El-P

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...)

No D'Arcy, no "original lineup". Dixie Carter has to be the most improbable reason invoked for a rock band reunion tour though. As far as TNA goes, I'm still in 2008. And there are some good stuff there, still.

The R-Truth stuff has to be a rib. Anyways. King Sheamus, without any crown. Damn, Sheamus has been there forever already. Morrison will have one hell of a night, going from the RVD spot to the Shawn-wannabe spot, and mostly making the most of it. Not as good of a first period as the SD match, obviously (come on, Rey…) but decent enough. Sheamus seems to have improved a bit. Orton the Viper. I gotta give him credit, he looks really good in this match, almost playing the Arn of the whole thing. Yes, there's the occasional moment of not doing much of anything or awkward setup (the aforementionned superplex or the drapping DDT), but he brings some good fire and solid looking work. Especially building well his antagonism with Punk. I could totally do without the idiotic "pod doesn't open" spot followed by the equally idiotic Anonymous GM spot (damn, this was the black hole of WWE booking). Cena brings the shit up after this rather idiotic episode. Morrison is bumping like a madman on the steel, the plastic, well, mostly everywhere. Five years earlier, he would sport a crimson mask and that would add so much. R-Truth. Yeah. That's a fucking rib. He does the three spots he does and gets pinned. Why even bother ? CM Punk makes himself the actual MVP of the match with his interaction with Orton (making fun of the Viper maneurism was gold), while Morrison manage to take the Spiderman spot innoved by RVD in 2002 to a new level. Then takes it to the sky, as Tori Amos would say, only to kinda fall in a rather sloppy way, Jim Cornette off a scaffold style onto Sheamus, who's a goner. It all ends up with Cena vs Punk vs Morrison, who also does a terrific job selling his knee after blowing it against the plastic. This is how this match should end, not with a ten minutes self-conscious epic yawnfest. So Morrison gets his and Cena jumps on Punk, throws him onto the steel (again, that's the way to actually use the gimmick instead of simply trading finishers) and wins the thing so he can have a terrible Wrestlemania Moment ™ against the Miz. Yeah, even back in 2011, the whole angle was "John Cena needs his Mania Moment ™ and won't get it unless he wins the EC match". That tells you how braindead the booking has been for the entire decade. Nonetheless, this was a terrific EC match, despite the one moment of booking dumbfuckery. Punk was the MVP overall if you add character + work. Morrison had somewhat of a break on through the other side performance. Orton was almost Jericho-being-Arn. Top tier EC match.

Rey and Edge to start. Wonder why. From who's in the Chambers, it can only go downhill I would guess. Good first part. Rey is gonna be the MVP as always, workhorse and brutal bump master, which is kinda crazy when you think about how banged up he was. So, Wade Barrett joins and actually this keeps being really good, Barrett adding stuff to the table while Rey is adding great spot to the match. Barrett seems like a big "What if ?" of the 10's. Kane. Why ? I'll be fair, he looks better this time around than in any other EC match. Works his ass off. Of course, having good people bumping for him all over the place helps a lot. Still, he's Kane and what the fuck he is doing here ? He's not winning, he's not compelling. Drew McIntyre. No idea who this guy was then. This is the best sequence of the match. Him betraying Wade was all kind of classic, as was the brutal back bump Wade took on the glass (BTW, the announcing has reached new level of awfullness on this show, the 10's really are in, sadly, with a thousand "Road to WrestleMania" hammering on the head along with "Lexon glass most solid glass evah !" shit). This guy is bringing the match back to life. Which Big Show doesn't do, although he also looks better (and leaner) than even before in this context. Rey takes more brutal bumps. Wade gets all fucked up too against the steel. I do miss blood. Then it's time more a bunch of EC typical clichés, with all the guys hitting finishers on Show. Then it's time for Kane going on a rampage. Ok, he's looking decent, but again, he's Kane in 2011. Who's buying ? Not me. And so it's Edge vs Rey, making the whole thing kinda "let's fill time with bodies before we go into ending stretch of big PPV title match"ish. I dunno, it the ending stretch is so much lay down / hit a finisher / counter or kick out / lay down / hit another finisher, that typical WWE big match style I don't care for... So it's actually really well done, although this is a case of Rey going for the 619 over and over again getting a bit annoying as this is not a fucking finisher, really. He still makes Edge awful spear look the best ever. Post-match has some bullshit with ARD and Christian... We've reached that point where the match in itself is not special anymore, with too many warm bodies as opposed to big stars, and the ending has to be worked like every WWE big match ever as opposed to the ending of a multi-man brutal cage match (the lack of blood does hurt the perception too). So, This one was actually very good overall, even excellent maybe if you really like the last part (which I don't, too WWE patterned). Rey = MVP. Drew = best sequence and made the biggest impression. Kane had its best Kane spot ever but he still was Kane.

