El-P

Yep. Chris Agius cracked me up again on several occasions. Well. The Women's EC was a slow builder. Bailey was certainly positioned as the Arn of the thing. Not stellar in-ring work at first, but it was so well booked with basically a Wargame dynamic that it didn't matter. Plus it built and built and built. Sasha was the clear MVP. Mickie James had a terrific showing in there. Mandy is gonna go places. And damn, Alexa's chickenshit heel stuff running of Sasha & Bailey was terrific. As was Sasha's kick of doom. Such a terrific heel move. The work only got better as it went, terrific match in the end. And also, a terrific promo which had Bliss make the audience swallow their own stupid "You deserve it!" chant (toward a heel, fucking millenials wuss). The tag match was ok. The Bar are so solid they can work an ok match against a bunch of tools. No heat ? Guess what, who the fuck wants to see Titus do a hot tag ? Appolo does moves well. Dana Brooks is going for sluttiest Alexandra York ever, which really doesn't fit the gimmick, especially if they are suppose to be babyfaces. Nia vs Asuka was good, but really I'm underwhelmed as all hell by Nia, who's got the easiest job in the world and isn't very good at it still. Her offense looks sloppy (and not in a Bull Nakano way), her selling his shit (she comes back way too quick from everything), she's not projecting "heel monster" at all. Asuka did a terrific job making her look better than she actually is, but really... I can't praise that level of work when I'm watching Amazing Kong circa 2008 at the same time. The post-match was kinda stupid. Do they really need to protect Nia that much ? (Is it me or Charlotte kinda looks like an afterthought with all this happening with the other women ?) Marr Hardy vs Bray Wyatt was fast. Very fast. At least that's how it went with me. The whole Rousey stuff was a great angle. Hey, at least she sounded natural (as in "talking like a real person") on the mic at first. Angle made the whole angle (pun intended), but for once, Trip & Steph actually went with it. I wonder why... hum.... Since they have showed before they are actually able when they are willing, like with the Daniel Bryan program, it may actually be really fun. The "You fucked up !" chant was classic. I have zero connection with Rousey (hell, I never even knew how she looked like before she showed up in the WWE) yet they made me care. So that's a success. The Men's EC... What a snoozefest. Elias pre-match promo was the highlight. This demonstrated how much the new Chamber really negates the whole gimmick, as they barely did anything with it before the very end. Plus it was the first real self-conscious epic Chamber's match. They really totally lost me by the point Elias had to get in. Braun's monster stint wasn't that impressive. And Roman bores the fuck out of me, big time, both as a worker and a character. Of course there's no heat at all, because it was a given he was winning, despite no one wanting that result. Braun isn't a monster because he kicks out of a thousand finisher, he's a monster because he kills people and destroys shit. But with the stupid state of mind that "epic = kicking out of finishers", we get this kind of overlong, drawn out, snail pace ending stretch with "epic" kick-outs (which aren't because all predictable) instead of simply Braun destroying one pod after the other and busting people up. Way too much cutesy spots too, since the match was basically a multi-man match inside the ring, with tons of awkward positioning and people selling for way too long to set up a "cool" spot. The post-match was really, really redondant with Nia busting up Asuka... Yeah, really not a fan. Lower tier. Miz was Arn (seriously, he was the one bumping and selling to made everything interesting and having actual fun interactions), Braun was the MVP still. And Roman was in the Kane spot of boring the fuck out of me. So, a terrific opener and another winner for big gimmick women's match, a terrific angle, a good match (but really a one-woman performance), the rest was forgettable, with a quite boring self-conscious über predictable main-event. Mania looks to have some intriguing matches though. I'll stay awake with all of you then.

To quote my own review of the last EC match : "I don't like the new Chamber. Too smooth. It looks like a dungeon in a swingers club, with pods with shady blue lighting for naked dancers and padding to fuck on the side." Hardy vs Wyatt will probably begin Wyatt's road to have another year of fucking awful matches. Women's Chamber will probably have Sasha Banks as the MVP and Mickie James as Arn. Not too familiar with the two new girls to make more predictions. Men's Chamber hopefully will be better than last year's mostly dreadfull one, but the new Chamber really hurts the whole gimmick like I said. I'll probably have Bálor as Arn. Rollins in the RVD spot. Braun Strowman doing a successful monster sequence and even MVP if the booking allows him to. I dread booking dumbfuckery in the women's single match, but it will probably be Nia's best match, for which she'll get way too much credit. Should be a rather fun show overall, unless the Chamber matches stink like it's 2015 again.

