El-P

C'est trop, vraiment.

Semi finals Naomichi Marufuji vs Garuda I admit, I enjoy the trance-like Maru theme. Garuda is totally an Hayabusa Redux, but he's just not clicking with me thus far. Maybe too much an Hayabusa Redux. Good little match though. I understand why some people despise Maru's kicks, some just don't look on point, but then again, no one bumps big for them, it appears he really uses them as set-ups and accumulative damage tools, which is neat. Garuda does a beautiful quebrada. Which is kinda eerie. Takehiro Murahama vs. Wataru Inoue Ok, now we're fucking talking. I love Murahama already. He's so lumpy looking, he's like a junior Kitahara. And he's GOOD. Wataru fights the shoot-style with his own New Japan stiffness and quickies. Elbow exchange, one of the new tropes I never cared much for got at this point I totally accepted it, plus it's like a detail. This is excellent. I like both these guys a lot. Murahama going over was kinda predictable in a sense that Delphin is hosting the Cup, but it's well deserves and fits with the J Cup arcs since the beginning (Sasuke, Gedo, CIMA aka "the indy flavour" vs major league star) Intermezzo Shiryu vs TAKA Michinoku vs Billy Ken Kid & Tigers Mask I aways wondered how Tigers Mask was looking like. Both these guy's outfits are winners. Man, Hayashi put on the Shiryu mask back on ? This is a Kaientai DX reunion, and it fucking rules ! Hayashi is buffed too, and he doesn't do the Benoit tribute anymore. TAKA still looks like TAKA, although a bit bigger, and is still an asshole. Amazing that WWF casted him as a babyface, although he was good at it at this young age. This is the best match of the show. The Osaka Pro babyface seem to be really good worker too, gotta love the baseball spots Tigers does. And damn, Hayashi and TAKA ? Totally ace rudos, crisp offense, TAKA is such a dickhead too. The one thing I never liked about his offense when he came back to Japan is that awkawrd looking Just Facelock. Stupid name too. You can see the WWE influence there. Well, terrific match. Ok, now the good stuff is piling up, and the non-tournament matches are like an indy dream card mashup with actual results.

You've been reading my music list so far, is that true? For fuck's sake. No jazz apart from a few vocal jazz and old swing stuff, no metal, no experimental. No *women* almost. And hell, out of the 75 first entries, NOTHING that is not anglo-saxon. Really open-minded stuff, yeah. I can listen to Selda Bağcan, Darkthrone, Jacques Brel and Steve Reich the same day without having to put myself in any specific kind of mind and enjoy the fuck out of their respective brillance.

Looking forward to your review of the Osaka J-Cup! I think anyone who deliberately watched the Dying Years of WCW and Early TNA and found stuff to love even there... such a person has definitively proven their love for pro wrestling. Perhaps, he has gone too far in doing so. The Osaka J-Cup is going on there : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/35353-back-to-the-super-j-cups/?p=5768236 Well, I went too far. Or I'm just dumb as fuck. Either way.

