June 2002

This was meant to be Kea vs Bam Bam Bigelow, who apparently no showed and is replaced by The Wall. Because of this Bam Bam gets a mild dose of the Mike Awesome treatment from Styles with a bit of a burial on commentary. With his WCW background and the fact that big muscle guys weren’t very en vogue at the time - with the implication they couldn’t work and were ‘too WWE’ - The Wall gets crapped on by the crowd with plenty of “we want Bam Bam” chants. To be fair he doesn’t do much – or doesn’t get the chance to do much – to win anyone over. Kea is from All Japan and is the protégé of The Great Muta. MLW’s strap line at this time was ‘hybrid wrestling’ with the idea tha…

Daniels is the only guy in the tournament that wasn’t a former WCW or ECW ‘name’ (I know he was in WCW briefly, but he was essentially a guy that was making his name on the Indies). Because of being a key part of the first few months of ROH – there’s probably a fair crossover with the crowd from the early ROH Murphy Rec shows – there’s a buzz when he comes out and the crowd are behind him in this match despite him ostensibly being the heel. Vamp has lost the dreadlocks and face paint from his WCW run here, and Joey Styles on commentary is trying to put over the story of him being a more serious character and training in MMA. In the early exchanges there is a lot of m…

This is the second semi-final in the MLW World Title Tournament. Vamp beat Christopher Daniels in the QF, while Kea defeated The Wall. Like his earlier match against Daniels, Vampiro is slow and methodical in his approach, but without someone in there with speed to move around him, it means this comes off as lethargic and devoid of energy. Kea again looks good with his kicks and some brutal sounding chops, keeping to the basics, but neither of the guys brings anything compelling to the table and there is no real story to the match for you to get invested in. Because of this, even when they do try to throw in some big moves like a blue thunder bomb and snap hurricanra…

Super Dragon defends the APW Worldwide Internet Title against Bryan Danielson. Talk about it here

Very good 2/3 falls handheld shot from an overhead camera position in classic JWP. If you like strike & submission based wrestling in Joshi, and you're wondering where it migrated to after ARSION changed styles, then look no further than JWP. If you need a reminder that Hyuga and Ran Yu Yu were great pro-wrestlers look no further than this match. Probably the best wrestled women's match of the year thus far.

AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn vs Low Ki vs Psicosis - NWA TNA 6/19/02 I thought the rules in this were pretty cool. I would make some minor tweaks, but overall a really neat way to do a fatal four-way. Basically it is a double elimination 4-person round robin. Winner of a fall stays in to meet the entrant and they cycle through until the first loser comes in. I would probably change it A vs B then C vs D then losers of the first two go head to head. But I digress. More fatal 4-ways should be done like this. See not everything in early TNA was horrible. Great fucking spotfest. Because it was essentially a bunch of mini-matches it could be wrestled like a sprint. AJ Style…

This was given plenty of time, and Atlantis & Co. tried hard to make something of it, but it was criminally boring. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween and Damian at the best of times, but Juvie didn't pull finger here, and Nicho must have had another booking. The Tijuana guys are another example of CMLL starting something with no payoff in mind.

For some reason this is JIP in the third fall. It's not a bad caida of wrestling, but it's clear that Santo is no longer in the picture and CMLL have transitioned to Ultimo vs. Casas. I generally like the Casas/Ultimo match-up, but CMLL were onto something with the Santo/Ultimo feud. One of the most frustrating things about CMLL is that they'll stumble onto something you want to see more of, and then they either drop it or it falls apart because guys become unavailable or difficult to deal with.

A very good back & forth sprint w/ Dragon showing good fire & Williams playing the role of the veteran-being-taken-to-the-limit very well. ***1/2

Low-Ki vs Amazing Red - ROH 6/22/02 Save me Low-Ki! The first five minutes of this match are FUCKING GLORIOUS! Just super high-end balls to the wall pro wrestling. I have seen their matches in random indys and TNA prior to this. I want to say it is UCW, they do this matrix sequence that they do here, but they do it better in UCW. So check that out. It still comes off cool & fresh, but that UCW one is crazy. Ricochet & Ospreay eat your hearts out. The work is tight and it is urgent. I loved the knucklelock spot where Ki is just overwhelming Red with elbows while holding onto the knucklelock then how he sends Red flying is great. Red's desperation leg sweep an…

The future Londrick explodes! Totally loved this. It's an all-action sub-10 minute sprint with no downtime whatsoever. They go at a fast pace right from the get go, and it never lets up. Everything looks really good, crisp & pretty vicious + also comes with a nice sense of urgency. ***1/2

This was short but plenty of fun. I was glad that Shocker and Masada didn't ignore each other and worked a grudge match sequence. Watching the Japanese guys position themselves for classic Porky spots was an amusing exercise, and anytime you get Panther and Casas square off in a match it's a must-see.

Okay now, seems like Sakata was really getting it at this point. Sato has looked solid all year doing shootstyle matwork, but he wasn't really capable of creating great moments on his own. Here there were a number of great, well timed moments, most of them involving Sakata almost KO'ing Sato. Every movement counted here. Most importantly, Sakata looked like he was ready to snap this pasty nerd in half.

This was an improvement on the match from the week before thanks to the injection of Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero. With Shocker turning tecnico and Wagner off the boil, GdI have risen to the fore as the best heel act in CMLL. I was always dismissive of GdI in the past, and probably a bit of a jerk, but watching them in context, I appreciate their work a lot more than I did in the past. They worked more of a modern, action driven style, but beneath the sheen they were excellent rudo technicians. I love watching Atlantis wrestle these guys. He pairs off with Ultimo at the beginning and instantly I'm thinking this is a match-up I want to see more of (outside of the mask …

Fun handicap match. We got to see Villano III, who we haven't check in on in a while, and I was glad to see that he could still go even if it was in a labored way. Dantes drew the short straw in facing Silva and did some fun stuff.

Damon Scythe vs Robby Lance - Ironman Match - ECCW 06/29/02 Are you familiar with these wrestlers? Me neither, they put together a performance for the ages, as compelling and intense as any other Ironman out there, I had heard many people praising this match but I didn’t expect it being this good which is impressive considering that I couldn’t even tell who was who until the halfway point so this match really deserved its status among hardcore wrestling fans, the way the match was filmed was also a big reason why I liked it so much, it feels like we aren’t supposed to be watching it, it’s like one of those found footage movies like Cannibal Holocaust but instead of w…

Yagi! This was a reminder of just how good Yagi was. What a polished, consummate performer. Yagi vs. Hyuga and Ran Yu Yu? Yes, please! Add to that a pretty decent Dynamite Kansai clone in Genki, and you have a nice hard hitting Joshi tag. These overhead JWP handhelds may be the best Joshi action available from 2002 given how clipped the GAEA and ARISON matches are

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