GSR

Road Dogg and X-Pac are confronting Vince McMahon as they want another title match against Edge and Christian. Vinnie Mac tells them all in good time because tonight is “family night”, DX family night, and they’ve got to stick together. Since it is family night, he wants X-Pac to defend the honour of his daughter Stephanie against Chris Jericho. Prior to the match commencing, Lillian Garcia introduces Earl Hebner, who’s been reinstated by Linda McMahon. Jericho cuts a promo and he feels sorry that X-Pac has to defend the integrity of a woman who has none. As far as Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley is concerned, the word ‘honour’ means ‘jump on her’ and ‘stay on her’. He goes on to spell the word ‘honour’ (wrongly by the sounds of it) and says that she is half of that...a ‘ho’! X-Pac escapes a hammerlock and gets the better of a shoulder tackle, but Jericho with a Japanese arm drag. Pac rolls to the floor, however Y2J is right on him with a baseball slide dropkick. He throws him into the ring steps before tossing him back inside. As Jericho climbs the turnbuckles, X-Pac kicks a leg out and he crotches himself. Superplex attempt is blocked; Y2J shoves Pac to the canvas only to then fail to connect with the missile dropkick. Spin kick in the corner drops Jericho, but he manages to avoid the ‘bronco buster’. Bulldog, and as Y2J runs the ropes, Tori grabs his ankle. The interference doesn’t really hinder him though as he ducks under a Pac clothesline and nails him with a flying forearm for two. Double powerbomb, Lionsault and Tori is up on the apron distracting referee Hebner. Springboard dropkick to Tori!!! Pac levels Jericho with a spin kick and somewhere along the line the cut on X-Pac’s forehead has been re-opened. ‘Bronco buster’ and Earl Hebner decides not to give him until five to break, but at two starts manhandling Pac and trying to pull him off Y2J. X-Pac shoves Hebner, Earl responds with one of his own (with Pac bumping for him) and then calls for the DQ due to him putting his hands on the official. Jericho with ‘the Walls’ on X-Pac post-match and Road Dogg is out for the save. The Dogg gets in Hebner’s face and he must be one strong cookie as a single shove now drops him too! Earl’s lost the plot and a bunch of other officials are out to restrain him. Huge improvement in the promo from Jericho here, and he was super over with the crowd who were all joining in with his ‘Raw is Jericho’ and ‘never...ever’ catchphrases. Work between the two was really good, and we even got a Tori bump off a springboard dropkick; however this felt more about storyline progression for Earl Hebner than the two wrestlers. I can appreciate he’s trying to show his authority and he’s not to be messed with, but I really wish they wouldn’t bump and take pratfalls so easily for him though. Personally I wouldn’t have him putting his hands on the wrestlers period, but if he’s going to push them, don’t fall over off a solitary shove from a 160lb 50 year old man!

Joey Matthews struggles with Jack Dupp’s size in the early goings. He ducks under a clothesline, satellite headscissors and a Japanese arm drag. York with the blind tag and a double suplex on their larger opponent. Double hip toss on Bo, and a pair of dropkicks sends the Dupps tumbling to the outside. Jack avoids the baseball slide and then backdrops Christian into the ropes, who rebounds with a headscissors to the floor. Bo is around to help his partner, but Matthews with a plancha off the top to them both. Back in the ring, and a charging headbutt to the chest of Joey by Bo after Jack had caused a distraction on the apron. Double shoulder tackle by the Dupps for two. Scoop powerslam and Matthews is able to kick out of the cover. Bo telegraphs a backdrop, but before Joey can take advantage, he grabs him by the hair and slams him backwards to the canvas. Double team behind the officials back as they continue to take it to him. Abdominal stretch, but Joey ducks under the short lariat and a release German suplex on Jack. Hot tag, and York with a superkick apiece to both Dupps. A nice looking tornado DDT on Bo, and Jack is there to break up the pin in time. Stereo punches in the corner, but Jack just dumps Joey and he takes a crazy chest first bump over the top and to the arena floor. Double slam on York and the Dupps come out on top. I’m pretty sure the Dupps were already under contract to the WWF at this point as they’d regularly been doing Raw and Smackdown dark matches, whilst this is the first recorded match for York and Matthews that I could find there. If you’ve never seen the Dupps, they’re a couple of big, burly, bruiser types and there’s certainly nothing flash about them, unlike their opponents. A simply structured match (shine, heat, looks like the faces are going to win but the heels pull it out in the end), however sometimes simple is all you need. Joey Matthews took a couple of crazy bumps, the Dupps were perfect bases for York and Matthews’ flying and it’s the best the latter has looked so far this year. Kinda surprised that this didn’t really lead to something for them, unless they were just considered too similar to the Hardyz.

Jaguar is accompanied by Sir Ronald J. Niemi IV and ‘Honest’ Eddie Edwards (an official not the future wrestler!). Niemi cuts a quick promo and claims that the only reason Scoot got to the finals of the ECWA Super 8 was because Jet Jaguar was eliminated after suffering a concussion at the hands of Jeff Peterson, and that he’s here today, along with ‘Honest’ Eddie Edwards, to make sure the IPW Jr Heavyweight championship goes home with Jaguar. Flash roll up off a hammerlock by Jet for two. Scoot responds with one of his own and ‘Honest’ Eddie with a super slow count. Christ, not the heel referee gimmick! Facebuster and a bodyslam, before he throws Jaguar through the ropes and to the outside. That’s not much of a bump though as the ring is only about a foot off the floor! Terrible looking tope from Scoot and a slingshot back inside. Andrews whips him to the corner, Jet with the tip up, however when Scoot shoves him off, he lands on the apron. A couple of shoulders to the mid-section by Jet, he heads upstairs, but Scoot falls into the ropes causing him to lose his balance. Something resembling a ‘Quackendriver’ off the top for a slow two. Andrews is starting to get pissed with these slow counts (he’s not the only one!) and ‘Honest’ Eddie is grabbing at his ribs trying to claims he’s hurt. Dropkick, but Jaguar holds onto the ropes and Scoot hits only air. Jet with a couple of pinfall attempts and Edwards has appeared to have made a miraculous recovery as he’s counting fine now. Scoot then hits something that we completely miss because the referee is stood in the way. That pesky rib injury is back and this is tedious! Plancha off the top to the floor by Jet. ‘Iron claw’ and Scoot is able to get a shoulder up before the three. Legdrop off the middle, a powerbomb, but neither is enough to put his opponent away. Andrews with this awesome pumphandle into a Rikishi driver, and now Niemi is up on the apron and distracting Edwards from counting the pin. Scoot shoves the official and Jet is back to his feet pretty quickly and low blows him. A sloppy looking ‘X-Factor’ (with Scoot jumping too early and looking like he’s doing the move to himself), big splash off the top and Jet retains his IPW Light Heavyweight title. I hated this. I’m not a fan of heel referees in the first place, but when you’re slow counting the face’s pin within the first 30 seconds of the match you know you’re in for a long night! Why should I even invest in a match when I know the official isn’t going to count the fall? His actions right there killed this for me. Edwards could’ve at least called it straight until the closing moments, and then gone dodgy official, at least that way I would’ve viewed this differently. Camera work wasn’t as bad as the Horowitz/Janetty bout, but still wasn’t good, and kind of reminiscent of that West Side Playaz tag match from APW last month. Work (bar that pumphandle into a Rikishi driver) was nothing to write home about and Scoot looked plain bad on a couple of occasions, which was a surprise as I’ve liked what I’ve seen of him (and Jet) so far in the project.

