El-P

WTF ? HOLY SHIT ! 2021, never stop being awesome please !

That's quite interesting and seems it would be a fair use indeed !

Chase Owens is actually having a terrific G1. Also, the fact Okada made me actually legit buy a nearfall as a possible finish, and that despite the fact there was no way in hell Owens would have another galactic upset (but the *idea* that he could was probably helped by the fact he actually had one, as crazy as it seems, so that's some brillant booking trickery here), says everything about the genius of Okada putting together those ending stretches. It's easy to get caught in our little bubble of micro-analysis while forgetting the big picture, it's the G1 so everybody is supposed to step up (both storyline-wise and in reality), plus there are less matches because of the restrictions, but you still have to deliver to the fans enough content so they don't feel cheated. YOSHI-HASHI has also stepped up, but I admit I fast-forwarded a bit for his match against SANADA, since it's as close as Lance Storm vs Tim Horner in term of Charisma Deathmatch goes and the fact they are both make-koshi already. Really, that Sendai night was all about Cobb vs Tanahashi and did it deliver just that great match it was supposed to. Plot thickens and gotta hand it to Gedo, who still can book a cool G1 even with the restricted roster (although really, some new blood would have been welcome). Of course you gotta deal with EVIL matches being an important part of the equation and that is annoying (Kevin Kelly sounding super annoyed actually helps because you can almost feel some empathy for the poor viewers in a meta yet discreet way).

They knocked it out of the park with that show. Awesome Kong being announced for the HoF, and of course being the woman she is, she makes it about Daffney rather than herself. Some good matches in the tournament, which in the end, is won by Mercedes Martinez ! Great job by WWE to let her go after doing nothing with her, so now we can have either Mercedes vs Deonna or Mercedes vs Mickie James, of both ( I mean, gotta make a spot for Eva Marie I guess, can't have them all) ! I was expecting Chelsea Green to go into the finals, but I guess maybe they want to keep that match for later. Deonna Purrazzo had yet another terrific performance, and damn I want more of Masha Slamovich ! I saw her at Empowerrr too but really she was a revelation here. She rules ! And I love the look which is totally reminiscent of Ruth Wilder as Zoya the Destroya in G.L.O.W ! Hopefully they bring her back. And Deonna is and remains one of my favorite pro-wrestler in the world. It was kinda bittersweet that after last year when @Superstar Sleeze invited me to do the top 25 TNA matches ever, I actually brought up the infamous Monster's Ball match with Daffney and Taylor Wilde (I had it at 23 I believe), and now it gets some talk but due to those tragic circumstances. I had loved to see Taylor Wilde come back to wrestling last year, and she paid a really nice tribute to Daffney talking about this match. And speaking of which, nice of Kimber Lee to bring a crowbar in the ring and just play it like she was in IWA Japan in a countryside town show or something, bumping into barb wire, getting smashed with wired kendo stick, bumping into tacks. Alisha is funny because she's all cute and petite but you know she wants to roll into those tacks and show her husband she's hardcore too. Cool match. And damn the Influence are such a fun act, with of course Madison Rayne being her hilarious self. I was half-expecting the IIconics to show up at the end of the show, but we got the vignette instead so yeah. They'll be right at home in IMPACT, and since they won't have WWE's bad comedy written for them, they'll probably be much better at what they do, happy to see them pop up there (the interactions with the Influence *have to* happen. Please). Main event was quite the good and fun affair, being a babyface suits Havok so much more too. They sure have given a serious push to Decay as tag champs, which is nice, all the titles feel important. Cool clip about mental health awareness too, with tons of people from many places, I did not even recognize everyone. Oh yeah, and Melissa Santos is STILL the best ring announcer in the world.

