GSR

Benoit backs Hardy up against the turnbuckles off the collar and elbow tie up and hammers away on him until he collapses to the mat. He whips Jeff to the opposite corner but he runs up the ropes and hits the ‘whisper in the wind’ to the onrushing ‘Crippler’. Arabian moonsault for two. Jeff goes for the 450 splash however crashes and burns as there is no-one home and Benoit looks to take advantage of his opponent. Face first suplex where he dumps Jeff over the top rope. Hardy just about manages to hold on when going for a headscissors, before countering a powerbomb with a ‘Toyota roll’. A leg lariat sends Benoit to the outside and Jeff follows up with a flip dive over the top rope and out onto him. ‘Swanton bomb’ connects, but they’re too close to the ropes and ‘the Crippler’ is able to get his foot over the bottom one. As both men jockey for position, Benoit powers out of the Northern Lights and takes Jeff down with an armbar, from where he clamps on the crossface for the submission. Post-match he nods his head in approval at Hardy’s effort and offers him his hand, only to KO him with the title belt when his guard is down. A real good short TV match as Jeff Hardy’s high risk offense battled the calculated ground game of Chris Benoit. Hardy busted out more than usual in this one like the 450 splash, the Arabian moonsault as well as the flip dive to the floor and the ‘Whisper in the Wind’, although he wasn’t perfect, almost losing Benoit on the headscissors while there was also one other odd looking exchange. With the crowd behind him, there are definite hints in this match though at what they would eventually have with Hardy several years down the line.

It did; only the once mind on a Nassau Coliseum show from 2/10. I have zero idea if it would've been taped though.

RF fancam of an IWA-PR house show, although the match has been edited by someone who has a fetish for seeing people hit each other over the head with weapons! Literally its wrestler hits other wrestler with crutch/trash can/metal sheet/barbed wire board (delete accordingly), cut, wrestler hits other wrestler with crutch/trash can/metal sheet/barbed wire board (delete accordingly), cut and so it goes on. I know who Chicky and Victor are, but no idea in identifying who is who in the opposition. All four men bleed with the chap in the white T-shirt juicing a gusher, as there are puddles of his blood on the arena floor and that white top ends up turning pink. It looks like we have a title change as Chicky is pinned after, I think, running into an uppercut (bloody Feinstein’s shit editing means we don’t actually see it clearly). The ref doesn’t spot him resting his feet on the ropes for added leverage though and another wrestler runs out from the back to explain to him what happened. He orders the match restarted, this time with Chicky getting the win for him team by pinning one of the oppo with his feet over the ropes. Again RF edits out what led up to it so we only see Chicky making the cover. With the clipping this still lasted nigh on ten minutes so you have to wonder why RF bothered, unless it went like in excess of thirty minutes or something. No rating due to the hatchet job and I imagine had I watched it in its entirety I would have got numb to all the weapon shots very early. NOTE: This match appears twice, firstly the clipped version incorrectly dated as 10/27 and then the uncut version correctly dated 10/28. I've merged the two threads together. I won't be watching the match a second time though.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley makes her way out to ringside to join Michael Cole and ‘the King’ at the commentary desk. She’s got a surprise opponent for Chris Jericho tonight who turns out to be Bull Buchanan. Another sub-two minute televised match, but Jericho is still able to get in his staples such as the facebuster, middle rope missile dropkick and springboard dropkick to his opponent who is on the apron. Y2J drop toe holds Bull into the ring steps and then takes a swig from a bottle of water which he spits into Stephanie’s face. Back inside and he floors Bull with a clothesline. Lionsault, but as he leaps to the middle, Steph throws a bucket of water at him drenching him with its contents. Axe kick by Bull and he gets the win, much to Steph’s approval who gives him a round of applause from the outside. Triple H runs out and puts the boots to Y2J after the match before pedigreeing him as a bunch of officials have no luck whatsoever in trying to regain order. Steph’s facial expressions throughout all of this are a joy.

