El-P

With the greyish beard, I thought he kinda looked like Terry Funk... sorta...

Ok, I gave up listening the first episode, but all the positive talk about this show makes me want to give it another shot. Sell me a few episodes where Bischoff is at his less annoying and most genuine. I have zero interest in all thing AWA or WWE, but I am interested in TNA stuff. So there. Hit me with some references, people and help me find a good podcast for early 2019, as I have grown incredibly tired of CT's other two shows last year.

I've gotta say, as far as a comedy match goes, the Thanksgiving special was pretty classic. Glen Gilberti. Kikutaro. Scarlett Bordeaux manipulating the Disco Inferno into wearing the turkey suit. The young referee "moving into puberty", as Callis said (and damn, Callis is easily the best pro-wrestling announcer today). The entire team doing the Bahh roll. That was all good. Also, Gilberti looks pretty fine for a 51 year old. He kinda has a Terry Funk thing to him too I thought, oddly enough.

It was fine. It's just heat-seeking. MLW still has this kinda low-rent quality to it, so the execution was straight out of some 90's s japanese indy sleaze promotion, and you really won't get much heat for heat-seeking in 2018 anyway, especially in MLW where the audience kinda sucks honestly (the Florida audience at least kinda always does). They work the kidney, then they stab him. Quite a bit of blood. Hey, don't expect 80'sPuerto-Rico level fuckery here (I'm talking angles, obviously), it was fine for what it was. We'll see how they handle what follows. It's kinda fun to see Konnan be an important character both in MLW and iMPACT (after the LU stint). These "hardcore" angles do have his imprints all over them, but I must say as much as Konnan the pro-wrestler was one of the worst I've seen, I'm enjoying Konnan the mentor/manager quite a bit.

What I said. Plus him getting over as he did probably helped change the way WWE looked at talent in term of hiring guys from the indies (although CM Punk was instrumental in this too).

You can blame Kobashi for every chop exchange lifted from the legendary match against Sasaki at the Dome in 2005. Hell, I would guess the entire elbow exchange derives from this too. How a great, unique spot can became a total cliché. Edge I don't see the historical importance at all. No one cares about the load of WWE championships, it doesn't matter one bit. No one does the awkward Edgism spots anymore. The TLC are not Edge's. He was a 6th of those only, and really they originated with the Dudleys vs Hardys table matches, E&C were thrown into the mix once the formula was already there (the ladder match was already a staple of the promotion, the tables match was the Duds gimmick). And love him or hate him (that's me), Jeff Hardy has the most insane spots in those anyway. I don't see how Edge is historically important in any way shape of form. He was a main eventer during a down period, he got over huge once Lita got all slutty and shit. Bryan Danielson you can argue influenced a shitload of current workers, he's also responsible for years of WWE trolling his audience and the failure of Roman Reigns on top can arguably be put on his shoulders too, as he was the one the audience wanted and that's why Reigns never could work after he got picked over Bryan.

It was more than two years ago now. Discussions migrating to social networks and especially that godawful Twitter is what has hurt the board in the long run.

This is pretty damn funny. This is promo ability, people.

Cool pic ! Damn, Kawada has lost some weight it seems and it fits him. Both look good and happy there, that's nice.

I tried to watch a Nitro 00 watchover just for the heck of it. I didn't get past the first match. The main issue being that real-life Conrad Thompson talking about the stupid shit he does with his friends is fucking unbearable. He really comes off like someone I wouldn't want to spend more than 30 seconds of my life. The whole "I own this robe" stuff was obnoxious enough... Well, I'm glad Tony is announcing MLW, if anything.

And the last 2018 New Japan match is yet another awesome one. What a year, really. NJ should lock Ospreay under a fat contract, the guy is gonna be a huge gaijin star for them in the futur if they do.

I dunno, I enjoy Salina. She's got something legit unlikeable about her and she's lively and acting organically at ringside. Her promos aren't always the best, but I enjoy her interactions with Konnan (damn, Konnan as a manager has been a winner everywhere). Gotch's pecs make me feel uneasy. The Lawlor match was very good and the no-rope gimmick was used well. On the other hand, the flippity Xavier vs Andrews match was awful and everything terrible about flippity work. You fuck up your knee ? SELL IT AND MAKE IT MEAN SOMETHING instead of going through your stupid sequences like it's some sort of exhibition. The crowd should have shit on this way harder.

