November 2000

Eddie gets some great heat on his pre match promo. I like that Eddie also went outside to start the match as that showed this was more of a personal issue and going to be more of a fight. Gunn really does tower over Eddie inside the ring. Billy looks good here duking it out with Eddie and hitting some nice spots like the powerslam to get a nearfall. Billy was busted open on the forehead from a stiff shot from Eddie. Billy hits the jackhammer and the fameasser to a really close nearfall that had the crowd going. Billy goes for the Fameasser again and it felt like Eddie would take the match now but Eddie misses a dive and Billy ends up winning the title with a sleeper slam.…

The Regal vs Rock promo debate here was excellent and Regal compliments Rock’s comedy probably better than anyone else we have seen in 2000. Rock going into the British accent was especially great with Regal’s reaction facials. This leads up to a match tonight where Rock says he is going to besmirch Regal with a turkey. Match is fun with Regal showing a lot of offense and Rock being generous with him. Regal is willing to bump off of Rock’s new wrestling moves so you have him moving against the hiptoss and Regal also utilizes some nice cutoffs to keep the match hanging in the balance. Rikishi is out for a better look throughout the match. Rock ends up winning the Sharpshoo…

This started off with a special ceremony to make Rayo de Jalisco Jr.'s 25th anniversary in wrestling. His family came to the ring and he was presented with a plaque. Perro and Villano said some kind words and Rayo wiped a tear from his eye. Then a mariachi band came to the ring to perform a song for him. He held up a bouquet of flowers when suddenly a mariachi attacked him from behind with a guitar. Gawd Almighty King, that's Mascara Anos Dos Mil! Mascara Anos Dos Mil attacked Rayo with a damned guitar! This was some class A WWF. The Capos didn't give a shit about the match and were disqualified in straight falls. Perro bled as usual and everyone had the shit stomped out …

Hold the phone, there's more CMLL from November. Trouble in paradise! Satanico still hates Tarzan Boy but his partners have a problem with him roughing up a fellow rudo. This leads to some heated altercations with Satanico going chest-to-chest with the Infernales. There's pushing and shoving and Satanico even threatens to join the tecnico side before pulling rank and ordering the Infernales to back off. Meanwhile, Santo hates Tarzan Boy too and makes no bones about it. He does the "I'm watching you" gesture to Tarzan Boy and Tarzan Boy responds by trolling the shit out of Santo with the same gesture. In between the fun and games is some excellent work betwe…

Although these two matches didn't air consecutively on the show, I'm grouping them together. TNT vs Heriberto Lopez’s Bodyguards Heriberto Lopez is a moustached silver fox and I can tell already that my lack of Spanish is going to hurt this big time. He says something to TNT, which antagonises the crowd, and Savio gets out of the ring to confront him. After he slaps Heriberto across the chops, Lopez’s two bodyguards jump him from behind. From spending far too long watching wresting I can only assume that Heriberto said something along the lines that if he wants him, he has to get past his bodyguards first. I don’t recognise either bodyguard but they’re two …

Suzuki comes from the school of exaggerating the stomp when you deliver clubbing blows! This picks up from that dodgy opening as the wrestling and exchanges are real slick. Suzuki counters the sleeper with a jawbreaker and cranks on a side headlock. Urano shoots him off, catches him with a hip toss and then levels him with a pair of dropkicks that send Suzuki under the bottom rope to the outside where he looks to regroup. The two stiff each other with hard open hand slaps to the chest before Suzuki changes tact with a couple of running headbutts. He picks up a near fall following a falling headbutt as Urano is clearly still feeling the effect of those slaps. After …

Was curious to see what Corino and Tajiri were up to with ECW running so few dates around this time. Here, they're doing a standard garbage brawl. While it's always fun to see Corino stooge for Tajiri and inevitably stain his blond hair red, there's really not much to this one other than weapon shots. The RF Video-level camerawork is a killer for any parts on the outside, and even misses the finish (which I think was Corino blocking a Tajiri charge with a garbage can and getting a roll up, but it was hard to tell). Very skippable.

