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This match is always a blast to watch. Four big boys gong into the ring and throwing each other around to pop the crowd right from the onset. I for sure get the critique of Vader/Hughes being tossed around and how that kind of kills the credibility for them as monsters but the Steiners offensive arsenal has such impact that it overcompensates for that failure. The bulldog that Rick gets on Hughes for the finish in particular looks nasty. *** (6.1)

Joshi was doing so well for itself in 2000. Now, we get this throw away revelos suicidas match that harkens me back to the dreadful GAEA stuff from January. There was no juice throughout the match and it was just a series of your turn, my turn reversals until Sato gains the win on Nagashima. Bummer. *1/2

I enjoyed this a lot. A good narrative of Amano working on the arm of Bolshoi and Bolshoi returning the favor by going after the lg. Some good grappling and struggling for positioning. I was happy that we got 10 out of 15 minutes of this draw and the draw wasn't telegraphed much at all and ends in a really neat position of both combatants having a submission locked in and having to be saved by the bell. ***1/4 (6.6)

First ten minutes of this are dominated by Kobashi. It is mainly mat work but he really varies it up and cranks in everything for maximum punishment. His abdominal stretch and crossface lock in particular are nasty. Kobashi going for and gaining the full nerlson took me by surprise but was cool to see. I thought this did a really strong job conveying a hate that Kobashi has with Akiyama now from getting turned on but Kobashi is more mature as a wrestler now and keeps his emotions in check by being more vicious on the ground and in his attack. Akiyama seizes an opportunity to go after the leg of Kobashi. That is a welcome callback to the focal point of their amazing 7/98 Triple Crown match centered around Kobashi’s selling. Akiyama locks in a Sharpshooter, STF and ankle lock in quick succession to really torque the limb of Kobashi. This is good work by Akiyama in leveling the playing field and Kobashi was game to sell the damage. He has to result to the big power guns now with the floatover suplex and powerbomb but his leg is to weak to perform the bridge so Akiyama floats over for a quick pin. Akiyama is able to hit a German but Kobashi grabs an arm on the pinfall attempt and locks on a Fujiwara armbar with Jun really having to struggle to reach the ropes. The submission heavy style of this match has been greatly appreciated as a change of pace from the AJPW style. Akiyama is able to weaken the lariat arm just enough to not have maximum damage done as we enter the home stretch. Jun fires off three flash Exploders and Kenta gets his big kickout. One more Exploder is hit and then Jun locks on that sleeper and Kobashi is out giving Jun the victory. Wow. That was sort of abrupt but that plays into just how deadly the move is becoming. Rikio kicks off Jun after the match so maybe that is going to be Jun’s next step. The first great NOAH match. ****1/4 (8.6)

NOAH has mixed in some different guys getting big wins and the style of the matches so far but this is the first match on paper that more than likely would have zero chance of getting booked for AJPW. Shiga was still doing essentially young boy duty and Ikeda was buried in multi man matches when he would drift from BattlARTS. The only way this match would have happened would have been in the RWTL and it would have been an 8 minute win for Ogawa/Misawa. Instead, this is worked in a brilliant way of giving Shiga and Ikeda enough highlights by still establishing Ogawa and Misawa as main event level within the promotion. The double armbreaker on Ogawa was fun to see and I liked how stoic Misawa gets a bit annoyed and just pastes Shiga with a flurry of elbows when he creeps one to many times to the apron. From there, Ikeda and Shiga get brutalized in the final moments and just have to hope to hang on as best as they can. Overall, a really good semi-main that made everyone competing in it look strong. I know Ikeda has a rep of not clicking in NOAH, but I enjoyed his performance here. ***1/4 (6.4)

This wasn’t as bad as the tag before it but it also didn’t have a lot of teeth within in. Omori is clearly not a priority in NOAH like he was in later day AJPW and Takayama and Taue had some decent but disappointing for them sequences with each other. The main purpose of this match was to raise the profile of Izumida overall. I have always thought Izumida was fine as a lumpy lieutenant but am unsure if he will crack my list of top 50 workers in the promotion. He was pretty baseline here until the finish where he does show more fire and gets a big pop when he wins with a headbutt. Life comes at you fast if you are Omori. **1/2

