El-P

Since we're into that "Divas Revolution" stuff, I tried to watch the MNW episode of "Divas Gone Wild". Three minutes in, we're basically told that Vince McMahon invented the valets with Miss Elisabeth. Okay. I can't fathom how anyone can handle all that revisionnist history in WWE programs. (EDIT : man, that TV show is completely ridiculous)

Welcome Tabe. It's always nice not feeling alone sometimes. (in case you wonder, I pretty much agree with all that's written above (although my favourite shoot-style stuff, and in short, pro-wrestling matches, all comes from RINGS, but like he said, the bad stuff there is atrocious), although I need to watch more PWFG to get my final sentiment on that promotion, but up until now, yep, I would agree on this too)

And at the time, shitloads of viewer were watching WCW at the same time. Where are all those wrestling fans gone ? … Oh yeah, Vince could never get them back, despite being a "promoting genius". The WWE Universe is shrinking.

Tom Brandi, as just Tom Brandi and not Salvatore Sincere, "feuding" with Marc Mero in early 98.

Updated top 15 list : 2002.06.26 Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles vs Psicosis vs Low-Ki 2002.07.17 Sabu vs Malice 2002.07.31 Elix Skipper vs AJ Styles 2002.07.31 Low-Ki vs Jerry Lynn 2002.08.21 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn 2002.08.28 Low-Ki vs Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles 2002.10.02 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn 2002.10.16 Syxx-Pac vs AJ Styles 2002.10.23 AJ Styles vs Syxx-Pac 2002.10.23 Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki 2002.10.30 AJ Styles vs Amazing Red 2002.11.06 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn 2002.11.20 Jerry Lynn vs Amazing Red 2002.11.27 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn 2002.11.12 AJ Styles v Amazing Red

PPV 25 Ok, Vince Russo, blah blah blah, X-div gauntlet match clusterfuck, Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett, blah blah blah WWF, WCW, shooty-shooty, what the hell is Russo supposed to be anyway, a writer, a heel manager, no fucking idea, three-way clusterfuck, Percy Pringle is morbidly obese, Athena jumping in for no reason, Road Warriors showing up, this promotion really is turning into the soon-to-be-dead promotion… three way X-division title match clusterfuck, give Sonny Siaki a hot girl as a "gift" (see, woman as object; see : the Lance Storm theory of hot valet + no personnality), Russo blah blah blah… Bad garbage match with fat BJ James… And then, the supposedly "good" SAT & Amazing Red vs Low-Ki & Chris Daniels & Elix Skipper, which actually wasn't good at all. First of all, the SAT suck. They're terrible wrestlers. Then, ok, the three stooges beating on Red was good, but the problem is that they were building toward a hot tag to two fucking awful wrestlers that I don't want to see back in the ring, so I don't give a shit about the match to begin with. Then, they did the worst hot tag ever, which showed me that Red just isn't that good yet at doing basic things, and that the Maximo really are two complete idiots, not working from ringside *at all* to make the audience care about a fucking hot tag that should have been easy as fuck. And it was quite a cold tag, in the end. ...Russo blah blah blah, Jarrett getting the nWo beating, Russo trying the nWo destroying the set angle… Pathetic. Waste of time. Bye bye TNA 2002.

That's the whole problem. Since the very beginning, that's been Vince's dream, to be something else than just pro-rassling. When infact, his success only comes from being pro-rassling. He sucked at anything else he ever tried. And if we're supposed to look at WWE as "an entertainment company", then the product they deliver is just godawful in term of production, storytelling, acting and then some. It's beneath B-level reality TV. When people talk about Stephy being this really good "wrestling promo", I just cringe. No, she's not a good "wrestling promo", because she doesn't cut promos. She "acts". And truthfully, the level of acting in WWE programming in sub-90's porn movie level. The idiotic soap operas we had in the 90's in France produced by AB production, infamous for their stupidity and bad acting, are like a Bergman movies compared to WWE's "storytelling & acting". Why I have zero faith in Trip and Stephy is simple : Trip is a "student of the game", but judging by his own performances and insecurity, he's a shitty student, and he idolizes body-builders like the old man did; and the rise to power of Stephy in the "creative department" coincides with the time WWE became corporate-looking, dull and soap-operaish to a ridiculous degree. So yeah, clean wins and losses or not really don't matter much at this point. The issue is much broader.

The problem is that she looks like David.

Probably. Forgetting that they were a TENNESSEE based company anway. Even the announcers had to point out that it made it difficult to move around.

