January 2001

We get a pre-match promo from Jodie Fleisch saying that Jorge Castano has got another thing coming if he thinks he’s going to defeat him for this newly won FWA European title. Nothing earth shattering, but not terrible either even if he doesn’t come across as the most natural of talkers. Jonny Storm is introduced by the ring announcer first and he is making his return to the FWA tonight. He has a few words for the locals and then goes on to do the introductions himself before challenging the winner. Jodie has the fans firmly behind him for this, but as he plays to them he Castano jumps him from behind. Snap suplex followed by a butterfly suplex, both really nicely…

Today’s TV episode features matches that were all taped at the ‘Corinth Chaos’ show a week earlier. Richards has got some words for the crowd, however a dodgy mic means we can’t make out what he has to say. Lawler backs him into the corner off a lock up and despite clenching his fist ready, Richards outstretches his arms and we get a clean break. Not so next time as Richards goes to cheap shot ‘the King’, but he blocks the punch and decks him with a right hand of his own. He steps through the ropes to the floor and removes his shirt trying to psyche himself up. Check out Lawler sell the removal of the shirt with his facials. Richards is now ready for a right and pou…

American Dragon is providing guest commentary for this match where he confirms what I thought last week, that he is injured (knee) and doesn’t know how long he’ll be out for. As a result, Shooter Schultz is subbing for him in this MCW Southern tag title defence. Jack overpowers Spanky so he looks to use his speed advantage over the big man. Slingshot headscissors followed by an arm drag and then a Japanese arm drag. Double back drop. Beautiful butterfly suplex by Shooter on Bo. Schultz misses a charge in the corner, and at the same time he goes crashing into the turnbuckle, Jack nails him with a forearm from the apron. Double shoulder tackle for a two. Rear chinlo…

Shooter avoids a charge in the corner and the Bulldog goes sailing through the ropes, shoulder first into the ring post. Schultz immediately goes to work on that shoulder, driving Raines to the mat with a single armed DDT. He crowbars the arm, but when Bulldog doesn’t tap, hammerlocks it behind his back and stomps on it. A belly to back suplex gets him a two as Jason Sensation accuses the official of slow counting his man. Bulldog ducks the clothesline and comes back with a big flying shoulder tackle. After then ‘ten punch’ spot in the corner, Jason passes Shooter a pair of brass knux. He drills Raines who collapses like a felled tree. The ref counts the pin and we…

Lance Cade is in the ring ready for his match, before his opponent arrives though, out walks The Kliq 2000. The American Dragon asks Lance to join them for a second as they have some things that they need to straighten out. He says how that when they came to Memphis they all promised to stick together through thick and thin, something that Lance agrees with. Spanky wonders where he’s been recently then, for while Shooter and Dragon have been watching his back and he’s been watching theirs, he (Lance) has been nowhere to be seen. He informs him that he’s either with them or against them and wonders what it’s going to be? Lance tells him that at the moment he stands by…

The new Unified champion (Bradley defeated Spellbinder at ‘Corinth Chaos’ last week) doesn’t think Joey Abs has got much of a chance of beating him for the gold because he likes his belts like he likes his women, two at a time! Victoria then tells Joey that she doesn’t want his grubby little hands anywhere near her perfect body and there is no way he will put ‘the Absolution’ on her. It’s not often that Dave Brown is wrong, however it turns out he is here when he says how he wants everyone to take a close look at these two wrestlers because both are going to be big stars in the WWF in the very near future. Abs with the splash out of the corner but Bradley gets his k…

First off someone did a real weird job on the editing of this tape. If you plan on watching here is a time guide so you can at least watch it in order: 00:00:00-00:01:49 then fast forward to 00:07:32-00:17:32 finally rewind back to 00:01:49-00:07:32 Ricky Nelson is a former Jim Crockett Promotions job guy from the mid to late 80’s and is the current NWA Mid-Atlantic Jr. Heavyweight champion. After he and Eaton are introduced he corrects the ring announcer, informing him that they are the ‘new’ Midnight Express. Bobby is hesitant to lock up with ‘the Dream’ and there’s a good three minutes or so of stalling. The Irish whip is reversed and Ea…

Jim Cornette is still at it with Mark Henry being the man who mowed down the Big Show in that truck. The two will settle things at Christmas Chaos, while he reminds everyone that Nick Dinsmore is preparing for the biggest match of his life that night against Chris Benoit. One of the best things about Corny is the way he plugs these big shows (excuse the pun) multiple times weekly so they’re ingrained in your memory. Running crossbody by Dinsmore. Henry presses him off on the cover, through the ropes to the floor. As he climbs up on the apron to get back in the ring, Henry distracts the referee so Bolin can clobber him in the back with his briefcase. That changes the…

