El-P

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 !)

Thanks. I will check this one out.

I remember Corny also made some awkward (to put it in an acceptable way) comments regarding muslims in reference to Sami... And no, don't ask me a precise reference but I remember it from 2016 and I was living in a muslim country at the time, so it really kinda hit me in the wrong way back then (wow, I was still listening to Corny then I guess, or maybe just to have his take on Mania and Takeover, don't remember).

I'm glad someone other than me drops that one (because I was not about to do it, I come off enough of a fucking heel already ), but yeah, anecdotal personal experience is never a good way to pass judgement on a phenomenon. Like, never. BTW, just in passing, see what happens when you drop by on the board Charles ? You trigger *interesting* discussions and interactions. Unlike Edge, you're a draw ! Don't be a stranger in your own home.

Yes, I meant the whole thing. Wow. If anyone can find the date of the episode and the timecode. I'd be curious (morbidly curious I guess) to hear that one.

Indeed. see also : Ashley Massaro... It's not a tragedy, it's actual crime. And that clip with Gorilla making a joke is gross as hell in retrospect.

DA FUCK ? I was thinking about watching that match just for the novelty of it, he's 58 and totally broken down. Puzzling decision to say the least.

Well, your comment encouraged me to watch it after all, and I enjoyed it much more than the Hiromu vs Sho match. The bolded part, yeah, it's been an issue of a lot of SANADA's big matches, although it doesn't bother me that much. He has that very old-school NJ feel to his work, probably stemming from the fact he's a Mutoh disciple, with some matwork to start the match and a submission hold which is pretty derivative from Fujinami (without the urgency though, and it kinda hurts the perception of the ending stretch when they stay too long in the spot). Overall I thought it was really good, although the awful looking TKO spot outside took me out of it for a moment. The fact SANADA can get a (and the only legit one to me) nearfall using the fucking Backlund finisher in 2021 is pretty cool. Ibushi has this thing where he really works toward the style of his opponent, which is also why I believe it did not kick into high gear. Overall, a cool first little title defense for Ibushi. I wonder if they really are gonna split up the titles again though with this defense of the IC against Naito (too soon to do that one again, uh ?)

To me the no-crowd thing is funny, because at times it's been rough to watch some stuff, like the weekly IMPACT shows at first, but now I wish they would not add fake crowd noise as I got used to the silence in the studio and hearing more clearly of what happens in the ring. Also, it allowed for a more out of the box thinking (although of course Broken Matt Hardy and Lucha Underground already set the groundwork for this in the second half of the 10's) and although some stuff has sucked really hard (you know which ones), others have been just wonderful and responsible for some of the most fun I had watching pro-wrestling last year (Stadium Stampede actually will remain a GOAT pro-wrestling "match" to me, but the Taker vs Styles one at Mania was terrific too, I loved the Wrestler House in IMPACT like I said). It surely has impacted AEW a lot in term of atmosphere, especially with all these debuts which would have gotten such huge pops and the perception of the workers would probably have been positively affected. Still, last year had some of my favorite moments ever in my 30 years of watching pro-wrestling. Plus it's far from being over, we're soon getting to the point of closing a year of COVID-era pro-wrestling and even in Japan where you have crowds it's not nearly the same thing with only clapping (even in Japan where the sound of the crowd is very different from US or Mexico, which is another issue altogether as I haven't been tempted to watch any lucha without a crowd). On a personal note, as a bit of an agoraphobic person, the idea that there will never ever be those super large crowds is kind of cool, because I just can't stand crowds in general ! (that being said, I love huge stadiums settings for pro-wrestling show from a purely visual standpoint, so I'l confusing myself !)

Because Twitter stuff is posted all the time on the board. No one is talking about "invisible Twitter folk". That Twitter is mostly a cesspool is not exactly a pro-wrestling thing either. It is a cesspool in general. Spending 20 minutes on Twitter on any subject pretty much makes me want to throw myself out the window. Good for you. Does that mean we shouldn't talk about the #SpeakingOut movement on the board or the fact Vince treats people who works for him like shit or everything wrong about pro-wrestling ?

This is how capitalism works. The richest of the riches got even richer during the pandemic, the more you have, the less you give away. Yeah, this is Wall Street "greed is good" complete bullshit mentality, it's pathetic. Vince is gonna die a very, very rich man. He'll get to be the richest guy in the cemetary. Clap clap clap.

Zach Sabre Jr. in NJPW, Deonna Purrazzo in IMPACT, Timothy Tatcher in NXT, from the top of my head. Tay Conti and Leila Hirsch are gonna bring some sweet submission work to AEW on a regular basis too.

Well, that's quite a choice for a "classic" movie because back when it was made, Leone was the furthest from classic western and his style actually was playing around conventions and the classic western movies fans thought it was shit. FTR I love Leone's movies, especially that one, all-time favorites of mine. The thing is, as a fan of the current stuff, and I can still say I'm a fan of Nick Bockwinkle and Ric Flair and Misawa and Bret and whatnot, I hear much more talk about "today's workers don't know how to work, there's no psychology, it's a bunch of moves" than the other way around because I believe most of the people who enjoy the current stuff and have been watching for a long time still keep the older stuff in high regard. I really feel the lecturing has been mostly one way TBH, and it's always going the same way. I very seldom (if ever, because I don't remember hearing it at all, really) hear people pimping Omega shitting on the old stuff for instance. It's always "How dare you love this as much or more than this old Ric Flair or Misawa match ? It just can't be as good !" And at some point, yes, it is indeed tiresome to hear the same old song about pro-wrestling was so much better before and these days they have no psychology (which is totally false) and don't know how to sell (which is also false). The worst is that you almost feel obligated to justify yourself (like I pretty much did at the beginning of my post) by reminding everyone you're a Flair/Misawa/whatever fan before you say that you love the current stuff. At some point, I'm like, just fuck this, I'm gonna pimp this modern shit hard because I do believe it's great, I'm just tired of having to justify myself and show my credentials of "old-school fan" too. Yes, I do believe that the best workers of today are better than the best workers of yesteryear and that comes from a very pragmatical experience : the fact the three or four best matches I've ever seen after 30 years of watching pro-wrestling have happened in the last 3/4 years. It's not taking anything away from the great matches and workers of the past. In a way it makes sense that the workers of today should be better because they have all this history of great workers they can learn from, and it's very obvious they do when you watch workers like the Young Bucks or Tanahashi for instance.

Back in the days, I made snarky comments about people stanning Invader 1 when he was the "new hot find" and I was met with agressive replies about me having houlier than thou attitude and such. I'm sure it would be *quite* different these days. Things have evolved quite a bit. And yeah, not only Lawler is overrated as a worker but the fact he seemingly still gets a pass because "he threw great punches" really remains a head-scratching thing to me.