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A lot of action on the outside with the ladies and The Wall gets them all banned from ringside. Action is too quick and frantic and we get a cute ending with Meng helping Kwee Wee. I liked Tank Abbott with 3 Count but this strange bedfellows pairing didn’t have the initial charm that did. Beyond that, I hate seeing all of this talent get pinned and eliminated in a match like this in sub two minutes. ¾*

A straight plunder brawl and not one of the better versions of Crowbar’s recent matches as it was just set up spot, go through it, rinse and repeat. I also didn’t like the finish at all as babyface Mike Awesome sends Bigelow through a table allowing Crowbar to win. I get that Awesome lost to Bigelow on Monday but I don’t think that justified the lack of sportsmanship here. *1/2

To set up this match we get a series of interviews with everyone involved. With HHH and Rikishi both out, the Radicalz did a good job acting as the hired guns for them. Benoit will never been the best promo person in the world, but his promo here did have me thinking that he might actually crack my top 10 on the Observer Year End awards which is a surprise and not something I would have expected. Rock, Billy and Chyna have some basic words and Austin comes to the ring and is pissed at HHH. Billy and Chyna charge the ring and get beat up for their trouble until Austin and Rock enter in. Saturn looks pretty rough here having to have Austin audibly call some spots to get him into place. Crowd is electric for Rock here maybe even more than Austin as that shows how prominent he has been in 2000. Saturn is again acting as the workhorse and he does better vs Rock. Benoit gives Rock a huge chop on the outside that sounded nasty. Benoit gets tagged in the ring and beats the shit out of Rock with more chops and stomps. Benoit looks vicious here. Saturn gets tagged in and Rock is able to get a quick Rock Bottom that Benoit has to make the save on. Eddie is now in shaking his stuff for Chyna. Rock clotheslines him and makes the big tag to Chyna. Chyna beats up Eddie and Eddie shows some good ass here. Big time Eddie Sucks chant and he is mugging it up for the crowd. Eddie and Benoit are the clear highlights of the Radicalz. Austin runs to the other side of the ring, pulls Saturn off and flying across the announce table. Match breaks down after Chyna makes a tag. Benoit and Rock go to the back as Austin stomps a mudhole in Eddie’s ass. The crowd comes alive for that. Stunner for Eddie and he eats the pin. Better options around than the IC champ but it is Austin doing it. Not as fluid as the classic 10 man in February but not a bad little sister as the heat was here and the Radicalz had a good showing for themselves overcoming Saturn. Rock and Benoit are backstage tearing up the set. This feud has been much more personal and heated than I remembered. Finish to Raw happens as Benoit sets Rock up to be hit by a sledgehammer of Rikishi in a car. ***1/4 (6.5)

This match gets set up by Foley backstage. Funny segment with E&C and Angle strategizing. A really good six man here with Hardcore looking motivated and E&C complimenting them well. I actually am longing for a tag feud. Taker comes in for the finale and lays out Angle with Last Ride for the dominant win and he is riding a lot of momentum heading into Survivor Series. **1/4

The match was so good last night, they run it again. This time Crash said he could win with one arm tied behind his back so that is what Angle offers him. JR informs us Rikishi and HHH are not there tonight. Crash unties his arm and goes to work on Angle before getting creamed with a belly to back suplex. Angle runs into Molly and Crash gets a DDT the crowd bites on. A unique facebuster and Angle goes right to the ankle lock for the submission. They are pushing that now. Angle attacks with a chair again but Hardcore Holly makes the save. This leads out E&C and here comes Taker to a huge pop. I like the way they are presenting Angle against Taker here as he doesn’t really back down. *

A weird mashup of teams here with some hardcore elements between Test and Blackmon and Kane and Jericho continuing their feud. I am waning on Jericho and Kane and think it does feel like both but especially Jericho have cooled off a good bit from where they were a month before feuding with each other. The hardcore elements in this match emphasize that as they scream more mid card. Test and Kane work pretty well together but Test throws an errant kendo stick shot and hits Kane instead. A lionsault gives Jericho the win and Kane chokeslams Test for the mistake he made earlier. Backstage, a big brawl happens between Jericho and Kane and Jericho is sent through the catering and a window as JR screams for an ambulance.*1/4

Boogie Knights are grooving until Goldberg’s music hits and they shit a brick. Crowd gives a great late WCW response with huge chants. A straight squash but a ton of fun of Goldberg throwing Disco and Alex around everywhere with the London crowd cheering him on. Jackhammers are given to both men as he pins both at one time. Awesome. *

Good spot for Holly going against the WWF champ on Heat. This was really fun. Angle has a lot of confidence now and just goes all out for the three minute match working a crazy pace. Crash is able to get some offense on him and look credible and even a nearfall. Angle quickly hits the Angle Slam and gets the win. After the match, Angle brings in a chair, hits Molly with an Angle Slam and uses the ankle lock for the first time I can remember. **

