Gorman

Thoughts on November to Remember 2000 Chris Chetti knocked himself out of ECW by challenging Nova to a loser-leave-town match and then losing. Nova & Chetti had won three straight pay-per-view matches, so it was strange to see them disintegrate like that. I'm surprised Chilly Willy didn't get picked up by the WWF. He had a great look and an instant connection to the fans. He also had the courage to show up to a flaming tables match without a shirt. Rhino no-sold a guitar shot and gored New Jack through a table to retain the TV title. The WWF didn't miss out on Rhino. While Mikey Whipwreck was being stretchered out of his tag team title match with Tajiri against the FBI, the fans chanted for Super Crazy ... and they got him! He lived up to his name with a moonsault from the upper deck, but the FBI rallied for the win. Steve Corino is the MVP for sacrificing his forehead to become ECW champion (MOST EXTREME SIGN: "I PAID TO SEE CORINO BLEED"). He pinned Sandman and Justin Credible to win the Double Jeopardy match, even after Dawn Marie turned on him for preventing her from getting into a catfight with Francine.

Thoughts on Anarchy Rulz 2000 My friends are here! It was great to see Joey Matthews, Christian York, and Julio Sanchez make their pay-per-view debuts. They worked very hard for us in Steel City Wrestling and countless other promotions and deserved their shot at the big time. Hey, it's the Buckshot Lariat! That's one of my favorite moves, and here's EZ Money doing it (The Money Clip) more than a decade before the Hangman made the move famous. Steve Corino was getting over with the fans, despite the fact that he still had Jack Victory and Dawn Marie in the corner. It was like RVD being super popular while still having cheating heel manager Bill Alfonzo in his corner. I was there when the FBI won the tag team belts in Pittsburgh, but I forgot that Little Guido also won the belts with Tony Mamaluke. They beat Mikey & Tajiri despite a fireball to the groin from the Sinister Minister. Justin Credible was the ECW champion, but he wasn't above wearing a Brett Favre jersey in Minneapolis to get cheap heat. Jerry Lynn is the MVP for winning the title in his hometown, overcoming heel referee Danny Daniels. He was counting fast but Lynn kicked out anyway. Finally, New Jack made a rare appearance in a World title match and neutralized Daniels, allowing Lynn to rally to victory.

No -- not a "Self High Five" to be found.

Emi and Shida had a great match last year - it was the main event of Elevation in Cleveland for the Regina di Wave title. Tonight's match should also be a winner.

I hope he had the time of his life.

I actually love the fake Natural Born Killaz, as well as Mikey's fake Beck song. In WCW, DDP has my favorite fake overdubbed theme.

Thoughts on Heat Wave 2000 Blue Meanie was back after losing a ton of weight. As the Blue Boy, he enjoyed fat-shaming people who weren't actually fat. Big Sal E. Graziano went from roly-poly sidekick to unstoppable monster as he squashed Balls Mahoney. Steve Corino bled PROFUSELY in a losing effort again. Jerry Lynn wrote the word "DIE" on his own chest in Corino's blood. I will have to check with my daughter to see if that is "metal." (UPDATE: "Yes, I would say so!") Broken legs seemed to be an epidemic in ECW as New Jack and Spike Dudley both came out with broken legs. RVD was still recovering from a broken leg. Speaking of RVD, he received a huge hero's welcome in Los Angeles, with many fans making RVD signs. It gave me the feeling that if anything bad happened to ECW, RVD would land on his feet. Justin Credible is the MVP for successfully defending the title in a Stairway to Hell match. Randy Savage's former valet, Gorgeous George showed up in Dreamer's corner and turned heel almost immediately. Even though Dreamer said winning the ECW title would make all of his pain and suffering worthwhile, Justin won after a piledriver on the barbed wire.

It took me a while to figure it out, but Cyrus is a very well-defined character. He's a soulless network stooge, but he's also a former wrestler who exclusively speaks in backstage jargon. I've always wondered what it would be like to have an announcer who says things like "that was stiff" or "he's blown up," and here's Cyrus doing it.

Is this Mistico also the same guy who was the original Sin Cara in WWE?

Thoughts on Hardcore Heaven 2000 Balls Mahoney and Masato Tanaka had a great opening match, trading finishers and weapons shots and coming back for more. The fans gave them a standing ovation before the match even ended. New Jack took the "King of the Streets" title from Angel after wiping out DeVito with a balcony dive from the camera position and then walloping Angel with a guitar to win an impromptu match. Steve Corino bled profusely again, this time in a losing effort against Tajiri. Rhino piledrove Sandman's wife through a table, and then when Sandman tried to help her, Rhino gored both of them through another table. Jerry Lynn wins the MVP award for finally defeating Rob Van Dam. He kept his integrity, too, as he refused the help of The Network, and he did not realize that RVD's best friend, Scotty Anton, had turned against him. Tommy Dreamer wanted to join Credible and Storm in a three-way dance for the ECW title, but he backed down when Justin threatened to throw away the ECW title. Dreamer should have realized that World titles weren't all that prestigious in 2000. He came out after Credible's win, and while he was too much of a gentleman to cane Francine, he wasn't above giving her a Spiccoli Driver.