Holy shit. I never noticed that about Gail (I'm going through TNA 2008 now), but I was not getting the reference anyway. Russo... But anyway, yeah, very embarrassing from the so-called "modern" NXT crowd.

What is the meaning of this one ?

You can also sell your ring. Wooo !

Also, the Sunny one is quite fascinating, but also kinda sad, really, especially the conclusion, which I won't spoil. I began Taker 95/97, I admit liking the digressions, like the signing of Micheal Hayes. It makes for a more dynamic and varied episode, especially for a super long format.

Of course only Double J stuff matters. It's completely ridiculous, but so is the HoF anyway.

That was all Russo living his fantasies through him. It did carry a little bit at the very beginning of TNA but thankfully it went away. So, who's inducting him ? Road Dog ? Kurt Angle (...) ?

DiBiase.

Insight = 0. Stories = 0 (Okay, two, one being told by Sean himself). With all the free podcasts all over the place, you can't have such a show like this with guests who have nothing to tell.

Highway to Hell video leading to Taker vs Austin at SummerSlam 98.

New Chamber which pretty much negates the dangerosity of it : the outside is padded / the roof is so high it can't be used anymore / the pods are square so you can't take a lot of bumps on it / still no blood. Wow. That sucks. Sorry to sound like a vampire fan, but what's the point of making everything super safe and clean when the gimmick is supposed to be DEMONIC STRUCTURE ? Yeah, takes a lot of the fun away, really. So they are now simply "falling from high places". *sigh* Aj vs Cena was quite a great follow-up to their great Rumble match. But man, those Cena punches look horrid. Dean Ambrose comes in and makes it a lesser affair, basically a TNA circa 2003 three-way X-division match, and I'm not saying that because of a Code Red. But really, cutesy three way spots like I never cared for them. The gimmick, like I said, has been entirely negated by the new structure, so they take a whole lot of vertical bumps on the chain links, which probably hurts a lot more than it looks like it hurts... Then Bray Wyatt and Baron Corbin fight over who's playing the lamest Kane. I gotta be honest, Corbin looked pretty decent for once, but his finisher is awkward as hell. And well, he gets eliminated like a total idiot too. Then we get the now cliché "sore loser beats up someone before the last sequence" deal. Meanwhile, all the un-involved players are just laying down because they are supposed to. This match suffers from overproduction... Miz gets in and pins Ambrose KOed by Corbin, which was a good sneaky heel move. His troll Yes kicks are fun as a troll move, but not as an offensive move per say, as he really isn't any good at it. Even *I* would't be hurt by those. Actually Miz's stuff doesn't look too good here. He was better making faces in the pod. Plus he gets pinned like nothing by Cena. So, another three-way, this time with useless Wyatt, who's stuff doesn't look solid at all, sorry man, I love you Uncle but you aren't it. Plus you were dreads and you're fucking white. Go hit on a djembe or something. Lots of kicking out of finishers to get points from Meltz. AJ does what he does the best, which is bump for tools (Mania incoming). Well, really not very good at all and often boring. Best part was Cena vs AJ. Actually this was the most fun part at the end too. AJ was both the JerichArn and the MVP, as Cena's stuff looked rough at points. Corbin was quite Ok in the Kane spot. I don't like the new Chamber. Too smooth. It looks like a dungeon in a swingers club, with pods with shady blue lighting for naked dancers and padding to fuck on the side.

What timeframe was that ?

