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You know how this goes. Conway and Dinsmore lead their respective teams to an inoffensive and ok match. We do get a finish here. Cornette screams. All hell is breaking loose at some card we won’t see any clips of. I can’t be bothered to care. *1/2

We join the action right as the hot tag is made. Bad Attitude goes through their offense and seemingly wins with a moonsault. Steve Martin is out however to inform us that this is now 2/3 falls. RNR quickly get the second fall as we go to commercial. The leg work on Michaels is again great as RNR continue to be delights as heels. Robert rips off the pants to add insult to injury. Figure four reversals occur. Hot tag is made to Young and the finish occurs when Steve Martin tries to throw in the chain but it gets intercepted by Young and they win. Fun match but a good step below their earlier encounter. RNR turns face as they help Bad Attitude clear house on their way out of the promotion. I stand by the fact that the heels are too strong in Wildside right now. **1/2

I like the scramble as an idea that throws a lot in the mind of the viewer that a time limit draw or double DQ/countout could happen for a storyline standpoint and it wouldn't derail the tournament flow overall with someone receiving a bye. Good to see Peachstate frequent talent like Adler and Dean getting a bigger stage.

Unfortunately, this was a SmackDown special of only around 5 minutes of work. The stuff here was fine but Val and Holly were paired up too much IMO. Jericho is over like crazy with the MSG crowd which is nice to see as he does feel really destined to a be a top tier main eventer right now. Benoit gets the pin off a chair shot while Jericho has Holly in the Walls. **

It is nice to have some house show footage mixed in. This is an especially lively crown in MSG the night before the PPV. I haven’t watched KOTR 2000 in quite some time but know the reputation that it is a pretty awful show both from a booking and in ring stand point. I wonder if having such a jazzed house show the night before led to the come down from the workers. Dudley’s and Rock work well as a unit and while this exhibited your basic tropes of DX retreating to the back and then being brought back out and a cop out finish to protect everyone, the action was presented well and the crowd was molten. The pop that the 3D on X-Pac gets for example is huge. D-Von played FIP twicw and when the big brawl erupts, Bubba ends up going through the table. The dissension between Hebner and HHH is still being brought up and Earl shoves HHH into the spinebuster from Rock. People’s Elbow and Rock has the pin until Vince drags Earl out of the ring and slaps him. Kane comes out to help but the numbers game catches up to him. Biker Taker makes his way down Harley and all and he beats up everyone including giving Shane a chokeslam. Again all of this was very formula but with the molten crowd eating it all up, the enjoyment level was raised. *** (6.1)

2000 is a weird year from a WOTY standpoint whereas all big contenders have taken months off to a degree. Thus enters Takehiro Murahama who after this match has to be at least in the conversation. He has changed the dynamic of Osaka Pro and created a spark that is unheralded. The theme of this match is that he has proven himself to Delphin but not to Hoshikawa and Yakushiji. As a result, the match plays out with the Hosh and Yaku team beating the shit out of Murahama when given the chance. All the strikes here look tremendous and with great precision. Murahama finds a small opening and immediately makes the hot tag to Delphin. The finishing run here was super exciting with saves being made and a great sense of unknown as to who was winning the match at any point. Eventually Hosh and Yaku take home the victory but after the match they give their nod of approval to Murahama. The rudo team in Osaka Pro is not amused and this sets up a trios I can’t wait to get into. Osaka Pro is right there with CMLL as the best promotion in 2000. ****1/2 (8.8)

Mochizuki vs Bobby Blaze is a complete wtf novelty match on paper but this actually turned out to be pretty fun with Blaze in particular doing a good sell job on his leg. Mochi works it over throughout the match and locks in a wide variety of submissions to keep things interesting. Blaze’s comebacks were well placed and gave the crowd just enough hope that he could pull this one out. I liked the rollup that was the finish. Fun match. *** (5.9)

In a month with not a lot of eye popping stuff, this was a pleasant surprise and was great. Yagi and Asari have matched up so well in unconventional settings as their sprint at the J-Cup proved. Now, they are mixed in with an intergender contest and it does the best job of working that stipulation that we have seen up to this point. Some of the exchanges that Yagi pulls off in particular are jaw dropping such as her arm drag where she grabs Asari at the very last possible moment. I also got a big kick of Sasuke retreating from her by running to the entrance in a very believable faction. Overall, this just hit for me both from a novelty and workrate standpoint. One of the better matches of the month. **** (8.0)

