Stiva

Yeah, it seems like Christian was a great worker right out of the gate and I really have no recollection of the Hardys, Dudleys and E+C interacting with each other this early before the Mania build-up but it seems like all of the seeds were planted early. This was a fun little tag match and probably the best I've seen the Outlaws look for a long time since they both worked hard, even if Road Dogg's offense never changed from face to heel. The Dudleys were great on commentary but helpfully aided by JR going with them and giving some great back and forth, something that would never happen in the buzzword-driven style of today's WWE.

Cornette's booking is killing me, god damn. Between that and his inability to stop screaming on commentary, he's a lock for "Most Obnoxious" so far this year. I mean, where do you even start? It was a perfectly fine little TV match until all the nonsense started. You've got a heel ref, refs making the saves on other refs and a guy who isn't even in the match getting the pin. Total dross. Also, Rico's look and offense here is embarrassingly outdated. He looks like he would be getting squashed by Jake Roberts on Superstars and the whole "dropkick and pump fists" routine is the kind of thing that The Rockers were doing 10 years before this. Even by 2000, wrestling had well and truly passed Cornette by.

Man, I'm with Loss; I thought this was a fantastic little chunk of wrestling. It's pretty much exactly what I like out of my TV wrestling. A hard-hitting, energetic match with hard work and strong performances. I loved just about everything Iizuka gave out here as he just steamrolled around the place, choking guys and getting them in holds. It was a little thing but him pulling Chono's arm back and forth during the armbar was a little touch that made a basic move look so much more violent. I could watch Hash attack dudes all day but his sequence with Chono at the start was a really well put together one. Once more, NJPW are finding the balance of shoot style and their own in which both are aiding each other.

I really enjoyed this, which surprised me. I agree that it was pretty immaculately laid out, from the opening exchanges to Frye's dominance to the great Sasaki comeback, all aided by two good performances. Frye had some nice moments peppered through (the headbutts in the corner were choice) but his general role as badass holds expert was done to perfection with some real torque and he bumped nicely when he had to. Still though, this was Sasaki's match; he sold perfectly, bumped well, had some real snap and whip on his own holds at the start and his comeback was timed, and executed, perfectly. I've never been Sasaki's biggest fan but I think it's probably time I used this project to reappraise him.

Enjoyable enough but it's starting to feel like these ECW fancam matches are loaded with plunder out of obligation, rather than anything else. So, it becomes less about the impact of the weapons and more about how the workers build to using each of them. And Crazy, after his series with Tajiri, should know this better than anyone and he stops this from being too meandering with some good energy. I winced and had to look away when he landed right on the table leg at the end and thank God, he didn't hurt him himself because man, that looked nasty. Still, I'd have much rather watched a straight-up match between the two but I understand that wasn't going to happen in front of this crowd at this point but I'm really becoming burned out on table spots. So, I'm happy I have the entire WWF Tag Division to watch this summer.

I've complained about them running Money in the Bank matches at Mania in the past but this year seems like it would be the perfect avenue to run that match and give Rusev a run to the title. So, I'm assuming he'll be squandered on the pre-show

Ah, the genuine reaction of pumping your arms up and down in the air and chanting "Yes!"

Yeah, they're actually undermining a lot of good they're doing by constantly slapping themselves on the back for pushing women. Still, a women's Rumble is a nice little surprise. I'm assuming the two Rumbles bookend the show. Have they confirmed how many workers are in the women's match?

This is a great point and surely, the more savvy board members of WWE will be resistant to it? I know for a fact that a Mr. Levesque will see a massive opportunity stemming from this, if everything pans out how people are expecting.

I love the idea of Trump calling Vince to do a run-in on the NFL but am incredibly saddened that the world has become so crazy that it's a viable thought to have.

Yeah, I think this falls short of last month's but agree that this was helped by Crazy really bringing it. I like the idea that Tajiri dragged him down to his level since every time he was on offense, there was fantastic urgency and I thought the leg drop through the table outside being slightly overshot was perfect, like he's not really trying to aim, he's just so pissed off that he's driving him through the table with any part of his body he can muster. Tajiri continues to be WOTY, well, my own personal WOTY anyway since he continues to find new ways to be an unholy bastard. Rubbing Crazy's bloodied face on the ref's shirt and then spitting the same blood into the crowd and I even liked the finish, even if the chairs on top of Crazy were a slight bit of overkill. Still, these two have great chemistry and are able to pull off a great heated brawl. In a company where table spots are passe, these matches really do have an extra dimension.

Evil Liger is a total revelation at this point since I don't believe I've ever seen it before. Kendo and Samurai were having a decent little back and forth - with a great corner bump by Samurai - but Liger comes in and everything escalates. I LOVE how it seems that he's not coming off as sadistic or evil but rather pissed off that Tanaka has had the gall to attack him first. The stomps and slaps all come across as Liger thinking "OK, I'm going to put this little asshole in his place" Tanaka brought what he had to in a fun fired up babyface performance; Liger was snapping extra hard on his stuff but Tanaka was ricocheting and selling them perfectly. I'd prefer to see the opening minutes to see more Liger in the early stages but what we got was another continuation of what is some fascinating work from him.

You get a ton of press releases from major companies that sound like that so I can't blame them too much. Check out any EA press release that manages to stretch 3 sentences into 10 through overly convoluted marketing spiel and their attempts to get across their "brand values". I don't think their silly way of saying "We want to diversify to maximise our profit streams" necessarily crosses over into "WWE Universe" since it's something all companies do in press releases like this. The fact that Vince thinks this way of speaking translates into actual dialogue that human beings speak reflects badly on him rather than something that was probably drafted by some office worker somewhere. I imagine Facebook's press release for this is just as cringe-inducing.

