October 2000

A really fun break from everything. Porky has to be one of the all time great comedy workers as he always finds new ways to entertain. The best spot here was when he goaded Shocker into dancing and then fainted when Shocker raised his arms and he smelled his arm pits. The lead up to the Porky dive on all three rudos to end the second fall was also excellent. Overall, this was a lighthearted affair with good comedy work and then Silver King decides to take off Parka's mask and things get really serious for the finish with tons of old timers coming out to goad King. ***1/2 (7)

Some back and forth promos and a quick match but the hate was there. I think one thing that Benoit didn’t get enough credit for was that he was remembered as being too robotic but he has gotten personal feuds over this year with Rock, Jericho and now HHH. HHH interferes a couple of minutes in and slams HHH with a chair. HHH gets some color and that is a ready made feud for the No Mercy PPV. *1/4

Backstage, HHH tells Steph that she cost him the #1 contendership. The relationship here is still rocky. Steph says if she is such a liability, then she shouldn’t be there at all. Angle comes out for his match and talks about how much of a roll he is on. Angle gets in a potshot on Cal Ripken. Angle brings out his pals, Edge & Christian. Match itself is fine with some good comedy involving Too Cool and Rikishi including a stinkface to Kurt. Knowing what is about to come down the pike with Rikishi, it was good to get a six man from him and Too Cool one last time. Finish is an interesting development as Steph runs down and throws Sexay off the top rope and right into an …

I get they are trying to humanize Kane but his pre match promo here was bad with him sounding whiny and being too vulnerable as the monster about to go for a chance at the title. The streak continues lately of SmackDown having the best WWF tv match of the week and this is one of the better Kane matches period honestly. It was kept at a good length and the pace never lets up. Rock being stalked by Kane looked believable and Rock does a great sell job especially around the outside area having to use a bell and other tactics to gain the advantage. All of Rock’s comebacks throughout the match are cut off by Kane and the crowd seems to really believe a title change is possible…

Santo is back in CMLL and I will always take a dose of these two against each other. I wouldn’t say this was worked in a hateful manner but it was certainly chippy at points most notably when Santo does his tope and hits Pepe Casas. There was also an interesting development early on with Shocker extending an invite to Tarzan Boy to join him in the rudo locker room. Overall, this felt like a first fall to a great match but I will take what we can get. The Olympics airing has kind of derailed CMLL a good bit based in what we have seen lately and having Santo back can only be seen as a positive. ***1/4 (6.6)

Dalip Singh is introduced as a mystery partner after the mouthpiece manager had promised to unleash “the biggest monster in APW”. Jones questions the Playaz as to whether they’re scared and that they should be if they’re not. Well Singh is starting this off for his team which wasn’t what I was expecting in the slightest, thinking that Jones would do the bulk of the work and he would be in for just a few spots. Thompson shows initial caution and after Singh powers him backwards to the mat on the opening lock up suggests LeGrande try his luck. Same outcome so they decide to work together. The future Great Khali was supposed to power them both backwards on the double to…

Audio is nearly unlistenable on this. Nick Gage calls everyone a retard and then asks them to stand up and worship him. POndo comes out and gives a rah rah promo. Date on the camera says 10/7 which makes sense as it wouldn’t be taped on a Tuesday so I am going with that date. This is mostly a gore fest with POndo and Wifebeater who are two of my least favorite death matches workers that get a ton of buzz. That being said, some of the bumps into the wire were disgusting here and Wifebeater has a blade job for the ages. Scissors come into play again. Pondo gets wrapped in barbed wire and gets plastered with chairs by Gage and Beater. Hatred comes in and hits a glass box aga…

Lawler pulling a Rick Rude appearing on both shows today. This proved that these two don't really have much chemistry as it was a longer match but still pretty dull with a bunch of punching and kicking and not much intensity behind the punches. Tazz just isn't that great of a brawler and added to that was a weak ref bump for the finish. *1/4

