soup23

Jericho does one of his more memorable and classic promos where he inserts Benoit’s face onto different situations including a jackass. Benoit comes out all serious and presents a picture of his own with Jericho in the crossface. E&C come out for the six man and they have a dig at Ricky Williams and his fumble. The New Orleans Saints in the front row do not look amused. Quick match but a way to preview what is coming up on Sunday. I did like the chair being thwarted by the Hardy’s as it felt like E&C had gotten the upper hand for most of the build. E&C do remain on top as the segment ends against the Hardy’s with E&C hitting a chair against a ladder. The Dudley Boyz come out and hit the wassup drop on Christian. Matt Hardy recovers and dives onto everyone on the outside. Meanwhile, Jericho/Benoit are brawling and eventually both go through the table. These two feuds along with the main event carried the SummerSlam build. *1/2

I'm going to be way higher on this than the other commentators. I thought this told a great story of SUWA being the ultimate prick bully and Dragon Kid selling his ass off and having to use his spotty spots to overtake the advantage. The false finish and overbooking were polarizing but I am not adverse to those if done sparingly. I thought DK execution was well done and the culminating Dragon Rana felt like like the first brutal move that could have obtained victory for him. The after match with Darkness Dragon debuting was great. **** (8)

M2K vs Crazy Max has arrived. This is the first super sized match between the two and Korakuen is rocking for it. It sort of reminded me of the Jumbo and Co. vs Misawa and Co. tag from May 1990 as you could tell the momentum was changing for the promotion and this was going to be the main focal point for the foreseeable future. Fuji gets worked over for a majority of the match and shows some sympathetic tendencies which is different from what he has been asked to do in his career so far. The match has an extended finishing run with a ton of chaos and action. M2K has instituted wanting to have a double countout and they succeed here. I don’t know how long that is going to be acceptable for me as a viewer chronicling this stuff, but it worked here. **** (7.9)

We get less than half of this but it looked like a solid singles match to enter the meaty portion of the match. Arai isn't the most interesting personality but he is technically very sound. I do like him continually going for his twisting headbutt and him finally hitting it felt like a big turning point in the match overall. His 450 to gain the pin also looked good. Genki is still so young and 18 minutes may have been ambitious for him at this point in his career. I don't think from the clips this match rose above good and was a roaring success but it wasn't a failure either which at this point in these two guys' development, is not a bad thing at all. NR

This may have suffered from coming at the end of a pretty big lucha block the past couple of days. I thought the action was good but everything was a slight step off which hurt things a bit. There is also some weird clipping that always derails the momentum. Santo was the most smooth throughout and brought the most hate when he fires off on the outside on the third fall. This was probably Silver King’s worst performance of 2000 as he didn’t bring much energy at all and was more sloppy than usual. Ref bump was eye rolling. Antifaz Del Norte comes out and attacks Dandy with Dandy blading from being hit with the board. Dandy and the rudos are awarded the DQ win. *** (5.9)

A pretty grizzled tecnicos team here. The tecnicos have good energy and Tony Rivera looks more scuzzy by the day. I’m glad to see Emilio showing more fire lately as he has gotten back to his mid 90’s era here just beating people up. The third fall has Fuerza doing a great quick foul that the replay has to pick up. What an ass. I live for Black Warrior topes and he flies through the air against Emilio. Inside, Fuerza hits an elbow and Panther does a hurty submission on Lizmark to secure the win. For nondescript Arena Coliseo action, this was slightly above average. **3/4

Kurt is heading out again and gets run down by Steph. Steph tells Kurt that he is wanted and to forget HHH. She needs him which gets a big ohhhh from the audience. I love this storyline. Angle says if she wants him to stay, he will stay. Angle is showing Steph submission moves and tells Steph that this has been a wonderful night. Kurt shows her a go behind and HHH barges in and tells Kurt he has been showing her too many moves. He calls Kurt the slowest teacher of all time. For fucks sake, Lita is walking to the ring and all King can talk about is her underwear. Lita takes over on Steph right away. Angle distracts Rock and HHH decks Lita. The Hardy’s come down to help her out. Steph hits a DDT and King goes nuts. Kurt shows Steph the title belt and gets brought into the ring by Rock. HHH attacks from behind. Kurt gets the belt but Rock ducks and HHH gets hit. Rock Bottom gets rid of Kurt. Now Steph has the belt and she gets spinebustered by Rock. Lita hits the moonsault and wins the title to a huge pop. Good fun here. *1/2