2004. I was out of the loop by that time, but I do remember hearing about the fourth J-Cup promoted by Osaka Pro, and hearing about the result too (NOAH was the hot promotion at the time, so it made sense). Never got to see it. Well, first thing, the setting is impressive, more elaborate than any other J-Cup thus far. It seems like they made it a spectacle. Only huit guys so on paper it seems like a mini-J Cup more than anything. First round Jun Kasai vs Naomichi Marufuji Kasai was that sick fuck from Big Japan, but apparently was working for ZERO-1 at that time. Monkey tale and all. Still all about using gimmicks, splashing Maru through a table at ringside. Well, I guess it's a change of pace, but not exactly what you'd expect froma J-Cup. Match was ok, but mostly Maru letting Kasai do his garbage thing until a comeback and win. Decent stuff and Kasai was quite the character. Garuda vs GOA Damn, Garuda ! One of the last tape I bought was that first WMF show, the post FMW Hayabusa promotion, with Garuda as an ace. Whatever happened to him ? GOA I don't know. I guess he's an Osaka Pro guy (never saw an Osaka Pro show before this one, I know, I know). Both have cool masks and outfit, although Garuda is very Hayabusa Redux. Work is ok, nothing special. Indy lucharesu from the 00's. GOA does look good. Wataru Inoue vs Kazuya Yuasa Inoue, damn, an 00's NJ junior. I forgot he even existed. Looks slim and trim. Yuasa is a MPro guy I never seen before, nor heard about. Hey, stiffness ! Ok, so Wataru is the worker of teh night thus far, and Yuasa has that indy shoot-style stuff that I enjoy. They do beat the hell out fo each others. Best match thus far, first really good one. I forgot Inoue was good and stiffy like this. Takehiro Murahama vs Taichi Ishikari So, Murahama is Osaka Pro's shootstyle ace, in a BatBat way. Ishikari is an All Japan rookie who does the underdog deal here, trying to fight against Murahama's kicks and shit. Takehiro really has that short, uncharismatic WAResque charm to him and seems to work like a mofo. Finally kicks young Taichi into oblivion. Quite good for what it is, Ishikari seemed to have potential and Takehiro has to go all the way so I get more of this shoot-style goodness. Intermezzo Apple Miyuki vs Ofune The K-Dojo girls. A K-Dojo show was also one of the last tape I ever bought. I kinda connect the dots here. Miyuki was the serious TAKA student. Ofune was the masked Magical Girl I guess. A bit of comedy which worked well, the work was no better than ok. Yagi vs ASARI this isn't, but they were still basically rookies. Apple had some potential. Ofune, not so sure. MEN's Teioh & MIKAMI & Tomohiro Ishii vs Kintaro Kanemura & Azteca & MA-G-MA Indy sleaze 6-men ! Team No Respect dance ! I haven't seen this for a while. So, Teoih looks just as good as he did in the previous J-Cup, wo why wasn't he put into this ? Mikami is that guy from DDT with a ladder. The Osaka Pro heels look really good, specially MA-G-MA, in a fat rudo way. Ishii is not yet the stiffness pitbull fro New Japan, he was actually in Choshu's shortlived promotion. Already working stiff as hell though. Really fun sprint, with Kanemura doing pretty much was he was doing since the latter days of FMW, before fucking up his career by sexually assulting a girl, this stupid asshole. I really liked that guy until then. Ok, so, at one point, teh ref is jumping up and down and stomping the mat again and again, seemingly for no reason. What was that all about ?! Ebessan vs Kuishinbo Kamen This looks like the fucking main event, with intros that go forever, with dancers and shit ! This is great ! I have no idea what is happening here, but these guys are giving any presents (candy ?) to the audience in exchange for something. Lost in translation, but nonetheless quite the fun part. Excellent comedy and good match. These two were like the Misawa vs Kobashi of comedy wrestling I guess. Well, it looks more like a big Osaka Pro event with indy super-cast than your regular J-Cup. The first round was nothing special at all, with only one really good match, but the indy sleaze in all its glory makes for a fun show thus far.

I thought it was pretty terrible this time around. The "booking" part was embarrassing, although Nash did had one excellent line at the end which kinda summerized the whole thing.

Yep, terrific match.

I hated this. Dusty going competitive with NWA Champ AJ was ridiculous. Dusty was really taking way too much space and time in TNA in 2003 & 2004. Russo, well, what you said. Yes, this was pretty sad to see.

Oh yeah, I remember why I used to love when Gordberg was posting a lot back in the days. (btw, just watched the Osaka Pro Super J Cup from 04 and it was probably the best card up and down as far as variety goes from all the J Cups, although no classico like the 94 version or even nothing as great as the best 95 stuff. Some of these Osaka Pro guys I had never seen before were really fun to watch, thinking about MAGMA, Tigers Mask, Murahama, of course the comedy duo.)

"First PPV I booked, Benoit beat Sid for the World Title". Holy shit Nash. The bullshit detector just went crazy on that one. The best part of this whole deal is what was shown in the trailer, the Greg Gagne joke.

