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This is a bit neat with the pairings of having the Villano’s as full on tecnicos teaming with Parka against some of our mainstays with lucha. Parka and King have big heat with each other and start the match out with an argument on the outside and having to be separated. They goad Parka to the outside and the match is on. Sadly, one plus for me with III and IV teaming is no worry about mixing up IV and V. Rudo beatdown for fall 1 which isn’t a surprise. Some different moments like Dandy trying to take the referee’s shoe and King utilizing a figure four against the ring post mix things up. Second fall is also unique where the tecnicos make their comeback but not all the way and we get some funny comedy spots featuring Scorpio. After some miscommunication with Dandy and Scorp, the tecnicos take the 2nd fall. Third fall has more even action with some great punches and rudos looking real competent here. Great selling from III especially on some Dandy punches. Just as all hope looks lost, Parka gets a sneak pinfall on King and the Villanos team up to beat Dandy for the win. King is now pissed off at Scorpio and they get into it. Remember that Scorpio was goofing off in the second fall. King punches and punks out Scorpio and this is the kind of angle stuff that has been missing in lucha for the last month or so. Match was very good. ***1/2 (7.1)

Thunder down under is clever. This is a neat match with Rey getting killed for five minutes and then mounting a fun comeback for a few moments before getting squashed for good. It accomplished the goal of making Steiner look brutal and Rey retained great sympathy from the crowd. Samoan Drop from the top rope looked brutal leading into Steiner Recliner. **

Match is worked almost exclusively on the mat and a ton of fun. Joe was just there to listen and be led but he does a good job working in and out of the holds. Anything about Regal being awful or looking out of sorts in the first part of the year is gone as he looks great now. Regal ends up picking up the win. After the match, Naked Mideon kisses Regal to the delight of the fans but not myself. Regal then gets called the f word by the crowd. Regal is on the mic after the match and talks about how lame Mideon is as a surprise. That cues up HHH’s music and he comes out and he runs off HHH. HHH in the aftermath gets on the mic and calls himself the student of the game. Kind of neat in retrospect this happens in the wake of Samoa Joe. Big Schwag interrupts the proceedings and HHH runs through his lackey until he gets pedigreed. Wihtout knowing the context, the crowd goes ape shit for HHH delivering this pedigree. **1/2

Kudos to Omori for not just standing around and attacking Kobashi walking out on the ramp. DDT out there and he gains the advantage. This is an interesting contrast as a feud for 2000 as this is the 3rd singles match we have seen and all serve a purpose and are different. Kobashi fires off a half nelson suplex to break the momentum and disrobe. Kobashi then goes apeshit on the outside DDT’ing Omori on the concrete and kicking his ass. Takayama begs Kobashi for mercy as Kobashi rolls Omori back inside bloodied up. Some great character work for Kenta as he realizes he is becoming this vicious monster but ends up liking it. Orange Crush and a sleeper choke for Kenta with him wrenching on Omori’s head squeezing the blood out. Crowd goes nuts at hint of Takayama entering the ring and Kenta challenges him. Man, I love NOAH. We get a clip to Kobashi beating Omori up on the outside some more with chops. Clip back inside and finally Omori is firing off somewhat and he hits a lariat and both men are down. Omori pulls down his knee pad and hits the jumping knee for a nearfall. He tries some more strikes in the corner but Kobashi comes back with chops and a lariat to regain the advantage for good. Kobashi then slams about 20 more chops with the blood flying off Omori in a great visual. Kobashi then delivers a Burning Lariat and goes for another with the referee pleading for him to no do it. Omori is out and the match is called. We only got about a minute edited which makes it weird why it wasn’t shown in full but this is a great little 10 minute match. ***3/4 (7.5)

Audio is nearly unlistenable on this. Nick Gage calls everyone a retard and then asks them to stand up and worship him. POndo comes out and gives a rah rah promo. Date on the camera says 10/7 which makes sense as it wouldn’t be taped on a Tuesday so I am going with that date. This is mostly a gore fest with POndo and Wifebeater who are two of my least favorite death matches workers that get a ton of buzz. That being said, some of the bumps into the wire were disgusting here and Wifebeater has a blade job for the ages. Scissors come into play again. Pondo gets wrapped in barbed wire and gets plastered with chairs by Gage and Beater. Hatred comes in and hits a glass box against Pondo’s head. Beater then powerbombs Gage on top of Pondo and we have a new Iron Man champion. Another big Gage promo afterward where he says he was screwed, makes some terrible slurs and then asks everyone to bow down again. Eric and John House sign off the show. *1/2

