El-P

This "promotion" truly is terrible. Episode 22 has a decent CM Punk vs Mike Knox match, but nothing I'd go as far as call "good", because it was too rushed to amount to anything, and was kinda sloppy at times. And yeah, not as good as Sabu vs Thorne as far as complete rush-job goes. Kelly was sent to the back, which makes sense. Apart from that, Daivari squashed Little Guido, which is idiotic since he has nothing to offer (I mean really, no look, no distinct ability, no nothing unique apart from speaking farsi). Yeah, Guido has to bump for Khali too, that's something I really want to see. Tommy Dreamer vs Test was the usual piss poor Test quickie. Elijah Burke & Sylverster Terkay are coming soon. I actually remember Terkay's name from Z1, where he was doing some Brody gimmick. It eluded me that he ever was in WWE. And then an atrocious main event with RVD & Holly vs Big Show & … Paul Heyman. The work sucked, the "storyline" sucked (really, RVD can't do one freaking tag although he succeeded in beating Show twice already in the previous weeks ?) and you could smell the oh-so-not-surprising and Russoesque swerve at the end, with Holly turning on RVD. This whole WWECW stuff in the worst thing Heyman was ever involved with and truly is a black mark on his resume.

Then again, Trip dated Chyna before marrying married to Stephy McMahon. Meanwhile Rusev is dating Lana.

If I were a woman : Rusev. If I were gay : Trip.

Vince's reaction is pretty damn hilarious.

Yep. He looked bloated. PPV19 = one match show. AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn, this time against each other, in yet another terrific match. No gimmicks needed. Played the familiarity well, especially at the beginning and when Lynn tried to do his annoying guillotine spots that was countered (I always love when it happens). They didn't rush things and built to a nice series of nearfalls. I won't go into specifics, but although it's not their absolute best, it's still easily an excellent match. Lynn gets the belt back again. They sure throw this around like a hot potatoe. Rest of the show ? 5 men table match clusterfuck. Bullshit involving the Rainbow Express. A decent AMW vs Brian Lee & Slash match that ended up in a double DQ. A decent beating by bloated Hennig on Jeff Jarrett. A watchable Sonny Siaki vs BJ James semi-final for the 1st challenger tournament (probably the best James has looked thus far, as his selling of the knee injury was fine). But most offensively : Brian Lawler vs Syxx-Pac. During which : April was kissed against her will (that time) by Syxx-Pac, in what basically consists of a sexual assault. April was called a cunt by Brian Lawler after he was all sugary in the pre-match. April was forced to follow Syxx-Pac after he won the match. April got "she's got herpes" and "she's a crack whore" chants led by a fat & ugly white trash woman at ringside. And then Brian has a "heart-attack" and April jumps back at his side. While the announcers basically say that April is the reason of all this trouble. Do I need to say more ? 2002.11.06 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn

Episode 21. WWECW is Halloween. And it'll play a part in the show. Best (only good) match of the show is a qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember, Sabu vs Kevin Thorne. Total sprint, as they weren't given any time, but the action was good and well executed, with some impressive looking spots like Thorne catching Sabu in a short powerbomb or Sabu doing an amazing tornado DDT from a springboard. I like the fact Ariel is active and screaming like Woman or Sherri were. Best Twilight Boy match thus far. We get the debut of, gasp, Daivari with the Great Khali. More quality talent on this show, like it lacked any. Daivari seems to suck just as much as he does these days on LU, but we'll see. Here he squashes poor Shannon Moore. The Sandman canes a clown backstage, because it's Halloween. Return of the Divas, with a costume contest. Well, it was actually pretty well done in that Ariel wore the exact same outfit that she wears everyday, since she's a freak who dresses like it's Halloween all the time. Trinity wears, well, pretty much nothing apart from a yellow crime scene tape over her boobs, so of course she wins. That's also only the third time she appears on this show since the beginning. And the fun part was Kelly Kelly, who actually had a costume, as she dressed up like CM Punk, complete with fake tatoos on her arms and belly. Of course, Mike Knox isn't happy and CM punk comes out to beat his ass, while Kelly just seems half apologetic-half amused. You know, Kelly's character actually grows on me a bit because there's something likeable about her, she looks like a genuine hot 19 year old girl who doesn't see what's the big deal about all of this and just has fun. Which is kinda refreshing. Main event of Big Show & Test vs RVD & Hardcore Holly was pretty bad at first during the long stretch of Test working, then got almost good during the heat on Holly and the finishing stretch after the hot tag, although Big Show did the worst Vader bomb ever (not that he ever did that spot well). So yeah, almost got good for a moment, but the shit finish with Heyman disguised as a gorilla costing RVD the match was really stupid. Ah, those wacky Halloween wrestling shows... 2006.10.31 Sabu vs Kevin Thorne

