El-P

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.

It's no fake hip. It's a worked hip.

It is an escalation year on year, after the Shane match he left his gloves in the ring. Vs roman he left his hat, coat and gloves I don't want to know what he leaves this year. His artificial hip.

*yawn* (I hope we never get any "great" sendoff at Mania after this if he does come back, it's ridiculous. Stick to it or don't do it.)

And realistically, women's wrestling being taken seriously in a "major" US promotion in the modern era began in 2007 with TNA when Dutch Mantell decided he wanted to showcase the girls and they signed Amazing Kong to feud with Gail Kim. But that's beside the point. The fact WWE can't stand people getting over on their own is immensely stupid and a big part of what's wrong with them. That was the point of the whole business. "Go get over !".

I wonder if he's giving the management the old "This doesn't work for me brotha." in his deep voice...

Emma's music was boss. Of course they have to get rid of that. Funny that people seem to be all excited by the Mae Young (burp) Classic when in fact the women's division(s) have been booked like shit for seemingly forever now. Killing off Bayley. Fucking up Sasha at every corner. Making Charlotte a useless babyface for no good reason. The Lana debacle (and don't get me wrong, I liked Lana as Iron Mike Sharpe). I only like the fact they're pushing Bliss, because she's really cool. The less said about Jaxx the better. I kinda dread Asuka's main roster stint too, considering they did such a great job with Nak...

Jeff is turning into Jerry !!! (and yeah, shoot > angle, pro-wrestling in a nutshell)

He was fucking awful both as a character and as a worker. The American Badass is the worst Taker era ever, even worst than Corporate Ministry. Taker gets a pass for a whole lot of shit, really, because of how cool the gimmick had been before and was again when he became the Mania Vintagetm Undertaker again.

Bwahahahahah, this podcast is quite informative : https://www.cowboys4angels.com/cowboy/marcus-bagwell/