Gail Kim Because she spent most of her career in TNA, she's one of the most overlooked great worker of the last 20 years. In 2007 TNA made her their first woman champion, and she had a bunch of great matches against Awesome Kong, which were basically the first time women's pro-wrestling was taken and treated seriously in the US in decades. That was the real women's revolution, if you will. Gail Kim is great at everything she does. She's an *incredible* bumper, a quality that is less talked about now that most pro-wrestler do much more big athletic stuff, but Gail still is striking in how she would bump in really brutal and explosive ways (without looking like she would kill herself like Sasha Banks). She can take a beating like no one else and at the same time showcase that attitude of always fighting back. Great seller. But she's also a great bitchy heel with tons of details in her game in term of character work, hell, she's probably a better heel actually even though her most famous matches were as a babyface. She can make a spectacle of a match if necessary against a super green worker, as showed by the Taryn Terell match at Slammiversary, and basically always made everyone around her look better than they were. I'm not done with exploring her second TNA stint yet (in which the context was much less favorable as the first one, at least for a while), but to me she was clearly a great worker whom, transferred into current WWE or AEW, is right up there with the best women. Her last match at 41 years old in 2018 against Tessa Blanchard showed that she was still excellent by this point. Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong (12/02/07 - TNA) Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong (01/06/08 - TNA) Gail Kim vs Taryn Terrell (06/02/13- TNA) Gail Kim vs Tessa Blanchard (04/28/2019 - IMPACT)

I think it was just wrong. Because I don't think any great workers having a great match do it ignoring they are having it. It's been said that Steamboat & Savage at WMIII absolutely wanted to have that great match that was gonna steal the show. And the more things evolve, of course there is more and more recorded great pro-wrestling matches that workers are aware of, and maybe want to inspire themselves from or simply try to outwork. And the more discourse is produced about pro-wrestling the more everybody is aware of all of this, so it's hard to not be self-conscious about it. Plus it feels like a judgement passed on some sort of matches that should be less thought of simply because they reached for epicness as a definite goal, which in retrospect seems silly to me (silly me!). I mean, whatever works. Of course I'll have my preferences, like I said the two Mania Taker vs Micheals matches and the first (second actually) HHH one are not exactly my preferred style (especially the HHH one, which I don't even enjoy for the most part), but there's no way I'm gonna deny today that these were matches that successfully created a sense of epic and were great especially in their context (well, the HHH one is tricky though, but conceptually it sure worked).

Killed me !

You read my mind or something ? I almost namedrop Sabu in my answer ! Yeah, I still love Sabu (last time I checked at least, and my current approach of pro-wrestling tells me there's no way that one would change). And yeah, I was thinking here's someone that has been crazy influent, much more than most people would admit I think, and has had a *lot* of matches I have loved. Plus, he was one of the guy that was always compelling to watch against *anyone*, kinda like Zach Sabre Jr. today (yeah, in a completely different way). I don't remember if I voted Sabu last time, but maybe revisiting some Sabu stuff eventually would be enough for me to just revel in my love for that guy's work, good taste/bad taste notwithstanding !

Me : "Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are GOAT 4 Life, brutha" PWO : "You can go to hell ! Straight to hell !" I haven't watched the last few years of NXT Takeovers (none of the Gargano vs Ciampa stuff after the very first match I think), so I wonder what I'd think about them. I mean, even Meltz who's a big fan of the style said many times they were going too long.

Hum... That's a really good question. I guess where I will end up putting Dynamite Kid will be a good answer. I guess if you have the influence but also the great output (and I don't think Dynamite has that great of an output when all it's said and done), chances are you're gonna get pretty high. But simply being influential won't matter that much, I guess (then again...). I'm asking myself a bunch of questions and not answering much, sorry !

Since I actually coined the term, I have to say this. Before CM Punk and Danielson showed up in AEW, I rewatched some of their most famous WWE stuff. Including the match I coined the infamous term about : CM Punk vs John Cena (the Chicago one). And I was wrong when I did it. I was wrong about the match (it's great), I was wrong about John Cena's performance in the match (he's absolutely terrific) and I was wrong about coining that phrase. Watching Taker's matches at Mania earlier this year also taught me that I was wrong about calling the two Shawn matches by that denomination, these matches absolutely worked as epic Mania matches, whether I love them or not (and I don't love them, especially the first one, my favorites Taker matches being vs Edge and vs Batista). I voted Omega, of course.

