El-P

The "TNA fires douchebag" headline was ridiculously great.

I haven't seen those particular Sano matches, but I have trouble believing they would rank right next to my beloved Tamura vs Volk Han & Khousaka matches. Then again, those are probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my 20 years watching wrestling, so I'm not claming objectivity either when it comes to the absolute best RINGS stuff. I miss shoot style wrestling. And John mentionning Kansai as the WWWA champ reminds me that I miss joshi puroresu too.

As much as I like Sano, and I like him a lot, he never was the absolute best at what he did like Tamura was. Although you could argue he was the best junior in the world in 89, before Liger got his stride. Tamura was just beauty in motion. Who knows how good he would have been at other styles if he had to make a transition, but the fact remains that he was the best shoot-style worker ever and delivered an amazing body of very good to great matches during his career.

Not sure what "we'll turn your country into a parking lot" has to do with Wilsonian democracy-spreading but w/e. Did he really say that ? I knew about Stephy's comment, but I don't remember about Bradshaw. Doesn't surprise me one bit though. I'm glad I wasn't watching WWF anymore at this point. I would have thrown bricks at my TV set...

And about Triple H being a douche, what about the obviously unsincere, forced "emotionnal" tribute to Owen ? Not to say he wasn't shaken by Owen's death, but he tried way too hard to look like he loved Owen so much.

The kneedrop of course... Well, he got it from Harley actually, likewise the facial hair at one point. From Flair ? Hum... Before he'll retire, he'll probably have a similar world title number under his belt, or even more, even though they don't mean anything really. I don't see either. Oh yeah, he loves to do long matches. Except he can't do them (if you expect the miraculous one hour match with Rock which was all about smokes and mirrors and Rock becoming really good at that point).

Oh, if only Steph had cheated on Triple H with Jericho or Angle, resulting in an ugly divorce... Oh, how things would have been different these past ten years...

Yep. Much like he did Scott Steiner, who could have refresh the product as Big Poppa Pump was an excellent heel character and a WCW one to boot, so the WWF crowd would have surely hated him. So of course Steiner has to work face because god knows you don't want Big Poppa Pump to get actual heel heat because no one should be a bigger heel that Triple H. And of course Steiner gets to work those long "classic" Triple H style matches so he's exposed as a guy who can't work WWF style main event. Well done sir.

Oh, that's right. I had totally erased that from my memory. Feuding with Chyna and.... Bob Holly at the Rumble while Triple H was getting over Cactus Jack in a bloody hardcore match for the WWF title.

HHH must have shited himself out of fear when Jericho came in. He wasn't fully established yet as a true star, and Jericho was coming with a huge buzz and awesome production behind him, arguing with the red hot Rock on TV. Wonder why just a few months later he was feuding with X-Pac... Seriously, Jericho had the potential to be a huge money maker and megastar for the WWF, maybe not on the Rock level, but well above HHH. If there was one guy to kill quickly, that was him.

That's a pretty big news. Although I never saw any talent in him whatsoever, he has been one of their top stars of the last few years. Rumours on him showing up in TNA 5... 4.... 3...

Norton's is just insane. The guy was just *there*. Stevie Ray's was insane too, but at least he had that B&W NWO angle that was... Well, ok, Stevie Ray's is totally insane too. And Master P's bodyguard getting more than Vampiro, Hak, Mike Awesome and almost as much as Bigelow. Jeeez....

You gotta be two to be involved in a relationship. So Mickie makes a "stupid call" but Cena who was cheatting on her long-time girlfriend to boot when he was banging Mickie doesn't make any "stupid call" I guess.

There's more to it than that. Dave Meltzer a few months ago teased that the impromptu move to Smackdown and the whole "Piggy James" ritual humiliation angle was to send her the message to get over John Cena, after they had a messy break up around the time Cena got married. Ugh... That's really the sensitive thing to do, humiliate the girl who got through a messy breakup. That's totally the way to deal with it, just call the girl a pig on national television. What a bunch of jerks...

