April 2001

Jeff Hardy, Lita, Perry Saturn and Terri all at ringside in the respective corners for this match. Eddy is still scheduled to defend the European title against Raven at this point, even though Backlash is only three days away now. Michael Cole plugs a Smackdown taping this Tuesday in Indianapolis, Tazz saying how he loves that place and has a big history there. Clueless Cole clearly has no idea what he’s referring to, Indianapolis being where Tazz beat Mike Awesome last year for the ECW World title when he was a WWF contracted wrestler and Awesome a WCW contracted one. Eddy with a drop toe hold that sends Matt crashing into the bottom turnbuckle. Suplex followed by a…

Some developments after Matt Hardy’s European title win. Edge & Christian went to see Commissioner Regal and managed to negotiate a European title match for Christian against Matt at Backlash. The Commissioner also added Eddy Guerrero, making it a three-way, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before he was knocking down his door wanting a rematch. With Raven originally scheduled, he ended up being moved across to face Rhyno, because as E&C says “he likes all that Hardcore stuff.” Test backdrops Rhyno over to the outside but ends up getting clotheslined across the top ropes as he reaches down to grab him. Rhyno collects a garbage can from under the ring whic…

Satanico's hair is growing out. You know what that means. This was action-packed while it lasted. Ultimo and the Guapos did a number on Satanico & Co. to start with. They tore Black Warrior's mask off and mangled Shocker's leg after it got stuck in the front row chairs. Black Warrior went backstage to get a new mask and led the comeback for his team. It was frenetic stuff with Satanico throwing punch combos, Shocker hopping around on one leg and Black Warrior hitting a spectacular tope. Of course, the finish was cheap and involved fouling, but at least Shocker and Emilio got stuck into each other at the end. I was glad to see they hadn't dropped that storyline complet…

Whoever this commentator is is now stealing old Joel Gertner lines, describing Da Hit Squad as “harder than the tree that stopped Sonny Bono.” There’s a bit of a past versus the future feel about this match, the ex-ECW regulars who weren’t picked up by the WWE and the Indy hard hitters who have been making a name for themselves these past eighteen months. Doring has changed his ring gear from what he used to wear in ECW, now opting for just a pair of shorts, and this is a much better look for him. After the initial pier sixer, we’re left with just Roadkill and Monsta Mack in the ring, everyone else continuing to go at it on the floor. Roadkill with a Barnburner. Dori…

A North Eastern title match, Joel Maximo the current champion with Red being introduced as “Red the Amazing”. The two shake hands and hug before things get underway, leading to the one commentator saying how “in the ring friendships should be like Jon Benet Ramsay’s corpse, dead and buried.” Bloody hell! They start with some standard wrestling and it’s almost like everyone is waiting for them to get into doing what their known for. The other commentator says what these guys do is mix Lucha style with Urban style. What on earth is Urban style? I’m guessing he means modern/progressive. Standing rana by Red. Maximo cuts off the tornado DDT by dumping Red onto the ap…

We have the Boogie Knights on commentary, which is not bad by 2001 junk indy standards. This is a tag match with singles belts on the line. Starts out with good action, but a mess with no flow. Red hits an Asai sky twister press, which looks amazing. This slows down and the heat segment on Red is pretty great, with some neat moves (surfboard on red, springboard double knee from Devine; gorilla press with double kicks on the way down). Mikey gets the hot tag and hits a Whippersnapper on Xavier and throws Red on top for the win (which is blown, as it looks like its broken up but isn't). Watchable but not essential.

Talk about it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv9hlW52Vtc

At this point, I'm starting to think JD stands for JUDO and DEATH. This was another unique match as it has some big violence and blood. Starts out with a few psycho bumps, Sakai takes a really dangerous looking spill down a flight of stairs, misses a moonsault from a height into a pile of chairs etc. To be honest I thought the pace was a little off but it could've been due to the clipping. The second half was really well worked as you had Sakai doing her best Sangre Chicana impression, being bloodied and doing a very good job selling dazed and hanging on by a thread. I really liked how desperate Sakai was to avoid the chain punches from The Bloody, and the worked in some …

I thought this was better than their Wrestlemania match. I was surprised that they stuck to the submission stip for the entire bout. I thought for sure they'd run out of steam and start doing some Attitude Era style brawling around the ringside era and on the announcer's table. I feel like these two have a perfect match in them. They didn't nail it here, but were getting closer.

