HUSTLE 07/03/04

Kaz Hayashi & Spanky vs Low Ki & Homicide

This is a fun deal, though sadly clipped, which means that it doesn’t get the chance to reach it’s full potential. There was a fun mat exchange between Low Ki and Hayashi, before we clip to Spanky as face-in-peril. This was a good idea, Ki and Homicide looked good as two stiff surly dudes beating up the pretty-boy face. Even when Spanky tags Hayashi in, he’s not safe, as during a melee he gets caught on a flip dive by both guys and powerbombed onto the apron. Hayashi takes both opponents out right after with a dive. Hayashi then gets a nearfall by no-selling the Ki Krusher and hitting Emerald Frosion for 2. Ki has been a bit of a dick in this match, and it ultimately costs his team. Homicide has Spanky in the STF, and Ki stands on the apron to kick at Spanky’s hands as he reaches for the ropes. This lures in Kaz, who takes out Ki then hits an enzuigiri from the apron on Homicide. This not only leaves Homicide prone for a frogsplash, but also means Ki is in no position to make the save, resulting in victory for Kaz and Spanky. Good opener 

Steve Corino vs CW Anderson

This was pretty goofy in places, but was still enjoyable. We get some brawling to start, followed by a comedy bit as Corino tries, and fails, to set up a chair on the ring apron to send Anderson into. Anderson decides to focus on the arm of Corino, ramming it into the ringpost then whacking it with the chair. We clip, and when we return, Corino is still selling the arm. Good lad. Anderson hits him with a lovely looking punch, which the ref reacts to with a standing ten count for Corino. He gets up on 9. Anderson yells for an STO, which ends up being hit on him by Corino. Corino then warms up the band for Sweet Chin Music, which Anderson then amusingly hits on him. Anderson gets a really close two count by reversing a lariat to a spinebuster on a chair, but Corino picks up the win with a suplex. Pretty good fun, Corino in particular was really good at playing up to the crowd, which helped create a fun atmosphere. 

Shinjiro Otani & Satoshi Kojima vs Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes

As Dusty isn’t exactly in his prime here, Dustin works the majority of this match, which is never a bad thing. He spends a lot of the early stages here getting beaten down, as Kojima and Otani lock him into a double Boston crab. I did enjoy Dustin outsmarting Kojima on a strike exchange, letting Kojima rear up for a blow, then droptoeholding him into the ropes. Dustin slingshots Kojima into a Bionic Elbow, before the Rhodes’ lock in stereo figure-fours. Neither Dustin nor Dusty seem that over here, which kinda hurts some spots as Dusty has to really work to get a reaction. Dustin nails a bulldog on Kojima for two, but gets hit with a Koji Cutter which allows the tag to Otani. Otani gets the bootscrapes on Dustin, but gets hit with the Curtain Call for two. Kojima and Dusty brawl outside, and Kojima is able to recover quickest to get back in and level Dustin in the back of the head with a lariat. Otani rolls him up for the win.  

Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii vs Zebra Man & Naohiro Hoshikawa

On the first Hustle show, Zebra Man got a bit of a decent push, beating Ikuto Hidaka in a pretty swift fashion, so it’s surprising that this is a bit of a squash. Not in his favour. Choshu lariats Hoshikawa right at the start, who never really recovers. Ishii hits a big back suplex and Choshu locks in the sharpshooter. Zebra Man is tagged in to a sizable pop, but his offence is pretty milky. Not an accusation you could level at Ishii, who decks him with a lariat and a brain buster. Shrugging off some more questionable offence, Ishii hits another brainbuster and Choshu hits the lariat on Zebra Man for an easy three. 

