Jingus

Chris Nowinski's research into concussions as relating to depression, dementia, and suicide all suddenly looks a lot more relevant, doesn't it? It does piss me off however that a lot of people just insist that wrestling MUST be at least partly if not fully to blame. Last time I checked, the majority of wrestlers weren't murderers, and the majority of murderers weren't wrestlers.

Yeah, probably. Apparently Benoit had some covered-up roid rage problems. More retarded than Eugene after a talk with Stephanie about how Dinsmore is "being too subtle with the character". It's gotten downright stupid out there at some boards. Well, more stupid than usual, anyway.

The uber-cynical part of me wonders if Vince is secretly relieved that we finally have a major wrestling scandal that can't plausibly be blamed on him. Not that it'll stop Mushnick from trying.

It would've been hard for any speculation to be more disgusting than what seems to have actually happened.

So I say Mark Henry is sloppy, which he is, I remember him almost killing someone with a mistimed powerslam a few weeks ago, and suddenly I'm a racist? Fuck this, my instinct was right the first time, I'm outta this childish argument.

RVD and Shelton aren't that sloppy. Guys like Mark Henry or Khali, now that's sloppy. I've seen two of those matches several times already, and don't currently have a copy of any of 'em. So even if I wanted to go back and rewatch those (which I don't, remember, I hate the guy, and I've got a massive stack of other, better stuff I haven't watched recently) I couldn't.

Pretty much, Takada, yup. And that would be their 1988 match, not the 1991 outing where Bob supposedly got knocked out shoot in like a minute. Although aside from the UWF matches, damned if I can remember Backlund working anywhere else, he kinda fell off the face of the earth after losing the WWF title. Also, don't forget the NOT so good match he and Bret had at Mania 11.

That's one thing I didn't understand: why Nitro? Isn't he still supposed to be in the doghouse for something Melina did? I've heard Burke is injured so that rules him out, but in the end I guess either Montus Brownvon wasn't there or they just plain don't trust the guy with a belt.

RVD's punches look like crap, but I've never minded the rest of his stuff. His kicks are just fine, and as long as you make contact with stuff like aerial dives I'm happy. Meh. Everyone else raved about this match, and I just didn't get it. Seemed like a standard HHH main event match, other than the outta-nowhere submission. No better than any of HHH's other WM main matches. Perfectly acceptable wrestling for the most part. Cena at least didn't let the crowd get to him, unlike Batista and various others who fell down & went boom inside Hammerstein. Although I did find it funny that, when the crowd starts chanting "you can't wrestle", Cena responds with... an ordinary vertical suplex, the most basic 101 wrestling move in the book. Didn't see most of it. I only remember a couple of the big spots, and they looked okay. Though one would think that Edge could have a good ladder match with anyone from Khali on down by now. I'm not a blind hater who thinks that all Cena's matches will inevitably suck. Hell, I liked his Mania match against JBL, and I'm pretty much a minority of one there. But he tends to wrestle his matches in a style that simply makes me want to reach for the remote.

Big Show did damned fine as the ECW champion. If memory serves, he's about the same age now as Andre was when he died, but Show was still out there every night falling off the apron through tables, getting busted open with chairs, selling for pretty much everyone. He didn't have many matches that just made me want to turn off the tv. Which is more than damn near anyone else on the show can say. Sabu did indeed have some godawful matches with RVD, especially that one ladder match. Had a terrible one with Angle on Kurt's last tv match too, which hurts to say, cuz I'm a fan of both of those guys. But with RVD, I'm pretty easy to please. As long as he does a couple of his amazing jumps, kicks someone really hard, and takes a couple of gravity-defying bumps, I'm happy. I mark for guys who can physically do things that nobody else can quite do. Yeah, just ignore all the STORYTELLING, like Joe getting cute by pulling out various old AJPW guys' moves and then getting his ass kicked for it, so he changes back into Joe Smash mode with the knees to the head and such, so Kobashi responds with... Yep, no story whatsoever. Yep, he had a lot of matches that looked a lot alike. But I liked the Generic Flair Match. Can't say the same about Cena.

Kinda similar to the old "You sold out!" chants. "Who cares that you have a life and all that shit, ENTERTAIN ME NOW. (Worst. Payperview. Ever!)"

Yeah. I would dispute the numbers. I've seen only a handful of Cena matches that I enjoyed. I've seen only a handful of RVD matches that I didn't enjoy. (Almost all in New ECW, the worst wrestling show on TV.) ...huh? True, Kobashi is kinda repetitive, "drop me on my head then I LARIATOOO then we both fall down" and such. But he can change it up just fine depending on the opponent. I thought his match against Joe was better than anything I've ever seen Cena do.

Yep. To me, anyway. Regardless of what some people may claim, we're all just arguing our different opinions here. And oh yeah, storytelling is great. But Cena always tells the same damn story, and I didn't like it the first time I heard it.

Many of Keller's articles have that one part that makes me go "I tap, I ain't reading this shit no more". I just stumbled onto a new one.

Word is he took the night off cuz of Biff Wellington dying.

