El-P

So, basically, the Network podcast is a rehash of older podcasts. I don't see the point of listening to those when you could have the original thing, without the WWE filter.

He's thankfully stayed out of Lawler territory with that stuff. I think he knows what lines not to cross. Lawler turning into a legit creepy old man during the Attitude Era really killed whatever goodwill I had left for him in that role.

Agree, but it has to be said Traylor had some terrific matches with Vader & Sting in WCW though, before he kinda faded in the background. Didn't he got that contract where he was paid for every PPV even if he wasn't booked on them, only it was signed way before they went with 12 PPV's a year so he ended up collecting easy paycheks or being booked in meaningless matches just because he was being paid anyway ? Man, I miss WCW every day of my wrestling fandom...

That was the intent at first. You're naive. So let's bring content back. Of sorts. Sable is an interesting case, because she had or displayed exactly not talent whatsever apart from modeling T-shirt with her obnoxious fake boobs. Yet, in 1999, she was arguably the biggest star on WWF TV next to Austin. Were the Attitude Era mainstream fans so desperate for boobies to make her one of the biggest ratings peaks (pu intended) when she really had nothing in term of promo ability (let's not talk about her in-ring prowess) nor even character even ? Her heel turn before Mania 15, another brillant idea by Vince Russo at his "peak", gave us the immortal catchphrase of "Are you ready for the grrrrrind ?" followed by the lamest hip-swivel ever. Really, is Sable the biggest case of looks being the *only* factor as a needle mover (pun intended) in the pro-wrestling business ?

Most annoying call in current WWE announcing : "For the win !" = nearfall

She was drop dead gorgeous plus she semed to have a lot of fun playing her Big Poppa Pump freak role. She was better than Midajah on all acount.

Ok, so I'm not completely senile yet ! Yeah, I remember about that pseudo alpha-male bullshit attitude. Don't ask me why. But I remember he talked about how he was repulsed by the idea of anal sex...

Honestly, TNA has mostly been much easier to go through (ok, not the early weekly PPV era nor the first iMPACT months) than modern WWE or, *gasp* Road to Hell WCW.

My opinion on them is : fuck those grossly overpaid tools. I hope the french team will be eliminated quickly from the World Cup, which is always a fucking pain in the ass for people like me who don't give a shit about this circus. Usually, things cool down once the home team is gone, so it's actually possible to have a beer or cofee without being bothered by multicolored painted douchebags screaming like complete idiots.

Nah, that's Strummer's sig, and it's definitely a Norm MacDonald line. RE had enough of his own issues both sex-related and not. I would have sworn this came from a RE post back in the days… damn…

Got more than 2000 references on my iMac (from my 1300 + CD's and now that Bandcamp is a thing, well, I'm fucked)… So, it's all over the place, although you wouldn't find much mainstream shit on it. But I'd say it goes from Darkthrone to Kylie Minogue. The last two years have been all about 70's Turkish music and the current underground scene too. But really, no way to just try to pinpoint a style in particular. Ok, what is called "indie rock" today (and basically in the last 15 years) can go fuck itself, it's boring and derivative as fuck. TV Shows ? Not watched a lot, really, but who needs much when Twin Peaks is in your life ? Loved 24 back in the days, Weeds, True Detective (yeah, *even season 2*), lately GLOW of course, The Deuce… French stuff that know one would now here (Le Bureau des Légendes, awesome stuff)... Don't give a fuck about sports in general (actually don't like it at all). Hates football (fuck the incoming World Cup so much). Except sumo, of course. But it's a work.

Like I said many times, the first two third of 2008 have been the best since the 2005/06 D'Amore era. 2007 was a lot rougher… Oh, and Kurt Angle was clearly an MVP in TNA that year (2008) and his stock also has risen a whole lot with me.

I think there's a general tendancy to overrate older guys matches, honestly, because it usually fit a preconcieved, cool (and a bit snobish, let's admit it for once) narrative of "This guy at 55 is still better than any 30 years old worker". Whereas "This guy at 55 is still damn good" would be enough of a praise in a lot of cases.