If you watch Jarrett's late WCW and TNA stint, it's not the case, really. Jarrett never booked himself as a great wrestler having epic matches. He established a formula (Double J Special I call it) usually ending with tons of bullshit and guitar shots. Some sucked pretty hard, especially when his pal Russo wanted to make him Steve Austin and when Jeff was coasting, but some were actually quite entertaining and fun. But it was far, very far from the bloated HHH main-event formula style from the early 00's, when he was "teaching how to work" to everybody. Plus, the exploding guitar, when you accept his absurdity, is actually a fun spot which give a great visual and sounding effect, while the fucking sledgehammer was the worse, most stupid and illogical weapon ever and it never looked any good because unless you actually kill a guy with it, well... They were indeed two overpushed upper mid-card guys working on top of their respective promotion at the same time, which makes it interesting to compare, but to me, Jarrett's highs were much more fun and varied. Hell, he's still half responsible for one of Michaels best match ever.

Holy shit, what a debacle. No one of these guys are over one bit. The work mostly sucks, only Barrett works half-ass well with Ziggler. Nothing happens, ever, in term of using the gimmick.... We get R-Truth, again. We get Ryback in airbrush but sadly he doesn't do a RVD spot, he's all about being Kane and being one of the worst monster ever in the cage. Henry is there. For someone with so much hype around this place, I have never seen anything better than "decent", honestly. The two "events" : at some point, Mark Henry's glass door breaks down so he gets out. No idea if that's a fuck up. Then, Sheamus can't get out of his because it can't open. Looks like a fuck up, but apparently not, as Sheamus either "blocked" or "unlocked" the pod on purpose with his necklace. Either way, awful try at "creative booking". There's less heat than in the Dungeon of Doom. As Hogan would say "It's not hot !" It's truly an awful match from start to finish. No MVP, no Arn, only Ryback in the Kane spot, in which he sucked so bad that even R-Truth looked better for the time he was in. Worst Chamber match ever, following one of the worst Chamber match ever in the same PPV. No wonder they let the gimmick rest for two years after this...

What a clusterfuck on every level. New Day can have the three guys competing. Why ? Torito stays in the Chamber. Why ? The Ascension in on my TV. Why ? The idea was cool. The execution wasn't. Watching Tyson Kidd is a bittersweet feeling. Cesaro is the Arn of this match. So they start with the Lucha Dragons, and it only will go down from here. Kalisto soon gets stuck over the New Day's pod. They fuck up the countdown because he has to do a spot. Ascension gets in. What a complete and utter waste of time these guys have been. Match goes awry already. They are not over one bit. Los Matadores get in and El Torito gets the best spot of the entire match. Kalisto takes forever to climb to the top of the cage. He has second thoughts. Cesaro signals for him to drop as the entire groupe is awkwardly waiting. Kalisto won't drop. He drops. He could have killed himself. The spot is forgotten immediately. Way idiotic. Later on Torito will do kinda the same, from less high, only to get caught by the Ascension, with an even lesser impact since we just saw a bigger drop a few minutes ago. Anway, this is a complete working clusterfuck at this point when booking clusterfuck makes its ugly way : Ascension eliminates both the Dragons and Matadores. People boo in a negative heat way. Prime Time Players in. More completely non-over guys. Darren seems competent. Titus looks sloppy. They eliminate the Ascension. We've reached the "Who booked this shit ?" territory now. More negative heat. New Day come in for the final stretch. They get the match back on track a bit, but Cesaro & Kidd get eliminated. MORE NEGATIVE HEAT. No one gives a fuck about the players and the New Days are only warming up as heels. The final minutes are okay because the New Day make it that way. They win. Complete waste of a good idea, waste of the coolest teams, waste of good workers who were over to feed to a bunch of tools who got booed out of the building (Ascension, Prime Time Players). Waste of the gimmick, with a completely stupid and very dangerous bump that was forgotten immediately. This has to be one of the very worst EC match, despite a few good moments. Cesaro was Arn. MVP was... I dunno. Torito ?

This. Meanwhile, people are still gloating about Jerry Lawler in 2018 and WWE made a video tribute for Jimmy Snuka's death. That being said, honestly, the more I know about Meltz, the more he seems to belong in Da Buziness, for better or worse.