Hulk's selling was goofy as shit, and the way he registered the shots or bumped was not exactly state of the art selling either. Pretty much. Hogan didn't become a superstar because of the way he sold. He became a superstar because of his charisma, presence, body, promos and over the top act and maneurisms. And because he never lost. As opposed to say, Ricky Morton, or Ricky Steamboat. So of course, when he sold he got the crowd in his hands. But only because he was already Hulk Hogan. The crowd supported him because they wanted him to hulk up. And hulking up is pretty much the worst concept of selling, ever. It's a thousand times worst than any delayed selling if we're being honest. Not to mention hulking up after a finisher, which was Hogan's idea of "compelling". Yeah, it drew shitloads of money, for a while. It still sucked.

The promotion is on its way to Russoification, as showed by most of PPV 18. So we get a tournament to have a n°1 contender for the world title. First match : Ron Harris vs BJ James, with Don Harris as the enforcer referee (supposed to be there for the entire tournament). Shitty gimmick ref job, shitty match, Bullet Bob runs in in the middle of the match to fire Don. Second match : Curt Hennig vs Jeff Jarrett doesn't happen because Jarrett jumped Hennig earlier on and bloodied him badly. Jumps him again on the ramp, chairshots, the Stroke (I can't believe no one ever told Jarrett how awful the move looks), Jarrett wins. Ok, this tournament sucks already. Then we get more Brian Lawler & April nonsense. April is clearly depicted as a manipulative bitch here, after being the victim of an abusive Lawler, but she doesn't get any sympathy from the announcers who make it clear that if Lawler is confused and dangerous, it's "because of her" . Yeah, those hot women are all trash, Russo. Then we get yet another run-in from "Mr. Wrestling III" at the end of Scott Hall vs The Truth, which wasn't good but still better than the Hennig matches. This shitty angle just goes nowhere. And some ff stuff involving Miss TNA & Priscilla in a mixed tag. Not watching this. Kid Kash vs Tony Mamaluke was a bit better than the usual Kash match thanks to Mamaluke working heel and giving the match a semblance of dynamic, but Kash just wants to do spots and can't be bothered to sell. AMW vs the Micheals vs The Hot Spot was a watchable cluster, with a post match beating on AMW by Brian Lee & Slash. That's a match I can look forward to I think. The show was saved again by Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles. The first in a tournament match against Sonny Siaki, this time worked in a much more classic Lynn way, with a focus by Siaki on Lynn's neck and throat after a hot shot spot. The end was a bit anticlimatic, but it was a good match. Siaki needs to drop the Rock clone image though. Styles defended his X-div title against Amazing Red, in what was a very good indieriffic match. Ok, I'm not a big fan of the style to be honest, and some of the sequences at the beginning screamed choregraphed stuff a-la RVD vs Lynn, but Red makes a good undersize underdog and he can be very fun to watch because of his quickness and execution, although he clearly lacks any middle-ground offense in between his big spots. AJ played heel very well (good facials and maneurisms at the right time) and took the time to ground Red and slow down the pace a bit. This guy already showed me a lot in these few first months of TNA, he clearly was the guy holding things together here. 2002.10.30 Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki 2002.10.30 AJ Styles vs Amazing Red

My thoughts exactly. Was a nothing interview. Yeah, not much in term of good stories, although his reactions to the "What's in the bag" game were pretty funny. I didn't think it was that bad honestly especially compared with the ones ICP or Broadus Clay and such). One thing you learn for sure, is that he's samoan. And that Yoko had a three years long title reign.

