El-P

Russo was big on Sable too. Well, in the end, she did drew shitloads of ratings for a short time while Sunny did a lot of drugs and ended up doing porn skype sessions at 40, while Sable married Brock Lesnar. Different paths of life. (of course, Sable had no talent whatsoever, so…)

On a more positive note, and post-match bullshit aside, I did love Sasha vs Bayley, although I don't think it was as great as the previous match (not a knock though). Banks is the closest thing to a Takako Inoue ever in US wrestling. And yeah, I thought making that little girl cry was great. I don't care if it's exploitative or not, that's the gist of pro-wrestling. Plus the babyface won, so the little girl got to be even happier at the end, so all is right. Asuka's debut was impressive considering the opposition.

How is this not about Triple H ? After the last match, we got the first fourth-wall-breaking in the four NXT girls doing their tribute to the Curtain Call. Do you think it was spontaneous ? I mean, what the hell was that all about ? No one is leaving the promotion either (much like this time, which is why people making reference to joshi retirements are all missing the point). It was just a referential "moment", scripting the so-called "Diva Revolution" into the mythical canon of WWE history, which was also BTW the debut of Triple H's story. Now, we get another step forward. This time, Bailey and Sasha are simply swallowed by the entire WWE narrative of "good mom and dad Trip & Stephy so proud of their daughters whom they allowed to became big stars in a feminist and modern act of promotion". Why would Bailey need a "nice moment" on screen ? Her "nice moment" should be : "I beat Sasha for good this time, I'm really the champ." Hell, if you want to break the fourth wall, at least do that after the show. I'm not even talking about backstage, because it would be useless at this point, but at least after the show is over. But no. The conclusion of the show is indeed : Triple H *gave* Bailey a nice moment, in every sense of the word : he gave her flowers and tapped her on the shoulders in a paternalist gesture of approval, and he gave her the opportunity to be in the main event because he's the Authority. Uurah for Trip. This is awesome. I would go more into details about the annoying chanting audience and how it pertains to our social media society and the fact every moment has to be shared, commented and approved by a public act (the "like" on Facebook, Twitter or whatever), how that also plays a role in the global self-consciousness of the whole thing (and how this kind of approval is as much about the one who approves as it is about the thing that is approved, I'll put it that way : "Look at me approving you. I know. I want you to know that I know, because this fact is important, as I am important."), and how the "women's wrestling" and "you deserve it" chant really annoyed me from the beginning, but I'll wait for that. About Stephy and how hypocrite it is to see her taking credits on whatever feminist statement this "Diva Revolution" (fuck, using the word "Diva" is embarrassing enough) is, I'm working on a new idea, using the (often annoying to be honest because it's rather condescending) "mainsplaining" term and turning it into "Stephsplaining". I think I'll have fun with this.

Why can't he just let his wrestlers wrestle, tell their stories and be successful at it, and save the party and applause for backstage ? Because the story is not "Good girl Bailey triumphs over evil Sasha Banks", the story is really "Look at how Triple H and Stephy are revolutionnizing women's sports-entertainement." That's the actual narrative, because like everything else, the true narrative of everything about WWE is the WWE itself. And WWE is Trip and Stephy.

We're officially in the era of "self-conscious everything". Which sucks when you're as talented as Sasha Banks, really. I wish she could just be a pro-wrestler doing pro-wrestling matches in a pro-wrestling promotion, and not another cog in the WWE narrative machine, which doesn't believe in fiction for its wrestler anymore, as the only fiction it produces is its own as a living "legendary" entity. Triple H found yet another way to put himself on the picture at the end. And less said about Mother Hen Stephy the best. Yep. I didn't like that post-match, as you can guess...

Oh man, I just remembered this awesome stuff (based on a true cancer charity scam story in France in the 90's). You really don't need the translation to get the joke : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtwC9UviDLo

Wait, let me get this straight. The anti-cancer "charity" WWE supports is actually a scam ? That's pretty rich indeed.

Don't worry, I won't post here anymore. Still, one clarification before I get the hell out : how do you know if I listened to the show or not ? Right. It's *impossible* to know (and it's not like I feel I have to justify myself either). I can make the exact same comment I just made whether of not I listened to the show. Then again, you just made my point actually by saying this was not about Flair. Well indeed. That's what I thought too. That's why I'm happily getting out of this thread now.

Come on, that's great psychology. Well. Nevermind.

She's poisonous to the product. At this point she's way worse than Dixie, who was simply a terrible promo and an idiotic character (and was hotter too) in an irrelevant promotion. Stephy is just grating and hurts whatever she touches with her insecurity, castrating tendencies and just fucking WWEUniversetm awful acting.

Oh yeah, Ross was almost unbearable in UWF. The story of Rosss being that all-time greatest announcer ever really derives from WWE history again. He could be great. He could be downright annoying and grating too at points.

Yes. Which is pretty easy since I've never seen a DiBiase match or performance I'd really call *great*. I thought Buddy Robert was the best worker of the three at this point. Still, Gordy was at least very good there too.

