August 2002

A pretty damn great showdown between the two brothers, and more-than great ROH debut for the younger one in Mark Briscoe. The early back & forth is really good, and once Jay gets busted open, things kick into a higher gear. Mark goes after the cut with those already-awesome looking punches of his, and Jay sells it greatly. Him getting back into things by briefly going after Mark's knee was very nice too, and it created for some neat moments w/ Mark selling it after delivering some of his bigger moves + him clutching the knee when going for that Moonsault gave Jay enough time to recover & get out of the way to swift the momentum, which I thought lead for a great se…

ROH World Champion Low-Ki vs AJ Styles - ROH 8/24/02 Lil Sleeze could have been somebody and went to this show as this was ROH's first show in Boston and I believe their first show outside of Philadelphia. Interesting they chose Boston over NYC. However, the year 2002 is the only year since 1997 I didnt watch pro wrestling in fact I completely fell out of it so I was completely unaware that two of my future favorite wrestlers were tearing the house down in Wakefield. Low-Ki had just won the right to be the inaugural ROH Champion and this is his first defense. People forget how integral AJ Styles was to ROH they always see him as a TNA guy, but AJ was positioned as a …

They have that famous Street Fight match at the next ROH show, but this is such an awesome match too -- one that doesn't get talked about at all. Michael Shane is such a compelling bastard in this, and London is of course a ROCKING babyface from underneath. All of London's comeback chains are really good, and so is Shane's work on top & cut-offs of those said comebacks. Him pushing London from the top rope into, and THROUGH the barricade was amazing in all of its viciousness. Also I loooooove the finish with him faking that ankle injury, only for him to small package London when he least expected it. ***1/2

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Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio - Summerslam 2002 Finally a raucous 2002 crowd! Long Island was rocking for this double hot opener. I can't believe I watched this match and did not remember anything from it. They ripped it up in there. I did think in the middle that was maybe because they going all Ultimo Dragon World War III '96, but this had a way hotter finish to it with Rey really looking like a champ. I like Rey jumpstarting the match early and his first flub being trying to Irish Whip Angle that is a great nod to the size differential. Angle going for the AngleLock early and Rey thinking 619 is one of my favorite ways to open a sprint. Loved Angle yanking Mysterio of…

Shawn Michaels vs Triple H - Summerslam 2002 There may be no two more polarizing wrestlers in WWE than Shawn Michaels and HHH. It is almost entirely due to their "real life" personas (or what we know them to be from second hand accounts). I am not going to pick a dog in the race, but analyzing their matches always evokes a lot of emotion and passion. WWE pushes these two as two of the all-time great pro wrestlers in the ring. They are uttered in the same breath as Flair unlike Austin and Rock, who are usually associated with Hogan as great superstars as the WWE dictates. When HBK/HHH entered the ring for Shawn Michaels' first match in four years, it was a mere formali…

WWE Champion The Rock vs Brock Lesnar - WWE Summerslam 2002 Really interesting crowd dynamics. Big Rocky Sucks chant early. Lets Go Lesnar when Lesnar is in the Sharpshooter. When Rock breaks out of the bearhug, big Rocky chants and as they push to the finish Lesnar sucks. Almost Japanese like in how they would cheer for the underdog of different points in the match. The match is an entertaining main event, but it is just a hodgepdoge of the best hits of each and really does not have much rhyme or reason. Lesnar tried to be sensible in his approach, but Rock was all over the place. They start the match with Lesnar as the monster heel ala his Cena performance in 2…

This is in the tried and tested tradition of putting a company ace up against an up and coming face where the rookie gets to shine, but ultimately falls to the veteran’s greater skills and experience. As befitting that formula, we get a fast start from Xavier with a series of arm drags and a good early nearfall of a sky high/elbow drop powerbomb. I really liked the sequence where Williams, showing his experience, rolls to the outside to break the initial flurry from Xavier and then moves away from his technical wrestling wheelhouse to strikes and punches after realising he’s now in a fight. However, we then get Xavier going to the outside when the match is going against h…

