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A hardcore sprint? This is worked in a different pace as Louie and Ian go after each other quickly and really only use one chair as a weapon. That is kind of refreshing in a way but the action is only about five minutes long. Louie ends up winning off of a botched powder attempt which felt more Memphis than ECW. Afterwards, Ian puts over Louie and gives him a spot in KOTDM. **1/2

Hash has a new haircut and slimed down. It really struck me here that this one of the last really huge match he has in New Japan. This feels like a really big deal. Ogawa shoots in and gets taken down early. Ogawa does tag Hash with a nice left hook and Hash is lucky to catch a break by being close to the ropes. We get the camera angles on Fujinami and Inoki on the outside again. The leg sweep that Hash uses to regain the advantage was excellent and the crowd erups when he pounces on the grounded Ogawa. The gloves come off and here comes Murakami to break things up. Iizuka is up for round two between them and the competitors both separate for a moment. This match is all about the friction between the competitors and who can gain the advantage. Ogawa keeps going for an STO and Hash is able to hit a DDT and elbow to another huge reaction. Ogawa doesn’t give up on the move though and is able to successfully hit a STO a minute later to regain the advantage. Hashimoto narrowly escapes a choke but falls prey to one more STO and that is the match. The crowd is in a state of shock. Leave it to Hash to sacrifice himself for the one booking decision of the night getting over the outsider by putting him over. Inoki gets in afterwards and puts both over I assume although he has to rile the crowd up with his shtick first. I assume he saw this as another way to form his visualized way of wrestling. Hashimoto walks away essentially as a New Japan fully competitor for the last time in a heartbreaking moment. This as a match is tough to rank because it is repetitive in what Ogawa was looking forward with an STO but the atmosphere and engagement between the competitors made it really work for me. Add in the historical significance involving Hashimoto and it was a great farewell. ****

Murakami is awesome. I can’t help but think of Charles’ description of him being a snot throughout this match. He is able to bring a frantic and insane pace in the match to Ilzuka and the crowd reacts really well. The tension and transitions really made this match for me. I thought Murakami might take the match overall but it is to no avail as he succumbs to a huge pop. ***3/4

The title of the match is Restricted Zone which is awesome. Molly Holly escorts Muta out and Chono has his entire posse out there including the N W O 2000 members that just defected. A conflicting match. Everything was going along nicely and I thought these two had somehow pulled off two miracle matches in the dome in 2000. Then the rest holds got a little long and the violence and wandering around the ringside area felt really mundane. The kicker though is the complete bullshit finish that happens and that Muta is able to escape relatively free with 10 people backing Chono up. **1/ 2

All of Liger’s run through the juniors has led to this. Sasaki has been on a role in 2000 but this was probably my least favorite performance of him as I didn’t think he did much of anything to make Liger feel like a threat. The booking on this show overall was really atrocious. Much like Fully Loaded 3 months later, they are trying a 3 match series of the young guys/ juniors going against the established guard. Much like Fully Loaded, the younger group goes 0-3 and it stunts a lot of their momentum. Thinking back to the Chono vs Sasaki interactions, I wish they just would have ran that match here and hey Liger vs Muta isn’t a bad matchup on paper either for the undercard. Sasaki kicks out at 1 of the brainbuster and then Sasaki runs through his finisher combos and finishes Liger off with a brainbuster buster with little reaction. Really disappointing. ***

Kojima really pissed me off in this match because Otani was fantastic. He attacks the arm and then runs through all of his great closer offense with a combination of intensity and prickish that only he can pull off. Kojima tries with giving Otani a face wash and it fails miserable. Kojima on top throughout this match was completely uninteresting. Add to that his refusal to use anything but the arm that has been worked over and you really only get a very good match that should have been great and had the wrong guy going over. ***1/2

I figured I would love this match just based on the pairing and it lived up to the hype. Frye does an excellent job looking like a bad ass but still allowing the junior Kanemoto to look strong and brutal when he is on offense. Kanemoto goes mainly after the legs of Frye and trying to chop down the big tree. This had a really neat dynamic and was really intense with the strikes and submissions. Frye kept working for his leg lock and Kanemoto found unique ways to escape it. Frye’s size eventually is able to wear down Koji enough that he is able to take advantage with strikes and throw on the twisting leg lock for the submission. ****

