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NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
Considering who's involved and how great they've been over the year (for two of them), I actually look forward to it. PPV 74 Last show of the year, finally. And why not open it with a drab, Nitro 2000 match between Sting and Jeff Jarrett, who’s totally stuck in the Attitude era, complete with backstage vignettes with invisible camera WWE-style. Kinda sad, really, like this match which was nothing. Sting gets over, despite being a part time player at best. Feel good moment for the fans I guess. The X-division has became the best part of the show again, thanks to Chris Daniels who has a very good match with Chris Sabin, still selling his head injury from the week before, having a focused offense and basically giving Sabin his best single match thus far. And to Low-ki, who has a good X-div title match himself against Michael Shane, who’s offense is a carbon copy of Shawn’s circa 93, for better (good base and bumper for the babyface) and worse (kinda dull). Tracy keeps of giving as a very good valet. Elix Skipper wants to put XXX back together. There could be worse ideas, although Daniels & Ki clearly don’t need it, unlike Skipper. Very good match too as Simon & Swinger vs AJ Styles & D-Lo delivered. The winner of the pinfall gets any title match he wants, but in the end it’s Swinger & Diamond who win, as the babyface get screwed by Jarrett. More on that later. AMW vs Gilberti & Young in a good little brawl, although it was not a smart idea to book this match, full of garbage spots including ladders and table, in the same show as Abyss & Redshirts vs Raven & Gathering in a cage + gimmicks too, which seemed kinda redondant then and had no heat despite the fine structure. And too many run-ins at the end, including Jarrett again, who just doesn’t want anyone to get a title shot against him after losing to Sting already. Two sick bumps by Legend, thrown off the cage, Flair style, and CM Punk putting Abyss through two tables with his great looking elbow (yeah, sarcasm). The Gathering wait until Raven is sure to get the victory (and a title shot) to screw him. They really come off as petty scorn lovers. And that ends the year on a major swerve. Well, not really, as it was well built with weeks of frustrations by the Gathering, so it was successful because you could see it slowly coming. Nice show to cap-off the year. Jarrett on top is living his WWE fantasy, but there is enough good stuff in the undercard now. 2003/12/19 Chris Daniels vs Chris Sabin 2003/12/19 Low-ki vs Michael Shane 2003/12/19 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs Diamond & Swinger. -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
PPV 73 Jerry « Malice/the Wall » Tuite is dead. They were dropping like flies. Once you pass the awful WWE-like clusterfucky opening segment with useless promo by Jarrett and a bunch of people including the return of Roddy Piper and D-Lo Brown, it was quite the decent show. Erik Watts, after channeling DDP’s promo style by adding « ass » to every name (« Don Call-ass », how smart), is now calling Jarrett « Triple J ». Which is fitting, in more ways than one. More X-division goodness with Christopher Daniels vs Michaels Shane in a very good title defense. Daniels bleeds a gusher after hitting the stairs, almost looks hardway, and his selling is excellent, as are Tracy’s antics at ringside, interfering at the right times and looking good doing it. Gotta get rid of that stupid « pie in the sky » name for her bombs away spot though. Daniels almost pulls a Tommy Dreamer on her, but at the end she only showed ass as Shane took advantage of the situation, because he’s on Opportunist. That’s his gimmick, and Tenay like to say it over and over again. But really good stuff. Later on, Shane Douglas had a fun short TV match against Chris Sabin. Douglas at this point is like a mix between Mike Sharp, older Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyzsko. That’s praise, he looks better than he did when he first showed up. That new Franchise is working like a charm. On the Raven front, he manages to have a pretty good match against Abyss, whose cluelessness is comical at points. But he’s got enough mecanical ability to do stuff with him. Ends in a schmooz, but Raven’s babyface selling was nothing short of excellent here. He agrees to tag again with the Gathering, who had a decent match against the Red Shirts, Northcutt looking bad-ass beating on Punk. I like the slow-burn progression of the inevitable clash between Raven and his former guys. AMW vs 3 Live Kru was nothing special. BJ James just won’t put in the extra effort and Killings is a goofball flippy worker. The most interesting thing about the tag situation is the interaction between Gilberti, Young and Simon & Swinger, which at times is legit funny. Main event of AJ Styles & D-Lo vs Jeff Jarrett & Kid Kash was pretty good, Jarrett looking the worst of the four and D-Lo again looking strong in execution. They brushed away the animosity between him and AJ by having D-Lo say he always had respect. Piper costs Kash the match and Jarrett is pissed. Next week : Sting vs Jarrett. I guess that’s a star-power match to close the year. 2003/12/10 Christopher Daniels vs Michael Shane 2003/12/10 Shane Douglas vs Chris Sabin 2003/12/10 Raven vs Abyss 2003/12/10 AJ Styles & D-Lo Brown vs Jeff Jarrett & Kid Kash -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