Super Crazy is already in the ring when out wanders Cyrus who says that now’s the time ‘The Network’ takes control. He removes his jacket and Joey Styles believes he’s actually going to wrestle. Cyrus claims he’s ready to beat Crazy for the TV title tonight, but he’s not going to soil his hands on him and his opponent will be Rhino. Rhino is out followed by Steve Corino and Jack Victory and takes it right to Crazy. Whip to the turnbuckle, Crazy avoids the charge though and a hip toss takedown. Lionsault, Rhino moves out the way and although he lands on his feet, Rhino immediately takes him off them again with a clothesline. Corino passes him a table which he props up in the corner. A second whip to the turnbuckles, this time Crazy steps through the ropes and onto the apron avoiding the onrushing ‘manbeast’. Forearm to the face and a great springboard spinning leg lariat. Rhino takes to the floor, and when Corino and Victory are around to check on him, Crazy with a plancha off the top onto all three. Swinging DDT for two. Crazy goes for the ‘ten punch’ spot in the corner, but Rhino counters with a sit out powerbomb for a two of his own. Rear chinlock as he looks to ground his high flying opponent. Backdrop over the top rope, however Crazy lands on the apron. Shoulderblock to the mid-section followed by a series of forearms which drop the big man, and a springboard moonsault off the middle rope for two. It looks like something (probably a fight!) is going on in the crowd, so Crazy slows the action down until the fans are back watching them instead of what’s going on out there. Crazy tries to counter a powerbomb, but Rhino lifts him over his shoulder and drives him through that table which he’d position in the corner earlier. The Network celebrate thinking that the TV title is coming to them, only for Crazy to kick out of the pin. Huge powerbomb, but it’s still not enough to put him away. Victory passes Rhino another table and he then sits Crazy up on the top turnbuckle. As he sets himself for a superplex, Crazy gets in first with a low blow. Sunset flip into a powerbomb off the top through the table, and Crazy with the upset three to retain the TV title. He’s jumped by Steve Corino after the match and The Network beat on him, whilst Victory sets up yet another table in the corner. Sandman comes to Crazy’s aid (only after chugging down a beer) and canes Corino and Victory. He does the same to Rhino but he doesn’t go down. Rhino then ducks out the way of the swinging cane and Corino drops Sandman with a superkick. The ‘manbeast’ picks up Crazy and drives him and Sandman through that third table. Rhino then canes the snot out of Sandman and drinks his beer as Cyrus says how no-one stands up to The Network. Good match here with Crazy defeating the odds of the Network to retain the belt and get a surprise pinfall over Rhino. The Network get their heat back at the end leaving everyone laying, and on the back of the Tajiri/Guido match this was a great episode of TNN.

Jeff is challenging his brother, who is carrying a trash can full of weapons to the ring with him, for the Hardcore title. He takes a garbage can lid and hands Jeff a baking tray, however when he tosses it aside wanting no part of the weapons, he clocks him over the head with the lid. Matt wedges the baking tray between the turnbuckles, but Jeff reverses the whip to the corner and Matt is the one who crashes head first into it. Broom assisted double legdrop off the top by Jeff. He collects a fire extinguisher from under the ring, as Perry Saturn walks out to get a closer look of his opponents for Backlash. Jeff’s too slow returning to the ring though and Matt waffles him with the lid again. He has his brother tied in the ‘tree of woe’ and places Jeff’s head in the trash can which he then dropkicks. With Jeff still trapped in it, Matt with a moonsault onto the can which looks like it could’ve crushed Jeff the way it bent! Only a two count though, as Bob Holly has now joined Saturn at ringside. Jeff sidesteps a charging Matt sending him flying through the ropes to the outside. The Hardyz both collect a ladder from under the ring on opposite sides, but Jeff foregoes his in order to dropkick the one Matt was carrying into him. Tazz is next out, and Jeff with a sky high legdrop off the top and over the ladder onto Matt. He signals for the ‘Swanton bomb’ from the top of the ladder, but Matt lets the fire extinguisher off before he’s able to jump. He then launches the garbage can at him, and Jeff falls from the ladder and onto Tazz and Saturn at ringside (Tazz had grabbed Saturn to stop him interfering). The three of them start fighting each other, and never one to miss out on a ruck, Holly gets involved too. Plancha off the top to the floor by Matt, although he doesn’t really connect with anyone. He rolls his brother back inside leaving the others to fight amongst themselves. Crash Holly appears from nowhere, breaks up the pin and then hits Matt over the head with the trash can. He covers him for the three and to reclaim the Hardcore title, before collecting the belt and sprinting to the back. I’m higher than everyone else with this. I thought the effort from both was excellent, some innovative spots (broom assisted legdrop, ‘tree of woe’ with Jeff’s head in the trash can and Matt’s moonsault) and it was nicely structured to build for the Backlash six way. Especially liked the way Crash was in, out and left with the title at the end. Real fun stuff here.

Despite Benoit and Saturn wearing ‘Radicalz’ T-shirts they are not referred to as them, just by their individual names which says plenty in itself. The match kicks off with all four men in the ring and the teams immediately pair off. The official finally gains some order and Saturn with an F-5 on Y2J. Irish whip and Jericho shoots through his legs and goes for ‘the Walls’ early. Benoit is in to try and help his partner but he’s cut off by Tazz, however as the referee tries to get him back on the apron, ‘the Crippler’ then nails Y2J with his I-C title. Jericho ducks under a clothesline, flying forearm and he’s able to make the tag. Northern Lights suplex and Benoit breaks the pin by kicking away one of Tazz’s legs. Belly to back by Saturn and Benoit with a running elbow smash for two. Great backbreaker/top rope knee across the chest from the ‘no longer known as’ the Radicalz. ‘Crippler crossface’ and Jericho saves Tazz with a dropkick to the back of Benoit’s head. Bulldog on ‘the Crippler’ and now Saturn is the one having to break up the count. ‘Tazzmission’ on Saturn, but before he can fully apply it Saturn dives through the ropes to the floor taking Tazz with him. As he gets back up on the apron, Jericho reverses the Irish whip and sends Benoit crashing into his own partner. One Lionsault later and Y2J and Tazz get the win.

Video recap of Triple H’s ‘bad day from Monday night with his title match against Chris Jericho, the firing of Earl Hebner and then Linda McMahon announcing that Steve Austin will be in the Rock’s corner for Backlash. Lengthy in ring promo by ‘the Game’ where he again runs down what happened on Raw, before making a Rock vs Chris Jericho lumberjack match for tonight’s show. His brother-in-law Shane is carefully selecting the lumberjacks and they are taking care of business. He says there will be no more ‘bad days’, when he’s interrupted by Tazz’s music (to a decent pop). Tazz is wearing the ECW title and Michael Cole informs us that he won the belt on a day off last week. In a not-so-clear way he challenges Triple H, who accepts and tells him to bring that little belt he’s got around his waist and he’ll prove to everyone that ECW sucks. As Tazz is making his entrance for the match, ‘the King’ says how people are treating what Tazz did as a big deal, but on his days off he used to go to ECW and kick some butt himself! Triple H and he square up to one another and there’s a pretty big size difference between them. Collar and elbow tie up, HHH backs Tazz into the corner, he goes to cheap shot him, but Tazz blocks and drops him with a right. A pair of lariats, T-Bone suplex attempt and Triple H with a series of elbows to the head for the break. After Tazz ducks a clothesline, he clotheslines ‘the Game’ over the top rope and to the outside. Bodyslam on the arena floor, but HHH reverses the whip into the ring steps and Tazz goes crashing into them. Suplex and a knee to the forehead for two. Tazz starts to fire back and a belly to back suplex. ‘The Game’ escapes a ‘head and arm Tazzplex’, but is then caught in a lovely Northern Lights for a near fall. ‘Tazzmission’ and Stephanie is up on the apron distracting the referee. A back kick low blow from Triple H and the pedigree. Tommy Dreamer’s arrived through the crowd and is having to be physically held back on the apron by the official. Triple H heads over and slugs him, sending Dreamer falling to the ring floor and resulting in referee Chioda getting bumped as well. Tommy collects a chair, swings it at ‘the Game’, but he pulls Tazz in front of him and he gets accidentally hit instead. Pedigree on Dreamer and the official comes round to count the pin on Tazz. Similarly to the Awesome/Tazz ECW title change, it’s amazing that a match between the WWF champion and ECW champion ever took place, and on WWF TV too. This didn’t do much for me as I was bored by Triple H’s promo (made worse by the fact all he was doing was repeating what we’d just watched in the video package) and Tazz’s challenge wasn’t the clearest. Tazz got in more offense than I expected, and there was a real close near fall off the Northern Lights, so it wasn’t the complete squash that I was expecting. Dreamer takes a great looking pedigree mind.

