GSR

Lots of added stipulations on the line here; if Dustin wins not only is he reinstated, he will also get a U.S. title match at Superbrawl, plus Kevin Nash will get a World title shot later on tonight. We get a recap of Steiner’s turn on Nash from last week. These two are wasting no time, Dustin ducking the clothesline and putting Steiner down with a lariat of his own. The U.S. champ is hiding behind referee Billy Silverman, he then shoves him towards Rhodes and as Dustin moves the ref out the way, Steiner kicks him (Rhodes) between the legs. Only a two following the Steinerline and Steiner is in Silverman’s face, audibly threatening to “knock the shit” out of him. So he’s copying his brother’s shtick. Out on the floor Dustin reverses the whip into the guardrail and then sends ‘the DFG’ into the ring steps. The commentators have taken to calling him ‘the DFG’, at least for the time being anyway. As they return to the ring Steiner fires back. Rear chinlock. Belly to belly suplex. When that also only gets him a two he’s back intimidating Silverman. Dustin is bleeding hardway from the nose. Another rear chinlock, Steiner placing his legs over the bottom rope for additional leverage. The crowd are into this, getting behind Dustin. Another Steinerline, another two count, and this time ‘the DFG’ throws Silverman out of the ring. The match is continuing. How is that not a disqualification? Silverman returns and almost instantly gets bumped, Dustin running into him after leapfrogging over Steiner. That was weak with the ref clearly moving into his line. Rhodes with a bulldog and the visual pin, counting the three himself. That doesn’t bode well, how often does the guy getting the visual pin go on to win the match? Ric Flair’s insurance policy, Road Warrior Animal is out, but Dustin clubs him. Belly to belly by Steiner. Shane Douglas is now out and on the apron. He wallops Steiner in the back of the head with his cast, Dustin with a DDT and it’s reinstatement time. Rhodes leaves but sees Animal and Steiner double teaming Douglas on the tron so goes back to try and help him. Steiner cuts him off before he can get in the ring though, they then place Douglas’ good arm between a chair and Rick jumps on it from the turnbuckles. Steiner sucks, even more so when he has to carry things, but Dustin was good here fighting for his career and the crowd were into this more than I expected. I don’t know if that was due to the added stipulations or what. Decent enough watch, due to Dustin and the crowd, for a Steiner match any way.

Another qualifier for the six-man Cruiserweight elimination match at Superbrawl. Yang starts out by throwing some karate kicks, Lash hiding behind the referee as they’re treated as comedy. Now the crane! Lash catches the kick but Yang blasts him with an enzuigiri. Running crossbody sees both men go over the top to the outside. We’re reminded that Shannon Moore and Kaz Hayashi have already qualified, the remaining men will be decided tonight and on Thunder. Superbrawl is only six days away so I hope they’ve got this planned out. Belly to back by Lash after Yang had blown something. An eye poke staggers Lash who backs into the corner. Yang runs at him and goes to back flip off his chest but ends up falling backwards to the mat instead . He tosses Lash to the outside and connects on the pescado. Asai moonsault. Back inside Lash catches him on the tip up and turns it into a running powerslam. Slingshot lariat for a two. Some sort of weird rotating powerslam. Perfect reverse tornado DDT by Yang that started out looking like it was going to be a reverse crossbody. Lash nails him with a dropkick. Pumphandle into a sit-out powerbomb. Yang kicks out of the Whiplash which gets a polite ripple. Lash with a stunner. Springboard moonsault out the corner by Yang, kicking Lash in the face in the process. Forward roll slam followed by the corkscrew moonsault (not yet called Yang Time I don’t think) and Yang is participant number three for Superbrawl. Very spotty with several blown spots while both looked green in there. Yang clearly still has some way to go, although he is absolutely the right person to progress to the PPV. He’s by far the more spectacular of the two and in a multi person match he can be hid, do his stuff and then return to anonymity until his next spot. There was no hiding place here.

Joined in progress with M2K getting the heat on SAITO. Side slam/knee drop off the top combo for a two. Darkness accidentally takes out Kanda with a spinning heel kick and Kid is in. Stereo dropkicks send M2K to the floor. An amazing inside out middle rope springboard moonsault from Kid, the camera though misses SAITO’s dive. Glorious super sunset flip by SAITO, holding a handstand position while folding his man up. He avoids the mule kick and this cool little rolling cradle for a near fall. Kid gets caught and dumped with a twisting release uranage. Kanda goes to suplex him over the top to the outside, however he lands on the apron. Springboard somersault stunner! He lands a single leg dropkick and a second stunner. Missile dropkick by SAITO. The camera man is having a shocker, only just catching Kid’s huracanrana. He signals for the Dragonrana when he’s clobbered up top by someone. Masaaki Mochizuki, another member of M2K, jumps Kid & SAITO and then attacks the referee, throwing him to the floor for the DQ. The faction leaves everyone laying, standing over a fallen SAITO. Dragon Kid’s flying is a thing of beauty, so smooth and graceful on everything he does. On its own in a vacuum, there’s not much to get your juices flowing though.

Surprising to see a Wildside guy doing enhancement work on WWF TV, would’ve thought it a given he’d be doing them for WCW. An incredible beel, Onyx getting outrageous height on it. Albert no sells his rights and drops him with a headbutt. Bloody hell, Onyx is doing the best to get noticed, taking an awesome spinning bump off the clothesline. Albert misses the big splash as Onyx starts firing back. He charges at him but gets pressed skywards, taking yet another ridiculous bump with how high he’s launched. Huge running splash in the corner. Onyx ends up the outside and snaps Albert’s neck across the top rope. He goes to the top turnbuckle but Albert steps out the way of his flying crossbody. Military press slam and an almighty Baldo bomb not too long later gives him the win. Fun squash due to Onyx’s bumping, especially the height he would get on them. Kinda strange how he was never invited back to do more jobs, he’s the sort of guy that makes the big guys look even more impressive with how they can throw him around and manhandle him.