It sucks that the WWE is getting thrown a shitload of money for they shitty product while good little companies like iMPACT of LU are struggling while delivering the goods.

Finally got to watched it. Liked it a lot. I won't go into much details because I'm lazy (and sick, as often during this time of the year), but the highlights to me clearly were the LAX vs OG's ridiculous brawl, which reeked of 90's japanese garbage sleaze (that set-up was right out of IWA Japan or early BJPW), the super-fun six-men spot-fu (with the four stars in the match right out of Lucha Underground fame, yeah !), Tessa vs Taya ("Tessa B. ain't nothing to fuck with!" is my new favorite chant), the ECW tribute brawl with Dreamer & Eddie vs Moose (great outfits) & Kross (gotta love the Low-ki chant) and the terrific main-event. Yeah, that's a lot of highlights. I didn't mind the Allie segment at all tbh. Pro-wrestling as pure fiction, I got on that boat a while ago with LU. Plus it's funny how despite their unlimited budget and so-called great production team, WWE always are the dirt-worst when they try to do stuff like this. I thought the idea of James Mitchell as the Gatekeeper to the underworld or whatever that is was quite the nice touch. The blood on the cam, very Zatoichi-esque. Why the hell not. Not a fan of Ellsworth at all (and he's too much of a WWE product/reject to evoke anything but WWE, which is not something you want), Drake actually gave him too much I thought. Cool opener and nice to see Mack getting another gig. I have no idea about the main-event post-match stuff, but it didn't really bother me honestly, the match was great, best babyface Johnny match I've seen, a real sense of urgency and hatred. Aries is such a great pro-wrestler, I hope he isn't done with iMPACT. So, I guess I just have to catch up to be on time with the Nashville show. I won't lie, I would enjoy a Jarrett & Karen cameo.

So, finally an episode I really enjoyed again, last week's Rock Bottom 98. Lots of in-depth about Taker's angles at the time. For those like me who blocked that out of memory, this is the period of the infamous embalming and "not a cross it's a SYMBOL" not-a-crucifiction stuff. It's interesting when you really think about how Taker is viewed as this all-time great character (and he is), but he was involved in a ton of god-awful Wrestlecrap level shit. It was really the tail-end of my true fandom, but it made for quite an interesting episode for once. Russo sorta takes a beating too.

Reading this thread is funny as fuck.

Definitely gonna watch those Korakuen shows in the days to come. I didn't realize until now, but on paper the Tokyo Dome line-up is absolutely insane.

So yeah, too bad no more PCO in MLW...

That's an interesting take and sounds pretty accurate.

And it showed. Excellent match indeed. Best match of the show really, which went down after that point (Goto vs Ibushi wasn't as good and the main event was just there, the Tongans aren't main eventers by any stretch of the imagination).

Damn, and now I really want to watch that match despite the fact I don't care for the card very much. Yeah, I noticed the Kawada influence before too when he gets serious.

That Marko Stunt vs Ace Romero match was something else. This week's episode was probably one of the best all around thus far. First look at Rush. Yeah, I understand the hype, the guy has got *it*. I wonder how in the hell they got the rights to the Hart Foundation name though.

Still getting familiar with the current iMPACT product. So basically, Eli Drake is cosplaying Stone Cold & The Rock at the same time while trying to look like Paul Orndorff ?

Oh yes, definitely.

It was a pretty decent show if you don't mind : _more discussion about the post-Montreal stuff. _awful, annoying as hell mobile phone interferences for at least half the episode. I have no idea how they could not grasp that fact when they recorded the thing. It makes the listening really hard at times. I've also listened the Survivor Series 93 episode since it's a show from my early years as a fan and it was pretty good too. The Lawler stuff (in which they really dive into) still is totally cringeworthy. When you think about guys getting shit for old stuff on message boards these days... It was still a lot more about the context than the show itself, and they really barely talk about the main event scene (Lex & Yoko) apart from the fact the bloom was off the rose with Lex. So, not exactly a detailed exposé on the show, but these days are gone I think.