July 2000

Some more good advancement in the HHH vs Jericho feud. Jericho defeats one of his main lackeys and this is given a decent amount of time showing Road Dogg still had some stuff left in the tank. A good use of using TV to build a PPV money match without sacrificing anything consequential. HHH pitches a fit backstage when Jericho wins. **

We get Steph coming out and saying she liked the kiss with Jericho and she is looking for more. This is so over the top that it of course telegraphs the setup and I was glad Jericho didn't go for it. Backstage, HHH and X-Pac are arguing and it seems like DX is coming unglued. We have seen this before. Road Dogg says he can't watch and leaves. Well I will just say the match worked me. I fully expected the Shawn and HHH bullshit we saw in 1997 but HHH and X-Pac go after each other and it had me wanting to seek out when X-Factor started teaming on cagematch as I assumed this was it for DX. Just then, the action spills to the outside and here comes Jericho and the attack is o…

Shane and Benoit start Raw with a promo. I like this pairing and I thought Benoit more than held his own when asked to speak. Rock gives a rebuttal but they have put over the crossface well. Chyna and Eddy come out to chase Benoit and Shane out of the ring. Match between Rock and Benoit is only five minutes but they show good chemistry. Hebner gets taken out and Shane has a referee shirt on. Benoit locks in the crossface and when Rock grabs for the ropes, Shane rings the bell. Benoit keeps the crossface in again making the move feel like a threat. A cool visual is Shane and Benoit walking up the aisle and getting pelted with trash. The crowd is invested into this feud and…

While this matchup is pretty random it's actually super important as this is during Mossman's impending main event push. He's been loyal to the company post-NOAH (a crazy outlier given nearly everyone else left, apparently Kea's loyalty to Baba taking him in when he wasn't even trained to wrestle was enough) so he's going to get rewarded with a pretty strong shove forward all things considered. We get six minutes on tape, if you dig around a bit you can find a fancam version that keeps in about 90% of the actual match. Thanks, random guy. The match is fairly slow to start, but noticeably focuses around Mossman showing off a bit more. He shows up Shinzaki in the start…

I guess this was at Samurai's hometown but that made the match molten and raised that above some of the entries we have seen from these guys. Liger, Kashin and Samurai were not above being pricks and taking short cuts here against the pricks and that attitude was something I also appreciated. The final stages with Samurai working for the nearfall had some of the best heat we have seen in Japan and I bit on quite a few of the nearfalls while thinking they wouldn't pull the trigger on Samurai actually winning. Another great entry for these guys in 2000. **** (7.8)

This was a neat match. It is a squash for Kickboxer right up until the finish. His strikes and MMA are really strong here and I wish he went more that way instead of the highspot oriented style as this holds up a lot better. The finish has some interference from Uncle Honkey which puts Kickboxer out and Hy-Zaya to get the win after getting decimated for the entire match. **3/4

Another good match in the cannon of Hero out of the gate. Kid also worked well here. Hero isn't all the way there but he is perfectly capable of having good enough indie highlight style matches around this time that do involve some sort of story. I appreciated the dive to the outside and it looked like Hero was supposed to take a rana but the weight of Kid took Hero down. Good improv as Kid just stops punching Hero quickly. For 2000 showcase indie wrestling this was good even if the crowd was silent. Ian comes out post match and rags on the crowd in great fashion for not cheering harder during the match. He then gives a bevy of threats that this is the last show here "unl…

I had high hopes for this based on the beginning. The hate felt real and the match revolved around big punches and weapons with malice instead of stunt show and walk brawling. Then they spill out to the parking lot where the camera can't follow them and we lose a bit as when they return Blaze is in control and the walk brawling is pretty prevalent. Back inside the ring, things continue to be a bit of a sludge as the interference from the outside happens constantly for Blaze. Corp is a good underneath seller but this is really gratuitous. Match also falls into the IWA-MS death match trap of being about five minutes too long. Referee bump happens and this is a 2-1 match cul…

Man, this was great. Crazy Max may be sort of the good guys in the M2K feud but they are still rudo at heart and dickheads here just wailing on TM and trying to unmask him. Fujii does his sumo nut shot that gets a big pop out of me. I also love the assisted giant swing with CIMA landing a dropkick in the end. This was the perfect mixture of compelling action telling a story and having some comedic elements sprinkled in. The Sasuke drama was a little hard to follow but led to a dramatic finale where the real Great Sasuke stood up and did some amazing dives leading to TM obtaining the submission. Awesome match. **** (8.1)

