soup23

We have seen a plethora of great matches so far in 2001, but I do think this is the best so far. It has everything that I enjoy in a ladder match, struggle, innovation and brutality. The most memorable spots are the Walls on the ladder and the nasty chairshot on Benoit’s tope that is one of those moments that is tough to watch knowing the ending point for Benoit’s life. I appreciated the arm selling by Jericho as even in victory he was clutching the shoulder. I also liked that this didn’t devolve into stunt show spots for the sake of it. The only weapons used were the one ladder and one chair. The ending is a bit anticlimactic but was a payoff from the spot that held before it and it is a great moment for Jericho. We have other heralded stipulation matched upcoming like TLC 2, but for right now, I think this is the 2nd best ladder match is WWE history. ****1/2 (8.8)

A really disappointing match. Low Ki tried and his strikes were stiff but to Tajiri didn’t give him much room to work with in this match. I found this performance very disappointing from Tajiri. Add to that the shitty finish and the briefness of the match and this may be the most disappointing Match of 2001. **3/4

Another genetic ecw rehash to end the night. Booking on this show is horrid but the ecw performers didn’t exactly do themselves any favors either as Guido through Tajiri mailed it in. Xavier looked fine. *

The best and worst of these two together. There were some spectacular high spots in this match but also some terrible botches. Red of course shined as the most dynamic performer. The ICW crowd was really behind him. Joel is probably the worst of the Maximo’s and he didn’t show me Much in this match. A good starting point evaluating these guys. **

Back in Black is such a generic theme I didn’t know who it was until I saw Tammy dancing. At first with how lowly Tammy looked, I figured she just made trip with Chris but she was so involved I assume she got paid as well. In which case her presentation was awful. The match was a mess and leading to Candidos turn and the Kash interjecting himself. This is about the show as a whole but ICW really tries to be ECW lite and fails horribly. Add to that the racist commentary from Big Dick Dudley and this show overall has some interesting matches on paper but was extremely disappointing in execution. *1/2

Regal gets creamed here and dominated by Test. Test is continually someone they decide at random points they need to do something with. We will see where this run goes. 1/2*

This always gets brought up as E&C doing a real strong straight tag match and it is certainly good but it strikes me that even in a vacuum, if this is the best straight tag match they have in the promotion, they are enormously overrated historically as a team. Watching the feud as the whole and the brawl, hate filled nature it has had, that makes this straight tag formula seem even more bizarre. I would have done a tables match or some gimmick since the Dudley's were laid out on Monday and Thursday and they are presenting it as a courageous act that they even showed up. E&C just don't offer enough variety or double team moves to be an elite tier heel tag team. The pop for the Dudley's win is nice and overall this is a good if unsatisfying start to the PPV. *** (6)

Quick promo to start things from Pirata and this is our debut at looking at Dos Caras Jr. Another fun match from AAA. The rudo team was living the gimmick throughout the match and the match has a logical base where Caras senior leg is isolated and worked over to the point where he is a nonfactor for the last half of the match. They sell this well with the doctor and stretcher and whole support crew come out to tend to him. Junior defends the family honor and with the combination of his size,build and ability to hit some graceful dives, Del Rio was destined for big things already this early into his career. He does a great job being injured and selling the damage to his leg too. Both Texano and Morgan are pricks throughout the match and were delighted in their debauchery. ***1/4 (6.3)

I liked this much better than the previous match. The way the feud and pairings progressed from Parka vs Wagner to Parka vs Psicosis was well done. OJ’s point about this being a credit to the Pena created characters is also interesting to ponder as that is true that a lot of facets from the match and why it works compared to the previous one is that the gravity seems larger with these performers. I do give credit to them as well as the character that was created. Overall, the best Monterrey of 2001 so far. ***1/2 (7.1)

Monterrey continues to be the toughest lucha for me to get into. We had a lot here from Escalarta antics to mask ripping and blood to ref involvement. None of it landed for me though. Diluvio and Silver Star brawling around the arena gave a different perspective from the usual lucha principles but it wasn’t particularly inspired. The referee involvement I couldn’t get past as it was unclear what the intention was and at one point he gets handcuffed to the ropes in a spot right out of the Miss Elizabeth/Hulk Hogan playbook. I thought this was really skippable overall. **

