El-P

Nominating Hido.

Das worker from early FMW days. A more solid base than pretty much everyone there, training with AJPW will do that to you. Although the first exploding deathmatches with Onita were experiments and the formula developped later, Goto brought a good amount of actual wrestling in those. Always fun to watch to me, would have had much more chances to deliver good matches if he didn't end up in the lower end of the Japanese indie-sleaze after the mid 90's. Got fat and more selfish with times too, but damn, he was like an angrier Kodo Fuyuki, or a sleazy-ass Tenryu. The IWA title match with Foley is easily Foley's best japanese match, the Bathhouses deathmatches are the most ridiculous and fun oddity I've ever seen, and Goto is godlike in those. I basically would have loved to see him come back in FMW in 97 or so, or work with WAR instead.

Black hole.

Debra was never with Jeff Jarrett. And I don't see how "bouncing" from one guy to another makes her a crazy woman. She had different relationships. Ok. And ? Like everyone, basically. There's no excuse, period. The fact that Austin considers it a mistake in his life and regrets his behaviour at the time is enough for me to not put him in the same bag as a shithead woman abuser like Floyd. And yeah, the fact Triple H still puts him over tells everything you need to know about the moral values of this company. Woman beater = ok. A woman with issues (whom you dumped like a crap btw) doing a bunch of porns = bad. Yeah.

Terrific team by two terrific workers. They inspired Gannosuke & Kanemura too.

Apart from not liking ECW (I'm an ECW fan, yes, I am), I could have wrote this post. Unwatchable in ECW (marginally better than PE and worse than the Gangstas) and way overrated in WWF working those "diving from high places though furnitures" matches which made those three teams famous. Gimmicky as hell because of the era (annoying sing-along catchphrases), offensive as characters and getting awful reactions from the crowds (babyface pops for putting women through tables, which was a 6 year old gimmick by this point anyway). They did get better in the WWF, but still... Bubba was the worker. D-Von may have been the cool guy in real life, but man did he sucked.

One of the best music theme ever. And the greatest, most surrealistic, most pro-wrestling post-mortem sendoff ever. I haven't watched the Footloose in ages, but I don't remember thinking Fuyuki was better than Kawada back then. I do love the team though. His FMW stuff is probably one of the greatest case of overachieving ever this side of DDP.

Totally agree with this. I can always get interested into any kind of Sabu match to this day.

Has Tarzan Goto been nominated yet ? If not, well, he should at this point. I mean, there are tons of way shittier workers discussed already. The two deathmatches with Onita from 90, the IWA title match against Cactus in 95, the two bathhouse deathmatches with Gannosuke vs HeadHunters and then Nakamaki & Ohno (or was that Yamada ?).

So basically we can nominate anyone. Godawful worker. And no, his SMW work wasn't that good either. He was "decent" at very best there. Only worker I know with my first name. I'm so honored...

In 96 I easily take Douglas over Michaels (in pretty much every category, work, character, promos, angles). As far as minor past-his-prime acomplishements, he was the saving grace of awful dance partners in mid 00's, when he got watchable matches out of awful feuds. I should check out his TNA stint one of these days, just to see if there's something there. (answer : no) All in all, Douglas is pretty underrated at this point. Can't wait to listen to Austin's two-part podcast with him too.

Anyone watched Foley's "stand up" show ? I thought it was pretty unfunny overall. I cracked a few smiles here and there, but... not much interesting stuff that hasn't been heard dozen times before, in much funnier fashions. And damn, Foley looks sad moving around like a broken down old guy. And Colette, well, hasn't aged very gracefully either to be honest that or the WWE makeup departement really made her look older than she is, which is also very possible).

Killshot vs Fenix was pretty bad and disjointed, but at least the right guy won. That triple threat match was fun for a triple threat match, and the goofy Moth character getting beat up was cute, as was his vignette. Texano is turning babyface I guess. The second I saw those four jabronies I had a flashback to Nitro in 1999 and half-expected Sid to squash them. I wasn't that far off. That Trios champs interview by Vamp was pretty funny. Vamp is definitely in his best role here, as is Konnan as a manager. Who would have guessed I would have eventually enjoyed both of them ? Not me. That Drago vs Puma main event was really cool with a big match (for LU) feel. Nice send-off for Drago, but sad to see him go since he was one of my favourite. Can't we have a Johnny Mundo send-off instead ? This show remains a lot of fun to watch, and Dario Cueto is the best non-wrestling character in ages. Being a real actor surely helps.

