November 2000

Yeah, this Jericho vs Kane feud is pretty awful. They show a long package to start showing how absurd the whole thing is since it evolved from coffee. Jericho then comes out and does his cringest promo of the year where he puts the Kane mask on famous celebrities and politicans. Way too cute and I didn’t even crank a smile once. The match itself is a good tv match that could have developed into a really good tv or PPV match if given more time. The pairings are all fresh and each of the four guys could have conceivably won to set up the title match. They have kind of hamfisted the big Survivor Series matches into this SD and it is shocking we are 10 days away and didn’t kn…

E&C are pissed that Foley didn’t give them the title shot vs. RTC. Instead, they are up against the Hardy Boyz. Good match for four minutes and I like how personal the feud has evolved as they brawl on the entrance way. The match has a quick FIP sequence for Jeff where he does a good job selling underneath and then makes the tag to Matt. Lita gets involved and the Hardy’s are able to pick up the win to a huge pop. **

We get the explanation from HHH and it isn’t much. Jealousy and pure hatred can only go so far and as much as he tries to run down the crowd and say he hated getting the cheers, it feels really hollow. Sadly, WWF has taken another step back this week and even though the turn wasn’t foreseen by a lot of the Houston crowd, this follow up sucks. Nonetheless, Foley sets up two more big matches at Survivor Series in Rock vs Rikishi and Austin vs HHH. Rock delivers a promo before the match that was pretty funny and held up well. Match is nothing as the faces are whipping ass until the Radicalz come down and HHH and Rikishi bail. This does make the Radicalz look like cronies whi…

We cut to Shocker taking a wild bump off of a Charles throw. Then, we get Tarzan Boy and Shocker interaction with Shocker covering TB ears when he hears the boos from the crowd. Dr. Wagner Jr. shoves TB forcefully and gets admonished by Scorpio and Shocker. Shocker and Scorpio end up teaming up on TB and pinning him. Shocker hits a big dive on Emilio and pins him as well. After the break, Santo and Wagner are squaring off with the heat really pumping up through Arena Mexico. They unsurprisingly have a cool sequence with Wagner winning after the Blue Thunder Driver. TB is jawing with the crowd as he heads to the back. Scorpio and Shocker are inviting him to join them alon…

Apparently they were taking this match around the horn, as it's just a few weeks after a Dog Collar match in the FWA. This one has a faster start, which I liked. Bad Crew still throws pretty terrible punches for guys that are primarily brawlers. I like that a fan lets one of the Bad Crew use what appears to be his legit cane as a weapon. This one builds a bit by wandering into a bar area in the venue (it looks like we may be in a VFW or Knights of Columbus). This one ends up going a bit longer than the FWA match and suffers for it, as it's really all just repetitive weapon shots. Bad Crew hits their finisher, but get attacked by the Backseat Boyz. This leads to Mafia powe…

Kashmere does a long promo that meanders until Dewey Donovan interrupts him. Dewey gets punked out by Kashmere and Gage makes the save starting the match. Decent brawl but pretty quick and really a way to get to the next segment as Acid comes out to interfere allowing Gage to get the frogsplash for the pin. **

Awful choreographed wrestling as Blade continues to have a success rate that may be worse than RVD in 2000. I don’t think Mondo is some great worker either as he has probably been more disappointing in 2000 than I remembered. Still, he didn’t have much to work with here as Blade flips around and botches stuff almost constantly. Mondo attacks Shorty which is strange and out of character. This only serves as Blade having time to scale the fence to do a moonsault that barely connects. C Z Dub. This was actually the main event which is really disappointing and ends the night on a sour note. Blade does get better as the match progresses as both his powerbomb through the chairs…

A beatdown by Gage and Acid leads to Lobo coming out and we get a big brawl. The Lobo vs Gage brawl on the floor was reckless and violent and easily the best thing Lobo has done this year. Acid and Gage are a pretty cool team together and even though this match came first chronologically, I watched it after Blade vs Mondo. Acid is much more on point with his high spots compared to Blade. The finish looked like it could have been one of those stupid double pins with Kashmere pinning Gage and Acid pinning Lobo but they kick out. Immediately afterward, Acid gets dropped on a chair with a cutter and then Gage brainbusters Kashmere on the chair. Sick spots. Lobo’s cradle DDT t…

Highlights of another match from the big Jonesboro show on 10/28. Fabulous Rocker (now going by his real name of Chris Rocker) is again the referee which kinda makes you wonder what the MCW officials are playing at considering what happened last time! Rocker gets involved early; tripping Cade up on a criss cross spot, at which point ‘Sexy Boy’ plays to an almighty pop and out walks Shawn Michaels. Although not shown here, before the match got underway Rocker had ejected the rest of the ‘Kliq 2000’ from ringside because they didn’t have a manager’s license. As luck would have it, HBK says that on his way to Jonesboro he stopped off at the Manager’s License store and pi…

Talk about it here.

