El-P

So, JR "just stating his opinion", even if that implies putting someone from *the other company* over, has nothing wrong about it, but guys "stating their opinion" defending the guy *from their own company* is bizarre and pathetic ? Wait, what ? If JR doesn't care, maybe he just should not be in his position, because he's paid to care or at least pretend he cares so that the audience cares too and thinks they're watching the greatest wrestlers in the world.

That's one thing he is absolutely brillant at indeed, glad I'm not alone noticing that one. It's insane how he can create a nearfall *after the fact* (because of how perception works) from any kind of spot. It's like a magic trick and it's a way to create excitement and tension with snap of a finger. Another one great at this (and they are a very rare breed because it takes insane timing to do it successfully) is actually Mariko Yoshida.

Sold to Anthem. IMPACT buys WWE. Dixie wins.

Andrade Almas would be awesome. Joe would be cool, but it's too early. I'm thinking more Slammiversary.

Both. He is much more than a go-go suplex worker. When he's going into go-go suplex mode he's awesome at it. He's also the master of pushing up the pace at *exactly* the right moments and the master at making *anyone* look better than they are (and able to push himself up to the level of superior workers like AJ). I wouldn't be surprised if he made my top 20 when all is said and done. Reminder : I'm speaking TNA, which is his peak as a worker. Some early criticism may apply more to his WWE work, although I may have to revisit that too without my former preconceptions to really figure out where he will end up. But he'll end up pretty high on my list. Angle was awesome.

So apparently Dana Guerrier called the Dark Side piece "smut" or something. So I guess that makes it promising.

It was an old thread which I remembered. Last post in 2018, so the discussion went beyond the first question which was asked for a podcast. (but anyway, no big deal, it was funny to me because it's the second time in two days in two different contexts that someone is doing this)

My biggest pet peeve is creating a new thread for an old topic that already had a thread before. And seriously, one thing I see too often that I don't like these days is people acting shocked when someone kicks out of something they never ever won a match with. Which is why Jerry Lawler is overrated as all hell, basically. But anyway, nothing is realistic in pro-wrestling. Complaining about thigh slapping today is as irrelevant and useless as complaining about foot stomping or chest slapping in the 80's. Speaking of which (80's) one of my biggest pet peeve has always been jingoist bullshit angle, flag waving patriotic crap and other "USA ! USA !" chanting idiocy. One of the funniest thing I've seen recently was during a TNA match in 2011 where the crowd goes "USA ! USA !" for no reason at all and after a while Taz is going "Why is the crowd chanting USA, all three people in the ring are american ?...... Well I'm all for it but... USA USA !!!!" and you can hear Tenay cracking up followed by a few seconds of silence while trying to get themselves together. Just fantastic.

Totally agree. JR has some great peaks but he could be unbearable at times too. Tony on day-to-day until he lost the plot in late WCW was always much better to me. Callis/Excalibur/Schiavone would be the dream team for the current product. The guy who really knows how to put over the current the stuff, the old-school fan-like enthousiastic guy and the super witty and smart heel color guy.

Gotta win that Chinese market. He just forgot to say also that Uyghurs are not real human beings and don't deserve to be treated as such. I mean, while we're at it...

And so on his podcast, JR said that Randy Orton was the greatest pro-wrestler in the world today. To which Jericho responded that having faced off everyone everywhere, to him Omega was the greatest. To which Omega responded that he'd take the words of Jericho over those of the guy who called him the WWE champion. L'ambiance est délétère, as we'd say. Seriously now, how long before something is done about JR and his inability to put over the product he's paid to put over ? I understand he's the established name and it was right at first to sign him for symbolic capital and shit, but really now, just have him do sit-down interviews until his contract runs-up.

Name please ! BTW, you all know that Eric Bischoff and Triple H basically share the same name, right ? One in German, the other in French. They are both bishops : Bischoff comes from Der Bischof / Lévesque comes from L'évêque. Always got a kick out of that one. No idea if they know that themselves (although I heard Eric rightly correct Conrad about French pronunciations before, so he's familiar with the language).

Rocky Romero & Ren Narita working Elevation tonight. I'll sure check those out for a change (really haven't checked either Dark for a while now, apart from a match here and there).

I chuckled at this as I don't remember hearing of anyone being called Guerrier, but actually it does exist and really sounds funny as hell only in relation to this fucking Warrior deal now ! Like you said, it doesn't seem to exist in English, plus we all know it comes from a gimmick wrestling name, and a goofy one to boot (not like Steve Williams changing his name to Austin or Page Falkenberg changing his name to Dallas Page), which is what makes it so cringe for the wife and kids to be called this. But anyway, this is a detail, there's much more cringy stuff in the actual doc.

At least it was pretty damn honest about his mistreatment of Liz and the ridiculous stuff with the cam in Gorgeous George (and her sister)'s house. Of course WCW was never successful, or only for 5 minutes and only because they stole WWF stars, but you'd expect that. I watched the Macho Man one because it was said to be interesting. I probably should have waited for some feedback for this one, but I was curious also to compare it with the Dark Side episode. But yeah, Dark Side is not perfect, but they have really hit several homeruns especially since S2 (Benoit, Pillman, Owen, Snuka, Road Warriors). Like I said. Cringe. And really, should have been Jim Warrior or something. Can you believe the daughters are named "Warrior" ? How dumb is that ?

