GSR

Kick Ass Wrestling represented tonight in the shape of Puppet. Apparently every guy wants to be a midget and every girl wants to fuck a midget! The ‘Psycho Dwarf’ breaks a light tube over the Playboy as he’s up on the ropes to get us underway. Teo counters the tilt-a-whirl with a headscissors, getting a nice reaction from the crowd who I don’t think were expecting anything like this out of them. He rips Puppet’s KAW t-shirt and delivers three hard knife edge chops, these fans are not the only ones getting into this, I’m surprising myself here too. Teo almost falls over but manages to keep his balance before slicing Puppet’s forehead with a broken light tube. A miscommunication sees Puppet roll the wrong way when avoiding a Teo splash off the middle, for some reason he rolls towards him rather than away and Teo still lands on him. They act like that never happened and carry on as if he missed, Puppet now controlling things. Suplex into the broken glass. After being sat on the top turnbuckle, Teo blocks a right and hits a tornado DDT, the ref banging a plastic tub to count rather than the glass covered canvas. Teo wedges a chair between the turnbuckles, but Puppet reverses the Irish whip sending him crashing head first into it. Diving headbutt from the middle and Puppet picks up the win following a cutter. The two get a really nice round of applause for their efforts, Ian Rotten even coming out and welcoming them back to his house any time. Enjoyable action and I take it this was a non-tournament match even though I wouldn’t mind seeing the Psycho Dwarf advance.

A slight name change for the team of CM Punk & Jason Kronnan, now going by the name of ‘Sex & Pepsi’ as opposed to the ‘Sex & Violence’ moniker they were using the last time we saw them. No audio for this and the run time on the timer says nigh on thirty minutes so not sure whether I’ll be able to stick it out. Pearce appears to be doing some sort of mock hip hop gimmick with this ridiculous bandana that he’s wearing. First nine minutes or so are all mic work, intros and nonsense so we’re practically a third of the way though already. I thought that was ‘Hat Guy’ in the front row and was about to mention that between ECW, CZW and all the Indies he turns up at, I’ve probably seen him more than any wrester, only it isn’t him but someone else in a straw boater and Hawaiian shirt. Like why would you imitate that berk? The work between Pearce and Kronnan is solid, although things immediately take a down turn when Punk is in there. Bad camera work/angles to go along with the lack of sound doesn’t make watching this any easier. Smooth with a suicide dive out onto Sex, Pepsi and Prazak. Kronnan cuts off a bronco buster with a lariat as they go about getting the heat on Smooth. Combination belly to back suplex/neckbreaker followed by a double team stomachbreaker. Smooth blocks the Punk hip toss and gets a near fall with a sunset flip. He’s cut off again before he can make the tag and it’s the camera work that is hurting this more than the lack of commentary. Punk sits Smooth on the top turnbuckle but Chuck’s able to fire away on him and hits a sunset flip powerbomb. Kronnan breaks up the cover and that brings in Pearce who’s really manhandling the ref as he tries to get him back out on the apron. Fisherman suplex by Kronnan but the official is still dealing with Pearce and out of position to make the count. Smooth crotches Kronnan upstairs and lands a top rope rana however, as he makes the tag, Punk is distracting the ref and he doesn’t see it. Chuck E. gets his knees up on the Punk split legged moonsault but still can’t capitalize. Eventually he does make a tag that is seen and Pearce with an awesome top rope pedigree on Kronnan. As Prazak keeps the official busy, Punk with a short clothesline to Pearce. He puts Kronnan on top and I don’t know if this is over or not as it looked like Pearce got a shoulder up while Smooth was also ready to break it up. Prazak is raising Punk’s arm so it looks like it is after all. Pearce gives Punk a post-match piledriver and has some words for him. As I said, the camera work was probably a bigger detriment to the match than the lack of audio. Despite a couple of glitches from Punk early this turned into a good little tag match with S&P having their team work and double teams down pat. I should amend that in that it turned into a good little tag to a point, as they ended up going longer than necessary on the Smooth heat section and the hot tag really should’ve been made after the top rope rana, they continue to drag it out though and my interest wanes. It’s like they’ve took you to the top of the mountain but instead of getting off at the peak they carry on and end up taking you back down. Additionally with no sound you have no idea how the fans are reacting to this, whether they are still with them or whether they’ve gone too. I’m at a complete loss to what happened on the finish.

