El-P

SJW at work is a very sad and pathetic thing. I hate homophobic and racist shits, but I despise SJW just as much (their way of acting is very much alt-right, actually, so there's a connection here). That's the annoying thing about the entertainment industry in the world of social media, you know too much about people, on either side.

Have you seen Onita vs Funk from Kawasaki Stadium 5/5/93 ? If anything, you need to watch that one. And also Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda from 5/5/96, which was Combat's retirement match and to this day one of the greatest match/spectacle I've seen. You need to see the entire thing though, with intros and post-match, which is totally part of the whole FMW presentation. (both are in complete form on Youtube, damn,when I think about how much I paid for VHS tapes back in 1999 )

Hum... I doubt he got close to the deal Nak got. Plus Nak was broken down and had accomplished everything he could in NJ already. KUSHIDA sure gonna waste a few years of his prime left being taught "how to work" and at best be totally forgotten in 205Live purgatory...

Yep. Even some of the early Gangstas matches, despite some stiff object shots, were a whole lot of bullshit that *looked* like a giant brawl (the "Natural Born Killaz" blaring through the PA system helped the atmosphere immensely too) but really couldn't be that hurtful.

DDP Yoga update : That Living in the Red Zone 70mn routine probably wouldn't be so damn hard if DDP wouldn't have you try to do 9 10sc push-ups at the very beginning. And a few ones later on. No idea how I even manage to go through this. Only did that one 4 times in the last year and a half. It's quite a ride...

I came off completely the opposite. And I'm an old FMW fan and loved Onita (past tense only because I don't watch it anymore, but really was a huge fan). But there's a HUGE difference between what Onita used to do and what CZW and Freedom of Big Japan are doing now. I thought Onita was the best thing on the doc (he aged kinda gracefully too and the setting was EXACTLY where you'd picture Onita to be), although you could feel the old carny bullshit about "I was ready to die". Fuck yeah, sure, he wanted to have sex with a zillion women instead I'm sure. Anyway, Onita's style was based on selling and teasing a whole lot more than doing a hundred insane bumps into glass and shit like this. Plus, he packed stadiums and made himself a shitload of money. With no TV. And worked the Tokyo Dome in NJ shows. And got elected to the Diet ! What are these indy sickos accomplishing apart from killing themselves and destroying their bodies and becoming physically repulsive and unhealthy with their scarred up bodies (and before some dweeb goes all #bodyshaming on me, sorry people, I find Jun Kasai's body to be repulsive) ? Mick Foley did some really, really stupid shit, and he's paying for it now, but he also made himself and his family quite a living, at least. I dunno, to me I stopped caring about the style exactly when CZW got on the scene in the early 00's and fucked up things for Big Japan, which was developing the crazy-style-to-be with guys like Honma, who thankfully quit. I don't see the point of bump a hundred times in glass walls and mouse traps and pouring salt on the wounds. Do I still enjoy a crazy-ass garbage brawl with some sick spots once in a while ? Sure. Emphasis on "once in a while". But this to me is unnecessary bullshit. Most amazing scene to me : Kasai's wife lovingly preparing boards with fucking *saws* for her husband to bump onto. Looked like an extract from the horror movie Audition. I don't want to be that guy, but it actually made me think very strongly about Pierre Bourdieu's Society of Spectacle where he refers to how entertainment only conditions people to violence so they forget the actual social violence they have to endure everyday and don't go into resistance and fight against it and basically comply to the capitalistic world. Of course it's true of all pro-wrestling, really, but it really stroke a nerve here, especially when Kasai said they hoped this would give people the will to work harder the next day at work or school. Yeah...

I just thought of something. With guys like Takagi, Ospreay and the escape-from-205Live KENTA entering the G1, you know who is probably soooo glad he took that sweet NXT deal ? KUSHIDA. Talk about terrible timing to join the WWE army of shadows. And AEW would have jumped on him for sure of he really wanted to try and make a name in the US. The guy has literally vanished the the radar, and you know he's gonna be completely wasted anyway.

Watched the STARDOM episode and I loved it. Of course, it's too short to really go deep into the issues. Still, it was super enjoyable to have different perspective, including from the gaijin girls. As an old ARSION fan, it was cool to hear Rossy Ogawa, although he came off like a cold-hearted bastard, but then again, it's only snipets. The whole idol aspect was exactly like what I saw in a documentary about the idol culture, and honestly I find it creepy. As someone raised in a european and especially a latin country (because honestly, the puritanism of anglo-saxon culture turn me off a whole lot), I find this extremely unhealthy as far as men/women relationship. I know this had been the case basically since after the 80's and the Crush Gals era ended, but the fact 95% of the audience is older guys just doesn't sit well with me, I know I would feel absolutely uneasy in that crowd. Need some mix of gender and age. Hey, a Ni Hao ! concert, that was pretty cool although I'm not too sure how it really fit with the narration. The training footage is always cool, as is learning more about the culture. I'm very interested in watching the lucha episodes, especially the one about the exotico culture.

