June 2002

This was a good match, but I found the result perplexing. Satomura looked extremely confident at the beginning of the bout and seemed to have grown into her role as the ace of the promotion and the leader of the next generation. She had dropped all of the 'young girl' selling and mannerisms that she sometimes prone to overdoing in matches against the veteran workers, and was working towards a more shoot style oriented moveset similar to when Chigusa came of age as a singles worker. Nagashima refused to be intimidated by the champ and took the match to her from the get-go. The early going was a brawl. There was a bit of crowd walking, but when they got back into the ring, …

This was exactly what you'd expect from a JWP house show of this era. JWP was running afternoon and evening shows on the same day, so the girls had to converse their energy a bit, but it was the classic mix of hard hitting action and slower paced psychology. Set up the Hyuga vs. Ran match later in the month.

Commando Bolshoi was a great worker, which is something that unfortunately doesn't get recognized enough. She was pretty much a female version of Delfin at this point. This is a semi-serious, semi-competitive comedy match against a limited opponent, and Bolshoi still looks good. I get the appeal of Tanny Mouse from the crowd's perspective. The point I want to make is how good Bolshoi looks in a low stakes match like this. Give the girl her due.

A total sub-five minute blast with Rutten showing off what he can do in a worked environment and Tanahashi playing the fiery babyfaced underdog. They open with a little slap boxing before Bas gets him in a double underhook, drilling him with knees and a nasty chest kick. Tanahashi heats back up with a couple of throws and I loved when he explodes out of the corner with the dropkick. The finishing rush from Rutten was awesome, with a nasty solebutt, a spin kick to the head, mounted shoteis and then the rear naked choke. Really good squash.

This is a IWGP Tag Team Title Match where TEAM2000 (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono) defended the title against Manabu Nakanishi and Osamu Nishimura. This is a great match in my opinion. Excellent, in fact. They had a 60 minute match where the time flew by and I didn't even realise that it had gone so long. I was stunned when I saw the 60 minute time limit had expired. This sent me on a rollacoaster of emotions. So thrilling, every last second of it. Tenzan and Chono beating on Nakanishi and Nishimura. Injurying the legs of Nakanishi which causes him to miss portions of the match, leaving Nishimura on his own to defend himself, fighting valiantly making his great come…

This match was built around Atlantis vs. Dr. Wagner Jr, which is one of my favorite ongoing feuds in lucha. Fusion Lagunera have been dominant in a lazy way, and I haven't been thrilled with Wagner in 2002, but at least Atlantis got to kick some ass in this match. I was happy to see him fire up if nothing else.

This was another excellent bout. The focal points were the captains battle between Shocker and Tarzan Boy and the rivalry between Santo and Ultimo. The Santo vs. Ultimo Guerrero mask vs. mask match never happens, we know that in 2021, but I'm glad they ran with it as a follow up feud to the tag titles switch. It's an apuestas match I would have loved to have seen. Shocker and Tarzan Boy reignite their rivalry and have some excellent exchanges. We get a glimpse or two of Shocker vs. Ultimo in this, which feels like the future of lucha libre, but Shocker mostly works with Tarzan Boy, and I realized in this bout that I have fully accepted Tarzan Boy as a worker. I am now pre…

I love Homicide and Steve Corino is a guy who I have a newly acquired taste for, so this struck my interest. Corino cuts a pretty decent promo before the bout. He's trying hard to be old school, but I'll give him credit. The match feels more like Homicide doing a Steve Corino match than a proper showdown between the two, even though Homicide is the champ, but it's cool seeing Homicide do arm drag takeovers and other babyface moves. Less than 15 minutes long, which is against the norm for 2002 indy matches, but worth watching if you like these guys and have some spare time.

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This is just what you want from a turn of the century skinny Jersey fliers match. Rainchild is a guy who wrestled for maybe six months, but he looked good here, especially early doing some nice fast arm drag and rana exchanges with Wasted Youth. Maximo's were working pretty stiff I don't remember them as Dynamite Kid/Beniot style juniors, but they were all about stiff chops snap suplexes and head drops. The match finishes up with a great dive train right next to the Bayonne wall, so lots of height but not a lot of distance, Lethal hits a tope where he basically piledrives his head into the concrete, but all the other dives were beautiful. Insane Dragon then gets finished …

This turned into a pretty fun RINGS undercard-style match. It took them a while to get going but picks up when Rutten grabs the front guillotine and tries for the triangle, which leads to a fun little mat scramble. Rutten rocks Naruse's world with a big head kick, and then Naruse channels his inner Maeda and hits the capture suplex into the leglock, turning it into a cool inverted cloverleaf-type hold. Toward the end, Rutten starts to unload with the knees and kicks but Naruse's able to catch one and drop down into the kneebar. It's pretty much over after Rutten hits the big spin kick though. Neat!