A sombre Tony Schiavone announces that Mike Tenay was injured by Scott Steiner yesterday and his vocal chords were damaged so won’t be here today. ‘The Brain’ is not so compassionate and says that Tenay got what he deserved, Steiner is ready to explode and he shouldn’t have spoken to him the way he did. Tank leads 3 Count out and he’s not happy that they were jumped from behind on Monday robbing the fans, and he, of them performing. It’s not happening again though! He’s got his square mat, is going to face the stage and no-one is coming out to disrupt them! As 3 Count dance in the ring and Tank dances on his square watching the entrance way, the Jung Dragons enter…

The match was set up on the back of the tag team match they had against Mark Jindrak and Sean O’Haire earlier in the show when Storm thought that Kidman was disrespecting the Canadian national anthem. Lance isn’t even half way down the aisle when Kidman sprints out and nails him from behind. He whips him into the guardrail before tossing him inside. Storm is right up to his feet and dropkicks Kidman as he climbs through the ropes. Lariat in the corner and as Kidman crumples to the floor, baseball slide dropkick from ‘Calgary, Alberta, Canada’s’ finest. Storm wedges a chair between the turnbuckles and Kidman counters a scoop powerslam into a nice pinfall attempt for …

Booker T has joined them on commentary for this match where the winner will face him at New Blood Rising. So much for that four way then! Jarrett with a go behind into a side headlock. Kanyon shoots him off and an early backslide by ‘Double J’ for two. Kanyon reverses the Irish whip and a real cool looking Northern Lights suplex by him. ‘Sicilian slice’, but instead of making the cover he plays to the audience. He steps out the ring to confront Booker for some unknown reason, only to get levelled from behind by Jarrett. ‘Double J’ throws him into the front row, before suplexing him back over the guardrail and onto the arena floor. Chair shot to the back. Now Jarr…

Lance insists on having the Canadian national anthem played before their match, but while he remains stoic throughout, Kidman clowns about behind him: reading a paper, giving Storm ‘rabbit ears’ and dancing, before orchestrating the crowd in a ‘USA’ chant. Jindrak and O’Haire are on the apron and as soon as the anthem finishes, Storm levels them both with a double clothesline and they fall to the outside. The two of them sidestep the stereo baseball slides, then press Kidman and Storm overhead and throw them back over the top rope and into the ring. Dropkick by Jindrak to Storm for two. Kidman with a blind tag, and as Storm ducks out, a bulldog off the turnbuckles ge…

It is tough to pinpoint the legend status of Takagi. He is the owner of DDT which naturally will create some goodwill amongst fans of the promotion. However, in the greater puro universe, with DDT being labeled as a comedy promotion, that kind of leaves the reputation of Takagi as a worker in somewhat muddled waters. I don't see it as entirely different as how people treat Quack as a worker and Chikara as a promotion. Quack did have the benefit of being in ROH, IWA-MS, and CZW. Here we have a match that had 0 comedy, was worked for the first 15 minutes on the mat and had a unique approach where the barbed wire wasn't necessarily used as a weapon but rather as a physical b…

This was the Cerebro show. He conveys great frustration in the first caida not being tagged in and then is a prick for the remainder of the match. He could be the breakout lucha indie star of the 2000's right up there with someone like Terry Boy. The other guys I am pretty unfamilar with besides Ciclon and they were mostly ok. I thought Millonario had some good sequences while in there and Segura alternated between looking lost and executing some nice spots. Cerebro takes a huge monkey flip getting big air. A really fun trios lucha match. ***1/2 (6.8)

I really wanted this to be great and it just never got there. The action was consistent and good but the extra gear was never hit. Mosco wasn't too impressive as the lead heel and the main feud consisting of him and Park didn't have as much juice as other stuff inside the match including Silver King and Super Crazy. I thought Dandy was good here but this will never be presented as one of his marquee performances either. A good match but one I was hoping for more from. ***1/4 (6.3)

This felt like a perfect G1 block match. A few moments of really engaging opening matwork and then a nice, well built finishing stretch. Nothing felt overdone but the viewer also didn't feel cheated. Busa showed good restraint here and didn't over reach in the ring with Tenryu which was refreshing. Tenryu going for his dive to the outside gets a great reaction from Korakuen. Overall, this was a pairing where I wasn't sure how they would match up together, but it worked and left the viewer wanting to see more. ***1/2 (7.1)