By popular demand and because : _eventually I want to go back to the Raven feuds _WWE last PPV was so boring that even late 2002 TNA looks more intriguing _I'm really fucking depressed I'm gonna end what I've begun with TNA 2002. So, PPV 24 was better than the previous one, which is the biggest false praise ever. Still, we only get two good matches. One decent Jason Cross vs Tony Mamaluke opener, and once again credit to Mamaluke for holding things together. Cross seems to be a decen indierrific guy. But the real good match of the show was AJ Styles vs Amazing Red, working a "big" vs underdog match, with some interesting brawling twists from AJ. I'm impressed by how he adapts his own spots to the situation and dynamic. And Red is really getting into a groove playing the underdog. The last bump was ridiculously over the top though, but clearly one of the best match of the company thus far. What could have been a pretty good match in Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki ended up being the most boring single Lynn match of the year. Siaki really doesn't deliver here, and although his Rock impersonnation was stupid, in himself he's got no personnality at all, he's bland as hell and his work is unimpressive at best. Plus we get a fuck finish with some girl running in to help Siaki win the X-div title, so, yeah, not good. And then, lots of terrible stuff like Brian Lee & Slash losing their title to the Harris, then not losing them thanks to Percy Pringle. More tag team badness with AMW doing the job to Divine Storm, who really are shitty workers. Trinity did a moonsault. And a ridiculous gimmick match, the chain + chair match. Yep. A chair in the middle of a chain. Honestly, I ff, like I did for more bad X division action in the undercard and stupid promos by BJ James refering back to DX (yeah, because 1998 WWF is relevant in 2002) and opposing his father. Jeff Jarrett did an interview segment where he basically buried Waltman for no-showing, did some damage control with Roddy's Owen reference, and tried to stir up the pot with the Russo angle. Jarrett is a complete babyface despite being the biggest heel during the entire build-up to him winning the title. His match with Hennig was sad to watch. Russo did a worst guitar shot ever, and got it just as bad the second time around, which was legit funny. Swerve ? I dunno, I don't care. 2002.11.12 AJ Styles v Amazing Red

Except for that one match with The Rock, not at all.

More like 2002 Flair. He looked like an old man. The hair hurt his look even more.

The booking of the main event reeked of 1998 WCW.

One word : yawn. The tag match was okay and fun, but nowhere as good as the New Day's matches with Cesaro & Kidd. The Divas match was okay although the Triple Threat formula automatically makes it worst than it should. It's obvious it's all about Stephy though (who really looks more and more like her father, it's scary), which sucks. I also noticed how fake and robotic the entrance routine look in this setting, since basically each girl had to wait for the previous one to her little move so they could do their own. They don't work the crowd, they just do their routine because they are supposed to do it. I know it's all old problem dating back from the mid-00's, but it's so striking at times. Cena vs Owens was not even a good match to me. Self-conscious epic that wasn't epic at all. Move, kick out, move, kick out, finisher, kick out, your opponent's finisher, kick out, wash, rinse, repeat. Yeah, Cena is such a great worker, with such a great psychology... The main event… You know, suplexing a guy a hundred time was spectacular the first few times around, but when it becomes your entire gimmick, it makes you Dan Severn in 96 against Fujiwara in NJ. Bad match, and awful ending. Taker looks like he's living the gimmick. Couldn't give a flying fuck about what's coming. I should have known better. Bring Rusev & Lana back yesterday. Yeah. Yawn.

Ok. I'll watch that one, the tag match, Cena vs Owens and the main event then.

And Raven, of course.

Seconded. Hansen dropping a knee is the picture perfect joy of pro-wrestling. Matches that look like a real struggle.

Just watched this. As far as two brothers working a pure babyface struggle technical, rugged match, I thought it was actually excellent. The one thing I didn't like about Dory here was that he really didn't sold his arm after Terry worked on it for several minutes during the first third, but otherwise he was very good. I never thought it was boring. It was all about Dory the technical machine and older brother keeping his younger, more excentric brother down, and we're in 1980 working an old-school NWA style title match for 60 minutes, so of course it's gonna take its time. But everything looked like what it was supposed to, that is a struggle, they did a great use of their highspots culminating with some hot (for the time) sequences near the end, without having to resort to the expected cliché of Terry finally losing it. I loved the way Dory hold Terry to prevent him from falling through the rope head first to the floor, and took him back inside, and while he helped him, he maintained his grap right into an uppercut, which was quite neat. Dory on offense is perfectly fine.

Watched that Cesaro vs Rusev match from Smackdown. Excellent TV match, and looked like a big moment for Cesaro. Gotta love Vince's idiotic idea that this guy "doesn't connect". Yeah, right. Since I really haven't followed the product closely, I must say, after watching two Rusev matches this week, I don't get why he's settled with Summer Rae. She really brings nothing to the table apart from being a tall blonde. Wasn't she Fandango's dance partner a while back ? Displayed no personnality here. It's interesting to notice that the hottest workers in WWE right now are a French-canadian, a Bulgarian and a Swiss. And they're all legit.

