March 2003

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This was OK. The first two falls were generic, modern style mano a mano wrestling, and were a bit disappointing given the level that these two can work at. The third fall was a lot better. It was one of those tercera caidas where one of the guys is going over clean so the loser puts a ton of effort into the fall. They started digging deeper into their offensive bags, and there was a lot more selling than they bothered to do in the first two falls. There are times when you're watching mano a manos where you have to remind yourself that it's only a mano a mano and you shouldn't expect too much, but the tercera here was pretty close to an apuestas level tercera. There were a…

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Kitahara/Kawauchi was basically just a gritty uncooperative streetfight. Kawauchi was more aggressive and overzealous here so Kitahara just absolutely beat his ass in between taunting him. Short but good stuff that the fans got really into and I hope this isn't the last I see of Capture International. 

Kitahara/Kurashima was a nifty little battle. Kurashima is naturally at home on the mat and Kitahara is actually willing to work the mat against him. However Kitahara has the advantage because he is a bastard. Kitahara brutally kicks him in the jaw while exchanging leglocks and follows with more boots to the face. Kurashima makes some desperation takedown attempts until Kitahara catches (captures) him for the tap.

Johta/Mineno was another rounds match only this time they had MMA gloves. Why the rounds? Hey, look these ring girls (mat girls?) are totally HOT! They got Capture International style bikinis!!! The match was really good as these two just kick the hell out of eachother and also have good grappling and throws. Basically the worlds greatest worked Shooto. It works because there's no back and forth strike trading, just two guys throwing and evading really fast and aggressively. Little premature ending as this was only half as long as their boxing gloves match, but the finish was pretty damn brutal so what the hell.

This is pretty much a Jersey All Pro showcase on a ROH show and it was a ton of fun and one of the under the radar matches from early 2000's indy wrestling. Low Ki and Da Hit Squad worked as bully faces against the obnoxious smarmy smaller heels in Special K. The Special K crew are excellent at taking beatings and they were fearless when it came to taking bumps. Opposite Low Ki and Da Hit Squad are as good as stiff butt kickers as you'll find. So this all worked excellently. Loved Special K also having endless members at ringside who wouldn't mind getting some cheap shots in and helping them get some heat on Mafia. Worth noting they were also smart enough to know that wor…

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ROH World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs Jay & Mark Briscoe - ROH 3/16/03 AJ Styles is an underrated major player in the foundation of ROH. Lots of major matches against the likes of Low-Ki (he was who Ki first defended the ROH title against) and American Dragon. He was the first Tag Champion and was in the finals for the first Pure Championship. I enjoy Amazing Red. He is the good kind of spot monkey. His spots are breath-taking and look like they do damage, he has a snap and velocity to everything he does. Admittedly, I have seen very little of the Briscoes. I look forward to watching more. They came across as very solid 21st Century 1st Gen …

This is a ROH classic that doesn't get the appreciation it deserves. The meat of it is Williams' focus on Daniels' neck & Daniels' counterattack on Williams' ribs, and it's excellent stuff. The selling of both men is great, and so are those mentioned focused attacks on those body parts. There's some great drama involving Doug's submission holds on Daniels' neck, and of course the whole apex of the match is the finish where he finally hits that Chaos Theory for the win, making his gameplan complete. It's an amazing finish, and the journey there was absolutely terrific. ****1/2

This is somewhat comparable to Ki's excellent match vs. The Amazing Red from Road to the Title, as it follows a fairly similar formula, and there's quite a few similarities between Red & Jody Fleisch. Ki puts Fleisch over big throughout, by giving him a lot of the match & selling big for him, making this feel like a true star-making moment/match for the man, as he totally hangs in there w/ THE major asskicker in town in Low Ki. It's a charming story to tell, and they tell it wonderfully with badass action -- some notable highlights for me were that awesome springboard sequence where Ki gets the control by evading Jody's springboard attack, and then answering with …

YOSSINO puts 3 times the movement he needs to in pretty much everything he does for the first minute. Not a huge fan of that. Quick-paced juniors match with both outside groups jumping in. And a midget in a gorilla costume attacking YOSSINO liberally. This match in particular (without the interference) seems like it is the spiritual successor of those cruiserweight matches in WCW. Two little guys flying around and generally doing entertaining stuff that doesn't amount to much of substance. Fun at best. On a side note, Horiguchi has a weird charisma to him, hard to explain and I'm not sure he would ever be a superstar. But he's easy to pick out.