A good match but one that didn’t particular strive to be much more than that. I am conflicted on that concept as its tough to critique a good match as being a failure but I really enjoy these four wrestlers and that combined with the limited Arsion footage we get in the first place left me wanting more. LCO is unable to bully the biggest bully in the yard in Aja Kong and her and Yoshida take most of the match. I like them as a tag team because the contrast in style is so easy to decipher. Finishing run has things breaking down and LCO picking up the victory which felt like an upset feat for them. ***1/4

A freshly shaved Gran Apache is here with his daughter. This was really unique and was intergender wrestling done correctly with the pairings just being interchangeable and all of the female strength spots on me being put to a minimum. The match was fast and breezy and exactly what I was hoping for. Gran Apache is really making a play early on to be a big figure for the decade ahead of us. ***

I am all in for this Benoit push. This was only three minutes but worked high impact and spirited. Benoit bumps well off of Rikishi’s neckbreaker and back heel kick. The biggest news though is that Benoit hits a Northern Lights suplex and pins Rikishi right there clean as a sheet. Wow. They are really working to make Benoit look like a big deal and it is paying dividends so far. **

Porky does a cartwheel in his opening pairing with Guerrera which was excellent. Markus honestly doesn’t look that far behind Porky in the weight department. Villano and Atlantis have another good brief exchange that culminates in Villano submitting to the Atlantida again. Villano again cant get along with his team and this is becoming a trend my man. Fuerza shoves him to knock some sense into him but he shoves Fuerza back to the cheers of the crowd. With all of that miscommunication, the tecnicos are able to gain the victory as Villano stomps out in disgust. Ok this is leading somewhere and I am interested. We did get enough glimpses of action here to that moved things along. **3/4

Some mini is dressed as the Easter Bunny. Also big props to the group of guys they cut to dancing in sync in the stands. Menudo reunion. Action here was fine but Marvin seemed to be having an off night. The real highlight paring was between Octagoncito and Abismo Negro culminating in a huge twisting dive. Sagrada does his moonsault to the outside and Abismo and Marvin get counted out. Marvin gets the win which always irks me when easily my least favorite person in a given match secures the victory. **1/2

Long drawn out promo by Vince and company here with all of them reconciling and being on the same page. Vince’s promo is pretty great but it still doesn’t justify all the lead up to Mania and why now everyone is one big happy family. Vince, Shane and HHH both throw challenges at Rock tonight. HHH’s promo is again strong as he wants to honor Stephanie but does it in a sleazy heel way. We get many backstage segments before the main event of them choosing straws and Shane getting the honor of facing Rock. The match starts proper and isn’t much with all sorts of hijinks and stuff going on around ringside. The culmination is Rock getting HHH in the ring as Shane and Vince retreat up the ramp. Rock ends up pinning HHH which again is a good moment in the case of booking and HHH being an effective heel. *

With my Foley/HHH/Rock 3 way Mania main event in motion, allow me to fantasy book again and say this should have been a Mania singles match. Rikishi was still hugely over and felt tacked on in the Kane and X-Pac saga. An easy angle could have been formed of Show getting screwed out of the main event picture and Rikishi coming to him and saying he knows he is a funny guy but that his frustration and grumpiness is preventing him from excelling. This could lead to the Mania match with Rikishi winning and Show looking like he is about to boil over but he stops short. This would set up the return match which would be move for move what we have here. Show does the worm two minutes in to a big reaction and then gets an even bigger reaction dancing to Too Cool’s music at the end of the segment. Show needed some rehabbing but it looks silly for him to be so goofy and aloof after getting decimated in the main event of WrestleMania the night before. ½ *

Tazz is still hanging around the upper mid card as evidenced by this match vs Benoit but while he does get some offense in here, the match is only four minutes long and Benoit wins with a single German. The writing was on the wall for Tazz at that moment as it looks like Benoit is continuing to be favored by upper management within the company. Saturn did provide himself useful by adding an assist in this match. *1/2

Chyna has been a failure with everything they have tried to do for her since she split from HHH. They seem to have finally honed in something with the Latino Heat character of Eddy. Eddy’s personality is starting to shine and the Radicalz are becoming more and more splintered day by day with Eddy and Benoit at the forefront, Dean hanging on to the Cruiser belt run and Saturn quickly losing a purpose. The chemistry between Jericho and Eddy has always been good and this was no exception. A really fast paced 7 minute match that culminates in the big turn for Chyna as she walks to the back with Eddy kick starting the angle overall. ***

