ohtani's jacket

I've enjoyed the tag team of Ozaki and Hokuto in 2000. I wasn't sure they'd be able to co-exist but somehow they managed. To be fair, their personalities seemed dialed back compared to their 90s pomp but nonetheless, they found a way to complement each other instead of stepping on one another's toes. It's kind of weird how Ozaki is the only one who looks like the old version of herself but if there's one thing I've learned about 2000 Joshi it's that the broken down 90s stars weren't as bad as we made out at the time. Kansai did a number of cool spots in this including one awesome move where she broke up a pinfall or submission attempt by hurling Hokuto into Ozaki. She was fired up at the end as well despite the women being part of the same faction. I got a lot more out of watching this than I did other reinventions in 2000.

Aside from her MOYTC with Aja, Satomura has had a pretty quiet year for one of the young standouts in the Joshi scene. You'd have to say that Hamada has been the leading young star in the Joshi world with Satomura being a distant second. I still don't agree with the decision to partner Meiko with Chigusa. Chigusa may have been the banged-up, battle-worn veteran and Satomura the young gun about to enter her prime, but so long as Chigusa remained the figurehead of the promotion, Satomura and other young workers would continue to live in her shadow. I suppose Kato was injured by this point which robbed Satomura of a Crush Girls style partner. The highlight of the match was Devil's selling. You don't see Devil pinned that often and she made it clear it was gonna take a hell of a lot to do it. I loved the look on her face the final time she stood up. She knew her legs were gone but she gave Chigusa a delirious grin, challenging her one last time. Vintage Devil.

This was all right. I'd love to recommend it on the basis of it being a Brazo de Oro bout but the truth is he wasn't that good anymore. Silver King was busy throughout working the best exchanges you're going to see from Brazo de Oro and bickering with Pimpi the entire match. That's a match-up I'd like to see but it's a bit unfortunate when rudos bickering is the most interesting part of a match.

Rock does some goofy, exaggerated selling of his chest but it's all right since it's the Rock and Lawler are there to drive it home on commentary. The match is okay but it's not a huge step up over a TV bout and the Benoit bout was miles better.

More Rock vs. Benoit goodness. What a great match to lead us into the PPV. It was so well-executed that I felt compelled to watch the Rock vs. Rikishi match. If that's not doing your job on a go-home show then I don't know what is. No prizes for guessing what I'm watching next.

This was a Trios Championship match. Villano V was injured so Rayo took his place. Judging this was tricky. It was long and given plenty of time on Televisa but it wasn't worked in the traditional title match style. It was worked in more of an all-action style that Los Laguneros, as much as any other trio, were responsible for pioneering. You could see Wagner's fingerprints all over it since he was regularly touring Japan and bringing back all sort of ideas about how to modernize lucha. I wouldn't say it was a full-on juniors match as it still retained elements specific to lucha but it forgoes mat work and submissions and Championship-level wrestling which obviously I'm a big fan of. I encourage everyone to watch it, however, as it was a long title bout and featured some traditional lucha guys exploring a new style and a new direction. Just don't expect any masterful exchanges or high-end lucha mat work. Judging by match reviews at the time, that was the case too when VIllano V returned and Los Laguneros and the Villanos had their series of matches. Sign of the times, I guess.

This was more along the lines of the earlier comedy bouts involving Silva but with an extra edge: Silva didn't like the way the rudos picked on his friends Atlantis and Porky and got angry. I love how the rudos sacrifice Apolo Dantes in these matches. it's been a running joke all series especially when he doesn't because to the same faction as the other rudos. Silva cut a promo afterward and the interviewer encouraged him to turn rudo but no, senor, Silva wants to be a tecnico. Somewhere in all this is a tragic story of the lonely outsider who wants to be accepted by others. I hope he turns rudo and rips people's heads off.

I liked this. It wasn't the best that these guys can do but for house show lucha it was high quality. They mixed things up a lot. We got match-ups we haven't seen in a while, match-ups that have been great all year long, classic match-ups, and intriguing new match-ups. Dandy continued his resurgence as a world-class worker. He's had one of the strongest finishes to the year of any worker in the world. The over-arching story was the set up for Parka vs. Wagner but it was the individual match-ups that excited. You could literally pick any match-up in this trios match and be entertained. For those of you who watch lucha on that level -- i.e. individual match-ups ahead of overall match quality -- this was a match to savour. I've long given up on the notion of a trios match looking like a MOTYC or being able to predict which match will be good. You can't tell what you're getting till you sit down and watch it. This was breezy and fun and showed a lightness of touch that is as much of a skill as bloody brawling and dramatic three counts. Too bad that Wagner vs. Parka was blah but the buildup was fun.

Typical Monterrey fluff. A ton of talent in the ring and they work a comedy house show bout. One for the fans, not us guys.

This was an interesting match as they weren't afraid to have a minimalist title match in front of an Arena Coliseo crowd. You could tell it was different when Solar won the opening fall with an arm submission that would never win a fall in an ordinary title match. From that point on, the match was fought in close quarters. It wasn't entirely devoid of tension -- there was some nice back and forth in the tercera -- but it was deliberately small. I thought it was a thing of beauty but wrestling small is right up my alley so YMMV.

3/12/65 was the air date for this. The Peruvians were Inca Wiracocha and Antonio Tejero (sometimes billed as Inca Viracocha and Anton Tejero.) Chemoul should be listed as Rene Ben Chemoul for database purposes.