This was worked like a RAW main event. The lay out was simple but the execution was good. I'm guessing it wasn't the follow up people wanted to see after Austin's heel turn, but it wasn't bad.

The TV debut of Jerry Lynn. Jim Ross talks about some rumblings he heard earlier in the day of Lynn challenging Crash Holly for the Light Heavyweight title although doesn’t know if the challenge has been accepted. Paul Heyman notes that he is very familiar with Jerry Lynn (you don’t say Paul?) and says how he’s a former ECW champion and, in his opinion, one of the finest athletes ever from Minnesota. There’s a light “E-C-Dub” chant as Lynn grabs the ring mic. He says that judging by the response here in Chicago everyone knows what Jerry Lynn is all about before informing them that earlier today he challenged Crash Holly and thinks it’s about time that a born champion …

This was the semi-final of the ARS tournament. Quite a good match considering it was one-night tournament wrestling. GAMI scored the upset that they didn't portray it as a major shock. Instead, it was presented as something GAMI was capable of if she wrestled at her best. In the quarters, Hamada squared of against Yagi, one of my personal favorites, and that was also quite good. So not a bad night for Hamada work-wise despite bowing out early.

First round in the ARS tournament match, the action joined in progress. Hamada’s left shoulder is heavily taped, so the story here is Yagi going after that. As we join them Yagi has got an armbar locked in, Hamada picking her opponent up and slamming her way out of the submission. Hamada goes upstairs, however Yagi is up and punches that shoulder to stop her in her tracks before arm dragging her to the mat. Now she’s going after Hamada’s other arm, crowbarring that one. Hamada shakes off the shotgun missile dropkick and a quick hammerfist puts a stop to the attempted flying armbar. The targeting of those arms appears to be paying dividends, although eventually Hamad…

Matt, fresh off his victory in the three-way at Backlash, tonight defends the European title against Edge, who was interfering freely last night in his efforts to help Christian. Big running lariat in the corner by Matt. He goes for a second but ends up running into a raised boot. Edge heads upstairs, where he is met by Matt, however he blocks the attempted suicideplex and front suplexes the champion across the top rope. Hardy falls to the floor, Edge then joins him out at ringside slamming his head into the barrier. Back inside Matt fires off some elbows after being sat on the top turnbuckle but fails to connect on the moonsault. High crossbody by Edge, Matt uses …

Jonathan Coachman arrives at the Commissioner’s office as apparently he wanted to see him about something. With complete and utter contempt, the Commissioner questions why on earth would he want to see ‘him’? No, he summoned him here as he wanted to make an announcement. Even though he beat Chris Jericho in the ‘Duchess of Queensbury Rules’ match last night, Y2J’s actions against the Duchess were disgraceful. As a consequence of him taking her out of her element, he is going to take Jericho out of his, and is putting him in a Hardcore match against Rhyno. He then proceeds to tell the “blithering idiot” to “bugger off” and do his job! Commissioner Regal joins Jim…

‘Stone Cold’ was originally scheduled to defend the World title against Kane, however as Mr McMahon is addressing the fans over last night’s events, cursing “each and every damn one of them” when they all cheered as he recapped Kane kicking Stephanie in the face, he’s interrupted by Linda McMahon who’s at WWF New York. They try to shoe horn and promote that place at every opportunity. The CEO thinks it isn’t fair that Kane has to wrestle when he’s in no physical condition to (his arm is still badly bruised and hurt). She says how she may be prepared to temporarily halt divorce proceedings - their lawyers are due to meet the end of the week - if certain events were to o…

As unappealing as the X-Factor group is, I do find their music rather catchy. X-Factor walked away with the win over the Dudleys at Backlash although the feud looks to be continuing, Pac after a bit of revenge as he ended up getting 3D’d through a table last night, something he holds Spike responsible for. I doubt there has been too many times X-Pac has locked up with someone and overpowered them. Nice armdrag by Spike. Spinning headscissors. X-Pac puts a stop to the punches in the corner by lifting Spike up and then wiping him out with a spin kick. And I mean wiped him out! Spike escapes the rear chinlock but then runs into a sleeper. That gets reversed and Pac e…