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HHH starts off the night with a promo describing the chain of events that have happened since Backlash and his dealings with Earl Hebner. He ends up issuing the challenge for the Iron Man match and does it in a convincing way that helps protect both guys. Really great promo by him. Just as Vince is about to speak, Jericho interrupts. Jericho calls him Vance McMahon that makes me laugh more than it should. Jericho gets a huge pop saying that Vince has a small penis. I did laugh at King asking JR if that is true and JR saying “HOW SHOULD I KNOW”. Vince says he has a set of grapefruits and grapefruits grow on a tree that has a trunk. Vince sets up a match vs. Angle and he offers a guarantee that Jericho wont leave the building as IC champ. Shane has some words for Big Show which sets up their Judgement Day match. Shane is called a pussy by the crowd. Angle comes out for his match and says he is honored to defend Stephanie. Stephanie possesses class which is something these people on Long Island could never possess. Pretty good five minute popcorn match with Angle again having a clear vision of what the match is wanting to accomplish and him doing that. Jericho looks strong as he puts Angle away with the Walls clean in the ring. ** Shane is upset backstage and Show comes in and chokes Shane. Shane informs Show that he was wanting to see that fire and that Show has a chance to become IC champion. Shane is leading Big Show out who seems to have taken the advice and is becoming more serious. Show is dominating and they are showing on the big screen the added portion from the night before where Shane makes fun of Show and says he has him brainwashed and making fun of him. Show is now furious at Shane and leaves the ring. That draws Jericho a countout win. * Vince is such a pompous ass backstage announcing the Benoit match. HHH comes out in a referee shirt. This is really start to become an endearing feud where they don’t have a ton of time to work with at points but they maximize the effort. Benoit suplexes Jericho on the outside to establish dominance. He maintains that work on the back with a back suplex inside the ring and barks at Choida about a slow count. Benoit is a brilliant technician on the back doing a Northern Lights suplex and back drop before running through the Germans sequences. Benoit continues to stake his claim as the best worker in 2000. Jericho is able to hook on the Walls of Jericho and we get an interesting moment where Choida gets shoved by Benoit who then gets shoved by HHH. HHH now takes charge of the match himself. Walls of Jericho is applied but HHH is preoccupied by Steph walking down. Well, he is a loving husband. Crossface is applied and HHH calls for the bell without Jericho tapping out. I thought it was a good moment after the match that Benoit just leaves allowing DX and HHH to lay the boots to Jericho. Show ends with Too Cool, Rikishi and Big Show coming to Jericho’s aid and making the McMahon-Helmsley regime retreat. They did an admirable job on this show without Rock. ***1/4

Sting actually shows some fire here and these two have a fairly decent six minute match with the crowd really behind Sting. Sting takes a big bump for him onto the stage as that is getting a lot of play in the last couple of days of WCW. Things are looking good for Sting as he puts on the Scorpion Deathlock. Just then, Vampiro arises and they disappear from the ring with a ton of smoke. Pretty big bullshit chant for all of this. Sting comes back up with the red and Jarrett covers him to win. New Blood fills the ring until Hogan and Nash start brawling with them as we go off the air. Jarrett is really not looking strong as all as the leader of the New Blood and again they are completely dominant not giving much for fans of the promotion or Millionaires Club to grasp onto. **

Ok i've never seen the match so what is this? you almost make it sound like these guys just showed up after the finish to do this crazy stunt and honestly I sorta hope that's the case. That is exactly what happened. I guess you can say that Kanyon came out in outrage that Arquette turned on his buddy DDP but they just sort of arrive and then Awesome tosses him off in the Kemper Arena like Loss mentioned. A really stupid angle from a wrestling perspective and a in good taste perspective.

