El-P

Funny. 20-15 years ago, the first name that would have been thrown would have been Manami Toyota. I'm not her biggest fan, I find her quite flawed, but still, when I read "don't start with Manami Toyota", it kinda rings like "don't start with Kenta Kobashi" or "don't start with Ric Flair" to my hears. (and yeah, before someone asks, Flair is a go-go-go worker to me) Hell, get Dreamslam 1 & 2. Yeah, that's a boring recommandation. They also probably are two of the greatest pro-wrestling card to to bottom to this day, so… To me the 90's are easier to get into if you're familiar with modern puroresu. 80's Zenjo is more niche, with the screaming schoolgirls audience and stuff.

I don't think I've seen this. I love Martel though, so eventually I should check those out.

Jimmy Garvin. I thought for the longest time that his Freebird stint in WCW was just him being older and lazy. But hell, he stunk about as much in the 80's, whenever he showed up. I haven't seen the Rougeaus vs the Garvins and that's the only thing that could save him from getting thrown to the woodpile. The best of his Texas work basically revolves about his valets, with the whole Sunshine/Precious feud. Fucking awful on offense, resthold galore, not particulary good bumper either. Not a great look, not overly charismatic either. Really, what the hell was that guy about ?

Just dreamed of Mania this night. Taker was facing Bray Wyatt. When the lights went back after the intro, it appeared that Taker was sporting some kind of judo outfit, red and yellow mind you. And the time I blinked an eye and Bray was defeated by some sort of magic trick with one finger. Then Bray Wyatt's body levitated and you could see the ropes and cables, so it looked stupid as hell. And then, as the camera panned over the crowd, you could see a bunch of cocktail tables at floor level. And the next act was Chris Jericho and Eric Bischoff doing some sort of dancing routine, like a musical, with a bunch of dancers around them too, before doing a interview segment. Yeah. I know.

Good stuff (although I don't necessarily agree with everything here, but gotta show some support). And I'm a Memphis fan (I probably enjoy Memphis TV from the 80's more than any other territory that I've seen a bunch of, although maybe the fact Lance Russel is the God of announcing plays a big part), but yeah, people just go overboard defending *anything* from Memphis as if it's the Gospel. I loved how Shane Douglas described the southern bullshit as a "bad Supremes video", complete with every gestures to underline what you're trying to get across, in a very redondant and too-obvious way.

See also : Muraco, Don.

One of the worse of all time is pushing it. He was perfectly fine for a long time I think, before he got all epic and shit and decided to go for the delayed three count. I wonder when that happened exactly. Or maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I don't think he was doing that before the Attitude Era got rolling. Then, yes, fucking annoying. The sole reason he's "iconic" for TNA is because he's the referee from the Montreal screwjob, and that's pretty much it.

Although it's Moroder, it sounds closer to Kraftwerk than disco. I don't remember who, but some NJ guys in the early 80's was coming out to a YMO song. So awesome.

The video game entrance is one of the worst thing that happened to pro-wrestling presentation. It sucks the life out of everybody. It's another awful consequence of branding everything.

Not to sound like a dick (pun intended), but as opposed to what ? Judas Priest ? Hell, classic heavy metal's imagery is gay as shit, and there's a reason why. Demolition was such a gay gimmick, it's not even funny.

When Al Snow was using Prodigy back in 98 in ECW, it totally fit his insane character too.

WTF ? Still ? Really ? Seriously ? I wasn't aware of that. I mean, electro is everywhere. Days of Chicago house and Detroit Techno being played mostly in gays (and black) clubs really goes back 30 years ago now. Since the second Summer of Love and the rave craze in the 90's in Europe, the international success of the "French Touch" (idiotic term, but still) in the late 90's, I thought electro was just another genre by this point. Well, ok, it's stll rooted in gay culture somewhat, I mean, the last really famous electro club in Paris was the Pulp, which was a lesbian club, but still. David Guetta is mainstream (for better of for worse. Ok, for worse). Daft Punk are mainstream.

I had to google that. Amazing, indeed.

She does sounds a little bit like Chyna. Which doesn't bring back any good memories. Balor & Joe vs Lucha Dragons was a decent little TV match. Joe looked much better here than against Corbin, although a few spots with Sin Cara looked shoddy, but Cara doesn't help. Not being overly familiar with Balor on TV (as opposed to specials I mean), it seems obvious to me WWE should push this guy to the top on the main roster. The Demon entrance = draws kids. Everyday Balor = draws women. And yeah, I can totally get behind a Balor vs Joe title match.

Yep, that struck me as well. It's not always *good*, but it has character a lot of the time. I've seen Emma once and I remember (and enjoy) her theme for instance. The Vaudevillians, Fynn Balor, Tyler Breeze, Sasha, Bailey, all have music that really fit and is memorable. Randy Orton's bland and dated neo-meal stuff in the mid-00's was an integral part of the dullness of the product that carries on to this day on the main product. It was stricking that pretty much all the entrances on TakeOver were much better than anything at the SummerSlam.

Ether smells like crazy. But really, referees are dumb in pro-wrestling anyway. But yeah, the worst is when you have stuff like guitar pieces all over the ring with a guy down and the ref counts like nothing happened.

I can understand it working in the 50's or 60's. But by the 80's, it really looked goofy. There's a reason why stuff like the heart punch wasn't used by then (well, ok, Crush did it in 97, and it looked idiotic).

Garvin wasn't that much worse in the early 90's than he was in the 80's in Texas tagging along with the Freebirds on occasion. They had a few decent and fun performances against the right opponents, but it's still pretty much a horrid team.

Yeah. but wrestling has never been about what DOES hurt, it's about what LOOKS like it hurts. Abdominal claws just look weak. bingo Trapezius claw = islander worker catching his breath.

The sledgehammer is by far the stupidest I can think of on a major stage. Dumb as fuck. Now, my favourite dumb foreign object may have been Mad Dog Vachon's prostetic leg at IYH. And of course, the lethal women's heels in WCW the same year.

The iron claw is dumb as fuck. The iron claw on the stomach is downright retarded. "Owww, he's pinching my tummy !" All the Von Erich boys had that kinda awkward way to move around, and Kevin was the most awkward of them all, rendered worst by the somewhat creepy barefoot look. Why the fuck would anyone wrestle barefoot unless you're an islander native (gimmick) or doing a martial/arts (MMA today) gimmick ? Kevin was just not very good.

Ok, she's my new favourite worker although I've never actually seen her.

For those who aren't familiar at all with her (that's me), what is she about exactly (apart from being a relly good worker, from what I understand) ?

Ah, Japan… some things just never change apparently. Where is that quote about Vince being outraged about the very fact asian porn would even exist or something ?

Not a good exemple though. Onita was a much bigger star in Japan than Randy Orton ever was or will ever be in the US. And FMW was not a marginal promotion by any means. When you pack 40.000 people in the Kawasaki Stadium without strong TV (or any TV at all for most of the original Onita run), you're not what I'd call marginal. Onita isn't the Sandman.