El-P

Honestly the whole "muscle = star" in 2021 kinda baffles me, especially in a very work-oriented promotion like AEW. This is a totally dated mentality. If you can't deliver inside the ring once the bell rings, you're not gonna get over. Cargill totally looks like the kind of talent WWE would want still.

I haven't party in a bar since late January last year. Fuck them.

Cesaro is part of that generation that peaked during the monopoly, so either you spent most of your prime time in WWE (Cesaro, Bryan) and by now are basically a lifer, either you were mostly a ROH/TNA guy ending up in WWE past your prime (AJ, Joe). About Bad Bunny, I see there's a ABRA feat on his latest album, well that alone makes me curious, as I've waited for new ABRA stuff for years now, hopefully she releases some new material in the future.

He's absolutely right on his take about what she is showing thus far : green as grass, totally in over her head, may be something big one day but not today nor tomorrow. He should have stopped right there. And yeah, the Shaq storyline thus far has been a complete miss, probably the biggest miss on AEW's track record since the infamous Dark Order (before they got great) beatdown on the Young Bucks last year.

I'm sorry to say Madison's Rayne retirement really left a void in the promotion, the most apparent one being that new announcing team... Damn, Striker can be so fucking cringe at times. Talking about Susan how she's "long like a praying mantis" and then namedropping Kendall Whindam and Sam Houston. Seriously, what the fuck ? Not to mention Su Yung isn't a tall looking woman at all. Later on, talking about Dreamer dropping a "Gran Naniwa like elbow". Trying way too hard... D-Lo is kinda there. And there's no more heel dynamics that had been a staple of the IMPACT announcing forever now with both Callis & Rayne bickering with Matthews, who was great at getting insulted (that's a compliment). Yeah, the announcing of IMPACT sadly isn't *fun* anymore, and with Striker it's not very good either. On the brighter side, Trey Miguel signing back is really interesting and the best thing for him on every level. I mean, his former partners have no shot of doing anything in WWE, not in the main roster anyway. Being a big fish in a small pond will allow Trey to work actual worthwhile feuds and develop as a worker, plus like he said it allows him to stay home, which is very important for him as his family as had some struggle in the last few months, and he wasn't moving to Orlando. Of course that idiotic Corporate goon HHH had to drop some "We need people with passion here" in a very patronizing way when Miguel would hesitate or not sign with them, and Sami Callihan used the same words in his promo to trigger Miguel, which was quite brillant. Now that seemingly Shamrock is done, that's a really perfect feud for Sami as he's never better than when he's building someone up (as he did with Swan two years ago). Also, ODB coming back is always cool. The Good Brothers really have signed the best deal ever with IMPACT, they don't work a lot of matches, they get special TV shows once in a while, their merchandise is pushed quite hard, they actually work with AEW too... Yeah, these guys truly are Hall & Nash after all. Tommy Dreamer getting a title shot for his 50th birthday is quite cool. Those weekly "paid ads" by Tony & Tony are the weekly best segments no one talks about. Just consistently great. In a few years someone will dig them up and people will be amazed out of how fun this was.

Really underrated indeed, he's the caliber of guys who could have been NWA champ. Talk about big guys who could fly in the 80's, he was doing one hell of a Barbarianesque top rope clothesline. Carried Doom too, as Simmons was great for big spots but still green, Reed was the one keeping it together. Kinda wasted in WWF, he's the kind of guy you figure would have a big feud with Hogan.

