March 2004

U-30 Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazunari Murakami - NJPW Steel Cage Death Match 3/28/04 So there's so much unpack this. For first off, this is Empty Arena. There's no referee really. It is a steel cage match that I would say the finish is in style of Alley Fight. It is one of those Inokiist absurdities that can only exist and work in his universe. The U-30 (Under 30) Championship was a title invented for Tanahashi for him to be pushed as the main Young Lion, the only other champion would be Nakamura who won the IWGP title in late 2003 and was always Tanahashi's biggest rival for Ace. Murakami is a amazing cocky, violent, mean shooter with Tasmanian Devil Tornado e…

CMLL continues to be a bit average. Business has not picked up with Park's arrival. I think it's because he's not doing any of his character stuff. Instead, he's just another guy doing spots. This was entertaining when the tecnicos were on offense, but nothing we haven't seen a million times before. In fact, the most interesting part was GdI and Shocker & Park continuing to brawl after the match was over. On the positive side, Terrible has figured out his role in these matches pretty well and no longer looks out of place.

This was solid as anything. Misawa coming out with sunglasses on like some struggling uncle battling through a midlife crisis, Ikeda being the usual goofy killer that he is, Ogawa running a trial by fire to keep the titles retained, just so much great moments to watch. The start was the typical Ogawa/Misawa dynamics, Ogawa has to be bailed out a good few times by his typically far more impressive counterpart in Misawa, some double teaming, etc. Yone comes in and starts throwing forearms, and any casual viewer of Misawa matches (even someone who's just watched a couple bits of his best work) will tell you that this is the moment when Yone should get wrecked for even t…

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7lADr-z0zg

CMLL has been extremely frustrating in 2004 thus far. This was JIP so they could run some shitty vignette beforehand, and the entire match was shot from ringside with a handheld camera. There were a ton of match ups I was interested in yet there was more focus on KeMonito than Shocker vs. Ultimo or Atlantis vs Wagner. CMLL is a peaks and valleys promotion by nature, but this is probably the weakest its been all decade.

KENTA is in his rebellious teen phase and I guess Ogawa is next on his big list of established guys he wants to put on notice. He blasts him mid-entrance with the usual stiff kicks and from there the match pretty much goes how you'd expect: KENTA is by far the superior striker alongside clearly has the advantage of youth on his side with his speed and agility but Ogawa's been the punching bag way too many times to get tripped up by this point. His experience directs him to trying to work on KENTA's legs to try to slow him down and get the match under control. The match itself in terms of macro elements is unspectacular but I feel like the little things this provides are w…

This is a Steel Cage Match for Samoa Joe's ROH World Championship. Jay Briscoe's crimson mask is one of the most stunning blood-related visuals that I've ever seen in pro-wrestling. It's what I thought when I first watched this match yeaaaaars ago, and it still strikes me on that same level. It's amazing & truly helps this already-totally-great match kick things up to another notch -- the Briscoes vs. Joe feud comes to its conclusion beautifully with Joe dishing out amazingly compelling punishment throughout + Jay taking it all like a champ and also delivering big time with all of times he is on the offense himself. Him hitting the Jay Driller towards the end was…

Big Show is huge here and he moves around at a snail's pace, but it's no big deal as Cena is incredibly over with the MSG faithful and everything Show does feeds into Cena's eventual comeback. Show uses some of the more rarer moves in his arsenal, such as the Hog Lock and the Cobra Clutch. After an FU isn't able to put away the big man, Cena cheats by using his padlock and winning his first ever title. This was a good meat and potatoes match. Not everything has to be fancy for it to work. ★★★

Although it was disrespectful for the fans to shit on this straight out the box, Lesnar and Goldberg refusing to do anything for minutes and deliver an awful match like this felt like a slap in the face. Lesnar gives the fans the finger, both figuratively and literally. Most of this consisted of stare downs and grapples that went nowhere. Austin being the special guest referee is the only saving grace here and the look on his face when he realizes the whole segment was screwed was priceless. Goldberg wins as the crowd show their disapproval. Austin stuns Goldberg in one last attempt to save this. DUD

