El-P

Quarter-finals were ok. Abbey Laigh (that name, please...) vs Mercedez Martinez was okay because Laigh's work is solid. Martinez is a 16 (!) years veteran ? Ok. I don't see much in her. She's just there. Not bad. Not good. Don't care for the latino gangsta attitude poses. Dull work, not much charisma. For what it was supposed to accomplished, Shayna vs LeRae was easily the best match of this round. Very good work by LeRae. She needs to be signed yesterday. Shayna is protected as all hell, but she's got the attitude and aura. Cool finish and post-match (BTW, I find the deal with both girls in the middle with the ref raising the winner's hand to be corny as fuck, we know who won, ya know...) Ok, people that go to the University, you can identify that you're watching "Women's wrestling !". Gooood. Next week, we'll learn the numbers. I take smart-ass chants over this stupid bullshit (likewise "This is wrestling !", especially when nothing has happened yet). So, women's wrestling it is with Piper Niven vs Toni Storm, which had a cool beginning with a funny comedy spot. I have to say I don't get the hype about good ol' Viper though. The pattern I get after three matches I don't care much for. She does spots she isn't suppose to do because of her body type (see how PC I am there...). Ok. And that's pretty much it. Not that interesting. Maybe the context does her no favors. Dunno. Decent match. As far as pure work goes, Kai vs Sane was easily a step above everything else. Damn, I really like Kai's kicks. She's explosive. Spear + countering the awkward double-stomp = Kairi is cool as hell. Good match, a little on the spotty side. I don't get the booking of putting Martinez in the semis (at all), against Shayna to boot. Abbey would have been much more interesting there. Sane vs Storm can be a cool match though. I don't get the hate for the announcing. I find Ross pretty good. My brain really doesn't hear Lita.

Exhibit #n Brother Ray saying to interviewer Crystal (whom I liked, BTW, she showed personality despite being fed the usual TNA mysoginistic bullshit from everyone, as showed here) that he should "fed" her to Devon, then at the end of a promo concluding with "We take what we want", he forces a kiss on her by grabbing her hair. No mention of this nor any outrage by the announcer, and she's perfectly fine by the next segment. (iMPACT 07/12/2007)

15 years ago, they would have chanted "USA ! USA !" to support Nak, who would have brought a US flag to the ring.

Raven is great. Come on, Honaga was en excellent sleazy heel worker. Loved his stuff with Liger. My boy (Jim Barnett impression here)... would be Sambo Asako. Fat judo guy from the early days of FMW. Took stupid bumps and was doing stuff he really shouldn't do (but I won't spoil anything here), played Onita's understudy of sorts. He sadly slowly died of diabetes years later.

The Schiavone podcast episode about Heenan is a must-hear.

I had forgot about this show (well, no, but I wish), which was the blow-off of Lioness takeover. Well, the dream match between Yoshida & Toyota was a disapointment back then with Toyota (from my distant memories) being on auto-pilot. The main event was Lioness being Lioness and Ayako, like you said, throwing bombs and whatnot and this was kind of a mess. I think I checked out for good then, I believe I didn't buy more ARSION tapes after that point.

Ah ah ah !

Hayes was probably drunken. You know the minute Trip is in power, Hayes is a goner.

The famous "goodbye" to Gorilla on Nitro was pretty though to watch too. But Bobby basically evokes only smiles and laughs. What is better than that ?

I admit, as the one clamoring for people to post in the GFW thread, it's pretty damn funny. It's like, you can't escape it. IT LIVES ! And Corny is gone already too. TNA is gonna bury us all.

Ditto. That was the old ECW touch I was talking about, people showing up with a clear purpose, feuds cross-pathing and in the end, a giant brawl. Loved it.

Don't slander the good name of Battlebowl !

A terrific hour of LU with two very strong match with interesting parallels, the two original babyfaces and the two dark angels going at it against each others. The final angle was ver good, although I'm not a fan of the old "security guys" as peons. But it's niceto have a promo that goes for four sentences before shit breaks out. You know in WWE this would have gone for 15 minutes going back and forth with one guy listening to the other while holding his mic before replying. Here Mundo talks shit, Rey jumps him and then... really reminded those old ECW entire roster brawls before big shows. Yeah, I was half-expecting the ECW chants to break out, that's how old I am. Dario Cueto looking the massacre with delight was priceless. And now I really look forward Rey vs Mundo (the build has been extremely effective yet so simple, with only one big angle at the end), Pentagon vs Puma as a great final, Mil vs Cage and of course Marty vs Fénix. (I don't mind Catrina getting a boot in the face because Pentagon is a killer with no soul while she's an immortal witch. Plus the fact Mil got pinned just as she went down really works too, it's like losing the connection made him weaker. Catrina is like the greatest Paul Bearer ever.)

