El-P

This. Although, as much as I was critical of LU at the very beginning for going that way, Dario Cueto is just so great that it doesn't matter (plus LU is some druged up shit with witches and murders, so it's not really a "pro-wrestling promotion" per say). But yeah. Austin vs Vince was a classic angle for a few months. By the Fall of 1998, it had jumped the shark for me. That heel authority figure has been going on for almost 20 years now, it's insane. It's just "how it's supposed to work" at this point. It's part of the pro-wrestling system in the US it seems.

Well, ok, I won't watch that after all. TNA in 2005 was quite great, so I'm gonna stay over there then.

Fuck yes. I would never have guessed Tony was such a funny mofo. If KC needs to get someone for the WCW Timeline, that's him.

I long for the days of the "You fucked up !" chant. It was still better than the masturbatory shit we get today.

For fuck's sake. People really need to get a life indeed if this kind of shit get them all outraged. I learned the meaning of SJW on this board (never heard the term before). Then I learned why I would probably never use it. Then, I learned why people actually are tempted to use it, and this is exactly a case of it here. People are being slaughtered everyday on this planet. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. So, anyone getting outraged at Jerry "puppies !" Lawler for making a remarkably unfunny and dated joke about a girl's whose whole gimmick is that she's fucking BIG (and fat, I mean, she's not the Chyna body shape, and good for her as she's probably way more healthy too) on a pro-wrestling show probably either need to watch some other show or, well, get a life (as much as this is a terrible cliché too, but we're not swimming in the most subtle waters of intelligence here, on neither side) indeed. In other news, Bull Nakano ruled the most in the ring when she was the fattest. (edited to go along Loss's following post, which I agree with)

Hey, I finally foundanother podcast I can listen to. I gave up on Corny a long time ago, as I did with Sully (his constant kissing up to that whoever-he-is host got annoying quick) and I don't listen to podcasts by smarks from a pro-wrestling forum (or I'd do my own and listen to my fucking self babbling about my opinions on shit) and I like Schiavone a lot and he's fresh in the realm of "shoot interview". I love the fact he "uses 'fuck' as a coma" and that he's got that deadpan trashy sense of humour at points. He also made a point I never hear about Wargames and that I was glad to finally see addressed in some ways : the fact that Wargames ending with a submission is flat as fuck. As a matter of fact, Tony said straight up that he hated Wargames because of it. I wouldn't go that far but I absolutely agree with his point about the submission ending is always totally anti-climatic and unspectacular. it has always bothered me, in every Wargames match ever, including the great ones. His story about not knowing how to call Goldberg as late as the intro of the guy during his first match was glorious. As much as the JCP episodes are cool, I want more WCW era WTF material.

2 Cold Scorp probably wins anyway.

I'm not entirely sure it's an actual finisher, but after the uncontrolled head-drop bump (and by uncontrolled I mean he landed straight on his neck without having his shoulders as support, like even Misawa or Kobashi would do), Neville hit him with some elaborate twisting third rope jump. Maybe not a usual Neville finisher (I don't watch regularly) but the head-droping spot was just as ridiculous as Omega's second rope double-nelson suplex spot at the Dome show (which dropped me straight out of the match). Both were basically ignored.

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.