February 2001

A Mima Shimoda singles match may not be anyone's cup of tea but this wasn't bad. It was worked a more traditional way since Shimoda doesn't have a ton of offense. There was a lot of screeching and swearing, which may be offputting for some, but they stuck to the game plan and delivered a solid walk-through. It wasn't exactly inspiring in terms of Tamura's future trajectory in Joshi but there weren't a lot of holes in it.

This is the match that was set up on Smackdown where Essa challenged Kurt after he’d accused him of stealing his T-shirt and then made stereotypical racial slurs when he wanted him to buy a replacement (it’s funnier than it reads). Kurt tries to make his pre-match promo as he’s walking to the ring but the fans are all over him, not giving him the quiet that he wants. He gives up waiting and says that the people aren’t hallucinating, he’s agreed to Essa Rios’ challenge (non-title) as that’s just the kind of guy he is! Angle then congratulates Essa informing him that after tonight he’ll have the honour of telling his future illegitimate grandchildren that he lost to the …

This was a decent match but I wanted to see more of a statement from Hamada. You can tell while watching this how much easier it is to play the challenger role. Hyuga had a good match but she was wrestling the match she always wrestles because its a role she's been in for years. Hamada hadn't learned how to transition into the champion role yet. It's a hard thing to do and makes you appreciate all of the great champions in pro-wrestling. She worked hard and there was an element of the hunter becomes the hunted in the match layout but she was a bit too desperate and bit too relieved to get the final pin, so it was hard to have confidence in her as one of the new pillars of…

Joined in progress with M2K getting the heat on SAITO. Side slam/knee drop off the top combo for a two. Darkness accidentally takes out Kanda with a spinning heel kick and Kid is in. Stereo dropkicks send M2K to the floor. An amazing inside out middle rope springboard moonsault from Kid, the camera though misses SAITO’s dive. Glorious super sunset flip by SAITO, holding a handstand position while folding his man up. He avoids the mule kick and this cool little rolling cradle for a near fall. Kid gets caught and dumped with a twisting release uranage. Kanda goes to suplex him over the top to the outside, however he lands on the apron. Springboard somersault stunne…

Skipper has a message for all the dumb Americans; this is his house, he built this house, and he’s going to give them a taste of Primetime. I wonder if someone is getting some new music soon... Another qualifying match for the six-man Elimination at Superbrawl Revenge. Shannon Moore, Kaz Hayashi and Yang have already qualified, the final two spots will be determined by a tag team bout on Thunder. A headscissors takes Elix to the outside, Kidman then with a sliding bulldog onto the ringside mats. Slingshot guillotine legdrop for a two. Skipper with a float over and a snap release German. Kidman misses a running crossbody as Elix does the matrix, his momentum sending…

Gene Okerlund states that jealousy tore the ‘Natural Born Thrillers’ apart and tonight we get a preview of Superbrawl as Shawn Stasiak takes on Chuck Palumbo. Stasiak corrects him saying it was stupidity, not jealousy that tore them apart, stupidity on the parts of Sean O’Haire & Chuck Palumbo for not realising who the true leaders of ‘the Thrillers’ are. Their heads are filled with monkey crap anyway so he doesn’t blame them, and tonight he’ll prove to everyone that he carried Palumbo to the World tag team titles. Stasiak is back using the Mr Perfect rip-off theme. I could watch Palumbo throwing punches all day. He clotheslines Stasiak out to the floor, but …

Lots of added stipulations on the line here; if Dustin wins not only is he reinstated, he will also get a U.S. title match at Superbrawl, plus Kevin Nash will get a World title shot later on tonight. We get a recap of Steiner’s turn on Nash from last week. These two are wasting no time, Dustin ducking the clothesline and putting Steiner down with a lariat of his own. The U.S. champ is hiding behind referee Billy Silverman, he then shoves him towards Rhodes and as Dustin moves the ref out the way, Steiner kicks him (Rhodes) between the legs. Only a two following the Steinerline and Steiner is in Silverman’s face, audibly threatening to “knock the shit” out of him. So …

I’ll eat my hat if we get a clean finish here! As a result of Dustin Rhodes defeating Rick Steiner earlier, amongst other things, it gave ‘Big Sexy’ this title match. Nash is dragging a gagged David Flair to the ring with him, he is about to give him the powerbomb when he’s interrupted by Ric Flair. Flair is pleading for his son’s life, saying how he’s done everything Nash asked and begs him to let David go. Those words fall on deaf ears, Nash giving the powerbomb, Flair losing it on seeing that. Along with a couple of members of security they drag David from the ring as Scott Steiner makes his entrance for a match he didn’t want this close to Superbrawl. Aggressive…

