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I actually miss WCW 2000. It was a bad wrestling company with a bad product and horrible creative, but at least I had no reason to *hate* it. WCW 2000 never sided with a certain president, never had someone like McMahon in power, never did business with a certain country, never killed the indies for the sake of it, never got so greedy with fans, never asked people for money to unlock moves in a wrestling videogame, never rewrote history this way... April is usually that time of the year, I check the 'Mania card and I might decide to watch a match or two for good time's sakes (after they killed the Rumble many years ago). Maybe the go home show if I have enough spare time. This year it's all free on Netflix and I don't want anything to do with it. Cody and Orton was so easy to build and they messed it up. Let's have Cody win and side with the Authority in 2026, that would certainly be good. I lost all interest in Punk when he became everything he hated and preached against, a greedy part-timer. I keep hearing Oba Femi is supposed to be good, but I don't want to watch Lesnar, as allegations keeps on piling and he's still on the card. There arecelebrities on the show and I have no idea who they are, WWE claims to be a global company and yet if you're not American and/or a influencers simp you have no idea who these stars are. Cena is back to 'host the show' because they are not selling tickets, while he retired like a minute ago and there's no reason for him to be there. Stephanie is headlining the hall of fame, need I say more. The main eventers are at least 40 years old and a few of them are pushing 50. It's sad.

Yeah, Stephanie headlining over AJ Styles is so funny. She was the best at emasculating main eventers with no payoff... uh oh, she did that with Cody too, didn't she? Hopefully she can go back to that funded podcast where she can pretend she is relevant or knows something about wrestling. It is a comedy joke, as the wrestling people she interviews are constantly kissing her butt, while she does the same with guests outside the wrestling bubble, almost like she wants to be cool enough to hang out. Let's not forget she was head of creative from late 2000 to 2013/2014 and man it was a horrible run.

Fun 10 minutes young lions match. This was solid, crisp and they did not exaggerate with the use of moves, nearfalls or strikes at any point, so this basic undercard match looked so refreshing and well put together. The selling was pretty consistent as well, especially from Yamada, until the last couple a minutes, that were exciting to watch despite the lack of selling. This was a cool bout in retrospect, as both guys would later develop great careers. ***

In retrospect, not a dream match like Rockers vs the real MNX or the Rock & Rolls, but this was still a good attraction and a solid bout for the dying AWA. Condrey was good at bullying the young challengers, Michaels did look good here as a babyface in peril and he was clearly inspired by Ricky Morton at this stage of his career. Fun finish spot, but the camera work was quite bad and it didn't come across as too good. ***

This was such a blast and made me want to watch more of Andre. The round system helped big time, allowing them to pace the bout accordingly and without having to rush this. The closeups of their faces were also awesome, capturing Wanz's struggle to hang in there and Andre's selling, definitely the best feature of the match. The footage was clipped here and there, but there was plenty of good stuff and the crowd erupted when Wanz finally managed to strike Andre and make him fall down in the corner. Not the best finish, but a hot one thanks to the crowd. ***1/2

Basically Puerto Rico's version of the War Games format, but all 10 wrestlers were in the ring from the start and the only way to win was to handcuff all of the opponents to the cage. This is hard to rate, of course, as there was a lot going on at the same time and sometimes the camera failed to show it all. Colon and Invader took most of the pops for the babyfaces, isolating opponents and humiliating Starr at all times, but this was quite messy. Easy to watch because it was fun, but hard to follow because it was too chaotic. Some of the heels phoned this in, but it is hard to blame them as it was a caged battle royal after all, some of the handcuffing didn't look too great in execution or believability. ***?

A good match, but once again they were clearly pacing themselves for a long one, despite the downtime being limited and improved by a good quality of strikes. Gordy was a breath of fresh air for All Japan and found a great chemistry with Hansen, isolating Tenryu in a very good segment and clearly being above Hara in the pecking order. This surprised me and most people, as the time limit draw was replaced by a double count-out finish, that had the same outcome, but it was built differently. ***1/2

I believe the correct date is 12/4/87. This felt like a huge match, bigger than a random tournament bout. The Tenryu/Tsuruta strikes were great as usual and their parts made this worth it, but the rest of the match didn't feel as special, as both Yatsu and Hara were clearly used as filles to make this get to the 30 minutes draw. However, these had some impressive stuff later on, when Hara managed to survive the final assault of his opponents, as Tenryu couldn't help him much. This was a bunch of great sequences in a good match. ***1/4

Bless them for trying hard and attempting to do an epic here, but Garvin was not super hot and it wasn't easy, despite their good performance and Garvin trying to win the crowd over. He sold his leg well anyway, and so did Flair once he started bleeding due bumping on the cage. There wasn't much wrong with the match itself, but it felt out of place as it didn't feel like a big clash, despite main eventing the PPV. They did well with a couple of nearfalls, the finish wasn't too great though. ***1/4

While getting the whole roster on the big card is a nice thing to do, this was too crowded and I didn't enjoy the early eliminations, as they felt rushed and they had the sole goal to get some people out of there in a quick fashion. This got better once Strike Force and the Harts got involved, but they both got knocked out too early. Unexpected finish with the Islanders and the Stallions, out of all people, it was somewhat solid but not what you would want from a division this deep. **3/4

Not a great match, but a big deal as Brody returned to All Japan and squared off against his former partner Hansen, so this had a lot of buzz and a good crowd. Their stuff was nice enough, they teased it and then brawled, while also Snuka proved to be a commodity player. Gordy wasn't great and looked a bit lost, but did enough to feed the opponents and help Hansen catch a breath here and there. Of course, this had a non-finish as the tournament was still in the early stages. ***

This was a great TV match, as Savage was extra generous with Bret and made his stuff look really good at all times. Bret was solid, clearly evolving into a great single competitor, but something was missing at the beginning as his tempo wasn't perfect. This picked up great once Savage started selling the leg, as Bret focused on it with a crispy work that made him look like a real threat. They used their time very effectively, putting Bret over but also praising Savage's resilience and his textbook underdog comeback. ***1/2

Another good match between these two, but it was another angle advancement, that fell a notch below the one from August. It started off great, highlighting Jumbo now being extra aggressive towards Tenryu, who got his butt kicked for doing long headlocks and trying to shame his opponent with his awesome smirk. They both tried to drop each other on their necks almost as a principle, but then the match went a bit mild in the last few minutes, including the logic but disappointed ending. ***1/2

Good rematch in Boston, that was very similar to the MSG one, as they were completing the house show loop with the same skeleton of a match. In this one, the Samoans took more impressive bumps in the shining sequence, but the heat on Santana wasn't as good as in New York, plus Martel looked a bit silly a couple of times. Fun sprint with little to no downtime, they changed just a bit in execution and the double team finish was similar as well ***

Questionable booking aside, this was a very good match. I don't feel like Flair should go 30 minutes in a cage bout (unless against someone who bumped non-stop for him, like Ricky Morton in the Bash tour), so this had a few filler and repetitive sequences, but the story progression was there and Flair almost felt like a caged animal, putting over Garvin's power and explosivity. Flair's limb work was good, but not enough focused to get that needed extra drama, despite the hot crowd. As mentioned, the result is quite bad in hindsight, but the finish was good nonetheless. ***1/2