El-P

The Maria match was pretty much all about her and Anderson, and since Anderson was really funny it worked like a charm. If that camera came closer to Maria's ass, it would have been a coloscopia. The two tag matches were really solid. Yano vs Tanahashi was sloppy as hell at the end though, and I still don't get Yano's gimmick at all. Yujiro didn't do much for me, but his partner vs YOSHI-HASHI and Okada was terrific at times. The main event was great. So yeah, Nakamura is still the best worker to me this year.

Frankly, what did anyone expect ? Old wrestling footage only interests a microniche of a microniche of geeks like us. (the fact that the Springer stuff, whatever it is, is popular is also pretty telling. And sad. The WWE Univ... audience deserves the WWE product they get.)

Watched the first half of the show thus far. The Young Bucks are officialy the most annoying act going today. Followed closely by Kenny Omega doing a DDP circa 95 tribute while he's trying to channel Brian Pillman. I dunno, all those matches with a gazillions death moves that don't even get a nearfall just lose me really quick. Yeah, it looks cool sometimes, it look akward and stupid at times too, but you don't even have time to register what is happening. And doing a million superkicks during a match really makes the move look like shit too. Omega is so ridiculously overracting and overbumping that whatever good he does is kinda negated by his way of working. So yeah, I kinda hate all the Jr. champions in NJ right now, with the Bucks having go-away heat with me. The opener and the young lions match were cool though. And Homna winning is always fun to watch.

Hilarious !

That would be a riot, honestly.

He said that several times actually, including on his WCW Timeline 1996. This is a weekly (?) podcast where he comments on each episode of Nitros and PPVs in order.

His tribute to Terry Funk working in Big Japan in 99 or so against Abby was kinda sad/fun to watch, depending on your point of view. Whatever happened to him anyway ? TAKA has been everywhere, Togo kept on being awesome in the indies apparently, Funaki made easy money in the States, but I have no idea what Teioh's did in the 00's.

Not the best audio quality with Sullivan sounding like he's on the phone, but it can get really fascinating to hear stories about how Nitros were put together, especially all the political stuff involving Hogan. The story of why Hogan put Arn Anderson over was pretty interesting. Kevin says it was all Jim Barnett's idea BTW.

I nominate the Devil, Kevin Sullivan.

Seasons are the future of pro-wrestling anyway.

That's a terrific point. And it also explains why the modern WWE style looks so manufactured and non-organic.

I used to really like fat athletic Gedo (I always enjoy fat athletic guys). Not much of a fan of the Complete Players era Gedo (really, Kaori was my favourite member), and I really haven't seen anything post FMW. I wonder how his match with Tajiri in the final of the Junior tournament in Big Japan in 98 holds up.

The London one ? If so, yeah, it's a riot. I have a hard time not thinking about Raymond first and foremost as the official french speaking announcer for WWF TV in the 90's.

Pretty much. I loved Kanemura too. Oddly I never took the dive into WING, but I'm convinced he peaked in FMW around 97/98 anyway. Always a lot of fun to watch, although he could get on autopilot once he got really banged up. Got #Speakingouted years before the fact too

: Jado

Or Myspace...

Probably because she is indeed utterly incompetent.

This kind of cultural differences always interests me. Here in India, this behaviour would be unacceptable beyond the level of "douchebag wrestling fans trying to be the centre of attention". Such behaviour is illegal here and would be punishable by law. I am opposed to it and I think that a law like this is jingoistic, hypersensitive ridiculous and a clear violation of freedom of speech, but I am in a miniscule minority; most people here would fully support punishment for such behaviour. I'm in the minority too, but the mere singing of the French national anthem makes me cringe. Any kind of jingoism makes me cringe. The racists, sexists and homophobic chants are the worst. People popping for the Dudleys putting women through tables (while THEY were supposed to be heels) kinda summarize everything I hated about the Attitude era.

Am I wrong to be actually interested and intrigued about this ?

Well, this was the best Johnny Mundo match I've ever seen, although he still does work like a cross between RVD and Dean Malenko, with all the cool and terrible things that go with it. Both tag matches were good, the Hernandez turn was really well done, with some interesting dynamic during the match. Now, Alberto vs Hernandez sure looks intriguing on paper. I enjoy the Crew as a latino K-DX (sorry for the dated references), with Cisco as Dick Togo (or as a Gedo, actually). Those vignettes. The more Tarentino-esque this company gets, the better. Daivari ? I had no idea. Damn, La Catrina is back, and waking up the monster. That promotion is so cool, really. The perfect antidote to WWE's dated, dull product.

The Oz Academy reunification for Carlos's retirement was cool as hell. And I'm glad to see that at 46, Ozaki is still the coolest of them all.

Hey, if AJ Lee can get a thread, Carlos Amano, JWP veteran of almost 20 years (I think she began in the mid 90's), retiring from pro-wrestling surely deserves her own thread. From what I remember she was a really good worker, part of the new wave of JWP girls from the mid-90's with Azumi Hyuga, Ran Yu-Yu and Kana Mizaki. I'm amazed she was still active actually. She got her retirement ceremony at an Oz Academy show on 04/15. If joshi wasn't the most forgotten part of pro-wrestling today, I guess it would be quite a news for old fans of the 90's.

For her to satisfy the trifecta of Hall of Fame, her "impact" and her performance needs to be good. For her to not be the most cancerous sore on the wrestling industry, her impact needs to be not be the most alarmingly destructive the industry has never seen. She fails on both accounts. As a performer, she made El Gigante look like Toshiaki Kawada. That bled over to her training: all Moolah proteges wrestled in the same hair-pulling, screaming shitty style that she used. As a booker of women's wrestling, not only did she use her power to hold back talent for 30 fucking years, she also was directly responsible in the devolution of women's wrestling from a reasonably respectable style of wrestling to a pathetic sideshow carnival; bearded women in circuses had more respect than women's wrestling did in her reign of terror. Mildred Burke was not the draw Jim Londos was in her time, but she was good enough to fill out arenas as a performer. No woman in the U.S.A drew a single dime after Moolah took over until horny teenagers started buying Sable merchandise. That is how destructive she was. She killed an entire sub-genre of wrestling, and was greedy enough to pocket most of the money the women did make. Not to mention rumours of her actually pimping some girls. Luna used to tell some bad stories about that if I recall.

Awful for most his career, and tried to made up for it by being insane. But still ended up looking awful most of the time. I think Shoji Nakamaki has better performances. He's probably a much better cook.

Nowhere near as bad as he was pimped to be at some point. Had some decent stuff here and there in FMW and other sleazy garbage indies in the late 90's/early 00's. Looked like a rat yet married Megumi Kudo.