Kimberly and Bischoff are on commentary as DDP looks for revenge for his best friend against Awesome. Not much to the match as it is more of a backdrop to the DDP and Kim saga. Kim asks DDP to sign the divorce papers on the apron and Page rips up the document. Then Awesome wallops Page with a chair and powerbombs him through a table. This allows Bischoff to grab Page’s hand and sign what is left of the divorce papers. DDP gets wheeled out of the arena giving Awesome the win. A little bit too much New Blood dominance lately and the undertones of Bischoff and Kimberly being an item are doing no favors to anyone. Madden is also back to shrieking at pretty much everything. Poor segment. *1/4

A pretty fun garbage style match actually without the bullshit. Arquette stays out of the way and acts as almost a manager in a handicap match only helping Page and directing traffic in the early going. Jeff blades well and that adds a bit of intrigue. The contraction of the cage is very convoluted and there isn’t a natural progression to them climbing but they do anyway. Finish is atrocious with Arquette providing a swerve by blasting a guitar over Page allowing Jarrett to win the title. I don’t know how this makes Jeff look very strong that he has won two belts now because of Page’s ex wife and best buddy. Awesome tosses Kanyon from the cage to the stage as Tony and Scott Hudson do their best JR impersonation. **1/4

Order Slamboree and you get a free Buff Daddy Pennant. Nice. Typical bullshit but hardcore Hogan is adding a new wrinkle to his incredibly stale character and I think the crowd reaction for him is more genuine than it has been since he probably lost the belt to Sting at Starrcade 97. Bischoff is a crooked referee to the surprise of no one. Some of the strikes and belt shots here look brutal and Kidman going toe to toe with Hogan is an nice reputation bump for him. Hogan blocks the big legdrop and Hogan pops him to a legit big pop. Hogan uses a chair on both and goes outside looking for a table. The crowd is really roaring as Hogan brings the table in. Hogan busts a chair over Hogan and pins him visually for the three count. Bischoff does a slow count that Hogan kicks out from. Bischoff gets powerbombed through the table to another big pop and Hogan is busted open pretty good. Hogan brings in a third table. Kidman blocks the attempt with a low blow as the crowd chants Hogan. Kidman goes for the big splash but misses. Horace Hogan comes in and counts Bischoff's hand for the three. I dug this, so sue me. ***

A straight sprint as we only get 3.5 minutes of action. Lance is back on commentary which is nice to hear. Lady Ophelia helps Regal from the start of the match. In a dumb finish, Youth slaps the STF on Ophelia and she taps out. Regal puts the Regal Stretch on Youth on the floor. Disappointing climax to this feud. 1/2*

We get a backstage promo with some dissension between Shane and HHH already. Steph says why does it matter who is going to be champ if it is all within the family. A good three way with Shane mostly staying out of the way and allowing Rock and HHH to have their typically well done match. A bit of miscommunication happened of course with Shane and HHH going after each other and breaking up pins. The first official gets taken out allowing Gerald Briscoe to come in. HHH hits the Pedigree and Rock kicks out to a huge pop from the crowd. HHH decks Briscoe for counting too slow. HHH hits another Pedigree and Vince decides to take off Gerald's shirt and put it on. Here comes Earl and he drags Vince out of the ring. Earl tells Vince this is all bullshit. Vince goes to punch Earl and hits the ring post. HHH gets crotched by Shane and it is ambiguous whether it was inadvertent or not. Vince chases Earl around the ring and right into a Rock Bottom. HHH gets knocked outside and a People's Elbow puts Shane away. WWF had a good week of booking their main event in satisfying and unique ways. They all have been overbooked to a degree but just coherent enough to hook you for the next part of the story. ***1/2

Jericho and Eddy do not seem to have that many long form matches in WWF and this seems like a match that can tie a bow on the Chyna storyline with both. Eddy gets a hell of a reaction coming out and the Latino Heat music is rocking. Jericho saying the British vernacular was funny. Eddy loses the coin toss so his European title is on the line. Eddy tries to bail and Chyna pushes him back in. Jericho really dominates the early going until the action spills outside and Chyna hits a clothesline on Jericho. Eddy takes over the match now but gets caught on the top rope. That is short lived as Eddy really brings the attack on the back of Jericho. A lot of lucha submissions including a Gory Special. Eddy is able to get a nasty rana to the outside. Jericho is able to roll in first only to be hit by a Chyna DDT that gives Eddy a real close nearfall. Chyna is arguing with the ref and gets dropkicked by Jericho but runs right into the European title for the pinfall victory for Eddy. Fun match. ***1/4