The audio is worse than usual tonight. Nick Gage wants all the retards, scumbags and under age children to get off their feet and bow to the future of hardcore. Pondo is out and he corrects something Gage said, saying how ‘we’ are the Iron Man champion as they both pinned Wifebeater at the same time and he himself has never been beaten for the title. That’s some serious back acne on Beater. The ring ropes have been replaced with barbed wire and they’re not messing around, Gage and Beater teaming up to hot shot Pondo onto the barbed wire within the opening twenty seconds. Beater whips Gage hard into the wire and this must be wrapped tight because there’s no give like you would usually expect. Gage helps his ‘co-champion’ as he is having his head carved up and they front suplex Beater into the barbed wire. This stuff looks legit sharp and Wifebeater is shirtless as normal so that won’t have been nice. Pondo with a cutter on Gage, dropping him across the barbed wire which finally does for one side of the ring. A pair of scissors then come in to play, Pondo pulling them out and slicing Beater across the forehead. Fuck, this is nasty! Gage has a sharp object of his own which he jabs into Wifebeater’s upper arm. He makes the cover after a brainbuster which Pondo breaks up using a pumpkin. Gage is the only one not bleeding although that doesn’t last for much longer, Pondo’s scissors rectifying that. The Madman sits Gage on a chair at ringside and then wipes him out with a dive from the ring and over the barbed wire to the floor. Beater wastes the pumpkin, quickly followed by a chair, over Pondo’s head. Gage whips Beater with the barbed wire while Eric Gargiulo informs us that the EMT’s are in position should Wifebeater not be able to continue due to all the blood loss. As it looks like Pondo and Gage are prepared to keep working together, Gage turns on the Madman. Maybe they should’ve continued that pact as Wifebeater gets a second wind, catching Gage with a deep powerslam. He rips apart one side of the barbed wire ring and wraps that around Pondo, trapping his arms in the process. With Pondo helpless, Beater whacks the barbed wire with a chair and is joined in doing so by Gage. Nate Hatred is out and he goes to hit Wifebeater with some object, but Beater ducks and he accidentally nails Pondo instead. ‘Choke-N-Stein’ to Gage, planting him on top of Pondo, and the Wifebeater is the new CZW Iron Man champion. Gage may have lost but he’s not done, using some tasteful and colourful language to seemingly make an open challenge to anyone in the crowd, only to go and slip as he leaves the ring! One of the nastiest matches of the year with them just carving each other up and taking some sick bumps into (and onto) the barbed wire. You really got the feeling that these three were wanting to hurt each other and no-one took the quiet route here, even Pondo, who I normally can’t stand, got colour, did a dive over the barbed wire to the floor before getting wrapped in it and walloped with chair shots. Talking of getting colour, Wifebeater did one almighty blade job, not quite Steve Corino levels but not far off and up there for the year in that respect. Something that won’t be for everyone, although we may have finally found that elusive good Madman Pondo match.

Sabu is announced as the Extreme World champion, is that a promotion? Does he mean XPW or is it a title on a par with the Million Dollar Belt? Axl encourages a “fuck you Paul E.” chant; that guy is the dirt worst for shit like this the one minute and then begging for a job from him the next. After twice avoiding a Sabu leg dive he says “fuck this” and heads out to retrieve a couple of chairs from under the ring. He throws one to Sabu and we have duelling chairs. This isn’t exactly Balls Mahoney and Masato Tanaka swinging them but I’m kinda glad in a way. Axl tosses Sabu through the ropes to the floor and they have an uninspiring fight around ringside. Sabu gets the jump on him when he’s rolled back into the ring and goes straight for a triple jump moonsault which he executes cleanly. Cross armbar but Axl grabs his own hand to prevent Sabu getting the extension. With his grip slowly loosening, he resorts to biting Sabu in the leg to get him to let go of the hold. The camera misses seeing Sabu slip on the springboard to the outside and Axl takes advantage of the situation, however I don’t think a rear chinlock is what this audience wants to see! Sabu escapes with a jawbreaker and they go back to that springboard that Sabu botched thirty seconds earlier. This time he hits the double jump springboard plancha although it looks like Axl steps to the left and doesn’t really protect him on the dive. A kick to the face by Sabu is badly pulled and someone from the crowd shouts “where’s Pondo when you need him?” This hasn’t been great but the last person I’d be calling for to save a match would be Madman Pondo! Axl lays Sabu on a table at ringside and then climbs up the turnbuckles, in the ring and not facing Sabu, clearly not attempting anything and just getting in position for the next spot. If that wasn’t hokey enough Sabu slips, again, on the top rope rana! He goes for a second triple jump moonsault, but this time Axl trips him and Sabu goes head first into the chair. The fans couldn’t care less about any of this, though at least they’ve stopped chanting for Pondo! Axl brings a table into the ring and with it lay on its side crotches Sabu on it. Sabu blocks the chair shot and then punches it into Axl’s head, I think, this was something else that was missed by the camera. Arabian facebuster to the back of the head. Sabu clotheslines Axl onto the table and then puts him through it with an Arabian facebuster off the top. That gets the best response from anything in the match and is enough to put Axl away. Ian Rotten waddles out, attacks Sabu and DDT’s him onto what’s left of that table. Pitbull Gary Wolfe makes the save although his music started to play before he ran out therefore lessening the anticipation. We get lengthy post-match interviews with the Bad Breed living in the past and calling themselves and Sabu “hardcore motherfuckers” as they set up a tag match between the four for down the line. A match that felt like it was from an ECW tribute show even though the promotion hasn’t died yet. I think we’ve spent the entire year saying whether Sabu was ‘on’ or not and tonight he was not. I will say that Axl is better than most when it comes to trying to cover Sabu’s botches and doesn’t immediately repeat the spot like most do, adlibbing for a bit before returning to it. The moment where Axl laid Sabu on the table at ringside and then climbed the turnbuckles in the ring looked especially preposterous. A tag match between these four doesn’t instil me with much excitement.

