El-P

Of course not. I wouldn't argue otherwise. I just wanted to throw his name to remind that he was quite an amazing promoter, self-promoter if you prefer. He was a former junior heavyweight from All Japan working against a karate guy on indy shows. A few years later he would draw 30.000 people against Terry Funk at the Kawasaki Stadium. All that with no TV. Impressive.

Except Vince is not a pro-wrestling promoter. He's in the entertainment business, from his own account. So, what about Dana White ? ............................. .............................

Well, I admit I thought of Inoki as the guy who created and carried NJ up the the point of becoming the N°1 promotion in the world, totally omitting Shinma and Choshu. John makes a good case of putting Inoki in a not so bright light. That said, Vince has the WBF, the XFL and fucked up the biggest angle in wrestling history to his negative credit. And he kinda ruined wrestling, at least for me. Does he still gets N°1 ?

Why has this guy always had so much heat anyway? He's not a legend of the ring or anything, but he always seemed fine to me. I think we talked about it before. Fat contract from the get go. First garanteed contract from WWF when he jumped. Sable. Laying down his match beforehand (yeah, like it would seem like an issue nowadays). I don't care, I always like Mero, he developped into a good worker over the years. And he comes off as a really cool and likeable guy in interviews. Man, those Desperados videos are brutal. BRUTAL. Long. Not funny. Not going anywhere. Boring. Painfull. LONG. No wonder watching this shit drove Hansen away (if the urban legend is true). What a waste of Mantell. He does what he can, but the material is just rotten.

That would be Tony Atlas. I think.

Foley I guess.

That picture of Ellering is eye-gouging. Without looking at the name I thought it was Ventura. I think that was the case, make the character a little bit cartoonier with Percy Pringle going way over the top. I agree the Taker/Brother Love was way creepier.

New Japan was the number 1 promotion in the world for nearly 20 years. Yes. I think there was a brief period in the mid 80s when All Japan was beating New Japan, but that coincided with Choshu's jump. Am I correct? Yep, I think so.

New Japan was the number 1 promotion in the world for nearly 20 years.

See above. The answer's been given. I wish there was tapes from Australia. Inoki has a very strong case. Since we're throwing Jerry Jarrett in there, what about Victor Jovica ? He's been going since the early 70's on an Island, and no one ever disputed his crown. Names that haven't been mentionned there are the Matsunaga brothers. I mean Zenjo was huge at points, and it has a very long history of being a super successful promotion. And defining women's wrestling. You can argue Atsushi Onita has a place for doing so much with so few. The guy had no TV for so long, and he made shitload of money and drew shitload of people. Sure, it didn't lasted, but it was impressive while it was going on. I'm not seriously arguing Onita is the N°2 of course, but just wanted to throw his name out there. I don't think anyone accomplished so much with so few cards in his hands.

He really wasn't. Crush wasn't much there after the tag match with Yoko against the Head Shrinkers. I think he left of was fired that summer. They just brought him back to fill a spot during the Rumble, which seemed like the theme of the year (both Bushwhackers in the Rumble in 95 ? Really ?). He didn't show up again before the jailbird comeback in late 96.

The York Foundation is my favourite part of 1991 thus far. Makes the undercard fun no matter what.

Salvador Lutheroth Gonzales, no ? Either him or Inoki. Or Jim Barnett, my boy. I love Cornette, but what did he do as a promoter excatly ? SMW ? I love ECW, but seriously... Yes, it was an influence on Bischoff then Vince. On its own, ECW was an experiment that fell flat on its face, lost money and died a horrible death. Not to mention the good it brought has been balanced by all the bad it brought. What is the "good" influence of ECW on today's product ? Zilch. I like Bischoff as a character, and he had a hand on WCW's success at one point, but he was no promoter, and fucked up way more things than he actualy built.