The Dudleys bring a table out with them and as they set it up at ringside they’re jumped by the McMahon’s. They pair off, although it’s not too long before the tide turns as Bubba hot shots Shane across the barricade while Vince is swiftly overpowered by D-Von. The Dudleys repeatedly slam the McMahon’s heads into the announcer’s table and then whip Vince into the ring steps. Bubba throws Shane into the ring where he drills him with some lovely looking right hands to the jaw. After D-Von bodyslams Vince on the concrete, they hit a superplex/leg drop off the middle combination to Shane. Vince staggers into the ring only for the world’s biggest grapefruits to be on the receiving end of a D-Von diving headbutt. 3-D on Shane and the Dudleys collect themselves a couple of tables. They lay Shane across one of them and are about to superbomb Vince onto his son, when out sprints D-X to help. Vince takes a nasty looking spill all the way to the floor after Road Dogg nails Bubba and he loses control of him. X-Pac and Dogg double powerbomb D-Von through one of the tables and then lay Bubba on the other. Tori is about to get her revenge for all those months ago but botches the splash off the top and the table doesn’t break. The crowd are laughing pretty audibly at that. Some real smart improvisation from Bubba who shows a ton of fire, hitting anyone that moves and the crowd forget about laughing and are back to cheering the Dudleys. Of course he gets overwhelmed by the numbers and they repeat what was originally planned, only this time with Shane assisting and adding extra force to make sure Tori puts him through it. Fun match and the Dudleys are over big time at this period. If Vince & Shane were going over this was the right way to do it, and it’s the kind of loss that won’t hurt the Dudleys momentum in the slightest. They controlled the whole match, put a beating on the McMahon’s and it was only due to interference and the odds being too much did they eventually lose. Extra props for Bubba in the way that he tried to cover for Tori’s botch and the way he got the crowd back into the match quick sharp.

An irate Trish Stratus is pacing around the dressing room, still in disbelief that Rikishi put his ass in her face (“what if I got stuck?”). Val Venis is doing push ups, warming up for the match and Trish tells him that she was humiliated in front of millions of people and this man has to pay. He promises to make Rikishi pay and make him realise that he made the biggest mistake of his life, all she has to do is hold up her end of the bargain. Venis jumps Rikishi the moment he steps through the ropes, tearing his ceremonial robe off him. An early pinfall attempt after a couple of clotheslines but Rikishi kicks out of the cover. The big man reverses a whip to the turnbuckles and hits a Samoan drop. Running lariat in the corner, he then whips Val to the opposite one and ‘backs dat ass up’. He slumps to the floor and is in the perfect position for the ‘stink face’. Before he’s able to do to him what he’d previously done to Trish though, she’s in the ring and throws powder in his face for the DQ. Val attacks the blinded Rikishi, showing a new found aggression, busting him open after slamming the ring steps into his head. As referee Teddy Long tries to get him to stop Val launches him into the front row of the crowd! He clobbers Rikishi twice with the ring bell, puts a foot on his chest and raises his arms. Job done and obviously with half a mind on collecting off Trish he heads off back towards the dressing room, however he hasn’t even made it to the top of the stage and Rikishi is up and stalking him. Val can’t believe what he’s seeing, returns to finish what he had started, but this time Rikishi is ready. He blocks Val’s punches and drops him with one of his own. It all culminates with the bloodied Rikishi superkicking Val off the stage to the floor and then doing a ‘Superfly splash’ down on to him. The match was nothing and this was all about the post-match. I kinda wish that they had split that into two though; had Val leaving Rikishi laying here and then Rikishi get his revenge on Raw or next week’s Smackdown. It was a new Val Venis, a bad ass Val Venis, one who’s not afraid to bust someone open or ‘by any means necessary’ to get the job done. The whole Val Venis gimmick/look in itself is a bit passé and they had the perfect opportunity after this attack to update it, give him a hair cut, some new threads, maybe even ditch the Val Venis name and go to Sean Morley or whatever. As it was, to me, with Rikishi getting back to his feet so soon and then leaving Val lying, he came across as someone who can’t get the job done. There was some good stuff in here but I wish they hadn’t run through it all in such a short space of time.