Gotta get that brass ring, sucka'.

Rap is Crap was great (it saved Hennig otherwise mostly worthless WCW stint), but the Master P stuff was godawful. 'member Swoll ? The funniest thing is that of course things just happened, got over but since it wasn't supposed to, especially as babyfaces, it got cut off at the knees pretty quickly. Wait, does that ring a bell ?

Fuck me. And Rusev vs Omega. Rusev vs Janela. Rusev vs Moxley in a Fuck-WWE-On-A-Pole match ? Lana doing actual *fun* manager work ? Damn, isn't this fun ? We're all speculating about when people's contracts are up and shit, like it's 1997 ! That guy is snakebit. Possible still a racist asshole, the anxiety attack deal which got him off Mania vs Cena, now this...

It's not the first time Rusev acts all "Fire me please, I don't give a fuck anymore" on social media. I doubt the guy is signing any new contract.

Bischoff defending the Master P deal is pretty pathetic. It was a laughing stock and a disaster. Damn, he also defends the awful contortionist angle. And the dog attack angle. WTF is up with Bischoff this week ? Too many long rants again too... to the point of the thing getting hard extremely annoying to listen to, honestly. I dunno if this podcast has jumped the ship already, or if the much more sane approach of JR hurts this one and Brucie's (who I don't listen to anymore for now), but yeah, way too long of an episode with way too much uninteresting bullshit. EDIT : could not finish it. I'm going to give this podcast a rest and only check episodes heavily pimped on here next time, because this one was insufferable.

Yeah, terrific match. Can't wait for the next one with Omega & Laredo Kid thrown in, should be a blast. The crowd was going insane at the end, which is always really cool to witness. Yeah, but at least he's got an interesting look again. The main event kinda sucked though, as always. I don't think I've seen Psycho Clown involved in a really good match in a long time. He was more fun when he was doing crazy garbage brawls. Wonder how they'll be able to make Wagner vs Demon fun, because the matches leading up to it mostly suck. Taurus needs to show up in AEW too, this guy is too good to be ignored. The card had a lot to enjoy though, with the usual AAA insanity. It was easier to watch the Aerostar stuff now that he's apparently "ok", but them showing the fall over and over again was... yikes. Second favourite match to me was Taya & Laredo Kid vs Daga & Tessa. Funny how Daga did nothing for me in either LU or MLW, but in his element in AAA he's quite terrific. Tessa & Taya working inverted dynamic with iMPACT is fun, it's like old territory stuff. Love the AAA intergender approach. Speaking of which, Los Mercenarios have become a hundred times better after La Mascara left and La Hiedra took his place. Enjoyed their match quite a bit, including the ridiculous comedy by La Parka. Another highlight of the show to me, Scarlett Bordeaux doing a Canadian Destroyer in high heels. I'll miss her in iMPACT. Gotta have that Killer Kross vs King Puma brawl one of these days.

Loser Leaves Town. Double KO. Then Aries gets up and quietly leave, iMPACT style and Low-Ki throws a fit because he was not the most unprofessional. And really, as workers, I love them both, so honestly I'd love at least one big match between the two. Gotta love the picture they used of him. I think it was taken from some 1995 WWF Superstars era or something. Yeah, I guess, always been a Savio fan. Hey, maybe we can have Savio vs LA Park... MLW is at its best when they go into latino shit.

Petty and a terrible choice. Do they really think a guy with zero charisma like Micheal Elgin is worth more than both Scarlett Bordeaux & Killer Kross (who could easily main event the promotion) ? Yeah, sounds like bad judgement here... Yeah, give me more Scarlett & Kross together in AAA.