Sabu, Justin Credible & Mike Awesome vs Kintaro Kanemura, Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

You’d be hard pressed to call this a good match, but it’s pretty fun while it lasts. Awesome looks great early doors throwing big old Kanemura about. There is no tag format in place at the start of the match, with pairings of guys taking it in turn to compete in the ring, whilst the others brawl outside the ring. An Awesome Bomb from the ring apron through a table puts Kanemura out for a while, whilst Sabu puts Tanaka through a table with a big legdrop. This leaves Kuroda alone, and they suddenly go into a proper tag format, purely to build some heat on Kuroda. Awesome breaks a chair over Kuroda’s head. Of course, as soon as Kuroda makes the hot tag to Tanaka, all structure vanishes again and we got back to some big spots. The end sees Credible and Tanaka battle over a tombstone, before Kanemura hits Justin with a kendo stick and Tanaka nails the roaring elbow for the win. Goofy structure aside, this was enjoyable nonsense.

The Predator vs Dan Bobish

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Predator, and he looks in good shape here. Bobish is a big guy, like former WCW jobber Al Greene inflated with helium. Not a particularly good wrestler though, and this match is pretty dull. Bobish chokes Predator on the ropes, then plays up to the crowd, so I’ve no idea if he’s supposed to be face or heel. I did like the big delayed back suplex Predator hit on Bobish, and he gets good height on a leg drop, but there is too much sluggish brawling on display here. Predator gets the win with a top rope kneedrop. 

Mark Coleman & Kevin Randleman vs Shinya Hashimoto & Toshiaki Kawada

Two MMA fighters vs two of the elite guys in Japan. I really want to like Randleman, who has great movement and energy, but a little too much of his offence feels flat, and his opening section with Hashimoto is a little awkward. Coleman doesn’t even have the energy going for him, though his section with Kawada is a little less laboured. Hashimoto has his shoulder heavily taped, and Randleman starts to focus on it, hitting some nasty headbutts to the taped area. Kawada doesn’t have an obviously weak area, so he’s able to look more dominant in the ring, and his Yakuza kick in the corner on Coleman looks great. The match never feels like it’s building to anything though, and the end comes as Randleman hits repeated knees to Hashimoto’s shoulder, forcing the ref to call it off. Not Hashimoto or Kawada’s best day. 

Naoya Ogawa vs Matt Ghaffari, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Dustin Rhodes, Giant Silva & Dan Bobish

This is a handicap match, and there is a crooked ref to further stack the decks against Ogawa. He fares well at first, hitting STO’s on everyone. Bobish is able to put up a little more resisitance before falling to an STO. The heel ref gets “distracted” by events outside the ring, so everyone bar Ghaffari comes in and clobbers away on Ogawa. Silva hits a chokeslam and Ghaffari finally steps in to hit a big splash for the win. Not the best main event I’ve ever seen.

ECWA Super 8 2001

I've had this tape for over 10 years, but had never gotten round to watching it until I found it the other week and decided to crack out this review. I think I've always been put off by the sub-handheld camera work and the terrible audio (making interviews with Jeff Hardy and Christopher Daniels unlistenable), but there's no denying the quality of the talent on display here, and this was a rather pivotal show in early 00's indy terms. How well has it all aged?

Low Ki vs Billy Fives
Fives has the look of exactly the kind of cruiserweight you'd find on WCW Saturday Night in the dying days of the company. They do some basic sequences to start, punctuated by a big Low Ki dive. Ki's speed and dynamicism mark him out as the face early on, so I do enjoy Fives doing basic heel stuff to ensure he gets booed, like calling for time-out outside the ring and doing the old "choke with shin bone across throat whilst chatting to the ref" spot. Ki wears Fives down with strikes, but Fives does get some decent offence in, and I loved the spot where he got Ki in a pumphandle, then just clubbed him in the back whilst he was prone. I also like the fact the Fives seems to time his comebacks for the moments when Ki most obviously telegraphs his kicks, allowing him to hit a sweet capture suplex. Ultimately though, Ki is too quick and too tough, winning with the Ki Krusher. Good stuff here.

Jayson Reign vs Tony Kozina
This feels a lot like a decent Heat match in the early going, partly helped by Reign's WWE developmental circa 2003 look. He seems to be in pretty impressive shape. He overpowers Kozina early, and hits a mad tope to the outside, which goes some way to winning me over. He hits his spots well, but you get the feeling that he is still being led through the match by Kozina. I adored Kozina diving from the top with a rana, which he used to send Reign to the outside. Kozina starts working over the leg of Reign, which makes sense to counter the power advantage, but Reign pretty much gives up on selling it as soon as he gets back on offence, even when hitting a bridging suplex, where his injured leg should have buckled under his weight. Kozina kicks out of a screwdriver at two, which really should have finished it. The end was pretty good, with Reign slipping out of a powerbomb into the perfect position to hit his Sister Abigail finisher, but this lost it's way a bit towards the end, especially with the non-sell of the leg.