PPV 72 At this point, it’s hard to give credit to Jeff Jarrett to be even a *good* worker. AJ Styles had a much better match with Abyss. This title match was a typical Double J Special and probably their worst match together. Bland brawling outside with no intensity. Then switch to sleeperhold spot (?), then to guitar shots and ref bumps and run-ins by : Erik Watts, Red Shirts Security, The Gathering, Abyss, AMW, Jimmy Hart and Kid Kash. Two guitars wasted not to mention my precious time. Jarrett’s idea of a main event comes straight from 1998/99 WWF, and he’s a far, far cry from the guys who could do it back then, not to mention the run-ins galore are just predictable by now and don't produce any credible false finish. So yeah. Jarrett on top will definitely be a painfull road if he keeps his game at that level. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Chris Daniels vs Low-ki vs Kid Kash was another good triple threat match. Damn. Of course Daniels & Ki get most the credit for trying to make sense of of it, but Kash was perfectly servicable here, working on an injured foot to boot. Shane Douglas & Michael Shane vs Chris Sabin & Sonjay Dutt, good undercard match with Douglas looking quite decent working with the quicker guys, and his maneurisms go a long way to compensate the fact he’s way past his prime physically. He's way more compeling to watch than Jarrett for instance (but then again, who isn’t at this point ?). Tracy took an active part in their win, I already like this team a lot. Sabin looks better in a tag team setting too. The tag-team turmoil keeps on going on with Gilberti and Young having issues with Simon & Swinger. Young as the straightforward guy works very well with Gilberti crook personna. The triple threat match against AMW, with a few problems between the two heel teams, had a good little dynamic. Raven & Gathering vs Red Shirts & Abyss (who at times is pretty funny with his overexagerated « monster » body language) accomplished what it was supposed to, forwarding the Raven & Gathering angle (they don’t want to break up, ah… love...) and putting Raven against Abyss, which could be fun if they do a wild brawl. Jarrett is getting way too much mic time considering what a weak promo he is. Now he’s playing Hollywood Hogan with a « you’re either with me or against me » attitude. Roll eyes. BTW, Hogan is now out of the picture for good. Way to waste PPV time with all this build up for nothing. 2003/12/03 Chris Daniels vs Low-ki vs Kid Kash 2003/12/03 Shane Douglas & Michael Shane vs Chris Sabin & Sonjay Dutt -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
PPV 71 The comeback of the X-division, with a good Chris Sabin vs X Nitro-style spotfu (including an insane summersault from the top rope to the ramp by Oulette, who’s nuts), a pretty decent Kid Kash vs Low-ki match (credit goes to Ki, as Kash really doesn’t impress) and Michael Shane joigning Shane Douglas’ new Franchise along with Tracy. His title defense against Sonjay Dutt was not too good and very heatless, with a useless swerve as Douglas was clapping for Dutt during the match, but the final picture looks good though. Plus, there’s something ironic about Shawn Micheal’s cousin taken under Douglas’ wing. I wonder if this will ever be mentionned. Hopefully not. Raven had a fun gauntlet match against Joe Legend then Kevin Northcutt ending in a schmooz when Abyss, now doing Don Callis dirty work for some reason (MIND CONTROL I would guess), jumped in. The Gathering help Raven and still push him to get them back. Damn, they act like sad lovers after a break-up. The tag titles changing hands in a six-men is always annoying, plus 3 Live Kru work best when Konnan isn’t involved, he just looks terrible especially when he has to bump and sell. So, mediocre match against Simon & Swinger with Gilberti. Not too fond of the Kru getting the belts either, they are just way too formulaic to have good matches. Way too much Jarrett promo time like it’s been the case three weeks in a row now. He really makes TNA is own little WWE and he’s playing Triple H. And he’s even worse on the mic. They are still talking about Hogan. He’s not coming, you know. The match against Dusty Rhodes was fast forward material. Funny how even with Russo gone, Jarrett is sinking the main event scene. 2003/11/26 Low-ki vs Kid Kash 2003/11/26 Chris Sabin vs X -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