Tanaka and Koji are a great duo working together. Prickish and athletic ready to fire away. Tanaka in particular seems to be gaining confidence and as a result better standing even from a kayfabe perspective as he picks up the arm submission victory on Takaiwa here. We get about 8 out of the 14 minutes so it was a good visualization of the high points of the match. Samurai mostly stayed on the outer rim for this match but he did have some stiff exchanges when needed. Another good juniors match for NJPW in 2000. *** (6.2)

Corino cuts a promo offering a challenge and calls out Sandman. Say no more as here he comes five minute entrance and all. They exchange promos and Corino is playing the cowardly heel again. Sandman has enough of Corino’s mouth and punches him down. We come back with Sandman bringing a guard rail into the ring. Corino gets suplexed onto the guard rail for a nearfall. A ladder is also brought in by Sandman. As an overall garbage style brawl, this isn’t bad as Sandman does at least seem motivated to perform his plunder spots well. Corino really bumps well on the spots too as it plays off the back work we saw from Lynn earlier. Finish was shitty as Corino reversed the side R…

Dawn Marie distracts Corino allowing Lynn to take advantage and take it to Corino in the early going. The stuff with Cyrus and Lynn is weird and Cyrus overall is one of the more grating parts of ECW. The referee gets bumped and Danny Daniels fails at trying to interfere. Other refs get bumped and Justin Credible comes in with a LA Kings jersey and caning both men. What the fuck is Victory doing on the outside just watching all of this happen. Lynn is busted open and cant continue. Promising start to the match but a bunch of bullshit really derailed things. **

Scoot is a guy who had a great look and would probably have gotten a much closer look by big promotions nowadays, when height matters less. Interesting to see Ki bust out a flying head scissors here, as that's not something I recall him using a lot. There's a really nice counter of a bulldog here by Scoot, although that's again not a standard Low Ki move, so maybe it's a common counter that I'm forgetting Scoot used a lot. A cross body block from Ki and he is really working this match in an odd way. He counters a chin lock by getting the crowd the stomp along with him and gets Scoot into the ropes for a back body drop? I mean, some of Ki's standard moveset is here, but th…

This looks like a pretty big crowd by ECWA standards. After some nice looking but not consequential opening matwork, Youth busts out an apron DDT, well before apron moves came into vogue. His rolling dive that follows looks pretty awkward, though. Daniels controls for a bit and isn't too interesting in the process, but the tide turns with a Russian leg sweep from the second rope. Well, they keep trading control without much real build, although the spots are nice. There's some big moves, and some kickouts, and I'm wondering how well this match was received in 2000, because it feels like a cliche now. Even placed in context, this match feels like it's in a no man's land wh…

Dawn Marie is with Simon and the crowd is large for ECWA. Simon trips getting into the ring and that is the most memorable part of the match. Otherwise, it is certainly a match where time has not been kind to it with sloppy and dated looking 3 way spots and a lot of contrived spots with the heels working together and then it blowing up in their face. Even the finish is a big trope as Simon hits the big move only for Bradley to steal the pin. A slog to get through. *1/4

Awful commentary that is insanely anti gay and grating throughout this match. As a blowoff for a pretty fun feud, this was too spotty and had an awful finish where the heat was put off of Backseat Boyz and on the next Bad Crew feud with Lovebug involved. The actual spots and a lot of the action within the ladder match were good and a fine indie representative of the TLC concept. Acid/Kashmere continue to impress me as performers. **3/4

Nicky Benz is Nick Berk. Ric Blade continues to be a chore to get through almost all of his matches. Here he hits a lot of stuff cleanly so that is an improvement but some of the flippy spots are so contrived and ridiculous that it is tough to take the match as a whole seriously. Blade introduces a table but Berk gains the advantage and does a back suplex from the second rope with Blade through the table. Of course after that crazy spot, Blade comes back and is on offense running through a flurry of big dives and nearfalls. The corkscrew dive that does win the match from Blade is gorgeous and hits cleanly. We have a new EWF Light Heavyweight Champion. **

