September 2001

The last few times we’ve seen Tobita he’s been facing monsters out on the waste ground, here he’s back taking them on in that same function room that we saw last year. Ghost appears to be doing an old woman gimmick, wearing a dress and carrying a bag of household objects, such as a carpet beater, a plunger, clothes pegs etc., that they use against Tobita. They also seem more interested in trying to get Tobita to read some book rather than defeating him. What book? No idea. Tobita, with pegs hanging from his ear lobes and nostrils, gets his face cling filmed at one point. He eventually drops Ghost with a clothesline and disappears out the door, returning with a rubbe…

This was a fun midcard bout. It's nothing special work-wise, mainly it's about the payoff to how badly Pierroth wanted the belts, but the champs look swank in their matching red outfits and they do cut lose a bit. The momentum halts a bit when Pierroth orders a guy to do a run-in with a baseball bat, but he never makes it into the ring. That bit didn't really work, but they pick things up again for the finish. Pierroth's reaction is priceless and one of the highlights of the show. He had such big dreams.

They threw this together at the last moment, didn't they? It's not a bad match, but it never really takes off. Casas tries to make his beef with Juventud a big deal, but it's hard to believe the tecnicos hate Juvie as much as they do when he's only been on the scene five minutes. There is a funny part where Casas puts him over his knee and gives him a good old spanking, but aside from that the angle with Juventud fizzles. The last time we saw Black Tiger he'd gone loco and was dropping guys on their heads. Not sure what happened to that development. I was disappointed that he didn't square off with Wagner and finish what they started a few months back. We do get Casas vs.…

Here we go. We get the full show on PPV this year, which I'm pretty sure we didn't get the year before because of the Olympics. This feud has been going on for the better part of 18 months if you include the Tarzan Boy vs. Satanico feud. I can't say I've always loved it. I'm not sure if long term storytelling is one of lucha's strengths. Lucha seems to work best when there's three weeks worth of trios matches and then an apuestas. There are exceptions to the rule like the payoff to Rayo vs. Caras, but this Satanico vs. Ultimo feud went through many peaks and troughs. The good news is that the blow off match is excellent. It's an elimination cage match where the last two p…

Panther and Demon bring their match to Tijuana. I was curious to see how this would pan out. On the whole, I guess it was better than their IWRG match. They reversed the scenario from that match by having Demon work the revenge fall. I liked the way he went after Panther's arm, but it lasted about five seconds. The finish was screwy, which was frustrating, but I guess it was in neither guy's interests to lose cleanly. The Blue Panther Super Fan in the audience was shattered. There was a smattering of applause for Demon's victory but Super Fan wasn't having any of that.

Matt Stryker, as in ‘Unibrow’ Matt Stryker, that unibrow evident in all its glory. No Jim Cornette this week, Brock Guffman joining Les Thatcher on colour. Guffman with implications that the WCW wrestlers are all gay because they don’t have any women with them. Come back Corny all is forgiven! Nice side headlock throws by Stryker, the former HWA Cruiserweight champion who recently lost the strap to Jamie Noble. Shannon deliberately dropkicks the leg and despite Stryker trying to shield it out of his grasp as he hobbles around, Moore eventually gets him down and starts stomping away on it. He continues targeting that leg, wrapping it around the ropes before kicking i…

The Prototype, who comes out to the Rocky theme, attacks Russ from behind so he’s playing the heel here. It sounds like he’s aligned himself with WCW, after they recruited him, according to what Les Thatcher is saying. Haas ducks a swinging right and comes back with a flying forearm. Cena does bump and feed well for Haas’ offense. He counters a huracanrana with a powerbomb before opening up, although his punches look quite raggedy. Russ avoids a standing splash and Cena is back bumping and feeding for him again. Modified uranage by Haas, when Kwee Wee runs out and attacks Russ for the DQ. Charlie rushes from the dressing room to help his brother and they quickly cl…

Hail’s offense here looks better than against Abdullah the Butcher, some effective knife edge chops and punches that actually look like they connect. Jimmy Hart is again providing interference from the floor, putting the boots to Gonzalez after he takes a bump over the turnbuckles to the outside from a whip to the corner. Gonzalez with a dropkick to the knee followed by a big slam. Hail kicks out of the cover and responds with a bodyslam of his own. He heads up top, however Gonzalez falls into the ropes causing him to lose his balance and crotch himself across the top rope. Hart gets decked when he climbs onto the apron and with Gonzalez mounting a comeback, he signa…