El-P

I'm there. Loved Aztec Jarrett theme too.

In this post/meta/ironic era we're stuck into, if King Curtis would shout "Sullivaaaaaan my soooooon !" tomorrow on TV, people would actually praise it. Damn. I just realized that Bray Wyatt was basically a modern Dungeon of Doom all by himself. Except not even funny because there's no Hogan to notice that they aren't any Hulkamaniacs here and that it's not hot. There's only Randy Orton bland ass doing Diamond Cutters on video maggots...

What did you expect ? Broken Matt was fun because it was unique. It's not anymore, it's been done already and now it's in the hands of WWE writers and production people. Not to mention Woken kinda sounds stupid and trademarky. And then of course they have him feud with the most obvious and blatant shitty guy they can think of, who else but Bray Wyatt of course. It's like those old Taker feuds against shitty monsters he had to work against, because. The Wyatt stuff has consistently brought up the worse feuds and matches of 2017. I expect another chapter in the Wyatt "worst segment/match of the year" with this, complete with WWE redoing poorly what had been done elsewhere. Wait. They already have done that after the original Broken videos with the godawful Orton feud. So it's a redux of a poor copy, with the original guy not being so original anymore. Kane. 2018. What else ? My interest in the Rumble has taken a nosedive already. Give AJ a killer match like last year at least...

Great match followed by a great angle. Windham was one of the best worker in the world at this point. Tully's work is so "realistic", in that it never looks like he's going through a bunch of spots but really is trying to fight with a gameplan, likewise Nick Bockwinkle. I love that kind of work more than anything else, and this is Tully at his best, making this his best single match next to the Magnum classic indeed. Pro-wrestling as its classic best.

John Homme turns heel by attacking a photograph and does a bladejob... http://variety.com/2017/music/news/josh-homme-kicks-female-photographer-in-the-head-at-kroq-acoustic-christmas-exclusive-1202635338/

Wow. Terrible. I honestly hope the shit will hit the fan sooner than later.

We hardly knew ye. Is there a PPV before Royal Rumble ? What's up next ? I've been totally out of the loop lately. (8888 posts ? damn...)

Yeah, Lawler does sound like an old sexist pig. It was embarrassing enough having him going crazy for "puppies" back in 99.

The Katie Vick stuff from Survivor Series 2002 episode is fascinating. Anyone listened to the Jake Roberts episode yet ? Sounds like one of the most interesting on paper. Steiners are up and Edge is next, which doesn't appeal to me nearly as much.

I would certainly enjoy a link or two. And yeah, the Lawler case is pretty interesting in these matters...

Let it never saw the light of day. Please.

In fucking INDIA ! That's why the WWE Universe suffered through this entire godawful Jinder Mahal main event push for months ! Awful matches, awful PPV main events, racist angles and whatnot. Because the fucking Indian Markettm. And in the end, Triple H beats the guy in Delhi ? Bwahahahahah !

Good ol' Trip, student of the Game.

It's only to have Jinder win the title back today in Delhi. I would guess.

Well, have fun if you want : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/

No money left. AJW was indeed fading away.

By this point, I'm so tired of Garvin's stupid hard slaps to the chest. He's a solid worker with a few interesting tricks, but this kind of stiff work is a cheap shortcut. And to this day, and even in a worse way when you go through the entire thing, this whole Garvin as world champion is complete WTF material. He had no business getting the belt. The crowd completely shits on him too, chanting "Garvin sucks" when he makes a comeback. The match is quite good though, but also completely Flair-vs-Garvin by the number, with zero psychology of Flair being the challenger and Garvin having the extra pressure of being the champ. Kinda tedious when you have gone through all their previous matches actually. Much like the entire Garvin feud (although the Jimmy Garvin feud was way worse, with shit sexist angles and promos and bad match), which has to be Flair's most overrated stuff. Barry Windham was just there, what the fuck was Crockett thinking ?

Kinda embarrassing.

The idea of "kicking out of finisher" automatically equals "exciting nearfall" therefore "good work" is a false notion and has been very damaging. Plus, a nearfall is a not a false finish. Raven understood it very well. To this day, some of his false finishes in ECW and even WCW work wonders with me, because he knews that the build to a false finish was what mattered. Kicking out of a finisher was a false finish at some point in AJPW. Then it ceased to be. Now, it's a prerequisite for any self-conscious epic. And it sucks, because you know you gotta kick out of n finishers before the actual finish. The finishers kick-out galore has effectively completely overshadowed the idea of a "false finish", which is an emotionnal moment when you believe that "well, it's over… HOLY SHIT NO !". Of course, you may argue the audience of today who pop huge for every finisher kickouts and chant "Fight forever" are emotionaly involved, but I don't think that's the case. The crowd manipulation is those cases is not about manipulating emotions and taking them on a ride, it's popping them by giving the exactly want they expect and want because they have been programmed to think that it means "great match", and that what's matters the most. I remember people being disapointed by the finish of the great HITC match between Charlotte & Sasha because there wasn't a dozen finisher kick outs. Pro-wrestling needs to get back to smart small packages, effective dog & pony shows, failed spots that leads into a finish, injuries that cost the match and yes, eventually, at some point, kicking out of a finisher when no-one expects it (as opposed to everyone wanting it because it's "great work", therefore, "holy shit" and stuff).

The Canadian Mafia at the helm ! Interesting return to the business for Callis, from doing announcing for NJ to getting an exec job at the "brand new" TNA, after years of working for the Canadian state.

I'm kinda amazed that on the verge of the Harvey Weinstein debacle, we heard no one in "da business" come out and tell about some shit that surely happened. Then again, the WWE was paying a tribute to Jimmy Snuka not too long ago, so that's one of a kind business for sure... But still.

Honestly, as much as the main angles were great in 97, the undercard stuff was pretty rough to say the least. But it felt mostly like a hot and fresh product like Nitro at the beginning, so that made it easy to watch. The TV in 99 quickly became unwatchable though.

The first year of TNA on Spike was a pleasure to watch. Very easily digestible thanks to the format, tons of good matches, booking that made sense. Way overlooked, as much of good TNA is, for obvious reasons.

Holy shit ! Hey, he managed to make his stupid footstomp spot look entertaining. Do it again !

Very true, and a double-edge sword compliment if there ever was one. As far as being samey, Prichard told the story of Vince loving the Bam Bam Bigelow theme (the face one I believe) and that basically every theme sounded like Bam Bam's for a while because Johnston wanted to please Vince. I have no idea when Johnston stopped doing the music, but to me the number of really fun and memorable themes just dropped insanely low when they got into the 00's, with a shitload of generic neo-metal shit stuff. I guess I'm a sucker for the old-school, more "gimmicky" stuff.