January 2001

Sabu is having a good 2001 so far. He seems like he has gotten his timing under control. He is slightly less ambitious leading to less botches and he still has the prescience that makes him feel like a big deal. I wish he would have parlayed that into a longer run maybe in CZW or somewhere from what I have seen. This was a fun little brawl that had some plunder spots and Messiah hung in there. Some good punches when they were duking it out and Messiah has a nice blade job. The finish is convoluted shit but what do you expect with XPW. *** (5.8) @Loss I would seek this one out.

The rematch for the held up JCW tag team titles which, although a tables match, is to be contested under slightly different rules as you have to both put your opponents through a table and also score a pinfall over them to be declared the winner. The teams don’t make it to the ring as Wenzel makes a beeline for Mafia the moment he removes his jacket. Mafia launches a chair at him, however Wenzel reverses the whip into a cart, sending Mafia crashing into it with some force. He throws him into the wall, but Mafia is able to life up one of the nearby tables and slam it into Wenzel. The two continue to go at it with Wenzel whipping Mafia into the emergency exit door, alth…

Go behind take down by Guido, a few open hand strikes to the ribs and Ki crawls to the ropes for the break. After both get a couple of early near falls Guido offers Ki his hand, however Ki with the cheap shot kick to the stomach as he accepts. Handspring kick to the head. Irish whip, Guido ducks the high kick but a dropkick to the legs takes him spectacularly off his feet. As he’s on his knees, Ki with a series of kicks to the chest while Guido calls him on (“C’mon bitch!”), until one to the head folds him up double. Whip to the corner is reversed, Ki goes for the tip up, but Guido snatches and then pancakes him to the mat. Knee drop to the head and I like the way Guido p…

The ECW tour of the indies heats up. This is worked very basic early on. They get into the southern formula in a way that's shockingly... uh, formulaic for a 2001 indy match. Youth does nicely as a dickish heel at points, but this is otherwise really paint by numbers. Corino's in for the hot tag and is throwing dropkicks. Dumb spot where a kickout of a rollup sends Youth all the way through the ropes in a dive onto his partner and manager. There's some really tepid brawling at this point. Youth hits Whipwreck with the belt and gets the pin. Not a particularly exciting way to spend 15 minutes.

A potential dream match between two of the best Joshi grapplers of the time turns out to be not what it could've potentially been, but still nevertheless a fun watch. It was not a shocker than this was a banger by any extent of the imagination even with the clipping taking about 4 minutes off the runtime. Yagi is a similarly awesome grappler that was chronically overlooked because of her being rather undersized even by Joshi standards, which is a shame because she's real smooth here. Loads of snug grappling transitions and sequences that even the Michinoku crowd had to woo and ahh at points because these two are just that damn good at getting submission wrestling ove…

According to Cagematch, this is CIMA’s first appearance in M-Pro since his finals run at the J Cup. Only 9 minutes so It was sprinty, but everything done was executed really well. CIMA’s overall placement at the end of the year will be interesting. For some reason, it doesn’t appear that he has as much appearances on tape as in 2000 but maybe he has more than Cagematch is presenting. Still, looking over his listings, he is with traditionaly lower rated workers for the most part so he is having to overcome that detriment as well. In this match, his timing was excellent and the force he hits things like a dropkick really elevate him above most other workers in 2001. Yuasa b…

This match was a good showcase of some wrestlers we are currently unfamiliar with but were making their mark in promotions on the rise such as DDT and Toryumon in Magnum’s case. I did think this was the weakest Magnum has looked in a while as he has a couple of botches and lost moments throughout. The heel team seems to be led by Poison and they are an interesting character in blending some comedy in the early going and then transitioning into an attack on Sasuke. I thought Sasuke being FIP was an interesting choice given he had the most credibility and stature of anyone in the match. His leg selling was iffy and that presented the match overall from rising above very g…

This was another great comedy match for the month. Gimmick was that both had to eat a huge rice cake. Each kept trying to isolate themselves to eat the cake and had to frequently ask for water. A stoic Jinsei Shinzaki looks on in an official capacity due to the dangers of the match. Some laugh out loud moments including a table getting involved and it smacking Stalker as he is trying to eat. Finish comes as the water bottle runs out and both wrestlers are choking forcing the referee to intervene and get Shinzaki to call the match off. January 2001 is a good month for comedy between this and the Osaka Pro match and it is hitting my sweet spot given the current state of mod…

This was a fairly meaningless Monterrey bout. It had some nice stuff in it and managed to keep its shape until the end instead of breaking down in the tercera caida, but the finish was a schmoz that rendered the bout pointless. Panther was great and for my money the best worker in Mexico at this point. I particularly liked his work with Astuto. You can tell a lot about a luchador by the way they work with chance opponents like Astuto and Panther really let him shine in the opening fall. Niebla and his duck arse continue to annoy but Olimpico and Bucanero were decent.