Raw is kicking off with this Triple H/Chris Jericho match, with ‘the Game’ defending the honour of his wife for the way Y2J spoke to her on Smackdown. Jericho is out first and says how he’s in hot water for calling Stephanie a “bargain basement slut” last week. He is therefore out here to apologize…apologize to all the bargain basement sluts for even comparing them to the miserable slime ball that is Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. Triple H marches to the ring like a man possessed and Y2J ducks out to the floor. He’s still got hold of the mic and says how valiant and touching it is for Triple H to come out here for the honour of his wife. If he thinks she’s really special though and really wants to impress her, what he should do is put the WWF title on the line. Shane McMahon tries to talk ‘the Game’ out of it, but he’s not thinking straight and agrees to Jericho’s request. At this point Y2J says how he made an investment earlier tonight for this match only, and introduces the Acolytes. Jericho ducks under a swinging right and drops ‘the Game’ with a flying forearm. He unloads with punches, chops and kicks in the corner, and after a clothesline, mounts and unloads some more on him. Triple H reverses the Irish whip, boot to the stomach, however as he charges, Y2J backdrops him over the top and to the outside. ‘The Game’ avoids a baseball slide dropkick and decks his opponent with a big right. He tosses Jericho inside and takes a few moments himself to recover, but when he climbs up on the apron he’s levelled with a springboard dropkick sending him crashing back to the arena floor. Triple H blocks Jericho’s attempted suplex into the ring and clotheslines him on the top rope. High knee and an elbow drop across the throat. They’re once again on the outside and HHH whips Jericho into the ring steps. Nice vertical suplex. Now ‘the Game’ is the one mounting his opponent and after firing down punches, the camera zooms in to show Y2J bleeding from the mouth. DDT, before heading upstairs. He’s too slow though and Jericho with an arm drag off the top. Back elbow, missile dropkick off the middle and Triple H gets the shoulder up at the last moment as JR screams “could be all, could be all”. Jericho counters a pedigree attempt with ‘the Walls’, but ‘the Game’ fights it for all he’s worth and he’s not able to turn it completely over. He decides to catapult him into the corner instead, however Mike Chioda is in the way and gets sandwiched between Triple H and the turnbuckles. Bulldog, he climbs to the top but Shane swipes his leg causing him to crotch himself. The Acolytes chase after Shane who flees all the way to the back, while Stephanie throws the World title belt into the ring. ‘The Game’ goes to pick it up, but Jericho kicks him as he does so, grabs it himself and KO’s the champ. He makes the cover even though he can see Chioda is still down (will he ever learn?). Earl Hebner sprints down to take his place and ‘the Game’ kicks out at two. Jericho telegraphs a backdrop and Triple H with a facebuster. When he sees arch nemesis Hebner in the ring, he shoves him to the mat. Spinning heel kick by Y2J, Lionsault and Earl (fastish) counts the three as we have a new WWF World Heavyweight champion. ‘The Game’ makes a beeline for Hebner, but he’s kept at bay by The Acolytes. We return from a commercial break to see Triple H and Shane McMahon in the referee’s dressing room and the pair of them are strong arming Chioda and Hebner back to the ring. ‘The Game’ is irate and is insistent that Earl, who Shane now has in a full nelson, ‘screwed’ him. He gets Chioda to confirm that he was the assigned official for the match and wants him to check out the closing moments of it on the big screen. On seeing it, Chioda admits that Earl fast counted Triple H. ‘The Game’ sends Chioda on his way and tells Hebner how the official referee of the match said he screwed him and he wants him to reverse his decision. Earl says “No”, however after Shane grabs him and it looks like Triple H is going to attack him, he then says he’ll reverse the decision as long as while he’s a WWF referee, no-one touches or puts their hands on him ever again. HHH tells him that he’s got a deal and orders him to go and get the belt back from Chris Jericho. Y2J walks out to meet Earl and seems to give it up pretty easily, after making a crack about how their match didn’t take place, just like Stephanie didn’t sleep with all the guys in the back. Triple H instructs Earl to put the belt around his waist and wants to talk about their deal that they just made. He says he’s a man of his word and as long as Earl is a WWF official, no-one will ever lay a hand on him again. ‘The Game’ however then fires ‘his ass’ and gives him a Shane assisted pedigree. A bunch of referees and Sgt. Slaughter are then out to put a stop to things before he assaults him anymore. I’m still not sold on Jericho’s promos, but he was better here in the opening than when he was chucking childish insults at Benoit and Angle in their feud. I liked too how he goaded Triple H into making it a title match, and despite Shane’s protestations he was so angry that he just agreed without much thought. Match was very good with a super hot crowd, who were hugely behind Jericho and popped big time on the near falls and when he was working to get ‘the Walls’. I though Stephanie was tremendous on the outside, especially with her facials when it looked like her man might actually lose. Post-match section was excellent as Chioda reluctantly has to agree that Earl fast counted him, then Earl only agreeing to reverse his decision if Triple H promises that no-one ever puts their hands on him again whilst he’s a WWF official. Of course this leads to him being fired, only after he’s retrieved the belt, and pedigreed. Whilst I don’t have an issue with the Acolytes (they only work if you pay them) or Jericho (in his mind Earl has just ‘screwed’ him of the World title) not coming to Hebner’s aid, I did think that Y2J gave up the title far too easily and without much fuss. Still a very good match, made even better with everything else that surrounds it.

Benoit and Malenko are still being referred to as ‘the Radicalz’ which I doubt will last much longer. Matt with a high hip toss on Malenko, followed by a drop toe hold. Whip to the turnbuckles, but he side steps out the way and Hardy goes crashing into them. Dean tags in ‘the Crippler’, and after the Radicalz miss a double team lariat in the corner, Malenko dropkicks Matt and Benoit with the rolling German suplexes. Back elbows by Hardy prevent the third and break the hold, but as he goes to nail Malenko on the apron, Benoit dropkicks him in the back sending him tumbling out of the ring. Back inside and an elbow to the jaw of the charging ‘Crippler’, bulldog off the middle and he’s able to make the tag to his brother. Jeff takes it to the Radicalz until Benoit reverses an Irish whip and boots him in the mid-section. He lifts him up for a powerbomb, but with Jeff on his shoulders, walks backwards and tags Dean who comes off the top with a flying clothesline. Lariat in the corner connects and Benoit with a vicious looking short clothesline. Running elbow smash for two. Drop toe hold/baseball slide dropkick double team. ‘The Crippler’ whips Jeff chest first into the turnbuckles and sits him on top for a belly to back superplex, however Hardy is able to counter in mid-air and lands on top. Hot tag to Matt, but he’s quickly stopped in his tracks by a Malenko flying leg lariat. Jeff breaks up the count at two and all four men are in the ring. ‘Poetry in Motion’ on Dean, but Benoit then launches him over the top rope to the floor. Malenko with a powerslam and cover on Matt, however the official is trying to get ‘the Crippler’ out the ring. ‘Swanton bomb’ to the back of Malenko and Matt drapes an arm over for the three as Jeff takes care of Benoit. It’s kinda unfortunate that Malenko and Benoit’s trajectory are taking them in separate directions because they’re bloody good here (Light Heavyweight and I-C champion respectively). Fast paced action, quick tags, nice double team manoeuvres, they’d have been a hell of an asset to the tag team division. Real good TV match and a surprise to see the Hardyz come out on top.