Morishima is so skinny here. It is neat to see him and Rikio be developed right out of the gate for NOAH as someone worth following. Otherwise, this was just a match more than anything else form the first two NOAH shows. The action doesn’t really have a linear story for most of the first portion and the work over Marufuji is extremely halfhearted. I know Inoue has a rep for being shitty but in his first two matches, he hasn’t shown even glimpses of being entertaining. The last 3-4 minutes finally bring some juice into the proceedings 20 minutes into the match with Rikio and Marufuji going through more strikes and their flashier offense. Inoue regains control in these final moments and to show how boring he is, his near fall finishers involve a back breaker and side Russian leg sweep. He actually gets the tap out from Marufuji here with the torture rack in just under 20 minutes. Again, kudos to NOAH for allowing these young guys to stretch out their legs in substantial tags time wise but this was WAYYYY too long. **

I have no issue calling this a good match. Asako has traded in his all white gear from the night before for some shiny black motif. Kenta shows a lot of fire but also shows promise in being able to put together a match that progresses from matwork to a shift on the outside and then leading to a finishing stretch. The slam on the outside to the unprotected area of the floor was a well done highspot. In 2000, we have seen the potential of Danielson, Punk, Styles, etc and now you can add Kenta to that list with performances like this five months into his career. *** (5.9)

Ricky Marvin looks like 2007 Ricochet here. As Jetlag mentions, Virus looks almost the same as current form. Virus is going to be someone to track throughout the decade. We won't see a super ton of him compared to most other WOTD candidates so the onus is on him to impress almost every time out. He does here as the match works with Virus doing his mat work where both competitors are like glue and then him being a base for Marvin. Marvin has provided some breathtaking highspots throughout 2000 and he does a couple here but I thought he looked competent enough on the mat to where it isn't crazy he is hanging with Virus. Virus rolling surfboard gets a huge whoa from the crowd and myself. Virus also does that excellent Indian Deathlock position where he dead lifts Marvin. Marvin reverses a powerbomb attempt and then hits one of his own. He follows that up with a twisting springboard splash. The La Magistral ends up earning Marvin the win. ***1/4 (6.6)

A quintessential RVD match with the some good and mostly bad. The opening is really intricate spots off of armdrags and roll ups with some stuff looking cool and other stuff looking a little mis timed. Regardless, none of it makes a whole lot of sense. Worse than that though is that it leads directly into the "lets do a big spot outside and then you do one" sequence of RVD matches that always take forever. When the action goes back inside, it gets better with Kash doing a sweet triple jump rana but overall this felt like a RVD exhibition instead of an match with real stakes attached to it. **

York/Matthews get a straight spotfest showcase in ECW and the match is pretty fun overall if brief. Swinger continues to be someone I really shouldn’t like based on his look and how unsmooth he can be, but him and Diamond continue to be a good tag team with enough double team moves to make themselves memorable. Matthews is the FIP here and does a good job until York is tagged in for the hot tag. They run through some of their offense and look for the finish when CW Anderson runs in and hits the spinebuster and big punch combo leaving York to be hit with the Problem Solver for the heel victory. **

This is the last match Cagematch has listed for Dirtbike Kid so if anyone else can add some commentary to his career, that would be appreciated. It is nice to see Europe get on the scene in the 2000’s with FWA and it does have a different atmosphere already. The European table that gets set up looks really bizarre and flimsy as it collapses when Sabu just gets placed on it. Sabu overall in 2000 has been inconsistent at best but I thought this was his best effort as the action here was relentless and transitioned from spot to spot keeping the pace going. Sabu signature spots like the triple jump moonsault were hit well. A photographer at ringside is wearing a WOW magazine shirt and that takes me back to middle school. Dirtbike Kid’s high spots look good too and from just this match, he looks like a better version of Suicide Kid. Another table collapses when Kid gets placed on it this time. Sabu gets fed up and slams the table onto Kid to a big pop. We get a slight clip towards the end with both men swinging chairs at each other on the outside. The finish is the most off spot of the match as Sabu barely makes contact on the legdrop through the table that was placed in the corner of the ring. Overall, I didn’t expect much from this but it turned into a fun spotfest with plunder Sabu showcase. *** (6.2)

