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It is cute they put Saturn and Tazz in this match since its two of the bigger names they have de-emphasized in 2000 in there with the two people I would argue they have done the best in elevating in Benoit and Jericho. SmackDown is becoming the king of perfectly enjoyable 3-5 minute matches in a WCW Worldwide type of way. After Tazz’s good showing last week he is handily worked over here by the Radicalz. They still give him some slight moments like not tapping in the crossface but those showcases seem to be dwindling. Jericho gets the hot tag and cleans house with Saturn and Tazz brawling on the outside. Benoit and Saturn run into each other and Jericho is able to gain the pin off of a lionsault. *1/2

Why DDP decided to put the title on the line in these conditions, I will never know. Western Union is sponsoring Slamboree, did you know that? If not, you will hear it at least 3 times on commentary in each match. Kimberly comes out as special guest ref because why the hell not. The action is predictably awful with Arquette and Bischoff fumbling around ringside and Kimberly refusing to count any pinfall attempt by Page. Eventually Page kisses Kimberly which I guess knocks her out of commission and we have a double pin with Arquette on Bischoff after spearing him and Jarrett on Page. Mickey Jay comes in and counts the Arquette pin and he is the new world champion. In a company full of jump the shark moments, this is without a doubt the final nail in the coffin. DUD

These two didn’t have any chemistry at all in this match. Booker has also lost his T. Steiner is doing commentary and you keep waiting for the run in. It finally happens and Awesome is able to hit an Awesome Bomb to pin Booker. After the match, the beatdown continues until every WCW scrub comes out to help including Lash Leroux and Hugh Morrus. *1/2

Kidman comes out and gives his promo calling anyone out. Out comes Horace Hogan to defend his uncle’s name. Tony halfway through this match called it Horace’s best match and while it certainly wasn’t spectacular, I have to agree. Kidman misses a big splash and Horace is actually showing some fire by teasing putting Torrie through a table. Just then, Bischoff grabs a chair and hits Horace and then Kidman gives him a bulldog from the ring through a table on the outside. Bischoff counts the cover and Torrie gives the kiss of death. **

Unique pairing here with some Team 2000 members we don’t see much of against our junior pricks. Goto and Kanemoto face off right away. The first fall is really all action and at a breakneck pace. I like the mentality of both teams and how similar they are. In parity from the opening stanza, Goto picks up the win on Kanemoto. Saito is still getting after it in this match in 2000 which warms my heart. Second fall is more of the same this time with Takiawa pinning Saito in a nice surprise. Like with these previous junior heavy matches the action is certainly top notch. Third fall is more of the same with the finale resulting in Ohara and Otani in there. In a surprise for me, Ohara picks up the win. I have really soured on the NJ booking April as they have went out of their way to make the juniors look insignificant. ***1/4

It is a shame that Goara doesn’t release this in full. We only get two minutes of action but it results in one of the most important things in Toryumon and Dragon Gate history. The match ends in a 20 minute draw and then Masaaki gets on the mic and wants to join forces with Kanda and Susumu. Kobe is bewildered at this announcement but we have a new faction that is formed backstage and they are an immediate threat to the dominance of Crazy Max. NR

The comedy added a nice new facet to this promotion as Stalker has really extended sequences throughout this match and him and Fuji especially shine. I liked how Crazy Max revamped their double and triple team offense to be more comedic as well including the momentum swing into the lowblow via CIMA. A tag that shows you can have fun within a promotion and still produce good in ring action. ***1/4

A feud I despised when it happened and it doesn’t hold up any better here. Hudson keeps insisting that Vamp put Sting straight to hell. Sting repels down and allows Vamp to attack taking off his harness. They fight for around two minutes until we get the shock ending of parlor tricks from Vamp with a blood substance coming down from the ceiling and soaking Sting. New Blood beats up Sting as the show closes and the puns are too much for me to handle. ½*

A poor cage match as it starts with a brawl around ringside. That may honestly be one of my biggest pet peeves. They also make sure to emphasize on commentary again and again that the cage has a roof on top so no one can get in, ensuring someone will get in. We finally get into the cage and they battle for a minute before Awesome comes out and breaks in the door right after Page hits a flash Diamond Cutter. Kanyon runs right behind Awesome and occupies him long enough for the referee to make the count and we have a new champion in one of the most anticlimactic ways I can imagine. A Foley level pop this did not get. Arquette comes out to celebrate. *

