El-P

Odds of Vince getting pissed with Lacey getting pregnant just as she was put into the main event scene of the women division ? One year after losing Becky for the same reasons ? Especially since she was probably aiming toward Mania against Charlotte again.

Understood. Then again, Jaxson Ryker is still employed.

And you know what, this is a very interesting point and probably, if it's true, part of why I'm so at ease why the new generations, because I'm not a sport fan at all. Nothing aggravates me more than Good Ole JR talking about college sports background when I watch a pro-wrestling match. I don't give a fuck. I'd rather have the current anime/video game crowd rather than the jock culture of the past. Sure, some of it is still there obviously and will remain there, but the lesser we go in that direction, the happier I get.

Sure, some Twitter stupidity from one year ago... I mean, WWE employs Qanon idiots, homophobes and bigots of all sorts already, I don't see why this would make any difference whatsoever, it wasn't even a story last year at all. He's apparently a big idiot, oh well... One in a crowd of many.

These people are insane. Batshit insane. I'm sure those people working for them must be so proud and happy that they represent such a wonderful company. Uh, Daniel Bryan ?... (I mean, I'm sure some actually do because that's what brainwashing does to you)

Ok. Glad you have talked to Tony and Don about it...

Political analogy : neither heel nor babyface / tweener (apolitical) = heel

I thought it was gloomy as fuck, just totally out of place. Bossman sold it well, that's about as far as I can go.

Holy shit. At this rate, Jericho is like the Clint Eastwood of pro-wrestling. He's so cool and great as a pro-wrestler that everyone loves him even though... YIKES !!!!

Totally forgot about that one ! Hey, I did not call any of this good. I mean, as far as building up a rivalry between Taker and a monster, from a strictly pro-wrestling standpoint, yeah, there was more work into this one than any other before. But like I said, it as still trash. Right you are. That storyline was soooo bad. Really. Yeah. And he sexed the mother, while lil'Taker was watching. Kane Origins... No wonder his career ended up 20 years of shit matches and angles ! So, anyone for a defense of the Bossman hanging ?

I mean from a pure pro-wrestling booking standpoint, yes the build toward Mania XIV was good BUT the angle was trash (really, Taker's little brother who murdered his parents by burning the funeral house down and who was also the son of Paul Bearer and who was burned so badly he was hidden for 30 years, come on people), the worker was trash and the match was trash. Well built trash is still trash. And like I said in the review, the match was also pretty damn heatless, actually, so it's not like the audience cared. Maybe if the work had not been so bad, they would have.

As said before, fascinating stuff. Really interesting to see the american/european influence on Jumbo and how it had permeated the whole classic AJ style, as opposed to what Choshu would do in the 80's, which really is entirely Japanese in spirit. Ok, I'll go straight into goofy-ass analogies, Jumbo was more Kurosawa, Choshu was more Mizoguchi (well, Choshu was more Fukasaku probably, really...)

Lucky you. (unless you end up not enjoying them of course, but...)

Funny how everyone jumps to conclusion, hey ? IMPACT's booking for the last two years and a half that I've followed them as been the most coherent, accentuate positive, make-the-most-out-of-your talent booking I've seen in eons. The idea that Sammy would have been thrown out there doing stupid stuff just doesn't register with me, not with D'Amore & Callis at the helm. So there, I'm sure they all dealt in the most intelligent way possible, and maybe what they had in mind wasn't the best for Sammy, on the other hand Sammy should be aware of the fact he doesn't want to be that guy who's perceived as "hard to deal with", as AEW is developing more and more relationships with outside companies, especially NJPW.

Wow, I would have never figured Asuka was 39 ! I mean, sure she's blonde, tall and athletic looking, but this is the company who had Micky James be "old" at the same age, so...

With Eli Drake showing up on NXT, is there *anyone* left with Corgan's NWA apart from Kamille & Aldis ? Also, as pretty much expected Taya apparently has signed. Kinda disappointing on a personal level as I would have loved to see her in AEW, but hey... She's 37, so that tells you as much about how far she'll go if she ever make it to the main roster.

