soup23

Good promo by Flair here although it can't hold a candle to the post Rumble all timer. This was just there to put a bow on the Rumble for those that didn't get the PPV.

This was an awesome six man for me. Misawa is in peril and trouble and they target that. What Loss brings up about Fuchi hold true as kawada gets the hot tag and him and Fuchi go off on each other with great vigor and a hot crowd. Taue pinning Kobashi at this point makes sense to me and shows just how tough victories are to come by for the young generation. **** (8.2)

Rude and Austin look so badass coming to the ring. I liked the team of Sting and Steamer together and this did a great job transitioning from Sting vs Rude being the main focal point of everything going on to getting Steamboat involved in a personal feud with Rude after he hits the Awakenings at the end. ***1/4 (6.3)

One of the more wrestlecrap moments in wrestling history. Garvin and Hayes look just like two drunk uncles who get carried away at your wedding and you pull out the video every once in a while to get a laugh at them making asses of themselves.

I have always thought this was fine but more of a novelty of something decent out of Van Hammer than a good match on previous viewings. This time I saw a little more meat to the match including Van Hammer's good look crossbody and the onset and some of the sick bumps Cactus took. As i view stuff later in the decade, brawls are a dime a dozen but this had a little more heart behind it. ***1/4 (6.4)

This has a cool novelty to see Sting and Muta lock it up one more time but as a tag match, it isn’t great. I am not the biggest fan by any means but Cat trying to match him in kicking sequences was awful. Vampiro and Sting continue to have absolutely no chemistry with each other. Muta getting the mist on the Stinger Splash attempt was nice. Cat actually scores the pin before we have the big moment of Demon coming out and putting the Scorpion onto Sting after blowing red mist into Cat. Yawn. ¾*

Storm stumbles over his promo more here than in previous weeks. Awesome is out with his main squeeze Heidi. The match is literally only two minutes long before Heidi turns on Awesome and reveals that she is Canadian. Even Stevie Ray is appalled on commentary. Awesome’ s gimmick is brutal and having Heidi become more prominent doesn’t help things. ½*

This was a much stronger showing for Nagata than the previous night. He led Ilzuka through an exciting final segment and threw his barrage of kicks and submissions with more accuracy. In fact, of all the match clips we have seen so far, this was probably up there along with Fujinami vs Liger as the two matches I ould most like to see in full. Overall this show looks pretty weak and Nagata getting the win felt well deserved. NR

Another strong outing for the Otani/Kanemoto tag folder for 2000. This has Makabe involved which has been rare in tag matches and him and Kashin did pretty well together in their sequences. I don’t know how Makabe can have so much better strikes here so early in his career than now in current day. I guess we he bulked up and became a powerhouse heavyweight, that meant less proficiency. The Kanemoto vs Otani sequences like usual are heated and this should have gotten the crowd hot for the start of the show. ***1/4 (6.7)

The calendar doesn’t stop but our one constant in 2000 is TB getting his ass beat by the Infernales. The Infernales also have some boss gear here with more yellow mixed in with the red and black. This trios was meant to put them over as a unit as they go over in two straight falls and in general look strong doing it. The triple team first fall finish was slick and Satanico is craft as ever hooking the middle rope on the pinfall to gain the second fall. **3/4

This is always the toughest matches for me to rank because from a technical standpoint, this of course wasn’t amazing. However, if polled in 5 years about the year 2000 as a whole, I think this will be one of the most memorable matches of the entire year where I can recollect certain things. This was the ultimate spectacle. The setting looks awesome and post apocalyptic with the industrial buildings in the background. At one point, the camera pans on Matsunaga and Zandig in the ring engulfed with fire around them and you can see the subway passing by. It was beautiful in the way it was framed. Beyond that, Zandig nearly gets ran over by a car and then stops said car with his strength. Some of the Zandig dives look rough and he gets powerbombed through a table barely making contact. I personally would never want to wrestle in a deathmatch but this one seemed even more dangerous than usual with the flames getting out of hand and overall height of some of the dives/bumps. This is certainly a match that needs to be watched just for the shear insanity. Because of that, I do feel like this match deserves a spot in my end of year top 100 even though it is the bottom rung of garbage in a garbage match setting. **** (8)