I'm so tired of this show. Episode 20 was the worse in a long time. It speaks volume of the creative slump this company and even Heyman were when the only idea they had for the main feud at the top was "heel authority". (of course it's even sadder that it's still the case in 2015). So we get RVD vs Big Show in a ladder match to get the contract. Terrible match. Contrived, sloppy as hell, with a bunch of ladder shots we've seen a zillions times, only done badly thanks to Show's ineptness. Seriously, he's just terrible, and putting him in a ladder match makes him look even worse. So, RVD wins because ladder matches are his specialty (which makes Heyman looks like an idiot to begin with). So I guess we get another bad match between those too. Hardcore Holly vs Test was a dull, sloppy affair, that got some "boring" chants. Holly is solid, but he's not a guy who will carry a guy like Test in a straight match. Some terrible looking transitions, and the added cherry on the cake of the awful WWE production which sabotaged the only big spot in the match : after a suplex from the apron to the outside by Holly, cut to commercials, and Test in control in a resthold when they get back. Clap clap clap. Anyway. Not good. Holly still displays zero charisma at this point of his career despite working his best gimmick, and it shows when he's working babyface. CM Punk vs Matt Striker was easily the match of the night, with nice chain wrestling exchange at the beginning and some pretty smooth work on both part (although some high kicks by Punk look kinda odd, in a Mima Shimoda way). I dig Striker's tights and kneepads, always matching his ridiculous argyle sweaters. That's a cool touch. Match got interupted by Mike Knox, but no Kelly Kelly that week. There has been no diva on sight since the Strip Poker episode, maybe they figured they went a little bit too far so they cooled down the sex factor for a while.

Episode 19 More of the same. A CM Punk vs Rene Dupree rematch, same lenght, same result. Dupree looked pretty good again, so maybe I was too harsh on his debut. Test vs Balls Mahoney was watchable, and Sabu squashed Shannon Moore, who's a total jobber, he gets less offense than Barry Horowitz on Wrestling Challenge. The main event was a bad RVD vs Big Show match. Show is even worst than RVD, who at least brings *something* to the table even if it's not good most of the time. Show is just awful. Can't even drop a decent looking elbow, can't sell for shit. This ECW run makes him look like one of the worst big man ever to get a major run anywhere. RVD wins thanks to Holly throwing some wicked chair shots to the head. In 2006. So we get a title match next wekk. Oh, great. The best match of the show was actually Sandman vs Matt Striker in a "singapur cane on a pole" match. Wasn't much, but at least everything made sense : Striker attacks Sandman's right knee to prevent him from getting up the pole, uses a nice throw to send him off the tope rope, gets the cane, gets a few shots in before the miss, Sandman gets his cane back and beats the shit out of Striker until he bleeds and chickenshits out of the ring. For what it was, it was perfectly executed, so yeah, I'd go so far to call it a good match. Especially in this setting where only the main event gets any time. I'm so sick of promo clips of "The Marine" every damn weak too. It's been going on forever. And then, we get a new backstage interviewer, Rebeca DiPietro, who's hot and all. 2006.10.17 Matt Striker vs Sandman

