February 2001

According to Eric Gargiulo, when the magazines do their ‘dream matches’, this one makes the top five every time! Wifebeater isn’t backing down from Balls as they’re trying to play this up as CZW vs ECW. Balls grabs a side headlock, Beater shoots him into the ropes, drop down, leap frog and then catches him with a powerslam. Figure four attempt, but Balls kicks him off before he can fully lock it in. A series of left jabs to the jaw and a big haymaker floors Beater. He looks for the ‘Cactus clothesline’ but Wifebeater ducks out the way and Balls goes soaring out over the top rope to the outside. Irish whip on the floor is reversed, with Balls holding on to the arm an…

Nick Gage was scheduled to be on tour for Big Japan, but he allegedly cancelled that because he wants a piece of Lobo and a piece of the Iron Man title. These two aren’t bothering to hang around as a back elbow and a clothesline sends Gage retreating to the outside. Lobo with a tope that doesn’t quite go to plan, as Gage launches a chair flush into his face and he just collapses to the concrete (it should be pointed out that Gage was standing too far back in the first place and he would’ve never reached him with that dive anyway). The fight continues amongst the fans as Gage nails Lobo with more chair shots before whipping him into the RF concession stand table, wiping…

Eric Gargiulo is at it again with the Brisco/Briscoe brother ‘jokes’, talking about them being NWA tag team champions and their classic feud with Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood! VD jump the Briscoes from behind, but the brothers duck under double clotheslines and take them down with stereo springboard moonsault body blocks. Gargiulo must be on an old NWA binge, now comparing Dahmer to Ole Anderson, saying how he isolates a body part like Ole used to (although I think it’s more due to the fact that Dahmer has similar facial hair). Jay counters the tilt-a-whirl with a neckbreaker and then looks to the crowd for some appreciation. Double Japanese arm drag meets ‘Sp…

Nick Berk vs Trent Acid (CZW Break on Thru 2/17/01) We get a bit of fun at Hat Guy’s expense as the ring announcer pinches his straw boater and replaces it with a dodgy looking wig. It doesn’t sound like he’s the most popular of fans as a “Fuck you Hat Guy” chant erupts shortly after. A rematch from last week as the former partners from the Softcore Connection go at it one more time. Trent Acid waits in the aisle for the arrival of Nick Berk, who surprises him, coming from the opposite end of the building and taking him out with a chair assisted suicide dive. He’s all aggressive, waffling Acid with chair shots while Z-Barr pleads for mercy on Trent’s behalf. The…

Not a promising start as Blade struggles to execute a cartwheel when looking to escape a wristlock. You expect the ‘big botch’ out of him, but not on the ‘simple’ stuff. Fair play though as he takes Mondo down off a hammerlock, tying him up in a nifty little submission and forcing him to reach for the ropes with his leg. After barely managing that cartwheel, they then screw their timings up on a Mondo assisted back flip, Ric just about rescuing it. Oh dear, this is getting worse. What looks like a complete miscommunication between the two sees Blade not duck low enough on Mondo’s flying back elbow and he’s caught by the point of it square in the forehead. Not the id…

Corp and Cash are jumped the moment they slide into the ring, although they quickly get the better of their opponents, avoiding the double clothesline and dropping both with a double lariat. Shank takes to the floor with Corp in pursuit where he whips him into the wall before blasting him with a chair. Corp positions the chair on the apron however a reversal sees him being the one who crashes head first into it. ‘Mean’ Mitch and Cash are on the opposite side to them and Cash, like a modern day Jim Cornette, has got himself a Tennis racket which he uses on Page. Back in the ring and Corp with a piledriver on to a chair. Shank kicks out of the cover, low blows Corp and…

After having so much fun last week, Grandmaster Sexay is back to provide co-commentary with Dave and Corey. He passes comment on Spellbinder’s physique saying how he looks “all gassed up” and is ready to go! ‘The Kliq’s’ initial confidence has gone, with neither man too keen on starting the match when they see Binder is starting out for the opposition. At a stand still, Spell decides to tag his partner and we’re underway. DK gets the better of the opening exchanges, tags Binder but Dragon immediately scoots out of the ring to the floor still wanting nothing to do with him. Spell gets down on his knees so he’s closer in size to them, however that makes no difference …

