August 2000

This was easily the best non apuestas match of the heavies in AAA this year so far. The action was chaotic but easy to follow and the hate was really conveyed between Perro Jr. and Latin Lover. Both of those men do some great blade jobs off of weapon shots and just go after each other throughout the duration of the match. The seconds get involved and for typical extracurricular AAA bullshit, this was one of the better examples of that. The match ends in a non finish but this got me more excited to watch the main event scene in AAA than anything else so far. ***1/2 (7)

Dammit AAA, you were doing so good. This is exactly the bullshit that I hate from the promotion. The opening couple of minutes with the dog collar being emphasized are good and even though Sangre and Pirata are older, they seem to have as much in the tank as Perro Sr. Then we get Tirantes and the time keeper fighting for some reason and a big Los Vipers breakdown with Abismo arguing with Electroshock, Charly Manson and co. I can’t follow much of anything that is going on with this and it became frustrating for a short segment. *

Holy shit was this a brutal war. It starts out as a fight and stays that way for the duration. We have seen some generic joshi fights this year but this is far from that. Ito hits a gusher and is bleeding buckets. She regains her composure and does a nutso dive from one of the Korakuen balconies with a 15 foot double stomp. Back inside the ring, the crowd is firmly with Ito on every nearfall hoping she can pick up the upset. I also appreciated the tag partners on the outside fighting each other but staying away from the match besides when Shimoda tries to spew orange mist. Ito mounts one huge comeback with a trio of double stomps and picks up the winning the Grand Prix to…

60% of the first part of this match consisted of Tomoko dominating the mat. Nothing outerwordly with her work on mainly the leg of Ito but it kept my attention. Ito takes things to the outside and hits a powerbomb on the floor along with a double stomp attempt. She misses the double stomp which really should have been a big prolem given the leg that was worked over earlier. Back inside, Ito uses the double stomp again to gain a nearfall and my attention is waning based off that. Watanabe gets a nearfall with a gutwrench powerbomb and goes for that again but Ito grabs an armbar and gets an immediate submission. This was a ton of good sequences but not one cohesive story ti…

This was segued from the previous match with Lynn saving the beat down commencing on Chetti and Nova. Hamrick takes a sick bump a minute in with a backdrop right to the concrete. Once Hamrick takes advantage, he hits a huge legdrop. Hamrick gets crotched multiple times and takes a neat bump off of the Cradle Piledriver. Essentially a squash but Hamrick is always entertaining in those situations. *1/2

ECW’s announcer really annoys me with the way he goes overboard on every ring name. I like the ECW undercard but this was really spot fu and some of the spots didn’t hit well which is critical for a match like this. Something about Chetti just feels so generic. Chetti/Nova do hit a splash/legdrop combo on the top to eliminate York/Matthews. The crowd chants for someone to show their tits. After a bit of back and forth between Hot Commodity and Nova/Chetti, Hamrick interferes and Dinero hits a clothesline for the win. We learn after the break that Lou E has challenged Billy Corgan *1/4

With this and their MUGA appearance from the year before, these two are on a hot streak of cool 10 minute bouts. This was less hold intensive and more like BattlARTS match as they go for the hellish kicks and breakneck moves. I really hope these two had an excellent 20 minute match at some point which had the matwork of the MUGA match and the brutality of this match edited together. Actually this match was suffering a little from them cramming a lot into a short time while not doing the interpunctuation. Eventually though Kato's kicking Meiko really hard in the gut led to some strong selling from Meiko to atleast give the impression of the match having a red thread. One t…

Your ho hum Monterrey with the rudos dominanting mostly throughout. There is a couple of good moments with Dandy and Casas squaring off. Dandy also mimics the dance of Parka in a funny moment. Overall, this match more than anything made me contemplate on a top 100 wrestlers of 2000, where some of these guys would rank. Dandy hasn’t been spectacular but steady. Scorpio when given a chance has been spectacular. Casas as well has had a real quiet year for someone projected as a GOAT contender. Food for thought. **

