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Borash is back in the booth and wearing shades for some reason. Nonstop Action is mentioned twice in this match so now we know the onus for TNA's name. The match is a mess. Are the Animals heels or faces? They get bounced around until the Harris Borther comes out and takes out Adams. Then Disco interferes on the Animals behalf and Rey/Juvy are now in control and take the match with the legdrop the nuts from Rey. I really hate that finish. 1/2*

Hopefully, this is the end of this feud. RVD just doesn't hold up at all as there is no emotional connection for me with him and the moves don't look that state of the art or fluid. I guess he has more polish than some of the stuff he did in 1996 but there is also more bloat. He dominates the first half of this match and takes his sweet time to execute everything. Anton takes over and this is the best part of the match although nothing extraordinary. RVD going back on offense with a kick of a chair from a running charge from Anton was lame. Frog Splash a few minutes later ends it. Yawn and way too long. *

This match is segued out of a Jerry LYnn defeat at the hands of CW Anderson. We are still in Hammerstein and given the pinfalls Lynn secured in the tag title tournament, that seems careless him losing to Anderson the next night. The six person tag match is just a collection of spot loosely tied together with Chetti turning on Nova for no apparent reason. Otherwise, Doring and Roadkill pick up a victory to get the crowd celebrating. 3/4*

This match felt like a great Grateful Dead set that falters by seguing into Space and Drums just because they have to have those songs inserted into the second set of a show for an arbitrary reason. The brawling in the beginning of this was incredible and some of the better brawling we have seen in 2000 which is saying something given some of the lucha stuff we have seen. The rudos are brutal and with tecnicos like Parka and Casas, they are willing to bump along. Then the match stalls out in the third fall doing more traditional lucha spots and not seemingly having any direction. Really disappointing as I thought we were headed to a great match. ***1/2 (6.8)

A fun middle of the card lucha match. The rudos were on point and played off the PImpinela antics well resisting his offers and contemplating turning their back on their partner. Mr. Niebla was also fun in this with his dancing spots especially counteracting Satanico. It being a satanico match, a foul was only a matter of time happening and that happens here. The finish was nicely done for lucha in 2000 with the ref getting bumped, Salvaje delivering a foul and the ref counting three. Salvaje checks on the ref and pats his hair as his hand is being raised. ***1/4 (6.4)

Besides the initial commentary on Mace's entrance, this was presented well as getting over Mace as a competent worker who belonged in this match and proved something to the naysayers. Besides that, it was a fun garbage brawl that looked dated at points in current day but still had enough big spots and action to remain entertaining in an evergreen environment. Low Ki's senton to the floor was nuts and the finishing Ki Krusher to Mace looked brutal and nearly botched. FWA continues to have good production values. *** (6)

JR is in the booth and right away Cornette gives way to him taking the lead so we get significantly less screaming than usual. That is a positive. The negative is we still have the same bullshit match of 5 minutes of decent action and then a complete schmozz generally resulting in the heel skating out a victory. The referee was really poor here just staying in position to get bumped. Dinsmore is able to take out Bolin and Mr. Black but Conway loads up the glove the steal the victory. Blah. *1/2

Our first look at Caprice Coleman (Ice) and I look forward to seeing him progress throughout the decade as he is one of my favorite underneath wrestlers up to and including him in current day ROH. The match packed a big punch for four minutes with German suplexes, pump handle slams and lift up spinebusters. Good chemistry between the two and Lazz is all business in the match. The match ends with an Onyx run in and attack as the show goes off the air. *3/4

A fun angle starts with NWA Elite celebrating one year of Wildside and Steve Martin shooting that he runs the 3rd largest promotion in the US. Bill Beherens comes out to dispute what NWA Elite has to say and he gets jumped. THis leads to Al Getz leaving the booth and recruiting some faces from the locker room to chase the Elite off. Beherns and Getz share a handshake in a pretty big moment within the promotion. Gemini's gimmick is interesting but the match didn't have much time to develop. I do want to see Onyx in a 15 minute match as from the quick glimpses, the potential is there and he knows how to play a heel character. Big schmozz at the finish with Bailey and Lazz getting involved. 1/2*

