El-P

That's how you should be able to cut a promo in 2016.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Takao Omori Hash. Damaged goods after the godawful career killer feud with Ogawa, but still, not a lot of guys had *that* presence. Maybe Choshu. Nah, Hash was even greater than Choshu. This is as simplistic as it gets. Omori is blonde, which means he's an asshole. That's how Japan works. Omori is a dick but he's NOAH's dick and he'll try resist and take down Hash with simple lariatos. Hash kicks him hard. Stiff, to the point. How to get the most in less than ten minutes. Gotta love fucking "strong style", before it became a tagline for smart ass fans and indy announcers. Gotta love Japan. And Hash is puroresu in its purest form. Very good short match.

For most guys, having a very good match is an accomplishment, it takes the most of what they can deliver. For these two, having a very good match meant they left a lot on the side for later. Yeah, sure Kobashi was Kobashi, with everything awesome and goofy about it. Still. Not sure about those new white on white tights for Akiyama though, and Kobashi would soon change for the classic black with prints NOAH Ace tights. This was foreshadowing of things to come, and very promising. Akiyama being kind of a dick was a major change compared to his All Japan character. Time to grow up, young padawan.

"Wow, dude, Misawa was a selfish booker, he always put himself back in the mix" Yeah. Right. Watch this, ignorant fools. Who else as the boss and booker of a brand new major promotion does the job in 20 seconds to a submission hold, and sells it for minutes afterward on the mat, just so he tries to make a new star ? Misawa sure tried hard. He was kinda banged up, as was Kobashi, but damn, I had not watched any of these guys since Misawa died, and yeah, oh yeah, I remember why they are considered some of the greatest ever. Taue and Akiyama were super solid there too, actually looking better than the All Japan Ace & Heir in what was a very good, hot match with everything done to build Jun as the upcoming Man, and get some focus back on submissions. NOAH was such a fun promotion when it started.

I always was curious about a Raymond Rougeau shoot interview (he had been the voice of pro-wrestling for me for years in my earlier fan days) and finally here it is. Fantastic stuff. One of the smartest and by all account nicest guys in the business :

A few thing from Glen Gilberti's Guest Booker. First, although I don't agree with his way of looking at things concerning Russo, he comes off like a genuine and likable guy, with a true love for old-school wrestling too. Second, he gives the straight story about the infamous "Disco booking ideas" that have been around, apparently to the highest of places if you believe his last (and pretty funny) story. _Bill Ding, the evil architect, was a Terry Taylor idea, he says (like Hugh Morrus, as Taylor loves these kind of wordplay). _The Alien Invasion was his, but obviously a joke, and a pretty funny one, especially for the idea of the Canadians being Martians, Mike Tenay being an honorary Canadians because of ove hockey so much, and where the whole thing leads in the end. _And as far as The Invisible Man, it's actually a pretty funny comedy undercard idea and built in a pretty logical, conceivable way (without giving it away, it's all about heels making a gullible "simple minded" character believe that an Invisible Man is actually there) Glen takes some credit for the Lance Storm booking in WCW, which would be the best thing under Russo's regime in WCW (as far as getting a guy over). It's odd that this guy never was hired in WWE in any capacity. I mean, they made fucking Simon Dean an agent. Nova, for fuck's sake. Gilberti milked a low undercard comedy gimmick for like 5 years, made it work way more than he had the right too, got over and delivered a few solid matches in the process. And his work in TNA, if you put aside the ill-advised push against AJ Styles and first weeks teaming with Sanders in awful angles, is totally to his credit too, with lot of good mic work again.

Great job. Kayfabe-wise, awful work though.

Stop making sense Matt. It's unbearable for some people "around these parts". Well, the last I've seen the Ryback was the Kalisto matches earlier in the year. He didn't strike me as particulary good in these either.

Awesome. A veteran heel needs to make this his gimmick.

Well, yes, that too, but then again, I didn't want a reply that would include the letters CM Punk in it, so I passed. Well, I got the "ya old" reply instead, which is worst. I guess since I'm not on Twitter ("ya old" etc), I'm missing on The Ryback's best work. He'll probably do a boring Youshoot in the months to come.

Well, I've always been consistent about my steroid bashing, even for guys I really enjoy. Notice that I also pointed out his awful RVD-like tights and Goldy-rip-off character as part of my lashing out. That's 2/3 of non steroid-related (yeah, Goldy is all about the Goldyness) elements. And yeah, Neville is a bloated spot monkey with no personnality and I don't get the appeal (is there ?) either.

Ah, goc doing his usual "anti flippy-floppy" run-in, because god knows it's not dated by know. As far as small guys using roids, yeah, I was all over Benoit and Eddie's ass like 12 years ago at least (yeah my fellow Euro friend, I'm old, kinda). How do they say ? Beating a dead horse ? Well, you're running a genocide on the hippodrome here. But hey, yeah, The Ryback (feel that fine The Summerslam vibe from that name) sucks, never got the appeal at all. And in an age where apparently, we're all for "wellness", it's kinda crazy that a steroid guy like this still gets lauded to some degrees. But whatever. Feed some more I guess.