This is announced as Quack’s final match in professional wrestling, and Montoya had won a previous Battle Royale to earn the right to face him in his retirement match. The commentator mentions as well as being the FWA champion, Quack is also the SDW Jr Heavyweight champion and the ‘Three Way Dance’ champion, the latter a title I’ve never heard of before. Quack utilizes a Johnny Saint style escape out of a go behind and a Tiger Mask drop toehold. Don escapes a headscissors, applies a side headlock and with the camera zoomed in, smiles and winks at it! After a satellite headscissors Montoya takes to the floor, but Quack with a flip dive between the top and middle ropes out onto him. He throws Don back into the ring although is caught with a flapjackm winding him. A pair of chops by Montoya, but he’s no Benoit when it comes to laying them in. Double rear chinlock as he starts to take control in the match. T-Bone suplex for two. Corkscrew legdrop, and after posing to the crowd he attempts to pin Quack with one foot on his chest. Hmmm… Montoya tosses him to the outside where a member of the audience throws what looks like an empty burger wrapper at him. He points and says something to the guy as the commentator informs us that you can’t do that and he’ll be ejected from the building. Don lays Quack on a ringside table and climbs the turnbuckles, only for the spoil sport referee to stand between them to prevent him from doing anything. Back inside and Quack counters a ‘Death Valley Driver’ with a sunset flip, however Montoya rolls through and a lovely rocking horse Boston crab. He turns it into a regulation one before abandoning the hold when it’s clear he’s not going to get a submission. Montoya grabs his water bottle for a bit of rehydration, only to hit Quack in the head with it. A series of crossfaces, but as Quack fires back, he just kicks him between the legs. The crowd start to chant “boring, boring” at Don, so slaps on a rear chinlock in the middle of the ring and sits on it. Good man! He sets Quack for a superplex, however he blocks the attempt, shoves him backwards to the canvas and then nails him with a missile dropkick. Nip up and he’s found a second wind from somewhere. Don’s back on the outside again having a breather, and Quack with a plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Roaring elbow, diving headbutt and Montoya kicks out just in time. Flying palm strike, springboard splash, but this time Don gets his knees up. Powerbomb and now Quack is the one kicking out. Fisherman suplex as the near falls continue, whilst even an ‘Ace Crusher’ off the top isn’t enough to put Quack away. A reverse DDT is reversed and a ‘Quackensmash’ (double jump, springboard twisting senton) for two. Montoya blocks the Dragon suplex and a trio of rolling Germans for…you guessed it. He heads upstairs but is too slow and Quack is back to his feet. Palm strike, ‘Quackendriver’ off the top and ‘Lightning’ Mike wins his retirement bout. Post-match Don puts Quack over and hopes he’ll come back at some point so they can do this one more time, before offering him his hand and strapping the FWA title around his waist. Some dude then announces that El Hijo del Santo is coming to the FWA on 4/15 for one reason, the FWA title and he wants to know if Quack will be here to defend it. He lays the belt in the middle of the ring as the crowd chant “please don’t go” and doesn’t give an answer one way or the other before leaving. Add me to the Loss camp here, and interesting that this match didn’t make the four disc ‘Best of the FWA’ compilation that was put out by Smartmark video. I really enjoyed this, although at times in the first half, have to agree that the action was ‘too’ slow. It felt like Montoya was at times stalling (tying his boot laces, walking around the ring, playing to the crowd) just to drag this out to over thirty minutes. The early portion was very reminiscent of a World of Sport bout, and you can clearly see that as an influence on Quack. From here Montoya goes on a lengthy heat section and the crowd weren’t the most receptive with their “boring” chants, although absolutely digged Montoya just sitting on a rear chinlock when they did it the once. They ramped it up at the end with all the near falls, but think they probably did too many two counts before the winning ‘Quackendriver’ off the top. Montoya’s offense in this finishing stretch also looked much better than Quacks by the way. The whole retirement stipulation was very weird, maybe they just wanted to pop a house? I don’t know. Another feather in Montoya’s cap here after the Horowitz and Low Ki bouts.

This one gets started before the wrestlers even get into the cage as the Board of Education wait on the arena floor for Spanky and Dragon, and then jump them as soon as they walk through the curtain. The four of them fight at ringside with Dragon giving Rueben Cruz a snap suplex on the concrete. They finally make it inside and American Force double team Jeremy Sage with a drop toehold/dropkick to the head, followed by a camel clutch/dropkick to the face. Wheelbarrow into a bulldog on Cruz. Spankensteiner! Sage counters a Dragon Irish whip and drops him with a spinning kick, while as Spanky goes for a second rana, Cruz just pushes him backwards off his shoulder. Spanky lands directly on his head and he’s lucky he didn’t break his neck on that. The Board of Education then step out of the ring (for seemingly no reason whatsoever) and Shawn Michaels says on commentary that this isn’t one of those WWF cage matches where if you get out the cage you win, you have to pin your man in the middle here. Crossbody off the top of the cage to the floor by Dragon. Ah, that’s why they stepped out of it! Spanky sets up a table and lays Sage on it, however as he climbs the cage, Cruz drags him down. Cruz then whips him into the cage, but Spanky runs up it and falls backwards into him. It looks like he was attempting a take on Jodie Fleisch’s ‘Wall Unit’, but didn’t manage to flip all the way over. Dragon’s clutching at his shoulder and he could’ve legitimately hurt it on that dive. As they return to the ring, the BOE throw Spanky repeatedly into the cage busting him open. Spinebuster by Cruz and Sage with a kneedrop off the middle for two. They rip Spanky’s pants off and a butterfly suplex for another two. Dragon is able to come and help his partner out, although he’s favouring the right side and is only throwing left jabs and headbutts. Sage stops him in his tracks with a lariat as the BOE are back in control of things. Cruz grinds Spanky's bloodied face into the cage, while Sage takes a chair to Dragon’s injured shoulder as the two of them are back on the outside. Suplex/guillotine legdrop, but Dragon is able to break up the pin in time. His mask is completely torn now, although he made sure to collect the Board’s paddle when he was just on the floor. Kick to the chest of Cruz and a belly to back on Sage. Spanky and Dragon then give the BOE a taste of their own medicine, repeatedly launching them into one side of the cage and then the other. Running elbow smash to Cruz as he’s backed in the corner. Sage avoids a flying Spanky who crashes and burns into the cage. Double team airplane spin/Ace crusher on Dragon. Cruz makes the cover but Spanky is there to break it up. Dropkick to the back of Sage. Face first suplex on Cruz and instead of helping his partner Sage rolls out the cage. Top rope elbow from Dragon and Spanky with the frog splash. Oh, here’s Sage, he’d been to collect a chair from ringside and after stopping the cover, swings it at Dragon. Spanky breaks the paddle of Sage’s head and tosses him through the cage door to the floor. A second face first suplex on Cruz and Sage seems to think that climbing the cage is a better way to return to the ring than using the door! Spanky climbs from inside, nails him with a right and he takes a nestea plunge through the table that they’d set up earlier. Elbow off the top of the cage by Dragon, Spanky with the cover and we have new TWA tag team champions. Good opening with the Board of Education jumping Spanky and Dragon before they even got in the ring. The two teams going at it on the floor for a bit added a real urgency to things, and they weren’t going to wait until they were in the cage to get their hands on their opponents. I wasn’t keen on them just leaving the cage at various points though. The whole purpose of a cage is to keep everyone trapped, there’s no escape from your opponent, nowhere to go, and here they are exiting out the door and doing as they please. Yeah, Shawn Michaels said this isn’t like a WWF cage match and you can only win by pinning your opponent, it doesn’t matter if you leave the cage, but it all felt very contrived and that the only reason they did it was so Dragon could do his crossbody to the floor, and later so Sage could take the backwards bump through the table. I couldn’t tell if Dragon had legitimately injured his arm or not and first, and I liked him throwing lefts and headbutts whilst protecting it. The problem was he would then proceed to use the right (and on strength moves) before going back to selling it (which indicated to me he was working), something he kept up for the rest of the match. Still, he did better than most veterans would do here. The effort was real strong by all four here with Spanky juicing and Dragon having his match torn off, although their collective inexperience showed.