I guess this was before WWF just refereed to this town and building as the Cajun Dome to forgive the embarrassment of having to say they are in Lafayette. Rock was funny in his promo saying he was going to spread some gumbo and jambalaya on his boot before sticking it up Angle’s candy ass. Foley comes out and gives Rock the night off to a chorus of boos. Angle comes out and introduces his new friend, HHH. HHH then comes out as they call him an asshole and Stephanie a slut. HHH says that Thursday Angle made him proud and showed him a lot of integrity. Foley takes the opportunity to set them up in a tag match. He also makes Rock the special referee for Lita vs Steph. Backstage, the McMahon-HHH regime says they have to stay together. Steph points out that she is the only champion among them which HHH dismisses. This tag match was better than I would have imagined. Acolytes are great gatekeepers in that they are competent enough to be presented as ass kickers but also could take a loss if you want to continue the HHH/Angle being able to coexist thread. Bradshaw in particular had good punches throughout this. Finish was pretty rudimentary as HHH dispatches of Bradshow on the outside and then hits a pedigree on Faroqq for the win. Afterwards, we get a nice angle as the Acolytes attack Kurt who celebrated too long and HHH acts like he is going to help and then thinks better of it. Pretty smart way to continue the build to SummerSlam. **1/2

We see some setup from Heat for the main event with Lita getting knocked off the apron and Stephanie attacking her on top of the table. The true tell tale sign that the promotion is firing on all cylinders in that those two feel like a neat feud that can co exist with the love triangle stuff. We also get clips of the breakdown from Thursday when these two teams tried to tag. Finally, E&C is coming out on commentary. E&C are funny on commentary and say tonight they are going to introduce the Swerve. The Dudleys are the masters of stinkitude. The action is strong for a three minute match with some high flying spots. Just as I type that, Bubba and Jeff have a pretty awkward sequence. The camera man gets knocked out and Edge spears Matt Hardy on the outside. Inside, Jeff misses the swantom and the Dudley’s hit the 3D. Edge then kills Bubba with a chairshot and Jeff is able to drape an arm over him to get the pin. *1/4

JR says he is full as a tick eating a lot of catfish. My father in law literally says he is full as a tick after every meal. Saturn in WWE is weird as I don’t think he looked bad here for all of the two minutes it lasted and he was associated with Terri but he just didn’t seem to fit anywhere. Benoit runs in and again him and Jericho have a violent pull apart. I really want to see this carry over to the SummerSlam match. After the break, we get a clip of Angle and HHH arguing over who can show Steph the better full nelson. ½*

Above average gives a less than average promo. K Dawg shoots on it and says it sucked. We come back from the break and have the animals going up against the Natural Born Thrillers. Konnan says the only reason they have been given the ball is that they don’t have any. Sadly, I’m warming up to Konnan on commentary which I don’t know if it is an indictment of myself or the WCW product at the time. Animals are pretty much exclusively a face. Konnan says the tag titles are at stake because why not when they are in a six man match. The Animals as faces is a much more comfortable position and this is a good match full of action. Sanders and Disco in the ring together is cringe but Rey looks a lot more comfortable. Madden says Rey is jacked to the gills. Ummmm ok. Konnan calls the ref Conan O Brien which is another funny line. Juvy does a great walk up rana and has the hot tag going nuts. Finish sees Sanders getting the reverse neckbreaker across the back on Disco to pick up the win. Afterwards, O’Haire gets Tygress the swantom bomb. **1/4