Chapter 2 : The Undertaker, the slayer of dragons WrestleMania IX (1993) – Undertaker vs Giant Gonzalez I love Giant Gonzalez droning theme. Maybe it's thanks to Giant Gonzalez than I love drone stuff like Earth or SunnO))). Or maybe I just always liked drone. This is about as much good I can say about Gonzalez though. He sure was tall and yet had no presence whatsoever, so the whole "makes you turn you head in an airport" bit is bullshit, ya know. So there it is, Face Taker was like Hogan (on the midcard) then, being fed big monsters to slay. The entrance on the chariot is very cool with the vulture and stuff, but damn that match has to be one of the worst Mania match ever. What were they thinking when they signed Jorge, didn't they watched him in WCW ? It’s actually a bit odd that with a guy who's gimmick is being a total no-sell zombie you transition to this booking trend of having a bunch of huge monsters forcing the zombie to bump and sell. Totally counter-intuitive and also exposed the limits of the gimmick itself (which would eventually have to be basically deconstructed a few years later when Taker would be put in more serious main-event feuds with more serious workers). Gonzalez offense sure blows but his selling his even worst and hilariously godawful. Taker does nothing interesting either apart from taking one really good bump off a terrible clothesline. Of course, what could he do, really ? He's still a zombie and Gonzalez can't do anything. I mean, this match is shit, everything they do looks like shit and then it’s quickly going into full resthold mode until a nothing comeback and the total shit finish with the infamous rag poisoned with ether (fuck, was Cornette booking this shit ? It’s a rethorical question, I know he wasn’t but I'm sure he would have had the same idea). Fuck this shit, winning streak my ass, this is a lame DQ, Taker did not beat Gonzalez !!! This is a weak-ass W if you ask me. The highspot comes after the match ends as Gonzalez chokeslams referee (and his IRL handler) Bill Alfonso, who takes a great bump and who by default is the best worker of this whole debacle. Of course Taker comes back from the dead after the match is over for a shitty sequence leading to a shitty looking flying clothesline (Gonzalez being so tall made it look quite lame). It's shit. 0-3

You mean the woman who built an entire promotion around herself a decade past her prime and consistently stayed on top over there and only put over her protege on the very final show, as she closed down said promotion when she saw fit to retire again ? Hum.... I'd say a big fat no to that.

I wasn't feeling it until very late in the match, but they sure got me at the end. Great match indeed. Post-match however was garbage. They sure did not give the belt to Tana so he can pass it to that complete waste of space and time that is Great O-Khan, right ? That would be such a downer. And I'm so tired of every babyface celebration at the end of the show turning into a sneak attack, it's beyond tired (and honestly frustrating for the fans, send the people happy already).

I don't remember because I obviously haven't re-watched anything other than the Mania matches, but it's quite interesting and I wonder if that's not because of the zombie sit-up, which demands for Taker to be laying down, not moving on the mat. If he kicks out, he can't really do the zombie sit-up. Never occurred to me before ! Jake was his first opponent as a babyface, so maybe he was the template for the reason above or maybe like I said he wanted to protect his finisher and then figured it was a cool spot to do (hit finisher, wait for zombie sit-up). Yeah, the suspense is gripping, I know...

Well, I see you're all in for this. Yeah, I'm sure there will be more talk about Micheals acting and when did a streak became the Streak... WrestleMania VIII (1992) : Undertaker vs Jake Roberts I love the Hoosier Dome, maybe because it's the first Mania I saw. Jake’s heel theme was soooo great. But Jake is also on his way out, so there goes any hope of anything but a competitive squash. Taker just turned babyface, so that’s telling about how over the guy got as a heel, basically he was just too cool of a gimmick. The fact he’s a former WWF champ who beat Hulk Hogan (the only one alongside Warrior, except he did it as a heel) and is now low on the undercard at Mania shows an interesting side of how booking worked then. Basically, being a former heel World champ did not really mean a whole lot once you switched sides. Exact same look, a bit more makeup under the eyes maybe. Taker works the exact same way, in full zombie mode, but he does a really good job of registering Jake’s offense without selling it. He does that really cool kinda "spring-sell" of every shot where he does register but his body turns back toward the opponent in kind of a, well, springy move. Since Jake's punches are great, it does look nice. Still, this is a whole load of nothing. The spot where he lands on his feet on the outside from taking a clothesline constitutes basically a cool babyface spot now, as opposed to a terrifying heel monster move... But that’s about it. No rope-walk. No chokeslam. Wow, don't overwork yourself at the biggest show of the year, Mean Zombie Mark... Jake gets his DDT in and.... doesn’t cover... and wastes a whole lot of time until the zombie sit up. Fucking Jake protecting his finisher on his way out ! So smart. It now occurs to me that Taker as a babyface was basically a new sort of Hogan character, the zombie sit-up was his Hulking-up and he was now gonna be fed a bunch of monsters (not to mention Taker using illegal chokes while the ref doesn’t even count him out, total Hogan asshole-babyface-gets-a-pass stuff). Another DDT, another no cover because Jake is not gonna hurt his finisher on the way out, what a master ! It does make the match quite aimless though. The ending was kinda bizarre too with the Tombstone on the outside, so he had to drag Jake inside the ring before the count... It either hurts Jake because there’s a time lapse before the actual pinfall but also kinda protects him because it was done on the outside, which is way more dangerous and a total death spot back then. In the end, I have no idea what it's supposed to accomplish. Feels like a burial (pun intended) though. So there, barely more competitive than the previous year, full zombie mode match, odd finish. 0-2

