El-P

Not exhibitionist in the least. Fuck, this can seem that way because two generations of shitty indy workers tried to replicate what these two were doing, without the great execution and agressiveness. But these two were having the ultimate lucharesu bomb throwing match, with Asai moonsault payback spot from the student to the mentor. And of course, Sasuke KILLS HIMSELF FOR OUR PLEASURE !!!! Well, that was the felling of some back then. And of course, they have to go home, and it's a classic-that-would very good match in the end. The J*Crown was such a great concept. That it made its way into WCW was even better.

Ohtani, ladies and gentleman. What a worker he was back hen. The slighest of his body movement expressed something. And the execution. Well, it's not like Dragon was much behind, as he was also a great masked wrestler, in that he conveyed so much emotion and intent with the mask. Amazing pinning attempt early on. Which never looked like two guys doing some cool flippy stuff, but guys trying to fucking win a pro-wrestling match. And yeah, this is the kind of awesome match which should remind everyone that yes, execution does matter. Ohtani is just on another planet and Dragon has never looked much better than this. MOTYC. A classic junior match that holds up even better today after years of awful X-div shit and self-conscious epics.

How great a babyface Sasuke was is way overlooked at this point. He sells those Sammy submissions (when he's in) like crazy. Yes, he did blow off the legwork a bit too fast, but damn Sammy was brutal with him, including with some of the comeback spots. This is not merely good, this is excellent, with the idea that Sammy really is gonna upset Sasuke (who's the bigger star of course by now). The more I watch these junior matches today, the more I see the differences with all the indieriffic matches, as there was a clear sense of struggle back then, with intent on hurting and winning as opposed to do "cool shit". Sure, Sasuke was also about "cool shit, but he was way more than just this. Very good/excellent match.

Exactly. So does the intros. They can add to the enjoyement. But let's not be kidding, the match is the match. A great post-match avec a craooy match doesn't make the match better. It certainly can make a segment enjoyable, in which case the match itself simply doesn't matter much. And yes, finish matters. Like the very last scene/shot of a movie before the credits hit.

A Block B Block ****+ as they say Elgin vs. Naito Quite excellent SANADA vs. Tanahashi Nakajima vs. Shibata Okada vs. Marufuji SANADA vs. Okada Tenzan vs. Marufuji Damn fine Tenzan vs. Ishii Nagata vs. Naito Fale vs. Goto Shibata vs. Honma Ishii vs. Goto YOSHI-HASHI vs. Honma Fale vs. Marufuji Omega vs. Yano Goto vs. Okada YOSHI-HASHI vs. Nagata EVIL vs. Nakajima Good it is indeed Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI Elgin vs. EVIL Honma vs. Omega Shibata vs. Elgin Unoffensive Makabe vs. Tanahashi Yano vs. Nakajima Ishii vs. Fale EVIL vs. Nagata SANADA vs. Makabe Naito vs. Yano Tonga vs. Tanahashi Not good Makabe vs. Tonga Tenzan vs Tonga

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Nagata Everything YOSHI-HASHI does seems so random to me. Nagata can still have a good match with anyone with enough ability, so there you go. EVIL vs. Nakajima Best EVIL match by far. Nakajima has a Naoki Sano quality to him, he looks stoic and polite, then at some point kicks you really hard and shows unexpected intensity. Maybe kicked out of too much stuff, but this was really good. Naito vs. Yano So, no one wants to explain me Yano ? *sigh* This was bullshit but too short to amount to anything. Funny enough though. Honma vs. Omega Omega is trying way too hard. This didn't click with me. Probably burned out a bit already. They overdid the epicness at the end. Too much no-selling of big stuff like double nelson suplex. Good match but… Omega is really odd. Just settle down A BIT. Shibata vs. Elgin Stiff as fuck, as we used to say. So, the whole "please, hit me hard" is a new trope that is fun for awhile but can get silly quickly. Lots of cool strenght and kicking stuff. Some really ridiculous selling too. Good. expected better. Yeeeeeah, I'm getting burned out and tired of some stuff that are cool when fresh but tiresome when not fresh anymore. A bunch of good matches but nothing going to the next level. maybe that was the issue for this show. The G1 Climax is officially WAY too long.

