July 2001

Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to th…

Lioness Asuka enters. Her License Number is 100! Yoshida is unimpressed and brings the fight right to the legend. Man, this dark looking Asuka is so different from the 80s Crush Gal. It's like some 80s pop star reinventing himself into a dark goth guy. I'd say this was a pretty good Yoshida signature match. Asuka gives an uncooperative & dangerous vibe so is a good match up for Yoshida's style. Altough she brought her own signature table to the match and tried some ECW shit that kind gave me a bad feel about her. Still Yoshida was a total trooper here taking a bunch of cringeworthy stiff shots from Asuka and working good submission nearfalls. Altough it is becoming no…

I took a long hiatus from IWRG, so I don't have a clue what's going on. Super Astro is wrestling unmasked. That's something I've never seen before. He has a perfectly shaven cue ball head that's the same shape as his mask. Kato Kung Lee has a mustache that makes him look like Gomez Addams. Dr. Cerebro is supposed to be the main focus of the bout, but he's not beefing with anyone. This was a walk in the park for these guys, but it was leisurely. I'd like to see Cerebro start a feud with someone if possible.

This was about a month out from the famous Dandy vs. Navarro singles match (well, famous to me.) There were any hot Dandy/Navarro exchanges, aside from one slap that knocked a few of Navarro's teeth out. It was a pretty mediocre match on the whole. A lot of house show Wagner and meaningless contributions from the Rayos. I can't really think of a reason to watch this.

This was an odd match for them to run as it didn't involve Black Tiger vs. Wagner, Satanico vs. Guerrero, or Shocker vs. Los Guapos. I wonder if Wagner was a late scratch. It was nice to see a standard trios, though. Atlantis and Satanico squared off a few times, which was a highlight for me. Satanico's hair was starting to get filthy. I haven't checked to see who he loses it to next, but it was shaggy as fuck. Some nice action in this. Black Warrior's tope never gets old. Rubbish finish. Absolute garbage. But a bit of a Satanico specialty. I'm afraid.

This was one of my favorite rivalries of 2000. I really dig Homicide, and I like Low Ki matches that have a harder edge to them. I don't know if this was good as their matches from 2000, but there were enough moments to remind me that this shit's my jam. The finish was amazing. One of the best submission finishes I can remember seeing. Indy wrestling can get a bit OTT with its hyperbole, but they hit the right level here .The wrestling might not have been at a MOTYC level, but the moment was.

I always liked this feud more than Momoe vs. Maekawa. The first half of this involves Momoe being hopelessly outmatched and scrapping like hell to stay in the fight. The second half is a lot more back-and-forth with Momoe trying to spring the upset. If you're looking for a believable transition from one half to the other, you've come to the wrong match. But I still think Momoe is one of the more exciting things about 2001. She ends up flaming out, but if you think about the year in isolation, there's not a lot to cheer about. At least she was giving it her all in the tradition of Mimi Hagiwara, Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki.

Jerry Lawler has worked some miracles when in there with non-workers in the past, this however was not one of those occasions. For posterity the participants of this "celebrity", and that word is being used extremely loosely here, Battle Royal are Bo Smirnow (the bosses’ son), Keith Kennedy (a local DJ), Keith Young (no idea, an overweight tub of lard referred to as a "sex symbol"), Nick Andrews, Ballz (two more local DJ’s), DJ Dan (yet another DJ), Dan Mason (have a guess? A local DJ), Chef Meeker (presumably a local chef), Even Colder (a Steve Austin lookalike) and finally ‘the King’ himself. The moment this starts Young just lies on the mat and wraps himself around …

The main purpose of this match was to set up the Blue Panther vs. Blue Demon singles match. Now ordinarily, I would complain about Blue Demon Jr as the choice for Panther's singles opponent, and there could have been better picks (Dandy and Panther get into it at the end, which is mouthwatering, BUT, Panther is having such a great run that I am curious to see how the bout holds up. It's not a match with a rep, but the Panther vs. Santo match from CMLL Japan didn't have a rep either and that was fantastic. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I do want to give it a shot. And I've managed to talk myself into looking forward to it. This match was pretty much a table setter …

This was a return match of sorts with Cerebro wearing a type of karate outfit made out of one of his old masks. Presumably to make fun of Kato Kung Lee, whom he is kind of feuding with, but not really. Again, it's a fall-out-of-bed trios for these guys, and a waste of Cerebro's talents, but I should know by now that luchadores can't be in electric feuds every month of the year.

