El-P

I have an odd fondness in my heart for WWF in 95. I really liked those wacky vignettes and characters that year : Hakushi, Jean Pierre Lafitte, Skip, Make a Difference Fatu, and of course, Waylon Mercy and Goldust. WCW in 95 had Hogan being truly unbearable. I take the Diesel push over that shit every day and twice on Sunday. At least he's got the Bret Hart matches and the Shawn Mania match.

"Soyons désinvolte, n'ayons l'air de rien." (this quote would go over so much on a French board) (ok, this is a quote from a very famous song by french rock band Noir Désir, whose singer Bertrand Cantat killed his wife, famous actress Marie Trintignant, by basically beating her to death. He was sentenced to jail though and served his time, unlike some others...) (and it means "let's be jaunty, let's be nonchalant", as in "let's pretend nothing happens", of course the song predates the incident by a good 10 years, but still, applied to that Snuka case, well...)

And yeah, I was refering to the tag matches earlier in this thread. (and I love "southern" tag matches, it's not the issue)

Hilarious.

Tell me it's a fake. Please.

Well, that didn't take long.

Of course it is. Charity a despicable conception to begin with. But I'm not going into details since it's PWO. But yeah, charity has always been a way to make you feel good about yourself and wash guilt away (and maintain social status quo too).

What sek said. You post dumb offensive shit on twitter and nazi memorabilia on instagram and you expect people to say...nothing ? (And yeah of course Lemmy has always been very clear about his views the difference of approach and attitude is huge)

I pimped it a few months ago during my WWECW watch.

That's pretty funny. First reaction when I saw her at NXT was "Damn, Seth's girlfriend is pretty hot." Now I know she's also dumb as fuck. But hey, don't go and call her a nazi. She's actually right about the svastika. Of course, what is showed on her Instagram are not simple svastikas, they are fucking nazi emblems. But you know who else loves collecting german stuff from WWII ? Lemmy. I'm sure HHH can relate. After all, HHH is that guy who had a fucking *iron cross* on his tights for his entire career as a Cerebral Assassin. Yeah, I know, it's like the svastika, it was there before the nazis, but I doubt HHH thought about the Prussian Empire when he choosed that design. He was more in a Motörhead state of mind (which is cool). But, still... Anyway. Yeah, she's offensive, but to me it's just that : just a dumb as fuck bitch. Hell, I'm sure the freaking Harris boys had some progressive social views, these good ol' boys with SS tatooed on their arms. BTW, The Warrior still has a statue in Titan's office, despite his wonderful opinions on gays. Yeah. Pro-wrestling still has a long, long way to go to catch up with society (hopefully).

I can't stand the Code Breaker either BTW. It's apparently a random spot these days, but it's typically the kind of stuff I find annoying in the modern wrestling style. The Code Breaker requires that you take a freaking bump on your back, with the weight of your opponent on you. It looks cool, but it's stupid. Glad I'm not the only one digging Melissa Santos.