Flash and Constantino do one of the most believable chases you’re likely to see, Rico running out the door and leaving his partner all alone as Flash tries to get his hands on the man who cost him the tag team title a fortnight ago. On his return Flash again makes a beeline for Rico however is kept at bay by referee Robert Brisco. Flash drops Black with a thrust kick and is happy to let him make the tag but Rico wants no part of it. Crossbody off the middle by Damaja. A Black knee to the gut stuns Damaja and seeing the man down, Rico tags himself in. Damaja with an up kick on the telegraphed backdrop. He tries to drag Rico over to Flash but he literally swims out th…

First time we’ll be seeing Shelton in singles action as opposed to being one half of the Stretching Crew. Spade has got no look, no physique and comes across as someone who has been pulled out the crowd to be a last minute substitute. I was thinking this is an odd TV main event but there is some back-story to this which Cornette explains. In Corny’s eyes he considered Spade a prelim wrestler at best, however Spade didn’t see it that way and ended up quitting OVW when Cornette wouldn’t put him in main events. Spade then started a vendetta against Corny, campaigning against him, trying to get the people to turn on him, showing up at spot shows etc. When he showed up at…

I’ve never seen Brian ‘No Neck’ Keck before, but remember Meltzer writing about him. Nothing overly positive I’m afraid, just someone with strong amateur credentials that tried his hand in the pro ranks but never went anywhere. Sadly he passed away last year at the age of just 48. Cornette and Dean Hill are joined in the commentary booth by Phil Fair as they go over the upcoming six-man tag match at Christmas Chaos and the various stipulations involved, the action in the ring playing second fiddle to all this. Nice overhead double arm suplex by Randy. There’s a really ugly miscommunication in there involving him and the Blondes where I have no idea what happens. Ort…

They’re still hawking Tough Enough, telling folk how and where to apply should they want to. Capri looks to be about the same size as Crash here. Go behind waistlock, but Holly escapes with a couple of elbows to the side of the head. Crash keeps hold of the ropes when running them, and when Capri charges, drops to the mat as his opponent then sails over the top rope to the outside. He follows him to the floor, repositions the ring steps and comes flying off them with a somersault body block. Molly Holly, who’s accompanying her cousin, liked that one. Capri reverses the whip to the corner, drop toe hold and Crash goes crashing head first into the middle turnbuckle. …

Some absolutely wonderful, technically proficient chain wrestling between these two, but Kevin Kelly and Tom Prichard would rather talk about the upcoming Royal Rumble as opposed to calling the match. Saturn gets the better of a shoulder tackle and slides over to Terri for a kiss. I never really got them as a pairing as they have no chemistry together whatsoever. He drops Collyer with a running elbow smash and is up on the turnbuckles flexing his guns. Drop toe hold by Collyer followed by a lariat. Now he’s giving it the double bicep pose, mocking Saturn. Should’ve concentrated on his opponent mind as he telegraphs the backdrop and Saturn with an up kick. Superkick…

Quick promo to start things from Pirata and this is our debut at looking at Dos Caras Jr. Another fun match from AAA. The rudo team was living the gimmick throughout the match and the match has a logical base where Caras senior leg is isolated and worked over to the point where he is a nonfactor for the last half of the match. They sell this well with the doctor and stretcher and whole support crew come out to tend to him. Junior defends the family honor and with the combination of his size,build and ability to hit some graceful dives, Del Rio was destined for big things already this early into his career. He does a great job being injured and selling the damage to his l…

Hotta's crew vs Ito's crew. This was supposed to be a frenetic, all-action match but it wasn't as exciting as you'd imagine. Ordinarily, they'd maximize the emotional conflict in a bout like this but this felt lazy. There was plenty of beef between the wrestlers but I wasn't feeling any of it. AJW is off to a bit of a rough start in '01.

This started off as a Parka match, which was pretty much its own thing at this stage, and morphed into a beef between Wagner and his rudo partners. In the middle of all that was some good stuff -- Parka and Wagner brawling, Dandy squaring off with Safari, and a nice finishing stretch between Parka and Psicosis -- but it was mostly a repetitive loop of Wagner and Psicosis interfering with each other's holds. Wagner vs. Psicosis showed plenty of promise but if you've watched enough lucha you'll know that it pays to be skeptical. There's no guarantee that they'll follow it up so don't get your hopes up. It was interesting to see Psicosis back in a lucha setting after his US …

This started off as straight midcard fare that allowed us to see more of Pimpi in his prime and turned into an apuesta feud between Diluvio and Silver Star. For some reason which escaped me in Spanish, the ref was heavily involved in the feud. More involved than any ref I can remember from a lucha libre bout (and that includes a ton of rudo refs.) Mind you, this was the same ref that did a plancha from the top turnbuckle in the main event, so who knows what was going on. I don't know if I'll ever see a payoff to this but I was a witness to it.