American Dragon vs Spanky
I know I'm speaking here with the benefit of hindsight, where these two guys became big stars, one of whom is arguably the most popular wrestler in the WWE today, but it really is obvious how much better these two are than the guys in the first two matches. You suspect that they may have worked the opening sequence together many times in training, but the match itself is really good, and tells a far better story than the previous two. Here, Dragon works over Spanky's left arm relentlessly, with some lovely snap to his offence. I loved him avoiding a springboard crossbody and sending Spanky right into a Fujiwara armbar. For his part, Spanky sells it like a trooper, even resting only on the good arm when trying to get back up again. Dragon sends Spanky outside and hits a baseball slide (to the arm!) and then hits a swank top rope moonsault to the floor. Spanky's main offence from this point consists of hopespots and roll-ups, but the arm injury prevents him hitting Sliced Bread #2 properly, and Dragon locks in Cattle Muttilation for the tap out. Really good match.

Mike Sullivan vs Reckless Youth
Sullivan certainly has the better look of the two, though that doesn't mean he'll be the better performer. They work a nice series of counters and reversals that looks really good, before Youth hits a lovely tope to the floor. Nothing Sullivan does is particularly fancy, but it does look good, with a meaty German suplex looking particularly good. Sullivan also adds a nice hint of slight heeldom to add some flavour to the match. Youth hits a top rope cutter and a frog splash for two. They work a few more counters, but these don't look quite as good as before - one which sees Sullivan "power out" of a Boston crab gives the impression that Youth did a diving flip for no reason whilst holding the move. Youth gets the win with a quick fireman's carry roll-up which dropped Sullivan right on his head. Not bad, but not one to remember.

The Haas Brothers vs Ty Street & Simon Diamond
Street is a guy I've seen work for CZW a few times, not particularly impressively. Indeed, the best thing about the match is the double-teaming from the Haas', with a slingshot into an overhead belly-to-belly suplex being very nice. They work a looooooong heat section on Street, before Diamond gets in. In a referee botch, Diamond has one Haas rolled up for at least ten seconds in plain-view of the official, who doesn't bother to count. The end sees Dawn Marie at ringside preventing Charlie Haas from using a chair, allowing Diamond to grab it. However, Simon clearly realises his partner is shite, so nails Street with the chair and lets Charlie DDT Street for the win.

Jayson Reign vs Low Ki
Things start off with a bit of a bang, Ki missing a pescado and Reign nailing a huge tope early on. It doesn't really continue this way, however, seemingly due to some inexperience on the part of Reign. Ki is noticably having to temper his natural dynamicism here to allow Reign to keep up with him, most notably when he stands awkwardly on the second rope for ages to allow Reign to hit a sunset flip on him. The match is also quite short (good) but also quite spotty, and not all the spots hit cleanly, with Ki taking a flipping dive to the floor and only barely hitting Reign being especially noteworthy. The bout ends when Ki escapes a German suplex attempt and rolls reign up for three. Poor.

American Dragon vs Reckless Youth
By way of contrast, this is a very slick affair. The opening matwork was great, everything felt like a battle and the holds looked like they genuinely hurt. Neither guy seems hesitant, even as Dragon takes a big bump to the floor and gets hurled into the ringpost. Youth has some really good looking offence here, chaining his moves together nicely into pinning predicaments. I also dig some of the little touches, like Dragon trying for a Dragon suplex, finding Youth blocking him so hitting an elbow to the back of Youth's head to weaken him, then hitting the suplex. Finish sees Youth go for a frog splash, only for Dragon to meet him up top, send him crashing arm first onto the canvas, then locking in Cattle Muttilation for the win. Great bout.