Or maybe WWE are just giant dicks in putting him in an angle that allows a heel to troll him about him not being able to work anymore. I would be amazed if, after all of this, Bryan was cleared by WWE again. So, it's pretty puzzling.

The problem is that none of this stuff was actually really good. Lita was an awful worker. Trish was ok for a WWF woman at the time, but really, never that good. Anyone having watched a bunch of joshi, and by that I mean even zombie promotions from the early 00's, could not seriously consider any of this stuff. The first match that I would call really good in WWE in the 00's was the infamous Trish vs Mickie James at Mania. But hey, Mickie James was not these other girls (well, Molly was good but nothing special either and had no one to work with, really).

Between 12 and 25 minutes usually. Scientific fact.

Nah, it was actually really good. If you like Raven of course.

Add in Heel Usos, and you got my opinion summed up there. I'm pretty amazed.

AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose WTF am I watching ? MOTYC. This is insane. (and people clamoring for Styles vs Cena again, please don't, the SummerSlam match was garbage) Seriously, when going through early TNA, AJ Styles struck me a a great wrestler as early as end of 2002/early 2003. Then he had some classics later in the decade against Joe. Then fell off the radar because, well, no one really paid attention to TNA. Then was great in New Japan. Then has been mostly great in WWE. Then this fucking match against Dean Ambrose, who has not set the world on fire. On paper, Styles pretty much has 15 years of being a great worker, with an incredible diversity of opponents and styles of matches. Probably deserves to be studied in detail (and by that I mean diving into TNA, sigh), but this guy is probably easily a top 10 worker ever at this point. So, a nothing card on paper ended up mopping the floor with Mania & SS (which is faint praise, really). Good booking + good matches (Wyatt vs Kane did not happen) = good card. Easy, uh ?

Let's pretend that Wyatt/Kane + Orton waste of time didn't happen ok ? Irrelevance3, these three. Well, Usos vs Heath Slater & Rhyno was very good. Usos as heels definitely works well (they should turn Roman Reigns tomorrow... just saying...). Not too familiar with Slater, but he was ok here. Rhyno made for a good babyface comeback, although the Gore looks old. Really, the Usos made the match. Surprising and crowd pleasing finish, which is always nice. Thus far, it's been mostly a good and enjoyable card. And for those crying about the crowds, I clearly heard Miz and Usos being booed out of the building. So yeah, legit heels still work.

Wached the first half thus far. Well, Naomi did deliver the funky outfit. Thanks for that, although her work can be quite sloppy. First look on that Bliss girl. Liked the look and the work. Quite clusterfucky with nonsensical periods of ony two women in the ring, but it was still quite the hot opener with enough time to let some story developp. Nice to see Nikki still knows how to deliver an elbow. Good stuff. Well, I like heel Usos. The Hype Bros. Meh… Awful name, goofy attitude. But the heel Usos clearly give them a fresh start and they already are efficient working that style. The Usos vs AA matches could be really really good. Toilet humour… oh man… Rhyno ? On WWE PPV in 2016. Stranger things have happened, but this si still pretty bizarre. Miz vs Dolph. Damn, this is one very good match. Although Dolph's offense still looks like crap most of the time. But when the hell did the Miz got so good ?! It's too bad the use of valet seems to be a lost art, Maryse is hot as fuck but she doesn't serve any purpose. Watch some Missy, Francine, Sherry and Woman, guys & girls. Even the finish was not that well executed. And kudos to the idiotic director who chooses to show a bunch of announcers exactly when Maryse & Miz get their intro in the ring. Worst timing possible. Anyway, the match was really good and pretty much thanks to the Miz. Getting older suits him. The Bryan trolling was great, but it still begs the question, why are they seemingly building to a match which will not happen ? Oh, and the french announcing is soooo good. I have to point it out every time because it makes a whole lot of difference. Agius legit cracked me up at the end of that Miz match.