A good long match between these two. Alkie is dreadful on commentary and they push the evening gown match later on in the show more than the nuiances of the match. Spanky is much more flashy and he mostly hits here. He even does a really unique pin attempt off of an Irish whip. Dragon works as the heel and is more vicious when on top and getting after the referee for a slow count. Spanky mounts a comeback and hits a really good missile dropkick for a nearfall. Dragon is resilient and the finale of the match is a good bit of back and forth with Spanky being able to hit a tornado DDT and huge splash for the win. Perfectly good professional wrestling and these two continue t…

Slash continues to be the big dog in Power Pro and beats the Bulldog here. Bulldog has a very meat and potatoes approach that is refreshing in some ways but certainly lacks polish in other areas and when a move is off for him, it is way off. Baxter helps run some interference for Slash. *1/4

Not much of a tag match but Derrick King looks good and it was pleasant to see him leading the way. The other main highlight was seeing Koko mix it up in 2000. Spellbinder and Charlies Laird are both decent. * The big development happens when Lawler arrives in his Kia Sportage. Lawler gives a history lesson of wrestling coming from channel 13 to channel 5. This weaves into him getting to why he left Power Pro and the reason is rooted in the fact they had talent like Kurt Angle in the promotion but Randy Hales and Brandon Baxter were main eventing. He talks about how this aren’t the superstars that kids grew up with in Memphis of old. This was a great way to twist thin…

The announcer losing his mind when Kobashi debuts the black/purple gear is glorious. This was a match where the mold is broken again. Akiyama seizes an opening at the start and gives an Exploder and assisted piledriver to Kobashi on the ramp. Why not as his tactics have worked this time. However, Kobashi has had enough of this shit. He gets some time to recover while Rikio gets worked over, gets tagged in and then unleashes a fury of two lariats that knock both Akiyama and Kanemaru out. The shock when the count happens for Akiyama is excellent. I am loving this feud and I am loving NOAH's booking so far. *** (6.1)

Probably a bit too long for what this was but overall it was again nice to see how progressed Kenta and Marufuji are becoming. Scorpio helps flash out the undercard of NOAH with an established veteran that gets the crowd behind him. I didn’t remember much about Richard Slinger besides always thinking he had the most boring look and name in existence but he was fine here grinding it out against Kenta and Marufuji with body scissors and other mat based moves that show dominance. He kept things moving along to not make the match too mundane. The ending run was strong in giving the rookies just enough offense while retaining that they still had some growth to go to defeat a t…

I get why with the way this show was set up how this was the main event but this had much less juice than almost all the matches we have seen. That being said, this did have some fun moments at points with Taue vs Misawa going after each other, Ogawa raking eyes, Ikeda looking like he fits in and guys like Izumida that we wont see very often throughout the decade. The finish was never in doubt and Inoue is still struggling mightily to find a place but overall this wasn’t a total waste of 23 minutes. **3/4

Morishima jumps Vader at the bell and the fight is on. This is worked like a Brock 2017 match where it is a straight fight from the gate. Morishima shows some fire and gives a go to Vader but he comes back with a mauling and ends up winning with a flurry of punches knocking Morishima out. I think NOAH having Vader is important and a nice coup for them and he had a hell of an aura in this match. *** (6.2)

Kikuchi kicks Takayama as he comes in the ring and Taka just stares him down. NOAH is making Taka look awesome and I am here for it. After Taka takes it to Kikuchi for around five minutes, he has no choice but to resort to some dirty tactics. A rake of the eyes and then he cranks out the arm of Takayama. A great submission with Kikuchi hanging on the outside of the ring just wrenching on the arm. Takayama is feeling the pain and starts cranking it up a notch with some knees that looked brutal to regain an advantage. A couple of more knees and the referee has to call for the bell. Takayama is pissed off now though so he gives another for good measure. Kikuchi should just s…

Romeo has such a thick Southern accent that it made me blush. Steve Martin has words for Romeo and the match is on. They are setting up the Toccoa house show on commentary and mention Lazz and Shank being in the prison. They cut to commercial right after Bailey rams Romeo into the post. We come back from break discussing how great AJ already is and how he is only going to get better. AJ gets huge air on his frog splash but Romeo is able to kick out. Romeo doesn’t show a ton throughout this match in timing his comebacks or making a lot of his strikes look powerful. Romeo does have decent color from the post shot. Larry Goodman gets a shoutout on commentary from Getz. Anoth…

