El-P

Good call there !

Agreed I love them as well, Francine and Lynn have a great chemistry and their reactions to Sandman were funny as hell. On episode 9, Francine died laughing several times listening to New Jack's stories. And she's really funny too at times.

Extremely poor audio quality on Bischoff's side. So he wasn't influenced at all by the UWF-I invasion of NJ (mmkay...) but he wanted to present WCW as more reality based like it was in Japan. Which I guess is why Hogan pushed the Giant's off Cobo Arena's roof. And Blood Runs Cold. And the Dungeon of Doom. After one hour, there's still no mention of Kevin Sullivan (no idea if he's gonna get any credit at all, he only was the guy who put the shows together after all). And really, Uncle Eric is quite the unengaging listen (say what you want about Bruce, but he's charismatic as hell and a great storyteller). I've heard too much about those things already. It's too bad the Schiavone podcast has turned into a long big joke, because I'd rather listen to Tony talk about WCW. Pass.

Holy shit !

I always enjoyed that principle of hierarchy and age in japanese pro-wrestling. I think it really goes along with the way Japanese society is structured as a whole, but it gives a sense of "reality" (as opposed to "performance") that is very compelling to me. It also allows every match that involves such elements to have simple yet effective stories, without having to explain anything (it's expected the veteran to be much better despite his age, so the young boy just hanging on or pushing the veteran a bit creates an easy dynamic to get into).

Classic Baba picture. Harley Race was ruggedly handsome I would guess.

To me it didn't hurt the pacing at all and like you said I take it as a way to bring the match down a bit, which is needed if you want to pick it up again. The whole "hurting the pacing" can really be the crux of argument about such sequences in matches. For instance I just watched the Sano vs Misawa match from 2003 and this is clearly the case where a figure four spot on Sano's part did hurt the pacing and dynamic for a little while because it didn't make much sense (Sano had been kicking Misawa's stomach repetitively, as well as using a top rope footstomp), to the point Misawa just seemed disinterested in selling it, almost in a way of expressing "well, this spot ain't going anywhere, I'm not selling this stuff". Like I said I thought the leg work here was fine and didn't hurt the pacing nor the dynamic there. Maybe it didn't bring a whole lot to the match, but it didn't hurt it either.

Well, I thought he had a horse kinda face. And he looked dumb as fuck too. I guess if you like the dumb jock style, it can pass for attractive, but really… Abs and other muscles don't do the trick unless you have no brain either.

That's the one I really look forward too, as I'm a fan of Karen, and the real-life dynamic is "only in pro-wrestling" level of fuckery. It was pretty fascinating to see the Angle couple slowly but surely go to hell in 2008, meanwhile IRL, Karen would go for a divorce a few months later. Talk about life imitating art (or the other way around).

I guess the only time he was actually enjoyable to some degree as a worker/character was teaming with Bryan and Waltman. There's a pattern there too...

Hell, *I* enjoyed that sitcom back in the days. But I began to divorce from the angle as early as KOTR when they took the belt off Austin to put it on Kane, who was too much of a gimmick to me. Then during the Summer the brothers getting back together was kinda fresh, but once you reach the fall with Kane being thrown in all these super boring matches on top, the character (and worker, who never impressed me much) jumped the shark. From there it's almost 20 years of worthless matches and angles. Quite a run.

Well, that figure-four spot was ill advised on Sano's part. Misawa wasn't selling that stuff very much although he did sell it a bit afterward. Apart from that, it was indeed a really good match with Sano using that round-kick to stop Misawa on his tracks every time he could. Excellent long term selling of those shots and the brutal footstomp by old Misawa too, whose elbows are just too much for that Sano fellow, who had quite a unique career. It's all about hierarchy in NOAH, so you won't get a super competitive match with Misawa in danger to lose, really, but Sano hanging on for a while and pushing the old champion was enough to make this compelling.

This thread has officially become "my smark favorite is damn handsome too." Lana disagrees.

He looked like a 80's porn actor. Seedy as shit. Plus forcing himself on Baby Doll ("She likes it !") really drove that point home. Rusev is actually quite a good looking guy, as his recent leaner, cleaner look demonstrates.

Going through this years after the fact, I grew a fondness for what I ended up calling Double J Specials. Once you get the point that the gimmick is gonna be a hundred runs-in and will end up with one, or several, guitar shots, it actually is fun to watch because it also lacks the pretentiousness of the WWE main events of the time (those overlong pseudo-epic by Trips & others). Yes, it was goofy as hell, but as a fan of the old Dog & Pony Show by Raven, those matches could be plenty fun when Jarrett was working hard. And I got a kick out of trying to guess when the lethal guitar shot was actually going to happen. I actually look forward to Jarrett's comeback in late 2008 now. Maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I always heard good things about the stuff against Angle (funny thing how real life was involved there too). That being said, it seems like every time TNA delivers a classic (Angle vs AJ at Hard Justice), Russo gets annoyed and tries to book the worst stuff possible. So instead of letting the issue rest, the two weeks of TV following the big PPV match had Angle vs AJ in gimmick matches. Classic Russo dumbfuck booking (sadly, it's the entire card that gets really poor booking at this point too, is August 2008 the beginning of the end of what was a pretty damn good year for TNA ? With Gail and soon Christian leaving, it has to be a pretty severe blow.)