I remember also a worker (don't remember who though, maybe Daffney but I could be totally wrong, it could be someone else) not praising him as he treated the lady as "special attraction". PPV 70 Two minor miracles. A triple threat match that was actually pretty good between X, Christopher Daniels & Sonjay Dutt. Three reasons to this : Chris Daniels directing traffic, never got cutesy with ridiculous spots, simply played around the quickness and brain of Dutt & Daniels respectively vs the power game of X. Oulette and the Angel looked excellent, so of course the green guy won. I like Dutt, but he’s not at this level yet. Second miracle was Abyss being able to have a really good match against AJ Styles. Damn, Styles is close to a miracle worker, he was fantastic here. I gotta give some credit to Abyss, who does some things well, like bumping, which he overdoes, too. He looks less like a monster than like a constipated truck driver with a Halloween fetish though. The tag team scene was still fun with a decent Ekmo & Siaki vs CM Punk & Dinero match, in which Trinity screwing up cost the samoans the match. Ekmo is looking better and better each time. Siaki is not. Then the tag team scene got screwed at the end of a pretty good Simon & Swinger vs 3 Live Kru (Konnan always at ringside, thankfully) tag title match. How to ruin what was a perfectly nicely going feud ? With a double referees count of course, and the titles being held up. So, the refs screwed up and the champs are punished because of this ? Fuck that Dusty finish. Talking about Dusty, he’s playing the savior again at the end of the show and books himself against Jeff Jarrett for the following week in a strap-fans-lumberjack match. Gawd… David Young loses against Chris Sabin because of Gilberti. Tracy & Douglas are taking notes on the X-div guys. Kid Kash has a sloppy match with Shark Boy. Usual business. Raven cuts yet another strong promo with the stricking visual of blood driping from his banded forehead, after a beating following the six-men of him & Sandman & Watts vs Red Shirt Security (with Legend as a recruit), which had some interesting use of handcuffs and a run-in by sexy as hell Goldylock. Nothing nice looking, but a pretty good Clockwork Orange brawl. Mixed bag. Jimmy Hart is showing up every week to confront Jarrett, so Hogan is still kept in the mix, but not coming anytime soon, as AJ Styles & Raven are being built for upcoming title matches. 2003/11/19 Raven & Sandman & Erik Watts vs Red Shirt Security 2003/11/19 Christopher Daniels vs Sonjay Dutt vs X 2003/11/19 AJ Styles vs Abyss -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
I'm sure it is. I doubt it beats the stories on Herb himself. PPV 69 TNA is Nitro, the follow-up. And likewise, you can get a pretty good show out of the blue. What would a TNA PPV be without a Gauntlet match for a N°1 contender spot ? And this one is quite good too, with five teams taking parts, 3 Live Kru (minus Konnan), AMW, Gilberti & Young, Dinero & Punk, Ekmo & Siaki. Both Ekmo and Punk have tribute to Crash Holly, who just died, on their outfits. Ron Killings wins the thing thanks to Gilberti’s interference, which leads to an AMW and 3 Live Kru face off later on. And while the tag division is looking fun, so does the X-division, with the match of the night in Low-ki vs Christopher Daniels in a battle of former XXX partners. Nice attention to details with Daniels wearing his old XXX tights and doing their old hand gesture to Low-ki, only to have him kick it away. Excellent match, superb selling from Ki, great focused work with a heelish edge from Daniels. These two are above most anyone else save for Styles as far as in-ring work goes. The ROH connection I guess. Chad Collyer vs Sonjay Dutt was also pretty good, Collyer grounding Dutt who worked well from underneath and also showed nice selling. X beats him up after the match, probably angry about these tights jean shorts. Also, Tracy was taking some notes. She’s the hottest assistant ever. I love this new Franchise already, and they are teasing that the next guy is part of the X-division. Nice job. Raven, who had « Crash » painted on his body, is fighting on both front, cutting another good promo on Jarrett but having to choose a partner for himself against the Red Shirts who beat him up pretty badly. Ends up choosing the Sandman, to the dismay of poor Julio & Punk. This is progressing pretty organically and Raven makes sense out of everything he does. The match was also quite decent with a very good Ricky Morton-like performance by Raven. Northcutt is efficient in this setting, kinda like a Bradshaw from APA days. The main event was totally out of Nitro. I amazed Lex Luger did work after Liz’s death. He looked pretty great physically for his age and what he went through. He did a funny mic spot putting down AJ Styles, who was put over big time by his partner Sting. Luger did a few decent power spots, but he can't really move nor bump that much. That being said, all things considered, he did quite okay, with Jarrett carrying the load and Styles making both look much better than they are. Styles got the pin on Luger. Damn, they booked it right (although with mucho assist from Stinger). Raven drags himself in the ring to jump on Jarrett again, and Hogan is looking further away on the horizon, despite Jimmy Hart being there again. Didn’t watch Abyss vs Heavy D., because I'm not that stupid. The Interrogators with Erik Watts & Goldylocks was decent. Goldy’s new style is bitchier. 2003/11/12 Gauntlet match 2003/11/12 Christopher Daniels vs Low-ki 2003/11/12 Chad Collyer vs Sonjay Dutt -
