March 2001

A Southern tag team title match, Jason Sensation having guaranteed the titles will be back around the waists of the Kliq. Lovely dropkick by Charlie and an even lovelier arm whip followed by an armdrag take down. Spanky is tagged in and doesn’t fare much better. Tilt-a-whirl slam. Slingshot somersault shoulderblock by the Haas’. Russ does this forward roll into a dropkick which is a bit cute for my liking. Shooter pulls down the top rope as he hits them and as Charlie tries to tell the ref what just happened, Spanky wipes his brother out with a pescado. Combination dropkick/Russian legsweep. Schultz draws Charlie into the ring, the more ill tempered of the brother…

I’d forgot that the WWF did the same thing with Crash Holly that they’ve done with numerous wrestlers over the years, eliminating one half of his name; here he’s going just as Crash. Kevin Kelly acknowledges that they’ve seen Scoot Andrews before on Metal describing him as a “fast, quick” competitor. The match is pretty even until a Scoot tilt-a-whirl sit-out pancake, Molly selling the impact of that one from the floor. Fallaway slam, however rather than following up he prefers to run his mouth at Molly. Crash avoids a sky high legdrop off the top, the landing being anything but comfortable for Scoot. The pace quickens as Crash connects on the flying shoulderblock, lo…

Josh Lacey, Sabu’s handler, cuts a profanity laden promo taking exception to Rob Black’s claims that they’ve been ducking him, that they’re running scared and that they don’t want to defend the XPW World Heavyweight title. He says how Sabu has defended it against contenders such as Chris Candido, Abdullah the Butcher and Terry Funk, none of whom could get the job done, before going on to challenge the Messiah. Black and the Messiah are out and Black says how tonight Messiah is facing New Jack, but he does have an opponent for him, someone who wants to be in the ‘Black Army’ and someone who, when he defeats Sabu for the World title, will be in the ‘Black Army’. That per…

These two are fun to watch since so much of their offense is drawn from their judo background. The pro-wrestling parts of their game can be a bit amateurish at times. Both girls are undersized so a lot of their moves lack impact. Yabushita, in particular, looks like a young junior every time she suplexes Sakai. Sumie is the more polished of the two but she's still developing her game. To my mind, a worker like Hiromi Yagi is the level that Sakai should aspire to. This was a good match but the execution would be better with a bit more force to their moves.

God bless, Villano IV. In the midst of the usual Monterrey BS with great rudos taking the night off, and Super Parka doing his half-arsed rendition of La Parka's already annoying Monterrey act, there was Villano IV mistakenly treating this as a serious trios match and working great exchange after great exchange. I guess he didn't get the memo, or maybe it's the only way he knows how to work. Either way, he was the only guy who didn't sleepwalk his way through this one.

This is taking place on some waste land off a back street with a sheet of tarpaulin for the ring giving a real backyard feel to things. Drill Baba doesn’t look like what I imagined, although is carrying a drill (that to be fair looks more like a giant corkscrew!) which he uses to terrorize the small number of fans watching this. Tobita has got a witches broomstick which he uses to keep Baba and his drill at bay. He swats him with the broomstick and then chases him into the garage from where Baba made his entrance. Shortly after its Tobita doing the running and Baba the chasing as he grabbed a much larger drill whilst in there. Not surprisingly a lot of Baba’s offense…

Rey Mysterio Jr & Kidman vs Primetime & Kid Romeo - WCW Greed WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship It is so WCW to debut a brand new title on their last PPV! I was actually how shocked how much liked this. I have not seen Elix Skipper in forever and I have never seen a Kid Romeo match, but fuck I thought they were a fun little heel duo. I actually think Romeo would have been decent in TNA and maybe he was, but I missed it. WCW Greed felt really TNA-y, maybe it was inevitable if WCW continued we would have gotten the same shit as we did from TNA. Still, I think the weird endearing WCW booking would have carried on in a way TNA has never really captured. Onto…

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner vs Diamond Dallas Page - WCW Greed My main man, DDP, looks to give one last stellar performance on WCW's last ever PPV main event, but it just was not to be. DDP's magic of 1997-1999 has faded and it looks like Father Time has finally caught up to him. He was still one helluva promo as showcased in the pre-match hype video. Where he explains he is the last of the WCW standard-bearers and that no matter how brutal the attacks have been he still has the great equalizer, the Diamond Cutter. He could talk the talk, but he just couldn't walk the walk. The punches did not have the same zip and his step did not have the same pep. …

