Crazy. The finish of each fall was logical and there were other neat moments like Kung Lee doing his rope running spot and then getting tripped up by the rudos. Bombero and Cerebro continue to be nice highlights of 2000. Finish of the match overall is another foul oriented spot in 2000 which could be something that feels played out but the caveat of Crazy doing it and the way Dandy sold it made it work for me. ***1/2 (6.9)

Pierroth continues to be the best garbage brawler that isn't in Japan in 2000. THis suffered from being essentially a hanicap match with Wagner running interference and Parka having to overcome the odds. Parka is strong like usual in a feud type match although he didn't seem to be wanting to do all of his super stuff. ***1/4 (6.3)

Promo with Benoit and Foley at the start was strong. I thought this did a great job of making Benoit feel like he belonged in the main event match at Fully Loaded vs Rock. He feels like a player. Rock does a promo before the match and gets a monster reaction from his hometown crowd. Taped show and all that but the crowd was going nuts when his music hit for the match proper. A short match that mainly was used as a go home happy moment with Chyna getting the win after begging for the tag from The Rock. E&C are doing a lot of jobs from first the BOD and now Chyna. Shane runs in to end the show and is starting to create his mini faction of guys. *3/4

We start off SmackDown with an Angle and Jericho promo and another marquee match. Steph makes her way to ringside in the early going. A good match as these two have better chemistry throughout 2000 than I remembered. Steph continues to be a great foil for Jericho and the finish was clever as she uses Kurt’s scepter to lowblow Jericho and Angle wins with the Olympic Slam. Backstage, Kurt is celebrating by throwing milk but it gets on Taker’s bike. Angle bolts when he realizes this. Funny. **1/2

They really keep presenting this as a blood feud but something feels a little off. It is odd because I like Val and his new attitude was way overdue. Rikishi is still over huge. Still, while the action here is fine this is just two guys that don’t have great chemistry with each other so far. This match doesn’t last very long before we get a ref bump and T&A and Too Cool have a brawl revolving around the T&A run in. Tazz makes his way out and kills Rikishi with the tv camera. It is nice they are doing something with Tazz after a few months of nada. Val wins the match and IC title with the Money Shot. *1/4

Things are going along well enough until Lizmark hits a missile dropkick on Scorpio and completely fucks up his leg. We get some gruesome replays of the event and Scorpio rudos it up for the crowd after Lizmark is taken out. Bestia keeps working over the match of Atlantis and we go straight to the finish with Lizmark out of the way with the rudos dominating. Like the previous match, a nice collection of sptos and characters but we are still waiting on something with real juice. *1/2

The rudos don't care about winning these matches anymore. It's all about hurting and humiliating their opponents with Entre Torre Infernal just weeks away. This was a quick rudo beatdown with multiple disqualifications and some in-your-face mic work to top it off. Villano III tried to get involved again but Perro waved him off and Mr.Niebla carried him away. Another crash TV match from CMLL.

Holy shit at the airbrush shirts the tecnicos are wearing. The entrances here are just awesome and Los Infernales are great too strutting down to the ring with the women at their side. Match again was all about the status quo and I am really hopeful for some big time CMLL feuds soon. Some individual spots here are neat like Satanico just slapping Antifaz when he dances around and the triple dive combo that wins the second fall for the tecnicos. Third fall also has some neat stuff like Ultimo monkey flipping Bucanero out onto the floor and Ultimo’s quebrada into the steps looked good. Finish was usual double pin shoddy stuff. Fun while it lasted but just a collection of sp…

They are getting under each other’s feet here, trying to be overly smart and over complicating things. It doesn’t take long for my most annoying elimination match trope to make an appearance either, Warrior saving Kaz from a Reyes double leg cradle pin attempt. It looks like Reyes and Kazarian are then going to work together but of course that doesn’t last, Reyes nailing Kaz with a dropkick when he turns his back on him. The spare man breaking up the pin trope continues with regularity. A great looking superkick by Kaz to Warrior and a springboard elbow to Reyes who is on the apron. The Irish whip is reversed and Reyes pulls down the top rope sending Kaz careering ou…

Our first look at Super Dragon and now we have Super Dragon,Low Ki, Danielson, Hero, Punk & Styles to look at for the year. Dragon seems in the upper echelon with Ki as far as polish so far. His stiff style helps play into this as he brutalizes TARO in the early going with chops and at one point putting him in the pendulum swing and slamming his head into the wall. The venue here has a warehouse vibe with elevated seating that looks different but kind of cool. TARO is a good sympathetic underdog and the finishing run has a bit too much high spot and kickout finishes that really show the template and inspiration for current day PWG. Dragon does gain the win but it loo…