E&C are outside and heeling it up now. They charged a little boy for an autograph which is a topical 2017 twitter topic and then jump in front of a fan for a picture. Awesome stuff. The match itself is solid. It felt like E&C were still getting their legs under them as heels but they took the template of southern style formula and kept it throughout much of the match. I have liked the interplay between King and JR bickering back and forth throughout this match. The officiating was a little too inconsistent for me making it seem like he was really against the Hardy’s instead of having to make a judgement call that just went against the face. Hardy offense builds to those big explosive spots and we get that with the Swantom and the Twist of Fate only for Edge to come in with the ring bell and causing the DQ. Dudley Boyz come in and lay the 3D on Christian before retrieving a table. Edge goes through that. A good match to see the development of these guys without relying on the gimmicks. **3/4

I was so pumped for this match. It starts out right away with both guys grappling on the ground. Delphin is able to hang right there with Murahama. Murahama keeps looking for an opening for strikes but is unable to find any. Delphin pops on a cross armbreaker requiring a quick rope break for Murahama. He got pretty outclassed in that round by the big guy in the yard in Delphin. Murahama gets more openings in the second round and Delphin takes him down immediately to regain control. Murahama opens up and Delphin is hanging onto the ropes to keep his feet. Murahama is getting cocky now and comes parading in allowing Delphin to just put his weight on him. Delphin slips out of a floatover and again just uses his weight advantage to keep Murahama grounded. Really close round to judge if done on the up and up. Murahama absolutely blasts Delphin starting the third round and you can see more desperation in Delphin now as he goes for a crab submission knowing that he needs to put this guy away soon. Murahama gets caught with a German and then Delphin spears him down looking for the arm. Murahama does his most heelish action of the match by going after the eye. Another flurry of punches and a great sell job by Delphin as he goes down to the mat. He just barely makes it up for the count but then gets caught with a leg kick and is in dire shape. He gets to his knees but that is it and Murahama secures a HUGE win. What a way to make a guy. Osaka Pro is very quickly becoming a top five worldwide promotion for me and this is one of the most engaging storylines happening throughout the wrestling landscape in 2000. ****1/4

What an awesome match up there with anything we have seen from Toryumon this year. All of the Osaka Pro guys get a chance to shine and have a frantic but well put together six man that showcases each individual person. I thought Togo again looked like the breakout star and he is making a huge presence every time he shows up on tape now. He gets the pin which is well deserved. ****

Aja has been fighting everywhere in 2000. ARSION, GAEA and now Oz Academy. Nice to see Chikayo in singles action as she has been a bit uneven in her tag work and tough to get a read on. Really simple but effective match with Aja showing great vulnerability with getting her arm and hand worked over again. I liked Chikaya ducking and moving in a desperate attempt to escape the spinning back fist. She is able to block one partially with her hands and another with the trash can. Aja is still a monster though and just lifts her up in a torture rack submission to win. Would have liked to have seen the back fist strategy pay off better but a really fun 12 minute match. ***1/4

Angle has impressed so far this year but matches like this made me revisit his time in the company so far and made me come to the realization that they still have the reigns on him pretty deep. His longest matches was a barely 10+ match vs Jericho at No Way Out and the triple threat at WM2000. That WM2000 triple threat seems disappointing in retrospect timing wise but it makes sense given the development of Angle at the time and not looking back on things with a revisionist eye. Here it is clear he had some instruction to go after Benoit's bad eye and use that as a hold over until the finish. He hasn't been able to really improvise or fill the time within a match yet. The heel vs heel dynamic hurts this match crowd wise as Benoit has to act like a defacto face. Crash Holly is also on commentary which is really disconnected from everything going on in ring. The work on Benoit's eye was fine but we jump start to the finish quickly as Benoit misses a headbutt and Angle hits the Olympic Slam for the pin. I was surprised the Olympic Slam wasn't named yet. Big win for Angle that was clean. **1/2

