February 2001

Jeff is back after missing Monday night due to injury. A Hardyz match means yet more dirty old man Lawler. After the two teams make their entrances Dean Malenko’s music plays which distracts the brothers and the Radicalz jump them from behind. Lita looks visibly upset by Malenko’s appearance, no doubt as he’s more interested in watching her as opposed to the actual match. Matt with a blind tag and he takes Saturn’s head off with a clothesline. Legdrop off the middle, Benoit breaking up the pinfall with an elbow to the back of the neck. Gut wrench on ‘the Crippler’. Terri hooks Matt’s ankle from the floor enabling Benoit to capitalise on the distraction. Double tea…

Chris Jericho was supposed to represent Triple H tonight in a match against Steve Austin’s representative Billy Gunn. HHH took Gunn out backstage though, so Mr McMahon decreed he should therefore take his place in the match. Y2J is disappointed ‘the Game’ didn’t have the confidence in him to represent him, especially after all they’ve been through, so rather than being his personal representative he’ll have to settle for being his personal ass kicker instead. HHH wastes little time, but Jericho ducks his clothesline and comes back with a flying forearm. Double leg and he’s already trying for the Walls, Triple H fighting him off from the bottom. He’s now looking for t…

The Rock is pacing backstage as Kevin Kelly tries to get a word with him. Rock says how the Big Show has changed since he returned to the WWF; he’s focussed, an unstoppable monster, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that you don’t mess with the Rock. He took him out last week, now he’s got his chance to go one on one with the Great One, the winner going on to face Kurt Angle for the World championship at No Way Out. The World champion makes an entrance before the two wrestlers, Michael Cole wondering what he’s doing out here. I’d hazard a guess he’s going to be providing some guest commentary, the same thing that every wrestler who’s not involved in the next m…

Long Island Wrestling Federation still going strong into 2001! No audio on this. The camera is right on top of the action like we’re in the ring with them. Homicide with a nerve hold while fish-hooking the mouth at the same time. Only a small point but watch how he positions Deacon’s head to the side so he can get a proper grip. Deacon catches him with a back elbow and picks up a two count after an Oklahoma Stampede. Huh, we get a ref bump after not even five minutes of action. Surely they’re not going home already? Flying shoulder tackle by Homicide. He goes over to shake the ref, however by the time he’s come around Deacon has recovered enough himself to kick o…

This was part of the build-up to the Perro Aguayo vs Universo 2000 apuesta match that Raging Noodles and I loved so much back in the day. I have no idea whether that match will hold up anymore having watched the 14 months proceeding it but the feud raged on (pun intended.) Perro had taken Caras' hair on the December pay-per-view and Mascara Ano 2000's hair earlier in the month at a Tijuana show, so the bad blood continued to boil. It doesn't always work for me since Perro looks like he needs to be reminded where he is half the time, but I did like the throwbacks to Atlantis vs. Emilio that we got here.

Talk about it here.

Justice’s CZW Heavyweight title isn’t on the line in this non-title affair, although he still runs to the ring, clearly in a hurry to get his hands on Tajiri. Tajiri ducks a clothesline, spits the green mist in his face and then tosses him over the top rope to the outside. He whips him into the steel mesh fence, a member of the audience and finally a row of chairs as these CZW matches are all starting to morph into one. Pain picks Tajiri up, driving him backwards into the fence, but walks into a thrust kick. Kick to the balls. A ‘hot shot’ followed by a basement dropkick and this has been all Tajiri so far. Justice lands on the apron after being backdropped over the…

CZW debut for Red and Maximo. The Briscoes at this point are managed by Dewey Donovan. The CZW commentators aren't as bad as the ICW commentators, but they are still atrocious and an active detriment to enjoying the match. The Briscoes control with some double teams early, and then we get into some dives that get big pops. Mark splats on the floor on his. The Red Star Press (not named yet) gets a strong but oddly polite round of applause. Red and Maximo get the heat on Mark, which feels odd... they don't really do anything heelish. And indeed, they get some giant reactions for the Maximo Driver and Red's big twisting splash. The Briscoes take over and hit a weak total…

A week after KO’ing himself in Jersey All Pro, Ric Blade is back and wrestling in a ladder match. Mondo cuts a funny promo at his expense, talking about him nose diving into the mat when on a Shooting Star and claiming that he had to pay Shorty to stand in his corner and cheer for him. John House seems to think that Crazy will wait until Blade comes out before getting in the ring because he doesn’t want to square off one on one with Nick Mondo. No idea why he would’ve thought that and turns out to be completely untrue. A Crazy Asai moonsault takes down both men, he grabs a waistlock on Blade and Mondo with a sunset flip on Crazy who at the same time launches Blade wit…

The announcers make a big deal that this might be their last match. They'd do the match again next week. This goes barely five minutes. They both hug Hat Guy to start, which enrages the other fans for some reason. Some nice sequences, but both guys are also working later and keeping it low key. They do some light crowd brawling. Just as the match is getting going, Nick Mondo runs in to attack Crazy. Not much at all to this one, very skippable.

