El-P

Attention to details. Nice.

Landell is on fire again. The biggest waste of talent ever when you consider his career.

These guys were badly missed when they were gone.

Yeah, I thought about putting Steamboat in the mix too, but there is that pretty long span of being a single wrestler that prevented me from doing so. That being said, he was a pretty awesome tag team worker too, yes.

Stupid question : quid de joshi puroresu ?

I'll add that some people are technically able to judge music, and they will tell you that what you think is great is pure crap to their hears. Because they have a totaly different perception. I'm taking about people working in high level music academy for instance. I had tons of exchange with a guy like that. He's classicaly trained, he teaches music at a conservatoire, all kind of musics, he worked with modern composers like Pierre Boulez and such. He can talk heavy metal, techno, pop, hip-hop or jazz, whatever style you want to. Well, that guy just doesn't understand some music because of his actual ability to technically understand composition, some lo-fi stuff like folk or blues or garage punk he just can't handle and think it has zero interest. We never talked Bob Dylan, and maybe he would say good things about him. Maybe he would say his guitar work his shit and totally uninteresting. On the other hand, some stuff he loves I find totally flat and bland and boring, it just doesn't resonate with me on any level, on the contrary I find some of the stuff he loves quite ugly (and I don't mean because I don't feel like I can understand it, no, I mean ugly or bland period). And then we agree and tons of stuff too, especially in the realm of house and techno, despite the fact I have absolutely *zero* knowledge, I mean real technical knowledge, about music and composition. We don't hear the same thing. And sometime we do, in a different way. So yeah, using metrics and star rating for pop-music, or art in general seems just pretty useless to me. There's so much subjectivity in all of this, so much sensitive, social, psychological, sentimental issues that goes along perception of music. (For the record, I couldn't care less about the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan for instance. I probably love tons of people who love the Stones and Bob Dylan, but as a huge music fan, I have no interest in listening to them directly, really. Maybe one day for some reason I will, and then will love them. But certainly not because Allmusic or Rolling Stones tell me they are the GOAT because of metrics.)

Since when Allmusic's ratings mean anything whatsoever ? I mean, seriously people. And arguing about metrics in art, even popular art, seems totally irrelevant to me. As does GOAT discussion on the matter, really.

This feud has overstayed its welcome since after the Wargames match. No wonder they didn't draw anymore. And yeah, this was not good.

I agree at this point Landell is the best promo of the year.

Cornette was on the booking office in 96, so I guess we know where Jake vs Lawler comes from. Yeah, the overbooking of gmmick matches reeks of desperation at this point, although they did it before in SMW.

Over a span of about 15 years. Yeah, that's pretty damn impressive. Morton, Eaton, Arn and Windham are the quintessential US tag team workers to me too.

Indeed. It was during that time that my tastes had definitely smoothed a lot, for instance discovering some lucha gems, watching The Rock under a complete new outlook and finally enjoying him a lot (I really couldn't stand The Rock back in 98/99), and basically settling down from my "puro-elitist" phase once and for all.

Hakushi was more understandable to me, he was one hell of a worker, and he had a look and a mystique that was easy (well, should have been at least) to market. Nakanashi was a big green goof at this point. And why the hell would they call him Kurosawa anyway ? It's like a green Johnny Ace coming to Japan and being called Ford.

Most disgusting promotionnal tactic of the year ? Yes. (good interview especially for Hogan in 95, but, yeesh... vomit)

Well, Sarko isn't in politics anymore. Officialy. But if the UMP can't find a guy that can draws in 2017, they'll go back to Sarko like Vince went back to Bret in 95. As far as leaving, hell, everyone was hysterical about Gerard Depardieu first leaving for Belgium and then for Russia. RUSSIA ! But as great as Depardieu has been as an actor, it's well known he's a complete drunk dick at this point. Shitloads of sports guy don't pay their taxes despite having beneficiated from the State's high level training schools, as soon as they make money they fly off to Monaco or Swiss, and my dumbfuck compadre still cheer as all hell for them. As far as politics goes, it would be a no-no obviously. We're not nearly as bad as Italy (which is a mind-blowing country in that respect), but tons of shit happens here that would never be allowed in anglo-saxons countries in term of corruption and conflict of interest. French people are never happy anyway, we're grumpy people.

I'm not touching this thread with a ten foot pole...

This is the greatest vignette in the history of our sport. The first minute with Hogan exploring the Dungeon is hilarious. You gotta love the musical themes of the monsters discretly being heard as Hogan mentions them, it's nearly Prokofiev. The debut of The Giant. I maintain this is all in Sullivan's fucked up mind. Or Sullivan put some acid in Hogan's drink at catering. There's no way this place exist. THIS IS NOT HOT !!!

Without putting in too much thought : Funk (Terry), Hansen, Flair, Windham, Morton, Guerrero (Eddie), Savage, Steamboat... hum... Vader, Mysterio or Tully or Eaton or Anderson (Arn)... Haven't seen enough Rose or Bock to really compare, ditto Race and the old masters like Brisco, Thesz and such...

Thus far the Bluebloods have been pretty fun considering the garbage they had to work with : Nasties and Harlem Heat. But yeah, Eaton had slipped by that time. Washed up ? I wouldn't say so. He was still really damn solid in everything he was doing, and yeah he wasn't given any chance after that really (although the Bluebloods really didn't get that much of a chance either when you think about it).

Not to be a shit stirrer or anything, but that doesn't say that WWF had a deeper roster to me, it says that WWF had mostly a shitty taste in pro-wrestling.

You got a laugh out of me on that one. Poor Shawn. But yeah, it was a total postmodern match *totally* based on "acting" and "scriptwriting", not in a Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior way but in a "it isn't a wrestling match, it is a scene from a movie" way. Pure shit. The infamous "Sorry, I love you", was enough for me to hate that Flair match which was already outrageously ridiculous and sad on his own, but this took things to another level. I sure hope we get more of this at Mania this year though, it's "interesting" to see where they go from there.

I'm getting repetitive, but tremendous promo AGAIN from Landell. He's been even better as a face than as a heel, something that has to be seen to be believed.

The match sucked so much, and I'm so tired of the damn streak/self-conscious yearly Taker epic gimmick at this point that even that fact isn't great to me. Now, Taker losing his streak to HHH, that would have been pretty awesome actually only for the shitstorm it would have provoqued.

Another great furious promo by Cornette, and another great serious promo by Landell.

Dylan beat me to it. There's nothing great about Taker vs HHH from last year, from any perspective, shape or form. It was greatly laughable and terrible all around.