That is some coincidence and certainly adds credence to what Bix said on the page before my post https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/15404-holy-grails/?page=12 I spoke to Richard Land about this after the Magee/Bret tape was discovered and he had missed Sean Waltman's tweet and hadn't heard of any Dibiase/Magee match at that point. Of course someone in the selecting panel could've gone looking for it after seeing his tweet, but Sean didn't give a date (I took an educated guess) and there were more than one taping in Tampa during Magee's run with the WWF.

Mr Excitement is distracted by Disco’s clowning, allowing Taro and Excalibur to land a pair of dropkicks and give them the initial advantage. Extra points here already as it looks like they were working towards a ‘stand off’, but Excitement drills Excalibur in the jaw instead. After getting his ass handed to him a week ago Taro is already doing faring better against Dragon this time out; countering the hip toss into a nice arm drag, landing a switch huracanrana and connecting on a stiff lariat. Rope walk rana by Son on Disco. Excalibur accidentally catches Disco with a superkick and as he collapses in the corner, a Son drop toe hold results in his face ending up in Disco’s crotch. An Iceman Parsons flying butt bump out of Excitement! Dragon with a springboard missile dropkick to Excalibur and with Disco still prone in the corner, he ties Taro in a rocking horse and swings his head into Disco’s groin. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Taro. A dive train sequence ends with a Dragon shooting star to the floor, getting the first “Revolution” chant of the night. Release Dragon suplex followed by an inverted suplex dropped into a sit out driver as Taro is once again taking the brunt of the punishment. Jeez, Dragon throws Disco into the wall and leaves a big old hole in the plaster! As he looks for a second driver, Disco saves his partner in time with a missile dropkick. Spinning wheel kick on Disco by Son. He then heads upstairs for a frog splash, changing his own trajectory while in mid-air. A nifty little take down into a Boston crab by Excitement. Dragon switches places with him, applying a camel clutch, and Son and Excitement with a pair of basement dropkicks. Running forearm smash in the corner. Mr Excitement sits Disco on the top turnbuckle and launches him to the mat. Dragon with a ‘Psycho Driver’, ‘Swanton’ by Son but Disco is in to break it up. A delayed piledriver and that does put Taro down for the count. It transpires that this is elimination rules as the match is continuing. Son misses a ‘Swanton’, Disco hooks the leg and makes the cover and now he’s gone. That’s a real soft elimination after what we’ve seen so far. Powerslam on Mr Excitement, who kicks out of the pin attempt as I thought we were getting our second weak elimination in a row. Shoulderbreaker, Disco drops a leg and the ref counts the three, completely missing that Excitement put a foot over the bottom rope. Guessing I spoke too soon about those weak eliminations! What’s happened to Excalibur by the way? Disco is knackered and this can surely only end one way against Dragon. Maybe not as he catches the spin kick and dumps him to the mat. Snap Dragon suplex by Disco. Dragon with a float over into a Michinoku Driver followed by a Phoenix Splash. He’s not done yet and heads back upstairs, this time though Disco rolls out the way of the Shooting Star. Pedigree, and that shows what I know as Disco takes the final and deciding fall for his team. Excalibur wasn’t around for the post-match celebrations so re-checked and it looked like he got hurt during the dive train, either on his own dive or on Dragon’s. A few minutes later you see Taro say something to the referee, presumably explaining the situation. I think this would’ve worked better as a traditional six man match as opposed to an elimination one due to how weak a couple of those eliminations were. Still I thought this was a very good match, even more so considering the experience level of all involved.

End of the night and the mic quality still sucks here in Sewell as Mondo rags on the crowd, saying something about how not one fan here could last more than two minutes in CZW and that’s why he’s the one in the ring and they’re in the seats. I’ve said many times this year about a wrestler “running down the aisle”, but I doubt anyone has made a quicker entrance than Ric Blade did here, he’s literally a blur as he runs past the cameraman. We open with another highly choreographed sequence, so choreographed in fact that they end up on different pages, Mondo ducking under a kick that never came and then getting the errant toe of Blade’s boot in his nose. It doesn’t take long before they screw things up again, Blade folding himself up and landing on his neck after a kick that missed by a fair distance. Mondo rolls him out to the floor but Blade starts walking around ringside so he’s out of position for the dive. ‘Sick’ Nick resets and connects with an Asai moonsault. He throws Blade back into the ring however gets caught with a kick to the head as he tries to slide in himself. Blade with a flip dive to the outside but Mondo is stood too far back and Blade’s heels come down on the top of his head. Ouch! As he heads to the side of the building to gather his bearings, Blade follows after him. Both block the attempted suplex and Mondo then backdrops him onto some rather conveniently arranged chairs. Shorty weakly slaps Mondo after they briefly exchange words and his response is to drag her to another part of the arena where he lays her on a table. Blade comes to her rescue, climbing over the fence and coming off it with a moonsault; although yet again his errant feet kick Mondo in the head. The wrestlers make their way back to the ring but the camera is stuck behind some fans so we don’t see anything that is going on. Mondo snatches Blade on the tip up and hits some sort of neckbreaker. Springboard guillotine legdrop but there’s no-one home on the Phoenix splash. Rolling Fisherman’s buster by Blade finishing with a ‘Ki Krusher’ that Mondo kicks out of. The powerbomb is countered with an ‘X-Factor’ and Mondo then lays Blade across a couple of chairs that his opponent had moments earlier brought into the ring. He climbs to the top turnbuckle although is oblivious that Blade is up and he powerbombs Mondo through the chairs. Blade runs through his moonsault sequence that starts with the standing and ends with the corkscrew but doesn’t bother with a cover, preferring to collect a table which he takes an eternity setting up. Low blow by Mondo who then lays Blade on that table and places a chair over his head. Springboard twisting legdrop onto an unbreakable table. He’s straight back up there, this time with a legdrop off the top that does the trick and Mondo picks up the three. Blade is holding his head after this and I wouldn’t be surprised if, for the umpteenth time this year, he’s hurt himself during the match. I didn’t think this was as bad as that awful Mondo/Trent Acid match from Cage of Death II, even though at times it wasn’t much better. The opening was a disaster, but things did improve when they returned to the ring after the Blade moonsault off the fence…that is up until the finish where Blade took an age setting up the table and then Mondo took two attempts to put him through it.