Too Cool feels sooooo played out here. That being said, match is fairly decent and plays off a quick formula of Too Cool getting a good bit of offense, a quick FIP sequence and then the finish. I liked Christophers clothesline from the top before he makes the hot tag to Hotty. The worm is still really over and gets a nice response. After the worm, Edge hits the spear and it looks good here and violent. Christian brings in a chair and that picks up the cheap win for E&C. *1/2

The best tv match of the day but that is kind of damning with faint praise. There was some stuff in the match with Paris working heel and Phoenix running interference on the outside that worked, but Paris overall is pretty uneven as a heel and looks more uncomfortable than AJ does. I get the narrative of him proposedly slowing things down to piss off the fans but it made the match disjointed and boring as a result. Jacobs was fine from underneath but I do think he works better as a base for a dynamic flyer or doing a strictly southern tag formula match. Interference allows Paris to pick up the win. **1/4

This was the lucha action I was looking for. Classic pairings with Villano vs Panther, Dandy vs Atlantis and Panther vs Atlantis. We even get Zumbido and Niebla being tremendously entertaining in their dance off. Everything takes time to develop and just melds itself into an extremely satisfactory match. The rudos have been looking impressive throughout this show and pick up another win here. I didn’t think this really developed any blood feuds for the future but for 8 really established lucha stars, they went out and did their best to satisfy the fans and viewers. ***3/4 (7.6)

For a match full of talented wrestlers, there wasn’t much to this. Some decent square offs and pairings and Pimpinela in particular is never really boring, but there also wasn’t an overlapping issue that would raise the profile of a match like this on a random show. I thought Oro did a good showing for himself as a guy that were sort of on the backburner in 2000 but could still bring it. I thought Silver Star was pretty shitty throughout the match and the Damian 666 weapon shots were unimaginative and lame. The final fall is a mess with Calo missing on his dives and the finishing DDT between Nicho and Calo being completely botched. **1/4

After the iron man match, this puts to bed this feud for a while. I am interested in hearing other thoughts as I thought this was good but think my Hayabusa bias may be affecting things. Fuyuki works over the arm a lot and it is solid stuff but there was the impending sense throughout the match that it wouldn’t matter and that Busa was still going to run through all of his signature flashy offense. He does and even though that is more about the legs than the arm so the selling was inconsistent, the arm work that was laid out did feel moot. Fuyuki ends up winning and continues to look more and more dominant probably to the detriment of the promotion overall. A weird match. ***1/4 (6.6)

A big dumb death match but one that was violent and memorable so as a result I will probably be higher than others that care to watch. Kanemura does a sick dive from the balcony through a table and does the spot of taking the light tube from a fixture and then using it immediately. Tanaka responds with a thudding tornado DDT from the apron through a table that doesn’t budge. When the match gets back into the ring, it mostly revolves around a barbed wire flaming bat and there are plenty of no sells throughout the match but also dramatic moments. I am not looking for life changing psychology when watching death matches and that this was a good iteration of a match that had some elevated stakes and built to the finish of the weapons not being as successful as the wrestling moves. ***3/4 (7.3)

Gannosuke has to retire if he loses here. Knowing the history of FMW, they essentially do a quasi double turn here IMO. Kuroda was about to turn heel and he is dickish throughout the match from the onset in taking over with eye rakes and underhanded tactics. The main focal point of the match changes when Gannosuke runs face first into the ringpost in a great looking spot and he comes up bloody afterwards. After that, Gannosuke is fighting for his profession and pulling out rare moves like the Scorpion Death Lock to imitate his hero, Riki Choshu. The crowd here isn’t great and that is a victim of FMW really feeling like a promotion rapidly declining from the early 1999 high points. Kuroda is fine in this but doesn’t seem ready to be the next main guy and doesn’t have the allure of the Kanemura, Tanaka, Hayabusa or Gannosuke’s of the world. Gannosuke does a sequence of quick rolling pins to try to steal the win but is eventually beat with an onslaught of lariats and an implant DDT. I enjoyed this match as Gannosuke continues to be a wrestler with great purpose in his storytelling and precision in ring on basic things like Irish whips and stomps. He is a wrestler that really speaks to me and will be missed from FMW proceedings for the time being. ***1/2 (7.1)