This was funny as shit, especially since he was delivering it in a totally straight way.

That's why the first months of the nWo angle was the apex of US pro-wrestling TV.

Raven vs Abyss vs Monty Brown (Monster's Ball) Monty cut all those cool promos that made him look like a star. He had the cool finisher but wasn't much of a worker apart from this. Not Goldy-like. Abyss had the Foley fetish. Raven was insane and fat. And was a babyface, or a heel. Not sure. Not terrible, they kept it fast and non-offensive. Until came the finish, with Abyss finally getting a "Foley !" chant when he got the tacks on the mat. I think that gave him a hard-on. So we get Raven powerbombing Abyss on the tacks, making it a first obvious fail. Tacks 1 - Abyss 0. Then soon enough, a "holy shit" chant emerge followed by a "This is awesome !" chants when Raven puts a table in the ring, near the tacks. To whomever said this very first chant during this match was ironic, it's clearly not, the crowd was hot after the tacks bump. ANd did they get more, with Raven bumping AByss through a table at ringside, immediately followed by a pounce through a table, with, back to back, did look quite impressive, brutal and cool, despite the meh match until that point. So, theer we have the second "This is awesome !" chants on a TNA broadcast, the first appearing during an AJ Styles vs Alex Shelley match two months earlier. This one was much stronger though. Nice to spot Dixie in the crowd too, totally not believing what was happening in her ring. That was both neat, cute, and... kinda stupid when you think about it. But mostly neat. Monty Brown surely had the charisma to become a star. The in-ring skills, not so much, but he wasn't worse than… well, he wasn't worse than a lot of people pushed at the top at one point or another, and still pretty green.

The original Workrate Guilt. Well, they did get showed up by IWA Japan that night too, so, it's understandable.

It was promoted by one of the magazines I believe. For ever there was only a (crappy) handheld, so watching conditions aren't very good. It was infamous for the Women & AJ showing up everybody (well, except the MPro guys), including a pretty lame NJ main event in their own building, and an awful FMW match. With a legit TV broadcast, it probably would have become legendary. Well, it kinda is, but overlooked still.

you can stop banging this drum now dude. we get it. Don't bother. This is a gimmick for him at this point. He's just trolling in a very uncreative way. Funniest part is that I've been using the term "indieriffic" as a super negative for years and really haven't pimped japanese stuff for ever it seems (apart from the occasionnal stuff for the GWE). So yeah, it's just a gimmick. Either that or he's just a bit…. well it's a gimmick probably. Please find all these times I've used "indieriffic as a super negative" because I'm not sure I've ever used the term at all and probably not more than once if I have. *I* have been using indieriffic as super negative. You don't even read correctly. Seriously, give it a rest. Just ignore me. It's not like I really care about anything you say anyway. (the irony is that we actually agree on some of the stuff we both say about WWE, as I didn't care one bit for the Cena vs Owens stuff after the first match and though Cena vs Styles was godawful for pretty much the reasons you mention)

you can stop banging this drum now dude. we get it. Don't bother. This is a gimmick for him at this point. He's just trolling in a very uncreative way. Funniest part is that I've been using the term "indieriffic" as a super negative for years and really haven't pimped japanese stuff for ever it seems (apart from the occasionnal stuff for the GWE). So yeah, it's just a gimmick. Either that or he's just a bit…. well it's a gimmick probably.

Glad someone finally points an element that has been ridiculously overlooked when you hear that John Cena is a great worker. In today's environment, I dare say that the Warrior working modern WWE main events carefully plained out by agents would be considered a great worker too. Hell, he had one great match against Randy Savage, and we know how that one worked out. The modern WWE style is the most manufactured and self-conscious style of all time. And in essence, the "fakest" of all time, simply because it says the least about the workers involved.