The Haas brothers join Corey and Russ has his arm in a sling after the attack on him last week by the Dupps. He explains that it’s sore and the that the Doctor has advised him to stay off if for a couple of weeks, but he’s going to defy those orders and is pumped for Wednesday night in Arkansas. Charlie’s not so sure, not wanting Russ to jeopardize his career, his health and, more importantly, their chance of winning the Southern tag team titles. He’s a match coming up with Shooter Schultz and wants Russ to stay in the corner, support him, and not do anything that could aggravate that injury. I’ve a feeling this isn’t going to end well... Quick roll up from the g…

The episode begins with a clip from last week’s broadcast where Brandon Baxter introduced Bobby Eaton as he and Victoria’s partner for the ‘Showdown at the Nutthouse’ handicap match against Jerry Lawler and The Kat. Due to a fortunate coincidence of his XFL commentary duties being switched and he’s now covering the Memphis/San Francisco game instead of Las Vegas, it means ‘the King’ is able to pay a visit to the Channel 5 studios and say hello to everyone. Lawler understands that Brandon Baxter and Victoria looked under a rock somewhere and found themselves Bobby Eaton? He does though take exception to the claims that ‘Beautiful’ Bobby couldn’t get in the main even…

The show opens with clips of a Minnesota Stretching Crew vs Disciples of Synn match from a spot show that looks like it’s being held in a nightclub. Synn’s interference ended up backfiring and the MSC defeat them, using the Rocket Launcher, to win the Southern tag team titles. We’re back at the Davis Arena after the previous two weeks of TV consisted of highlights from Christmas Chaos. First title defense for the ‘Stretching Crew’ against the team they beat for the straps. Some girl in the front row tries to hand Synn a balloon which she swipes out her hands and kicks away. From Corny’s commentary it sounds like this is part of some angle, although I don’t recogn…

Jim Cornette updates us on events from earlier in the night, Brock Lesnar having been taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle. Orton gets the knees up on a Vader bomb, dropkicks Mr Black from the ring and then jumps out himself to collect a garbage can full of toys. He dents a trash can over the Hardcore champion’s head and then makes use of an aluminium bat and a bowling ball. Black ducks under the clothesline and a big boot floors the challenger. He whips Orton with a leather strap before tying a noose around his neck. Only in the South! As he goes to run him into a chair that he’d wedged between the turnbuckles, Randy puts on the breaks and shoves Black i…

This is billed as their final match against each other in the US, and it appears it might have been, as cagematch has no record of any others (they wouldn't meet again in the US until One Night Stand, and even that was a three way with Guido). They'd wrestle again in Mexico a few weeks later, though. First we've seen of Dusty's indy and it looks like a pretty big crowd by 2001 indy standards. This is good. They keep things relatively basic, but the match is well worked and moves nicely. Still, not much to recommend this unless you're a completist on their series (which it seems like I might be now). If you're looking to check out one of their US indy matches, thi…

We get the ring introductions and then this immediately jumps to the final fall where Milano and Saito are slapping the shit out of each other. Milano is a flexible so and so the way Saito stretches him. Saito with a rolling Fisherman suplex, Milano blocks the third and they exchange reversals before Milano locks in a step over toe hold/full nelson combination (think STF position but he’s got him in a full nelson opposed to a crossface). Handspring elbow followed by a stunner which started by him running up the turnbuckles. He goes for a Lionsault but Saito snatches him and hits a German for a two. The eliminated fighters are going at it on the floor, the second time…

I’m guessing that no-one in the WWF paid any attention to WOW otherwise Lana Star would’ve been signed up in a heartbeat as she’s the sort of girl Vince McMahon sees in his wet dreams. Star is carrying a bag containing Ice Cold’s hair (who it looks like she defeated in a ‘hair vs hair’ match) and David McClain can’t believe that she’s out here gloating over what she did to her. He was anticipating her coming out though and plays a clip from when she attacked Randi Rah Rah some time ago. Star says how that is old news and thinks that McClain is going senile as she put her out of wrestling, however he has a surprise in store and introduces the returning Randi Rah Rah who…

A rematch, of sorts, from last year with Kevin Kelly actually acknowledging that they’ve seen Ki previously on Metal (although no coming out second and entrance music for him this time!) Crash sidesteps a charging Ki, sending him face first into the turnbuckles before taking him down with a drop toe hold. An innovative take on the full nelson from a reverse stump puller position. A couple of near falls and as both men fight to get the advantage on the back slide, Crash flips over and hits a ‘Rude Awakening’ neckbreaker for a two. Ki ducks a clothesline, whips Crash into the corner and nails him with a handspring kick to the head. Jawbreaker to escape the rear chinloc…

Not as lopsided as it looked on paper but not particularly good either. The highlight of the match was another classy performance from Blue Panther but there's enough of those on tape in 2001 to skip a match like this.