This was a fairly solid match focused around showmanship, with the Super Rookie trying to prove he can work on Nishimura's ballgame of tricked-out technical work. I especially loved how extra Nishimura is here: while Nakamura at times will be showy Nishimura will almost intentionally throw out some brilliant counters to relatively simple moves, flying around at points to show off his funky WoS-lite technique. It's not necessary; Nakamura establishes by simply strolling to the ropes instead prior when in a similar situation; but Nishimura almost refuses to do so out of principle, he's not letting this kid outshine him. At the same time I think he gives a ton of room for Na…

X Division Champion Low-Ki vs AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn - NWA-TNA 8/28/02 "Jerry Lynn is the only man in this match not to win X-Division gold." " This is Jerry Lynn's chance to finally win the gold." "Finally after all these years!" I thought the next sentence was going to be Jerry Lynn dreamt of this moment his whole life! Gimme a break, the fucking title has existed for TWO MONTHS! I cant say this enough, the commentary is god-awful. Better spotfest from earlier in the month. Ki is really good at these offensive showcases and AJ is a bumping freak. Jerry Lynn well he is Jerry Lynn. I really don't have much to say just a fun, entertaining spots. AJ taking Northern…

Really fun match which had juniors from Michinoku Pro, FMW and Dragon Gate mixing it up. These guys aren't used to eachother so they were working a more solid, less intricate match, but it was good and everyone brought something worthwhile to the table. There were also several huge dives and Dragon Kid looked good hitting all his freaky stuff. I also liked the spot Dragon unmasked himself in an Eddie Guerrero style attempt to get Kid DQ'd. The next moment they both unmasked eachother and were forced to wear their opponents hood. This kind of stuff won't win you workrate awards but it's what keeps the love for pro wrestling flowing. Sasuke looked sharp, TMIV hit some stiff…

Unexpectedly great indy main event. It's pretty cool to see two underexposed guys who can work step up and deliver their idea of a big match. Both guys were bumping big to get this match over, not just taking big dangerous bumps, but also bumping big for basic moves like a shoulder block. Garuda looked like he just got hit by a truck during the opening exchange and the crowd response underlines that. Meanwhile Sasaki was flying around to put Garudas dropkicks over. Between the big slams and flying they were working a pretty solid groundbased match. Mammoth has really good looking basics, really awesome body slam, huge leg drop, kicking Garuda in the spine between moves et…

This might be the first and only Cheerleader Melissa match I've ever seen. That seems unlikely considering she's been around forever, but other than her maybe showing up in ROH 12-15 years ago for a Shimmer showcase I can't think of any other reason I'd have been watching her. She'd just turned 20 here so you forgive her for not being great. She kind of worked like a slightly more spry Brian Lee, threw some clunky forearms to the chest, sort of lumbered around like you'd expect from someone who's only previous wrestling experience had been in a fairground. I don't know if it was the plan all along or Yoshida decided to take matters into her own hands but the match largely…

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Kazuyuki Fujita vs Yoshihiro Takayama - NJPW Budokan 08/29/02 NWF Title Tournament So what I have gleaned in my limited research is Fujita vacated the title earlier in the year so he set up a tournament for NWF Title also called The King of Gladiators tournament. 4-men all shoot backgrounds. It is him vs Takayama and Kohsaka vs Yasuda. In my opinion, it is upsets in both as the new Inoki favorites go down. Inoki even comes out to hype up the crowd and NWF title is shown. This May be the most violent match I’ve ever seen. We will get there in a second. Scrappy amateur wrestling to start. I would’ve expected Takayama to use his reach advantage to keep the stockier…

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Surprised this isn't even up yet given it's pretty infamous for being a great Kentaro Shiga match: a pretty rare sight! Most of the match has Shiga try to play Nishimura's game in the technical department, but he's grossly outmatched. Sure, he is at points able to grab on holds, but sustained offence is impossible when he's facing someone who's as experienced as his opponent, with Nishimura showing off a bit by doing a headlock into a Dory spin to transition to the ground. Shiga learns from this as the next time he's able to counter a headlock transition into a legscissors, however Nishimura escapes this rather easily. We get some nice bridge spots between the pair …