Full action here. A lot to really like and they conveyed a chaotic feel throughout the match. The only downside of everything was that it was almost too chaotic that it was impossible to follow at points and the Maekawa kick to win the match felt weak with everything that preceded it. The face team has a lot of potential but it is also clear that Takahashi, Nakanishi and Watanabe at points can blend in with each other and not show many distinguishing traits compared to their predecessors. LCO loves this smothering brawl but this worked for me in that I thought they gave an appropriate level of offense and hope to the other side. Hotta did as well so overall this was a success considering how selfish some people convey LCO and Hotta to be. Toyota watching on from the shadows felt ominous and I am excited to see what happens next in AJW in 2001. ***3/4 (7.5)

In a small gym and judging by the attendance and Rhodes’ fee at the time, I’m not guessing this was profitable. This is also the most frankensteined match I have seen as we cut to a JIP and get the finish and then the match is played from the start up to the point we JIP’d in. Eaton looks to be in a lot better shape than in 2002 when he and Tracy Smothers start a riot in IWA. Match isn’t much at all. Crowd is into it and we get the pleasing spots but effort is certainly feeling like it is on auto pilot. The Dusty FIP segment wasn’t long or engaging and the faces get a quick victory and then try to commit rape on the valet of Nelson. *1/2

Spade is as preliminary as it gets for OVW. He should be in the third match of a Charlestown IWA MS show. Shelton looks good running through his offense. Because this is OVW, we even have a ref bump here as Spade moves Briscoe into the way of Sheltons dive from the top. Collector runs in making it four run ins from the back in four segments we saw on OVW tv this week. Collector does his damage and gives Spade the win of all things. *

I thought this was pretty fun during the meat of the match. Henry looked motivated enough and at one point hit a huge senton from the second rope that missed. It did have some Bolin interference leading into the heat but certainly nothing egregious by OVW standards. Dinsmore hitting the rolling snap suplexes on Henry was impressive and I liked the cutoff of Mark stopping the third from happening. Dinsmore hits the flying forearm and the missile dropkick and has the match in hand when Bolin jumps on the apron. Henry whacks him with the briefcase for the weak as hell finish. Big Show does come in with some huge white sneakers and he clears the ring of Henry. Show says that Henry tried to hit him with a truck but that didn’t stop him and the show must go on. **

Rico bails right at the bell leaving Black to go at it alone. Black gets the advantage and still isn’t able to convince Rico to get in the ring. Kenny Bolin is pissed off about this. Damaja is facing Russ McCollough at Christmas Chaos. I understand weather cancelled the original show but hyping a show on January 20th called Christmas Chaos seems fucking absurd to me. Black hits a nice sidewalk slam and now Rico is ready. Flash shakes the ropes and Rico is tripped up. Flash punches away at Rico as the match breaks down. Here comes big Russ on the outside as he attacks Damaja. Into the concessions they go. Rico and Black are now double teaming. Rico instructs Black to go to the top and he hits a huge splash and pins Flash. Dinsmore in for the save and is barefoot. Cornette says he is out of the shower which I guess he takes with his elbow pad on. *1/2

Keck looks generic as all hell. Cornette is setting up Christmas Chaos and a kiss my ass match involving the Blondes. Dumb angle there. King and Orton are in the ring now and they have potentially good chemistry together. Orton whiffs on a dropkick from Lee and Orton awkwardly sends him to the outside with a hiptoss. Donna Daring is the referee and she is terrible in the role. All of my original OVW goodwill seems to be just a blip on the radar as we are back to the screaming Jim Cornette. Orton uses Keck’s head as a battering ram like he is a Bushwhacker. We do get a clean finish for once as the Blondes take this one pinning Keck before Rick Michaels and Sean Casey come in to have a brawl. They give King a haircut but Lee saves him. ¾*

Another kliq 2000 promo where they each get a few sound bytes out. American Dragon calls out Lance Cade and Cade confirms they went to TWA together. He also agrees when they came to Memphis, they would stick together through thick and thin. Spanky then jumps in and says Lance hasn’t been watching their back like he promised. Spanky calls him a big, dumb gorilla. Spanky says that Lance is either with him or against him. Lance says he is one step away from the WWF and right now he stands by himself. He isn’t against these guys but right now they are an embarrassment to Shawn Michaels and everything he stands for. Kliq then attacks Lance and Jason throws powder in his eyes. Shooter clutch is applied. The reserves come in including Bulldog Raines. Steel gets in the ring and the match is on. This was a very solid tv match. Steel showed me something as a meatball power guy. I guess MPPW is on a weird time slot this week and the jeans and hoodie from Dave Brown display that. Spanky works on bumping hard for Steel and they had a lot of back and forth in the six minute match. Spanky’s offense looked more credible than I would have imagined with the bigger Steel. Steel hits the bulldog with leverage from the top rope when Jason Sensation pulls the ref out of the ring. Steel pops him but Spanky has the lightweight title and slams it into Steel stealing the win. **1/2