This was a fun little brawl. Definitely worth watching if you want to see two lower card guys given the opportunity to shine. You should be forewarned that there was a TON of Monterrey bullshit but that shouldn't come as a surprise if you're familiar with the territory. Not a breakout match or anything of that caliber but different from the norm in terms of showcasing two less recognized talents.

IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Shinjiro Ohtani - NJPW 2/18/01 This match should be shown in every pro wrestling training school and all fans should watch it. No one will be blown away by it. No one will think it is the greatest match of all time. They make every right decision. They execute fundamental flawlessly and they build match organically. A truly special match that is so basic but so beautiful and satisfying to watch. Ohtani jumps Sasaki before the introductions are over so he still has his jacket on and Sasaki is still wearing the IWGP title. Ohtani pummels him in the corner and focuses on the arm. The arm is the instant hook of the match. Ohtani can …

The Satomura/Amano sections were pretty kickass. The rest of this was largely a harmless, mindless sprint starring plenty of convoluted ways to get armbars. The finish run was between Satomura and Nagashima and had some funny spots. Something like Satomura spinning Nagashima around in the fireman's carry position to hit her Death Valley Driver anyways can only really make sense in a joshi match.

USA Pro always had this habit of taking what could have been an interesting singles match and making it a much lamer three way. This starts as Guido v. Ki, picking up nicely where their JCW match left off, until Mikey enters for no clear reason and adds himself to the match. Good action, though. Ki gets a dive in despite the ceiling being really low. A typical three way mess, but an enjoyable one. Fred the Elephant Boy is on commentary, because, uh, I dunno. Boogie Knights interfere to take out Guido, and he gets pinned by Ki. But apparently the match goes on, which renders the pin breakups earlier in the match nonsensical. Xavier interferes, leading to Mikey pinning Ki …

I talked about in the opener how I doubted what the ceiling of those six would be, Sans Stasiak, the sky is the limit for the remaining three in watching the 2000 and 2001 stuff. This was another all action tag match between the two that didn't go too long and also didn't forget that it was a tag match threading the line on having a cohesive structure. O'Haire in particular continues to be the true standout and looked like a can't miss prospect. ***1/4 (6.4)

Maybe I am delusional, but I have really enjoyed Dustin's return to the promotion in 2001 and shockingly think Rick has been effective too. These two had a good brawl on Nitro and followed that up with another hard hitting match here. Nothing special but a meat and potatoes special with effective strikes feels so unique watching it now in the landscape of springboards and superkicks. Maybe its the Cornette coming out of me but this was good stuff and continued the momentum of the PPV. *** (5.9)

I really thought I would like Jarrett more in PWO2K but he was so unmotivated and just resigned to being a dis-interesting garbage brawler here. Kanyon did a much better job of offense in the previous match. THis has the great ending and DDP could still rile the crowd up to an lather with an exciting victory but its more of a feel good moment than a good match. **1/2

This impromptu match is made by Jarrett and Flair using a clip of DDP saying he would fight Kanyon anytime anyplace. DDP gets busted open early and is a great underdog here. With him knowing that Jarrett is waiting, he tries to end things early since he is hurt so this becomes a bomb fest with tons of big moves thrown at each other and Kanyon's offense being optimized. DDP is a great underdog but eventually with help from Jarrett, he succumbs to the onslaught of Kanyon and loses. ***1/4 (6.6)

Possibly the last great WCW match? Rey was slightly off on some of his spots and actually had Chavo giving a great performance being the glue of things here. I know Chavo is mostly maligned but this has been a good run for him both from in ring and character standpoint. REy's highspots were timed well and the finish with Chavo finally cheating his way to victory was compelling and effective. This showed the depth of 2001 WCW and the cruiser division was in good hands. **** (7.9)