Long Island Wrestling Federation still going strong into 2001! No audio on this. The camera is right on top of the action like we’re in the ring with them. Homicide with a nerve hold while fish-hooking the mouth at the same time. Only a small point but watch how he positions Deacon’s head to the side so he can get a proper grip. Deacon catches him with a back elbow and picks up a two count after an Oklahoma Stampede. Huh, we get a ref bump after not even five minutes of action. Surely they’re not going home already? Flying shoulder tackle by Homicide. He goes over to shake the ref, however by the time he’s come around Deacon has recovered enough himself to kick out of the cover. As Homicide dishes out some chops in the corner you see a man on the floor with a microphone and I remembered that this promotion does that in house commentary over the mic for everyone in the building. Maybe that’s why someone turned the sound down on this! Deacon takes over with a Dragon screw. Legdrop off the middle, although a real slack cover, just putting two hands on Homicide’s chest. They jockey for position in the middle, Deacon almost losing Cide before hitting a nasty Saito suplex. The superplex took a bit of time as you see Deacon’s leg visibly shaking up there. Cradle suplex. A lazy kick is caught and Homicide with a Dragon screw of his own. STF. Deacon’s second is up on the apron and Homicide lets go of the hold to get him. The distraction worked as Cide turns into an overhead belly to belly. Big splash off the top is missed. Stiff clotheslines to the front and back flooring Deacon. A slap across the face seems to awaken him and he hits a one handed sit-out chokebomb. Cide cuts him off as he goes upstairs, returning favour with the superplex. Not sure what’s going on here, a downed Homicide is grabbing the referee by the jeans, then the dreads and then slaps him. Another ref bump, this time Deacon squashing the official. DDT. Homicide sits Deacon on the top turnbuckle and I can’t tell if he’s biting him or kissing him. Maybe he was talking to him as Deacon plants Cide to the mat. The ref has gone walkies as he’s not counting the cover. Oh, his hand signals are gesturing that this is over. We cut to the ring announcer who is looking at his watch so this must be a time limit draw. Even though the match is over Deacon manhandles the referee and gets him to count to three as he covers Cide. Deacon has a few closing words which we obviously can’t hear. There’s this tank of a black guy who’s come out to ringside. Homicide low blows Deacon and then gives him another DDT. This monster is now in the ring, he removes his shirt and must be all of 450lbs, splashing the prone Deacon. Deacon can be pretty ponderous, then he’ll pull out some killer suplex out of nowhere. There was some good stuff in there and it held my attention, even without the sound, although I’ve no idea why the early ref bump or why Homicide towards the end attacked him. It definitely needed plenty of refining and they were even repeating themselves to stretch things out to hit the time limit.

The Rock is pacing backstage as Kevin Kelly tries to get a word with him. Rock says how the Big Show has changed since he returned to the WWF; he’s focussed, an unstoppable monster, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that you don’t mess with the Rock. He took him out last week, now he’s got his chance to go one on one with the Great One, the winner going on to face Kurt Angle for the World championship at No Way Out. The World champion makes an entrance before the two wrestlers, Michael Cole wondering what he’s doing out here. I’d hazard a guess he’s going to be providing some guest commentary, the same thing that every wrestler who’s not involved in the next match but walks out before it does. Kurt is in shock that Essa Rios has challenged him to a match, that one will take place on Heat tomorrow. ‘The King’ thinks that Angle will be facing Show at the PPV and he won’t be a problem for him. Show starts out the aggressor and Kurt is clearly enjoying the Rock’s discomfort. Rock gets booted to the outside where Show drops him chest first across the barricade. Back in the ring he’s straight in with a bear hug, working on those ribs that he just damaged. Final Cut, only they’re too close to the ropes and Rock gets a leg over them. Angle is noticeably sweating now, thinking that there is every likelihood Show may end up winning this after all. Rock avoids the charge in the corner and starts fighting back. A flying clothesline drops Show as Cole screams “the Show is down, the Show is down!” He powers out of the attempted Rock Bottom, sending Rock sailing over the top to the outside. Show attacks Angle, throwing him into the front row, but then takes a bump through the announce table courtesy of a big Rock right hand. That took as much out of Rock as it did his opponent, in fact Show is up first, pressing Rock overhead and dumping him back inside. Rock with a low blow followed by a DDT. People’s elbow but Show kicks out, Cole claiming that no-one has ever kicked out of the People’s elbow before. I’m not researching that to see if it’s true or not. Show is already to his feet and snatches Rock around the throat for a chokeslam, however Rock’s flailing legs KO referee Earl Hebner. Kurt has recovered from being attacked and blasts Show with two vicious chair shots. He goes to nail Rock, who ducks, and in turn he drills Kurt causing him to drop the chair. Rock Bottom onto the chair, Show’s enormous back hiding what he’s lay on. Hebner comes around to count the fall and Rock moves on to challenge for the World title at No Way Out. An irate Show isn’t going quietly, chokeslamming both men and leaving them laying.

Chris Jericho was supposed to represent Triple H tonight in a match against Steve Austin’s representative Billy Gunn. HHH took Gunn out backstage though, so Mr McMahon decreed he should therefore take his place in the match. Y2J is disappointed ‘the Game’ didn’t have the confidence in him to represent him, especially after all they’ve been through, so rather than being his personal representative he’ll have to settle for being his personal ass kicker instead. HHH wastes little time, but Jericho ducks his clothesline and comes back with a flying forearm. Double leg and he’s already trying for the Walls, Triple H fighting him off from the bottom. He’s now looking for the Pedigree, however they’re too close to the ropes and Jericho backdrops him over the top to the outside. Springboard shoulderblock. I was expecting the springboard dropkick and Michael Cole even called it. Back inside HHH swats away the missile dropkick. Suplex for a two. As the ref admonishes ‘the Game’ for choking his opponent over the ropes, Stephanie continues to do the same behind his back. She though makes the mistake of slapping Jericho, who grabs her by the hair and pulls her up onto the apron. Triple H knees him from behind, however Steph gets bumped to the floor in the process. He reigns down punches from the mount while checking on his wife’s well being. Bizarrely, and very unlike him, he ascends to the middle turnbuckle. As he turns to say something to Steph, Jericho catches him with a dropkick. Top rope Frankensteiner! Y2J runs through him with a pair of clotheslines followed by a flying back elbow, Triple H barely getting a shoulder up on the cover. A bit of back and forth before Jericho lands a bulldog. Eddy Guerrero is out but Y2J slugs him when he climbs onto the apron. Hunter gets his knees up on the Lionsault and hits a Pedigree for the win. Guerrero stands over a fallen Jericho when Steve Austin’s music starts. As ‘the Rattlesnake’ strides to the ring we’re reminded that ‘the Game’ and he can’t touch each other. Stephanie looks worried, although she needn’t be as Austin offers HHH a beer. Eddy wants one himself, but ‘Stone Cold’ tells him to get out of there. There’s only one way this is ending... Some finger pointing by Eddy and it’s stunner time for him. Jericho is back, double legging Triple H and putting him in the Walls. Austin giving him some trash talk before dowsing him in beer, the two still physically having not touched.

