soup23

This was a strange match that sort of tested my tolerance to a particular style. This has a lot of guys I like and I am not adverse to comedy in wrestling. In addition, some of the spots in the moment made me laugh like the referee comedy, but then when I remove myself from the match and reflect on things, they don’t sit right. Comedy is pretty critical throughout this project as we get the CHIKARA dance spots and some PWG hijinks that start creeping in more rapidly. I have an expectation as to how I will react to those and that is ultimately how I reacted here in that I thought with the talent involved, they could have done better. **3/4

Russo gives his scathing promo and really tries to present himself as the hero here. Again, the message he says here is true but the messenger is a phony piece of shit that has made some brutal decisions and pushed his own agenda on air and off in recent months. He promises a great match here between these two hungry guys. I know they didn't have much time to prepare but I thought this match was a mess that generally gets a past historically just for being a younger movement for WCW. The crowd brawling was really uninspired and the overall narrative of the match lacked the focus that was on the Thunder match with Jarrett's leg work. Booker winning at the end is a nice moment but this overall is just a strange show trying desperately to present a feel good ending. **

Goldberg is on a hot streak of fun short matches but this was a flop. First, Scott Steiner has one of the most predictable turns on Nash that you have ever seen in your life. Beyond that, Nash looked freaking awful and when Hacksaw Duggan is exuding more effort in 2000 and stiffer shots, you have issues. Goldberg wins but it looks like he is going to be a face rather soon. 1/2*

The ultimate moment of two wrongs don't make a right. Whereas the Montreal Screwjob has a more nuanced discussion of who was in the right and wrong from a macro sense, this is pretty cut and dry that Hogan had shown a lot of unnecessary power and pull throughout his career and it came up to him. However, the comeuppance of Hogan happening at the hands of Russo also doesn't sit well. Jarrett feels like someone left in the middle that sort of tried to play both sides in the HHH role and came out looking pretty good not having overall enemies. DUD

These two had a match in the 2015 G1 that was spectacular from a moves standpoint but that forced the narrative to take a backseat and the egregious selling of the leg by Ibushi was too much for me to overcome in viewing the match as great. This match starts off with a bit of a feeling out and then Tanahashi works on the leg. He does this for a couple of minutes and kind of clumsily puts on an Indian Deathlock. Ibushi is able to power out of that and then is kicking and running around right over the leg that was just worked on. Limb selling is always in the eye of the beholder but this was a match based around perseverance so in this singular regard, I had no issue with Ibushi doing that. It also coupled with the fact that Tanahashi isn’t the king shit he was even two years ago. Tanahashi has his peer rivalry with Okada where he still holds a .500 record against in singles competition. Ibushi has always been positioned at a level below that. Now he is certainly a threat but much in the way, 1995 Kobashi was a threat to Misawa. The hierarchy has been clear. Until tonight. Ibushi has sprinkled in his high impact moves just enough that him doing the Golden Triangle and ramp deadlift German feel fresh in the confines of the G1 because we haven’t seen it since the opening night tilt with Naito. So Ibushi is able to run in through some stuff and show Tanahashi that his little air guitar semi cocky bullshit of working the leg wasn’t working today. That tactic worked when Tanahashi beat YOSHI-HASHi, Goto and even Nagata but now we see that Ibushi is a level above those. Tana is rattled by this but goes back to knowing what he knows well by catching the leg of Ibushi in a dragon screw. However, Tana is woke to the idea that it is going to take more to put Ibushi away than his stock routine so he adds in the High Fly Flow to the outside to up the ante of the match overall. This sequence has Tana turning the switch and getting more vicious with his strikes and locking in a nice Cloverleaf that built up intrigue. The spot where Ibushi is able to hit the double stomp is beautiful and Ibushi’s facials really sell the point home that he has survived another onslaught from Tanahashi and is ready to win this battle. This match came in twos. Ibushi tried the deadlift German twice before hitting it. Ditto the lawn dart. Ditto the ending KO knee. Tanahashi’s ultimate downfall was going for the High Fly Flow twice when Ibushi gets the knees up. The drive to that point made complete logical sense with Ibushi’s leg hurting but nothing is stopping him now. Even Tanahashi kicking out of the Last Ride didn’t bother me in the slightest as that has been positioned as Ibushi’s main finisher in the tournament. Tanahashi is still in some ways the co-ace of the promotion so you best bring your A game if you want to defeat him. Ibushi following that up with a sickening knee that not only looked effective as a definitive KO blow but also gave a nod to Kenny Omega was a beautiful choice. There was so many callbacks and upcoming storyline narratives in this match that it crafted a beautiful picture of the past, present and future for New Japan all within the confines of one match. ****3/4

I also popped for the Tim run in.

