Loss

This was a really spirited five minute match and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Liger continues to look like a killer and Tanaka gets his moments. He looks much better here than he does in BattlARTS, which I may have said once before. There are lots of cool little things here, like Tanaka holding on as long as possible before breaking the cross armbreaker when Liger reaches the ropes that show that he knows he has to dig a little deeper to beat someone at that level. I also love Liger countering the arm wringer into a sleeper. Such a simple counter I'd never seen done. Lots to appreciate in a very short but very good match here. Kind of like a Ramones song, but a wrestling match. ***1/2

Iizuka has become the utility player that can go wherever he is needed on the card, similar to the role Hiroshi Hase used to have in the company. It's a role that I think is often underappreciated and can be hugely valuable. Fukuda works the bulk of the match for his team and does an admirable job, but I suspect Kanemoto being in the ring more would have resulted in a hotter crowd. The work was good here, but it just wasn't that exciting. I didn't realize Fukuda passed away shortly after this match.

Second match between these teams in three days. You weren't kidding about that superplex. Whoa, that Takaiwa bump. Someone should GIF that. I know this is clipped, but I didn't get the sense this was anywhere in the same league as their 2/1 match, but it was still pretty good. Loved Wagner's showmanship and schtick in this one, and it's a really fun sprint at the very least. Good way to pass 10 minutes, but not much more than that.

This was pretty great. Benoit looked awesome, but this is one of HHH's finer performances I think. He was every bit as physical as Benoit here and seemed motivated to prove he could go at the same level. For one match anyway, he could. I love the heelish stuff, like the low blow, the drop toehold into the steps and all the build to the false finish after the diving headbutt that had the crowd coming unglued. Benoit got a polite reaction coming out, but the heat really built in this the longer it went, and that's a big credit to both guys. This was put together on the fly after Eddy's injury, but to their credit, they work hard to make the main takeaway Benoit's visual tapout after the crossface and the plan seems to be to get him over at the top level. I'm curious if there will be a better WWF TV match in 2000. ***3/4

The heel NAO doing all their babyface pandering before and during the match can go fuck themselves. I'm glad they're about to fade into irrelevance. Another pretty okay match before the finish where Eddy injured his elbow, throwing the booking up in the air, as the Radicalz were supposed to win, tying the series at 1-1, and turning the Benoit-HHH match into the deciding match which would end in a non-finish.

Rock promos. I still love watching the reactions and seeing how over he is, but ugh. Could never stand him. Don't mind him in the ring so much, but the promos just grate on me. I'm just one guy though, and the people love it, so the majority rule in this case. Angle's promo on Detroit's many setbacks and losses is pretty funny, but little did he know. Third Angle match against Rock so far in 2000, first for Tazz. Just being in the ring with The Rock does elevate Tazz to an extent and legitimize him as a star. WWE sometimes uses that as an excuse for young guys to do jobs, but it's valid here. Kudos to Rock for taking Tazz's suplexes and giving both guys plenty of offense. Even Steven makes one of his first appearances in the company, as Angle gets the win on Tazz. I don't think doing a job just a few weeks into his run did Tazz any favors, but I don't think it alone was enough to ruin him or anything either. Good fun all around.

Foley's promo is great for getting the Radicalz over and shows just how much more the WWF was in tune with the wrestling audience at this point in time than WCW in terms of perceptions about age of the top guys and younger midcarders not getting honest chances at the top spot. The more things change. HHH gets great heat and cuts a tremendous promo full of false bravado about what he would do to everyone in the ring if he felt like it. He even put over Benoit as a former big fish in a small pond who is used to being the standard bearer elsewhere, but now has to face the standard bearer in the WWF. What happened to this great heel who puts over his opponents in his promos and gets heat by telling lies, talking tough and showing fear when Foley threatens him to close the segment? Stephanie is a much better TV performer today, but she was far more of a heat magnet then. HHH is just AWESOME in this promo segment. The match is okay. I want to say Waltman trained with Boris Malenko at one time, so they know each other fairly well. The action looked really good and was really smooth, and we should have known the result, because as CRZ frequently reminded us back in 2000, X-Pac never jobs in singles matches, unless it is to Steve Blackman.

Onita's mobbed entrance with the leather jacket and cigarette is sort of what you imagine an alternate universe would be like if Kerry Von Erich was still alive wrestling at the Sportatorium every Friday night -- older, jaded as hell and a beloved folk hero brawler. He immediately brawls outside the ring, which I can tolerate in a barbed wire match because who wouldn't try that? Onita Pro has lost some of its shine from the wildness of 1999 for me. Still a fun promotion that I love, but now it just comes across as Dreamer-Sandman-style ECW with better action and far more charisma from Onita. That makes it worth watching, but not really great. A 6-man works better than the 8-mans and 10-mans I've seen from this group in the past because the action is a bit easier to follow. This is definitely a promotion where everyone involved knows their role, as the camera pretty much stays on Onita no matter what else is happening, and when he's not there, his absence is the story. I don't have much problem with that, since his stardom sort of swallows the match whole as it is. I love the headbutt battle, probably my favorite part of the match! Even at 14 minutes, this felt a little long, but it was a good match. ***1/4

