January 2001

Lance Storm thinks that the war between Team Canada and the Filthy Animals has gone on long enough, both sides have suffered casualties and as the captain of Team Canada he is out here to challenge Konnan, the leader of the Filthy Animals to a match to declare the winner of this war once and for all. The Animals’ entrance theme interrupting the Canadian National Anthem seems to surprise Lance, although not sure why as it happens every time! Not many of K-Dizzy’s dogs in by the sound of it. Well if this is the blow off to the feud the ending is a bit of a damp squib, Konnan tapping to the ‘Canadian Maple Leaf’ in less than two minutes. There was a nice ankle pick from …

Stipulations in place for this one are that the winner goes onto referee the Kevin Nash vs Buff Bagwell main event; a match Nash must win if he wants a World title shot at Superbrawl Revenge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Luger so happy, that grin permanently etched to his face. There’s a fair bit of overselling going on from ‘the Package’ here. DDP with a DDT. Discus lariat and Lex goes down like a felled tree. Luger stops Page’s momentum with a mule kick. Belly to back. He’s not broken a sweat yet, and that’s down to his lack of effort as opposed his cardio. After driving a boot into DDP’s throat, Page pulls himself up by the ropes and makes his comeback. More O…

Scott Hudson acknowledges that this is Michael Modest’s return to WCW, although doesn’t say the same about Christopher Daniels for some reason. Apparently Mike Sanders has been scouring the world for some great young cruiserweights and has found two here. Who would’ve thought Sanders would be taking his position so seriously? Innovative arm drag takedown by Modest who then whips that arm into the mat. Daniels slips on the top rope quebrada, landing right on the top of his head and the crowd, who had been dead for the match so far, come to life on seeing that, not in a good way though, laughing at his misfortune. Modest cartwheels out of a snap mare and throws a rabbi…

I don’t know what Shane Helms’ music is (I’ve tried Google and YouTube to no avail, and it’s the one before ‘Vertebreaker’) but it’s extremely catchy. He and ‘Primetime’ Elix Skipper are the first two men in this Cruiserweight Gauntlet, the winner going on to meet Chavo Guerrero Jr for the title at Superbrawl Revenge. Shane with a big jumping neckbreaker for an early near fall. Skipper blocks the ‘Sugar Smack’ and lands a double arm overhead suplex. Graceful as spinning guillotine legdrop from the top. Helms blocks the ‘Play of the Day’, reverses into the ‘Vertebreaker’ and Elix is out of there. His former 3 Count partner Evan Karagias is in next, although doesn’t e…

The first match of Show’s I’ve watched since his return to the WWF and it’s crazy to think that he went from OVW TV one day to a WWE PPV the next and then a top of the card position after that. The Rock is out before our two competitors, much to the surprise of Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler who wonder what he’s doing as he’s not scheduled for a match. He joins them at the announcing desk and when Cole asks him why he’s out here, Rock responds “since when does The Rock need a reason to come on his own show?” There is a reason though; he’s out here to get a closer look at the Big Show after Show chokeslammed him on consecutive days earlier this week. As soon as Show see…

Decent enough match after Christian gets some heel shtick on the Mobile crowd. Test hits a nice missed elbow drop that he gets a lot of air on. Still though, I just don’t find Edge or Christian all that compelling either on their own or with a team right now and am more interested in ancillary characters within WWE like the Acolytes more. *3/4

Nice spot for Kane and not a bad match. He seems to be working harder and it is refreshing as he is able to take the face role vs Angle and create sympathy well. Angle continues to stretch out as the ring general and overall this was a solid main event. They clearly positioned this SmackDown to keep everything moving without anything major happening. Finish was hot with Rikishi and Haku coming out looking strong. Again, it is a feud I am not bothered by. **3/4

Was anyone really clamouring to see this match up again? Taker meets Rikishi on the rampway as the two don’t waste any time in getting going. In typical dominant style he beats him around ringside before throwing him inside, the bell ringing to get this officially underway. On Raw, Rikishi had challenged Taker to a No Holds Barred match, however later reneged after the challenge was accepted. Old school rope walk. Rikishi reverses the Irish whip and dumps Taker with a Samoan drop. It’s not long before he starts his comeback, although Rikishi does pick up a two count following a belly to belly. Haku starts slowly walking out towards the ring and when Taker DDT’s Rik…

I watched this last year and liked it but severely underrated it. I thought it was great this time. It starts with a great vignette of Emilio dyeing his hair platinum blonde to confirm he is 1000% guapo now. The match itself is pure chaos with Casas at his babyface best and Charles turning back the clock as they go to war with each other. Stiff slams onto the announce table and into the rows of chairs. Inside the ring, we get some great work from the other four individuals in particular the selling from Atlantis when he has the La Atlantida applied and gets his leg kicked. Rudos get the win and are just awesome in gloating over their victory. **** (8.1)

