El-P

I did, actually : "but I'm surprised Gallagher doesn't get shit on for taking an unprotected, uncontrolled headdropping bump followed by a finisher (kind of) only to kick out and then keeping on going." Of the four Horsewomen, to me Bailey has been exposed a bit since she joined the main roster. She doesn't look that great anymore, whereas Charlotte has improved quite a bit and Sasha & Becky usually look just as strong.

That was pretty awful and looked like it lasted an eternity. No idea what the bad US announcers said about it, but Christophe Agius (French heelish announcer) did a tremendous job covering for it while acknowledging it was all screwed up. That guy is simply great.

Disagree completely. Very good match which took its time before the first elimination instead of rushing through falls. Strong & Aries weren't establish or even regulars so it makes sense that Bentley, who was both an established guy and getting a brand new babyface push would get above them. Also made sense he would help Sabin since they were partners. Mostly terrific work from all here, with a great post-match to boot. One hell of a chaotic brawl, with the added bonus of big spots being teased (and not all delivered, maybe saving them for further matches down the line). Jarrett was clearly motivated at this time, and he worked well with Rhino. D'Amore's booking has made TNA an easy product to watch, but the Spike TV debut really gave it a boost (with the debut of Team 3D then Christian) and the promotion was looking fresh and hot at this time period, with legit momentum, probably for the only time of its existence.

After doing gang bang videos with guys disguised as Mean Gene and John Cena (that anyone can find online), I'd say the odds are rather slim.

Care to elaborate ? (he's got that assholish reputation forever, but twitter is the pits in term of acting like a dick) I can't post images, because he's blocked me. Trump supporter and all the worst qualities that go with that. We'll leave it there. Ok, thanks for the answer. Well, of the two Dudleys, it was always "D-Von is a cool guy, Bubba is a complete dick", so…

Care to elaborate ? (he's got that assholish reputation forever, but twitter is the pits in term of acting like a dick)

You're definitely not alone in feeling that way, either. One (self-conscious) **EPIC** match per card is *plenty* in my book, even for the biggest shows of the year. Thirded. What a lame-ass show. So. I have to deprogram my TNA 2005 brain to enjoy Samoe Joe vs Sami Zayn. Because Samoe Joe in 2005 was just another beast. Still, this was a nice Samoa Joe vs JTTS Impact match. Sort of. I don't feel like it was that impressive for either of those guys though. I'm not watching Enzo & Cass. They're the worst NAO ever. And their opponents are mediocre NJPW cast-offs. So, no. Ok. I know we're in the era of "every fat/big guy was awesome and a great worker" bullshit, but Nia Jaxx brings nothing to the table. She's the least intimidating female monster ever. Her shit looks weak as hell. Sasha was basically twisting herself around a woodblock. Waste of time for Sasha. Well, at least she won. So, some filler including poor Rusev & Lana. Lana is a cool act and she's like the hottest woman ever, and she gets to do zilch. Rusev is completely wasted. He could be a monster heel still, a champ, a cool babyface, but no. He's just getting thrown in shit angles and gets feed to the fucking Big Show, who still can't lift his leg to hit a big boot correctly and who probably won't get that "dream match" (yeah, irony) at Mania. Fuck this. Neville vs Gallagher was like the best match on the show at this point (and until the end), but I'm surprised Gallagher doesn't get shit on for taking an unprotected, uncontrolled headdropping bump followed by a finisher (kind of) only to kick out and then keeping on going. WWE gets pass for everything I guess. I also find him too gimmicky in his englishness. Work more like Regal and less like the Vaudevillains, please. New Day.... awwwwww fast forward. Them hosting Mania is gonna be atrocious. Ok. Roman Reigns. Why the fuck should I care. This guy is sleep inducing to me. Boring sell, boring offense, the crowds hates him. I like Braun better, but this goes on forever. Braun doing a top rope splash is kinda cool. But it makes the whole cruiserweight division looks idiotic too. But then again, so did Vader. This was dull as hell most of the time and way too fucking long (because Roman is The Guy I guess and The Guy in WWE always has epic match even though he really can't). Ok, so what the hell happened in the women's match ? I know "execution doesn't matter" (sarcasm), but this was sloppy as all hell, with overshoots, bumbling around, screwed up spots and stuff looking like crap. Bailey is turning into Yastu post 87 or what ? The finish was indeed weak and the idea of a four-way at Mania (including Jaxx, who has no business except jerking the curtain learning how to work), well, Miss Redman explained it very well why it's lame booking. Anyway, this was easily the worst Charlotte match in forever. Main event. Ah ah. At this point this is a mercy killing. Still, I was tired of this kind of Goldy stuff by mid 1998. The revival bit was both stupid and glorious against Lesnar. There it's plain redondant. But after killing Lesnar in two seconds, you can't not kill KO in two seconds too. Well, I have ZERO desire to see Mania. The New Day hosting (and the idea of Hulk "niggas ain't shit" Hogan doing a nostalgic/apologetic bullshit act would be the cherry on that distasteful cake). Roman vs the Corpse of Taker. Bray vs Orton in a Black Holes nightmare epic. A four way cluster including worst monster ever Nia. AJ vs SHANE MOTHERFUCKING MCMAHON. Well, actually Goldy vs Lesnar is the only intriguing stuff left, and not for the match itself but for the booking. (Lucha Underground can't come back soon enough)