Solid junior heavyweight wrestling with a strong finishing stretch. You've got your standard opening with them trading holds and counters, then picking up the speed with some dives and more high-impact offense. Hoshikawa's kicks are as snug as always. The focus on the leg by Hidaka is the narrative here and he's always great at attacking it to set-up the Shawn Capture while Hoshikawa did a terrific job selling it. I love Hidaka's German suplex into the kneebar. The finish plays off the legwork with Hoshikawa hitting a German suplex hold but unable to maintain the bridge. So it tries it again, bridging on one leg to pin Hidaka.

Mephisto gets some fancy new duds in Satanico's lair, but for some reason he's only involved on the outside (and he's not wearing his duds.) This was all right, but I'm starting to lose faith in this feud. There's not enough intensity or hatred, and the finish was another low blow. Hopefully, this heats up over the summer.

These two dudes seemingly had a whole slew of matches together in ZERO-ONE, many of which were, at the very least, GOOD matches. This one is a personal favorite because it's compact and simple yet smartly worked without overstaying its welcome. Tanaka is a pudgy little house of fire to open, putting Ohtani on the rocks until Ohtani dropkicks the knee and starts working the holds. When Ohtani ties the leg up in the ropes, the fans let him have it and he basks in their boos. Tanaka's selling is terrific throughout the match, as he tries to boot and slap his way out of a leglock to no avail. When Tanaka starts to build some momentum, Ohtani ducks an elbow and hits a German s…

I was hoping to watch all the 2001 Misawa/Akiyama GHC build, but apparently there's a 6/24 tag I can't find where Akiyama pins Misawa with a wrist-clutch Exploder and challenges Misawa on the mic afterwards. Anyway, this is about 2/3's of a really solid build-up tag. Akiyama/Misawa work some impressive amateur style grappling exchanges. The juniors deliver the eye-popping action, albeit with some minor sloppiness. Am I crazy or is this the best Marufuji ever looked? There was insane speed on his spots even compared to a few years later, he took some nutty bumps for Akiyama on the outside, and I got a kick out of how he sold all of Akiyama's holds like death. Coming into M…

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Keiji Muto vs Dr. Death Steve Williams - AJPW 7/14/01 Budokan Not a bad showing for the Budokan at 12,800, Doc seems like a good first challenger for Muto. In the pre-match promo, Doc says the belts are coming home to All Japan so Muto must still be NJPW 4 Life and doing the invasion angle. Tenryu and Kawada are in the undercard in separate matches so definitely some support. I had no idea what 2001 Doc would hold but he was pretty damn fun! His body has definitely aged but he is still a Suplex machine and throwing in some Fuck Yous and Son of Bitches didn’t hurt. This happens smack in the middle of the 2001 Muto Renaissance but w…

Araya’s terrific at taking a beating and Kawada sure gives it to him. When Araya slaps Kawada in the ropes, he gets kicked down. When he tries to elbow Kawada back, he gets flattened and takes a real shitty (shitty in a good way) kick to the head. They slap it out and Kawada completely whiffs on a spinning backkick and lands on his ass for a little chuckle before he promptly resumes being a dick. Araya doesn’t do much on offense but boy, he really wants to hit that moonsault. He misses twice and pays for it, and then when he tries for a third time, Kawada cuts him off and folds him in two with a backdrop. Araya does finally hit the moonsault…mostly…but it’s not enough to …