To no ones surprise, it looks like this was predominantly a mat based match which intrigues me and makes me wish it was available in full. Nagata opens things up at the finish but is really wild and hits a seated Thesz Press, spinning back kick and jumping front kick that completely whiffs. He needed to reign it in a bit there. Nagata picks up the win with back suplex. The mat work looked good, the finishing sequence did not. NR

Liger is still over like crazy. We jump to the clip of him fighting out of a leg lock and go right into our finishing run. Liger gets in a few hope spots with the torture rack and a good nearfall off of a shotei into brainbuster combo, but it does feel like this was always Ilzuka’s match to lose and the tap out comes pretty quickly once he rolls through and has Liger in a choke. NR

This didn’t look like anything great from the clips we saw. A bunch of clotheslines and a no sell off of powerbombs. The crowd was really quiet when we jump into the action of Hirata in control. They do come alive towards the home stretch with Takaiwa hittig a DVD but lessen again when Hirata hits one more lariat. Hirata wins with a weird Northern Lights suplex variation and while it is cool the juniors are in the tournament, they are taking a lot of L’s. NR

Angle meets with Foley and wants to present his case as the #1 contender for SummerSlam. HHH arrives and tells Steph that he needs his space. HHH pleads his case as #1 contender to Foley. HHH then gets into Stephs face and says this is his shot and that if he sees Angle in the building, he is going to kick his ass. Steph and Angle are chatting backstage and Steph is polishing Kurt’s medals. Kurt says HHH should be more sensitive and Steph thanks him for being such a good friend. We cut to the arena and learn we are in MSG. Joe informs HHH that Angle may be the one guy to take out HHH. Joe also talks to Kurt and gets him riled up. Now, Steph comes to the ring and publicly apologizes to HHH and assures him that Kurt and her are just friends. Hunter comes out and Steph apologizes again and says that she loves him. They hug and make up and this is actually when King is pretty funny on commentary. Once they reconcile, Steph switches gears right away to business. Steph now invites Angle out and JR is giddy at the prospect of this confrontation. Angle tries to reiterate the friend line. HHH says that Angle may have his naïve little wife fooled but he knows that Angle is full of shit. That gets a huge pop from the MSG crowd. Steph says if HHH really loves her, he will shake hands with Kurt. Foley makes his prescience known as he strolls to ringside. Mick shows the video from Thursday and then makes a #1 contenders match for the Raw main event to see who faces Rock at SummerSlam. Shane and Benoit are backstage after the title match talking to Foley and demanding retribution against Jericho. Foley has a punishment that seems fitting and it is adding Jericho to the #1 contenders match. HHH is stretching backstage and here comes Jericho to attack HHH. There is so much shit going on but it is all so engaging and they have done a wonderful job interweaving all of the principle players. We get to the main event match now. The action is good with HHH and Angle being kept mostly apart building up the tension between them squaring off. Rock is on commentary for this. Angle gets drop toe hold into HHH’s crotch in a fun spot. Angle and HHH prove that when they can get on the same page, they are a force to be reckoned with as they end up getting the double pin on Jericho after a back suplex from the ropes. King gets in a good line that with Hebner as the referee, anything can happen now. Rock has had enough and he gives a Rock Bottom to both HHH, Angle and Steph as the show goes off the air. Everyone is confused as to who the actual winner is and we have our three way SummerSlam main event. **1/2

Rock starts out Raw and the crowd is molten. He wants a piece of Benoit tonight at all costs. This brings out Shane and Benoit and we get the title match set up for later with the added stipulation that it is no DQ. The match itself is a great sprint with Benoit being intense as hell, Rock hanging with him from a cardio standpoint and Shane inserting himself enough to get over the stipulation but not enough to derail the flow of the match overall. They only got about 8 minutes but they maximize their time and the crowd is going crazy. The finish was also really clever as Benoit locks on the crossface and like Storm on Nitro, it really feels like a title change could happen with Shane peppering Rock with additional kicks. Just then, Jericho makes his return from two weeks and gives Benoit two powerbombs onto a steel chair. As Jericho chases Shane to the back, Rock hits Benoit with the Rock Bottom to pick up the win. I liked Storm vs Booker well enough but in the African American vs Canadian main event match that dueled this night, this match outclassed it in most every way. ***1/2 (6.9)

