September 2000

Big spot for E&C leading off SmackDown with a promo. They go for cheap heat saying soap was discovered in Louisville recently but the delivery is solid and the crowd reaction is there. I enjoyed Tazz on commentary dissing on Rock's shirt and how it would be received in Red Hook. Rock's promo was his usual verbal berating but it works well against E&C. I liked E&C asking for the world title to be on the line. We then get a backstage segment of E&C walking to the ring and being attacked by Rock. This shows the problem with Lawler as he has been a big E&C fan but is also a face in a feud with Tazz so he kind of has to tow the line when Rock attacks and it…

Angle looked better here than at Fully Loaded against Taker but he still gets manhandled pretty well. At least Taker varies things up with a gutwrench suplex. Angle transitioning with a drop toe hold was a nice spot. The finish happens quickly as Benoit runs in for the DQ. A neat moment then happens as HHH makes the save but goes directly after Angle. Its not so much that he was helping Taker as he wants a piece at Angle. *1/2

I don’t know how high a five minute match that is a trios finale of a tournament can go, but this is up there. Some absolutely frightening strikes, mask ripping, blood flowing awesome time. Villano V and Satanico in particular go after each other with complete disdain. The finish was predictable in that it resulted in Satanico calling for a DQ off of a foul and then getting fouled and pinned. That finish works for me every time and this had the added bonus of Bucanero overselling a fake foul as well. ***1/2 (7.2)

Same basic setup as the match involving Mikey the night before with Simon starting on the mic and then Mikey responding leading to his teammates coming out. Action is less inspired than the night before as it seems like overall with this house show, the roster was just providing the status quo. The face team is extremely unique with Chilly Willi and Balls mixed in with Mikey but I didn’t think they developed any engaging story of these unlikely partners working together. **1/4

The crowd for ECW is looking rough as when York and Matthews comes out, empty seats are all over the place. Doring/Roadkill continue to be helluva over compared to their push which is essentially crowd warmer. Nice sequence where York/Matthews have to hit combo moves on Doring and Roadkill individually to gain the advantage. They follow up on that quickly with topes to the outside. While they tend to Doring on the inside, they forget about Roadkill who hits his double clothesline from the top rope. Doring gets crotched quickly afterwards and Y&M are able to regain the advantage. They do a good job of adding some cocky mannerisms to the flashy offense they are performi…

Pretty generic indie rific type action. The opening matwork was fine but pretty loose looking and didn't serve much of a purpose. That ramped up to the big dives and the nearfalls towards the end. They are establishing Kash well with the tv title facing a variety of opponents and it is a sharp contrast to the way the Rhino tv title matches were presented. **1/2

Joey and Gertner start the show. You know the drill here with Joel giving us a poem. Cyrus interrupts and gets into it with Joel. The neck brace comes off and blows are about to happen when Paul E comes out with his phone and whacks Cyrus to a huge pop. Rhino jumps Paul E and gores him through the table. They have a “fan” jump the ring which looks well and good until Rhino gores one of the cops. Then we get a big brawl between the whole locker room. I don’t really have no idea why this happened but ok. Kash mosh pitting in to face Rhino was fun to see but pretty random in how the match starts. Brawl clears out as Enter Sandman fires up and Sandman wastes 5 minutes making …

Stip here is that if FBI doesn’t win tag belts, they will split up as a team forever. These two teams just gel for me. Mamaluke and Mikey do matwork that looks better than usual. The tags go to Tajiri and Guido and Tajiri slaps the shit out of Guido to a huge reaction from the crowd. From there, the match is just a great blend of all styles: Hardcore, southern tag, technical and some high flying mixed in. The finish really had a ton of misdirection with Whipwreck/Tajiri seemingly having the antidote for everything that FBI throws there way between Tajiri misting Big Sal and the Whippersnapper from the apron through the table. However, Guido is able to get a chairshot and …

A LONGGGG promo to set this up. The match itself is pretty forgettable just beyond these two wrestling in 2000. Horowitz does still have a lot of charisma and technical proficiency. Assassin is kind of just there.Around 5 minutes in we get a ref bump which is becoming way too much of a trope in this string of non Japanese matches I am watching lately. Horowitz's second clobbers him and Assassin pins to win the belt. *1/2

It is interesting that these guys were seeded as Fannin announces this was the 4-13 match in the tournament. A good back and forth match with Shark getting the shine in the beginning and some comedy mixed in with him biting Ace’s butt. Ace takes over and doesn’t have as much of a focal point as I would like. Finishing run had better action but Ace was playing to the crowd therefore the heat wasn’t as good as it could have been. Finish was a top rope powerbomb with Ace countering a rana with it looking awkward and painful for Shark Boy. Ace advancing is a bit of an upset IMO. *** (6)

This was really dry. LIfeless, the spots didn't look impressive and Flo did some of the most business exposing bumps and blading I have seen in a while. A disappointing end to the night and shows that just having light tubes and barbed wire was not enough. I felt no personal issue between the two and it was a match of two bumps through the pits of glass. *1/4

So begins my favorite tournament of the 2000 indies, the TPI or the Sweet Science 16 as it is known here and in 2001. This match showed that these two were still green but had some great potential. There are multiple moments where they are not on the same page and you can see them reconnecting with a quick headlock or irish whip to claim the next spot. Beyond that though, you get a good match with some innovative moves to pop the crowd and a heel/face structure. Hero has become somewhat of a homegrown guy with the IWA faithful in a relative short amount of time. The matches has some shifts that were surprising and the finish of the Hero’s Welcome was pretty definitive for…