The Light Heavyweight title is on the line, although Michael Cole is more interested in talking about some ninjas in the back who’re looking for Kaientai. It’s only when Crash catches Malenko with a deep powerslam for a two count does he turn his attention to the match in progress. The champion sends Crash between the turnbuckles, shoulder first into the ring post. Molly continues to be great selling at ringside. Seated abdominal stretch, Malenko trapping Crash’s other arm with his left leg so that he’s pretty much helpless. Crash does fire off some shots prior to being dumped on the belly to back, those shots taking something out of Malenko. He sits the challenger …

We get a brief recap of what happened last week between these two and then what went down at Greed last night. Smooth looks infinitely times better wrestling in a leotard as opposed to shirt and trousers. Kanyon goes to punch Smooth, who just catches the punch and drives him down with one hand. Huge leapfrog followed by a deep powerslam. Smooth doesn’t even go for a cover, Schiavone saying how “this is personal”. He clotheslines Kanyon over the top rope to the outside and joins him on the floor. Back in the ring Smooth grabs a go behind, Kanyon using a mule kick to free himself. That’s the second straight match that spot has been done. Scott Hudson says Kanyon is …

As member of the Magnificent Seven make their way to the ring, Tony Schiavone says how they’ve just heard that at some point during the night they will be getting a phone call from Eric Bischoff who has a huge announcement to make. Speculation has been running rampant ever since, wondering if this will have anything to do with the takeover and the new owners. The group are out celebrating Scott Steiner’s victory over Diamond Dallas Page last night. ‘Big Poppa Pump’ calls himself the greatest World champion of all time as no-one else has not only beat people, but at the same time put them out of action, and he’s going to be a nice guy tonight and let all the fans mo…

Jett has some new music that is a rip-off version of his former ECW theme. Apparently his recent victories over Alex Wright and Kwee Wee have springboarded him into the “top ranks” of WCW. Disqo’s new best friend, Mike Sanders, is in his corner, he also has a few words for his former best friend, Alex Wright, who he hopes is watching at home, claiming that he is going to do to Jett, who he calls a “bum”, this week what he couldn’t last. Tony Schiavone describes Jett as “sensational” and he shows why right from the get go, taking Disqo down with a Tiger Mask style spinning drop toe hold. Sit-out powerbomb for a two. Sanders hooks Jett’s ankle as he hits the ropes and …

The motivation isn’t high to recap Rick Steiner matches by this point in the project. And when the finish ends up being a lame DQ, I’m very glad that I wasn’t typing while I was watching and was just waiting till the finish to surmise my thoughts. So yeah, a DQ, Shane Douglas running through the crowd and clobbering Steiner in the back of the head with his cast as he makes a cover. The match itself was all Steiner, he ate Konnan up in there and gave him nothing. I had it in my head that he was stiff with him here, although bar one clothesline and maybe a kick to the ribs, certainly no stiffer than usual and nothing out of the ordinary. ‘The DFG’ attacks Konnan post-m…

The new Cruiserweight champion making his first title defense. Shane gets a bit of mic time and talks about earning the Cruiserweight title shot by winning a match he should never have really been a part of, replacing Billy Kidman in it after he had been attacked by Road Warrior Animal earlier in the night. He needs to prove something to himself and challenges Kidman, noting also how each holds a victory over the other. Kidman with a rana that takes Helms to the outside. Shane avoids the baseball slide and nails Kidman with a right hand before whipping him into the guard rail. He hops back inside so he can then launch himself over the top at the challenger. High cro…

A rematch from last night. Stacy Keibler comes out to a rather subdued reaction. If the idea was to put her with Shawn Stasiak in an effort to get him over, it’s not working. It’s almost as if the fans know that even though they’re getting to see her, it means he won’t be too far behind! She needs a wardrobe update as well, the Miss Hancock outfit that she still wears feels too dated. Stacy introduces Stasiak as “the man who rocks her world” and sounds completely unconvincing as she says it. There is no chemistry whatsoever between this pair. Stasiak is immediately hiding behind Stacy, using her as a shield. Bigelow tries for a German suplex but ‘the Star’ grabs r…

