Mrzfn

I'm dying at this. Amazing.

I just want to say this thread is my favorite thing on this site and I've read it all the way through at least 3 times. El-P is a hero.

From what I understand it was originally thought Catrina wouldn't be on season 4 at all, and this was the compromise. Definitely agree it sucks and I wish her the best wherever she shows up. If they can't do better than Swagger for their next big push then yeah, might be better to die, but I choose to believe he's the exception instead of the rule. LU is the promotion that basically discovered half the current indy scene singlehandedly, so I know they can scout great underused talent.

From what I've heard is a 5th season isn't unlikely if they keep the same lower budget they did this season (tho hopefully they'll use it a bit better). Haven't heard for sure yet. I'd love them to get through the planned 7 seasons because even if season 4 has been the weakest, there's been a lot of fun stuff still.

Liked some parts of the latest episode. Drago showing up to help Aerostar jump off something ridiculous was fun, though seems like he recovered from his ankle injury very suddenly. Fox damn near breaking his ass on that big dive was fun. Felt kind of underwhelmed overall though, guys like PJ Black, Hernandez, and Big Bad Steve felt like filler, and while keeping the whole "Lord of the Limo" thing in mind made me feel a little better about Strong going over, it still felt like a big waste of Fox to bring him back with no explanation just for this, and it seems like the crowd felt the same way. They specifically mentioned the MITB style cash in rule again, so very afraid the season is going to end with Jake Strong as LU Champion, which I am just not into. I will say though, that vignette at the end was AWESOME, probably the best since the final Catrina one.

Didn't see the show but I've got to agree, going back to Aldis made my interest nosedive. Was hoping he'd be the last in the line of nondescript, buzzless champions of the past couple decades. Instead feels like nothing really changed.

Something like this goes way beyond fandom. Hope he makes a 100% recovery as soon as humanly possible.

I didn't come up with this but it made me feel a little better about Jake Strong's super-push. The idea is that he is the vessel for the mysterious Lord of the Limo, since it was implied he would come after his Gauntlet if things didn't resolve themselves at the end of season 3, which they didn't. Now I still think Strong is a dull choice for the role, but at least it explains why he's been pushed so strongly. Alternate theory is he secretly recovered the Gauntlet from wherever it was hidden and is using it to get stronger. Either way I'm at least more interested in the guy than I would be otherwise.

Shot in the dark, but does anyone have a good handle on what shows Heenan was usually on in WCW? I've got a pretty good idea of his PPV/Nitro/Thunder appearance but not sure what, if anything, he was doing farther down, or before the Nitro era.

There are two Vince McMahons. There's internet/dirtsheets Vince McMahon, who is bad and should be blamed for every bad thing that ever happened in wrestling, and then there's on TV Vince McMahon, who did all those fun things in the Attitude Era and made hilarious evil faces. Two completely separate people.

Really hope Hamada does come back to wrestling, I've really dug her stuff in the last year or two particularly.

It was and I'm sure it'll be fun, but I don't think it has much chance of being a show stealer. What I like best about Mundo/Matanza is it's basically a loser leaves town match but with even higher stakes, since I assume whoever loses will be raptured up to Aztec heaven. I hope they play up the fact that losing this match has permanent consequences, and with Mundo also fighting to avenge Matanza destroying what was meant to be the happiest day of his life... well, if they actually mix all that in I think it could be amazing. We'll see if they do but the potential is there. 100% agree that 2 out of 3 falls doesn't make a lick of sense for Fenix/Azteca, but I'm loving the feud apart from that, with the Melissa stuff and Azteca's dream of holding GOTG until the end of the season being snuffed out.

Fenix and Mil doing their bit together was amazing, not just because of their history but also because the soul of Catrina may or may not be knocking around inside his head. Now THAT'S a complicated relationship! Feeling really excited for UL4. Marty/Penta, Fenix/Azteca, Muertes/Mack, and Mundo/Matanza all feel like potential show stealers to me. Killshot/Havoc could be a dark horse contender as well. I'm really feeling it, the season seems to be ending on a great note. Any word on season 5 yet?

I feel like we may not be done with the Ivelisse/Ryan/XO trio. Maybe a three way for the trios titles at UL4? I get you but I don't necessarily mind a feud without a clear babyfaces. It's sort of a post-modern overrated trope but sometimes I think a feud can work if all the characters are relatively well defined without having to be good or bad at all times. Of course, the WWU comparison didn't work about because I still can't think of why Mundo, king of selfishness, would use his wish to free Drago. Still annoyed about that. Marty is bloody awesome, he's legit one of the best guys in the Temple right now. I'm pysched for the match with Pentagon, giving it the Cero Miedo monitor could mean they really are going to pull out all the stops for it.

She's been even better than Cueto or Catrina (RIP ) this season. Just done a fantastic job.

