El-P

Don't forget they also got Daniel Bryan over. Yes, it was the actual plan. Yes it was !

To be fair, one difference is that it's leading to a couple of good matches, no? I'd rather watch a good match from WCW 1998 than a good match from WWE 2017 anyway, because of the formulaic ways of the current TV work (not to mention the annoying production). So, nope. It's *just* stupid.

It doesn't even matter why they are doing it. It's just Wrestlecrap material : the angle is stupid (pun intended), the promos are shit, no one cares, Jordan is not getting over in any way. The same kind of thing in WCW in 98 would get slaughtered and no one in their right mind would even try to rationalize nor defend it. The standards have dropped so fucking low because of 17 years of Adult-Contemporary Soap WWE writing...

Ok. But making a babyface suck so he can be an effective heel eventually is really dumb as fuck too. Just be a fucking heel. It's pro-wrestling, it's simple.

It was awful. Barely a step above Russo's solo shit, honestly. Just terrible stuff, with Dusty putting himself over in (awful) matches again in the early 00's.

Vince assisted by Patterson / Prichard wrote the WWF TV for years. It's booking.

Yeah, I thought about that too. She came back not selling one bit of damage, did a few spot then went flying off again while Bailey did the J.O.B. Bailey is done and Nia looks like the most incompetent monster ever. Which is fitting. There where three girls at least in the MYC doing the monster gig (despite not being as big) better than her. And even in terms of push, kayfabe wise, she's just nothing special at all. Jordan getting a Rocky Maivia push "on purpose" is Russo level shit. Dwayne was a once in a lifetime case and they lucked into him after fucking up a babyface push (much like they lucked into Austin after having him not being allowed to talk because Vince didn't see shit in Austin on the mic). The idea that they could create something by artificially re-doing the same kind of character with Jordan (who's not exactly the most charismatic guy around either) is completely ridiculous.

Is it time to throw in a Dawn Marie reference ?... Yeah, congrats to the love birds anyway.

I used to pimp the shit out of both of them 18 years ago. Bison was always a cult favourite of mine, in more ways than one (hell, you want a big girl was had that attractiveness yet looked like a freak monster, that's her) and Sakie was one of those "What if she didn't get injured ?" case for all 90's joshi fans. Nice to see some Bison & Sakie love in 2017 !

Watched a few stuff : Woman's match : Bailey & Sasha need to buy one of these Bruce Prichard T-shirt "I used to be over". They have killed them off so bad. Emma looks like she's thinking about when she had a cool music and some hype. Comparison game : Amazing Kong walking down the ring in 2007 : "I'm gonna fuck up some skinny ass bitches" Nia Jaxx walking down the ring in 2017 : Shampoo commercial That Nia comeback was atrocious, she was just gone after a death spot then got back in the ring without selling any damage at all, meanwhile still not looking like a monster. Emma didn't do the job. Remember when Bailey had potential to be a huge star ? Remember when Charlotte & Sasha had a main-event that was MOTYC material ? Now it's multi-women bullshit no-one really cares about and the softest monster of all time. John Cena vs Roman Reigns Yep. Awful WWE self-conscious epic. Cena craked me up in the beginning though with his antics. He should work like Larry Z. Reigns is more akin to Randy Orton with a godawfully boring heat segment. Then : bomb, kick-out / your turn : bomb, kick-out / rinse / repeat. Just bad, boring typical stuff I don't care one bit about. Reigns is so much the Warrior/Luger to Cena's Hogan. Brock vs Braun So, after the awesome stuff they delivered last time around in the multi-match, they pretty much gave us the best possible Davey Boy Smith vs Warlord match. Hey, it was still better than Cena vs Reigns, in its early 90's solidness. Ah ah. Vince is still a GENIUS with all this great booking. No, seriously, this puts a new meaning to the word UNDERWHELMING, especially when on paper, it could/should have been really fun. But the WWE is not a fun pro-wrestling company, really.

Good ! Wish you courage !

Not at all. He was responsible for the women's division rise, which was excellent and actually drew ratings, and pretty much everything good in TNA while Russo was also there can be attributed to Mantell. I may be wrong but I thought that mantell at one point left all of the mens side of things alone and focused purely on the knockouts and I think this coincided with the start of the great awesome kong vs kim feud. Not sure if he just left the men alone, but he went on record saying he was the one responsible for creating the women's title and booking Gail vs Kong to kickstart the whole thing and ran with it. And yeah, I'm going through it these days, it's simply awesome indeed.