I thought this was very good. Satanico was a machine, just destroying everything in his path, especially that punk Tarzan Boy. They are really building the heat on that feud, because Tarzan got almost no moments of revenge in this match, so all roads are leading to their hair match on 2/25. I loved when Satanico bit his fingers, and when the referee dared try to stop him, Satanico responded by biting the referee's fingers too. That feud is so hot that even something like Atlantis-Villano comes off a bit cold, even though it's not, and we did get some progression there with the clean finish. This was a fun 11 minutes. ***1/4

A hostile takeover is also not a private army literally swarming in to take over a company, and when it's raining cats and dogs, my front yard isn't covered in pets. Lots of words are used in the English language for things that aren't literal. They may not have been "stolen", but WWE has a long history of signing guys to hurt the opposition more than to benefit themselves. They've been doing it for over 30 years. I'm not even saying that's what happened in this case, or that's what the intent was. But it's a reasonable assumption based on their track record.

Hey, you know what CMLL needs -- another hot blood feud! Now Atlantis-Villano III, Satanico-Tarzan Boy and Blue Panther-Olimpico are all going strong and I suspect there's more depth to come. I love this company and can safely say it's the best in the world. This is only 8 minutes but it's a total adrenaline rush and has a complete beginning, middle and end, so I have no problem calling it a great match. Olimpico does a five-alarm blade job after Panther goes after his mask with a vengeance before Olimpico returns the favor at not quite the same level of vitriol, almost like this is a new level of aggression for him. Someone can confirm or deny that, but watching this at least seems like growth for him. All the mask ripping and retribution is really excellent, and Olimpico's blood-soaked topes are just awesome. Ready for more of this feud! ****

We get about 8 minutes of the 11:32 match. I thought this was solid. The action was strong and I would have liked it without this element, but what put it over the top for me was how Hashimoto was presented as a cut above and came across as larger than life. I guess you could say this was around the time he was peaking as a major star before it all went to hell. I like the dynamic of Iizuka as his workhorse that he takes with him everywhere he goes. I also liked the clean-as-a-whistle submission finish when Hashimoto trapped Nakanishi in the cross armbreaker. There was no shame at this point in tapping clean to Hashimoto, and both he and Nagata got in their shots in losing, so this was presented very well. ***

About half of the 13:37 match is shown on TV. They are pushing the Liger-Minoru Tanaka feud hard, and New Japan seems to be a much better fit for Tanaka than BattlARTS, where the Sano match made him seem a little vanilla. Here, Liger toys with him for a while before he comes back with a surprise heel hook out of nowhere and Samurai and Kashin end up in a battle when Sammy tries to make the save. Very All Japan-ish in that moment. I think this needed more time to truly rank much higher for me, but I liked what I saw, and I certainly have a lot of time for a Liger-Minoru Tanaka feud. ***

This was an excellent sprint. Lots of attitude and aggression before the bell even, as Kanemoto and Wagner ambush Otani and Takaiwa before the bell rings, before Otani can even take off his jacket. The match doesn't really let up from there and they continue to cut a breakneck pace for 12 minutes. Otani blows a dropkick, but they cover for it nicely, with Wagner taking a page out of Liger's book and stopping to applaud him. A minute or so later, noticing the crowd still wasn't back into the match, Otani hit a reverse spin kick, then signaled "I'm ok" to the crowd, made them laugh, and then they were back into the action like it never happened. To me, it's never about the blown spot, but rather the reaction that makes or breaks it, and that reaction was tremendous. Wagner finishing Otani with the Michinoku Driver was a strong finish as well. Tremendous match. ***3/4

JOTYC.

Enough people have said this that I do want to treat it seriously. I honestly do believe everyone is treated fairly -- genuinely -- but enough people have said it separately that maybe there is something to it and I should address it in some fashion. There was a person who people recently wanted banned with whom I have no relationship, who has no podcast and who got off to a rocky start here, but who is turning into a pretty good poster. So the leniency goes in all directions. What I would say about Parv is that it seems he often finds himself in situations where when he says something provocative or controversial, three or four people respond to point it out or provide opposition. I do see cases like that as the board policing itself and then I am unsure what I should do next in an admin capacity. If he was intimidating people to the point that no one was responding, I would absolutely step in, but I haven't seen evidence of that happening. Maybe I am reading this completely the wrong way. If I am, please tell me. But having said that, I would encourage people to point me to specific examples of cases where someone has been banned or reprimanded for something where someone else has done the same thing and nothing has happened at all. I say that not because I'm saying it's not true, but because I trust the people who make these claims and know there must be something to it if so many people are saying it independent of each other. Of course, you can PM me if you don't want to put that out in the open. I think I'm a pretty fair person, and if it's laid out to me that way, I'll see it. Right now, I don't, but I am willing to engage in good faith.