Mike Awesome has arrived in WCW as the insurance policy for the New Blood. Hogan comes out to a big pop and has his FUNB gear on now. I liked the promo beforehand where they talk about how many bridges Hogan has burned that no one will partner with him. Huge Hogan chants as he tees off on Awesome. I got to think this is a thrill for Awesome to a degree as a month ago he was facing Spike Dudley regularly. No offense to Spike but he isn’t the Hulkster even in his 2000 form. Handicap matches are tricky especially when you have Hogan as the 1 as he is not going to be beat up completely but all things considered this did a pretty good job of explaining how Hulk is hanging in this match as Kidman stays outside still favoring his injured ribs. Awesome then gets his ass beat by Hogan and they have a pretty good back and forth that again looked like a 1987 Philly Spectrum defense. Kidman hits a chair on Hulk and Hulk gets busted open. Awesome retrieves a table and is able to powerbomb Hogan through a table. We cut to Nash backstage that looks at a monitor and sees what has just happened. Hogan is placed on another table and this time Kidman does a big splash from the top rope sending him through it. Kidman then rips the Hogan shirt he has on and cuffs his ears to the fans. A legdrop by Kidman and Hogan is pinned again cleanly given the rules of this match. Torrie gives Hogan a kiss for good measure. Wolfpac music fires up and here comes Big Sexy ready to wreck Awesome and Kidman. Nash clears house until Torrie hits a low blow and now the NB attack him as well. Still so far so good on the Kidman vs Hogan angle and storyline. **1/2

Hunter and Shane make up to start things off. JR saying pass the barf bag is funny. I also appreciate Shane and HHH’s acting here tearing up. HHH goes through his interview and gets interrupted by Jericho. Jericho insults Steph and that sets up Shane/HHH vs Rock/Jericho tonight. Segment ends with Jericho stealing the title and whacking HHH with it. Rock then gives a promo in the back. It is a classic Rock promo with the crowd in the palm of his hand even though Rock’s style is never my absolute favorite. HHH is up against a handicapped match in a piece of context we miss out on. However, he has found a partner in Chris Benoit. In addition, shane is the guest referee now and Vince is in the corner of the champs. The action here is pretty electric with Benoit and Jericho starting out chopping the shit out of each other and the crowd popping huge with Rock motioning for HHH to come get some. The neat thing about this match is that every single pairing even between the tag team members seem fresh and exciting for the future. That is perfect thing to see in the current non Austin state even though his presence is looming over Backlash handily. Rock gets the hot tag and is a great hot tag just going off on Benoit and dragging HHH into the ring to another huge reaction. Jericho and Benoit are battling on the outside when Rock hits the Rock Bottom that Shane refuses to count. Rock decks Shane and sets his sights on Vince before Benoit breaks it up. Vince low blows Rock and HHH hits the pedigree to get the pin showing how stacked the deck is against Rock heading into Sunday. Great go home stuff. ***

I love when the Slam of the Week gets added in. Castrol GTX: Drive Hard. We see Lita getting powerbombed through the table at the hands of the Dudley Boyz. E&C are still faces which I didn’t think lasted this long after Mania. I could have sworn we were already into the flash photography phase by Backlash. Bubba calls Edge a queer on the apron I am pretty sure here. Dudley’s are pretty firmly in control until T&A music hits and out comes Trish scantily clad and on a table. This allows E&C to gain the advantage. D Von is not phased by the distraction and is a house of fire. Bubba hits a big time spear on a diving Edge that gets a good reaction. The 3D seems to be looming but Trish takes off her jacket and it mesmerizes Bubba. Edge spears D-Von and E&C steal the win. *3/4

Yamakawa went disco tonight with music and wardrobe which is funny but really lacking context. This match is really clipped up but something feels off about it all the way even though I like both of these guys including Yamakawa more than anyone else tracking 2000 so far. The crowd heat doesn’t seem to be there which is strange since both guys are over. Kanemaru does some pretty gnarly table spots including a front faced powerbomb set up in the corner and a big sit out powerbomb from the apron to the floor. Missing the selling and gravity of the way this is spliced together makes it feel more like a highlight package than a full match. Yamakawa does a swantom bomb onto Kanemaru and two tables on the outside and the next thing we see is Kintaro charging with a chair. Yamakawa is victorious in 22 minutes of which we got around 4. Again, this certainly is tough to gauge overall but the heat didn’t seem to be there so the clips looked brutal but not necessarily making me feel like I was cheated out of seeing a classic or anything. NR

