El-P

Probably in their contract too. Well, it picked up with Braun and dropped dead once he was eliminated. Mediocre Rumble match thus far.

Most useless referees ever.

Way too many beards in this company. And thus far, way too gimmicked up Rumble match. Okay, but not that good.

Mojo vs Cass is like the most useless pairing ever. Gallager and the parapluie was fun. Kinda jobberville until Braun came up though. And Braun, well, I would have loved back in 1998, when I was all about Kurrgan.

Why is Cass employed, remind me ?

He's tired and delirious. He probably thought Styles was Raven or something. Raven vs Abyss from that 2005 TNA PPV was way better than Reigns vs Owens, that's for sure. I'm not even tired. Not even one bit drunk. I'm going to stay awake for the Rumble at this point.

You obviously don't follow my (mostly) super enthousiastic LU thread. But yeah, I was fearing the worst after the SS match, which I couldn't stand. And then I loved (mostly) every minute of this one. Hey, I'm in the middle of the night alone with a drink and I'm glad I saw a great fucking match.

(and seriously, Cena is so above anyone else in the company in term of being Da Man, still)

Great match. A wee bit too much finisher spamming at the very end, but it's like complaining about elbow exchange in a NJ match. MOTYC. Great performance by both. AJ Styles is an amazing worker. Cena was terrific too here. Thanks to them both, I didn't stay that late for nothing.

Holy shit, those veins. Seriously ? Ok, I'm drinking to stay awake now.

SEVEN STARS INCOMING ! (hey, it's almost 3 in the morning and I'd rather watch the Rumble match at this point. I am bored out of my mind)

Ditto. It went 20 minutes overkill to me. So. The same. Hopefully they don't work like WWE epic-programmed-robots this time

Great idea for a cruiserweight match to do stomps and chinlock spots. Because this show has been so breathtaking thus far. Well, it was *solid*. No idea why this is on PPV though. Apparently neither does this audience. At least they can watch the match without the awful camera tricks which ruin every cool spot too. Boring, snail pace show thus far, with Charlotte vs Bayley being the best match thus far at *very good*.

Nice. An overlong, worked-at-a-snail-pace Attitude Era like garbage brawl, with the whole Jericho spot rendered absolutely useless thanks to the no-DQ stip, which overstayed its welcome about half-way through ending on a shit finish with a Kane/911 run-in. Gawwwwd. The self-conscious epic aspect of these overlong matches with carefully planned "epic" spot I really have zero patience for at this point. If you do a brawl, make it dirty and dramatic, not deliberate like this. It felt like 1999 again. Reigns vs Braun ? Cool, One match I can FF at Mania. This PPV is FUCKING SLOW.

ZZZZZZzzzzz..... I still have no idea what people see in Roman Reigns. He sures punches and lariats a lot. He ain't Lex Luger though. Pyramid chair ? Uh... ok. ECW ? ECW ? ECW ?

Damn, Reigns vs Owens with Jericho in a cage. Look at me not caring. It's 1.30 in the morning already. No idea how late I'm gonna go. Jericho's sleazy look is still awesome.

Thank god, Agius & Chereau are back on my TV. Bye bye Cole and the bunch. Charlotte vs Bayley I'd say was very good, but nothing special either. Bayley's timing was off on several occasion and she isn't nearly as over as she was in NXT. The elbow-drop was nice. Charlotte is terrific to watch though, she's easily became one of my favourite. Well, I don't see where they go from there. The Sasha feud was awesome, this looks like it's over and done with. Fine opener.

Funny, the first PPV I got to watch in English was the Rumble 1997. And there on French TV, 20 years later, I fucking get the English sound (for now). What the hell ? Ok, so Bailey vs Charlotte opens the show. Damn. This is the only match I really want to see apart from the Rumble.

Fuck. And I'm glad I don't get the pre-show here already.

Totally agree. I've said it since the beginning, I hated that song (well, it does suck too) because it was very obviously a case of production self-consciously pandering to the audience's worst instincts. It's like that damn Fandango chanting that was funny for two minutes. It all goes back to the awful "sing-along" mentality of the Attitude Era, the NAO syndrome, entrance (or gimmicky catchphrase) being way more over than the actual workers. From what I read on that thread, there's probably nothing on that show for me. First time I'm skipping a Takeover in long time. Ok. Nak & Joe in the Rumble. Please.

The Sky tournament was the realization that Mari Apache was cool as hell. ASARI also never looked better than during this freelance stint (I believe she had left Zenjo at this point and was working regularly with Yagi in MPro cards around that time too).

Puro vs lucha. Not overly familiar with La Sombra, but yeah, they just don't get it. They never pushed Rey Jr. the way they should. ADR was a bust. They never got why Mistico was such a star. And now this. Well, that card looks like a complete nothing. Authors of Pain are so painfully generic, from the name to the looks to the whole gimmick. Is Ellering still with them ? Brings back great memories of DOA… More indie darlings with Roderick Strong and TNA-lite Eric Young as new guys for the "developmental territory". Asuka in a four-way. Yup. The show is cold.

What is the card ? I only know about Nakamura vs Roode, which doesn't sound so hot on paper. Roode is a super solid midcarder, but he's just not on Nak's level at all, not to mention I don't see them meshing too well. Plus the whole Glorious stuff is overproducing at its worst, it screams bad Orndorff/Rude ripoff. As far as Nak goes, he's been coasting for months now. Joe looked better in every match they had together, which were very good but never that great. I do think Nak has been totally wasted in NXT. He looked like the hottest thing against Sami Zayn last year, and this remains his best match in the company. Hopefully he debuts in the Rumble because each month in NXT and he's looking less and less special.

If they did Mania in Montreal, they could induct people like the Rougeaus, Carpentier, Rick Martel (yeah, Quebec, I know) and have Agius & Chereau host the show. Of course, it would be awesome. It'll never happen, but hey. I guess Martel and the Rougeaus could get in at some point. I mean, they are inducting pretty much anyone at this point, and these guys were fixtures of the Hogan era and huge regional stars. Of course it's not like they need to make a buck or something. Smartest guys these quebecers.

Well, Aztec Warfare III was awesome. Terrific from start to finish. Mostly perfectly booked, with the only disappointing part being the use of Drago, who basically did nothing of note and was eliminated quickly. Apart from that, it was a great match with a bit of everything for everyone, great spots, insane brawling, good comedy and a pace that always went faster and faster until it approached the final part. And although I never cared for Sexy Star, I was proven wrong (or more accurately, the bad vibes I heard from haters were proven unwarranted) as they did the best job imaginable with her winning the title (yeah, not exactly a spoiler). From her match to Pentagon to this, I must admit she was just a great underdog and made the whole thing work. Props to Mil also and to Rey, the two standouts of the match along Matanza. The surprises were quite terrific too, with the Black Lotus triads making a glorious debut and Angelico diving his way back into the game. Awesome match. MOTYC, for any year that is.