March 2002

As the bell rings, we can see a sign on the hard cam side reading 'They Are Fighting Over Shampoo' and that sums up this dud rivalry perfectly. It might of been nerves about wrestling in front of his hometown, but Edge looked sloppier than usual. He botches a top rope frankensteiner that could of ended up nasty. This was had a fast pace, but nothing of substance outside of a few high spots such as Booker T avoiding a spear by leap frogging six feet in the air. Seeing as they obviously had big plans for Edge in 2002, it baffles me why they didn't use him better here. ★½

Jazz looks like Misawa when compared to her two opponents. Lita is very sloppy here and Trish is still learning the ropes. Trish gets a big hometown pop as she enters the SkyDome draped in Canada's colours. The crowd soon begin to entertain themselves by chanting for puppies, which Trish promptly shuts up by violently launching herself into the turnbuckle. Trish shows promise, but she needs more seasoning. While it's good to see the women get treated more like wrestlers and less like T&A, this wasn't a good match and being in the death spot between the two biggest matches on the card sure didn't help. ★½

Angle gets a better match than you'd usually expect from Kane. Kane's able to throw decent strikes and has some impressive athleticism for a man his size, but he mostly leaves me cold. This feud was built up around head trauma and the commentary team won't stop going on about head trauma and brains getting scrabbled, which is something that would never happen in a post-Benoit world. After a exciting finishing stretch that sees Kane attempt a rare Tombstone and escape an ankle lock by using an enziguri, Angle steals the win after using the ropes for leverage. Angle looked like a super worker throwing Kane around with suplexes, but I wish he was able to secure a clean win. …

The Goldust vs Maven portion of this 'match' is short and rather forgettable with the exception of Goldust pulling out some golden trashcans. Because of the 24/7 rule, Spike Dudley runs down to ring and gets a pin to become the new Hardcore champion. Crash Holly chases him to the back and we are treated to a number of humorous skits throughout the evening. We get Al Snow trying to take out guys with a golf cart, Mighty Molly turning on Hurricane to win the title, Christian taking out Molly before Maven rolling up Christian as he is trying to leave the stadium. Many people at the time complained that the 24/7 rule had ran it's course, but the backstage segments were entert…

It's sad to think that this could of easily main evented any PPV two years ago and now it's just filler before the Rock vs Hogan dream match. Despite both men's physical limitations, they still know how to throw a good punch and they keep the action simple. Nash keeps getting involved and nearly costs Austin the win. Austin is able to fight them both off and deliver a Stunner to Scott Hall that was so over-the-top that it's now become a meme. A perfectly fine match, even though it's depressing to think that two of the biggest players of the 90's are starting to show the wear and tear from their long careers. ★★½

The Rock vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan - Wrestlemania XVIII If I had to use one word to describe this match, it would be overachieving. Based on Hogan's mobility and physical health, this match should not have been as good as it was. Even The Rock's character is a modern day version of Ric Flair, no one would confuse him with Flair inside the ring. Yet, Rock put on maybe the best individual performance of his career in this match. This is what the Michaels match should have been. Rock created so much movement and bumped huge for Hogan up until the finish stretch. Anytime Rock got anything going, Hogan would cut him off and thats when Rock take that big bump for Hogan. I thi…

Undertaker might not be the most explosive brawler, but he's brilliant here at being a slow and methodical sadist who wants to take his time dishing out punishment. Flair bleeds buckets and Arn Anderson makes a surprise appearance to land a Spinebuster on 'Taker. Flair had only had one match since WCW's closure over a year ago, so he wrestles this like a non-wrestler looking for revenge, and not as the workhorse Nature Boy of old. This was more of a slow burner, than the exciting Mid-South brawls from decades earlier, but this was still a lot of fun and the Anderson cameo makes this worth watching. ★★★

We are in prime brass knuckles Regal era and he's brilliant at delivering the theatrics that come with the gimmick. He makes sure that everyone in attendance knows that he's going for a cheap shot without it ever looking hammy or pantomime. Van Dam's high-flying aerobics lends itself well to his shine segments, before Regal inevitably cuts him off. Regal folds up RVD like an accordion after delivering a half nelson suplex. RVD kicks the knucks out of Regal's hand and lands a Five Star Frog Splash to the crowd roaring approval. Like last year, Regal delivers yet another physical opener. ★★★½

IWGP Champion Tadao Yasuda vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW 3/21/02 Yasuda is probably the most forgettable IWGP Champion but even with his short reign he was able to sneak in a successful title defense here against Tenzan. Yasuda defeated Nagata the month prior to win the vacant belt. I am unclear why Fujita vacated the title, but I think it was due to injury, I need to some research. On this show, Nagata beat Norton to become #1 Contender for the next big show. Nagata/Norton from '98 I believe it my pick for best Norton match of all time, but reading Jetlag's review of the 2002 match sounds like something I can skip. This is only my second Yasuda match, but I am not goin…