Keiji Mutoh vs Taiyo Kea - AJPW 8/30/02 Budokan Kea’s second straight Budokan main event, defeating Tenryu on 7/20. He goes up against All Japan’s other Ace and his former co-Tag Team Champion (they lost the belts to Kronik on 7/17). Kea impressed in both those aforementioned matches but reverted to his normal self here. He brought none of the energy or charisma he showed in those matches here. The Tenryu match in particular I thought he played the part of the hungry young lion well. Here he was stuck in first gear. Mutoh was pretty content to wrestle a standard championship style match, in the midcard this would be fine but on the main event of a Budokan show you ex…

Goldberg vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 8/30/02 Kojima got pushed pretty hard in 2002, a big two match series with Tenryu, the Triple Crown match is excellent, MOTYC level and he has a big match against Great Muta that's on my list to watch. I think it makes sense why he and later Kea are the sacrificial lambs for Goldberg. I am assuming the plan was for Goldberg to do more dates for All Japan but plans fell through. Would have been interesting to see what Tenryu or Kawada could have gotten out of Goldberg. Mutoh I feel would have been a horrible Goldberg opponent. Goldberg does the full Goldberg entrance. He does look like a total badass. Goldberg really nailed who …

AJPW World Tag Team Champions KroniK vs Mike Barton & Jim Steele - AJPW 8/30/02 Budokan Kids this is why you don’t do Kronik you will get hooked! I was really curious what a WWF midcard match in 2002 All Japan would like and it looked pretty much how I expected. Zero heat. These dudes were wrestling to crickets. You could hear a pin drop. Kronik pretty much phones this one in. Their Mutoh & Kea match they were motivated this they barely tried. Brian Adams cut a promo before the match saying All Japan is the number one federation in the world now that Kronik has arrived. Kronik is the most dominant tag team and he puts all the old gaijin on notice name checkin…

This was a great match! It was only a two fall trios match, but it may have been the best two fall trios match I've ever seen. The tecnicos were on fire. Negro Casas vs. Tarzan Boy -- oh man, what a feud. Casas upped the ante in this bout after last week's blood, and it was INCREDIBLE. No-one can up the ante quite like Casas. Arena Mexico was rocking in this match. You had Atlantis and Wagner going at it again, Casas going full throttle against Tarzan Boy, and even Niebla refusing to hold back against Rey Bucanero. I've said it before, but you can't beat a trios match where the tecnicos are fired up and dishing it out to the rudos. Usually, you get that in the tecnico com…

I've declared Ultimo the best rudo in CMLL, but here's a challenge for him: can he get anything out of Vampiro in a mano a mano? Vampiro comes out to a hip hop track instead of 'Welcome to the Jungle,' which I couldn't figure out at first, but then Shocker came into shot. That's the first time I've heard a second's theme used for a singles match. Vampiro can't seem to figure out what look he wants to rock. He's back to Biker Taker here. This is a great performance from Ultimo Guerrero, and a really good mano a mano. Ultimo works stiff with a mix of brawling and shoot submissions. He does a great job of making Vampiro's shit look good. There are a few hairy moments where V…

This was joined in progress, but it ended up being pretty decent. It was closer in quality to Virus' lightning matches than his classic title matches, but he worked in some cool shit, and Fuerza was able to hang. The finish wasn't what the crowd wanted to see, but Fuerza drew good heat and I thought he sold the finish well.

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Entertaining 5 vs. 5 Elimination Match. Not Peak WAR vs. Other Promotion material, though there are some good smacks and thuds here. Problem with the match is the booking, as they get rid of the spry guys first and soon you are stuck with an old, broken down Steve Williams, Arashi and Mutoh here. Williams can still throw a nice punch and not do much else at this point. Match has it's moments especially thanks to Orihara and Tenryu, while Shinzaki was working hard to get something cool out of Williams. Overall this match is symptomatic of the depleted roster AJPW was dealing with at this stage however.