Loss

These two keep getting time to do three-minute matches and underdelivering and I guess that's how it will be until 2001. Nothing really worth seeing here.

Oh boy. Well, first of all, the recap *is* excellent, and the HHH-Tazz match is a bit infamous for just being what it very obviously is. The big talk at the time was that in defeating Benoit in February and Tazz here, HHH became the linear world champion. I never cared about those things, and I don't even see this so much as HHH maneuvering as I do Vince maneuvering. Heyman needed a favor and Vince was happy to oblige, but boy did he ask for some stuff in return and come out ahead. Not that I blame him, but it's just an interesting chess game. The match itself is fine, but you gotta love HHH getting to treat Tazz's threats sarcastically, bury ECW in his promo, leave both him and Tommy Dreamer laying and get a pin without too much resistance. Vince was putting his champion over, damnit. It is what it is.

Really terrific match with everyone going all out on a house show. "Going all out" in this context doesn't really mean busting out huge moves as it means the commitment to doing something unique and thoughtful. Something interesting to me was how Kanemoto and Otani were alternating as team captains throughout the match, directing traffic when they wanted their teammates to do something specific. You would think Kanemoto was being positioned to usurp Otani in the division, but then you remember that Kanemoto has been treated like a joke in his feud with Liger and come back to reality. The other thing is how much I've enjoyed young Makabe. He's not some all-time great or anything, but I just seriously don't recall hearing anything about him at all, and I've enjoyed him in every match so far. Here, he takes a shitkicking from Liger and lives to tell about it before getting the hot tag. Samurai is so good in matches like this in a way that I think sometimes gets overlooked because he's not necessarily drawing attention to himself. But as the reliable "good hand", he's one of the best. ***1/2

If it means keeping the action in the ring, every Aja Kong match should have lumberjacks (assuming that's what this is) since going outside is always the worst part of her matches. About 8 minutes of highlights that look really good, and I am always a fan of booking where members of an established tag team can also be threats as singles competitors. Mita did a lot of selling here, a role reversal of sorts from the usual LCO bully role. No plunder either -- this was mostly submissions. Not enough here to clearly rate, but I'd love it if this popped up in full.

Not really impressed with Takagi here, because Orihara is clearly a heel and he's clearly supposed to be the ace, and he's doing cheap things like sneaking in low blows, which doesn't make sense. He's also on the bland side. Everything I liked about this match was because of Orihara, who was awesomely charismatic and precise in his ringwork, and everything I didn't like was because of Takagi. I was down on this one.

I don't think Braun is overpushed at all. I would have voted Bray Wyatt. But I think the logic in selecting him is not so much that he's awful, but in the continued frustration toward WWE's lack of a level playing field, where even if he wasn't any good, he would get numerous chances to get over because of his size, where someone smaller who didn't have a push work out once would really struggle to get the opportunity again.

Quite the adrenaline rush of chaotic action. I too would like to see these guys in a longer match, but wow, was this a blast while it lasted. Hector and Perro look awesome in this one, and adding in Texano and Chicana, this may be the greatest collection of talent in an AAA match so far. Until the finish, which is more of a typical AAA thing, this was shaping up to be the best honorary WCW B-show match of the year. ***

One thing that I really liked about this was that until they got into the hot finishing stretch, they really worked hard to keep a sharp contrast in styles. What that meant was that Crazy Max worked a more grounded style while the babyfaces were the high flyers. These guys clearly admire and aspire to American psychology. I like how patient the build is for Crazy Max in establishing their foil -- you know it's going to happen, but they are waiting to do it until the mood is just where they want it and it has the most impact possible. ****

There are a few 2000s discoveries where I get excited every time I see one of their matches coming up. Tomoaki Honma and Ran Yu Yu are at the top of the list thus far. Here, she leads Kuragaki through a very good match that isn't the smoothest thing I've ever seen, but in some ways, that makes it more gritty and hard-fought because Ran makes up for it with her desperate execution. Good to see her something a bit more low key since most of her matches thus far have had her aiming high. Already a favorite. ***1/2

This really doesn't accomplish much in the big picture, although to the WWF's credit, they did downplay it. Still, I don't even understand why they booked it this way from a business point of view. Likely, they gave HHH the win at the end of the show so he'd agree to go along with the angle at the beginning, but it was still counterproductive. The match had its moments, and they were clearly trying to position Jericho as The Guy with him being left alone with HHH and being the designated hot tag, but the crowd had lost a little faith in him after he relinquished the title without a fight. This match is forgotten, and for good reason. A rare misfire for the time period that feels largely political. Maybe we should have paid more attention, because this was far more predictive of the future than the earlier, more remembered segment.