Well, interesting if nothing else, but quite patchy. First off, there's something odd about R-Truth being put in there. Especially after you had Kofi Kingston also start the match in the previous EC match. I mean... a black guy JTTS doing flips being thrown in to start the match in both occurences... someone just isn't very creative there, to stay polite. Well, R-Truth hasn't even the potential Kofi had. He's been doing the exact same shitty rap and four moves for ten years at this point. Easily of guy I'd be happy never to see again. CM Punk on the other hand, looks like a star here, coming out with the Straight Edge Society and cutting a promo and being an asshole. R-Truth does his stuff, Punk makes sure it looks okay and makes the most of it. Truth is gone (thank God for that). Punk cuts another promo while waiting for a pod to open. Good shit here. Rey is in. Damn, this next sequence is terrific, him and Punk pack in more interesting work and display more character than all the guys in the previous EC match combined during their 45 minutes. Rey takes some brutal bumps too, and it's not over. Punk is absolutely great at making nearfall look like actual false finishes. Sadly, he's gone. Wait, what ? Bad idea, as he's been the most over guy here, getting legit heat from a mostly dead crowd. Jericho next. Traffic directing and pacing master of the EC match. Can't do without this guy it seems. Slows down a bit after some other sick Rey bumps into the fence. Really build into some nearfalls again. Nice job by Jericho, Rey is on fire. Morrison gets in and he's the RVD of the match. Some flying stuff looks super cool, some basic stuff looks terrible. But it still mostly is really good. Rey puts him over. I guess they were trying to make him a single star as the last part will demonstrate, but Rey being gone is kinda disapointing. Morrison really isn't on the same level as the other three (even four, counting Punk). Taker cleans shit up. The last part really is good this time, with some double team, Jericho hiding inside a pod, Taker intimidating him while blasting Morrison, an almost credible nearfall on Taker before the inevitable pinfall. Morrison still had a long way to go. SO it's Jericho vs Taker and it's quite good, although really it does seem Taker like these long one on one ending parts in those match, with finisher kick outs and counters but with Jericho it works quite well because it flows, they don't just switch spots and do kick outs. Still, ending with these two shows how far behind they were in term of making new stars. I mean, CM Punk was right there... Plus, the kind of slow dramatic selling doesn't work that well with a mostly dead crowd who only pop for spots here and there. The ending is ridiculous, as Michaels comes from under the cage to superkick Taker at the most opportune narrative time (as opposed to a logical time in the match) and stands above him, immobile as a statue and with that great terrible 00's Micheals "ILOVEYOU" acting pose, while Jericho gets the pin. Well, it had its moment, Rey was great and the match was excellent when he was in, best part being his sequence with Punk. The last part was also quite good but the ending was goofy as shit. Punk came out as the real breakout star (as opposed to Morrison), Rey was the MVP, Jericho was Arn again, in a much different way this time though as Arn never wins Wargames. Still, Jericho, for the first ten years, has been the EC go-to guy and the MVP of the gimmick since the start. I'd say very good overall despite some odd booking. (damn, the crowd was awful on this show)

Damn ! Don't blame me, but I actually thought 'viola' when I heard 'cello', which is why I thought it was ridiculous. Hey, the fact I even know all these instruments name in another language is good enough. Maybe Brian Alvarez knows music after all...