Power Pro has been building up to Baxter vs Dundee and we get the showdown here. Dave Brown is dressed really casual this Saturday morning. Bill has an entourage of five ladies with him all wearing zebra print. He looks like a cruise ship entertainer. Baxter challenges him to the match and Bill gets in a few punches in this impromptu match without a referee. Seven comes in to help Baxter but Dundee’s bodyguard takes care of him. Wolfie comes in through the crowd with the chair and that ends the segment with a beatdown onto Dundee with him handcuffed to the rope. They also grab Samantha and attack her. We don’t see much from MPPW this week but it looks like MCW won the week overall. ¼*

Tracy is back in MCW now. This is a true WTF match. The match is only two minutes but fun stuff from Tracy with him working underneath and Viscera looking good on his high impact sidewalk slam. The finish is Viscera trying to ram Tracy into the corner with a chair and Tracy moving out of the way and getting the surprise roll up victory. K-Krush and Viscera beat up Tracy after the bell until Lance Cade makes the save. ¾*

Nice to see Dragon against someone besides Youth and Spanky. Shooter looked good for himself in the four minute match. Again, Dragon is already really strong in having a short match that contains enough action and story to keep you entertained. Tons of suplexes and strikes from Dragon and he hits the big elbow from the top rope. Fabulous Rocker comes out to distract Dragon and that allows Shultz to get the Full Nelson clutch for the tap out victory. That is a neat finisher and Shooter Shultz can put this tap out on his wrestling resume. *1/4

Taue running down at the entrance was amazing and got a great reaction from Budokan. Yasshi talking shit on the mic and the fight is on. Taue stares down SUWA and gives him the finger for another great reaction. This is peak Taue here just daring the opponents to cross him. Cheapshots are thrown Taue’s way as Ishimori gets worked over. He escapes and tags in Terry and then the real beating commences. Taue has had enough and he comes firing in on all of the Voodoo Murders before the numbers game catches up to him and SUWA headbutts him right in the balls. Back to Terry they go. Terry works hard to escape TARU and the hot tag is made to Taue. Taue just standing there while all his young boys do big dives to TARU is fantastic and the crowd laughs uproariously when he just pins TARU after all of that. The VM are pissed off now and plan another big gang style attack on Taue with some cool unit moves of their own culminating in a SUWA elbow drop. Terry and Ishimori are fighting back and they clear the ring with stereo dives leaving SUWA and Taue to duke it out. Taue does the John Woo dropkick. LOL. Elevated Nodowa is broken up by yasshi. Some more crazy action and Taue gives SUWA another Nodowa and a Dynamic Bomb for a close two count. That was cool they gave SUWA the kickout from all of that. One more Nodowa gets the duke for Taue. This was a blast. It was one part Toryumon multi-man, one part current Don Fujii with youngsters, and one part WAR vs NJPW feud with the hate mixed in between the highspots and comedy elements. It is refreshing to see a match like this in the NOAH ring because I think like ROH, NOAH is projected in general as a real serious promotion overall. This was fun, fun, fun. ****

It is now pouring down rain which adds to the atmosphere. I can see some people hating it as it does fall into the IWA trap of going too long but I appreciated the fact that it didn't involve any crowd brawling and it was filled with some nasty punches and throws into the chairs. The fact that they are wrestling in a field also adds to the pain when Mitch does his somersault splash onto Bull. Bull gets into it with a couple of fans and gives them a good shove. The finish was pretty dumb where IWA adds in the Memphis style elements of Bull getting brass knucks from Blaze and using it to score the pin. Mitch sells the punch off the knucks well but after light tubes and everything else, it is a bit hollow that this one punch of knucks puts the big guy down. *** (6)