A ‘King of the Ring’ qualifying match that sees the other Hardy brother take on another former member of the Radicalz. Snap mare takedown and Matt’s got Eddy locked in a hammerlock. He tries to roll his way out of it, but Matt holds on and he remains trapped. Reversal and Hardy just reverses again. With wrestling having no luck, he resorts to a couple of elbows to the face in order to force the escape. Tilt-a-whirl slam by Matt, however Eddy jumps too early when Hardy was supposed to launch him chest first into the air and as a result barely gets a foot off the canvas. Nice counter of the ‘Twist of Fate’ into a backslide for a near fall. A huracanrana for two, and they then run through the Guerrero/Malenko pinfalls and reversals sequence. Eddy with a neckbreaker, but he’s too slow when climbing the turnbuckles and Matt meets him up there. The suicideplex takes it out of both men and when Matt is eventually able to cover Eddy, he’s recovered sufficiently to kick out of the pin. Release Northern Lights suplex by Eddy who gets the win after a leaping rana from the middle. It’s interesting seeing the Hardy’s go it alone against two such seasoned veterans, and add me to the camp who preferred Jeff’s outing against Benoit. This wasn’t as smooth as that match was and for some reason this just didn’t do much for me. I’m pretty certain that was due to the played out Guerrero/Malenko sequence which I find overly choreographed and unnatural. That botch was also not good. I liked the opening spots around the hammerlock and the ‘Twist of Fate’ counter, but that’s about it.

Angle, aggrieved over what happened on Monday, would like to talk a bit about sportsmanship tonight. He says that when you lose, the right thing to do is offer a congratulatory handshake to the victor or vow to do better next time. What you don’t do is put Olympic heroes through tables! There are thousands of distraught children who will probably fail their finals this week after what the Dudleys did to their Olympic hero last Monday night on Raw. Not to mention that his good friends lost their tag team titles after Christian was hit in the genitals with a hockey stick by a midget! What he’s trying to say is that the world is full of sore losers! Talking of sore losers, Christian thinks that it is fitting they’re in Buffalo, NY, the city of sore losers. Tonight though they will unveil a special new pose in honour of them. Kurt puts on a Scott Norwood football jersey, and the pose is of Norwood missing a field goal kick in the Superbowl. Needless to say that doesn’t go down well with the crowd. The match itself goes less than two minutes, so there’s not much in the way of action. The Dudleys go for the ‘wassup’ spot on Kurt, when Christian is around and crotches D-Von on the top turnbuckle. Edge throws Bubba to the outside and the two of them hit a stacked up superplex on D-Von. Christian makes the cover, however the official is distracted by Angle and Bubba who’re now going at it on the arena floor. As Edge grabs at Bubba, he pulls him under the rope to the outside, only for Edge to then accidentally spear Kurt when Bubba moves out the way. 3-D on Christian and that’s all she wrote.

Kurt finds it ironic that the ‘Kodak moment’ originated in a town with such unattractive people, but for the benefit of those with flash photography, Edge says that they will give the fans a real Kodak moment for five seconds only. There’s an awful lot of hair flying when it’s Jericho and Edge in there! Y2J drops Edge with a flying forearm, hits a facebuster on Christian and takes out Angle on the apron with a springboard dropkick as he’s checking on Edge. Stiff clothesline by Kurt as ECK look to try and stop Jericho’s early momentum. Scoop powerslam from Christian for a two. Jericho fails to connect on a dropkick and Edge catapults him into the corner. Kurt telegraphs a backdrop and Y2J with a double underhook backbreaker. Missile dropkick from the middle and he’s finally able to make the hot tag. Bubba runs rough shot over everyone including a ‘Bubba cutter’ to Edge and a DDT on Angle where Christian is forced to break up the pin. The Dudleys signal for 3-D. but after they whip Christian into the ropes, Edge hooks his partner’s ankle and pulls him out the ring to safety. As D-Von chases after the two of them, Angle comes from behind and hits the ‘Olympic slam’ on Bubba for the three. Post-match after clearing the ring of Edge & Christian, Y2J puts Kurt in ‘the Walls’ before the Dudleys give him a 3-D through a table. Bubba looked good here in his cameo after making the hot tag, although D-Von was anonymous for the whole match. Cool finish with Kurt hitting the ‘Olympic slam’ on Bubba.

Dave Finlay and Norman Smiley both make the honourable mentions list and your top 100! You say you've not seen enough Anton Geesink, but how much Joe Stetcher, Orville Brown and Jackie Pallo have you seen?

And the one that puts Debbie Malenko over every other female wrestler bar Manami Toyota.

