March 2002

This was better than I expected. Heading into the match, I knew that it was more or less an angle, but I didn't expect the rudos to do such a number on the tecnicos. Panther attacked Black Warrior's second, Niebla, with an armbar that was easily the most vicious thing I've seen Panther do as a rudo. Then he helped bust Black Warrior open with a pair of scissors, no less. And, finally, Wagner showed that superstar charisma of his that has been sorely lacking for most of the year. Pretty good as far as storyline matches go.

This was a pretty average trios match up until the third caida. The first two falls revolved around Tarzan Boy & Los Guerreros del Infierno's dislike of Mascara Magica and the fact that Satanico couldn't trust him either. Shocker more or less took a backseat during the first two falls, but the third fall was outstanding. Satanico gave another fiery performance. His second strong performance of the year for those of you keeping count. After being shackled in the early going, Shocker finally took center stage, and his exchanges were excellent. His work here was far more satisfying than the singles matches of the past few weeks. The finish was screwy, but it didn't matte…

CM Punk defends the IWA Mid South Heavyweight Title in a 3 way dance!! Talk about it here

Rey doesn't have the mask here but god damn the crowd LOVES him. Like almost all Rey matches this had a really good lay out and good quality exchanges. Ace Steele has an amazingly early 2000s look but based on his talent displayed here he should have gotten a WWE run. Ace is the heel so he does a lot of really amusing acting like a bitch, really googly eyed looking upset at crowd reactions, leaves the ring only to do a silly run back when he gets counted out etc. Despite that there was a lot of wrestling here, with both guys meshing well doing matwork and standing exchanges and working a cool transition. This has a 15 minute time limit so they start packing up a little ea…

Now this was a blast! KENTA as the young scrappy underdog was always money & Tatsuhito Takaiwa did a very good job of being the grumpy veteran. He just stretched the shit out of KENTA with those submissions - KENTA answered with some hard hitting comebacks, which all got cut off very quickly. Awesome veteran vs. rookie match. ****1/2

Big awesome spectacle. Ohtani rushes Ogawa kicking him in the face, and Kazunari Murakami is ringside causing trouble. Ogawa has his haters, but to me his greatness is undeniable as he is pretty much the best possible japanese Goldberg. When hits the first judo throw on Ohtani he just drills him into the mat, and when he follows up kicking Ohtani he looks like a killing machine. He looks like he will destroy a guy in 2 minutes, but his selling is such that it always looks like the other guy can believably make a comeback. I also love how he took a german suplex with his big lanky frame. Ohtani of course rules punching Ogawa in the balls and selling the beatdown huge espec…

Talk about it here.

Dandy/Navarro feud in full bloom. Cool mat exchanges and awesome punches. Boxing Negro Navarro is truely awesome, up there with the likes of Dick Murdoch or Bill Dundee. Having both such a variety of punches aswell as ways to put the other guys punches over is truely a rare trait. The other guys in this match were acceptable and Pantera did a good job keeping everything moving.. But Dandy/Navarro is the matchup you want to see and this did not disappoint.

I like the new looks for Emilio, Scorpio & Bestia, especially Emilio's short dark hair, but unless this Talibanes gimmick starts delivering some goofy vignettes, I don't see how it has legs. As soon as the bell rings, the Talibanes wrestle exactly how the Guapos did. There were some fun moments with Atlantis and Casas, but they were running over old ground. Hijo de Lizmark is one of the weakest guys on the CMLL roster, but I try to ignore that. It's not something that's going to suddenly change, and with his size, it's probably not his fault. The most notable thing about this was the result. I was kind of surprised that the tecnicos nabbed a win.

This atomics looked decent on paper, but it was another disappointing chapter in the Wagner vs. Warrior feud. Wagner's trio wore "Fusion, Lagunera" t-shirts to the ring and wore half-Wagner/half-Panther masks. Juvie was there to support his old man's new team. Not sure what happened to his Tijuana crew. I guess they've moved on. Wagner vs. Warrior is a write-off at this point. I was kind of impressed with Juvie, though, and there were a couple of neat Shocker match-ups. He didn't own his segments, but he was better than the limp Black Warrior. More story than action. I was disappointed that they didn't follow up on the savage Niebla injury from the Wagner/Warrior mano a m…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Dan Severn - Zero-One 3/9/02 The penultimate NWA world title defense before TNA took the belt over. The match is pretty heavily clipped even though we get the 6 minute post-match in full. They go with a screwjob finish to protect Hashimoto. The NWA President which I assume is Howard Brody at this time gets up with like two minutes before match ends and tell the ref it is time to do business. The ref had been calling it down the middle until that point. He slow counted Hashimoto couple times and fast counted Severn German Suplex for the win, They seem to intimate that Severn was not happy about the finish and wanted t…

DAMN I wish we got this in full. Sean McCully still rules here hitting all kinds of awkward and unexpected stiff offense. Fugofugo has worked CAPTURE so he totally can go against Sean. This match was a bit of a strange mix, on one hand you had Sean McCully punching dudes really hard in the face and Fugofugo busting him open hardway with headbutts, on the other there was lots of Corino comedy, miscommunication spots etc. There was also lots of amusing Fugofugo hard head and human cannonball shtick, one spot where Wagyuta tombstones Fugo onto Corinos chest etc. For a clipped undercard match this gets the full point in terms of sheer entertainment value.