As I said in the write up of Kashmere vs Gage, Lobo is the one who makes the unlikely save as Johnny is the midst of taking a beating and this segues straight into this tag match. He shows some good fire from the get go as he clubs away on Gage and Acid. The four men pair off with the former Backseat Boyz staying in the ring while Lobo and Gage fight it out at ringside. Gage piledrives Lobo on the concrete and then cracks him over the head with a chair. With Lobo seemingly out of it for the time being he returns to the ring to help Trent, although all they can manage is a double powerbomb before Lobo is back. Dewey Donovan holds two chairs in place either side of Lobo’s head and Gage and Acid each with a roaring elbow to one of them. Orihara moonsault by Trent. The merchandise table gets wiped out as Kashmere whips Gage into it before Lobo gives him a chair shot receipt for earlier. They’re actually showing surprisingly good unity as a team, even busting out the old Backseat Boyz double hip toss into a combination neckbreaker/powerbomb spot. Two man Death Valley Driver on Gage, but they’re too close to the ropes as he’s able to get a foot over the bottom one to break up the pin. Chokeslam by Gage dropping Lobo across his own knee and Trent comes off the top onto him with a moonsault. As Gage turns around he’s caught by a Kashmere crossbody and then goes for that suplex into a, chair assisted, stunner on his former partner, only doesn’t quite pull it off cleanly as Trent comes down hard knee first on the chair. Gage is up and he flattens that chair by giving Johnny a brainbuster onto it. Lobo with a double armed DDT. Johnny heads up top and a groggy Trent falls backwards into the ropes causing him to crotch himself. ‘Acid Bomb’ onto the chair. Trent steps outside and arranges a bunch more chairs although probably wished he hadn’t bothered as Lobo powerbombs him into them. He lays Acid across a table and puts him through it with a legdrop from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Nutty! As Gage looks on he’s schoolboyed by Kashmere for the three. We’re not done just yet, Gage attacking both post-match as the victors are the ones who end up being left lying. Agree with Chad’s comments about Lobo who actually looked competent for a change as opposed to flat out amateur and I did especially like the fire he showed on the save right at the start. I didn’t see the Backseat Boyz split coming one bit, so they hooked me in on that and we got a pretty wild and crazy match to follow. One that exceeded expectations going in and one that didn’t suffer from numerous blown or botched spots, something that tends to be a regular occurrence in CZW matches of this ilk.

Robbie Moreno plugs a card for 1/20 where CZW is promising to put on one of the most ultraviolent shows ever before introducing his brother Johnny Kashmere. The bad audio quality on the mic is not helped by hecklers shouting at Kashmere as he is trying to speak, meaning you’re only picking up half of the story. He says that after walking out on a previous event the fire in him is back and Combat Zone Wresting is giving him the opportunity to prove that. Dewey Donovan is out to confront him over this recent actions, but Johnny tells him that he’s his own man now, this is nothing to do with him and to back off. His former manager is not best pleased and slaps him across the face resulting in Kashmere decking him. As he puts the boots to him he is jumped by Nick Gage and a match appears to be underway, even though I don’t think a bell has rung. A pair of headscissors take downs by Johnny and Gage rolls to the outside. Dewey is around to check on him, but as Kashmere goes for a pescado Gage pulls him in the way and he takes the brunt of the impact. Gage continues the attack on the floor, hurling Johnny into a row of chairs before grating his forehead across the metal fence. Back inside a belly to back suplex dumps Kashmere on his head, however he manages to avoid the roaring elbow and then spikes Gage with a DDT. Johnny sits him on the top turnbuckle when he’s joined by his partner in the Backseat Boyz, Trent Acid. They set him for the ‘Acid Bomb’ when Trent turns on Johnny and superkicks the chair into his face. Frog splash by Gage and this one’s over. Short, sweet and to the point. More about the ending angle than the match itself, one which conveniently segues into the tag with Lobo saving Kashmere from a three-on-one beating from Team Dewey.

