El-P

No. WWE was way behind the times. And really, I went through the whole Gail vs Kong series from 2008 recently, I haven't seen one WWE women match in the last year that was even close to those matches (and I've been a big fan of the women's division). More money ? Money don't buy you happiness. I think Gail has made quite a good life for herself, plus she retired on her own terms. She really doesn't need the WWE stamp of approval. I respect anyone who says "fuck off" to that company, especially in the current context of monopoly (let's be honest, TNA was a glorified indy in the last few years).

Recognition on the part of whom though ? WWE ? How does it matter anyway ? It's all bullshit make-believe. If pro-wrestling fans are too lazy to just accept WWE revisionnist history, that's their issue. It doesn't take much effort to dig up the facts, which is that TNA was putting serious women's division ten years before anything happened in the WWE (and then they reverted back, because, you know, Russo and shit). The recognition shouldn't have to come from the corporate assholes of the WWE but from the historians and fans. Fact : Gail Kim was a terrific worker. She made a career choice that obviously made her happier, I say good for her. She doesn't need the approval of the fake-ass mother hen.

On the other hand, the latest WCW watch-alongs really haven't been that much fun. They are way too long considering they spend about 50% of the time actually doing "watch-along", the gimmick has jumped the shark to me. So, unless you really want to rewatch some of these shows, it's just too much time spent for not enough fun facts and insights to me. The format really works well with terrible shows or as novelties like with Barely Legal.

Agreed. There's a huge difference of scale between naming a battle Royal after Moolah or (worse) paying tribute to Jimmy Snuka and taking a huge amount of money and deliver an actual propaganga show for an awful regime (that has largely been responsible for the ideology behind current international terrorism). I said it before, in a way I felt like it was 1936 and I was watching the Berlin Olympics… "Beautiful Jedda, progressive city, such an honor to be there…" (vomit) So, no, I won't be batting an eye at Raw, I won't watch Backlash, I'll probably miss Johnny Gargano next MOTYC. It's not even a matter of doing a grandstand moral demonstration. I'm not even an active customer of the company (haven't been in decades now). It's just that I feel rather disgusted by this showcase and there's already too much pro-wrestling out there if I want to binge watch I can have orgies of whatever I want without having to even touch current WWE (which in essence, I don't care for anyway, I like the regular really god matches, but the product is otherwise terrible). I recently got back into watching 00's NOAH. Some really great stuff. NOAH was a cool company. Which was in bed with yakuzas really but… I mean… Not that bad... Ok fuck this world already.

Ok, le's play WMIII attendance game with this picture. Ok, I can see no homosexual in this picture already. Now, on with the single women. That's zero too. Damn, this game is much easier than WM III already...

It's crazy how over the years Kurt Angle has been pidgeonholed into the "my turn-your turn - no selling - movez" cliché worker. Someone hearing about this definition of Kurt and going through his big TNA matches of 2008 would be puzzled. Honestly, this style maybe was true in the WWE, but watching Angle in TNA has been a huge eye-opener to me. I have no problem putting him in the "all-time great workers" at this point. Anyway, this match is awesome, maybe AJ Styles best performance since the 2005 triple way feud against Joe & Daniels. He delivers a terrific pissed off babyface performance here, while Angle is off-the-chart great has a heel, stalling at first, smirking and showing off after he does really huge spots, gripping simple holds and working them like it's the 80's (he does work from a headlock for a while and really puts intent into it), begging when he has to at the beginning, feeding the comebacks. He does so many little things right in term of facial expression and positioning in the ring (going for the ropes to help himself getting up instead of just stand up, stuff like that). Plus they don't abuse the gimmick, instead of simply going for illogical falls early (like it's often done), they wait until the last third when the selling is getting heavy to really make the actual falls meaningfull. The trading finisher spot comes from two organic transitions, Kurt catching AJ in a powerbomb counter, which then allows him to fuck with AJ a bit by trying the Styles Clash. AJ from there countering his own finisher by going to the ankle lock makes sense both physically and mentally. Long term selling is excellent, they work tons of really impressive spots, everything actually looks like a struggle. They don't go overboard with the finishers either. Damn, that match is great. Post match... well, you can get the Russo fuckery feel a bit, but it's beside the point. This is the second MOTYC for Angle in 2008, in a totally different style than the infamous cage match with Joe. Maybe best Styles match ever in term of putting everything together (and by that I mean purpose and character) and really better than anything he has done in WWE or NJ to me. Great pro-wrestling, this.