Another fun CMLL match although it paled coming off the heels of the previous one. Tarzan Boy is nursing an arm injury so Violencia is filling in here and some of the heat and overall dynamic was taken down because of that. Still the tecnico side here is some of my favorite unheralded lucha workers that really never get brought up much in discussion. Niebla and Olimpico in particular did a good job in this match getting their highlights in when appropriate and then laying back and being fed into Ultimo and Rey when needed as well. An enjoyable trios match overall. ***1/4 (6.4)

Da Baldies (Angel & DeVito) vs Balls Mahoney & Chris Candido Candido is introduced by Balls as his mystery partner. Tammy Sytch is also there, dancing in the audience at first before coming down to ringside; she’s covered up way more than you would expect for her in 2001, like she’s going to spend the day at home lounging in front of the TV. Balls catches DeVito with a lovely arm drag and then we get some crowd participation as they chant “Balls” while he jabs away at ‘Da Baldies’. DeVito nails him from behind before he can make the tag and a combination kick to the mid-section/kick to the head. Candido looks pretty disinterested on the outside, paying more a…

Low Ki vs Tajiri - ICW 1/26/01 "What was that? Green Tea? Wasabi?" "I think it is green mist." The crack announce team calling this one. Oh Lord! Wicked short, not much time to develop. Disappointing. Low Ki seemed more into this, which is to be expected he is the young gun trying to make a name for himself. Diving Misawa elbow from him which I had not seen before, plus a really nice butterfly suplex right into the butterfly stretch. Weird moment where Tajiri blasts him in the head with a kick right off the bat and slowly downgrades to lesser strikes should have built to the bigger strike. Tajiri was content to slap Low Ki in the back of the head, but there was no…

Red grabs the single leg, Divine spins him out but Red with a cartwheel and he lands on his feet. Clubbing right followed by a dropkick. Red blocks the hip toss, monkey flip and this time its Divine landing on his feet. Huracanrana and Divine rolls to the outside. One crazy flip five from the top turnbuckle to the floor by Red and the Elk’s Lodge becomes unglued. He chases Divine around ringside and back into the ring but, as he slides in after him, Kara Slice (Divine’s valet) with some interference turning the tide in her man’s favour. Backbreaker for a two count. Single leg dropkick by Red but that fails to take his opponent of his feet. Divine counters the neck…

It looks like Matt Striker is on security duties, shepherding Maximo as he makes his entrance. Just like Jimmy Rave on that episode of Wildside TV, Red looks so young here. Real fast opening stretch ending with a Red satellite DDT. Standing shooting star for a two and Maximo rolls to the floor to re-evaluate his game plan. Red makes out as if he’s going for an Asai moonsault, but as Maximo tries to grab him, he vaults back into the ring, sprints off the ropes and lands an almighty flip dive instead, hitting his ankles on the guard rail in the process. “Holy shit!” chant for that one. Back inside, and as Red goes for a moonsault crossbody he’s caught with a dropkick …

This comes out of Guido saving Low Ki from an attack by Xavier after his match with Tajiri. Mikey Whipwreck joins after a blown power bomb. Other than that, Xavier looks good here, but the ECW guys feel like they're going through the motions. I love Danny Drake on commentary explaining an Irish whip being called that because "it's how you toss them out of the bar when they're closing." Whipwreck eliminates Guido with the Whippersnapper. Mikey and Xavier have a decent segment, but then there's a ref bump, and a chair, and holy shit this is a mess. Mikey wins with another Whippersnapper. Whipwreck gets the ICW title here, although, SPOILER, he gets it back by …

This was a decent match but a bit heatless and too short to leave its mark in the annals of pro-wrestling history. Ayako had spent her entire 2000 year chasing glory and now she was in the position of having to defend what she'd won, and as we all know it can be a difficult transition from the underdog role to the champion's mentality. A transition which is full of growing pains. Ayako was okay in this but not a dominant force. In fairness to her, it was too short for her to have to dig deep and show her mettle. The match and her opponent never pushed her to any of those places. That said, she didn't really show an edge in any of the little things she did either. I guess …

Another decent ARSION match. Hyuga hadn't really come into her own yet but she was working hard and trying to make each bout she was a part of memorable in some way. And really that's the goal when you're trying to find your way as a worker. This had a 15-minute time limit which didn't give them time to lay out a classic. They weren't good enough workers with a hot enough crowd to accomplish anything special in the time they were given, but I did like the way they worked toward their end goal, which was that both of them would have convincing nearfalls before the time expired. To that end, it was a competitive bout even if it was a stalemate. There were some nice contrast…