Chuck tells Pamela he is the future of the business. A decent promo but he is pretty marbled mouth. Madden calls Pamela a tramp and Tony tells him thanks for adding nothing to that. You go Tony. Russo is the special guest referee so we have tons of bullshit. Russo even botches a quick count as it takes him a second to get into position. The action is ok but this is so played out and the announcers screaming at each other isn’t helping one bit. The Natural Born Thrillers come out and beat up Booker until Big Vito of all people makes the save. Nash runs in with a chair and hits Booker. Russo does a fast count and Palumbo is the champion? Cat comes out and says the match wil…

Above average gives a less than average promo. K Dawg shoots on it and says it sucked. We come back from the break and have the animals going up against the Natural Born Thrillers. Konnan says the only reason they have been given the ball is that they don’t have any. Sadly, I’m warming up to Konnan on commentary which I don’t know if it is an indictment of myself or the WCW product at the time. Animals are pretty much exclusively a face. Konnan says the tag titles are at stake because why not when they are in a six man match. The Animals as faces is a much more comfortable position and this is a good match full of action. Sanders and Disco in the ring together is cringe b…

I guess this was before WWF just refereed to this town and building as the Cajun Dome to forgive the embarrassment of having to say they are in Lafayette. Rock was funny in his promo saying he was going to spread some gumbo and jambalaya on his boot before sticking it up Angle’s candy ass. Foley comes out and gives Rock the night off to a chorus of boos. Angle comes out and introduces his new friend, HHH. HHH then comes out as they call him an asshole and Stephanie a slut. HHH says that Thursday Angle made him proud and showed him a lot of integrity. Foley takes the opportunity to set them up in a tag match. He also makes Rock the special referee for Lita vs Steph. Backs…

Kurt is heading out again and gets run down by Steph. Steph tells Kurt that he is wanted and to forget HHH. She needs him which gets a big ohhhh from the audience. I love this storyline. Angle says if she wants him to stay, he will stay. Angle is showing Steph submission moves and tells Steph that this has been a wonderful night. Kurt shows her a go behind and HHH barges in and tells Kurt he has been showing her too many moves. He calls Kurt the slowest teacher of all time. For fucks sake, Lita is walking to the ring and all King can talk about is her underwear. Lita takes over on Steph right away. Angle distracts Rock and HHH decks Lita. The Hardy’s come down to help her…

We see some setup from Heat for the main event with Lita getting knocked off the apron and Stephanie attacking her on top of the table. The true tell tale sign that the promotion is firing on all cylinders in that those two feel like a neat feud that can co exist with the love triangle stuff. We also get clips of the breakdown from Thursday when these two teams tried to tag. Finally, E&C is coming out on commentary. E&C are funny on commentary and say tonight they are going to introduce the Swerve. The Dudleys are the masters of stinkitude. The action is strong for a three minute match with some high flying spots. Just as I type that, Bubba and Jeff have a pretty …

JR says he is full as a tick eating a lot of catfish. My father in law literally says he is full as a tick after every meal. Saturn in WWE is weird as I don’t think he looked bad here for all of the two minutes it lasted and he was associated with Terri but he just didn’t seem to fit anywhere. Benoit runs in and again him and Jericho have a violent pull apart. I really want to see this carry over to the SummerSlam match. After the break, we get a clip of Angle and HHH arguing over who can show Steph the better full nelson. ½*

A pretty grizzled tecnicos team here. The tecnicos have good energy and Tony Rivera looks more scuzzy by the day. I’m glad to see Emilio showing more fire lately as he has gotten back to his mid 90’s era here just beating people up. The third fall has Fuerza doing a great quick foul that the replay has to pick up. What an ass. I live for Black Warrior topes and he flies through the air against Emilio. Inside, Fuerza hits an elbow and Panther does a hurty submission on Lizmark to secure the win. For nondescript Arena Coliseo action, this was slightly above average. **3/4

This may have suffered from coming at the end of a pretty big lucha block the past couple of days. I thought the action was good but everything was a slight step off which hurt things a bit. There is also some weird clipping that always derails the momentum. Santo was the most smooth throughout and brought the most hate when he fires off on the outside on the third fall. This was probably Silver King’s worst performance of 2000 as he didn’t bring much energy at all and was more sloppy than usual. Ref bump was eye rolling. Antifaz Del Norte comes out and attacks Dandy with Dandy blading from being hit with the board. Dandy and the rudos are awarded the DQ win. *** (5.9)

