El-P

This, pretty much. I honestly feel that people just dislike Benoit for what happened (and rightfully so), but you shouldn't discredit his work because of that. If anything, his Royal Rumble and WM 20 win reflect everything that is being thrown against him when it comes to him not drawing heat or sympathy from the fans. As I said, I give the nod when it comes to charisma and selling to Danielson, but I give the nod to constant aggressiveness and intensity to Benoit. Thirded. Benoit was over as fuck in WCW as a Horseman. He was extremely versatile too (Japanese junior style ? European guys ? US veterans ? Tag ? Brawl ? Technical ? Gimmick match ? Checked it all). He was great at selling and getting sympathy (as shown by the Raven feud). Eddie took a while to put it all together. Agree he peaked higher, plus he was a better promo (not immediately either, his early WCW stuff was not good whereras Benoit was wooden but efficient enough as a Horseman). The Post Benoit Guilt definitely played a role in how he's perceived today, but he actually had a strong connnection with the crowd.

The 15 minutes monologue promo is probably the very worst heritage of the Attitude Era. It's a big part of why WWE TV is unbearable to me and why all this talk of 'X or Y is a great promo' doesn't fly with me in these times of completely scripted stuff. Do short backstage promos without awkward pauses. Get an interviewer who actually helps the talent, not hinders them (that short girl who asks the dumbest questions ever). Let the guys go on the fly and don't script every damn word. Anyway, I'm yelling at clouds at this point.

Not sure I want to spend my time listening to Bischoff. As far as Conrad does, he can get grating at points. The forced loud laugh is one of my pet peeve about him. So obvious when he does it.

Well, there's that too indeed. Plus, I mean, Linda is a member of Trump's administration. So yeah. But that's entertainment consumption with a political correctness aspect. And yes, it is hypocrisy.

That's what I remember too.

The zeitgeist. Whether one like it or not is pretty irrelevant. To me it was certainly too long and excessive, but maybe if I had followed the whole saga, I would have enjoyed it more. Still, too much spots looking like death that served as transitions to me, but I'm from the 90's. Probably a great match, when all is said and done. Maybe not. Not sure. Kenny Omega is a star though, that's for sure.

The show was super easy to watch. Yano being over like rover was pretty cool. The main event was excessive, but it is the zeitgeist. (ok, I didn't watch Hangman vs Vampiro Jr. because what the hell, life's too short) Okada & Ishii vs Sabre & Suzuki was great. The Cody match I enjoyed a whole lot, bullshit and all.

Agreed. He's subtle to a fault.

Terrific match. Makes me think I should follow NJPW a lot more closely, because this reeked of old AJ in how everyone had his role down pat and built issues with his opponents. Sabre was a terrific asshole. It makes me want to check out the NJ Cup and definitely makes me want to watch Sabre vs Okada. Suzuki was his usual super fun self and Ishii reminded me why he still should be considered one of the best today, he's just so great at everything he does, including selling, nuances, timing.

The only time I enjoyed Ospreay because he had to slow things down to work against 51 years old Liger. Who of course outworked him. The knee selling was complete window dressing, but at least the match never went into ridiculousness territory and Ospreay showed that he could do less and look better doing it. Liger still rules. Ospreay was quite tolerable, although he still looks like a douche. I would have enjoyed Liger vs Rey Rey a whole lot more. Gotta love JR's call of the Ligerbomb though, as he said he wasn't overwhelmed by this spot because Liger never put any weigh on his opponent's shoulder. That had always bothered me. Older JR is so refreshing to hear in 2018.

But rusev already has a very important spot on the card, being eliminated by accident by aiden English in the Andre battle royal. You are making me a sad puppy. I want Bryan to look like he's got no partner at all and then Lana's voice resonate in the stadium and announce the Bulgarian Brute Rusev be the partner of Daniel Bryan. Book it. Let's have some real stars for a change.

Anything but Kane. Rusev would be awesome, but they are too tone deaf to do that.

The make-up department of WWE is absolutely god-awful, it has to be said again and again, they are doing a terrible job. I'm sure all those women look a hundred times better IRL.

You should watch every classic Onita. You may not enjoy some of the most gory stuff, but Onita was all about the thing you love the most, and not simply taking stupid garbage bumps (that became his tool but never his aim, unlike 99,99% of the garbage workers who followed without understanding why Onita drew so much money ).

He was also a really mediocre worker with no charisma and apparently a chip on his shoulder.

Apart from this Booker vs HHH nonsense (he really wasn't trying anymore when Conrad referred to the fact Hunter took forever to cover Booker, which *never* happens that way), I thought the rest of the episode was actually really good. WM 19 is a fascinating topic.

Anyone has listened to the "wedding edition" yet (because I probably won't) ? What's up with the podcast ?

That was more stiff than Big John Studd registering a punch, Matt. I guess the legacy of Goldy in WWE is all about Lesnar. And WCW doesn't matter. WCW never really beat the WWF and Goldy wasn't the only megastar WCW created. It's about WWEGoldy, so, Heyman because Lesnar.

It's actually pretty awful, but Onita vs fighters was always kinda fun because Onita was Onita and he understood pro-wrestling better than most pro-wrestler in that everything is about selling and making a comeback.

Yeah, comparing the Usos to the Crush Gals made so much more sense....

Ok, so whereas we can't really say anything as far as Bryan is concerned, because he never worked in NOAH as a main eventer, we can state the fact AJ Styles has actually mastered Kings Roadtm, and he is the one who should really be put on the same level as Misawa, Kobashi & Kawada.

I have the feeling this will end up being a PWO meme in no time.

AJ is versatile as fuck. He can work babyface, heel, do a long bomb throwing epic (Cena), current NJ main event style, classic X-div matches against Joe & Daniels, carry Abyss to a great match in bloody gimmick brawls, is a terrific tag team worker to boot. There's no one he can't have a decent match against. Hell, he made Shane-O-Mac fun. Dealing in "what if" doesn't mean shit. Neither AJ nor Bryan ever worked shoot-style (which was mostly dead anyway as anything relevant by that point). Let's compare what is comparable. And by that I mean, what actually exists.

Agreed.

That's actually pretty funny. I love me some Taue. I love most every former sumo guy (except Kitao). My problem with Ospreay is not that it looks rehearsed but that it looks ridiculous to the point of being stupid. He can do so much physically, but he just does way too fucking much. But actually, the worst thing about him is not his Petey Williams on crack kinda work, but his godawful facials and selling. I never had the same feeling about Puma (yeah, if people call Daniel Bryan "Dragon" in 2018, I can call Ricochet "Puma" as an LU fan) in term of doing too much crazy shit. He doesn't go above the "ridiculous" line to me. Ospreay also has a godawful emo-vaporwave look, while Ricochet looks sexy as fuck. (yeah, Daniel Bryan, we know, but this thread has gone astray anyway)