El-P

Well, Gangrel's intro ruled. I wish Gangrel had been paired with Luna and pushed as a mid-card garbage brawler actually. But yeah. It will be interesting to see how Mania will be built in a few years from now, because there aren't much people from the last golden era left, and by then guys from this generation will have been overexposed like none others (they are already infact) in the history of pro-wrestling. When I read that Randy Orton showing up could have constituted a "surprise", I'm legit gobsmacked.

The aura of being the only major star left who had never set a foot in the WWE. Granted, that aura was purely fictitious. Instead, he gains a fat paycheck (I guess). Easy choice indeed.

Me neither, I don't get the love for Billy Gunn 2.0 at all. The beatdown took forever and was quite boring too. I thought the Sting vs HHH face-off went forever, to a ridiculous degree. Especially since Trip was doing one of his empty "I'm so intense" look that just doesn't work at all. At some point I thought they both had blanked. Cool intro though, although 13 years too late. So, Sting is the big nostalgia selling card for this year's Mania. Okay. Even with the make up, he actually looks old. Meanwhile, the two younger guys in the ring who were featured totally took a backstep to this year's 56 years old nostalgia act. The "This is awesome" chants really sounded like people trying to convince themselves. Really ? Sting vs Triple H in 2014 is awesome ? Sting doing the silent Crow gimmick and reverse DDT that he was doing 17 years ago against the nWo is awesome ? At this point even Jeff Jarrett hitting Steph with a guitar would get a "You've still got it" chant it seems...

Both. Because Rey worked like ten years without having to do that stupid spot in *every* match. Yeah, it's a way to brand Rey Mysterio (Jr. be damned) with a stupid spot that he doesn't need to get over anyway. Really, if he did that spot once in a while it wouldn't bother me. But like Loss said, it's even part of his freakin' theme song. The WWE branded him with this stupid spot, and yes, it damages the enjoyment I have for this amazing worker.

The same as always. Nostalgia. But yeah. Sting was last relevant in… 1997 ? He'll be 56 at Mania. Retromania running wild.

Watched some stuff from Hawaii from the 80's. Kamalamala. Yep. Kamalamala.

I'm not into Rey's WWE work because of crap like this. So no, I wouldn't feel the same way I don't think, because Rey just doesn't need any cutesy trademark spot. He's a great worker. He's spent years being a great worker without doing stuff like this. The Rock on the other hand got over because of his catchphrases and cutesy spots like the People's Elbow. That's part of his character. The 619 is just another WWE corporate/trademarked stamp on a worker who doesn't need it to either work or get over. That's why it annoys me so much.

The People's Elbow I hated for the longest time. Then when I warmed up to the Rock I just got used to it. It's ridiculous, but it's inherent to the character of the Rock. And the execution is super cool and fluid, reminds me of Muto's elbow drop. The Fivewhavere is like a degenerated version of the People's Elbow. But Cena is kind of a degenerated version of The Rock, so… But yeah, awful. The Stinkface is totally offensive. The Worm may be the stupidest move ever. Can't stand it. The Bronco buster I always liked although X-Pac version was the best by far because of the series of kicks which were just a perfect (and simple, and logical) setup, and the move looked like it actually hurt and was humiliating at the same time.

This has more to do with Booker T being a mediocre at best worker though, as he was already doing that shit in WCW. It did get worse in WWE from what I've seen.

The Stunner and the Figure 4 aren't cutesy spots. But yeah, Austin's set up got pretty lazy at points and sometime the kick looked bad. It was still just a kick to the gut before a simple jawbreaker, not an elaborate way to have your opponent rest on the second rope while you're running to the opposite side and come back to throw yourself onto the ropes and do a Tiger Mask trickery spot so your knee/side of your leg/feet/whatever gets more or less rammed on the upper cranium of the opponent who then had to take an illogical bump backward to sell the impact which otherwise would look pretty inoffensive. That's the difference. Do I need to explain why damaging the leg before applying a submission hold that works on the leg makes sense ? Hulk Hogan's comebacks suck. So do Lawler's when he's hulking up. Hulking up fucking sucks in general. Dropping the straps has nothing to do with physically setting up a spot, it's just a visual gimmick that indicates "now I'm pissed, shit's on".

