El-P

It's always been strictly a national draw anyway. Christmas still draws worldwide no matter how boring the product is.

Last night I actually dreamt about Daniel Bryan. And he had a fake beard.

Oh, gawd, HHH is gonna book himself vs Orton for the unified title, then go to WM as the face champ. (anyway, watched the last RAW segment since I'm probably gonna watch a bit of the PPV. Man, Orton is just as putrid as a promo and "actor" as he is a worker. Cena totally saved the segment.)

Well, Russo's booking, even without the shoot angle bullshit, was abysmal anyway and he would have killed WCW just as well. And TNA is irrevelant, always has been and always will be. So to me it was inconsequential in the big picture. It just produced a whole lot of inconsequential stupid angles and promos. And really when you think about it, the real "shoot-angle"-that-wasn't-an-angle that shook the business forever was the Montreal screwjob. That's the one Russo and others always tried to reproduce. CM Punk's "shoot" promo has its roots in the will to create another Montreal. Re-acting Pillman's out of nowhere, out of context "bookerman" comment is more akin to Eric Bischoff telling Sid to "use a squeegee" on Nitro to me.

This. If anything it's one of the most overrated "moment" in wrestling history. It was a cute "WTF" moment for smart marks only, led to absolutely nothing in term of matches, angles or payoff, and didn't draw WCW any money. What it did though, was mesmerize Vince Russo who even mentionned it in one of his "Vic Venom" columns in the Raw Magazine sometime in 97. And from there comes his fascination for shoot-angles. So yeah, in some twisted way it was important as it "inspired" the worst booker ever to do a hundred shoot-angles in WCW which all accomplished nothing in the end just like the original one did.

1994 ECW had plenty of fun already, especially as the year was closing down. Being a Sabu and/or Sandman fan helps.

Ah… mass consumption… Such a great way of life.

I hate generic music and commentary/ring announcer overdubs. Just hate it. I can deal with generic music on old puro com tapes as it was part of the charm to get cheesy themes overdubbed for cheesy WAR fat guys, but for WWF/WCW/ECW and such, it's simply a no-no for me.

At 10$ a month, even *I* could be interested if I could have access to it.

Yep. Those two are these best. Just über classic popular movies in France for the last 50 years. i've watche dit countless times since I'm like 6 or 7 years old. A few other of his classics are La Folies des Grandeurs with Yves Montand this time (Bourvil was supposed to get the role but he died just before) and Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, both from Oury. The adaptation from the play Oscar is fun just to watch De Funes go batshit insane. He made a lot of mediocre/shitty movies though, so it hurts the perception of his talent. But recently guys like Denis Podalydes, who's a critic darling and who does a lot of auteur's movies, saying De Funes was great and an influence on him shed a new light on his work (from the critics I mean, he's an immensely popular actor including decades after his death). Yes. Which is very unfair, as comedy is the most difficult stuff to do. Real good comedy I mean. And comedian are more respected when they do "serious", dramatic stuff. We call it the "Tchao Pantin" effect in France. Coluche was a superstar comedian in the 80's but was only doing not so good funny movies. And then he does a super dramatic role in the very dark "Tchao Pantin", gets a Cesar (our Academy Award) and all of a sudden he's finally viewed as a great actor. To this day a comedian doing a dramatic role is called "making a Tchao Pantin" here, to the point of being a cliché for comedians trying to get respectability.

Depends where. Jerry Lewis always had good reviews in France, including from serious critics. At the same time, Louis de Funes was not highly regarded at all, and now 30 years after his death suddenly the serious critics are doing essays on the guy. Go figure.

The Gowinns said working wih Doug Furnas & Phil Lafon was like "pulling teeth". Yep.

Ditto. I guess this has something to do with him being Bob Jr.'s son.

It's impossible to know one way or another. Watch Yoshiaki Yatsu in 1989. You can never guess he was a great worker back in 1986. We'll never know about Stevens without footage, it's as simple as that.

Ah ah ! Awesome picture !

Indeed. And he's also pretty insightfull about how the nWo worked from the inside. And he's also pretty funny. His Death of WCW interview about his tenure as booker in 2000 was also quite fascinating.

I love that Flair & Luger, and Arn to a lesser extent, give their best babyface smile, while Tully just don't play well with others.

I'm not gonna argue anymore since you asked to drop the subject. In general I feel that Flair gets a pass for a lot of stuff because of who he is.

Flair agreed to put over Luger at the Bash as long as his contract was extended. Herd ended up getting mad at Flair during the back and forth over that and firing him. It was his decision to fire Flair without him dropping the title. Again, Flair is not blameless there, but the way you framed it isn't quite accurate either. Ok, but Fair refused to drop the title to Luger in 90 already, right ? And although Herd was an ignorant asshole, it doesn't change the fact Flair used "jobbing to Luger" as a leverage to negociate a new contract, which is not exactly what I'd call "respecting the business". And it doesn't change the fact he showed up on the competition's TV with the belt. Flair was as carny as anyone and gets a pass because he's "Ric Flair". He's not exactly Shawn Michaels of Hulk Hogan either, of course, but still.

When he refused to do jobs for Lex Luger twice when it was the right time ? When he left WCW as their champion and showed up on WWF TV with the Big Gold belt ?

This seems odd to say. I would disagree on everything here except the last part. Agreed. I'm a Ric Flair fan but I have no sympathy for Flair. He was painted as the babyface when Hogan and Bischoff fucked around with him, but the reality is that he himself fucked around with others before. Flair was about Flair. I have way more sympathy and understanding for a guy like Luger actually.

El Dandy was getting good reactions from WCW crowds when he was working random "lucha" matches on Thunder and JTTS matches. If pushed like say, Juventud or Ultimo, of course he would have gotten over just as well. WCW never even tried.

In 1995 in WCW he was already a fantastic worker to me. Just went through this period and his matches with Benoit were awesome. He also had a very nice match with Big Bubba. To me he was a fine babyface at this time. It's not like he was Tim Horner. Some of his heel stuff was awesome, some was a bit goofy. His most overrated stuff consists of the Dean Malenko matches, and I blame Malenko for being a jerk-off, work-in-a-vacuum worker.

Me too !! Yeah, he's got a peculiar look to him. Which helped make him unique I guess. That and the galons of blood.

The last classic Ric Flair title win, and by classic I don't mean great match but as far as booking goes. It's Flair the iron man going through WCW legends Luger & Sting in a very dirty way, then winning the title against WWF legend and classic foe Randy Savage thanks to the Horsemen, with the added bonus of the crimson mask. The crowd gives him a tremendous babyface reaction, like they had been waiting for this since Hogan came on board and ruined the company. A throwback Starrcade ending and a great moment. And yes, one of the most obvious bladejob ever by Savage. And Pillman really acted batshit insane here.