Decent enough match but another one that didn't have an engaging overall story. Elgin has a great arsenal of power moves but I still fail to see him create a compelling middle of a lot of his matches. SANADA also has a trouble bringing a compelling overall story. As a result, this was a ho hum 15 minutes that lacked a lot of emotion or overarching theme. **3/4

This was a sludge to get through as well. Generic brawling and a 10 minute match that felt like 25. Tonga is not an intriguing brawler and doesn't have the strikes to match the intensity. I hope the next three matches pick things up as this has been a rough start to day 10. **1/4

This had even less substance to it than most Yano matches. He tries a couple of rollups, they backfire and EVIL wins. If Yano is spoiling Suzuki on the final night like many people think, he is not being built well at all for that. *1/2

Pawluk looks like Dynamite Kid took a shit and he popped out. Stampede and the match is a mess. Mauro at the end says to forget the hyperbole that this was a battle for the ages. WELP. Too much three way generic action and Principal Richard Pound is an interesting gimmick that doesn’t have great execution. Tiger Khan is also doing a miltia gimmick. Khan is really sloppy. Even the referee is overacting here. Pound ends up winning with help from the Honor Roll faction and a hand full of trunks. Diana Smith presents the title and Pound calls her toots. Mauro in his white shirt and jacket is so 2000. They really are trying to present Pawluk as this exciting up and comer but he didn’t show me much of anything besides a second rate Dynamite, Benoit and even Davey Richards impersonation. **

We see Nick Dinsmore get laid out before we head to an interview with Flash. Flash says every match should be hardcore rules. Maybe if that was the case, we could get some finishes in this promotion. Dinsmore comes out to interrupt and guess who is yelling? That’s right Jim Cornette acting like this is an isolated event. We come back from the break and the match starts. We get some decent hardcore action and then some bullshit with the finish with the referee fighting each other and Cornette losing his voice. I swear you could pop a match in from Frebruary into the playlist of the stuff I am watching and I wouldn’t know the difference because the same bullshit happens in every OVW match and it makes nothing memorable. It is the same 4-5 people have a feud and nothing is ever clean. Neither the talent nor the production can elevate it at all. Flash wins here and does another decent but not great promo. *1/4

Our first look at Super Dragon and now we have Super Dragon,Low Ki, Danielson, Hero, Punk & Styles to look at for the year. Dragon seems in the upper echelon with Ki as far as polish so far. His stiff style helps play into this as he brutalizes TARO in the early going with chops and at one point putting him in the pendulum swing and slamming his head into the wall. The venue here has a warehouse vibe with elevated seating that looks different but kind of cool. TARO is a good sympathetic underdog and the finishing run has a bit too much high spot and kickout finishes that really show the template and inspiration for current day PWG. Dragon does gain the win but it looks like the big faction warfare between him and Excalibur’s group is far from over. A strong debut for Dragon in 2000. ***1/2 (6.8)

Things are going along well enough until Lizmark hits a missile dropkick on Scorpio and completely fucks up his leg. We get some gruesome replays of the event and Scorpio rudos it up for the crowd after Lizmark is taken out. Bestia keeps working over the match of Atlantis and we go straight to the finish with Lizmark out of the way with the rudos dominating. Like the previous match, a nice collection of sptos and characters but we are still waiting on something with real juice. *1/2

Holy shit at the airbrush shirts the tecnicos are wearing. The entrances here are just awesome and Los Infernales are great too strutting down to the ring with the women at their side. Match again was all about the status quo and I am really hopeful for some big time CMLL feuds soon. Some individual spots here are neat like Satanico just slapping Antifaz when he dances around and the triple dive combo that wins the second fall for the tecnicos. Third fall also has some neat stuff like Ultimo monkey flipping Bucanero out onto the floor and Ultimo’s quebrada into the steps looked good. Finish was usual double pin shoddy stuff. Fun while it lasted but just a collection of spots. **

A complete all action tag. I don’t think any of these four women ever took a breath in the entire 20 minutes. The match won’t be great from a psychology standpoint but in the vein of the spotfest culture we will see wrestling continually move towards throughout this project, this gave a great dose of what is to come. This wouldn’t have looked out of place on an ROH show as a scramble match. The moves were hit with mostly great precision and my attention never wafted throughout the duration which is impressive. Momoe and Nanae are a team we will see a lot of in the future and they certainly showed they could bring an athletic style to AJW that if nothing else will compliment the wrestling heavy style of the JWP stuff. ***3/4 (7.3)

Promo with Benoit and Foley at the start was strong. I thought this did a great job of making Benoit feel like he belonged in the main event match at Fully Loaded vs Rock. He feels like a player. Rock does a promo before the match and gets a monster reaction from his hometown crowd. Taped show and all that but the crowd was going nuts when his music hit for the match proper. A short match that mainly was used as a go home happy moment with Chyna getting the win after begging for the tag from The Rock. E&C are doing a lot of jobs from first the BOD and now Chyna. Shane runs in to end the show and is starting to create his mini faction of guys. *3/4