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It's the Wall, brother! I'm not sure what's more shocking; that All-Japan in 2003 was actually pushing WCW's The Wall to be a actual threat to main event calibre talent, or that this match actually rules. Kojima comes into this with his lariat arm damaged (check out the prior 22.03.2003 tag he had for the lore behind that) so Wall goes to work on it with surprisingly solid holds, however he mostly uses outside brawling and chairs to damage it further. There's at least a explaination as to why this should be a worthwhile match so that's cool, I guess. Kojima has to fight through the pain and scrap with the guy bit for bit, even landing a decent dive to the outside. T…

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Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock - WrestleMania XIX Fantastic Greatest Hits match! Reminds me a lot of Misawa vs Kawada from the Dome 2005. Great rivalry that now is really just a great nostalgia experience. Kinda crazy this match took place in 2003 and has that feel given that their 2001 match is the apex of the Attitude Era. A lot changed 2 years and yet it does not feel like much has changed since then. The first half of this match is actually incredible in fact if they stuck with it, they could have a legitimate match of the year contender. Austin looked fantastic in his shine. Tons of energy and urgency. Lots of movement. Rock was great bumping and selling…

Although this was quite similar to the tag title clusterfuck from last year, this was much more physical and had a much faster pace. Rhyno wrecking shop and Benoit and Guerrero going at it were two particular high points. This was six decent-excellent workers making something out of a nothing match and it worked. Rhyno takes out both Haas and Chavo with Gores, but Shelton is able to sneak a pin fall and retain the tag titles. It's crazy to think that two competitors in this throwaway bout would go on to be in separate world title matches at the next year's 'Mania. ★★★

Hulk Hogan vs Vince McMahon - WrestleMania XIX Street Fight This has been gotten some play recently as a surprisingly great match so I thought I'd check it out as on paper it is not something I have ever felt compelled to watch. It is two of the all-time great characters in wrestling history. They do a great job building the match bringing up Hogan testifying against McMahon is a great touch. McMahon is just one of the best heels ever. I love him stabbing the pen into Hogan's open wound and then signing the contract. He is so good at being the reprehensible corporate boss. He has such great facial expressions. I have always though McMahon's greatest redeeming q…

WWE Champion Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar - WrestleMania XIX Weirdly enough, this is the match that cemented I would be a wrestling fan the rest of my life. Vince Russo killed my interest in pro wrestling in 2000 as a long time WCW fan. I enjoyed WWF in the summer of 2000, but by fall of 2000 was not even watching that. I was really sad to find out that WCW was sold to WWF. I gave the Invasion a chance and again I checked out by September when I realized how badly bungled it was. Then I heard the NWO, my favorite act ever, was coming back in 2002 so I tuned again only to be disappointed and this time I was done after WrestleMania X-8. it had been a year since I watched …

Rey is healthy enough that his high flying stuff looks fresh and exciting. He still feels like WCW Rey and not the WWE version who would play it safe and stick to what he knows. The harder working Hardy working with cruiserweights allows him to be more believable at controlling the pace of the match as he dwarfs most of the wrestlers. Hardy retaining after interference from Shannon Moore was certainly a questionable move seeing how over Rey was at the time, but aside from that this was a good way to open the show with everyone playing their part well. ★★★

Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho - Wrestlemania XIX I feel like I have to be missing something with this match. It is just so underwhelming given the praise heaped on it. It just does not do much for me. I get the fan trying to prove he had surpassed his idol at his craft story and there were a few nods here and there to that. I never felt like Jericho was proving himself to Michaels. Michaels' main motivation in this match seemed to be have a good time at his first Wrestlemania back and prove he have a great non-gimmick match. Besides me, I think that was everybody's conclusion and this was a significant step in his full-time return. I think it would have been better …

18 years later and I'm still annoyed by this! Booker shows fire as a babyface, but Triple H is trying his best to emulate Harley Race and failing. His NWA champion cosplay majorly misses the mark and he just wasn't that interesting during this period. J.R is the only person marking out in the stadium when Trips busts out a rare Indian Deathlock. Booker's Houston Hangover felt like nice callback to his WCW days. Triple H pinning Booker T after nearly a full minute of downtime still leads a sour taste in my mouth. Racist angle aside, this felt like it should of been on a house show. ★¾

Trish has grown tons in the last year and she's placed in there with two great workers in the form of Jazz and Victoria. Jazz impresses me every time I see her, even in the dire women's division of early 2000's WWE. Stevie Richards tries to get involved, but he ends up nailing himself with a chair after missing Trish and hitting the ropes in the good comedy spot. Trish pins Victoria and we get a good feel-good pop. This was one of the few bright spots for the women during the 2000's. ★★★