I think what I liked best about the Kross/London scene is they were so obviously on different pages. London was excited that he killed off the other rabbits, but Kross didn't seem very interested and maybe even a little pissed. He also asked to be led to the Temple, whereas I thought he was already part of it in some way. Feels like London is in some wacky Tim Burton world while Kross is more in the vein of Fight Club or Se7en, which I think will lead to an interesting split between them down the line. I'm impressed with Kross as a character so far, and I think he could easily be big in the Temple. I'm a big Penta guy, but the way they set Moth up to get the title was great, and he's very disturbing. Assuming Penta will get the belt back in time and that's as it should be, but it should be a great ride to the top. My main complaint about Penta's reign is he's rarely felt in danger, but now in one fell swoop he's been unexpectedly knocked off his perch.

Watching through a lot of WWF '93 stuff. Obviously some stuff is not great but lots of fun little things hidden in the mix. Just watched a Mr Perfect/Blake Beverly match that was a whole lot of fun. Also, original Doink rules.

Nobody has ever needed a gimmick makeover like Strong does, that's for sure. I have the idea that the Fenix heel turn will be a short one, just a single story arc where they have to beat him to get his soul back in sync or something. Either that or it's a plan to segue him from a short term heel into a tweener than can ally with Pentagon, so they can cash in on the lucha bros thing with an Underground twist. Could be wrong but I don't see Fenix as a long term heel, for all the reasons you mentioned.

Azteca/Ivelisse was my favorite match of the night. I don't know if I'd say Azteca seems slower to me, though Ivelisse looked better overall. I did dig the railing spot. Crowd seemed to be pretty well turned against Azteca at times, any thoughts for the guy turning heel? Could definitely see mileage in the chosen one goes dark storyline, especially now that he has no guidance from Puma or Rey. I got what they were going for with the Cuerno/Mil brawl but I didn't really dig it that much. They just stood there punching each other, and for my money Mil's punches looked 20 times better than Cuerno's, but for the most part they just absorbed and kept going. I think the 3way will be a lot of fun though, I remember Mil/Penta/Puma was great in season 2. So agree on Strong, I've never seen someone seem so out of place in the Temple. At least Alberto got fired up for once, and even Daivari had a fresh gimmick. He may able to get people to slap their chest and say "Strong" but I don't really think he's over in more than a sing-a-long sort of way. I do think the Crane/Catrina thing will circle back eventually. At some point he'll get un-snakefied and probably be really pissed to find out the target of his obsession got offed in the meantime. Will he go after Mil or Melissa though? The latter could be an interesting trigger to snap Fenix back. I liked Crane here more than his last Snake appearance because he actually dropped some of his Callihan-esque traits, like the lame "thumbs up thumbs down" thing. Learn from Fenix, Sami, if you actually go out of your way to act differently it will have much more impact. Fenix did a great job getting across the strangeness of his shift in attitude. One interesting thing from the last vignette, Cueto seemed a little cagey about what he had in his secret barrel compartment. Maybe he's got some disguise stuff in there...? Not sure what Marty wanted at the end but I'm really excited to find out, he's been so great over the past few seasons I want as much for him to do as possible.

Surprised no one has mentioned Flair, in his prime he could go hard for an hour and still move like he's ready to go twice as long.

If Shawn must return to the ring, I'd much rather see him put over somebody young in a big way than goof around and make dramatic faces with his buddies.

I'm really hoping she's going to come back. She did walk around for hundreds of years despite being dead, after all, and that shimmer in Fenix's eyes make me think she's still in there somewhere. Also definitely thinking Fenix coming back may have some kind of monkey's paw style twist.

The "Jake Strong crushes beloved luchadors with ease" angle is not working for me at all, but other than that I mostly liked the episode. I'm a sucker for wrestling weddings and I thought they did a good job with the backstage stuff and the in ring stuff. Mundo's acting is undoubtedly cheesy but they've worked that into the character at this point so I'm good with it. Matanza laying waste to everyone was indeed a great ending, especially with Mundo supposed to wrestle Pentagon next week. Lots of moving parts. I liked the No Mas match but I see where you're coming from, in a longer season I think we would have seen a bit more build up. Just a couple extra vignettes would have done it. But the match itself was a lot of fun, XO has come off like a star and Evans has been a great foil for him.

In fairness, Fenix is "dead" right now, but he's gotten over that before so yeah, the sooner he's back the better at this point.

Thank you!! I'm still a bit mystified at the idea that WALTER is nothing like Vader. Very reminiscent to me. I'm definitely all about the "big" guys who aren't actually big but seem big because of where they work or because of their aura, like Mil and a couple of the DG guys, with the former Cyber Kong being another favorite example. Ryota Hama is also a great shout, very fun guy!