Are we attempting an awesome goal, or do we have a death wish? Soon enough, we’ll find out for sure, but we’re at least off to a good start. We’re proud to kick off the PWO2K project, a multi-faceted plan we’ve been cooking up for a long time to rewatch and rethink wrestling in the 2000s.

To kick off what is expected to be a very long-running project, Chad and Charles watched 148 matches from all around the world in January 2000. We made an attempt to not only watch matches that received high critical acclaim, but championship matches, gimmick matches and matches that looked intriguing on paper, even if they had no reputation of which to speak.

We are capturing our real-time thoughts in an individual thread dedicated to each match in the Match Discussion Archive at ProWrestlingOnly.com. You can read our thoughts on these matches by clicking here. We plan to keep going all the way to the finish line, which we anticipate will be years from now, in December 2009.

Our goal is just to have fun. Nothing more, and definitely nothing less. But if in the process, we discover some great matches and share the love with other wrestling fans, why would we not do so?

Part 1: The Podcast

Chad and Charles present the first PWO2K podcast, where we talk about wrestling from January 2000. We start by explaining what the PWO2K project is all about and what our goals are before talking about wrestling all over the world. WWF, WCW, ECW, the indies, Japan, Mexico — if it happened, we likely talked about it. We talk about the best matches of the month and touch on new workers that have surprised us. We also check in on wrestlers that made their names in previous eras and both of us get a chance to weigh in on matches where we had the most disagreement. We hope you’ll check it out.

Part 2: The Matches

Below, we have placed the matches into tiers based on our averaged star ratings. This is not based on either one of our individual thoughts, but rather our averaged opinions on a match. Each tier of the list is organized in chronological order like this:

Tier 1: All-time classics – Among the best of all time (****1/2 – *****)
Tier 2: Great matches – Standouts within the year (**** – ****1/4)
Tier 3: Very good matches – Very much worth your time (***1/2 – ***3/4)
Tier 4: Good matches – Not special but good (*** – ***1/4)
Tier 5: Worth watching for other reasons – Sometimes good, sometimes bad

Tier 1
Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
HHH vs Cactus Jack (WWF Royal Rumble 01/23/00, Street Fight)

Tier 2
Tarzan Boy vs Rey Bucanero (CMLL 01/01/00)
Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
CIMA vs Minoru Fujita (Michinoku Pro 01/09/00)
Mitsuharu Misawa vs Hiroshi Hase (AJPW 01/09/00)
Atlantis, Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Villano III & Pierroth Jr. (CMLL 01/14/00)
CIMA, MAKOTO & Sumo Fuji vs Dragon Kid, Magnum Tokyo & Masaaki Mochizuki (Toryumon 01/16/00)
Chris Benoit vs Sid (WCW Souled Out 01/16/00)
Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Super Crazy (ECW on TNN 01/21/00, Mexican Death Match)
El Satanico, Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero vs Antifaz del Norte, Felino & Tarzan Boy (CMLL 01/21/00)
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (AJPW 01/23/00)
Vader vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 01/23/00)
Hardy Boyz vs Dudley Boyz (WWF Royal Rumble 01/23/00, Tables Match)
Olimpico, Tony Rivera & Tarzan Boy vs El Satanico, Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (CMLL 01/28/00)
Daisuke Ikeda vs Mitsuya Nagai (BattlARTS 01/30/00)
CIMA, MAKOTO & Sumo Fuji vs Magnum Tokyo, Masaaki Mochizuki & Tiger Mask (Toryumon 01/30/00)

