El-P

ECW was old-school as shit. Raven vs Dreamer, Raven vs Sandman, Taz vs Sabu, Shane vs Pitbull, Terry Funk the old mentor coming back for a last ride, it was all classic 80's rasslin' at heart.

Babyfaces doing heelish things as been there forever : Hogan. Reversing dynamics ? Austin. Russo was exactly all about guys being good or bad depending of the feud, and even sometimes inside of a single feud, the perfect case being Val Venis vs Goldust, where the heel/face dynamic depended on basically whom the audience thought was the "coolest" this particular week (and JR being confusing as all hell blaming Terri, basically slut-shaming in action). This was his exact talking point in the infamous "Rebook the WCW invasion" shoot, to him it didn't matter if the nWo guys were heel or faces, as long as they "got a reaction". And this is precisely what we're talking about here with Reigns and the entire pseudo "shades of grey" main event scene.

This is carny as shit and WCWesque to the umptieth degree.

Agreed about the ladder match. Plus at this point it kinda felt like overkill after the Hell of War, which it couldn't follow in term of crazyness. Good match though, they made an effort to try and win, which is always a big point to me. The women's match was... interesting, considering what happened in AAA this year. I really grown to like Taya a lot. Those scars on Dante Fox... ugh... Nice six-tag match, great special outfit by Drago. That last vignette, yeah. Vamp has basically never been better than in LU to me.

And it's absolutely Russo's idea. "Heels and babyface don't matter, it depends on the feud". Except, it absolutely prevents them from telling any compelling stories (well, they can't even tell the simplest ones) and also prevents any kind of emiotionnal attachment to any character. And really, it's not a matter of them booking in "shades of grey", it's a sign of incompetent writing. Braun was never supposed to get babyface reactions, they didn't make him get those on purpose because it fit feud x as opposed to feud y where he's supposed to get heel reactions. The whole "flexibility on top" I see as a poor excuse justifying crappy, blurry and unimaginative booking, and their inability to actually book strong babyfaces. Every guy on top is basically a heel whom the crowd hates of loves depending on the context, which is why unless they murder each others in crazy brawls, there's nothing happening there in term of booking except yet another Roman Road to Mania. It may fit their business model, but damn does it sink the whole product into black hole of nothingness. No wonder why Lesnar is a perfect champ for this era… (they should have made Braun into Vader-champ, you know… but nope, gotta build to that part-time-wash-up vs Roman Mania Moments)

Listening to Prichard's podcast on Unforgiven 1999 reminded me of : Chaz, a regular guy from new Jersey. Who beats up his girlfriend Marianne. But not really. Because ya know, those bitches always accuse their men just to fuck wit'em. Damn those bitches. Yeah. Vince Russo in all his mysoginistic, rape-culture inducing glory.

"The hotter the heel, the hotter the babyface when it's time to turn". An old-school rasslin' lesson that the "students of the Game" have seemingly forgotten. Among others. This. The idea that "babyfaces and heels really don't matter" was the old Russo talking point. Whatever the fuck you want to twist it, even in 2017, the most successful formula will always remain "good" vs "evil". The rest is cop out bullshit. (Braun vs Roman was exactly that, only the audience picks up who they think is "good". That's another old-school rasslin' lesson, whomever the audience wants to cheer is babyface de facto and should be pushed as such, even staying a fucking monster/asshole, as Steve Austin demonstrated)

Hum… DX was hot as shit in 98 and 99, in the biggest boom period of the company ever. The Shield was super hot in the… early 2010's. I don't think there's even an argument there (and yeah, I didn't care for DX after Shawn left and yeah, it has aged very very badly and yes, Shield was on another level of in-ring work, although the context is different of course).

I never said it was designed to make him a heel, but it sure as hell wasn't designed to make him cheered. If Vince was wringing his hands backstage at every event worrying about whether Roman was going to get cheered like some people like to believe, they wouldn't have done that match at all. Honestly I think Roman and his matches would be LESS interesting if he was universally cheered and I think WWE probably sees it the same way. Yeah, I would agree with this.

That promo was the lamest "We admit we have no idea how to get you love that guy anymore, so whatever" cop-out. And the match was not designed to make Roman a heel, the ending was build toward a "Sorry I love you, you Legend" feeling. Roman is only the "most over" because he's been pushed like fucking crazy forever at this point. See : HHH in the early 00's. He's made the fans creatures of habits. He's not "the most over" in the sense Austin or Rocky were. Those empty seats speak for themselves too. The merch point has been talked about in lenght before. Of course he's gonna sell the most since he has the most to sell (and is pushed like crazy for ever). Chicken and eggs. Their current business model and complete lack of competition allows them to keep on going this way. It makes for baffling, predictably boring booking on top, with a guy their own audience don't want to accept. With a few oddly fun moments like the trolling at Royal Rumble last year, or "You deserve it !" chants when "The Man" is destroyed by Braun. A unique case, really.

