October 2000

Things are a bit slow getting going here, when they do there’s a great spot by Starr who just pops Vyzago in the jaw when it looks like he was going for a shoulder tackle. It’s worth mentioning that Chicky is the face and after Vyzago escapes a side headlock Starr has words with the referee claiming that Vyz had pulled his hair to do so. Vyz refutes that immediately saying “I didn’t pull his God damn hair!” but Chicky is insistent that he did. He never, although the seeds have already been planted in the official’s mind, so when Starr goes back to that side headlock again and Vyz’s hands come up towards his hair, the ref is waiting and pushes them straight back down. …

Thanks to one of the Puerto Rican uploaders on YouTube we now have all of the RF filmed fancams of IWA-PR from when Feinstein would follow Super Crazy and Tajiri on their tours to the island; the added bonus this time around is that Juventud Guerrera was on the same tour. Juvi and Paparazzi work a fast opening and after dropping him with a spinning heel kick Paparazzi shuffles on his knees over to his corner and puts his arms around Super Crazy looking for some sympathy. From the reactions I take it Paparazzi does some sort of implied ‘gay’ gimmick as that doesn’t sit too well with Crazy. A nice rolling kneebar by Crazy and Juvi is in to make the save. The intrigue h…

Oh yeah, more good trios action VIllano IV and Scorpio were the big components of this match and they brought the hate. Scorpio rips the mask and Villano blades. Villano is sent head first right into the iron post. Then we get the big comeback for the second caida and now Scorpio is busted open. Third fall starts with some rapid fire punches and knee right to the face from Villano. Villano is really using his DDT today as a big move in his arsenal. Panther and Felino finish up after Villano and Scorp dive to the outside and this is a good sequence with less hate but some pretty chain wrestling and roll up attempts. Villano ends up picking up the win with a Diamond Cutter …

Absolutely no chance of me being able to tell who is Guardia and whom is Offical. It looks like they have their name on the front of their uniform so that helps me out around five minutes in. This was probably helped by having some guys we don’t see a ton of but I also appreciated the admittedly slow pace this had for most of the match. Everything had time to develop and work it out. Bombero was really strong in the opening fall and continues to work over until he gains the submission victory. The second fall with the miscommunication and the triple victory roll was also enjoyable. Third falls have things opening up with quicker pairings and some dives to the outside. We …

Some more underneath guys given a chance to shine. Top to bottom, IWRG is a great promotion and you have guys like Bombero and Cerebro hanging around and doing great stuff along with the bigger names you would see in CMLL. I thought Suicida had a strong showing here doing some wonderful high risk stuff and showing great balance. Overall, this would have been a perfect way to get the show going. *** (5.8)

The Radicalz are slowly forming back together. Benoit and HHH start out and pick right up from No Mercy with great intensity and action against each other. HHH and Malenko is neat to watch for the brief moments it lasts and it would have been cool to have seen Dean get a chance against HHH on Heat or SmackDown earlier in the year. When the match breaks down, Saturn comes out and gets a shot on Road Dogg allowing Malenko to lock on the Cloverleaf giving Benoit and Malenko the win. *

Angle has decided that Brooklyn Brawler deserves a shot at the WWF title. Foley has other plans and the match is on. Typical good match between these two with Jericho looking particularly strong and Stephanie nervous at ringside. Jericho is able to lock on the Walls of Jericho when Kane runs down to cause the DQ. Angle bails as quick as he can. I am interested to see if Angle is booked to look a bit stronger as champion going forward as he may look too weak so far. **1/4

Dudley's are back in the main mix on the tag division and this was a good tag to get them back into the swing of things. It was given a decent amount of time, had good heat and worked in a fun face vs face way where tempers flare up over the course of the match. Lawler and Cole seem to be settling well as a pairing as they have some good back and forth here. Lawler is leaning more heel with Cole than he does with Ross by this point. Hardy's even do a low blow at one point to show how much they want the win. Double wassup drop from the Dudleys and they are gong after the tables. E&C run down and paste the Dudley Boyz and Hardy's with chair shots ended the match suddenl…