Isn't this a bit of an old-school kinda racist gimmick anyway ? The hot white woman and the heel black guy ? It's exactly what Doom were in the days with Woman. It's weird that Jay Lethal and Cedric Alexander have in a way done that in ROH with Taeler Hendrix and Veda Scott respectively but both are not blonde bombshells like a Lana for example and both never really generated racist heat. Times have changed, thankfully. I guess. Unless I underrate the "blonde bombshell" element of the whole picture.
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Isn't this a bit of an old-school kinda racist gimmick anyway ? The hot white woman and the heel black guy ? It's exactly what Doom were in the days with Woman.
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NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
Damn people, you've been around. No, I won't watch Herb's UWF. And no, I don't wanna watch Abyss' rookie days. But thanks for scaring me. You all deserve another one. PPV 68 Things are taking a peculiar turn. On the nice surprise side, the X-division battle royal was actually good. The return of Low-Ki, the debut of Chad Collyer who looked solid, decent booking with a XXX reunion before the inevitable split, and a new guy getting over as the monster of the division : X. With a goofy outfit including a crappy mask and tight black jean shorts. It took me a few seconds before I recognized Carl Oulette's style of working, and he did look impressive. That gimmick is immediate death as far as ever getting over though. The tag team situation is kinda cool with AMW having a good little match with Siaki & Ekmo, David Young being the goofy and too honest Gilberti gofer putting his boss into problematic situations like a match against 3 Live Kru, which wasn’t too good but now we have three teams gunning for the title, and Roadkill & Doring aren’t one of them. Gilberti is a good old-school working manager, ironically enough. Raven beating up Jim Mitchell was as good as this match/angle could be, with Mitchell bleeding a gusher and looking grotesque as he should. Basically a transition before Raven gets himself back into the main event scene. Oh, and he frees the Gathering too. This almost felt like a lovers break-up. You always hate to hear the words « You’re free now. ». Tracy Brooks, unamed, helped Shane Douglas win a cool little match against the Sandman. I like this association, Douglas always worked well with valet and gives them a lot to do, and Tracy can work. If he managed to get anything out of Torrie Wilson, this can only be really good. Then, and it’s where it’s getting peculiar, Jarrett vs Sting in your typical Nitro main event with minimal effort from Jarrett who used a whole one offensive move, a sleeperhold, and sold for Sting the whole time, getting a hardway blood in the process. Schmooz ending with Callis and the Red Shirts guys, which doesn’t make much sense as there’s no reason given why Callis would protect Jarrett. Lazy booking. Oh, and AJ Styles, and Raven, and Abyss (fuck, they’re already booking this goof into the main events ?). And Jarrett dropping a bomb : next week, it’s AJ & Sting vs Jarrett & … Lex Luger, all while people are still chanting for Hogan during Jarrett's segments. Yes, TNA has officially become Nitro. 2003/11/05 AMW vs Sonny Siaki & Ekmo Fatu 2003/11/05 X-division Battle Royal -
NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
Well, his booking doesn't strike me as very good thus far. The Dusty overdose has been painfull. And then, there is this show : PPV 67 When the show peaks with the opener of AMW vs Glen Gilberti & David Young, in a *pretty decent* match, you’re in trouble. Young is Gilberti’s gofer at this point, and they have a good character chemistry. AMW are so efficient that they can have a heated match with anyone. Then another decent match with Micheal Shane vs Sonjay Dutt in a non-title match (thankfully since Dutt lost to Kid Kash the week before). As impressive as he looks doing athletic spots, Dutt needs someone to lead him. Shane is too green to do that but he shows some good instincts. Then, well, show goes to hell. A bunch of nothing matches like Siaki & Ekmo vs Doring & Roadkill, with Trinty not doing a moonsault but apparently leaving the side of her team. Good for her. Another nothing match between Kid Kash & Abyss, in a chair-on-a-pole-first-blood-match. Is Russo back booking already ? Everything about Abyss makes