El-P

They say people die in threes, but Christopher Lee, Dusty Rhodes and Ornette Coleman is one foul swoop. Maybe I'll play some Dusty Rhodes promos over the top of Dracula while listening to some jazz. Those hommages from Sami Zayn and Summer Rae are both extremely cool and so sad at the same time. Dusty was someone you'd think would be there forever...

To the pay window babay. The same day Ornette Coleman passes away. Two great in one swoop.

I always enjoy those little tidbits along the way. I had no idea about Striker. (glad some people enjoy this too BTW) Episode 13. Well, RVD & Sabu vs Test & Mike Knox was better than I thought it would be. Not exactly good (far from it actually), but the Sabu fan in me enjoyed the part of the match he was involved in. I still don't see much use for Test, and Mike Knox doens't strike me as particulary talented either at this point. RVD looked even worse than usual though. The whole Kelly deal shows how poor the writing is. Mike Knox supposedly can't handle the fact that she wants to show her skin in public, yet he always brings her at ringside and she's basically wearing lingerie. It's just so stupid. Zero thoughts put into anything. Striker / Sandman segment, pretty much the same as the previous week. Then a short Stevie Richards vs Balls Mahoney match, which was decent for what it was I guess, with the Metrosexual Vampire and his Vamp Porn Star (no reference to the softcore movie she did, but to the way she totally overacts) costing Balls the match. I guess to build a match of "freaks" (yeah, Kevin Thorne really looks freaky…). Before that we got Ariel climbing and rubbing herself on Joey Styles, who looked terrified. He's such a conservative… Main event was DX vs Big Show in an handicap match. What can I say, Michaels made Show look semi-alive with his bumps, HHH was his old boring self. Show going for Trips' spinebuster looked so fake and deliberate. Trips' fancying himself as a tough guy always cracked me up. Anyway, Bob Holly runs-in, DQ, sledgehammer, whatever. I don't even see the point of this, since DX aren't linked with anything on this show. Them doing the old DX maneurisms in 2006 looks kinda pathetic BTW. Was that their first comeback ? Retromania was already running wild I see. Highlight of the show : CM Punk slapping Shannon Moore after saying to him "You're a poser". That was pretty funny and a nice payoff for those terrible vignettes.

Funny, this "weekly WWE thread" is kinda like people chanting CM Punk on Raw now.

Sorry about that. Ok I found the thread. I was curious to see what people thought of a guy who was basically a Lawler clone in the ring. And no, I won't nominate the Dark Patriot. Even for the joke.

Just thought about Eddie Gilbert (yeah, "better than Takada", I know, I know…).

Bob Holly. Why the hell not.

Sounds appealing... Episode 12 was the same old crap. Only crappier than usual. On the bright side, we get Hardcore Holly's debut against RVD. Haven't watch an Holly match in ages (especially post-00), so I enjoyed the snug, solid work here, but RVD is so uninteresting in throwaway TV matches like that, where he still want to put all his shit in. Holly is a welcome addition though. Then a decent CM Punk vs Stevie Richards semi-squash. Punk is obviously already head and shoulder above everyone else here (and it's not like I'm an old fan of his, I never watched indies). Bad short vignettes for Shannon Moore and Rene Dupree, as always. And that Striker segment where he does Dean Douglas in an even more scripted way. Shane was better at it, but I'm amazed that in 2006 WWE was running gimmicks like that. I sure missed a lot by not watching that decade of TV. He gets in a brawl with Sandman, so I guess that great feud of his and Dreamer vs Knox & Test is over after their win last week. Meanwhile, Kelly shows her stuff to Balls Mahoney, because she's an exhibitionnist. Who is writing that stuff ? And then we get the real awful stuff, including a bad Big Show promo talking about DX (oh man, DX was around… sounds like a great year), and a complete clusterfuck of a match that was supposed to be Sabu vs Paul Heyman, but of course turns into Sabu vs Big Show, with RVD then Holly running in too. Heyman pins Sabu. Yeah, the same kind of Attitude era shit that made me quit in 99. This has to be Heyman's worst run ever. One last thing, I'm surprised they actually mentionned Angle being released, complete with paying hommage and Tazz saying he hopes he'll get back in the ring eventually. I guess they were hoping for a comeback at some point.