Foley gets a mixed reaction in the wake of his suspension of Austin. HBK is brought out and Mick points the finger at him. HBK clears his name by telling Mick what he did the entire day. Mick takes all of that into consideration but then provides some motive on why HBK would run over Austin. This is a great back and forth. Michaels ends the promo saying if he was responsible he would admit it because he thrives being in the spotlight. Shawn says he has suspicion on who it was. Someone that loves the spotlight more than HBK. Shawn then puts the blame on Rock and walks out. A strong segment to start. Foley doing his investigation is teetering into JJ Dillion bringing a contract for Sting to sign as far as incompetence goes on his part but at least they are finishing that up tonight. Afterwards, we get segments of Mick talking to Debra and Linda McMahon. He vets both of them and lays out reasons why they would have run over Stone Cold. HHH busts in after his match and wants a match with Benoit. Mick grants that at No Mercy. E&C have some jokes based off “The Game” nickname. Back again, he talks to Snow who is wearing a blonde wig but he is only representing Sweden. Crash Holly and Scotty 2 Hotty also get questioned and everyone seems to be pointing towards The Rock. Angle comes out for the match and gets attacked by Kane. That is his partner. Kurt is standing at ringside and not helping Kane as he goes it alone up against Rock/Rikishi. Crowd is still hot for Rock even amongst the allegations that he ran over Austin. Kane is doing a good job working the handicap and this continues to be his best in ring run. He even stops a Rock flurry with a sidewalk slam that had the crowd reacting. Stephanie is looking at a monitor backstage. Rock hits a spinebuster and is able to tag Rikishi. Rikishi has a bit of offense but Kane is actually able to come back with a DDT and chokeslam. Kurt now wants the tag and Kane chokes him out to cheers from the crowd. Kane leaves after the chokeslam. Both men get to their feet and Angle lucks into an Angle Slam but as he celebrates, Rock comes in for a Rock Bottom. Rikishi hits the butt drop and they win. **1/4 Foley comes back and says that all evidence points to Rock. It was his rental car, fingerprints of Rock were found in the car. Rock’s sunglasses were in the glove box and no one had as much to gain for running over Austin as Rock. Foley concludes that Rock is not guilty but Rikishi is. Foley lays out that Scotty said he was hanging out with Rikishi. The car was also configured to fit a large man. This is all good work from one stand point in that Rikishi debuted right around this time. Rikishi admits to doing it and the crowd is stunned along with Rock. As we know, Rikishi did it for The Rock and is never the same again. Rikishi’s reasoning is a race issue that honestly plays much better long term now in reasoning than in 2000. Im kind of complexed with this whole thing watching in retrospect. They have teased things with Rikishi but it came out of left field a bit. I guess a wait and see approach is appropriate.

Chyna is on the cover of Playboy but I guess she couldn’t find Eddie all day. Hmmm. It seems like WWF has settled on spelling Eddie that way so I will use that from now on. GTV fires up right as the match starts and we hear Eddie and some women in the shower going crazy. We discover it is Goodfathers former hos. The crowd chants Eddie at the result of this in one of the more odd crowd reactions I can remember. Chyna is embarrassed and sits on the ring steps as RTC dismantles Eddie. RTC taunts Chyna and ends up getting the pin. Steven keeps berating Chyna post match and she snaps by forearming him and kicking him in the balls. RTC retaliates and Mr. Ass comes to the aid. That is good continuity with the DX tie in. After the break we see Chyna saying she isn’t a ho and breaking the engagement in tears. At least this gets the correct reaction from the crowd. Chyna does good character work here. Mr. Ass talks to Eddie backstage and Eddie attacks him with a bottle. JR calls Eddie a jerk as the segment ends. 3/4*

This is the biggest spot for the short lived Low Down tag team. Their gear is positively horrid. After the initial attack, Matt and Jeff take over in control. D Lo takes over on Matt by sending him into the guardrail on the outside. Lawler is actually doing good at making Low Down feel credible on commentary. D Lo and Chaz tag in and out and keep things fresh working over Matt even though there isn’t a specific focal point. Tide turns with Lita tripping Chaz and crotching him across the post. Hot tag is made to Jeff then. Hardy’s run through their big offense and Jeff ascends to the top when the Conquistadors show up and knock him off. This allows Low Down to hit the superplex, frog splash combo but Chaz doesn’t get out of the ring and Matt is able to come in for a splash and the win. Low Down attacks after the match with the tag titles. Good showing for Low Down here. **1/2

