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Another fun match and overall this ½ AJPW show looks pretty good on paper. Hines and Steele and Barton usually don’t do much but they do have glimmers like the RWTL final at the end of this year and this showed that. I will perhaps be seeking them out more as when it comes to bruisers like Tenryu and Kawada they mixed it up well and they brutalized Okumura appropriately. Kawada is probably going to end up being a WOTY contender and this was a strong first showing for him. Wish we had this in full as well. *** (6)

Really fun shoot style match on this Korakuen Hall AJPW show. Kakihara starts off going after it and the action doesn’t really let up. Yone is the weak link in the entire match but I was impressed with Kea and how he brought the intensity with his strikes and overall throws. We will be seeing A LOT of Kea throughout the decade just based on the chances he was given. I am pretty negative overall, but this was a strong showing and showed some promise. Yone was really brutalized within his team and it made sense for him to succumb to a submission by Kaki for the finish. ***1/2 (6.9)

Really random match on paper and I was pleasantly surprised to see it in full here. You don’t really think of Hijikata being around at this point and he’s someone that I don’t have much of an opinion on now so we will see if that changes. They worked the pairings well with Araya being shown as the dominant person beyond all six. I still think Susumu was learning where his place was at spots and Kanda looked in better position throughout the match. Hijikata lived up to his description up above of not being bad but not being exactly good either. I thought Naniwa was a good person to have isolated for that team. Ending come when Kanda does a huge tope nearly missing Araya and then after a minute or two of control, Araya is able to recover and pick up the win for his team. *** (5.9)

Screw you GAORA TV. The only singles match between two of the top 100 wrestlers of all time and we only get 7 minutes out of 20. But I’m glad Johnny Smith vs The Cedman is in full. What we see is what you expect of Hase taking it to the mat with his stoicism and Fuchi using his devious facials and emoting pain to give a contrast to that. It looked like beautiful wrestling that I only hope at some points presents itself in full but I’m not holding my breath. This was the first match for the promotion in the entire year and had an underlying playful nature without feeling like an exhibition at all. NR

Glad you are joining along. I’ll orobably be trying to upload in bursts weekly as I trek through it.

Regal shows up in the arena and gets attacked backstage by Stone Cold. Austin slams him onto the hood and then reverses throughout the garage area. He then hits the case and Regal goes flying into trash and debris backstage. Not content, Austin continues to beat up Regal and slams a metal pipe against Regal. Regal ends up as a bloody mess. Back from break, we see an ambulance pull up and they stretcher Regal out. Debra catches up with Austin and tells him that he has to calm down. She says he could lose his job and probably go to jail. Another limo pulls up and here is Austin trying to get in but the door is locked. Steph emerges from the other door and the chase is on. Austin stalks her to gorilla position and they come out to the entranceway. Austin grabs Steph and sends her into the ring. Even without the real life surrounding baggage that Austin has a year later, this is pretty uncomfortable to watch. The stuff on Monday was demoralizing and humiliating but it isn’t like Austin stripped Stephanie on purpose really. This can’t be anything but abuse. Austin says tonight she will learn to listen to SCSA. Vince makes his entrance and he is pissed. Vince calls him obsessed and Michael Cole agrees with him. Cole is good here being the voice of reason. Vince gives him what he wants and puts him in the triple threat with one condition that he needs to leave Steph alone. Austin accepts but notices Vince didn’t say anything about himself so he gives him a stunner. Backstage, Vince is fuming and decides he needs to be the special guest referee. Kane gives a quick promo saying he just wants a chance. Vince sends Steph away to cut his shirt and then we see Trish giving him a nice massage. Steph barges in on that and gets pretty pissed off kicking Trish out. Finally, Taker gives a confident promo saying that the path to being the champion goes through his yard. McMahon comes out as the referee and touching his neck. Taker and Kane start off before Austin even gets into the ring. Basic 3 way spots and then climax comes when Austin knocks out Hebner. Stunner for kane but Vince refuses to count and even stops Tim White from counting. Vince then gets into the ring after 30 seconds and Kane is able to kick out. Taker beats up Austin but has a word for Vince too. Chokeslam for Austin and Kane and Taker looks to have the match at hand. Last Ride is attempted but Rikishi comes out and attacks Taker. Chokeslam for Rikishi and he continues to be jobbed. Stunner for Taker and Vince decides to count the three to Michael Cole’s shock. Interested to see how this plays out given what happens at Mania. **1/4