Chuck tells Pamela he is the future of the business. A decent promo but he is pretty marbled mouth. Madden calls Pamela a tramp and Tony tells him thanks for adding nothing to that. You go Tony. Russo is the special guest referee so we have tons of bullshit. Russo even botches a quick count as it takes him a second to get into position. The action is ok but this is so played out and the announcers screaming at each other isn’t helping one bit. The Natural Born Thrillers come out and beat up Booker until Big Vito of all people makes the save. Nash runs in with a chair and hits Booker. Russo does a fast count and Palumbo is the champion? Cat comes out and says the match will continue. He send the NBT to the back. “I’m the commissioner, youre a writer” Fuck off. Bookend and Booker wins. Shit. ½*

Your ho hum Monterrey with the rudos dominanting mostly throughout. There is a couple of good moments with Dandy and Casas squaring off. Dandy also mimics the dance of Parka in a funny moment. Overall, this match more than anything made me contemplate on a top 100 wrestlers of 2000, where some of these guys would rank. Dandy hasn’t been spectacular but steady. Scorpio when given a chance has been spectacular. Casas as well has had a real quiet year for someone projected as a GOAT contender. Food for thought. **

Dammit AAA, you were doing so good. This is exactly the bullshit that I hate from the promotion. The opening couple of minutes with the dog collar being emphasized are good and even though Sangre and Pirata are older, they seem to have as much in the tank as Perro Sr. Then we get Tirantes and the time keeper fighting for some reason and a big Los Vipers breakdown with Abismo arguing with Electroshock, Charly Manson and co. I can’t follow much of anything that is going on with this and it became frustrating for a short segment. *

This was easily the best non apuestas match of the heavies in AAA this year so far. The action was chaotic but easy to follow and the hate was really conveyed between Perro Jr. and Latin Lover. Both of those men do some great blade jobs off of weapon shots and just go after each other throughout the duration of the match. The seconds get involved and for typical extracurricular AAA bullshit, this was one of the better examples of that. The match ends in a non finish but this got me more excited to watch the main event scene in AAA than anything else so far. ***1/2 (7)

Another sweet short match for August. These two go after each other right away and Kato in particular really took the fight to Meiko. Meiko got worked over for most of this match but interspersed her selling the damage with strikes of her own. The finish was great with her faking out a pele kick and then hitting it. Overall, a 10 minute strike heavy fest that wets your appetite for a longform match between these two. ***1/2 (6.9)

Holy shit was this a brutal war. It starts out as a fight and stays that way for the duration. We have seen some generic joshi fights this year but this is far from that. Ito hits a gusher and is bleeding buckets. She regains her composure and does a nutso dive from one of the Korakuen balconies with a 15 foot double stomp. Back inside the ring, the crowd is firmly with Ito on every nearfall hoping she can pick up the upset. I also appreciated the tag partners on the outside fighting each other but staying away from the match besides when Shimoda tries to spew orange mist. Ito mounts one huge comeback with a trio of double stomps and picks up the winning the Grand Prix tournament. Kind of like Necro vs Joe in that it was 10 minutes of violent, visceral action. **** (8.1)

60% of the first part of this match consisted of Tomoko dominating the mat. Nothing outerwordly with her work on mainly the leg of Ito but it kept my attention. Ito takes things to the outside and hits a powerbomb on the floor along with a double stomp attempt. She misses the double stomp which really should have been a big prolem given the leg that was worked over earlier. Back inside, Ito uses the double stomp again to gain a nearfall and my attention is waning based off that. Watanabe gets a nearfall with a gutwrench powerbomb and goes for that again but Ito grabs an armbar and gets an immediate submission. This was a ton of good sequences but not one cohesive story tieing it together. **1/2

For those indie respect type matches, this was near the top of the list. The opening mat work and stand offs are well executed and still look state of the art 17 years later. In addition, the crowd is electric and this more and more of a fleeting feeling this late into 2000. The match becomes more of a back and forth traditional affair but the outside portions was better than the night before being condensed inside the arena and Psicosis nearly dying on a tope to the outside. Psicosis does still look a little woozy from the outside dive but regains his composure enough to crotch himself on the top rope and take the kicks and baseball slide from Tajiri in that position. After a series of cradles and a double clothesline, both men are down. Tajiri looks for the brainbuster but is able to hit a crackling kick when that is countered. Psicosis hits a face first suplex and the big legdrop but that only gets two which shocks the crowd. Tajiri blocks the flying body scissors and then hits three huge kicks getting huge OHHHHS from the crowd to gain the win. Great match. **** (7.9)

