Stiva

Ha, we'll totally do it. If it ends up here, we'll do (Chica)Go Wrestling Only! We might just stand around and stare at each other not knowing what to do next, but we'll make an event out of it! Contact Cody with that pitch and he'll book us in a dark match battle royal.

Really fun little tag match. These teams would meet throughout the year in all kinds of different gimmicks and permutations so it was nice to be reminded that they could put together a good tv tag match with good heel work, a good FIP and a good finishing sequence. It's interesting to see that they were establishing the tables so early on, along with the back-and-forth matches that would involve the Hardys later. It may be giving it too much credit in hindsight but it's a subtle indicator of where these matches were eventually going to lead.

A pretty nondescript brawl that was a disappointment following a hot opening where Bam Bam attacks Funk in the back before trying a noose around his neck and dragging him to the ring (!). After that though, this was pretty tame. Bam Bam as a hired gun is a fine enough idea but if the extent of his mercenary skills are hitting guys in the arm with chairs and getting outwitted by Brian Knobbs then I'd suggest Kevin Nash spend his money elsewhere. Old Man Funk continues to be a mixed bag of lunacy with the moonsault looking downright crazy every single time but it really feels like all of his matches are just that spot, framed around slow brawling but it may be that these two just don't match very well. He can definitely still talk though since the ending promo was full of fire and strong hype for Thunder.

Watched this solely because of Loss pimping Hack's Northern Lights Suplex (a move I love) and came out really impressed with him in general. He moved around great, was bumping and selling big for Scoot when he had to and peppered in some nice little touches amongst the big hits. The Severn run in was a pretty lame ending but it did work in establishing him as your monster heel, even if he did look like he'd just walked out of 1998 WWF and into WXO.

I haven't been keeping track and I can't find anything using Google but was it confirmed that the stories about Thunder/Heat being held up due to royalty complaints were true? Also, I can't imagine anyone would want to put themselves through those first NXT shows, even out of curiousities sake but it is nice to see them uploading the more bizarre segments of their tape library, in a strange way.

I will say; the constant changing to the card has actually made it a bit more intriguing as to where it's all going to go. In an ideal world, you'd prefer that they'd build a show that felt like that without a hundred changes but still, things seem pretty hot right now. And WWE always nail those big show-ending, huge brawls but I especially liked the Raw women stomping into the Smackdown locker room and throwing down. That's something that they would never have dreamed of doing with the women a while back.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Owens/Zayn story is some kind of work. They aren't on the Survivor Series card as it stands; I'll place some money on them interfering to give Raw the victory, possibly with Jason Jordan getting the tainted pin to further his eventual heel turn. Also, I called it.

Styles/Lesnar should hopefully be great if Brock decides to do any kind of cardio or has any motivation whatsoever on the night. I'm more interested in what we're going to get out of the Survivor Series tags; these things have often descended into even steven booking but when they don't (2014 with Sting), they tend to be really great matches. I have a feeling they're going to keep things even with the guys but might stretch out with the women. I'd have Asuka steam roll through most of the field then keep it competitive with Charlotte/Becky before they succumb. Lots of camera shots showing the other Raw ladies terrified would be another plus.

Decent little TV match that I watched to check Scott Armstrong out in-ring. And I enjoyed his work here; he's in the perfect position as a job guy as he heels around enough to gain some heat and eats Chavo's stuff well when he has to. WCW C-shows remain some of my favourite wrestling and I'm glad to see that it was the one thing that even Russo couldn't kill.

The only time I've ever seen Kozina is when he showed up on some random late-era TNA show and worked some dumb shit with Davey Richards so it was my first time seeing him actually, you know, wrestle and I was impressed. He's got good high-flying offense, he's a really good, athletic bumper with some great rag-doll style selling (a bit like the Kendrick we've seen) and I think, the only thing going against him is his size and I think that would probably be the case, even now. Still, he seems like a guy who may have got an ECW run if that company had survived the year. Nevertheless, a good little match that sees Kozina win but takes a powerbomb through a table after the fact to build things further.