He's gone. Hopefully he goes back to LU, but he wasn't happy the last time and there's no way he gets the same sweet deal now. From his Youshoot (where he played family man and shit, which is kinda funny now), he seems to have a real inflated sense of his value and talent.

Roman Reigns has it, Randy Orton has it, Eddie had it. Well, like the immortal Faith no More used to ask : what is it ? Let's be real. People who had *it* were Hogan, Austin, Dusty, Inoki, Choshu, Flair, Rock, Baba, Misawa, Takada, Onita, Cena. We're not talking about the same thing, obviously, because Orton never meant shit despite being pushed forever (yeah, he gets crowd reaction, so you'd hope after more than 10 years of being pushed on top, that's the HHH school of being a "star", but so did Sid), Batista became a legit star the day he appeared on the Galaxy movie (which was quite the good surprise too), and Reigns has been rejected by the crowds because of being shoved down their throat. Maybe he should mary Stephy. (one can argue than Bryan had *it* too BTW, but the constant depush and health issues prevented him from reaching his star potential. CM Punk probably had *it* too, but then again, not the favourite son, so...)

A *big* part ? Seriously ? The Demos had that fucking SM leather outfit, makeup and a great music theme and were killing people. They didn't need Fuji at all. Who did Fuji managed at that time who got over like the Demos ? The Powers of Pain (just joking) ?

Well. You're right about that honestly.

He brought fucking nothing to the table as a manager. He was playing a racist stereotypical japanese salt-throwing sadist, couldn't cut a promo and was not the bumping type. Yoko ? Hey, it's no wonder they brought in Cornette to cut the promos for him once they had to build a money feud for Luger. Fuji was terrible. I'd watch Harvey Whippleman over Fuji.

Meltz said that Fuji helped clean up the Rick McGraw mess (and may have played a role in the Nancy Argentino debacle too), hence why he had a job for so long in WWF despite basically bringing nothing to the table. It's a bit like the chauffeur getting in the HOF. NYT ? Well, I guess all the guys from the Hulk Hogan era were considered as stars.

Rusev & Lana are pretty damn excellent. Jericho is all sweaty and sleazy now. Sasha and Bailey. Eva Marie ? in a perverted way... KEVIN OWENS !!! FIGHT !! FIGHT FOREVER !!!! Well yeah, there are not many.

Really ? The whole, and only, argument for Roman Reigns is "he has all the best matches in the company". So yeah, really, the only thing is that people don't agree about the greatness of matches, but this is pretty much the only argument. The fact that Reigns is not a good promo, that his character has been pushed as Cena N°2 etc doesn't seem do be taken in account in why he's being rejected. The whole argument is "Stupid indy-loving WWE crowd, Roman is da great wrestler". Ok. So, it's only a matter of chosing your own "greatest wrestler who has all the greatest matches". They just disagree on the matches. In essence, this is good old smart fan, snowflake loving argument. That's why it's kinda funny to me. (about Roman Reigns being a great worker or not, I don't really care, or even really don't, but I was more interested in him vs Rusev than any other match at SS. Well, because of Rusev, but still, I was curious to see the match, as opposed to the other main events)

"Roman's awesome !" clap clap ! clapclapclap ! "This is wrestling !" clap clap ! clapclapclap ! "No more workrate !" clap clap ! clapclapclap ! "This is five stars !" clap clap ! clapclapclap ! *yawn* Maybe the fact Roman Reigns is kind of a crappy Cena 2.0 character with lame-ass promos and taglines also doesn't help him get over with the current WWE crowd. I mean, Bryan is far away now, let's not pretend it's just because of him to this day that people don't buy Roman. Let's fucking turn heel already. He would be better anyway.

Kayfabe ! Yeah, now kayfabe = "not everyone knew the finish" as opposed to "it's real !". O tempora, o mores…

What Coffey said about Rusev. And I didn't quote that Volkoff/Zhukov angle randomly. It's the very first angle I saw on WWF TV and of course I was all excited about it (and yeah, thinking what you saw as a teenager is the greatest thing ever to this day because of nostalgia is just plain dumb).