I have liked AJW well enough in 2001 but the music video that starts this off show how much cooler and bigger GAEA feels at this point. A huge crowd for this match too as Hokuto/Ozaki still look like complete bad asses. This was a quick match and all action. Chigusa had an off night execution wise and overall the Crush Gals aren’t the bases they need to be for the offense that Ozaki/Hokuto were throwing at them. Chairs and double teaming were rampant but being more accustomed to the GAEA house style now, I went with it. On top of that, we get a truly shocking finish as the Crush Gals lose. I know cagematch isn’t the most comprehensive listing but I think this is only 1 o…

One of my favorite 10 minute and under matches ever. Satomura gives a great tenacious performer just not going to be denied and Kansai is more athletically gifted still than both Crush Gals in their match so she was able to be in better position and deliver punishment. As a result, it felt like more of a passing of the torch. It also helps that Meiko is still young and the Ozaki/Hokuto win is seemingly like if Jumbo Tsuruta beat Baba in 89 or something. The selling Kansai does here of being dazed but hanging on was great and gnarly at putting over the damage. 10 minutes felt like the perfect length for the story they were trying to tell. Overall, I am very high on GAEA c…

Sex Pistols in the ‘House of Hardcore’ courtesy of Baker’s entrance theme. Trent says that tonight marks the end of Corporal Robinson because last week he made the mistake of doing what Americans do so well, running their bloody mouths. He claims to fear no man; well tonight he faces not one man, but two. Corp’s response consists of making homophobic jibes at the two and getting his catchphrase over. Baker is announced as being from Liverpool, England, although surely if you’re doing a rugby gimmick somewhere like Leicester or Gloucester would be more apropos? Also I detected no Scouse accent whatsoever. The man advantage plays dividends at first until Corp levels T…

Shank says that he has come to the IWA for one reason only, to make that fat piece of shit Ian Rotten his prison bitch. Ian doesn’t take too kindly to that, promising to welcome him with a steel chair that will compress his head down into his chest so far that he’ll be talking out his ass. Brutal clubbing clothesline from Ian, who then throws Shank out to the floor and dents a chair over his head. That was even more brutal. Shank comes up bleeding and I assume he must’ve bladed although I didn’t see him gig. I seriously hope it wasn’t hard way. Ian grabs a barbed wire covered tennis racket from a fan, presumably a rib on Cornette, which he grates on Dorsey’s face. …

There’s a hoe down going on in the middle of the ring between Tracey and Harry Palmer! A “Tracey sucks dick” chant breaks out so he spits at the crowd, this after giving nigh on every one of them the middle finger as he made his entrance. ‘Sellout’ Smothers lets everyone into a secret, saying he was sent here by James E. Cornette to conquer IWA-MS and if he hears anyone chanting “I-W-A” he’ll “beat the fuck out of them”. He reveals that Suicide Kid was actually trained by Danny Davis but made his name in the IWA and helped build the company with all those assholes in the dressing room. Tracey is now calling the fan “Neanderthals”! He tells Kid that he’s just a steppi…

Just like last week’s show, this episode of MCW features more matches from the big ‘Corinth Chaos’ card. Slash is already complaining to the official about a pull of his pants after a fireman’s carry take down. Charlie whips his way out of the double underhook, arm bar and Slash grabs the ropes for the break. Again he is on at the referee, claiming that was the second time he’s pulled him by the side of his pants already. Inverted atomic drop followed by the Tajiri handspring elbow. Tag to Russ, Charlie with the Irish whip and he slingshots his brother into the onrushing Slash. Russ runs face first into a big boot and Slash has had enough of this for the time being. Seven…

‘The Kliq’ are already out in front of the commentary desk and they’ve got a few things they want to say. Spanky tells Lance Cade, or that Kendall Windham wannabe as he calls him, that he made the biggest mistake of his life last week when he turned his back on ‘the Kliq’, though believes that now they’re much better off without him. Jason Sensation gives us his Shawn Michaels impersonation before Shooter says how he knew that Lance didn’t have what it takes to make it in he wrestling business, and right here today on TV he’s going to prove it. Last of all we hear from the American Dragon who hates being injured, who hates that he can’t wrestle and who hates that he ca…

A backstage interview from Pete Gas where he explains that it’s no secret to the fans in Memphis that the Mean Street Posse have had their problems in the past, so for the time being they’ve decided to go their separate ways. They’re both going to compete in singles competition and see if things work out in their favour that way. Today he’s got a match against Steve Bradley for the Unified title and, while he knows the odds are not in his favour, he likes the underdog role and at the end of the show, he’s taking that belt! Steve Bradley and Victoria stop off for a chat with Corey before the main event and ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ is sick and tired of Spellbinder coming o…