The Canadian Werewolf forgot one essential point at #6 : pointing out that he's got odd views. Look at me, I'm so special.

The "Our women" choice of wording is both pretty awkward and funny at the same time. "OUR women have rights !"

So, the third occurence of the infamous "Fire Russo" chant happened at Hard Justice 2008 during the Sonjay Dutt vs Jay Lethal "Tuxedo chain match" (yeah, I'm sure Dutch Mantell booked that shit, it doesn't scream Russo idiotic gimmick match at all...), part of the equally awful Macho Man & Liz redux storyline, which was easily one of the worst of the year (if not the worst, but Abyss being back only foreshadows some awful things to come, as he's always been settled with the worst shit since Russo came back). Still, by August, 2008 has clearly been the best year of TNA since 2005, all things considered, the women playing quite an important role in that (but again, the prospect of losing Gail Kim soon means things are gonna take a downturn).

They should definitely apologize for letting air that song.

I was not following that closely (only really watching the PPV's and bits and pieces of RAW or SD depending on the week, but never an entire weekly show anyway), but last night's show really left a sour taste in my mouth. Last time I gave them money was in the previous millenium anyway, but to me, as I'm only interested in watching their really good matches (the booking itself is rotten and the format is unwatchable to me), I may actually be done for a while once again. There's more pro-wrestling out there that an entire lifetime wouldn't be enough. This whole show just felt really dirty to me (not to mention it was a pretty awful show to boot), there's a feeling I'm not yet able to shake off... (well, of course, the McMahons being Trump supporters should be enough to not give them a cent or a minute of my life anyway to be honest)

Agreed. As a character, Nash in 2007/2008 was pretty fun.

Let's pin this. The Roman Reigns experiment has been the longest booking debacle of modern pro-wrestling. It could only happen because of the state of the business too, with another strong company in the US, there's no way this kind of industrial accident would occur, he would have either jumped or be turned heel a long, long time ago.

Atavism.

If you truly support LGBT, you don't go and perform in Saudi Arabia in front of the Royal Family who's idea of gay rights is "immorality, perversion and whiplashes". Or you do make a statement of sorts if you got the iron balls to do it. What message it sends to the LGBT in SA, really is : "Hey, I'm really supporting you, but I had to put smiles in the faces of people who consider you as sub-human beings and don't recognize your right to even exist.". It's better to say nothing at all really. I know it's probably not his reponsability anyway, but then again, you're not a robot either. As far as Zayn, I would have been shocked to see him. I don't normally say this, but FUCK THE WWE. Of course Fuck the WWE.

The greatest Survivor Series? Teams of 12 thriving to survive ! (EDIT : damn, beaten to the punch !)

I'm sorry but his tweet was absolutely cristal clear in what it expressed. I came up with "better wording" because I had to explain what was already perfectly clear, really. Meltz actually pretty much used the exact same wording I did a few tweets later. But to me it's a matter of people looking for something to get outraged at, much like with the Bruno deal. Like I said, I'm not an English native speaker and the tweet made absolute perfect sense immediately.

Probably. Saudi Arabia & Lebanon don't get along. Cass sucks and he's dangerously sloppy. So of course, let's book Daniel Bryan with him. The wrestling legacy of this shit-show will be Titus sliding under the ring. And Taker vs Rusev had a good match, 90% thanks to Rusev. Well, this card should win Worst major show of the Year & Most disgusting promotional tactic of the Year. It was awful. Oh fuck me, Vince parading with one of the Saudis.... Time to go vomit somewhere. In two weeks : back to business : Women's Evolution and shit. Fuck off.

He's a complete attention whore. What an idiot.

Who looked the worse ? Khali or Shane-O Mac ?

That's it, he's the new Shockmaster.

Same here. They have a hard time keeping it straight. Ok. So, Braun wins and that's that.

Holy shit, I'm dead !

YEAH ! BABATUNDE !!! THIS IS AWESOME !!!

Going to tha pay window babeeee. This is the drizzling shit, really.