This really is probably the last time WrestleMania felt like it could be any other PPV in a given year. Even the three years of this decade where they aren’t in a stadium had plenty of other big moments and caveats that this show really didn’t. This could have been Backlash and everything would have been the same. That being said, this as a main event was a tale of two matches. I actually thought the four way stuff was really effective. Big Show is giving a good run where he looks strong with them knowing he is going out early. Once he is gone, Foley and HHH and Rock have a compelling three way with bonds being formed and broke. The history between these three is so storied that any iteration of the pairings worked and felt enriched. I thought Rock was really working hard bumping like crazy and being crisp on his strikes. Foley flubs his big spot but it does play right into his elimination which felt shocking at the time as I was certain he was winning with the good out of them having a tournament later. Foley coming back does feel cheap but this was his last match for nearly four years so it feels more genuine in retrospect than it does now when he has had 50 matches after this one. The HHH and Rock portions was my least favorite of the match with a ton of tropes that are less flattering including going around the stage set up and tables at ringside being broken. The Vince turn is also perplexing as they went to WAY too many extremes in fighting each other for it to believable as a big ruse all along on Vince’s part. HHH winning is innovative but the closing moment is Rock reigning supreme firstly and the McMahons secondly so he gets overshadowed there. Overall, I think a three way would have been more effective and I don’t know how to book out the Vince turn but it still is just awful. ***1/4

A really good match that needed a crowd to invest into the action more. I thought the spots they innovated here were well done and the cutoffs and pin saves were also effective. The storyline of Kurt losing both of his belts in one night is pretty humorous but kind of hokey in execution. Benoit winning the IC belt is a big step and perfect placement for him at this point. My favorite spot of the whole match was Kurt locking in the chicken wing and the pop that received from the otherwise dead Anaheim crowd. ***1/2

A legendary spotfest that really holds up. These guys had the ladder match template and reimagined it again doubling down on the spots that worked in the No Mercy 99 match and adding new dynamics. Stuff like the double suplex off the ladder and the bumps coming from the ladder including the spear looked really vicious. My least favorite part of this was actually the ending with the stunt show setup for the Dudley stuff but at least in Bubba’s case, he has been presented as a psychotic individual that may value inflicting pain over having titles. Jeff’s Swantom Bomb was filmed wonderfully and Edge and Christian winning this is still a big upset overall. Great match. ****

Bull Pain is always going to be a bruiser character and we see that here in the five minute match with Lawler. I like people getting physical vs Jerry and this has the added wrinkle of Dundee being special guest referee. The dismay that Lance Russel’s voice has when Bull uses a beer can is humorous. The end is shitty with run ins, ref bumps, a Todd Morton chain and a pin for Bull. *3/4

A really good match in 2000 standards that has dropped a bit just based on the familiarity everyone has with the ladder match concept in current day eyes. AJ looked on point here and hit almost all of his moves really smoothly. Golden played the great 80’s territorial heel role well. That is what this match has going for it the most is the clear face/heel structure that is lacking in many ladder matches where it is all about the spots. Bailey intervenes and allows Golden to win here keeping the slow burn of AJ’s redemption alive. ***

I couldn't get into this. WarGames or Royal Rumble type matches are going to be punch and kick affairs so it really matters if enough people can do interesting things or bleed enough to make it worthwhile. This did neither although King and Lance Cade had good showings. This kind of showed how the roster in MCW is much more appealing to me on paper. The announce booth also was used a ton in this one. PPW prevails. **

I liked this but I think Charles liked it a bit more. I do agree that this was a great showcase for Liger to convey the character he has been doing since the beginning of the year while also helping to put over Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask has also impressed me in 2000 and has character and the flash currently to feel appropriate carrying on the TM moniker. This stage of the J Cup took a real traditional stance of tournaments with compact first round matches ramping up to the big finale in a week. ***1/2

Really good match that would have been spectacular with a couple more minutes. My memory of Sasuke is chain smoking one so seeing him look crisp and motivated here was welcomed. Kaz really did look excellent with his submission moves, power, look, and speed. He seemed to have the total package and is a lost worker in this time period. This clocked in right under 10 minutes and was the great showcase for both guys. ***1/2

I couldn't get past the interference here. It was way too liberal and the worst trope from Dragon Gate canon. In addition, I will say of all of the Tory guys, SUWA may be my least impressive and he especially hasn't measured up compared to CIMA, Sumo and Mochi. He hasn't been bad per say, just more reliant on a formula of being a heel in a way I feel like I have seen before. **1/2