A really good match that was trending to a great one until the shoddy finish. This opened up uniquely with basic wrestling holds and sequences including arm drag takeovers and criss crosses leading into a nice looking powerslam by Corino. Once Tajiri goes on offense, he continues to be one of if not the best person in wrestling in 2000 performing offense. Chairs being hit in unique angles and deadly precision on his kicks. Corino bleeds and as usual it looks great with his blonde hair. The finish sees Tajiri misting special referee Jerry Lynn and then he hits a superkick from Corino for the pin. Really cheap finish with Cyrus continuing to be annoying as shit in this network role. ***1/2 (6.9)

We have the Villano Bros taking up the mantle of the tecnicos and they get handled throughout most of this match. I didn’t think LIzmark added a lot to the proceedings and think someone like Atlantis teaming with these guys would have been better. The Villano comeback was fun and spirted. Of the rudo faction I would say that Caras looked the best. Overall June has been the weakest month in CMLL which corresponds nicely to my opinion that it is the weakest month overall in the year. They seems to be a bit of positioning before they find they next big feud to heat up and only the AAA invasion felt groundbreaking like stuff we saw earlier in the year. **1/4

Promo was ok but I was annoyed by the Vince thing as it feels like we have had this faction splintering stuff once every month and so and they end up on the same page. There was some good stuff there where you could debate whether HHH values the title or Steph more but they downplayed that. Of course, before the match starts Vince brings out a bunch of cronies that Taker/Kane/Rock have to beat up. Everyone comes out and they have a big brawl culminating in HHH giving Rock the pedigree and Shane delivering the elbow drop. I guess this is a match since we had a bell and Vince gets the cover off of the People’s Elbow. One of the worst segments in WWF this year. 1/4*

Holly has had a good run here as a beater that is a heel but also doesn’t really have fans in their locker room either as the match with HHH showed. He forces Jericho to be more violent here and has some punches and chops that were really stiff for Jericho standards around this time. Jericho being able to beat someone like this helps increase his credibility and again raise his reputation in the eyes of the fans as more than a smartass. Steph coming out there also helps keep the feud overall alive between herself and Jericho and it is really developing nicely. Fun match. **1/4

Benoit is again pin pointing a body part in rikishi’s shoulder and going after it in this match. This was really fun and Benoit doing strongman spots like getting Rikishi up for the back suplex make him look credible. Rikishi then mounts a huge comeback, rolls through his big offense and wins the IC title to a HUGE pop. I had honestly forgot this happened so I popped as well. Nice celebration with Too Cool. Another strong Benoit tv match that goes less than five minutes. **1/2

E&C have a good set up tonight with the Elvis spoof. Lawler is eating it up on commentary. They were given a few more minutes than the title change match and as a result had a decent match although you still see E&C as workers trying to progress with things like Christian grabbing a chinlock for no reason. The finish was pretty fun with Edge diving in the Elvis suit but Scott 2 Hotty coming back with the ring bell and Sexay picking up the win in his hometown. *3/4

This starts off right away as a brawl. Good heat and hatred from the get go. Kaoru is a straight brawler who can do some compelling stuff around Korakuen. Lioness gets sent down the row of chairs and Karou gives her a nice punch to send her over the railing. She then goes to work on Asuka’s leg with a chair getting slammed across the leg repeatedly. Back inside, the table of Asuka comes into play but that is used against her as more damage is done to the leg. Next time the action goes outside, Kaoru goes for a moonsault and Asuka kicks her with the injured limb. Asuka is able to take over now and that culminates in a double stomp on the table on the outside. Kaoru does good in going back to the leg once all hope looks loss back inside the ring of the closing stretch. Asuka comes back and does use her leg a lot much in the same way Misawa does in the 1/9 Hase match. The cradle by Karou looked good and included Asuka having to shove her off by the hair in a nice touch. Asuka comes back with another kick and then puts Karou away with a fisherman buster hold. This had some spotty selling at points and was kind of a poor person’s version of Karou vs Aja from earlier in the year but I did really like the dramatic and hate filled vibe from the match and it felt like a big war for the 18 minutes it occurred. **** (7.8)

This was a good enough follow up on the apuestas match with everyone still going after each other especially Infernal and Ciclon. Infernal is wearing a bandanna to not expose his bald head which is a nice touch. Tecnicos come back and the match builds toward the bandana being yanked off which is a fun spot with Cerebro and Scorpio rubbing his head. Scorpio was spirted at times in this. The biggest detriment for me in regards to this match is that the tecnicos don’t do a ton here. Also, in looks like we only get the first two falls because both teams won one a piece and then the video cuts out. I won’t rank the match as a result. NR

Holy shit a halfway decent tag match that was worked straight. This was a welcome change and Steiner and Nash were pretty fun as a team. Steiner pinning Jarrett for the finish is presented as this huge moment with Tenay screaming. That seems really hollow since every match Jarrett has won in months has been through the means of screwiness. The crowd heat drops immediately after the match when Cat gets involved and the over booked nonsense resumes. More straight tag matches please, WCW. **1/2

