El-P

Watched the first few episodes. There sure are things to be said about the talent there, but oddly, the one thing that struck me the most is how I really can't stand the WWE production. The überclean, streamlined feel, the animatronic entrances and poses which make seem each and every one of them like puppets under control, the reality-TV interviews. I think those is what struck me the most, because the rest is sadly part of the WWE package in NXT too. But those interviews and intro videos. I felt like I was watching some Survivor candidates or something. And pretty much all of them went : "My name is whatever-the-fuck, I'm a good girl, I'm very confident, I do martial arts and I can kick hard, this is a very big deal for me, I've been told I couldn't do it but I'm gonna show them + (insert culturalism reference for non-english speaking talent)". For fuck's sake. If this is what "reality based" pro-wrestling is all about, I'm not sure I'm caring for it at all. This is why I love LU, it's pulp, it's comics, it's over the top. Here we have a bunch of girls who speak like they are doing Tough Enough. The fact WWE got into Reality-TV (which is some of the worst shit ever) really shows in the way they produce everything, from the look, the use of music, the way they tell "stories". And it's really bad. I don't get the hate for the announcing though. It's not great, but at least Ross actually talks like a human being and a pro-wrestling announcer. Lita is ok. She actually cracked me up when she laughed at the idea that Great Khali would have taught that flying move to that Indian Girl (yeah, sorry about that one). Speaking of which, the two recruits from India and China reeks of capitalistic desperation : "Pleaaaaaaase, buy our product pleaaaaaaase, we got someone from your country, look at them !". Damn, Tessa Blanchard looks like her father a bit. And since I've been on a Tully binge, that makes her dear to my heart automatically. Kairi Sane (gotta love how they give her another Japanese name to trademark, but they can't pronounce it for shit) is so above everyone is this it's not even funny. Shayna Baszler is going all the way. Look, attitude, seems to be a good enough worker. And the MMA crowd is already foaming at the mouth because RONDA ROUSEY. BTW, this was the first time I ever saw what Ronda looked like. That's how much I care about MMA. Dakota Kai won me over with 1 kick and 1 footstomp. Bianca Blair : the BRAID shot. Now, that's a gimmick. Cool look, heelish. But someday, someone is gonna stomp on those braids and it can't be pretty. Ripley : "Look how tall she is !". Good look, tall, blonde, boobs, potential. Yeah, they are gonna push the shit out of her. Enjoyed a bunch of others like Logan, Salinas, Storm, Yim, Niven, LeRae... Rachel Evers vs Marty Belle was the drizzling shit. Comically bad. I though Evers was the worst one in this too, so what do I know... Well, the matches are fun to follow. Nothing great though thus far.

Yes. And the opponents. Jeff is terrible. He can't do any basic pro-wrestling right, his flying mostly looks sloppy and lack any sizzle, his "cool" spots are the worst of late 90's/early 00's indierriffic wasted motion shit. Can't cut a promo and the whole "look at me I'm an artist, I just dropped a bunch of paint on my arms" stuff is embarrassing. I'd be happy not to watch another Jeff Hardy match ever. (the Broken stuff was fun because it was all bullshit, but honestly, I'd rather have anyone other than Jeff in those videos too).

The one thing I get out of all this mess is that I love that the notion of "pre-blading" even exists. Ah, pro-wrestling.

I really enjoy the Rabbit Tribe goofiness. It's like a bunch of people not coming down their acid trip at the lastest Burning Man. Cool to see them finally get a win thanks to the.... rabbit foot lucky charm ! Texano still doens't connect at all with me, so I'm glad Brenda & Famous B were around to make this fun. Great timing at missing the shot. Yeah, the breaking the arm has gotten old at this point, Pentagon doesn't need to do that anymore and it does seem like overkill to do it every time to everyone. Brenda & Famous B in casts can be good comedy though. But it had no chance in hell in following that humongous beating of a match that was Muertes vs Crane. Crane really endeared himself to me by taking giant beatings, but this was yet another level of brutal. Crazy shit that would make Tommy Dreamer proud. So yeah, I'm a mark for Muertes big brawl, be it competitive or one-sided like this one. And Catrina, oh, Catrina, she doesn't shy away... And well, immortal latino witches mother/daughter, I'm fucking there.

It is a matter of Jeff Hardy being a fucking terrible pro-wrestler. I have yet to see a single match where I can say he was *good*.

Oh, of course. Vince still gets it as far as the authority is supposed to show ass and get beat up. It's insane after 17 years, Trip & Stephy still haven't figured this out (well, they probably have, but they just don't want to).

It was stupid as fuck though. And it sets a terrible precedent too "Hey, the 70 years old boss did it, why won't you ?". To set up yet another awful, stupid and dangerous Shane match I would guess. This is dreadfull on every level.

