December 2000

The chap who was managing Christian York & Joey Matthews is here managing Michaels, getting tough with a member of security as he makes his way to the ring, although ends up falling on his ass (deliberately) as he vaults over the top rope. He wants quiet from the audience which leads to them wailing at him like he’s a baby. The attempts at garnering heat from them is not drawing much, but at least I’ve found out what his name is “because whatever Al wants, Al Getz”. After leaving a stray hand on the apron, Styles stomps on it, resulting in Michaels exiting the ring and kissing the hand better. There’s a horrible screw up by A.J. and I’ve no idea what he was even at…

A rarity here as we have an ECW duo facing off against a WCW tandem. Were officials aware of this or as it’s on some Indy in North Carolina did it just fly under the radar? There’s a bit of pre-match shtick involving York & Matthews’ unnamed manager and the ringside fans, while there is a big ovation for the returning 3 Count. 3 Count hit their combination Samoan drop/neckbreaker on Matthews within the first minute, but for some reason the referee just stops counting the cover. One solitary handheld is filming this so we don’t see why. It’s definitely nothing to do with York as he’s outside the ring and nowhere near the action at the time, maybe the manager did s…

ECW's not even dead yet and Corino is already on a barnstorming tour. Cham Pain has the fire but is fairly sloppy, and the first five minutes are almost all punches. Corino takes control and is much more methodical, in a good way. He busts out some a King of Old School bit, as he brings in a chair... to sit down in while he applies a front facelock. My mind wanders to Corino v. Lawler, which I feel like would have been great, and I know happened in the coming years. Have I seen that one before? I rack my brain, but it's been too long and I watched too much indy wrestling in the early 00s. The match is still going. Cham Pain takes over again with, you guessed it, punches. …

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Tracey seems to be trying to impress Victoria with his dancing, although Bradley is advising him against it! Schultz and Kwik rush their opponents before the bell has rung and they quickly roll to the floor to try and regroup. No time to regroup here as Schultz Irish whips Kwik, who soars over the top rope and out onto them. Shoulderblock off the top turnbuckle to Bradley and Smothers goes to break up the cover, only for Kwik to move out the way and he drops a forearm across his own partner. Bradley shoves him and as they argue amongst themselves they forget about Kwik and Schultz. Superkick by Kwik, Schultz with an overhead belly to belly and the heels are again on …

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Lance Cade is out and wants a word with Dave. Earlier in the show Tracey Smothers jumped him from behind as he’s fed up with it. Although he respects Tracey for how long he’s been in this business, he needs to realise that he’s not a kid anymore, and Shawn Michaels taught him that if you’ve something to settle you do it right there in the ring, man to man, face to face. He challenges him to a Texas Street Fight right now and before Dave has even gotten back to his seat, Tracey is out and swinging as the two trade blows at ringside. Smothers rams him head first into the ring steps and looks to clothesline him, but Lance moves and he clotheslines the ring post instead. …

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Jason Lee grabs a wristlock, but Shelton reverses the hold by leaping to the top rope, bouncing off it and flipping backwards. A variation of the ‘Diamond cutter’ and King is in to break up the pin. Benjamin lands on his feet after a double back drop, and as the Blondes celebrate unaware, in comes Brock Lesnar who lifts them both up at the same time for a double back suplex. High elevation on the flip dive off the top to Lee, but while the ref tries to get Brock out of there, DK grabs Shelton (who was covering Lee) and DDT’s him. The Blondes isolate Shelton until King runs into a big boot and he’s able to make the tag to his partner. Press slam on Lee, he then plants…

The ‘Iron Man’ opens up strong, not even bothering to remove his shades. After getting the better of a shoulder tackle he starts posing to the fans, unaware that Damaja is right back to his feet with a nip up. Conway reverses the Irish whip, however Damaja counters the side suplex with a headscissors. Standing huracanrana. Inverted atomic drop followed by a dropkick and Conway rolls under the bottom rope to the floor. Damaja takes off after him, throwing him back inside, but as he goes to get back in himself Kenny Bolin grabs an ankle, to prevent him from doing so, and Conway clobbers him from behind. Cornette is proper unbearable, yet again, on commentary. As it l…

No audio on this for me, so, with time now at a premium as I race to finish, I’m not sitting through all the pre-match interviews and mic work when I can’t hear a thing. Montoya is accompanied by Reckless Youth and Rick Silver who he has in his corner. If you have the same issue skip to 06:30, that’s when ‘the Don’ and Quack are taking it in turns to climb the turnbuckles to see who gets the biggest reaction, only Don ‘slips’ as he climbs and headbutts the top one. The match itself gets going eight minutes in. It looks like Reckless is filming for a bit as a graphic comes on screen saying ‘Reckless cam’, all I can say is stick to the day job as he makes RF look compet…

Ayako has done it all in ARSION in 2000. All she has left to go for is the gold. Aja remains unimpressed and thrashes her like she was still a 1st year rookie anyways. Aja really may be the ultimate „do the same shit in every match“ wrestler. If you can get over that this was really good. Aja just gives Ayako a monumental thrashing. I thought it wasn't quite right to have Ayako work this match the same as she would have in her rookie year given how much she had achieved previously, and Aja no-sold her a little too much, but when you get past all that and look at this in isolation this was brutal and efficient pro wrestling. Ayako is just the gutsiest wrestler you've ever …

This was clipped but we get a good picture of it. I imagine this would have been really good if we had gotten the early build, because what was shown was really good. Asari is really sharp, and the contrast between her lucha headscissors and flash armbars and Akino's more basic style made for an entertaining match. They had great rhythm and Akino's arm selling was right on the money. The finish was really neat aswell. Even without the ARSION trademark gone these two are still a welcome antidote to the more overkill-y joshi workers.