Yeah, coming in he was in the best shape of his life. And Eaton was great in the match, but 14 minutes for a 2/3 falls match is ridiculous. Plus it had no heat, no one thought Eaton would win the title. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Way too many matches, way too many angles. Most of which were good on paper, which makes it even more frustrating. The Rickin Morton joigning the York Foundation, then arguing with Robert, then keeping Hughes & Taylor from jumping, then punching Robert was cringeworthy. They could have spread this on two or three good weeks of TV. And the Brian Pillman stuff was embarrassing. Loser leaves town match in 2 minutes, Pillman gone clean. He got such a raw deal depsite working his ass off for two years and getting over. No wonder his push in 95 was too little too late. Pillman should have been pushed to the top way sooner, he was fresh. Really, it felt like a Vince Russo booked show in that matcehs were cut ridiculously short, we go from an angle to another without having the time to digest anything, they also put squash matches that had no place there, including a Steve Austin squash without any intro (which is too bad since it was the first time Lady Blossom appeared. Man... Lady Blossom...). Very frustrating booking when you got a lot of really good match lined up. It's obvious watching that show that the promotion was treading waters on top. Getting Murdoch & Slater to feud with the Steiners wasn't hot. Getting back to Luger vs Flair at this point when things have really cooled off since early 90 was sad already for Luger... Little did he know... Watching 2 years and a half of NWA/WCW, there's no doubt in my mind that Luger career during this time murders Sting's in term of delivering in big matches. Luger has a number of excellent to great matches (the Muta one could have been excellent, it just needed the time) over this timespan, while Sting has zilch. Oh yeah, he was in the Wargames. Luger has been much better than Sting during this entire period, on every level. I haven't seen a really strong performance from Sting yet. The only time I was midly impressed was how he managed to work with an inept Sid. That was pretty good. Outside of that, Sting has lost quite a bit of stock with me (not that I was a big fan) while Luger has gained a lot. I may take a little break from WCW at the end of June. I feel the burn out coming. Flair's leaving, it's a good time to pause.

Apparently Stephy has her own idea of what a wrestler should look like. Didn't she get rid of Ariel because she doesn't look like your stereotypical diva ?

Clash 15 was a rush job if I even saw one, and it totally ruined some potential really good matches. Arn & Barry vs Pillman & Gigante had a really fun match on TV but this was settled in like 2 minutes with Pillman "leaving" WCW just being an afterthought. Luger vs Muta could have been really good but again, Luger beat Muta in record time, which was both odd and disapointing. Even Flair vs Eaton was ampered by the 2/3 falls stipulation which doesn't work when you don't have more than 30 minutes to spend. Too bad because Eaton was fantastic again, and it coumd have developped into a great match, but the ending came too quick and was anticlimatic to boot. The only match which didn't suffer too much was Steiners vs Chono & Hase, not as spot heavy as the Dome match (unsurprising with Chono) but more solid. Way too many squashes matches, but I guess the idea was to introduce the new characters like Diamond Studd, Steve Austin and.... Oz. I forgot how ridiculous Oz's entrance was. They should bring the gimmick back to feud with Taker at Mania. Man, how did that dwidget 19 years old Jason Hervey got to date a 29 years old Missy Hyatt in the prime of her hotness ? Missy was a milf before the acronym existed. The Danger Zone with Hervey was really bad, although I get a kick out of Paul E. smashing his vintage portable phone on the backs of annoying people. It sure wouldn't have the same effet with an Iphone. The strangest segment, and really representative of the new, more cartoony direction the company was going toward, was PN News dancing with Salt'n Pepa, interrupted by Johnny B. Badd. There's a feud I want to see. Hat's off to WCW for being rather current as far as pop culture goes though, as Salt'n Pepa were in their "prime" in 91, as opposed to when WWF hired them in 1995 when they were already a thing of the past. PN NEws's ring attire is one of the most color offensive I've seen. I know this was the early 90's, but man, that bright fluorescent green with purple. Looks like an overweight Constructicon.

Yeah, Ellering was jacked early on. He was about as good of a worker as Ventura too.

