November 2002

The only match these two ever had, and that's a shame as they work well together. Good psychology from both Shawn and RVD as RVD works on Shawn's back while Shawn works on RVD's leg (after a leg screw). However, now we have to bring up the elephant in the room and that's the ending. I would have been satisfied with Shawn winning here and Hunter's attack happening after the match, so why mess up a perfectly good match by having HHH take out RVD and then attacking Shawn? Otherwise, excellent match ruined by the ending.

Oh, look, Santo's back. And he's brought Blue Demon Jr with him. Swell. Blue Demon Jr never gets better does, he? A lot of guys become tolerable if you watch enough of them, but not Blue Demon. Fortunately, this had plenty of Casas vs. Wagner, Satanico vs. Ultimo, Satanico vs. Casas, and Wagner vs. Ultimo, all of which were better than Santo vs. Demon.

This was a bit of an odd cibernetico. There was an angle running at the time where a bunch of guys were doing tryouts to join Los Guapos. The week before some CMLL guys made fun of them, so this match is the Guapos wannabes vs. a bunch of CMLL guys. The editor gives us full intros then cuts right to the end. We get a bit of Ricky Marvin vs. Virus for our troubles before Averno gets the rub. Not sure why Averno went over. You'd think they'd give one of the Guapos bragging rights over the other hopefuls. It's a shame they didn't show the entire match.

Veneno and Gran Markus Jr have another contender for Worst Match of the Year. Well done, fellas.

This wasn't your traditional title match. It was a decent trios match but a poor title match. All six guys were talented, so there was nothing wrong with the action, but I don't think there should be mask ripping in a title match even if there's long standing heat between the competitors. And I'm an old fuck who thinks there should always be matwork in a title match. I did like the finish, however. I won't spoil it for folks, but it was a twist ending with a satisfying conclusion.

This beef between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit is pretty boring. To be honest, I don't think they have the acting chops to pull it off. It's the kind of thing that looks all right when they splice it together for a music video, but as a weekly thing it's starting to drag. This had another false finish halfway through the bout, though in this case it was right before they cut to commercials, so I guess it was a hook for viewers to return. And I suppose, a way to have longer matches on TV. The match has some decent stuff, as you can imagine. Eddie is starting to display a vicious mean streak, which I think is the part of his game that's been missing all year. Chavo excels i…

This started off how you'd expect with Bucanero and Vampiro brawling on the ramp and got really hot in the tercera. Loved watching Shocker take on Tarzan Boy and Black Tiger, especially Tarzan Boy with all that history. Vampiro hitting reckless moves on Bucanero, trying to break his neck, is perversely entertaining. Vampiro got DQ'ed at the end when he refused to let go of an armbar and tried to break Bucanero's arm instead. They challenged each other on the house mic then Vampiro caught Bucanero in a Fujiwara and fucked up his arm some more. Then Shocker hit Tarzan Boy in the mouth with a lariat. Who says rudos are always better than the tecnicos?

We get a return match. The rudos are more focused on beating Santo up than in the previous week's match. Demon does some good stuff in this match, but he's just so wooden, especially compared to Santo. If you remember, Santo started a program with Ultimo Guerrero right before he left. I haven't forgotten, and I doubt the Arena Mexico faithful have either. Speaking of things we'd rather see, this match reminded me that a full blown Satanico vs. Casas feud would have ruled (even in '02), Wagner vs. Ultimo was a match-up with major potential if one of them ever turned rudo, and the awesome Wagner vs. Casas sequence in the tercera reminded me of the lamentations that their he…