November 2000

Was happy to see a long form six man between these two teams and it didn’t disappoint. This felt more basic in the heel Crazy Max faction vs. three established babyfaces but the roles were presented well and the match moved along nicely. Tokyo is back with some highlighted hair and he picked his spots throughout and didn’t have any blunders to detract things. Genki was the standout for me on the face side as he was great at picking his spots, taking a beating and kickstarting the final portion of the match with his highspots and speed. I loved how they built to that moment and then the match broke down. Crazy Max is a well oiled machine by this point and this is the best …

‘Commissioner’ Sanders is at the commentary desk and he’s got a surprise in store for Kwee Wee, the man who will be challenging him for his Cruiserweight title at Mayhem. For not the first time a surprise ends up being Bill Goldberg and these wrestlers should really start wising up when an authority figure here in WCW tells them they have a surprise in store for them! Kwee Wee jumps Goldberg when he enters the ring stomping away on him. He goes for a springboard, but Goldberg spears him mid-air in an awesome looking spot. Jackhammer and the Kwee Wee goes down. Sanders is pretty smug with himself thinking that his plan has paid off and that it will be a weakened Kwee …

Scott Steiner is on commentary and says he would have no problem hitting Gore or Bush because they are so ugly it is always like they got hit with the ugly stick. He also guarantees Luger isn’t going to win because he is out there to prevent that. Action spills to the outside quickly and Luger starts working on the back of Booker to set up the rack. Back suplex from Luger looks good enough and gets a nearfall. Powerslam follows that up and Luger is very targeted on the back. Booker makes his comeback. Goldberg runs out and Steiner meets him. Again, this is the money match in WCW right now and has more heat and intrigue than anything else. Luger has a chair but Booker move…

“I just realized something, that Jamie san is a white guy.” Madden follows up that gem with a Pretty Fly for a White Guy reference. This was a really good junior match for the five minutes they had. Jamie had some good strikes and intensity to mix in with the highspots. Yang is someone I have never thought much of but he was fine here. Jamie hits a big legdrop for a nearfall. Leia distracts Noble and Yang is able to take over. Evan Karagias comes out but he gets caught off by 3 Count. Noble dives on the other members of 3 Count. Noble gets the cover with a quick rollup and 3 Count attacks after the bell. Big brawl to sell the match at Mayhem. **

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit - RAW 11/20/00 This is the night after Survivor Series when Austin dropped HHH from a forklift. Benoit, a HHH ally, is to claim that Austin can do all this hellraising and damage, but he cant wrestle. Benoit as a superior technical wrestler would take him to school. Just 5-6 years later, Benoit would have been cheered for that and Austin booed. How times have changed. Austin says he is going to whoop Benoit's ass. Benoit actually gets in a good line before the main event saying "You wont get Austin 316 instead you will get Benoit 101 and Austin you are gonna fail." Austin does some really nice technical wrestling spots at th…

Jericho promo with Mitchell Cole. Jericho talks about the violence him and Kane have endured and how that is going to continue. The No Mercy WWF Rewind shows Rikishi’s attack after the match. Rock interview with Kevin Kelly is next. He doesn’t say much of note here. Rock and Jericho charge the ring in a nice show of unity and the crowd is going nuclear. Kane gets the advantage as cheers for Rocky ring from the crowd. Rock shows some great versatility in this match getting a side Russian leg sweep on Kane before tagging in Jericho. Really fun tag match as it settles down with Jericho as FIP. Hot tag to Rock blows the roof off the arena and Jericho is aggressive going for a…

Angle is out for an interview with brother Eric. Kurt talks about the Survivor Series screwjob and he is pleased to announce that the screwjob was avoided this year and for once the good guy prevailed. Taker comes out and beats up Eric before chokeslamming Kurt from the stage through a table at ringside. E&C meet with Foley backstage and even bring out a play urn. They want Mick to apologize on their behalf. Mick instead makes a handicap match with them vs Taker. Taker receives the urn but doesn’t appreciate the gesture. This is the third iteration of Taker vs E&C we have seen so far this year and it was the most frustrating of them all. E&C have proven to be …

