El-P

If that was the end of Catrina (I hope not and there's still room for her to come back from the dead), that was one hell of a send-off. Remember LU S4 was supposed to be running on a much cheaper production ? Well, that vignette was maybe the greatest ever in the entire company's history. E14 was just a blast from start to finish, LU at its best. Azteca vs Ivelisse was Ivy's best single match ever, and although Azteca did work a bit slower and it did show in spots, it was a perfectly worked match where you just don't even pay attention about the fact it's intergender anymore. Azteca is a much more interesting masked babyface than Puma ever was BTW. Glad Ivelisse is enjoying an injury-free season, she's just as good or better a babyface as she's been a heel in the past. The trios matches with XO & Ryan should be pretty cool. Mil vs Cuerno was a really nice appetizer. But yeah, where's Catrina, I miss her already too ! Still, Mils has been the constant MVP for his entire run, he conveys such an explosive monster work style. Cuerno really looks smaller compared to him now. The hair don't look very good, but we know it was probably all because he was losing his mask at Triplemania in the upcoming year. Terrific trios match, although it's kinda odd that the Reptile Tribe don't really have much in term of reptiles anymore. Daga could use a snake mask though. Yes, really. And damn, two zombis for the price of one, as FenixTaker was one hell of a visual. That guy really is talented as hell, as he acted odd in a great, unique way. The post match was a great angle too and quite the cliffhanger. Although wait, Marty's back too !! Yeah, great episode, the best of S4 and an all-time great to me (yeah, Jake Strong appeared and cut a boring promo, but what can you do, gotta have some flaws).

Bruce playing dumb about the independant contractor status on the last episode was pretty embarrassing... Not a good couple of shows the last two weeks.

Prediction : Tana finally beats Okada. After the match, Jay White talks shit to Okada for losing. YOSHI-HASHI tries to talk some sense into him. White blasts him. Okada checks on YH, who shoves him back then becomes Tana's understudy. Tana vs Omega & Okada vs White at the Dome, while YH goes for Taichi's title.

Loved Ishii vs Omega. Great match, and different from their G1 classic. At one point, you could almost trick yourself into believing Ishii had a chance. Glad Taichi won. I really like his act. Gotta love the Larry Z. like stalling at the beginning and the dog & pony show later on, with one really good false finish (that damn Gedo clutch). Goto is a good worker but I never can get myself to care about him for whatever reason. Taichi brings something different. Such a douchebag, he didn't even look happy that he won. He probably will lose the title pretty quickly though, but he's so much better than the Elgins of the world... Naito vs Suzuki redeemed themselves from their miss earlier on, with some crazy brawling and nice intensity overall, but yeah, it's a case of Hansen vs Jumbo, two great workers who just don't click that well. A bit too long and the finish again seemed a bit anti-climatic (although it's been established that Suzuki doesn't take finishers well, once you get him in a finisher he's usually done). I wonder if they are going toward Okada vs White at the Dome.

Considering how cool, funny and just plain adorable she's been on those ECW roundtables, this is pretty promising : And really, back in the days, I was very tickled by the fact her real name is actually Francine Fournier. I mean, you can't make up a more French name than Francine (doh !) Fournier (an über-typical French last name).

And so, Dixie Carter's first official appearance on TNA TV also happens a month or so after she fired Dutch and took over entire power of the company from Jarrett, with Russo alone at the helm. Crazy. A few weeks later, Corny would be fired. Yeah, this is really the debut of the "stupid era" that would just trickle down to the catastrophy that has been TNA in the 00's, until the company finally got rid of her and got a fresh start with those Canadians fellow.

There's so much that could be said... For now, let's just say the title had me chuckle. Variation on a theme : WWE Crown Jewel : Girlz GONE WILDDDD !!! (AT HOME !!!!).

It's like Lex Luger had won the title at Mania 10. Then lose it. Then have a coronation every year until Mania 14. From there you'd get the actual Lex Express era.

Sin Cara was also a Triple H project I recall. So, well, yes, it doesn't always work.

