El-P

"Less is more" doesn't actually mean anything. I have used it myself in the past, many times, in many contexts, but the reality is that it's a vapid cliché. It doesn't say anything about anything, ignores everything about the social fields it's being used in and pretty much is a cute line to use to make yourself seem smarter than the rest of the crowd who likes "more". Less can be more, but less can also, very often, be less. And more can be more. Much more even. That being said, Riki Choshu is the transcendental "less is more" pro-wrestler if there ever was one. Not that his "less" is "few". But his "less" is very efficient, not just because of who he is (which is a major issue with other candidates whose names I won't drop here, nor in my list) but because of how he does it. Execution matters. A lot. And Choshu's execution is what makes it always fun, no matter what, to watch him backdrop and lariat a motherfucker into oblivion. I don't think I can ever get bored of it, even if he's only doing this. This only really refers to Choshu's 90's, before his retirement (kewk), which really adds quite a bit to his resume (as opposed to his compadre Fujinami, whose 90's added a little bit here and there but really not that much). He clearly made his case in his 80's prime, but his 90's were really a continuation of him being an elite pro-wrestler in all its "less is more" glory. Damn I used it again. But it's through though. But watch Choshu, even in the second half of the 90's. Whatever he was doing, he was doing is a very much "more" way. Apart from the ridiculous squashes of UWF-I guys (that was petty Choshu, I know you hate shoot-style but come on) and the pretty bad Tenryu Tokyo Dome main event in 93 (which was a lot more Tenryu's wrongdoing, really), Choshu was ON whenever he needed to be, be it the legend taming the Musketeers, the NJPW star defending his company against outsiders or the older guy having a last run on top trying to contain the wave that was threatening to submerge him (G1 96 final, people). And when he just had to lariat a mofo, he just did that and it was always enough to get a smile out of me, because of the way he would do it. The intense maneurisms, the short term selling details, the oddball cool spot out of nowhere when the occasion was right and of course, the big-ass power spots (some of the greatest looking suplexes you can find anywhere anytime). So yeah, I did not revisit his prime (done it last time around and can re-contextualize it pretty easily with my 2022 mindset), but Choshu very obviously makes my list, most probably in the top 50 (you never know how things might move around in a few years though, in a way or another), and that's from two decades of being one of my favorite pro-wrestlers ever, one I never ever get bored to see on a screen. (still gonna watch more from past 00's, just for the hell of it)

I will. Eventually. Been going through quite a bit of NJPW 90's, and with the hindsight of what's coming up later in his career which I intend to revisit too (meaning mostly his AJ/interpromotional stuff, as I've seen most of the later NJPW Tanahashi era matches not long ago), including him still having some compelling performances at past 58 years old in NOAH, there's no way he's not going in. A wrestler with just way too many genius ideas and instinct, maybe too conceptual for his own good sometimes, but I'm big on creativity and pushing things forward. And sometimes I'm just in awe on what he's coming up with, and I realize I was SO wrong on some of his stuff before (the two Takada matches for instance). Wizard is not a gimmick, it's a fact.

Hum... People going out on Saturday night ?

Yeah, Naito gets in. Great worker, was a huge merchandise mover at one point. No way he doesn't get in.

She retired during the pandemic but came back last year (so yeah, a few months only after, totally Terry Funk-like, which honestly is awesome). Glad she came back, she deserves a great public send-off when she decides to hang-it up. She's the best (doh!). Probably won't happen. It's an Impact trademark and from day one it has been the opposite of the Divas, as it was built on Gail Kim and Amazing Kong having great, brutal wrestling matches. The name is what it is, like the infamous X-division that "we don't know what it means" as idiots like Bischoff and Brucie would say (when infact *everybody* knows what it means implicitly in the IMPACT audience), it's a staple of the company at this point. One thing I enjoy about IMPACT is that they embrace their own little flawed legacy as it is. Now, does that mean I want Dixie to show up at Slammiversary for the 20 years ? Well... I kinda do actually !

Yes, that was understood. That's a good point. It's also one reason I think Flair was always overrated (still one of the GOAT obviously, but overrated in that field nonetheless), he always tried to fit his opponents into his own formula, including forcing offensive (and some defensive) spots they would never do otherwise, which is one of my pet peeve still. Beating a great match out of someone is always cool (Hansen says hello), but force-feeding the way your opponent is gonna work with you by trapping him in a formula is not so good. Has anyone past 60 had a run like Sting on weekly TV ever before ? Of course he's protected most of the time, and I sure don't want to see a long single match with him, but still. Guy is 62 and has proven everybody wrong, I know there was a lot of doubters, me included, when he was signed as a full-time performer in the company. This guy has had the most interesting and singular career honestly. The fact he's involved yet another time, at his age, in the hot new promotion getting competitive with WWE is fascinating.