I expected this question. Well, it is what it is. Whether people like it or not it entirely a matter of subjective taste, but there is a global historical evolution of pro-wrestling outside of the influence of just one guy, and it always went toward more, not less. Dynamite Kid is just a cog in the machine, but a cog that just was 10, 20, 30 years in advance, in that way he was so influential because it's like he showed how things would be eventually. Visionary for sure, not in a theorical (or even messianic ! ) way, but simply by how he worked and how his work transcended his own era. Now, if I consider my own enjoyment of pro-wrestling and how I have watched more great pro-wrestling watching current stuff in the last 5 years, of course I'll say it's positive. But honestly if Dynamite doesn't happen, someone else does it (and really he wasn't the only one either moving things along, of course, he's just extremely striking). I know the comparison won't float well with some if they can't stand Dynamite, but honestly at the same time, Jaguar Yokota strikes me as the same kind of super fast, super intense, pushing the pace and spots and attitude toward what modern pro-wrestling will be. To me the question is less "Is it positive or negative", because the "negative" answer reeks of a melancholic, almost sentimental, feel about the past that I have no time for (which is an attitude that isn't restricted to pro-wrestling for me, it covers a lot of ground), than "Why and how did things evolved that way ?", without any sense of judging, because again, it is what it is. I won't blame anyone who doesn't connect to today's mostly spread style of pro-wrestling since for a long time I did not either, but then again to me there's also more joy in trying to get what may be great about it even if it's completely different than what you were used too. Case in point, I probably never been more satisfied as a pro-wrestling fan than in those last past few years.

I'm not sure everybody agrees with this sentiment either on here. And really, the idea of "reigning in" and "slowing down" the Lucha Bros is simply not getting what they are all about and how you can have the greatest matches with them. They are maximalists luchadors and they are not working their best stuff in the constraint of the "classic" southern tag-team formula (and wanting every tag-team match to be worked that way is simply a very narrow and reductionist view of pro-wrestling, and "less is more" is an empty cliché). Which is why FTR actually did not work that well with them (the match was still really good, but nowhere near as good as you'd think on paper because they did not compliment each other the best) while they had the greatest of all matches against the Young Bucks (who also had the greatest of all matches against FTR and Page/Omega, because they can do whatever the fuck they want and excel at everything, which is why they are the GOAT).

Not nearly enough Pieter camera shots.

Kota Ibushi : "Wanna do shoot-style shit ?" Great O-Khan : "Ok" O-Khan definitely turned the corner with me during this G1. Of course it was against exceptional workers, but still, he was game as fuck and has shown he was able to have that kind of match. Meanwhile, Ibushi might be the greatest high-concept worker ever. That O-Khan match was WTF is happening awesome. I mean, it made me forget I just saw Ishii vs Takahashi, which was awesome, and ZSJ vs KENTA, which was excellent too. Depending on where the conversation takes place I guess. Ibushi is awesome. I usually don't think of him as highly as Omega (to keep it in contexts that are more comparable, although, please, please, PLEASE, make it comparable for Danielson sooner than later ! G1 2022 ? PLEASE !!!!!), but then he shows up with the kind of match he just did against O-Khan (or last year against Taichi) and my mind is blown.

Tessa Blanchard *in-ring only* people. She's apparently nuclear, but people still enjoy the work of people who are without a shadow of a doubt, terrible human beings. One of a kind pro-wrestler. She would outwork any woman in WWE, AEW or IMPACT (if she went back). Unmatched intensity, great as a babyface as showed by her feud against Sami Callihan (two MOTYC in a row for the promotion) and oh yeah, she is the first woman who actually won a man's world title and made it work. Great heel also, and not just IRL. Awesome at pretty much every aspect of the game (offense, selling, bumping, she can do it all), has the presence of a star, works like one. Probably won't ever reach her potential in the business because of her rep. One of the greatest "in limbo" workers ever ? Tessa Blanchard vs Gail Kim (04/28/2019 - IMPACT) Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan (07/07/2019 - IMPACT) Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan (01/12/2020 - IMPACT)

