El-P

Learned pretty much nothing new from the Hawk episode and there was some approximations at the end (they kinda speedrun the fact the business had passed them by in the late 90's which is why WWF tried this disgusting angle), but I thought this was still one of the better episode. Really cool depiction of the Minneapolis scene, they actually talked about the fact Hawk re-did the Road Warriors with Kensuke in Japan, Charles Wright talking about Vince taking the finisher is classic. Hawk's little brother really looks like him. You gotta feel for Animal, when someone you love is fucking up and you feel you can't do anything for them, it gets really hard, frustrating and can destroy you too. There's so much stuff that are being overstated in pro-wrestling, but it hard to overstate anything about the Road Warriors, really. Ok, next week is gonna be hard. (edited)

Main event was good, although Latimer is pretty much there. Brody King and Scurll bring so much aura and crisp work. I really hope they end up in AEW sometime, because I'll probably never check ROH. Agreed, really not the best show of S2, too light of what made it really cool to me (Ricky Starks, Zicky Dice, Trevor Murdock, tag matches with Drake & James Storm, Thunder Rosa) and way too heavy on the shittiest stuff (Mamma Storm's angle, Stevens & ? Mark, a Marti Belle match). And the announcement pretty much was... hey, we're doing a show on Youtube next week. Ok. Cool. Yep. Not a great way to recycle a very average show leading to a non-happening PPV... Kamille's make-up/workout videos with funny voiceovers were better than this...

Terrific promos from Eli Drake and Eddie Kingston, establishing exactly nothing. Is Pope able to wrestle ? Because if there's no match between him and Kingston, I don't get the point.

May Valentine looks so trashy and plays the douchebag millennial influencer quite well. That gimmick is actually really good and relevant in 2020. No idea where this can go as far as in-ring stuff goes though. But, yeah, that was good stuff in S2.

Every time I hear Tim Storm talk about Mama Storm, I think about that George Carlin routine and Tim Storm comes off as a total geek. And really, as much as I have enjoyed S2, this Mama Storm angle was the N°1 awful angle. Storm vs Dane is quite boring really. The ref holding the Crockett cup so Storm could ram the other guy's head into it was so cringe ! Hey, chop exchanges and suplexes ! Strong style NWA of something. Dane is hitting the 0,01 grade on the Muta scale. Match got decent once they got in the ring. Still, this angle totally sucked and Storm is a 50 something old grandfather referring to himself as "Mama Storm's Baby Boy", and that's enough for me to want someone to slap the fuck out of him.

Ricky Morton in 2020 is still one of the best promo in the business. The issue with Stevens is that nothing he does in NWA is even half as smart of funny or good as Mizdow. He clearly struck me as someone who was *better* in WWE. I dunno what does that says about him or the way he's booked. That US Belt or whatever it is has been rendered useless immediately. That ? Mark shit has jumped the shark last decade. I really like Zicky Dice. So sleazy. Kind of a successful Jimmy Del Ray.

As long as he's not announcing a new Pumpkins album, the world is fine. Kamille's first match was already showed a few weeks ago.

I believe he got booked in Japan because he was Animal's brother, basically. Then he's probably a political weasel (as showed by his years as a yes man in WWE) and Miss Baba liked him, and I guess he was friends with Steve Williams, so this explains that (because really in term of gaijin, even though at some point you can't work with the Four Pillars and Hansen/williams without being involved in great macthes, he never was that special). Then got to WCW as an agent and replicated some of the finish he learned in All Japan and got everyone go "wow this guy is so smooth" and I believe got more responsibilities in the dying days. And then when WWF bought in he had a good reputation as a backstage guy in WCW so he got brought in. More or less. Don't quote me on that.

Well... "On one hand you have that weak-ass Roman Reigns and his damn cancer who won't grab the brass ring. On the other hand you're got a female with a womb who isn't dependable. Where are my alpha males godamnit ?" Stephy should have come out, congratulated Becky and reminded everyone she invented pregnancy.

So I watched the thing. It was terrible. Even in this setting, the camera work and editing makes it super annoying and hard to watch. The "ideas" mostly sucked and it was pretty boring for such a concept match. The attempt at humour is pathetic and embarrassing (Brother Love in the bathroom, food fight with Heyman, pie in the face of Johnny Ace, the worst fall on wet floor ever). The less said about Corbin "throwing people off the tower", the better. I mean, it's stupid enough but the execution with that piss-poor splash sound was so amateur hour. And hey, what a WWE show be without Stephy talking down to talent and making them look like idiots and geeks ? Just stupid on many respect, poorly executed and produced, not very interesting nor fun to watch really (yeah Asuka, Bryan, Otis, Lacy and Carmella had their moments).

Old-school to the chore, this guy... Paige knows. He's all good for a Dark Side of the Ring episode next year and that's about it as far as his "legacy" goes. What a piece of shit.

Just put Youtube on, for the sake of it. Cesaro vs Jeff Hardy. In a matter of a few seconds while Cesaro is just dropping elbows to Hardy's face : ZOOM, UNZOOM, CHANGE ANGLE, CHANGE ANGLE, CHANGE ANGLE. Wow. It's crazy how much this shit is unwatchable when you're not used to it anymore.

So, who takes the bump that will make the Giant infamous drop off Cobo Arena look believable ?

So since we got in confinement (last days for us in France BTW, after 55 days), there's a sports TV channel which has been showing a Mania every Sunday on prime-time. SO I watched bits and pieces every week. Tonight is WM 28. Holy shit. Daniel Bryan infamous 20 sc loss. Randy Orton vs Kane followed by Big Show defeating Cody Rhodes in about 5 minutes. An awful women's match and then there will be that atrocious HHH vs Taker neverending HITC with more Shawn Micheals' stupid dramaqueen acting (I won't rewatch that, ever). Wow, that card was completely wack. I think Punk vs Jericho stole the show, and of course you had Cena vs Rock I on top, but still...

