AstroBoy

Fun action with Rock taking down Benoit and putting the crossface on him early in this one. Benoit and Kane work on the Rock for a little bit and Benoit keeps nudging his way further into the main event scene, looking like he belongs with these guys. We get the big comeback and then miscommunication leads to a surprising Benoit pin over Undertaker. *1/2

Angle is fun bouncing around and generally making Test and Albert look pretty good against him. Test's full nelson chokeslam was nice, pretty much everything else he did not so nice. One thing about Angle is that he takes a hell of a bump over the top to the outside. It always looks like he just dies tumbling out to the floor. Angle gets very little offense and this is about the post-match where the story escalates and Stephanie gets physically battered by accident. 3/4*

These two do have a nice edge when they match up that translates well even in a shorter TV match like this. Jericho still feels relevant and important against Triple H so that's something. Thought that Jericho's springboard dropkick looked pretty good and the Lionsault too, even though he hit knees. X-Pac runs in to further their feud and then Triple H gets to continue being a little more of an edgy tweener by running off Pac. **

Eddy does the heavy lifting for his team while Too Cool get to show some of their flash until Eddy decides not to tag Chyna and he accidentally ends up knocking her to the floor. The breakdown eventually leads to Sexay pinning Eddy. Post-match dance sees Eddy snap and nail both of Too Cool with the IC belt, busting open Sexay pretty badly in a fluke accident. Rikishi has Eddy in the corner and Chyna reluctantly saves him by nailing Rikishi with the belt. This was a nice nuanced piece of story done by Eddy and Chyna and even though I am not wild about the storyline, Eddy's acting has been pretty entertaining. *1/4

Both teams get a run through of some of their signature offense but no real feel to this match. It runs quick and Edge and Christian announce that they are going to run in. Edge nails Jeff with the belt and he falls off the top onto Bubba where the ref counts the pin for the Hardys. It honestly looked like they were going for a double pin scenario here. Edge's reaction is fantastic to Jeff getting the pin, and the Dudleys make the crowd happy by giving the 3D through the table on Edge. 1/2*

Fine action but nothing more than a placeholder to move these stories along. This time feels like a bit of a flux as Triple H and Angle is taking on a different kind of dynamic while they are working to set up all these challengers for the title at the same time. The developments here are good steps in those directions. *1/2

Kane is being kept really strong and heavily pushed as a guy who the Rock can't shake. He gets to dominate Rock here for a good portion of the match and looks like he might win the belt with Christian stops it. Christian was real good here as an opportunist, I also loved his spinning wheel kick as a cut off to the Rock. The story of everybody gunning for the Rock is good enough and he portrays his struggle pretty well before catching Christian with a Rock Bottom to retain. **

Good match. Two guys who know how to work a hard-hitting physical match that feels like a real contest. Benoit uses a northern lights suplex which Cole calls a german suplex and Tazz, in a sign of things to come, makes fun of Cole. Sidenote that I like Tazz on commentary here. He is annoying and grating in a good way, at least to me, though your mileage may vary. The finish allows Benoit to hammer away at Rikishi until he can use the german to secure a win. **

I didn't think they had a ton of chemistry on this night. It wasn't bad but this does feel like a step back for Jericho in terms of card placement. They also didn't seem to be on the same page on a bridge up backslide spot toward the end here. X-Pac gets a cheap win and that was kind of a surprise. *1/2

It was a pleasant surprise to see Edge and Christian get such an extended heat segment on Undertaker. They were really presented as the superior team and a real threat here, very refreshing stuff. Rock gets the hot tag and the crowd eats it up. Extracurricular stuff outside the ring lets Edge nail Rock with a chair for a close nearfall. Hebner is really distracting and annoying in all this stuff down the stretch, sticking out really badly. I was shocked that Edge and Christian got the double chairshot on Rock and the pinfall as Christian scores it on the champ. Really big win for them and they now feel like big time players capable of being seen at a main event level in these interactions. **3/4

This was nothing. I know they had to angle Triple H into a more face type of role against Angle for the time being but it was a bit nauseating to see Triple H walking tall against Test, Albert, and Trish in such easy fashion. Weird vibe for the match after Test's promo kind of got some cheers yet he is presented as basically a heel jobber trying to dishonor the valiant fighter's woman. Triple H pedigrees Albert after the match for good measure. 1/2*

I have to credit Chyna for taking that insane bump to the outside from the corner and for throwing some nice clotheslines on Angle. Angle is also certifiable for taking that suplex over the ropes to the floor so soon after suffering a concussion. The match is standard fare and Angle knocks out Chyna making it possible for Guerrero to "accidentally" win the belt in a pretty well done finish. *

Kane was completely terrible in this. On two straight occasions he messed up getting in position to take Benoit's German suplex. Later he nearly kills Benoit trying to reverse suplex him back into the ring. He also threw the lightest and most shitty double axe handle to Benoit when Benoit was arguing with the Rock. That, coupled with Kane's heavy breathing, made this a bit annoying. Benoit was fine bouncing around Kane's offense but this didn't amount to much. *1/2