This is of course a classic segment in Raw history, and a shining moment for both guys. This would be the first start-stop push in company history, something that is now a staple, but for now, all was well, and this truly did elevate Jericho to the #2 babyface position just behind Rock, at least while Austin and Undertaker were on the shelf. What's funny is that for as much as they couldn't stand each other at the time, the two had really strong in-ring chemistry. They cut a hard pace, and HHH went out of his way to be a pro. Fun fact: this whole angle was born out of Bischoff making a comment on WCW Live that the WWF wasn't really using Jericho much differently than WCW did, so all this talk about how the WWF saw something in talent that they didn't was not supported by facts. HHH is great in the second segment, maybe one of his best heel moments, in demanding Earl Hebner reverse the decision in exchanging for never touching him again as a referee before firing him and pedigreeing him. ***** segment, *** match, so split the difference. ****

Hard to get too much of a feel for 7 minutes of a 20 minute match, but that's all that aired. The match seemed pretty non-descript -- some impressive stuff, but nothing that isn't also done as part of much better matches. Tiger Mask's hot streak comes to an end, as he's back to his ok-but-not-impressive self.

Jarrett and DDP should be perfectly capable of having a good match without all these bells and whistles, but that's Russo's MO. The difference between WWF crowds and WCW crowds shows itself when the wrestling sequences get the biggest reactions of the match. When they are left alone to work, this is pretty good. I enjoyed the figure four drama (although I wish Jarrett would set up his figure fours with legwork), and Jarrett is so good in the ring sometimes that it makes it easy to forget just how awful he is as a promo. I'd love to see what they could do with a no-BS main event, but that doesn't happen with this leadership. Kimberly turns, which stretches credibility to put it mildly, and Jarrett is now the champion -- a title his father urged him to reject if offered just a couple of months earlier because he thought he'd forever be associated with a dying company. ***

Great seeing late 80s stars like Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett in the top spots in the New Blood. I know a lot of people like the Big Poppa Pump gimmick, but I'm not a fan. Overpushed and really only good for making himself look good, unintelligible promos and I won't get into the other obvious issues. Sting might as well be sleepwalking in this. I hated thing he started doing around this time where one Stinger Splash wasn't enough and he'd start doing four or five in a row. (That move was way beyond stale anyway -- he had a chance to take stuff like that out of his arsenal a few years back, but we covered that in 1997).

Flair and Luger are a really good babyface team, and I like their position on the card. I might have had Sting in this role and Flair a little higher as a singles, but Luger really is trying, even though he can't do much. I really liked the spot when Douglas clotheslined Flair on the apron right after the Flair Flip, then Luger got him immediately with the clothesline of his own to set up the hot tag. Mocking Buff was also amusing. Flair-Douglas seems like a feud that won't be able to deliver in the ring, but that will bring it home in promos. Russo clearly thinks of himself as a major star and he's just not, and this match might have come off better without him stinking it up. Kronik? Man, did they suck.

Kidman's pre-match promo cracked me up in how obnoxious it was. You weren't lying about how motivated Kidman is to make the most of his feud, as this is by far the best Vampiro match I can recall seeing in WCW, with Kidman doing a great job pacing the match and eating his kicks. Hogan's run-in was electric. His acting is what Hogan's acting is -- phony as hell and forced beyond belief (how many times can one guy say son of a bitch, ass, and damnit in a single segment when it was never before part of his character to make it clear he's following a directive?), but the Hogan-Kidman interaction has a ton of heat, and despite the size difference, Kidman can bump like hell for him. I think they were trying to get across that the referee was so in shock and scared by Hogan's rampage that he thought he better do what he was told, but that point wasn't really conveyed very well. Good match before Hogan showed up, and I even liked the angles with Kidman and Bischoff to an extent. "Norman's in catering? Screw him." Presenting Terry Taylor as a stooge seems like a rib. Not a fan of the match, and all I can think about is that it sucks when you are at a show live and have to watch big chunks of it on the Jumbotron. Funk vs Smiley was completely ridiculous, but I mean that in the best way. Tons of fun. They really made a special effort to make this memorable, and Funk is far more in his element now. I wish for God's sake they would stop with the Dustin Rhodes feud since it's not a good use of either one of them, but Funk and Smiley hit the right note in terms of comedy, memorable spots and brutality. ***