That's the detail that actually makes it even more annoying to me. Because that stupid cutesy spot becomes the focus of Rey's matches. Can't stand it.

Yes it is. If it happened once in a while, it wouldn't bother me. It would be a cute goofy spot that happened because of a particular setting. Ok. But the fact it became DA Rey Jr. Spot just makes it totally ridiculous to me.

Lawler is pretty much worthless since the Attitude era. Not that he was ever that great anyway, but "puppies ! puppies !" killed it for me. Ross got annoying pretty quickly at this time too, most probably by 99. But Ross had been annoying in the past too at points, for all the talk about him being the greatest ever, there have been time in UWF and WCW when you just wanted him to shut the fuck up about college sports, or take a valium when he was getting way too excitable. The modern announcing is just unlistenable. Lawler should have been sent to pasture 15 years ago. Cole is unbearable. But yeah, way too micromanaged anyway, and way too much time about plugging stupid social media shit.

It's a cutesy spot that require ridiculous, awkward setups. Offensively it looks like shit (and guys taking huge bumps off of it look totally stupid), and the fact it happens in *every fucking Rey match* makes it unbearable to me. And lastly, the fact there's a "strategy" in each match to put the guys in that spot looks like a freaking wink-wink running gag at best (since the spot itself is so ridiculous to begin with) or makes Rey looks like a complete Copyrighted cartoon character who's only concerned about hitting *that* spot because it's the WWE ™ Rey Myserio ™ spot. So yeah, Rey's WWE matches annoy the fuck out of me for this reason (not to mention other pet peeves like bumping on the second rope which make him look like a midget). Sure, Rey's great, but WWE made him annoying to watch to me.

619

A fake-japanese überbumper and a solid mullethead. At their best as the Orient Express probably, putting Diamond under a mask was a good idea. Good team. But nothing special either.

And then, there's that one punch too many, in every match, that just get me out of the groove thinking "Come on, can't you think of *anything* else ? ANYTHING ?". I actually enjoy Lawler quite a bit, thinks he's very good, great at points, annoying at other, but I'm mostly really positive about him. But that great miracle worker he's been pimped to be ? Simply not the case for me. Had a mostly godawful sense of fashion too, with terrible color (un)coordinated outfits. So bad it's actually good in a kitsch way, so, yeah, I actually enjoy that aspect of the King too. Very Memphis when you think about it.

They better not fuck with Rusev. He and Lana already looked like idiots being berated by Stephy the previous week.

Funny. The other day I was thinking about how for all the talk of "pro-wrestlers used to be like jazz musicians, improvising together" which sounds pretty fishy to me as far as US wrestling goes, the analogy was actually pretty much spot on for shoot-style in its purest form. I said it many times in he past and although I haven't watch this match back in more than ten years, but if I had to take only one match on a desert island, it probably would be Tamura vs Kohsaka (along with a Mariko Yoshida classic too). Shoot style was the greatest form of pro-wrestling ever.

What always bothered me is that they didn't seem to *fit* him. Always looked to be too short. But yeah, the designs were the best thing about RVD's entire act.

Ah, Russo wants Liz in the mud. Well of course. Luger was such the savior of these awful TV shows.

Indeed it doesn't ring a bell at all.

Gained appreciation much later when doing my WCW project. Never was a big fan of Simmons, but he was at his best here doing explosive power spots. And Butch Reed to structure the whole thing. Great look, great concept (especially when they were with Woman), cool theme. Reigned in the Steiners by beating the shit out of them (and by having Butch Reed keeping stuff together). It's a shame they split up when they did, they had a few good years still in them together I think. And maybe it would have prevented us from getting Harlem Heat.

Greatest gaijin tag team ever working in Japan ? Kroffat was just fantastic and Furnas was perfectly suited to this setting. Awesome awesome team. They could still work circle around everybody in the WWF when they showed up pas their prime. Should have come up as heels though, as Kroffat was such a great prick.

Del Ray was more spectacular than Lane for sure. Tremendous team again, just like the two versions of the MX it's hard to pick. It's ridiculous they were never given the belt somewhere between 93 and 95. I mean, even freaking MOM got the belt. The next version was basically the Body Donnas.