Lucha high spot action, here we come. Juvy was clearly on some stuff during his Nitro run. Watch his shaking entrances. Thug Life Rey Jr, complete with title belt. I’m game.

Psicosis and Juvy double team both men and heel it up. Rey has his moments, even more than Blitz, and your supposed to come away with the idea that Blitz gets the rub from being with Rey – who is the most over guy here. Other than that everyone gets a showcase. It’s basically stand around, someone gets there stuff in, someone sells for a few seconds, and then another guy goes from standing around to getting their stuff in. A fun high spot match that does get better as time goes on, but nothing that really kept my attention overall (slight lie). A small story in there somewhere, and the highlights include Rey and Blitz doing a comeback together. Otherwise Blitz just twists like an idiot. The Rey vs Juvy stuff was awesome and it deserves mention.

This match just kept going. It had moments, but I wasn’t sure when the spots were gonna end. What could the finish be? They had to sell after a while, because they probably ran out of energy. They definitely lost the crowd. They also had enough guys in there that pins were broken up instead of tons of kick outs. In some ways this is the Ultimate Lucha match on Nitro was everything these guys can do – like a video game – was done in this match. For what it’s worth, Psicosis wins in around 20 minutes with a top rope leg drop (Alabama Jam). He’s the new Cruiserweight champion. 3 and 6/10.

No hype is needed for this match up. They had masks, and now they don’t. Let’s begin.

There’s a new mat logo and a new set for Nitro (the lights as stars in the background of the entrance), so we are officially into the death years of the company. Still, matches like this were happening from time to time. The layout of this match is much different than these two would have done a year or two before. A definite progression of style and a willingness to use other moves/psychology. They trade the advantage and some strikes/holds early, and Juvy is actively working the crowd for heel heat. This crowd is live, so it should really add to the whole. Everything is working early, and the pace is great. Huge “Juvy sucks” chant as Rey bails to the outside. Juvy does a crossbody over the top rope – the first big spot of the match – almost four minutes in. The reaction for Rey’s comebacks, and the pace picking up, is huge, and Juvy’s cut offs are definite and awesome. This match really has some flare to it.

The 450 is teased, but Rey stops him and hits a top rope rana. Crap, never mind. Malenko and Benoit are out to attack Rey Jr. at roughly the six minute mark. This was a good match spoiled. Raven and Saturn come out to clear the ring. 2 ¾ and 5.7/10.

Four of my favorite cruiserweights ever lock it up in a tag title match. And the best part? They’re in Canada!

Benoit beats the piss out of Kidman early, and it’s so violent that even I wince. The crowd isn’t as live and in awe of this as I would be. Kidman gets a small comeback and gets out. Malenko then dominates Rey Jr. with holds, and then the Horseman cut off the ring. Rey’s speedy hope spots are wicked on, but Malenko/Benoit get the better of him. The story is the Horseman are too tough, but Kidman/Rey Jr. work from the bottom with flashy moves and quickness. Malenko’s top rope gutbuster is the biggest highspot by mid match, and naturally leads to the heels working over the midsection of Kidman for the heat segment (includes a commercial break). This match has had stiff action and good intensity throughout, but doesn’t have an important or peak feel to it yet.

Small random opinion: Malenko’s float over to a pin is the best I’ve ever seen. Also, the tag moves of Malenko and Benoit ruled. They were very under-rated as a team. Unfortunately, the heat on Kidman wears on and I don’t feel it. Benoit and Malenko are so great, but because they don’t project to the crowd at all, no one cares to react to this beautifully executed match, and even I become bored at home. They are having a match for themselves right here. The heel cheating is great, but it doesn’t get the reaction you’d hope, and the crowd isn’t dead, but they are entertaining themselves.

Malenko and Rey Jr. do big moves at the end to each other, but the finish is Raven coming down with Saturn and DDTing (Great move execution to pop the crowd) Malenko. Rey covers and we’ve got new tag champs in nine minutes shown – so probably 13 minutes. I’m conflicted on this match, because the execution was awesome, and the crowd was there at the end, but it seemed to lack heart, or maybe soul would be a better way of putting it. Still, I’d rather have this type of wrestling style on my TV for ten minutes. 3 and 6/10.

WCW actually has helicopter shots. Unreal how much money they were throwing around for cutaway shots. Oh, and Mike Buffer is there to announce too, so there’s a few more bucks out the (helicopter) window. Rey is the hip hop giant killer and cruiser champ, and Flair is the world champ, even though this is past his prime (for real this time).