I can’t ID everyone here, but those I do recognise are Vyzago, Pain, Ninjitsu, Ricky Banderas, Huracan Castillo Jr, Taka Michinoku, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super Crazy, Chicky Starr, Victor the Bodyguard and Savio Vega. Everyone has a weapon and the match begins with everyone outside the ring on the floor. Vyzago is first to be busted open from what I think is the first shot of the match. RF is having a terrible time trying to keep up with everything here. Like last night’s Hardcore match, this is also nothing but the wrestlers hitting each other with weapons (primarily trash cans, trash can lids, baking trays, chairs and Kendo sticks). People are making covers on the gym …

The opening moments of this match are spent working around a wristlock. HIROKI tries to spin his way out of the front chancery but Urano rolls with him, eventually managing to do so at the third attempt. We get the exact same sequence from last night starting with the side headlock, leading to HIROKI taking a powder on the floor, and the two then exchanging hard open hand slaps. No running headbutts though as HIROKI takes Urano down with a great looking spinning leg lariat before dropkicking his seated opponent in the back of the head. Urano floats over on the attempted suplex and a backslide for a two. Middle rope missile dropkick. As he charges, HIROKI gets his fe…

Solid tag match. I am unsure though how beneficial it is to see Tajiri in IWA-PR but at least he is getting work in I suppose as ECW limps to the end of existence. Still, the lack of respect for him even being the most over guy in these matches is depressing as he takes the fall here for no good reason. Crazy does a great hot tag and has some great dives and overall most net positives of this match were a direct result of him and Tajiri. **1/2

Talk about it here.

Bradley starts things with a decent promo just putting over him becoming champion was such a surprise. Bradley has Victoria by his side. Shooter and Bradley have a pretty decent tv style match. Bradley works Shooter over and Shooter gives a good comeback with avoiding the interference from Victoria on the outside. When it looks like he has the match in his grasp, Tracy Smothers comes into the ring with a chair to draw the DQ. K-Kwick and Lance Cade end up making the save as the show goes off the air. *1/2

A pretty lame segment starts us off with Brandon Baxter wrapped up in bandages and talking to the “doctor”. It is obvious from the jump the doc is Lawler and Baxter looks like an idiot going along with all of his instructions. Eventually the nurse Kat burns Baxter. Match wasn’t much as Lawler gains an early advantage before Slash takes over using a fork. Lawler retaliates and ends up getting DQ’d and the show ends with Lawler piledriving Slash. *

Tracy interrupts the intro and gives a scathing promo. Spellbinder comes out to defend MPPW honor and the match begins. Short but decent basic match with Tracy trying to cheat with powder and a chain but being cut off by Spellbinder. Spellbinder even shows some fire and doesn’t look quite as awkward as usual. Seven interferes to end the match and then we get a decent brawl to end the segment between Tracy and Bulldog Raines and Seven and Spellbinder. *1/4

Good indie cage match. It had some good punches and use of the cage. Action got some good color and mounted a nice comeback. I figured we were in for a swerve with the seconds and predictably we get that here to derail things for the finish but overall this was a nice treat for individuals that were watching this promotion weekly. Good cameo by Hotstuff Hernandez at the end to save Action Jackson too. *** (6.2)

I couldn’t believe my eyes but we have a short tag match on OVW with a lot of energy and a clean finish. Big Show looks motivated and Dinsmore is in peril for a bit before overcoming the odds and winning the match with a Crossface. Good, simple storytelling and extremely refreshing. We do get Kenny Bolin’s lawyer running in after the match and he thinks he is Macho Man (sigh). Still, with OVW you take what you can get. *1/2

Russ McCollough gets personal with Cornette and I can’t be bothered to care. Brock trips flying into the ring like Shelton. Minnesota Stretching Crew is a cute name. It is pretty incredible that Brock was the 2000 NCAA champion and here he is wrestling in OVW by November. Brock showed a great dropkick and belly to belly right away. Brock also hits a belly to belly on Black at the finish which was nice looking. Conway and Black seem to be working together as Black uses a weapon but then they punch each other out and lose the match. Hokey finish but Brock and Shelton looked like big time prospects. *