The feeling was that he was a guy who had been underpushed and deserved better than his spot. Because he was a fat guy who could do a moonsault, basically. So yeah, he was pretty much shot when the push (because there was no one else anymore, really) came, but to me he was totally exposed as a guy who was a bad promo (the gimmick sucked, ok, but still, he sucked on the mic, shouting like an angry Duggan clone) and a mediocre worker at best. Lance Storm (and to a lesser degree Douglas) totally carried his ass to a bunch of decent matches and of course we got stuff like "Oh, Hugh Morrus is so good" because people thought Douglas as a washed-up guy and Lance Storm as a boring dude who did not kick hard enough (yeah, absurd, thoughtless opinions are nothing new). The fact he was exposed later as an abusive piece of trash only complete the picture... But hey, he did a good looking moonsault for a fat guy on Nitro for years.

Well thank you @The Thread Killer for pimping those shows, I really thought they were very interesting and well balanced overall. With very few Meltz bashing (and really, it's sooo obvious he's working at times). I really enjoy the fact Bischoff has tons of *good* things to say about TNA (when in the past he mentioned he had nothing good to say about his experience here) and the talent there. His analysis about the differences between AJ Styles and James Storm are quite interesting I thought (never noticed the boo-boo face about James Storm before though, I'll definitely try to spot it now) and it's very true of AJ, whose always been a trooper no matter how bad the stuff given to him was (and really, apart from a few times, it mostly was, from being Christian fanboy to being turned into El Hijo del Flair to the upcoming Claire Lynch storyline) and who always managed to make the most of it too. I love the idea that Lacy Von Erich had a mouth like a garbage truck driver. Anyway, apparently they are gonna do more TNA shows, so that's good, since it's probably the less talked about topic of the last 20 years period (the Brucie podcasts were very good too, back in the days). The funny thing is, the last Bischoff podcast (and the only one in a very long time) I listened before those two was the one about Eric signing with TNA months ago.

Agreed about those. Booker T, yikes, the guy is one of the most overrated guys of that time period. I would call him barely good and it took really super solid worker to get something decent out of it goofy ass then. He surely got better in WWE. Yung Dragons were fun too. 3 Count, only two of them were worth anything though. As far as Douglas goes, he was super banged up but he was a detail worker. He made that completely ridiculous scafold match watchable. Hell, he had a watchable match with Konnan, whom I consider one of the worst in-ring worker I've seen. He also worked his magic with that piece of trash Hugh Morrus who, despite the popular feeling at the time, was overrated as fuck, was completely shot already and really was not a guy who deserved to be pushed ahead of his JTTS status. And he managed to try to make Torrie Wilson, who by her own account was completely clueless, to do *something* during his matches. It's not like he was a young guy in shape anymore, he was a banged up veteran and worked like one. But hey, I've been there in details years ago in the greatest thread of the history of this sport, so what am I doing pimping circa-2000 Shane Douglas in 2020 again ?! Don't make me talk about that period ever again !

Actually, although he was already very banged up physically, Douglas made the most out of the least in 2000 in the pits of hell of then-WCW. By the time TNA was around, he was completely shot though.

One fascinating tidbit of the last few weeks told by Meltzer is how it's because he bumped into Eddie Mansfield and his girlfriend in a store sometime in the early 90's that the Argentino Case resurged. Basically Mansfield's girlfriend approach Meltz and told him she was... Nancy's sister. And that Snuka had killed Nancy. And so Meltz talked about what she told him to Irv and that's how things got started. Reading that article, it's crazy Vince basically got away with covering a murder, got this guy his job back and honored his death on TV, and people are still debating whether this guy is a complete piece of trash...

Hey, I've been there before. He remains one of my all-time favourite wrestler. I wish he would pop up in AEW in some agenting/interviewer role. I have no idea if they are still available, but back in the days of the Austin podcast (early/mid 2010's I'd say), the two Douglas episode got tons of acclaim and it was indeed a great interview. The part where he talks about kicking out his addiction while he was in TNA is brutal (and brutally honest) I recall. So if you can grab those somewhere, I definitely recommend them. Also, by all account, Douglas seems like a super friendly guy IRL.

Well, Douglas was also working a character for the ECW audience that looked as WCW as "The Enemy". That was part of the charm of the promotion. The idea is that Flair did not only pushed back guys like Douglas but also Austin, Pillman and such. Either way, in 1995, it was a work already anyway even though Douglas hostility was real.

I didn't know it was used toward Quebecers too. It's the classic English talking about French insult. But REGULAR FRENCH PEOPLE DON'T EAT FROGS !

Yeah, kinda wrong stereotype. Quebec... France... not exactly the same thing. But really, I still don't know where that "frog" thing comes from ! Like, yikes !

This is only a guess, but since we have these two English-speaking Canadians, using a stereotypical French sounding song to me was a way to make fun of their French counterparts, also the workers clearly weren't quebecers from the way the one guy spoke. Anyway, I thought the whole thing was really funny and it's stuff like this I'm expecting from IMPACT during those times.

And so it was bullshit. And the highlight of this week's show, as really the totally empty arena stuff gets a bit sad. Absurd shit, I'd bet Ethan Page is responsible for this. 3 dummies as the "crowd", totally overhyped announcer, ridiculous "chanson réaliste" in French (a jab to Quebec ?) as the theme song of the two jabronies, and the best line of the night : Ethan "What match you'd like ?" Josh : "Kurt Angle." Ethan : "His 90 days are not even up yet !"