Stone Cold starts the show and gives his side of the story on Sunday night. Austin's story doesn't really match up tot he smell test but ok. We learn that Austin can't touch Rikishi until he is provoked. Backstage, Rikishi meets with Too Cool where they try to talk some sense into Rikishi. Rikishi stumbles over his words and is really faltering here. At least they are jumping to the Austin cage match quickly on Raw. Match is a squash for Rikishi as he battles them on the outside. Too Cool gets some quick moments and the worm is teased but Rikishi stuffs that out and gives the Samoan Drop to both members to finish off the Too Cool run as a trio once and for all. Rikishi ca…

I was excited for this on paper but it is a nothing tag match that only goes a few minutes. I didn't even think we saw a glimpse of what someone like Pirata could do. Perhaps it was to set up something later on in the night but as a standalone match, this was extremely disappointing. 1/2*

Hopefully someone with more lucha AAA knowledge can explain everything that happened here with all the run ins and fighting. The match itself was good with Toro taking advantage early on and being vicious before Garza narrowly escapes. I feel like if I know the context, the angle afterwards could be awesome and the crowd was losing it and the brawling around was good and featured the entire roster. AAA does that well that one blowoff usually jump starts the next big thing all in one segment. Toro gets his hair shaved. ***1/4 (6.3)

This was exactly what it needed to be. Atlantis starts off pissed and is ready to take TB to the woodshed but TB will have none of that and gets vicious winning the first fall. He continues the attack in the second fall even after Atlantis gets looked at by a doctor. Nothing is really cheating per say but it is really chippy. Atlantis comes back with La Atlantida and wins the second fall. Third fall starts with Atlantis going ape on TB on the outside ramming him into the post and giving him a stiff clothesline. The crowd is nuclear and Emilio Charles is telling him to put TB back inside the ring. Atlantis mounts and just punches away before they go to the entrance ramp. P…

A big bag of fun. A lot of spotlight spots and unique pairings with the rudos going after each other more than they would normally. I thought Panther was the highlight first when he faced off with Satanico and then the ending stretch with Niebla. Panther is getting more and more of a face reaction and him winning gets a big reaction. Blue Demon comes out to present the purse to Panther. ***1/4 (6.6)

I have enjoyed the dynamic of these two teams against each other and this served as a good blowoff between the feud of them two and what was going to transpire in the future. I thought the spots that the BSB did with the ladder were real impressive and TLC level and showed that both but especially Acid had great seasoning and charisma for how far along in wrestling they were and how young in age they were at the time. Bad Crew suffered a bit here and that made me appreciate the Dudley's in the WWF matches because while the Hardy's and E&C did the more athletic bumps and spots, the Dudleys also did some sick bumps and still conveyed a measure of danger where they could…

Not a bad Ric Blade performance at all. Spotty as hell of course and at its best it was a homage to the best parts of Lynn vs RVD and Guerrero vs Malenko but Blade hit most of his stuff cleanly tonight and got a good reaction from the crowd. Berk also hung with him more than I figured given his build and he did a variety of high impact spots. This was a pure spotfest style match but there was a clear heel and face so that is appreciated. Blade is never going to be even a very good worker but his matches are never boring either from the spots he does hit or the trainwreck they become. There is something to be said about that. **3/4

Chicky Starr vs Vyzago (IWA-PR Yabucoa, PR 10/27/00) Vyzago waits for Starr on the concrete, not even bothering to get in the ring. This kicks off pretty much the moment Chicky walks through the curtain and he gets some early payback for last night, slamming Vyz’s head into the ring steps. Not for the first time this tour Doug Gentry (I assume he’s filming) is too close to the wrestlers and you hear Starr say “shoulder” just as he whips his opponent into the ring post, Vyz hitting shoulder first as called. Chicky throws him back inside and a big haymaker drops Vyz. This has been all one way traffic so far. El Lobo must’ve thought the same because as Vyzago backs…

