El-P

Yeah, that too. I loved how SMW made the most sense out of everything that happened there.

I don't know Chuck Taylor, so no comment on that from me. A fake exploding grenade spot does sound funny as shit in a comedy match context though. Then again, I like Joey Ryan's dick spot. I'll say this, those completely absurd yet amusing spots are nowhere as idiotic and annoying as say, the fucking Worm.

The Mummy wasn't Corny's doing. The financial backer of SMW wanted a mummy because he fan a fan of the old wrestling mummy when he was a kid. It turned into a vehicule for James Mitchell to say the most obscene stuff on a southern TV, so it was fine with me. The whole dust flying off was great too. A wrestling mummy is always great. Even when it's called a Yetay.

Maybe so. Doesn't change the fact Reigns should know better and be above that kind of stuff. Well, as a matter of fact, it's even worse if the guy is that irrelevant. It's like Reigns has nothing better to do. Really comes off as an insecure mark if he *has to* reply to these kind of people. The HHH school of learning how to work I guess.

Agreed. But I don't think NXT would have become the hip indy brand if not for CM Punk & Daniel Bryan's adventures on the main roster before. I may be wrong, but I see a link there.

I'm not feeling very good. Current favorite wrestler to watch: AJ Styles (in TNA 2006/07) Last fun match you saw: AJ Styles vs Rhino (last TNA PPV of 2006) With Styles pulling off a terrific fake injury spot that I *almost* bought. The guy was turned heel for no reason at all, but he's so great that he just made it fun from the very beginning, with this chickenshit heel strategy. Wrestler you want to see more of: Alexa Bliss. Although I find the booking of her feud with Bayley stupid as fuck, I really enjoy the petite bitch heel. Wanna see more of her. Match you're most looking forward to watching: Samoe Joe vs Kurt Angle from Final Resolution 2007. Yeah, I now I should say vs Brock Lesnar, but I haven't seen a good/fun Lesnar match in forever, so for now I'll settle with the third Joe vs Angle match, especially after the terrific brawl they had on the first iMPACT of 2007. Gotta cherry pick. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: What Happened When with Tony Schiavone. Truly the best podcast in the history of our sport. (easy, but true) Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: Last few WWE PPV. Not because of any of the matches, but because of Agius & Chereau, the French announcers, who never fail to crack me up. I think Vince & co have no idea what these two are saying. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): The comeback of Lucha Underground, which I'm pilling up on an USB so I can binge some of that.

The only dumb ass mark is Reign himself for acting like, well, a dumb ass mark when he's a corporate chosen one. How dare anyone in Da Business say that not everyone want to work for WWE ? Damn these guys...

Since Dolph is more or less a Billy Gunn clone, probably Road Dog.

Remember when American Alpha were the greatest thing on NXT PPV's and looked like can't miss success for the main roster...

Actually it's odd. The whole idea of star rating passed me by around 2001 at the latest. I haven't used this stuff in my writing in more than 15 years and wouldn't even consider it. I'm actually kinda shocked how much people still consider it of any interest to be honest.

This is the next Back to the Territories from KC, not Highspots (these guys are still active BTW ?). It sounds like it'll be a fascinating interview. Big time.

CM Punk & Daniel Bryan are the reasons why they opened their eyes to indy talent as main eventers and pushed AJ Styles straight on, not NXT. It's actually the other way around, what NXT became in the last few years is because of that change of mentality. I know people don't seem to want to give Punk any credit at all these days, but there's clearly been a before/after that guy as a WWE main-eventer.

Yes. They're both useless. And Fantano is your typical Youtube hipster jerkoff.

I like Joey Ryan's dick spot.

This is her comeback # how many already ? With Lana doing the glamour girl bit, I guess Emmalina is destined to be lost in the shuffle forever at this rate. Waste of talent.

Best summary indeed.

Of course it's figurative. Like the BILLION TRILLION STARS of old Dean Rassmussen reviews. But Meltz star ratings aren't. It's a system with a scale that has been established over the last 30 years. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it means absolutely zilch. Except when he does, as it influences the way the (hardcore, the only one that matters today for indies and such) audience see what a great match is, and then the way business works when it leans on the need of having "great" matches to draw said hardcore audience.

After 20 years of watching pro-wrestling with mostly critical eyes, I don't think I have seen ten matches I would give a 5 star ratings. I don't use the scale anymore, but I'm pretty positive about that fact. People are just praising way too much shit left and right as great for me to take any of this seriously.

It's not a matter of taking it too seriously or not, it's a matter of making sense in a given context. You can give as loony as you want of a star rating inside the scale, but when you make the whole scale useless, what's the point anyway ?

The Miz has carried the IC belt lately. He's been a good chicken shit champ with a hot valet. Very enjoyable worker. Charlotte has had some of the best WWE matches of the past few years and looked like a main event player. Easy choice.

Except now the scale is worthless. What does a ***** match even means, since you can give whatever snowflakes you want basically ? ******1/4 on what scale ? Seven ? Six and a half ? It's just stupid. And yes, Meltz officialy made his own system look like a joke (I'd say, again, but at least the 6 stars felt like, okay, this is a very special case) and himself as a complete parody as far as evaluating a match goes.

So, the last segment of TNA in 2006 was Kurt Angle snapping Samoa Joe's girlfriend ankle's to get a rematch (which would be the third match in three PPV's in a row). It's almost surreal how bad and quick Russo completely tanked my interest in the promotion which was so fun and easy to watch with for most of the Spike's era. I know if I was following this as it happened, I would have quit by this point, like I quit WWF in 99 and WCW in mid 00. 3 out of 3.

I'm telling you. He's on his way to become Robert Parker, as you get big matches in both NJ & WWE catering to his current tastes, for various reasons. Globalization of pro-wrestling is a terrible thing (like globalization in general).

Wait, again ? This is ridiculous. Never cared for the MITB gimmick it has jumped the shark a long time ago. Mostly can't stand the matches too, as it's usually a bunch of ladder stunts. That being said, with AJ and Sami involved, maybe we can get something. I have no idea what a guy like Nak can do in this setting. Corbin, I guess you can climb on him. He's about as charismatic as a ladder too. The women's match. Well, just what the division needed, someone carrying a briefcase. Why can't they just have a good solid single feud between Charlotte & Becky ? This willl probably be not too good. Lana. Wait, LANA ? Well, that's something I'm gonna watch, with morbid curiosity I guess. The two bookends matches are dull as all hell. A gimmicked sub In Your House PPV every three weeks is not the way to go.

The fact that it became mundane as opposed to shameful doesn't make it a Golden Age. During Cena's heyday, which is hardly a golden age itself, there was kids in France wearing his merch in the streets. There's none today. Except a few lucha theme stuff (even movies) that has less to do with people actually watching, knowing or caring about lucha than the designs being cool, pro-wrestling is off the radar. But we live in a more and more geeky world, where geeky stuff are more part of the ordinary. And pro-wrestling is a "geeky" hobby. For the hardcores though, yes, it is somewhat of a Golden Age, if only because of all the indies and access to footage.