Intercontinental title match after Holly won the three way number one contender’s match on Smackdown last week. ‘Hardcore’ takes the ring mic off Lillian Garcia and says how it would have been a lot easier if Chris Benoit just gave him a title shot, but he did things the hard way; he gave one to Kurt Angle, gave one to Val Venis and gave who knows how many to Chris Jericho. He understands why he didn’t give him one though, because he’s scared, and while there’s no shame in being scared of Hardcore Holly, it shows that he’s a typical Canadian coward and it’ll be his pleasure to kick his ass in this worthless country of his and finally get what belongs to him. ‘The Crippler’ responds with some words of his own and as soon as he enter the ring, Holly and he are swinging for the fences. A forearm smash staggers ‘Hardcore’ and a ‘Cactus clothesline’ sees both men go over the top rope and to the outside. Benoit throws Holly shoulder first into the ring post before tossing him back inside. He whips him chest first into the corner and takes him down with the crossface, but Holly is close enough to the ropes to force a break. A spear by ‘Hardcore’ levels Benoit and a nice snap suplex for a two. He heads up top, but ‘the Crippler’ cuts him off and hits a superplex for a near fall of his own. The two of them exchange chops and Holly’s are even more vicious sounding than Benoit’s are. Scoop powerslam for another two, followed by a powerbomb. A lovely belly to back suplex and it’s still not enough to put Benoit away. Holly collects a steel chair from ringside, and as the referee tries to snatch it away from him he’s nailed from behind by Chris Jericho. Y2J then picks up the chair and drills Holly flush over the head with it for the DQ. I liked what we saw here and it was a strong five minutes or so of action. Holly’s work is good enough where he doesn’t look out of place in there opposing the likes of Benoit, it’s just unfortunate that he’s been typecast as a jobber for the best part of the previous four years. There’s nothing overtly flashy, but everything he does has a purpose and looks meaningful, while he’s probably the one person on the roster who puts Benoit to shame with the physicality of the chops and slaps he dishes out. I’m really not digging all the full force unprotected chair shots that these guys are taking though, and here it was Holly’s turn to be on the receiving end of an especially nasty one.

This six man has been made by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley as a result of what happened ‘last night’ on Heat, where the Hardyz helped out Chris Jericho who had been forced to take on T&A in a handicap match by Stephanie. Jericho speculates that with all this time she’s been devoting to him recently that maybe Steph has a crush on Y2J? He tells her that if she combs out that rat’s nest hair style and buys a couple of bottles of Clearasil, then she just might have a shot with the ‘Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla’! The heels get a decent pop on their entrance, although that appears solely down to Trish Stratus as opposed to the men. Jericho drops Val with a spinning heel kick which he follows up with a facebuster. Venis reverses the Irish whip and Albert with a lariat from the apron. It doesn’t do much damage to Y2J, although distracts him sufficiently to allow Val to hit a spinebuster. Stephanie is then shown watching the match on a monitor backstage and enjoying seeing Jericho suffer. Huge gorilla press slam on Y2J after almost slipping when stepping over the top rope! Running splash in the corner, big boot to the face by Test and Steph liked that one. Jericho ducks a clothesline, flying forearm and he’s able to make a tag to Matt. He just about executes the swinging DDT on Albert and a double team ‘Poetry in Motion’ to Test. Albert cuts off the attempted ‘Twist of Fate’ with a lariat but, he’s only delaying the inevitable, as Matt is able to hit it while the ref is trying to get Albert out of the ring. Jeff heads up top for the ‘Swanton bomb’, however Trish nails him with one of her boots which she has taken off. Matt grabs hold of her, but Albert to the rescue and a ‘Baldo bomb’ later gives them the upset win. All too rushed as the actual match, after Jericho’s promo, only lasted around four minutes. The heat section on Y2J was fine, but it became a bit of a cluster and messy in the closing stretch. Surprise win for the heels as I didn’t think that trio would be getting the win here at all.

Kurt gets a sizeable ovation from the Canadian crowd then does a fantastic job in getting them to turn on him. First of all he talks about how they’re lacking in Olympic heroes (“and no, Ben Johnson doesn’t count!”) so it is therefore up to him to represent all of them too as ‘their’ North American hero. From there he references that it’s Memorial Day, something that they don’t have in Canada, and cleverly manoeuvres his way through the US celebrating their war heroes by having BBQs, that the people of Canada don’t have BBQs because they would get attacked by moose’s, caribous or grizzlies, before correcting himself that the Grizzlies (a local sports team) couldn’t beat anyone! They’re booing him out of the building after that line. Leg trip takedown by Eddy but Angle cradles him for an early near fall. Eddy flips over to escape the belly to back suplex, forearms Kurt to the back and lands one of his own. Angle with a release overhead belly to belly which he immediately follows with a German suplex for two. He looks for the ‘Olympic slam’, but Eddy fights his way out of it with a series of knees to the head. A dropkick floors Kurt, however as Eddy charges, he backdrops him over the top rope to the outside. Chyna is around to check on her man but she gets nailed with a baseball slide, although Jim Ross is uncertain as to whether Angle deliberately meant it for her or was trying to catch Guerrero. After regaining her senses she enters the ring and as the ref tries to prevent her from going after Kurt, he’s accidentally clocked from behind by Eddy as Angle sidesteps a swinging right. Kurt sits Eddy on the top turnbuckle for a super belly to belly, but it never happens as Chyna gets her pay back with an almighty low blow. Leaping rana off the top and he retains his European title, though Kurt did have his foot under the bottom rope, something that was missed by the official. An alright match given the time constraints that they were working with, but you expect and hope for more when these two are positioned against one another.