We see Nick Dinsmore get laid out before we head to an interview with Flash. Flash says every match should be hardcore rules. Maybe if that was the case, we could get some finishes in this promotion. Dinsmore comes out to interrupt and guess who is yelling? That’s right Jim Cornette acting like this is an isolated event. We come back from the break and the match starts. We get some decent hardcore action and then some bullshit with the finish with the referee fighting each other and Cornette losing his voice. I swear you could pop a match in from Frebruary into the playlist of the stuff I am watching and I wouldn’t know the difference because the same bullshit happens in …

Pawluk looks like Dynamite Kid took a shit and he popped out. Stampede and the match is a mess. Mauro at the end says to forget the hyperbole that this was a battle for the ages. WELP. Too much three way generic action and Principal Richard Pound is an interesting gimmick that doesn’t have great execution. Tiger Khan is also doing a miltia gimmick. Khan is really sloppy. Even the referee is overacting here. Pound ends up winning with help from the Honor Roll faction and a hand full of trunks. Diana Smith presents the title and Pound calls her toots. Mauro in his white shirt and jacket is so 2000. They really are trying to present Pawluk as this exciting up and comer but h…

This was a strange match that sort of tested my tolerance to a particular style. This has a lot of guys I like and I am not adverse to comedy in wrestling. In addition, some of the spots in the moment made me laugh like the referee comedy, but then when I remove myself from the match and reflect on things, they don’t sit right. Comedy is pretty critical throughout this project as we get the CHIKARA dance spots and some PWG hijinks that start creeping in more rapidly. I have an expectation as to how I will react to those and that is ultimately how I reacted here in that I thought with the talent involved, they could have done better. **3/4

The ultimate moment of two wrongs don't make a right. Whereas the Montreal Screwjob has a more nuanced discussion of who was in the right and wrong from a macro sense, this is pretty cut and dry that Hogan had shown a lot of unnecessary power and pull throughout his career and it came up to him. However, the comeuppance of Hogan happening at the hands of Russo also doesn't sit well. Jarrett feels like someone left in the middle that sort of tried to play both sides in the HHH role and came out looking pretty good not having overall enemies. DUD

Russo gives his scathing promo and really tries to present himself as the hero here. Again, the message he says here is true but the messenger is a phony piece of shit that has made some brutal decisions and pushed his own agenda on air and off in recent months. He promises a great match here between these two hungry guys. I know they didn't have much time to prepare but I thought this match was a mess that generally gets a past historically just for being a younger movement for WCW. The crowd brawling was really uninspired and the overall narrative of the match lacked the focus that was on the Thunder match with Jarrett's leg work. Booker winning at the end is a nice mom…

Goldberg is on a hot streak of fun short matches but this was a flop. First, Scott Steiner has one of the most predictable turns on Nash that you have ever seen in your life. Beyond that, Nash looked freaking awful and when Hacksaw Duggan is exuding more effort in 2000 and stiffer shots, you have issues. Goldberg wins but it looks like he is going to be a face rather soon. 1/2*

Shockingly, this is my match of the night. They did the best job of conveying the crowd brawling as two hosses going after each other. The finish was predictably awful but Steiner has a aura to him that helps hide his physical limitations and Awesome is again much better in the gatekeeper/monster role that can go toe to toe than the king bully bullshit he was doing in ECW. This show was pretty putrid up to this point especially with the hardcore title/ wedding gown and never ending Perfect Event tag match. This helped kick the crowd back into gear for the finishing stretch. *** (5.9)

They start out chronicling what happened at Bash at the Beach. Booker T comes out and gives a heartfelt promo thanking the fans and having the regret that his mom had passed on and couldn’t see him become a champion. With the pleasantries out of the way, Booker calls out Goldberg. Booker calls him a mark for himself and the business. Booker then moves on to thanking his wife who is decidedly not Sharmelle. Sadly, I looked up Booker’s bio and they were divorced around nine months later. Stevie Ray comes out and congrats Booker too. Just then Madaja comes out and cuts a promo allowing Steiner to sneak up from behind with a bat and lay out Stevie and Booker. I guess we have…

Kidman takes a nasty hiptoss over the top rope onto the floor. Jarrett really loves brawling around the floor around this period and it is discouraging considering the sound technical base he exhibited early in the 90’s in USWA. Kidman has some great highspots in this short match. Torrie comes out and that allows Shane Douglas to interfere and attack Kidman. They seem to be rekindling the Francine/Douglas dynamic. I was happy that Kidman at least was able to kick out of the Jarrett pin attempt and Kidman is getting some decent crowd support. After a minute of action, Jarrett gets the Stroke for the win. **1/4

Main event here for the right to face Booker at the next PPV. Kanyon as the DDP cosplayer is an awful gimmick. Goldberg is essentially a face here and gets the best reaction of anyone. With Goldberg and Steiner facing off, you have your money match. Jarrett dives in and steals the win which is a whiff since him vs Booker isn’t much of a feud with juice. At least he did it without a bevy of interference and they do have a big feud on their hands with Steiner and Goldberg. *1/2