It's just so hard to care about any of this. The team structure is essentially useless and exists for the sake of a tired and pointless swerve. Russo, even with help and distraction, shouldn't be laying out Goldberg with a huge baseball bat shot. Kronik gets to enter as a dual person and the Harris Brothers also apparently exist outside of the rules. And grabbing the belt before having to escape, just the whole thing, nonsense. Sting did look to be working hard and Jarrett is fine opposite him in the opening moments. Booker T continues to run with the ball but he doesn't feel important enough here. Goldberg gets a great reaction but he's just a bumbling idiot, although I enjoyed the Bret Hart disguise. All of Bret Hart's sleights of hand are very fun as he commits to them as a dastardly, curmudgeonly slimeball. *1/2

Going to echo thoughts that the locker room emptying felt really tacked on and silly here. The crowd brawling is fine and I get it as a trope for a final where guys have worked multiple times to get there. That said, Lynn applying a bow and arrow in the midst of all of that was just so stupid. Tone deaf decision. Mikey and Tajiri are so much fun as a team. Simon and Swinger are not charismatic enough or credible enough to carry this as a team being taken out by allied faces. The dual tarantula spot was hokey and this probably would have worked better if they had just eliminated Simon and Swinger first and ran with a more nearfall-heavy final portion. Mikey hits a great whippersnapper off the top for the win to a big pop. **

The car crash spot culminating with Rhino goring Dreamer felt really earned and logical, something that I think is underrated in terms of pulling off. Rhino continues to be a bright spot and has tons of presence. The Spike run-in is really good and causes a really fun breakdown of a finish with Lynn getting a pin over Credible to build some momentum. **

They sure did a lot of stuff in the time they had but none of it really resonated with the crowd. Simon and Swinger are impossibly bland. At least Doring and Roadkill were kind of crowd pleasing and stood out a little bit. There are so many ridiculous signature move pun names here that Joey Styles calls with enormous amounts of pride and vigor -- it becomes nauseating. Fine match though to push Swinger and Simon through to the final. *1/2

Yeah this looked to be building to something really nice and kind of sputtered the longer it went. Both guys brought it but this was kind of hurt too by the lack of a clear face and heel. Scorpio was not afraid to get aggressive in the first fall and threw a great punch to keep Psicosis down so I thought maybe they would go with that and then suddenly Psicosis is blatantly working ref spots and using low blows to outright cheat. From there it kind of settles into Scorpio working over Psicosis with him finding ways out and hitting his crowd pleasing spots. They both brought a lot to the table and this was mostly executed really well outside of feeling a tad aimless. But good stuff nonetheless. ***1/4

The whole vibe of this was a ton of fun. I really like Onryo. He has a reckless kind of smoothness in the ring. His dropkick looked great. He really had a quick snap on his rana and he died well on the table splash outside the ring. I didn't really love Tanaka needing to work in a German suplex fighting spirit no sell spot but the big picture here was a good and energetic match. ***

I quite liked this. Gannosuke is more than competent in keeping a control segment interesting and the outside interference, if nothing else, offers some variety to the body of the match. Hayabusa is just so dynamic and explosive on offense with such a huge bag of tricks to pull from. This really went kind of overboard with the amount of crazy moves done to each other in the finish run but they implemented the interference well and it helped keep the pace way up. As far as high-impact battles that are visually pleasing, this is a good one. ***1/2

By the end it got better but man Gedo and Jado just took almost all of this match to the point that it felt more like an extended squash to me. Now, in the long run, that did kind of work because the eventual comeback feels bigger when it comes. But I felt this could have had a bit more give and take. I liked the way that Mammoth took the beating and he seemed to have some talent for sure. I could have done without so much reliance on the interference and weapon spots. Satisfying finish, wish they would have changed it up along the way a bit more to get there. **3/4

This was good stuff. And honestly, I thought Reckless Youth looked like the better hand here. Dragon's character/promo is in some weird nether region between trying way too hard while being kind of earnest and kind of tongue-in-cheek and it doesn't really land. Reckless feeds into Dragon's offense really well and this is a match where it seems like Dragon has a lot he wants to do and Reckless is the one kind of keeping it more cohesive. Reckless works focused and true to his character, pausing to jaw with fans, cutting off Dragon and then taking Dragon's comebacks well too. Dragon is fine here but this seems like one of those moments where his ambition is a little beyond what he can comfortably execute. Personally I thought both the ref bump and screwy finish came across clunky but the result was a smart one. ***

Rodney's heel trip was fantastic, he really had some slick stuff early on. Lance Cade just doesn't do much for me. He doesn't work to his size at all and he's not sympathetic enough to fire up and fly around on the heels here. Rodney is preferable to Gas here but what makes this tick is Smothers going all in as the face in peril. He commits big-time, convulsing in the corner on the defensive, stumbling to the wrong corner when going for the big tag, etc. Cade hits the cross body and then after the match the Posse get their heat back. *3/4

I dug Abs and his urgency early on, really liked the pace they were going at. As the match went on, I enjoyed the output of Abs less but really liked the nasty little moves Regal would utilize on offense. His cutoffs were nice and he really kept things going along here. Abs shakes off interference from his former friends and wins with his finish. This was fine. **

Anton doesn't really impress besides having some of the worst facial hair ever. Him working the clap into his submission on Corino was a nice spot and helped along Corino's comeback. As for Corino, the fans here have taken to him as a face really well and he gets a great response. He works the Dusty elbow into his repertoire and the match itself is solid enough while not being memorable in any way. **