Cheetah Master vs JJ & Patch
The box also advertises a battle royal, but it never happens. This is a handicap match, and not a very good one. Patch in particular is woeful, hitting the tamest backbreakers on Cheetah that I've ever seen. A short match looks to be over as Cheetah hits a HIGH elevation frog splash on JJ, before the Haas Brothers, Simon Diamond and what looks like Nick Berk come in to beat him up. Some other lads come in for the save, and another chap comes in dressed as a ref. For reasons unknown to me, this upsets JJ, who gets rolled up by Cheetah for three. No idea what that was all about, but it fucking sucked.

Low Ki vs American Dragon
And so to the final. I loved the initial matwork, especially from Dragon, who was throwing in little headbutts to add some spice to the grappling. He also nails a big boots to send Low Ki to the floor, but Ki is the master of striking, so he pummels Dragon in the ring. This seems to make Dragon change his plan, as he catches a kick from Ki and hits a lovely dragon screw legwhip. Given Ki's reliance on kicks, it's a good gameplan to start working the leg, which Dragon does with gusto. It also means that, when Low Ki gets back on offence, it just takes AmDrag one blow to the leg to regain control. Ki does get back in it, and sadly stops selling the leg, but the action in the final stages is still fun. I loved Dragon's deadweight fall to the floor when Ki kicks him off the apron, and I loved Ki following that up with a corkscrew moonsault from the top rope. There is a super slick sequence where, following repeated attempts by Dragon to hit a Dragon suplex, he manages to catch Low Ki mid-cartwheel, hit a Dragon suplex and quickly chain that into Cattle Muttilation. Just lovely stuff. The end sees Dragon go for a roaring elbow, but Ki catches him with a Ki Krusher and locks in a Dragon Clutch, which Dragon taps out to immediately. Really good match, and one that has aged really well in the past 13 years.

Zero-One 18/03/2005

Having not reviewed any puro for a while, I thought it best to look through some of the shows I'd not got round to watching yet. This one, with an odd mix of puro wrestlers and US indy talent, was the first one to catch my eye. The main event has a particularly random line-up...

Osamu Namiguchi vs Lil Nate
Oh man, to see Lil Nate is to hate Lil Nate. Coming to the ring with a ridiculous strawberry-blonde afro and "quirky" ring music, he looks like Lauren Harries crossed with a hyperactive schoolchild , and I really want him to die here. Therefore, Namiguchi schooling him on the mat is quite the treat, locking in headscissors and Boston crabs to wear him down. Your enjoyment of the match will probably be dependant on just how much you enjoy Lil Nate being tortured, so I did enjoy this very much. It's not totally one sided, as Nate gets a brief comeback and a few roll ups, but the end soon comes with Namiguchi grabbing him by his stupid hair to hit a top rope bulldog and a la majistral cradle to win.

Kevin Steen vs Takashi Sasaki
Fun to note how young and lean Steen looks here. This is perfectly fine wrestling, but it's fair to say this is "just a match". It gets to a point where Steen yells for the package piledriver, and I realise the only note I've made on the match is "Lovely moonsault by Steen" (and to be fair, it really was a beauty). Not that anything was bad per se, but just that some stuff happened, and then it was time for the finishing sequence, as both guys get nearfalls, before Steen actually gets the package piledriver (which I'm glad there was a bit of a fight for) to win.

