El-P

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).

Don't jump into the 90's, jump into the 80's first. The Gokuaku Domei vs. Crush Gals feud is must watch. The 80's are very idiosyncratic though. You can get hooked but you can also not quite get it either (especially the Crush Gals stuff which was *really* aimed at a specific audience). The 90's will look much more familiar to someone already used to modern puroresu.

ARSION used to be my all-time favourite thing back then, so of course I would tell you to start right there. There's a shoot-style flavor to the first year (and a half, almost) which is very different from any other joshi at the time (or since I guess), so it's really not representative of the style. The thread in the Microscope gives you a pretty good idea of what it was about. But yeah, Mariko Yoshida is the greatest and coolest ever. Of course, the interpromotionnal era of 92-94/5 is just iconic stuff. To follow all the TV and big shows (which thankfully were released on com tapes) from back then is really getting deep in the meat of what 90's joshi in all its glory was all about, when it was hot and relevant as part of the scene.

AJW 92-95 + 97 (for the LCO stuff) JWP : 93 - 98 ARSION : 98 - 01 GAEA : 96 - 01 If you have nothing against FMW, the big Kudo matches from 92 until her retirement in 97. That's the classic stuff I used to be a big fan of. Of course there's more to cherry pick from in the 90's (LLPW, Jd'), but for starters, that's plenty already. At this point I would watch in context, but I guess picking the best stuff from the yearbook would probably be a great start anyway (not too sure what is there, but I guess it's the basics). I should really dive back into that stuff one day...

As soon as Russo got back in TNA in 2006, he turned AJ Styles from a super over babyface main eventer into a stupid tag-along heel. It's amazing that AJ managed to actually make it work, it's a testament to his talent, really. But the turn really sucked when it happened and made no sense whatsoever. I always thought Tatanka (yeah, old-school), once the turn was done (which was excellent in build in execution) went from hot babyface to just totally blah in a matter of weeks.

Yeah, it was a good episode, although most of the second half had already been discussed in earlier episodes. It's pretty amazing how atrocious Bossman's second stint has been actually after the few first months with the infamous Taker (hanging) / Snow (dog feeding /kernel match) / Big Show (funeral) feuds back to back. Just all-time worst WWF TV. And Bruce doesn't even try to defend it, he absolutely hated all three of those too.

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...