The debut episode of Raw on TNN kicks off with the WWF’s biggest of big guns, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, the investigation into who ran him over last November still underway. Austin says that in the ten months since he’s been gone a lot has changed in the company; he returned last night, drank a few beers, kicked a few asses, but didn’t find the yellow bastard that ran him down at the Survivor Series! He tells all the superstars in the back that he’s going to work his way through every one of them, getting payback and taking it out on their asses. Mick Foley is out to interrupt ‘Stone Cold’ and mentions that one of the things that did happen while he was away is that he became Commissioner. While he fully supports his quest to find the person who ran him over, he takes exception to the methods that he proposed and suggests Austin sit back and let him conduct the investigation for him. That doesn’t go down too well with ‘Stone Cold’ who isn’t overly impressed with how little progress Foley’s investigation has been making. He says how he used to drive up and down the road with him, knows that he’s a terrible driver and therefore how does he know it wasn’t he who was driving? Before he can answer, the two of them are joined by Chris Benoit. Nice continuity from the script writers here as ‘the Crippler’ introduces himself to ‘Stone Cold’ with this being the first time that they had met (I absolutely had forgot Benoit arrived after Austin left). Benoit says that they can stand here and address some injustice that took place ten months ago, but he’s here to address an even greater injustice that took place just last night. For the second time in his WWF career he was announced as the new WWF World Heavyweight champion only to then have the title taken from him. If anyone deserves payback it’s him and he wants the Rock tonight for the WWF title. Mick points out a sign in the crowd that says ‘Benoit was screwed’ and believes that with the benefit of hindsight he probably did screw him, so, surprisingly, gives him that shot. We’re not finished yet as Kurt Angle joins the fun. There is no doubt in his mind that Chris Benoit did get screwed last night, but it pales in comparison to the night he had as he almost lost a friend. A big part of friendship is learning to forgive, and after viewing the tape forgives Stephanie as he understands why she did what she did, he doesn’t forgive HHH though. Triple H the wrestler didn’t beat him, Triple H the crazy abusive husband beat him, and if there is anyone who deserves a rematch it’s him. The Commissioner denies that request and Kurt accepts for the time being, although does want to talk about another incident from last night. He’s not happy at all that Steve Austin turned down his offer of friendship by attacking an American hero and won’t see his own career go down the drain because he was too slow to jump out the way of a car. Kurt goes on to demand an apology which for a man with ‘intelligence’ is not the smartest of things! Stunner for Angle and when Benoit tries to jump Austin he gets the same, there’ll be no apologies out of ‘Stone Cold’ tonight that’s for sure. Michael Cole interviews The Rock who doesn’t say much bar that the ‘Rabid Wolverine’ will hit rock bottom and he will smell what the Rock is cooking! Shane McMahon is walking out with Chris Benoit and Jerry Lawler is now guaranteeing that he is going to be the new WWF champion. I’m not sure I’m as prepared to take ‘the King’s’ guarantees to the bank like I would do Mr McMahon’s! Benoit beats Rock to the punch with a knee to the mid-section and picks up pair of early two counts following a snap suplex and a backbreaker. Shane is already showing that he’s going to be a thorn in the Rock’s side here, getting in some shots from the floor as Benoit distracts referee Earl Hebner. Rock catches the kick, dragon screw leg whip and in no time locks on ‘the Sharpshooter’. As Hebner checks to see whether ‘the Crippler’ is going to give it up, Shane climbs in the ring from the opposite sidee and slugs Rock causing him to break the hold. Benoit with a couple of rolling German suplexes, but Rock blocks the third with some rapid fire back elbows. He gets a near fall after a DDT only for his comeback to be cut short when he gets caught with a swinging neckbreaker. A big diving headbutt two thirds of the way across the ring, although ‘the Crippler’ hurts himself as much as his opponent with that. The Rock reverses an Irish whip and launches Benoit with a release overhead suplex. McMahon pulls Hebner’s leg to get him to stop the count leading to one of my least favourite tropes of the year, the Earl Hebner tough man spot. Old man Earl jumps to the outside, gets right in the face of Shane and threatens to send him to the back. As he climbs up on the apron, still berating Shane, Benoit reverses an Irish whip sending Rock crashing into Hebner who falls to the floor. The action continues without a referee, Shane getting in some more cheap shots, although as he starts dancing he doesn’t realise that the shots had no effect on the Rock. ‘Rock Bottom’ for McMahon but he then eats a Benoit clothesline. ‘The Rabid Wolverine’ accidentally cracks Shane over the head with a chair. Stephanie runs down to check on her brother, quickly followed by Triple H. As the two of them roll him out of there, the Rock whips Benoit into ‘the Game’. A ‘Rock Bottom’ for ‘the Crippler’ and Earl has recovered sufficiently to count the fall. Kurt Angle is out post-match and joins forces with Benoit in attacking the Rock and HHH, focussing his attention on Hunter’s injured ribs which are all taped. Stephanie comes to her husband’s aid, slapping Kurt, which results in Benoit HEADBUTTING STEPHANIE!!! Bloody hell! Angle is torn over what to do but ends up leaving with Benoit.