Alberto el Patron vs Johnny Mundo. Good sprint with as good selling as you can get from Mundo (who's a spot monkey at heart, but works better as a heel). I'm not a fan of that footstomp spot that requires that the opponent hangs on the ropes, it seems everyone is doing this nowadays, Sasha Banks, Mundo, Alberto. This is exactly the kind of stuff Sabu or Psychosis were derided for back in 95/96. But yeah, good match, and the surprise run-in from Melina was a nice touch. Liked the finish, liked the post-match too which was poetic justice. Alberto delivered the gentlest spanking ever to Melina, which I can totally get behind since she cost him the match and slapped him. Vampiro vs Pentagon Jr. How this can be better than any Vamp match I've seen ? Probably because of the story. Yeah, I said it, the story, despite them going all Big Japan 00 on us. Gory freak show that was as good as it could be. The visuals played a bit part. I thought Vamp was efficient in that matter, and displayed more charisma and character than during his entire WCW stint (which, granted, was hurt a lot by awful booking and that all-time bad Sting feud). Of course the post-match made sense. It's classic stuff, and even though I had been spoiled a long time ago about the Master's identity, I wouldn't call that a swerve. Vamp's attitude during the match made sense. Gift of the Gods match. Clusterfucky as hell, but this was all about dives and cool shit happening. I didn't mind Marty the Moth jumping in, but the Daivari intervention was overkill and brought nothing. That dive from Aerostar was proper insane. For what it was, it was good and a nice change of pace too after the deliberate bloodletting of Vamp vs Pentagon. The right guy won too. Blue Demon Jr. vs Texano. Complete waste of time. The Crew looked stylish. Blue Demon is useless. Mil Muertes vs Prince Puma. Yeah, great match. Probably MOTYC to me too. I liked how they didn't garbaged it up, coming after the Vamp match and the Mack vs Cage opener. Apart from one or two weapon shots that had meaning and were sold, it was pretty straightforward power heel vs acrobatic face match. For the style they work in the promotion and the character they display, it was pretty much the perfect match to cap off the season, although Muertes vs Fenix and Puma vs Mundo 1 hour matches were greater spectacles. I didn't mind the kicking out of finishers because it was the very first time it ever happened, and led to Muertes simply amping it up instead of going rinse/repeat like they would in WWE. Using Catrina as a weapon without hurting her was a pretty cool moment by Puma. Great last episode. And damn, these ending credits. How badass can you get ? (although again, not really a fan of Marty the Moth getting all psychopatic, unless his "sister" really is a cool worker and character) Loved the way Drago and Aerostar vanished, and Ivelysse & Son of Havoc are priceless. With this ending, and the mask of Matanza finally showing up, I really hope there will be a season 2. It would be a crime to not have a season 2 while WWE has countless hours of boring television and TNA still being in operation. If there is, I hope they keep Melissa Santos as the ring announcer too. Hotness notwithstanding, I like the intents she puts into everything, unlike the mindless robots of WWE TV. She gets a more sinister tone when announcing Drago or Mil Muertes, she puts more enthousiasm for the technicos, shows excitement or some disdain while remaining pro. The announcing team, well, Striker can be good or annoying as hell. The guy from Ultima Lucha I don't know, I guess he's an MMA announcer. Didn't pay much attention, but now that Vamp is probably Pentagon's manager, he would be gone from the booth I guess. Anyway, loved the product overall despite its flaws. Really hoping for a season 2.

Didn't watch the whole deal, because I don't have the time, but I watched the final show. The undercard was the usual mix of good and not so good. Although and even though I don't follow New Japan closely, the product still seemed stale as hell to me. It's like nothing much has happened since the last time I checked. Same kind of undercard, same kind of title matches (with the exception of the junior title and the Naito heel turn). The Bullet Club is a decent heel faction, but at this point, nothing seems fresh anymore, even for someone who doesn't really watch the product. That Delirious promo had the thing I hate when american are in Japan. You're being translated anyway, speak well, don't use that piss poor English-for-dummies, mixed with "ichiban" because it's the only word you know like Hulk did. Either speak good English or poor Japanese, not *poor English* !! Anyway. David Finlay, Mascara Dorada & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu Yeah, good opener. A guy being named David Finlay is kinda confusing to me. I even liked Taguchi here. The young lions really look good. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Captain New Japan vs. Jay White, Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata These matches are like the workrate version of the old veterans comedy matches in All Japan in the 90's. Except nothing here is as funny as Haruka Eigen spit spot. Really, this wasn't very good nor entertaining. Michael Elgin vs YOSHI-HASHI First time I see Elgin. Good match with classic power guy vs speed guy dynamic. Well worked, good impressive spots. Interesting. CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) The highlight was Yujiro's stripper dressed as a panther. Decent match, but nothing special at all. Can anyone explain to me Yano's gimmick ??? He's a movie producer who fins everything funny ? WTF ? I have seen him a number of times, and I still don't get it. He is funny though. Tama Tonga looks like a great athlete. I guess he's make up is all tribal and shit, but every time I see him he makes me think of a guy from a Polynesian black metal band. Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata & Kota Ibushi vs Tetsuya Naito, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma Now this is when things picked up. This was really good and I enjoyed Naito's heel act quite a bit. Homna seemed a bit in the back though, and the going ofr the headbutt early is kinda goofy at this point. What happened with Tenryu ? Does he want his retirement match against Okada ? He looked old. But what a boss voice though. reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) vs The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) Again ? Anyway, this was atrocious. The Bucks have cooled off the crotch chops and suck it chants, thankfully, but their act still is unbearable. Everything has to be cute and silly with them. They could be really good because they have the athetic ability and the comedic feel, but when EVERYTHING is wink wink and idiotic, it's just not funny at all. And as far as doing a trillion spots that you kick out of, well, if that's what ROH brought to wrestling, then really, fuck this indy mentality. Burn though five big spots in one sequence and it's sold like an armdrag. reDRagons are good, but they need to slow the fuck down. KUSHIDA vs Ricochet Wait, I just realized that KUSHIDA's gimmick is basically to be... Marty McFly ???? These Japanese people... Wait, is this the guy under Prince Puma's mask ? WTF ? You don't put a guy who looks that good and sexy under a fucking panther mask ! I didn't get the criticism of the mask before, although Puma never quite translated as a babyface to me either, but damn, I understand now. This guy is so much better without the mask. Excellent to great match BTW. I enjoyed that trememdously. Thank god the Kenny Omega experiment has ended. AJ Styles, Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Matt Taven & Michael Bennett & Kazuchika Okada Really good and hot match too, and I'm not just refering to Maria, who's stunning. Gotta love those Japanese cameraman too, they just don't give a shit, they know what they're supposed to get on cam. The one comedy spot with Maria was awesome. And since it was only one spit and they let the guys work, it was the best Kingdom match in New Japan that I've seen. AJ Styles finisher is the best protected spot in the world, that's nice. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Shinsuke Nakamura Oh man. MOTYC. Easily. Did they go *that long* ? It sure didn't felt that way. These two guys are amazing workers. So yeah. Smoked SummerSlam, of course (but what didn't ?), and the best stuff was better than on the NXT Takeover. That said, there was some stuff that badly dragged in the low undercard. And that damn Young Bucks match, which was awful as always. Still, with the two big trios matches, the junior match and the G1 Final, one hell of a show at the end of the day.