Rock does a promo with Kevin Kelly. This was a good Rock promo with some insults but focused on winning a wrestling match and gaining the championship. Rock hypes up the Rumble. Angle has a promo before his match saying he wasn’t trying to interfere on Monday he was just scouting potential opponents. Angle then insults San Antonio saying they remember the alamo but forgot literacy and mastering a toothbrush. Angle tells Rock to Just Bring It. Rock charges down and the fight is on. Fun match and Rock is on a roll to start the year. Big bombs are thrown and Rock even takes an Olympic Slam on the floor on a piece of broken announce table which I didn’t expect at all on a throwaway SmackDown in January. Rock makes a good comeback but instead of going for the win he is seeking revenge with a chair. Choida keeps taking the chair from him and Rock gives the ref a Rock Bottom for his troubles. More referees charge down and they receive the same fate. Finally, Kurt gets pasted with the chair to the crowd’s delight. *** (5.8)

Jericho and Benoit hurl insults at each other. Neither is particulary funny but that is more of an endictment of Jericho than Benoit given his personality being more of a driver. Quick match to set up the feud further as they run through a lot of their signature spots together. Jericho has the walls of Jericho locked in when Saturn and Malenko come in to cause the DQ. The Hardys provide backup for Jericho. **

Great match and opener to a tournament. They start off fast to try to win early since they will have to wrestle three times to win it all. Kojima completely eats the guardrail on a tope LA park style and is bleeding above the eye. From there, Kojima is focusing on the arm of Sasaki and it becomes a battle of whether, Sasaki can muster enough power and will in that arm to weather the storm of the attack. Overall, it was a great contrast and Sasaki gave an admirable Misawa-esque sell job in showing that his arm was wounded but he had to fight through or he wasn’t going to accomplish his final goal. It was the weapon he came into battle with and if he lost, he lost with dignity. Overall, he is able to succeed but Kojima was the perfect foil for the quarterfinal round. **** (8)

This showed why I prefer Kojima as a worker to Tenzan. I thought Kojima brought more fire and focus in his match with Sasaki then Tenzan did here. Nagata started things out by wrestling and Tenzan simply couldn’t hang that well on the mat. That can play for storyline effect, but it came across as more Tenzan having to be lead. The finishing stretch was fun, but I didn’t think Tenzan again showed much resourcefulness or continuity in coming out ahead. It felt more like it was his turn to go on offense and he did. A good match but limited by one of the inhabitants from achieving more. ***1/4 (6.3)

Probably not the best setting for this type of match, but I really loved it and in particular thought Tanaka put a stamp as a contender as WOTY. He has a lot of brutal exchanges especially against Makabe just kicking the shit out of him. Him and Kanemoto work great as a prick pair. Makabe for his part did good in not looking overmatched and offering up some moments of hope for the underdog. He even gets in a some flash pins and submission attempts on Tanaka as IWGP Junior champ. In the end, he succumbs to the onslaught of damage and Kanemoto/Tanaka end up winning. I am not sure how much of them as a team we get in 2001, but I want to consume all of it. **** (7.8)

This was the only match on paper on this show that didn’t look good. That held true. Overall, this was a short but plodding match that didn’t know what it wanted to be. We had seen more stiffer shooty exchanges in the previous tag and more entertaining heavyweight exchanges with bomb throwing mixed in with Kojima and Sasaki. Ilzuka gets the win and I don’t think this did any favors in elevating Kashin overall. **

Chono has the charisma and he does target the arm again which I was hoping to see. The match falters in the ease of the transitions. There was a lot of no selling and ease out of some big nearfalls and therefore the match felt like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a sprint spotfest or something more substantial. Sasaki does get his second win with a different submission and all of a sudden, he is in the finals. *** (5.8)

Really random match. Only goes about five minutes but never lets up throughout. I don’t think Mutoh will be a serious contender for WOTY and at the onset think his resurgence may be overrated, but I don’t like HHH as a worker and his 2000 held up well for me, so there may be hope yet. You weren’t really able to get a read either way with what we saw here. This was more a Raw style to get his feet wet back on the NJPW scene. Biggest development to me was the ease that Otani puts Liger away with the choke here at the finish. That was a contrast to Liger steamrolling at the onset of 2000. *** (5.9)

Given the tournament as an entire watch, this resonated more for me and felt like a great extended sprint. We saw them work an epic style main event in October and I liked them trying something different and going for broke here. There is minor nitpicks like I wish Kawada would have went after the arm more and really Kawada kind of should have won overall but this was a routine NJPW went back to in invasion feuds and this followed the Muto vs Takeda playbook from 1995 and 1996. Overall, a brutal, stiff slugfest and Sasaki gets his groove back by winning. ****1/4 (8.3)