WCW right now is such a mess that everything just makes me glaze over and not pay that much attention to keep my sanity. Cat is awful on commentary and Awesome looks really disinterested out there as referee. Some of the moments where the match is actually a match is pretty good but there is the overbooking nonsense with Madaja and the New Blood that overall the match is mess. The Cat just essentially ends the match because why the hell not. Steiner then puts Awesome in the recliner when Jarrett nails him with the guitar and wins. Yawn. *

This was another good popcorn tv match and Jericho’s execution continues to improve. The spear on the outside spot they performed well here could have been a pretty big botch given the reputation of these two. The pace overall felt strong and Edge like Bubba earlier looked good enough to stretch out himself in a singles setting. Jericho is able to turn over Edge into the Liontamer and secure the win. **1/4

This was a strong singles effort for Bubba. He goes in there with Kurt and matches him pace for pace and shows off his high impact offense and bombs. He also does a strong job bumping off of Kurt’s big moves like the German. Angle is able to fly off and get the Angle Slam for the quick pin. Fun match. **1/4

Overall a GREAT Day 1 Nagata vs YOSHI-HASHI: A good tourney opener overall. I liked the mat base start and the ramping up to the bombs being thrown around. YH strikes are something that are a detriment to me so seeing Nagata demolish him and get some pop and crackle on his kicks was rewarding. YH even got some nice snap on his chops here which is a better weapon for him to utilize compared to the forearms. The dueling submissions were filled with nice tension and that set the stage for the tournament overall as it felt like either man could win this one. The sequence after the back suplex nearfall lost me as they seemed to run out of ideas and YH lost most pretenses of selling the arm work that was laid out. The wrist clutch driver that YH wins with is a nice move and that was a big win for him as I only peg him to have 4 or 6 points the entire tournament. ***1/4 Bad Luck Fale vs Togi Makabe: Smart move in making this a clunky brawl and the length was better on this match than Nagata vs YOSHI-HASHI. Still, Makabe is just not able to match the intensity or strikes in a brawling aspect and when that is about all you have at this point, it is a slow haul for me to gain much investment. The match worked best with Togi in the clear underdog role and having to fight from underneath against the big monster Fale. His King Kong Knee to the standing Fale looked good and him getting caught was a clever way to lead right into the finish. Not good but not awful either so a success. **3/4 Hirooki Goto vs Tomohiro Ishii: Usually these matches tap out in the very good but not great range for me. This one clicked on all cylinders. It was compact, brutal and didn't veer too far off into ridiculousness with the punishment and bombs that were thrown at each other. I think the little bits of fatigue selling went a long way to get across that these men were entrenched in a battle. The crowd also added a lot by having an electric atmosphere. Ishii leveling his forearm when Goto goes for the headbutt was excellent as was the collapsed bumps from the double clothesline. The finale was captivating with the machine gun forearms and big strikes. Again, them both taking a moment to regain their composure really helped add emphasis that while the fighting spirit is strong in both, they aren't invincible. Finally, Goto is able to land the final GTR knockout blow and secure the win in this great slugfest. ****1/4 Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: Opening was really engaging with ZSJ like a cat chasing the canary and looking for any opening to the injured arm. He goes after the leg, he works over the other arm for a bit but he keeps his patience. This changes when Tana gets a bit of offense in and goes for the elbow drop. ZSJ pounces with the cross armbreaker and even reverses things to prevent Tana from reaching the ropes right away. After that ZSJ works over the arm for a few minutes in great fashion like you knew he would. Tana is forced to up his game and responds by tackling the leg of Zack. From there, we get a great dynamic of both guys being wounded in an area and trying to capitalize on the opponent while not making themselves susceptible to damage. Tana kicking out of ZSJ pin bridge comb was a nice nearfall. High Fly Flows feel like Tana has the match in hand but Zack catches him once again and like the previous time, he ties him up in a pretzel with extra cranking on the injured arm to secure the submission in a great moment. The bits of Desperado interplay were disappointing but this wasn't full blown Suzuki Gun shenanigans and Zack was finally able to have the NJ match he has been capable of. **** Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi: This had a huge match feel when they entered the ring. The early portions with Naito focusing on the neck set a good ground structure for the match at hand that was reliable for him to go back too and allowed Ibushi to still do all of his spectacular stuff while still selling the damage of the body part that has been worked over. The fact that the bad neck plays into the Destino is an added bonus. Ibushi comes back and runs through his stuff including springboard moonsaults to the outside but then cagey Naito goes back to the neck and regains the advantage. This did a great job in showing how resourceful Naito is overall. The hangman neckbreaker looked great and he filled in his offense with tons of exciting stuff. Ibushi is all about th sizzle and he regains the advantage with a half suplex and then lights Naito up with some great kicks. Naito tries his parlor tricks by shoving down red shoes and charging in but he eats a wind up lariat. The crowd is now in chant mode. Naito nicely goes back to the neck with some strikes and a release German. He works for the reverse rana on the top and hits in. Naito senses he is one move away so now he goes for the Destino, in a great spot of desperation Ibushi catches him and lawn darts him into the turnbuckle. Ibushi then does his deadlift German from the outside into the ring which looks amazing every time as a feat of strength. That gets 2.999. We then get a struggle over the big move of the match which is the top rope piledriver from Ibushi. You can argue that this certainly should have been the finish because where do you go from there. Naito's neck is now as broken as Ibushi's. Naito musters up all strength to send Ibushi into the corner and then locks in the Destino off of a punch attempt for another 2.999 count. A second Destino puts Ibushi right on his dome and that is enough for the 3. Did they do too much? Probably Was this an exhilarating ride? Absolutely. ****1/2