It would actually be quite fun to do, and although I'm not the biggest Micheals fan (well, I was, until I wasn't...) I'm pretty sure I would watch much better good pro-wrestling by doing so.

Still, that goof Snuka is a match where he does less than a regular Wrestling Challenge match... Super weak for a Mania match. He could have gotten Tito at least and the match would have been much better even in zombie mode. Indeed. One reason being is that they weren't "streak" matches, which is what I intend to demonstrate by doing this little project.

Well, if we can be sure of something this year of uncertain times still, is that there won't be another Taker match at Mania. I wanted to do this for a while now, and since I'm living in "almost-lockdown" (I mean, why go out when everything is closed and there's a curfew after 6pm anyway), I figured this was the perfect time to revisit Taker's infamous Mania Streak and beyond. And try to decipher what was so special and fun about it, or maybe what was actually pretty bad about the whole thing too, as it's quite a bumpy ride to say the least despite a narrative that would make you think Taker at Mania was always that awesome event it became in the later years. Also, like I said before I basically became a pro-wrestling fan 30 years ago and the timeline begins a few months before the debut of the Undertaker in 1990. And I stopped being a fan of WWF (then) in 1999, about at the time the Undertaker, who had been from the very start one of my absolute favorite characters, really became kinda unbearable because of the booking aspects of you-know-who. Over the years I have seen all these matches already, I'd say the first third as they happened, the second third after the fact and the last third as they happened again as I slowly went back to at least watch Mania again at the turn of the 2010's. I have tried to watch this with the most open mind possible (and that include not being clouded by whatever my feelings may be about the politics of Mark Calaway), like it was a discovery, or at the very least a re-discovery. I realized I totally undersold some of this stuff. I realized some was even worst than I remembered. I was pleasantly surprised by some and pretty underwhelmed by others I thought were better. And since it's all about Taker at Mania, I'm going to have my own little streak consisting on rating whether it worked (win) or not (loss). So. GONG !!!!!!!!!!!! Chapter 1 : Mean Mark Callous is a zombie WrestleMania VII (1991) : Undertaker vs Jimmy Snuka Hey ! Everybody’s favorite girlfriend murderer Jimmy Snuka is already in the ring. You know what that means : JTTS. Interestingly enough, Gorilla was calling him the Phenom still, which is how Taker was gonna get called in the futur. I don’t see what was so phenomenal about Snuka in 1991, apart from the fact the wasn’t in prison for homicide. And so there it is, Taker’s first Mania appearance, redhead as hell and looking like Mean Mark in a Western movie undertaker gimmick. Walking a bit too fast compared to his mortuary pace later on. Honestly, for all the talk about the Fiend being ridiculous, Taker in 1991 was cartoony as fuck, especially with Paul Bearer making completely ridiculous over the top facials and evil wails and moans. Tons of reaction shots from kids who are supposed to be scared, although some look bored instead. We’re still deeply in the 80’s Hulkamania aesthetics. The gimmick is great though and Calaway does a terrific job with the way he moved and carried himself. There was this interesting contrast between his immobility and the way he delivered his offense, in a very sudden, snappy way, which really was unheard of for a huge guy like him. And this match was all about getting over the gimmick still, although we’re months after his debut on a PPV, so it’s a bit odd they did not have something more interesting for him. I mean, he did beat Dusty Rhodes during Survivor Series already. Snuka gets jackshit, as Taker barely registers anything he does. The flying clothesline comes off as a super impressive spot, again, almost shocking for a guy his size. On the other hand, no rope walk, no chokeslam (he was doing kind of a Big Boss Man version of it then, grabbing people as they ran into him), which is kinda odd as he was already doing all this in regular squash matches, so although Snuka bumps around quite a bit (and pretty well too), it’s a less impressive outing than a usual Superstar squash honestly. They also manage to screw up the spot where Snuka gets catched from a springboard dive (which they were doing on house shows) and Taker actually has to put him down before getting him up for the Tombstone, so there goes the big highspot of the match. So there, basically a less impressive squash than usual on a guy who had been a JTTS for a while now, six months after his much more impressive debut two PPV’s before (and that's in the era of only four a year)... with the big highspot pretty much blown. Can’t really call that a success. 0-1