Two young guys going out there and having a killer match. The strikes here were insane with loud thuds and snaps to them with no thigh slapping and other shortcuts. Mochizuki in particular is such a bruiser. Ishii is someone with a ton of hype in current day and he still had some of the same stuff down in this time as he is beloved for today. I can't wait to track him throughout the 2000's. Mochi seems to have the match in hand for the most part of the match and Ishii works good at getting his spots in to create intrigue. Mochi is able to put him away. Humorous moment post match as Mochi cuts a promo and spikes the microphone and it bounces right into Ishii's hands. I say…

This is a neat feud that has continued to progress the Rock vs Benoit feud and made Eddy and Chyna look prominent as well. The match is mainly Eddy vs Benoit and pretty fantastic. Even the spots Chyna is involved with are well timed and get a big reaction. Both men are passed out when Shane O Mac makes his way to ringside. Shane attacks Chyna and gets a baseball slide from Eddy into the table. Benoit locks in the crossface which has really quickly been positioned as a top move. Eddy makes the ropes but Benoit fails to break. Hebner also gets locked into the crossface. Rock comes in to break it up and we finally have our Fully Loaded title match made official with a Rock p…

We start with a HHH promo. He is using SmackDown to kind of reiterate the big happenings of Raw. Nothing earth shattering, but nothing awful either. The sledgehammer is being emphasized more. The match proper is fine with the biggest heat spot coming from Steph grabbing Taker's hair and him stalking after her. Angle runs in as a receipt for what happened earlier in the show but he whacks Taker with the sledgehammer making it ambiguous as to who exactly he was aiming for. HHH gets the win. *3/4

Before the match starts we see Angle backstage with Steph. He gets a hug and then quickly pushes off when HHH emerges. HHH is pissed as Angle makes his entrance. His pyro scaring him is humorous. The match is nothing much but did see Angle trying to go after the legs of Kane and do other stuff to make it interesting for the four minute duration. HHH runs down and sends Angle into the steps really kickstarting what will be the SummerSlam angle. HHH sends Angle back into the ring where Kane is able to hit the chokeslam for the pin. *1/2

A quintessential Toyota match. If you like her style, you will dig this. If not, pass on through. I am pretty tolerable of Toyota overall and did think Sawai brought some bruising offense to the back to try to slow things down when the match called for it. The outdoor setting makes the wind effect be pretty rampant here. That is amplified with Toyota diving off of the stage structure in a nutty spot that really took pin point accuracy. Most of the execution was well done here and there continued to be an underlying issue between Toyota and the outsider factions of JWP and LLPW. A strong title defense overall and probably one of Sawai's last big matches. ***1/2 (7.0)

A complete all action tag. I don’t think any of these four women ever took a breath in the entire 20 minutes. The match won’t be great from a psychology standpoint but in the vein of the spotfest culture we will see wrestling continually move towards throughout this project, this gave a great dose of what is to come. This wouldn’t have looked out of place on an ROH show as a scramble match. The moves were hit with mostly great precision and my attention never wafted throughout the duration which is impressive. Momoe and Nanae are a team we will see a lot of in the future and they certainly showed they could bring an athletic style to AJW that if nothing else will complime…

Short match but finally a bit of juice seems to be injected back into CMLL. This had the tecnicos all dressed in Felino gear which was an awesome touch and the action was relentless. The finishes were really good here with the powerbomb for the first fall and Fuerza sneaking in the nut shot for the second one. Blink and you will miss this match but it is perfect popcorn wrestling. *** (6.0)

Here we go with the hate. Villano's get popped coming into the ring but they band together and lay the fucking boots to Pierroth. Biting and hammering on Pierroth leaves him a bloody mess. Scorpio and Bestia come in to help but don't fare much better and Bestia gets pinned on a Hart Attack from the middle turnbuckle. They are so vicious refusing to let the armbar go on Pierroth that they get DQ'd. These are tecnicos I can get behind and their refusal to change their core competencies is so endearing. Violencia and Company try to make the save and Villano IV and V send them back through the entranceway. Ano 2000 comes out and here comes Perro Aquayo and Villano III to send…