El-P

Just watched Amazing Kong vs ODB vs Gail Kim from Destination X 2008 (which was an excellent PPV from top to bottom, really). Damn, these girls beat the shit out of each other. If that match happened today, I swear no one would even dare to say anything remotely good about Nia Jaxx. Amazing Kong was Vader-like during this stint. The other two just decided the time to fuck around was over. These girls deserve way more credit than they are given for because of TNA (which really deserves more credit too, early 2008 thus far as been really good and easy to watch for the most part).

When, on another topic but yet still about women, Metlz was talking on his show about how basically people are overpraising some of the WWE women's matches, including the Chamber (which was "ok but not even close to the men's match"). Well… The way both him and Alvarez talk about this topic reeks of patronizing, especially when you the praise the fucking snoozefest main-event because they were a lot of kicking out of finishers…

Nak is not responsible for the booking. They gave him the Rumble win then they had him cut that awful promo in broken English to set-up a dream match against AJ, so now they figure the work is done. Total lazy stuff as far as booking goes. Of course if they get creative at Fastlane it can only go worse (because who wants anything other than Nak vs AJ at this point ?). That being said, it's no worse than Roman Reign Push-to-Mania #152727 where there's absolutely zero narrative (except "Roman has to go and win at Mania" despite our audience not wanting him to) and where it leads to another match against Lesnar, who has been the poster boy for not giving a fuck for, what, two years now ? Mania is all about Rousey & Angle vs Stephy & HHH now. Well, at least it *could* be fun.

If they would add Ziggler and Corbin to that match (instead of the 6 pack shit at the top) I am sure that the first few rows of fans would end up inside the Schwarzschild radius. Yeah, they actually belong right there.

It had totally flown over my head that there was yet *another* PPV before Mania. And now I discover that the title match is a multi-man cluster. And that you get Randy Orton vs Bobby Roode, which has to be the blackest hole of all black holes.

I say enough (deserved) bad things about Stephy duirng the year, but with Mania coming up, I don't care, I wan't Warrior Trip and Dominatrix Stephy make a grand entrance on a fucking Conan the Barbarian throne carried by independant contractor NXT slaves. Then get their ass kick by Angle & Rousey.

I take that as a compliment. Or, maybe not. Not sure. Damn. I guess the keyboard is an issue too. I know English qwerty keyboards without accents drive me nuts.

It's still better than BIGLAV? BIGLAV is much better. BIGLAV was better than this main event...

Who is Toyota Minami ? (I know, it's not nice...)

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). Top tier EC match easily.

This is exactly why it really wasn't that good, really, as Asuka was introduced as the unbeatable phenom who can't be beat and hasn't for almost three years. It should have been a totally different dynamic. It was *good* at best as far as in-fing work and Nia looked strong only because Asuka is that *good*, as in GOOD. Well, you get the point.

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.

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 ?