Show as a face feels fresh and he grabs a hold of Synn until the Disciples come in to help out. Judas throws ashes into Big Show and the beatdown commences. Flash delivers a nice senton bomb to the outside. That is short lived as Flash gets worked over. Fun work and Leviathan is not involved in this match as they are saving the big showdown of him vs Big Show. That is smart. Flash makes the hot tag and Leviathan comes in. The battle between him and Show is a ton of fun. Synn botches a fireball shot and the Disciples retreat. After the break, we get a Disciples video to Voodoo from Godsmack. This is well done and overall this is probably some of the best stuff we have see…

This is more like the OVW I am used to. Nothing offensive in ring but nothing too exciting and it certainly doesn't match the screaming that is happening on commentary. This is a coal minor glove match to set up the big house show and Conway and Black are having problems with each other. Not the most interesting angle at all and it shows that some of the other prospects in OVW still have a ways to go IMO. *1/4

Gene Okerlund grabs a pre-match word with Mike Awesome and while he would like to talk wrestling, he would much rather know how an old guy picks up chicks. “Never take no for an answer” is his reply, an answer that is wrong on so many levels! Steve Sharpe is the former Ali from MPPW. We have seen him doing some extra work, but it turns out he did actually wrestle here too (I found one other appearance in a six-man tag though that was it). Awesome carries a table out with him which he rests up against the security railing, strong likelihood then that will be playing a part in this at some point. As he’s removing his polyester shirt Sharpe clubs him from behind. …

Crazy Max showing up and having their showcase match on the big promotional shows is pretty endearing. This was a par the course six man for them with the exception that Genki keeps developing and now know how to integrates his surfer persona into his matches better to make them work. Dragon Kid looked a step off from previous matches we have seen him in but still hit some gorgeous highspots. This didn’t hit the top end Crazy Max matches we have seen in the year, but it was very enjoyable while it lasted. ***1/2 (7)

A really good match and a testament to how good Sasuke is when he wants to be. Marufuji also exuded a ton of confidence and didn’t rely on annoying traits that will creep in throughout his career. Sasuke hit the perfect balance of making the up and comer look competent while still being the established star. The first really good match of Marufuji’s career. ***3/4 (7.4)

SUWA is such a punk. He starts shit walking out and it flows over to the match as he just brutalizes Tiger Mask working like a complete rudo with stiff punches, mask ripping and drawing blood. He also is stirring up a lot of hate with Magnum Tokyo on the outside. Tiger Mask for his part hits his comebacks and shows sympathy. I liked the glimpse of a run for TM and then SUWA kneeing him in the nuts and just taking over again. The comeback from TM was superheroic but he did have to thwart off Crazy Max as well as another low blow from SUWA before locking on the submission victory. SUWA freaks after the match and we get a big ol brawl to set up a lot of matches in the future…

Lucha in 2000 is becoming a conodrum for me. This was a very good match and the talent is amazing but there is still something missing and overall, I miss the bevy of hot feuds that seemed to populate the scene at the beginning of the year. In one way it is commendable that most of these men can have these “roll out of bed” good matches on a consistent basis. On the other hand, you can see how someone like Casas could be a top 10 worldwide worker for the year and just based on booking and the style I can’t in good conscience rank him that high. Him and Dandy go after each other here a lot and Panther also mixes in some good work. Shocker and Zumbido were a little more low…

A good lucha appetizer with Fuerza and Felino especially being the standouts in this one. A fiery opening and then progressively more hate with each other with Fuerza going after the mask in the later stages. Pimpinela was also vicious and not just comedy in this match including choking Lizmark on the outside. The payback spots by the tecnicos in the third fall when things broke down was well done with Fuerza getting unmasked big time and Felino doing a foul. Referee was too involved from the jump in this match and with Fuerza’s mask being disorganized, he starts attacking the ref because he can’t see. Finish has Lizmark also giving a foul to Pimpinela and the referee aft…