me long for a Kane match. Red Shirts vs Erik Watts & Don Harris (who came back as a babyface, because he’s old-school TNA security, you see) was as bad as it sounds. Raven vs Vampiro in a Gallows of Retribution match. Interesting gimmick in which you have to hang your opponent with a dog collar until he passes out or submits. But there was no way to have a good match with Vamp, who’s clearly one of the worst worker I’ve ever seen. Nothing he does looks remotely decent : selling, bumping, stricking, everything looks terrible. Raven worked hard and had good ideas, but this was doomed. Too bad, as it was good « in theory », including the way the match was laid out. Postmatch sees another undesired CM Punk interference in favor of Raven. And then, the obligatory Jeff Jarrett wankfest including a long promo segment in which he confronts AJ Styles, then Dusty Rhodes (whose presence is really exhausting at this point) and then Jimmy Hart, who’s got a surprise. I really wanted Ed Leslie. ED LESLIE PLEASE !! Well, the result sucked, as most surprise do, but no Ed Leslie. Jim Duggan. In a meta, WCW 94-cosplaying, it actually made sense to see a Hogan croonie getting some airtime at the expense of TNA originals. Match was terrible although Duggan showed some good fire and was better than Abyss. Then another surprise, Rick Steiner. How many « worst worker ever » are we gonna see in this show after Vamp, Heavy D. & Abyss ? Anyway, two guitar shots later, Jimmy hart reveals that next week, Sting is gonna face Jarrett. Yay ! WCW 2000 is back ! Terrible show. Way to many bad workers featured. I feel Abyss is gonna be a torture to watch. A convoluted X-division tournament with battle royal, brackets and thriple threat matches to come, I didn’t even try to understand, but it takes all of this to get to Michael Shane apparently, who put this together by himself. I always love when workers put together matches, especially when you already have two authority figures in the company. Damn, and I thought Russo going away was gonna make things easier, but seems like TNA was just supposed to suck anyway. -
Wasn't Rocky Johnson basically considering Atlas as an Uncle Tom of sorts ? And I mean, Saba Simba…
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NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
Who booked after Russo was gone ? Mantell ? Dusty ? PPV 66 So, Jarrett’s second reign of terror begins after a pretty good but rather flat match against AJ Styles, who never looked in danger of winning, despite carrying Jarrett’s ass. I guess now the focus is all on Hulk Hogan, as the big angle was Jarrett whipping Jimmy Hart for bringing up Bash at the Beach 2000. Funny how Jarret came into his first title reign as a babyface after a build as a heel and how it was the reverse here. Nothing seems to work with this guy. Match of the show was Raven vs Slash in a good dog collar match, just enough blood and some good use of the gimmick, playing with the ropes and the whiplash effects and shit. I dread the up-coming Vamp match though. Triple threat match for X-div assured a spotfu between Chris Daniels, Chris Sabin and Micheal Shane, who came out to a production fuck up as they launched Shane Douglas' Perfect Stranger ripoff. Man, I really wonder who’s gonna be the one being apart of Douglas’ new Franchise... Clap clap clap. Match was actually decent for a while, with not too many ridiculous spot apart from a triple superplex. It's so hard to have a good triple threat match, this is such a bad match inducing gimmick. In another spotty X-div match, Kid Kash vs Sonjay Dutt at least was a good shwocase of Dutt’s amazing athletic skills and charisma. He’s clearly got tons of potential, but Kash is not the one to have a really good match with. More Abyss nonsense. Yawn. Diamond & Swinger vs Roadkill & Danny Doring was a watchable ECW on TNN match, but a far cry from the AMW feud. Roadkill was one of those ECW mirage, he really doesn’t bring much to the table. Gilberti carrying a tennis racket was neat both in a meta (the Russo friend making fun of Corny) and straight (Glenn is actually doing a good job as an old-school working manager) way. Meanwhile, AMW have a decent match with the Naturals, total Nitro rush style with a few nearfalls too many, but it could build into a decent little feud. Opener was pretty fun too, with 3 Live Kru against Siaki, Ekmo & Legend. And, oh, Siaki doesn’t seem to get along with Trinity, who costs him the match. Not this again... Trinity's been there and done this already. Russo gone, Hogan in, well theorically. The booking is making more sense as far as building feuds, but Jarrett on top is a major yawner, even as a heel. And not enough really good workers to carry the load, too many young guys without a clue and too many bad guys hurting the matches. It’s still much more watchable than before, although there’s been a lack of notabe matches lately. Jerry Lynn & D-Lo seemingly gone do hurt the cards overall. 2003/10/22 Raven vs Slash 2003/10/22 Jeff Jarrett vs AJ Styles -
