ohtani's jacket

Now this is what I call a trios match. The workers had one goal in mind here and that was to set up Santo vs. Perro Jr, and they brought their A-games to produce the type of heated trios you only see during the build to a big match. Perro finally embraced his rudo role and was the nastiest he's been thus far. Everyone else chipped in with intense brawling and finally CMLL feels like it has some sort of direction.

Orton winning a battle royal to become the number one contender is a little weak, but he looked killer in this match, especially when he was working with Jericho. This was another awesome Evolution match with Flair continuing to do a fantastic job of trading shots with the babyfaces and Batista continuing to grow in his role as a beast. The finish was extremely well done and a great way to set up Orton's title shot. He looked like a top 10 guy in the world at this point.

I was a big fan of Lizmark in AAA.

Larry Z was good too.

My favorite will always be GZA's "I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera." There are a surprising amount of Ted DiBiase references in hip hop songs.

I was interested in how much matwork they would do in this, and the answer was a little. If you squint a bit, it almost looks like Kawada is fighting Yamazaki, which would have been a pretty cool match up come to think of it. The idea of Kawada vs shooters has always been tantalizing to me, but it would have had to have happened in the mid-90s. Kawada looked washed in 2004. He’d done his dash in the immediate post-split period. Nagai was a fairly lousy pro-wrestler as evidenced by his weak selling in this bout, and even weaker facial expressions, but they could have worked a much better bout if Kawada had brought more energy to the bout.

I had high hopes for this as Kanemaru is one of my favorite NOAH guys, but this was disappointing. You could probably argue that it got things right in terms of fan engagement, however it was a crappy bout in terms of detail. Part of that was because it was tailored towards a Dome crowd, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kanemaru was out of his element having a big singles match. The result came across flat to me when it should have been a huge moment. The crowd seemed happy, though.

This was a fairly decent bout for what it was. It’s hard to get much drama out of a single fall lucha bout, but the work was good. It was clear from the moment that Casas stepped out as Felino’s second that he’d get involved in the finish somehow, however it didn’t spoil anything.

If you ever need proof that Santo is different, watch his return bouts to a promotion. He didn’t lift this match to any great heights, but his work within the bout was on a completely different level than any other CMLL worker. Everyone works harder when Santo is around and the energy is raised. Even the crowd responds. The only thing that can really handicap him is the booking and the shortened television format bouts.

This was a decent trios match. It was kind of trippy seeing Satanico square off against Garza since my prevailing image of those two is Satanico abusing a young Hector Garza In ‘95. Garza is a different sort of rudo from the norm, but he’s managed to fit in well with the CMLL regulars and he does a lot of quality shtick. Park, on the other hand, hasn’t had the impact you’d expect from his jump to CMLL. He does work a decent house style match here with some good exchanges with Garza. For some reason, Rey is dressed in his old pirate outfit. OK match.

If you ever wanted to see a crazy match that lasts less than 4 minutes, this is it. Better than the vast majority of Japanese wrestling in 2004 thus far.

Completely average. I’ve never been a Murakami fan, but I was expecting a bit more from Suzuki. I guess it took him a while to flesh out his act.

I liked the intent in this match with both guys hitting hard, and Joe cutting off Homicide with big moves. It was worked at the same level throughout, and they didn’t kick it into another gear for the finishing stretch, which was strange considering it was billed as Homicide’s last shot at the title, but I had no problem with the action itself.

Not the greatest Cibernetico match in company history, but in the context of the weekly TV it was an enjoyable match and a refreshing change from the norm. The match was built around the continuing beef between Casas and Perro Jr. Highlights included a Perro vs Satanico exchange and a rare Casas vs Atlantis exchange. We also got to see Mistico in action, though he fairly raw at the time. Neat scrap between Atlantis and Perro at the end.

Just to prove their Vengeance match was no fluke, here is an excellent television rematch from the WWE’s best matchup. They play up Edge’s title victory like it was a fluke, and continually refer to the fact that Edge’s first IC reign lasted a day whereas Orion’s reign lasted for seven months. Edge doesn’t always get his dues, and deservedly so at times, but he was excellent in his role here and seemed legitimately hungry after sitting on the sidelines for so long. I’m not sure how they’ve going to repackage Orton as a number one contender for the World’s Heavyweight Title after coming out on the losing side of this feud, but this mini-feud with Edge was the perfect warm up for that bout. Orton has a done of momentum heading into SummerSlam in terms of his working ability. His growth as a worker since the Foley match has been meteoric. This was the feud of the month for my money.

Remember that time that Triple H and Benoit had a one hour Ironman match on RAW? Me neither. There’s a reason why this match is so forgettable and it’s name is Eugene. So after around 50-something minutes of semi-decent action and convoluted scoring, Benoit makes a gutsy comeback from 3-1 down and, unbelievably, forces Triple H to tap twice. Evolution make their way to ringside to do the obvious, and then Eugene emerges from the crowd and cleans house. That sets up the finish where Eugene gets his revenge on Triple H and RAW goes off the air with a stare-down between the two. On one hand, it pays off the Eugene storyline in a satisfying manner. On the other hand, it makes a mockery of the title bout. Benoit notched up another win over Triple H, which is impressive when you think about it, but even in a loss, Triple H smartly finds a way to make himself the star of the show.