WWE Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho - Royal Rumble 2001 Ladder Match I have never seen this match before, but is always one that has intrigued me. They have greatly improved from Fall Brawl 1996. The beginning of the match was well-executed with Benoit constantly one step ahead of Jericho and always throwing him shoulder first into objects. I liked Jericho's pluckiness and Benoit' sterness in the early going. After a bit, it turned into a great violent carwreck of a match. Comparing this match to Harper/Ziggler shows why I think Harper/Ziggler should be rewarded because of the great story they told based on face/heel dynamics. This match was to…

This always gets brought up as E&C doing a real strong straight tag match and it is certainly good but it strikes me that even in a vacuum, if this is the best straight tag match they have in the promotion, they are enormously overrated historically as a team. Watching the feud as the whole and the brawl, hate filled nature it has had, that makes this straight tag formula seem even more bizarre. I would have done a tables match or some gimmick since the Dudley's were laid out on Monday and Thursday and they are presenting it as a courageous act that they even showed up. E&C just don't offer enough variety or double team moves to be an elite tier heel tag team. The…

This is a weird show as I feel my opinion changes every time I watch. I had always had this one lower than consensus but really enjoyed it this time. Stuff like the hardcore section and the beefy section from #16-#23 didn’t bother me near as much. I think most would say the lull from Bradshaw to Big Show’s return is the down point of the match but they really did some big power man offense and actually were stretching out the stiffness in the Rumble more than usual. The surprises from Drew Caray and Honky Tonk Man were played for comedy. Big Show coming back and chokeslamming Rock through a table was a big moment for him and Haku is such a what the fuck moment since he wa…

This was a decent match but when the most exciting part is a catfight between Trish Stratus and Steph, you know something's not clicking. They didn't seem to have faith in the wrestlers to deliver a dramatic WWF PPV bout. Instead, the heat was on all of the outside BS. Even the finish, which saw Austin get revenge on Triple H for interfering in his RAW title shot, took the heat away from the wrestlers and put it squarely on the outside shit. That sort of booking doesn't surprise me but they usually deliver a better match. Quite a step down from the previous year's Rumble if you look at it from that perspective. I think what surprised me the most is that while he worked a …

Watching the build to Wrestlemania 17 and was surprised at how good this was. The Big Show just returned at the Royal Rumble the night previously where he chokeslamed Rock through a table. It's suggested by commentary that this may have cost Rock the Rumble match as he still made it to the final 3 despite being hurt. So these two are to clash again meanwhile Benoit and Jericho are back from their ladder match. Jericho is hurt from the ladder match and soon has to be taken backstage for medical help after being brutalised by Show. This forces Rock to fight in a handicap situation. There's a wonderful part where Rock gradually takes down an increasingly dazed Big Show …

Jim Ross has spent too long sat next to ‘the King’ as Lawler’s smutty ways are rubbing off on him. When Trish makes her entrance, even though you don’t see him, you can tell that his eyes are popping out his head by his comments. Triple H ‘s focus is Angle’s knee which got damaged at the Royal Rumble and he’s methodical in his attacks of that body part, getting the initial jump after Kurt wasn’t paying attention on the outside. Swinging neckbreaker by Angle before tagging out to Trish. This will be interesting to see what the doctrine is at this time when it comes to man on woman violence. She comes off the top with a crossbody however ‘the Game’ catches her, Angle t…

That dirty, foul, insignificant little specimen Test has been a thorn in the side of William Regal, who apologises to everyone in advance as tonight he’s going to make him feel like he’s been hacked up with a bloody hatchet! Test’s not wasting any time, running down the aisle in order to get his hands on the European champion. Regal rolls to the floor after a lariat, but Test steps over the top rope and follows him outside, slamming his head into the announcer’s table. He throws him back into the ring and levels him with a big boot after reversing the Irish whip. Test with a bodyslam followed by a great looking top rope elbow and we have ourselves a new European champ…

Lex Luger thanks the fans for their warm reaction. He informs everyone that he takes his role as an official referee very seriously and, despite their scepticism, will remain totally unbiased and will call this right down the middle. Bagwell’s music starts for a second time, which I thought was some sort of snafu, but we’re just going to a commercial. Luger at least now looks the part, putting on a black and white striped top during the break. As much as I hate the whole concept of the “heel referee”, Lex is at least amusing with his selling and wincing while Nash pummels Buff in the corner. He physically involves himself, dragging ‘Killer’ off him, Scott Hudson just…