January 2001

A distressed Stephanie McMahon, who is covered in mustard, is in her dressing room and on the phone to her father. Vince doesn’t seem overly sympathetic towards her, basically saying that she’s a McMahon and to man up. Trish Stratus enters the room and you hear the tone in his voice change immediately on realising she’s there. He announces an additional match for tonight’s show, Chris Benoit to defend his Intercontinental title against Test, and Steph wonders what Test has done to deserve a title shot? Vince is in no mood for getting an earful from his daughter or having to explain his actions so claims that they’re “going through a tunnel” and “he’s losing her” as he…

E&C try to cheer Kurt up saying no matter who wins the tournament, they are good. They are less confident when they are alerted of the table match they are in laters. Cole interviews the Dudleys. Bubba is spray painting on the table and D-Von says it is time to testify. Jericho says welcome to Stephanie is naked and then says ¾ of the locker room has seen her undressed anyway. Macho was backstage? Angle has a few moments on the stick before Jericho calls Steph a bitch and the fight is on. Good all action tv match with the pairings working out well and the whole match feeling chaotic. Some good teases of the table with the 3D and flap jack in…

Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn, accompanied by Terri, make their way out to provide guest commentary for the upcoming tag match. I certainly didn’t think that in 2001 the name ‘the Radicalz’ would still be in operation, but that’s what they’re referring to these two as. A blinkered Malenko still seems to believe that he’s the apple of Lita’s eye and if Matt wants to go one on one with him over her, he’s happy to do so any time. Jim Ross wonders why a married man like him is lusting after her, however he claims that in his family it’s his wife who is married, not him! Double wheelbarrow suplex on Taka and Funaki is in to break up the cover. Matt drags him to the outsid…

Stephanie McMahon is the guest referee which automatically doesn’t bode well for ‘Stone Cold’. ‘The King’ points out how it’s hypocritical for JR to think it’s great when Mick Foley would pull a trick like this, but not so when Stephanie does it. He’s got a point. Austin with a Thesz press and he then unloads with rapid piston like right hands into Regal’s face. He repeatedly slams his head into the turnbuckles before choking him around the throat, using every bit of those five seconds and paying no attention to Stephanie’s instructions. ‘Stone Cold’ continues to ignore and disobey her, firstly following Regal to the floor after she had told him to stay inside and …

Pretty big match and this shows the depth of the star power of the roster as this show has Rock vs Kane, Rikishi vs Taker and Austin in action and they are presenting next week as the show to see. Rock starts off hot and him and Kane actually have a really good opening stanza of fighting with each other until the action spills outside. Kane sends Rock into the guardrail and starts taking over. Kane’s uppercut punch lands flushly here and Rock retreats deeper into the crowd. Rock gets slammed onto the concrete. Back inside, Kane hits the flying clothesline and he is looking spry tonight. A lot is made of the year Austin has in 2001 but I am keeping tabs on Rock too. He …

The winner of this goes on to meet the winner of Kane vs The Rock on Smackdown and then the winner of that faces Kurt Angle for the World title next week on Raw. We get clips of Rikishi leaving the Rock and Taker laying on last week’s Smackdown. The Undertaker is out first, followed by Rikishi who stays at the top of the entrance, beckoning Taker to come and meet him. He doesn’t need a second invitation, hopping on his Harley and driving back up the ramp, Ross and Lawler thinking that he’s going to run Rikishi over. They disappear through the curtain before returning, Rikishi doing the teeter totter spot on the edge of the ramp teasing that he’s going to take a spill …

Really random match on paper and I was pleasantly surprised to see it in full here. You don’t really think of Hijikata being around at this point and he’s someone that I don’t have much of an opinion on now so we will see if that changes. They worked the pairings well with Araya being shown as the dominant person beyond all six. I still think Susumu was learning where his place was at spots and Kanda looked in better position throughout the match. Hijikata lived up to his description up above of not being bad but not being exactly good either. I thought Naniwa was a good person to have isolated for that team. Ending come when Kanda does a huge tope nearly missing Aray…

Another fun match and overall this ½ AJPW show looks pretty good on paper. Hines and Steele and Barton usually don’t do much but they do have glimmers like the RWTL final at the end of this year and this showed that. I will perhaps be seeking them out more as when it comes to bruisers like Tenryu and Kawada they mixed it up well and they brutalized Okumura appropriately. Kawada is probably going to end up being a WOTY contender and this was a strong first showing for him. Wish we had this in full as well. *** (6)

