El-P

Wow. The greatest monster worker ever. His health had been pretty poor the last few years apparently. He was one of a kind, always loved his WCW and Japan work. One of my favorite worker, for sure, I can always pop a Vader match and have a good time. A true legend. Bye Leon.

I probably never ate the right Gouda, indeed. Thanks for the references ! Totally agree. Damn, those greek salads in the Cyclades Islands with fresh feta and tomatoes and nothing but olive oil. The simplest, best stuff ever. I would never get tired of eating this. Plus, grilled feta with bell peppers was driving me insane. Memories... Feta Mima Shimoda would have suited me perfectly, that's just awesome. You're the official CheeseMaster of the board. Kinda like Kevin Sullivan, only with cheese.

Wow. Old school indeed. Poor little McMahons family defending their family business against unfair competitors.

And the sole survivor is : Carmella. (does that makes Big Cass the worst Test ever ?)

Fuck me for mentioning the Highway to Hell thread somewhere else, as TNA 2009 was getting on a pretty decent path (two terrific match at Genesis in Angle vs Jarrett and Sabin vs Shelley), despite Foley's useless stint so far, and there on January 29, Russo delivers a classic unwatchable, nonsensical, awful gimmick show that gets me right down the pits of the worst of the worst of WCW 2000. Worst iMPACT show ever. (and possibly worst TNA show ever to that point, including the weekly PPV era) Was Mantell on vacation or what ?

AJ Styles in 2006 was a great worker already. I'd call him legit great as early as 2005 at worst.

Plus, don't ask for respect when you don't respect your audience to begin with. WWE has showcased time and time again that they don't give a fuck about their audience. But they've reached that point where they don't have to because their audience doesn't really matter anymore, they are a global corporation that is flooding with money thanks to the capitalistic insanity that is going on.

I love the fact guys "in da business" are actually acting like marks and think they are in some sort of legit stuff. Newsflash : pro-wrestling was, is, and will always be about presenting a product that people want to see. No one wants to see Roman Reigns vs Jinder Mahal. Therefore, their time in the ring is useless. It doesn't matter one bit if they "bust their ass". No one wants to see it. Why should the audience respect a performance they have made clear they don't want to see at all ? But we've reached the point where people "in da biz" are getting confused and themselves talk about "great matches" as a point to justify the fact the audience should care. Wait, did I miss something ? Are they also snowflakes throwers now ? Respect has jackshit to do with an audience enjoying a pro-wrestling show. It has everything to do with "Who is over ? What does the people pay for ?". No one paid for this. They have all the right in the world to shit on something they don't want. It was always the same. The only difference is that in the past, when something wasn't getting over, the promotion would register and drop it and look for what was getting over. Now they have become so full of themselves, of their own delusion of grandeur that they believe the audience is there to chant "This is awesome" at their ass whatever they present. They can cherish their sweet monopoly and overblown TV deal, really... Roman Reigns will go down has the greatest beach ball drawing card ever though. That's something.

Maybe Jeff Jarret's best match ever. Great match which takes a while before it degenerates into a wild, brutal brawl. The pedigree was a meta-touch I guess, especially with Angle kicking out of it. Not a finisher by any stretch of the imagination. The final stretch was pretty fucking epic. Angle in TNA >>>>>> Angle in WWE. And Jarrett has his best matches as he reaches his third decade of working.

Coming from the n°1 Roman Reigns mark on the board, this is pretty rich.

New temple, looking a bit more lo-fi than the previous one. Gotta see what kind of cool style they can do with this set-up. New owner... ummm, not too sure about that. Damn, he's gonna hurt his throat speaking with that raspy voice. It's so B-movie though, so why not. This first episode really was a way to introduce a bunch of characters to a new (?) audience. Did Mariposa gained quite a bit of weight ? Did King Cuerno quit the roids cold turkey ? These two physical changes struck me. Dreamer showing up was pretty damn cool. Vamp with hair ? Catrina.... Ok, let's hope for a fun zany season again.

Ibushi to the final ? Please ?

No Feta ? Summer is coming and feta is the greatest summer cheese to me. Ahh, those greek salads... I would have added Dil peyniri, the white-rubber like Turkish Cheese. For a tasteless, annoying worker probably. Amazing thread.

I think you have to be Dutch to find any taste in Gouda. I dunno. Dutch cheese are tasteless to me. Tsuruta as Gruyere, I say YES ! Goes along in so many places.

Camenbert is a fucking awful cheese, it gives the name to "Stinking french cheese". The cheese for people who hate cheese. Way overrated. Like Jerry Lawler. So it's fitting. No shit ! Manchego rules !

I have troubles with the quotes too recently. Pretty much nothing happens when you try it. It usually works after a refresh or two, but you're not the only one having issues. And yeah, that poster… What the fuck have they done to Ronda's face ?

Wow, thanks a lot. I did do a bunch of early TNA stuff a few years ago basically to keep me occupied and to cope with a depressing situation (yeah, the title of the TNA 2003 thread was legit), but I wasn't ready to keep on going forever with that stuff (although tons of good TNA stuff would deserve a spotlight). I actually thought about doing a WCW invasion project several times over the past years, as it would be the logical follow-up of epic suckitude too and would not be as much of a time investment, but I backtracked every time. Fear of repeating myself, of being less fun to read than before, not to keen on tons of Benoit matches either honestly. Well, you never know. But yeah, would be fun to actually have a project that people would enjoy and have fun reading as opposed to be a regular dickhead like I can be at times...

I have even less interest in the World Cup than in WWE at this point, but damn, you be glad it wasn't the German-part-of-Switzerland Team I guess...

Totally agree. It's the RYM syndrome. 25 years old kids having more than 10.000 albums rated. What kind of relationship to this music do they actually have when they listen to three new albums everyday on their phones or computers for the sole purpose of rating them ? None. It's compulsive quantification for the sake of it. It's cultural consumption at its worst. For me the most fun I ever had in doing a wrestling project was the WCW Highway to Hell (ok, it wasn't *always* fun). Tons of it was shit wrestling. Some was good. But what mattered was trying to make sense out of the whole thing unfolding and of course writing an episodic thread that would be fun to follow. Picture what the star ratings would have been overall for this stuff if that had been my aim.

How do you expect me to think of you as some kind of American when you just called me "mate" ? Come on now... Do you think they'll have the Bushwhackers interrupt the presentation of the latest Australian recruits during that show too ?

Yep. Way too much White stuff thrown in my face, really...

Like I said in my very first post, I was basically just rambling. It's something I've been thinking about for a while though (well, since the Gargano vs Ciampa match actually), so at one point, why not get it out there...

Even TAICHI would have been cool. I'm a Yano fan, so I like the bullshit guys, it's a nice change of pace and give a different dynamic. Or heck, Dave Finlay Jr. and his scrappy look would do.

Thanks. Ugh... I can deal with Hangman Page, he's got a throwback look and is a workhorse, but Jay White... not exactly feeling like going through a bunch of Jay White matches. And really, Fale, Makabe and Tonga really aren't very appealing to me either... I I may be cherry picking this one again or wait for the final stage.

So why make the statements you made? The issue is the going over the 5 stars, it's not him not praising WWE enough. Because I believe the fact he broke the system with his (over)-praise of New Japan plays a role in why people are so incensed about it. See my post above.