Jeff is back after missing Monday night due to injury. A Hardyz match means yet more dirty old man Lawler. After the two teams make their entrances Dean Malenko’s music plays which distracts the brothers and the Radicalz jump them from behind. Lita looks visibly upset by Malenko’s appearance, no doubt as he’s more interested in watching her as opposed to the actual match. Matt with a blind tag and he takes Saturn’s head off with a clothesline. Legdrop off the middle, Benoit breaking up the pinfall with an elbow to the back of the neck. Gut wrench on ‘the Crippler’. Terri hooks Matt’s ankle from the floor enabling Benoit to capitalise on the distraction. Double team backbreaker/top rope knee drop combination. Saturn puts Matt upside down over his shoulder and runs him into the corner. Diving headbutt by Benoit. Yuck, Lawler returns to lusting over Lita, talking about her thong. After being sat on the top turnbuckle, Matt fires away at Saturn with some back elbows then takes him out with a moonsault press. ‘The Crippler’ tries to cut off the tag but Matt makes it anyway. Jeff’s the requisite house of fire; swinging headscissors, spinning heel kicks, the Whisper in the Wind. Matt’s got his second wind and the Hardys hit a double flapjack on Saturn. Twist of Fate on Benoit. Jeff lands the senton and it looks the brothers are about to pull off a big win when Terri’s on the apron distracting the referee. Lita grabs Terri and in turn Malenko grabs Lita. Matt comes to Lita’s aid and before too long there’s a kerfuffle on the floor, Jeff running along the barricades to join in. Malenko throws Jeff into the ring post and then tosses him back inside, Benoit, the only person who hadn’t joined in, waiting. Crippler crossface is applied and Jeff taps, Terri ultimately saving the Radicalz big time. Good match.

‘The Insiders’ have their game faces on, Nash out for some revenge after Rick Steiner turned on him Monday night. With ‘the Dog Faced Gremlin’ having joined the fold they’re calling Ric Flair’s group ‘the Magnificent Seven’. After some Steiner interference Page walks into a Jarrett DDT. They get the heat on him as it looks like DDP is going to be working the whole match until the finish. Page avoids the Jarrett charge but gets floored by a Steiner clothesline from the apron. Sleeper hold. DDP fires in some back elbows, shoots Jarrett off and catches him with a sleeper of his own. He’s obviously been watching Shannon Moore as he drops it into a sleeper slam. Jarrett makes the tag first and Steiner is able to cut Page off before he can tag Nash and they go back to working him over. Page fights his way out of the opposition corner before flooring Jarrett with a discus lariat. Both men are down but this time he’s able to make that tag to ‘Big Sexy’. A pair of side slams, two big boots and the end comes following a Jackknife powerbomb on Steiner, DDP preventing Jarrett from saving his partner. Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner make their way to the ring, while through the crowd comes Kronik to back up ‘the Insiders’. As is par for the course at the moment, Thunder goes off air just as the good stuff is about to begin. Kevin Nash really is the smartest an in the business, working all of a minute if that. Surprisingly no Snake Eyes tonight though. I couldn’t care less for Rick Steiner but Page and Jarrett continue to work well together. With how things have been going I was shocked that we actually got a clean finish here.

No mention of Rey being squashed by Road Warrior Animal as they run down some of his recent matches, hopefully that one has been erased from history. The Wall is being accompanied by Chavo Guerrero Jr. Still smarting from what happened on Monday he’s enlisted his former M.I.A. partner to help take Rey out. Wall looks like a giant Dustin Rhodes. Rey with an opening flurry until being caught on the springboard crossbody, the Wall then pressing him overhead with one arm. He mistakenly turns his back and Rey is on that back trying for a sleeper. It seems to be having some effect but the Wall gets to his feet and runs him into the corner. He stands on the second rung, wraps an arm around his neck and lifts him up off the mat. Rey gets tossed to the floor where Chavo whips him into and over the railings; no old boy in the front row tonight! After sending Rey into the ringpost the Wall repeats what he did earlier, only standing on the announcer’s desk to lift Rey up this time. Military press dropped over the top rope back inside. Tony Schiavone is fearing for Mysterio’s well being while Tenay says how it’s been “total domination” from the Wall. High belly to back suplex. The Wall heads to the top rope but misses on the big legdrop. Rey staggers him with a couple of running forearms before a springboard Thesz press finally takes the Wall off his feet. Chavo is in to stop the count, however Rey sees him coming and gives him a helping hand out the other side. Slingshot somersault out onto Chavo. The Wall climbs the turnbuckles when from the back runs Hugh Morrus who gets him in an Electric Chair position, dumping him backwards to the mat. Moonsault by the former General. By the way all this is missed by the referee, who despite only being feet away doesn’t hear or see anything as he’s got his head through the ropes watching Rey and Chavo. Rey with a gorgeous moonsault of his own and “there is justice after all” screams Tenay. A livid Chavo jumps Rey post-match but is dragged off him by Hugh Morrus. At least Rey never lost, that’s about the only positive thing I can say about this.

Norman Smiley has been doing some angle with Glacier, the gist being that Glacier is his hero. Heaven knows why? It’s not on the footage I watched, but earlier in the evening Glacier was taken out in the dressing room by Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak. That’s doesn’t sound right considering they’re facing each other at Superbrawl, it was more likely Sean O’Haire, but that is what Mike Tenay said. O’Haire in long tights for a change, which I don’t think suit him at all. Smiley gets the better on the wrestling front although is struggling to deal with his opponents size advantage. Wristlock, leg trip by Smiley, but O’Haire with a kip up back to his feet. After being whipped to the corner Smiley raises a boot as O’Haire comes charging in, however that boot is grabbed and O’Haire drills him between the eyes. A couple of cool arm drags from ‘Screamin’ Norm. Tip up over the incoming tag team champion before slamming him to the mat. As he sets himself for the Wiggle, he looks out to the entrance way expecting to see Glacier . There’s no sign and a short arm clothesline floors Smiley. Seanton bomb and it’s over. As O’Haire celebrates the win, Mark Jindrak makes his way out. I don’t know if O’Haire has seen him, but from the opposite side of the building through the crowd comes Shawn Stasiak. WCW are overdoing that spot recently. O’Haire gets the better of Stasiak, though when Jindrak involves himself the two-on-one odds are too much. The challengers throw him over the top rope however he lands on the apron. Not sure what went on as we spend a few seconds looking at some fans giving it the thumb down. I’m guessing O’Haire slipped on a springboard and they cut away on the edit, we return to see him land a double dropkick. The numbers game is again one too many before belatedly Chuck Palumbo arrives on the scene to help his partner out. The brief bits of Norman Smiley’s wrestling we see are real nice, shame we see so little of it. As impressed as I have been by O’Haire recently, this singles match goes to show he’s still got some way to go. Flaws which aren’t evident in tags are more pronounced here, and this wasn’t even a long match either.

