Posted September 5, 201015 yr comment_5455344 Rod Price/PN News v. The Dupps I was at this show and don't remember it being good. PN News pre-match rap is amusing. Dupps dominate early with tag work and then it is pretty much the PN News show as he hits all of his stuff including a crushing, halfway across the ring flip senton for the finish. I halfway want to nominate this just for that move but the match really wasn't good enough. Little Guido v. Nova v. Simon Diamond While the spots were smooth I fucking hate elimination three ways like this where guys break up other pinfall attempts. It's fucking stupid and even if some of the spots were clever and well executed it pretty well ruins my enjoyment of a match like this. Sal E and Jazz confrontation was stupid too. Danny Doring/Roadkill v. Billy Wiles/C.W. Anderson Eh this was okay. Just a standard match from the two teams with nothing really of note. Lance Storm v. Spike Dudley I liked this in part because it was different than I expected. This is Spike dominating offensively and Lance reacting to this with anger and frustration. I don't think Lance was really any good in this, but he wasn't bad and he took Spike's stuff well. Really loved Spike's rana and tope in particular. I even liked the flash pin/stolen finish from Storm though it really cut the match short and I can't see it as a match for the set as a result. Kid Kash v. Tom Marquez This was going okay when the Baldies ran in leading to... Axl Rotten/Balls Mahoney/New Jack v. Da Baldies Okay. I liked Angel's selling of New Jack's prop shots which is something I suppose. Tajiri v. Mike Awesome I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand I really didn't like Awesome in this. Thought his offense just looked really phony and weak by comparison to Tajiri's and he seemed to be moving around in an oddly plodding fashion. On the other hand I fucking loved Tajiri in this. Thought his Hulk Up spot after Awesome dominated the early going was a really awesome spot that did a good job making him look like Awesome's equal. I also really dug the spot where Awesome went for a German, Tajiri landed on his feet and Awesome lets out a "what the fuck?" as Tajiri goes behind him and drops him with a German of his own. Tajiri taking over by working the leg was also a really smart tactic, though Awesome forgot about it in the end. The finishing table spot was also pretty cool here as Tajiri blocks a table powerbomb by standing on it and hitting a tornado DDT only to get caught with a a powerbomb through the table a few seconds later. I'm going to nominate this as a really strong carry job even though I'm not sure this has a shot of making the set. Rob Van Dam v. Johnny Smith This was as good a RVD match from this era as you will see and it's all because of Johnny Smith. RVD does contribute a few stiff elbows early and looked decent in some of the first exchanges, but most of the match is carried by Smith. Really loved Smith's counters to RVD's typical spots and I thought the arm work - while it ultimately went nowhere - was well developed, sharp and looked really good. Smith was also really working the crowd well and I really should give RVD credit for selling the arm some and taking some decent theatrical bumps in this one. Smith worked the great majority of this on offense which was definitely to the better and I loved the spot where you thought he was going to get caught up top by Van Dam but ended up hitting his dropkick and then elbow drop for good nearfall. you have to question the logic of having RVD win entirely because of Fonzy interference, but it kept Smith looking strong and RVD was so over at that point that nothing was really going to hurt him. Deserves to go through. Tommy Dreamer v. Steve Corino Corino gets embarrassed by Tommy as he's tossed all over the place, takes some huge bumps and gets bare assed spanked with a chair. Then Raven comes in and cost Tommy the match. Justin Credible v. Sabu I liked this more than the last match I watched between the two. More of a sprint but I thought the big spots looked better. Decent.