The "ya old" line ? Really ? Come on, fellow shoot-style fan, that's as lame as a Fujiwara headbutt.

The last thing Lucha Underground needs is a second rate steroid-ladden Goldy rip-off with awkward color scheme RVD-like tights. Keep this kind of throwback-to-shittier-times away from my favourite promotion please, it took me forever to come around Cage, who's a machine apparently. (the "anti-smarky" attitude is the brand new über hipster smarky attitude)

This thread has totally spiraled out of control into insane contrarianism, snobish trolling and revisionnism (among some good points made). Poor guys wanting to put a podcast ouf of this.

Going trough the painfull TNA Summer of 2004 (seemingly got really bad with the anniversary show after a bunch of really good shows), Petey Williams seems like one of the worst laws-of-gravity offender ever. The Canadian Destroyer is obviously a dumb as fuck move (while the Code Red can pass for playable if you do it with enough momentum), but he does something even worst. I wouldn't even know how to describe it. He gets like a reversed front face lock, like a reverse DDT position, then seemingly pushes the other guy... upside (???) so the other guy does a flip onward to bumps on his face and belly, while Williams himself bumps backward on his ass. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ? Even Edge would find this shit stupid.

Couldn't agree more.

Tony Schiavone at his best >> Jim Ross in general.

Raven is great.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Prince Puma. MOTYC. What ? Wanna play-by-play wanker analysis ? A podcast maybe ? Watch the fucking match ! And yeah, movez, motherfuckers. I'll love the day when Ricochet gets signed to WWE (because he's money if anyone is) and we get the old "he must learn how to work" bit. And Rey. Well, what to say about Rey ? 41, banged up body, barely any knees, and he had that match in him. A Top 10 best wrestler ever if there's one. This was the dream match the two years of Lucha Underground manage to produce, and it delivered from a to z. Great job people. Oh, and that post-match. I guess Vampiro has a clause in his contract that forces him to bleed like a pig at every Ultima Lucha show. Oh, ad that cliffhanger !!! I saw *that* smile coming. Dario is da boss. This is also the proof that today, pro-wrestling should be a seasonal serie (not a neverending flow of dullness boredom like the last 16 years that WWE gave us). Thank you Lucha Underground for that 40 years old fan having fun watching again, for a while.

On the other end, Taya vs Ivelisse was much better than I expected, good brawl between the two. I've grown to love Taya, no one wears Berzerker's boots like she does, and I find her rodent little teeth adorable. Plus you can see she's got strong basics (gotta credit Lance Storm I guess). The ending saw the sexiest run-in ever. Well, not run-in, rather, Catrina appeared like Sabu (yeah, fuck anyone who doesn't love this) to deliver the greatest lick of death she's done thus far. Hey, more of this shit in Season Three, I'm fucking there.

The trios match was a really fun opener for the Ultima Lucha Dos. However, I thought the whole Black Lotus debut felt flat, as it basically was used as a backdrop for Pentagon Dark showing up. I guess the whole Black Lotus vs Angel Azteca Jr. feud will happen in Season Three now. Better do something special with it, as this has been built forever. She seems like a fine worker, but hard to judge on just what was done there. They don't give a fuck about gender anymore I guess. Good for them. Pentagon Dark vs Matanza was a good little match, but nothing spectacular and comapred to the previous Matanza title defense and considering this was the title match on the final show, I'd call it a minor disapointment for not being an over the top bloody brawl, which I expected. Still, good match. Matanza has been a total success to me, which I didn't expect. The guy wouldn't fare well in WWE because of his size, call it the Tazz-syndrome, but in this setting, he's quite the monster.

The Gft of the Gods match was a fun clusterfuck which really got together in the last stage, with Sexy Star facing her old enemies Mariposa and his creep brother Marty. I'm not a big fan of Star, I don't find her work compelling at all (not even that good to be honest) and the character in itself leaves me cold, but you gotta dmit they did a much better job with her in term of feminism and not giving a shit about gender than WWE's transparent "Diva revolution" this year. Marty & Mariposa did work well with her at the end, making a single punch mean more than any big spot you can think of. Mil Muertes gets another one under his belt. Although less crazy than some of his big matches, this deathmatch (really a garbage brawl) with Cuerno was very good, with a quicker, more "babyface"-like Muertes. Tha shall not fuck with Catrina, I guess is what you should get out of this match. One lucky bastard in teh front row ended up with the hottest woman in wrestling on his lap. One thing I really like about LU is that they treat death spots as such and not just vehicules to get cheap pops. When a guy gets destroyed, it's for good. Also, I guess Mr. Cisco's contract with LU wasn't renewed for Season 3.

The two first garbage match of Ultima Lucha were insanely fun. This is ECW mixed with IWA Japan mixed with the LU pulp taste. That bar fight was ridiculous in a good way. Gotta love how beer spilled on the floor played a role in the ending of the first match too. After that, the final was kinda anticlimatic and too clean, but they worked it the way they should in that they were already spent. The surprise was neat I guess, but I'm not too sure what they'll do with a 50 year old guy in the future. Dario is a wonderful asshole.