Lance has been built up so well that this match probably should have been the main event of the PPV. The match itself is well done and has a good pace of back and forth. Awesome is on commentary and his “friend” receives some sub sandwiches halfway thru. Storm locking on the Maple Leaf really makes the title feel like it is in peril and Booker looks strong fighting and getting to the ropes. Storm is also able to look strong kicking out of Booker’s secondary finishers like the missile dropkick and side kick. The Bookend gets the win for Booker and as predicted, we get a schmozz at the end of the show with Jarrett and Awesome getting involved. **1/2

A big opportunity for Takaiwa in this tournament as I forgot he was even entered. Crowd again is hot as shit for the closing moments here and we cut right to Takaiwa utilizing a DVD from the top rope. Chono is working with more viciousness here as he locks on his leg sub stuff. Takaiwa really has the crowd going on a DVD > lariat ccombo. Chono blocks another lariat with a Yakuza kick and then fights out of a DVD attempt. A piledriver from Chono puts Takaiwa into bad shape and then he locks on a submission that almost looks like a Rings of Saturn. One more Yakuza kick and that leads right into the STF for the victory. This match went 14 minutes overall and looked to be good based on the finishing run and Chono applying holds with more purpose than he does when he is in lazy mode. NR

Liger switching up his gear is a great touch. This looked great with a heated crowd and a fired up Liger that was able to work around the dwindling athleticism of Fujinami with speed and strikes. Fuji is still game to take it to the mat at certain points and the crowd is molten supporting Liger to escape the leg submissions being applied. Liger has to succumb to the figure four. I really want to see this match in full. NR

The G1 butchered for 2000 which is maddening but shows how even in 2000, content delivery wasn’t to the point that we expect today even if the moves and presentation isn’t all that different in many facets. Nakanishi nearly kicks out of the diving headbutt at one to big ohhhs from the Osaka crowd. Tenzan misses his moonsault and Nakanishi is hulking up with the spears and torture rack combo. Tenzan regains with a the double chop and then hits an ugly moonsault for a nearfall. The cradle tombstone gives Tenzan the win. Good heat for this one and Nakanishi looked strong. Tenzan was pretty sloppy in his comeback. Overall, this looked like it topped out as a good clash of the titans style match. NR

So much talent in the ring and as a result, this match is good even if it was surface level sequences and not the MOTYC all eight probably could have against each other if they went all out. Dandy is a pretty strong rudo in Monterrey and I am looking at him and Shocker here since they weren’t on the big CMLL show. Dandy gets the finale pin on Antifaz with holding the rope and an assist by Shocker. The Pierroth vs Perro old man slugfest in the middle was really good. Shocker clowning around also added some strong character moments and he seemed to be going after both Casas and Santo at different points. *** (6.2)

This was the most humbled Murahama has been this year. The match only lasts six minutes but it is high octane with weapons, stiff strikes and the signature Togo highspots. Togo gets to look like a beast stunting every big attack from Murhama and responding with either a stiff weapon shot or a way to regain the advantage. Togo puts him away with a big senton. This match felt necessary in the development of Murahama within the promotion as a stumbling block that happens to all athletes on the rise. ***1/2 (6.8)

This was better than the previous match but still worked in a Raw main event style where not too much was brought out by the combatants. I continue to struggle with Kansai in 2000 as she was one of the best wrestlers in the world for that period in the 90's but has dropped off even more than other powerhouses such as Vader. Hokuto and Masami do have some fun top rope stuff and dives and are a pretty strong tag team. This was a breezy show overall but one that disappointed me. **1/2

This was a good segment overall. Jesse coming out feels like a big coup and he had been off tv for a while. Sting feels like a legit ace here for one of the few moments of his career and the enthusiasm he exudes is fed off of the crowd. Him signing the contract and then Jesse gives the title match at SuperBrawl the hard sell.

I have always liked this match as kind of a hidden gem secret type match that doesn't look like much at all on paper or reading the results but really projected into a fun affair. Tracy doing his little dance pose after gaining the advantage always makes me smile and the heels were able to get some good FIP work on Pillman with him being thrown into the guardrail jaw first. The finish is clever and makes Bagwell look like a fine prospect. Bagwell did well enough here even though he had a couple of sloppy moments. *** (6.2)