El-P

Of course it is (easy to say that on a message board), and of course it's me being angry (because quite frankly, I've been a pro-wrestling fan for almost 30 years, 8 of which as a WWF fan, and it's a really awful feeling to imagine that you've had so much fun thanks to some truly disgusting, awful human beings). Still, at some point, you gotta ask yourself what the hell you're doing with your life.

And really... we can make all the bad jokes we want about it (and I sure made some awful ones already), but in the end, a political regime just lurred a journalist into their consulat, kidnapped him, tortured him (yeah, that's called "interrogation"), killed by ("by accident") and dismembered him. Just think about the atrocity of this act. And the WWE is gonna take the money and, most probably, run their *second* (this year, more coming) propaganda show for this regime. So, fuck them. (And really, fuck anyone who still supports them from this point on. And that includes each and everyone of the workers who, apparently, are all against doing the show. This is now or never people, get a set of balls, refuse to do it and unionize.)

This is gonna be the first ever PPV broadcast from Parts Unknown !!!

Just saw the clip. Holy shit. Did Aries scream "I don't respect you, bookerman !" to Don Callis ?

"You can't see those human rights abuse." Brillant. (watching those propaganda clips again should be enough for anyone to unsubscribe to the Network, really)

Wait until Lita shows up. That PPV match has the potential to be godawful, as Lita was always a terrible worker and Trish in her prime was decent at best. If the match is better than this, give crazy credits to Bliss and James (who was already solely responsible for making Trish look a hundred times better than she actually was at that Mania).

Well, a few episodes more, and there's way too much thing I don't care for here (some awful indieriffic work, the 80's revivalist stuff does zilch for me). The novelty of Schiavone calling indie matches are worn off (not that he isn't good). And too many guys that I can watch in a more fun context (LU or iMPACT).

Lackluster does not even begin to express the latest few episodes, and the Rikishi one is yet another. They just fly over everything from the Head Shrinkers to the Sultan in about 5 minutes, as it's basically less about Fatu than about the Rikishi gimmick. Then you have Bruce not being able to say what the fuck the word "rikishi" means, which I find really embarrassing. Talk about living in a wrestling bubble and having zero respect for the culture you're turning into gimmicks. As a sumo fan, I've never cared for the gimmick anyway. Always liked Fatu as a worker going back to the Shrinkers, but the fact he was never over more than being a fat guy doing a poor sumo cosplay dancing and shoving his bare ass in the face of his opponents says a lot about how much the Attitude Era sucked. Yeah, that show is badly, badly cruising, and the shorter format actually hurt it quite a bit. Not sure I'm gonna bother for a lot longer at this rate.

This. A few months ago, five human right activist women have been sentenced to death penalty, just because (hey, but now they can drive to their own execution, that's progressive). This regime is atrocious, and the propaganda pieces the WWE ran last time should have been enough for them to be completely blasted. Well, let's see what happens and how those awful people (the WWE I mean) will try to twist an impossible situation into more hypocritical PR. Hint : renaming the event November to Dismember would not be a sensible idea...

This story in the Prichard story was quite interesting indeed. After 30 years of sucking in the ring, Kane now sucks at politics.

Interesting guess. Funny, I was actually glad to not see much of Elgin in NJ cards lately and can't wait until Jeff Cobb shows up. Elgin can go suck in NXT for all I care. On the "Meltz doesn't get it" side (for once, I've been defending him on so many issues), his opinion of Taichi is completely ridiculous. You can absolutely not be a fan of the act if that's not you're style, but to say he's terrible and he does *nothing* makes no sense whatsoever. I'm looking forward to his match with Ospreay and not in a "Can Ospreay carry this terrible guy to a decent match ?" way, but because it's probably gonna be a really good match with some fun shit and a different dynamic. Likewise, the idea that Toa Henare should be a big star leaves me dumbfounded. The guy is decent, but he's reached the point of go-away heat with me, can't stand the gimmick, he looks like a reject from the early 90's WWF (and before someone says how offensive I am because he's playing on his "cultural heritage", fuck off already, the guy is totally overdoing the haka routine and sticks his tongue out like a goof before every spot, he's a walking cliché and he's annoying as hell.).