Perhaps someone like OJ can fill in the blanks on some of the competitors here. Marvin, Tarzan Boy and Ultimo Guerrero were the most involved to me. The dive sequence in the middle of this thing was pretty fun and overall this wasn’t a bad showcase ending in UG getting a nice moment. UG is going to be one of the tougher guys to rank on my top 100 list at year end. Not a lot of bad but he does have long stretches where you don’t have much great either based on what we have on tape. **1/2

It appears that in a different promotion we've flipped roles for Punk and Pearce, with Punk now being the heel. Instead of comedy to open, Punk cuts an intense promo (hard to hear, though), and they go straight to a brawl. Pearce leads the crowd in a "Pepsi sucks!" chant. They work a totally different style than their last match, with the focus here on work outside the ring and some big spots - a pile driver on a table by Pearce, for example. Pearce even busts out a top rope pedigree (which I believe is what would become Punk's Pepsi Plunge). The crowd eats it up. It's a good indication of how these guys are improving that they can work two totally different matches withi…

Ian gives his best Dudley Boyz promo before the match running down the crowd. It is pretty crass by 2018 standards, but in 2000 it was edgy and not as over the line stuff that I thought it was pretty interesting to see him generate some legit heat from riling up the crowd. Ian at least has some self awareness in poking fun at himself by saying all the women in the crowd want to be with him and then posing in the opening moments of the match like he is Rick Rude. The match is an Ian massacre. I can certainly see complaints that it went on too long but he demolishes Dino with punches, barbed wire bats, chairs and tables. Dino is a bloody mess and the crowd does have a nice…

This took a bit to get going and had Tenzan and Kojima clowning around a bit with Kojima mimicking Nagata’s salute. When Takashi and Yuji take over, the match ramps up and they are much more violent and visceral in their attack. I actually thought Nagata and Iizuka looked pretty fantastic here and the big time prospects of NJPW going forward compared to Tenzan and Kojima who were their direct competition at the time. Nagata gets worked over for a bit and TenCozy up their game as we head into the final stretch. They hit their version of the 3D on Nagata for a nearfall but the Yuji team comes back and locks on a double submission which is a crowd pleaser for some near submi…

The only bit of TCW I could find at the time was this three-way match featuring ‘the Dream’, Luther ‘Burning Love’ Biggs and Liberty McCall. The on screen graphics are very rudimentary, while you can see a young Cody working the merchandise tables. From the run time I thought this was going to be a short match, it is in fact highlights set to music. Biggs’ ‘Burning Love’ gimmick is a knock off Elvis, and I don’t know if that’s better or worse than the overweight college student gimmick he was doing during his cup of coffee with WCW. McCall does the wobbly legs after a Dusty bionic elbow, ‘the Dream’s’ offense limited to that and kicking his opponents between the legs.…

A nice summation of the undercard hardcore scene in WCW currently. A lot of plunder in this one and not a ton of intensity. Everyone seemed to be taking this one fairly light and going through the motions. I was also hoping for some more continuity between this being a tag team match but the guys just paired off mainly resulting in Awesome and Reno matching up as well as Bigelow and Crowbar. The brooms and mops in particular were used a ton here and don’t have much impact. Finish happens when Crowbar allows Awesome to Awesome bomb him from the inside of the ring to the outside through a table that has Reno laying on it. As Awesome celebrates, Bigelow spears him through a …

Sanders is on commentary and annoying AF. The lumberjacks get cleared out quickly as they brawl with each other. This leaves only Nash at ringside. Stasiak takes control and the Natrual Born Thrillers come out to counteract Nash. Nice DDP chant from the crowd. DDP makes a good comeback. Stasiak has a foreign object but Nash drags the referee out when he makes the cover. Diamond cover but referee is out of position and Palumbo is able to hit Page with a chair and allow Stasiak to win. Right now WCW is better than the awful Russo stuff but its still not a real good promotion overall. Nash powerbombs the referee as the show ends. **