In term of heat, yes. Doesn't mean anything about the quality of the match though. To me even D-Lo vs Val was better than the ladder match (again, speaking from memories).

Couldn't disagree more. That ladder match was the first one that I found awkward and somewhat ridiculous at times. That's when I began to not take it for granted that "ladder match = good".

SummerSlam 98 ? No ? They sure had they share of shitty matches in late 98/99 (with the occasional and always reliable help of Kane). That said, Taker is an overrated woker anyway, so one should not expect his matches to be really good all the time either.

The use of the expression "Great match theory". At this point it would need a hashtag, that's how annoying it's become.

One of the many issues I have with TNA, is that it's indeed Total Nonstop Action, there's zero sense of pacing and changing gears during a card. I realize the X division was the big idea to differentiate themselves, but when by the time the main event comes you already went through 45 minutes of non stop gazillions spots and dives, it just negates everything. Thankfully, since a lot of the guys working the undercard are bad indieriffic spot monkey, you can actually see a difference with the actual good workers, but still, you get burned out of watching total nonspot action, especially since every match seems to be a spotfu. This was very apparent here, with stuff involving Kid Kash vs Amazing Red, SAT vs Flying Elvises and the four corners clusterfuck of tag teams. None were any good, execpt the very last segment of the four corner tag between Slash & Kobain (what an awful gimmick, so low rent) and Harris & Storm. And again, when the change of pace consist of a bad match between Monty (who despite his star potential look, just isn't any good in the ring yet) and Sonny Siaki, or bad segment with Brian Lawler doing some terrible promo and angle involving his girlfriend, it's not good. Jarrett vs The Bullet was not much better to me, and it kinda looks out of place although the execution is obviously much more solid (so I guess The Bullet is supposed to be Road Dog, but the tattoos indicate it's not; I get it's actually Steve for now, but he's not been unmasked, so…). So what's left ? Thanksfully, a really good surprise, as the addition of three ladders in Low-Ki vs Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles, instead of making the whole match all gimmicky and silly, actually made everything better, as they tried to work a smart match that made sense, with lot of selling of the big spots and smart counters and sequences (as opposed to the too cute spots they were doing in the regular three way a few weeks before). Low-Ki looks the best of the three again, with his selling and small nuances (he actually countered Lynn's annoying trademark spot, which makes him Lynn's smartest opponent ever). It's interesting that despite the gimmick, they worked a much slower pace and more "conservative" match than the indie spotfus of the undercard. And every big spot looked much more important in the process. I'd go so far to say this may be the best match of TNA thus far. I can understand throwing the towel there though, because all the indy spotfests are really getting old. There's nothing "solid" on the undercard. It's either a fun spotfest in the best of case, either some bad shit. And the booking has been quite uninteresting to say the least. Apart from two weeks of Truth promos, there really hasn't been one good angle or promo since the beginning. And a lot of crap I have fast forwarded. I guess cherry picking a lot is the best way to go. 2002.08.28 Low-Ki vs Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles

11 hours of shitty TV is a walk in the park : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/ And I've heard that "this is where it gets good" before anyway… But yeah, thus far, it's just as bad as it's been pimped to me. Even worse actually, since I had heard good things about the Big Show and (gasp) "Ric Flair doing Onita" for years.

Episode 11. Same stuff, more or less. Bikini contest so we get to see Torrie Wilson strut her stuff. Had no idea she was still around. Mike Knox and Test run-in, Sandman & Dreamer run-in, "6" person-tag match (but really, Kelly doesn't even get off her high heels), okay finishing stretch by the Sandman and Knox. CM Punk vs Christopher .W. Anderson (why not C.W. ?) was the best match of the show, again a semi-competitive squash for Punk. He badly needs to get pushed already, as he's a breath of fresh air. Kevin the Twilight fan vs Balls Mahoney was actually decent for what it was, which doesn't say much, but they kinda made it look rough a bit. Ariel is the greatest slutty valet since Francine in 96 (okay, she doesn't do much yet, but she has a style of her own). Hardcore Holly debuted by running-in on RVD. Can't say I'm thrilled, but it's better than Test or Rene Dupree. That Shannon Moore "Reject" gimmick was a parody, right ? The vignettes are really terrible. And speaking of "so bad it may be good", Matt Striker is apparently doing an Eric Bishoff does Dean Douglas gimmick. Okay, time for the bad Big Show match of the week, again against Sabu. Sabu gets killed until the ref bump, then he can use gimmicks (since it's not an extreme rule match, depsite being an ECW title match, yeah, go figure), and still get DQ'd at the end. A bloodied Big Show falls through a table. Didn't we get through see already two weeks before ? What, you can feel I'm losing interest (rather, losing patience) ?