These two were former partners in the ‘Softcore Connection’ and Acid’s got Z-Barr with him, who Gargiulo says looks like he’s out trick or treating dressed as Zandig and that he has an apple with a razor in for him! There’s an added stipulation here that Berk only has ten minutes to beat Trent and he sprints to the ring not wanting to waste a second of those ten minutes. Both swing for the hills until a big right hand sends Trent over the top rope and to the outside. Berk launches him into a row of chairs, but when he whips him into the mesh fence, Trent jumps up it and moonsaults off onto him. He throws Berk into the ring but then spends too long arguing with the fa…

This is a handicap match, with the Moondogs being joined by their manager (who previously had turned on DHS). If anyone goes to the outside of the ring, they are apparently disqualified, which seems incredibly limiting. I also need to point out it seems like half the commentary has been erased, as there's one announcer but he's clearly replying to someone at points (either that or making very odd non-sequitors about children's birthday parties). The Moondogs get tossed out early, and then Monsta Mack tosses Mafia out onto them - I guess getting thrown out is a loophole? The Moondogs are fun power workers and plausible foes for DHS. They take a lot of the match, …

Rematch from the last month, where they went to a 10 minute (?!) draw. We've now progressed from 10 minutes to having no time limit. Love the intensity of the mat wrestling to start. Ki keeps taking control, leading to Guido getting frustrated and bailing. Nice job from Guido of pacing things. It's not a Fameasser, crappy announcer, it's a Sicilian Slice. Although, to be fair, it is also a Fameasser. This is going great until Don Montoya interferes and hits Ki with a belt, leading to Guido hitting something (the camera doesn't show it and the announcer doesn't call it) for the win. Despite the crappy finish, this was a lot of fun and well worth seeking out.

Curious to see Spike on the indies, as he ended up going to the WWF pretty quickly after this and thus didn't have nearly as long an indy run as some of the other ECW alumni. Some solid wrestling to start. Don Montoya and Inferno interfere on Youth's behalf, and they fall into an, um, sexual position that gets some embarrassing retrograde chants. Youth controls off some more interference. This is all totally fine but pretty uninspiring. Spike takes the offense, and that gets the crowd going a bit. Spike accidentally gives the ref the Acid Drop for reasons unexplained, and Youth's cronies interfere some more. The crowd is so dead.Spike dispatches everyone and hits the …

A quick pre-match interview from ‘the Kliq’, and Jason Sensation has added Kurt Angle to his repertoire of impressions although this isn’t one of his best. Shooter Schultz issues a warning to the Haas’ telling them that this isn’t the amateurs, it’s professional wrestling and reminds them that his name isn’t ‘Sports Entertainment’ Schultz, it isn’t ‘cut a good promo’ Schultz, it’s Shooter Schultz, and to remember what that means. Shooter cranks on a hammerlock that Charlie is able to reverse. Top wristlock take down followed by a deep arm drag, and Shooter resorts to punching his way out of the armbar as Charlie seems to have his number when it comes to straight up…

Victoria is in the dressing room on the phone to Brandon Baxter wondering if he’s found them a partner yet for the big show on the 21st. While she’s more than confident she can take care of The Kat, she’s not so sure when it comes to he and Jerry Lawler though. Steve Bradley snatches the phone from her, hangs up the call and tells her that the only match she should be concerned with right now is his against the Spellbinder. Only a short little vignette, but I always like stuff such as this which interlinks the two promotions. Both of Bradley’s belts are on the line tonight and with the prospect of becoming the Unified champion, Spellbinder’s not hanging around. …

Corey Maclin has got the day off so Grandmaster Sexay is filling in for him. Spanky confirms that ‘the Kliq’ will be in six-man action at ‘the Showdown at the Nutthouse’ taking on Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Lance Cade. He’s pretty confident about their chances, intimating that they’ve got already got something up their sleeves. The American Dragon is still pissed about being unmasked by Cade and challenges him to face him right now. Dave Brown points out he did that last week and the whole Kliq ended up interfering. He thinks that if they can figure out some way to make it one against one it’s a good idea, otherwise he doesn’t like it all. Dragon tells ‘the Kliq’ that h…