Steve Corino & Amazing Kong vs Spanky & Saki Maemura
This is a mixed tag bout, but not one fought under mixed tag rules. The reason for this is likely the fact that Kong is both taller and bigger than Spanky. There is an underlying story that Kong has a "thing" for Spanky. I did enjoy Spanky being more scared of fighting Kong than fighting Corino, especially as he kept flying off her when trying shoulderblocks. Maemura fares better, as she uses speed and roll-ups to try and outfox Kong. Of course, this nearly backfires when the rules allow her to be in the ring, as the same time as Corino, who cockily bullies her until she hits a flying headscissors on him. We get a few sexual comedy spots, as Spanky avoids the advances of Kong, who ends up accidentally making out with Corino, before the smaller team repeatedly ram Corino's head into Kong's chest rather than the turnbuckle, and a few fun spots I'd not seen before. One involved Kong and Corino pressing Maemura off them during a pinfall attempt, only for Spanky to catch her and drop her back onto Kong. Spanky hits Sliced Bread #2 on Kong, but turns into a Corino lariat for the win. This was pretty entertaining.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Ricky Reyes
Reyes was always my favourite Havana Pitbull, mainly due to his stocky build. This kicks off with some fun matwork, as I liked the fact they made it look like a real battle to lock in each hold. Takaiwa used a fantastic single-leg crab during this, holding Reyes at a painful looking angle. Outside, Reyes takes a few nasty bumps when he gets thrown into chairs and the bleachers. This was a match where Reyes always felt like he was in it, so not a squash, but at the same time it always felt like he was a shade behind Takaiwa, so it was no surprise when Takaiwa finished with his double powerbomb into a Death Valley Driver.

Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka vs CW Anderson & Jay Lethal
Pretty even tag match in the early going until Lethal tries to double-cross Fujita on a handshake, at which point things start to pick up. Anderson and Lethal play subtle heels here, and it's nice to note Anderson still has pretty sweet punches. Love them suplexing Fujita into a load of chairs at ringside. Hidaka gets a nice offensive flurry inside, before Lethal goes for a tope con hilo, which only hits his partner, with no opponent in site. Hidaka is a guy I've always liked, and he looks great here, reversing a CW spinebuster into a sunset flip in a really fluid motion. Anderson had a few staple spots that looked great, like his delayed superplex and the spinebuster (which he does eventually hit), and the match has a really nice ending sequence that only really goes overboard when Lethal is allowed to kick out of a spike tombstone piledriver. In the end, Hidaka pins Lethal following Sliced Bread #2. Fun match.

Takao Omori & Ryouji Sai vs Shinjiro Otani & Kohei Sato
No intros here, as the team of Otani and Sato attack before the bell. Omori ends up fighting Sato in the ring, but does a terrible job of trying to rip his shirt off in between strikes. Hulk Hogan, he is not. Otani is in prime dickish mode here, doing nasty little things like lifting his opponent up by the mouth, and I love his nasty dropkick to the face when he gets Sai in a tree of woe. Sai is the one chap in the match I don't know, and he gets to look really good here, really nailing Sato and Otani with his strikes and kicks, which all look crisp. In the second half of the match, Sato and Otani start to work over the arm of Omori, clearly to stop him throwing his big lariat. Otani in particular hits some nasty kicks to the limb. Omori does manage a two count on the Omori Driver, but his attempt at the lariat is thwarted by Otani kicking the arm, and avoiding a second attempt with a roll-up for the win.

Alex Shelley & Masato Tanaka vs Dick Togo & Sonjay Dutt
Here are two odd looking teams. This is a TLC match where pinfalls are valid. You've got to love the sight of Tanaka, five minutes into the match, shoulder all bandaged, diving from a ladder outside the ring to put Togo through a table to "ECW" chants. Tanaka proceeds to bloody Togo outside the ring, leaving Dutt at a two-on-one disadvantage. Predictably, he gets battered, with Tanaka crushing him with a ladder for two. Togo looks awesome coming in off a hot tag (though this is the only tag in the entire match, and Shelley and Tanaka had been treating the match like a tornado tag. Nonetheless, Togo shows great fire when he comes in). A suicide dive to a seated Shelley looks awesome. There is another lovely moment, where Togo pushes Shelley off the top rope to the outside, with the camera angle making it look like he's pushing Shelley into oblivion. There are a few nice spots in the closing moments of the match, including Dutt pushing Tanaka off a ladder into a Togo cutter through a table, which looks great. Dutt survives a superplex from the ladder through a table to hit an off-target Phoenix splash onto Shelley's face for the win. Really fun stunt match, though the Togo/Tanaka sequences were a lot smoother than the Shelley/Dutt moments.