PPV 10 had probably the best match TNA has delivered thus far. AJ Styles v Jerry Lynn in a 2/3 falls, each fall being a gimmick match of his own. The first one being a falls count anywhere match, the second a no-DQ match and the last one a 10 minutes iron man match. Not a fan of this übergimmicky stipulation, but it worked. The first fall was at the beginning of the show, and the last two at the end. Odd choice, but it gave them a fresh start for the no-DQ match. Made the most out of the stips, worked well in a brawling style around the building, then did a good use of the no DQ sipt without going ridiculous with gimmicks (although AJ's comeback after that insane bump from the top rope through a table outside kinda came from nowhere, but they usually sold the damages well). Since they were already selling, it was believable that they could get some pinfalls in the remaining 10 minutes (although again, the Eddielenko routine at the very end, worked like it was the beginning of the match, including kicking out of your own pinfall, wasn't the best idea). All in all, it's obvious Lynn and AJ are TNA's VIP's at this point. In a poor booking idea, Sonny Siaki faced Jimmy Yang in a 2/3 falls match also. Yeah, nothing better than to make a gimmick match unique than to have two of them in the same show, although this one was a straight 2/3. Good stuff too, with Yang playing the babyface. Kinda sloppy action at times, but they sold more than I expected and didn't work a crazy clusterfuck, like Low-Ki vs Joel Maximo vs Jose Maximo vs Amazing Red did. This one was a bit ridiculous at times, but still enjoyable, although the indierrific nonsense quickly gets old with me. The show needs some changed of pace, and by that I don't mean bad matches with AMW (not yet named like this) vs Ron Harris & Brian Lee. Lee looks in the best shape of his life, but it's still a DOA match in 2002. The title match between Monty Brown & The Truth just couldn't be too good, and Brian Lawler vs Slash didn't look like an USWA match at all, sadly, way too spotty again. Final angle with Jeff Jarrett facing a fake Bullet Bob looked like something out of a tired SMW. Well, I wish it was Jeff Jarrett in SMW, honestly. 2002.08.21 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn 2002.08.21 Sonny Siaki vs Jimmy Yang

The Raven Timeline was enjoyable, but Raven has done so many interviews on that matter that there's really nothing new to learn. Still always interesting to listen to him though, and he had some funny answers as always.

Could have been. If everything wasn't censured.

I begin to see a pattern here.

13 years old me would have totally bought Magee as a future megastar, the way Eddie & Guy put him over. But come on, *Arné* Anderson ? I fell over. (so odd to watch a match announced by Carpentier & Hauray in 2015)

Since I had that SummerSlam 06 file to watch the ECW stuff, I watched the Cena vs Edge main event hoping that would wash the bad taste out of my mouth, and it did. Edge is kinda goofy at times, and Cena clearly isn't versatile in term of offense, but they had a very good main event match without the finishers/kickout spamming annoyance. It's fascinating to hear the crowd reaction to Cena in 2006 and in Boston ! That in itself makes the match fun to watch, and Cena is kinda like a 90's Tokyo Dome-like worker : the simpler he works, the best it is. That was the case here, so. Pretty clever finish too. It's really hard to compare him with Bret actually, as the context and way of working are so different. I guess he's kinda like Bruno in a way.

WHAT ?!! Holly shit, I don't even want to think about that !