Exactly. I wasn't saying you gotta be stiff, that's ludicrous, I was just naming one example of someone who actually looks like they're making contact on everything. Here's another one: Bobby Eaton. His punches look like he's breaking the other guy's jaw, and yet he's barely even tapping them. No. Those aren't odd standards. At all. I can get into a worker if they fulfill just one of these things: 1. They execute their moves really nicely and make 'em look painful (Benoit) 2. They use different moves that I don't see too often (Nitro) 3. They are just such amazing athletes that they can do stuff with their bodies that nobody else can compete with (RVD) But what's to like about a guy who does the exact same shit that everyone else does, and doesn't even do it particularly well?

Fuck it, I quit, I'm not interested in debating with someone who responds to my very real complaints with "YOU HAVNT PAID ATTENTION & R STOOPID LOL".

...holy shit, Keller is that Prime Guy!

How many voices are there, Sybil? DEY TUK R JOBS!!!1 ...but he is right, why on earth would you live in a foreign country for years on end and yet never learn the local lingo? "Thank you waitress, I'll definitely come back to this Chilis again, the food was excellent and you worked very hard. ...unlike that GODDAMN Jericho!"

Flair doesn't punch... he sure does lean on that chop though. Personally, I'd rather see some counter-fest mat wrestling or cool flippy dives than someone who just throws punch after clearly fake punch. Same thing that often bugged me about Bret, for a "technical wrestler" he sure did rely on those overhand rights. No, Stan Hansen is what I call "actively good" punches and clotheslines. Cena's have always looked weak. And how is the FU "exactly what it's supposed to be" when its so sloppy that it often appears to be different moves entirely? I've seen occasions where one could argue that it was a death valley driver, a fireman's carry slam, a samoan drop, or a michinoku driver. And it rarely looks like it hurts more than a standard bodyslam. Its only real positive is Cena's freaky caveman strength, since he can do it to pretty much any sized opponent. On a similar note: the crappiest STF this side of Erik Watts. Cena's supposed to be a brawler, why use a submission finish? Like during his "street fighter" days, when he was the... slowest... rapper... alive? Did the office tell him to do all those gay jokes? The booking. How did it make any sense at all for Khali to tap out in their first match? (And I HATE me some Khali, but I still get mad when anyone is clearly being shafted by stupid writing.) Or for them to retroactively shit on the awesome WMXX finish with HHH tapping out to the STF before it had really been established as a finisher, and to tap out way faster than he did to the crossface? Once again, Cena's not a goddamn technical wrestler, he's not supposed to be, he's just a punchkick guy. So, if my arguments are so wrong... why do I hate watching his matches? My loathing for Todd Grisham knows no bounds, I wouldn't even consider that guy a real wrestling announcer. And I think Cole is pretty worthless all around. I've seen all their taped matches from that period, and Steamboat never got booed close to how Cena did at WM22, ONS2, etcetera. Pretty much my opinion too. I want snarky in-joke color and "oh my gawd" passionate play-by-play. I don't dig West's act of being the loudest marky mark who ever marked. Tremendously nice guy, that really IS him you're seeing on the screen, but not what I want screaming in my ear when I'm trying to enjoy the already iffy "quality matches" that TNA gives us.

Joey Styles was never actually good. We're gonna have to disagree on that one. Totally, utterly, violently, yet politely disagree.

X's are red violets are blue

Tenay's facial expressions are indeed goofy as hell. His "righteous indignation" face especially comes to mind. Problem is, I don't know exactly how much of this to blame on Tenay himself, and how much might be a result of just doing what he's told by TNA management. That sort of thing can have a huge effect on an announcer: look how the WWE ruined Joey Styles by insisting he change everything about himself. And finally, even if you reject that... please do remember that this man sat and watched EVERY single episode of Thunder... from ringside... and had to try to make sense of it all on commentary. There's no way you can live through that without it scarring your very soul. I think the non-temporary insanity defense is one Mike could easily invoke.

I think he's mostly a godawful wrestler who represents everything I think is wrong with the business today. Yeah, he's kind of a draw and many other people love him, great for them, but I can't stand the bastard. That's pretty much my whole reason, I just viscerally hate watching him wrestle.Ok, WHY?Very limited moveset, he mostly just punches. Absolute dogshit garbage execution of his moves, I've never seen him do the FU the same way twice. Overrated promos, he rarely says much that really entertains me. Gimmick, or lack thereof: he's no longer a rapper, not a "soldier", what the hell is he and why does he dress like Justin Credible? Annoying Superman booking which has him going over everything on two legs regardless if it makes sense or not. Plus, he's the most blatant example in recent years of the WWE not listening to its fanbase, what with half the crowds across the country booing him out of the building and yet Vince keeps determined to market him as a whitebread babyface. Please don't come back with "FU is established finisha~!" and "he draws at the house shows" and stuff like that. That just means other people like him. Other people, not me. And subjectivity rears its ugly head, as I think Cole is clearly worse than everyone mentioned except Grisham.

Whoa jesus. How come nobody ever, ever talks about that? I've never even heard of it before, and I mark for guys jumping off cages harder than just about anyone else. (I really gotta join this club if I can scrape up the money.)