Ok. So, first off, MLW losing Callihan is a big hit to their product. Although he had not been featured as heavily lately, in a company that is infamous for under-delievering in big matches, Callihan was the one guy who always delivered, as showed again by this match vs Mance. Again, I've said it before, Callihan is easily an MVP in term of making a feud and the big match important. His brawls are memorable, he isn't afraid to kill himself nor to be a legit disgusting heel (although he can work some lighter stuff in too). Second, I have no idea where the "damages" came from, I gather it's not from the Mance match, because if it is, then it's really ridiculous. Nothing done in that match looked like it damaged anything in the bleachers. Plus, ol'Mancer was up there bumping on those bleachers too, so why isn't he responsible in some ways ? Also, gotta love Bauer last posts before this one, talking about how MLW is "gritty" and "for renegades" and shit, and then going "ohhh, you broke stuff, you're fired !". Also, some guy apparently replied about the shitty pay condition MLW puts its worker through, which I thought was interesting. Third, the Corny stuff is odd. If I didn't know better, I'd call "work" on this one. But I guess I simply over-estimated Corny's brillance on the mic that time, as he was simply always legit shitting on Callihan, which in that case, I understand why Sami would be pissed. And the line about "freaks doing goofy shit" was very reminiscent of his comment on the DON Battle Royal... Funny how Corny's disdain of garbage wrestling totally depends of the worker. I mean, if there's a sick fuck in the match, it's more Mance Warner for going through those gory shots with the staples, but I guess he's fine and not a gimmick because he's cosplaying Buckhouse Buck. I can't wait to hear Corny droll over his mic when the two Von Erich's brothers (from a family with dignity and integrity, LOLage) re-do the concession stand brawl against fellow Sheik cosplayer Samael next week (a match I'm actually looking forward too, but that's neither here nor there). Fourth, well, yeah, Corny still talking about the Bucks and Omega like they ain't shit totally makes him irrelevant as far as understanding today's pro-wrestling. Hell, he could simply look at how Callihan throws some *great* looking punches, or how his brutal looking piledriver is actually pretty safe when you really look closely. He's a fucking worker. But I guess one accident against his friend Eddie Edward, who also works insane garbage brawl style these days and excels at it, was enough to write off Callihan. Owen Hart did way more damage to Steve Austin, but it doesn't count... As far as the rest of the show, well, not enough Salina flavored to me. She basically did the intro and that was it as far as being a special episode. The match with Ricky Martinez was there (El Sicario just isn't anything special). Low-Ki vs LA Park will hopefully happen. Gotta love Salina motherfucking Martinez though. Was that bleeped on BEING ? Rey Horus vs Flamita was cool and all, but did not mean anything as it was thrown there cold. Also I feel they would work a better match in Mexico. Basically, El Hijo del Vikingo vs Laredo Kid/Daga is was not. Is Aries gonna show up eventually ? Because at the pace they are going with the debut, Savio Vega (who's 54, who are we kidding ?) is gonna be ready for the summer tapings of 2020...

Honestly in the current context I don't see WWE "swooping" anyone anymore unless the workers are WWE marks or are getting insane amount of money, which NXT signees simply don't get. You'd be foolish to just sign with them without contemplating every other options.

Well... http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/scarlett-bordeaux-released-impact/ That's bad for iMPACT, she's been a favourite of mine (doh!) for a while. Hopefully she doesn't go to WWE and AEW makes her an offer. If not, well, it's been fun the time it lasted... I wonder how long they'll keep Kross. Him leaving would be another big blow to me, Elgin on top is already making me care less and less, despite the TV and big shows being really good still.

In a way, nothing tells the decrepit state of the promotion today more than the fact that people have seemingly accepted a 49 year old Shane McMahon, who was always a special attraction who would do stupid ass narcissic stunts because he never had to actually work (like the "independent contractors" breaking their body on a daily basis) on the road and has always looked like complete shit as an actual worker, as a regular top-tier performer, borderline main-eventer. From a creative standpoint, they've already passed Dying WCW a long, long time ago

Speaking off, here's hoping Teneille get picked up by AEW.

That and Salina managing cool luchadors against each other. Aries is coming, which is cool, but he'll probably be gone in a few months too. Yeah, I mean, 90's flashback stuff like Alex Hammerstone and his I'm-doing-jobs-on-Thunder look and lifeless indy geeks like Gringo Loco ain't gonna cut it. MLW needs to inject some life into their product. Salina vs Konnan was the driving force on top of the card, they really haven't found anything that enjoyable since. The Contra stuff has been mostly a miss, although the week they beat up everyone was cool but it was ruined by the silly-ass (and offensive, honestly) angle the following week. And we still don't know who the fuck Contra are. I mean, pro-wrestling terrorist don't really work...

Ibushi vs Okada, Ibushi vs Ospreay, Ospreay vs ZSJ, KENTA vs Ospreay, KENTA vs ibushi, KENTA vs ZSJ, KENTA vs Okada, Ishii vs Moxley, Cobb vs Ishii, Naito vs Ishii, Naito vs Moxley, Naito vs Cobb, Naito vs Taichi, Takagi vs Cobb, Takagi vs Naito, Takagi vs Ishii, Juice vs Ishii ok stop there already. This is ridiculous on paper. Ok, I'm going for Naito vs Ospreay in the finals, Naito wins.

He's a jacked up smaller guy who doesn't even look that jacked up, especially next to Cage, who can also do much more impressive flying spot. No charisma, no character, not a good promo either. No idea why they brought that guy in, especially with the rep he had. Meanwhile, Killer Kross gets told to "get another job" to make more money ? Da fuck.