For awhile, it was up there with the best EC matches ever. When an Evanescence theme produced by TNA is a hundred time better than your current theme, it says a lot about how WWE productions have fallen off. Yeah, talking about Christian here. Sheamus vs Cesaro. Holy shit, they beat the hell out of each other and go a hundred an hour. Which is basically the pace this match will end up being worked for most of its duration. Cesaro is a workhorse like no other. Sheamus has gotten a lot better. To add on, here's Bryan, who's over as all hell. Amazing how this guy was very clearly THE star at the time and the WWE had been tone deaf to that fact. They are still paying it today, really. He's all banged up which plays into the underdog character. And then again, Christian, who still looks excellent despite being on the way out. All these guys make a much better, more brutal and interesting use of the gimmick than it's been the case in the previous years too. Tons of cool stuff happening thus far, it seemingly never stops. Cena gets in. Booed like all hell, but he still adds to the match himself, working like a mofo. This match is like the Royal Rumble 92, with Bryan working with everyone in sight. Orton gets in after a sequences of big spots which has everyone more of less down on the mat. He beats them up. Crowd chants "boring". Ah ah. Good ol' Randy O. There's a stupid spot with a cool payoff, as Orton hides from Sheamus into the pod and they act like Sheamus can't open it. For fuck's sake, when Jericho did it, he was holding the door with desperation, as you CAN'T close back the pod. Anyway, it leads to a broke kick to fuck up the unbreakable glass, which is the most ridiculous gimmick since the doors get broken all the time (not the glass, well, not usually, but you get my drift). Christian really outworks himself doing the Spiderman spot and the big dive off the pod too. Sheamus out then Christian out then Cesaro out finally. Then... the Wyatt appear. Well, they were hot fresh and new, so I don't have anything against that yet, despite the fact they interfere in a great match. In retrospect, yeah, it sucks, but they were supposed to be big, so a little Taker trick wasn't so bad. Then again, the fact the match stopped forever because of it, and that KANE, motherfucking KANE had to be put into the mix to make it suck, really bothers me now. Plus, the whole spot that basically spots the match before the mast part or so is always annoying and has seemingly became a staple now. Not to mention the fact Randy Orton, after jumping on the KOed Cena, didn't attack Bryan. Why ? Because the booking says so, we have to watch the Wyatt go away, argue with Kane and shit. So yeah, it's illogical, likewise Bryan attacking Kane instead of working on Orton. Leading to the worst and most boring choice winning. So, great match for 95% or it. Cesaro was JerichArn. Christian was the the one with the smartest and most spectacular work too. Bryan was the MVP for getting the heat and emotion along the work. Sheamus & Cena did really good. Randy O. was his ok ridiculous overacting yet bland self. Kane managed to get the match dow without being in the match itself. That guy is a wonder of suck. Very top EC match without the booking fart. I guess still top tier since the work itself was so hot.

Mike Graham got Hulk Hogan into WCW and created the nWo... Jeff Jarrett is also apparently a cool guy IRL. His friendship with Russo really harmed his career more than anything, as TNA could only have worked better without that connection.

So, he's a Black Hole on every level. Ok.

He didn't. That was a promo. Bruce Prichard said they had no idea what they were getting in term of contracts anyway at this point. He also mentionned Jeff backstage at Nitro actually finding this funny. Really, if you think Jarrett wouldn't get a nostalgia pop, you're all out of your mind. WWE audience pop for dull 40 years old TNA lifers when they show up. Jarrett has been a pro-wrestling mainstay for 30 years. He was part of the Monday Night Wars which is The Era for the entire WWE narrative (and really, historically too the last time pro-wrestling was hot), on Nitro at its hottest then on RAW when it was getting the hottest. He created TNA, which, for better or worse, was the only alternative for a while. Jarrett showing up would get a big nostalgia pop from the "You've still got it !" modern crowd. They would pop for him crashing a guitar on Elias. And honestly, well deserved. Also, I hope it means he got his life together.