The last time we will see Muta in Japan until late December. This really has an epic feel with the entrances and Hokuto escorting Sasaki. Muta is limping around on a crutch but that was all a ruse and he attacks Sasaki with the crutch before the bell. He then mists Hokuto. Muta is certainly limited and hurting here but the pageantry and mobility is just enough to make this entertaining. Sasaki did good on his power moves and displaying his Power Warrior persona throughout this match. The finish was neat as Muta has misted Sasaki once and goes for the evil red mist. Sasaki blocks that and then mists Muta. One lariat later and he retains. ***1/4

So here is the drill, put Ogawa in a NJPW ring around this time and I am all in. This had a great atmosphere like usual and the Egg team of Nagata and Nakanishi were strong as being the flag bearers for NJPW. Nagata blasts Murakami with a kick and wants a piece of Ogawa. After some jockeying, he succummbs to an STO with Ogawa giving a look of "is that the best you got." I have been a Nakanishi fan in 2000 but I thought he was the weak link here and was unable to match the hatred and intensity of the others. He showed more fire in the post match presser. We have a masked man who apparently was Inoki choke him out on the apron which gets big heat and a quick finish with Murakami taking the loss. It really feels like we could have had 3-5 more minutes of heated action. After the match, Riki Choshu is wanting to get involved and him and Choshu go after each other. ***3/4

Just looking at the lineups had me salivating and this didn’t disappoint at all. Fuji and CIMA fit like a glove vs Kanemoto and Otani that it is a shame we didn’t get a long form series between them. Everyone had a chance to deliver here though. Taikawa and Fuji especially had a brutal exchange in the middle and prick Liger being the mentor to Crazy Max warmed my heart. I know he has been stuck in multi-mans but Kashin continues to be not atrocious at all and learning where to pick his spots to attack. Otani is getting a nice push and picks up the win here. Give this a couple of more minutes and a molten Korakuen crowd and you might could have had a MOTYC. Still a great match. ****

I wasn’t crazy about watching the build in real time but the five minute video package they do here really is well done and gets you hyped for the match. The entrances and presentation feel big time. Jinsei Shinzaki comes out to take a rindside seat. As for the match proper, this was a tremendous Hayabusa performance. Much like Sabu, he can be inconsistent but he was completely on point here with his execution and his more emotional tones. Sometimes Hayabusa’s selling is suspect but I thought he gave more openings here that Tanaka didn’t take advantage of for whatever reason. An example is him going forearm first into the table a few minutes after Tanaka hit him in the arm with the chair on the outside. The story revolves around Tanaka trying to ground Hayabusa’s attack with huge bombs and rest holds at the scent of Busa gaining momentum. Tanaka hits a huge powerbomb from the ring to the floor where Busa just barely catches a table and takes a ton of punishment. That is tough to watch for someone we know got so physically broken down pretty soon after this. I can see some criticism of the fact that Busa fires off a couple of suplexes that Tanaka no sells and gets right up from. I think in a weird way that worked for me here in that Tanaka is a huge bomb monster where it takes a combination to take him down. Busa finally is able to get some sustained offense for a nearfall as we near the end of the match. Tanaka busts out the whole arsenal in trying to put Busa away but is unable to with Shinzaki looking on as stoic as ever. Busa blocks the running forearm and hits the Kanemura powerbomb followed by the Emerald Flowsion to win as the crowd rushes the ring. They certainly went big here with a ton of kickouts and as many moves as both men could possibly through out. It will be a point of subjective taste, but it felt earned and deserved for me in this match. This match wont be for everyone but it was for me. ****1/4