For the generic indie rific guys in Wildside at the time, this was ok. I don't really see the appeal in Air Paris so far and think WCW could have done much better than having him tag along with Styles in the latter moments of the promotion. The gear here really screamed 2000's also. Paris' former partner comes out to assist him and it looks like we are headed for a tag team feud. *1/2

Austin Rhodes is a penny store impersonation of a Rhodes family member. A terrible worker that botches a roll up at one point in the waning moments of this match. Slash is still doing a pretty unique character beat in the same vein of late 1996 Steve Austin but this match was just here to advance him in the tournament. 1/4*

Power Pro is sputtering to the finish here. I enjoy a tournament as much as the next person but The Ultimate Victory Tournament is the most generic sounding name I have heard for a tournament and winning a new Harley didn't exactly sweeten the pot any. The action here is fine for a straight tv match and King continues to feel beneath the other talent level he is surrounded by. I was pissed that he took the loss here but I guess they are still playing up the down on his luck streak with King. *1/4

This only getting four minutes was unfortunate but they told a good story given the time. Regal dominates and is being semi cocky without the obvious character tones of his snooty WCW character. Spanky comes back with a barrage of offense and some great nearfalls including a Sliced Bread #2. He misses a frog splash and Regal locks on the Stretch quickly to gain the victory. *1/2

An atrocious Dragon promo starts us off as he complains about someone parking in the grass. Rocker attacks and we cut to the match and Rocker continuing the beatdown. They are wrestling in some sort of tent. Rocker doesn't do a whole lot on top but Dragon does look dynamic in his comeback and is able to put Rocker away with a jawbreaker from the ropes and suplex. 3/4*

Should I go ahead and announce here that for some reason I am kind of a closeted Anderson fan? Here he is as Kamikaze Ken and a straight 1980's dynamic dude fired up babyface. I don't know where they are wrestling but the floor is dirt here. Pearce gets the crowd nice and riled up beforehand and this match carries a very throwback structure of heat up and cool down spots. Anderson nearly kills himself on a dive to the outside going face first into the dirt. We get the overplayed ref bump and lame finish of Pearce's manager helping him secure the victory. Fun to watch and crowd heat was there from both men. **1/2

Not a bad way to end the night. The brawl was short and heated and the bumps looked more vicious than the previous night. Bad Breed worked well as a tag team throughout the 2000's in this environment as they do portray themselves as bad asses. Hardcore Craig takes the blunt end of the beatdown culminating in the biggest spot being the finish of an powerbomb through chairs and assorted light tubes. Ian puts over Craig after the match and I guess he passed the artificial test of proving he is hardcore. IWA ending a show called Sweet Science by Ian pleading the fans to join him in saying "if you aint hardcore, you aint shit" is fitting. **1/2

The tournament ends in a whimper. We didn't have any MOTYC or anything on this show but it had progressed well. The opening matwork while fundamental got me excited that it would ratchet up to a satisfying conclusion. Instead, Palmer takes over and between the road sign shot and referee bullshit, this felt like anything but a Sweet Science finale and while Palmer is a heel, he didn't generate the right type of "heat" from that performance. It is nice that Hero won and they were going for an overcoming the odds story to establish Hero, but the execution missed the spot and Palmer wasn't the right person in the other role. **1/4

An improvement on the previous match just based on the fact that we had Ace being a clear heel. The structure is a same but it felt more advanced with the sequences and chain wrestling. Everything looked crisp and this had a tighter finish with Hero securing the win to go to the finals. Ace was always heralded as one of the more underrated guys on the scene and it is easy to see why as he has character beats as well as a refined working style. ***1/4 (6.4)