I really don't see what the incentive for any of those guys would be to sign with the WWE, especially *now*. Apart from an obscene amount of money, what do they have to gain ? They have worked very hard to make themselves stars in NJ and in the indie scene, All In was a huge success, all of this for Cody to get right back to the WWE ? Kenny Omega takes a great pride in his matches and style, and it's obvious he'll never get to work the way he wants in the WWE. He's about to main event the Tokoy Dome, why would he go to the WWE ? Be fed to Roman Reigns ? Work a great mid-card program with Dolph Ziggler and backstage skits with Baron Corbin ? Like I said, apart from an obscene amount of money (which comes from, well, you know whom…), there's nothing to gain for them really now, they are as hot as ever and they pretty much do what they want. In some time, sure, but right now (without even taking in account the possible incoming huge backlash of the saudi deal), I don't see it. (edit : well, of course if Meltz is actually right about the morale being down in NJ now, it's pretty different)

"As an independant contractor (wink wink nudge nudge), I'm not doing this show, thank you very much." Now, THAT would be cool.

Tanahashi vs White was a terrific match, although I must admit I'm not that crazy about that much of an US style match worked in NJ for a "main event". What I did not enjoy though, was the post match angle. White & Gedo didn't need to be associated with the Tongans, especially if that means tons of interferences in White's matches from now on. But the one thing that bugged me the most was the old nWo style beatdown, with no sight of the babyfaces. Isn't Okada the leader of a faction called CHAOS ? So, where the fuck were Ishii, Ospreay, Goto, Yano, SHO & YOH ? Unless it was specified they left the building (which would be odd if Okada stayed), it really made them look like the worst faction ever. Too much lazy style american booking, this. On the other hand, the prospect of Okada & Tana on the same side in the future is interesting. Loved the three-way main event, and I usually don't care at all for the format. My first reaction to the absence of Brandi was "Damn. :(", as the act is better than Cody by himself. Cody did prove me wrong though, as it's probably his best in-ring performance that I've seen. Ok, it doesn't hurt to have Ibushi & Omega with you along for the ride. And what a ride, so much cool stuff character wise and quite a crazy match which actually had me believe Ibushi could win (and Cody has a great nearfall with the small package). Jericho showing up and Takagi as the new LIJ member were cool moments in a decent undercard.

He'll probably get "You've still got it" and "You deserve it" chants back in the US instead. (On a side note, I find it quite ironic yet totally logical (when you actually think about it) that the born-again christian would come back for a huge fat check from the wahhabis...)

Damn, Harold Meij is actually Jim Herd.

When even Erdoğan is on the "babyface" side, you know things are really fucked up... Can't wait for the backlash.

The booker wanted Ultimate Warrior to win...

You mean the journalist who "disappeared" in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul ? Well, people do disappear in Istanbul these days, but yeah, it looks pretty fucking bad. Honestly it was only a matter of time before something like this popped up. They deserve all the shit, and more.

Of course it is. Mercedes didn't impress me that much last year either. I did check out this match because of the hype, and yeah, what you said. But since it happened in the WWE, it's pimped like it was some kind of great match (whereas I'm sure Meiko had about a few hundred matches as good as this one in the last 20 years, and I was never a huge Meiko fan back in the days of joshi craze either, so it's not me assuming things about an old favourite).

Acting class, probably.

It's kind of funny that Steve Corino was never considered good enough for the holy WWE roster, but he's certainly good enough to train the future stars. Good for him though. Plus I guess the trainers get pension and health care.

And there George Carlin pops up in my mind.

The Flair shoot interview is addressed in details. The rest, not so much, it's a bunch of factual elements with Bruce rationalizing every step of the stop/start push without ever really giving a thought about why this guy never got over or why the booking never found a way to put him over (and I don't think there's much interesting told in term of context of the company at the time either). The episode to me was as dull and uninteresting as Carlito's career (and work). What shocked me though is how high Bruce seems to be on the guy, talking about him like he had It, like he was some kind of great worker. It's ironic that it begins with Corny thinking Carly was coasting in OVW and ending with Carly effectively coasting for years in the main roster. In the end, the one thing that can explain such a lackluster stint appears to be as simple as this...

Why ?