El-P

Being happy > Being in WWE. These people don't need the WWE anymore. They can have a career without having to deal with their shit. And unless WWE manage to kill the indies, the hardcore scene is stronger than ever, so...

Really good stuff here : https://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/7/7/15933046/globalization-and-homogenization-pro-wrestling-njpw-wwe-kenny-omega-okada-dave-meltzer-star-ratings

He wants to work in a place where people actually care about his matches so he can sell some merch in the process maybe...

And Russo will get even more pissed.

Interesting take. I tend to agree with it too (as far as US goes of course).

Yeah but Bill Watts is old-school and shit and a genius and booked the greatest pro-wrestling territory that ever was. Or something. FWIW, I remember when I was going through the Mid-South TV back then (like ten years ago), the feeling I got was that there was a lot of really good stuff but that it was also overrated in the grand scheme of things. Especially the UWF days.

Ambulance stip always takes matches down. It's a shitty gimmick. But anyway. I do enjoy caustic Meltz, even when I disagree with his tastes (which is more often than not) or takes. And there's a world of difference between Braun/Rusev/Tenta/Bossman and fucking JYD, who basically sucked in Mid-South too (and yeah, I went through all this shit on TV years ago, JYD was more mobile and moved a bit quicker than he did in WWF, but he was still one hell of a crappy worker).

He didn't say WWE wrestling was terrible. I know people around here love that narrative of Evil Meltz Hates WWE, but he very regularly pimps WWE matches as great. As much as I don't care at all about Meltz's tastes for finisher kick out spamming orgies (which also happens in WWE, mind you, as it's the staple for the company's big match self-conscious epics), people being all boo-boo because he loves NJ never ceases to be funny to me. Or, actually, pretty sad actually. Get over it already. Who the fuck care ? People and their need to be validated has gotten even worse it seems these days. Maybe because of the social network shit and the culture of "likes"...

Mariko Yoshida.

Weren't you pretty much in tears the entire time you were reviewing the Russo era of WCW? And I imagine now that you're viewing his run in TNA, your cheeks are pretty tear-stained as well. Nah, that ship has sailed. The name is not Cornette. I just fast-forward a lot through the TNA stuff, the TV show is mostly very uninteresting, with all the terrible WWEism (written promos with awkward delivery, with a thousand overemphased "TONIGHT !") added to Russo's brutal "creative writing" (the whole Abyss & Sting angle is some of the worst rehashed shit). I'm just trying to look for a few cool matches and angles, which I give full credit to Dutch Mantell (Storm feuding vs Harris, LAX vs Team 3D stuff).

Well, Casas certainly was phoning it in hard when he worked Japan in the 90's. His stuff against Liger is the most dull Liger stuff of the decade and Motegi had better J-Cup/J Crown matches than Casas. (not saying it's relevant to his Mexico stuff, but there's some phoning it in performances from Casas on super famous shows)

Mike is still selling stuff ? I'm amazed !

Considering the praise it gets, let's try "Most overrated studio match ever". This was fun for what it was but was totally goofy and amounted to zilch. I'll never get how Garvin gets so much praise. I guess doing a thousand open hand slaps passes for great work. Yeah, it's stiff. And so ? Exchanges at first are nice. Then Ron injures his left arm on the outside post, which doesn't mean much since he's right handed. This will be forgotten pretty quickly anyway. Tons of slaps. A bunch of headbutts. Hey, if you do five fucking heabutts in a row and don't KO your opponent, that's piss poor use of a spot. And people give Kurt Angle hard time, like this kind of shit is any better… Ron does some random no-selling comebacks. Flair and him brawling is goofy, with usual Flair delayed bumps, Garvin's punches that aren't that great, the selling doesn't carry any sense of exhaustion either. Then it ends up in a giant schmozz. I wouldn't even call that match *good*. Fun stiff-fest. Okay. And before any pissant gets on me with "you want more MOVEZ LOL" bullshit, on the same TV show, Ole Anderson and Magnum TA beat the shit out of each other for 15/20 minutes in a match that actually had less "highspots" (I believe one dropkick and an axhandle from the second rope from Magnum), was all about punches and body shots exchanges and trying to punish each others arms if you could. It had nice transitions, excellent selling on both part, it looked like a real struggle and a fight (as opposed to a stiff chop exchange wankery). The more I see Ole, the more I think he's a completely overlooked and forgotten great (which is odd considering how minimalistic and to the core is was). The more I see Garvin, the more I think he's been ridiculously overrated in the last few years.

