El-P

Being in the middle of a Texas binge watch, among other things, I've decided to watch that Heroes of World Class documentary. And : Pretty much what I came off thinking. The shooting, editing and sound mix of the interviews is pretty bad for something that wants to look pro. And it's too bad, because the story it tells, even when you know about it, is pretty fascinating, especially when everything spirals down into a nightmare of drug related deaths and suicides. One particulary powerful statement about Kevin is that he's not even a brother anymore, because they were five and he's alone now. Amazing how the guy could survive to all of this, and he's absolutely right when he says it takes balls to live, as opposed to what his cancer-damaged father was telling him about not having the guts to kill himself. Gary Hart, as always, is a great storyteller. And the idea of ending with the old Sportatorium was perfect. Too bad about the production values, but even then, it smokes any dull and overproduced (and most of the time revisionnists) stuff WWE puts out. It's surprising Hollywood never did a movie about this story, because there's this whole arc of american mythology turning awry, with the lone survivor at the end who manages to still build himself a life. Would make a terrific fiction in the hands of a really good director.

At this point I'm waiting for the finale to binge watch the 6-7 last episodes.

Because he wasn't very good in the ring, really. Was part of a few really terrific matches, and a bunch of good ones. And was actively awful also past his prime.

Holy shit, the legends are dropping like flies.

I remember that Anjoh match. So much fun.

Yeah. Even his finishers were boring. Funny that is son ended up a complete bore too, despite a cool gimmick. (I like Rotunda before the IRS gimmick)

Who are we kidding ? Bagwell was ok. Scorpio was already excellent. Really, there's no team Bagwell was involved in that he was the better worker. Ok, maybe Buff & Judy. Still, this is pretty much Bagwell's best tag team, simply because of Scorp.

Short lived, but excellent. Douglas was a terrific babyface in peril.

Chavo tagged with his uncle ?

One thing that struck me wathing old NJ stuff, is that he was doing the exact same counters and sequences that I saw him do as late as the early 00's in ARSION and MPro. Which is both amazing and maybe telling that Hamada has been doing the same thing for more than 20 years, which may not be as amazing save for the fact that his execution was just as perfect in 2001 as it was in 79. Which is amazing. Anyway, he's a guy I'd love to see more of. And he's Ayako's papa, which is great.

Lance Storm and eventually William Regal. But it didn't start for a good nine months after 9/11. Really, The Un-Americans name is one of the most offensive, idiotic, xenophobic name in pro-wrestling history. Ok, so there's Goold Old 'merica, and the rest are all Unamericans. (and the fact they couldn't find any other nation than Canada & UK to represent what is "unamerican" is also telling… oh, post 9/11 WWE…) People remember Jim Neidhart as JTTS Who in 96 ? WTF was that all about ?

The greatest laziest wrestler this side of Keiji Mutoh. Hence, he's sorta the most frustrating guy ever.

I've been watching some of his New Japan stuff lately, and you know, although I always thought Tiger Mask was overrated, he's just not the terrible worker he's been accused of being a few years ago. Yeah, he was sloppy at times. Yeah, some of his matches were a mess (the Dynamite match with all the restarts was kinda ugly). But no, he just wasn't doing the exact same things luchadors around him were doing. That's just not the truth. He was quicker, more explosive and more spectacular, that is, when he didn't fuck up his spots. He was also part of some really good matches, both against Dynamite and Kobayashi, and some cool tag stuff too. He had a wicked knee drop. And despite not being a vey good worker overall (let's not kid ourselves), what he brought to the game was enough to build some very good matches around that. And there's no denying his influence on guys like Liger, Sasuke and even Rey Mysterio (not to mention the Eddielenko matches which are the model for every "workrate indy wankfest" and yes, that is a negative in my book). He was much better suited for shoot-style, to which he added some of his cool indiosyncrasies, his first UWF stint was full of really good matches (okay, he also had some really good opponents to work with). Overall, not nearly as good as he was pimped to be, but not nearly as bad as he was accused to be either.

If I had keep up with joshi, Yoshiko Tamura would probably end up on mine. She was a terrific litle worker. I also doubt anyone remembers The Bloody these days. Naomi Kato was awesome. (those opinions dates from 2002)

Since we're having fun with moral issues and such, introducing (no pun intended) : Art Barr.

Art Barr as The Juicer in WCW. Yeah. A cartoon character aimed at kids played by a guy who raped a 19 year old girl. There's no business like show business.

So, there's a censorship on Muraco… okay... Tiger Mask/Super Tiger/Satoru Sayama.

I had SM fantasies involving Bison Kimura. (I didn't write that)

Don't know about that one. Me want dirt. What's the story ? And yeah, Bull is the coolest. Add to the fact she lost tons of weight and became a MILF golfer. What's not to love about her ? (I'm a big time Aja fan, but I do think Bull was better overall)

Agreed. I believe he made my top 10 back then, and he would never make it today. Not sure at all he'd make my top 20. And that has nothing to do with the murders nor "workrate guilt".

Bull would probably make you bleed until you pass out for this.

Not a great worker, but man, there was something sexy as hell in Kimura, as far as a bloodthirsty beast goes. I loved that girl. Really underrated brawler.

I don't have a list in mind, I haven't watched joshi since 2003 or so. But damn, those matches with Aja Kong in 91/92 and with Kyoko Inoue in 95 were just terrific. Bull was an amazing worker.

I know the canons of beauty were a bit different back then. Still, I have no idea how this guy was ever half of a blowjob tag team. No idea at all. Solid worker. But when you got Ricky Morton at your side… Well… Not as good as Bobby Fulton. Much better than Steve Keirn (not hard).

Yep. I mean, let's not put the murder of good wrestling on the back of Benoit too, really. When going through WCW during the mid to late 90's, two guys were clearly the best workers in the company : Benoit and Rey. Actually, you say Angle and Benoit got the worst out of each other, and that is very true, but the WWE as a whole got the worst out of Benoit (in many ways). He was a much more diverse and subtle worker before the 00's. In WWE he got roided like never before (yes, he was roided in NJ before, but never to those extents), and got into stupid excess like the systematic rolling germans (which he only began during his very late WCW work I believe, possibly under the first Russo regime) and stuff like the Angle spotfus. Benoit in 1996 was a pure joy to watch. Then again, when watching early 90's New Japan 13 years ago, I came to the realization that I enjoyed Riki Choshu vs Hashimoto a lot more than Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid. And that was way before any kind of post-Benoit workrate guilt, so it's not like I'm advocating Benoit as the perfect worker either. Want to blame someone for the current WWE style ? I think Angle would be a perfect culprit actually. And since he was pimped as an überworker by both the reviewers (Meltz included) and all his peers who just came at the idea of a gold medalist, his way of working set the tone for the decade to come.