You'd have to be living under a rock to not guess how this turned out. Prior to the Capos showing up, it was a pretty average brawl. Emilio, Perro and SIlva made for a bit of a wildman team and this had a different edge to the previous SIlva bouts. The comedy was still there, including some priceless reactions from Gran Markus Jr. and Pierroth when they tried to go one-on-one with the Giant, but there wasn't as much stooging as before and Silva is no longer wiping the mat with everyone. In fact, this time the Boricuas taped his wrists to the ropes and we had a bit of Gigante In Peril. It was pretty lame since it was tape instead of handcuffs and he should have been able to tear himself free. Plus he sold it poorly, bobbing about instead of thrashing. The Capos showed up and managed to get Pierroth alone in the ring. I thought they would do something heinous to him, perhaps break his arm and put him out of wrestling for a while, but they just slapped him around a bit. Somewhat weakly if I'm being honest. The execution seemed way off for this entire segment. Some of the weaker story stuff in awhile.

Is there a reason why the date comes first? I'm so used match/promotion/date that it hurts my tiny brain. When it shows the latest post I'm not sure if I want to check the match based on a date.

This was an excellent bout. It started out as a Guapos showcase with the rudos fixing each other's hair every time they got upset and turned into a thrilling contest thanks to the brilliance of the tecnicos. Good things happen when you have a slick rudo trio and good tecnicos. Lizmark dialed back the clock and gave his best performance of the year. There was pinpoint accuracy in his topes and tilt-a-whirl backbreakers that reminded me of Atlantis in his prime. It would have been nice if Lizmark had ventured to the indies at some point and had a classic maestro title match. I feel like that's something missing from my life. Shocker was brilliant throughout demonstrating time and time again his star quality. The tecnicos upped the tempo at the right times and contributed beautiful dives and the finishing moves from both teams were pretty to watch. The fans got their money's worth with this one and Televisa were so impressed they showed a good 20 minutes of the bout. That says it all. Must watch 2000 lucha here.

Another of my favourite match-ups from 2000. Benoit working heel makes for a much better dynamic than the Triple H match as he can dominate offensively without going overboard. The match is fine though it never reaches great heights since it's just an excuse for the Big Show to pull one over the Rock.

Triple H vs. Benoit was one of the better match-ups in 2000 but I thought Benoit got too much offense here which made the standard Triple H sequences look weak. I realize they were trying to put Benoit over strong but their work didn't really jell for me.

This is worked as a straight trios match instead of a comedy bout. The Capos' tactics seem to be to keep Atlantis and Rayo in the ring. The only bit of offense that Silva gets is a plancha off the apron which is like having a tree fall on you. Things are going pretty well for the tecnicos and Rayo whips the crowd into a frenzy by threatening to piledrive Universo 2000 when suddenly the Boricuas attack. They give the Capos a beatdown Horsemen style. Well, maybe not that intensely but Pierroth gets revenge for the week prior and talks shit to Dr. Morales. Even if you can't speak Spanish it's obvious that Pierroth is killer on the mic. Puerto Rico, baby!

Somehow I really like Rayo de Jalisco Jr and never tire of his feud with Caras. This had a lot of fun moments. Caras' reaction to Porky bumping and grinding was priceless. Alfonso Morales was interviewing Caras and Rayo when a fan got involved. I don't know what Caras said to him but I think it was something along the lines of: "these are the kind of fans Rayo has." Atlantis and Dante wrestled a bit too, which you can go for months without seeing in CMLL. Nice dives too. Just a fun package overall.

The tecnicos should have brought Silva to every fight. They would have never lost. I liked the Guapos' comedy spots in this match.

Los Capos vs. Los Boricuas! This was a slick little trios match that danced around the main beef of Pierroth vs. Mascara Anos 2000 but managed to stoke the fire. Cien Caras did the heavy work for his team while Pierroth was tailgating it to the safety of the commentary box when the heat got too much. The match wasn't as violent as you might expect but did show tremendous potential for a gang war. Remember, Los Capos may be rudos but they're Mexican rudos.

This was a mano a mano bout that highlighted how far Tarzan Boy had come since the beginning of this feud. Satanico attacks him while still wearing his jacket and do-rag and Tarzan Boy immediately fights back and rips Satanico's jacket in half. Now Tarzan Boy is the aggressor, beating on Satanico and making him hurt. Satanico takes a beating for a large portion of this match and Tarzan Boy's confidence borders on arrogance. You can feel the pendulum shifting even if Tarzan Boy is still a tecnico at this stage. They slip in some fouls and there are the usual shenanigans with Satanico faking a foul but it's well sold and the tecnico fans are pretty hot for a mano a mano bout. The tercera caida has some nice counters and escapes and again Tarzan Boy shows how much he's grown since the start of the year. He botches the finish, which hurts the overall effectiveness of the bout, but it's still worth watching if you've followed the Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy feud and is the missing piece between the hair match and the double turn.

The other side to Saito was the bungling yet affable commentator who often made gaffes like calling Jushin Liger or El Samurai by their real names. And his love of the Calpis soft drink was legendary. Rumour had it that he would eat the sachet without diluting it but apparently that's untrue.

This was a handicap match similar to the bouts that Andre used to have in Mexico. I'm not sure which was more surreal -- Silva hugging Porky and making him look like some kind of stuffed toy or guys like Rayo and Caras looking like minis next to the Giant. If you've even see Kamala in Mexico, or any other big man, you'll know that Mexican rudos are good at stooging in these situations. Bit of harmless fun.

When you take away the blood and the brawling, and the Jake the Snake like psychology. Pierroth is pretty limited. But he's excellent on the mic and this match was a chance for him to gather a little heat and build some momentum toward his feud vs. feud with Mascara Ano 2000 that promised a lot at this stage but wouldn't come to a head for a few years yet.

Fun opener from the minis. The tecnicos' dives at the end were spectacular. Makes you wish that the minis aired more often.