This has all the good tenants of a Ric Flair match, from the pacing to making the babyface look great. Rey is shot out of a cannon and presses Flair, who panics and needs Arn Anderson to level Rey. So we go to the heat, which Flair can still do well, yet this is no classic by far. Crowd is definitely into Rey and giving Flair some crap. Rey gets two hope spot pins, but no one buys in, and a frustrated Flair really gives it to him. The Heenan and Schiavone are bickering at almost shoot level tonight. It’s awkward watching mom and dad fight.

Rey makes the comeback, and people love these two, but Flair looks horrible selling this younger and smaller guys offense. Rey almost gets the pin but Arn pulls him out of the ring for a DQ. Less than ten minutes into a decent, if not average match, with the final memory being Rey kicking Flair into the pool next to the ring. 2 ¾ and 6/10.

This is a match-up I’ve been waiting to see on the set since both men have worked well with Juvy, but didn’t seem to cross paths. This is Hip-hop Rey Jr., not the masked luchadore. Kidman is YOUR cruiserweight champion.

These guys are hitting a lot of big spots perfectly. Both graceful and impactful stuff here. They aren’t really letting the match breath, but the fans are hot and staying with it. Spot of the match for me is Rey going for his springboard rana and Kidman hitting him in mid-air with a stiff drop kick. What made it even better was the selling after by both men. A commercial break in the middle kinda kills my momentum as a chunk of the middle (the heart) of this match is lost. Kidman actually used a pedigree. That’s something you’ve only seen from one man this entire decade. Weird.

All the near falls are well timed, executed, and over, but at times I feel like they are running through stuff to fast for my tastes. That could be TV time constraints, but watching on DVD a decade later, it doesn’t help me to enjoy it more knowing that may be the case. At times they are definitely working a match for themselves in front of a crowd, instead of a match where they are interacting with a crowd, and that hurts it somewhat for me.

Awesome sequence at the end where Kidman reverses into a face buster, misses a pretty Shooting Star Press, and Rey hits the springboard head scissors for a near fall. All of this is really fun wrestling, but from a “work rate” perspective there is not much selling. I’ll let a fun match with a great crowd slide in this case. Rey wins a moment later with a bulldog off the top in seven minutes shown, so maybe ten minutes. Rey is the new Cruiserweight champ. 3 ½ and 6.8/10.

Usually I look at the set matches on paper and see all kinds of potential in a match up. This one looks like a horrible style clash and a cluster-fuck, but then, it’s gotta be on this set for a reason. Cat and mouse games perhaps? Mask-less Rey, bring home the goods, please!

Rey is doing a giant-killer gimmick after beating Nash and then Bam Bam Bigelow (Spike Dudley had that story in ECW with Bigelow). Norton kills him hard and slowly early. Nothing to great, not even in a jobber squash match sort of way, though I’m not saying the bumps don’t hurt Rey or look horrible. Rey sells his back big time on the floor, so at least this has some logic to it. Danielson versus Morishima, or HBK-‘Taker this is not. Clotheslines, chops, and bodyslams. On the up side it’s a very decent simple match story they are telling.

Spot and bump of the match is Norton tossing Rey Jr. from the ring straight to the floor for a back bump. Heenan is pretty amusing on commentary in this match. Of course, it rarely has anything to do with the actual match, but they get over the stakes just fine. Norton keeps pinning Rey then picking him up at two. At about six minutes Rey, having had only one short hope spot, kicks Norton in the balls and pins him. Norton sells it well, if not a bit dramatic. 2 ¼ and 4.5/10.

Nash is out with Rey’s mask, and does some mic work while Liz and Lex wander around the ring adding nothing. Rey comes out without his mask for the first time. I’m thinking this is one of those matches here just to note something important, like a possible “slip on a banana peel” loss by Nash, putting over the little guy. It’s also notable for a mask-less Rey, which WWE has tried hard to make us forget.
While I don’t love the match up as I remember how it was booked, it’s fun to watch big Nash toss around the little guy in the vein of the great squash matches (Sorry, wimpy matches, trade mark Rob Naylor). Then you get Rey Jr. doing his fast spots on Nash, which also has it’s charm. Match goes less than 3 minutes and Rey Jr. wins on a fluke, with Nash popping right up. Fun, but only as a spectacle. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Blitzkrieg was a hot cruiserweight project that hit Nitro pretty big at the end of the decade. He was also a flash in the pan, as he left wrestling only a few years later, selling the gimmick to Jack Evans (at least I think there was money exchanged). This match may serve as a document to the highest point of his career.

