El-P

Spot of the night. (well, no, that Bryan finisher...)

Wow, so they found someone actually worse as a worker than both Beefcake and Wilson to induct the same year. Nice job.

Cherry picking Fastlane Mandy Rose vs Asuka. Well, Asuka is good. So is Mandy. Ok, that joke did not translate well at all, but it's kinda funny in French, I swear. I thought this was a decent little match, but that finish was completely idiotic. Awful acting too. Mandy is not quite Alexa Bliss in term of petite blonde bitch heel. Three-way tag team match. The difference between the intros of Ricochet (hey there people) and Aleister Black (STAR) is quite something. Fun match, but honestly teh thriple-threat car crash format totally undermine most of these guys strong points (Revival, Roode, Gable). I don't think Ricochet was that impressive either after years in LU when he was doing much more insane shit, he also looks super small in that huge WWE ring. Black is a star (well, should be). Fun match but nothing special. By this point, WWE directing makes me dizzy and gives me a headache... Four-way US title. Four-way after a three-way. Odd booking. Why the fuck is R-Truth on my screen in 2019 ? This is so "One of these guys is not like the others." He's just about as bad a rapper and worker as he was when he was K-Kwik or when he was in NWA-TNA. Except he can't even do his goofy twists properly anymore. Fuck me, he's such a waste of space. The other three are terrific and don't let him get in the way too much. Rey is a mystery at this point (pu intended). How can he still be that great ? Rey vs Andrade or Rey vs Joe with some time and not cute booking at Mania could steal the show. Very good match. Sasha & Bailey vs Tamina & Nia. Fun to see Sasha & Bailey basically run circles around two big oafs and go as quick as possible and try not to get hurt. At this point, Nia has reached Crusher Maedomari level of suck. She had to be one of the worst big woman worker I've seen. She can't even catch a feather like Sasha properly. Bad match, entertaining for all the wrong reasons. At least no one got a concussion. Yeah, but nia is a worthless nostalgia match at Mania, as long as she isn't ruining some good workers' time. Three-way for the title. Wait, AGAIN a three-way ? Who booked this show, Heyman ? Well, despite the format that doesn’t do much for me most of the time, this was terrific. MOTYC level, probably. I guess Ali decided he was gonna steal the show, which he did. Hey, glad Owens is back at being that kind of worker, although he almost be-headed himself on that dive on Rowan. Bryan was his usual awesome self. With that result, I doubt that would do a Ali vs Kingston vs Bryan at Mania, which is too bad since Ali is so much more credible as a future champ. That finish BTW, was all kind of awesome. Someone mentionned Ali > Ricochet, well, agreed, and that’s from someone who enjoyed Ricochet quite a bit in LU (yet even there, he was surpassed by guys like Fenix working the same kind of style). Yeah, Ali can be pretty big, despite looking like Devon Storm. Becky vs Charlotte was very good for what it was, and by that I mean the execution of the match. Charlotte is excellent at kicking ass, Becky sold really well. Ronda’s bit was well done (she sure can run)... Well, « We’re telling a story » as Bruce would say. Too bad that story sucks and really hurts what was the easiest, simplest deal ever. Still, the three-way should be great, so there is that, but WWE booking is the dirt worst. Roman beat lukemia. Yeah ! Fuck cancer. I still won’t watch a match with Baron Corbin. Well, one legit MOTYC on a WWE show is rare enough, so there is that. Some really good stuff around, although the three-way tag was kinda underwhelming considering who was involved, and the three-way US title match was a promise of two great feuds. Sidenote, the French announcers actually mentioned that Shun Yamaguchi had lost his brother, which I thought was classy. Tons of dead times on that PPV too apparently though. Was the Elias stuff really needed ? This wasn’t long enough already with the useless recap videos and stuff ? I dunno how I’ll be able to withstand Mania live, with a Shane-O Mac match, with a Nia match, with tons of bad bullshit…

aka "non-thinking". That's a way to look at things. But the whole "everything is great", "everybody looks great", "negativity is so offensive" approach reeks of just not really thinking about anything and accepting whatever stuff you're being fed. Also, it's kinda odd to call Metlz as a relic when he's the one putting over the more advanced style both in term of psychology and/or action (you may disagree with him, but he's certainly not Cornette on those matters, he's interested in what's next, not what was before).

