El-P

I'm regularly listening to the little podcast thingy Cornette does, and he doesn't strike me as bitter at all. He just doesn't care about the current product put out by WWE and TNA. I can echo the sentiment, I find both unwatchable. Cornette does tell a lot of good things about individuals he worked with over the months, but of course him ranting about how current wrestling sucks is what people want to hear, and he's often hilarious doing it. Cornette puts over the Roh product (well, he's working there, but he wasn't exactly saying tons of good things about TNA when he was there). Really, Corny seems to be enjoying life right now. Not enjoying current wrestling, but I don't see this as being bitter. He's not Ole. Al Snow comes off like a douche who thinks way too much of himself though.

Already heard it, but Cornette telling some useless assholes to go fuck themselves never gets old with me.

Well, the disks covering Flair post 93 would quickly end up being a torture, especially after you get past 97.

Yeah, but does disk 87 include Paul Roma ?

37 disk ? That's insane ! Of course if one wrestler deserves a 37 disk anthology, Terry would be that wrestler.

Richter in the HoF and Bret at WM. It's the big year of people that got screwed by Vince coming back to the WWE...

What a bunch of insecure assholes. They've got a monopoly, but that's still not enough, people who bust their ass for your company aren't allowed to keep their most famous name to continue to make a livong once you've got them used up.

Agreed. That's when you know you're thinking way too much about wrestling. Our asshole president Nicolas Sarkozy could be a great heel manager now that I think of it. But yet, it never crossed my mind. It's like people who talk about "heeling up" or "not selling" about other thing than wrestling. Wrestling fans are one of a kind breed sometimes...

Blondie pimping Georgia over WWF, I need to see this !

No way. The T-shirt shop at the corner of my street would do a better job...

What I've seen of recent puroresu doesn't seem bad at all, but I agree about the trading forearm bit, it drives me nuts. Might as well work a headlock, at least you get more out of it. WWE has become unwatchable to me though, no matter how hard I try. I didn't even bother with the Rumble this year, and I didn't even watched Bret come back (which says a lot since I was a huge Bret fan). I guess I'll watch Mania, just like every year, and be bored, just like every year save for one of two things (last year was, unsurprisingly, Shawn vs Taker although I thought it was very overrated as usual). I've been a fan for 20 years. Seems like a long time, but at the same time I got to the point I don't think I'll ever lose total interest in it. I'm probably a lifer.

Interesting to read that I'm not the only one who actually got to the point of reading about the business and hearing interviews has become more interesting most of the time than watching matches. 10 years ago, I would have totally burned my time watching everything that is available these days.

I don't. I have tons of stuff on a hard drive to watch. I gave up on watching anything current (although it's not hard as far as US stuff goes, my attempt at watching WWE or TNA the last 3 years have failed miserably). Watching old FMW stuff these days.

I dunno. Money isn't everything, and I don't think Foley is desperate for money to the point of having to endure Vince. At his point of his career, he doesn't need WWE to make money, so if having to put up with Vince's shit is too annoying, then I totally understand why he would quit. I'd rather get less money but get less stress too. I don't think his job in TNA is very demanding at this point. I guess Foley saved his money too. Foley was insane in the ring, but I do think he's got his feet on the ground as far as money goes. I don't see him ending up like Flair, owing money to Roh and Highspots...

I agree Foley was lucky that JR and Cornette were fan of his. Onita didn't "prostitute his legacy" for peanuts, he got big money from NJ in late 90's early 00's. Then he promoted his Onita Pro shows, and if that wasn't that big of a deal, and if Onita sure did it to get a personal rush, it's not like Onita really busted his balls during those hardcore matches. If you've you've seem some of them, it's pretty tame. Then of course, "prostituting your legacy" doesn't mean shit, it's wrestling, you all know people retire then comeback then do goofy shit. I don't get how Tommy Dreamer retiring from a secure office job he could have stayed in for life is smarter than Onita, who made shitloads of money. Onita didn't exactly worked that much during the last decade. Of course their all addicted to the rush of the crowds, they're pro-wrestlers, it's no different than the rest of them on that matter. But the thing is, at least clearly for Onita, he did garbage matches to draw shitloads of money and make himself rich. I don't see how you can even argue than Tommy Dreamer who was a mark for his little no-money promotion and would get thrown off balcony before 1000 people, then quit an office job just because the name on the marquee said ECW again, is smarter than Onita who draw 50.000 people to his first retirement match, got a deal to work in New Japan Dome shows thanks to his garbage matches gimmick and personna, and smarter than Foley who only came back working the E for big WM payday, and I'm pretty sure he gets a lot more money than Dreamer to do what he does in TNA, which is mostly comedy backstage work.

Onita wrecked his knee by blowing a plancha in AJ, it has really nothing to do with anything. He was a junior. Junior do flying spots, it was no crazy shit. After he came back to wrestling, Onita developped the garbage matches because it was a way for him to make money and become a cult star. Hell, he even got a chair at the Diet as the result of his stardom. Onita was no fool. He was all about making money, he would get thrown into exploding wires to draw 30.000 people at Kawasaki stadium and get most of the money. Which is a lot different than Dreamer getting his balls busted for bounced checks from Pauly. Foley, less so at the beginning, since he did take insane bump for not much reasons in TWA and the indy circuit like you said. That was a way to get noticed in the big leagues, and it did work. Taking insane bumps did make him a star in WWF though (well, when you add the charisma and promos). Yes, that's probably it for Dreamer and people like him. It's totally ridiculous.

How ridiculous was that ? Couldn't they *work* the cane shot so it only looked like he busted his balls ? I wonder if Lawler was blatantly unprofessionnal or if Dreamer was just a hopeless mark. What I really don't get with all this bullshit is why they would kill themselves. Onita did it for tons of money and legit stardom. Ditto Foley. What was Dreamer's point of getting his balls busted ?

Well, that would make sense, and it's awesome just picturing those two with tears in their eyes listening to Tori freaking Amos ! How I wish Payne's "movie" could have been released...

And ? Anyway, this just made my day : I also remember that before some big match (maybe it was the IWA final match or something), Foley actually listened to a Tori Amos song. Now, I've been a big Foley fan, and I love Amos so this unlikely picture is just so right and so bizarre at the same time to me.

Being way out of the loop as far as this decade goes, it's pretty hard for me to answer this... BEST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE: amazing availability of wrestling footage online. WORST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE: so many premature death, WWE monopoly in the US, forearm shots exchange in every puroresu match

Will they keep the "world" title though ?

Is Vader on bad term with Vince ? Really, Backlund could do it, it would make more sense...

One of the greatest of all time, without a doubt...

Shawn refusing to play heel because of his "religious beliefs" is so fucking ridiculous on so many levels.

Shawn certainly had his share of good matches in the last decade. But *great* matches, I just don't see them. Despite haven't watched most of the pimped ones. But then again, Michaels has always been wildly overrated in my eyes. Funny to think that he's riding on HHH wave though, when you think back at HHH being the Bruti of the Clique... Times fly.