Although this was fast-paced and back-and-forth, it was lacking the heat that this blood feud required and just felt like your typical 2000's Jericho match. Jericho looked like he was wrestling for the IC strap and not like he looking for revenge against his former friend. Christian rips out some of Jericho's hair and is great at being a smug and sleazy heel, but Jericho's half-hearted attempts to get over the 'C.L.B' nickname felt massively out of place. The Trish turn went off well, even if it lacked logic (Christian had Trish in the Walls Of Jericho just a few weeks previously). ★★★

I simply do not understand the hate for this. One can argue that squeezing a 10 man gauntlet match into a 12 minute time frame is never going to work, but I thought this kept the the action fresh and exciting. This felt like the Slobberknocker match from the WWE games come to life! Ultimo Dragon starts off and gets a good showing, but everyone remembers this for him slipping up and falling face first as he makes his entrance into the Garden. Poor bastard. Billy Kidman's springboard shooting star plancha was a sight to behold. Chavo is able to cheat and retain his title with a little help from his father. ★★★¼

This starts out with some intense and gritty chain wrestling. Although I harped on Christian/Jericho fighting too technical when they were doing such a personal angle, these two made it work as they are so damn fierce and hot-blooded. I particularly loved Angle's body language before he would shoot for a takedown, it looked as if he was trying to psych out Eddie. After temporarily working over Eddie's mid-section, Angle focuses his attack on Eddie's ankle after he catches in a surprise ankle lock. The finish to this might just be my favourite ending ever. Eddie tries to loosen his boot to levirate the pressure, but Angle catches him in the act. The loose boot allows Eddie…

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit - Wrestlemania XX I think with triple threat matches you basically have to resign yourself from trying to have a story-based match and just commit to having a balls to the wall, action-packed affair. Instead of fighting against having a third person, you embrace it by just going all out and making sure there is never one dull moment. There really shouldnt be because basically everybody gets a built in breather. I will say HHH was the MVP of this match. After a terrible, terrible 2003 (aside from the last match of the year), he was the total lynchpin of this match. Everything flowed through him and h…

Much like their bout at Wrestlemania XIV, this relied on spectacle to make up for the lack of work rate. Seeing Undertaker return to his Deadman persona, complete with Paul Bearer, was a cool moment. The wrestling itself wasn't pretty though, with Kane nearly spiking 'Taker on his head after a botched suplex attempt. There's some splendid visual moments here, such as Kane freaking out and not believing his own eyes as he sees his brother the first time since he buried him and I liked the duelling choke spot. Ga-ga like this is needed to break up the card and I had no problem with this. ★★

La Resistance and Cade & Jindrak come out to zero reaction. RVD & Booker T have one of the most horrendous mash-up themes ever. Man, the tag team scene on Raw wasn't looking too hopeful in 2004. This solely existed to get more bodies onto the card. RVD gets a hot tag and cleans house. Booker T lands a scissors kick on Conway, and RVD follows it up with a Five Star Frog Splash to retain. The problem with stuff like this is that it makes the usually massive personalities of people like RVD, Booker and the Dudleys feel small and irrelevant. Blah. ★

There's not much to say about this. Yet another T&A match. One thing that stuck out to me about this was the creepy men in the crowd trying to take creepshots of the women as they get themselves in certain positions. I'm glad this part of wrestling has died out with the times. Torrie rolls up Jackie for the victory and tries to shoot de-pants her. Jackie makes her sole Wrestlemania appearance nearly flashing her genitals in front of 20,000 people at MSG. Wrestling~! DUD

Very similar to the Raw tag title clusterfuck, this was just an excuse to give more guys a payday. Bradshaw has cut his hair and we are only a few weeks away from the APA disbanding. I bet every penny I have that no-one in the venue would of guessed that he would been WWE champion within three months. Rikishi does some nice power spots, one which sees him escape a Shelton Benjamin German by using his gigantic ass. This wasn't offensive and it was over in a few minutes, but there's literally nothing worth seeing from this. ★½