Exactly the kind of fun weirdo spectacle you want from a sleazy boxer vs. B-movie action character match. Howard hits all kinds of fun offense including a fucking flip senton to the outside and magistral cradle, and Dempsey punches him really hard. Not exactly well rounded pro wrestling, but you don't want well rounded pro wrestling from this matchup. Also, just the right length at 5 minutes.

This went 30 minutes, which is too long for these two. (So, naturally, they went out and worked 40 minutes in their next singles match.) Slow start with a lot of time killing. Heats up in the back half, and has some really strong action, which begs the question of why they had to stretch out the beginning. Bitching aside, these two match up well and make for strong rivals. The finishing stretch is very good. Hyuga continues to impress as an all-round worker, and Ran's game is strong. Lukewarm recommendation.

This was pretty short and was mainly notable for the charming mic work from Yoneyama afterward. I never really know what to make of Tamura, and still have no idea how good she really was. She had a solid rep back in the day, but I haven't the heart to watch long NEO matches. Yoneyama came across as a lovable loser in this. JWP seemed to have quite a few of those types in the early 00s.

Michinoku Pro could still deliver dope 6 man tag action in the 2000s. This a trademark high spot filled formula tag with everyone playing their roles. Curry Man is a pretty good use of Christopher Daniels as he doesn't pretend to be a master worker but just acts like a tool. His missed dive was pretty insane. Super Boy always looks so great in M-Pro (where the hell is his lucha material?) and this was no exception, he is so awesome as a massive fat guy crushing the tiny dudes with flippy moves, and working miscommunication spots. Hidaka was also a really good team captain, trying to unmask TMIV and attacking his bad arm, twisting up Yuasas leg and getting kicked in the fa…

This was a disappointing match, but I gotta atleast write down why. This was during the period when Ishii was with FEC and he was trying to work like a western heel, so instead of epic BattlARTS vs. CAPTURE exchanges we get Ishii kicking Ishikawa in the balls a bunch. There are still some stiff blows and neat Ishikawa reversals altough that is to be expected. Ishikawa even does a shitty no sell off a back suplex, something I've never seen him do.

Man I love NOAH. Even a minor lead-in tag like this will have a unique, unpredictable structure, everyone playing their role and guys unloading on eachother with stiff shots. Great opening which gets the crowd by the balls immediately. Marufuji putting Hashi in the tree of woe so he and Ogawa can double team Akiyama is something we all did in WWF No Mercy. I like Akiyama a lot but I thought he was outshone by Hashi here, who was just way stiffer, more intense, etc. I thought Akiyama could've done a better job giving Ogawa & Marufuji receipts for their rat boy tactics. Ogawa looked great as usual outsmarting his opponents. Marufuji didn't do anything stupid, even showi…

Two big guys maul each other for 5 minutes. Primitive match, but I prefer them doing this over some drawn out 10 minute affair. Morishima looked like he could've been great if he had worked more Otto Wanz style matches. He certainly looked up there slugging it out with Vader in the corner.

It's cool that this made TV. You get the usual Ricky Marvin vs. Virus exchanges, but you also get to see Zumbido and Felino square off, which is an awesome throw down between two guys who should be higher on the card. This had everything you want from midcard lucha. Great exchanges and dives, and fun gimmicks like Dr.X.

This was pretty weak considering it was a number one contenders match for the CMLL trios titles. It was heavily clipped and came across as a GdI showcase because of it. There were some neat exchanges between Atlantis and Ultimo. but that was about it. Feels like an age since we've seen Olimpico on TV.

This is the only match I can find from the pay-per-view, and it's an absolute dog of a main event. How the hell this happened is beyond me. The Dos Leyendas show in 1999 had the famous Santo/Casas vs. Bestia/Scorpio mask vs. hair match. 2000 had the legendary Atlantis vs. Villano III match. 2001 had the masterfully booked Universo 2000 vs. Perro Aguayo match. 2002 has this. This has to be up there with the worst matches to ever headline a PPV.

There was no way this could come close to Rock vs Hogan. Jericho had no chance of retaining and Triple H isn't believable working as a sympathetic babyface in peril. Jericho going after Triple H's knee made sense, but Triple H isn't a decent enough seller to suck you in and have you rooting for him. Jericho felt like an afterthought as Stephanie gets more of a reaction once Triple H finally gets his hands on his backstabbing wife. It's not a terrible match, just too underwhelming to be the main event on the biggest show of the year. ★★½

Christian is the middle of a storyline where he throws a tantrum whenever things don't go his way. He goes on a losing streak until DDP helps him overcome his issues. Christian turns on him and that's how we got here. It's entertaining mid-card fodder and that's exactly what this match was. Christian is able to keep himself from freaking out, but DDP is able to score a Diamond Cutter and retain his belt. DDP cuts an amusing promo where he says he's proud of Christian as he kept his cool even if lost in front 60,000+ of his hometown fans, which causes Christian to freak out and throw a tantrum. ★★½

Like most four corner matches, this was a mess until they eliminate two teams. Bradshaw is fired up, but the APA aren't long for this world as they eliminated quickly by a 3D. D'von pulling out a table and Jeff taking of his shirt wakes up the comatose crowd. We see the classic wrestling trope of a babyface sexually assaulting a heel valet when Stacy Keibler tries to interfere. D'von ends up taking a horrifying table bump as he's thrown face first from the top rope to the outside. Everything becomes more cohernet when it's down to the Hardys and Billy & Chuck, but this was still nothing to write home about. ★★