ECW matches at SummerSlam 06 Sabu vs Big Show Really, Sabu does his best to get something semi-interesting from the Big Show, but at this point Wight is so fucking slow and does nothing that looks any good, with the exception of that fallaway slam which looked immense. For a few minutes it's the "best" mach I've seen involving Big Slow (sorry, but there's no alternative), but then you get to a point Show takes like five minutes to set up the shittiest table spot ever, while Sabu has to sell forever. And they don't even do it right because the set up of the table on the ringsteps isn't stable. No, really, Big Show is as close as a useless worker you can find at this point. His ECW stint puts him right at the very bottom of superheavyweights. Ric Flair vs Mick Foley Not an ECW match per say, but it was set up partly on WWECW TV and the match itself is complete garbage, so. And by complete garbage, I do mean complete garbage. Foley destroys Flair was the best part of the match, using barb wire boards, thumbtacks and barb wire bat. Flair bleeds like a pig and doesn't do shit except awful looking chops with his hands covered with barb wire. He takes a bumps in the tacks without them even teasing it once. At this point, I've seen both Shoji Nakamaki and Axel Rotten work better garbage matches. Really, what did Flair do that warrant any positive criticism here ? He runs head first into a barb wire board ? Clap clap clap. Half of his offense is about low-blows. Foley has to take some brutal bumps, including an insane nestea plunge so Flair can get some serious "offense", which consist on rubbing a barb wire bat on Foley's head and arm. So now Foley is bleeding like a pig. That's really a tribute to mediocre IWA Japan bloodletting, but I'd rather have the Head Hunters and Tarzan Goto, at least they actually worked around the gimmicks a bit. Melina, and I have no idea why she was involved with Foley, throws the towel (it was an I quit match). Ok. I found that match not only bad as a garbage match (and I'm an FMW / 90's japanese sleaze fan), but watching 50 something Ric Flair do that kind of shit, in a WWE ring no less, was pathetic as hell. His work was the shits, and Foley had to overwork himself and take absolutely unnecessary bumps to give him somehwat of a credible upper hand. So yeah, blame Foley too for that complacent stuff at this point of his career. And after watching the Big Show debacle and this shit, the whole "Flair reinvented himself as Onita" talking point sounds like one the most most ridiculous bullshit point ever to me. Flair's garbage work was a poor version of Shoji Nakamaki. Or, to use a more current reference, an old version of Abyss. How the might had fallen. I still don't get why he felt the need to do that either. Ugly stuff...

99 : Mariko Yoshida.

Episode 10 has been the most enjoyable thus far. Not hard, of course. Mick Foley cut quite the promo building to his match against Ric Flair at SummerSlam, and even then it's obvious Mick was head and shoulder above most of them, as it's the closest thing from an old-school promo you'd get on a WWE TV show. In an absurd moment of cheesiness though, he invited Kelly Kelly and Melina to the ring to do a three way dance, litteraly. Okay, I have nothing against two hot girls dancing (Melina has the moves, Kelly, not that much), but it made no sense for Kelly to be up there after 10 weeks of Mike Knox preventing her from dancing in front of people. So lazy. Ric Flair run-in and beatdown on Foley, good stuff. I'll consider Flair vs Foley an ECW match. The rest of the card, well, a semi-competitive squash for CM Punk, again beating Justin Credible, who didn't look good this time. A sad moment of the FBI bumping around in a total squash for Mike Knox and mostly Test. Sandman & Dreamer run-in, nothing new here. A little backstage nonsense with I guess the last appearance of Kurt Angle on WWE TV, beat up by Heyman's security. Bye bye Angle, TNA's waiting for you. The main event was pretty much old-school ECW as you can get, with RVD vs Sabu in a ladder match for the contract to face Big Show at SummerSlam. In a pretty funny moment for me, not only do they fuck up the very first spot they try, but RVD immediately goes for the cover. And the ref counts. In a ladder match. Exactly like the Sabu vs Shamrock match from TNA I watched lately. Anyway, the match was a clusterfuck of course, but in a good way, as it's really what it's supposed to be, with Sabu attempting stuff you know can't end up well. Him trying to use the ladder as a springboard was brutal, he could have shattered his ankle, but I don't consider that a blown spot, rather it's the perfect illustration of what his character is supposed to be. "Character work", if you will. RVD's rolling thunder on the ladder is cringeworthy too. Too bad the Big Show had to do a shitty slow-mo run-in to ruin the match which ended up in a predictable way, with Sabu grabbing the contract while on the shoulders of Show. Still, fun clusterfuck, brings me back to 1996. The booking still sucks though. 2006.08.15 Sabu vs RVD