Qualifying bout for a six-man four corners (huh?) Cruiserweight Elimination match at Superbrawl Revenge, the winner of which will earn themselves a Cruiserweight title shot. Shannon Moore has already qualified as a result of winning the four corners match on the 1/29 episode of Nitro. I’m almost certain there was no mention during that of it being a qualifying match which shows the lack of long term planning going on, at least when it comes to the undercard. No Leah Meow with Kaz, not that she’ll be missed. Kaz is so quick. The stand-off gets no response, which does show you the difference between the indies and here because in somewhere like CZW they would have got a big round of applause there. Hayashi kicks away at Helms’ knee, eventually taking him off his feet. When he goes to whip him into the ropes Shane takes a couple of steps and that’s all he can manage. After the spin kick Kaz is onto the ref, getting him to ask Shane if he wants to continue. Helms blocks the slingshot DDT and elevates Kaz to the outside, taking a flat back bump on the ringside mat in the process. Froggy crossbody off the top, Helms disappointingly having stopped selling that leg. Kaz reverses the whip on the floor, drapes Helms over the edge of the apron and drops a leg . Inside Kaz leaps to the top rope and backflips over Shane, however Helms fluidly transitions into a snap mare. A headscissors sends Shane under the bottom rope and back to the outside. Plancha. Helms blocks the attempted top rope Frankensteiner, holding on, and lands a super sunset flip. Kaz rolls through but gets floored with the Sugar Smack. Chavo Guerrero Jr strolls to ringside which briefly takes Helms out of his stride. Running neckbreaker. Shane calls for the Vertebreaker when he’s distracted by Chavo. Springboard kick to the head by Kaz who then folds him up with a German suplex for the three. Chavo and Helms eyeball each other post-match, Chavo letting him know that he’s watching him. Normally I wouldn’t have an issue with this result but on Thunder last week Helms scored a huge win over Billy Kidman. Fast forward five days and Kaz Hayashi was one of four men who were squashed in a handicap match against Scott Steiner; he shouldn’t have won this. Chavo vs Helms does appear to be the end goal, so I’m sure this will be forgotten, but why not have Shane qualify here and then win the elimination match at the PPV? Was very disappointed with the way he completely blew off selling the leg the moment it was time for him to go on the offence.

The Rock is not in a good mood after Triple H involved himself in his World championship match last Thursday. He notes that Steve Austin hates HHH as much as he does, but when Austin took the referee’s hand and counted 1-2-3, not only did he screw Triple H, but he also inadvertently screwed him too. The fans don’t know how to react to that. Rock admits if the situation was reversed he would have probably done the same, and ultimately holds HHH fully responsible, because Austin would never have been at ringside in the first place if he had never interjected himself into the match. As a result he’s going to return the favour and if Triple H wants to earn a title shot, why doesn’t he come to the ring right now and earn it? Stephanie is out on her own, HHH not far behind though when Rock makes jibes about his wife having bigger balls than him. Triple H claims that he earned that shot on Thursday night and if it wasn’t for Steve Austin screwing him he would be a five time World champion now. He’s pissed ,and as he can’t kick Austin’s ass right now nothing would give him greater pleasure than kicking the Rock’s. Rock opens the ropes to invite him in as Hunter tells him to be careful for what you wish for. As he removes his jacket, Kurt Angle shows up at the top of the rampway. Angle doesn’t really have much to say, just that he finds it laughable that they want to have a match to face him when it’s ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin who is challenging him at Wrestlemania. Mr McMahon is next to make an appearance, warning the fans to be nice or they won’t be getting a future XFL franchise when they chant “asshole” at him. Rock interrupts before he has a chance to get going as he doesn’t want to hear another twenty minute tirade, all he wants to know is if he’s got Triple H tonight or not? The chairman responds in the affirmative, although thinks both should have a partner. He announces HHH & Austin vs Rock & Angle, the contractual stipulations for ‘Stone Cold’ and ‘The Game’ still in effect, in that should one attack the other, HHH will be suspended for six months and Austin will lose his World title shot. Trish Stratus is seconding the WWF champion tonight. This is now “no disqualification”, that must’ve been added later because I sure don’t remember Mr McMahon saying that when he made this. The two men who will face each other at Wrestlemania get us underway, Austin landing a superplex early. He tags out, rather than a normal tag though he slaps Triple H hard on the shoulder. They may not be able to get physical, but it looks like they’re going to do their best to push the other’s buttons. HHH isn’t best pleased, however doesn’t realise that the Rock is in and gets floored with a clothesline. DDT. He’s setting himself for the Rock Bottom when Angle tags himself in. There’s no contractual stipulations for these two so Rock decks him! Suplex by HHH and, as retaliation for earlier, he tags ‘Stone Cold’ by slapping him across the side of the head. Ross notes how everyone is taking liberties with the World champion. Austin backdrops him out to the floor with Angle taking a crazy bump. HHH is watching from the apron, not paying attention, so Rock beels him into the ring. After the Rock Bottom is cut off for a second time, he decks Triple H when out strolls the Big Show. Angle has got an almighty smirk on his face and tosses Rock from the ring to him. Final Cut on the ringside mats. Kurt doesn’t see that Austin is back in the ring and he launches him to the floor where he and HHH take turns in slamming his head into the announce table, each trying to outdo the other. The Rock is helped out of there by some refs leaving Angle, who can barely stand now, all alone. Austin is leaning down on the top rope and when Triple H hits them he sails over the top to the outside. Immediately he’s down checking on him, trying to explain it’s accidental, our commentators having differing views as to whether it was or not. It’s replayed and I’m not sure. Neckbreaker by ‘the Game’. He goes to make a tag but Austin walks off to a different corner. Maybe it was deliberate after all? Angle with an overhead belly to belly. The champ grabs a chair from ringside, however HHH boots him in the gut before he gets the chance to use it. Pedigree. Now Austin is in the ring distracting the referee who’s not seeing the cover. It was definitely deliberate! Triple H is hot, Austin though just flips the bird which leads to HHH taking a swing at him which misses. Kurt low blows ‘the Game’ and then blasts him with a nasty chair shot. ‘Stone Cold’ watches on, not trying to help his partner, not caring about the result of the match and happy to see Hunter eat the fall. The top of the card in the WWF is so good at the moment with these four. An entertaining match that continues to stoke the fires for No Way Out where Austin and Triple H look set to explode.

I think it’s about a year since I’ve watched any Al Snow in the project. He’s still doing the head gimmick which feels really passé now. It sounds like Snow interrupted Mr McMahon in the back over something (Mick Foley is mentioned a fair bit and it’s noted how Snow is a good friend of his) and as a result he’s been given this match with ‘the Crippler’. JR doesn’t think Snow will last long unless he starts showing some offence. He must’ve been listening as that’s exactly what he starts to do. Benoit hurls him through the turnbuckles into the ringpost. Snow reverses the whip to the opposite corner, sending Benoit chest first into it, and then nails him with a sturdy looking rabbit lariat. They end up on the outside where ‘the Crippler’ throws Snow into the metal ring steps. Back in the ring he goes to Irish whip him, however keeps hold of that arm and clubs it with his own. He continues that method of attack, but as he tries it for a third time Snow slides between his legs and hits an overhead pumphandle. The crowd are silent for the comeback. Moonsault. Snow immediately then lands another, Benoit kicking out of the cover, which Ross can’t quite believe. As Snow charges him he gets snatched by the arm and taken down into the Crippler Crossface for the submission. Quite physical and a decent short match that saw Benoit target Snow’s shoulder/arm. The crowd were dead though, which I’m assuming is due to the fact they knew Snow didn’t have a cat in hells chance of winning.