Lana is full on Sable mode now. That makes Rusev the next Marvelous Marc Mero. Yikes. (unless it's a "swerve" which would end by Lana finally helping Rusev win back the US title, since apparently the feud isn't over, but…)

Calling him by his real name Phil Lafon really hurt his perception in the WWF I believe (and French just don't get over as babyfaces anyway unless you're in Montreal). He was billed from Paris, France. Oh man, I forgot about that. Another fake French guy. From Paris, of course. From where else ? Plus the name just doesn't evoke "asskicker", unlike Dan Kroffat. It's pretty amazing to watch him drop Al Snow on his head with a Cobra Clutch suplex in a competitive squash on RAW. That audience sure never saw that before. But between the dull French sounding name, the über generic music theme and working as a babyface when he was at his best as a shitbag asskicker, he was doomed. But Kroffat was an terrific worker during his peak in AJ. One of those guys like Scorp that I would have prefered to see in WCW instead of WWF at the time. I can only picture Kroffat vs Regal or Finlay...

Yeah, it's fun to see the main protagonists of the upcoming new golden era becoming more and more important on TV. The heel vs heel dynamic was interesting too, a sign that the WWF was ready to take some risks again. Watching Taker jump in the ring at the end foreshadows so much of the main programs of the early Attitude Era. Very good TV match too. (athough Terry Gordy was sad to watch, and the goofy Executionner outfit made it even worse)

Nah, Doink the evil clown and 3-Count the atrocious boys band were actual good, relevant gimmicks. Here's one for you that I enjoyed since day one : The New Blakjacks. That's the Barry Windham mark in me speaking, and I also enjoyed Bradshaw when he was a pissed off cowboy. They looked sloppy (and fat, as far as Windham goes) but they kicked ass. I wish they had been pushed to tag team champs status and worked feuds with Kroffat/Furnas and Owen/Davey. The tag team scene in 1997 was so odd and fun in a way, with the Head Bangers push and the Godwinns makeover as evil rednecks, mixed in with AJPW gaijins veterans and washed up LOD.

Indeed. To me this match is a MOTYC as far as pure fun goes, I don't give a shit, they had me actually genuinely happy at the end, I mean legit marking out because my favourites won. Super babyface performances by all three of them. And yeah, that dive by Angelico was a thing of pure beauty. With Sexy Star vs Pentagon Jr. being as good as a Star match can be, this was one terrific episode.

Because it's a stupid spot that goes pretty much against everything about Lana's character. Oh, I forgot : Naomi's changing color neon shoes = greatest piece of wrestling outfit ever. So obnoxious.

That Russian chain match was pretty awful. And got no heat to boot. The chain was ridiculously long, which made the whole "touch the four corner" gimmick a joke. Not that's it's a really good gimmick anyway, but still, when you can just walk around the ring it makes for really stupid and awkward spots. And that Lana spot… ugh… Staight out of Sable/Debra playbook, and totally out of character. Rusev has lost so much of his appeal since Mania. It was to be expected, but still. I guess Lana turns face at some point. Blah... The tag team match was a lot of fun. The New Day gimmick has basically been saved just by turning heel. Cesaro was awesome here (well, "as usual"). Gotta love Natalya's funky outfit too. I can live with Kidd/Cesaro chasing the New Day and getting the belts back eventually. Of course they'll probably get split up because how dare they get over without Vince's benediction…

The trios match between Puma's team and Cuerno's team was pretty good. Cage & Mundo are better in this setting as they can do their spot and get out of the way. Excellent vignettes building to the final of Drago vs Aerostar, which was a very good match, although that incredible table spot just bieng another spot in the match just hurts, but I guess that goes with the style. Dario was on fire during this episode. Good angle between Pentagon Jr. and Melissa. I liked the fact Sexy Star and not a guy saved Melissa, who's reaction to Penta attacking her was pretty damn great, she really fought for her life here. Vamp thinks Pentagon Jr. is going a bit too far and almost got involved, almost. Wonder what that foreshadows (uh uh…). The three-way was a three-way, and by that I mean I didn't care that much for it although I love The Mack. Amazing spot too when Cage just caught Havoc who was doing a plancha through the ropes and got him smoothly into a vertical suplex position. Really good episode.

It's a little bit more than three hours. Just contain yourself. It's like those people in trains and airplanes who just have to go to the bathroom and bother you every hour or so. Fuck those people.