Vito is shadow boxing as he has a few last minute words with Gene Okerlund. Commissioner Sanders has banned Johnny the Bull from ringside, but that doesn’t matter to Vito as they’re settling this tonight once and for all. Reno is apparently Vito’s younger brother in storyline, which is news to me. I suppose there is some resemblance between the two that it could be plausible, even though they’re not legit related. Reno runs to the ring and he and Vito are forehead to forehead with one another. Big powerslam which Reno follows by dropping a knee across Vito’s head. The two are soon on the arena floor, Reno slinging Vito hard into the guard rail. Back inside and …

The Goldberg streak stipulation remains in effect for this match, meaning if Team Goldberg loses, regardless of which man is either pinned or submits, Goldberg will be gone from WCW. I know I would not be risking my career in a tag team match with Sarge, a man who has probably won half a dozen televised matches at most over the past decade. ‘Totally Buff’ are hesitant to enter the ring when they see Goldberg is starting for his team. Scott Hudson wonders whether, with Sarge’s broken arm, he’ll just work the match on his own, thinking that may be the best strategy for him. A huge flying shoulderblock flattens the ‘Total Package’. Double underhook suplex as he launches…

Shane Helms is backstage with his 3 Count partner and asks him, as long as it is just he and Chavo out there, to remain in the back and let him do this one on his own. Lovely variation on the snapmare takeover. Tony Schiavone uses the phrase “coming of age of a superstar” when describing Helms, reaffirming Chad’s thoughts about how WCW clearly had made their minds up about where they wanted to go coming out of the 3 Count/Jung Dragons feud. A couple of blistering knife edge chops by Chavo, the sound reverberating around the arena. Shane gets the Ricky Steamboat reference on his deep arm drags which really are a thing of beauty. Fireman’s carry, dropping Chavo he…

An unadvertised match, apparently involving four guys who came to the building not knowing they were going to wrestle. When it comes to unadvertised matches this isn’t a bad one to have. Karagias and Kaz start things off at break neck pace. As Evan tries for a bodyscissors, Kaz powers him with this gorgeous release wheelbarrow suplex. Noble gets taken down with a headscissors before a pair of dropkicks from the Dragons send their opponents to the outside. Stereo Asai moonsaults. Noble counters the attempted powerbomb with an armdrag as he and Yang work at a pace on a par with their partners. Yang backdrops Noble out over onto the apron, but he then leaps up, hooks …

The Natural Born Thrillers have been operating under Freebird rules to keep ‘the Insiders’ guessing, so that they wouldn’t know which duo will be representing them. Tonight it’s Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire, small mercies that they decided against Shawn Stasiak. After both teams make their entrances, ‘the Thrillers’ music plays and out walks Mike Sanders backed by the remaining members of the group. He says how Nash taught him to be a terrific coach, and when you’re a coach you can make substitutions, so any time he feels like it during this match he will be swapping members of his team in and out. That brings out Ric Flair, along with Doug Dillinger and a bunch …

Jim Duggan is the guest referee for this Penalty Box match. Team Canada arrive in a special Team Canada bus, another example of WCW needlessly wasting money. Lance Storm requests the fans undivided, respectful attention, saying how tonight they’re going to give the Filthy Animals a taste of Canadian justice, although stumbles over his words in doing so. Duggan promises to call this down the middle and informs the teams that anyone caught breaking the rules will be sent to the Penalty Box where they will have to wait until the red light goes off, at which point they are welcome to rejoin the match. We haven’t even gone a minute and Skipper is sent to the Box for enteri…

Mike Sanders is talking to Brian Adams backstage when he hands him an envelope of money which he thinks will be more than enough to take care of what he needs taking care of. After he leaves Bryan Clark shows up with an even bigger wad as they start laughing at what Sanders gave them. A confident Sanders has got a swagger about his way as he heads down to the ring. He addresses the crowd, saying that the Cat is going to come out here and claim he’s all for the people and getting WCW back on it its feet. That’s all fine and dandy but the Cat knows as well as him what the position pays and he’s only in it for the money. Should he win he gets Ms Jones’ services, sho…

As Michael Buffer is about to introduce the fourth mystery participant he’s interrupted by Ric Flair. ‘The Boss’ tells Scott Steiner that he said he had a mystery man for tonight but didn’t say when he would be here. He goes on to order the timekeeper to ring the bell as he wants to see the World champion start defending that belt. Sid’s punches are woeful, his clothesline not much better either. Belly to belly by Steiner, Jarrett happy to just stand by as he makes the cover, remaining true to his word of helping ‘Big Poppa Pump’ retain the title. Sid gets thrown to the outside and laughably ambles into and over the guardrail when whipped into it. Steiner uses his t…

