AstroBoy

I am definitely enjoying Corino's work set against the backdrop of all the other ECW stuff. Here he gives a lot to CW and makes him look up at his level and CW looks pretty sharp in doing so. It's a bit of a builder and Justin Credible comes out to cost Corino the match. Kind of surprising to see Corino take the fall here. ***

Sal has good presence here and is far better and more useful as a second than I remember. This was pretty standard stuff but Guido and Mamaluke's standard stuff has been very good. It feels like Mikey wasn't going all out and Psicosis was a little lethargic coming in after the hot tag but it's a great spot and surprise when Psicosis takes the belt and knocks Sal off the apron through a table. Surprised Sal took that here, but it leads to Mamaluke getting a quick pin on Psicosis with the german suplex. ***

I thought much more highly of this than I thought I would going in. The first part of the match is pretty mundane but worked at a different pace than so much other ECW stuff that it has a nice vibe to it. It had the feel of a slower building title match, taking its time to build into a meaningful outcome. The end of the match sees the dog and pony show kick in and it was an amazing amount of misdirection, bullshit, and hot nearfalls. Corino blades, Billy Corgan gets involved, Corino lays out Francine, Corino gets several red-hot nearfalls that have the crowd biting. Finally Credible gets the upper hand and hits That's Incredible on a chair to retain. This crowd was hot, these guys put together a really good match, and with a stronger start and body this could have been pretty special. May not be for everyone but I thought this just-missed being a near classic. ***3/4

Tajiri and Money have great interplay built around a low blow and Tajiri mocking Money by air humping him before kicking him in the face. I never had much of a sense of Dinero but he seemed solid in this, like a bigger and less standout-ish Tony Mamaluke perhaps. The money puns are out of control as all the offense from Hot Commodity is some ridiculous play on words. Tajiri and Whipwreck were just masters together of putting together hot runs of offense that made them such a dynamic and awesome face tag team to get behind. Another strong match from them. ***1/4

I can't buy into the grudge here at all. RVD really lacks any kind of menace or seriousness to work this kind of grudge match anyway. So much of his offense requires time and cooperation from his opponent and it takes away from any harsh brawling. This was on the long side and Anton doesn't do much for me either. RVD wins with the Frog Splash. *1/4

This was a fine all-action spotfest that led up to Chetti turning on Nova with a massive chairshot to the skull. Guys hit stuff that looked good and Nova and Chetti got a nice reaction and shined pretty well before the breakup. Roadkill is massively over and they get the win to keep up some of their good momentum. *3/4

A lot of the same pre-match schtick from the night before. Sinister Minister gives Simon the claw in the corner again, too. CW and Chilly Willy make for a fun meaty pairing in the early going and I liked the strikes they threw at each other. After some aimless brawling the heels work over Chilly a little bit until he nut shots Simon. This sets off a nice cascade of nearfalls as everyone hits a signature move but it's not enough for the win, thought the nearfalls were pretty smoothly put together. The faces take turns doing the Balls jabs and then each hits a finishing move for the win. **1/2

This was puttering along and then the crowd got distracted bigtime by something in the crowd and this kind of meandered after that point. They worked hard but this never really came together. Some of their spots didn't hit as cleanly as you would hope and there was not a terribly strong story or face/heel dynamic so this just ambled to a finish. **1/4

York and Matthews did a good job taking it in stride as the crowd seems to be pretty firmly all for Doring and Roadkill. Roadkill was really over and has fun big guy offense that the other guys take well. This was pretty much your basic face versus face match with a standoff in the beginning and York and Matthews getting their own moments to bust out fun double teams and get a few cheers. All four raise hands after the match and the FBI runs in to cheap shot them. **1/2