Bobcat is the guest ring announcer here, but before she introduces the participants cuts a brief promo saying that she is what’s been missing from Power Pro Wrestling. She is here to make all the men’s fantasies and desires come true, while being a role model for all the women! Onto the match and a reverse atomic drop followed by a big powerslam by Abs for a two. Slash backs off, but when Joey charges, he backdrops him over the top rope to the arena floor. Fortunately Abs lands on his feet and then trips Slash from the outside. Shoulder tackle off the top, however Slash gets the knees up when he goes for the splash out of the corner. Joey doesn’t have a good success…

The best tv match of the day but that is kind of damning with faint praise. There was some stuff in the match with Paris working heel and Phoenix running interference on the outside that worked, but Paris overall is pretty uneven as a heel and looks more uncomfortable than AJ does. I get the narrative of him proposedly slowing things down to piss off the fans but it made the match disjointed and boring as a result. Jacobs was fine from underneath but I do think he works better as a base for a dynamic flyer or doing a strictly southern tag formula match. Interference allows Paris to pick up the win. **1/4

A November ‘Dream Match’ that came about as a result of what happened on last week’s show where the ‘Disciples of Synn’ scored a non-title victory over Flash & B.J.Payne after Slash had sprayed Flash in the face with Synn’s aerosol canister and pinned him following ‘the Decapitator’ (yes, finally we have a name for his neckbreaker!). The DoS continued to attack the champs after the match with Leviathan coming out to join in the fun and help his fellow Disciples. The Big Show made the save, and while the rest of the DoS high tail it out of the ring, Leviathan is more than happy to go one on one with him. A thrust kick sends ‘the Demon’ over the top to the outside an…

Heat against Storm is great as is the dingy feel of this indie with the announcer having to ask the kids to not run under the bleachers kicking the cans. Good match with Storm especially showing off his heel persona. It is a lot of territory basic stuff but it works when he is getting this much heat and he does some clever touches like the low blow to Fleisch when he checks his hand to distract everyones eyes. Fleisch is mainly along for the ride here and is decent at selling but this is certainly a match that thrives based on Storm’s personality. Storm ends up winning after taking 85% of the match which surprised me. Fun watch. ***1/4 (6.3)

Thug throws Becky around like a ragdog and Becky does a huge bump being turned inside out. Marshall and McLane are brutal on commentary. Thug doesn’t have much regard for Becky’s body as she hurls her to the outside. Becky hits a splash as we go to break. Back from the break, Becky splashes all three members of Harley’s Angels and Becky gets a flurry of offense. An errant cane shot and another big splash from Becky gives her the big upset win. After the match, David takes a phone call from Kathie Lee who wants to co host, but David turns her down. That ends the show. WTF. ½*

Jungle Grrrl’s graphics are even more ridiculous than the ones we have seen so far. Pretty awful match and Billie gets her finisher in the bulldog that Grrrl kicks out in 1. Marshall tells us we are seeing more action in 90 seconds here than in a long time. Grrrl hits her big splash as the “animal is turned loose” according to McLane for the win. ¼*

Shawn Hernandez being Hotstuff Hernandez, while the size difference isn’t as much as I expected here when I saw the match listed. Hernandez with a great high leap frog, clearing Crash with ease, whic h he follows with a scoop powerslam for a two count. He whips him into the turnbuckles with authority as Crash just crumples to the mat on impact. The future ‘Hotstuff’ sits on a rear chinlock that Holly escapes from with some elbows to the mid-section. Double clothesline sees both men go down. Crash with a flying forearm before rushing his opponent, sending him backwards into the corner. Hernandez reverses the whip to the opposite one, however Crash avoids the charge a…

What a hoot this match is. Gangrel is so much smoother than Saturn in the Raw main event I just watched. He throws a back suplex and Northern LIghts Suplex here early. Regal shows some craftiness with the elbows to the back of his head and his transition with the drop toe hold at multiple points in the match. Regal stretch was a good false finish and Gangrel was able to show a lot of fortitude before going down. The perfect syndicated match to keep your attention span at 11:00 PM. **1/2

After the iron man match, this puts to bed this feud for a while. I am interested in hearing other thoughts as I thought this was good but think my Hayabusa bias may be affecting things. Fuyuki works over the arm a lot and it is solid stuff but there was the impending sense throughout the match that it wouldn’t matter and that Busa was still going to run through all of his signature flashy offense. He does and even though that is more about the legs than the arm so the selling was inconsistent, the arm work that was laid out did feel moot. Fuyuki ends up winning and continues to look more and more dominant probably to the detriment of the promotion overall. A weird match.…

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

This was the lucha action I was looking for. Classic pairings with Villano vs Panther, Dandy vs Atlantis and Panther vs Atlantis. We even get Zumbido and Niebla being tremendously entertaining in their dance off. Everything takes time to develop and just melds itself into an extremely satisfactory match. The rudos have been looking impressive throughout this show and pick up another win here. I didn’t think this really developed any blood feuds for the future but for 8 really established lucha stars, they went out and did their best to satisfy the fans and viewers. ***3/4 (7.6)

For a match full of talented wrestlers, there wasn’t much to this. Some decent square offs and pairings and Pimpinela in particular is never really boring, but there also wasn’t an overlapping issue that would raise the profile of a match like this on a random show. I thought Oro did a good showing for himself as a guy that were sort of on the backburner in 2000 but could still bring it. I thought Silver Star was pretty shitty throughout the match and the Damian 666 weapon shots were unimaginative and lame. The final fall is a mess with Calo missing on his dives and the finishing DDT between Nicho and Calo being completely botched. **1/4

Too Cool feels sooooo played out here. That being said, match is fairly decent and plays off a quick formula of Too Cool getting a good bit of offense, a quick FIP sequence and then the finish. I liked Christophers clothesline from the top before he makes the hot tag to Hotty. The worm is still really over and gets a nice response. After the worm, Edge hits the spear and it looks good here and violent. Christian brings in a chair and that picks up the cheap win for E&C. *1/2

Good spot for Holly going against the WWF champ on Heat. This was really fun. Angle has a lot of confidence now and just goes all out for the three minute match working a crazy pace. Crash is able to get some offense on him and look credible and even a nearfall. Angle quickly hits the Angle Slam and gets the win. After the match, Angle brings in a chair, hits Molly with an Angle Slam and uses the ankle lock for the first time I can remember. **