Apparently the Dudleys had some sort of plane problem earlier that meant they missed the title match against the Hardys, however have got one here against the new champions instead. Edge & Christian don’t look much like the fighting champions that they proclaim, in no hurry to enter the ring. Bubba ends up leaning over the top rope, grabbing Christian by the hair and dragging him inside. This has barely got going and the crowd are already wanting tables. Christian goes to the eyes and then throws D-Von to the floor where Edge slams him into the barricade. Rude Awakening neckbreaker. D-Von catches Christian as he comes off the middle with a clothesline before bot…

The Hardy Boyz were expecting to face the Dudleys but are surprised when they hear Edge & Christian’s music instead. Edge says that he’s back, the Dudleys blew their chance and if they’ve got the guts, why don’t they put the tag team titles up against them instead? D-Von initially defeated Christian in a singles match to earn this title match and Ross and Heyman are suspecting something fishy because it’s not like the Dudleys to miss an opportunity like this. The Hardyz accept, going out to meet them in the aisle. Matt takes the fight to Christian early, Edge grabbing his hair from the apron for the distraction as the challengers then take over. I don’t want to g…

This was JIP, which is annoying because I wanted a longer look at Yoshida. What was shown looked good. A reminder that even if she was being under-utilized, Yoshida remained one of the best workers in the business in the early 00s.

This was a clipped LCO bout. You can imagine how it played out. It wasn't bad actually as it was part of Yumi Fukawa's retirement show and everyone had their working boots on. Afterward, they kind of broke kayfabe and hugged each other. It was weird seeing LCO suddenly break out in smiles and embrace their opponents.

This match saw Villano III and Atlantis team up as partners almost a year after their historic mask match. Atlantis looked good here albeit in a limited role. I liked his exchanges with Mascara Ano 2k. Mascara wasn't an all-time great but he was a seasoned pro and knew his way around the ring. The match ended with the Dinamitas ripping off Atlantis' mask and stomping the shit out of him until they disqualified. I guess they were sending a message to Perro with the PPV just ten days away.

This is a rematch of their earlier Arena Mexico match. Despite the shorter running time, it was much more intense. The rudos were more aggressive and the tecnico comeback was edgier. They did a good job of blowing this up into a feud worthy of pay-per-view, which was still a new concept in Mexico. The tecnico trio is kind of the newest version of your whitebread tecnico trios team like we saw in 2000 with Felino, Safari and Antifaz, but at least it gives them something to do.

This match RULES. They only go about 6 minutes, but in those 6 minutes they pack so much great, fun action into the match. Everything comes with a great sense of urgency too. Loved it. ****

Most of the match is worked in Nishimura's style, lots of matwork and spots you're used to seeing in his matches like the neck bridge test of strength and so on, Sasaki mostly plays along and occasionally utilizes his strength to escape Nishimura's holds, which is the only thing setting it apart from the usual Nishimura sequences. The finish leans more towards Kensuke's style, as he takes the initiative and starts rocking Nishimura with bigger moves while Nishimura tries to avoid them and utilize his throwback techniques like Cobra Cluthes, the Octopus Stretch, Inoki's low kicks from the Ali fight and so on to fight back. Both guys are good at whey to but it felt like the…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSONU1F9Uuc Ah yes, the infamous "worst Fujiwara match ever", so bad that it apparently made Phil Schneider loathe Fujiwara for years. I had a really hard time imagining a scenario where these two would have a shitty match honestly. I mean I could easily imagine it being disappointing or dull, but actively bad? No way. Let's see what he had to say about it: Ok. So: "Fujiwara no sells almost everything" "gets kicked in the head, starres at Kawada" "no sells German suplex" hey! I'm the one guy that likes Tatsuhito Takaiwa! I have a thing for wrestlers with recklessly dangerous offence. It adds to their aura I guess. "takes a ton o…

This match dealt with the fallout from the XIX High Power match. It was a pretty standard trios match. Silver King, Black Metal and El Enterrador were a cool looking trio but Silver King was the only worker in the group. To his credit, he gave the best performance in the match and was the glue that kept it together. He had some neat exchanges with the tecnicos and was always busy. I always found SIlver King to be inconsistent, and he's generally not a name I get excited about when I see it come up on the match listings, but while this wasn't exactly a star turn, it did show he had potential to be the lead guy. Hopefully, we get to see more of him in that role now that Cer…