El-P

Prostituting himself ? What ? The Mero household made shitload of money being on the road and working *together*, and probably having a blast doing so. I don't see how he embarrassed himself, it was just business. I hated Sable as much as the next guy, but the Marvelous Marc interactions were actually fun.

Generic BA argument: "YOU are arguing that YOU are absolutely right and that everyone else is ABSOLUTELY WRONG. YOU are presenting your OPINIONS as FACTS." Oh, great, now when I'll hear him on the podcasts, I think I'll actually hear the CAPS.

See, I always have a problem with this talking point, no offense. Who's to say HHH and Chyna's tears were a put on? How could anyone know that? It's just a projection of HHH hate onto a real life situation. And as far as Austin goes, it's as simple as " They had him do a toast to Owen" to end the show, and having him do an interview like everyone else was probably something he wasn't comfortable with. It's known the guy isn't comfortable with death, as evidenced by how he didn't go to Pillman's funeral, despite them being great friends. I seriously doubt Austin was thinking, "Sorry he's dead, but he broke my neck so fuck him." And no one there was thinking anything about fucking Chono btw. HHH & Chyna spent the previous year fucking Owen's push, didn't want to put him over, and all of a sudden Owen was a great friend ? Come on. Plus HHH is a terrible actor, and quite frankly, his little spiel looked fake as hell. I'm sure he was sad about it, who wouldn't be. But his segment was uncomfortable to watch because it looked forced. And remember, it's not like there was a vast anti-HHH sentiment back then, so I'm not projecting my current disdain for the guy. I think there was a few other segments which looked forced (maybe Bradshaw? I'm not sure EDIT : actually no, Bradshaw just didn't sound emotional, like a few other, which made HHH's tribute even more forced). It was not very hard to see the ones who were genuinely devastated by their loss like Jeff Jarrett, Debra, Mark Henry, Foley (which BTW was uncomfortable too), and a few others that really didn't want to be in front of the camera or just had nothing to say in particular. I think Stephy looked damn shocked too actually. I'm aware Austin doesn't deal well with death, but it was also very well known that he never ever forgave Owen (which I found a bit hypocritical, which is why I mentionned Chono; accident occurs, Droz got paralysed and never resented D-Lo as far as I know) and really looked like he didnt want to do that at all. It was not coming from the heart, it was the WWF sending Austin doing his post match gimmick in a fake hommage to a guy who just died the previous day. There was no *need* for that. If some people didn't want to be in front of the camera they shouldn't be forced to, a guy is dead, it's understandable not everybody wants to talk about it nor is able to. This looked like show-business as usual. And since you're talking about Pillman, interviewing Melanie Pillman live on Raw the next day was godawful.

Like I said, I thought he came out of his shoot interview quite down to earth, honest (about his own ability and why people would hate him) and not bitter in the least. I think it was him who told the story about hanging out with the *wrong* guys at some point, namely Van Hammer, Eric Watts & Marcus Bagwell, and Arn made some joke about it.

What do you mean ? Meaning Sable was a bigger star than him, and typically, midcarders who date hot females get big heat in WWE. I thought that's what you meant, but wasn't sure. Well, it's different though, they were married before they even got there. I guess it doesn't change a thing to the "boys". On the same interview, Mero said he didn't care that Rena became that huge star while he was lost in mid-card, because all the money was going into the same household. It's funny that Mero basically remains one of the last guy who actually stood by the stipulation of his match. He lost, he never worked in WWF again. But yeah, you're right, he's basically a black sheep to the "boys".

Well, not everybody loved them. I used to argue to death with some guy who died then reviewed Korean movies that these matches were not that good, that Maekawa sucked and that Momoe, as good as she was, was overrated by pretty much everybody because she was the only one left. I have a dreadful memory of a Hotta cage match that went one hour. One hour of Yumiko Hotta in 2001, the horror. AJW had a few good stuff on the big shows, but it was mostly thanks to veterans freelancers coming back.

What do you mean ?

If there's a 1994 Yearbook done, the Terry Funk factor should be fascinating.

Oups. Sorry...

Surprised no one mentionned Stan Hansen showing up along Brody & Snuka for the final of the RTL in, whatever year that was.

Edge is a terrible wrestler at pretty much every level, he's was useful to fall from high places and make jokes early in his career. It's mind-blowing that no one ever told him that using that spear wasn't a good idea. Looks fake as shit, even Tenry's enzuigiri look better (I'm thinking about a move that has been used forever and accepted despite looking bad).

Yes. This. But I guess it's ok because "Eddie would have wanted it" bullshit. HHH and Chyna crocodile tears about Owen Hart. Austin not saying one word because he never forgave Owen (depsite himself breaking Chono's neck) and then opening a Steveweiser at the end of the show. So fake and shameless all of this. And I guess, airing the Benoit tribute show despite knowing...

