El-P

Now that was fun. I am not familiar at all with the indies, so that was my first look at WALTER. Well, I like him already. Lawlor was a cool dirty heel. Good pro-wrestling vs MMA guy match worked with a total pro-style mentality. Really effective and fun, with tons of character.

Complete nothing match, really. Thatcher didn't impress me much, Gage's stuff looked awful. Yikes.

Agreed. That and the Lawlor vs WALTER match, I enjoyed. The rest was FF material to me. I guess really poor Battlarts is indeed a better analogy, especially since Battlarts I always thought was overrated anyway (it was the WAR of shoot-style, for better and worse).

On the opposite side. I though 90% of Bloodsport was like the worst of old RINGS undercards (which were dreadfuls) and shitty goofy PRIDE worked shoots. Not good nor even interesting at all. Bad shoot-style is probably the worst wrestling ever too, it has to be either really good, and just not be there at all. For guys whose names are somewhat familiar to my un-indy trained hears, I didn't think much about Thatcher here (but it wasn't a good introduction probably), and Nick Gage looked like shit. Severn is still around and as boring as ever, amazing. Walter vs Lawlor was a good, fun pro-wrestling match. Suzuki vs Riddle was fun enough but nothing special at all. I'm creeped out by barefeet wrestlers that aren't Islanders, so I got bad Kevin Von Erich vibes from Riddle, but he seems to be an interesting character. Or not. Dunno yet.

It was fun for what is was, but not particulary good either. Watched way too much old shoot-style and great Suzuki matches to be overly enthousiastic about this. The elevated ring with no rope is dumb as fuck and very dangerous. To me it was exactly the opposite. I have loved shoot-style, but these days where MMA is a legit sport, this looked like the best of the shittiest worked-shoot of early PRIDE and the most boring RINGS undercard stuff which was always a chore to get through. This is dated and not interesting as a revival to me.

Thanks. I may dive in again eventually, it's been a while.

Good for her. Nice to hear the Jarrett speach was cool, it's the only one I care about listening eventually. Why am I not surprised to hear Ivory went on forever ? Never cared for the Hof to begin with and since I'm gonna be on a pro-wrestling orgy all weekend long (I'm gonna be burned out by Mania I fear !), what I get from tis thread is that there's basically nothing special to see here.

WrestleCon was pretty fun. Ishii vs Cobb & the lucha match were pretty terrific. The Ospreay, Strickland and stuff four way was fun in a clusterfuck way, although I admit I enjoy the fact Ospreay is still selling the neck. The guy working that hard despite the fact he's banged up is kinda crazy. Main event mostly played for comedy, which was fine.

I saw that coming… Yep, it's probably gonna be the end for me. Regardless, Prichard being on the WWE payroll in any shape makes the whole thing completely worthless. From which episode would you recommend picking back up on the Cornette podcast ? I was a regular listener back a few years ago then stopped listening (even before the whole host quiting debacle).

What the fuck happened to this thread ?

For the last 6 months I've been doing 6 days a week : 4 days of roughly 40mn to 1H routines (I'm mixing it up, keeping the hardest for Friday) and twice the abs-only workout, which is 12 mn. I'm thinking about getting the App to get more diversity now.

I'm quoting myself from a few months ago : So, update on DDP Yoga. I've reached 52 weeks of practice (more or less, with a few holes here and there as I started sometime in March last year). I have been doing the Extreme Psycho Workout every week for the last month. Which is a crazy notion to me even now. It's a struggle to go up on the forearm stands (already beat down when he gets to that point) and I'm not even trying to go up during the Psycho push-ups (not able to do it at all yet in training, but the ten seconds push-ups parts are like a day at the office now, which is crazy), but for the rest, I can manage the routine. First time I felt I got beat down by the 4 Horsemen (or the nWo, more likely), now I'm just a bit sore the day after. Still not dieting (which is not good, but I like to drink and eat stupid food when I'm depressed and lazy (and that means more often than not)). Best shape ever at 42. I almost have abs (I didn't know I had any). So yeah, again, believe the hype. I did bruise some ribs a few months back training on the forearm stands, so be careful about some of the really hard stuff, you got to take it slow, but it's crazy the results you get with practice.

