El-P

Tanahashi vs Khan is garbage. I don't care if Tana can get a good match out of him, it's a complete waste of Tanahashi. Great-O-Khan should be an opening match guys jobber. Terrible, terrible use of Tanahashi on a Dome show. Same thing for the tag-team titles, complete waste of Zach & Taichi. Naito vs Ibushi could be great is neither kill themselves. Still the way to get to this match has been embarrassing so the match looks like a messer deal because of it. The main event the second night also looks weaker, despite Jay being a great worker. Okada vs Ospreay could be all kind of awesome, but I hope they don't get into the multiple run-in bullshit, and the Money Clip hampers Okada's matches to me. Shingo vs Cobb should be excellent because Shingo is just that great. Phantasmo vs Hiromu should be awesome. The overall direction of the company just isn't promising to me anymore. The Bullet Club shit is a turn-off now, with Togo (what a great signee this guy was....), Jado, Gedo doing the same shit in every match down the card now. I have zero interest left in EVIL and he should have big matches on both cards I guess. Running two Dome show was an interesting gimmick last year, becoming a yearly things is gonna hurt the product, it already has with the dumb-fuck booking of Ibushi losing his ticket yet getting the title match anyway because you need two of it now.

Holy fuck. Like, holy fuck.

Look at the Lucha Underground people in AEW : Lucha Brothers, Brian Cage, Thunder Rosa, Luchasaurus, (hell, Jake Hager). And now look at two guys who were main eventers in LU from the very first show : Johnny Mundo & Ricochet... Some guys signed the wrong contracts (I know, there was no AEW when Ricochet signed). The boss is 75 years old. The average viewer in 50. From that point of view, they push "young talent". Meanwhile, 50 years old Jericho is hot with the younger demo. Hell, Orange Cassidy is 37 or something. So, age is relative in a sense. But yes, of course, WWE is the retirement home of pro-wrestling.

Common ground can happen !

Yeah, am I supposed to gives a fuck about the Slam Wrestling awards ? I mean yeah, we know you love Mauro Ranallo. You're not alone, plenty of people do. Some people also can't fucking stand him to the point he's a total legit turnoff. Thats' my case. That, and Kevin Kelly telling the stories of the G1 alone should make him N°1, although my favourite is absolutely Tony, and this has nothing to do with childhood or anything, first time I heard Schiavone I was 21.

On the other hand, the Super J Cup was super easy to watch. EL Phantasmo, ACH and Chris Bey were the standouts to me. So, Phantasmo vs Hiromu at the Dome at least makes a sure killer match, as Phantasmo is just an all around awesome worker (yeah I know, there will be some bullshit but hopefully Phantasmo & Hirumo being so great will make it work).

And Asuka. But we're drifting away from the awesomeness that is IMPACT Wrestling, the company that would not die.

Backflips landing on his feet yes. Moonsault off the top rope onto his opponent/mat, I don't think so.

Yeah I was thinking about Poffo but I did not remember if he was doing it as a job guy. Which makes it even worse, really, because that made it a total nothing spot.

Thatcher sucks, Mella is Money, Callihan doesn't have the right tatooes, and the likes.

It was certainly a very good match, and the taking off the mask was cool. Hiromu is a ridiculously great worker and Desperado did work the match of his life. However, there's no reason for it to go 30 minutes when the result was never even remotely in doubt. That tag-team final was everything wrong with NJPW. Overlong match with a complete shit finish after a bunch of nonsensical run-ins (so, Jado is back, just like that, and the ref does nothing) that aren't any better than whatever Russo booked in WWF in the late 90's. The GoD are dull, uninteresting, mediocre at best workers that have been there forever, and now they are going to the Dome ? Way to make me not care, again. Apart from the G1, this has been a terrible year for NJPW for me, with the Bullet Club as a whole becoming a complete turn-off as you get the same shit in every match now. The EVIL push was a gigantic failure, Great-O-Khan is pathetic... The Ospreay heel turn is basically the only exciting new thing in the company.

You've officially lost your mind, which explains a lot with some of your latest preferences of workers, I might say.

Well, I did not said you did, it was a reply to what was said in the thread earlier. That's the issue with Mauro fans, they don't hear shit anymore because they spent years getting screamed at straight in the ears.

I know. Thankfully !

It works because it's cute and fun, because they are married, and everybody knows it.

I'd say yes because it's where they had to shuffle the deck after the Tessa debacle and a bunch of people getting fired from #SpeakingOut. It's not the best show (but again, IMPACT with no crowd has not been the same) but it's really the starting point of what you have today, basically it jumpstarts the story of Eric Young coming back and the Swann rise to the top. I love the whole Wrestlers House stuff during the summer.