This. Interesting fact, being the most streamed artist "in the world" really doesn't mean he is well known *all over the world*. Some artist nowadays are hugely popular in their own linguistic community (to speak very, very broadly) and if it happens to be a huge one, they get huge numbers because of the streaming services. But apparently, Bad Bunny really isn't very well know in Europe at all yet. Granted, I'm not a mainstream person, like, at all. That being said, although I have *never heard* any of her songs and I wouldn't be able to identify her voice, I know who BIllie Eillish is.

The more people talk about it and projecting stuff into it (Belle Delphine, DBZ Deviantart character, super saiyan transformation), the more I think it could have been totally super awesome in LU and would be super awesome in IMPACT still. BTW, speaking about looking old, Randy Orton is only 40. Sure, his body looks great, but damn, he doesn't look a day under 45.

I doubt any AEW fans is making fun of the Alexa Bliss stuff because it's "supernatural" stuff. I sure ain't. Hell, when Meltz said the other day that it was "Lucha Underground bad", that's when it actually peaked my interest because I loved that shit there. And like I said, I actually kinda like the idea. However, context and execution matters. Announcers talking in hush tones while Alexa Bliss is doing transformation tricks while a proper basic pro-wrestling match is going on is fucking pathetic. The Matt Hardy stuff was totally tongue-in-cheek and meta and it's not just a detail, it changes everything. I wouldn't go that far, her delivery of those (legit awful) scripted promos is pretty fucking bad. She was soooo good a few years back as the petite bitch heel rolling over the entire roster (I sense this is gonna turn into another "Hey, this sucked back then don't romanticize" shit ). But like I said I do like what she does with this stupid-ass stuff in term of body language and in-ring stuff. Really now, people need to watch Angelina Love being drugged into a zombi by Winter in TNA in 2011 ! Too bad Bliss is probably WWE 4 Life, because she's someone I'd like to see how she would do away from the machine.

Have you seen Raven lately ? Hey, he seems at a pretty good place in his life, considering what he put in his body for years, more power to him. It's funny because I remember an interview where Raven was saying he did not even listened to Nirvana and stuff, he was an old Neil Young and classic rock fan rather than the 90's stuff (which makes sense, he was almost already 30 years old when grunge was big) Heyman is one of those guys who looked 50 when he was 30. About the Bliss stuff, remember when the WWE stans were saying how AEW was killing the business when Matt Hardy was doing his transformation bits during Stadium Stampede, which was a complete cinematic and goofy match to begin with ? I wonder what the same people say now. What makes this absolutely idiotic is that it's during a legit in-ring match context and that the announcers are selling it without even a hint of wink-wink nudge-nudge like they always do in AEW when they pull that kind of stuff (that is when they use some meta aspects of BTE). But hey, I actually find the idea quite funny, it's just that the booking and execution (not by Bliss, who's actually good at pulling this off like say, Angelina Love was good at doing the idiotic AngelinaTaker gimmick during the early Winter angle in TNA) is dumb as fuck.

Come on, one year older is not older once you get past 18 years old. He was born in 64, they are both from 65. Sounds pretty logical to me, both Levy & Callaway are the product of the late 80's.