Screw you GAORA TV. The only singles match between two of the top 100 wrestlers of all time and we only get 7 minutes out of 20. But I’m glad Johnny Smith vs The Cedman is in full. What we see is what you expect of Hase taking it to the mat with his stoicism and Fuchi using his devious facials and emoting pain to give a contrast to that. It looked like beautiful wrestling that I only hope at some points presents itself in full but I’m not holding my breath. This was the first match for the promotion in the entire year and had an underlying playful nature without feeling like an exhibition at all. NR

Really fun shoot style match on this Korakuen Hall AJPW show. Kakihara starts off going after it and the action doesn’t really let up. Yone is the weak link in the entire match but I was impressed with Kea and how he brought the intensity with his strikes and overall throws. We will be seeing A LOT of Kea throughout the decade just based on the chances he was given. I am pretty negative overall, but this was a strong showing and showed some promise. Yone was really brutalized within his team and it made sense for him to succumb to a submission by Kaki for the finish. ***1/2 (6.9)

CZW vs BJW explodes!!!! Zandig lets us know where he stand with a nice FUCK BJW shirt. Rebel still has the massive mullet. We start with CZW having a 3 on 2 advantage against Yamakawa and WX. Match is a pretty typical schmozz but the CZW crew really takes over in the back quarter and shockingly Kasai pins Yamakawa in 7 minutes after a big splash. *1/2 Lights go out and Kintaro emerges to a big pop and he cuts a promo and the six man is on. A staple gun is suspended from the ceiling and once CZW gains the advantage, Zandig retrieves that. He then staples a CZW flier onto Kanemura. Some of the ladder spots were fun but overall this felt pretty garden variety h…

Y'know, Kaoru Ito did an even better job as champion than I remember. She did nothing to discredit the belt and was able to carry on the proud lineage of the WWWA title by fulfilling the role of The Woman in AJW. I have nothing but respect for the way she carried herself during her rise to the top even if it was during a disastrous period for the company. Etsuko Mita may not have been the most credible of title contenders -- indeed, she feels like she belongs at the All-Pacific level rather than challenging for the world title -- but the pair had history through their tag team wars and the Grand Prix final and Mita is an underrated worker who deserves a bit of the spotlig…

It sounds like a couple of fans have been on the back of the wrestlers all night, so before this get started Pondo takes it on himself (well claims he was ‘elected’ by all the boys in the back) to deal with the hecklers but stumbles through the line he’d pre-prepared to say to them! Hero and Morton jump their opponents before Jim Fannin has even finished the introductions, throw Pondo to the floor and start to double team Tony. He ducks the double clothesline, Pondo hooks Hero’s ankle and pulls him to the outside while Tony nails Morton with a lariat. They steal the Dudley’s ‘Wassup’ spot, although with 2 Tuff doing a twisting headbutt off the top to the groin. The cr…

Earlier in the show the ‘boss’, Ric Flair, told Jindrak that he had something in store for him and that he’s going to turn the tables on ‘the Thrillers’. Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay are none the wiser on who he is facing, although they really should be paying attention more because as I said last year, whenever you don’t know who you’ll be facing or someone has a surprise opponent for you, more often than not it’s Goldberg! Goldberg picks Jindrak up as if for a bodyslam but dumps him over the top to the outside instead. I don’t know if he hurt himself there as something doesn’t look right. Jindrak with a springboard crossbody back inside, however Goldberg catches hi…

Shane Helms is the current number one contender for Chavo Guerrero Jr’s Cruiserweight title having earned that after defeating his 3 Count partner Shannon Moore a fortnight back on Nitro. Tony Schiavone talks about him having moved away from the tag team scene, so this looks like the start of a singles push. As Noble climbs the turnbuckles to pose to the fans, Helms grabs him and slams him backwards to the mat. Cool double underhook variation of the abdominal stretch that Noble powers out of and reverses into a backslide. Helms with a fist drop off the middle for a near fall. Noble counters ‘the Nightmare’ into a Northern Lights, however when he goes for a second Hel…

Jarrett has a message for the mystery man. Pretty generic promo of him going to kick ass. As Sid comes out, we see the Insiders attacking the Natural Born Thrillers with crowbars out in the parking lot. Sid starts out hot until he gets crotched coming into the ring. Jarrett on top for a bit and it isn’t great. Sleeper is applied and Sid fights off of that. Sid looks to have won the match and he is getting a good reaction since they are in Memphis. As he is going for the chokeslam, the mystery opponent comes out and attacks Sid. They beat him up for a bit and then the mystery man unmasks as Scott Steiner. The question remains as to who the real mystery opponent is.…