Jericho says that contrary to what they may believe, he’s ecstatic that Eddy and Chyna are now together, although he does wonder which one of them is the man in their relationship and who has the bigger package! The crowd are behind Y2J here and he peppers Eddy with rights before dropping him with a forearm. Double underhook into a backbreaker. Eddy’s stooging and using referee Tim White as a shield, although when he sees an opportunity he dropkicks Jericho in the leg taking him off his feet. He goes to work on his knee even busting out a Figure Four. Y2J grabs the ropes for the break and then Eddy lights him up with some stiff chops. Whip to the turnbuckles, but Jericho gets a foot up as Eddy charges at him. Payback time with some chops of his own. Great sunset flip out the corner, however Y2J counters into the ‘Walls of Jericho’. Chyna’s up on the apron and Jericho releases the hold to try and get his hands on her. She drops to the floor out of his reach and a quick roll up by Eddy, with his feet on the ropes for added leverage, gets a two. Chyna tosses the European title to her man and is back on the apron distracting the official. The wrestlers play ‘tug of war’ over the belt, but when Eddy wins, he goes flying backwards into White who gets bumped for the second week in a row. Jericho ducks the belt shot and a flying forearm results in it crashing into Eddy’s own face. Lionsault, but Chyna with a low blow. DDT, she puts Eddy on top, and again he gets the victory. I preferred this to their match last week as there was an added edginess to things after what happened with Chyna turning on Y2J. Similarly to Jericho/Benoit, these two aren’t afraid to hold anything back on each other and lay those chops in. I did expect Jericho to kick out of the DDT this time though, so a bit of a surprise when it was the finish again. Also you can start to see the development of Eddy’s character here with the stooging and some of his mannerisms.

Blaze is in the ring and he’s supposed to be announcing who his mystery partner is but is more interested in insulting the crowd. He eventually introduces Corporal Robinson who joins him in taking pops at the audience while adding plenty of profanity. Blaze says he’s fed up of coming to this redneck town and asks Corp whether they should leave, before deciding to grace everyone with their presence for as few more minutes as they take care of some unfinished business with ‘the King of KFC’, ‘the Hardcore Handicapped’, Ian Rotten. After all the wrestlers make their entrance we get yet more mic work and referee Jim Fannin even takes a seat in the corner. Finally after some 24 minutes, the action at last gets underway. IWA-MS is still, like last month, being filmed by one hard camera making it difficult to follow everything, especially when the wrestlers are on opposite sides of the building. Ian breaks a light tube over the back of Blaze’s neck and gigs him with a shard of the glass. Rotten himself is busted open early, and Blaze gives him a receipt, breaking some light tubes over his head. Corp and Ox are going at it in the parking lot and the pair of them are already bleeding too. Blaze is crumpled in the corner and Ian with a baseball slide dropkick to some light tubes he’d positioned in front of his groin. All four men are now in the ring and this is like a ‘Texas Tornado’ bout. DDT by Corp on Ox and Blaze with a guillotine legdrop off the top. Not sure if that’s the smartest of moves with all that broken glass in the ring! Ian gets a bra from someone and puts it on Blaze which garners the loudest reaction so far (I don’t think these fans are the most open minded!). The customary Ian brain cell destroying chair shot over the head of Corp. Ox with a suplex on the floor to Blaze and Robinson grinds a barbed wire baseball bat into Ian’s bloody forehead. DDT on Blaze, but Ox then misses the moonsault as he moves out the way. He throws Harley to the floor as Ian nails Corp over the back with a light bulb covered stick. He heads upstairs only to be jumped by three folk who I don’t recognise. The one of them dropkicks him and he takes a backwards bump off the apron and through a barbed wire light tube board. As they continue to attack him, the action is still ongoing in the ring and Harley with a reverse DDT on Blaze for the win. Corp gives referee Fannin the ‘boot camp’ and the heels turn their attention to Ox. A couple of guys try to make the save, but Blaze lays them both out with spinning powerbombs until a weapon swinging Rollin Hard clears the ring of them all. Rollin then challenges them to a five on five ‘War Games’ match for next week. I was I had read the reviews about skipping the first twenty five minutes of this! The insulting of the audience is okay at first, but it just goes on…and on…and on… Same issue as previously about it being tricky to follow the action due to the one hard camera, and there isn’t really much meat to the match, just lots of breaking of light tubes and hitting each other with weapons. Shame we don’t have the ‘War Games’ match as I imagine in that venue it would be one chaotic sight.

The two combatants are nose to nose, Rikishi block a right and decks ‘the Crippler’ with one of his own. He levels him with a clothesline before whipping him into the ropes. Benoit counters the backdrop with a sunset flip, however he’s not able to take Rikishi down and only just avoids being squashed by a sit down splash. A dropkick to the back of the seated Samoan, followed by repeated kicks and stomps to the mid-section. ‘The Crippler’s’ chops have no effect other than firing Rikishi up, and he hits an ‘Ace Crusher’ (which Michael Cole calls a neckbreaker) which he doesn’t quite get all of. After whipping Benoit chest first into the turnbuckles, a thrust kick to the back of the head. He goes for the splash in the corner, but Benoit sidesteps out the way and a Northern Lights suplex for the three. Rikishi gets the better of the post-match, as when ‘the Crippler’ charges him, he lays him out with a Samoan drop, gives him the stinkface and then a ‘Banzai splash’. Rikishi had a knee brace on his knee so I wondered if he was injured or whether it was just a case of continuing to push Benoit up to the main event level. This felt even quicker than the victory he had over Tazz, and over a guy like Rikishi who’s one of the top faces in the company at this point. The Northern Lights was as cool as hell to do it on a guy his size, but the crowd seemed as shocked as me that it was the finish. The post-match was all about making Rikishi look strong and getting him his heat back.

Eddy’s sure that Chyna wants some ‘Latino Heat’, even though her face says otherwise, and tells her that this one’s for her. He rushes into the ring and the two of them immediately start swinging at each other. Nice uppercut from Guerrero. Irish whip to the corner, Eddy says something to Chyna though instead of staying on his opponent, and when he charges, Y2J launches him over his head and he goes crashing into the top turnbuckle. Jericho with some knife edge chops, however Eddy counters the powerbomb attempt with a sunset flip before dropping Y2J with a clothesline. Flying elbow followed by a sleeper as Jericho is coming off the ropes. I like how Eddy applies it here, leaping into the hold so he can lock it in deeper. Belly to back suplex for the escape. Eddy tosses Jericho to the floor and into the ring steps. They trade chops, but Guerrero quickly realises he wants no more of that and a poke to the eyes stops Y2J in his tracks. Vertical suplex and Eddy gives Chyna a wink. Again he’s spending too long fixated in her and misses a dive off the top as a result. Scoop powerslam by Jericho and a bulldog for two as the momentum in the match has changed. Drop toe hold, but Eddy goes flying into referee Tim White who falls out of the ring and to the floor. Great double powerbomb, Lionsault and Y2J makes the cover even though the official is down. Chyna checks on White, and when he doesn’t move, she gets in the ring and counts the pin herself. After raising Jericho’s hand, she double crosses him with a boot to the mid-section and a DDT. She puts Eddy on top of him, throws White back in the ring and we have a new European champion. Eddy’s a bit unsure about what’s gone on until Chyna lifts him to his feet and the pair of them embrace. No surprise whatsoever that these too worked well together. The ref bump was a bit suspect, and not the first time recently we’ve seen Jericho make a cover when he’s been fully aware that there is no official to count it. The Eddy and Chyna alliance moves him away from ‘the Radicalz’ as the group slowly starts to go their own way.