GCW at Hammerstein Ballroom this week-end has quite the line-up, with Mox vs Homicide, Janela vs Cardona (who really has turned himself around as a character since his first appearance in GCW), Gresham vs Blake Christian for the ROH title, the Briscoes vs a surprise team (could it be FTR ?), a multi-men ladder match which includes PCO and Lio Rush among others plus Jeff Jarrett vs EFFY (WTF moment of 2022 already).

There's no "we" in PWO, thankfully. I mean, there shouldn't be... So yeah, I'm loving Cole/Cassidy, the Elite drama was some of the best stuff last year, Dan Lambert is always awesome. And Kenny Omega is the GOAT of course. And I must say, as rambling as it was, I was quite entertained by the Cody promo, which was totally "Cena loses his mind and trolls the audience while trying to get their love and attention at the same time" crazy shit. At the very least, this guy is *interesting* to watch. Also, Sting channeling his inner Terry Funk is quite incredible. The "gory self-mutilation" and "Starrcade 97" ref killed me. That being said, no way The Acclaimed should get the tag team titles. Bowens has gotten really good and Caster is funny, but they still are 2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Bagwell level. So many teams ahead of them, Sting & Darby being one of them really. "Go fuck yourself". Did Mox just stole Jericho's new gimmick ? That was pretty awesome though, the perfect promo. He looks like he has lost quite a bit of weigh too, you can see it in his face too. Archer also made a Japanese baby cry on a show in NJPW, I remember. He's so awesome at this and this was such a great spot (not to mention he kept on jawing that little girl the whole match). Archer vs Page should be terrific. And yeah, the women-get-interviewed-backstage-and-then-there's-a-brawl spot cracks me up now. TK should watch IMPACT and get pointers from D'Amore, the girls over there have so much more stuff to do in term of angles and characters and bits. On the other hand, Serena Deeb fucking bitches up is turning into my favorite thing. Crazy this woman was basically stuck to being a trainer forever in WWE when she had *that* run in her. Overall quite the rebound from last week's show, which was one of the worst Dynamite in a long time (apart from Brodie Lee debuting, which was really cool). Next week's show is ridiculously stacked too. Way too much talent in that company already. Fuck no. Nothing worse than having two young hot people make out in public, this is heel shit. Plus, Guevara is really a natural heel and Conti a natural babyface.

Nothing even close to the WWE style entrance from 00's and onward. It's totally been a WWE thing to have wrestlers do video-game style, exactly the same pre-planned moves and gestures at the top of the stage and then inside the ring, all the time in the exact same way, to the point of coming off completely inorganic like it's been said.

I mean, I have loved Omega on IMPACT and the various great matches it got me, but yeah, they could have done so much more. Especially with Deonna who could have been something special on AEW TV. Kazarian & Daniels going back was cool but it only ended up being cameos, really. And I know people on the board hated the Good Brothers, but the fact they did not do a Young Bucks match was kind of a waste. Yep, maybe. One thing I enjoy too thus far is that you have the ROH champ and announcer acting with respect toward IMPACT which host them as they consider the other four guys creating chaos as renegades, so it's a cool attention to detail here.

Lesnar vs Reigns on TV. Bring back Goldy at the Rumble. Bring back Trish Stratus at the Rumble.

Well, the issue is not that they had nothing for him, the issue is what they wanted to give him apparently. I shudder to think...

So they're basically keeping him hostage. The irony.

That's a pretty cool article : https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/aew-mikey-rukus-interview

I haven't played a wrestling video game since that Mania game in the 90's that had Razor & Bam Bam & Luger and such. And they had all the same moveset I think . But you may very well be right about that with more modern games. Reminds me that whenever that AEW game drops, I totally play it now that I've bought an X-Box One (to endure the third lockdown last year).