Very similiar to their 1998 bout altough I thought not close to as good. Norton once again played the dominant force in convincing fashion, but Nagata wasn't so plucky anymore. Basically Norton goes on this huge offensive tear to start, really beating Nagata up with fat powerbombs and shoulderbreakers, and then Nagata essentially no sells his way back to control, and then he keeps dropping bombs until Norton is done. So it's basically Norton hitting a bunch of moves while cutting Nagata off, then Nagata hitting a bunch of moves and then Nagata wins. Nagata has some fun offense as he really lays into Nortons barrel chest with kicks and does fun things like kneeing him in t…

Fusion Lagunera have fully fused masks this week. Panther even had fake hair to make him look like Fuerza. Disappointing match given the talent involved. Some of that may be due to butchering in the edit, but CMLL has been trending downward since my initial excitement over the new season. Fuerza blew a ton of shit in this. So did Tarzan Boy. The only one who was halfway decent was Panther, and he looked like Mili Vanilli. I don't think Wagner is fully engaged in this run. He's been far from his best. This was supposed to be a title match, but it was pretty much a series of finishes. Fusion Lagunera were interviewed after the match and a brawl broke out between Niebla, Ant…

This was a Grand Prix Torneo Cibernetico. Not the greatest cibernetico, but even an average cibernetico is better than most of the matches they show. They cut straight to the elimination portion where we discover that the Tijuana boys are still around. Remember when they were making waves? The way wrestlers come and go in CMLL is really frustrating. You think they're getting a push, and there'll be a blowoff down the line, then they up and disappear. Speaking of which, Santo is back for this match. Despite my bitching, I was curious to see who would win and who would make an impression. Satanico looked great again. I guess I was wrong about the cage match being his swan s…

Doug is the FWA Champion coming in, while Flash is representing the 'Old School' which was the main heel stable in the FWA at the time. British wrestling legend Mick McManus is at ringside for this, while there is an old World Of Sport ref for the match, which rather than be nice nods to the tradition and history of British wrestling are sadly red flags for the complete mess this match will devolve into. Flash cheapshots to start the match, and the early exchanges are the best part with both guys showing great fire and intensity and lots of snap in their strikes and chops. Barker tries to slow things down, but quickly realises that if its a technical battle then that…

It's a beef party here as we get not only Sasaki and Yoshie, but also Yasuda to add to the lumpy mix! Tana is currently a immature midcarder who's starting to get big breaks against some major acts despite his relative youth. Him and Yasuda interestingly work a Inoki-Ism style into things as Tana shoots for smooth takedowns and the two have a little wrestle that's half-serious until Yasuda lands dirty knees in the side mount. Tana is remarkably shaky as he takes a big boot but awkwardly sells like he's doing a Yokozuna impression before holding onto the back of his opponent for dear life. Yoshie and Sasaki get tagged in and they work a headlock for 2 minutes before landin…

Hashi may have been outworking everyone else in NOAH at this point. This was a typical rookie/veteran match with Akiyama mostly blowing off Hashis offense except when he was using that iron skull. Akiyamas „I'm so tough“ bullshit biting him in the ass was a nice touch and literally everything Hashi did was extremely well done. He would try different approaches to cut Akiyama down headbutting him in every different body part and at one point he just headbutted him like 30 times in one go. Akiyama beats and stretches Hashi good with some especially nasty facelocks but overall I was lukewarm on his performance here. If he had sold the head trauma Hashi was giving him on a la…

This was GREAT. I may be overrating it because of how frustrated I've been with CMLL lately, but a title match that's worked on the mat? Targeted limb work with sustained selling? Wagner looking like his usual self? I still think Shocker was better as a rudo, but this best match since his turn. There was a definite New Japan Juniors influence to this, though they dialed back the offense compared to what you'd see in Japan. The selling and continuity between falls was pretty rare in lucha around this time. The only problem I had with the match was the soft finish. I thought they ended on the wrong beat. The finish should have been a near fall or had another move or two pro…

I like this more than the last Talibanes match we saw. For a quick midcard match it had plenty of polish. Bestia showed some of his old fire, and Black Warrior did a hellacious tope.

Acute Sae was a youngster who could grapple. This was a bit like something Virus would with a student on a small show, so it was right up my ally. Smooth grappling and fun submissions. If Bolshoi worked like this more often and had stuck to it she would be among the very top tier of female workers. Sae is good mixing flying armbars against Bolshois more lucha esque style and I really liked her brief armwork, just trampling Bolshois arm as soon as she found an opening. Wouldn't mind to see this have gone longer but what do you know, Acute Sae retired just the same year.

This was 85% Osamu schooling Liger on the mat, working the leg like a part-time job. I liked his aggressive approach at the outset, whipping it on the apron, throwing a hard elbow, kneebreaking it on the guardrail, plus his silky smooth transitions, going from a kneelock to a grounded ankle hold when Liger flips over onto his stomach. Liger tries firing back with chops and slaps but Nishimura's able to trip him up, going into the Indian deathlock, bridging back with the sickle hold, then finishing with the bow-and-arrow hold. However, Liger doesn't really sell the legwork, which is unfortunate considering Osamu's effort. In fact, he doesn't really get much offense in at a…

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