Should I go ahead and announce here that for some reason I am kind of a closeted Anderson fan? Here he is as Kamikaze Ken and a straight 1980's dynamic dude fired up babyface. I don't know where they are wrestling but the floor is dirt here. Pearce gets the crowd nice and riled up beforehand and this match carries a very throwback structure of heat up and cool down spots. Anderson nearly kills himself on a dive to the outside going face first into the dirt. We get the overplayed ref bump and lame finish of Pearce's manager helping him secure the victory. Fun to watch and crowd heat was there from both men. **1/2

Segued straight from the Lobo vs Zandig match is this one. H8 Club is on the outside looking on. The cage does contain these guys so we don’t get any long wondering through the crowd brawling and taking forever to set up spots. Some cool spots here with the big superplex and the powerbomb from Lobo into the exploding side of the cage looked really good. Lobo as a worker struggles to do anything compelling within the spots. I’m not sure whether his character is supposed to be portrayed as a dangerous or aloof. They both climb up to the scaffold area which was pretty dumb. Sure enough, Lobo gets shoved off into a barbed wire board shortly afterward. After an impressive firs…

Something about the way this was filmed with the color distortion being off gave the match overall a grindhouse, pulp feel that enhanced the experience in this singular case. On top of that for two hardcore workers that aren’t darlings of their respective promotions in ring, this was a good match that had some brutal looking spots and kept the pace up. The match built up to the finale of Zandig doing the big powerbomb from the truck through the flaming tables and Zandig standing triumphantly with the CZW entrance sign in the background felt like one of the more astute shots in CZW history. *** (6.1)

Some more “great” CZW angles with Robbie Mireno beating up someone with an umbrella. This segues into the Backseat Boyz coming out and then finally Mondo/Blade/Shorty. Blade cuts a perverse promo calling the BSB gay and we get a huge chant from the crowd. The match itself was sloppy and switched between sick spots semi blown and just blown spots. Mondo in particular was really off in the match for big points as he goes for a rana or something early on that was completely blown. He also throws Acid recklessly on the top rope. On the other hand, Mondo hits an insane asai moonsault where Acid catches him and eats a face full of gravel from the momentum. Acid has received a t…

Zandig dispels the rumors that some “Fucking Jap” wasn’t going to show up. Its alarming how few matches Lobo actually worked. The cage has a ton of goodies in it and Zandig uses a trashcan and board immediately on Lobo. Light tubes and a throw the glass follow that. This is essentially a squash with Zandig about to hit the KO blow when Yamakawa comes out as a surprise and throws Zandig into an exploding side of the ring. Lobo is able to get the win. After the match, Yamakawa attacks Lobo and shows his allegiance with H8 Club. ½*

Besides the initial commentary on Mace's entrance, this was presented well as getting over Mace as a competent worker who belonged in this match and proved something to the naysayers. Besides that, it was a fun garbage brawl that looked dated at points in current day but still had enough big spots and action to remain entertaining in an evergreen environment. Low Ki's senton to the floor was nuts and the finishing Ki Krusher to Mace looked brutal and nearly botched. FWA continues to have good production values. *** (6)

Not a bad way to end the night. The brawl was short and heated and the bumps looked more vicious than the previous night. Bad Breed worked well as a tag team throughout the 2000's in this environment as they do portray themselves as bad asses. Hardcore Craig takes the blunt end of the beatdown culminating in the biggest spot being the finish of an powerbomb through chairs and assorted light tubes. Ian puts over Craig after the match and I guess he passed the artificial test of proving he is hardcore. IWA ending a show called Sweet Science by Ian pleading the fans to join him in saying "if you aint hardcore, you aint shit" is fitting. **1/2

An improvement on the previous match just based on the fact that we had Ace being a clear heel. The structure is a same but it felt more advanced with the sequences and chain wrestling. Everything looked crisp and this had a tighter finish with Hero securing the win to go to the finals. Ace was always heralded as one of the more underrated guys on the scene and it is easy to see why as he has character beats as well as a refined working style. ***1/4 (6.4)

From what I have seen of these two feud in 2001, Hero is probably my favorite opponent for Kickboxer except for maybe Tarek the Great. This match progressed well and felt sufficient for a second round in a tourney affair. The big vs small contrast was displayed and Hero catches the highspots of Kickboxer. The only downside I have is in regards to the finish as Hero locks on a crab and gets the submission almost instantaneously. *** (6)

The tournament ends in a whimper. We didn't have any MOTYC or anything on this show but it had progressed well. The opening matwork while fundamental got me excited that it would ratchet up to a satisfying conclusion. Instead, Palmer takes over and between the road sign shot and referee bullshit, this felt like anything but a Sweet Science finale and while Palmer is a heel, he didn't generate the right type of "heat" from that performance. It is nice that Hero won and they were going for an overcoming the odds story to establish Hero, but the execution missed the spot and Palmer wasn't the right person in the other role. **1/4

Much like the Hero/Kickboxer match, this was another good showcase match to display the up and coming talent in the promotion in a face vs face manner. Punk is vocal with the crowd and this did have more indie riffic spots that prevent it from moving as fluidly as the Hero match. I thought Punk added a good bit of texture to what he was doing within the ring by making sure he was remaining vocal and selling damage when appropriate. **3/4

An atrocious Dragon promo starts us off as he complains about someone parking in the grass. Rocker attacks and we cut to the match and Rocker continuing the beatdown. They are wrestling in some sort of tent. Rocker doesn't do a whole lot on top but Dragon does look dynamic in his comeback and is able to put Rocker away with a jawbreaker from the ropes and suplex. 3/4*

This only getting four minutes was unfortunate but they told a good story given the time. Regal dominates and is being semi cocky without the obvious character tones of his snooty WCW character. Spanky comes back with a barrage of offense and some great nearfalls including a Sliced Bread #2. He misses a frog splash and Regal locks on the Stretch quickly to gain the victory. *1/2