They really keep presenting this as a blood feud but something feels a little off. It is odd because I like Val and his new attitude was way overdue. Rikishi is still over huge. Still, while the action here is fine this is just two guys that don’t have great chemistry with each other so far. This match doesn’t last very long before we get a ref bump and T&A and Too Cool have a brawl revolving around the T&A run in. Tazz makes his way out and kills Rikishi with the tv camera. It is nice they are doing something with Tazz after a few months of nada. Val wins the match and IC title with the Money Shot. *1/4

We start off SmackDown with an Angle and Jericho promo and another marquee match. Steph makes her way to ringside in the early going. A good match as these two have better chemistry throughout 2000 than I remembered. Steph continues to be a great foil for Jericho and the finish was clever as she uses Kurt’s scepter to lowblow Jericho and Angle wins with the Olympic Slam. Backstage, Kurt is celebrating by throwing milk but it gets on Taker’s bike. Angle bolts when he realizes this. Funny. **1/2

Another Scorpio classic. Great lucha with logical limb work and fluid moves throughout the match. Niebla gets his arm worked over on the first fall and does a neat reversal using the referee to counter. He ends up getting the win by tying up Scorp and Scorp having to submit. The second fall starts with Scorps leg getting worked over like crazy and he sells it beautifully. Some more discussion over whether Scorp fouls or not making his comeback in the second fall and the referee does a great job hesitating before making the count. Niebla hulking up by doing a little shimmy really works for me. Scorp does another wonderful job off of the pinfall sequence having to gather his composure and feeling confused. Niebla goes for the same thing that won him the first fall but Scorpio kicks out of it the first time. Niebla regains by going back to the wounded leg and since Scorpio is compromised with that, Niebla is able to hit the moonsault. That gets a nearfall but the second attempt from Niebla on the moonsault misses. Scorpio seizes the opportunity and hits a big powerbomb in a burst of energy to win the match. A great lucha title match. **** (8.0)

This was neat to see Crazy as a rudo considering how awesome of tecnico he has been in ECW. This had a lot of good action especially between Dandy and Crazy. The finish of each fall was logical and there were other neat moments like Kung Lee doing his rope running spot and then getting tripped up by the rudos. Bombero and Cerebro continue to be nice highlights of 2000. Finish of the match overall is another foul oriented spot in 2000 which could be something that feels played out but the caveat of Crazy doing it and the way Dandy sold it made it work for me. ***1/2 (6.9)

A good fundamental match with Jarrett working over the leg a good bit leading to a nice figure four spot. Booker's selling was strong here giving the damage that Jarrett was doing some gravity. This is probably the most credible Jarrett has looked with the belt actually. Finish has Kanyon coming out in DDP attire and hitting a Diamond Cutter on Booker allowing Jarrett to get the win. Afterwards has Cat starting the match again and I still can't figure out his character. Booker lays out Kanyon and then goes back on the attack. Jarrett has his guitar ans smashes it over Miller's head before leaving with the title. **1/4

As wasted as Rey is in this role, at least he looks like he is having some pride in his in ring work between this performance and Monday. This is a relevos suicidas match and does a pretty good job of getting that stipulation over with the regular tag partners having some animosity against each other based on the match structure. The leg drop from Rey in particular was a highlight. Storm continues to be put in a good position early on in the company. **

10 minutes of all action. Tons of fun stuff involving Virus and Valentin. However, the highlight was Ricky Marvin who continues to be a nut with all of his highspots looking state of the art in current day much less 17 years before. The rudos end up winning this match in rudimentary fashion by doing a unique pinning combo involving all three members. *** (6.0)

Juvy and Rey dressed in Kidman/Storm's gear was funny and Rey shows more here as a heel than at any other point that I can remember. The action here was fun and really the Animals should have been a highlight of the undercard on Nitro being given a ton of time together. I am sort of sad at how Kidman just transitioned back into a straight face off the Hogan feud. The best spot of the match was a diving X-Factor from Rey with Juvy holding Kidman. Konnan and Disco interfere and Rey gets a top rope bulldog on Kidman on a chair for the win. **

For a company bleeding money, we still get the full pyro display to open things up. Speaking of cost cutting measures, DJ Ran is still around? Tank has started up the gimmick of being with 3 Count which is cute but like with Big Show earlier in the year, it has a pretty short shelf life and really shows how far he has fallen on the totem pole. Shane Helms gets injured in the opening moments so Tank decides to take his place in the match. Madden has the rare good line that Abbott with 3 Count is like Son of Sam joining N Sync. Tank stops the dive train and knocks of Jimmy Yang. Yang does a ridiculous over the top sell job. *1/4