This had a huge match feel when they entered the ring. The early portions with Naito focusing on the neck set a good ground structure for the match at hand that was reliable for him to go back too and allowed Ibushi to still do all of his spectacular stuff while still selling the damage of the body part that has been worked over. The fact that the bad neck plays into the Destino is an added bonus. Ibushi comes back and runs through his stuff including springboard moonsaults to the outside but then cagey Naito goes back to the neck and regains the advantage. This did a great job in showing how resourceful Naito is overall. The hangman neckbreaker looked great and he filled in his offense with tons of exciting stuff. Ibushi is all about th sizzle and he regains the advantage with a half suplex and then lights Naito up with some great kicks. Naito tries his parlor tricks by shoving down red shoes and charging in but he eats a wind up lariat. The crowd is now in chant mode. Naito nicely goes back to the neck with some strikes and a release German. He works for the reverse rana on the top and hits in. Naito senses he is one move away so now he goes for the Destino, in a great spot of desperation Ibushi catches him and lawn darts him into the turnbuckle. Ibushi then does his deadlift German from the outside into the ring which looks amazing every time as a feat of strength. That gets 2.999. We then get a struggle over the big move of the match which is the top rope piledriver from Ibushi. You can argue that this certainly should have been the finish because where do you go from there. Naito's neck is now as broken as Ibushi's. Naito musters up all strength to send Ibushi into the corner and then locks in the Destino off of a punch attempt for another 2.999 count. A second Destino puts Ibushi right on his dome and that is enough for the 3. Did they do too much? Probably Was this an exhilarating ride? Absolutely. ****1/2

Opening was really engaging with ZSJ like a cat chasing the canary and looking for any opening to the injured arm. He goes after the leg, he works over the other arm for a bit but he keeps his patience. This changes when Tana gets a bit of offense in and goes for the elbow drop. ZSJ pounces with the cross armbreaker and even reverses things to prevent Tana from reaching the ropes right away. After that ZSJ works over the arm for a few minutes in great fashion like you knew he would. Tana is forced to up his game and responds by tackling the leg of Zack. From there, we get a great dynamic of both guys being wounded in an area and trying to capitalize on the opponent while not making themselves susceptible to damage. Tana kicking out of ZSJ pin bridge comb was a nice nearfall. High Fly Flows feel like Tana has the match in hand but Zack catches him once again and like the previous time, he ties him up in a pretzel with extra cranking on the injured arm to secure the submission in a great moment. The bits of Desperado interplay were disappointing but this wasn't full blown Suzuki Gun shenanigans and Zack was finally able to have the NJ match he has been capable of. ****

Usually these matches tap out in the very good but not great range for me. This one clicked on all cylinders. It was compact, brutal and didn't veer too far off into ridiculousness with the punishment and bombs that were thrown at each other. I think the little bits of fatigue selling went a long way to get across that these men were entrenched in a battle. The crowd also added a lot by having an electric atmosphere. Ishii leveling his forearm when Goto goes for the headbutt was excellent as was the collapsed bumps from the double clothesline. The finale was captivating with the machine gun forearms and big strikes. Again, them both taking a moment to regain their composure really helped add emphasis that while the fighting spirit is strong in both, they aren't invincible. Finally, Goto is able to land the final GTR knockout blow and secure the win in this great slugfest. ****1/4

Smart move in making this a clunky brawl and the length was better on this match than Nagata vs YOSHI-HASHI. Still, Makabe is just not able to match the intensity or strikes in a brawling aspect and when that is about all you have at this point, it is a slow haul for me to gain much investment. The match worked best with Togi in the clear underdog role and having to fight from underneath against the big monster Fale. His King Kong Knee to the standing Fale looked good and him getting caught was a clever way to lead right into the finish. Not good but not awful either so a success. **3/4