I need to bite my tongue on Cena. No. Just say that he's not a great wrestler by any stretch of the imagination, that his offense mostly looks bad, that his "great" matches are either pre-planned WWE formulaic self-conscious epics either overrated "selling clinic" against monsters who "played their role right". (and I like Cena)
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I would agree with that, he had some of the best matches of his career in 1990. Having great matches with peer great workers. Maeada. And yes, Takada.
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Hence, when Bubba showed up at that Royal Rumble, by himself, who did they pick to re-do the wazaaa spot ? R-Truth. The only reason : he's black, so he'll get the job for the token black guy in the team. (to me, D-Von's identity was "another terrible worker", who also happens to be the one everyone likes whereas his partner is a dick)
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Norman Smiley in WCW was the closest thing to a "wrestler that is black" case up to the 90's. The fact he was British weighted more in the balance actually. Wasn't the Big Wiggle an element of his "blackness" that he used to get over though ?
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Which is odd, considering he "debuted", at least his rise to megastardom, in the freaking Nation of Domination.
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Well Booker T said it about brotha Hogan.
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NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
I enjoy Northcut, but the Red Shirt Security gimmick is stupid and lazy. PPV 65 Hogan is coming. Or he was supposed to at least. I totally forgot they ran an angle at the Tokyo Dome show press conference with Jarrett squashing a guitar on Hogan. Which makes him the heel after months of posturing as the big babyface of the company, and makes AJ Styles an afterthought in the process. Typical Hogan dealings, although the fact Russo resigned because of this is awesome. Last appearance after a crappy « street fight » against Jarrett. Nice opener with AMW & Dusty Rhodes vs Sonny Siaki, Ekmo & Legend. Pretty good although Dusty has more than overstayed his welcome as an active wrestler and even a character as a matter of fact. I'd settle for him on color sometimes though, only to hear "pay window". Match of the show was X-div title match between Michael Shane & Christopher Daniels, who will save this division if he works the way he did here. Although he’s technically a heel, he went toward babyface work during the match as Shane is a full fledge heel. Excellent work by Daniels showing he can get over in both roles. The whole disciples thing has to go, although them selling Daniels' injuries and reacting to his offense in real time is a funny idea. Building toward a three way feud with Chris Sabin, who’s showing some babyface fire too. Shane Douglas was taking notes. Scouting angles usually never go anywhere good, but I always loved them. Plus, judging from the vignette earlier, it seems like the Franchise is looking for a new valet. That's cool. A bunch of nothing matches like Abyss vs Kid Kash, Abyss showing what a clueless worker he is already. His goofy pose just annoys the hell out of me. You don’t have a body, you wear a shirt, why the fuck do you pose ? Plus you’re supposed to be some kind of monster, not a bodybuilder. Anyway, he’s gonna be useless like I feared. Erik Watts vs Kevin Northcut was a short hoss Nitro match, the most notable fact was the comeback of Goldylocks as Watts girlfriend. Wonder if she wears panties now that Russo is gone. A decent tag match with a nice ECW flavor, as Diamond & Swinger lost a non-title match against Danny Doring & Roadkilll of all people. Never was been a big fan, Roadkill doing his usual stuff (basically the only things he can do, really) while Doring lookes like his old self. They havent changed or improved a bit since 2000. A clusterfuck X-div tag match with some jabronies named El Fuego & Jerrel Clark (feel the star power with that name) vs Eric Young and the debut of Sonjay Dutt, who looked impressive as hell athletically speaking. They ran through a shitload of stuff they should have kept in their bags, but what can you do, that’s the indy mentality. The big angle was Raven almost hanging Jim Mitchell only to have Slash drop an elbow on him. From a balcony. Through a table. With a chain. And after a clusterfucky and short Slash & Vampiro vs CM Punk & Julio match, Raven does a run-in on the heels. The issue with this feud now is that Vamp sucks, so there’s really no match to look forward to, despite Raven being the most over babyface in the company. 2003/10/15 Christopher Daniels vs Michael Shane -
Don't worry, you're not the only one. Mero said during his Johnny B. Badd days, lots of people thought he was black. Same could be said for Tazz. Those dark-skinned Italian bastards.