Always fun to stumble onto the oddest pro-wrestling reference. In "Une affaire privée", a french movie by Guillaume Nicloux from 2002, the moody detective is seen in his underwear working in his bed in front of a TV where a bloody Hidoh is dropped into a barb-wire board, in an FMW deathmatch.

"We know who that is !" TNA announcers.

We have a winner. Make TNA great again ? REALLY ? Well, I may watch this shit, just for the hell of it. I mean, a reboot of the longest, most irrelevant (and very few times terrific, I'm in the middle of D'Amore's 2005 booking run and it's really good) pro-wrestling company ever, what's not to love ?

Agreed ZION 99 was a disapointment compared to what came before. Ah, that mixed-match. I remember that stuff. Futagami was really close to morph into GAMI. Which isn't a very good news although she was legit funny at times. And Chama was getting more and more into the model girl gimmick, which suited her well but was kinda… too magical girl for my tastes (especially with the no-selling).

It did not have the epicness of the first match, but it was still a great match. I mean, the wrestling was terrific. Great execution, great bumping, good transitions and counters, good selling. What else do you want ? The only criticism I have about this one is that after a while, anyone that has seen too much wrestling could guess it was gonna be one of two classic finish, either a draw or a last moment pinfall/submission. It was N°2, but damn it was executed perfectly, with a callback to the last three-way dance at the last PPV. Just terrific work from both. Great, leaning on MOTYC. (oh yeah, that bump on the steps looked nasty and AJ Styles really sucked it up, as he looked in pain after the match) TNA under Scott D'Amore was an excellent promotion with way more good than bad and regularly great stuff.

Really cool garbage match and yeah, Sabu in 2005 was still a fucking ace. Blown spot ? Ah ah ah. Look at him do those insane jumping from the chair shit and no missing a beat. They really paced it well and didn't do too obvious set-ups and contrived sequences, it flew as an insane brawl. Jeff Hardy is usually useless but here there was too much good workers (I made a 180° on Abyss) sink this one, and the bump he took here was legit insane. Rhyno being beat up but taking advantage of the situation at the end and delivering two huge deathspots (sold as such too) was a terrific finish. Excellent match indeed, and the first time I enjoyed Hardy in TNA. Sabu still rules hard.

"It was me ! It was me all along !" Russo level writing.

Watch any Yagi you can from 90's JWP also then. Yagi was great. It only killed my interest in the promotion for me, pretty quickly. (but we got some "interesting" gang bang video at the end I guess, way before Chyna did one (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably don't need to know))

Well, it was kind of a very late "classic" for the zombie promotions era of the early 00's I do think, but we were very few to still watch and pimp Jd' at that time. I was a huge Yabushita fan back then, and Sakai was quite the worker too. The fact you mention them as "random name" sadly shows how much this little promotion has been overlooked all the time, while the mediocre GAEA stuff was recieving all the attention and pimping by boring people, as Sakai & Yabushita were everything but random names. Hell, throw in Miss Naomi Kato aka Da Bloody, and you get a trio of cult favourites.

Back to the Territories with Stan Hansen is another winner if you fancy Cornette and Hansen shooting the breeze about Japan and do not care so much about going into details, since Corny isn't exactly the guy for this stuff apart from generalities about Inoki and Baba. But Stan is an very nice interview so it's quite the good stuff anyway. I learned that Hansen actually screamed "Youth !" while doing the longhorn hand gesture.

Indeed. Triple threat matches are mostly shitty and almost never great because the gimmick makes for annoying pacing and contrived stuff. These three made a great match out of it. So many cool yet smart spots worked into this formula here, amazing execution, jaw-dropping sequences. Yes, three great workers (Daniels is ridiculously underrated at this point, he's a legit great one that gets zero credit because he didn't get the token WWE years) working at their top level and getting a MOTYC out of a gimmick that prevents it on paper (unless any clusterfuck with contrived built-in spots gets raved upon, which of course happens more often than not).

Indeed. Triple threat matches are mostly shitty and almosy never great because the gimmick makes for annoying pacing and contrived stuff. These three made a great match out of it. So many cool yet smart spots worked into this formula here, amazing execution, jaw-dropping sequences. Yes, three great workers (Daniels is ridiculously underrated at this point, he's a legit great one that gets zero credit because he didn't get the token WWE years) working at their top level and getting a MOTYC out of a gimmick that prevents it on paper (unless any clusterfuck with contrived built-in spots gets raved upon, which of course happens more often than not).