Yeah, that's the crazy part when you think they are still *trying* to have him cheer and basically have a coronation. No matter what anyone says about him getting the biggest reactions (hell, if he didn't after such a sustained push on top, it would be downright embarrassing. Again, this is the Triple H syndrome, push a guy long and hard enough, people will surrender, but not to the point of making him a real Ace like Hogan, Austin, Rock or Cena), the fact we're even discussing about how Reigns can have his big Ace championship stint after 4 Mania main events (did Rock even main event Mania four times ? Austin sure didn't. Hogan was one Mania removed from "passing the torch" after his fourth main event) tells everything you need to know about this issue.

Agreed and agreed. There's nothing to the Roman character that is compelling. Everything is based on the fact people know he's the chosen one IRL. And yeah, the Shield music is just lazy, he never got his own thing. Remember when the Rock broke from the Nation, he had a tweeked version of the theme which evolved into his own. Everything about the guy just screams "Well, he's just supposed to be the Ace, basically", but you never get the feeling that he actually is like Austin, Rock or Cena were. It's hammered, it's booked, it's executed, but it isn't actually *happening*. And apparently, it doesn't matter because the McMahons are happy the way things are, and the less special their guy on top is, the stronger the brand is to them. They should be thankfull the pro-wrestling crowd is the most faithfull, forgiving bunch out there.

Long overdue. He does look old though.

The Orton comparison was more about his snooze inducing intro routine. But I admit I don't see the great matches at all. I know it's been the consensus around here, but I never been one to care about consensus. I just don't see it. The one Roman match that I enjoyed, and completely thanks to him, was the Taker match last year, where he really held the whole thing together until the ridiculous overdramatic overtones of the ending stretch. To me Roman Reigns in single has mostly been a boring worker. I don't even like his look, I hate the bulletproof vest dating back on Bossman's return in 99. He's a big buffed up tattooed good looking samoan. Show me some of these pecs. Let's be exploitative. Women (and guys) wanna see some sweaty flesh, not lame-ass vigilante outfit.

Low Ki has burned more bridges than the French Resistance at this point.

I want SummerSlam in Samoa. Seriously now, could you picture the crowd noise ?

Well, Tony watching Clash 6 was pretty fun. And damn, I almost forgot about it, but Ricky Steamboat with Bonnie in an almost wedding dress and his little brat in a dragon outfit was one lame-as-fuck babyface presentation.

That's pretty sad, because that's what pro-wrestling was about. Watch who gets over and push the hell out of them. Rusev could be a hot act. Braun should be the Monster Champ. Honestly, this all is a product of the monopoly. With WCW kicking their tale, there's no way WWE spends three Mania main events in a row on Reigns "becoming the Ace".

No problem.

Populist isn't a good thing, just saying. And really, don't turn every topic into politic stuff. The name is PWO for a reason. The politic & wrestling stuff have a place in the Industrial Suplex sub-forum for a reason. I wasn't making a political statement myself, it was, you know, a sort of a joke.

I dunno, to me Reigns is akin to Randy Orton. He's dull as fuck as a babyface. His intro with the slow walk, completely devoid of energy, watching around like he's showered in cheers when in fact he's not, just makes him totally unengaging as a character, as does his work, which I find repetitive and too focused on one spot (with the WWEtm annoying super obvious setup). Like Bruce Prichard would say in his Cornette voice "He's a heel, motherfucker." Just turn the guy already, he could be so much more fun. And at one point, he'd get so hot that the fans would turn him organically. Anyway, he's been pushed forever so of course he's getting big reactions, but he's like Triple H in the early 00's. He's just not the guy, no matter you slice it. Triple H was never Austin nor The Rock. Roman isn't Cena.

So, fuck the guys on TV who are allowing you to get big time money (because the nig time money comes from TV fees) and fuck the guys who pay the most to come see you. Glad to see the old carny mentality of "d'em smart mark don't know shit, they ain't no workers" is still alive and well in 2018. Gotta love the populist approach at "working for the common man" too, in a weird kinda way. (although I'm not sure row 313 tickets are that cheap anyway)