Ah yes, the one and only Lollipop. She was said to be quite popular among the boys. Yeah, that's her, although she didn't had her gimmick that time. She almost saved those two last shows... PPV17 was much better, to the point I thought it would actually be really good in the end, but the last part of the show took it down. Still, AJ Styles vs Syxx-Pac rematch was very good again, this time going for a more all-out style, probably because of the no-DQ stip that wasn't used that much apart from a few spots. Waltman showed again that he's still a crisp worker, and AJ looks better with that kind of opponent than doing over-contrived spots. I kinda fear the Amazing Red match the following week. Finish had the interference of Brian Lawler, as part of the embarrassing April angle, but apart from that week finish, the match was very satisfying. Mortimer Plumbtree was pretty good on color too. Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki showcased another side of Lynn's work, as he put on a selling clinic since the whole match was based around his injured knee. And he was excellent at mounting offense from underneath while still selling. It allowed the otherwise very spotty Siaki to focus his offense with good submissions and knee work. Very solid match and a feather in the cap of Jerry Lynn. As far as solid match went, AMW (finally called as such) vs The Hot Shots was good, beginning with a lot of brawling then settling into a classic tag match. James Storm is the best Bart Gunn ever, and I enjoy the Hot Shot's style and antics, especially Cassidy's (who remind me a bit of a young Shane Douglas or an Eddie Gilbert). They really did a good job building AMW thus far. Scott Hall made his return facing Jeff Jarrett, and this one was also as good as these two can get at this point, and by that I mean much better than most Jarrett's matches in late WCW. Too bad they had to deal with a shit finish (lights going off so Killings can cut a promo and a bunch of run-ins), otherwise this is the second best match they had together in TNA. Jarrett's offense consisted of 90% good looking punches, so people around here should give him a little more credit I think. Apart from that, a cluserfuck of a match involving all the usual suspects, SATs, Kid Kash & Skipper, another bad main event between Truth & Hennig, who looks like he has nothing left in the tank, and the stupid April angle interfering into Brian Lawler vs BJ James (who doesn't look good again), then later advancing in an even more ridiculous segment where Lawler almost cries, then gets convinced by April that Waltman "forced her" to kiss him (Lawler looks like a complete idiot for believing this BTW). So of course, we get the announcer tell us that "it's all April's fault". Yeah, women = bicthes. In another Russoesque moment, we also get woman abuse in a worthless Ace Steel vs Jorge Estrada match, where Priscilla (who I understand is a former Jerry lawler valet/girlfriend) gets pushed around for basically no reason. So yeah, almost a really good episode thanks to four solid to very good matches. 2002.10.23 AJ Styles vs Syxx-Pac 2002.10.23 AMW vs Hot Shots 2002.10.23 Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki

aka Greg Valentine working handicap matches.

Okay, I can get that. Gannosuke was able to work super fast stretches though, which really was never Valentine's style. But yeah, the back-to-basics approach of Gannosuke was definitely one of his strong points.

Why the Valentine analogy ? (Don't get me wrong, I love Valentine, but I just never thought about such a comparison)

That's really fucked up.

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, Come on, you gotta love the stache.

Ten years ago, I would have absolutely done it. Now ? Honestly, the idea of ranking wrestlers has passed me by some time ago. It's not even a fun idea anymore. Where I stand now, I just wanna see who's stock goes up and down depending on what I'm watching, who can be interesting even at the simple "solid" level, stuff like these. I'm nowhere near obsessive enough to binge watch a shitload of matches just to "study" a guy. At this point I know what works for me and what I dislike, and I can be pretty objective about things too (hell, I just praised an RVD vs Test match yesterday). The thing with Takada is, I found absolutely ridiculous the backlash that made him drop from "great wrestler" to "terrible wrestler" status, as an updated canon was being established. Last time I watched a lot of Takada was a few years ago when I went through a lot of UWF 1 & 2. I was wondering what I would think about Takada then, since the backlash had already happened. And the fact is I thought Takada was already pretty fucking good when he was young, and quite the terrific worker by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Fujiwara's stock has risen a lot with me too, to the point I'd call him a great worker in the early to 2/3rd 80's (in the second UWF he was still very good/excellent but was getting a bit goofier, which always cracks me up when I have to read that he's "pure shoot style" while doing those ridiculous headbutts). Even back 15 years ago I was already saying that Takada was not a great pure "shoot-style" worker, but that he was a terrific "big match" worker. More flair than substance ? Without a doubt. See also, Flair, Ric (pun intended). My favourite shoot style worker, the best ever to me and one of my top 10 favourite workers ever is Tamura. I'm actually much more a Tamura fan than a Takada fan. But the whole Takada deal has almost become a running gag around this place (much like the Raven reference). So yeah, I probably won't make a case, because it's not where the fun of watching wrestling is to me right now (as opposed to waching early TNA and WWECW… wait… something's wrong here). But if I get the urge to watch some shoot style again (or some 80's NJ) before this thing is over, I will surely post my thoughts around here, not only about Takada but about other guys as well.