Agreed about D'Amore. I've said it recently, D'Amore's TNA is so easy and fun to watch, producing a lot of legit great matches thanks to Joe/AJ/Daniels.

Agreed. UWF is overrated as all hell (and even Mid-South is to some extent).

Not at all. He was responsible for the women's division rise, which was excellent and actually drew ratings, and pretty much everything good in TNA while Russo was also there can be attributed to Mantell.

Choshu & Baba, for reasons already explained above. Vince is the greatest promoter ever. Booker ? Waaaaaaay to much godawful shit over the years, way to much completely fucked up opportunities (Invasion anyone). For every great WWF/E moment, there's ten awful crappy ones.

Agreed. It was Russo without any filter at all. Stuff he couldn't do in WCW, he finally could do there. And it's brutal.

Same here. Always loved Horowitz and was glad he got a little bit of a push then. Horowitz was the perfect guy for the job, could work, bump, give you a solid match whomever he worked against, had a good look, had character. A unsung hero of US pro-wrestling if the late 80's/90's.

That's the whole point of the thread… Which is why I could also pick Barry Darsow. I kinda like him, although he basically sucked in every incarnation he's ever been in. But I definitely could pick WWF Bravo too, if only because french announcer Eddie Carpentier would pimp the hell out of him as a major star and player all the time back then. And 14 years old me was buying to every word Carpentier was saying.

Thanks for the info. I knew the name, but no idea how she looked like. (much like Rousey)

Nope. They have to be rather crappy workers to be "boys".

And the final did deliver. Very good/excellent match. I dunno what happened, but Shayna looked twice as good as she did on the Full Sail tapings, and it was not because of Sane either. Finally laying those kicks in, lots of cool heelish attitude, some nifty little stuff (like kicking the rope where Kairi was hanging her arm on). Kairi herself was terrific. She did kinda forgot about the arm work quickly, but she's from the japanese school, you don't sell the arm like crazy just because you've been into a bunch of submission holds, especially early on. So : Indeed. That being said, Shayna showed lots of talent here. She's not that young and probably a little bit banged up, so they shouldn't hesitate to use her and milk whatever money there is in the whole MMA connection. Overall, it I enjoyed the first round because it was fun to discover all these new workers. The second and third round were pretty uneven, Kairi was the saving grace of these shows, having basically all the most solid matches. From the NXT bunch, Bianca Belair really caught my attention. Ripley is gonna get Das Push on physicals alone, one might think. They should definitely sign LeRae & Storm (if that's not done, not following that closely). The Mae Young Classic was all but that, then again, considering whose name it derives from... It was ok with two really good matches (Sane vs Storm & Sane vs Shayna) and quite a bid of forgettable stuff too. Ok, now, I guess it's time for Asuka getting the RAW booking...

So, the semi-finals Shayna vs Martinez was not very good. Some of the worst, weakest kicking stuff I've seen in forever. I'm not wishing for Yumiko Hotta here, but this stuff made Lance Storm looked like Shibata. Anyway, pretty weak-ass "shoot-style" stuff, no heeling from Shayna. The last few spots were okay, but Mercedes really didn't show me much again. Shayna's cool but she's überprotected, so it's Kairi Sane vs Toni Storm was easily the best match of the tournament, by a pretty solid margin. Enjoyed Storm's work quite a bit here. Sane is a terrific babyface, her selling of the arm-bar was quite Mortonesque (or Toyotaesque). Nice stretch to the finish. Very good stuff. Stephy & Trip had to show their face at Full Sail, of course, because HERE WE TAKE THE CREDIT !!!! Kairi looked so freaking tiny next to them and whoever that other woman is. Enjoyed Ross again. Maybe because it's been forever since I've really watched a bunch of pro-wrestling called by good ol' JR (since I'm not his biggest fan), but he was a breath of fresh air and there's no good reason he isn't still the lead announcer.

I can't wait. For obvious reasons.

WWE producing a drama would be fucking awful. They can't write worth a shit. Maybe it would be so bad it's good though. But who, in the audience, really wants to see (and *pay* to) this anyway ?