JR announces that there are almost 25,000 fans here in the Georgia Dome. Oh what would they do get crowds like that again. Jeff Hardy is banged up after taking that Bubba bomb from the stage through the tables on Smackdown so Matt is getting an I-C title shot. Remember when you had to earn title shots? Jesus, Lawler is talking about Lita’s underwear. Prior to the match commencing Dean Malenko comes out to watch from the top of the entrance way, ‘The King’ referring to him as Lita’s boyfriend. Matt escapes the hammerlock, using his momentum to send Jericho through the ropes to the floor in the process. Y2J drags him out and after a couple of hard chops, suplexes him on the mats. Flying back elbow off the top. Lawler is now talking about having an “explosion” when he looks at Lita; it is both embarrassing and uncomfortable listening to this old man talk about young women in this way. Matt blocks the superplex and hits a front suplex. Middle rope legdrop. Jericho crotches Matt upstairs and hangs him upside down in the Tree of Woe, kicking away at his mid-section. As Teddy Long steps in to untangle him, Lita comes off the top with a leaping rana to Y2J. The Twist of Fate is blocked and Jericho dumps Matt over the top rope to the outside. Malenko, who has been edging closer to the ring, nails Matt from behind who collides into Lita. He throws Hardy back into the ring, bulldog, Lionsault, Jericho retains. Post-match Matt goes after Malenko, which brings out Perry Saturn. Jericho evens the fight and as it looks like he’s run the pair off, he’s jumped from behind by Eddy Guerrero who’s come through the crowd. The Radicalz, still called that, lay Y2J out and place the title belt over his face, Eddy landing a frog splash onto it.

As a quick reminder, Steiner’s World title as well as Ric Flair’s leadership are both on the line. Nash introduces the new U.S. champion, Scott Steiner’s familia, big brother Rick as his mystery partner. The brothers do lay their stuff in on each other. Rick blocks the Rolling Thunder and counters with a belly to belly of his own. Scott is out to the floor where he reverses the whip sending Rick sailing over the guard rail and into the front row. He picks up a chair, but before he can use it he’s nailed by Nash. Midajah is up on the apron distracting Charles Robinson which allows Scotty to get in a low blow, stopping ‘Killer’s’ momentum. Steinerline followed by an elbow drop. Double arm stretch, Rick cheerleading his partner on from the apron. When Scott picks Nash up for a backbreaker you’d think he’d have already worked ninety minutes this evening, rather than the ten it is, with the way Schiavone and Hudson are lauding over how does he even have the strength to do that after wrestling two prior matches. Rick clubs Scott as he hits the ropes and Nash catches him with a side slam. That’s the start of Nash’s three moves; Snake Eyes is next and finally the Jackknife powerbomb, Schiavone screaming that it’s over and we’re about to have a new World champion. At two, Rick, who had been in the ring cheering his partner on, drops an elbow to the back of his head stopping the count. Scott rolls over to make the cover and the Steiner brothers, who now hold the two most important singles titles in the company, celebrate the win. As the brothers leave, a groggy Nash gets to his feet telling them that he ain’t finished yet. A chair carrying DDP heads out from the back, the Steiners trapped between them, as the show goes off the air. Another fairly predictable finish to a Nitro main event. Was anyone not expecting Rick to turn on Nash or there to be some screwjob with so much on the line?

As Tony Schiavone plugs the upcoming live events he has to shush because here is a very serious man about to speak! Lance says that Ric Flair has the full support of Team Canada and tells the Cat that come Superbrawl WCW will have its first Canadian Commissioner. Just as he requests quiet for the Canadian national anthem, the Cat and Ms Jones appear on the big screen. Like he told Scott Steiner, he informs Team Canada that they’re going to have to work tonight too, out walking the WCW World tag team champions, Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire. If the Cat was meant to be ordering a match “on the fly” it was poorly done as I’m sure everyone and their mother assumed Team Canada were coming out to wrestle in the first place. Non-title match anyway in case anyone cares. Awesome and O’Haire start, a shoulder charge seeing neither man move the other. The two trade chops in the middle, Awesome being the first to back down by booting O’Haire in the stomach. Release German suplex, Awesome making it look so easy the way he launched him. He clotheslines O’Haire to the outside and then sets sail with an Awesome suicide dive over the top rope. As he climbs back up onto the apron, Palumbo nails him with a Chris Jericho style springboard dropkick. Palumbo plays to the crowd too much though and is caught by a Storm springboard missile dropkick. ‘The Thrillers’ utilise a blind tag on the criss cross and O’Haire floors Lance with a lariat. Innovative double arm wringer, sending Storm face first into the mat. Big powerslam by Palumbo. The champs lure Awesome into the ring so they can do some double teaming. Lance with a big boot, an additional knee to the jaw giving him the chance to make the tag. Awesome with some cat like agility as he ascends upstairs, connecting on a flying clothesline, O’Haire in for the save. Palumbo hot shots him across the top rope as ‘the Thriller’s look to take control again. O’Haire whips Awesome into the corner, however he runs up the turnbuckles and leaps backwards with a flying elbow. Frog splash. Awesome with a belly to back on O’Haire, but then Palumbo with a belly to back on him. He walks into a Storm superkick, who in turn gets wiped out by an O’Haire spinning heel kick. Thrust kick and a disorientated Lance staggers around in the centre of the ring. Palumbo whips Awesome at his partner and when he grabs him to put on the breaks, Lance, thinking it’s one of ‘the Thrillers’, rolls through and locks on the single leg crab. Elix Skipper runs out to let him know and he seemingly can’t believe the mistake he’s made. Palumbo clothesline Storm out the ring, colliding with Skipper in the process. Jungle kick, Seanton bomb and it’s a win for the champs. In what has been an overall poor episode of Nitro, finally a good match. Finish was erm... but at least Awesome is of a similar size and build to his opponents, so it’s not like when a blinded wrestler puts a move on the referee! Is this possibly the beginning of the end for Team Canada? The more I see Palumbo & O’Haire the more it boggles my mind how things ended up for them. If only Uncle Eric had bought WCW things could’ve been so different.

El Nino is tiny, dressed head to toe in black. He was scouted by Ric Flair and Chavo Guerrero Sr south of the border, a guy who is going to take Chavo Jr to the limit but is going to make him the champion he is. Tony Schiavone drops a Bugsy McGraw reference when Nino outstretches his arms and turns around on the spot. Chavo kicks him down into the corner and then scrapes his boot across his face. Belly to back with authority. He catches Nino on the springboard crossbody and drops him across his knee. Nino backdrops Chavo out onto the apron, a forearm smash sending him to the arena floor. Pescado, Nino then does a lap of the ring like he’s a child imitating a plane. Chavo reverses the whip into the guardrail, Nino flying over it and almost wiping out some old boy in the front row. He suplexes him back over the barricade, but as he heads upstairs Nino swipes a leg away. El Nino does slip on the ropes before hitting the top rope Frankensteiner for a two count. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. After running into a big boot Chavo launches him under the bottom rope to the outside, the ringsiders getting a close up look as he dishes out some European uppercuts. Sunset flip by Nino for a near fall. Chavo catches him over his shoulder on the Asai moonsault, goes to run him into the corner but Nino slips out and sends him into it. Headscissors takeover. Quesadora bulldog, at which point the penny starts to drop, Scott Hudson saying how that was very reminiscent. Springboard guillotine legdrop and Nino with the “upset” win. Immediately after the win he unmasks to reveal himself as Rey Mysterio Jr. Chavo does try to jump him but comes out on the wrong end of things. The commentary team think that was a great swerve and that Rey has garnered the psychological advantage prior to his upcoming title match. Rey doesn’t wrestle as he normally would for the vast majority of this, trying to hide his identity, which can’t be easy. There were a couple of slips which I would attribute to that, but I saw enough to expect big things come the PPV.