All Japan only has the best tag team matches ever. Yeah, not their style.

This 1000%. It's so annoying and devoid of any personnality. Then we they get to the ring, they do exactly the same movements/screams too. And when they get to the second rope to do a pose, it looks like a fucking animatronic (cf Randy Orton, king of void). No intent or "character work" , just a pre-planned routine that they'll do every fucking time the same fucking way.

Have been binge watching the end of the season (hoping there will be a season 2). No matter the stuff I don't like about it, this show is too much fun. I'm at part 1 of Ultima Lucha. So there it goes. The Mack vs Cage. Falls count anywhere, so they don't even get to the ring. That's the spirit. Ridiculous ECW style match, with tons of weapon shots and brawling in the stands and on the Eagle's nest. Yeah, selling could be better, they treat a DDT outside like it's just another spot, but what the hell, it has good pace and is quite fun for what it is. Cage is better in this setting than when he's doing X-div sequences in the ring. I like the Mack a lot. The finish was both ridiculous and really good. And sold as death. Fun stuff. Trios championship match. Ivelysse's injury really screwed up the trios dynamic, although they managed to integrate her in the best way possible. The dead guys all have cool new mask, but I admit the beating kinda has that bizarre rudos beating pace that I never cared for in pure lucha (yeah, I said it). Not that good of a match to be honest, worked too much in a texas tornado format. Angelico did another crazy dive, but it didn't look as awesome as the two previous ones. Gotta love Catrina doing her Paul Bearer tribute act though. This shit is great. The last lick of death was ridiculously hot. Catrina rules, she doesn't take shit from anyone. This is some Tarentino "Death Proof" stuff right there. Ok, I hope there's a season two to see how the story progresses between the trio of Havoc, Ivelysse & Angelico. Hernandez vs Drago. I guess the "believers" were half audience and half extras, with the audience guys not daring to actually hit Hernandez. I do think the gimmick, as good as Hernandez selling it, ampered the match a bit. Decent stuff though, and the right guys won. Fun first episode of Ultima Lucha, but nothing special in term of matches, although that has been the issue with LU at times. The production still rules, with all the cool posters around the arena which makes it look like a special events.

The cosplay match ? I give it five cosplay stars too.

"If it ain't Southern Styletm, it ain't worth a damn." Can we move on from this ? Please ?

My Tony Schiavone quote went over everybodys head.

But what are they supposed to do ? Improvise ?

I told you Roman was basically Luger in the Allied Powers. With that Braun guy or whatever is name is they're feuding with MOM.

Punches in the face. Yay.

Jericho could have busted out his Super Liger outfit. Now that's an obscure reference.

That's awesome.

This should be separated into his own thread of "pre-planned vs called on the spot" btw. Agreed. This is totally overlooked. Familiarity plays a big part in creating greatness. When you have worked a billion times together in more than ten years, of course you don't need to talk about what you're gonna do. First occurence is rarely the best one. (that's also why one night stands kinda suck, BTW)