I had seen the Blackhearts matche before, but I'm amazed by the Worldwide match. Even more striking, Heath really looks like Luna here.

Dixie always sounded like a mark playing pro-wrestling and was a godawful "actor". She and Russo deserve each other.

It's less about lazy booking than about Stephy being a glory whore and wanting all the attention and credit to herself. I liked the fact the girls showed up on RAW and were featured, but I hate the fact Stephy had to play Big Mama, especially since it doesn't register with the fact she's supposed to be a fucking heel. But that's the way it is. Stephy & Hunter are the only true stars of the show (and it's been ingrained in the mind of the audience so much that it's been reflected in the ratings too, now. Yay. Being pushed non-stop for 15 years will eventually submit what's left of your audience).

My list of WWECW matches for 2006 : 2006.06.11 FBI vs Tajiri & Super Crazy 2006.06.11 Rey Mysterio vs Sabu 2006.06.11 Mick Foley & Edge vs Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer 2006.06.25 Edge vs RVD 2006.06.27 Kurt Angle vs RVD 2006.08.08 Sabu vs Kurt Angle 2006.08.15 Sabu vs RVD 2006.09.19 King Booker vs RVD 2006.09.26 Hardcore Holly vs RVD 2006.10.03 : RVD vs Test 2006.10.17 Matt Striker vs Sandman 2006.10.31 Sabu vs Kevin Thorne 2006.11.14 CM Punk vs Mike Knox 2006.11.21 RVD vs Bob Holly 2006.11.28 Sabu vs RVD 2006.12.03 : MNM vs Hardys Funny thing, when you look at this list, one could think RVD is clearly the MVP of the promotion and the best worker of the bunch. When really, he isn't, not even close. RVD's case as a worker is the most blatant exception to the "good matches theory", because he must be the crappiest worker to have so many good matches. Part of this is opportunity to work matches that get the time to ge good, part of it is the fact that despite his inherent crappiness, RVD brings some element of goodness, even some spectacular stuff (in term of spots), to his game that, if used at the right moment and in the right context (like with Holly), can negate somewhat the otherwise shittiness of his work when it comes to basics. Anyway, guys like Guido, Angle, Sabu, Holly, Striker and Punk are better then RVD (no idea how good Richards was at this point) but they didn't get the same opportunities. The Big Show was pretty horrible all year long. I was never high on Paul Wight, but this ECW stint made him drop like crazy in my eyes. This is also clearly Heyman's worst work, on all level. Mike Knox, Kelly Kelly and Ariel were the nice surprises with potential in term of work and/or characters. The announcing was decent, but Styles just isn't the same anymore (I liked it quite a bit in the mid-90's), I'd say Tazz was carrying the load here. That's all for now. It was just as bad as I was told it would be, and it felt pretty much like a mid-00's WWE TV show. Which is a pretty bad thing to me.

Episode 27 and last of the year. I feel like I'm watching the same show every week. There's no effort put into it at all, and the WWE production and robotic promos gets more and more annoying with guys liek Lashley around. So yeah, we get Lashley semi-squashing Rene Dupree after he was paying hommage to the troops in the middle-east. Feel the xenophobic undertones here, although Styles didn't go all political, thankfully. Dupree has looked better since his debut, so maybe he was worth something, but the gimmick is nothing and he's a JTTS. Hell, most everyone feels like a JTTS on this show. More Matt Striker vs Balls Mahoney, which was a fun little match and more cool argile tights by Striker. Mahoney is much more tolerable when he doesn't have a chair to swing around. More Dreamer vs Khali feud, after the monster squashed Shannon Moore. This time Khali dropped Dreamer on the steel steps, and Dreamer did the exact same "I'm very injured" routine he did at the PPV. Really Dreamer, was the office job so boring that you had to come back for this kind of stupid stuff ? Theresa must have been glad... More über short Hardcore Holly vs CM Punk match that was pretty good while it lasted, but Punk had to tap out Holly in three minutes, so that tells you how far this could go. A bad, WWE ™ promo by Mike Knox, with deliberate delivery and awkward timing before cutting to the following match. Kevin Dunn sucks. What's awful is that the production hasn't changed a bit, it's the same horrible stuff today, like it was a few years before. 15 years without one bit of evolution. As a main event, a fitting three-way between RVD, Sabu & Test, which wasn't good. The usual, same old same old stuff, really. Yep. Big Show being gone is good, but Lashley's time of being "fun" already overstayed its welcome to me, because let's be honest, he's a bad worker with zero charisma and looks like a robot. What a boring show.

I hope in comes out to the old Orient Express music. Now that would be almost cool in a ridiculous meta-self conscious way.