Ring Of Honor: The Era Of Honor Begins 2002

This is the first ever RoH show, and one of the first tapes I bought when I was starting to get interested in the indys. I had a few CZW tapes, which I loved and intend to review in the coming months, but this featured all the guys I'd heard about on the net in the same show. Of course, this is how RoH marketed itself, with the best guys from the various indy scenes.


Christopher Street Connection vs Da Hit Squad
And so the era of Honor does verily begin...with a total squash. The CSC work a gay gimmick and cop off in the middle of the ring to borderline homophobic comments from Eric Gargiulo and Steve Corino. The story that they tried to get across here was that Da Hit Squad hated the CSC for trying to bring Sports Entertainment into a pure wrestling promotion, the kind of storyline that is, of course, pure SE. The CSC essentially die for your pleasure, including Buff-E getting dropped on his dome with a German suplex and Mase taking a Burning Hammer for the win. Afterwards, Da Hit Squad powerbomb CSC valet Allison Danger through a table/Buff-E combo to a huge pop

The Amazing Red vs Jay Briscoe
Gargiulo and Corino play this up as the high-flier vs the grappler, but it doesn't really turn out that way. Instead, the match seems to consist of Red kicking out of more and more moves that really should finish him. Red takes a huge spill over the top ropes early, which goes some way to explaining why he's had so many knee surgeries over the years. Back in, Briscoe cheapshots on a handshake to officially become the heel for the match. He hits Red with a sitting muscle buster which only gets two. The Jay Driller is busted out next, only for Red to get his foot on the ropes when he should be legally dead. A half-Nelson suplex plants Red on his head and really should be the end, but instead Red dodges a top-rope cannonball and hits the Red Alert (twisting moonsault from the top) and the Red Star Press for 3. As a showcase for both men, it was effective, but both were too inexperience to lay out a sensible match at this stage of their careers and instead blew through several potential finishers, which is a real waste.

Xavier vs Scoot Andrews
Andrews calls himself the "Black Nature Boy". He isn't, but he does look very impressive in this match, which is essentially a showcase for Andrews. Andrews hits a fine butterfly suplex on Xavier, only for Xavier to repay him by almost dropping him directly on his head during a backdrop attempt. Andrews has some nice looking offence, including the good use of a clothesline to prevent an attempted bulldog from the corner. There is also a story told here, where the more-experienced Andrews gets increasingly frustrated at his inability to put Xavier away. Andrews hits a pumphandle into a piledriver called the Force Of Nature, but we get another "wrestler gets foot on rope after being hit by finisher" spot for the second match in a row. Andrews argues with the ref, giving Xavier time to recover and reverse a second Force Of Nature attempt with a neckbreaker for the shock win. This is the first RoH match that actually feels like it's trying to do more than just look flashy, and while it may suffer from a few blown spots, it's perfectly good wrestling. Xavier looked willing, but green, while Andrews really shone.

Natural Born Sinners vs the Boogie Knights
The Sinners consist of Homicide and one of his trainees, Boogalou. The team split when Boogalou suddenly quit RoH to join XPW, a decision he must regret. Their gimmick revolves around them being a pair of street thugs just released from prison, but Gargiulo and Corino do an excellent job of putting over their wrestling ability on commentary, including references to Boogalou's amateur career. The NBS just kill both Boogie Knights, including a horrible double-team powerbomb to Danny Drake. Boogalou is notably not a polished as Homicide, who is a lot crisper including hitting a crazy tope to a seated Drake. The Knights get in some token offence, including a decent springboard swanton by Mike Tobin, but the NBS dominte until they get disqualified for attacking the Knights with a rubber chicken, leading to them assaulting ref HC Loc afterwards. Fun squash.