That's why a night with Liz circa 1999 would have been a whole lot more fun, probably... She got hotter as she got older too, she was at her foxyness peak at the very end of her stint. The 88 Liz looked like some babyface girl from Dallas or something, complete with crappy 80's hair and a subdued, almost submissive, very unsexy attitude. Older Bitch Heel Liz was much more attractive.

Of course all depends of your acceptation of "great". For instance, I'd say that Lawler vs Miz match was "fun" or "good for what it was"… I guess Tenryu must be somewhere in the conversation.

He wasn't quoting anything from what I remember. He was just going on about how he didn't care for sex because it was not a competition and so there was no way to have a winner, so the whole thing seemed useless to him. Well... ok...

He had that match against Cena at the Rumble. But otherwise, I would agree. He still looks like one of the greatest wrestler in the world, but the classic matches aren't there. Then again, despite the consensus that would like to present WWE as this greatest roster ever, WWE today simply doesn't have the greatest opposition for him to deliver those classics like there was in TNA (Joe & Daniels in their prime, Angle) or NJ (Nak is both passed his prime and cruising, obviously).

I haven't seen any (apart from the infamous Benny Hill montage on some Hogan/Flair era bullshit, the Jeff Hardy debacle and maybe a match or two picked randomly over the years). Dont mind far ahead spoilers, it's more like teasers at this point. Hey, this is turning into "There's also plenty of good stuff in TNA". Nice.

He always seemed to be an alright guy, if not a little obsessed. However he is a textbook example of not patterning your life after a wrestler like he seemed to do with Benoit, and then...well.....let's just say he didn't handle it well. Ah… RE…. "There's no point in sex. You can't win."

I'm basically after Hard Justice where AJ Styles & Kurt Angle had a great match. Tomko & Gail have their last TV matches before the next PPV. Jarrett is coming back as a babyface. I've not yet delved into Booker vs Christian. Thus far Booker has been pretty ok (I was never high on Booker to begin with, especially in WCW where he was overrated as all hell to me), especially since turning heel with that almost-King-Booker character. Sharmell did add to that act. She's just a natural. I must say something about Team 3D. They have been just terrific since day one in TNA. Worked well as heels, babyfaces, serious feuds, comedy, bloody brawls, whatever they had to do (and they put tons of people over too). Bubba really strikes me as one of the best promo of the last 20 years and he's just a super solid worker to boot. Not guys who will have great matches, but who will always deliver no matter what position they are put into. Their stock really has risen with me with this TNA stint thus far.

Damn. The idea that such a good Aja match can happen in 2018 really appeals to me, although I admit I wasn't that big of a VIper fan during the MYC (but two matches or so really isn't enough to get to know a worker).

I actually really liked him back then and was disappointed when he disappeared. He was a Vaudevillain 25 years before the fact. He had that funky looking submission hold too, that Matt Borne used to do as Doink later, where he stands on his opponent shoulders while pulling one leg up toward his opponent's body. That's some DDP Yoga for you. Someone I certainly wish I could have seen more of.

He was, really. But he was playing it straight and went all the way with it so I found him to be enjoyable despite the awful material. Plus he was so good inside the ring that it did not matter when it came time to actually work. I enjoyed Tomko a lot and he really came off like a valuable guy during that time. Good on promos, really solid in the ring. He was quite the good surprise to me, as I'm not familiar at all with his WWE work. I've just reached the point where he's gone, sadly. I know soon Christian leaves too. After Gail quiting, that's a bunch of bad departures that hurt the roster a lot to me. Yeah, I'm only ten years behind.

Yes. If you can get some JWP from the same time period, at least from 92 and on, it would be pretty much perfect to follow the interpromotional era.

The Abyss stuff was eye gouging. Thankfully he was gone for a long time after that point. It seems like Russo was hell-bent on trying to reproduce the shittiest aspect of every Kane angles ever with Abyss. Poor James Mitchell, he was given so much awful stuff in TNA. AJ & Karen I admit I enjoyed, simply because AJ is one hell of a trooper and Karen is just that good. Plus it was fascinating the way they played up Karen & Kurt's marriage going to hell while it was pretty much happening IRL, probably for some of the same reasons (Kurt being insane and really not focusing on his family).