Jack Swagger was a world champ already. Damn, that didn't work well, did it ? Zeb Colter should be a babyface considering the McMahons political agenda. So, Daniel Bryan is in that "No ! No ! No !" phase, teaming with Kane... so much... good memories ? Ok, no. Starts off against Jericho, still doing Arn after more than ten years. He has slown down, but this is still the best part of the match. After that point, we reach dullsville pretty quick, with Swagger jumping into the fray to no reaction whatsoever. He's an okay worker with no charisma whom no one seems to give a fuck about. I guess he's a warm body here. Ok, now Kane. This match is so dying. Best part of this whole sequence was Daniel Bryan's bullshit after trying to pin his partner. Kane points at signs. Jeeeez. So, Kane does his worst flying clothesline ever spot and whatever, even Bryan can't be bothered to bring this match back up. Orton does as he's getting the HHH pop. Push someone on top forever, the audience will end up getting so use to him they'll act like he's a star. Then again, he's Randy Orton. Okay, he shows the usual good fire, but there's still nothing going on really. No super brutal spot, no dynamic whatsoever. Well they do this deal with a dual superplex which looked quite awkward tming-wise so everyone ends up all fucked up so Henry just has to get in to eat them up... which he kinda does but really, despite the überhype about him for years, I'm still waiting to see something more than "decent power guy" stuff from him. This was about it. "Decent". His power-squash only get a 4 on the John Tenta Richter scale, really. Nothing special about anything he does. He does a weak looking Vader bomb. Ok. Well, he dies take the worst bump of the night, doing the Big Show double superplex spot on the steel. Looks brutal and stupid. That's one issue that really is apparent more than ever in this match, the gimmick spots have become clichés and they don't mean anything anymore because they don't lead to anything, ever. Orton thrown on the plastic door ? He'll just sell forever when other guy are keeping themselves occupied as opposed to trying to pin him. Henry killed on the steel ? Again, they don't even try to pin him after this and he'll just be ready for the next spot. So yeah, this gimmick match which has been really efficient for a long time has seemingly turned into a bunch of empty clichés. Like Henry coming back to slowly kill people after he got eliminated, as a way to kill more time... The ending stretch with Orton/Jericho/whoever was also a bit bizarre, in that Orton & Jericho prevented themselves from eliminating the third guy on several occasions. I dunno if that was leading somewhere, but it made them look stupid. Well I guess it was on purpose since Swagger ends up winning the whole thing with a surprise pin. So, the less over guy wins. Really bland match. Nothing really bad apart from some of the Kane stuff, but nothing really good either and plenty of nothing in the middle. Jericho I guess was the MVP, working well with everyone and making Orton & Swagger look good. Bryan was so wasted at the time. Orton was his solid own self, but some of his spots are cringe-worthy (the double drapping DDT where both guys have to climb the second rope to position themselves is really terrible). Henry was "ok". Yeah. Yawn.

This is an odd one. Likewise CM Punk and Living Colour, Bryan coming out to the remix of Walkyries makes him stand out so much, whereas Barrett & Rhodes, already looking cookie cutter, have those awful generic, same sounding metal stuff. The WWE really lost the plot with music themes in the 00's. Apparently, this is all about Big Show (who looks great) vs Bryan. So, Wade starting gets no reaction at all, although his work actually looks solid as all hell. So they have a match with Show, which could be a TV match for all it matters. Solid, looks good, but no heat. To insure even less heat, let's get Cody Rhodes in the mix. He's like a Stromtrooper : he's bland, doesn't do anything memorable and has no chance of winning. You can hear the "boring" chants. Santino. Wow. No idea why this guy is in this match but he's crazy over. He does a few things then gets beat up. Show vs Wade vs Rhodes keeps on being solidly boring, the crowd soon dies again when Santino isn't involved. Somewhere there's a terrific spot with the two faceless guys suplexing Big Show on the steel, which is an insane spot for Show to take with his weight. Great Khali. He looks even worse than before. Can't even walk right. Throws three awful Baba chops then Big Show (who's moving like a cat, a big cat but a cat nonetheless) spears him. Out. Well, that was worth the time, really… Shows turns to Brian's pod and the people chant for Santino. Well, this match isn't working. Then there's a really odd spot with Show actually breaking the chain links on top of the pod to get in. Well, Brian was due out in a minute or two, why even bother ? Show dropping himself inside the pod gets a huge pop, but then it opens and Show beats on Bryan a bit. Token "throw guys through the plastic" spot. And then the ending stretch actually gets really good, Wade & Rhodes take out the Big Show, Santino rolls Cody into a surprise pin. Wade proceeds to have a very good match with Daniel Bryan until he gets eliminated. Wade isn't over, but his work really was crisp, well timed, good bumps, yeah, he's the Jericho-Arn of the match. Whatever happened with this guy ? So, there's no way Santino is winning, right ? Well, the crowd still goes insane, like batshit insane for this comedy guy. Bryan does a hell of a job making them think he's actually got a chance. The excepted ending finally happens, but they have managed to turn a completely heatless match to an absolute frenzy, with the guy who has the less chance of winning ever (if you don't count R-Truth). That has to be considered great work. Post match with Sheamus attacking heel Brian was stupid though. Was he supposed to be a babyface doing shit like this ? Plus he was not over one bit… They really wanted this guy to be something special, which he never was. Overall, it's hard to really rate as for most of the match it was completely heatless and went nowhere, despite Wade & Show really looking good, then got into a legit great final against all odds. You can argue Show was the MVP as he was the only person of interest during the entire first phase, but in reality Bryan truly was as he made the last segment work great and took the most spectacular bumps too. Khali got the Kane spot and sucked like nobody's business in it. Overall, I'd say very good I guess, but it's the tale of two matches, really.