This is really the beginning of Punk's career in a way as he makes his IWA debut. They are still running in the middle of the field and we get a nice view of some of the driving choices of the IWA faithful. This match continued their development over the year as we have seen. This was the third match in the third promotion we have seen between the two and the work is crisper at most points here than in MAW in January with the exception of Punk being sloppy on a couple of spots including a monkey flip. Punk is able to get good support from the crowd although I think Hero looked more polished and resonated more in their respective debuts. The difference in their looks and gear at this point in their careers also isn't that big of a difference. The finish was abrupt with Colt being the heel throughout and picking up the win with his foot on the ropes. **3/4

I am appreciative of the difference NOAH exemplified right out of the gate. The ramp is there, Akiyama has an all white look, the lasers are out in full force and they even get some pyro coming from the ring posts in their introductions. This match being 2/3 falls also felt like a departure that was sort of a weird callback to the 2/3 fall structure of All Japan from yesteryear. Akiyama and Misawa start but it only takes a minute for Kobashi to insert himself with a stiff lariat to Taue that makes a crackling sound and a suplex to Misawa. Akiyama locks on a choke and that is the first fall right then and there in shocking fashion. Akiyama got pinned in 9 seconds by Omori and Taue lost to Akiyama in four minutes in 1997 but we had never seen Misawa dominated like that where he gives up a fall in two minutes. The crowd seems shocked. Kobashi has some purple creeping into his orange tights that is a nice bit of foreshadowing. Misawa needs to grind the match down and his trusty elbow gives him some space that is followed up with his butterfly arm submission. He gives way to Taue to continue working over Jun. I am usually weary of heaping META praise onto a singular match given that it is impossible to know the true purpose but it did feel like watching this second fall that some of Misawa/Taue’s offense was purposely less flashy to put more emphasis on Akiyama. This was a match with the purpose of getting Jun over instead of just being the next great entry involving these four men as a holdover from the 90’s. That is progressive foresight from Misawa as he knew the status quo needed to change here. He is the booker and new face of the promotion and in this match, the third most important figure. The second fall does heat up once Taue gets the Nodowa on the ramp to Jun followed by just slinging him back into the ring like a grumpy dad that was roughhousing with his kid but now has said that enough is enough. Jun doesn’t get worked over much before he makes the tag to Kobashi and we enter the home stretch again showing a difference that this match overall will be tighter and more condensed even in the 2/3 stipulation than a typical AJ big tag match. Kobashi/Misawa have a more heated sequence with each other and Taue gives a nice big running boot from the apron to the floor against Akiyama. Kobashi is suplexing fools including sending Misawa with a powerbomb into the corner and a lariat for Taue. However, he gets caught with the Flowsion from Misawa. This feels like a big neutralizer but Akiyama is ALIVE! Two Exploders to Misawa and one to Taue gains Akiyama the pin on Taue and Burning wins in two straight falls in impressive manner. Afterwards, to put the cherry on top of the sundae, Akiyama turns on Kobashi and just like that, we have the beginning of the feud that will help define Noah throughout the decade. As a storyline advancement vehicle, this match was a success all around even though it won’t end up on any MOTY lists for 2000. ***3/4 (7.3)

No Fear has changed their look dramatically from All Japan sporting all white gear and blonde highlights. This was a good slugfest style match with Ogawa, Asako and Ikeda all having extended periods of being worked over. Kakihara is such a spunky worker that I appreciate in tags for the way he is able to come in with quick flurries. The Kakihara vs Takayama UWFi memorial slugfest was built up as the big showdown for the match and given a good reaction from the crowd. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention in the intros, Omori was introduced last from his team so coming into NOAH, he is higher on the current pecking order. That will change rapidly. Even in the closing moments of this match, Takayama is given the signature spots and battles with Ikeda and Kakihara. Asako was seen as the weakling overall as he gives a flurry of punches to Kakihara that are shrugged off before Kaki gets the submission win with a cross armbreaker. Good match. *** (6.1)