In general tribute shows for deceased workers are tear jerkers to get through, but for me, there always seems to be the reaction of one person that can set you off - for the Owen Hart show it's Jeff Jarrett's reaction, makes me well up whenever I've seen it. I haven't watch any other tribute show (except maybe JWP's tribute to Plum, but that was different as it was years after the fact, I wasn't following WWE at all when Eddie died) and I hate tear-jerkers in general. But for Owen you could feel the genuine emotion of many, Jarrett being indeed the hardest one to watch, you could feel how devastated he was.

Owen Hart's tribute show.

That's actually pretty cool !

It's fucking insane that this guy is president. Insane.

At this age, maybe so, yes. Either way, it's pretty damn awful.

I coined the term "Post Benoit workrate guilt", so that should tell you all about what I think of this debate. Tons of pro-wrestlers have taken way too much bumps, taken way too many chemicals and drank way too much. The percentage of those who went on and killed a woman is quite low, all things considered. Although some of them still are portrayed as heroes in 2017 (brutha). A woman dies every three days because of domestic violence (in my country, guess it's not much better in the US), so whether a guy took "too much bumps" or not is irrelevant to me. It's the whole patriarchal system that is beating on (and killing) women. Criminal assholes are just that.

It has less to do with pro-wrestling being full of awful people and more to do with the high level of domestic violence and women dying in the hands of their husband/partner in general. Earth is full of awful people, sadly. (that being said, here's one more guy I don't want to watch)

The bloodletting of all bloodletting. This match is about 70% selling. The important is not what you do but what your project. And these two projected a whole lot of emotions. They actually did beat the shit out of each other too, looking to work snug. The blood was also quite a big part for the nightmarish visuals of two guys wanting to maul each other. Yeah, those screams... Tully is absolutely fantastic, but Magnum has a once in a lifetime performance too. The finish is an apex of violence, the post-match is fantastic while Magnum renouncing to injure Tully even more and dropping the piece of wood down. Classic match with timeless appeal.

Koko's punching is up there with the best candidates ever. I can watch this guy punch all day. Formula touring champ Flair at the period he was at his very best. So it's an excellent match with a shit finish (like most Flair matches). Flair does tons of great shit here, including working the arm like his cousins would, busting out a double stomp and building a dynamic match against Koko who, despite not being Sam Houston or something, still had no chance in hell of winning. Koko is your regular Rocky Balboa, minus the win. Wonderful shot exchanges, this is basic and terrific at being basic. I had reached the point where I was bored shitless with Flair, but this kind of performance happily revives the Flair fan in me. Until the shit finish (which is expected). Still, Flair was great and Koko was excellent. Terrific match.

This. The period of me being a "mark", and Bret was my favourite pro-wrestler and a big reason why I was following the WWF (despite Duke Droese, King Mabel, Taker vs fake Taker etc…). The 1997 Bret vs Austin feud really capped off this period of my life and still remains I believe a highlight of pro-wrestling in general.

Damn. Now she really does work like Iron Mike Sharpe. That was stupid. Both nights were. The whole "let's redo the MITB on TV just after the PPV" was soooo WCW damage control bullshit. Samey match, only seemed longer. Only to confirm the result of the worst female worker on the roster getting the win. Whoopie doo. Well, thankfully we still have Asuka kicking ass on NXT (yeah, I did watch that match) and Banks vs Bliss at GBOF. So, all is not a waste.

Come on, Jeffey has been away from the McMahons for 17 years straight, building his own little legacy as a World Champion and promotion owner, now he got his stuff back while rebranding it, with that idiot Dixie finally away after years of debacles one after another. Not to say this will finally amount to anything now, but Double J is one hell of an old-school carny.