HHH is not happy being partners with Jericho. HHH sees the silver lining of the tag match as him getting a piece of Benoit. Steph uses this to present herself as an asset at ringside. HHH says he is happy that Steph decided to not be Angle’s manager. That seems like it is news to Steph. X-Pac pats HHH on the shoulder before he enters the ring. Jericho and HHH are bickering with each other. The match starts out tornado style with all four fighting it out. This was a neat match as HHH and Jericho really don’t co exist at all in partners. Finish also worked as HHH was going to win but HHH inadvertently gets crotched on the rope and Benoit picks up the big pin. HHH is pissed at Steph backstage and she reminds him that hes been losing a lot since he asked her to stay in the back. **3/4

Well we are without Russo but some dwindling byproducts are still happening. Jarrett is the referee and of course is biased. The action between Steiner and Sting isn’t half bad but I am so far away from being invested in any of this nonsense involving heel authority figures on WCW. Just give me Steiner wrecking folks setting up a showdown with Goldberg. Cat and Booker comes out and Booker assumes the referee position. He attacks Steiner and Sting hits the Death Drop for the pin. Crowd does pop for the face getting one over. *1/2

Jindrak and O’Haire are the tag champs. Wright is good here and really could have had a run as a fun worker on the indie scene if given the chance once WCW closes shop. Jindrak/O’Haire are able to show their double team moves and make them look impressive against Wright who isn’t a small person. Disco and Wright are a pretty cool team when the crowd helps them out. The Aussie crowd is pumped here. Ref gets bumped and Disco hits the Chartbuster with Billy Silverman as the second ref making the count. New Champs! But wait, here comes Mike Sanders who changes the decision to a DQ. After a beat up from the NBT, Sanders then decides to restart the match and the pin is academic. Lame ending there. **

Good opener on paper. Tygress on commentary here and the Brisbane Australia. In better news for me, this is after Russo was shown the door for the last time. Sunset flip powerbomb from the apron with Madden screaming actually helping a match for once. Stevie and Tygress seem to be having a side conversation outside of the match. Rey hits his big leg drop and Stevie screams “THAT’S A FINISH” for a two count. Rey is really showing some gorgeous dives throughout this match and keeping the crowd up which is optimal for an opener. Prime Time walks the ropes and tries a rana to the floor but Rey’s legs are caught on the ropes which looked odd. Besides that botch, Elix looks better here and more confident of his character than at any other point in 2000 so far. Rey looks close to losing his pants while making his comeback. Rey is still able to hit the somersault tope to the floor. Torrie comes out and attacks Tygress as Rey gets hits with a clothesline on the floor. Prime Time hits the Play of the Week and picks up the big win. Really fun opener. *** (5.8)

I will be interested in hearing other opinions on this. Something between the clipping, lack of knowledge with the wrestlers or feud that comprise this match and the random beeping and alert message that pops up on the screen at different intervals made this match not connect for me. A lot of the individual sequences were good and these are four women we will get pretty acquainted to especially someone like Haruyama who I am looking forward to. I thought Sumie was the highlight of the match and showed more viciousness than you might expect. She pounded Tsubasa and Kayoko when given the opportunity. Finish with Yabushita picking up the win felt natural as her Shooter background helped her stature. I miss Ran Yu Yu. **3/4

This is how you do big match, clash of the titans wrestling. The Dome crowd which had been mediocre at best was molten here and the action led from a tense collar and elbow and headlocks into a WAR with both men emptying out the arsenal on one another. Kawada didn't win as much as he survived. I love the ending moments of him hitting the kick, almost collapsing for the pin and the image of Fuchi on the outside confirming that it was indeed 3. It was a surprise finish but not surprising at all in one moment. I will also defend the stretch plum spot as Kawada had been rehabbing the move throughout 2000. Sasaki giving up the belt afterwards is emotional and a fitting moment. I think this match cements that Sasaki has arrived for me. I absolutely thought he belonged in the ring here with Kawada and deserved to share the spotlight. This was one of the most anticipated matches for me in 2000 and it didn't disappoint at all. ****1/2 (9.1)

We know if PWO had a sponsored shirt it would just say BIGLAV on it.

I have tried to be fair to Nakanishi but there was 0 crowd heat here when he was on offense. Given that from the clips we see, he never legally tags out to Nagata, that didn’t make the match seem too exciting. Tenzan also didn’t have much of a reaction. Kojima did the best of the bunch mocking Nakanishi and getting a win off of a lariat. This is one match where it looked like it really suffered from being in a dome. NR

I don’t know if Otani was hurt or what but it is really bizarre he was left off of this card. These two frenemies continue the theme of most of their series of tag matches from 2000 although this one does seem to focus more on leg damage than big strikes and bombs. Kanemoto’s rana into the ankle lock was really slick. Takaiwa fighting through the leg damage to still deliver the DVD was a good visual that would have had a better crowd molten. Juniors failing in the dome remains a big conundrum to me. Big when for Takaiwa. NR