Hair is overrated.

I have no idea why Bruce has such a hard-on for the Kane character. His insistance on defending everything about the awful fire match at Unforgiven was really baffling. He seems really serious about it. It's funny going through all these old shows though, as the more you think of it, the more Taker's career seems marred by truly awful matches, gimmicks and angles, which is something the Mania Streak kinda helped brush off quite a bit.

Probably not, indeed.

Why would they ? They established a style which was based on escalation (as opposed to excess, really, although one could argue that at some point the escalation reached the excess point). They had no reason to limit themselves since the whole style was about pushing the limits of what it took to keep the other guy down. I just watched Misawa vs Kobashi from 2003 and to me it's the apex (and probably the breaking point) of a style. It is wonderful and it's not simply about doing big spots, there are shitloads of details there. But that doesn't mean Kobashi, for instance, could only work that way. Following the Misawa match, Kobashi got the best match ever out of Tamon Honda but working around his own style (and limitations). Then he worked against Chono, who was washed up beyond belief and still managed to get a Tokyo Dome spectacle out of him (not a great match, because Chono simply wasn't able to, but a good match that made sense, mostly). Neither of these two matches were build around excess, although very clearly rooted in Kobashi's style, and found a way to include his signature bumps (aka headropping) too. Taue's style "grounded" the other three ? Sure. But would have Taue's limitations worked that well against inferior opponents ? Would he have been (an active) part of so many all-time cassics if not surrounded by three of the all-time greats ? Most probably not. And I love Taue and think he was a terrific worker. The merit of Taue to me is not "working within his limitations", on the contrary, when you look at the guy and what he was actually physically doing, he clearly pushed his own limitations to reach for the other three. From there he established his own awkward looking yet awe inspiring at times style. Taue maybe the the greatest overachiever ever.

Look at all those married mofos going "my wife this my wife that". Take a risk will ya ? What do you really think ? Yeah, The Rock is legit handsome. But what about the work ? You mean the boob job ?

You cracked me up. That's so right ! Those hair !

Yeah Martel was a good looking guy. Yes, he was a model. Steamboat & Rich look gross here (which says a lot about a single pic, because Steamboat was quite an handsome man once he got off with the porn stache)

By this point, Chono is Mr. Puroresu and he's a legend. And he's also washed up. Like, really washed up. So, what does Kenta Kobashi do to make this match at the Tokyo Dome as compelling as it can be without compromising himself (that is, without making himself look like a completely washed up guy can actually take him down) ? First : work the first part of the match like Dory Funk Jr. would. Stretch job reversals, work a solid headlock spot that is part of your repertoire anyway; stuff that Chono can do and can eat up some minutes building the tension while doing not so much in term of spots and physicality (which Chono can't do). Second : find a cool transition for the washed up guy to do : Chono actually reverses a powerbomb doing doing some ugly hurricanrana on the ramp. Third : find a way to give your opponent some kind of offense that looks like it affects you to some degree. This is where Kobashi has to go overboard, as Chono's backrop just look weak as fuck. So Kob litteraly does a bunch of twists with his body to throw himself on his head, of sorts. Which, yeah, is goofy, but is right out of Ric Flair "please back body drop me / please throw me off the tope rope / please reverse my figure four" playbook. Because really, apart from no-selling a few chops, Chono has nothing he can do to make himself look slightly menacing. Four : sell the STF spot like it's really hurting you and could end the match....eventually. Nobody's gonna buy it, but give it your best. Five : since there's no way anyone actually thinks Chono can takes you down, to make it a Tokyo Dome spectacle, make it about how Chono is too washed up, too weak but shows a bit too much heart so you drop him on his head several times. They know he ain't coming back up. Be a dick, kinda. And then Tenzan is almost wanting to throw the towel because everyone understand you're murdering the guy now. Have Chono kinda, almost, try to do a delayed no sell on the latest head-drop, but actually barely making it to his knees before beheading (well, not really considering the tired bumps Chono takes) the guy. That's the final drama time. Not a bunch of stupid trading nearfalls that would make no sense. Something that makes sense, that doesn't need the audience to think you can actually loose (which they would not anyway), but still feels big. So yeah. That's NOAH Ace Kobashi vs washed up dream match worker Masa Chono. It's a good match, all things considered (meaning : considering Chono had really almost nothing left and looked like a relic from a removed era). Kobashi was a great, great pro-wrestler.

Come on, that's old school heat. Back in Mid South, they were getting death threats every of those days when they would sell out 8 days a week, ya know... Yeah. Not smart. My jaw dropped when they actually did it, as I suggested Daivari would be the mega-heel in jest earlier in the day.

Yes, that's overlooked because people just don't to give Jarrett era TNA any credit, but Gail was a terrific valet in the spirit of Sherri, with modern spots worked in. Honestly, yeah, I haven't seen her in any role where she wasn't at least very good yet.