Yeah, this was a fantastic little surprise to come across. Something that I really enjoyed in the early stages is how violent and rough they made simple exchanges look; locking up, for instance, had real bite and tackle to it. Obviously, the crowd helped this but I think their enthusiasm really was as a result of what was going on in the ring and outside. There was some great, simple, effective heeling and it was at that kind of pace where every piece of offense matters and builds heat. I recognise at this point I'm just describing what makes an 80s wrestling match great but it's refreshing to see that, when chairs were smashed and tables were breaking, this kind of wrestling could still be viable and entertaining. Also, I'd love to see what The Bronx Bombers could do in a tag setting. I hope they have some hidden, great southern tags out there somewhere.

I thought everyone in the WWE just wanted to have some fun, Michael!

I really enjoyed this little TV match and it was cool to see that the speed and explosiveness that made Bryan's hot tags so much fun, were present as early as here. Not to repeat too much but I thought Buster looked kinda promising, if green, here too. He had a decent look, heel charisma and some fun little spots dotted throughout the match but this was a total Bryan performance. Everything that would make him great is here already and it can't be long before he begins to knit it all together.

I was always confident that this is my favourite ECW match ever but, having not seen it for years, I can safely say that opinion hasn't changed one bit. I think this a top 5 OAT performance from Tajiri in conveying total, unhinged lunacy in a wrestling ring. Just about everything he does is laced with malice and psychopathy; that second chair he skims across the table goes flying straight into the front row and all he does is sarcastically bow and spit on the fans complaining! He drives both his feet into Crazy's stomach twice and gets down on his knees to mock him! He picks up the remnants of a table and just chucks it over the top rope like he's finished discarding a murder weapon and, the wrench! The shot of him slowly walking into the ring, wrench in hand and evil in his eyes is absolutely incredible and then he proceeds to try and rip Crazy's teeth out before, once more, nonchalantly throwing the wrench into the air, not giving one shit about the assembled audience. It really does come across like a man who is just totally focused on destroying his enemy, with absolutely no consideration for whoever happens to get in his way. ECW had incredible angles throughout its years but it never had a match that came close to this.

I don't really understand how you can get so worked up over it; wins and losses should absolutely matter and not even sure what it being 2017 has to do with anything. And if we want to get into discussions about persisting with WWEs road schedule and not complaining about it, I'll side with Nia Jax all day over the side of the dude who wants to run workers into the ground. Just because it's been the norm for years doesn't make it right.

Really good match that was, sadly, in front of a terrible crowd. Between his build to the big spots and the reversals to keep himself alive, I was really impressed with Spike here, to the point where I'm wondering if it's really so strange that I like him so much. A nice change from constant bomb throwing and big weapon spots but it was clear, at this point, this fanbase just wanted that and had no patience for what they were going for here. Shame as it was a good little match-up that could have made some good TV had Sabu not left shortly after.

Another heated trios that does a fantastic job of building more heat heading into big matches. Satanico is just a sublime heel, relishing in every punch and kick he dishes out to Tarzan Boy, who hits a hell of a blade job within the first 10 seconds. His comeback was great with a couple of nice looking backbreakers but Satanico just nut-shotting him was a brilliant, asshole finish. And then, Satanico doesn't let up, headbutting Tarzan Boy in the chest as the dude is lying in a heap on the mat. Everything surrounding the main angle was typically good too; really nice dive sequence with Antifaz and Felino crashing into each other and a really spirited Technicos fight-back in the second fall but this was all about Satanico and Tarzan Boy; the former being a total master in these last few matches.

Two guys working super hard to have a good match here. Both men were good here but man, Psicosis is just a much more expressive and charismatic wrestler than Kidman and I agree that, in an ideal post-Russo WCW that swung back to good wrestling as a priority, he'd have been great working like this throughout the midcard/tag division. Sadly, things don't work out the way we all want them to. Except for Billy Kidman, who has a magic ability to make people attempt powerbombs, even if they never have before.