Enjoyed it too. Nash is ridiculously underrated at this point. I've always been a fan, but his TNA stint adds some stuff to his body of work as an old-guy-worker. This was clearly one bright spot of his. Like you said, his facials are excellent (and believable). Foley still looked mostly broken down, and the fact he got to bleed like a pig from what looked like a hardway cut really helped the match I think. Bad finish apart, this was quite the decent old mofos brawl, with double juice and all (and yes, I'm from the old vampire school of blood = good). That being said, there was a very sad and embarrassing spot on the PPV, which was Russo working his magic with the women. Dutch Mantell, who has been credited as the architect behind the Knockout division, had been fired for what, a month at most by this time ? Well, Russo had the women's title defended in a mixed tag match. With "babyface" Cody Deaner acting like a total white trash sexual offender, spanking Velvet until her ass got red, then forcing himself on her several times, then forcing himself on Love, the forcing himself on Rayne, then winning the match and taking off with the women's title. Yep. We went from Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong to this in a matter of two years and a half. Well, of one month, really, since although there had been some bullshit before, the fact this disgrace happened just after Dutch was fired just tells you everything you need to know. Yep, Vince Russo.

I said the next Triple H. (FWIW, I've only seen Cole maybe once or twice and enjoyed him a whole lot each time)

Adam Cole says hello. He's the next Triple H. Since Triple H will probably be the Boss by the time the Reigns lunacy is done...

Since I'll probably watch that Evolution#STEPHYRULES show, I figured I was gonna get back into the groove by watching the two women matches. Well, Becky vs Charlotte was sloppy as fuck early on. It eventually got better and developed into a pretty good match, but it was clearly nothing special. Especially with a totally fucked up dynamic. So, since Mania, WWE managed to turn Charlotte into Roman Reigns. This is a joke, right ? Vince should be put to pasture, he's completely out of his mind. Charlotte is wasted in this role. Everything about her still screams "heel". The crowd popping huge for heel Becky winning was yet another case of "here goes your tone deaf booking". Ronda vs Bliss was much, much better I thought. No idea where the hatred for Bliss comes from, she's still a terrific heel and a super solid worker. People bitching about the audience "not playing along" should ask themselves why Bliss always gets the "right" reaction. And Ronda is ridiculously good for her experience. And so, she can also sell right ? Very good match, kinda fun bullshit with the entourage. Hopefully they don't waste Ronda by making her do stupid stuff, because she's a diamond in the rough. I just watched the ending of the HIAC match (that red cage hurts the eyes). Funny as hell how the cosplay bump didn't get a big chant while Lesnar did. And hell, he looks small ! I guess the MMA Wellness program is a bit more strict... Anyway, Lesnar is the smartest pro-wrestler ever. The ratio work/money is absurd at this point.

I haven't watched it yet, but I thought this could be an issue compared to the G1 match, which *could* be won by Ishii. Watching the Blue Justice Togane City show with the main event worked by the Lost Generation guys, it's amazing how good Nagata & Kojima look and move despite being 50 years old. That match was quite good too and a nice change of pace from the usual NJ deal. That the cool thing about some of these special house shows, you get something different (the undercard was fine, but pretty much a lesser version of the two Korakuen shows from the days before). I watched it in japanese, so no idea what the special occasion was, but I guess it's Nagata's town.

This has been great. The thread I mean. Between KawadaSmile going bonkers for everything, Thread Killer being a snarky mofo and then some, you guys almost make me want to watch some of this one. The main-event sounds like classic hilariously awful match. Cosplay HITC bump & Lesnar showing up (seriously, he's like a venereal disease, he's never going away). Damn...

Not watching, but I've gotta say, you make this match seem so alive. I can almost picture the nothingness of it in my mind.

Damn, I didn't see that one coming.

Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton in a HITC match ? Wanna take a wild guess what will happen there ? I have no idea why anyone cares about some goof taking a giant bump in a HITC match in 2018. It was retarded in 1998, but at least it was new. Nowadays ? Complete stupidity. Does anyone even talks about the stupidest bump ever took by Shane-O Mac at some Mania ?

New Japan is back, and yet another MOTYC contender with Omega/Ibushi vs Ishii/Ospreay. That match was insane. Ishii vs Omega is gonna be insane too. The LIJ vs Suzuki-Gun brawl was something else too. Hopefully Naito & Suzuki redeem themselves from the most disappointing match of the year. Judging from the mess they did here, it's promising. Takahashi checking on the first row girl who almost had a young lion slammed on her knees was pretty damn funny and cool.