The Kash dive into the crowd of humans is a pretty awesome visual and seemed like a pretty great moment. Rhino matches are beginning to feel like what I imagine Goldberg matches feel like to everyone else. I love Rhino. I don't care about anything else, I don't tire of him mauling people, hulking up through cane shots and anything else, and then goring the hell out of everyone. He was presented perfectly and it's a shame he didn't get a chance to develop a bit more in that role. Not sure how I feel about Kash being practically handed the belt by his friend but this was a fun spectacle. *1/2

This was one of the all-time shine segments from Tajiri and Whipwreck as they run wild and just destroy Mamaluke, Guido, and Sal with weapons, huge dives, fun integration with a steel chair and the crowd is completely nuclear. The interplay between these teams was really fun and unique with Whipwreck and Tajiri just being total killers and FBI getting their ass kicked constantly but not being sniveling heels as they actually have some the toughness and ability to keep fighting back. FBI gets brief control on Whipwreck before Mamaluke dies on a tilt-a-whirl that lands him neck first on the ropes, that was insane. Mamaluke has been so awesome dying in these matches and against all comers really, he has become a real favorite of mine during this project. My only nitpick might be that the finish didn't seem credible enough to steal the tag belts after all the punishment the FBI had taken and how little Whipwreck and Tajiri had taken -- but in that case in still works as a flash finish where FBI were crafty enough to get their one moment to escape with the win. One of my favorite TV matches of the year. ****1/4

This is the result of putting a good team like the FBI in against a hot babyface act like Doring and Roadkill and letting them do their thing. Mamaluke was bumping like a madman and also had a great roll through under a clothesline into a springboard tornado DDT. Good stuff. Doring was plenty serviceable taking a beating and Roadkill was good running through the champs and really getting the crowd amped for a possible title win. Big Sal cheats to help the FBI retain in a fine finish. ***1/2

This match features just nonstop derogatory chants at Hamrick's second. I liked the opening standoff sequence a little more than a typical one because Hamrick is the type of guy to get bested at almost every turn to make Kash come out of even a sequence like that looking one step ahead. Kash's step up springboard was really smooth and Hamrick takes nice bumps so this was pretty good, it just didn't have a great hook. **3/4

I liked Money more than Mahoney in this one. I thought Balls' offense looked really light and thought he went to the well one too many times with the "balls" punch combo. Money looked to be working pretty hard and I really liked him pulling Balls down by the hair when he tried to start his comeback. Pretty good match. **1/2

So stupid on so many levels that have already pretty much been pointed out. Just like the Wargames match, Russo should never be able to walk into a cage and start dominating Booker T or any wrestler just because of a baseball bat or some other weapon. Russo literally dominates as the entire roster conspires against him and cuts him off at the pass to allow champion Booker T a hope of not being overwhelmed here. Ludicrous. Logically, Booker T not walking out of the cage is one of the dumbest things a person could ever do. Just trash on so many levels. Russo did take a pretty nasty fall taking that spear out of the cage. DUD

This was perfectly fine and Storm was doing a nice job taking advantage of his opportunity around this time but his push is fading so it seems more and more futile. Sting is just kind of there and doesn't look particularly motivated but this was moving along well until they wrapped it up pretty quickly. Storm goes down fairly easily and that's a disappointment. **1/2

I think Jindrak looks like he has some potential as a base for smaller guys. O'Haire and Jindrak have nice chemistry with Rey and Juvy in particular and there's no reason why they couldn't have had a really stretched out series of matches with each other over the tag belts. Jindrak in particular is great catching Rey off a springboard with a tilt-a-whirl. Reno and Vito are in there and they do a good job of making them seem like guys with some potential, playing up whatever their story is. Somewhat disappointing that they build Reno up pretty well and then he jobs out quickly to the leg drop to the groin from the Filthy Animals. The injury really was too bad as Orndorff was working his ass off and doing a great job. ***

I was getting behind this and looking forward to this building off the previous week and instead Juvy got injured on the monkey flip. Disappointing. The first few minutes looked good, though, and looked to be setting up a good match.