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This is a joke on purpose, right ? Mero is italian. Like Kevin Sullivan said "Why do you take a cracka to play a brotha ?" Isn't this topic a little… racist anyway ?
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Well, this one doesn't look like a very interesting edition...
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NWA-TNA 2003 aka a passive-agressive way to deal with depression
El-P replied to El-P's topic in Pro Wrestling
I have no memory of Rodney Mack in ECW. What did he do ? PPV 64 I had hoped for a gimmicky three minutes angle match. But no. AJ Styles vs Dusty Rhodes went at it for nearly twenty minutes, Dusty working at a snail pace, bleeding and making AJ Styles look stupid, even getting a visual tap out on him. Dusty did not even put AJ over clean, he had to cheat his way into Dusty «passing out ». So, my best guess is that Dusty was booking. Amazing level you wankfest here. AJ did the best job possible though, but this is just wrong. Oh, and Russo is acting drunk as fuck. Horrible stuff, much like the post-match beating with Jeff Jarrett (now heel ? face ? who the fuck knows) saving Dusty’s fat ass. Rest of the show was not much better, Raven’s being hang again was redondant. The Gathering waiting for the last moment to jump in kinda made sense since Raven asked them to let him deal with this alone, but it felt like rehashing. Sinn doesn’t mind getting darts thrown in his back. Gross. In another booking fuck up , 3 Live Kru vs Diamond & Swinger & Gilberti elimination match was not only not too good, and Gilberti going over at the end is mind-boggling. Again, is Gilberti part of the booking team or what ? Konnan working more than thirty seconds is a recipe for awfulness eventually. David Young is a fool again, which he plays rather nicely. Abyss & Kid Kash finally split up, it seems. Their team sucked anyway, as they had another bad match with AMW, who have good matches with anyone. Abyss is the least intimidating monster ever. A mediocre Kazarian vs Daniels match in which Daniels didn’t care for reigning in Kazarian’s bad instinct. Again, Daniels had good matches with everyone else, says a lot about Kazarian. A pretty good but totally heatless X-division match between Chris Sabin & Michael Shane. Hey, both are heels, do you expect the crowd to care ? I guess only the opener was really fun, as the Red Shirt Security vs D-Lo Brown & Chris Vaughn was a pretty decent tag match, I’m getting into Kevin Northcut hoss offense, which Vaughn made to look big time, and D-Lo is working well in this undercard quick match context. Totally heatless crowd. The three coolest things on the show : Shane Douglas is reaching to TV-land to get a new Franchise in a B&W vignette that reeked of old-school; Don Callis cut his hair and is carrying a pipe, which makes him a thousand time more obnoxious. And there’s a new hot brunette cage dancer. Hey, gotta focus on anything somewhat exciting. 2003/10/08 Red Shirt Security vs D-Lo Brown & Chris Vaughn. -
The fact Tenryu's execution of some moves is shit has nothing to do with his "character". It has everything to do with him not being very good at doing those moves and still doing it. And us brushing it off, and at points even getting fond of it because we like the guys and become used, even fond of, his shortcomings too, like we usually do with the loved ones. "Character work" doesn't excuse shitty execution.