The issue with that, is that when Mike Awesome was doing a simple plancha or top rope splash, the 200lb guys where doing twisting ranas and quebradas and whatnot. Not the same thing, sorry. This whole argument is totally skewed to me, because obviously the flying big guys are *not* doing everything that the 200lbs guys are doing. Even today, yeah, Lance Archer and Brodie Lee are super agile big guys. Are they doing the same thing Fenix (ok, not fair, no one is doing what he's doing) or the Young Bucks are doing ? Of course not. To me this argument, which I've heard countless times, doesn't work because it's simply fallacious. The Vader case is interesting because Vader was absolutely unique. I heard people in the past saying Vader was working too fast, bumping too easily, doing the "little guys spots". Except... If Vader worked like say, One Man Gang or Earthquake, what makes Vader special ? Well, nothing, especially in the times when he showed up. He would be just another big guy. The fact he would do so much, including the moonsault, made him special and absolutely contributed to making him a star (not the only thing, but it was part of it). Also, who did the moonsault back then ? Actually, I can't think of even a bunch of "small guys" who did it on a regular basis in the US. The guy who got it over in the States was the Great Muta, who wasn't a small guy by any stretch of the imagination. Then you had 2 Cold Scorpio, who wasn't a small guy either, I mean by the standards of the time maybe he was and even that is debatable, but he showed up in WCW after Muta and after Vader. When the 200lbs guys from Mexico and Japan showed up in WCW, who worked like them ? No one. Hell, what big guy from today does everything the 200lbs guys from 25 years ago did ? Maybe Brian Cage (because he's a jacked up small guy) to some degree, but again, that sets *him* apart, not the other way around. Mike Awesome absolutely needed to do the Frog Splash, because doing great-flying-spots-for-a-big-guy was absolutely part of what got him over both in FMW and ECW. That and throwing people onto tables. If Mike Awesome doesn't fly around, what's left ? Well, he wasn't a really solid worker otherwise (and was a crappy promo), he was a big high spot guy so yeah you had a hundred powerbomb variations because he came from FMW, the land of the powerbombs, but what set him apart and put eyes on him was the fact he could do all this flying shit that looked, well awesome for a guy his size. Did it look like what Hayabusa or Liger or Sasuke were doing at the same time, no. It looked super impressive for Mike Awesome, but again he certainly wasn't doing the same spots as the great juniors of the time. The "for his size" is what matters here. So there, that argument never worked for me. (EDIT : actually I wonder if Bam Bam Bigelow is not the first guy in the US doing the moonsault regularly, which would make the moonsault a "big guy move" by default. Let's also note that Jimmy Snuka was a jacked-up dude and not a small guy at all. Like the Samoan Swat Team, who were also doing the top rope dives and stuff. Do we need to mention the Road Warriors with the flying tackles and TOP ROPE CLOTHESLINE in the 80's. Which is something Barbie was doing too. Yeah, the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Tons of big guys were flying around and were doing more impressive stuff than you run of the mill dropkick/armdrag smaller babyfaces. The day every 300lbs guy works like Juvy in 96, yeah, then it's an issue probably, but until then...)

Stop this bullshit NOW ! Don't touch to my beloved IMPACT promotion with your godawful Screamin' Useless Cultural References Mauro' ! The guys is the worst announcer since Mark Madden. Calling Eric Young is WWE reject is really missing the point completely. Young is a TNA guy who had a cup of coffee in WWE. Him coming back to IMPACT is really coming back to his home promotion. Yeah, it's awesome, especially since Madison is so quick with her putdowns. At times you almost you "hear" the smile on Matthews face when Madison just drops insults on him. Matthews is not a guy I'd want by himself or with a weak or annoying partner, but he has excellent chemistry with both Callis & Madison.

I love Matthews & Rayne together. Mauro is an absolute turn-off to me.

You really want to ruin every promotion I love @C.S. ? That's not nice...

Yes she did. I wish they would bring her back, either as a announcer or a manager (because really, Vickie Guerrero... yikes, she's not been good).

Madison Rayne is really good at everything she does. She is totally killing it on announcing and making her team with Matthews as fun as Callis was, Locker Room Talk is always a highlight whenever it's on. And she was a terrific character pretty much as soon as she left The Beautiful People for her first single push in 2010.

Yeah, his character was not the flashiest, but his World Title reigns promos where very good for what he had to convey, his stuff with Owen was really good too. Plus, let's not forget the pile of shit he was dealt with for most of 95, there's no way you can shine working promos about Isaac Yankem or a kiss my feet match with Lawler or cut money interviews about a pirate stealing your jacket. He certainly was hidden during the Hart Foundation days under Jim's charisma and crazy promo style.

It didn't seem like he was ! Because that's a scary thought ! Maybe that's the thing, the NXT environment really catered to his worst instinct and he would be better somewhere else. Well, he couldn't be much worse anyway, so...

Exactly. Not to mention, Mauro is yet another WWE guy in the mind of the audience. They absolutely don't need another "star" announcer coming from the opposition. And Mauro sucks and would ruin my fun, but that's beside the point.