August 2000

Nice to see Dragon against someone besides Youth and Spanky. Shooter looked good for himself in the four minute match. Again, Dragon is already really strong in having a short match that contains enough action and story to keep you entertained. Tons of suplexes and strikes from Dragon and he hits the big elbow from the top rope. Fabulous Rocker comes out to distract Dragon and that allows Shultz to get the Full Nelson clutch for the tap out victory. That is a neat finisher and Shooter Shultz can put this tap out on his wrestling resume. *1/4

Tracy is back in MCW now. This is a true WTF match. The match is only two minutes but fun stuff from Tracy with him working underneath and Viscera looking good on his high impact sidewalk slam. The finish is Viscera trying to ram Tracy into the corner with a chair and Tracy moving out of the way and getting the surprise roll up victory. K-Krush and Viscera beat up Tracy after the bell until Lance Cade makes the save. ¾*

Power Pro has been building up to Baxter vs Dundee and we get the showdown here. Dave Brown is dressed really casual this Saturday morning. Bill has an entourage of five ladies with him all wearing zebra print. He looks like a cruise ship entertainer. Baxter challenges him to the match and Bill gets in a few punches in this impromptu match without a referee. Seven comes in to help Baxter but Dundee’s bodyguard takes care of him. Wolfie comes in through the crowd with the chair and that ends the segment with a beatdown onto Dundee with him handcuffed to the rope. They also grab Samantha and attack her. We don’t see much from MPPW this week but it looks like MCW won the wee…

No Fear has changed their look dramatically from All Japan sporting all white gear and blonde highlights. This was a good slugfest style match with Ogawa, Asako and Ikeda all having extended periods of being worked over. Kakihara is such a spunky worker that I appreciate in tags for the way he is able to come in with quick flurries. The Kakihara vs Takayama UWFi memorial slugfest was built up as the big showdown for the match and given a good reaction from the crowd. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention in the intros, Omori was introduced last from his team so coming into NOAH, he is higher on the current pecking order. That will change rapidly. Even in the closing momen…

Talk about it here.

NOAH wasn’t shy about giving these guys a ton of time right out of the gate. While that is admirable in the sink or swim mentality, this match certainly could have used some editing. Marufuji was fine and played the FIP role for the majority of the match. He got his nose busted open on a Kanemaru dropkick which helped emphasize the story. Shiga has filled out a bit and remains to be just “there” as a character overall. I didn’t think he had a good hot tag but he was in the right position to break up tags. Kanemaru was a good sleazy heel with his look and arsenal but he was still green in being unable to come up with many useful things to do on offense when he was working…

This is always the toughest matches for me to rank because from a technical standpoint, this of course wasn’t amazing. However, if polled in 5 years about the year 2000 as a whole, I think this will be one of the most memorable matches of the entire year where I can recollect certain things. This was the ultimate spectacle. The setting looks awesome and post apocalyptic with the industrial buildings in the background. At one point, the camera pans on Matsunaga and Zandig in the ring engulfed with fire around them and you can see the subway passing by. It was beautiful in the way it was framed. Beyond that, Zandig nearly gets ran over by a car and then stops said car with …

Fun lucha dance partners go HARD for japan type match. Virus looked almost indistinguishable from his current form, meaning that was great here. Marvin looked a little green and sloppy, not always 100% with his form, but didn't blow anything. Virus on the other hand executed all his stuff effortlessly. To be fair, Virus has probably done 500 matches like this, and equally as many matches of this type have happened over the years in japan, there was nothing particularily outstanding here. Still it's a chance to get to see Virus do his thing, which is better than most wrestlers doing theirs, honestly.