This was clipped, mercifully so since it started out like every other LCO match in history. The footage was mostly LCO working over GAMI. I'm not sure if GAMI ever tagged out but she got a nice submission on Shimoda that looked like it might win the bout before LCO finished things off. Nothing to write home about.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Joey Styles mentions that Danny Doring & Roadkill have promised to split up as a team if they don’t win the tag titles at the upcoming PPV. At least they’re finally giving them the straps (I think, I can’t see Doring especially doing much as a singles) even if that ship may well have sailed. We return from a commercial break, the match already in progress, just in time to see Rhino catch Kash on an attempted springboard and then planting him to the mat. Styles is in full on hype mode for the Massacre on 34th Street show. Rhino telegraphs a backdrop and Kash with an awesome double jump huracanrana. A swinging DDT doesn’t put the champion away as Kash looks to try …

Simon & Swinger & C.W. have a problem. Considering they’re interrupting Joel Gertner just as he’s finishing saying “Well, well, well”, I reckon they must’ve had a gutful of his smutty, innuendo laden little poems. ‘Tough Guy’ Simon still has a score to settle from the PPV and wants to fight “four eyes” (Joey Styles), thinking that he’s not so tough without a microphone in his hand. Maybe he should ask Bradshaw how tough Styles is. He takes exception to the way that he talks about them and thinks he has no right to criticise seeing as neither he nor Gertner have ever stepped in the ring themselves. Styles says that is true, however at one point Gertner was a s…

Just as the match is about to get underway Dawn Marie heads to the ring clutching a piece of paper. She takes the microphone from Stephen D’Angelis and says that she needs a man, leading to Joel Gertner screaming “pick me” as Joey Styles tells him to sit down. One man isn’t enough for her though as she is way too much woman. Gertner quips “Joey, we’ve been friends for a while...” but Styles cuts him off saying that he’s happily married. She has a proposition, a managerial contract for two men who can step up to the plate, who can fill all of her desires, oh and that contract includes her mind for the wrestling business too. Dawn hands the contract to York, who drops …

As we learned on Hardcore TV, Doring and Roadkill have promised to split up if they don’t win the straps tonight. With that added factor weighing on their minds they’re got much more serious expressions on their face than usual. Guido slaps Doring, who charges, and gets taken down with a Fujiwara armbar. He gives up on that pretty quickly, opting for a rolling cradle, but considering it’s so early in the match maybe he would’ve been better fared sticking with the submission as Doring hangs with him on the mat, picking up some covers of his own before the inevitable “stand-off”. The two trade hard open handed slaps to the chest and when Mamaluke enters the fray he gets …

Spike Dudley is a man with a plan, not bothering to hang around and immediately launching himself at Rhino. That looks like it’s caught his opponent off guard but as he goes for an early Acid Drop Rhino just powers him off. A gore from Spike followed by a drop toe hold. He stomps away at Rhino’s knee, trying to take one of those tree trunk legs away from him, the strategy being that if he can’t stand he can’t gore. The pace is relentless and every chance Spike gets he attacks that leg. Rhino manages to kick him off with his other leg and Spike takes a tumble through the ropes. The champion whips him into the guard rail, drives him head first into the announcer’s tab…

Francine has made it clear that there will be no nookie for Justin Credible until he wins back the ECW World title. H.C. Loc is reffing this, I would’ve thought one of the more experienced officials (i.e. Finnegan or Molyneux) would’ve gotten this gig. Joey Styles thinks it is worse to have won the World title than to have never won it at all. Can’t say I agree with that sentiment Joey. The opening shine is for Lynn until he gets stomped down by Credible, who had been the odd man out for the first few minutes. Corino whips him into the corner, Credible taking his bump over the turnbuckles. He is quickly joined on the outside by Corino, courtesy of a clothesline, as …

After previously bloodying up Tommy Dreamer on Hardcore TV, C.W. Anderson is planning to use him here tonight as a stepping stone on his way to the World title. Joey Styles says though that “the heart and soul of ECW” should not be used as a stepping stone by anyone. Anderson doesn’t even let Stephen D’Angelis finish his introductions, spitting in the face of Dreamer and telling that “New York pussy” to fight him. Hangman’s neckbreaker by Dreamer and C.W. is already backing off, wondering whether riling Tommy up was in fact the smartest of moves. He offers a hand, his other behind his back, which Dreamer accepts, only to give him a Russian legsweep after pulling him u…