I was kind of dreading this when I saw that the file length was 48 minutes. The last thing I want to do at this stage of my life is to watch a 50-minute LCO match. Needless to say, this didn't break any new ground. It was energetic but choppy. It didn't seem to flow very well and I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd see everything a million times before. The finish saw Maekawa and Hotta interfere, which was incredibly lame. LCO won in straight falls to reclaim their titles but it was a cheap and hollow victory. Hotta vs Ito was set up as the next big thing but it was piss poor stuff. Recommendation to avoid unless you like title matches that end with a whimper.

While I'm unlikely to ever join any revisionist school of thought about Yumiko Hotta, this was much better than I expected. Toyota brought her usual level of intensity which Hotta countered with an extremely clear and focused performance. Of course, there were all of the flaws that people usually pinpoint in Toyota matches, but they avoided the cardinal sin of wrestling (being boring.) The fact that they'd come up together and were the kind added gravity to the bout, but in all honesty, they built the match from the ground up and didn't really try too much or over-extended themselves. There was a natural style contrast, perhaps not as dramatic as Toyota vs. Kandori, but e…

This was a decent looking match on paper but can never be sure with these IWRG matches. A lot of times they end up treading water even at these TV tapings. This was a brisk match that enough quality moments to make the bout worthwhile. The best match-up was Felino vs. Cerebro, which came across as one of those lost match-ups that would have made an amazing feud. Of course, you could say that about a number of match-ups involving Dr. Cerebro, which speaks to the quality of the worker and his gimmick. They got enough time on the mat here to appease me. We also got the chance to see Negro Navarro, although he didn't hit his full stride in this bout.

This showed why I prefer Kojima as a worker to Tenzan. I thought Kojima brought more fire and focus in his match with Sasaki then Tenzan did here. Nagata started things out by wrestling and Tenzan simply couldn’t hang that well on the mat. That can play for storyline effect, but it came across as more Tenzan having to be lead. The finishing stretch was fun, but I didn’t think Tenzan again showed much resourcefulness or continuity in coming out ahead. It felt more like it was his turn to go on offense and he did. A good match but limited by one of the inhabitants from achieving more. ***1/4 (6.3)

This was the only match on paper on this show that didn’t look good. That held true. Overall, this was a short but plodding match that didn’t know what it wanted to be. We had seen more stiffer shooty exchanges in the previous tag and more entertaining heavyweight exchanges with bomb throwing mixed in with Kojima and Sasaki. Ilzuka gets the win and I don’t think this did any favors in elevating Kashin overall. **

Chono has the charisma and he does target the arm again which I was hoping to see. The match falters in the ease of the transitions. There was a lot of no selling and ease out of some big nearfalls and therefore the match felt like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a sprint spotfest or something more substantial. Sasaki does get his second win with a different submission and all of a sudden, he is in the finals. *** (5.8)

Great match and opener to a tournament. They start off fast to try to win early since they will have to wrestle three times to win it all. Kojima completely eats the guardrail on a tope LA park style and is bleeding above the eye. From there, Kojima is focusing on the arm of Sasaki and it becomes a battle of whether, Sasaki can muster enough power and will in that arm to weather the storm of the attack. Overall, it was a great contrast and Sasaki gave an admirable Misawa-esque sell job in showing that his arm was wounded but he had to fight through or he wasn’t going to accomplish his final goal. It was the weapon he came into battle with and if he lost, he lost with …

Really random match. Only goes about five minutes but never lets up throughout. I don’t think Mutoh will be a serious contender for WOTY and at the onset think his resurgence may be overrated, but I don’t like HHH as a worker and his 2000 held up well for me, so there may be hope yet. You weren’t really able to get a read either way with what we saw here. This was more a Raw style to get his feet wet back on the NJPW scene. Biggest development to me was the ease that Otani puts Liger away with the choke here at the finish. That was a contrast to Liger steamrolling at the onset of 2000. *** (5.9)

This was Hashimoto and Choshu beating the crap out of each other -- just tons of kicks, lariats, chops, and punches. One DDT from Hashimoto but it was mostly him being a dick, stalling at the beginning, and then not letting up on Choshu at the end, forcing Fujinami to throw in the towel. The selling was pretty great from both guys and Choshu comes off as the sympathetic defender of NJPW. Tons of heat with a hot crowd.