York/Matthews get a straight spotfest showcase in ECW and the match is pretty fun overall if brief. Swinger continues to be someone I really shouldn’t like based on his look and how unsmooth he can be, but him and Diamond continue to be a good tag team with enough double team moves to make themselves memorable. Matthews is the FIP here and does a good job until York is tagged in for the hot tag. They run through some of their offense and look for the finish when CW Anderson runs in and hits the spinebuster and big punch combo leaving York to be hit with the Problem Solver for the heel victory. **

A quintessential RVD match with the some good and mostly bad. The opening is really intricate spots off of armdrags and roll ups with some stuff looking cool and other stuff looking a little mis timed. Regardless, none of it makes a whole lot of sense. Worse than that though is that it leads directly into the "lets do a big spot outside and then you do one" sequence of RVD matches that always take forever. When the action goes back inside, it gets better with Kash doing a sweet triple jump rana but overall this felt like a RVD exhibition instead of an match with real stakes attached to it. **

This was better than the previous match but still worked in a Raw main event style where not too much was brought out by the combatants. I continue to struggle with Kansai in 2000 as she was one of the best wrestlers in the world for that period in the 90's but has dropped off even more than other powerhouses such as Vader. Hokuto and Masami do have some fun top rope stuff and dives and are a pretty strong tag team. This was a breezy show overall but one that disappointed me. **1/2

These two had a match in JWP earlier in the year that was solid but rather unspectacular. This was much closer to delivering the promise of the match up, as it was faster paced and livelier. Too bad we only got a clipped version. Match is mostly flash submissions with Bolshoi adding in a slick Clown-Sambo move here and there. Eventually Amano focusses on the arm while Bolshoi tries to counter by going for leg attacks. These two actually know something about timing and not to infuse too much bullshit, benefiting the match greatly. Amano doesn't even go for any headbutts here and it goes to a draw to make the 70s studio scientific wrestling clinic analogy perfect. Probably …

Joshi was doing so well for itself in 2000. Now, we get this throw away revelos suicidas match that harkens me back to the dreadful GAEA stuff from January. There was no juice throughout the match and it was just a series of your turn, my turn reversals until Sato gains the win on Nagashima. Bummer. *1/2

So much talent in the ring and as a result, this match is good even if it was surface level sequences and not the MOTYC all eight probably could have against each other if they went all out. Dandy is a pretty strong rudo in Monterrey and I am looking at him and Shocker here since they weren’t on the big CMLL show. Dandy gets the finale pin on Antifaz with holding the rope and an assist by Shocker. The Pierroth vs Perro old man slugfest in the middle was really good. Shocker clowning around also added some strong character moments and he seemed to be going after both Casas and Santo at different points. *** (6.2)

Talk about it here.

I have no issue calling this a good match. Asako has traded in his all white gear from the night before for some shiny black motif. Kenta shows a lot of fire but also shows promise in being able to put together a match that progresses from matwork to a shift on the outside and then leading to a finishing stretch. The slam on the outside to the unprotected area of the floor was a well done highspot. In 2000, we have seen the potential of Danielson, Punk, Styles, etc and now you can add Kenta to that list with performances like this five months into his career. *** (5.9)

NOAH has mixed in some different guys getting big wins and the style of the matches so far but this is the first match on paper that more than likely would have zero chance of getting booked for AJPW. Shiga was still doing essentially young boy duty and Ikeda was buried in multi man matches when he would drift from BattlARTS. The only way this match would have happened would have been in the RWTL and it would have been an 8 minute win for Ogawa/Misawa. Instead, this is worked in a brilliant way of giving Shiga and Ikeda enough highlights by still establishing Ogawa and Misawa as main event level within the promotion. The double armbreaker on Ogawa was fun to see and I lik…

Morishima is so skinny here. It is neat to see him and Rikio be developed right out of the gate for NOAH as someone worth following. Otherwise, this was just a match more than anything else form the first two NOAH shows. The action doesn’t really have a linear story for most of the first portion and the work over Marufuji is extremely halfhearted. I know Inoue has a rep for being shitty but in his first two matches, he hasn’t shown even glimpses of being entertaining. The last 3-4 minutes finally bring some juice into the proceedings 20 minutes into the match with Rikio and Marufuji going through more strikes and their flashier offense. Inoue regains control in these fin…