WrestleMania XV (1999) – Undertaker vs Big Boss Man No. Just NO. Ok, I’ll do it because it’s part of the game, but come on... Hell in the Cell is a gimmick that kinda produced Taker’s two most famous matches : Shawn Micheals (for good reasons) and Mick Foley (for bad reasons). So, Hell in the Cell at Mania should, has to be, something special. WRONG. There’s so many wrongs about this but you can basically sum it up to two words : Vince Russo. That being said, he was working under McMahon's infamous « quality filter », so there you go, maybe the two words be Vince & Vince. It’s Ministry of Darkness Taker. Judging by his vampiric look and gravely talk-over on his theme’s remix, it seems he was auditioning for a spot in Type O Negative. And he should have thought about moving on, because if that match was any indication, his pro-wrestling career was done. Oh yeah, there’s the Big Boss Man too. Poor guy, he was such a big deal during the Hulkamania days. He’s just a washed up minion of McMahon no one cares about anymore here facing a guy who’s basically a satanist who abducted and threatened to torture a young girl (fresh as a daisy Stephy). Yeah, you know what, the more I’m reminded of those "classic" Taker storylines, the more I think people are kinda mean to The Fiend... Not to mention it's basically a heel vs heel HITC match, because "shades of grey", bro. Ok, so the match is terrible. Just bad, plodding, boring brawling inside the cage. At some point Bossman uses handcuffs and of course they break when Taker falls on his ass. It’s so bad that there are some « boring » chants. It is SO BAD the zombie sit-up spot gets no pop at all. I’ll say it again, the ZOMBIE SIT-UP SPOT GETS NO POP AT ALL. Taker fucks up his flying clothesline in a comical way as he does a complete flip over Bossman basically, barely touching him with his open hand. He bleeds, like my brain does watching this shit. Hey, Bossman cuts off the rope-walk spot and that gets a mild reaction. Way to waste a cool counter (for the first time at Mania) on this debacle. And speaking of waste, way to kill what had become a legendary gimmick too, synonymous until this point with incredible spectacle. So, Taker wins, people pop because they want to see Austin vs Rock, but of course they don’t get to see that yet. Because now the Ministry (ya know, Edge, Christian, Gangrel) show up on the cage and they literally hang Bossman. Like, in a public hanging, with a noose and stuff. And as Bossman basically is publicly executed, complete with the body going all numb and shit after the neck snap (really gloomy), Micheal Cole, who was calling his first Mania, delivers the classic line « Could this be SYMBOLIC ? ». No Micheal. It’s just pure dogshit. 1-7

Honestly, I'm not sure it was a good thing ! But yeah, crazy how quick the things moved back then compared to post 2000. I believe JR had been fired twice already.

Oh yes, my bad, JR stayed in my mind because he was already saying it during the Gonzalez match... a few years before.

And I'm gonna eat my words on this one, and I'm so glad I am. Not only was the match good, but it was so good it had no business being this good. Mutoh looked like he could barely walk a few years ago at that Mania weekend, and here he is having some snappy moves, doing pretty much all of his classic "bald Mutoh" stuff, taking bumps like you take bumps in a Japanese main event at Budokan. With the structure being a classic Mutoh main event style match and not some old guy match with mainly fan service and the opponent being gentle, as Shiozaki, who was great, worked stiff and crisp. Of course, Mutoh being 58 shows at time, but the worst occurence actually could play into the fact he is 58 and selling a lot of punishement so it did not hurt the match to me. An awesome tease and some legit nearfalls, and a classic Mutoh finish. Fuck, I'd go so far to say this was a great match, all things considered. Rating on a curve ? Maybe, but not nearly so if I'm looking from the perspective of "Did this accomplished its goal of being a legit Budokan main event title match ?". I honestly can't remember anyone at 58 having such a good match, especially in this context of *having* to deliver a legit main event style match. That's another one for Mutoh I guess, that old bastard who everyone me included thought he was done years and years ago. Also, he came to the ring to his old 90's theme, so that was mark out city for me. (Mutoh was not the only old guy delivering the goods, as Funaki looked awesome, Akiyama is great as Grumpyama, Ogawa can still do his thing and was part of a terrific junior tag title match. The junior title match was great too BTW. It was also super refreshing to watch a japanese wrestling show without american style bullshit and NJPW kinda stale tropes)