The Shield is very obviously a case of the whole being way better than the sum of the parts. And yeah, the conclusion will be another Roman conoration that will get shit on.

I can see an argument for 97 Hart Foundation for the promos alone. Plus they had way better rivals. Not to mention the booking of the whole feud was actually compelling and interesting. The Shield, ironically enough, is completely a "workraty"-style unit. People remember matches with snowflakes and that's it. And it's kinda funny after now years of hearing how much Ambrose and Rollins actively suck, how magically the Shield is awesome again and the greatest thing ever. It also shows how desperate they are with Reigns at this point.

DDP Yoga. It works. Scrawny guy, never done sports, always bad at it at school, stiff as a rod, regular drinker and now at the finishing stages of "advanced" level in 7 months and in the best shape of my life at 42 (lost 5 pounds without even dieting in the process, from the little fat I got from beer and junk-food). So yeah, believe the hype.

Watched the first two episodes. Holy shit, it warmed the vampire fan in me. Hell of War was one of the craziest match I've ever seen. MOTYC for sure. The only thing I didn't care for was the awkward set-up for Killshot footstomp spots (especially the second one). These (likewise Alberto or Sasha's) needs to go away. Dante as crazy potential, he can sell his ass off on top of his physical abilities, and showed great charisma doing it there. Then again, I guess he had not other choice but to sell... Ivelisse vs Catrina was all smoke, mirrors and bottles in the head, and for what it was it worked perfectly. Glad to see Ivy get at least her last moment of glory. And Marty the Moth vs Fenix was another terrific bloodletting and most of all a masterfully booked feud final, with the awesome Melissa involvement, the poetic justice from Mariposa and the great old-school shaving (gotta love that girl in the audience who obviously never saw that before and was both disgusted and marking out at the same time). The best feel-good moment of the promotion.

Don't tell me you're not excited by the idea of Bray Wyatt as Sister Abigail vs Demon Face-Fuck-Me ? WWE creatives are great... (yeah, Matt Hardy is indeed broken, but not in the right way)

I think that would be the one for me too. I remember watching for the first GWE poll, when the Destroyer craze was still going strong.

Ok, fuck. Didn't watch Orton vs Rusev. Everytime I see Orton, the pro-wrestling fandom in me dies a little bit. Plus I knew the result, really. The three-way was all smoke and mirrors to make Corbin look like what he is not. Styles was Flair-in-his-prime level of greatness bumping like a madman to make his dull opponent look better than ever. Adding a jobber, basically, made zero sense storyline-wise, but it was two guys able to make Corbin look *good* instead of one. And a way to do a cop-out finish too, with the champ losing without loosing, which is a reason among others I don't like three-ways in general. Natalya vs Charlotte was very good. Damn, I love solid work. Of course, the crowd sat on their ass because it wasn't a spot-show I guess. I thought Charlotte delivered a selling clinic, to the point I was wondering if she really didn't fuck up her knee. Best babyface performance I've seen on her part. I love that girl (and that wasn't the case at the beginning when she showed up in the main roster). She sure makes her daddy proud. Natalya was her super solid self, with good matwork (cool, some "scientific pro-wrestling", blast from the past). I don't mind the ending at all. It's old-school too and it makes sense and isn't just a cop-out like the previous one. More to come, I'm watching the next one between those two. Nak vs Jinder. Yeah, right. I'm totally not gonna watch that. Hey, Mahal won clean. Fantastic use of Nakamura. I sure loved that Nak vs Zayn match before Mania last year, reminds me of Istanbul and shit (I was living in Istanbul then). So, the new Ziggler gimmick is that old no-music crap they gave to Furnas & Lafon ? This guy should go see the world a little bit. How long has he been on their TV ? Bobby Roode is 40. Just saying. I wonder if he's taking anything, because he never, ever looked like that in TNA. He must take some Icopro. Not watching that either. I like Roode in TNA though, but that's enough for me. Fuck me. Shane is one of the worst "wrestler" I've ever seen. He's laughably bad. I have no idea who would care about this kind of shit, to be honest. We know how it's going to end anyway, Shane is going take a bump from the top, so why even waste all this time ? And what is the appeal off seeing Shane dive of the cage anyway ? It's stupid, it's dangerous, it's an ego-trip from a guy who doesn't even need to work. In front of his kids and wife mind you, so if something goes wrong, well... All of this is both idiotic and despicable. And looks like shit too. The kids laughing makes Shane the worst Ricky Morton ever, that cracked me up. Ok, FF through the end. Shane jumps. Well, you know, as much as I have loved Mick Foley, I knew back then that the HITC was a stupid idea. We're still paying it 20 years later. Who the fuck cares about Shane breaking himself in pieces at this point ? He's like the richest New Jack ever. The match is horrible, the conclusion is predictably idiotic. Just everything wrong about pro-wrestling, no redeeming things about this. The kind of shit that would drove me away from wrestling if I cared about this company. Oh yeah, Zayn aligning with Owens is like the best idea possible for a heel turn though. Plus the grumpy ones are gonna complain about "indy darlings" again, so that will be fun. That's the one positive spin on that entire debacle. Hey, one MOTYC and a very good women's match was a good use of my pro-wrestling fan time.

