El-P

Nothing much is new, but it is the mother of all rant, the final promo is pure gold, straight out of NWA circa 1986. Russo's such a complete ballless dipshit.

You want me to die ? Those terrible America's Cup shows with awful work galore, ICP, Eric Watts vs Don Callis...

Maybe later at some point, if I get the itch. But for now, I'm just gonna post some of my favourite stuff in the Match Discussion Archives. Focusing on the good stuff.

AJ Styles vs Abyss - TNA 02/25/04 Double table match. With Abyss. And yet, AJ Styles manages to have a really fun gimmick match, with some brillant moments like him kicking a table away while he's in a chokeslam position. Abyss is clearly a guy who can have some special matches with because of his physical abilities and will to work hard, but he's such a stupid worker too. One thing he does all the time after taking huge bumps is *adjusting his shirt to hide his belly*. Ok, Choshu and Misawa were doing the same thing, kind of, with their tights, but it looked like a reflex move. Abyss looks like a trucker adjusting his cosplay costume. Anyway, lots of teases and escapes before the big bumps, which is exactly how you should work these kind of matches. AJ Styles would have had the greatest Onita match ever. Ends with some schmooz with Johnny Fairplay (whoever he was but he could have been an 80's manager) followed by Lollipop apparently (the return of babyface Vince Russo also coincides with no more cage dancers, sadly, I liked the sleazyness of it) and Lex Luger, of all people, looking older than last time. Is this the last appearance of Luger before his accident ?

AMW vs Redshirts - TNA 01/21/04 The little moment of glory for the Redshirts, Legend & Northcutt, with that awesome security guys gimmick... At some point Northcutt throws James Storm around and he falls straight on his shoulder, badly injuring it. Then Storm keeps on working, old-school style, milking the (legit) injury and having his best babyface performance to that point. Not exactly a MX vs R'n'R match in term of execution, but the Redshorts beating on Storm was quite brutal, Steiners on Nasties style. Chris Harris looked like such a star back then, and his spear is the best in the post-Goldy era.

Chris Sabin vs Micheal Shane vs Low-ki vs Chris Daniels - TNA 01/07/04 Second Ultimate X match. New rule point : you can't use a ladder. The announcers insist on that point early on. So, of course, after a while, these guys bring a ladder, and the announcers are confused as hell, and the match, which started really well, turns into a mediocre ladder match (the whole gimmick is so tired anyway), killing the whole point of the match. Then, a ref comes from the back, takes away the ladder and the announcers go "Well, we knew you couldn't use a ladder." No idea if all was planned or if it was just improvised, but it was quite the fuck up to me. The match had less insanity and stupidity than the first one, Low-ki and Daniels being the stand outs, and the ending made sense, but the whole ladder match segment kinda made it generic for a while.

Yeah, that Maria quote was hilarious, but then again, when some indy girl (see a few posts above) has the same attitude... Well, it isn't. The trailer is really well done, because the show is a complete bore. Swoggle looks like a guy you'd like to have a beer with, but honestly : no story, no dirt, no fun. Hell, the best jokes are from Sean himself, who looks bored out of his mind doing the Youshoot stuff, has been for a while. When he takes shots at his former ex-WWE-guys guests, that's pretty telling. And I guess Swoggle is doing Timeline 2007 (but then again, the 00's Timeline are all boring as hell). The Youshoot format only work when you have a real character and/or great storyteller. Well, I still learned that Fit Finlay himself was responsible for the leprechaun gimmick, which is another dent in the "Fit Finlay, wrestling great" mythology.

That Six to Survive match was ridiculously fun and the last part was legit epic. I don't even mind the ridiculous spots at this point (it goes with the territory and stuff like the triangle chop series was even described in the comentary as "ego taking over as they want to get pops from the crowd", which I thought was a nice touch without going all meta), plus they sold their asses off and the finishers are treated like actual finishers (as opposed to stuff you kick out of just because it's the formula aka "WWE self-conscious epic"). It's pretty obvious these two (Pentagon Jr. and Fenix) are brothers when you see them against one another, they look similar physically and they have a way to move around that just betrays their blood link. Loved it.

Yeah, that cracked me up too. Sandra was so level headed in how she portrayed Benoit too, as she said, you just can't erase a decade of loving relationship no matter what (and still, she insisted on the fact her sister was *brutally* murdered). Such a tragic and surreal story, I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like being in her boots, and still she showed so much intelligence and sensitivity talking about everything. The way all the deaths one after another slowly killed Benoit's spirit, probably playing a big role into him going insane, was heartbreaking, as was Jericho's story about Eddie's burial. Nancy seemed like such a sweetheart of a woman. I really like how Jericho conducted the "interview", basically letting Sandra talk and only chiming in from time to time with relevant points and stories. Not an "fun" listen, but the best one about the story since, well, his podcast with Chavo a few years back. Can't believe it's been 9 years already.

Fascinating listen.

They're clearly running out of ideas with the Youshoot serie. That being said, this one sounds better than most recent ones with ex-WWE guys who didn't want to say anything bad about anyone.

It's wishful thinking from an aging man.

I'm from the "buy a few VCR and wait 6 weeks to get them" era. So I got into different styles by getting the best stuff, because it was expensive to see anything. It worked pretty well.

The title of the thread never sounded more right.

This is bringing back so many memories. I still quote stuff from Carpentier and Hauray on a regular basis 25 years after.

He doesn't get the Randy Orton treatment ? Interesting.

All bullshit aside, it's a good edition. Morton is still a very charismatic mofo, tells good stories, doesn't go into "bitter veteran" mode, although they do insist on the fact they were screwed over with paydays (they go pretty hard on Dusty). It's like a Rock'n'Roll Express match in that Ricky does most of the work, cuts the good promos and Robert chimes in from time to time. It's obvious when you hear him talk about work why Morton was such a great worker.

It's pro-wrestling only. I love me some Mickie James. Well, and "With my baby tonight."

Is this turning into Kevin Nash vs Carl Oulette "Let's have a shootfight" indy match bullshit ? Damn, I love pro-wrestling.

Thanks. Yeah, things finally got better a few years ago, everything is fine now (and I'm not with this person anymore anyway). But yeah, it can drive you insane. Literally hours of fighting until she just falls down and finally sleeps. We have a winner !

Maybe the fact these women date a guy old enough to be their father and/or grandfather is telling too, yes. The main reason I was always doing it (yes, always implies = often) was that she has a daughter, and at some point even though you're sick and tired of having to fight, you just have to do it if only for that reason alone. It gets amazingly draining, physically and mentally. But anyway, those days are long gone, thankfully.

I must have missed the post where someone said anything about Lawler being guilty. (although yeah, a 39 years old gap is pushing on the creepy side to me, which is why the whole "possessive" thing was funny to me, but that's another matter, although it's still totally Lawler) You mean only dating women that are at least 20 years younger than him ? Indeed, kinda poor taste. Well, I take that for myself then. I'm a multiple time hero, as I had to do that *a lot* a few years ago. Then again, no, I don't feel like I'm a hero. It's just called acting responsibly. Which, if that was the case, kudos to him, because it's not always easy, believe me (but then again, taken to the hospital ? Hum... he's a big guy, he can prevent some woman to drive drunk without getting too physical I would think).

Sounds amazing. 12 years to catch up and I'm all for it.

Lawler has been pretty much useless on commentary since the Attitude era. When he began the whole "puppies ! puppies !" crap, he was done to me. He's been sleepwalking for ever now anyway.

66 years old guy possessive of a 27 years old woman. Not creepy at all.