Mideon, sent down to Puerto Rican purgatory. Paparazzi distracts Mideon saying something about his footwear, but the moment he glances down to look at them, Pap throws his cape over Mideon’s face and jumps him. He doesn’t make the most of the advantage though, Mideon reversing the Irish whip and catching him with a hip toss followed by a pair of clotheslines. As Pap tries to flee to the outside, Mideon grabs him by the trousers and pulls them down so we all see what underwear he has got on. On pulling them back up and returning to the apron, Paparazzi snaps Mideon’s neck across the top before dropping him with a superkick. Some good old fashioned foot stomps and I can’t help but bust out my Matt Serra “watch the foot stomps Drago” impression. Paparazzi telegraphs the backdrop and as he fights being taken down by the sunset flip I’m just waiting for those pants to be yanked down again. Yup, there we go right on cue! Spinning heel kick by Paparazzi and he makes the cover by lying fully on top of his opponent. Pap side steps a charging Mideon who flies through the ropes to the floor. That looks like it wound him up as while the referee has a word with Paparazzi, Mideon strips off, down to his fanny pack. A shocked Pap gets smooched and then schoolboyed, naked Mideon disappearing sharpish after the win to hopefully put some clothes on.

Tony Schiavone clarifies the rules for the Starrcade ladder match, explaining how it’s the one person who climbs the ladder and retrieves the envelope that will get the Cruiserweight title shot. So there’s nothing to stop partners fighting one another then? To be honest, I would’ve much preferred them to make this a six-way then instead to cut out nonsense like that. 3 Count sprint to the ring and immediately get it on with Noble & Karagias who are already in there, not even waiting for the Jung Dragons. Combination Samoan drop/neckbreaker on Noble. Oh dear, Schiavone hasn’t been checking his format sheet and was of the impression that this was a tag match; at least Mike Tenay is prepared and knows what’s going on as the Dragon’s make their entrance. They slide into the ring through the legs of 3 Count and land a pair of inverted atomic drops followed by a pair of spinning wheel kicks. I forgot to mention that Konnan is on commentary and is putting the Dragons over (remember what I said about him?), how they may not be the biggest in WCW but they’re amongst the most talented. Leah Meiow’s outfit isn’t leaving much to the imagination. Double springboard clothesline by Evan to the Dragons as things start to settle down. A miscommunication sees Noble and Karagias take each other out as Helms nails Jamie with a superkick for a two count. He escapes the Moore sleeper-drop and dumps him with a belly to back. As Noble makes his way over to his partner Shane is in and clocks Karagias to prevent the tag, however Jamie smartly then rolls over to the Dragon’s corner instead and tags in Kaz Hayashi. I liked that thinking. Kaz takes care of everyone all by himself while Konnan starts talking about when he wrestled in Promo Azteca. The camera concentrates on Yang collecting a ladder from under the ring so we don’t see what happens inside that lead to Helms now being in control and hitting the ‘Vertabreaker’. He forearms Yang on the apron, who falls to the floor, and Shane with a sensational flip dive out onto him. Konnan is legit enjoying himself watching this. ‘Rocker dropper’ by Shannon on Evan. He positions the ladder across the top turnbuckle and climbs up onto it when he is cut off by Noble. Evan joins his partner up there and it looks both scary and dangerous, although nothing goes wrong as they hit a double superplex. As Jamie goes to make the cover, Karagias shoves him out the way and steals it for himself, the two continuing to argue even after picking up the win. Schiavone mentions how at Starrcade it will be every man for themselves once they get the ladder and this goes some way to showing that.

After this had finished I made a point to someone on Twitter how, when they were going at it, I had flashbacks to seeing Cesaro (then Claudio) wrestle Ricochet in Chikara in front of about 100 people, fast forward and here they are doing their stuff in front of how ever many thousand it was. It's years since I saw that match but remember thinking it was great back then with Cesaro as this awesome base for all of Ricochet's offense, so can't even begin to imagine what it would be like now. In regards to this I thought it was the best match on the show up until that point although not a patch on Ricochet & Black's match against the War Raiders from TakeOver.