Dragon is on commentary and he is trying to find his personality. That is about the biggest development of this. Crowd is dead and lame for this but the work on top by the Dupps doesn’t exactly inspire a rabid reaction either. Spanky looks good enough and Shooter was a nonfactor for most of the match. Shoddy finish including a ref bump. Memphis has the 2000 kliq but other than that, it is struggling mightily right now. *1/4

Good to see the WWF tv programming angle be brought over to MCW. A very generic by the numbers Memphis. Not too bad in the context of 2001, but I am also watching 1986 and that hurts it significantly. Richards teases bailing and then takes over. Richards on top isn’t very engaging and then you get the King comeback with all the staples. Strap comes down, he faces some adversity, King shows resourcefulness to get the win. It is a formula that still works for the fans left in Corinth Mississippi but by the looks of the crowd, many others have moved on. **

Doug has improved a good bit since we saw him in 2000. He seems more confident in his abilities an when to place his nifty matwork spots and stuff like the Chaos Theory. I watched the Jody Fleisch match from earlier in this show and found it disjointed and barely a template for the best aspects of Fleisch in the future so it was refreshing to see that this was a much more advanced prototype of the wrestler Williams would become. Rock was a warm body for big portions of this but did have a good tope and improved his timing as the match progressed. A good match overall. ***1/4 (6.5)

Lethal marks hard for Tajiri. He gets a great reaction as well. I thought he looked fantastic within this match. He didn’t seem to be mailing it in and had a crispness and precision on his strikes. Pain was in a big spot here and he did ok. I liked his tope to the outside and I don’t think the moment swallowed him but he did certainly look outclassed compared to Tajiri. I would have rated this as very good if not for the horrible finish. Wifebeater interfering on Pain’s behalf throughout the match is annoying enough, but chop on a terrible finish used to protect Tajiri but it ended up making both competitors look worse. This was an interesting CZW show overall. The crowd was hot and I don’t recall seeing this building again although they do run Smyrna again in the future. ***1/4 (6.3)

That is for sure Jay Lethal in the crowd and he would only be 15 years old according to Wikipedia. I liked this brawl. The crowd was weird in that they treat Wifebeater as a cult figure and Sandman like in this match to the detriment of anything Hatred did. However, in the next match, Wifebeater is certainly a heel and they boo him when he assists Justice Pain. The brawl itself was low impact mostly involving chairs and then building to the one barbed wire table. The chair bumps in particular looked violent especially Hatred’s backdrop. The hulk up that Wifebeater does from the potato chips felt appropriate and again that CZW was building their version of the antihero. Overall, I can see this is as cosplaying aspects of ECW but the brawl itself was tight and violent enough for the match to be a success overall. *** (6.2)

Crowd goes nuts for Crazy and that shows that for this crowd, the ECW stars are presented as a big deal. This match was a total spot fu showcase. Certainly not my favorite style at the time and it looks even worst in retrospect. Still, I can appreciate the fluidity that some of the stuff executed and the crowd was going pretty bananas which does account for something. Blade continues to be perplexing executing some spots flawlessly and then nearly killing himself on the botches as you see with the SSP here. Overall, I can’t call this good but can look from the rear view mirror and see how something like this was beneficial for CZW as a whole in getting Blade’s name out there. Shit finish straight out of the AJPW mid 80’s playbook. **3/4

Another beautiful lucha match coming off the heels of Cerebro vs Felino. With a better finish, this is probably a low end MOTYC for me. We got the gambit of everything that I love in lucha. Dives, aggressive work, and really tense filled near falls. Wagner gets his masked ripped but it feels like an appropriate response from Atlantis given the onslaught he endures before that point. As mentioned up above, the finish drags this down ever so slightly as Wagner hits a brutal tombstone variation and then Atlantis is able to recover and roll him up when Wagner is gloating about it. You could chalk it up to Atlantis being concussed and running on fumes and he plays this off staggering after the match but it still didn’t feel as earned as the rest of the match. Still what preceded it was amazing. ****1/4 (8.6)

A loaded show in Arena Mexico. This was mostly an angle advanced match but one I appreciated. Like OJ states above, even someone like me that liked the Tarzan Boy turn, it was drawn out for a long time so seeing Charles just deliberate and then beat the shit out of his opponents here, it was refreshing. I also continue to enjoy that with these big turns they are not automatically accepted by all members of the opposite side. Casas and Santo are the perfect duo and really are up there with Kobashi/Misawa and Kawada/Misawa as long term rivals that are also great tag partners. ***1/2 (7.1)