More undercard IWRG stuff and another good, solid trios. Dragon and Mega still the first fall culminating in a tope that wipes out the first few rows of fans. Dr. Cerebro overall was pretty low key in this preventing it from reaching a next level. Ciclon has also shown some spirited performances but was merely good here. Overall, a good trios match but one that wasn’t memorable and mainly there to just fill out a card. *** (6.1)

A really classic trios here which was needed with all the good but not extraordinary lucha I had been watching. Opening pairings all had highlights. Silver King looked better here than the Monterrey match and Wagner and Villano III tear it up. First fall felt like it ended at the right time and set the table for the rest of the match. V gets worked over to start the second fall and this is where the match really cranks up. Satanico slaps on a headlock and reminds me of why he was the runaway WOTY for the first two months of the year. III gets tagged in but that is short lived and V is attacked again and submitted evening up the falls. Third fall starts out the same way wi…

M2K vs Crazy Max has arrived. This is the first super sized match between the two and Korakuen is rocking for it. It sort of reminded me of the Jumbo and Co. vs Misawa and Co. tag from May 1990 as you could tell the momentum was changing for the promotion and this was going to be the main focal point for the foreseeable future. Fuji gets worked over for a majority of the match and shows some sympathetic tendencies which is different from what he has been asked to do in his career so far. The match has an extended finishing run with a ton of chaos and action. M2K has instituted wanting to have a double countout and they succeed here. I don’t know how long that is going to …

We get less than half of this but it looked like a solid singles match to enter the meaty portion of the match. Arai isn't the most interesting personality but he is technically very sound. I do like him continually going for his twisting headbutt and him finally hitting it felt like a big turning point in the match overall. His 450 to gain the pin also looked good. Genki is still so young and 18 minutes may have been ambitious for him at this point in his career. I don't think from the clips this match rose above good and was a roaring success but it wasn't a failure either which at this point in these two guys' development, is not a bad thing at all. NR

Talk about it here.

Jericho does one of his more memorable and classic promos where he inserts Benoit’s face onto different situations including a jackass. Benoit comes out all serious and presents a picture of his own with Jericho in the crossface. E&C come out for the six man and they have a dig at Ricky Williams and his fumble. The New Orleans Saints in the front row do not look amused. Quick match but a way to preview what is coming up on Sunday. I did like the chair being thwarted by the Hardy’s as it felt like E&C had gotten the upper hand for most of the build. E&C do remain on top as the segment ends against the Hardy’s with E&C hitting a chair against a ladder. The D…

Stephs promo to start out was great. She says she had to do everything in life on her own and earned everything that has happened. She demands a rematch. Kurt Angle comes out and talks about children. Well, he had Jason Jordan by this time right? Kurt gets in a potshot on New Orleans by saying it is ridiculous a vile and filthy city like that calls its football team the Saints. That as a Falcons fan has me saying It’s True. Angle says that one other person deserves blame and that is HHH. HHH comes out all pissed off and gets a face reaction as he goes after Angle. Foley comes out now. Foley has found some medals and states that Steph would now be attracted to him. I enjoy…

This is worked as a straight trios match instead of a comedy bout. The Capos' tactics seem to be to keep Atlantis and Rayo in the ring. The only bit of offense that Silva gets is a plancha off the apron which is like having a tree fall on you. Things are going pretty well for the tecnicos and Rayo whips the crowd into a frenzy by threatening to piledrive Universo 2000 when suddenly the Boricuas attack. They give the Capos a beatdown Horsemen style. Well, maybe not that intensely but Pierroth gets revenge for the week prior and talks shit to Dr. Morales. Even if you can't speak Spanish it's obvious that Pierroth is killer on the mic. Puerto Rico, baby!

Not much to see here at all. Some fun stuff from Felino but otherwise this was just 10 minutes of spots and really felt like a going through the motions match for the Arena Mexico crowd. Lucha has become sort of interesting in August. CMLL had one of the best shows I have ever seen at the beginning but we are kind of limping to the finish of the month with a ton of trios that don’t have a lot going on. *1/2