Scott Hudson has the nerve to say Steiner was tired out by the Cruiserweights earlier; was he asleep during that match? At least he’s in actual wrestling gear for this one. I suppose you can disrespect the Cruiserweights by wrestling in your street wear, not a big star like Page though. DDP showing a lot of fire early, a discus lariat putting the World champion down. Uranage followed by a ‘Cactus clothesline’. Steiner reverses the whip into the railing. He goes to slam Page’s head into the apron but he blocks it and returns favour. Back in the ring Midajah shakes the ropes as Page heads upstairs causing him to crotch himself, Steiner then picks him up and runs him all the way across the ring into the opposite turnbuckles. Backbreaker for a two, Scotty threatening referee Billy Silverman that it wasn’t the three. After a Steinerline he makes the cover but gets off him at two to do push ups. Somewhere in there ‘Big Poppa’ got a bloodied lip. Rolling Thunder belly to belly. DDP gets a shoulder up and Silverman is cowering, fearing the worst. He was right too; Steiner clubbing him before kicking him to the floor. Floatover by Page and bang, the Diamond Cutter. Knowing there’s no referee he hops out the ring to bring him back inside but, on coming around, Silverman signals for the DQ. DDP celebrates amongst the fans when he’s jumped by Jeff Jarrett and a returning Chris Kanyon.

After picking up a non-title win last week, Steiner gets a United States title match tonight. Douglas, who has his left arm in a cast, rags on “all the Tupelo Southern fried redneck hicks” when he’s interrupted by ‘the Dog Faced Gremlin’. Scott Hudson claims that the odds don’t favour Rick beating Douglas on two consecutive Nitros. I’ll happily take those odds Scott! No-one has any idea why Shane’s wearing the cast, with the commentators suspicious it’s to use a weapon or hide an illegal object in. The champion is immediately using that cast as a weapon, knocking Steiner out to the floor. Slow motion whip into the guard rail. Douglas pokes Steiner with a chair, like he’s poking a dog, before tapping him over the head with it. He goes to clock him a second time when referee Jamie Tucker leans through the ropes and snatches it away. Shane gets whipped into the railing and then has his head slammed into the title belt, which was laid out on the ringside table. Back inside, Steiner catches Douglas on the leapfrog and dumps him. Belly to belly. He heads upstairs for the top rope bulldog, but as he jumps off Shane raises the cast up and he collides into it. ‘The Franchiser’, which looks to be Danny Doring’s bareback, for a two, Douglas slow on making the cover. A brief back and forth before Steiner gets Shane on his shoulders and hits the Steiner Driver (Death Valley Driver) to become the new U.S. champion. About those odds Scott... Two of the dullest wrestlers in the promotion put on a dull match, who would have thought it?

Nitro begins with Ric Flair and his bodyguard, Road Warrior Animal, already in the ring whilst Kevin Nash is also out in the aisle. On being called a “jackass” Flair tells him that if you think I’m a jackass, come say it to my face. As Nash starts walking closer to the ring he sends out Animal to stop him. Nash reminds him that Flair invited him so he better walk away. He doesn’t, swings at ‘Big Sexy’ who blocks and throws him into the metal barricade. Flair is funny, yelling at the laid out Animal to get up and get in here as Nash steps into the ring. ‘Killer’ grabs Flair by the throat and tells him he’s tired of him (Flair) calling the shots, from now on he’s (Nash) calling them. A limo is seen pulling up, Mike Sanders stooging to Scott Steiner and co who are in it that Nash has Ric Flair in the ring right now. Nash strips Flair to his underwear, an annual event in it’s own right, and he’s about to powerbomb him when the sirens go off signalling the arrival of Steiner and the cavalry. ‘Big Sexy’ has now got his foot on Flair’s throat again, warning them all to stay back or he’ll break his neck. He says that he’s got some demands that need negotiating and has bought a negotiator with him. It’s Commissioner Cat! Jeff Jarrett, Buff Bagwell, Steiner and the rest block the aisle but he comes from the other side of the arena. Cat points at Flair and wonders if that is anyway for Nash to treats his grandpa? He announces that he’s in charge tonight although wants to check with ‘the Boss’ that that’s okay. Flair, who is having his neck twisted by Nash’s vice like grip, is in no position to argue and agrees. Unlike Flair, who likes to protect “Big Poppa Dump” he’s going to make him work; not once, not twice, but because he’s a three time karate champion, three times. The first match is Steiner versus four fast paced Cruiserweights (I’m getting a horrible sense of déjà vu again!) who are there to blow him up, then he’ll take on a man who hates him every bit as much as Kevin Nash does, Diamond Dallas Page, before finally, in the main event, he’ll be defending the World title against Kevin Nash. Cat isn’t finished as there are a couple of additional stipulations, if Steiner loses Ric Flair must resign and in addition, even though he knows Nash could win on his won, he’s allowing him to choose a mystery partner of his choice. The crowd thinks this is the return of Goldberg, I think they’re going to be disappointed. The Commissioner does run all that by Flair but he’s still in no position to turn him down. On returning from a commercial Flair is being helped from the ring by his cohorts while Steiner removes his shirt ready for his first match. Note, Steiner’s in dress clothes not wrestling gear. The cruiserweights are Jung Dragons, Kaz Hayashi & Yang, Jamie Noble and Evan Karagias. I’m getting even more feelings of déjà vu. After despatching the Dragons, Steiner with a huge double underhook on Noble and a tilt-a-whirl slam on Evan. I know he does push ups every match, but doing them here it just doesn’t sit right with me. Anyway a Yang springboard legdrop to the back while he’s doing them may make him think twice. Double suplex. The Dragons with top rope splashes from opposite corners, quadruple pin but Steiner kicks them off. Here we go! Double Steinerline. He launches Karagias overhead and crotches Yang upstairs as in super quick time all four of his opponents are now down. Kaz gets dumped at ringside, Noble and Karagias following suit, each military pressed and thrown at the previous man. Middle rope T-bone suplex on Yang. Steiner stops Scott Armstrong’s count at two, which Schiavone thinks isn’t the wisest as the longer he’s out there the more it will take out of him. T-bones for Noble and Evan, belly to belly on Kaz. Scotty finally stacks the three on top of one another for a triple Recliner which gets him the win. I knew it was coming but I’m still speechless and this was worse than Animal squashing Kidman & Rey a week ago. The company takes one step forward with their treatment of the Cruiserweights and then takes four steps back.