I always wanted a John Cena heel turn to be a Lance Armstrong kinda storyline. Would have been awesome, possibly.

Wally Yamaguchi, writer of Gong magazine, office guy for Baba among other things and probably responsible for the infamous Akira Hokuto bloodfest during the Kandori match, died at age 60. (of course the WWF made him "famous" for the worst reasons imaginable that should never be mentioned again) Yet another major figure of pro-wrestling gone in a matter of a few days.

WWE booking of Becky vs Ronda.

Well, listening to Corny call a (good) Ace Auston vs DJZ match is quite surreal. Alexander Hammerstein, the look, the name, everything screams like a guy who would get jobbed out to Goldberg on Thunder in 1998. I do enjoy MFJ and Holliday though. As I do the prospect of Mance Warner vs El Hijo de LA Park. I wonder if that's gonna be a redux of Sunny vs the Godwinns though, as Mance already spill some liquid all over Salina... Contra does nothing for me. It's random as fuck. Yet another Samoan from the family, Simon Gotch looking like some dude without his moustache (nice "where's the moustache ?" chant btw), and a nondescript guy named Joseph Samael wearing a super nondescript outfit with the Sheik's boots doing a Sheik cosplay. Yeaaaaah, not sure about that one. I miss Konnan and Salina insulting each other in spanish and getting luchadors to fight their battles. AEW should sign Ace Romero yesterday though, the guy is a legit Adrian Adonis for the 2020's.

I have not listened to Lance Storm in years, but I did listen to his rant on the shooty-shooty stuff promo by Ronda this week and it's kinda glorious. Him mentionning David Arquette reminded me why I usually liked Storm's rants in the past.

1. Tessa Blanchard 2. Will Ospreay 3. Taichi 4. Cavernario 5. Sami Callahan

Agreed, it was another good PPV episode. I enjoy Bischoff's approach of really getting into details without being asked to do so. His honesty about some of the bad stuff is refreshing, and it's cool to see him mark out to Dusty's commentary. I have to go back to the previous episodes which I have skipped because of a lack of time, but really, Uncle Eric has been quite consistent with this format. Hearing him talk about this era also reminds me how fun and fresh WCW was at the time, with all the different things they were trying (always loved the Club La Vella shows for instance).

Yeah, excellent match. It's gonna be really special to watch this last year of Liger. Speaking of the 47th Anniversary show, what a card. Apart from the match with the tongans (I'm so over them at this point, and the Bullet Club beatdowns are more played out than an nWo B-Team angle in 98 on Thunder), everything was at worse very good. Sho & Yo vs Bushi & Takagi was great and Ospreay vs White was simply MOTYC to me. Yeah, I was not crazy about White being put in the Omega position, but honestly the guy delivers when put under pression. Considering how young he is and how hard he's been pushed, he's already one hell of a worker. Of course, Ospreay is a total star already and an awesome worker. Really hope they put him in the G1, it would be crazy (funny how one year ago before the insane Mania week indy show fest I was basically an Ospreay hater, either he really progressed, either I just didn't get it then). Anyway, if that's the gaijin scene on top (adding ZSJ) for the next few years, Nj is safe in term of delivering great matches. Excellent job on this show building the NJ Cup too.

Yeah, let's not be completely ridiculous, this place isn't Twitter (yet). He never ever even implied something like that. On the other hand, he saying the Ronda stuff is "completely different" from Russo's shooty-shooty stuff is ridiculous.

"This is not a fucking promo. I'm not gonna do their act anymore." Yeah, sorry, but this is WCW level Russoesque shooty-shooty shit, no matter what anyone says. It's the exact same shit.

How crazy is that ? Double J & the Roadie.