We get a video package of what led up to this ‘submission match’, complete with Bob Holly’s attack on Benoit from Smackdown. As a result of that ‘the Crippler’ is forced to wear a brace on his knee which is visible as he makes his way down the aisle. Benoit backs Y2J against the ropes and immediately starts laying in those chops to his chest. Irish whip by ‘the Crippler’, Jericho slides between his legs and then drops him with a facebuster. He dishes up some chops of his own before slapping on a Fujiwara armbar that Benoit rolls out of. The tombstone piledriver is reversed, reversed again and Benoit with a shoulderbreaker, but in doing so he’s aggravated that injured knee as he’s now shaking it out. Diving headbutt to the shoulder. Jericho battles his way out of the shoulderlock submission and looks for an early ‘Walls’, however Benoit spins out. Back elbow to the face, and with Benoit on the apron, a springboard dropkick sends him tumbling to the floor. At this point Val Venis is shown watching on a monitor backstage as it turns out that he’s challenged the winner of this match. Y2J heads out after ‘the Crippler’, but Benoit whips him into the ring steps. He positions the steps ready for a further attack, however Jericho gets in their first with a shot to the mid-section and then drops him injured knee first onto those steps. Double underhook into a backbreaker across his own knee and Tim White reminds him that there are no pins as he instinctively makes the cover. They trade more chops before Jericho crashes shoulder first into the ring post after Benoit avoids his charge. ‘The Crippler’ exposes the steel beneath the top turnbuckle pad and rams Y2J’s shoulder into it. Short clothesline, a cross armbar (that JR erroneously calls a Fujiwara armbar) and Jericho is able to get his feet to the ropes for the break. Val Venis is not the only one watching backstage as the cameras cut to show Bob Holly watching on a separate monitor too. Y2J is in the corner trying to catch a breather when Benoit rushes at him with a flying knee, only for Jericho to move out the way and that knee smash into the already exposed turnbuckle. Dragon screw leg whip and Jericho removes Benoit’s knee brace and uses it as a weapon to whip ‘the Crippler’ with. Spinning toe hold and Benoit repeatedly kicks Y2J in the head in order to break the hold. Inverted tarantula as Jericho stretches his opponent over the ropes. ‘The Crippler’ manages to free an arm and eventually fight his way out. An enziguiri grazes Y2J and Benoit hits the rolling Germans. As Jericho tries a second time for ‘the Walls’, Benoit is scrambling around on the mat and grabs the knee brace which he waffles Y2J with. ‘Crippler crossface’ and when it looks like Jericho just might make the ropes, Benoit drags him to the centre of the ring. He’s really pulling back and torqueing on the hold here. Jericho eventually verbally submits, mouthing something to the referee who calls for the bell, although JR didn’t see a tap and thinks he passed out from the pain so who knows? Good, physical match with the story of Benoit targeting Y2J’s shoulder, while Jericho focuses his efforts on ‘the Crippler’s’ already injured knee. The pair of them continue to not hold anything back when working opposite one another, really laying those chops in and wrenching on the submissions (check out the inverted tarantula and more specifically the crossface that is the finish). I also liked the way how the knee brace that Jericho had removed from Benoit came back to bite him and was what ultimately cost him the match.

I have no idea what on earth you are talking about?