Kyle McNeeley is better known as Onyx from NWA Wildside. Strange that he’s going by his real name considering he’s worked as Onyx on Metal previously and has ‘ONYX’ emblazoned in large letters down the right leg of his bottoms. I should’ve known what to expect after Haku’s match against Shawn Hernandez, but had expectations that McNeeley could pull something decent out of him on the back of his highly enjoyable squash against Albert. McNeeley takes a couple of decent bumps off a chop and a thrust kick, but nothing compared to the way Albert was throwing him around. We do get some OVW talk, Kevin Kelly having spent the week in Louisville as Jim Cornette was recovering …

Wait, Bestia and Scorpio no longer have peroxide blond hair. I can't really tell whether they're still feuding with Shocker at this point. I guess that feud is treading water at this point since Shocker and Emilio have a hair match at the end of the year, and the Guapos become the Talibanes sometime after September 11th. This was a fairly standard bout, but not bad. Hopefully, Black Tiger hasn't slid to this level of match yet. It's too bad they couldn't have made a bigger deal out of the Wagner feud.

The build up for Panther/Demon continues. There was a lot of mask ripping in the first fall and the third fall. I don't really get apuesta builds for non-apuesta matches, but I liked the tecnico comeback here. It was the most exciting thing I've seen from IWRG in a while. It was so good that Blue Demon felt the urge to hit Panther with a pair of topes. What made it extra exciting was Dandy and Bestia slapping the crap out of each other. This was the first time in a while that I've really gotten into Dandy and it's no surprise that Bestia brought that out. He remains, to this day, a underrated worker.

This was also an exciting match. The quality of IWRG TV can vary from one week to the next, but this was a fun episode. This had solid rudo work, and Super Astro, who has been somewhat quiet in recent weeks, delivered something closer to a vintage performance. He did a big dive at the end that left him shook up.

IWGP Champion Kazuyuki Fujita vs Don Frye - NJPW 7/20/01 Sapporo Dome As much shit as the Inokiist Era gets, it did pretty massive business until it ran itself into the ground. Undercard looks kinda interesting Nagata vs Coleman, I’d say Mutoh vs Chono does not intrigue me but it is 2001 Mutoh so it could be cool. This match here underwhelmed. Both dudes look cool as fuck and I want them to be great pro wrestlers but they really aren’t. Besides that awesome Fujita vs SHIBATA match he just doesn’t have that killer charisma you want. I think the biggest difference between Inokiist NJPW and 90s Shoot-Style is NJPW is too influenced by MMA and it leads to a general…

Mephisto came to the ring with his arm in a brace. Los Guerreros del Infierno attacked him on the ramp and Shocker wound up taking his place. This match seems out of order with the match from the week before, but I can't even keep tabs with when the Mephisto injury occurred. This is more of the same although Shocker plays a prominent role. The finish is cleaner than usual.

This was a sweet return match. It was wrestled in a tiny ass ring, so they worked the mat a lot. These guys bring the right amount of intensity to their bouts. I find their work just as believable as the big name WWF acts despite the fact they're playing to tiny audiences. This was going along perfectly until Xavier ran in and caused a disqualification. I was pissed because I was enjoying the bout. To me, it's lazy booking. If you did it every now and again it would have shock value, but it happens on a nightly basis with these American feds. As you can probably tell, it's starting to grind my gears.

Hey!!! Bionic J is getting a push!!!! AWESOME!! Well, maybe not exactly a push, but she got a lot of focus in the match, which was cool. And this was a pretty good match as it was just 4 fun workers having fun exchanges and doing stuff they are good at. Jesse & Ohmukai are at a disadvantage early on, with Ohmukai even doing a convincing job selling (!!!) and they end up doing a cool section with Jesse as face in peril. Everything with Jesse ends up being so much funner than usual because she is a cool bullish powerhouse which adds something new to Yoshida's and Asuka's stuff. At one point, Asuka hits some really dainty looking kicks to J, so she just slaps her in the …

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