In every shoot interview I heard, everyone is talking about how bad Mero was. I'm watching the matches, and I don't see that. Sure, he pre-planned everything, but everybody is doing it these days. Mero had too many good matches to be as bad as people say he is. I guess tons of workers were jealous of him : getting a big contract up front while never "paying any dues"; being married to a ridiculously hot wife. That said, Mero in his own shoot interview is the first to admit that at first he was rotten and gives plenty of credit to everyone he ever worked with, he also admit getting a big head at one time, and comes off as a really likeable guy overall. I guess Mero fits the bill if you consider the terrible reputation he gets.

Really? Interesting. So you're not likely to youtube a match that you might have seen people discussing, because it's a one-off? Nope, I never do that. Well, if we're talking about a particular year, like they do with the 1996 yearbook, it's different but it would also works for me I guess, because it covers the spectrum of what was happening at the same time in different promotions and style. But yeah, I'm not watching isolated matches anymore. I was doing it in the mid-90's when it wasn't so easy to download tons of stuff, especially to catch up with WWE stuff I had missed in the 00' and also some big japanese matches, but I grew tired of it, it wasn't satisfying to me. I think I actually stopped watching wrestling for a while.

I agree. It's a much better way to enjoy a style/wrestler/company. I don't watch one-off matches anymore, not that I was ever big on this to begin with. Well, coming from you, that's a pretty big shift. I first hated Choshu when I got into puroresu, then watching NJ TV from 89 to 91 quickly made me a big fan. Most recent negative shift from me is probably Lance Storm. I want to like the guy, but when he's having the lesser match of every guy he works with, well...

JD in the days before it got taken over by the wave of pretty idol girls always got over shadowed by there just being way way too much other stuff out thear. I'll get in the mood now & then for something diffrent and buy a show of theirs and most of the time I really enjoy them but with so much AJW, JWP, GAEA & ARSION among others out thear that I still haven't seen it just always ends up taking a back seat. Yeah, Jd' was the great little promotion that could, but no one ever watched for the reasons you mention. It's too bad, there was a lot of good, different stuff there. It got ruined by the act?s?s concept. The most famous of which ended up doing porn videos. Hurrah Jd'.

The Rock, as I was watching stuff for SC Greatest Wrestler Ever poll. I never like The Rock during the Attitude Era. I thought he was a mediocre worker, I hated the product as he was really pushed to the top (1999). Rewatching shitloads of stuff, including a lot of post 2000 material I had never seen before (having stopped watching WWF in 99), I became a big fan, really opened my eyes.

That was awesomely stupid.

Sadly I wasn't able to get the Hardcore TV stuff, and the few episodes I've seen were much better than TNN. To begin with, no Gertner.

I knew John was gonna tell the infamous Terry Funk story. Wasn't TAKA working with Nakagawa ? Or was that Hayabusa vs Nakagawa that went like 30 minutes and was pretty terrible ?

This match used to be pimped hard back in the days. One of the hights of Lucha-goes-ECW.

I agree with Dylan that the Network angle was kinda like the continuation of the ECW vs WWF feud of 97/98. Which is another reason why it was abysmal and stupid. Really, when Credible got the belt, there was no one else at the time. I don't think he would have gotten it if Mike Awesome had stayed. I agree he was better in 97/98, but he also had better opponents back then. I only agree with Dylan about the greatness of Tajiri, and the suckiness of Storm. For the rest, I agree to disagree, but it's nothing new, we have pretty much polar opposite tastes most of the time. And yeah cm funk, I see what you mean, but I'm speaking from my own ECW viewing experience from last year and a half or so, which was pretty much watching everything from 1992 to 2001. I understand that to new fans, losing both the Duds and Taz at this exact moment was really bad timing. Oh, I forgot to mentionned I loved the Sinister Minister little promos with Mickey.

Kosugi was just a though girl, really hard working and though as nails. Really the second coming of Kudo in term of work if she had the time to build a career. Funny to talk about Yuko Kosugi in 2011. Fun though. I loved ARSION to death and bought every new tapes back in the days. Yumi Fukawa getting severely injured really depressed me, and then Lioness coming in really ruined it for me. But the two first years were probably the most fun I ever had watching wrestling. One day maybe I'll get back into what was my favourite wrestling in the world !

Alfonzo was the only fun part of his act actually at this point. It's just that RVD is not a very good wrestler, period.

Well, this explains that. I was an ARSION überfan at the time. Mariko Yoshida, Aja, Yumi Fukawa, early Ohmukai, Mikiku Futagami (yeah, not GAMI), AKINO, Ayako, Ai Fujita, Candy Okutsu comeback, the Apache sisters etc etc... That's it ! Thanks ! I loved Yabushita. Good to know ! I remember her moving to the US actually. Come on FLIK ! Yuko Kosugi ! Miss Megumi Kudo redux. Hot and hardcore. Could take a beating like nobody's business. She quit the business in the early 2000's I think. She was damn good.