Yeah, Honma is one of the best workers in the world this year. Here he takes a slug like Samples and makes this into a fun garbage style contest by essentially being a bump freak. They do tour Korakuen but it was the frantic and bump heavy style brawling that I much prefer to the walk and stalk one. Back inside, the barbed wire boards are emphasized and Honma takes the blunt of the punishment. They even do a semi compelling kendo stick light saber battle in the middle of this one. Honma sets up a board on the outside and ends up taking a bump through it from the middle rope. The rest of the match is Honma trying to survive but Samples puts him away with a big lariat. I have to question Honma jobbing here but hell of an effort from him. ***1/4

A conflicting match for me in that I didn’t like the excessive use of the table but man was the final moments with Kong and Satomura one of the more dramatic things we have seen so far. The match is chaotic and fun with Yamada taking the blunt of the beat down in the beginning. The final moments see Aja and Meiko in the ring and their chemistry is astounding. The spinning back fist has been so protected so they do a neat variation of it here with Aja hitting Kaoru inadvertently before nailing Meiko. Meiko is able to withstand that which is astounding. This is when the match proper ends and it is just Aja and Meiko embattled in this ultimate battle for courage. Aja proceeds to give 4 more spinning back fists that looked brutal with each one. Aja is one tough person that I wouldn’t want to meet in the alley way. Meiko shows her toughness by withstanding the blows and standing back up until she is completely passed out. Aja even slaps an unresponsive Meiko before pinning her. Really gripping stuff and I can’t wait for their singles match. ***1/2

Interesting that Ran Yu Yu gets announced after Kansai. Kansai and Takahashi start out. Really hot start with Nanae throwing the kitchen sink at Dynamite before her weathering the storm and pinning her with a lariat around 2 minutes in. Maekawa pounces right where Nanae left off. Kansai and Maekawa have a good sequence built around strikes and submissions. At one point, Nanae comes rushing back in and the match breaks down with everyone going after each other. This resulted in a double countout. Commando and Hotta are brawling with chairs so they are the next to enter. Hotta keeps going for tiger drivers and big bombs and puts away Commando in around a minute with a straightjacket powerbomb. Haryuyama enters and she is the one I am least familiar with. She is no match for Hotta who gives her two knock out blows and pins her. This leaves Yu Yu vs. Hotta and Toyota so the odds don’t look good for team JWP. Hotta starts methodically picking Yu Yu apart. Submissions and ground game are the key focal points. Hotta does go to the outside about five minutes in and Kansai has had enough by taking some shots at Hotta. Hotta misses a spinning back kick giving Yu Yu a hope spot but she is back executing a Tiger Driver for a nearfall a minute later. Hotta continues her attack, locks on the cross arm breaker and the referee calls the match for team AJW without Toyota even getting in the ring. After some promo work we get an 8 person tag match proper with Yu Yu and Toyota starting. Toyota is awesome here as the prick and her execution is flawless. A big dive train breaks things open. Team JWP is working much better together as a cohesive unit and we get a nearfall after a Kansai Splash Mountain on Toyota. AJW comes back with a vengeance and they are able to isolate Haruyama. Haruyama is able to show some resilience taking a good bit of punishment and kicking out but eventually she falls to Toyota and AJW wins this one as well. Kansai is one frustrated woman looking on at AJW celebrating. Really good segment going on that set up a lot of future stuff in the future. ***3/4

What a splendid match. Finally, another team is able to go toe to toe with Crazy Max and it has the same energy as the pairings with Masaaki Mochizuki and Magnum Tokyo. I thought Sususmu gave easily his best performance so far and him and Kobe had some neat double team pairings that matched the Crazy Max offerings. Fuji and CIMA are my two favorite C Max members so it was no surprise that I was invested in their output here and thought they gelled really well working together. The use of the chairs here was done in a heelish way that it didn’t overly annoy me. Just when it looks like Kobe/Sususmu have the match in hand, CIMA comes back and runs through his combo of palm strike, Iconoslam, and frog splash to pick up the victory for C Max. The face side was strong but didn’t have enough to put the evil stable away. After the match, handcuffs and a big heel beatdown commence until Masaaki runs in for the save. The faces are really going to have to create a stable to counteract these tactics. Hmmm. ***3/4

