El-P

I'd love Shane to go against his father and sister. Of course it would never happen. Still, good for him, he always seemed the saner of the bunch, by far, and at times he was entertaining as a chickenshit heel. Would have been a very good bumping manager in the 80's. If Shane goes into the MMA business, wouldn't that be kinda go against the family business ?

Yep, that's what Corny talked about. But still, we're talking about using known talent who represent their promotion. Steve Corino, Sandman, Raven, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Justin Credible were available.

And from ECW he picked RVD (which is obvious), Balls Mahoney (yeah, why not, and he knows him from SMW), Jerry Lynn (obvious) and .... Nova. Yep. Nova. Love you Corny but... He's spot on on HHH though. "The guy who works with the guy who draws money". And he'd rather "Watch a dog lick his balls" rather than hear a HHH promo. Great stuff. Well, watched the whole stuff, it's pretty obvious that Corny did in in a non serious way, to entertain himself, so all of this is understandable. The concept of filming someone doing fantasy booking is pretty stupid in itself anyway.

I've not watched the whole thing yet, but I echo the general feeling which is the rants and stories are great, but the fantasy booking isn't. Like it's been said, Cornette hates Hogan, Nash and Hall, so he doens't do shit with them. But for the Invasion angle, it sucks. I like what he does before going to the core of the programm, but seriously, it's not really good. I think it's better than what happened (really, what wouldn't be), but it's not even *good* either. Ah, still love Cornette telling stories though, but this should cool off teh notion that he's this great mind that would save TNA if he was allowed to book it from top to bottom. Cornette is a great storyteller and a passionnate historian of US wrestling. I wouldn't go beyond that point.

It's not like Inoki did many jobs either. When you've got an ace to build your company around that people will pay to see him win all the time, it's really not that complicated to book. It's complicated if the only question you ask yourself is "How to end the streak", but it's not the right question. The question is "How to milk the streak as long and strongly as possible." Goldberg could have been kep undefeated (or at least form a clean pin) for a long long time before it got old with WCW fans. The issue is how to keep people over, and if never losing works, what the hell, let the guy win.

How old is the bride, the question is. I'd love to have Flair being engaged to Hulk's daughter....

That's the closest I've found to a genuine explanation. I tried to sit down and think of other forms of entertainment in which half the show's goals involve deliberately pissing off the paying customers, and really there aren't many besides purorasslin. France national soccer team matches.

It's pretty much the same thing indeed. Then again, maybe the stripper/wrestler comparison will bother some people. Remember how the infamous Flair thread ended up after some pron comparison were made. But anyway, yeah, it's pretty much the exact same thing : simulated violence, simulated sex, making their audience pay to get their fix, but don't lay a finger on the product.

To be the man, you've got to... well, buy the belt, because I'm broke.

Yeah, he always was ugly, but the aging face and super long hair just don't work anymore... He looks freaky.

It's been working fine with me. It is me of Taker just looks really odd and ugly in that picture ?

Wasn't Vader in that video too at 2:19 ?

I wonder if there was never some kind of bizarre interpromotionnal match happening in Japan too at some point... I could be wrong. At the time of the first Pillman Memorial show, was Regal still employed by WWF, or was he in WCW ?

Now that's a random observation. I guess nobody really cared about this show, which was basically considered as an indy show with names that came form Calgary. What was the main event already ? Rad Radford was a JTTS and Benoit wasn't really established at that point, was he ? Was Nitro on the air yet ?

How the mighty have fallen... the NWA belt on eBay. Which belt is that ? The one he kept after leaving for New York in 91 ?

No way ? Oh man, that's pure gold.

Yeah, I always enjoyed Rude, but I got to really appreciate his work during the GWE poll. Really became a fan of his work at this point.

About Hase "His ability as a real shooter...". BONG. About Edge vs Rude, does the fact that Edge is a rather shitty worker, mediocre at best, count ?

It's pretty much the nature of the business for Bret to return. But he should only be use in an extraordinary, one or two deal shot, for Wrestlemania or SummerSlam as a legendary figure. I don't see Bret being any good at managing (especially in this day and age), announcing or any other regular TV role.

Man... What an all star cast.... If at least you got the Sheepherders vs the Nasties instead, that would have been worthwhile, but as it is...

A WWE fan at heart. Great resumé to get a vote in the Hof....

Oh shit. That's embarrassing...

I see your point about the company being a pro-wrestling outfit. The difference is, as soon as the fights aren't worked, then it becomes a sport, and it's not pro-wrestling anymore. That's where I, personnaly, draw the line. HUSTLE isn't much different from later days FMW in spirit and execution, with pro-wrestling matches going around all the entertainment bullshit. PRIDE was closer to K1 or UFC than to any pro-wrestling promotion.

This explains your contemp for Takada who, from all acounts, couldn't shoot worth a damn. No idea if Fujiwara would have been worth anything in a real setting. I know the though guy shooter reputation of a guy like Regal for instance, is pretty much bullshit. Why ? Aren't they pro-wrestlers ?

All our debate goes down to this actually. Once you've said you consider PRIDE as pro-wrestling (which I already knew), it sums up pretty much everything there's to say on your part. PRIDE did promote some worked matches which were pro-wrestling matches, but that doesn't make the company pro-wrestling. Like some pro-wrestling promotion did promote some legit shoot matches (like the kickboxing stuff in early ARSION cards) but it didn't made them legit fight promotion.