This was a pretty fun six-man with them all getting some time and I appreciated them taking a pretty basic approach and just letting the NBT work over Yang for awhile without messing up that flow. Jindrak and O'Haire are good athletes and I really like O'Haire's presence. I like his clothesline and his shit talking. They may have run out of ideas for the control as O'Haire hits the Seanton which gets broken up. This goes on a while longer and loses a little steam as they resort to more spots. Hayashi does the Gargano slingshot DDT spot. The double beal into the powerslam actually looked really awesome. And then Leia Meow wins the match without even being a participant. **3/4

I liked them taking their time with the matwork at the beginning, culminating with Juvy spiking Rey with a DDT and setting both men off to the body of the match. Juvy takes on the role of subtle heel and cutoff man for the most part, while Rey works from behind and gets some flashy spots to fight back. I think the body of the match kind of lagged and lacked some focus but they kick it into another gear for the finish. The finish run is a little spotty but the spots are nice and these two have good chemistry. Juvy rolls up Rey after getting power bombed, which didn't make a lot of sense in this context but it's still a fine finish between two partners trying to test each other. ***

Booker just doesn't have the charisma here that they push him as having. He doesn't have some big crossover connection with the crowd as much as they try to claim he does. He deserves to be in the spot and I can't think of a better alternative for this time really, but something about him in this spot feels bit forced and flat. So surprisingly, I found myself thinking that Nash came to play ball here, relatively speaking. He blades. They work a few spots cleverly around the exposed buckle (although Soup is right that it's pointless -- they should have used the cage). Nash bumps relatively well for Booker's awkward offense, including his missile dropkick that barely connects. And they kind of just go through the paces, but doing that is better than the average Russo offering, so the match was okay. The crowd was fairly into it. The result was the right one. Perfectly fine. After the match Madden says Booker T is starting to approach some of the great world champions of all time. That might be a tad bit of hyperbole. **1/2

Good call letting these guys just go out there and have time to work a heated back-and-forth six-man. As such, everyone got a little chance to stand out and do some fun stuff. The Wall is pretty useless to me but they maximized the table spot and his size and got a good pop out of the crowd for it. Chavo was a pretty good glue guy and LeRoux at least has a modicum of charisma. 3 Count is always fun enough and this was pretty good. ***1/4

This was absolutely ridiculous. The layout of this couldn't have possibly made Mike Awesome look more like a doofus. Standard and inoffensive action for a while before Awesome makes a big comeback and gives Jarrett the big power bomb. Kickout. Later on, he gets another big power bomb and again Jarrett kicks out and I'm starting to wonder why Awesome can barely muster a hope spot in this and every time he makes a big impact move to come back, Jarrett valiantly hangs in there. Now the Buffalo Bills surround the ring and take turns beating up Jarrett before Awesome lays him out again. Jarrett kicks out AGAIN! He is like the Terminator here. Would it not have been a fitting enough ending to have the hometown football heroes beat up the shit talking heel and then have Awesome pin him? No, because we have to bring out Gary Coleman so Jarrett can smash a guitar over his head. D-list celebrity Gary Coleman in all his glory. Finally Awesome pins him after Jarrett overcame Awesome's finisher, interference from Coleman, and getting owned by the Buffalo Bills football team. I know I'm being harsh I just thought this was really stupidly laid out and made Awesome look like such a tool. *

About five minutes into this I started to wonder how high I was possibly going to be on this. It felt like it was surging forward to near-classic status as a total clash of bulls who were just mauling each other with bombs. And then Russo came out and I groaned. Having said that, this was still fantastic and just missed that near-classic level for me. Steiner took a hell of a bump running into the corner and getting booted down by Goldberg. Goldberg press slamming Steiner was legitimately awe-inspiring and Steiner's top rope belly to belly was awesome, with Goldberg just barely getting his head over in time as he hit the mat. This was made by intensity and the believability of these two as monsters. They went after each other to destroy each other and even though the Russo and Midajah stuff put a damper on it, it couldn't bring it down completely. ****