Same here. Not crazy about some of the ridiculous spotfests (Dante Fox, looking at you there, although the spots he does are indeed incredible, he just needs to learn to sell and pace his matches), but this a still super refreshing as a pro-wrestling TV show. Slowly getting back into the groove. EP29 had the cool, classic (as in "old-school") Dominic angle. Can't believe so much time has passed since the Eddie stuff, and really, it's hard for me to see Rey Rey as the father of this all grown up kid. That's me showing my age, but I still see Rey as this 20 something guy in WCW. The fact he probably doesn't look his age under the mask (really, he looked 17 in 2000) also helps. Really enjoys the Melissa Santos/Fénix/Marty the Moth storyline too, cool to see Melissa finally get more involved. Best ring announcer that I'm aware of currently.

The Roman Reigns Era ? Sooo 1995.

Sue me, those drinking contest segments from Genesis 2007 with Eric Young & James Storm actually amused me. Especially Jackie Moore dropping a "That sumbitch is out!" at the end. And damn, that ladder match between Christian Cage & Kaz was quite the brutal affair too. Yeah still lot of good stuff in 2007, despite the awful Russo booking (I credit Mantell for everything good).

Braun is a babyface. Well, you know.

Steve Austin shouldn't be used for any kind of analogy, ever. He's a very unique case. Come on, it worked for Lug... oh, well.

They have raised the bar on stupid-as-fuck exhibition stunt shows with people climbing ladders just to fall down through tables. As a pro-wrestling match with a gimmick, Razor vs Michaels remains a classic.

Agreed. Throw in some Backlund vs Valentine matches too.

You won't get an argument about that from me. I'd rather re-watch Andre vs Hogan than your usual self-conscious 35 mn Mania Epictm with finisher kickouts orgy.

Andre/Hogan was actually GOOD. That's the worst part. The match made sense. Hogan tries to slam Andre and hurts his back. So Andre works the back before Hogan finally slams him to win. Real simple stuff. ...which mostly looked like crap too because Andre really couldn't do much that looked any good. Not to mention Hogan "finally slamming Andre" after he couldn't do it the first time and had his back worked the entire time doesn't make one lick of sense if you really think about it. People are all up in arms with "selling" and "storytelling" that "make sense", but when you simply think two secs about stuff like this, it actually make no sense whatsoever. It "works", but it doesn't look good and it's kinda stupid, really, like any "hulking up" sequence is.

Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe in TNA was about as close as "MMA" as Tito Santana vs Greg Valentine. (which is actually a compliment, but the whole "MMA" deal in pro-wrestling has to go because it always comes back to the MMA gimmick being "this is real while the other shit is fake" break-the-fourth-wall nonsense)

And that's... bad ? Honest question here. All this seems absolutely positive to me. Pro-wrestling will never be what it was before, for better and worse. It evolves. And although some of the evolution I'm not always positive about (of course), all of this I'm perfectly happy with. (race doesn't exist BTW, but I get what you mean by it)

Working closer to MMA was done before MMA even existed. It was called "shoot-style". It'd been dead for almost 20 years because the real thing came up. NXT is mostly based on Evil Indy Darlingstm showing up one after the other to finally get their WWE stints (and good for them). And the booking is cosplaying an old territory, of sorts, which can be fun be certainly is not "ahead of the curve" either. Damn those liberal millennial pro-wresting fans... (and yes, in the last two years, I've seen two of the best matches I've ever watched in my almost 30 years of pro-wrestling : one was Naito vs Omega in the G1 Climax last year, the other one was THE Tully vs Magnum I Quit cage match)

Agreed, that was my first thought too. And I know first hand, having been in the same situation. Plus, I'm watching late 07 TNA and Karen then Angle was just excellent in her role, she picked it up immediately, a complete natural. Enjoying her stuff a lot (even when she's given crappy stuff, she's making the best out of it)

Hell can freeze over, but I agree with goc, Braun doesn't need the title right now to be special. He's special as being Braun, he's typically the case of a guy who's an attraction in of itself. Braun can be the Undertaker circa early to mid-90's, except his matches are a lot better. Taker didn't get the belt before 97 (yeah, he got it for a week in 91 but it's a footnote). Lesnar used to be special for a while until he became a gimmick and a phantom champ (and looked special again paired up against.... Braun). Let's not have Braun be "just another guy" by putting a belt that has no value left on him. Let him be Braun, the "special attraction". When times comes, you can make him the champ.

How cool is that ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o041_3xIRLo

Not comfortable, I give you that. It's kinda fitting to watch a shitty product though.

It makes you wonder when "get over!" became "get over it!" Nicely put. And quite fitting.

Thinking about the fans, there's no way you can invest into him emotionally either or follow a story arc (yeah, not everyone cares about your local US indy that had those greatest matches ever 24 people rave about). So yeah, he's like, a really good worker (I guess, still, I'm going through 2007 TNA and he was quite the trooper there despite not being used like he probably should, honestly, but that's 2007 TNA) whom you really shouldn't give a fuck about that much.