Our ‘Olympic Hero’ is most disappointed after being informed earlier today that he will have to put up both of his titles in a ‘two fall, triple threat’ match at Wrestlemania. He believes it’s a conspiracy, and tonight will give Chris Benoit a taste of what’s in store for him then. Chris Jericho is out after the wrestlers and slowly makes his way to join Michael Cole and ‘the King’. Angle is keeping an eye on him, but ends up being blindsided by Benoit at the bell. Bodyslam, followed by a baseball slide dropkick which sends Angle rolling out of the ring. He whips Kurt chest first into the turnbuckles and grabs him around the waist, however a pair of back elbows for the break. Release overhead belly to belly, and Angle just unloads on Benoit in the corner with rapid fire punches. A regulation suplex for two, at which point the cameras cut backstage to show Bob Backlund watching the match on a monitor. Angle whips ‘the Crippler’ into the turnbuckles, however when he charges at him, Benoit get the boot up. Rolling German suplexes, after the final one though Kurt is able to get a foot over the rope to break the pin. Benoit’s chops are absolutely vicious here. Accidental clash of heads with ‘the Crippler’ coming out on the worse end. Angle collects one of his title belts and is about to wallop Benoit with it, when Y2J leaves the commentary desk, grabs the other one and nails Kurt with it for the DQ. He clobbers ‘the Crippler’ with the belt for good measure and then puts Angle in ‘the Walls’. The referees and Tony Garea have no luck in getting him to break the hold, and when he finally does so himself, he then goes and puts it on Benoit. And so the build for Wrestlemania continues. Really not enjoying Jericho’s mic work and he was at it again here on commentary with his ‘Kirk Angel’, calling Benoit ‘Mr Robotnik’ and going on about his monotone voice, and even referring to Michael Cole as ‘Mitchell Cole’; its lowest common denominator stuff for me. I thought Angle was much better on Raw than Jericho was here. Benoit’s chops are brutal at one point during this. Thought we may get Backlund making the save, but he was never seen again after that one shot of him watching on the monitor backstage. After Angle left his opponents laying on Monday, it was Jericho’s turn tonight as they continue to try and make them all look equal going into Mania.

Kevin Kelly grabs a word with ‘the Crippler’ before the match and says that Kurt Angle may have bought a lot of notoriety to the Olympic gold, but those are the amateurs and these are the pros. It disgust him what he does to the WWF gold, and hopes he sits back and watches what he’s going to do to the supposed number one contender. Angle is out first as he’ll be providing guest commentary on the match. Just as he’s about to speak though, ‘Break Down the Walls’ kicks in before he gets the chance to say anything. That was funny! He’s jumped from behind Benoit and ‘the Crippler’ rips off his shirt and lays those chops in on him. Benoit rams him into the ring post before throwing him inside to get this officially underway. Reverse atomic drop by Benoit, Jericho then ducks a clothesline and fires back with some chops of his own. ‘The Crippler’ with a snap suplex followed by a backbreaker for two. Y2J counters a belly to back and lays his opponent out with a lariat. Double underhook into a backbreaker. Benoit reverses the Irish whip, he goes for a backdrop, but Jericho with a kick to the chest. As Y2J charges at him though, ‘the Crippler’ with a hotshot as the match continues to go one way and then the other. He looks to wear down his opponent with a rear chinlock, before a face first suplex where he just dumps him over the top rope. Back elbow is missed and Jericho with a flying forearm. A bulldog for two. Whip to the corner is reversed and Y2J goes chest first into the turnbuckles. Benoit with a belly to back, however Jericho flips over and dropkicks him in the back sending ‘the Crippler’ tumbling through the ropes to the outside. As Benoit uses the announcer’s desk to help him get back to his feet, his hands accidentally touch one of Angle’s belts that are laid out on it. Kurt’s not happy, “could you get your hands off my belt Mr Benoit? Get your hands off my belt!” and shoves Benoit who responds by decking him with a right hand. Jericho joins the action on the outside, but Benoit levels him with a vicious clothesline. He throws him back inside and tells Angle “that’s what you get for running your mouth”. That slight delay is all Y2J needs, and when Benoit climbs up on the apron, he’s hit with a Jericho springboard dropkick. Angle KO’s Benoit with one of his title belts and a Lionsault gets the three. Kurt apologises for his actions as “nobody touches his belts”, while suck up ‘the King’ doesn’t blame him for what he just did. Bob Backlund is out and goes after Jericho although he sees him coming. It’s either a distraction or Kurt is simply not happy that Y2J put his hands on ‘a great American’, as he then clobbers Jericho with one of his belts and leaves his two opponents for Wrestlemania laid out as Backlund cheers him on. I liked this one a lot. Benoit and Jericho aren’t afraid to hold anything back on each other, and as a result they lay all their stuff in and there is a real intensity to the match. Angle was good on commentary, not distracting from the action at all, and the finish with him KO’ing Benoit and then Jericho with the belt progresses things nicely as we move ever closer to Wrestlemania.

Action begins at the end of the Jeff Jarrett vs Sid Vicious title match where, with the referee down, Hogan runs out to stop dodgy replacement official Slick Johnson, counting Jarrett’s cover. Big boot and legdrop to Jarrett from the Hulkster, before he pulls Sid on top and the official is back up right on cue to count the three. Scott Steiner is out and breaks a guitar over Hogan’s back before the Harris Twins put the boots to him. Sid sees off the brothers and with Hogan laid out in the ring, here’s Ric Flair, strap in hand, for their Yappapi strap match. It’s explained that in order to get the win you have to drag your opponent around the ring and touch each turnbuckle. Flair attaches the strap to the Hulkster’s wrist and immediately starts whipping him with it. Ooh, Jimmy Hart is coming to ringside carrying Hogan’s weightlifting belt. Hogan, down and out only seconds ago, is now back to his feet and dragging the Naitch to the outside. Flair chops him, but just like against everyone else, those chops have no effect. Ever the pro though, Flair sells Hogan’s crappy chops that look like they wouldn’t even hurt my gran. Clothesline in the corner and Flair has to avoid getting tangled up in the strap before he can do his face first bump. Trusty eye poke from ‘the Naitch’ and he’s back to kicking the downed Hogan in the chest and whipping him with the strap. As Flair chokes him with it, Hogan with a back kick low blow, before taking the weightlifting belt from Jimmy Hart and using that on his opponent. Flair rolls to the floor, but Hulk is right on him and throws him into the guardrail before tossing him back inside. Ten punches in the corner spot. Hogan gives him a further ten for good measure and I like the way he’s shaking his fist out after. Those punches have opened Ric up and as he’s back on the outside trying to compose himself, Hulk pulls him rights back in. Another poke to the eye by ‘the Naitch’ and he heads up top. You know how that works out and Mark Madden even comments that the last time his going upstairs worked was at the very first Starcade when he pinned Harley Race. He again heads to the outside and Hogan with an axe bomber on the arena floor. Hulk calls over Jimmy Hart and hands him the strap so he can get a bit of retribution (and Jimmy shows plenty of aggression in getting those licks in). Flair retreats up the entrance way, but that’s just a ploy on his part, as with Hogan on top and raining down punches, out comes Lex Luger who cracks a chair over Hulk’s head and now he’s bleeding too. Ric drags him back to ringside and a low blow. He removes the strap to try and get his hands on Hart, however ‘the Mouth of the South’ is too quick for him. ‘The Naitch’ returns to the match in hand and targets that cut with piston like punches before blatantly choking ‘the Hulkster’. Hart enters the ring to try and pull him off, but Flair just decks him. A kick to Hogan’s knee and Ric makes his first attempt at trying to reach all four corners. He gets three-quarters of the way there, however Hogan grabs onto the bottom rope and hangs on to it for all he’s worth. Flair pulls some brass knux out of his boot and KO’s Hulk. He makes the cover (huh?) but Hogan kicks out at two (huh?). ‘Hulk up’, big boot and now its Hulk’s turn to try and touch all four turnbuckles. After he slaps the third, Luger is back out to try and help his partner. Hogan sees him coming though, ducks the clothesline and drops him with a big boot. Legdrop on Flair and the ref counts the three for the win. For good measure he then touches the fourth corner to avoid any complaints from his opponent. I liked the way that the two of them were swinging that strap, but pinfall attempts by Flair and Hogan winning with a three count after we’d been constantly told that the only way to win the match is by dragging your opponent around the ring and touching all four corners in succession. I don’t know if Hogan had a brain freeze because he immediately slapped that fourth turnbuckle after the fall had been counted, or Flair attempting to pin him AND THE REFEREE COUNTING had just confused the situation, but not good. The official really should’ve had a quiet word in their ears, or better still just flat out not counted that first pin attempt.