Jericho & Kingston have the sunken chest. Ziggler has already been World champ, which means it meant zilch at this point (pun intended). CM Punk coming out to Cult of Personnality only makes him stand out so much more in the middle of all these awful generic themes (except for Kingston, which is awful but also "ethnic", you see). Kingston and him have a very good, quite hot first sequence; Kofi not only assume the Rey Jr. role of acrobatic underdog but also bumps his ass off on the gimmick. Ziggler is next and he's quite the heel at this point. Looks to have potential still. He also, as a show-off I guess, really wants to bump as much as possible on the steel during this match. Good for him. R-Truth. A rib. Three years in a row. Well, I've gotta say, he makes the most fo the few minutes he get with doing a bit more than his usual stuff and also takes one hard bump on the steel. Still, he's a goner immediately, because he's a joke. The Miz is next and shows some excellent heelish fire. This guy is underrated including in the ring, despite some of his stuff looking weak (a fucked up lariat in the corner here, which almost gets a "Lance Storm throws a chairshot in ECW in 97" reaction from the post-modern crowd). But still, his stuff against Punk is pretty fucking solid. Thus far, this match overdelivered considering who's in (both in term of standing and work ability, although it speaks volume about how Miz is underrated and how Kingston was actually quite good). Jericho vs CM Punk is the big story of the match. These two are a clear head and shoulder above everyone else as far as star power goes, Jericho working like Arn-the-veteran. Damn, his use of the pod to hurt CM Punk's shoulder was terrific and unique. After that point though, the match does kinda lose its focus. Ziggler is a goner then Kofi falls victim to Jericho after a great spot off a pod, but there Jericho goes crazy on him for no other reason than to waste time and lose focus so he can be kicked out of the chamber by Punk. Then they run this injury angle which takes kinda forever, with Jericho playing dead outside. It really takes the match down as they typically overplay the drama (you know the drill, Lawler doing his "low speak"stuff) and seemingly no one in the ring does anything, which doesn't make sense. The ending stretch of Punk vs Miz gets the intensity back with a terrific last sequence. This would clearly be a top tier EC match if not for the lost space between Jericho injuring Punk and the finishing stretch. It's like booking took over and they had to overdo an angle that took the whole match down for a while. Still very good/excellent overall, with Punk being the MVP, Kofi the most impressive in term of spots and Jericho doing a terrific heel job, while Miz was a workhorse and Ziggler a bump freak.

Crazy shit over there. And now we get a Vanes Naldi namedrop in 2018 ! (edit : actually two, as Dylan also dropped one... damnit, I'd be more famous in the circle if I had faked my death in 2001 instead of simply arguing about Jd' stupid ideas...)