Rob Black is giving a pep talk to his ‘Black Army’ in the dressing room, Kevin Kleinrock with them wearing a referee’s shirt, and he’s wanting someone taken out. Vic Grimes is introduced first and as Kleinrock walks out alongside him it’s clarified that Black has assigned him as the special referee for this match. Rather than just ushering the original ref out of there, Grimes boots him in the gut, gives him his cool over the shoulder backbreaker and then comes off the top with a frog splash onto him. Larry Rivera calls Sabu’s manager’s Abdullah Lacey Farouk which is pretty funny. This is a handicap match which begs the question who gets the XPW title belt if they beat Sabu? The guy who pins him? Does Rob Black decide? It sounds like Sabu had the chance to get a tag team partner but couldn’t find one. There’s a light chant for the Sandman from the fans. Rivera talks about how Jack Brisco and Rick Martel never had to put their titles on the line in a two-on-one situation. Messiah looks like he’s starting, but doesn’t even lock up with Sabu before tagging out to Grimes. Sabu avoids an Avalanche splash and comes off the middle with a springboard tornado DDT which he hits perfectly. Kleinrock puts Grimes’ leg over the bottom rope, so when Sabu makes the cover he points that out, indicating he can’t count. This is going to be a long night... Messiah is again in no hurry to lock up with Sabu, stalling, then once more tagging his partner to let him do the work. A clubbing clothesline from Grimes and now we get Kleinrock attempting to fast count the pin. Twisting legdrop, all that weight coming down on Sabu. Homeless Jimmy shows up, coming through the crowd wheeling his shopping trolley, he’s supposedly been fired but is aligning himself with Sabu and Lacey. Sabu avoids the Grimes tumbleweed and tags out to Jimmy. As he takes it to the Messiah, Rivera is demanding that XPW security get out here and escort him from the arena. With Messiah now controlling things, Sabu sticks his arm out for a tag which Kleinrock kicks away. Lionsault by Messiah. Nice double team, Grimes pancaking his partner onto Jimmy. A nut shot stops Grimes in his tracks and Jimmy is out to his cart full of weapons. A super slow count by Kleinrock following a splash, although according to Rivera it was “regulation”. Grimes blasts Jimmy over the head with a mailbox as Messiah then uses a cookie sheet. Stiff looking dropkick. Burning Hammer by Messiah, they’re too close to the opposite corner though and Sabu slaps him on the head to break up the cover. Double running crossbody and both men go down. After a pair of low blows Jimmy makes the tag. Lacey throws him a chair, Arabian Facebuster, however Kleinrock is nowhere to be seen. Jimmy is quickly back in the ring, bulldogging Grimes into the shopping cart. He tries something else but ends up getting dumped face first into it. Brutal powerbomb on the cart. Sabu with a top rope Frankensteiner on Messiah. Grimes throws Jimmy to the floor and comes off the apron with a flying clothesline. Kleinrock continues to be absent on the faces pin attempts. Triple jump moonsault. Jimmy and Grimes are now going at it in the crowd, Grimes picking him up in a Razor’s Edge position and running him into the wooden bleachers. Running plancha over the top rope by Messiah out onto Sabu. Grimes is about to powerbomb Jimmy from the bleachers, however he manages to reverse things and suplexes Grimes from them through a table on the floor. Another nuts bump in this match. A table gets bridges between the ring and guardrail, but the size of Grimes means it snaps under his weight when he’s laid on it. Sabu throws him into the front row then and hits a triple jump plancha. Jimmy wraps a chain around his fist, he’s about to use it on the already bloody Messiah when Kleinrock prevents him. Sabu is throwing chairs at Grimes, one rebounding off his head and hitting some fans. Messiah suplexes Jimmy onto a chair while Grimes and Sabu continue to slug it out in the crowd. A second table gets bridged between the apron and the railing. Plancha by Jimmy from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Sabu gets laid on the table, which you can see is about to give way at any moment, so Lacey is helping to prop it up. He avoids the Grimes senton from the top, the big man crashing and burning through that table. Single leg crab on Messiah, however Kleinrock is paying no attention so even if there was a submission he wouldn’t hear it. Actually, how he’s called this even if there was a submission I don’t think he’d be waving the match off. Grimes saves his partner with a chair which he then sits Sabu on. He stumbles heading upstairs and is caught with a top rope rana, landing on top of the chair. Kleinrock starts counting the cover, but then stops at two to go and have a word with Rob Black. Sabu nails Black with a chair followed by a hard shot to Grimes as he then sets up a third (I’m losing track) table, in the ring. Arabian facebuster off the top puts Grimes through that. In the space of three minutes the commentators have added an additional ten to the length of the match. Jimmy suplexes Messiah on the concrete. A third Arabian facebuster by Sabu, again Kleinrock stops his count at two, this time though Lacey slams the hand down for the three. Things get heated in the Black Army post-match resulting in the leader having to try and calm things down. New Jack shows up carrying a trash can and Messiah doesn’t bother to stick around. He blasts Grimes with various weapons, even using a sickle as Rivera wants someone to call the police, saying that this is “legal battery” in his broken English. Where to begin? A heavily ECW influenced main event that wouldn’t have looked out of place at all in that promotion. There was some bonkers stuff in there, but the match was all over the place and there was minimal in the way of selling from anyone. I thought they were going home around the 18 minute mark but they were only about half way through at that point. My usual thoughts and comments apply when it comes to the heel referee, although I did like the finish here. Jimmy appears to be someone who can just take ridiculous levels of punishment (powerbomb on the shopping cart) and Grimes took some crazy bumps. I did find Larry Rivera funny with his lines and the sucking up to the Black Army.