They have a done good job on this show in making the hardcore matches feel just different enough. Yamakawa and Kanemura was around the big spots, Gannosuke and Sabu the mystique and this is more gore oriented. Fuyuki is really limited as a worker but the charisma is still there and he is a personal favorite for me so him bleeding buckets and clamoring to the crowd is enough for me to keep this entertaining. Kuroda is an interesting worker where he has been pushed well and doesn’t quite have “it” to really connect so far. This was no different as I thought he was easily the weakest person in this match. Fuyuki winning was a surprise for me. **3/4

Man, I thought this was great and it totally took me by surprise. Maybe its just a reaction to how bad Sabu looked in the Devine match but I am really wanting to hear other opinions because the review I found on this show from Loerfice hated this match. The striking in the early going was spot on and I got a sense of escalation throughout the match where in the beginning it was just another match but by the end, it was personal between these two. Sabu uses the spike diligently playing up the Sheik gimmick and he hits all of his triple jump moves on the first try. In the most brutal spot of the match, Gannosake is able to hit his Fire Thunder Driver from the apron through a table on the floor. Sabu gets drilled right on top of his head on that one. I am a fireball mark and both looked excellent here with Gannosuke in particular maybe being one of the best looking fireballs in wrestling history. The camera angle really added to it as it was a surprise for the viewer at home much in the same way it was for Sabu. This was as good a Sabu match as you could hope for in 2000. ****

We have consensus on this one. Naito's attack on Juice's leg was well done and varied and Juice sold it throughout. Juice really throws himself into his big moves and makes those really pop with impact. Basic spots like his senton into the corner have extra pop with the way Juice recklessly goes in. This had just a smidge too much slop for me to call it great but it was still the best match of Juice's life up to this point. ***3/4

An amazingly great wrestling match. Dual limb work done in a compelling way and escalating up to a climax in a wonderful manner. I thought this was one of the better KOR performances period and I am a big fan of the guy. Yehi is a great worker but I do subscribe to the narrative that his matches sometimes lead to less crowd heat that can be a bit offputting. An example of that is the Riddle WrestleMania weekend match which I personally loved but had a more reserved audience. I think the way this was paced helped keep the crowd invested throughout the entire match to where when you reach the strike exchange, the crowd collectively comes to the conclusion they are trapped into a wonderful wrestling match. ****1/4

These two had a great deathmatch in Feb and a disappointing one based on clips the week before in BJW. Now, they take their show on the road in front of an FMW crowd. I have this match as somewhere in the middle of the two. This had some big bumps and spots in the first half but had a lot of set up and walking around. Yamakawa just taking the light tube out straight from the light fixture was a unique visual to see. I think the action improved from a consistency standpoint once both reentered the ring. There were some spots that didn’t come off as planned liked the DDT on top of the tables. Top rope DDT gives Kanemura the distinctive advantage and then he puts Yamakawa away with two huge powerbombs. ***

A really weird Vince promo to start bringing up the Confederacy and Jefferson Davis. The end result is a handicapped match with Hebner and Rock vs Road Dogg/X-Pac/HHH. A fan has a sign showing their support for Hepner. The match itself is really fun with HHH in a sling and Earl being good in his role getting fired up with the referee and what not. The Rock was also a strong babyface at this point with great timing on his comebacks. Him cleaning house of the whole regime at the end got a huge pop. Ditto Jericho coming out and attacking HHH. They didn’t deemphasize Jericho at all after the world title tease. Hebner low blows X-Pac and Rock hits the Rock Bottom for the win as Earl goes nuts. Afterwards, DX does a huge beatdown on both Rock and Hebner and Earl gets bloodied up. Rikishi and Big Show come out to help Rock and Co. and this really cements Show’s face turn. That still isn’t enough so here comes the Dudley’s in a big spot for them. That finally gives the face contingent enough numbers to have DX scatter. Patterson gets a stinkface. Briscoe goes through a table. Really strong job showing that the roster is strong even without Austin. ***

Matt's Donnie B impersonation is hilarious. Don't look forward at all to ROH commentary in mine and Loss 2000s pilgrimage