Agreed. Been watching a lot of WCCW lately, and it really was the last piece of the puzzle, but Gordy really didn't have much very strong matches there. Then again, nobody seemingly did. And working mostly against the Von Erichs, well. Gordy did the best work possible in this context. There's something of an overgrown Terry Funk about young Gordy. Ruled it in Japan both in the 80's and 90's. Carried the team with Doc before Doc became what he became. Was terrific in MId-South. But yeah, if you're going by legit out of this world great matches, there's something missing, but let's be honest, we're not into DiBiase territory here, Gordy had plenty of excellent matches on his resume. As far as comparison goes, Windham was better, because peak Windham I'd put against anyone, Misawa included. Heel Blackwell maybe was on the same level or even better than Gordy, I dunno. Face Blackwell certainly wasn't. All the other guys are below Gordy (although Race is the closest).

NXT Takeover is this week, right ? Finally something I might watch, and enjoy.

Ah ah. ! That's funny as shit.

Well, I can play the petty quoting game too : So sorry. As far as Race goes, I'll write stuff about him whenever I feel like it and certaily not pertaining to Flair. You'll have to live with your assumptions in the meantime.

Holy shit, seriously ?

Please explain to me what *my* notion of Harley Race is. Since I haven't made one post about Harley neither in the Microscope nor the GOAT poll sub-forum, good luck sir.

The whole thing is great. It doesn't mean I can't judge the individual performances. And Hamaguchi and Fujiwara's really weren't up to their working standarts to me, and their segment didn't do much for me, I think it was kinda goofy to be honest (as Fuji can be at times, as opposed to great, although the shit eating grin at the end was awesome). Yatsu, Takada, Fujinami & Choshu were the clear standouts in this thing.

This is so much bullshit. Get over by yourself and they will break you because you're "not supposed to".

Oh yeah. They showed up all the other guys. (BTW, I was quite disapointed with Animal Hamaguchi and Yoshiaki Fujiwara in this, two guys I'm a big fan of) But yeah, Yastu was first and foremost a tag guy since his peak came with the Ishin Gundan. But what a great worker for a few years.

I didn't realize the Houston footage was this early. And yeah, cocaine is one hell of a drug.

Well, it's true that working with the Von Erichs just isn't the easiest way to have really good matches. It never kept Terry Gordy and Buddy Robert from looking excellent though, and Chris Adams from looking really solid.

Duh.

So yeah, I'm watching a bunch of WCCW, and here are some Flair matches showing up. Most of them against Kerry, but here I get this match against Terry Gordy, on January 11, 85. Gordy is a babyface at this point, turning after showing respect toward Kerry von Erich after an excellent Texas Death match against Killer Khan. So there we get a rather short Flair match. Flair's pre-match antics with Sunshine are pretty classic. The match, on the other hand, is not. This is the typical exemple of Flair forcing his fomula and spots on a guy who just wouldn't work that way. Gordy is a big guy crazy bump taker and first class brawler. Stuff Gordy almost never do : press slam, figure four. Stuff Gordy is very good at : crazy brawling, big bumps. What do we get here ? Well, Flair first seems to want to work on Gordy's arm. Then tries a piledriver and seemingly works toward the neck with some restholds headlock then a few neck twists. Then finally gets to a piledriver. Ok. Then goes…. to the figure four of course, despite not having worked on Gordy's knee one bit. And of course, it gets reversed into a badly applied small package, because that's a token Flair spot. Flair is a figure four specialist, or so we're told, but everyone can counter him when he tries to apply it. Cool Flair spot that pops the crowd. Dumb psychology when you spent the last few minutes of match working on your opponent's neck. Anyhoo. Then we get Gordy doing what ? Well, Applying the figure four of course. Because that's what Gordy does in a match usually…. Yawn. Likewise press slams. He does it twice to Flair here. Again : cool Flair spots to pop the crowd. Press slams ? Ok, Gordy's a big dude, that makes sense, although it really never did it to a Von Erich boy when he was the Freebird monster and workhorse. Let's say that's the way Gordy works as a face (of course, it's really not, but hey, gotta give Flair some flack here). Figure four ? Okaaaaaay, let's say it's a revenge spot, because Flair tried it earlier. So it's actual… good psychology ? Of course, that's pushing it way beyond the realm of match analysis toward the "let's make shit up to justify every Flair spot". We know it's just a Flair spot, really. And Gordy isn't using the figure four, like ever. Still, kayfabewise, Gordy the big goofy looking brawler is a better technician than Ric Flair. Okay, enough justification, we know it's just a damn Flair spot. Everybody else does it, so why not Gordy ? And then, we get a shit finish with an awkward back suplex, with Flair using the ropes with one feet while the four shoulders looked flat on the mat. Gordy thinks he won, but Flair really did. You know, lot of Flair matches had those kind of anticlimatic finishes. Really not a great finish guy (and don't tell me it's because of the 80's or WCCW. The Von Erich and the Freebirds had tons of hot finishes to their matches). Gordy vs Killer Khan was much better because both worked the gimmick very well and told a story. This was just Flair doing a bunch of his cool spots with Gordy until a flat finish. We didn't really see Gordy beat the shit out of Flair like he should, or Flair actively killing Gordy's leg trying to put down the big guy, with Gordy doing his Terry Funk on growth hormones selling. It was a good little match with a bunch of token spots which really had no meaning apart from "and now, for your viewing pleasure, the Ric Flair show". But nothing new really. This probably has been written 20 years ago already. Flair would make my top 20.