Pondo and Page are dressed like they’re going to war with those daft looking helmets. The Madman talks about how they were supporting Kid Rock in front of 20,000+ fans the other night (ICP maybe?) and they were telling him about Suicide Kid using his music without paying any royalty fees. Apparently if he uses it again Rock is going to come down here, sue Suicide Kid, sue Ian Rotten and sue the sound man. Yeah, right! He says how tonight the fans have seen all kinds of action but now it’s time for four fat asses to get in the ring and get hardcore. That gets a funny “Tony’s not fat!” chant from the fans. We’ve already heard ‘Last Resort’ and ‘Bawitdaba’ tonight, Rollin completes the early 2000 nu-metal trilogy with Limp Bizkit. The fans are supposedly calling Mitch “Bitch” and Pondo “Pongo” according to the Madman, who threatens to leave if they don’t start showing the two of them some respect. Does anyone ever leave? Well these two didn’t, although maybe they should have as Pondo gets hotshotted into the barbed wire, completely wiping out one side of the ring. Page and Tony head to the floor while their partners remain inside. The camera is flitting back and forth and as a result we’re not really seeing much. Pondo tries to ram the end of a baseball bat up Rollin’s backside, that seems to be a favourite spot in IWA. Rollin gets crotched on the barbed wire before he and Pondo too take it to the outside. There’s a huge mountain of chairs on one side of the building, the fans all hurling theirs like it’s the ECW Arena in 1995, which Rollin suplexes Pondo onto. Tony with a tarantula on Page. A quick reminder, there are no ropes, that’s barbed wire he’s doing that on! Pondo staples a dollar bill to Rollin’s head. After splashing Page against the wall Tony cuts off a section of the barbed wire which he wraps around him. He then launches himself at him again with a running splash off a chair. We miss the set up to the finish as the camera is concentrating on Rollin and Mitch, but Pondo is stood on a half dozen opened up chairs in the ring, holding Tony, who he piledrives onto them for the win. Very hard to follow on tape and I imagine one that played better live due to the mess they make of the arena. Okay match considering who was involved. I didn’t watch everything on the show but this was a highly enjoyable IWA card that featured something for everyone; from pure wrestling to flying to brawling to Death matches. Three matches were, at a minimum, very good and there was nothing bad. If this doesn’t help Ian to swell the numbers for future shows nothing will.

No Harry Palmer with Tracey tonight, instead he’s got Chris Hero seconding him. A big ovation for Guido who is announced as coming to them from Extreme Championship Wrestling. Tracey gets a “Freddy Joe” chant which leads him to telling the fans to “shut the fuck up”, and how he’ll come out there and slap someone if he hears any “Tracey sucks” chants, his usual stuff that always gets a fair bit of heat. Any “Where’s my pizza?” chants though and he’s committing mass homicide! He puts over Guido as one of the rising stars in the sport today, but tonight he’s going to give him the wrestling lesson of his life. A feeling out process from the former tag team partners, Tracey complaining of a hair pull when Guido got the better of the lock up. Smothers is now wanting to wrestle, telling Guido to get on all fours, which he does. He gets behind him, as if he’s working out how to go about this, but just stomps him in the back instead. Guido gets the better of the scramble and Tracey goes to the ropes. Hangman’s neckbreaker for a one, nice to see that for a change as opposed to kicking out on two like 99.9% of pin attempts. It’s also early in the match so it makes sense to kick out on one as he’s not going to be as tired as if it were later. Tracey is back complaining of non-existent hair pulls. Guido’s got his number when it comes to the wrestling and you can see Smothers is visibly pissed, kicking at the bottom rope, realising he needs to alter his game plan. He goes to slap Guido, who blocks the shot and hiptosses him as the two roll about on the mat paint brushing each other, eventually rolling out the ring. Smothers gets the jump on him when they return inside, Hero providing interference from the floor and even in the ring when Tracey distracts the official. Big reaction to Guido kicking out of the Hero Driver-come-slam after one such instance. Spinning DDT. The crowd quietens on the rear chinlock, so Tracey yells “Where’s that ‘Guido’ shit at now?” That’s brilliant from him, the crowd naturally start chanting for Guido and they’re back involved. Guido escapes and they trade forearms in the middle. ‘Sicilian Slice’ for a two. He’s warn down more, so now do the kick outs on two. Smothers escapes the Fujiwara armbar and levels Guido with a clothesline. Someone in the audience with a random shout of “Shaquille Ali”! Guido catches him on the tip up and pancakes him to the mat. Tracey blocks the ‘Kiss of Death’ with a mule kick and gets a two of his own after a ‘Flatliner’. Another Fujiwara armbar attempt but they’re too close to the ropes. Hero’s up on the apron so Guido goes over to nail him, but then Tracey yanks him by the trunks sending him through the ropes to the floor. As the referee starts counting him out, Suicide Kid runs from the dressing room and hits ‘Sliced Bread #2’ on Smothers. For some reason I didn’t get, Hero throws Guido into the ring, however Tracey kicks out of the cover anyway. They’re back to trading in the centre, this time chops. Kid hooks Smothers’ ankle from the outside and Guido with the ‘Kiss of Death’ for the win. There’s something poetic about that after Hero did the exact same to Guido earlier in the match, stopping his momentum. Guido gives Hero a baseball slide post-match and assists Kid on the ‘Rocket Launcher’ from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Smothers acts as though he’s going to clock Hero for costing him the match, really milking it, but they hug before he goes on to challenge Kid to a match on Wednesday. Tracey is having an awesome start to the year and while I was unsure about his previous bout with Kid, he was the best thing in it, and the year continues in the same vein with the one man show he puts on in CAPW in just over a week’s time (which I’ve already seen from when I started watching a bunch of stuff from 2001 early when I had yet to finish 2000). I was so impressed with him here, they way he got the crowd back into when they would quieten down, little things like kicking out on one rather than two. Great match and a great performance by Smothers.

Shank jumps Ian the moment he turns his back on him, trying to do better than he did a week ago. He starts acting as though he’s doing him from behind, making him his prison bitch if you want, when Ian back fists him in the jaw. The Rotten clubbing clothesline, before he tears Shank’s shirt so he can feel the full effect of his chops. Out to the floor and Ian blitzes him with a chair. He’s about to brain him again when he spots someone has brought a kitchen sink with them, so uses that instead. There’s a light tube cabin at ringside, which I was waiting for someone to go through in the previous tag match, that Ian hiptosses Shank into. Cover on the concrete is kicked out of. Shank rakes Ian across the face, grabs a tack covered bat and clubs him around the head with it. He breaks a light tube over his head then digs in one of the shards, both now men now bleeding. Rotten snapmares Shank into what remains of that cabin. The barbed wire baseball bat comes into play and the barbed wire tennis racket is back too, Shank being the one to use it this time. Ian staples Shank in the groin. They return to the ring and it looked like Shank tried a sidewalk slam onto some light tubes but they ended up just falling on the. He starts climbing the turnbuckles for a moonsault when Ian snatches him and hits a Burning Hammer for the win. Post-match Shank chokes him with his chain, still wanting some more it would seem. A bloody Ian has some closing words, thanking everyone for being part of the biggest paid date in IWA history, which, amongst other things, means they can pay their rent on time! He puts over the Lynn/Cabana bout as one of the greatest “wrestling” matches in IWA history and hopes the fans will keep supporting them and pack the place again for the 3/3 show that will feature the debut of The Sandman. There are some digs at Jim Cornette and OVW, saying how he didn’t need any has beens like Steve Austin coming in to help sell his show. Last of all, despite beating him twice already, he challenges Shank again, this time to his specialty, the barbed wire bat match. Kinda as I expected when they made the match last week, in that this was very similar to it. Clubbing clothesline, sick chair shot, lots of weapons and Ian equally as dominant. Surprisingly they didn’t make full use of the ‘falls count anywhere’ stipulation with only one pinfall attempt outside of the ring. This was fine, but if you watched the previous match it’s not really worth watching this, however if you want to watch one, I’d say this because it’s a tad bloodier and also due to the bumps into the light tube cabin.