I saw Rastaman have an enjoyable contest against Barry Horowitz for IPW when I took an early dive into 2001 so let’s see how he does here. Oh dear, the footage starts with Feinstein flexing his puny biceps at the camera while sat next to Tajiri in the bleachers. Rasta turns his back to remove his waistcoat and Crazy is straight on him with a dropkick sending him careering into the turnbuckles. Irish whip is reversed and Rasta with a ‘Cactus clothesline’ taking both men over and out to the floor. It looks like Rasta blew himself up dancing on his entrance as he’s sucking up air already. A bit of audible spot calling now as you hear Crazy call for the reversal on anoth…

There’s an odd story to this of Tajiri and Paparazzi teaming up against Juvi, Pap double crossing him, back to working together, Pap crosses him again and so on. When it’s just the two of them Juventud and Tajiri cut a breakneck pace at times and just like last night in Juana Diaz there’s no coasting from ‘the Juice’. Unlike last night though where he held his own Paparazzi dragged this one down, even tripping over the ropes at one point, and you were clamouring for him disappear and leave Tajiri and Juvi too it. Juvi avoids the Paparazzi running splash in the corner and then levels Tajiri with a thrust kick. He clotheslines Pap over the top rope to the floor, a victo…

Talk about it here.

ODD is accompanied by two guys who look like they were Dudley brother rejects. Wait a minute, ODD is Jeff Bradley who was Dudley Dudley in ECW. I wonder if ODD stands for Original Dudley Dudley then, and it’s one of those deals where he can’t use the Dudley name because it’s trademarked by the WWF. This was supposed to be a tag team match with ODD and Horowitz taking on Mike Sullivan and Buck Quartermaine, however ‘the Iceman’ is a no show and ‘Marvellous’ Mike doesn’t know where he is. Sullivan says that he signed a contract for a tag team match, not a singles match and not a handicap match, and as no-one in the back wants to tag with him thinks they should call it a…

A good finale to the show as all four guys worked hard here. Apolo in particular had some surprising sequences that looked good with both Banderas and Perez. Perez is the sleaziest member of the match and brings a rudo nature to the proceedings. Overall, some stuff feels kind of like a tag with Shane/Apolo pairing off against the other two but the action is consistent throughout. Finish was exciting with some high impact moves and Shane ending up winning after a frog splash to a huge pop. Overall this was a show that was a chore for me to get through but did have some highlights including the final two matches. ***1/4 (6.4)

Going to go ahead and ask for Boriuca to provide me a solid and some insight here as this was just clips horribly edited together by RF video. It appears we are watching almost the entire show the next day and the matches are longer so hopefully that gives us better context. With what we saw here, I couldn't really tell the teams apart and it was a garbage brawl of weapon shots and a lot of blood. NR

I had the match structure messed up so this is actually the opener and it was a pretty fun match. Shane has good crowd support and they both went out and had an enjoyable opening match tilt without doing too much. Crazy I thought looked good reigning in Shane but also letting him shine when needed. I thought both Crazy and Tajiri did good highlighting the Puerto Rican mainstays and helping push them over. **1/2

Good match here. Apolo is young and fired up with a ton of crowd support. Castillo is the cagey veteran that struts around and wants to work the match at his pace. The brawling in the first portion really brought the match up to a fever pitch and was intense. Castillo gains control and his Fargo Strut is wonderful. Castillo does get too chinlocky at points making the heat depreciate but Apolo does a good job selling the damage. Apolo’s comeback was good and I liked the cutoff of him missing the spear and ramming his shoulder and then getting clipped by Castillo. Castillo now has more focus working over the leg. Castillo uses the ropes to cheat but someone runs out from th…

Decent match but all three of the guys in there with Juvy felt pretty green and the match was mainly a series of run together spots with the usual tag partners keeping on the same page for the most part throughout. I would have liked to have seen Juvy in something meatier as both him here and Tajiri in the Banderas match feel like a waste of a special attraction spot. **