Georgia ain't WWE territory.

Yeah, I get the feeling. It's nice and all, especially if they drag Steamboat, the RnR and some other Crockett guys over there. But I dunno... Well it can't be worse than the last 2 (or 3) actual Starrcades either, so.

So, how long did it take for us to be intrigued to "pffff, whatever" ? Seriously, if you bring back the Starrcade name, at least do something special about it.

Tessa Blanchard vs Charlotte Flair. Book it !

EP 6 wasn't as good. Lacy Evans vs Tony Storm was kinda fun. WIth her life story, gimmick and look, I can see "money" if played right with Evans. And take a shot every time the announcers say "Marine Corps" too. Quite disappointed by Yim vs Shayna. I've seen way too much shoot-style I guess, this was poor Battlart attempt with weak strikes and *yawn* ankle locks a-la Angle (which I accept in Angle's matches but still remains one of my least favourite submission ever). Yim's bicycle kick looks like her taking a hard back bump rather than give an acrobatic kick to her opponent. Shayna looks like a legit MMA fighter afraid to work too stiff. Yeah, not very good... Actually, Ripley vs Kai was much better in term of kicking around. Best match of the show too and surprising win by Kai to me. Not crazy about the finish; that awkward set-up a-la Alberto doesn't sit well with me although they did as good of a job as can be done. Ripley is sooooo gonna get pushed like crazy. Tons of potential. I like Kai's intensity. The less said about LeRae vs Savoy the better. Nothing match here. I guess LeRae's gimmick, since her last name is of French origin, is that she only faces opponents with actual French names. I mean : Renee Michelle ! Nicole Savoy ! What's next ? Sophie Letourneur ? Yeah, I guess I'm the only one who noticed it, but I got a kick out of that. I guess it's a Paul Levesque rib.

You don't say. The braid lashes is my new favourite spot. Love everything about her, the look, the outfit, the heel demeanor (she's still self-conscious but she's green as grass), the non-cutesy work with power stuff (the squatting while holding a vertical suplex, Davey Boy style). Shitloads of potential here. I'm a fan already. Granted, she worked with Kairi, who's just a bunch of step above everyone here, but still, very good main event. I feel I've been missing on the latest years of joshi puroresu when I see Asuka and her (and those two other girls who showed up in LU once), but so is life. Kairi is gonna be the greatest Captain Mike ever. Yeah, pirate my ass, she's doing the Captain Mike Rotundo gimmick, you all know it. That elbow drop though, can't be good long-term… Oh, and that "catching the kiss and stepping on it" had me mark out. Jury's out on Niven. After a second match, I can already see a pattern that I'm not sure I like that much (basically : female Kevin Owens) Abby Leigh is fun to see, despite the bad name and stolen car makeup. She made Evers look tolerable here. Want to see her against a good opponent. Very strong main event, okay matches otherwise.

The greatest manager of all time. Funny as shit. Cancer's a bitch.

Just watched Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong from Turning Point 2007. If that stuff was on WWE TV today, people would go apeshit for this and would declare it the greatest thing of the year. (it also makes whatever praise Nia Jaxx gets even more ridiculous than it already is)

Agreed the finish kinda came from nowhere, although it fit the RnR still being the underdog champs, if that makes any sense. Excellent match. And Ole is criminally underrated, he's a terrific worker.

Really good match, shit finish. I always thought Nikita's strong point was his selling (and no-selling). Shitty on offense though, but Flair is at his pinballing glory here so it doesn't matter. The only thing sad to me was the no-finish at Starrcade. Different times maybe, but still a complete cop-out for the biggest show of the year.

Tully is quite amazing, but the whole stop-start action gets tedious to me after a while. Dusty just ain't that interesting inside the ring, he's decent in small doses but he's also kinda tiring to me. But yeah, Tully & JJ's antics (the pre-match bullshit is classic, and Earl whipping off the vaseline was very funny) are ***** material here. Odd how Tully had this reputation of being a real-life asshole, yet inside the ring he wasn't afraid of coming off like a complete coward, showing tons of ass and getting beat up forever. He was really a "give" pro-wrestler as a worker.

Jarrett vs Joe was actually quite the fun match, and Jarrett was a trooper in taking lashes.