Has there been a more star-studded match at a Wrestlemania than this? Look at all the talent in this! The main reason to watch this is for the brilliant Flair and Rock interactions. Rock mocking Flair's strut will never get old. Flair takes some brutal back bumps for a guy in his mid-50's. This was Foley's return to action after being retired the last four years and he feels like an afterthought as he doesn't do much of note. I can see why he felt disappointed with this, although he would more than make up for it with his hardcore match with Orton the next month. This was decent, but just a touch underwhelming given the star power in this. ★★¾

Molly puts her hair on the line against Victoria's championship. I give Molly Holly massive props for sacrificing her hair in an effort to get a serious women's match on the card, but this was a dull and nothing contest. Jerry Lawler is insufferable here, going on about if Molly's ever been shaved before. Even Jim Ross sounds annoyed at him. After having a rest hold go on for what felt like forever, Victoria escapes a Widow's Peak attempt and rolls up Molly for the win. Molly does a good job of looking shocked as she realises she's going bald. ★

AJ Styles vs Abyss (Ladder match - TNA 03/17/04) So, Abyss is a good vehicule for a great worker to have a very good match ? Well, at least, his series of gimmick match against AJ (they had a good falls count anywhere the previous week, ending i a schmooz) is prooving to me that he is actually more valuable than Kane, after all. Maybe I just got used to his ridiculous looks and maneurisms and to the fact is character is less "crazy monster" and more "goofy mofo playing crazy monster". Again, AJ is so good here, bumping, putting together spots that don't take forever, working teases and using the ladder gimmick in logical way. The only time he tried to show off and was…

Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Harris (TNA 03/17/04) They did a good job building Chris Harris as a single contender, and the crowd eats it up. First part of the match was exactly what Id like to see from Jarrett, solid veteran work (although with soft execution), playing the fact Harris studied Jarrett's work and that he isn't supposed to be ready. Some nice stuff from Jarrett, but there's something that bugs me about his work at this point : he doesn't react much to what happens, as in he doesn't show much ass. He doesn't beg, he doesn't show fear or much frustration. Basically, he works like a kick-ass heels like insecure HHH does, and it hurts his matches. One specific ins…

WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio - Smackdown 3/18/04 Up until 2016, this was probably the greatest match I had ever seen live. Thank you Dad for taking me! This was the Smackdown right after Wrestlemania XX and they had a gauntlet match the night of to determine who would face Eddie for the title. My brother always remembers this episode as the show where the APA broke up and the next week Bradshaw would debut the JBL character. Anyways, this match was a doozy in real time, but having grown up, I was only 14 when I saw this, I think actually even appreciate it more now. Eddie was over huge as a babyface at the time, but he works full heel here. It is…

Cookie cutter main event. This was only 11 minutes long and they still found ways to edit it. I can't understand why CMLL don't let their wrestlers work slower paced main events like they do in Monterrey. You can't tell me that a pair of veterans like Cien Caras and Mascara Ano 2000 aren't capable of working more interesting beatdown sections. You've got a captive audience, let your guys work. The tecnico comeback is the highlight here, as it is with most CMLL matches of late. Terrible has definitely improved. Kind of impressive that he was trusted enough to be Perro's partner here. There's a bunch of shenanigans as there always is with these apuesta matches. Apuesta mat…

Kinda weird seeing Satomura go up against a big power wrestler who as happens to be a peer. This gets off to a hot start with them both getting right into each others faces but Meiko gets too aggressive allowing Genki to catch her and press slam her to the floor with no one there to catch her. Most of this match has neither of them not giving the other much room to breathe, if one of them does back off even a little bit she ends up paying for it. The finishing run is a bit more standard than the rest of the match although the actual finish is great with Satomura knocking Genki down to one knee allowing Meiko to hit a sudden Scorpion Rising for the win. I wish these two ha…