X-Pac is having words with Triple H and he’s not overly keen on having to face The Rock, “Rocky, that’s your fight”. ‘The Game’ says that this is Vince McMahon’s doing as he made the match, but tells him not to worry as he’ll get him out of it. Tori’s wearing some seriously short shorts here! The Rock is over huge and this one gets going before he’s even made it to the ring. Rock launches X-Pac over the barricades and into the audience where he continues to take it to him. He hurls him back into the ringside area, but when he goes to ram Pac’s head into the barricade, he blocks it and unloads with chops and kicks. Now it’s X-Pac’s turn to throw Rock into the audience, although he’s quickly back in charge with Pac taking a bump on the concrete off a clothesline. After he posts him, Shane McMahon and the Big Show make their way out, Rock then throws X-Pac inside and the bell rings as it appears the match hasn’t even officially begun yet! X-Pac reverses an Irish whip and Shane hooks the Rock’s ankle causing a distraction. Flying clothesline for two and now here comes Triple H and Stephanie to ringside as well. Pac hurls Rock over the top rope to the outside where the Big Show starts attacking him. Triple H gets involved to, but surprisingly nails the Big Show first, before throwing Rock into the ring steps and then back inside. Pac makes the cover with his feet on the ropes, but Rock kicks out at the count of two. Spinebuster out of nowhere by the Rock. Nice Samoan drop and a big slam on X-Pac. He’s got the cover, however Tori is up on the apron distracting the official. As Rock goes over to her, X-Pac nails him with a spinning heel kick. The bronco buster is cut off as Rock is quickly up to his feet, snatches and then plants Pac with the ‘Rock Bottom’. Big Show pulls Earl Hebner’s leg at one stopping the count, and as Earl admonishes him, Triple H is in and waffles Rock with the World title belt. He’s still able to kick out of the subsequent pin and here comes Kane who’s making a beeline right for X-Pac. Kane decks him for the DQ and chases him into the crowd, as Rock, HHH and the Big Show then go at it in the ring. As Triple H and Show start fighting each other, Vince McMahon is shown smiling as he watches on a screen backstage as the Coalition has completely imploded. Rock and X-Pac have good chemistry together as Pac is more than happy to bump and fly around for Rocky’s offense. I didn’t care for the cheap DQ, but Rock had already overcome the odds in the match having kicked out of that belt shot. He also got the better of things in the post-match so it wasn’t like he came out of this looking weak or anything. Crazy that they’re only a shade over a fortnight away from Wrestlemania and the main event is still a ‘three way’ with no mention or talk of adding Foley to the mix whatsoever.

Lilian Garcia announces the DX team as weighing 981lbs! They’ve got Stephanie and Tori accompanying them and I’m not sure all five of them weigh that much, let alone just the men! The Grandmaster gets the better of X-Pac in the opening exchanges and he tags out to see if the Road Dogg can do any better. High hip toss on him, the Dogg then ducks under a Too Cool double clothesline and a pair of left jabs for both as he starts to ‘juke and jive’. He goes for a double jab as the coup de grace, but the two of them block the shot, grab his hair and slam him backwards to the canvas. They drag the Dogg over to their corner and tag in Rikishi for the ‘stink face’, however he’s able to shoot between the big man’s legs before he has that almighty behind in his face. X-Pac and Road Dogg pinball for Rikishi, noggin knocker and now he takes a page out of the Dogg’s book with his dancing, and drops them both with stereo jabs. He makes out as though he’s going to give X-Pac a bronco buster, when ‘The Game’ enters the ring for the first time and Rikishi turns his attention to him. The big man telegraphs a backdrop though, facebuster and X-Pac with a spinning heel kick. The crowd try to rally behind Rikishi and it appears to work as he reverses the whip into the turnbuckles and then squashes the Dogg, ass first, in the corner. Bulldog by Scotty, although it looks like he forgets to finish off ‘the worm’ (he went and nailed Triple H and X-Pac after ‘the worm’ move, then just picks Road Dogg up) which doesn’t go down well with the ringsiders at all. Bodyslam and a legdrop off the top by the Grandmaster. He’d rather dance than make the cover though, and that gives X-Pac the chance to boot him in the stomach and hit the ‘X-Factor’. A clubbing right from Scotty sends X-Pac tumbling through the ropes to the floor, but HHH then lays him out with a neckbreaker. Rikishi with a belly to belly and a thrust kick. He climbs the turnbuckles for the ‘Banzai splash’, but as Stephanie distracts the official, X-Pac clobbers him over the head with the ring bell. Triple H gets an arm over him and DX come out on top. Wasn’t expecting Rikishi to be the one to drop the fall. When watching I did think that maybe they should’ve given him a pin on Triple H, but with Wrestlemania around the corner, not the best of ideas. At least with a finish like that though it shouldn’t really do him any damage and does protect him.

Pretty funny promo from Angle as he walks to the ring. He talks about looking into the crowd and how, even with all his success, he could end up a nobody just like them…or worse, he could end up a washed up, potty mouthed has been like Chris Jericho! Y2J’s music interrupts him and Jericho cuts a childish response saying how ‘Kirk Angel’ may have the I-C title, but he’s also got a case of bad breath and B.O. He goes on to say how he’s an Olympic geek who’s never kissed a woman and still lives at home with his Mum. A nice spot where Angle goes for a leapfrog, but Jericho just chops him as he’s in mid-air. More rapid fire chops and forearms, followed by a double underhook into a backbreaker. Angle reverses the Irish whip and hotshots Jericho on the top rope. Overhead throw for two. Desperation spinning heel kick from Y2J and a bulldog. Flying forearm, however Kurt ducks out the way and Jericho takes out referee Teddy Long instead. Irish whip by Angle, but his dropkick connects only with air as Y2J holds onto the ropes. Lionsault,and even though he can clearly see the official is still down, Jericho covers him and gets the visual pin counting the three himself before going over to try and wake up Long. Angle grabs the belt and is about to nail Jericho with it, when Y2J gets in there first with a boot to the mid-section causing him to drop it. ‘Walls of Jericho’ and Teddy is back in the land of the living. As Kurt is about to reach the ropes for the break, Jericho pulls him back into the middle of the ring. It looks like me might have a title change on our hands, when Bob Backlund appears from nowhere and puts the crossface chickenwing on Jericho for the DQ. A bunch of refs try to get him to break the hold until he relinquishes it himself and Angle raises his arm. I felt Angle was the better promo of the two as Jericho seems to rely on child like insults, name calling and catchphrases. The action was okay, nothing special or anything, while the crowd were pretty silent at Backlund’s arrival. Makes me wonder if they knew who he was at this point, or whether they thought some crazy old dude was just attacking Y2J!