Looks like Collision will be back at the normal starting time because of the baseball results.

The Browns' quarterback woes are just incredible.

Thoughts on Living Dangerously 2000 Steve Corino tugged on Superman's cape by challenging Dusty Rhodes to a Texas Bullrope match. Dusty busted Corino WIDE open (Dusty bled too, of course). Maybe Corino shouldn't have attacked HC Loc in Milwaukee, because Loc was the referee here. He decided this match needed MORE COWBELL~! and taped a second one to Corino's head. Dusty blasted him with a chair and dropped the elbow for the pin. Elektra turned against Doring & Roadkill, who were gaining popularity with the fans, to join the New Dangerous Alliance. She cut a surprisingly good promo against Paul Heyman, who she called an old friend who never gave her a career boost. Extra points for referencing Paul E's promo on Madusa ("You are a man, man, man ...") Mike Awesome was the ECW champion and also held the tag team belts with Raven. It was strange for Raven to hold the belts with a normal partner rather than a lackey (Stevie) or an enemy (Dreamer). Masato Tanaka pinned Awesome to guarantee new champions and stake his claim to a shot at the ECW title. The Impact Players regained the belts. New Jack did one of the craziest, most ill-advised dives in wrestling history. He stepped off a scaffold 30 feet in the air and just dragged Vic Grimes with him. New Jack went through the table feet first, and then the 350-pound Grimes landed on top of him. It was a terrible idea. But nobody embodied "Living Dangerously" more than New Jack, so he's the MVP.

AEW wouldn't run on Thursday because that night belongs to Ring Of Honor.

Collision in Cleveland was at the Cavaliers' arena (Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse), which is bigger than the building they ran for Dynamite the previous year (Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University). I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm glad I got to be a part of early Chikara. I did play-by-play for the Best of 2002 DVD, which included the first YLC tournament and the first main event between Reckless-Quack-Montoya and Punk-Cabana-Hero. I also did YLC 2 (Larry Sweeney's army hilariously grew larger throughout the evening) and Best of 2003. I ring announced one show for Chikara in Wall, PA, which I remember for Eddie Kingston shouting "I hate lucha!" during his match, and I cracked up laughing while introducing Private Eye, because I didn't see the full outfit in the locker room.

Thoughts on Guilty as Charged 2000 Sign Guy Dudley found his voice as Lou E. Dangerously, leader of the New Dangerous Alliance, which had an Anderson (CW) and someone Beautiful (Billy Wiles) The other remaining Dudley, Spike, found himself in the main event against Mike Awesome for the ECW title. Awesome had knocked out the front teeth of Spike’s girlfriend, who looked like his little sister. Tajiri and Super Crazy were set to face off in a dream partner match. Realizing that they have fought each other too many times, Steve Corino chose Crazy as Tajiri’s partner. Now they just needed opponents. Little Guido came out, and Paul E. picked Jerry Lynn as his partner. Both teams imploded, and Tajiri pinned Lynn with a brainbuster. Raven finally did something unselfish (saving Francine from being caned), and it cost him and Dreamer the tag team belts against The Impact Players. RVD is the MVP for overcoming Fonzie’s vacillation, taking him out with a Van Daminator, and beating Sabu to drive him out of ECW. Like New Jack, RVD was something special that you could only see in ECW.

Once TK springs for "Walking on the Moon" by The Police as Gravity's entrance music, those ratings will come right up.

Thoughts on November to Remember 99 Taz was WWF-bound, but he showed up to bully the announcers and challenge RVD (unsuccessfully) for the TV title. Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka nearly killed each other in another chapter of their rivalry. While Tanaka had the advantage in their previous meetings, Awesome retained the ECW title with a Super Awesome Bomb. Joey Styles predicted that Raven-Sandman-Dreamer would not win the main event against Storm-Credible-Rhino due to their years of rivalry, which were still going on even though Raven and Dreamer held the tag team titles. Joey was right. Raven pulled a Reverse Urkel by caning Sandman and saying "Did I do that? Who cares?" He didn't save Sandman from getting pinned by Credible. Angel from Da Baldies is the surprise MVP. He survived a staple gun to the groin and a basketball hoop dive from New Jack (Curt, he climbed a ladder to reach the backboard and hit a perfect dive through the table, popped back up and kept fighting). Angel got the last laugh with a guitar shot and pin on New Jack to grab another unofficial title (King of the Streets).

Tom Hamilton (radio play-by-play) said that Francona's teams were only mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for 25 games in 11 years. Growing up as an Indians fan, we were often out of the playoff picture for months.

TIL the Seattle fans have had heat with the Blue Jays since they began in 1977 alongside the Mariners.

Well, they have a whole year to set it up for the 25th anniversary of No Mercy 99.

If Copeland is allowed to be "The Rated R Superstar," then I think we will be getting an appearance from Tony Chimel.

Worst fan sign: "WELCOME TO BREAKKER'S FEILD" --- You live in Bakersfield and you can't spell "field?"

Those shirts actually said "Thank you Tito," as Francona's nickname is his dad's name for some reason.