The most interesting things here are not in the match itself, which is a mostly snoozefest. What strikes me is that the same exact match could be presented today, in 2018. Eight years later. There's almost zero difference in the presentation, the announcing (except it's way worse now with the social media shit and Orwellian corporate talk) and even most of the workers, who already have been champions a thousand times by that time. It really paints the picture of how stale the company has been in the last 10/15 years. Stale also describe this match. Orton, in full Viper mode (meaning he does ridiculous overplayed maneurisms). Sheamus, who was the World champ back then already (!!!). Ted DiBiase Jr. (yeah, sorry, can't call him just Ted DiBiase). Three guys with zero charisma, dull look, dull work. The noughties black hole in all its glory. Kofi Kingston is there to bring another flavor I guess. He's like a worst RVD there. Crazy he's been in the company that long and having his best years with the New Day. Not too good sequence with Sheamus. HHH comes in and gets a big pop. He's clearly the biggest star next to Cena. Otherwise, the crowd really doesn't give much of a fuck. Trip is also the second best guy here. Behind Cena. Orton. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz DiBiase. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz No blood hurt. No sick bump. No use of the gimmick really (except for that time where Orton & Dibiase tried to... hang Kofi on the fence ? Mmkay... that was awkward). Trip is taking the biggest bumps on the steel too. Old-school trooper. Cena finally brings life to this debacle of nothingness. Who cares about the order of elimination at this point. He wins. Then they re-do the old "Cena has to face a guy after winning the Chamber and lose his title". Wow. Creativity zero. Worst chamber match easily. Boring as fuck. Cena was the MVP. Followed by Trip, who put him over at the end. Post match was stupid and rehashed. (this is also the first time I really noticed annoying camera work... and Cena looking at the Mania sign... yeah, the 10's are there, for bett... well, for the worst)

Cool. I think I had not watched more than one or two, including the ECW one, before going through them right now. It's been mostly quite fun to see how the gimmick has been worked. Clearly a success until that point.

That's what has been implied on several shoot interviews, yes. As far as Lawler goes, it's kinda crazy the guy mostly got a pass forever, really.

Stumbled onto RAW. Sasha vs Bailey was quite good. Nia Jaxx promo wasn't. And those awkward pauses.... I gotta admit, Braun and the upright bass (which Alvarez called a cello, meaning he doesn't know shit about music either) was quite funny. Especially with the French announcers who are obviously not being produced and freestyling as all hell. Elias has to be one of the most charismatic guy in the company right now.

Your signature Gif can be interpreted in a whole new way now. Lawler : "Well, I didn't force those little sluts... " Bix throws chair : "You fucking liar !" All joking aside, you should keep digging. I find that all very interesting.

So Edge is throwing himself in after losing in the previous EC match. Tricky booking here. More to come. Jericho has switched to short tights and Code Breaker heavy sleazy veteran work. Slower pacing despite working with Rey Rey, who's doing the Spiderman spot innovated by RVD in the very first Chamber match and reprised by Jeff Hardy. So, good sequence to start. There's really something to be said about how Jericho is the Arn Anderson of these EC matches. Kane gets in. Well, he does his job before doing the job, to Rey mind you. Nothing bad, nothing thrilling. Actually, Mike Knox does a better job playing monster heel, working stiff and gritty. He looks like a proto-Wyatt Family member, really. So basically more of the same as the Kane stuff, only better, before getting out of the way too. Rey jumping on Edge as soon as the pod opens has to be a highlight. These three work well together, including a typical X-division/3-way goofy tower of doom spot. It's truly an orgy of Edge comical facial features, especially when he manages to beat John Cena who only gets to work a short burst of offense. Tricky business like it's been said. Jericho is out next. Crowd is molten for Rey, even more than they were for Hardy earlier on. Him and Edge work a terrific ending stretch culminating by a brutal plastic bump courtesy of Rey, who's having maybe the best EC performance of all time thus far. Edge wins. Holy shit. This one was a slow builder, with the two kinda useless but not bad monster sequences, Knox's being better than Kane's, until a real frenzy of cool work with a big upset in Cena going out and Rey almost, almost winning. Edge has to be one of the goofiest main event guy ever. His spear looks like shit too. All in all, excellent match with a great second half. Interesting, if anything else, 09 edition booking wise, with a cool interplay between both matches. None of the crowd's favourites won though...

