El-P

I really enjoyed Josh and Madison together (and honestly Josh & Callis too), it's been fun while it lasted. As long as she keeps on being featured and doing cool stuff, I'm ok with it, she rules whatever she does. I'm still gonna miss her doing the announcing, for sure. Matt Striker... I enjoyed him in LU with Vamp, but that was totally in a specific context and a matter of the whole being much better than the sum of the parts. I really have not enjoyed him anywhere else lately. No idea how D-Lo does. Hard to Kill is a really cool card on paper. With the matches of all matches : Ethan Page vs Karate Man.

It's two completely different things though. A winning streak in pro-wrestling is not a story with a beginning and an end that has to be satisfactory in and out of itself, it's an angle to get someone over, the end leading to something else for everyone involved. Unless you kill off the character because he leaves the territory, there's no "end" to that character's story, it's not at all like a TV show having to conclude its entire arc. If pro-wrestling TV had actual seasons, it would be different, but the neverending flow makes things pretty different. As far as Game of Thrones goes, well, to me it was always pretty bad like I said before, poorly written with reliance on swerves and rapes and torture, it's basically Vince Russo level of stupidity at times, with entire arcs leading nowhere (hey, remember Arya getting all those super cool powers ? Sure paid off...) and gratuitous misogyny at every corner. So really, the ending kinda cracked me up. I mean, Dani goes batshit insane now that Al Snow (or whatever his name was) won't kiss her Auntie anymore after he already fuck the hell out of her and goes straight Nazi on everyone... Yeah, kinda funny to me honestly.

I wonder what happens when Vince dies, after the obligatory tribute to the great dead guy. Are the floodgates gonna open on all the bullshit that went on in this company for seemingly decades now ?

Hum... I don't think so. I believe when you think Goldy, you think "Spear/Jackhammer/Who's next". If they thought "cattle prod", he probably wouldn't be a star for WWE in the late 2010's. It's usually a bad thing to judge anything by the ending anyway. Everything usually ends bad. Love stories, life, pro-wrestling winning streak... Thanks. Yeah, I'm not surprised. I thought about the loss on PPV to Taker after WM13 and that was the only one I could remember. Also, the *loss* to Bret hart at Mania did not made him a huge babyface : the angle, the promos leading to it, the great match itself and the way it was worked (with the masterful job of Bret Hart all along the way) did. Sure, the fact he lost actually helped, for many reasons, and it was the right booking move at the time, but it's not just the loss which mattered.

Well, the ending matters less than the streak itself. Goldberg became a huge star thanks to the winning streak. The Taker Mania streak was a big time part of the appeal of Mania during the years where it became a huge event out of itself.

It would be interesting to see Austin's record leading to WM XIV. To be over as a babyface, even when you're doing the underdog gimmick, you gotta win and win more often than not.

WWE in 2021 : run a sexual harrassement angle where the victim is a 70+ year old womanizer, of course. Also WWE in 2021 : Fuck, my joke early on was way to close to home !

Fuck that. I'll watch Raw if I get a Damian DeMento match and they bring back the ring card girl.

All these different couples working in different promotions need to stop having orgies together during vacations.

I wonder if Vince is gonna rename Retribution into Destitution and have them all lose in a gauntlet match against Jaxson Ryker.

And that's why it absolutely sucked. The reaction in the crowd tells it all. Yeah, it was a "shock", it was a "surprise". Which is truly the dumbest way you could end that Streak if you ever needed to. They had absolutely built no tension whatsoever during the match at this point, no one bought that pinfall attempt as even an early nearfall because of the way big WWE Mania match are worked. Yet it was not a nearfall, it was the pinfall that ended up the Streak. They did not bring the crowd up to a boiling point of *believing it could happen* before doing the killshot, which could have been awesome if executed right. They could not have fucked this up worse than they did. Worst execution ever.

Nope. Money don't buy you happiness. If you're a pro-wrestler who really care about your craft in 2021 and you're not the WWE type, you have exactly ZERO reason to go to WWE. None. They fuck up and waste everyone they touch.

Imagine that, these days he would be such a great fit in the PC. Totally agree. Brock did not need the win, the match sucked, the pinfall totally sucked (the lack of reaction was astonishing, people were just shocked the match ended like that). Taker's streak was too big for anyone to gain from it, it was just something that should have remained mythical. All the Mania Taker matches after that point felt like they fucked it up and knew it.

Both Goldy and Tatanka are instances of a winning streak being booked poorly with no follow-up, although the argument for Tatanka is that it gave credibility to Ludvig Borga (he ended the streak, not Yoko) which they were building as the main event foe for Luger (of course they did nothing with Tatanka after that point and he was totally screwed by turning heel). The winning streak gimmick is not the issue, bad booking is. The end of Taker's streak at Mania was also completely botched BTW with the worst built-up shocking pinfall ever. Winning streak is usually a good thing if it does not comes off totally forced and gimmicked.

