El-P

Well, Corny said before and after the story that Shane was green and didn't know how things worked. Good stuff. And Corny looks in the best shape of his life too.

Since TNA is pretty much dead soon (right ? RIGHT ?), I figured I'd go through a bunch of the old weekly PPV's to see how this mess began. I fast-forward a lot, I'm not watching the Johnsons, the midgets, the "celebrities", the catfight and other shit of the same ilk. Was Russo already booking at the beginning ? An awful lot of terrible gimmicks, the Rainbow Express being the most offensive. Lane & Bruce are the worst Adrian Street ever. Jeff Jarrett works exacty like he did in WCW in 2000, by that I mean solid at very best, and totally unimpressive. He still cuts boring promos where he fumbles a bit and try his best to act like a tough guy. Which still doesn't suit him one bit. And I can't understand how a veteran like him just doesn't see how his finisher looks like complete shit, and it's not like it's over either. Well, at least he doesn't use the guitar gimmick…. That's good… Anyway, him and Scott Hall work a bunch of single and tag matches (with K-Krush & Brian Christopher), which could be decent Thunder 2000 main events. Christopher is still doing the Grand Master Sexay routine, which means he's unbearable and a shit worker. Monty Brown debuted on the third show. I had no idea he was there so early. The stand out is very clearly AJ Styles, and that from the very beginning. ALthough he's still pretty indieriffic in the way he uses his incredible offense (but has he really progressed a whole lot ?), he's quite impressive to watch and shows a good white meat acrobatic babyface charisma. He gets both the X division title and the tag division titles in a matter of two weeks, which seems a bit much, but he was clearly the future star of the company. Jerry Lynn would be close second, despite the few usual annoying things about his work (Malenkoesque jerkoff sequence worker + shitty punches, mostly). The X division appears to be the main appeal of the promotion, with all the best matches coming from there thus far. Ken Shamrock is totally dull and has some terrible facial hairs. As far as managers go, Joel Gertner is complete crap (he's been useless since 99 or so anyway), Bobcat, well, I don't even know what the point is… Her guy David Young seems pretty decent though, if nondescript (oh, now I know why they gave him a girl). At least we get James Mitchell who's managing Malice (aka The Wall with a much better look and some actual progress in the ring) and Slash (who I believe is Wolfie D). What was the point of the cage dancers BTW ? I guess the name of the promotion directly derives from them. Only really good match so far : 2002.06.26 Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles vs Psicosis vs Low-Ki

DNA Wrestling.

I probably wouldn't, but he's a much better candidate than tons of guys already nominated to me.

As showed by the Batista push last year. And the Roman Reigns push this year.

I never thought of it that way, but it's an hilarious and very fitting way of presenting things. WAR was such a fun promotion.

I am totally unable to find the reviews of the weekly PPV that had been posted somewhere around here. Where are those already ?

Nominating Jerry Lynn. I mean come on.

Debbie is the best Malenko.

Holy shit indeed. This company… I need to watch it at some point… Really… But maybe not... Anyway. Hopefully this marks the End, once and for all. Now GFW can pick up the remainders. Because we need TNA 2.0...

So no one should try. Ever. Even in 2015.

Hot 39 years old blonde with tight body, great legs and big fake boobs. That was basically it. Although her promos as airhead-southern-beauty-pagent-trophy-wife Queen Debra in WCW were quite decent actually, she played her part pretty good and it was all her own doing apparently.

Remember when Sable got more and more over ? After Mero hurt his knee.

Of course. But it has nothing to do with the representation of "minis" on WWE TV. Well, midgets. Oh fuck it, dwarves. Still. Women represent half of the human race. So, just a little bit of equality should not even be a debate at this point, especially when they have some really talented girls on the roster, that's all.

Holyshit. Really ? (It sounds like something Vince Russo would say, no offense, but still)

Yeah, please let's not go into "we're discovering Akira Taue in 2015" mode. It was embarrassing enough with Tenryu a few years back...

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!! Mongolian chop.

His Kobashi hommage with the shotgun chops is one of the most annoying spot in wrestling. Used to be very good at one time (still is in 2021, so there). I really didn't follow his career that much in All Japan, but he was involved in some pretty hot stuff I believe (so basically talking out of my ass, not having watched nearly enough). Still, he had some really annoying tendency. Choshu he ain't. Hell, he's not even Kensuke

Wrong thread. This is for Joe Malenko, not Dory Funk Jr. This one was so obvious. Yeah, Joe had even less charisma than Dean. But was he or was he not a better worker ? I dunno. Dean is overrated as hell, so... A bit too harsh.

I loved Spivey. Looked like a total psycho, had an odd, semi-clumsy yet dangerous looking way of working. Too bad he started late, as his knees went south pretty early, but damn, Spivey could be good. And the Waylon Mercy gimmick remains an all-time favourite "what if ?" of mine.

Mediocre worker at best. Overrated in every regard. Kinda like RVD with less cool moves. I take the Sandman over Booker any day.

Well said. I like the Sandman a lot. The NOA comparison is totally off for most of his, well, peak. Yes, at the end of ECW, Sandman was basically only a prolongued intro, but it was not the case in 95/97. Tons of worse people have been nominated.

WWECW TV Episode 3 (06.27.06) ECW Match of the week : Sabu vs Roadkill. Basically a little more than a competitive squash this time, with Sabu still kiling himself and ending up with a nasty cut on his back after an atomic arabian facebuster through a table. Yeah, this is ECW for you. I'm surprised WWE even picked up Roadkill, he was overrated in ECW to begin with and his gimmick had no depth to it at all even in the original setting. 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. (yeah, sounds familiar) 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. After this week, I'm not so sure I liked Debra's body better BTW, as Kelly obviously is a 19 year old lingerie model after all. Not exactly the greatest stripper, but there you go. Mike Knox debuts and he has a throwback kinda look which I kinda like. Still, this angle goes nowhere. Kelly wants to show her tits to a guy at ringside, who gets pushed back by Knox. Surprisingly good main event of the week : Kurt Angle vs RVD. Angle can't kick, and he love to transition back into offense by kicking. RVD still can't punch or throw a forearm to save his life, yet loves to do a comeback with forearms. Apart from that, this actually pretty good, Angle grounds RVD quite a bit so we don't get too much nonsense early on and save the big spots for key moments. I kinda like that Angle quite a bit after all, expect for his flat WWE trademarked german suplexes and the overreliance on the ankle lock (with all the infamous obligatory counters). Test is coming. Feel the excitement. All the backstage stuff is awful, with that stale and dull WWE directing and delivery. There was also an awful segment with a short and fat male stripper getting squashed by Sandman. There's a vampire stalking around. And Tazz can't say "exhibitionnist". Those funny guys, ah ah. 2006.06.27 Kurt Angle vs RVD

No matter how off he can be at times about the current product, Cornette is still gold when he tells stories of old school wrestling. And although those familiar with his podcast herd a lot about this year already, there are still some new stuff there, like the Freebirds (Michael & Jimmy) coming off like complete dicks.

Any feud with Jake Roberts post Mid-South.