Another qualifier for the six-man Cruiserweight elimination match at Superbrawl. Yang starts out by throwing some karate kicks, Lash hiding behind the referee as they’re treated as comedy. Now the crane! Lash catches the kick but Yang blasts him with an enzuigiri. Running crossbody sees both men go over the top to the outside. We’re reminded that Shannon Moore and Kaz Hayashi have already qualified, the remaining men will be decided tonight and on Thunder. Superbrawl is only six days away so I hope they’ve got this planned out. Belly to back by Lash after Yang had blown something. An eye poke staggers Lash who backs into the corner. Yang runs at him and goes to b…

Eddy was put out of action by Jericho and tonight he gets the chance for some revenge. A back elbow smash drops Y2J and he just unloads with punches. There’s always an intense physicality when guys like these two, Benoit etc. work with each other. Belly to back suplex followed by a keylock submission. Jim Ross thinks that Eddy’s luck took a turn for the worse after screwing up his relationship with Chyna, almost like what happened to him was karma. He’s too slow climbing the turnbuckles and Jericho hits a suicideplex. Flying forearm. Bulldog, but Eddy was paying attention on Smackdown and gets his knees up on the Lionsault. Jericho reverses the attempted huracanra…

The Dudley Boyz are providing some guest commentary, the winners of this match going on to face them at No Way Out for the tag team titles. Bubba says how there is no-one the Dudleys like beating up more than those two pretty boy punks, Edge & Christian. E&C jump the ‘Brothers of Destruction’ from behind, which is probably their best strategy based on previous matches between these teams. Well it may have seemed like a good strategy but it didn’t pan out so well in reality. Double press slam on Edge. Christian nails Kane with a chair, missed by the official who’s distracted by Taker and the Dudleys having words on the floor. Barely a minute later Kane’s back…

It was the sheer randomness of these two teams that made me check it out, you have the World champion teaming with the Hardcore champion on one side and almost a comedy team on the other with how they’ve been respectfully presented. Show is wanting some revenge after what happened on Smackdown and it sounds like he duped Angle into the match by using Essa Rios, coming off that cracker on Heat last night, as a pawn. Not too sure how Raven is part of this as I only have the match and none of the build up. Big Show immediately makes a beeline for Kurt, who does a runner away from him, leaving Raven and Essa to kick things off. As soon as Show is on the apron Angle wants …

After involving herself in the match last week on Smackdown Terri finds herself part of it this, although going by the outfit and high heel boots she’s wearing, I don’t think she’ll be involved much. Dean Malenko is out again, watching from a distance at the top of the stage. ‘The Radicalz’ with a double press slam on Jeff. A nice belly to belly by Saturn before putting Jeff over his shoulder and running him upside down into the corner. He crotches him upstairs, but Hardy fires off some back elbows and hits the Whisper in the Wind. Tag to Matt who catches Saturn with a twisting neckbreaker. Benoit gets backdropped over the top to the outside, Jeff then runs across t…

Here we see Los Guapos with their preferred partner of choice, Emilio Charles Jr. For some reason, Villano IV is in on the tecnico side, which is good news since he works the lion's share of the clips, reprising his IWRG feud with Scorpio and being generally awesome. Shocker does a run-in at the end in street clothes and it looks like the Los Guapos break up is a done deal. Another trio gone too soon.

Normal service is resumed on the crowd front; there can’t be more than thirty people in there tonight. Whitmer is announced as being from the Les Thatcher training camp. Ian likes that but says that he’s going to give him a wrestling lesson that he can go back and tell Thatcher all about. The clean break gets a few boos, some folk not happy that Ian didn’t cheap shot him. Whitmer is understandably cautious, leading to someone calling him “Blow Job”. I bet he’s glad that one never stuck! Ian with a single leg takedown, he pulls Whitmer into the middle and locks on the Tazmission. The crowd may not number many but they’re very vocal in taking pot shots at B.J. inform…

There are two vacant slots in the Cruiserweight elimination match at Superbrawl, the winning team here going on to fill them. That seems to be telegraphing the result already. The televised debut of WCW’s newest signees, A.J. Styles & Air Paris, two guys who have been tearing it up on the independent scene according to Mike Tenay. Paris has got different ring gear to what he wears in Wildside which I don’t think benefits him. Apparently WCW has been actively scouting Cruiserweights. Nice back leg trip by Styles for an early two count. Tenay is already plugging his Shooting Star press. Styles is working well with Noble here. Stereo backdrops and Noble & Kar…