This was segued from the previous match with Lynn saving the beat down commencing on Chetti and Nova. Hamrick takes a sick bump a minute in with a backdrop right to the concrete. Once Hamrick takes advantage, he hits a huge legdrop. Hamrick gets crotched multiple times and takes a neat bump off of the Cradle Piledriver. Essentially a squash but Hamrick is always entertaining in those situations. *1/2

ECW’s announcer really annoys me with the way he goes overboard on every ring name. I like the ECW undercard but this was really spot fu and some of the spots didn’t hit well which is critical for a match like this. Something about Chetti just feels so generic. Chetti/Nova do hit a splash/legdrop combo on the top to eliminate York/Matthews. The crowd chants for someone to show their tits. After a bit of back and forth between Hot Commodity and Nova/Chetti, Hamrick interferes and Dinero hits a clothesline for the win. We learn after the break that Lou E has challenged Billy Corgan *1/4

One of the most intense collar and elbow tie ups starts this off. It looked completely hateful and vicious. Some more intense grappling follows where you have small touches like Ki grabbing Homicides shirt to hang onto positon. Homicide takes a powder to the outside. Homicide then starts to target the leg for the next 15 minutes and it is some of the most gripping stuff of 2000 so far. Cide varies his offense and his attack and Ki is excellent selling from underneath. No matter what Homicide does, Low Ki wont go down. Homicide gives some clubbing clotheslines right to the face that made me cringe. Ki is able to hit a flash Ki Krusher to get back into the match but then he winds up and absolutely pastes referee Hansen with a kick that sounded like a shotgun going off. Montoya takes the opportunity to interfere and Billy Reil comes in to stop that but accidently hits Ki with a chair. Homicide hits the Cop Killah and gains the pin. Such hatred here and everything was worked cleanly. The finish is bullshit but sets up the next chapter in this feud. What a great match. ****1/4 (8.6)

Johnny D has some words for the Haas Brothers valet and Papa Roach fires up. Going to start a drinking game for how many times I hear Last Resort in the next couple of years. I dug the shit out of this match. All four guys just went after it with Da Hit Squad having no regard for throwing their bodies around as well as laying a beating on the Haas Bros. Pretty progressive and funny chant from the JAPW when the Haas are on top of “wheres Kurt Angle”. The assisted front senton onto the outside by the Haas’ is impressive. A cat fight ensues with Johnny D and Montoya trying to break it up. This match moving from the frantic start into a traditional southern tag with a FIP is wonderful. Hot tag by Mafia is well done and the Haas Bros show resilience by coming back culminating in Russ hitting an elbow drop into the balls of Mafia. Mafia is able to get a flash small package for the win. A good match showing that Da Hit Squad had more substance as far as structuring a tag match. ***1/4 (6.7)

A good southern tag. Golden/Knight is pretty limited but the bones of a psychologically strong match is here and Taylor does enough as FIP to keep things interesting. He intersperses his hope spots throughout the match and I was delighted to see Taylor/Bliss working together as a team. The finish comes with Taylor ending up winning with a belly to belly suplex and he has to be lined up for a future shot at one of the heels titles. *** (5.9)

KDawg on commentary and the Animals pre match promo. That’s Enough. Can these guys just have a straight series of matches that build a story that is not absurd? The heat here is rocking and Juvy/Rey are doing great combo moves. Notice the crowd getting much more quiet when Disco tags in. He does garner at least a disco sucks chant. Dive train was a lot of fun and culminated with Noble hitting the somersault flip from the top. KDawg calls the old guys in the promotion the travelling wax museum. Ok that was a good line. K Dawg is also giving credit to the Animals. What the hell is happening. Springboard legdrop from Juvy gets broken up by Kaz. Kaz does a 3 Stooges eye poke which gets a laugh. Yang gets hit with the chartbuster and Rey finishes the match off with the legdrop to the lower region. This was a fun day for wrestling tv. Good match here. *** (6.2)