El-P

I really need to dig into this historical rivalry, this is only the second match of them together that I have seen. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had seen everything else. Even more I mean, because it was still wonderful pro-wrestling. A typical case of going long not being an issue at all, it's like watching a movie slowly unfold, taking its time and letting the audience spaces to breath. Hard to fathom Tanahashi is 41 and banged up as hell, because he still looks like one of the best wrestler in the world here. Tons of cool shit relating to their characters and zero excessive stuff in term of big spots. Yeah, just wonderful pro-wrestling. MOTYC.

It reminds me of Kerry von Erich's match where he was supposed to come under a mask as a mystery man, yet used his Texas Tornado robe at the same time...

Funny how I turned the corner on Ospreay since the Mania Weekend. And now, since match, which was easily the best Ospreay match I've ever seen. damn, KUSHIDA is a great worker, his focused attack, his fabulous counters, his overall dickiness and the punch from hell (which got a world class bump from Ospreay), all of that made the match reached another level. Ospreay's selling was fantastic, although one can argue a tad bit over-expressive at times, but when you think back to Steamboat, really... Some of the sequences still looked a bit too on the quickie side, but that's the style today and Ospreay & KUSHIDA make them look mostly awesome, so why the hell not after all. No finisher spamming either, which is always noticeable and good. Great match indeed.

Ok, I was afraid everything was lost. There was some interesting stuff still. But ultimately, yeah, I agree it didn't really work.

Is that a rib ?

I wonder what makes you think that… I really wonder… (well, not really, it's actually pretty fucking obvious)

They have basically sacrificed the entire promotion to the altar of Roman Reigns. With awesome results. I mean, it couldn't fail, at some point, he was gonna be accepted as the Ace. No, really, he was.

1 time is an accident. 2 times is a coincidence. 3 times...

How many times has Nia thrown someone to land badly on their shoulder already ? The reviews of this show are so damn awful that I almost want to get back on my post GRR decision, as a pro-wrestling masochist. I said almost.

This is a rib. This whole promotion has apparently turned into a huge rib. WCW 2000 have nothing on them anymore.

Damn, reading this thread, I guess the GRR was right on time to drive me away from watching more of this. The idea that people are now actually leaving the building to not have to see Roman Reigns is amazing. So much for the old "People complain all the time but don't act on it, Roman will get over eventually." And so apparently, Nia is as bad a babyface as she was a heel ? Damn. Nothing works anymore. Time to send Vince to the glue factory...

This match is ugly, folks. But really fun too. But ugly, really. The one issue that appears really quick is that Makabe, a few weeks removed of being renamed Togi, is not very good. Not good even. So the beginning of the match with a long sequence against Honda just drags forever. Each time Takayama tags in, the match comes alive. Each time Makabe gets back in, it's a yawnfest with his boring, plodding brawling style. So, from there, Kobashi beats the shit out of him and now it gets fun, as soon enough after another heat sequences that works a bit better (Takayama gets things moving), the match loses it's structure and it's just a bunch of brawling outside, Honda suplexing Takayama from the ramp to the inside, Makabe getting blood and Kobashi beating the fuck out of him even more. And finally, a short but nice teaser sequence between Kobashi & Takayama, foreshadowing a title match in the future maybe. Kobashi was just the Man at this point, he could adapt to any situation. So he brawls, tries to make Makabe's stuff look good (but fails, as Makabe can't even do a powerslam right) and then, fuck it, beats him even more. Meanwhile, some Honda ugly goodness too with him trying to smothers the outsiders one after another. Well, it's an ugly match, that moves from boring to a fun mess, to the point I'd call it quite good in the end, but man, Makabe was not good and really took that one down a bunch of notches. Watching the other three make up for it and Kobashi beating on Makabe (who 's only good for that use at this point) unmercifully finally made the match fun, basically.

Liger invading NOAH was the best thing that happened in the junior scene in the early 00's. The guy was on fire again against a crop of guys who were super motivated to work against him. Now we're getting serious with KENTA & Maru, the young stars of NOAH's junior division. Damn, they were good. Maru's stuff really looked unique for the time too. it didn't always hit right, but it was looking very different and unlike the indierrific US guys, it wasn't just cosmetic stuff to make a move überawkward, it was a new way to move inside a ring. KENTA is ridiculously good as the kick-ass (litteraly) babyface in peril then making fiery comebacks. Murahama, the small Osaka shoot-style guy wasn't exactly lost in this sea of major players, he's just right there with them, although overshadowed a bit by Liger, who's just the best at conveying disdain and whose offense is made even bigger by KENTA & especially Maru's bumping. This is just classic stuff to me. MOTYC.

Just as a cultural footnote, I think an anti-semitic remark would have come off even worse (not saying what he said would not come off awful already) in France for instance (for obvious reasons). In the US I have no idea. Maybe not as much. But it's interesting.

Sophie knows… (yeah, I know she was named Penny in English) (let's make May 6 the official "Offensive Jokes Day at PWO")

He got a 100 million dollars out of it. I would have told the world and WWE to smell my ass. Cool. But don't complain when people treat "you" (as in Hogan) as a fucking racist. Again, it's not a matter of balance between the two issues. These are separate issues. The fact is, we have seen and heard Hulk Hogan say he wouldn't like his daughter to marry a nigger (and I repeat the sentence on purpose because it's not just a simple word, it's being used in a quite disturbing, extremely racist, way that doesn't need to be explained I think). So, from there what ? Let's make some excuses because he was "the childhood hero of a generation" (and really, what a childhood hero… grow the fuck up people, my childhood hero was Inspector Gadget, I got over him some time ago) ?

Well, no. Spewing racist shit betrays a particular vision of the world which Hulk Hogan, heroes of many, seems to have. What you don't seem to get, or refuse to admit, is that the leeking of a sextape and the expression of a racist view of the world are two separate issues here. We're not in a court of law. There's no such things as "oh that piece if evidence can't be considered because of the way it was aquired". Leeking Hogan's sextape : wrong. Hogan using nigger : very wrong. Too fucking bad for him it came out that way. Karma's a bitch apparently.

Don't tempt me. There have been enough debate about tasteless and offensive jokes on this board today already. But yeah. What the fuck. Brain implodes indeed.

Wait. Hogan saying he doesn't want his daughter to marry a nigger doesn't count because it happened on a leeked sextape ? Really ? Well, people have made excuses before, but that one is hilarious.

Well, yes, that's the conventional wisdom. Actually, you really don't hear much about any of his 80's stuff, which is not much anyway in term of body of work (some of the NJ stuff is excellent, some isn't), while the Bret feud and the Bulldog match in Germany are part of the canon WWF greatest matches. So, no I don't think Owen's 90's is that underrated tbh.

How can he be so ignorant about the political context of this particular show is beyond me though. It's bad enough that WWE seems to think that makes it ok to just pay the women anyway (hey, it's good that they do, but it doesn't make it ok).

Well, in beautiful, progressive Jeddah, it's actually your birthright not to be booked and therefore, not to be paid.

Indeed. Pretty sad.

Oh yeah, the 2006 drop is downright brutal (although D'Amore booking had already began to show clear signs of burn out). It takes a while for the product to recover to the point the first 7 months of 2008 are actually the best since 2005, despite Russo's bullshit.

Just picture 2007 & 2008, with the talent they had and D'Amore & Mantell booking... I wonder how bad the quality drop is when Dutch gets fired in 2009.