20 minute episodes don't fill me with much confidence of some good matches coming from this. Unless it's one 10 minute match a show and then whatever social bullshit they frame it with taking up the other 10? I'm all for a Braun/Asuka team running through everyone in a series of 4 minute sprints though.

Woke Matt Hardy would be a much better gimmick. Just a socialist dude trying to educate his fellow white man about feminism.

With hindsight, you'd give the WWF credit for some fantastic hierarchy booking; in January, Angle is putting up a fight with the top star in the company and in October, after working his way through the midcard, he finally wins the top gold. Of course, that's not what was intentional. This match was a solid TV affair and I LOVE when heels get on the mic mid-match to crank up the heat further. I can see why they tried to run a top program with these two as the work is so smooth, the promos are excellent and it's, clearly a match up that people want to see. A terrible shame that we only got the 1/2 PPV matches out of it.

It may be hindsight but this does really feel like the moment where the WWF changed course from the previous year's shorter TV matches and elaborate angles to a product that kept it a bit more simple and had some longer TV bouts. Maybe because they had 4 new guys they knew they could trust? Either way, I vividly remember this being a huge talking point for us at school, even though the WCW we actually got in the UK at this time was slim. It felt really exciting then and it still stands up as a hot way to debut these guys as a killer unit. We saw it slightly with the EAC/Dudleys tag but the WWF tag scene was going to leave the New Age Outlaws behind at a rapid pace and not a moment too soon.

Going off what's on the network, ECW from mid 2008 to its closure was always good for 1 or 2 good matches a week. A solid mix of great vets, hard working rookies and simple booking. You have 1996 Nitro on there too which contains some of the most exciting wrestling television to be put on tape. WWF from January-August 2000 was an incredibly hot product with a ream of good TV matches and hot angles. I don't know how their vault archive looks at this point so I'll refrain from any of that.

I think you could give Regal a 60 second match and he'd make about 45 seconds of it interesting. Like Loss said, he can always be counted on for doing something memorable or worthwhile happen, even in the most heatless, pointless scenarios. Here he had the fantastic facial reactions to, what I can only imagine, was about 10 fans actually booing him, the great left hook over a slouched Nick Patrick and the aforementioned finisher which, I THINK, he used in the beginning of his WWE run. Either way, William Regal is a very good pro wrestler.

For some reason, I can't help but watch some of these matches with the thought "If there was in charge of a hypothetical number 2 promotion at this point, would I use these guys?" and both teams would be slotted right into my tag division. The Villanos were a no-nonsense heel team here but I dug how everything was simple but logical - isolating Silver King and wearing him down - and I loved one of them pulling King's ponytail during the STF. Great heeling. La Parka, as per, was the highlight; his dive was great, he just oozes charisma and it's obvious why the WCW crowd did take to him. A really effective use of time and a shame that La Parka was gone from WCW shortly after this, I believe. Also, I'd love a gif of Silver King missing the springboard moonsault and La Parka just shaking his head in disappointment on the apron.

Yeah, I agree that it would have been nice to see these two float around 2002 WWE and I'm surprised they didn't. Kaz in some kind of quasi-racist tag team with Funaki and Lash as an undercard heel cruiserweight seems like something WWE may have tried at that point. Anyway, Kaz is a guy that I've always liked in WCW C-show matches since he always finds something memorable to fit into his matches and he has another good performance here, albeit built around selling. When he does hit his comeback, he does so with some excellent stuff; his strikes look crisp, his hurricanrana was fantastic and the spinning DDT from the outside in was an example of a great ending spot. Lash showed some good heel charisma and was never too boring on offense but he still had a way to go to improve. Still, it's immensely heartwarming to know that WCW could still showcase the physical art of professional wrestling, just by virtue of having so many hours to fill. I wonder if they ever lose that.

It's beginning...I wonder how far this can run in WWE. I can see Broken Matt Hardy as Smackdown champ.

Fired up Dundee promos, great strikes from both guys (including a great headbutt from Dundee!) and Lance Russell, as ever, perfectly admonishing those dastardly heels for ruining a perfectly fine wrestling show. Really interested to see more of Morton as he laid in the stiffness just as well as Dundee and I can only imagine he has some excellent spots in the tag match down the line (if we see it)

I enjoyed this well enough but they definitely lost me towards the end when the bombs started flying. Ki, much like Kendrick and Bryan, has all the raw talent on show already, he just hasn't connected the dots yet. Reil was entertaining enough with some good heeling, some decent high-spots and managed to cut a good pace which couldn't have been easy with someone like Ki. I really liked the spot where Reil managed to poke the ref in the eye and I'm surprised they didn't just go to him cheating for the finish there but that's a minor nitpick. Either way, I thought this started with a nice ebb and flow, some good back and forth spots and I just think they kind of ran out of ideas towards the end.

It's a huge shame what happened to Trent Acid since he was always a guy I enjoyed when he showed up in ROH and to my knowledge, he never had a great indie singles run. Or maybe he did and PWO2K will enlighten me. And he's really the highlight here; The Bad Crew are as generic and basic as it gets but they clearly know their way around a solid southern tag. Really, The Backseat Boyz are a fully formed gimmick already. They have the attire, the entrance, the bumping, the manager, the douchey dancing double team moves and, in Acid, they have charisma in spades, a great flyer and an extremely expressive heel worker. If ECW had lasted into 01/02, I can see this act, with Donnie B, getting a good push there.