“Holy slapnuts!” Jarrett insults the crowd saying that this looks like the World’s largest inbred family reunion and promising to bring his guitar down over Diamond Dallas’ head if he gets the chance. Just as the match is about to start we cutaway to clips of Rhodes’ win over Steiner on Nitro where he got reinstated, returning to see everyone going at it on the floor. Page makes a blind tag and comes off the top with a flying clothesline,. Swinging neckbreaker. Steiner reverses the Irish whip, Jarrett kneeing Dustin in the back as he hits the ropes, turning the match in their direction. Belly to belly. Back elbow and Dustin goes down hard. Quality little sunset fl…

Another preview for the Superbrawl tag, this time featuring the two members of the teams who didn’t face off on Nitro. Mike Tenay talks about how, as we entered 2001, it looked like the ‘Natural Born Thrillers’ were close to taking over WCW but jealousy tore the group apart. Springboard armdrag by Jindrak. Tenay points out that these two will know each other inside out, not only because they used to team together, but also because they trained in the Power Plant at the same time, as a result the one who varies their offence the most is likely to come out on top. O’Haire with a suplex, lifting Jindrak vertical and then just letting him go. A big boot to the chest send…

Lance Storm is the new Commissioner of WCW after defeating the Cat. Mike Sanders goes to see him but Storm takes exception to being called “Lance”, “Did anyone call you Mike when you were Commissioner?” The new Commissioner has got a job for him anyway, wanting him to take care of Kwee Wee who has sent him a note asking if he can put in a word with Ric Flair for him. Sanders promises to do that, although Lance warns him to watch promising things if can’t deliver. They’re referring to Sanders as Flair’s, the man that Kwee Wee is trying to win favour with, protégé. Sanders is grinning at his opponent, even blowing him a kiss at one point. A slap across the face aw…

This was a one fall singles match and was worked in a different style that you might expect from a best two-out-of-three falls singles match. They started off with the type of hot, blistering action you'd expect in the tercera caida, then they took it the mat before brawling outside the ring. After that, they fought tooth and nail to remove each other's masks before a prolonged period of submission holds and nearfall finishes. It almost felt like a regular match in reverse. It wasn't the classic I was looking for. In fact, it wasn't up there with the best matches of the first month and half, but I did find myself appreciating the intensity of what they were doing and I be…

Ciberneticos rarely disappoint and looking at the talent here there was no way this was going to be an exception. Sure enough, this filled with dream pairings and cool match-ups. It was a tad short because Felino and Panther were pulling double duty on the show, and it was only a 10-man cibernetico to begin with, but it was highly entertaining and a showcase of how good this gimmick is. I've never really thought about this before but because the cibernetico is rare compared the predominant form of lucha, i.e. the trios match, it may actually be the best gateway into lucha libre. You get lucha in its purest form but without the conventions that people struggle with. This a…

We get a recap from Monday night where X-Pac attacked Jericho in his match with Eddy Guerrero, and where, later in the show, Y2J jumped Eddy when he was facing Too Cool. The latter also saw the debut of Justin Credible identified as a former ECW World champion. Considering how many ECW alumni we’ve already seen on the Indy scene, Credible did well to get signed almost immediately after the company’s collapse. X-Pac is out to the old D-Generation X theme. Great spinning heel kick by Pac. Jericho returns fire with one of his own sending Pac out onto the apron. Springboard shoulderblock. He’s definitely trying to mix things up and not make his stuff as predictable. P…

Raven’s shopping cart contains a toy Frankenstein among the obligatory trash cans, signs, baking trays etc. In a pre-match interview he implies that he’s taking this match because if he defeats the Big Show it will mean that he is the greatest Hardcore champion of all time, when in fact it transpires he was forced to take the match by Mr McMahon. Raven hits Show over the head with all sorts of weapons, none of which have any effect as he no sells everything. He picks up a kitchen sink, because he’s hit him with everything but, and that does at least stagger Show. The challenger flips Raven to the outside, pummelling him with those massive fists, when Ninja lady shows …

This is a good appetizer to the series they would have in a couple of months. The build to No Way Out 2001 has been two fold. HHH vs Austin was a dead feud for me coming out of the nonsense at the end of 2000 but them not touching to such extremes has been an effective tool in building up naysayers including myself into wanting to watch their match at No Way Out. The downside of that is that Raw has been pretty lackluster with a cooked Rikishi being inserted into the main event and a lot of maneuvering over what will be the stipulation. SmackDown has picked up the slack and given quality tv matches weekly. This was brawl and strike based but the intensity of Benoit matche…

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