Abby picks up some bolt cutters on the way to the ring but doesn’t even make it inside as Gonzalez goes out to meet him on the arena floor. ‘The Butcher’ hits him with those cutters and Ray is busted open within the opening few seconds. A basketball backboard has been lowered in the building which Abby repeatedly slams Gonzalez’s head into before trying to force him through the hoop! He pulls out his trusty fork and jabs away with that. They eventually make it into the ring, but as soon as they are inside, Abby throws Ray right back out. As he leans through the ropes to grab him, Gonzalez powders ‘the Butcher’ momentarily blinding him. He finds a beer bottle under the ring and uses that, although Gonzalez’s offense is as limited as Abby’s is. ‘The Butcher’ blocks a weapon shot and fires back with some thrusts to the throat. The selling is so OTT here! Another thrust to the throat, elbow drop and Gonzalez gets a leg over the bottom rope to break the count. Oh dear, Abby is like a beached whale struggling to get to his feet. A random and completely out of the blue fork to the head of the official and the ref DQ’s ‘the Butcher’. Abby continues to attack Gonzalez after the match and a couple of guys run out from the back but they get the fork treatment too. In the most random of sightings, Big Dick Dudley of all people comes to Gonzalez’s aid as Ray just walks off to the dressing room leaving the two of them at it. A novelty getting to see Abby in 2000, but this is anything but good. ‘The Butcher’ is getting to immobile status and I generally thought he might not get up after that elbow drop. Laughable selling from both (when Abby fancied selling that is) and this is night and day from Gonzalez’s match with Carly at the start of the year. The only bright spot is Abby’s use of the basketball backboard and trying to get Ray through the hoop! In a perverse way it’s a shame we don’t have the Abby/Big Dick match from the 27th Anniversary show in July as that could have been Zeus levels of bad! (note: if ever a 'Date Unknown' sub forum is set up, please move these and the other three WWC reviews there. Thanks)

The constant huge plus point when watching WWC are the crowds. Even when the arena is only about a quarter full they make a ton of noise, cheer their favourites and boo the bad guys. When you don’t have that crowd noise it takes away so much and that was the case here. Modern commentary (they mention Carlito Caribbean Cool and Primo Colon) has been added over, but in doing so they’ve completely silenced the crowd noise. The match itself is joined in progress as Gonzalez goes for a big splash off the top but Carly gets a foot up and he goes flying into it. Both get close near falls, Carly after whipping Ray chest first into the turnbuckles and Gonzalez after a belly to back suplex, although with no sound you miss the crowd’s response to these. Carly hurts his ankle back flipping off the top and Gonzalez then targets that. Figure four and at this point you really want to hear the crowd getting behind Carly, especially as Carlos is seconding his son and working hard on the outside encouraging him to fight and turn the hold over. He eventually makes it to the ropes for the break, but Ray immediately drags him to the centre of the ring to try for it again, only this time Carly small packages him for another two count. Side slam and the ref starts waving the match off as I guess the time limit expired. What we saw was fine, but it would have been infinite times better with sound.

One Man Gang has got Ray Gonzalez in his corner for this and the action begins on the floor as Gang heads off to meet Carly as he makes his entrance. They fight (walk?) their way over to the merchandise table and fans are pelting Gang with drinks and rubbish whilst this one old dear is trying to slap him! Fed up with being a target for them, he drags Carly back to the ring and throws him inside. He picks up his chain and starts to choke Carly with that as the ref lets him do what he pleases. Sleeper hold that Carly escapes from only to run into a clothesline. Gang tosses him through the ropes and then distracts the official allowing Gonzalez to choke him with the chain on the outside. Back in the ring and Carly starts to fight back on his larger opponent, teeing off with punches and knife edge chops. The ref tries to pull him off Gang, but Carly just shoves him aside and continues his attack. He runs into a OMG big boot and as he staggers back to the opposite corner, ‘avalanche splash’. Irish whip is reversed and Carly with a sleeper of his own, although it’s a bit of a struggle for him to apply the hold because of Gang’s size. After he gets to the ropes forcing the break, Carly grabs the chain but ends up in a game of ‘tug of war’ with the ref who’s trying to stop him from using it. Stunner followed by a missile dropkick and he finally takes Gang off his feet to a great response from the sparse crowd. The cartwheel gets an even louder one and Gonzalez is in there to help OMG out. They don’t have a two on one advantage for long as Carlos rushes out to help his son out and the official throws the match out having lost control. Carly and Gonzalez fight to the back as a bunch of other wrestlers try to separate Carlos and Gang, without much success mind. I’m not sure how he does it, but Gang got insane heat at that iGeneration show against Tatanka, and did so again here. There were so many empty seats, but what crowd they did have makes a ridiculous amount of noise, especially after Carly takes Gang off his feet and then does the trademark Colon cartwheel. Outside the fans reactions I can’t say this will leave a lasting impression on me and I couldn’t work out whether the ref was incompetent or was doing a heel gimmick.