And so, the A&E doc about Warrior IS a puff piece poorly disguised as a non-puff piece. The entire narrative, from the very first minute, is about making the viewers feel sorry for Jim Hellwig, a poor little insecure kid who did not had a relationship with his father and searched for a paternal figure all his life. Sure, they spend about 5 minutes at the end talking about some of the horrible stuff he said for years, but that's washed off in about 5 seconds by Dana saying she was very disappointed but hey, you can change. And then it's an unbearable whitewashing tearjerker for the last 10 minutes with the daughters, the friends and the HoF (ohhhh, he was my hero when I was six) and the death. Dana comes off like she's doing a PR piece for the "brand" (she calls him "Warrior", which is cringe as fuck) of her late husband (remember that ridiculous and offensive tweet a few years back ?). You get a numbers of generic, useless WWE "contributors", you get the official biographer who gives me HUGE douchebag vibes (look at me, I've got a PhD and I am really interesting when I speak), you get Vince Russo despite the fact he pretty much never worked with the Warrior (he was still doing the magazine when he had the cup of coffee in 96), of course the WCW stuff doesn't exist. Oh, there's Miz sucking up to his boss too, for some reasons. I sure hope the Dark Side episode is gonna be better than this, because this is pretty transparent to me. Tearjerking, piss-poor two bit coffee table psychology, a narrative that is designed to make excuses from the very first minutes (all-along BTW, including when he's spewing hateful shit, it's because he was looking for a new paternal figure in conservative radio editorials, ya see ?). Please. The one thing I learned is that he already was an unprofessional prick during the Blade Runners days which is why him and Sting basically split up if you believe the story told here.

That was one issue with the ARSION tapes, they were really clipped as all hell after the first year or so. Also, these are 20 years old memories, pretty much, I have no idea how I would look at it now (well, I can pretty much guarantee I would love Yoshida, Fukawa & Yagi just as much if not more today).

Kayfabe, man, kayfabe.

I know people have said before that this was pandemic time and it did not matter, but I still wonder how much the awful EVIL push to the top with these main events overloaded with run-ins like it's WWF in 1999, followed by the single push of a stupid gimmick on a crappy worker like Great O-Khan have hurt the perception of the product. Cards who used to be loaded with great matches are now one match shows with one usually great main event (if EVIL isn't involved) and a useless, boring mid and undercard. Stupid americanized gimmick matches and angles (the Bea Priestley stuff which, again, reeked of WWF 1999) probably haven't helped either. Gedo has had an awesome 10's, but he totally seems to have lost the plot since last year. Yeah, he can still book a mean Dome Show and G1 for sure, but if the booking sinks for the rest of the year (not to mention ill-advised decisions from the business side to book TWO Dome shows in a middle of a pandemic while running a cold product), it won't help.

Like I said, the spirit is alive and well.

*facepalm* pro-wrestlers Fuck this, give the title to Shingo already.

And the entirety of "Where is my mind ?". Hey, if I could do it 16 years ago, drunk in a karaoke bar in Shibuya, you can do it at Double or Nothing.

You realize everybody here wants to see you chant "Judas in my mind !" on cam, right ? You have no choice.

They really spent way too much time on the whole Scorpio vs Hawk stuff, like there wasn't anything more interesting to say about being in North Korea than a bunch of anecdotes that you'd hear on an RF Video Shoot interview from 2005. Like, it's where Sasaki & Hokuto met and got together ! That's more interesting folklore ! It really feels they were struggling to tell a focused story, going into Rikidozan for a while then going back and forth with the Scorp/Hawk stuff. Very cool that they got Inoki at least. Norton was interesting but the best one was Bischoff. As much as he came off like a good in the Pillman episode, I thought he was the star of this show. As a matter of fact, his Conrad podcast about that show is really awesome and I'd recommend it to everyone who wants to hear more about this surrealistic story. He told the "running in the streets" story there, and he manages to convey the eerie feeling it must have been. I love his conclusion too, about how he can say he was at a bigger wrestling show than Hogan ever was, too bad no one paid to be there ! Overall an ok episode but a bit disappointing honestly. The Gage episode was a waste of time. The guy comes off like a mark for himself and fancies himself as some kind of tough dude because he cuts forehead of guys with a pizza cutter *without their consent* in the middle of a pro-wrestling match ? Ok. Whatever. Mox was really funny, but I couldn't care less about that Gage dude (whom, from the few times I've watched him, always displayed exactly zero in term of compelling working ability). The Pillman episodes were awesome. Right there with Benoit and Owen as the best of the series. Pillman Jr. stories about his childhood after his dad passed were heart-wrenching. That Kim guy was maybe the best interview of the entire series thus far (and he was incredible on Meltz's show too). The next three episodes should be really, really interesting, but I dread the Grizzly Smith one.