What was the MOTY? What were Some MOTY contenders? Young Bucks vs Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (AEW Revolution) Tons of MOTYC during the G1, since I don't keep notes I really can't name any. What was the promotion of the year? AEW What were the best promos, angles, and skits of the year? Kingston promos leading to the I Quit match (AEW) / Don Callis "See you on Tuesday" (AEW) / Wrestle House (IMPACT Wrestling) What was the best weekly TV Show? AEW Dynamite Who was the wrestler of the year? Tomohiro Ishii, for his G1 alone. What was the show of the year? Double or Nothing (AEW)

Yes there is. A 20 minutes Kane match.

Damn, they did this whole Retribution angle way too soon. It's now or never to have them march on the WWE Universe Center. Ya know, them damn antifas... And in all seriousness, yeah, it's now such an embarrassment to work for these people, because they are deep in with this stuff.

Well, he is King Fenix after all. Might be, it's always tricky with songs and you can hear false lyrics for years before you realize you were wrong. Still, I don't care at all for the music anyway.

Kane was at best, a very mediocre worker. And most of the time, he was just plain bad and boring. Worst top rope clothesline ever, he was almost on his knees when he touched the opponent, usually with his fist or wrist. His execution was the shit. I still remember this hilarious godawful double big boot spot with then newcomer Big Show in 1999. When they threw in Kane in the middle of Taker & Austin (which was reaching overkill anyway), this is when the honeymoon ended to me, with all these awful, dull, boring matches. Easily one of my least favourite workers of all time. The only emotion he ever conveyed to me was looking constipated. With and without the mask.

Sure. Which is also fitting because whenever Kane appeared on my screen, it was a "night off" for me too as far as watching, as I pretty much always took that time to go to the bathroom and take a shit (I had the decency of not doing it in public in the middle of the ring).

"Ayn Rand rulz lol I listen to Rush I so intellectual..." Or something like that. Too bad Glen Jacobs never read the book on not being a fucking bore as a pro-wrestler for 25 years straight. Val Venis also had the same reputation of being "deep". Last I heard of him was when he made really transphobic tweets about Nyla Rose last year...

You know what. I'm absolutely unable to think about what it actually is. That's telling, because I'm not that hardly hooked by pro-wrestling themes. Fuck, with his gimmick, he should have gotten some epic video game style music. Mox is ok and fitting, but not very memorable to me. I love Hangman's theme, but I believe like MJF he was already using it on the indies, I do think I remember hearing it when he was in NJPW, but maybe I'm mistaken. Ditto the Young Bucks. Agree, this one is a great theme, totally fits the character, super easily recognizable, has a great feel to it. And I like how after he wins a match it starts straight with the chorus.

The Fingerpoke of Doom did not pop the business. Flair as a babyface against Hogan did. The Fingerpoke can't be underestimated as a symbolic moment of the company signing its own death warrant (the killing of Goldy, who had been their only hope in 98 while the creative was already going awry, basically for nothing, with the belt going straight back on Hogan like the last two years had not happened), especially since it was the same show when Schiavone uttered the infamous words about Mick Foley.

The theme song of Dynamite sucks, I've gotta say that. It reeks of the late 90's too. Fuck, we're in 2020 (well, that was a typo but I still feel like we're stuck in 2020 forever). And I mean, ACDC, that stuff is old, people. The mainstream pop today is hip-hop. And I'm not talking about Snoop Dog, him wearing that shirt was a great reminder that this guy has basically been a one-hit-wonder, honestly, and Doggystyle is from 1993 ! The year RAW debuted. I don't really follow the mainstream music scene because it's not my taste, but fuck, get Charli XCX on that show or something. Or Dua Lipa. Or Doja Cat. Get some hot female pop star of *today* on the stage for a big show.

I agree that a lot, if not most of AEW themes aren't very interesting. The non-metal ones are clearly the best, like Jurrassik Express, Nyla Rose, Shida, MJF (it was his theme from MLW, so I guess the indies). Darby's is excellent, so is Omega's, I really like Dark Order's and Team Taz's too. But overall, too many generic stuff. The Lucha Bros theme always struck me as kinda lame actually for such big time characters. I mean, "Lucha Bros, Mexicans !" Fuck, really ? The music director of the company was on BTE last week presenting a video clip stared by Matt Hardy, and it was really some run of the mill, dated mid 90's metal stuff, so I guess it's not surprising. Also, the live band doing Cody's theme on that PPV was god awful. Really terrible to the point it made you long for this goofy RATM-copycat WWF used in the Attitude era... Actually, it's another instance of IMPACT doing better with less. Some of the themes I really don't care for like Eddie Edwards (totally sounds like 00's WWE) but they have plenty of good little themes (the North's dubspetish one is excellent, I love Rosemary's, Su Yung's is obviously awesome and the creepy one they did for Susie was terrific too).