Chapter 4 : the Attitude Era WrestleMania XIV (1998) – Undertaker vs Kane You can feel the difference of momentum of the company just watching at the production values, which is pretty grand with an army of druids and live flaming torches. Taker wears his long leathery thing, no hat anymore, this is the Attitude Era folks and... fuck me... here's Kane. Hearing Jerry Lawler recap the whole story really makes you think this stuff has gotten a pass strictly because it happened at the same time Austin vs McMahon was going on, it’s so incredibly dumb and corny including by today’s standards (because they play it so straight too). Haven’t watch a Kane match in years so I'll keep on open mind. Maybe I will revise my judgement... Ok, every big Taker match looks like this with the same elbow/big boot counters in the corners and exchanges of punches, which really don’t look very good at all here because, fuck me, Kane does indeed suck donkey balls at it. They kinda sorta go for the same Diesel match vibe of familiarity, so it’s a lot more dynamic than the Sid match at least. Gotta love the « I have never seen Taker manhandled like this » comment by JR, because that’s also what he said in the Diesel match two years before... and the Giant Gonzalez match four years before. Basically, Taker is the guy everyone manhandles like he’s never been manhandled before. Now it’s time for the Attitude Era tropes of banging into the stairs and then using the stairs to bump and whatnot. Kane on offense is dreadull, he can’t punch worth a shit and yet that’s pretty much all he does. Taker himself really isn’t that good honestly, at one point he tries some funky luchaesque counter jumping on Kane’s shoulders only to get face planted and it looks sloppy as fuck (yeah, really now, that was a terrible idea). Execution does matter, people. When it looks like shit, it looks like shit. And this match really mostly looks like shit with Kane on offense for most of the time. And it's very boring too, as it transitions into Sid territory with soft looking restholds (fuck, at least Sid kinda sorta worked the back for his finisher... he’ll never actually try, but Kane is going straight into sloppy-ass chinlock) after a fucking nearfall from the chokeslam, which is essentially Kane’s n°2 spot. Again, piss-poor pacing and psychology. Chinlock city again and again. Then Taker goes lucha again with a fat ass tope over the top rope which lands straight into the spanish table ! Total WTF moment but this was an odd timing for that. Kane looked nonplussed. It all leads to some awful looking flying clothesline from Kane for a nearfall no one gives a fuck about (really, the crowd doesn't react one bit). At this point they only care once Taker tries a Tombstone, probably because they want to see Steve Austin. Same spot as with Sid where Kane counters the Tombstone for another nearfall. The match ends with a finisher spamming, as Kane kicks out of *two* Tombstones (with zero urgency, he apparently also sucks at this and also does comically shitty zombie sit-ups) before a top rope clothesline and a third Tombstone (from which Kane almost kicks out of) for the win. Sure, that wasn't excessive at all... I mean the Tombstone had been super protected to the point I believe only Hogan may have kicked out of it before. This foreshadows some ideas for actual epics later on, but this was just terribly executed and thought out. I was so right about Kane, actually I did not remember he sucked so bad even then. Taker did not look very good either apart from the few big spots he does well (including crashing on a table outside). Overall a really *bad* match. 1-6

Well, it was a cool little match for 50 years old Tommy Dreamer. Honestly it got better than I thought it ever would and that's a credit to Swann who figured a way to work half-speed and kinda heelish at times with the attack on the "dislocated pinkie" (smart idea, probably Dreamer's). It's really too bad there was no crowd for this. Of course the focus got back on Moose, who as been groomed for the title for a while now. The three-way tag team match was really good, with the expected result but the execution was kind of an interesting twist. Gotta have that title vs title match with the Young Bucks, that's where the money is. Hope James Storm sticks for a while. Both X-div matches really delivered. Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, all look like futur stars. Blake Christian is a cool addition to the mix and Josh Alexander also shined, pretty cool if he gets an X-div title reign as he would be an interesting champion (much more than TJP, who although he is technically excellent as something kinda dry about him). Rohit ruled again, kinda surprised he did not win. Both women's match did not. They have an issue now with no one hot to work against Purrazzo, and as much as I like ODB, Jazz really isn't bringing anything to the table, she was ok as a one shot but... And Tasha Steelz & Nevaeh really aren't very good (like, at all)... And Susan hasn't been a good idea thus far... Matt Cardona did a job. Will he show up in MLW next to put over Hammerstone or Mil Muertes ? You're trying too hard Striker. Waaaaaaaaay too hard. I'm warming up to D-Lo on announcing though.

Ok, I re-listened to it more closely, I didn't get that the first time (poor audio off an old AVI file), Piper doing a very audibly forced laugh. Yikes. Changes the whole perspective when Vince insists he has it then. Wow. Piper, shame on you. Vince being a piece of shit is nothing new. And Jimmy Hart... dunno he if set that one up but...

Humm... I watched the entire match and there's Jimmy Hart saying Snuka doesn't have the killer instinct and Vince goes "What ? He doesn't have the killer instinct ?" but if I'm perfectly honest, I am not feeling any *wink wink* here, rather a rather mundane and basic pro-wrestling talk here. If there was, it's unbelievably awful, but watching the entire match quite honestly, I think it's a bit of grasping at straws here tbh.

Man, I spent SO MUCH time browsing through McAdams site, it was indeed totally fascinating to me too (although his views on pro-wrestling seemed dated already by the standards of those times, and I mean 99/00). #boomer (well, no, late X-Gen, really, but to those young people it's all and the same I guess !)