Good little match as Karagias was taken out in the beginning and Moore and Yang showed what they could do for a couple of minutes. The action was spotty but certainly flashy and set up the PPV encounter well. Noble is on the outside dealing with Leia when Evan makes his comeback against both other members. Yang ends up picking up the win on Moore leading into the PPV. *3/4

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This looked like an interesting match on paper and was entertaining in patches. I really like the dynamic between Toyota and Kandori. They're a complete contrast from each other stylistically and in just about every other aspect as well. Kandori is constantly trying to intimidate Toyota but Toyota won't back down and that leads to some fabulous chemistry between the pair. Some of that was played as comedy here but there were also exchanges that reminded me of their awesome singles match from '98. The rest of the match was a bit of a trainwreck. Tateno's best days were well behind her and she pretty much served as a punching bag for Toyota to get all her shit in, and I don…

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I don’t understand how these two can defy logic again to have a good match with each other but here we are. Honma does have a set formula of taking a beating, milking it for all it is worth, then mounting a comeback to present himself as heroic. As a modern comp, this is something that I critique Miyahara of in AJPW but Honma is able to convey more pain and that he is having to empty out his arsenal as a last gasp effort instead of Miyahara where I feel he just absorbs the punishment and fights through based on fighting spirit. This match had a lot of brutality and the boards were used prominently. Both guys were bleeding and we even had some panes of glass that were brou…

It still feels odd for me to see Oz and Kansai on opposite sides. They played this up right as a sprint that was full of action and big moves followed by saves. Yamada ends up missing the big kick from the top hitting Kansai by accident. Hokuto takes full advantage and quickly gains the victory setting up the finals of their tag tournament. ***1/4 (6.3)

I liked the structure of this tag match which is not always a strong suit for GAEA in 2000. Satomura and KAORU start things out and set the stage giving way for the two legends to decide the match against each other. Satomura is really staking a claim as the best female wrestler in the world currently by being brutal when she needs to be but also vulnerable as well. The final moments felt dramatic and the ending lariat that rattles Devil allowing Chigusa to win felt justified and earned. A good tag match. ***1/4 (6.7)

Sakura is cosplaying as Dump and overall this is worked as a pure comedy match. Sakura goes after Lioness hair and a lot of other spots happen that I am not sure of the context of. Chigusa also comes in and we get some quick double team moves. Overall, this had some semblance of charm but was too long and felt mostly like me missing the butt of the joke. Asuke ends up winning with a powerbomb which is no surprise. ½*

Mideon, sent down to Puerto Rican purgatory. Paparazzi distracts Mideon saying something about his footwear, but the moment he glances down to look at them, Pap throws his cape over Mideon’s face and jumps him. He doesn’t make the most of the advantage though, Mideon reversing the Irish whip and catching him with a hip toss followed by a pair of clotheslines. As Pap tries to flee to the outside, Mideon grabs him by the trousers and pulls them down so we all see what underwear he has got on. On pulling them back up and returning to the apron, Paparazzi snaps Mideon’s neck across the top before dropping him with a superkick. Some good old fashioned foot stomps and I ca…

The clipping of this was another fabulous job done by RF as we see Tajiri take Banderas to task for a few minutes before we get full entrances for everyone and the four way starts. No idea what was the crux of the altercation between Tajiri and Banderas and if that was a part of the match or after the four way or what. I didn’t get much out of the four way as adding everyone bogged things down but Tajiri goes on a spirited rampage halfway through and destroys everyone in entertaining fashion. Finishing run has the other competitors showing some more but only Banderas seems like someone willing to hang with Tajiri and overall, I don’t think we got max effort from any of th…

The Jericho Chefboyardee commercial is really lame and hokey. Good tag match here. The technical wrestling between Austin and Benoit was entertaining and well thought out and then Jericho transitions into FIP. This was a good segment with frequent tags between Benoit and Kane. Austin gets the tag but the referee missed it. In a fun character move on Austin’s part he gets fed up and just stunners the ref. He then gives Benoit and Kane a stunner as well as the show ends. *** (5.8)