soup23

I enjoyed this for what it was. The ref dive was dumb but otherwise this was a pure spotfest when these moves felt fresh and everything was hit cleanly. I can’t recall seeing the Spanish fly before this. ***

Loving the WCW series. A lot of fun picks with Justin skewing more towards moments and emotion which I can appreciate.

A real WTF with GOrdy and Ishii teaming. Overall, this was missing a charisma thread that keeps things together like ONita but Ueda, Gordy, GIlbert and Ishii all had their moments here and for scuzzy Japanese indie action, it was entertaining enough. **3/4

Money is a fun spotfu guy that probably should have been utilized more. He seems to know when to stay in his lane and know what he does best. This match got real slow when Youngblood was on top and overall it suffered. *1/2

THis one didn't click for me. They had some good ideas and the King/Wagner duo had some nifty double teams but there was a lot of resets and the awkwardness didn't result in intensity and improvement like it sometimes can. *** (6)

Dragon is unmasked which is the biggest development here. I watched this after the MCW Cade/Abs match and liked this one better. It had better energy and Dragon fed better into Abs weak strikes. It was also shorter which helped hide the limitations of most of the workers involved. **1/4

Smothers is the master of working the crowd here. I had watched this before and was disappointed because Guido can go but he really stayed in the backseat here and let Tracey shine. Overall, the crowd is really rampant against Tracey and this felt like the perfect mixture of old school shtick and updated moves. ***1/4 (6.7)

Way better than I expected with these guys. THe energy was there and it didn't overstay it's welcome. In addition, the spot by Kid from the rafters is the spot of the year so far and looked certifiably nuts. *** (6.2)

Horowitz was fine here and should be in a higher profile spot but Rastaman was atrocious and as a result this became a slog to get through and mostly unwatchable. *1/4

Real cool seeing Sandman's entrance in this setting but not much else and JAPW has to be real careful about doing that for the Bayonne hardcores in making those shows seem like advertisements to them starting to run the ECW Arena.

Some clever spots and also some that looked brutal. This was a great follow up to their Rumble match and actually did an impressive job of presenting a fun and satisfying match on tv while also leaving stuff on the table. The Dudley's look like they are really taking a step forward as the leaders of the division currently. ***1/4 (6.6)

They keep raising the tension for the Austin vs HHH match and overall this wasn't too far behind the SummerSlam match which I seem to like more than most. THe energy was good here and Angle continues to exude more confidence in there with the big guys. We did get some call backs from attitude era tropes like Austin counting the refs hand but overall this was a fun way to end the show. *** (6.1)

RIkishi and Haku get jobbed out again. THis was again fine for Kane/Taker to do something for a bit but yeah, it is time for something else. Haku isn't someone I can recall blading much before so seeing that was at least a novelty to put over the hardcore aspect of this SmackDown. *3/4

This is the Dinsmore I have been waiting on although being in there with Benoit can't hurt. Benoit works it as a ferocious heel that is surprised at how well DInsmore is able to hang in the early going. His aggression is well presented and DInsmore is sympathetic with his hope spots and selling overall. The finish was shit but I was expecting that considering this show otherwise had more clean blowoffs by comparison of OVW standards and neither Benoit or Dinsmore could really lose here. ***3/4 (7.4)

Lame match here and the ass kissing stipulation does nothing for me. I love BUdro but he looked like he would rather be anywhere else. I don't this match accomplished much in making any of the up and comers look specifically impressive. *1/2