Fast opening between Jericho and Malenko, and Y2J with an overhead suplex before levelling Malenko with a clothesline Dropkick by Scott and Malenko tags out to ‘the Crippler’. The Grandmaster with a dropkick off the middle, however the Radicalz slow their opponents down after Malenko knees Jericho in the back as he’s running the ropes and Benoit hotshots him across the top rope. Malenko whips Y2J into the corner and nails him with a running lariat. Pumphandle suplex by Saturn. Benoit lights Jericho up with a few knife edge chops and then whips him chest first into the turnbuckles. He goes for a belly to belly, however Jericho flips all the way over and hits a release German suplex. Hot tag to the Grandmaster who runs rough shot over the Radicalz. Sunset flip powerbomb to the floor on Benoit! Malenko accidentally clotheslines Saturn and GMS drops him with a superkick, before a double clothesline sends Saturn over the top rope and to the outside. Eddy Guerrero is up on the apron trying to stop ‘the worm’, but Chyna drags him down. As Eddy backs off, Malenko goes around to help only to get slugged by the ‘Ninth Wonder of the World’. Jericho and Malenko are now going at on the arena floor (and fight all the way to the back), while Too Cool takes it to Saturn on the inside. He ducks a double lariat attempt and Benoit grabs Scotty’s ankle pulling him to the outside. GMS with a DDT on Saturn, but at the same time Benoit launches his Too Cool partner into the metal ring steps. Top rope legdrop by the Grandmaster, however Eddy is back up on the apron and distracting the official. Diving headbutt from Benoit and Saturn rolls over to make the cover. Really good TV match with non-stop action all the way. That sunset flip powerbomb to the floor that Benoit took was crazy! Although things will quickly change with the Radicalz, they’re still positioned fairly evenly at this point It’s cool too how they kept Guerrero as part of the group as he was effective here in his role as a second.

The match gets underway with all four men battling in the ring together, but the camera work (one handheld) is so bad that it’s a struggle to see everything that’s happening. It looks like the Playaz hit stereo missile dropkicks, and as Frantz and Massaro take to the floor to re-evaluate, Thompson backdrops LeGrande over the top rope and out on to them. Jardi with a headscissors takedown, but Thompson responds with a stomach breaker as both teams continue to feel each other out and try and get an early advantage. LeGrande hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Frantz who comes back with a ‘round the world’ headscissors and a contrived wristlock takedown, bouncing and jumping off the top rope in the process. He steps outside for a breather, Jardi goes for a baseball slide dropkick, however Boyce sees him coming and sidesteps out the way. Quick as a cat LeGrande hops up on the apron, kicks Frantz in the chest and an Asai moonsault to the floor. He tosses him back inside, and with the official obstructing the view, you just about catch the end of a springboard dropkick. Frantz tags out and the Playaz start focussing their efforts on the big man’s left arm. Jumping single armed DDT by LeGrande is off as Massaro jumps too early. Boyce grabs the arm and climbs to the top turnbuckle, but Vinny shoves him in the backside and he takes a spill to the arena floor. Unfortunately the bump is completely missed because this hopeless cameraman is stood in the one place in the entire building where you can’t see it! It looks like he might have ‘hurt’ his knee on the fall and that’s where Frantz and Massaro now concentrate their attacks. Dragon screw leg whip, STF, and Thompson is in to break the submission. LeGrande with an enziguiri and he’s able to make the tag to his partner. Great overhead belly to belly on Frantz and a stunner on big Vinny. Add a tornado DDT to the floor to the list of things missed by the cameraman! Thompson sits Frantz on the middle for a superplex, however he pushes him backwards as he’s climbing and then nails him with a missile dropkick. Running flip dive over the turnbuckles (barely caught by the camera) and Frantz looks like he landed hard on the wooden gym floor. Top rope frankensteiner for two. Massaro with an ‘Emerald Frosien’ on LeGrande and Thompson has to drop an elbow on him to put a stop to the count. Double armed DDT on Vinny and now Frantz is the one breaking up a pin. Great looking Samoan drop from Thompson as the two counts continue. LeGrande with a suicide dive to the floor and a 3-D on Massaro. Combination Swanton Bomb/Frog splash from opposite turnbuckles, but Jardi saves his partner just in time. Double team blockbuster/powerbomb on Frantz and this time Thompson cuts off Massaro to prevent the save and the West Side Playaz get the three. Not a good day for me and APW, although it was clearly down to the camerawork here, which missed plenty of the action and also made it difficult to follow what was going on. I watched this after the Modest/Morgan match and although bad there, it was substantially worse here. I liked the way they tried to escalate the match building to all the big moves at the end, but there was no connection with me. Others mentioned how in the Modest/Morgan match they struggled to determine who was the face and who was the heel, something that I felt was more of an issue here. I’m guessing by their entrances the Playaz were the faces, but at times it seemed like both teams chopped and changed. Like the WSP’s match in January, some nice double team offense from them although I thought Robert Thompson was the standout of the four, with LeGrande and Frantz both showing potential.

Collar and elbow tie up and Benoit backs Angle into the corner. A clean break, but Kurt is right back at him with a go-behind and a big waistlock takedown. Nice overhead belly to belly as Angle starts to unload on him. ‘The Crippler’ retaliates though with some boots to the mid-section and a snap suplex for a one count. Kurt ducks under a clothesline and goes for a backslide; when he realises he’s not going to get it, he transitions to a double arm belly to belly. Fireman’s carry throw/suplex for two. Benoit reverses a whip to the corner and Angle careers chest first into the turnbuckles. Three rolling German suplexes by ‘the Crippler’ who then heads upstairs, but as he’s climbing out rushes the Big Show. He pushes Benoit off the top and to the arena floor and goes after Angle, however he’s able to make his escape as Show chases him all the way back to the dressing room. When I saw the time length here I didn’t think we’d be getting a classic, still there was some nice stuff like Angle’s suplex variations, the rolling Germans and ‘the Crippler’s’ usual intensity. The finish was a build for the Angle/Show match at Backlash, and there’s clearly better to come from these two.

Triple H is to defend the WWF title against an unnamed opponent and is accompanied to the ring by Stephanie and Shane McMahon. The big screen shows Taka Michinoku and Shoichi Funaki entering through some double doors and HHH has an almighty smirk on his face; a smirk that quickly changes to dread when seconds later through those same double doors walk the Acolytes. Poor Lillian makes a mess of Taka’s surname on the ring introductions! The Acolytes immediately chase after Shane who high tails it out of there all the way to the back, and the APA then keep watch at the bottom of the entrance ramp to make sure there isn’t any interference. As Triple H is arguing over something with Earl Hebner, Taka levels him with a flying forearm and unloads in the corner. Headscissors takedown followed by a spinning heel kick. Dropkick to the face of the seated ‘Game’ for an early near fall. Tornado DDT and again Triple H is able to kick out in time. Taka telegraphs a backdrop and Hunter counters with a facebuster before clotheslining his opponent over the top rope to the outside. Back inside and HHH gets a two count after a high knee to the floor. He stomps a mud hole into his opponent in the corner and Earl Hebner physically pulls him off as he’s ignoring his instructions to break. Hunter and ‘hard man’ Earl get into a shoving contest with ‘the Game’ clearly not happy that he put his hands on him. Taka blocks a right and fires back with some slaps across the chops. Triple H stops the comeback with a shot to the throat and then tosses Taka to the floor. He hurls him into the ring steps before throwing him back inside. Hebner is on him again, and as the two continue to argue on the outside, Funaki with a baseball slide dropkick sending HHH crashing into the Acolytes. The APA attack Triple H and a ‘clothesline from hell’ by Bradshaw. Hebner is now having words with JBL, but as he’s doing so, Funaki with a missile dropkick and a moonsault bodyblock from Taka. Awesome near fall as ‘the Game’ just gets his shoulder up at the last moment. Shane McMahon is back and he’s got Vince with him. The Acolytes head up the entrance way to confront them as Vince insists he isn’t trying to provoke them. The moment their backs are turned though, they’re ambushed by the Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan. In the ring Taka with a missile dropkick of his own, but Hunter blocks the ‘Michinoku Driver’ attempt. The Frankensteiner is countered into a powerbomb and Triple H with the pedigree for the win. Fun match and the size difference wasn’t anywhere near as much of an issue as I thought it might be. Smartly booked too with the use of the APA to where it looked like the unthinkable may actually happen; especially on that one awesome near fall off the moonsault bodyblock. My lone criticism was Earl Hebner who seemed to think he was Superman with the way he shoved down Shane at the start and then was manhandling and getting in Hunter’s face. Stay in the background Earl and leave the action to the wrestlers!