Dave’s report says this was MOTN to most people. I guess I can see that as it was compact and billed as a violent bombfest but giving the way this show is trending and the limitations of Tenzan in general, this probably won’t end up in my top 3 on the show overall. Kawada was good here at selling damage and seeming winded and that in turn causing him to fight with more desperation. The two best examples of this is when he throws a hooking right punch that they show in slow motion connection and the way he tries to desperately hook on the stretch plum. Tenzan for his part is better here than in the Nagata match, but just doesn’t look that imposing when he gets into strike exchanges. Kawada was looking throughout the match to hit the powerbomb and he does to advance and create a final that felt set in stone once Sasaki won the first semi final match. I would have flipped the order of the semi finals as Chono vs Kawada could have been a big match worthy of a ¼ main event too. ***1/2 (6.8)

Really last NJPW for Hashimoto properly. This has a shit finish that really derails what up to that point was setting up to be another splendid Tokyo Dome Hashimoto encounter. This was worked clash of the titans style but both men just beat the crap out of each other for the duration of the match. Choshu was certainly wounded but he could potato the shots that needed to carry the intensity and stiffness of the match overall. Fujinami coming in again is bullshit and the crowd didn’t respond well. I can see some saying this was too old and plodding and chalking the match as a whole as bad inoki-ism but I was captivated up to the very end and these two are still some of the most charismatic wrestlers inside the promotion at this moment in time. **** (7.9)

Smooth intro into lucha for the year. Nothing groundbreaking but overall good action for all three caidas. I especially liked the Cerebro vs Felino interactions and this should be a big year for Cerebro with his apuestas upcoming against Santo. Everyone here felt like they got moments to shine. Rivera was the least but that was to be expected on paper. ***1/4 (6.7)

I have been on a Toyota kick so this match hit me at the right point but I thought this was a really good, simplistic match. Two people that came up the ranks together and have a ton of interaction in tags and also singles matches by this point, but nothing that has really resonated unless I am completely blanking on something. The contrast on display here was presented well and Hotta was patient and effective in her bruising approach and it paid dividends into the finish. Toyota has some great facials throughout the match including her annoyed look when being locked into the crab. What could have came off as pure comedy had some nuance to it to where it felt like Toyota was just humoring Hotta and her style and looking for an opening to pick the pace up. Looking ahead at 2001, we get a lot these two together and this felt like a match that laid the groundwork for that to happen. ***3/4 (7.6)

I am more tolerant of LCO so I enjoyed this although I certainly do see the flaws that OJ described. The finish was really lame as Hotta/Maekawa just come in and use the chair and that is that. LCO feel really proud of themselves and Hotta looks like a bad ass bitch but otherwise, this felt cheap and negated a ton of goodwill the match had built up. My best compliment for the match is the pace. Bothe falls went around 17 minutes and the pace was relentless as there wasn’t any rest holds or breaks in the action. I did think LCO felt a bit too dominant especially with how the finish played out but overall as a standalone 35 minutes of wrestling, I was rarely bored even if some of it felt aimless. ***1/2 (7)

Usual victory for Larry Z. This is all about the promo afterward and it was wonderful. He calls out Bruno and says that he will not wrestle again and tell Bruno agrees to wrestle him. Bruno response very solemnly and eventually accepts the challenge but says that he will not intentionally go after Larry in a hold that could do damage. I am really looking forward to the rematch next week.

Krupp stinks. Even at about half the match shown, this was a chore for me. Kimura bleeding felt random and something IWE heavily relied on too much.

This was shit.

Jarrett has a message for the mystery man. Pretty generic promo of him going to kick ass. As Sid comes out, we see the Insiders attacking the Natural Born Thrillers with crowbars out in the parking lot. Sid starts out hot until he gets crotched coming into the ring. Jarrett on top for a bit and it isn’t great. Sleeper is applied and Sid fights off of that. Sid looks to have won the match and he is getting a good reaction since they are in Memphis. As he is going for the chokeslam, the mystery opponent comes out and attacks Sid. They beat him up for a bit and then the mystery man unmasks as Scott Steiner. The question remains as to who the real mystery opponent is. *

They really work this as Helms being dominant over Noble throughout much of the match. Writing was on the wall in who they preferred to come out of the Jung Dragons/3 Count blow up. Good work on the midsection by Helms and overall a competent match for Thunder. Everyone runs out after the match with Chavo standing tall as the Cruiser champ at the end. **1/4