This was a decent capper to the JBL vs Eddie feud, though it would’ve been far more memorable if Eddie had won the belt back. The action was good, and Eddie’s selling was phenomenal throughout, but the storytelling didn’t always make sense. I couldn’t buy into the idea that JBL was afraid of this type of match, or that cage matches were Eddie’s playground. Given the size advantage, JBL should have been far and away the aggressor. I’m fact, it would have played out better if JBL was stooping to barbaric means to retain his title. The other problem I had with the match was the frog splash from the top of the cage. I can’t remember if Eddie had done it before (probably), but as incredible as it was, it basically cost him the title and it was forgotten about once the bout was over. Waste of a highlight reel move right there. Then there was the finish with Kurt Angle getting involved, which was the WWE reverting back to their usual meh booking. It was odd that no one bled considering how blade happy the workers have been in 2004. I kind of wish this has been a SummerSlam bout instead of a TV match. I would have preferred Eddie to carry the belt through to SummerSlam and drop the title there, but that ain’t how the cookie crumbled. Eddie vs Angle isn’t my favorite match up in the world but it makes sense that Angle is still pissed about losing the belt.

Danielson might be worthy to wash Fujiwara’s feet, but that’s about it.

It feels like they’ve been dragging Chris Benoit vs Triple H out for too long, which is a laughable statement given how long they flogged the Shawn Michaels vs Triple H match up, but I think the angle with Eugene is proof that this rivalry is running out of steam. The Eugene stuff is in poor taste if you ask me. The match isn’t bad. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from Triple H vs Chris Benoit. I have an extremely high tolerance level for Triple H matches, so ymmv, I don’t mind his ponderous technical stuff, and generally find that JR can talk me through those portions of the match. Benoit is Benoit. The problem is that the match up isn’t fresh anymore. Its better than the alternative, I suppose, which was another Kane match, but the Eugene crap at the end takes forever and spoils the bout completely. If there’s a positive it’s that it kept the belt off Triple H, but these guys got shown up big time by the IC bout.

This has a semi-decent video package showcasing a semi-decent reason for Edge and Orton to be feuding and includes at least one good line where Edge tells Orton: ” I may not be a legend, but I dare you to spit in my face .“ What’s cool about this bout is that they take a totally old school approach to it. It’s much longer than you’d expect a IC title defense to be on a 2004 WWE pay-per-view, but they’ve done such a good job of rehabbing the IC belt through Orton that it’s awesome to see the belt holding the same status it did in its glory days. If the idea of a long Orton vs Edge match sounds boring to you, I beg to differ. IIRC, they had some convoluted matches in the late 00s that were excessive, but this is a straight wrestling match for the most part. I probably like the spear vs RKO dynamic more than people who’ve seen it play out a thousand times, but I dug the way the turn buckle being exposed played into the finish. I also love the way Orton make the simple holds he applies seem like vicious submission moves . Lawler was a bit wild during the bout and could have reeled himself in a bit, but this was an excellent bout. Even the hokey acting at the end had a certain charm. If the year has ended in July, I’d have a hard time keeping Orton out of my top 10

Randy Orton has been receiving a heck of a push in 2004 and it’s about to get even bigger. I guess they truly believed he’d be the next breakout star. To his credit, he’s improved a lot during this IC run and is starting to produce some excellent matches. This is a fantastic title defense in front of Jericho’s hometown crowd. They actually had me believing that Jericho would win the title. Never would have thought I’d be digging a Randy a Orton vs Chris Jericho match n my old age, but this hit my WWE sweet spot.

This was more along the lines of a traditional rudo turn than the previous week’s match. The action took a backseat to the constant “will he or won’t he?” teases, and the rudo side took the piss throughout. Finally, the turn happened. It wasn’t a vicious turn, but it did enough to get Perro hear with the crowd. I still think the timing of the turn was far too soon after Perro’s arrival in CMLL, but it’s the summer and I guess they have the Anniversary Show in mind. Plus, there have been a few shows where they turned down the lights and blackened out the crowd, so perhaps they were desperate to drum up some business ahead of the all-important summer stretch. That said, what’s done is done. Santo is about to return, and Perro vs Casas will continue to ratchet up through the summer, so let’s see how it plays out.

Casas and Perro Jr aren’t getting along. Despite the ongoing angle, this was one of the better trios matches in recent times. The dynamics between the workers were strong, and the work was tight. The falling out between partners didn’t over shadow the contributions of the other workers, and they continued to build Garza’s heat by having hum square off with Shocker throughout. These drawn out heel/face turns in lucha rarely deliver good matches. They’re usually a waste a bout. This is one of the better examples I’ve seen, even if the actual turn is a far cry from the best turn in lucha history.

This is a solid match for the most part. It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Jun Akiyama, and I’d honestly rather watch Kobashi defend the title against lowered ranked opponents, but I acknowledge the fact that Kobashi needed to have a rival that was on his level, and that Akiyama was the clear and obvious choice. For most folks, there is such a huge match up that the bout will deliver pretty much everything they want out if a NOAH main event, and I will say, that even though I have been slow to come around to NOAH, and still struggle to get up for NOAH marches for the most part, they at least made an effort in the early years to fly the banner for Japanese pro-wrestling with Budokan shoes and this Dome show.

This was a decent match but needed a stronger finishing stretch. I have a hard time getting into Chavo as a singles worker. He’s a total pro, and completely proficient, I just don’t see anything special in him. Definitely a guy I like better in tag matches. Rey is good in this, but you can definitely see how some people find his WWE work rote or formulaic. Having said that, you need to work to the house style in the WWE otherwise you’ll be out on the street. I feel like I’ve seen more exciting Rey matches than this, though. The finish, in particular, was pretty flat. Not sure the commentators or anyone in the crowd saw that coming, which suggests to me that it was the wrong beat to end on. This show seems polarizing. I’m not sure why it generated such strong reactions. It’s fairly middle of the road, if you ask me. I like the bull rope match more than some folks do, others like this match more than me, but I don’t see anything to get your panties in a twist over.