Grandmaster Sexay mocking what Rodrageous is wearing is like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. He stops for a quick interview with Dave to promote his match against K-Kwik at the Jonesboro show, before saying how Derrick King and his toothpick body should be sticking out of a club sandwich. DK ducks the lariat and takes Rodney down with a ‘Rude Awakening’ style neckbreaker. Facebuster for a two. Rodney blocks the tornado DDT, but they botch whatever it is that they had planned. King leaped to the middle turnbuckle and jumped backwards grabbing at Rodney, although he never go hold of him and just crashed into him instead. He climbs to the top for a mo…

The Haas brothers are still carrying Bo’s giant teddy and don’t even make it into the ring, getting jumped from behind by the Dupps. Bo cracks Charlie over the back with a chair sending him crashing into the ring post as they then double team Russ. ‘The Kliq’ leave them to it, watching on from the announcer’s desk. ‘Brain Scrambler’ on Russ before they trap his arm between one of the folding steel chairs and stomp away on it. A couple of referees try to get them to stop, but Bo is showing no sign of letting up. It’s only when Jack grabs the teddy bear and passes it to him does it calm him down. Earlier in the show the Haas’ had come to ringside during a Dupps/Jo…

The match is joined in progress with Coleman in control of Rave. Twisting axe kick followed by a high leg drop to the back of the head, and Lazz is in to break up the cover. Combination suplex/leg drop off the middle and this time Rave kicks out. My first time on seeing William Wealth III and he looks like he got lost on the way to the library, accidentally ended up in a wrestling ring instead! Spinning headscissors by Rave. A miscommunication sees both men duck under non-existent clotheslines (someone clearly forgot their spot) and as Rave hits the ropes, Coleman pulls down the top one and he goes tumbling over it to the floor. Caprice measures the superkick, catch…

We get a recap of a handful of interviews from last week’s show. Jeff G. Bailey tells Air Paris that after Bill Behrens saved him last time out, he won’t be getting another shot at A.J.’s TV title. He’s currently in the process of scouring the planet to find the perfect man to destroy him once and for all and that day is coming and its coming sooner than he thinks. Paris responds throwing out phrases like “wrestling angle” and “storyline” and how he no-longer wants Styles’ belt, he wants his ass! Finally we hear from A.J. who says that everyone knows Paris is jealous of him and if he wants a shot at his time, “come get it if you can” (which goes against what both Bail…

On paper this looks like a squash, but Mike Tenay does a grand job on commentary giving purpose to the match and saying how Harris is looking for a full time contract with WCW and victory here may very well earn him one. Tony Schiavone talks about how 3 Count has broken down as there’s no more Evan Karagias, while Shannon Moore and Shane Helms are wrestling exclusively in singles competition at the moment. Shannon gets a couple of near falls but is caught when attempting a tip up and ‘the Wildcat’ dumps him over the top rope and to the outside. Pescado by Harris before throwing Shannon into the guard rail and back into the ring. Two count after a clothesline that turn…

Surprising to see a Wildside guy doing enhancement work on WWF TV, would’ve thought it a given he’d be doing them for WCW. An incredible beel, Onyx getting outrageous height on it. Albert no sells his rights and drops him with a headbutt. Bloody hell, Onyx is doing the best to get noticed, taking an awesome spinning bump off the clothesline. Albert misses the big splash as Onyx starts firing back. He charges at him but gets pressed skywards, taking yet another ridiculous bump with how high he’s launched. Huge running splash in the corner. Onyx ends up the outside and snaps Albert’s neck across the top rope. He goes to the top turnbuckle but Albert steps out the wa…

A quick video recap of what happened on Raw Monday, when Kurt Angle confronted Essa Rios in the dressing room accusing him of stealing his T-shirt to sell for tequila. Those good ol’ wrestling stereotypes there! He insults him once more by offering money to go and buy him a replacement which leads to Essa challenging him to a match that is set for tomorrow’s episode of Heat. Nice roll up counter off the go behind by Romeo for a super early two. He ducks under a swinging right but Kid’s not as smart as he thinks, as while he points at his head Rios lands a spinning kick to the upper back. Romeo with a side step and Essa goes crashing head first into the turnbuckle…

The Sabu/Morton/Blaze trio is like something you’d get in a WAR six-man from the mid-90s. Tracey’s got a few words for everyone and it’s his usual shtick about coming out there and slapping people if he hears them chanting for the opposition, or threatening to kill someone if he hears any “Tracey sucks” chants. After the bell rings he tries to get the fans to clap along with him, but not surprisingly considering how he just spoke to them, they don’t. Blaze and Smothers kicks us off and Tracey’s already complaining about non-existent hair pulls after Blaze gets the better of the opening lock up and an arm drag. Blaze catches him with a dropkick and when Gilbert and Ric…