Flair did a promo earlier in the show I think it was where he said this a fight for survival, at this point, not a sport. I think Russo had this idea that Flair looked embarrassing in wrestling gear and would be more over wrestling in street clothes if I remember right. Russo comes out before the match starts because two veterans against two young guys isn't fair, so the Harris Bros. are added to even the sides in his eyes. Flair and Luger have to fight back against all odds and the crowd gets far more into it than they likely would have a traditional tag, so I think it was a good move. This wasn't quite a good match, but I do think I enjoyed it more than Chad. There were a few moments where everyone's timing was off -- notably Flair getting up voluntarily when no heel showed up to break up the figure four, Luger having to stall when a Harris was jumping off the top rope in plain sight, and a few other similar moments. Liz decking Disco was a fun spot, but because this is WCW, the camera didn't really catch it. This is a bit overbooked, to put it mildly, but I had fun watching it.

There are some really good moments in this match, but absolutely nothing has any consequences (this means something different than that moves aren't sold -- they are!), so it's for naught. I've gotten to where there's not much more I hate in Joshi than generic run-ins from other wrestlers wearing t-shirts and athletic shorts, especially when it's not like the particular part of the match symbolizes unique danger. At times, you see all the seconds brawling around ringside for absolutely no reason, and their connection to the in-ring action is not really apparent. Kansai does a chokeslam of Amano on to Ozaki in a really cool moment that reminded me of the Four Corners in June of '95, but the match moved on to something else quickly. Like I said, most things were sold pretty well, but the action was going sideways most of the time instead of building toward a big moment or climatic finish.

With all the climbing and escape attempts, this was more of a WWF-style cage match than any WWF cage match I can recall seeing. I do like seeing Oscar Sevilla, and Marabunta is an old 90s favorite, but this match wasn't the best showcase for the talent because the gimmick swallowed it whole.

Octagoncito looked really good here and had a few moments in particular, particular the spinny thing he did to the floor, where he looked exceptional. The match was nothing too special, but it was nice to see an AAA match without too much tomfoolery for a change. I'm pretty sure this one was heavily clipped.

It’s funny when I see Santo interact with wrestlers outside his usual style how much he completely outclasses him. That was true in January with the Toryumon crew, and that’s true once again with Quackenbush. He carries him to an excellent match. Quackenbush was where he needed to be when he needed to be there, but Santo is just on another level, and I feel weird stating the obvious in that regard. They mostly stayed on the mat instead of trying to Americanize this too much (other than the 15-minute time limit), which I appreciated. ***3/4

This struck me as the indy version of Juventud Guerrera-Blitzkrieg in a lot of ways, which is a compliment. For some reason, I was expecting more bomb throwing. Don't get me wrong, this match had tons of it, but there was a really strong wrestling core here as well. Mike Mayhem strikes me as the type of guy who should have been Low Ki's Psicosis that he took everywhere to make him look good, as he understood his style, and added a lot of really nice heel touches to help get him over. I love the mid-air submission counter from Low Ki to whatever Mayhem was trying. It's clear by now we've barely scratched the surface with Low Ki, but that we are in for an awesome ride. ****

Very fun, balls-out TV match. JC Ice has go tot be one of the most underappreciated guys in wrestling for being able to do a match like this even though it's not how he normally worked in Memphis for most of his career. Highlight of the match was Jamie-san's sunset flip off the apron into the powerbomb on the floor.

Lodi is actually Idol (Lodi backwards) and Lenny Lane is Rave. The announcers have no idea what they are doing, as usual. Kid Wikkid does the club gimmick way better and 3Count has the market cornered on the dancing/wrestling hybrid thing, so there's not much place for them, sadly. I've seen Lane show some promise at times, but it never lasted, and we don't see it here. I'm sure all these reinventions WCW put him through for reasons outside his control didn't help much.