Episode 18 was all about Extreme Strip Poker, so the matches were regularly cut off but split screens, which made them hard to follow, and there was no angles at all during the show. CM Punk vs Rene Dupree was another semi-competitive squash, and Dupree looked better this time around, doing some really good bumping and dropkicks. Joey Styles did the same stupid xenophobic joke that I guess he'll do every fucking time Dupree gets in the ring. How creative. Tommy Dreamer vs Twilight Boy could have been a good match but it looked even more rushed than the last one (no idea if it actually was shorter) and there's not much you can amount too working in such a short timing. They go 1-1. Then the main event was a decent Big Show (looking that the worst King Kong Bundy ever with no hair nor beard) & Test & Matt Striker vs RVD & Sabu & Sandman. The match was at its best when Sabu was selling for the heels, especially Test and Striker, whose work I definitely enjoy. He's a bit like a modern Billy Joe Travis. Sandman doesn't bring much anymore, especially without the gimmicks, and RVD does what RVD does in a routine match. But since the show was all about the Strip Poker (which didn't even look like a poker game at all), hosted by Balls Mahoney (who else ?), I'll be remiss if I didn't mention that having the girls already look like a bunch of strippers wearing too much makeup and acting like stereotypical bitches kinda negated the whole purpose of having a strip poker game, ya know. Trinity and Candice Mitchell didn't look attractive at all and didn't display any character either. Maria Kanellis played the airhead and looks much better these days, although she was clearly the third hottest one here. Really, Kelly Kelly looked the most genuine and cute of them all, while Crystal won me over by dropping a Kelis line. Ashley Massaro was part of the fun too, is she the one who ended up doing some escort jobs later ? She, if not, she probably should have judging by her outfit here. Kelly did remove her top but of course hid her boobs the remaining time, while Candice and Maria endend up "naked" (which was blurred, but I'm pretty positive they weren't actually naked) catfighting all over the place. All in all, a pretty stupid segment, with its share of hypocritical sex baiting and mix of vulgar yet prudish behaviour (a bunch of girls acting like strippers, shaking their ass and throwing high heels and stocking onto balls, yet acting grossed out by the idea that Mahoney got a hard-on, which was only eluded to in a semi-comical way anyway… oh, America… ) I'm all for T&A, but this episode was really kinda stupid and the decent looking matches looked like a complete afterthought. Ariel doing her bat routine was more sexy than the entire Strip Poker debacle.

That's very true. It's easier to forgive when you get used to someone you get to like. Then again, maybe it's not. In the case of Tenryu, it sure helps his case a lot.