So, this is for the title. One of the two. Not sure which one. Jeff Hardy is over like hell. Edge is the champ. Pretty good starting sequence, despite neither being particulary smooth. Interesting bit of booking here as Edge loses immediately in a small package spot. Another proof we need more of this as opposed to kicking out of finishers. More on that later. The guys in the pods grinning at Edge losing was a nice touch. Kozlov. Whatever happened to this guy ? He definitely had potential in a Goldbergian way. Looks green but also menacing. Good beating up sequence on Hardy, who's being thrown around like a rag doll. More beating up incoming with the Big Show. Again, nice booking with the two monsters playing oneupmanshpip with Hardy as a crash test dummie, before getting to it themselves. Not the smoothest work, but efficient enough and it's a simple and logic story to tell. HHH is next. He pretty much clears the ring because he can. Looks good doing it too. At this point he really knows the deal, and although there won't be any blood (anymore ?), he takes his share of usual brutal bumps. Taker gets out. House of fire. MMA punches. Taker gets a whole lot of pass for a lot of stuff that actually don't look good. Same thing here. He's old, he looks that way, his stuff looks sloppy (awful snake eyes). He does beat the undefeated Kozlov too. Odd to finally beat Kozlov that way in that context. Big spot of the match, Taker doing a superplex on Big Show and Hardy going swanton off a pod on the big guy. Crowd is CRAZY for the guy, who is having a really good night from my perspective (of someone who haven't seen much of his vaunted "great main event stint"). Clear MVP of the match and... fuck. He loses to Trip. The crowd deflates big time. They wanted to have Hardy win the thing. Tone deaf booking. So, it's Taker vs HHH, "the two biggest stars in the WWE" says JR. What, in 2009 ? John Cena says hello. And so they have this "ending Mania stretch" match, which means reversals, kicking out of finishers (or almost in case of the tombstone, feet on the rope will do) and self-cousciousepicery, which doesn't fit the format to me. Twice now Taker has delivered this kind of stuff here. And really, it's annoying because neither guy is really selling the finishers per say. They sell the *exhaustion*, but after a fucking tombstone and a pedigree, you should have your neck all fucked up. But they never sell that way. To me this is way more "video game pro-wrestling" than doing a tons of move actually, because the hugest move really don't matter that much, the damage is not localized, if you will. Anyway, Trips wins the title. Fuck me. His work was good, but this is 2009. How many did this guy win already ? Overall, very good match (could have clearly been better with a non self-conscious epic finishing stretch) with some interesting twists, but the ending stretch is clearly not of my taste at all and the booking was totally tone deaf and turned toward the past when you had the crowd hot for a newer star. Yeah, patterns...

Half of this is quite the classic line-up. Jericho vs Micheals to begin, of course. Good wrestling for a change. Short hair for Jericho. Lazy eye for Michaels. Yep, this is getting contemporary. Umaga is next and the match heats up a bit (crowd is dead for a while, maybe the effect of watching two EC matches on the same card, which is not a good idea at all). Cleans up the space. Good looking work. Then JBL comes in and it's really like a Wargame match. More stiff offense, this is really keeping on a steady pace of really good solid work on all front. Soon Micheals is bleeding. Classic shit indeed. Trip gets next and delivers a great clean-up all fired up offensive stretch. JBL gets eliminated and proceed to bash Jericho's head with a chair (and to the other guys too, after teasing he won't do it to Umaga, because "heel solidarity"). Good shit here. The audience wants Hardy, who's reaching the peak of his overness soon I guess. He's pretty much protected by the gimmick and the number of guys here, he just has to do his offensive stuff and bump hard, which he does. And then we get the classic bump into the plastic door, from Umaga into Jericho. Leading to a great sequence of all guys hitting their finishers on Umaga, including Hardy doing the crazy dive from the top of the cell. Then more cool rapid-fire shit with finishers/elimination galore until it's Trip vs Hardy. Gotta give credit to the Man, Trip does a terrific job with Hardy here, even giving him a Pedigree kick out, which was a great false finish. At this point I'm convinced Hardy will win, and so does the crowd, but they keep working at a fast pace into a swift counter for the finish, Pedigree onto a chair. Yep. Trip wins another one. No idea what the concensus was at the time, there it didn't look bad although Hardy was the hottest guy in the ring for this audience. Hard to pick an MVP, it's the very first match without a bad part/worker (well, Jeff Hardy kinda is but it didn't show here). Maybe Micheals as he was extremely effective all along. Jericho was Arn again. Umaga did his part perfectly and his stuff looks great and brutal. Trip did a terrific job during the ending stretch. Overall, as far as pure work goes, it's the best EC. Maybe not the most epic though as it went a bit quick (again, having two of these in the same show hurt), but that's booking. A top tier EC without a doubt. Jericho, Michaels & HHH are the EC classic players indeed.