The idea that Dynamite Kid stuff hasn't aged well is pretty odd considering how if you look at the last 40 years and how pro-wrestling as a whole has evolved, it owes *so much* to Dynamite Kid. You put Dynamite Kid from the early 80's in a 2021 ring, and he's not that much out of place in ways he absolutely should (speed, execution, intensity, pacing, bumping). And that's not a retrospective view either, it's just plain descriptive when you look at the big picture over a long timeframe, it's more evident now than ever before. Of course Dynamite had those destructive habits, both in and out of the ring, which has ampered his career greatly in term of output, but there is well enough material to absolutely have him back into the fold (and yes, watching Dark Side absolutely made me rethink about his case, as has my evolution in looking at pro-wrestling in the last 5 years, I'm not sure I voted for him last time around).

That's a great point. Lesnar has been back (and forth) for so long now that we almost forget his star power just skyrocketed only when he went to UFC and became a huge star there. Maybe by 2009, Lesnar ends up in TNA. Especially in the current landscape where you can actually play both sides (which Lesnar always did with UFC, but it was quite different) and actually sign with the opposition if you're not happy. And come back later for even more money and a better deal.

He's clearly on the side of cheesy jokes and the world is all better for it since he's going head on with them. Daniel Garcia & 2.0 are such a nice addition. From basically nowhere they are now featured regularly and rule every time. The Acclaimed got exactly what they deserve at this point. I don't see any improvement. Back to Dark and really, they can do jobs for the Gunn Club as far as I'm concerned, I don't see shit in them above JTTS level. I love Jade's presentation, everything about it. Not sure this kind of squash is the way to improve, but then again, having a match with Thunder Rosa sure is. I'm gonna lose my shit if the Lucha Bros opponents are whom I think they could be... This is the stuff we need.

About the Heyman connection, I also wonder if Vince would let someone, anyone, gain as much leverage and power as Lesnar got, no small thanks to Heyman's advises probably. So that's another reason why the Heyman connection might be a double-edge sword.

He may also not adapt well. Not every former wrestler ends up being Angle, Lesnar or Cobb. Any talk of him becoming this great worker and star is way premature, especially in the broken system (both in term of training and making stars) that is current WWE.

Speaking of being a tool, apparently Mark Henry has fun making nervous young people even more uncomfortable because he's in a position of power : The look and body language of people around him tell of whole story of how cringe and unfunny they thought this was. If IMPACT can suspend Tommy Dreamer for stupid shit about sexual assault, AEW surely can suspend Henry for stupid shit about hazing and toxic masculinity.

I always thought Mark Henry came off like a complete corporate idiot everytime he publicly opened his mouth when he was in WWE (including "But Owen deserves to be in the HOF" bullshit, or the Lio Rush stuff that people talk about in the thread too). I know he's friend with Coach Tony K. and all, but really this is bad publicity, all for a guy who's doing what exactly ? Considering he's a guy who had received a ridiculous 10 years contract after a *failed Olympic*, with zero experience, and never got good for a looooong time after he debuted (and that's all he ever got BTW, *good*, which is not an insult, I enjoy good Mark Henry, but he has been ridiculously overrated in some circles, which has become infamous since then), that's rich of him talking about that "deserving" bullshit. As far as his so-called great eyes for talent, wasn't he a proponent for Braun Strowman to get signed ? AEW has enough people with good eye for talents and actual terrific trainers who get pro-wrestling in 2021. The real dinosaur is not the guy with the mask...

I have no idea what they were thinking with that Johnny K9 episode. Basically 10-15 minutes about a pro-wrestler who was a footnote in the business, who also happened to be a criminal. And then 30 minutes of the criminal stuff and his ex-wife saying how much in love she was with him, and why am I supposed to care ? Well, I did not. Worst episode by far, unless you're fascinated by some random criminal stuff by a biker gang member who worked in SMW for less than a year. Apart from interviews by D'Amore and Lance Storm, you'd not even think this was a Dark Side of the *Ring* episode for most of it. Same time allotted to this as to FMW or Owen Hart ? Really ? Total miss.

Me too ! When he won the title from Bret Hart.