This wasn’t as bad as the tag before it but it also didn’t have a lot of teeth within in. Omori is clearly not a priority in NOAH like he was in later day AJPW and Takayama and Taue had some decent but disappointing for them sequences with each other. The main purpose of this match was to raise the profile of Izumida overall. I have always thought Izumida was fine as a lumpy lieutenant but am unsure if he will crack my list of top 50 workers in the promotion. He was pretty baseline here until the finish where he does show more fire and gets a big pop when he wins with a headbutt. Life comes at you fast if you are Omori. **1/2

This was the most humbled Murahama has been this year. The match only lasts six minutes but it is high octane with weapons, stiff strikes and the signature Togo highspots. Togo gets to look like a beast stunting every big attack from Murhama and responding with either a stiff weapon shot or a way to regain the advantage. Togo puts him away with a big senton. This match felt necessary in the development of Murahama within the promotion as a stumbling block that happens to all athletes on the rise. ***1/2 (6.8)

The G1 butchered for 2000 which is maddening but shows how even in 2000, content delivery wasn’t to the point that we expect today even if the moves and presentation isn’t all that different in many facets. Nakanishi nearly kicks out of the diving headbutt at one to big ohhhs from the Osaka crowd. Tenzan misses his moonsault and Nakanishi is hulking up with the spears and torture rack combo. Tenzan regains with a the double chop and then hits an ugly moonsault for a nearfall. The cradle tombstone gives Tenzan the win. Good heat for this one and Nakanishi looked strong. Tenzan was pretty sloppy in his comeback. Overall, this looked like it topped out as a good clash of the…

Liger switching up his gear is a great touch. This looked great with a heated crowd and a fired up Liger that was able to work around the dwindling athleticism of Fujinami with speed and strikes. Fuji is still game to take it to the mat at certain points and the crowd is molten supporting Liger to escape the leg submissions being applied. Liger has to succumb to the figure four. I really want to see this match in full. NR

A big opportunity for Takaiwa in this tournament as I forgot he was even entered. Crowd again is hot as shit for the closing moments here and we cut right to Takaiwa utilizing a DVD from the top rope. Chono is working with more viciousness here as he locks on his leg sub stuff. Takaiwa really has the crowd going on a DVD > lariat ccombo. Chono blocks another lariat with a Yakuza kick and then fights out of a DVD attempt. A piledriver from Chono puts Takaiwa into bad shape and then he locks on a submission that almost looks like a Rings of Saturn. One more Yakuza kick and that leads right into the STF for the victory. This match went 14 minutes overall and looked to be …

Lance has been built up so well that this match probably should have been the main event of the PPV. The match itself is well done and has a good pace of back and forth. Awesome is on commentary and his “friend” receives some sub sandwiches halfway thru. Storm locking on the Maple Leaf really makes the title feel like it is in peril and Booker looks strong fighting and getting to the ropes. Storm is also able to look strong kicking out of Booker’s secondary finishers like the missile dropkick and side kick. The Bookend gets the win for Booker and as predicted, we get a schmozz at the end of the show with Jarrett and Awesome getting involved. **1/2

Angle meets with Foley and wants to present his case as the #1 contender for SummerSlam. HHH arrives and tells Steph that he needs his space. HHH pleads his case as #1 contender to Foley. HHH then gets into Stephs face and says this is his shot and that if he sees Angle in the building, he is going to kick his ass. Steph and Angle are chatting backstage and Steph is polishing Kurt’s medals. Kurt says HHH should be more sensitive and Steph thanks him for being such a good friend. We cut to the arena and learn we are in MSG. Joe informs HHH that Angle may be the one guy to take out HHH. Joe also talks to Kurt and gets him riled up. Now, Steph comes to the ring and publicly …