Mickie James was "fat" by WWE standart. I guess that's why. The only talented woman on the roster too. Can you believe Funaki has been employed by Vince since 1998 ? Amazing. And they never did shit with him. Maybe the fact Michaels retired allowed him to get finally fired ?

When was the last time Finlay had the opportunity to wrestle a big dome match so we can at least compare the two ? Oh, yeah, that's right. Never. Not a knock on Michaels, and I don't think Finlay is nearly as great as he's pimped to be by some, but it's just not a very good point. I take Kensuke Sasaki's last decade of big matches over Michaels' in a heartbeat FWIW. Except for the Jericho match at WM 19, I don't think Michaels had one great match in the 00's. Certainly some very good ones, like the two Taker Mania matches, but *great*, nah. And I've seen the vaunted Cena, Angle etc... matches. I'd rather watch the mid to late 90's Michaels (93 to 97) or the Rockers babyface anyday rather than self-conscious epic match worker of the 00's.

Pretty sure he was just called "The King" to explain why such an old dude had a chance against Hogan and others..."King of Wrestling", in terms of him being a wrestling Grandmaster. If that makes sense. Actually no, Race won the KOTR tournament, beating Pedro Morales in the final. It was a non televised event in 1986.

Bischoff saying Cornette isn't and hasn't been relevant in ages is cute as hell when you see the product Easy E is putting on TV these days...

Any actual proofs that Vanes really did this ?

Yeah, that's absolutely ridiculous. Talking about HHH's insecurity. "Let's have daddy-in-law have me work with the 50 year old announcer with bell's palsy and have a match, you know, a worked match, so I can actually punch the guy in the eye without getting charged for assault nor having another guy kick my ass for it, because I'm a frustrated little bitch." They totally do that in entertainment companies like Vince believes he's running.

Triple H and Jeffrey were lucky. Well, one fucked his way to the top, the other one got it because he was friend with the booker then got his own company. Shane on the other hand, was perfect in his role. For the small ECW, Douglas brought the credibility of coming from WCW (moreso than WWF), he carried himself like the personna he was portraying, was excellent from 94 to 96 as a worker, before injuries piled up. Really, he did a great job in ECW, the Franchise character was right on the money (a wrestler who took pride in being a wrestler, but took himself too seriously and was also a slimeball and a cheater). Really, Shane with that gimmick could have been a strong upper mid-card guy in either WWF or WCW with the right push. Of course he wasn't motivated in WWF as the Dean. Who would be, that was so stupid, plus you had Shawn not wanting to to business and drop the belt, as always. And by the time he got back to WCW, he was way past his prime and was banged up. But at the right time he would have been perfect for IC / US title level. Much like Jarrett and Triple H when he was the greenwich snob (which is the only period I really like in HHH's career). They can work occasionnal main event, I guess even be surprise transitionnal champs, but they just don't have the *it* factor, at all.

It's clear when he's not acting and left to himself just how vacant he is. Consider the unfunny dick comments in the early days of DX. They showed a total lack of wit, which I imagine was genuine. There was the attempt to be funny in the commentary box once (Over The Edge '98?), when he inadvertently made it appear that he was acknowledging himself as bisexual. (I'm bi- a lot of things, but -lingual ain't one of them. Hey, did I just mean to say that?) I remember that very well. I also remember than when Shawn left, Triple H the leader of DX wasn't over by himself. Actually, The Outlaws were more over than he was at this point. What kills Triple H to me and make him so boring and painful to watch, is that he doesn't know his limitations at all. He isn't a great promo but love and can cut 20 minutes promos and TV. He isn't a great wrestler but he thinks he's Harley Race so he loves having those 20-30 minutes "epic", "classic" matches. It's unbearable to me. When you think of guys who never had *it* either but were good upper mid-card workers, Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett were a lot better than Triple H ever was on every level (even though Jarrett is not a very good promo either).

That is quite a moving hommage...

Because he's an insecure little bitch.

What about his brother. I really never bought him one second a as a main-eventer. I think his work pretty much sucks to begin with, and his character is... well, Matt Hardy on acid. I have no idea why he got bigger than his brother. He did fell from high places more often, that's the only thing I can see that put him over his brother.