Ric Flair is out after the Perfect Event and tells Commissioner Sanders that he didn’t think he would be allowed to run around about here? He warns him that he may have a manager’s license, but if he takes one foot in the ring Kevin Nash & DDP will automatically become the new World tag team champions. Sanders doesn’t care what Ric Flair has to say, claiming that he runs the company not him, so it will be interesting to see if he takes heed of ‘the Naitch’s’ advice. Palumbo starts out the aggressor, teeing off on Nash and even giving him a crotch chop. ‘Big Sexy’ reverses the Irish whip and then repeatedly whips him back and forth from corner to corner, a big clothesline punctuating each one. Chuck is already begging for a time out but he’s not getting any let up from Nash. After a tag to DDP he gets that time out, re-evaluating the game plan on the floor with Stasiak and Sanders. Stasiak fares little better, DDP pulling him into the ring post. That doesn’t sit too well with Mark Madden saying how real noble that was and sarcastically referring to him as “your good guy”. Page with a belly to belly suplex and Palumbo is in to break up the pin. Stasiak powers his way out of the ‘Diamond Cutter’ but gets caught with a uranage for a near fall. He goes for it again, only this time Palumbo isn’t taking any chances and blasts DDP with a jungle kick. After how the match was going that was exactly what ‘the Thrillers’ needed as they go about wearing down DDP. Page gets in some hope shots, but every time he is cut off by the champions who work the quick tags and isolate him in their corner. He tries to fire back and does drop Stasiak, but a Palumbo shot from the apron sees him go down like a felled tree, headbutting Stasiak in the groin as he does so. The discus lariat connects as Schiavone wonders if DDP’s got anything left to make the tag. The crowd, who had started out quiet, are really getting into this. There’s a great moment as Page and Palumbo just unload on each other, eventually each knocking the other down. Huge ovation as DDP eventually makes the hot tag, Nash all over the Perfect Event. Big boots and side slams all around before he clotheslines Stasiak over the top rope to the outside. Page is on the floor when he’s low blowed by Sanders, Madden claiming that because he didn’t get in the ring it was okay. As Nash looks for the jackknife, he’s caught by a Stasiak clothesline off the top and Palumbo with a rolling cradle for a near fall. Nash slugs Sanders on the apron but, as referee Charles Robinson turns his back, Stasiak blasts him with one of the tag belts. Palumbo covers the KO’d Nash, although Page pulls him off to break the pin. Mark Jindrak and Sean O’Haire are out, however their interference doesn’t benefit their fellow Thrillers, Jindrak succumbing to a ‘Diamond Cutter’ and O’Haire getting crotched as he goes for the ‘Seanton bomb’. Nash with a big boot to Palumbo, jackknife powerbomb, and with no-one left to make the save we have ourselves new WCW tag team champions. Finally ‘Big Sexy’ gives a “Hey Yo!” shout out letting Scott Hall that they’ve got the belts again, even though I highly doubt he would be watching! Shockingly good match and probably the best in Shawn Stasiak’s career. Nash had his rare working boots on, while the heat section on DDP was tremendous with all the cut off spots and how they slowly got the crowd more and more into it. Not the kind of match on paper that you would be inclined to check out, but well worth the time if you have never seen it before.

Give him his due, Luger looks younger here than he did a month ago. There are two schools of thought it seems when you face Goldberg, either attack him as he enters the ring looking to get a jump on him, or take to the outside and let him cool down. Luger opts for the latter but Goldberg is in no mood to stand and wait, following him out. From the moment he forearms Lex in the lower back this is all Goldberg. Cool looking Judo throw and Luger even goes up for the powerslam. Lex rolls to the floor and starts making his way back to the dressing room having had enough. Goldberg isn’t prepared to let him get off easy and sets off in pursuit, screaming something about “payback”. He puts Luger over his shoulder and is about to ram him into the ring post when Lex slides down his back and sends Goldberg crashing into it instead. Luger whips him into the guard rail but Goldberg manages to avoid the chair shot. Buff Bagwell and DeWayne Bruce make their way down the aisle and are talking about something as we hear Buff telling Sarge to “stay out of it”. Mark Madden thinks ‘Sarge’ should show some respect to Starrcade and let this continue one on one! Flying shoulder tackle by Goldberg. He’s poised for the spear when again Lex grabs the official pulling him in front of him, this time though Goldberg puts the breaks on in time. Luger KO’s ‘Sarge’ with a pair of brass knux that he pulled out of his trunks and then does the same to Goldberg. That only gets him a two though as he kicks out of the pin. Bagwell is in the ring signalling for the ‘Blockbuster’ as Schiavone reminds us that with this being ‘no holds barred’ it means there are no DQ’s. He hits it on Goldberg but then acts as if it was an accident and meant to hit Lex. If the spot was to legit make us wonder is he meant to catch Goldberg it was executed terribly. Goldberg holds the ropes to block the ‘Torture Rack’ and lays Luger out with an inverted ‘Roll the Dice’. Meanwhile on the floor Bagwell is attacking Sarge, so that answers the question as to whether the ‘Blockbuster’ was an accident or not. Spear, jackhammer and “the streak lives”. Buff clocks Goldberg over the head with a chair after the match and nails him with some more shots to the back before helping Luger to the dressing room.

It’s one down and one to go for ‘old stone face’ as after tonight he will go on to Sin and his first World title; for as good as Jeff Jarrett is, he’s not from Calgary, Alberta, Canada! Mark Madden has got big expectations for this thinking that it will be one for the ages. Nice spot as Jarrett backs Lance into the corner off the lock up and as Slick Johnson gets between the two wrestlers to separate them, they both go for the cheap shot at the same time. Storm throws ‘the Chosen One’ through the ropes to the floor but then crashes and burns as Jarrett just side steps the pescado. Jarrett locks the figure four on in the centre of the ring, however it’s too early in the match and Lance uses his momentum to roll over and reverse things. Jawbreaker followed by a dropkick. Lance is back at it with the aerial offense, although gets caught climbing the turnbuckles as Jarrett swipes a leg. Suicideplex and both men are down. Storm ducks an enziguiri and applies the ‘Canadian Maple Leaf’, ‘Double J’ getting to the ropes before he is forced to tap. Jarrett reverses the Irish whip, keeps hold of the arm and hits ‘the Stroke’ to advance to Sin. The bout has barely finished and Scott Steiner is out and carrying a lead pipe. He tells Ric Flair that he wants the mystery man and if he doesn’t get him, he’s coming back there to shove this lead pipe up his ass! Jarrett has grabbed his guitar in case something is about to go down but Steiner doesn’t even acknowledge him, only concerned with Flair and the mystery man. With no sign of ‘the Naitch’ he sets off to find him, accosting Jimmy Hart backstage and getting him to show him where Flair’s office is. The office is empty but he then spots him down the corridor. As Steiner goes to confront him, through the door comes the masked man, security separating them as the show goes off the air.