I think it was: PAUL: "Tell 'em, Animal!" ANIMAL: "Tell 'em, Hawk!" Hawk would drop the "Tell 'em Paul!" to get back to Ellering. I've watched quite a bit of Roadies lately through my WCW watch, and Hawk is crisper in term of offense, while Animal throws those big forearms and boots rather randomly, Hawk is a better bumper, and Hawk had the best offense of the two (neckbreaker, powerslam, flying clothesline, big boot, chops...). I don't think he was unnatural, but he had a way of looking *heavy*. I don't know If I'm gonna be able to translate what I feel when I watch him, but it's like he's made of metal, he seems like a super dense mass, moreso than Animal. Which gave him this kinda unnatural way of falling sometimes, like he was heavier than he looked like. But it produced this incredible aura of power and undestructibility to me. As far as selling, maybe Animal was a better seller indeed, but more often than not it was Hawk who was doing the selling after the vaunted transition spot in the corner right to the outside. So all in all, I'm really a much bigger Hawk fan. I think he could have been a single star a la Sting. Animal, I don't think so. Yeah, that's true, I'm kinda hard on Ellering, but he never struck me as essential to the Roadies act like Corny was with the MX.

Hawk was the best performer all around anyway. The most charismatic, the best promo, and the best worker. Ellering was good for the "Tell 'em Paul" spot only.

If you believe Missy Hyatt, everyone was banging Dark Journey.

Even without speaking about pure gimmicks, there's nothing to identify one guy from another now. And I don't speak figuratively. I watched the Rumble with a fresh eye of someone who don't know 80% of the roster and I had zero idea of who these guys were supposed to be and don't even ask me who is a face and who is a heel. It's just a big blur of look/act-alike. You watch NJ is the 80's and everyone is sporting the infamous NJ black trunks and boots. Yet it doesn't take long to figure who is who and what their personnality is, so I'm not even talking about straight gimmicks. I'm coming off the Rumble knowing shit about the current guys. It's no wonder Road Dogg and Hacksaw got one of the biggest pop of the night... I found interesting that Karma got a big pop too. That was probably my favourite part of the Rumble.

You sure do make me want to check it out. And I don't think nostalgia has anything to do with it. There has always been crap all over the cards (shit, I'm watching WCW TV from 91, with the godawful PN News). The fact is, wrestling had never be so dull has it is now. It's a product of its era. I'm convinced a 12 year old me would not become a wrestling fan with the current product. If nostalgia there is, it's the fact that the only "big" things for WM are old timers from another era coming back (Taker, Jericho, Rock). The only thing that made me watch WM last year was the Rock. It will be the same this year, although I hope Jericho gets a cool match that I can enjoy. I guess we get Taker vs HHH again, which will be the requisite overrated self-conscious epic of the year. Taker's entrance to Johnny Cash's song was the best thing of the match last year.

Hey, Billy Jack Haynes doing an executionner gimmick, complete with JTTS hood and an axe ! And he's billed from France ! No wonder the poor guy snapped, his career went south so bad after he left his territory. WCW was really into gimmickization period with Black Blood, Johnny B. Badd, Big Josh, Diamond Stud to an extent. Failed attempt at trying to compete with WWF on their own turf, while this era was dying anyway. Can't wait for Van Hammer...

I guess. The Bull Drop Inn with Dusty Rhodes is objectively one of the worst segment I've ever seen. Just god awful. PN News is systematic fast forward material, just a complete abortion. He makes Oscar sound like Chuck D., Andre 3000, Snoop Dog and Method Man all rolled into one. Brian Pillman dresses like a giant rat. The Yellow Dog can't be far behind. Flair is leaving soon, which means poor Luger gets fucked again. The first half of the year was dramatically better than anything since 02/90, but something don't feel right again. Side note : I'm amazed at how Scott Hall looked like Razor Ramon as early as the first Diamond Stud match. The greasy hair, the toothpick, the moveset, the cross with the arms. Kinda debunk the myth of WWF creating this character from scratch. They gave him a fake latino accent, but the rest was there already. Oh, and Mark Mero debuts as Johnny B. Badd. Don't sue me, I enjoy it.

I don't know how Blizkrieg stuff will have aged to me. But yeah, there is good stuff in 99 too. Actually I know this year much more than I knew 98 going in, so a lot of it will be revisit with a fresh eye. Most of what you mentionned is really fun from memory. The booking will make me cry though I fear. Anyway, I'm in the midst of 1991 now, Steve Austin just showed up, and Flair is leaving soon. "We want Flair!" incoming...