[2001-01-24-WCW-Thunder] Cruiserweight Gauntlet

[GSR]

I don’t know what Shane Helms’ music is (I’ve tried Google and YouTube to no avail, and it’s the one before ‘Vertebreaker’) but it’s extremely catchy.  He and ‘Primetime’ Elix Skipper are the first two men in this Cruiserweight Gauntlet, the winner going on to meet Chavo Guerrero Jr for the title at Superbrawl Revenge.  Shane with a big jumping neckbreaker for an early near fall.  Skipper blocks the ‘Sugar Smack’ and lands a double arm overhead suplex.  Graceful as spinning guillotine legdrop from the top.  Helms blocks the ‘Play of the Day’, reverses into the ‘Vertebreaker’ and Elix is out of there.  His former 3 Count partner Evan Karagias is in next, although doesn’t even last sixty seconds.  He does connect on a springboard crossbody, but doesn’t on the quebrada and becomes the second man to fall to the ‘Vertebreaker’. 

Billy Kidman is number four, the first of the “big guns”.  He ducks under a Helms swinging arm and clotheslines him over the top rope to the outside.  Springboard crossbody to the floor.  Kidman avoids the ‘Nightmare on Helms Street’ and hits a short powerbomb for a two.  X-plex.  Mike Tenay, while acknowledging his time in 3 Count, says how Helms has seemingly come out of nowhere as he makes a name for himself in the singles ranks.  Kidman uses the top turnbuckle to assist on the bulldog.  Shane reverse the ‘Kid Crusher’ into the ‘Vertebreaker’, however Kidman flips over, reverses again and hits the ‘Kid Crusher’ for the three.  Yang is the fifth man out.  He gets backdropped out onto the apron but manages to snap Kidman’s neck across the top rope with a reverse neckbreaker.  It looks like he stumbles as he jumps off the top turnbuckle, coming up short of his intended target.  Kidman dumps him with the belly to back.  After being whipped into the corner Yang catches Kidman with a headscissors and propels him face first into the mat.  That looked ugly.  Huracanrana by Kidman.  Pedigree and Yang gets a shoulder up just in time.  Thrust to the throat turns the tide.  Yang sets something up from the middle but Kidman fights free and hits a ‘Kid Crusher’ from the second rung.  Tenay loses his shit on seeing that.

Jamie Noble connects on a great springboard dropkick followed by a flying forearm, the strategy being to try and end this early.  Inverted suplex by Kidman.  He’s slow to follow up and as he heads upstairs Noble cuts him off.  Top rope Frankensteiner.  Kidman counters the bodyscissors with a wheelbarrow suplex, the previous two matches appearing to have taken it out of him as he can’t capitalise. Noble sits Kidman up top but gets caught and powerslammed to the mat.  ‘Kid Crusher’ is reversed as is Noble’s tombstone, however he reverses one last time for the upset win, Tenay calling it the biggest singles victory of his career.  Next man out is Rey Mysterio Jr, one of the”odds on favourites”.  Huge backdrop sends Noble over the top rope to outside.  Sliding tornado, under the bottom rope, to the floor.  Noble counters the springboard rana into a sit-out powerbomb.  Rey escapes the tombstone, springboard backwards off the ropes onto Noble’s shoulders and transitions to a bulldog.  Springboard diving headbutt to the small of the back and Noble is gone.

Neither Lash LaRoux nor Shannon Moore last too long, although a touch longer than Evan Karagias, LaRoux going down to a spectacular split legged moonsault.  Our last man out is Kaz Hayashi and he takes Rey off his feet with some kicks followed by one to the side of his head.  The rana is blocked and turned into a spinning powerbomb.  Rey avoids the charge as Kaz goes shoulder first into the steel ringpost.  He sits him upstairs, quesadora into a bulldog from the top and Rey moves onto Superbrawl Revenge to challenge for the Cruiserweight title.

Shane Helms’ star continues to rise as he gets a couple of wins before falling to Kidman.  Noble’s victory over Kidman is put over as the biggest win of his career, if the plan is to elevate him too I would have given him another, whether over Lash or Shannon it doesn’t matter, and then have him lose to Rey, whilst at the same time using the story of potentially beating both Filthy Animals in one night and how huge an achievement that would be.  Rey, naturally, was tremendous and he and Chavo should tear the house down at the PPV.  A few other comments; Skipper looked good, Evan was in and out, Yang looked green, which he has a tendency to do from time to time, Lash was forgettable and I wish Kaz and Rey were given longer.

[soup23]

A great showcase of the cruiser talent in the company currently and showing there is room for more. Yank and Karagias continue to be the weak links and Yang in particular had a shaky night with a couple of botches. The Helms/Kidman and Kidman/Noble segments were my favorite and were great mini matches. Once Rey entered, the match really accelerated and everything was kept to a minimum of getting in and then a pinfall happening immediately when the match would normally slow down. Perfect popcorn wrestling. ***1/2 (6.8)