Thanks for the support, because this promotion is getting noticeably worse. PPV 16 had exactly one good match. Syxx-Pac vs AJ Styles started slow, but it built into something really good. You can see Waltman's footprints all over the match, which wasn't worked like your standart X-division spotfest at all. Much more structure and escalation in the use of spots, which is why it took some time to get going (which is infact better, but we're not used to that anymore). The bad part comes from the fact Styles is now managed by Mortimer Plumbtree, which is both useless and actively hurts the match at points. Plumbtree seems right out of early 90's WCW or USWA, and no, it's not a compliment. Apart from that, it ended with a fuck finish to build to a return match. The slower pace also allowed Styles to show more heel charisma and maneurisms here, and he was good at making fun of Waltman's signature spots. The execution was kinda shaky at times, but nothing too bad. The rest of the show. Well. Lots of faceless indy guys like Ace Steel, Wylde, Chris & Rick Micheals in semi-competitive matches that weren't good not entertaining in the least to me. It seems like you're watching the same kind of stuff in every match. Norman Smiley showed up only to be squashed by Ron Harris. ZZZZzzzzz. A bad Siaki vs Estrada indieriffic match. Brian Lawler doing the usual abusive boyfriend routine, only now we know April is probably fucking Syxx-Pac behind his back. A bad Curt Hennig vs Ron Killings main event in which Hennig looked washed up, with more Mr. Wrestling II bullshit and Jarrett run-in. And some ff material involving some race car guy (I think) and Bruce. Not watching that crap. The only enjoyable moments apart from the X-division championship match was two quick interview segments with Mike Tenay, talking with Waltman and Hennig, refering to their personnal history, even going back to Global and the AWA. That was nice. But really, this whole show was a waste of time apart from that one match. Seems like the booking is getting worse by the week. Thank God for that blonde cage dancer. 2002.10.16 Syxx-Pac vs AJ Styles

Episode 17 was probably one of the most enjoyable overall. No really bad stuff. Big Show & Matt Striker vs Sandman & Sabu was a perfectly watchable short tag match, and the Big Show is a lot more tolerable in this format. I like Striker's chickenshit work. He finally falls into the hands of the Sandman here. Way too short to amount into anything though, but way too short to have the Big Show really ruin the party also. Tommy Dreamer vs Twilight Boy was also a perfectly acceptable Thunder match, I wish I'd see more of fat Dreamer. Thorne still isn't striking me are particulary menacing, but I love Ariel and the bat pose. The vampires steal the win. This is a feud I could live with. CM Punk squashed Danny Doring, all of this being just a backdrop for the angle following the match : Kelly wants to dance for Punk, but Knox prevents her to do so and threatens Punk. This is also a feud I can live with, as I like both guys, and Knox as a jealous boyfriend is muhc better than Brian Lawler (not hard) Much to my surprise, RVD vs Test in an extreme rules match was actually…. good. I mean it's clearly a gimmick shots bomb throwing match, for for what it is, it's way better than it had the right to be, as I don't care for either of these two. They of course did some ugly looking things as far as basics goes (punches, some comebacks, with RVD being the worst at it acually), but in term of working around garbage spots, it was quite good, as they teased the same spot that injured Holly the previous weeks, did some interesting counters that actually made sense (I was already sighing at the contrived set-ups at time only to have the spot being countered, which is always a nice surprise), and sold well. RVD's Rolling Thunder onto the steel steps outside looked amazing, this guy is such a strange beast. Really pleasantly surprised by this, and Test was doing all the right stuff. Of course I have no faith in them having a good match without the gimmicks, but for what it was, and despite the annoying Heyman's security (I hate this kind of gimmick) running in at one point, it was quite good. Next week, Extreme Strip Poker. Maria Kanellis apparently plays a airhead, so that makes her the Dawn Marie of the show. 2006.10.03 : RVD vs Test.

Not that much Colon over the years (never been very impressed by what I saw until now), although I have a *shitload* of 80's WWC somewhere on a hard drive waiting for me to watch eventually (since I prefer to watch stuff in context, I have no idea when I'll get motivated, I've been pushing this back over and over again for a long time now). I'm also interested in that Puerto Rico is an obvious big time influence on the Japan 90's garbage scene.

Using Bahu's top 100 FMW matches list (and memory), in chronological order : Hayabusa vs Hisakatsu Oya 8/31/95 (or the 6/27/95 match) Mr. Gannosuke & Yukihiro Kanemura vs Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki 12/19/97 Hayabusa vs Mr. Gannosuke 4/30/98 H (Hayabusa) & Mr. Gannosuke vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda 12/12/99 Kodo Fuyuki vs Hayabusa 9/26/00

The best FMW worker ever at his peak. It's as simple as this. One of my lost favourites that seems to be totally forgotten at this point, sadly (kinda like The Bloody, for instance).