I dunno. Watch-alongs are the reason I ceased to listen to the Schiavone podcast, which I loved at first. Conrad the host asking questions and reading reports is ok. Conrad the jokster is godawful.

Useless, probably. Arn has never been much of the "shoot" type if you judge by the old RF video he did back in the days. I doubt he'd be much better now.

That's pretty huge. With the words "legendary", "GOAT" thrown around like nothing, Liger retiring will remind everyone what a true legend and legit greatest of all time is all about. So, I guess that was part of the plan of having two Dome shows, the Liger retirement being enough to pack one of the two I suppose.

Considering what we know of his friends (Casio Kid anyone ?) and sense of humour (Casio Kid anyone ?), this sounds like complete hell.

After spending the first two months of the year watching everything I could and had interest in, I finally got to the point of being burned out and where catcthing up felt like "work". So there. iMPACT remains my favorite promotion week-to-week CMLL at Arena Mexico on Wednesday night is always super easy and fun to watch NJPW, the big shows and cards with big matches only AAA, from time to time, the Total Giras shows tend to get samey, not in a good way. Depending on the card MLW, I'm getting kinda bored with, the last streak of shows have not held my interest very much ROH couldn't hold my interest at all WWE, only some matches on the PPV's. Haven't been bothered with Takeovers At this point, waiting for AEW

So, since Becky vs Ronda are doing the shooty-shooty stuff on Twitter, Trip has to do the shooty-shooty stuff on TV, because what the hell. How creatively bankrupt is this company ?

You're awfully generous. To me it killed the match, which had been quite good until the "let's escape" point. They stayed forever outside that cage like complete fools, especially when at one point Lawlor's leg was trapped into the cage. Why didn't Low-ki just jumped at this point ? And it went on and on and on forever, only to do that stupid "both guys almost fall at the same time" spot, which was cute the first time it was done in the 80's (70's maybe), but there it was completely idiotic considering either one could have simply dropped to the floor at any time for seemingly ever (to the point the crowd began to boo just before they went home). I have no time for this kinda cutesy nonsense, it reeks of bad 80's cosplaying. The Lucha Bros match vs Laredo Kid & Taurus was good but kinda sloppy, and the AAA guys looked worse than they usually do in their own promotion. Kinda funny that the first guy Corny talks about when he's back at doing color was Taurus, who's basically the same gimmick as Mantaur. Corny sounded kinda lost in that match too and was much more at ease during the cage match. I dunno, I still enjoy MLW, but there's too much cutsey shit like the cage match finish and underwhelming performances from guys who look better elsewhere to really get excited about anything they do. I miss the whole Konnan vs Salina stuff, it gave the promotion some dynamic in term of promo and story. The whole Contra stuff, well, they look like some indie guys thrown together (damn, without the stache, he looks so odd and... generic)... Maybe I'm getting blase with all the wrestling available, but I ended up being disappointed with this episode too.

For whatever reason (probably the fact I don't give a flying fuck about the HOF), I thought Molly was in already. They should induct her and Lex Luger the same year, if only to try make us forget about that awful piece they did back then... No japanese woman not named Asuka is going in. Bull worked like two matches in the company. Victoria. Well, I guess she's going in eventually. Watching her in TNA in the late 00's exposes her so badly as a worker though, I'm sure she looked like "das worker" in the WWE in the mid 00's, but man, she was not very good at all. You don't say. I loved Marlena/Terri. They should just induct Goldust & Marlena, really, the perfect match. Dawn Marie would be awkward. "Hey, we fired you when you were pregnant, 'member ?" #womensevolution

All the female inductee will pretty much suck until you get to the current generation. Well, they could get Luna in I guess, but I would doubt it. None of the Rougeaus are in, neither is Martel yet. What do they have against quebecers anyway ?

Anything worthwhile on this lastest AAA show ? The english announcing is pay-only on Twitch now. I can't think of one reason why you'd want to pay to listen to the god-awful Vamp announcing ! I do think Villano III Jr. was already using Batista's theme, but I can be wrong.