El-P

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.

E10 was everything that is great about LU. Although that ten person tag was clusterfucky as hell, but worst of all Ivelisse seemingly re-injured her ankle. That would suck so bad, she's my favourite female performer of the show and she sure deserves a break. On the other hand, Famous B. vs Mascarita Sagrada was great bullshit mixing garbage brawling and comedy. They even got a flytox Arrogance perfume out of a box. Wonder if WWE still got ownership of that stuff. Super, ridiculous fun. Grave Consequences II was different from the first one as this time Prince Puma was taking it to Mil Muertes in a much more agressive manner. No idea if this was as good, but all I know is that people would go apeshit if the same stuff was on a WWE PPV. Crazy how LU totally went under the radar for that third season. Terrific, insane brawl, with a climatic and eerie finish. So, is Ricochet done already with the promotion ? Next, Aztec Warfare.

Damn, Kenny Omega buried Jim Cornette on the last Metz podcast where he announced he wouldn't be at the Rumble. The guy knows what he's doing though in term of managing his career. Unless something unexpected happens, I totally see him signing with WWE next year.

Watched the Ivelisse interview she did with Highspots a few years ago. Damn, that girl didn't had it easy. Mucho respect to her, plus she came off like a cool person.

Kenny Omega will be at Mania 34. There, I just said it.

He'll get in the discussion soon enough. Enough people love his stuff.

Please, no Shane bullshit this year. Last year's debacle made it possibly the worst Mania ever. And yeah, AJ vs Miz would be quite the cool match.

Agreed. Excellent bad-ass vs underdog match. One could argue Joe didn't kill Sabin enough, but it would have been too much with Sabin's profile at this point. I didn't mind Lynn's trick at the end since he stayed pretty much invisible until the final moments. Again, excellent match with Waltman doing a terrific job doing the subtle heel thingy. Aj's reverse DDT still is an issue in term of execution but apart from this, excellent work from the two. Much better than I thought it would, although Williams did grew on me and improved over the months. He's more digestible in tags, but the odd dynamic here actually helped him. By off dynamic I mean this was heel vs heel but Williams ended up being the de facto "babyface" since he was put in an underdog role, which actually suits him better since he's not good an working control stuff (lack of basic solid offense). So we get Daniels being super solid and focused on the back after a brutal powerbomb on the edge of the apron and Williams selling decently until some fiery comeback stuff. Good ending too, which put over Daniels as the super-heel. Also enjoyed Raven vs Abyss from this PPV, in a brutal bloodletting which actually built over time to some sick stuff at the end. Abyss working the entire match with a bloddy ten dollar bill stapled to his forehead was quite the visual. Gotta love a super smart spot by Raven to set up the powerbomb from the turnbuckle into the tacks : Abyss is just punching Raven in the face as he's standing up on the second rope, but instead of just having Raven powerbombing him, Raven falls down on his ass after a few punches so Abyss has to grab him and get him back up, and as he does Raven pops up and powerbombs Abyss. Great stuff. Rhyno's debut as a typical Jarrett "swerve" was efficient, if nothing else. D'Amore has been booking this stuff for a month or so, and TNA has indeed never been any better.

Probably the same as last time, because it's just a bunch of subjective lists using a goofy snowflake system. Funny though to see so many matches pimped as *stars. And then people make fun of Da Metlz for his infamous 6*. I don't think I would have more than ten matches I would give ***** to after 25 years+ of watching pro-wrestling. I'm not sure I have ten at this point.

Kinda ridiculous ? Try "dumb as fuck". That being said, some people around this place have been saying the same kind of dumb as fuck things lately about Meltz. (and I would not have given more than 3 stars 1/2 at most to Okada/Omega myself, so that tells you all I think about the infamous 6*)

Great work, Bix.

The 90's. For all the reasons already mentioned.

And of course, Shawn Michaels "losing his smile" infamous promo. Which basically forced Vince to book Bret vs Austin II at Mania 13.

"Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass." "Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell ! You're outta there. Straight to hell." Yeah, I know, not very original. But I can't think of any bigger ones.

I did enjoy Rey vs Chavo, with the added bonus of Chavo Sr. at ringside resulting in quite a funny Dusty finish / restart moment. They tried to push it as a truly big time match (loser leaves lucha) and it's a case of Striker & Vamp trying way too hard and being quite bad in the process (I know most think they are awful anyway, but I don't). People chanting "this is awesome" at every solid/good TV match is ridiculous too, but this is how it's become everywhere it seems. Lastly, I must say this match highlighted an annoying flaw of the WWE style of working with a very awkward 619 set-up by Chavo Sr. and the ever annoying "counter the third suplex in the Three Amigos" spot, which never makes any sense since it means two suplexes in a row are basically harmless. That being said, it was a good Smackdown circa-04 (or so) match. I guess Chavo is done as far as in-ring work, a la Kevin Sullivan in WCW.

Wow. Hey, good that he does ! But still. Wow. Vince must be so happy...

De Niro in Angel Heart would be perfect to play Father James Micthell. Probably because Mitchell was very inspired by the role for his own character I would guess.