Tier 3
Ryuji Yamakawa vs Tomoaki Honma (BJW 01/02/00, Five Inch Spike Nail and Barbed Wire Double Board Death Match)
Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Yoshihiro Takayama, Takao Omori & Satoru Asako (AJPW 01/02/00)
Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kayo Noumi & Miyuki Fujii (AJW 01/03/00)
Manami Toyota & Miho Wakizawa vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 01/03/00)
Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 01/04/00)
Super Delphin vs Dick Togo (Osaka Pro 01/04/00)
Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Minoru Tanaka & Kendo Kashin (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
Keiji Muto vs Masa Chono (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada vs Tiger Mask & Masaaki Mochizuki (Michinoku Pro 01/09/00)
Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori (AJPW 01/09/00)
Jun Akiyama vs Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 01/09/00)
Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Vader & Johnny Smith (AJPW 01/10/00)
Michael Modest vs Christopher Daniels (APW 01/22/00)
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Steve Williams & 2 Cold Scorpio (AJPW 01/23/00)
Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Super Crazy vs Little Guido (ECW Ft. Lauderdale, FL 01/28/00)
Negro Casas, Atlantis & Emilio Charles Jr. vs Bestia Salvaje, Villano III & Fuerza Guerrera (CMLL 01/28/00)

Tier 4
Wild Pegasus vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
HHH vs Rikishi (WWF Smackdown 01/06/00)
Carly Colon vs Ray Gonzalez (WWC 01/06/00)
American Dragon & Spanky vs Rudy Boy Gonzalez & Crusher (TWA Total Impact 01/08/00)
Low Ki vs Ric Blade (CZW 01/08/00)
Azumi Hyuga & Commando Bolshoi vs Devil Masami & Ran Yu Yu (JWP 01/09/00)
Yoshihiro Taijiri & Super Crazy vs Jerry Lynn & Little Guido (ECW Guilty as Charged 01/09/00)
HHH, X-Pac & New Age Outlaws vs The Rock, Mankind & The Acolytes (WWF Monday Night RAW 01/10/00)
Mike Awesome vs Rhino (ECW Danbury, CT 01/14/00)
Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Jerry Lynn (ECW Danbury, CT 01/14/00)
Olimpico, Antifaz del Norte & Tarzan Boy vs El Satanico, Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (CMLL 01/14/00)
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Vader & Akira Taue (AJPW 01/17/00)
Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 01/17/00)
Billy Kidman vs Psicosis (WCW Monday Nitro 01/17/00)
Negro Casas, Olimpico & Lizmark vs Blue Panther, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL 01/18/00)
Sabu vs Spike Dudley (ECW Baton Rouge, LA 01/21/00)
Mitsuharu Misawa & Tamon Honda vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (AJPW 01/22/00)
Tracy Smothers vs Nick Dinsmore (MPPW TV 01/22/00)
Steve Bradley vs Ali (MPPW TV 01/22/00)
Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Little Guido (ECW New Orleans, LA 01/22/00)
Kurt Angle vs Tazz (WWF Royal Rumble 01/23/00)
Edge & Christian vs Dudley Boyz (WWF Smackdown 01/27/00)
Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka (ECW St. Petersburg, FL 01/27/00)
Atsushi Onita, Shigeo Okumura & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs Kendo Nagasaki, Shoji Nakamaki & Ichiro Yaguchi (Onita Pro 01/28/00)
Bad Crew vs Backseat Boyz (EWF 01/28/00)
Dusty Rhodes & Tommy Dreamer vs Rhino & Steve Corino (ECW Ft. Lauderdale, FL 01/28/00)
Bad Attitude vs Jerry Lynn & Kid Kash (NWA Wildside 01/29/00)
Low Ki vs Billy Reil (JCW 01/29/00)
Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen, Akira Taue & Takao Omori (AJPW 01/31/00)

Tier 5
American Dragon vs Spanky (TWA Total Impact 01/01/00)
Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW Wrestling World at the Tokyo Dome 01/04/00)
The Rock vs Kurt Angle (WWF Smackdown 01/06/00)
CM Punk vs Colt Cabana (MAW 01/08/00)
Necro Butcher vs Biohazard (NWA Southwest 01/15/00)
Tracy Smothers vs The Barbarian (WCW Saturday Night 01/29/00)