Blitz really shows he belongs in with Rey in the first minute, controlling the flow and carrying his end of the work early. The work is fast paced, intricate, and back and forth, so he’s actually doing a lot in a short amount of time. Rey’s counter into a power bomb was pretty bad ass, though you could make an argument that this becomes a MOVEZ match with a herky-jerky flow very early. Blitz is very “flippity-flop”-centric. Rey Jr. runs his shoulder into the post , but a second later he’s dropkicking a Blitzkrieg body press dive on the outside. These two do not stop or slow down except for the random momentary miscommunications or looks of “what comes next?” Crowd goes silent except between big moves, but does get into the near falls of Rey on Blitz. It’s weird seeing Rey Jr. kill a guy with clotheslines, but even more interesting to see him ground Blitz with rest holds more than once.

Match, after the opening big spots, just sort of meanders between spots and then rest holds without really connecting on a deeper level. It’s probably fair to say it was there simply for this anyway, to give the crowd a reason to pop for something, and that was enough. Rey wins with a top rope Frankensteiner in eight and a half minutes. 2 ½ and 5/10.

This is, on paper, is a great match. Kidman works awesomely with Juvy, and Rey works well with both Juvy and Eddie. So all that has to fall into place is Kidman matching up with Eddie, which I can’t imagine would be a bad. Let’s do this.

This match was during the horrible, yet forgettable, LWO (Latino World Oder) gimmick. Eddie is barking orders and generally being mean to Juvy; playing the evil leader. Eddie totally makes this match work early, from his control to his selling, he gets everything over and plays a great whiny somewhat fearful heel. You’d think it would be Rey that would shine, but Eddie makes it go.

Then they pair Kidman and Juvy, which is smart match layout. The story is Juvy trying to gain the favor of his unaccepting boss, Eddie G. While doing this well, he falters to both Rey Jr. and Kidman, and everything here is sold good impactful stuff, right down to the high spots and chops. The little that Kidman interacts with Eddie is fine stuff, though this match loses steam with all four men in the ring (Eddie fighting with Juvy at times). The babyfaces are in control when we go to commercial, and when it’s back we’re in the middle of the heat. It switches from Kidman to Rey, with Eddie visibly working the hardest to make this work.

The match was surprisingly lacking much heat, though the effort was there much of the time. Eddie pulled out an awesome Gori Special that ended with a spinning neck breaker. A lot of nearfalls that involve the face on the apron breaking up a pin. They heel control does get a little monotonous, but the crowd comes more alive from it, so I can’t really call it bad. Kidman actually saves Rey from the turnbuckle by using his own body, which is odd logic, but it allows Kidman to get the hot tag. Crazy Mid South sized back body drops! The faces hit some big spots for near falls. Phenomenal spots where Eddie tosses Rey into Kidman, perched on the top rope, and Juvy seconds later hits a crazy dive on Rey (on the floor). Eddie wins for his team with the Frog Splash in over 14 minutes. This one had some really good moments, and Eddie was at the heart of it. Nothing mind blowing as it wandered at times, but it hit it’s mark by the end. 3 and 6/10.

This disk keeps getting better and better. There’s no way an Eddie and Rey Jr. match can suck. This might be my third straight 3 ½ – plus rated match. My hopes are high.

We get a heel Eddie on the mic running down Rey as he stands there. Eddie is in his L.W.O. phase, which was pretty lame, but won’t limit his work. A burst of Lucha to start, and Eddie gets the advantage via sending Rey face first into the steel guardrails. Eddie pulls out a side suplex I’ve never seen him do before. Very Jumbo Tsuruta. This is a dome show, by the way, but I’m not sure if it’s the Georgia, Astro, or Super Dome. Nope, it’s the TWA Dome in St. Louis. Eddie keeps beating on Rey, with pacing breaks for heat (something Bret Hart always did well, and so does Eddie G.), and rips the mask. Match story via the announcers is Eddie trying to injure Rey before the next PPV.

Rey makes a small head scissors come back and Eddie does a great chop-block from the floor into the ring, damaging Rey’s knee braced left leg. Eddie goes right to work on the knee with some nifty submissions and strikes. The match at times gets a little dull, but it’s not like Eddie’s work is bad, just a lot of selling by Rey. I guess I’m not as much a fan of the underdog getting worked over without many hope spots. Another problem I have is Rey forgetting to sell the knee halfway through the match. Rey’s comeback is full of fun “movez” and Eddie selling, but this was tough to sell to a domed crowd, and I couldn’t fully invest in it, even as Rey Jr. was kicking out of some good near falls. Then there’s a ref bump, and it becomes completely nonsensical. I won’t go into it, but Kidman accidentally hits Rey, causing Eddie to win. It’s all to set up a three way that was already announced. It was a lame finish. 3 and 6/10.