Arsion’s clips continue to be grating. This action looked good and submission based which provides more of a contrast if nothing else to the stuff Aja does in GAEA for example. Mita seemed like a worthy challenger and locked in a good choke but Aja was able to wiggle free. My favorite moment was when Aja had the La Magistral hooks in and changed that into a submission attempt. The spinning back fist of Kong continues to be one of the most protected moves of 2000. NR

Bobcat is back on commentary but pretty grating along with David Jet. K-Krush's rap isn't very good either. I haven't really liked this feud and this was no exception. Krush is really limited just punching and lumbering around. Lawler isn't what he used to be either. They do an angle at the end with Mr. Coffee getting involved leading to Bull Pain coming out and a schmozz with Krush obtaining the victory. This was really poor. *1/2

The Jung Dragons are awesome. They do a dazzling display of high octane spots here that has the crowd go from not giving a shit about the match to being invested. PG-13 is right there with them and provides a good bumping base. Even the triple team sunset flip for the finish gets a big pop. Ready to see Jung Dragons stretch out into something more consequential as they are ready for it. **3/4

I am becoming pretty fond of Scoot. He has a good look and mixes in both the athletic nature of the indy boom stuff with some sound psychology in his matches. He is someone that will probably never have a MOTYC but he can be count on to be a good hand within a promotion. Jet is displaying a heel persona to the core here and has some moments but is also more inconsistent. This is some more great camera work in early 2000 sending my eyes into disarray. They are using the smaller ring height wise here that reminds me of an early Chikara show. Jaguar’s heat segment didn’t have much of a focus. Andrews makes his comeback with a huge piledriver that should have sent Jaguar to the hospital. He is up on offense again way too quickly with a low blow, weak X-Factor and frog splash to win. Scoot deserved better. **1/2

This started off much better and intense than the previous indy match as the bullrope is a good restriction. Corino is bleeding absolute buckets. Victory interferes fairly early on and goes after Tommy. Sandman comes out in no hurry and we have an impromptu cage match. This really is one of the worst blade jobs I have seen as Corino’s head is completely red. Taijiri comes back out to give the advantage to the heels. Joey keeps yelling about the Network in a really grating way. Suplex through the ladder to Sandman in a brutal looking spot. Here comes New Jack trying to outdo Sandman in length of entrance. We haven’t seen much or any really of New Jack’s routine in 2000 so it was endearing to see here. Natural Born chairshot ends that. Rhino then decides to interfere in the match which is odd timing but whatever. Rhino beats down on everyone but here comes big Dusty to a huge pop. Dusty gives two bionic elbows that Rhino is able to shake off before being caned into oblivion. ECW as ECW can be but fun while it lasted. ***

Really quick match that played more as a backdrop of things to come than in ring action here. Casas gets beat up on and Shocker is not amused and deserts him. A lot of shifting pieces in CMLL and it will be intriguing to see where they all shake out. *1/2

A really young Mauro is on commentary here. This is the bad side of Sabu that comes out every once in a while. A big contrast vs. The JAPW match where he retained his mystique. Here, he blows a ton of moves and seems unmotivated. Worse, the match goes way too long and most of that is prop setting. Devine doesn’t look great and needs someone to reign him in which Sabu is not the person to do that at all. Really disappointing given the run time. **

We get a long stall process to start this. Again, it is interesting to see in contrast to ECW but it did get a little long in the tooth to watch. The match was fine but I really am souring on Dreamer as a worker. He seems content to just do the plodding walk around brawl when I know from his interviews and fandom that he could create much more interesting stories within the matches. Corino blades and Dreamer does more bullshit by doing the worm. It pops the house but not me. Corino’s heat segment is brief and it isn’t before long when Dreamer avoids a drop toe hold onto the chair and then hits a chairshot of his own for the win. Disappointing. **1/2