Misawa is one of the most elegant pro-wrestler I've ever seen. He was like a cat. Then, like a fat cat, but a cat nonetheless. Currently, Omega is a freak.

There was a recent interview with Shane Douglas, when he tells this anecdote of Dixie asking him for advices about the company. He tells her TNA should be an alternative to WWE like ECW was back in the days, not try to copy them but build their own audience by doing something different. As to illustrate what he said, just at this time the crowd was doing an ECW chant. But the answer Dixie gave him was "Why would we want to be like ECW, they failed." This is the story of TNA. (of course, the worst irony of all is that Dixie saw fit to keep Russo around until he actually cost them their TV deal, and also hire the Bischoff/Hogan team. Because WCW didn't fail, I guess.)

The whole "fans turn on whoever is on top" is a bullshit argument to try to defend WWE's tone deaf, inept booking. Because it happens only in WWE. Sure, Hogan got booed in WCW, but that was from him getting down to the NWA territory, crashing the product and after 10 years on top already. And then he turned heel and became the biggest star in the business for a while. NJ fans refused Naito's push at first. Went down to Mexico, came back as a super heel, became the hottest business card of the company and arguably still is now that the fans are behind him. See a pattern here ? But Roman : By a huge margin. And it doesn't matter, because booking doesn't matter anymore for WWE. The money they got has nothing to do with their actual day-to-day pro-wrestling product, which is not hot, as Hogan would point out. It's because they made WWE a successful brand of whatever they are. WWE is the Starbuck of pro-wrestling. Roman Reigns is a Grand Latte.

This is where you strictly are talking from the outside, as a fan, because if you watch the show, you'll get why the first years were the most fun and exciting to them (it often is, in everything, really). First off, TNA was Jeff's baby until July of 2009, after that it became a job. You really get why it was so important to Gail to finally get a woman's division and why it was so important for Velvet and the other girls to be called up from the indie scene when they created the whole Knockouts division, why in the end this was the most exciting time for them (the fact they pretty much all got along too). They really don't say much of anything about post-09, apart from shitting on Dixie from time to time (gotta love Karen "Isn't she the same person who forgot to re-sign AJ Styles ?"). I don't think Penzer was around for that long after Hogan came in, was he ? West wasn't announcing anymore. Dutch, who was so instrumental pushing the women, was gone. It's really about the inside perspective here, and it's really interesting and fun to hear, despite what you may think about the actual product (Jarrett loved the MEM & Foley stuff because it's when the ratings really went up and they were getting the sense of accomplishing something; as a watcher I think most of it was pretty terrible). Forgot, Conrad dropped by and asked the crowd if they would listen to a Jarrett podcast. Well, whatever you think of the guy, he's a hustler for sure and he did one hell of a job with this Starrcast stuff.

No ridiculous micromanagement, I would guess. The opportunity to actually work with some freedom to develop your game by yourself. About the Starrcast show another highlight was Scott Steiner explaining where the infamous math promo came from.

For anyone interested in the subject, the Starrcast Total Nonsport Jarrett show was excellent. Tons of cool and funny stories, especially once the guests (Scott Steiner out of character and really chill, Karen who still looks stunning, Gail Kim & Velvet Sky who haven't aged a bit BTW) show up. Interesting that the really fun times for them was from 2002 to 2009, it seems Dixie (who got punted several time pretty bad, including Steiner calling her a douchebag, which was really funny as it was the first mention of her on the show, Karen would pile on later on) taking control and the arrival of Hogan really is what fucked the party for them. Jarrett calls the later years a "cesspool", which is quite a strong choice of words. Dave Penzer saying he had the best time of his life in TNA was interesting considering he was there in the hottest days of WCW (I guess it was much less stressful to work in TNA). Gail Kim also said that 2007/2008 were the favorite years of her career. Her and Velvet made sure to point out TNA in 2007 is where the real "revolution" began (Gail also said she would love to see women main event Mania, but only if it was because of talent and not for marketing/PR reasons), which was nice to hear; Jarrett put the girls over a whole lot for drawing the best ratings and selling tons of merch, which Don West confirmed. Oh, and West also told some excellent stories, including a great Kurt Angle one. Really cool to hear a positive spin on those TNA years. Jeff/Karen make quite a great couple too.