Final five minutes of a tag match that also sees Eddie Colon handcuffed to someone (presumably an associate of Bronco and Gonzalez) on the outside. The heels work over Carlos until Bronco misses a leg drop and he’s able to make a tag to his son. Carly goes to town on Ray, even doing his old man’s cartwheel. The Colons whip Gonzalez and Bronco into one another as the action then spills to the floor. Back inside and after Carly runs into the boot of Gonzalez, he reaches behind him so that the chap who is handcuffed to Eddie can pass him something. Eddie low blows the guy though and slugs Ray with whatever that object was. Roll up by Carly that Gonzalez kicks out of for a near fall. Ray reverses the Irish whip, sleeper, but Carly counters with a jawbreaker for the three. Great post-match as the kids invade ringside and even the ring itself to celebrate with the Colons while security ushers Gonzalez and Bronco out of there.

Dave Brown tells Spanky and Dragon how he was quite excited when they joined Power Pro wrestling, but what they did to Derrick King last week was disgusting in trying to break his leg. Spanky makes fun of DK before saying how he’s the best light heavyweight, he told King that, told everyone that and this belt might as well be called the Spankyweight title because he can’t be beat! Dave informs us that he’s got a title match coming up, although this seems to be news to Spanky. When he tells him that it’s against the American Dragon he thinks Dave must be mistaken, “we’re partners, we’re fellow Kliq members, we’re buddies!” Dragon says how he’s gotten fed up of Spanky running his mouth and although he claims to be the best light heavyweight, reminds him that he held the belt for as long as he did, before telling him that there will be a match and it will be now. A very familiar opening for these two as they work things around a wristlock. Lovely quick arm drag take down by Dragon. Spanky blocks the suplex attempt and hits a face first variety where he just dumps Dragon across the top rope before dropkicking him in the head for a two. Snap suplex followed by a slingshot senton to the back. As Spanky “whoooos” and plays to the crowd after a knife edge chop, Dragon boots him in the mid-section, switches their positions and destroys his chest with some chops of his own. Big dropkick and Dave saw Spanky’s eyes roll back into his head after that one! Running forearm smash, Northern Lights suplex while hooking the leg but Spanky is still able to kick out. Sunset flip by Dragon, Spanky goes to punch him, however Dragon moves and he punches the canvas instead. Leg lariat by Spanky, he picks Dragon up for a bodyslam only for a swinging to take out the referee. Frog splash but the ref is still down. Spanky picks up his title belt and is set to nail Dragon with it when out runs Derrick King who snatches it away and clocks him with it instead. Shooter Schultz is out to attack DK and the official rings for the bell, waving the match off on seeing Spanky and he putting the boots to him. Dragon pulls them both away, as if he’s helping King, then starts stomping him himself as the three of them triple team him. So they fought against each other in the first month of 2000, and do so again in the last month of the year (and most months in between too!). This is more about angle development in the Spanky and King feud, but there is enough here to see how the two have developed over that twelve month period. Their exchanges and sequences are so much tighter now than they were back then and there is a real aggressiveness in Dragon’s offense with his chops, forearms etc. Spanky still has moments where he can tend to look sloppy, but Dragon’s improvement in the space of a year is something to be seen.