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Naruse being a RINGS vet meant that he could carry the task of doing this random Inoki-Ism match to build Bas up for his Nagata match fairly well. This mostly had a good rhythm to it with a lot of back and forth in stand-up with Naruse using some wildly impractical kicks that barely hit their mark when he uses them. Bas here is a lot more methodical with how he conducts himself, tending to focus less on random big pushes to action and more of a calm approach to things & using submissions only when Naru tries to go for takedowns, preferring to work stand-up instead for the most part. This goes on for a good couple of minutes until Naruse makes the mistake of poking the…

Our only BattlARTS main event of the year, but it's a good one. These two always have good matches, and this time they went for a full blown 19 minute main event. What was cool about this was that normally you had Usuda as the aggressive striker with Ishikawa working counters. Here Usuda was still aggressive but Ishikawa gave him back good, so Usuda was also using his defensive tools more, which is something he does very well, and you had a match basically built around who could turn the others aggression against himself first. Match has lots of good matwork and also some insanely stiff headbutts and kidney shots. I especially like anytime Usuda would get aggressive on th…

This is part of the American tour that Jody and Jonny were on in the summer of 2002 and just a day after they had torn the house down at CZW Best of the Best the previous night in one of the best spotfest matches you will ever see. This was the classic UK indie matchup at the time that the two were now doing as a touring match. After the adulation of the CZW fans the night before, this is something of a comedown (and the less said about the very loud "you're a f*g" chant aimed at Jonny before the match the better). As I say, this is their touring match, but they do vary up some of their standard sequences. Jody is so good with his high flying at the beginning, nailin…

CMLL seems to be reigniting a few of its unresolved feuds. First it was Shocker vs. Tarzan Boy, then Atlantis vs. Wagner, and now Black Warrior vs. Black Tiger. It's been a great stretch for CMLL and this was another good match. It would have been better if Takemura had replaced Nosawa, but the positives far outweighed that negative. Niebla worked well with the Japanese guys, and I was excited to see Masada square off with Atlantis Black Tiger has been awesome throughout his run, and that tope from Warrior! This may not lead anywhere, but at least there was a clear through line and some great complementary match-ups.

Kendrick's ability to be more technical means Storm is less 'go-go-go' than would be his normal approach at the time, and allows him to work in some of his technical/British counters, which is something he's always been super underrated with. Jonny is in babyface mode here compared to the touring matches he's been doing with Jody Fleisch where he'd been the heel in those. Spanky is much more methodical than a lot of the other indie names at the time, and it helps Storm to slow down, sell and build sympathy. As things progress, Kendrick gets frustrated by Storm's ability to hang with him and ups the violence with a top rope stun gun. But as the pace picks up, this now…

I believe Delfin & Demekin got a shot at the tag titles thanks to their win at the Osaka Tag Festival. This was the revancha match for QUALLT & MA-G-MA, and you could see the result coming from a mile away. That said, it was still an entertaining diversion. Demekin was given a lot of ring time, presumably because they were grooming him as a Deflin's heir, which meant we didn't get as much Deflin as I'd like, but beggars can't be chooser when it comes to getting Osaka Pro on tape.

Another match that was part of Jonny and Jody's US excursion in the summer of 2002. This time, they are team mates rather than opponents. A couple of days before Spanky had beaten Storm in a singles match, also for the HWA. This tells a classic 'highflyers vs. technicians' story, with the Brits getting plenty of shine early on. Spanky and Collyer are both good bases, and them just sticking to the basics helps to keep the match flowing. In the initial exchanges, Storm and Fleisch's speed keeps their opponents on the defensive, until a cheap shot turns the tide. That then leads to a decent, if unremarkable heat segment on Jody. Fleisch is always a decent FIP where ever…

The tecnicos mean business in this match with Casas back from his stretcher job, but the rudos aren't about to give them an inch. This is the type of tension you want from trios matches .Shocker is all over this match as The Man in CMLL at this point, and Magica is his mini-me right down to the hair, but surprisingly, Casas, who is out for revenge, winds up being the victim.

What with the return of MLW in 2017, I thought it would be fun to go back and watch the initial run of shows from the company and compare it with the other Indie companies of the time that were all striving to try and fill some of the void left by the closure of WCW and ECW the year before. This is the first match on their first show, and it’s a quarter final match in an 8-man tournament to crown the first MLW World Champion. As with many companies at the time, MLW chose Philadelphia as the place to launch and their first show comes from the artist formerly known as the ECW Arena. As I think we’ll see, MLW would lean on a lot on both the talent and concepts from ECW,…

This is the first semi-final in the tournament to crown the first MLW Champion. Douglas defeated Corino in the QFs, while Lynn got past LA Parka. On his way to the ring Lynn is confronted by Christopher Daniels who says that he wants to “cleanse him of the sins of his past disappointments” and that all the companies that Lynn’s ever worked for have never treated him with any respect. This is foreshadowing the heel run that Lynn would have in MLW. Douglas gets the jump on him to start the match after faking him out with a handshake – it’s pretty ambiguous throughout the tournament if we are meant to be behind him or not, but is consistent with the Franchise character,…

Joey Styles on commentary says this a first time ever match and plays up the fact that it’s two former ECW and NWA champions, something that will play into the conclusion of the tournament. Douglas gets the biggest pop of the night coming out, leaning heavily of course on his ECW past. Before the match we get promos from both guys, who both have great delivery, but a lot of the content is very early 2000s with plenty of ‘shoot’ and insider comments which do not age well. Corino’s promo is pretty good, presenting himself as a defender of tradition and how proud he was to wear the NWA Title compared to Douglas who threw it down, but that makes it unclear who is meant t…

This is the final of the tournament to crown the first MLW World Champion on the first MLW show. For why it’s a three-way match, see my review of the semi-final of the Vampiro vs Taiyo Kea match that went to a time limit draw, only for Douglas to come out and make it a three way. Most of this review is going to talk about the aftermath and the booking, as there is nothing to this match at all, with barely 2 mins of ‘action’. Having already wrestled twice that night, Douglas looks knackered and basically sells for a minute and half as it initially looks like Vampiro and Kea will work together. But very soon Vampiro catches Kea with a kick when Douglas moves, who then …