This is criminally clipped considering Delphin vs Liger has always been a neat dynamic and they both have evolved a good bit since their last high profile match. The Dome reaction isn’t great but the grapple heavy nature it looks like this match resulted in feels right up my alley. Delphin kicking out of the palm strike at 1 did elicit a good OHHHHH from the crowd. Delphin gives a big effort but goes down to the brainbuster as Liger’s big year continues. NR

Anyone have any insight as to why this was the opening match. Hashimoto is sporting his short Summer haircut and its weird how inactive and in the waning days of his NJPW we are getting to. Hashimoto also seems slimmed down. This starts with about 10 minutes of grappling. That feels like a lost art in a way so I enjoyed watching it in this atmosphere and the work was compelling enough to keep me hooked. Things really open up with a big strike exchange and some closed punches with both men teeing off on each other bringing Tokyo alive. Hash is able to get a big kick and Fujinami is bloodied up. Hash looks for the brainbuster but settles for the DDT and then locks on a Fujiwara armbar to gain the submission victory. This had old Fujinami and disgruntled Hash in it but they were too stubborn to not have an enjoyable match with each other. ***1/2 (7.2)

Rebecca and Skribble are brutal. Stephanie makes her way to the stage where Tazz and Cole are at. We cut to the arena where we see HHH comes out. Steph says her wedding ring is off getting fixed. Jobber entrance for Saturn. Tazz's fake laugh is driving me nuts. Steph is still struggling with the guest commentary. I did like her yelling at Tazz for calling her honey. The match itself is pretty fun for five minutes. Saturn gets in a bit of offense and HHH is working essentially in quasi face mode. Saturn does get in a tope and a couple of cut off spots before landing right into the pedigree for the win. *1/2

With Swinger on the shelf, Diamond announces his new partner, Chris Chetti. They run a bit of an angle of Chetti and Diamond not getting along which is odd. York and Matthews continue to be serviceable as the white meat babyface tag without being spectacular or look like they really have much breakout potential IMO. Chetti and Diamond argue allowing the hot tag to be made. Chetti ends up bolting and York/Matthews get the pin. Nova wants a piece of Chetti after the match and is in some horrible shiny red gear. Lou E Dangerously is acting like security and he knocks Nova out. **

Lucha in 2000 is becoming a conodrum for me. This was a very good match and the talent is amazing but there is still something missing and overall, I miss the bevy of hot feuds that seemed to populate the scene at the beginning of the year. In one way it is commendable that most of these men can have these “roll out of bed” good matches on a consistent basis. On the other hand, you can see how someone like Casas could be a top 10 worldwide worker for the year and just based on booking and the style I can’t in good conscience rank him that high. Him and Dandy go after each other here a lot and Panther also mixes in some good work. Shocker and Zumbido were a little more low key but they did continue to get some interesting beats out of Tarzan Boy. A very good match but one where I hoped for a great one going in so overall perhaps a bit of a victim of circumstances style match. ***1/2 (6.9)

A good lucha appetizer with Fuerza and Felino especially being the standouts in this one. A fiery opening and then progressively more hate with each other with Fuerza going after the mask in the later stages. Pimpinela was also vicious and not just comedy in this match including choking Lizmark on the outside. The payback spots by the tecnicos in the third fall when things broke down was well done with Fuerza getting unmasked big time and Felino doing a foul. Referee was too involved from the jump in this match and with Fuerza’s mask being disorganized, he starts attacking the ref because he can’t see. Finish has Lizmark also giving a foul to Pimpinela and the referee after deliberation awards the match to the rudos. Your usual Monterrey bullshit of good wrestling mixed with referee nonsense. *** (6.1)

A really good match and a testament to how good Sasuke is when he wants to be. Marufuji also exuded a ton of confidence and didn’t rely on annoying traits that will creep in throughout his career. Sasuke hit the perfect balance of making the up and comer look competent while still being the established star. The first really good match of Marufuji’s career. ***3/4 (7.4)

SUWA is such a punk. He starts shit walking out and it flows over to the match as he just brutalizes Tiger Mask working like a complete rudo with stiff punches, mask ripping and drawing blood. He also is stirring up a lot of hate with Magnum Tokyo on the outside. Tiger Mask for his part hits his comebacks and shows sympathy. I liked the glimpse of a run for TM and then SUWA kneeing him in the nuts and just taking over again. The comeback from TM was superheroic but he did have to thwart off Crazy Max as well as another low blow from SUWA before locking on the submission victory. SUWA freaks after the match and we get a big ol brawl to set up a lot of matches in the future. Another really good match to end the night. ***3/4 (7.6)