Meng is not the Hardcore champion, but he is the one carrying the gold after stealing it last week. Tony Schiavone has a great line about how Meng may not have won every wrestling match he’s been involved in but he’s won every fight. Daffney, in the crowd, throws a drink over Funk as he walks down the aisle and he responds by pulling her over the railings by her hair. It looks like it was pre-determined plan as Crowbar nails Funk from behind with a chair. They fight their way back into the women’s rest room where Funk launches a plastic trash can at Crowbar’s head, rubbish flying everywhere. Funk takes him on a trip of the stall doors before Meng finally joins them, …

Shannon accidentally clotheslines Shane right at the onset and Kidman, who hadn’t even stepped into the ring at that point makes his entrance with a slingshot legdrop. Double team sit-out chokeslam on Shannon. Helms counters the Kidman powerbomb by taking him over the top rope to the floor. Combination neckbreaker/powerbomb by 3 Count on Rey. Kidman with a flying headscissors back into the ring. Baseball slide dropkick to a seated Shane’s groin, Rey coming between Shannon’s legs as he was stood in front of his partner. Bronco buster. Shannon hot shots Kidman on the top rope and he falls to the arena floor. A Moore flip dive, a Rey corkscrew senton and finally a Sh…

By the look of him here Crowbar is showing no adverse effects from yesterday’s PPV. Not bad though, a Hardcore title shot last night, a Cruiserweight title shot tonight. Lovely headscissors takedown. Outside of Chris Benoit Chavo may well have the hardest knife edge chops going. Leaping rana off the top, which is something I don’t recall seeing out of him previously. He mounts Crowbar’s shoulders, in an Electric Chair position, and takes him over the top rope to the outside. Plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Chavo is back in the ring first but Crowbar snaps his neck across the top rope. Slingshot splash followed by a Lionsault. Death Valley Driver. C…

Billy Kidman is being seen to by a member of the medical staff and despite his protestations that he’s fine, the doc thinks otherwise. The Cat walks in and wonders what’s going on and Konnan explains that Kidman got jumped by Team Canada and offers to take his place in the upcoming ‘Hair vs Hair’ match. Considering that K-Dogg doesn’t have any hair I’m not sure how that will work. Me and the Cat are on the same wavelength as he questions “what hair?” but agrees to it anyway. The bell rings to get the match started when Ric Flair appears on the video screen. He doesn’t take to Konnan “getting cute” and taking a match where he has nothing to lose, so informs him th…

Shockingly decent match that shows the effort was really raised with the news of WCW being sold. Kronik in particular pulls out all sorts of stuff they don’t do elsewhere like the flipping senton dive Clarke does from the apron to the floor and even the nearly botched super plex that leads to the finish. Energy of the crowd was feeding off of that and overall this was a strong power man match. **1/2

A quick recap of the events of last night where Goldberg’s career was ended and Road Warrior Animal was revealed as the mystery man. We then get some exclusive backstage footage, Ric Flair hanging out with ‘Totally Buff’ and waiting at the curtain, hi fiving and hugging Scott Steiner the moment he walks back through it. It’s explained that this has all been one giant swerve orchestrated by Ric Flair. Tony Schiavone gives an update on Sid Vicious, which includes graphic footage, from multiple angles, zoomed in and slowed down, of the leg break from last night. Fuck, did they have to. Sid was operated on earlier, had a rod put in his leg and is expected to be out of ac…

Even though he’s not here, Mr McMahon had signed the Dudley Boyz & Steve Austin to take on Edge & Christian & Kurt Angle in a six-man tag, however the Dudleyz were taken out backstage by a pair of ‘conchairtos’. Jim Ross thinks it’s not the wisest decision to come out and face Team ECK in a handicap match and wishes he’d tried to recruit a couple of partners. Jerry Lawler comments on Austin’s smirk, wondering why is he smiling when he’s got nothing to be smiling about? He does though, and here comes the APA. Bradshaw throws his weight around in there, launching Christian with a fallaway slam. The crowd are so hot for this. Faarooq carries on where his pa…

Rock gives a promo with Kevin Kelly. Rock isn’t excited about teaming with Taker. Rock says it is a special day of him and brings up Dr. Martin Luther King. He states that he has a dream of winning the Rumble and becoming the WWF Champion. Pretty awesome promo from Rock weaving in the holiday into the landscape of WWF at the time. HHH calls Vince talking about Drew Carey wanting to be in the Rumble. Steph says Rock wasn’t happy to team with Taker. Vince switches the match to Rock/Kane vs Taker/Rikishi. This is a good setup for the Rumble and shows how loaded the field is. It is unlikely that Taker or Kane will win but they did a good job building them up. …