What else is new ? We've heard from decades the "hilarious" ribs Hennig was pulling on people. This culture of hazing which was found to be "funny" during the days of good old RF Shoot Interviews is nothing more that locker-room jock harrassement culture. The most infamous instance is Hennig being responsible for Jacques Rougeau getting beat up by Dynamite Kid, which in an ironic twist of fate, ended up with the bully getting broke because you just don't fuck with the Rougeaus (and forever we had to hear the stories about how awful they were for basically setting Dynamite Kid's up, while there was nothing wrong apparently about Dynamite abusing Jacques, and many many other in downright criminal ways at times).

Jushin Liger. Because not only was he the top star of his division, but he was also the booker. Rock is probably the best instance of a top guy losing so much, but it was not his choice. Of course he could have "lost his smile" but who knows how that would have ended up, Austin basically shoot himself in the foot by (rightfully) refusing to do that job to Lesnar. The powerplay was much different in a context where the business was under a monopoly that during the territory days of the WWF/WCW rivalry, that has to be taken in consideration, you just can't compare things in a vacuum.

Honestly, I always thought it was an angle anyway. Jay White vs Ishii. I'm so there.

It absolutely does. As much like with the "pointing at sign", this is part of the WWE mentality (well, current ultra-capitalism) that puts the Brand above everything else (aka above every human being). The participants matter less than what they do inside the strict context of the Rumble. By dropping this ridiculous avalanche of useless stats, it makes everyone homogenized, from the guy with the most impressive records through the guys with the stupidest records. They are just passing through. The only constant which matters is the Rumble. The stars don't make the match, the match itself is a huge machinery of recycled tropes (some of which incredibly annoying like the "if you feet don't touch you're not eliminated" which was cute at first but has now long sunk into offensive dumbfuckery as showed by Naomi's spot this year, she was laid out flat on her back outside but yet not eliminated ? Da fuck) which produces stats assigned to seemingly random WWE peons. From Steve Austin to Bushwhacker Luke to Rey Mysterio, everybody is just a stat, what matters is The Rumble Brand, the workers are just interchangeable. Of course it's getting even worse when you're having these guys doing their hundred's Rumble in a row, and I thought this year was really telling in term of how dull the Men's Rumble was, including in its surprises (really, people, you were this happy to see fucking Carlito ? Can't wait for the Elias cameo in 2035, that is if he doesn't spend the next 15 years here to begin with). In the end it's why as much as I loved BeLair's win (and the ending stretch which was terrific), I did not care one bit for her post-match interview, because it was a little girl crying because she could Point@Sign. The Boyhood Dream is in full effect, but there's a totally patronizing way of making their current generation's people a bunch of fragile little beings whose only goal in life is to be in WWE (that's what Companies want, really, that your "life dream" is working for their Brand, whatever it may be) and go to Mania, not because they are the fucking Gods of Pro-wrestling and shit but because they want to go to Mania because they want to go to Mania because... There's a reason why WWE can't make new stars. Because they don't want too. The Stars of the promotion are named Mania and Rumble, these two big ones have swallowed every other event (the fact Rumble is pretty much the Door to Mania really means that Mania is the only star) and also swallowed every worker in the company. Of course, if done right, the Rumble can either make someone or validate the choice of the audience (in term of who is over and who do they want, which is something that has been destroyed during the "not Daniel Bryan" years) and the Women's Rumble this year was a good exemple of this. Although the match itself like I said really wasn't that great in term of inner workings, there was enough fresh and exciting workers in it to make up for it. But their ability to follow-up on anything these days in a non-dumbass fashion is really in question.

Come on it was obvious. The second Orton showed up it was way too much of a bullshit finish to be believable. Glad for Bianca BeLair. Sasha vs Carmella was really good. The rest was pretty much trash (the men's Rumble had a few cool spots but also Kane and a really stupid choice of a winner). 5am. Good night people.

Edge. They managed to get this guy back because they have no one else from the previous generation and no one else from his generation either. 50+ demo, here we come.