A fantastic match that is a real feather in Benoit's cap. For the first time in years, WCW captures that big fight feel and it delivers a great main event. Benoit is fantastic here, bumping huge at the beginning, including a nutty, face-first bump into the mat from a press slam and then starts on offense. He keeps all of the leg work interesting, mixing the violent - the dropkick into the stairs with the intricate - taking Sid down with an awesome twisting tackle into the leg lock and it all leads to some good work from Sid as, what little offense he does have, looks pretty good. The chokeslam is helped by Benoit bumping huge but the comebacks are timed excellently. Benoit wins with the crossface; I'd have liked to see a bit more of a struggle from Sid but it did get over the crossface big, though I'm not sure the crowd expected it to end that early. Regardless, just a total superstar performance from Benoit and he would take that kind of work over to the WWF about 3 weeks later.

Toryumon rules! I thought the heels in this were flat-out awesome. The hundred hand slaps and sumo heat from Fuji, CIMAs out-of-this-world selling, posing and facial reactions, all three of them attacking before the bell, not to mention the incredible post-match beatdown. I agree that Dragon Kid's style and pace really helped him stand out here as his high-spots really were impressive, especially the speed in which he went flying with the Santo dive and when the match escalated in pace with guys diving in from everywhere, he still managed to stand out by doing shit one magnitude nuttier than anyone else. The post-match was super heated with a GREAT mask ripping and just chaos until Ultimo Dragon, looking resplendent in a tux and gold mask comes in like he's a mild-mannered, retired ex-cop who was just trying to enjoy a night out before being accosted by some thugs. If Toryumon can cut this kind of pace throughout the year, I'm really looking forward to watching it all.

Fascinating glimpse at early Necro and I had no idea that footage of him existed. This is like seeing a supervillain's ordinary life right before something pushes him over the edge. I did think it was interesting that he was almost Foley-esque here in that he was put over as a mad man, not because of the punishment he was dishing out, rather, the punishment that he was surviving and laughing at.

Not too much to add that hasn't been said but I thought the opening shine sequence, with the Westside Playaz hitting some of their double team spots was actually interesting but then, that just became the meat of the match, with any kind of heat building from the Ballards replaced by contrived double team moves. Having said that, I'd have probably taken a chance on the Westside Playaz as an undercard face team, see if I could curb some of the excesses and get them to settle on a hot tag routine, based around a handful of the spots they showed here and see where they went from there.

You forget how off the page charismatic Tajiri was/is and that all comes through in this, a very fun tv match. I did like how they were smart enough to avoid the usual 2 minutes of Jerry Lynn trade-off shit and just went full into Tajiri heeling it up and Lynn fighting and picking his spots since it meant they could fill all 8 minutes with interesting things. There were two nice little layouts with Lynn blocking the second handspring elbow and the neat finish of him sensing the low blow and hitting one of his own, getting some revenge on the little asshole who had been antagonising him throughout the match. Pretty much everything with Tajiri on is essential from this point forward in 2000.

I agree with Loss that this would have made a much better PPV main for Awesome but I still dug the Spike match more, largely on account of his performance. Plus, in this one, I was much more impressed with Rhino who made his moments matter a lot more, without having to throw tables and chairs into the mix. I really dug the back and forth nature of this, right until the plunder started coming in and then they lost me, though I did think the last powerbomb through the table was built to nicely and was the right climax. Still, Mike Awesome continues to bounce right off me as his two matches on this project have left me far more impressed with the guys he's faced.

Pretty fantastic, intense 15 minutes or so here. The build-up to Atlantis/Villano is set up pretty impeccably here with some fantastic moments; the mirrored DQs, the submission finish, Atlantis picking up the entire front row and dropping it on Villano's head. Around the edges, there was good heeling, a good tope and some long-term selling that helped flesh things out without taking away from the main focus. Can't wait to see this progress going forward.