Much like the Hero/Kickboxer match, this was another good showcase match to display the up and coming talent in the promotion in a face vs face manner. Punk is vocal with the crowd and this did have more indie riffic spots that prevent it from moving as fluidly as the Hero match. I thought Punk added a good bit of texture to what he was doing within the ring by making sure he was remaining vocal and selling damage when appropriate. **3/4

From what I have seen of these two feud in 2001, Hero is probably my favorite opponent for Kickboxer except for maybe Tarek the Great. This match progressed well and felt sufficient for a second round in a tourney affair. The big vs small contrast was displayed and Hero catches the highspots of Kickboxer. The only downside I have is in regards to the finish as Hero locks on a crab and gets the submission almost instantaneously. *** (6)

Something about the way this was filmed with the color distortion being off gave the match overall a grindhouse, pulp feel that enhanced the experience in this singular case. On top of that for two hardcore workers that aren’t darlings of their respective promotions in ring, this was a good match that had some brutal looking spots and kept the pace up. The match built up to the finale of Zandig doing the big powerbomb from the truck through the flaming tables and Zandig standing triumphantly with the CZW entrance sign in the background felt like one of the more astute shots in CZW history. *** (6.1)

Some more “great” CZW angles with Robbie Mireno beating up someone with an umbrella. This segues into the Backseat Boyz coming out and then finally Mondo/Blade/Shorty. Blade cuts a perverse promo calling the BSB gay and we get a huge chant from the crowd. The match itself was sloppy and switched between sick spots semi blown and just blown spots. Mondo in particular was really off in the match for big points as he goes for a rana or something early on that was completely blown. He also throws Acid recklessly on the top rope. On the other hand, Mondo hits an insane asai moonsault where Acid catches him and eats a face full of gravel from the momentum. Acid has received a ton of praise in 2000 and while he was certainly the better guy here, he was also pretty sloppy and spot fu himself. It just shows he is young and hasn’t put all of the pieces together. He still has some amazing spots though such as the corkscrew legdrop onto a chair that gets the crowd to pop and applaud in appreciation. Mondo responds and hits a nasty springboard 450 where the table doesn’t break except for the end. He hits a springboard legdrop and that does the trick. Kashmere and Blade get involved and Blade is looking good tonight hitting his big spots and connecting on the kicks to Kashmere. The match gets thrown out there as it looks like these two teams will still keep battling. *** (6)

Segued straight from the Lobo vs Zandig match is this one. H8 Club is on the outside looking on. The cage does contain these guys so we don’t get any long wondering through the crowd brawling and taking forever to set up spots. Some cool spots here with the big superplex and the powerbomb from Lobo into the exploding side of the cage looked really good. Lobo as a worker struggles to do anything compelling within the spots. I’m not sure whether his character is supposed to be portrayed as a dangerous or aloof. They both climb up to the scaffold area which was pretty dumb. Sure enough, Lobo gets shoved off into a barbed wire board shortly afterward. After an impressive first portion of the match, we are now in you do one big spot, I do one big spot plodding territory. Justice Pain hits an Angle Slam through a pane of glass and wins the title. Again, some fun spots but not much of a match and the main event scene in CZW booking wise is subpar at best. **1/2

Zandig dispels the rumors that some “Fucking Jap” wasn’t going to show up. Its alarming how few matches Lobo actually worked. The cage has a ton of goodies in it and Zandig uses a trashcan and board immediately on Lobo. Light tubes and a throw the glass follow that. This is essentially a squash with Zandig about to hit the KO blow when Yamakawa comes out as a surprise and throws Zandig into an exploding side of the ring. Lobo is able to get the win. After the match, Yamakawa attacks Lobo and shows his allegiance with H8 Club. ½*

A LONGGGG promo to set this up. The match itself is pretty forgettable just beyond these two wrestling in 2000. Horowitz does still have a lot of charisma and technical proficiency. Assassin is kind of just there.Around 5 minutes in we get a ref bump which is becoming way too much of a trope in this string of non Japanese matches I am watching lately. Horowitz's second clobbers him and Assassin pins to win the belt. *1/2