Soooooooo..... Usos vs New Day was simply a terrific opener. I love garbage brawls. Old ECW fan. The only thing that was missing was blood, but they made up for it with sheer brutality and drama moments. A wee bit too demonstrative at times (as in overproduced), but the accumulative effect for the slaughter, with regularly working big spots that were creative yet not cutesy, erased that feeling overall. Hell, I'd say MOTYC for WWE. That's it. It was a great PPV.

All-time wretched PPV on paper. Remember Nakamura vs AJ Styles in New Japan ? Yeah, I think it's time to drop the New Japan bomb here because now, they got Baron "Nothing Happening" (thanks Tony Schiavone) Corbin and That Indian Guy to work with. Anything from TNA was better for Styles. And Nak... well, that joke ain't very funny anymore. Wait, here's a funny one : of the three, yeah THREE, Hell in a Cell matches (with zero storyline purpose), one is a Falls Count Anymore. Russoism alert. Who the fuck wants to watch Kevin Owens vs Shane O-Mac, no idea. The day The son of the owner gets seriously injured, despite all the crocodile tears incoming, he will get exactly what his stupidity and ego starved for. And zero sympathy. Hopefully for his sake, it won't be that time, yet again. New Day I can't stand as a gimmick, but they are a really good team, so are the Usos, so I guess it's the cherry picking match of the night. Charlotte had a MOTYC last year against Sasha, remember ? The Women's revolution is already way behind it seems... The rest is just there. Ziggler as a gatekeeper is his best use I guess. Orton...zzzzZZZZzzzzzZZZZ put Lana back with Rusev, please. With so low expectations, I guess it can only be better than it should. Then again, most of the matches have go-away heat, even for a WWE PPV. Yikes.

Knowing them, they'll just make him speak quebecois (but isn't he from the English speaking part of Montreal anyway ?).

It's crazy. The whole "we don't have anything for you" mentality that came with the writers era is putting backstage incompetence above the talent of the workers themselves. There's no "getting yourself over" anymore. Zayn turning heel is head-scratching, it's like Ricky Morton or Ricky Steamboat turning heel. Zayn is a born babyface. They don't know how to push him because they are dumb as fuck and have no idea how to book the simplest thing, like an underdog babyface. Add to that the idiotic merchandising policy (ohh, this guy with no cool merch around doesn't sell shit, he's not worth pushing), I don't see how a heel turn will help Zayn, unless he can show great quality in the role, who knows (I thought Morton did well with the crappy heel turn he was given in WCW).

Holy shit, you people… I can't believe I have to explain that one… You've never noticed announcers saying "The complexion of the match has totally/dramatically changed" ? And you never hear about complexion of the match otherwise. It's only mentionned once : when it totally/dramatically changes ! Because it does. Every time. I'm not too sure of the exact nature of it, but it does change, totally, dramatically ! The announcer say so !

A pro-wrestling match has a complexion. And it always, ALWAYS, changes, either totally or dramatically. I challenge anyone to find a pro-wrestling match that had a complexion which didn't change.

…anymore. She was pimped as all hell back then. But yeah, terrific worker.

Back to the Territories with Savio Vega is a must listen for Vega's story about the Brody murder. It paints a pretty shady picture of Victor Jovica to say the least… (and Colon, not much better, but that was known) (EDIT : it's really the main thing too, as they really don't get into much details about the history and go into tangent like talking about Eddie Gilbert)