Lance Storm is our first contender in this ‘Championship Contender’s match’ and he still wants to be serious for a minute. He says how he has held every singles title in the company bar one, to which Scott Hudson quips “bar women’s”, and tonight he earns his shot at the World Heavyweight title. Apparently neither Storm nor the commentators know who he’ll be facing, so when the Filthy Animals music plays and Tygress is out first Hudson thinks that she is his opponent! I know this is WCW and we’ve had women in men’s tournaments before, but come on Scott! Of course it’s not her, its Rey Mysterio and he’s got his ribs all taped up selling what went down last night at Starrcade. Nice counter of the military press into a sunset flip by Rey. It turns out there is another contender’s match coming up later in the show, the two winners will then face each other and the eventual overall winner will move on to Sin where they will take part in the three way dance for the World title. Call me a cynic but I don’t think the winner will be coming from this semi-final somehow. Lance gets his knees up on the Mysterio lionsault and then drops him with a superkick. He throws a series of knees to those injured ribs before a long, delayed suplex. Stomachbreaker followed by an abdominal stretch and with Rey wide open and trapped, he fires off some punches at those ribs as he continues to target them. Rey powers his way out but then misses the springboard splash. A headscissors sends Lance to the outside and Rey with a great somersault flip dive to the floor. Not the first time he’s blown off those supposedly injured ribs in this match though. Springboard guillotine legdrop to the back of the neck and he must’ve heard me as he’s back selling them! Another springboard, but this time Lance plants him to the ma,t keeps hold of the leg and locks in the Canadian Maple Leaf. He maintains a wide base to prevent Rey from getting to the ropes and he’s forced to tap as Storm moves onto the finals. The work was fine but a surprisingly pretty forgettable match.

A lame Jericho promo where he says how even in this holiday season the Radicalz have found someone to cuddle up to; Perry Saturn with Terri the Tramp, Dean Malerkle (sic) and his when hell freezes over and when platypuses fly out my butt girlfriend Lita and even ‘Mr Robotto’ Chris Benoit, leading to Y2J putting up a graphic of Benoit and some robot. Yawn. The six men pair off and very quickly the ring empties to leave both Hardy brothers in there with Saturn. They set him for ‘Poetry in Motion’ when Terri grabs Jeff’s ankle from ringside. Jericho gets hold of her and throws her inside and as they launch her with a double wheelbarrow suplex, Saturn gets there in the nick of time to cushion some of the impact. During that Terri’s dress rides up to reveal the skimpiest of underwear or flesh coloured underwear, something that Jerry Lawler wanted to see replayed again and again. Eventually order is restored and the Radicalz go about working over Jeff. Malenko sits him on the top turnbuckle, however Jeff shoves him backwards and hits the ‘Swanton bomb’. He takes his time but is still able to make the hot tag to Jericho whose springboard dropkick sends Malenko crashing to the floor. As it looks like Lita is checking on him, she then whips him into the ring steps. Matt throws him back inside, bulldog, Lionsault and this one’s over, Benoit and Saturn fighting with the brothers and too late to save their partner.

Matt is flying solo, Michael Cole informing us that Lita isn’t here because of that ‘Crippler crossface’ she fell victim to on Monday night. He slides into the ring and Benoit tries to drop an elbow on him but Matt smartly rolls out the way. ‘The Crippler’ takes to the outside after being on the receiving end of a clothesline however gets nailed with a big dive from the top turnbuckle to the floor. The Intercontinental title is on the line, Lt. Commissioner Debra having banned ‘the Radicalz’ from ringside and giving Matt a fairer chance of snaffling some gold. He lights Benoit up with some knife edge chops but when he grabs him for the ‘Twist of Fate’ the champion lifts him up and dumps him across the top rope. Belly to back suplex. Benoit signals that it’s over after a backbreaker but fails to connect on the diving headbutt. Matt gets a couple of near falls after a swinging DDT and a middle rope legdrop, the champion saved on the latter only because he was able to drape a foot over the bottom rope. ‘The Crippler’ counters the The ‘Twist of Fate’ into the crossface, Matt scrambling to the ropes for the break with Benoit eventually, reluctantly, letting go. He removes the padding from one of the turnbuckles however isn’t able to take advantage as Matt sends him shoulder first into the ring post. The tornado DDT is countered with the crossface and this time, in the centre of the ring and with no other option, Matt is forced to tap. A good TV match and that counter leading to the crossface finish was really nice.

Michael Cole asks Paige about the women's tag match who responds by talking about the main event and hoping Becky wins!

Turned into an enjoyable match, Miz, out for revenge and laying a beatdown on Shane who bumped and flew around for him. Folks could learn a lot from the way Shane sold that left leg.

I thought Shane's punches were bad, but they've got nothing on his kicks!

Nattie is an absolute sweetheart. Some cringeworthy shit right there with DX.

Yup, those stacked up spots in multi-man tags are so 2001. Best thing so far, although not a patch on Ricochet/Black's match from TakeOver.