ECW matches at Vengeance 2006 Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton Pretty much the same match that at One Night Stand, without the funny crowd chants. Orton is such a nothing worker and actually kills the already luckwarm heat that they got at the beginning with his usual restholds. Angle goes crazy with 8 suplexes in a row. Then the usual ankle lock reversal into a finish. Nah, this was worse than the ONS match. Angle looked pretty good (although goofy at times), Orton looked like the black hole he's always been. Edge vs RVD Surprisingly good. At first I thought Edge was gonna try to Jerry Lynn his way into an RVD spot match, but on the contrary he stayed very basic and provided a good base for RVD's spots. RVD himself did some interesting stuff in terms of using some of his key spots (like the Rolling Thunder when Edge was still on all fours). Of course there was bad punching galore on his part and sloppiness too, but that's to be expected. Lita didn't really interfere before the end, and I thought she was effective again at doing it at the right times. No, really, surprisingly good, Edge was solid here. Nice match. Sabu vs John Cena This is a lumberjack match which negates a lot of Sabu's cool stuff outside, but I guess we get Sandman caning Cena. This is really nothing, Sabu does some of his trademark spots, Cena sells and sells but never really gets into trouble, then wins after almost killing Sabu by throwing him on the edge of a table outside. They really made Sabu look like a jabronie here, since he did all of his stuff and Cena really never was in danger, and he got beat after two moves in a bunch of minutes. It kinda reminded me of the babyface Savage TV matches in 95/96 in WCW. Cena didn't look good at all and the way he through Sabu outside was dangerous as hell. Waste of time appart from the novelty of watching Sabu in a WWE ring against Da Man. The rest of the PPV looked like complete shit BTW. Maybe the multi-man IC title was decent, but outside of that, Kane vs a fake Kane, Umaga vs Eugene... It's interesting that although RVD vs Edge was the WWE title match, it got positionned third to the top, before the Cena match and of course the godawful DX reunion vs Spirit Squad which was the main event. It also struck me how everything looks *exactly* like today. Nothing has changed a bit in the production and presentation (except the HD and the constant references to social medias). JR was still announcing and it's amazing that although he was way past his prime, he still sounded amazing compared to the shit we get today. That's how bad things have became, and it's not like they were very good back then. 2006.06.25 Edge vs RVD

WWECW TV Episode 2 (06.20.06) Match of the week : Sabu vs Tony Mamaluke. Basically a competitive squash, but there you go, this is the best stuff this episode has to offer. The FBI's hot valet is named Trinity and she throws a mean high kick, showing her panties in the process. Nothing special here, just your standart fun Sabu stuff with Mamaluke doing the honors. Squash of the week : Big Show destroying Tommy Dreamer. It's not even a match. Big Show looks like a monster here. If it keeps going that way, it's indeed how he should have been booked since 1999 instead of being just another guy. Throwback sexist angle of the week : The jealous boyfriend covers up his sexy girlfriend's body. This is right out of 1998 Vince Russo booking with Debra and Jeff Jarrett. I liked Debra's body better BTW. No idea where this is going, but probably not in a "good wrestling" direction. I have no idea who the guy is either. Poor Kelly, she really wants to show you her tits and ass you know. Poor main event of the week : Kurt Angle & RVD vs Randy Orton & Edge. When RVD is the second best worker in a match, you're in trouble. Orton & Edge don't show me shit. The match is only tolerable when Angle hits the ring. RVD does his goofy spots and bumps, at least that's something. Orton & Edge are sleep inducing. They cut Angle's offense by clipping a knee, even the announcers are making a big deal out of it, then don't even try to work on it. Lita is actually pretty efficient in a Sherri way, and she takes an Angle Slam at the end. I wonder if woman abuse was still common back then or if it was only an WWECW thing. The end sequence was decent with a timely Edge counter, but that's it. Test is coming. Feel the excitement. All the backstage stuff is awful, with that stale and dull WWE directing and delivery. There was also a fake and fat "luchador" imitating Randy Savage getting squashed by Sandman. In 2006 ? How petty. Poor TV show again. The PPV matches all look pretty dreadful except Sabu vs Cena which is at least intriguing on paper.

Prince Puma vs Cuerno was decent, but not even getting a nearfall out of that insane neckbreaker spot was totally idiotic. They also totally fucked up toward the end and both looked lost. Not exactly a bunch of ring generals. I don't get Puma's reputation as a great worker, and he doesn't show much charisma through the mask. In short, he's not Rey. Sexy Star vs Super Fly was idiotic. A mask vs mask between a man and a woman with no build. Russo like stuff. The trios match was easily the best match of the week, tons of fun and nice interactions between the characters. Ivelisse refusing the hot tag was perfectly timed and quite funny. Cool to see Son of Havoc get over like that.