Fuck these people. Fuck them so hard. People are already feeling the effect of Trump presidency in their everyday lives, and suffering because of it. So fuck each and every one of these people. I hope this shit is gonna bite them in the ass one day.

Well, yes, it was awesome and one of the best episode of LU alltogether. And I had no idea who these japanese girls were to begin with, but I can only guess how hard I would have marked out to see them in that context if I followed Stardom. Loved the fact it escalated in competitiveness and violence. Pentagon was tremendous. Not once any of this looked contrived, ridiculous or exploitative. They really have turned the corner, this is straight Kill Bill shit. And despite the super stiff chop (hey, how one single chop is more efective than throwing a hundred), you can guess how safe he actually is with some of those kicks to the head that look sudden and brutal. His selling and bumping for the girls was terrific. Great worker and character. The three girls all looked amazing in selling the beating but also shined on offense. That Io Shirai girl must be insane. My jaw dropped like four times during this. The bumps on the chairs. That final dive. And the final with Black Lotus was pure badasserie (yeah, in "French"). I must also emphasize how great Melissa Santos is, as you can see her reacting during the matches, grabbing her mic when she feels it can be the end, actually clapping for the women and looking involved (because why wouldn't she ?), all of which without having the cameras actually being on her. It feels so organic and makes it all more legit, despite the fantasy world of LU. Speaking of which, the two main vignettes were awesome, with a heavy stylish horror feel to them. I really hope Lucha Underground gets more seasons. (and I see 8000 posts and I wonder what the hell am I doing with my life too)

Please, don't drop the "SD is such a complex and compelling show you have to watch to get how great this feud actually is" on me. I've seen everything by now. It's Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt. Giant Baba, Riki Choshu, Kevin Sullivan, Paul Heyman, Bill Watts all in together at best best of their booking trickery couldn't make me care about them. Orton has been a black hole for a decade plus. Wyatt is the new black hole. This match is the supernova of dullness and suck. Actually, old-ass Taker being punched in the face by Roman Reigns while a stadium shits on the match sounds quite appealing. I hope Roman gets over actually, as Taker has overstayed his welcome (well, his comebacks) for a few years now. Turn the fucker heel already. Seeing Cena work his magic was such a cruel reminder that Reigns just isn't all of that and a bag of potato chips.

No. Well, actually I did watch the go-home SD before the Rumble and man, was that nothing or what. A short JTTS battle royal won by the awful Mojo Riley. A neverending typical my-turn your-turn promo segment with Cena & AJ (straight out of every WWE interview segment from the last 17 years). A terrible "comedy" segment with Carmella and Ellsworth doing "Pretty Woman". A non woman's match. Wow. Yeah, felt like the greatest pro-wrestling TV show ever or something. Maybe it was just a bad show, but it felt like every terrible WWE TV I've stumble upon over the years. I have zero interest in WWE TV format, it's the last thing I want to watch even with the great french announcers making things way easier. I'll keep on cherry picking matches.

So… Orton vs Bray or Orton vs Cena ? Major yawn to both. Speaking about yawn, HHH vs Rollins. Want to see that Trip intro though. Roman Reigns vs Zombitaker. Braun vs….. no idea. Lesnar destroying Goldy (that's the least he could do) Charlotte vs Asuka. Yeah, I know it won't happen, but a four-way cluster for the women would be such a disapointment and unfair treatment. ……... Coming off this poor Rumble, things are so not exciting.

What a boring Rumble match. Mostly nothing happening forever for the first 2/3 apart from the Braun Diesel push. Way too gimmicky all the time, with people not even showing the will to try to eliminate anyone and basically jumping out when they get their cue and staying out of the way of the token angle/comedy taking place at the center of the ring. No surprise entrant. No Joe, no Nak. Not even Angle or Goldust or whoever. Fuck me, even HHH would have been at least funny. The three big name right after one another, almost. Well, when you see Taker, you get it. He looks every bit of his age. Amore was a waste of time. "Not even funny" said a french announcer. Right. Goldy & Taker, two of the biggest stars in the match. In 2017. Well. I must admit, I loved the trolling at the end. Really, Roman Reigns at 30 and taking out Taker ? This was glorious. Of course, the final three wasn't. Bray, I dunno what to say. Buy him a djembe or something. Orton winning... Fuck me. So yeah. Worst Rumble match in a long time with tons of dead time and way too much gimmickry. Aztec Warfare III pisses on this match so hard it's not even funny. Well, a two match show really. A great, great one and a very fine opener. I should definitely keep on cherry picking. Well, good night. It's almost 5 in the morning. I won't do that for Mania. Hell, I have no idea where I'll be then anyway.