For the men, yeah, I knew they would anyway, but the women... Well, but like you say, why am I even surprised ? So, new champ : Nikki Bella ? I just hope Naomi will get another kick ass funky outfit like she does.

Yeah, but that would require some kind of thinking, you know. So, just double the titles and that'll do.

They split the rosters. Each show has a women's division, why would each show not have a women's title? Because it makes each title look less important, and the women are the last who need that after the infamous "diva revolution".

Final CIMA vs Jushin Liger Good match, with a hot finishing stretch, but underwhelming compared to what could be expected. Not as compelling as the Sano match, not as exciting as Liger's other matches because of a predictability element. Plus, CIMA's ridiculous shotei setup being repeated three times here doesn't help. That's the "indiefication" of moves that I dislike, the wasted motion culture that got rampant by that time. Still, CIMA's really good at selling and with some of his offense. It lacked a true false finish. Solid matwork at the beginning and nice ending stretch, but not enough slapping around by Liger to truly rile up CIMA, although we get a one count kickout again (was this a thing then ?). Felt kinda anticlimatic in the end. Clearly, the lack of great match hurt this third edition compared to the other two. The booking was nice though, with the two right guys in the final and some interesting match-ups. Sasuke jobbing early was quite unexpected and gave us the excellent Sano vs CIMA match, so that was cool. MEN'S Teioh looked like a king in his two matches. Liger still was the best worker of the night, and the heelish work was a bit different (although not a drastic change, especially in the final). Sano also came out looking strong. Overall, quite the very good card though, despite the lack of any classic or even MOTYC (then again, in 2000, maybe reaching *excellent* was enough). Glad I finally saw that one.

Wait, the women's multi-body match is a *title match* ? They're having another woman's title on SD ? *facepalm* Hey, this stuff is on free TV here. DVR.

Intermezzo Chapparita ASARI vs Hiromi Yagi They were having a feud around the horn, in MPro, ARSION and maybe other indies, so they knew how to work together by that point. ASARI still had those spots where the opponent had to kinda wait for it, but she was way better than a few years earlier. Yagi. Oh man Yagi. I almost had forgotten. This really is the first "joshi puroresu" match I've been watching in almost 13 years. Hey, I remember why I used to love it. This is very good, usually super smooth and Yagi fucking up the arm of ASARI and trapping her in submissions seven ways to Sunday was fun. Semi Finals Naoki Sano vs CIMA Interesting pairing. So Sano is too strong, too big and too good on the mat for CIMA, who may be a punk, but he's MPro's audience's punk. So he sells like a babyface and takes some brutal offense like a king. Strong performance by Sano here, who's always been kind of a dick anyway, stoic as he was. Headdropping again. He was made for NOAH. Leads to stumbling selling by CIMA, who's finally showing why he was choosen to advance. His offense may not always look the most devastating, but he sure sells well. Counters to CIMA's finisher. Then advanced finish. Excellent match devoid of CRAZY*MAX bullshit, as CIMA had the Gedo role here. Jushin Liger vs Gran Hamada Anoher interesting pairing actually. Hamada tries to get Liger's left arm. Ace selling. Then slaps on the floor again. Ok, so that's a thing he does. Still cool as hell. Some bomb throwing too. The old guy surely brings it, despite a weak lariat at one point. Ayako cheering for her daddy at ringside and reacting only makes everything much more fun. Hamada works harder there, he knows he's got Liger. Kick out at one to show up the black angry God, ok, I've seen that already but it does work too with Ayako cheering on. Very good match, mostly super crisp and well paced. Veteran work. Well, the semi finals delivered for sure. No great match, although Sano vs CIMA came close, but simply really good stuff all around with good booking too.

2 PPVs a month ? And this is one ? *jaw drops* And yeah, that whole Orton taking straight elbows deal is beyond ridiculous. Use a fucking blade already. But I guess cutting yourself slightly with a clean blade is dangerous but getting a concussion from legit elbows in a fake match is a-okay. WELLNESS.