Derrick King is defying doctor’s orders to wrestle, limping to the ring with his leg all taped up, as Dave Brown says how he’s got no business getting in there after what happened earlier, especially as the guys who did that to him are still in the building. Dropdown and a leap frog by King, but on landing he immediately grabs at his hurt leg which Schultz then sweeps out from under him. Shooter with an array of kicks and stomps as he focusses all his attention on that leg. He uses the ropes to his advantage, contorting the leg around them and even shoulder tackles the knee, flipping DK over in the process. Kneebreaker followed by a spinning toe hold. As he goes for it a second time, King kicks Schultz off and he goes flying into the turnbuckles. King fires back with some great looking jabs and an enziguri for a two. Bodyslam attempt, but that leg gives way and Shooter with a belly to belly suplex, although DK is able to get a foot over the bottom rope. As Shooter complains to the referee about the count King rolls him up from behind. Schultz kicks out, but in doing so sends DK crashing into the official. Superkick by King and he gets the visual three, counting it himself as the referee is still down. Spanky runs out and nails DK with a chair to the back of the knee. Boston crab by Schultz and the ref comes around and calls the match as King passes out from the pain. At Spanky’s encouragement Shooter puts him back in the crab post match when, to everyone’s surprise, Rob Harlem is out for the save and runs the Kliq off. Harlem is marching to his own beat though, for as soon as he sees off the Kliq he gives King a facebuster of his own. Solid match as things continue to build towards a Spanky/Derrick King title match. Although we didn’t see it, the attack on DK was by the Kliq, presumably as after he got the pin on Spanky last week he’s seen as a legitimate threat and they’re doing all they can to try and take him out of the picture. Although he lost, King showed plenty of guts in doing so, coming out for the match, not submitting and only really losing because of Spanky’s involvement. He also did a very nice sell job on that knee and the submission finish was also smartly done, with DK almost reaching the ropes before Schultz pulls him back to the middle and he subsequently passes out. Not sure what was going on with Rob Harlem here?

Steel ducks under an enziguiri and hits a face first full nelson slam on Dragon. Spanky tries to help his partner out but he gets slammed to the mat too. Blade with a high backdrop followed by a dropkick before tagging out to ‘All That’. Spanky reverses the whip to the corner, tip up by Steel, however Spanky catches and dumps him over the top rope onto the apron where Dragon levels him with a big boot to the face. The two trade chops and Dragon gets a two count after a snap mare/kick to the back, driving his forearm into the side of Steel’s face in the process. Spanky misses a moonsault off the middle and ‘All That’ is able to make the hot tag to Blade. DDT on Dragon and Spanky breaks up the cover in time. Flying forearm on Spanky who is barely gets his shoulder up. As the official is trying to get Steel back to his own corner, Dragon pulls out a foreign object which he slides under his mask. He headbutts Boudreaux, rolls Spanky on top and the ‘Kliq 2000’ get the win. We cut straight from the match to a taped interview with The Rock, which is being conducted by Jerry Lawler. ‘The King’ wants him to talk about the ‘Hell in the Cell’ match at Armageddon, but Rock finds it hard to concentrate knowing that they’re on Channel 5, where he started in the wrestling business with Corey Brown and Dave Maclin (sic). When Lawler corrects their names he says “it doesn’t matter what their names are, they’re jabronis to the Rock” Rock can’t believe that Bill Dundee is now the Commissioner in Memphis and that Randy Hales is still there (“he’s got to be about 89 by now!”). The interview closes by them plugging the PPV itself, the only way the people in Memphis can get to see the big ‘Hell in the Cell’ match. Both appeared to be enjoying themselves plenty during this little segment.

The new TV champion, Bulldog Raines, is out at the top of the show and he’s a big favourite with the studio fans. He says that this might sound a bit corny, but it’s time to stop the macho stuff, all the attitude and just be Scott Raines for a few minutes. For the past three years he’s been making the long drive from Georgia, he’s had some ups, some downs, but it’s all starting to finally pay off. Six months ago he almost quit wrestling because of an accident in the ring where he hurt Rick Havoc and it made him feel real bad. All the people got behind him though, let him know that accidents happen and it’s okay. Last week he won some gold and has watched how Spellbinder has been a fighting champion and wants to be just like him. He understands that Tracey Smothers wants some of this belt, so tells him to come and try and get it! Jason Sensation is back again and he’s accompanying Tracey Smothers out before taking up a position at the announcer’s desk. As Tracey is facing a ‘bulldog’ that’s a key for him to do his Davey Boy Smith impression, but bloody hell it’s terrible! After Raines drops Smothers with a shoulder tackle Sensation heads to ringside. Scoop powerslam by Bulldog and he’s up on the apron. The ref just gives him a shove though and he tumbles backwards to the concrete. He interferes a second time, hooking Bulldog’s ankle as he runs the ropes, and here comes Lance Cade to run him off. Sensation has got some comical facial expressions (and not in a good way) during this chase. Lance eventually snatches him and Tracey is leaning through the ropes to try and help out. Right hand to Smothers, Bulldog with his take on the ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ and he retains the TV title. Cade is double teamed by Tracey and Jason after the match, although Bulldog has disappeared out of sight and not stuck around. Heartfelt, genuine interview from Bulldog at the start, but the match itself was forgettable.