Funny, as I'm currently going through quite a bit of 90's NJPW, I find this guy may absolutely have a place, as he's probably been the best Liger opponent, the (second) best Ohtani opponent, the best Kanemoto opponent, in some of the best matches of the decade in the genre. If anything, he's in the top 3 NJPW juniors of the decade, and that's alongside Liger and Ohtani, who are two of the greatest ever (Sano was a 80's guy okay ?). The one thing that kinda works against him is that really, when Liger wasn't the focus of the junior division (and he mostly was) it was just not an important part of the product (at one point Norio Honaga got the belt back in the mid 90's people) so Sammy ended up working in meaningless tag matches on the undercard quite often. But when called up, this guy has a pretty high ratio of classics. He was a mean mofo too, even when working as a babyface underdog against Kanemoto. Great bomb throwing junior, great aggro, and one of my favorite "awkward" (in that he had this unaesthetic way to carry himself) great worker (alongside Taue & Angle). Still figuring him out, but he certainly has a case.

The one thing that has played a part is this form of presentation, that is never talked about, is the RAW stage. It's not called a stage for nothing. Before that point, the entrance was just an entrance leading to the ringside arena, with more or less decorum around the gate. Sure, you got the big stage at the Tokyo Dome, but it was only for special occasions. When WWE began to make it a permanent thing, it changed the way wrestlers would enter the arena, especially as the stage became more and more grandiose. You could not just walk to the ring doing nothing, there was a stage right there to present yourself, you character, to the public. And with the idea of personal branding, what you did on the stage was more and more a matter of branding itself. Likewise the appearance and the name, the way they move would be part of the brand too, so it had to be immediately recognizable and reproductible to be sold (like, well, a video game entrance). To me it was even more noticeable at first with the women, since they had the added "bonus" of being very sexualized, so there had to be some funky little sexy move executed on the ramp (there was this period in TNA when seemingly every women, even those who weren't very sexualized as characters at first, like Taylor Wilde, had to do a little dance routine). Of course this went beyond and to the inside of the ring (again with women, often toward the ropes in front of the hard cam in moves that were reminiscent of pole dance routine sometimes), but the adding of the big stage certainly played a big part is that kind of presentation.

He is. He's been a favorite of mine since day 1 he step foot in IMPACT. His match with Trey at the PPV was awesome. I love his work, so crisp and brutal looking. Right now IMPACT is where it is in term of audience, but as far as the product goes, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Scott D'Amore is the best booker today, has been for a few years, in term of getting the most out of his roster and planning a week-to-week show that always has a direction for everyone involved, with a visible long-term planning. They finally kinda made me care or at least nor frown at the idea of watching W. Morrissey (I was at first and for a good while, but he's been booked very well in term of making him look the best possible), which is quite a feat. The ROH invasion thus far has been a terrific little angle and I love the fact I'm getting a PCO run in a company I follow in 2022. No idea what was his rep in WWE, but Tom Hannifan certainly is a step up from Striker, whom I have a soft spot for but could be cringe still sometime. I have no doubt getting away from the controlled "get yelled at by Vince on the earpiece" environment can only do you good too.

The consensus is that Kazuchika Okada may very well be the greatest wrestler ever. That's why. Also, Meltz actually said Don Owen was not a bad choice and that longevity actually was the reason why.

I want a stereo Panama Sunrise. That's all. (really sounds like a cocktail too)

You're right, I totally forgot about that one. Haven't watch a Rock match in probably 15 years (apart from those Rock vs Cena main events when they happened).

So on Jericho's podcast, Scotty 2 Hotty said that the new directives at the PC was that the coaches had to look younger. Yep. That's the idea from Vince. Dye beard, cut hair, look younger. The future is bright for the future WWE trainee in such a quality environment that puts emphasis on what really matters...

I dunno. There was the same zoom-in/out effect on AJW shows in the 90's if I remember right, at the start of the matches. I don't really remember any comparable cam effect as a gimmick in WWE to be honest, but then again maybe I forgot about it. The fill-in chants probably comes from the Attitude Era indeed. Most notably the New Age Outlaws, Austin & Rock I think.

Cole was already doing this in ROH. That being said, I have no issue with Cole because he's basically an exception (well, Britt actually does the same thing with D.M.D, power couple indeed) but I would not want it to be the way to go in getting people over. Of course, whatever works works, but like you said the more you differentiate yourself from WWE, the better (I was never a fan of the most WWEish stuff Jericho has done in the past). The zoom-in actually reminds me a lot more of Okada's cam production signature. And since Best Friends are part of Chaos (yes they are), well...

A nazi called Adolph ? What are the odds ? I wonder if Gunter Starks will be part of Total Elimination. You realize these idiots could actually book him against Goldy just thinking "Well, that's a big men slapping meat in a cage match, that's a good idea" ? They totally could.