NOAH wasn’t shy about giving these guys a ton of time right out of the gate. While that is admirable in the sink or swim mentality, this match certainly could have used some editing. Marufuji was fine and played the FIP role for the majority of the match. He got his nose busted open on a Kanemaru dropkick which helped emphasize the story. Shiga has filled out a bit and remains to be just “there” as a character overall. I didn’t think he had a good hot tag but he was in the right position to break up tags. Kanemaru was a good sleazy heel with his look and arsenal but he was still green in being unable to come up with many useful things to do on offense when he was working over Marufuji. His attack was focused and this was where editing would had come in handy. Inoue was pretty useless. Overall, a good match to post mark where all four of these workers were at this point in time but a pretty mundane match overall that wasn’t worth the 20 minute run time. **1/4

Whipwreck's gear is awful but he is still really competent in the ring and this is a strong workman's style match for seven minutes. Guido is a pro like always and willing to be in the right position to make his opponent look good. I continue to enjoy Sal running interference more than the likes of Victory. The finish here foreshadowed the future with Tajiri coming out and making teh save forming the unholy alliance with Whipwreck and Sinister Minister. Again, Tajiri in a tag seems beneath him but they do feel like one of the more fresh things within the promotion. **1/2

This was a really fun start for a 3 way with everyone being involved. The Lynn dive to the outside looked good. Tajiri busts out the mist around 3 minutes in and that isn’t a good omen for him. Sure enough, Lynn locks on the Cradle Piledriver a second later to eliminate him. They really love getting Tajiri, the most over guy, out of the way in these 3 ways first. The segment between Lynn and Corino isn’t bad but too much interference from Victory hindered things. Scotty Anton comes in to interfere and Corino is able to pick up the win. **3/4 As the beatdown continues, we roll right into Anton vs Dreamer. This was a pretty generic ECW style brawl that winds itself around the building. Dreamer hits a gusher and has blood and ends up getting bulldogged and suplexed through the ladder. The crowd is really behind Tommy here which does help the action overall. Anton is using a Sharpshooter as a finish but Jazz comes in and hits Anton with a chair. Anton is able to spinebuster Jazz and counter a Dreamer DDT onto a chair. Lynn comes back out and hits a Cradle Piledriver on Anton that somehow the referee misses. Dreamer then hits the second rope elbow with a chair to pick up the win. Decent stuff. **

An old man brawl in the cage with punches, blood, ball shots and intensity. This match is long and there is a lot of punching and kicking but it was done in an intense level and the hook of Villano being in the match and selling his injured arm and having to face another failure in getting his hair shaved raised the match overall. Los Capos beating up both Perro and Pierroth when they get eliminated was a good jump start for the future. The final moments between Ano and Villano had a real Thrilla in Manilla feel with both guys winded but the submission victory for Villano was extremely satisfying and capped an incredible show overall with Ano receiving his haircut. ****1/4 (8.4)

This match completely blew me away. The battle royal was fun and quick but then we get to the meat which is the Cibernetico. I love Ciberneticos in general and this was one of the best I have ever seen. Solar and Panther start immediately with a jaw dropping sequence straight out of their classic 1994 match. The rest of the pairings are also effective. I enjoyed the delight each competitor had when they secured a victory and knew their mask was safe. The first half of the match really is built around Panther and it is fabulous as he gains an arm submission but the referee says no. This frustrates him to no end and he ends up getting pinned based on that frustration. Finally, he locks on the arm submission on Solar and is able to gain a victory to save his mask. The second half of the match also has some great eliminations from the pin that Solar secures that I have never seen, to a great double countout tease, to the final threesome in the ring and the two rudos not listening to the referee and ending up being DQ’d. Eventually, we have Hijo Del Gladiator and Rancor as the final two. This segment is also excellent as Gladiator bleeds buckets and Rancor uses his speed to be effective. There is a distinct old vs new vibe here. The submissions and nearfalls are really dramatics and Rancor winning felt like a big moment for him. Gladiator is a carpenter type worker we haven’t seen much of at all in chronicling the 90’s but this led me to a lot of research and I saw he was a 29 year veteran at this point so this was a big deal with him losing the hood. In one final carny moment, Gladiator announces his last name as Ramirez to keep the gimmick alive even though that was untrue. I expected a fun match from this but got a surprise MOTYC. ****1/2 (9.2)