Awful choreographed wrestling as Blade continues to have a success rate that may be worse than RVD in 2000. I don’t think Mondo is some great worker either as he has probably been more disappointing in 2000 than I remembered. Still, he didn’t have much to work with here as Blade flips around and botches stuff almost constantly. Mondo attacks Shorty which is strange and out of character. This only serves as Blade having time to scale the fence to do a moonsault that barely connects. C Z Dub. This was actually the main event which is really disappointing and ends the night on a sour note. Blade does get better as the match progresses as both his powerbomb through the chairs and the split legged moonsault look great and get the crowd behind him. Mondo regains the control and botches his first attempt at a dive through the table before taking a traditional legdrop route for the pin. Honestly one of the worst matches of 2000. ¼*

A beatdown by Gage and Acid leads to Lobo coming out and we get a big brawl. The Lobo vs Gage brawl on the floor was reckless and violent and easily the best thing Lobo has done this year. Acid and Gage are a pretty cool team together and even though this match came first chronologically, I watched it after Blade vs Mondo. Acid is much more on point with his high spots compared to Blade. The finish looked like it could have been one of those stupid double pins with Kashmere pinning Gage and Acid pinning Lobo but they kick out. Immediately afterward, Acid gets dropped on a chair with a cutter and then Gage brainbusters Kashmere on the chair. Sick spots. Lobo’s cradle DDT to Gage on the chair was less impressive but not atrocious. Acid and Johnny are left in the ring and Acid lands the reverse splash mountain onto a chair. Acid then sets up a stack on the outside but Lobo is able to powerbomb Acid through the chair setup. Lobo places Trent on a table and legdrops him through it from the top rope. With Gage looking on, Kashmere schoolboys him up for the win. Gage then attacks both Lobo and Johnny after the match keeping his aura. I really enjoyed this. ***1/2 (6.9)

Kashmere does a long promo that meanders until Dewey Donovan interrupts him. Dewey gets punked out by Kashmere and Gage makes the save starting the match. Decent brawl but pretty quick and really a way to get to the next segment as Acid comes out to interfere allowing Gage to get the frogsplash for the pin. **

They barely start wrestling when HBK comes down to a big pop and HBK chants. Shawn says he is going to be the enforcer on the outside to ensure no shady business happens. Rocker is now an even steven referee for the most part. Match only lasts a couple of minutes before Rocker gets knocked out and Cade hits a huge legdrop with Shawn counting the pin. Spanky, Dragon and Shooter come in and Cade says they are the first four graduates of the HBK Wrestle Academy and thank him for his support. ¾*

Bobcat enters the ring and is the special announcer. Hopefully, she can find a manager position soon as she is pretty wooden as an announcer. Corey calling a Michinoku Driver was humorous. Good tv match with Abs looking strong on his power moves. Lawler runs down and throws a fireball into Baxter. Lawler’s clothes are torn and he explains that he was attacked leaving his house. **

Spanky yaps for his team and Derrick King is out on commentary. Spanky vs King could be a fun program against each other. Action here is decent but it was clear to me that the HBK crew is the better workers. Pier six with King getting involved cheapshotting Spanky allowing Raines to pick up the win. *1/4

Hello Batista. We see the beatdown from the disciples of sin the week before with Show and Batista going after each other at the end. Cornette is yelling, the bell is ringing constantly, big surprise. A two minute match but it had some fun moments with Show looking motivated with some great punches. Show gets an early powerbomb that looks awesome but Leviathan kicks out. Show decks the referee and all of the disciples that surround ringside. Synn tries her whip but Show catches her and then kisses her before slamming her to the mat. Mark Henry then enters with a chair and we get the Leviathan spear for the big pin. *1/4

Thug throws Becky around like a ragdog and Becky does a huge bump being turned inside out. Marshall and McLane are brutal on commentary. Thug doesn’t have much regard for Becky’s body as she hurls her to the outside. Becky hits a splash as we go to break. Back from the break, Becky splashes all three members of Harley’s Angels and Becky gets a flurry of offense. An errant cane shot and another big splash from Becky gives her the big upset win. After the match, David takes a phone call from Kathie Lee who wants to co host, but David turns her down. That ends the show. WTF. ½*

Jungle Grrrl’s graphics are even more ridiculous than the ones we have seen so far. Pretty awful match and Billie gets her finisher in the bulldog that Grrrl kicks out in 1. Marshall tells us we are seeing more action in 90 seconds here than in a long time. Grrrl hits her big splash as the “animal is turned loose” according to McLane for the win. ¼*

Heat against Storm is great as is the dingy feel of this indie with the announcer having to ask the kids to not run under the bleachers kicking the cans. Good match with Storm especially showing off his heel persona. It is a lot of territory basic stuff but it works when he is getting this much heat and he does some clever touches like the low blow to Fleisch when he checks his hand to distract everyones eyes. Fleisch is mainly along for the ride here and is decent at selling but this is certainly a match that thrives based on Storm’s personality. Storm ends up winning after taking 85% of the match which surprised me. Fun watch. ***1/4 (6.3)