El-P

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.

If he broke the system with Ciampa & Gargano, less people would complain about him breaking the system (and bitch about the 1989 argument, which indeed reeks of bullshit on Meltz part, but like I said, it really doesn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things because the system is bullshit to begin with). I'm absolutely convinced of this.

Jericho works way better once in a while only. The Climax would indeed kills what makes him special. BTW, do you have the list of participants ? I may try to follow it this year (I passed on watching last years).

I do understand (don't insult my intelligence, thank you very much). I also do think it's completely ridiculous.

You know this is bullshit for the majority of people, right? If he did the same over praising of NJPW, but kept all those matches at 5 stars then nobody would complain about him breaking the system. Come on, people were already complaining about Meltz "overpraising" NJPW way before Omega/Okada cracked the system. Him making stars rain (hey, he's the Starrainmaker !) only made it worst. But the system means nothing to begin with. It's like rating movies, albums, hotels, sex partners, whatever... It's complete bullshit. It means nothing. It's like people crying over not getting the validation of a higher authority. Really, Meltz haters act like disgruntled children who want their daddy to tell them they really are proud of them. And they actually give him and his ratings even more importance by bitching all the time about it. Like I said, major insecurity issues. And as far as NJ (or ROH) announcers using that as a selling point, well, it's pro-wrestling. It bears no more actual value than the old PWI "Best rookie of the year" you'd hear about on NWA TV. (hey, I'm writing music reviews on a webzine. I have to use a star rating with every review. But really, it's a detail. If I could get rid of it, I would, but I'm only a writer on the site, I can't change the interface. What matters is what I write, not a stupid rationalization of something than can't be rationalized)

1 - star rating don't mean jackshit. I have no idea why anyone would get all worked up about any of this. 2 - I believe Meltz would not get the same hate if he would give WWE matches the same kind of snowflakes. Part of the reactions he gets is because he always pimped japanese wrestling higher than US wrestling. And I believe there's a part of insecurity and resentment from US wrestling fans (and guys like Prichard & Schiavone, who when Meltz praise the hell out of a WWE or WCW match find no issue with his views at all) coming from that fact only. The US are supposed to be the "cultural" imperialist of the world, but when basically the only professional reviewer always puts Japan over the US stuff, well... If he had said Ciampa vs Gargano (the previous one) was the best match he had ever seen (and he did praise the match like crazy, mind you), there would probably not be that much outcry about it. But he comes off as the "elitist" (which is quite funny when you think about his crazy praise of guys like Flair, Michaels, Angle, who are the three biggest mainstream US workhorse stars of the last 30 years) and the guy who likes "japanese stuff". The backlash steeming from the Post Benoit Workrate Guilt in our little niche of a niche of a niche (talking about boards and stuff, not PWO per say) saw a wave of reactionary opinions and tastes which happened at the same time when japanese wrestling was in the hole (Kobashi's reign was over, NJ was not exactly back on track yet, joshi was dead) and the US stuff, old (territories) and new (Cena) got praised a whole lot more than before. Loving Japan was not only too "elitist", but it was the roots of evil for a while (Benoit was a product of puroresu-style more than anything else / Misawa dying would add another layer on the idea that what had been praised in the past was stylistically and to a point morally wrong, because too physically damaging, although of course it was a pretty simplistic take on it). Anyway, just rambling, but yeah, I do think Meltz crashing his scale on WWE matches would not get half the hate it gets (not that it matters one bit anyway, cf 1).

HHH vs Taker in 2018. The match of Suck of Doom. Can they make it even more formulaic than the Cena match in Jedda ? Speaking of which, are they gonna do infomercials on Melbourne too ? I mean, they should, women already got the right to drive over there (well, indigenous maybe not, not too sure…).

This show so jumped the shark with me. It's especially ironic to hear Bruce shitting on japanese wrestling because "dirt sheet writers love it" basically and talk about it like it's a "bunch of spots with no psychology". Yeah, let's shit on the 70 years old pro-wrestling history of an entire country because "Meltz" thinks the best wrestling came from there. As far as the Trip ass-kissing goes, Conrad doesn't even try to pretend arguing with Bruce very much anymore. Those Network checks I guess... Still listening to it, and the Sable episode actually intrigues me quite a bit especially in contrast to the gloomy Sunny one, but the fun is half-way gone.

Indeed. That being said, one could argue Megumi Kudo was the first (and only, ever) woman to carry a men's promotion on her back, as that's pretty much what she did after Onita retired. She and Combat should have been the last match at the Kawasaki show in 96, as they were probably more of a draw than the tag match that followed. Her retirement match did close the 97 show. FMW, the true women's revolution.