Quiet Storm vs Jose Maximo vs Joel Maximo vs Brian XL vs Chris Devine vs The Amazing Red
This is an elimination match refereed by Mikey Whipwreck, who trained them all bar XL. It's also a total spotfest, with all six guys zipping in-and-out of the ring, hitting flashy offence before being taken out by another competitor. With so many guys, there is no resting and it does lead to some choice moments. A Quiet Storm tope leads to a series of them, which culminates with Red hitting a springboard swanton to the outside. There is a real contrast in the standard of the wrestlers: Red and Storm are clearly ahead of the pack with their offence looking crisp and capable, while XL is flashy but sloppy, and Devine looks pretty hesitant. After a few minutes of action, we hit the eliminations hard: Red stumbles into a backslide from Jose for 3, while XL is eliminated following a Widow's Peak from Storm, leaving the two regular teams. The SAT hit Spanish Fly on Devine, but Jose gets hit with a German suplex by Storm straight away, leading to a double pin on Devine and Jose. Joel and Storm run through a decent series of pin and counters, with Storm eventually picking up the victory following a Storm Cradle Driver. An entertaining spotfest which, although not as crisp as others I've seen, was never less than fun and energetic.

Prince Nana vs Towel Boy
Nana hasn't got a opponent, so Eric Tuttle is sent from the back, with Corino advising him to "get yourself over". He does this by wiping down the ringropes with a towel (hence the name) only to get nailed by a Nana clothesline. A capture suplex ends a total Nana squash.

Michael Shane & Oz vs Spanky & Ikaika Loa
all four guys are graduates from Shawn Michaels' Texas Wrestling Academy. The storyline here is that the winner of the pinfall will earn themselves an RoH contract, with the underlying story being based on the mutual dislike from Shane and Spanky.. The strongest parts of the match come when they're opposing each other, with both looking like they really want the win at the others expence. Oz and Loa don't do much, but don't bring the match down. Loa is slightly lumbering, but has the basics down, while Oz seems competent. The match is solid, but really heats up in the finishing sequence: Oz prevents Sliced Bread by pushing Spanky into a Shane superkick, Loa takes both himself and Shane out with a clothesline, and Spanky reverses an Oz German suplex attempt into Sliced Bread for the winner. Decent tag stuff here.

Super Crazy vs Eddie Guerrero
This was for the IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental. The fans go nuts for Guerrero, with a huge "Eddie" chant ringing out. Guerrero slaps away a handshake to become the heel of the match. It's a very even match, though Eddie's offence has a slightly more evil hit to it, with the prime example being a brainbuster to the floor in the early stages, which he garnishes with a smug pose to huge cheers. Crazy comes back with a springboard moonsault and the Spanish ten count in the corner, but gets caught posing and is hit with a top rope rana for two. Eddie hits two brainbusters, but misses the Frogsplash and gets rolled up by Super Crazy for 3. This was just before Eddie rejoined the WWE and he looks great here, with Crazy looking non-too-shabby himself. A good match that could have been great with another 5-10 minutes.

American Dragon vs Low Ki vs Christopher Daniels
How far have these 3 guys come in the last 9 years? This was an Indy dream match at the time. Danielson goes early for Cattle Mutilation on Low Ki, only for Daniels to break it up, before locking a complex (if slightly contrived) submission on both men, which looked cool. The match wisely avoids the typical triple threat formula of throwing a guy out of the ring to make it a one-on-one match, instead allowing the guy in control to work over both opponents. The match structure generally sees Ki and AmDrag teaming up to try and take out Daniels, who didn't respect the Code of Honor in pre-match interviews, then trying to take the other out before Daniels has a chance to recover. However, Daniels is always present in the ring and quickly comes back to try and take control. Because of how fast-paced the match is, it feels like an injured wrestler can't take time to recover in case one of his opponents picks up the win while he's hurt. The result of this is that you get a fair few innovative three-man spots. In a nice moment, AmDrag locks a deathlock on Daniels, but gets knocked down repeatedly by Low Ki, which causes him to twist the legs of Daniels. AmDrag and Low Ki take it in turn to kick Daniels in the back to prove who has the hardest kick, only for Daniels to eventually duck causing the two men to kick each other. There is also a fun spot which involves all three men in a suplex from the top. The end sees Low Ki comes off the top with a Phoenix splash on Danielson while he has Daniels in Cattle Mutilation, then hits the Ki Krusher on Daniels for the win. A great match that could so easily have felt like an exhibition of cool spots, but instead is perfectly structured and feels like three guys who all want to win rather than wanting to hit the coolest looking spots.