El-P

Kane was at best, a very mediocre worker. And most of the time, he was just plain bad and boring. Worst top rope clothesline ever, he was almost on his knees when he touched the opponent, usually with his fist or wrist. His execution was the shit. I still remember this hilarious godawful double big boot spot with then newcomer Big Show in 1999. When they threw in Kane in the middle of Taker & Austin (which was reaching overkill anyway), this is when the honeymoon ended to me, with all these awful, dull, boring matches. Easily one of my least favourite workers of all time. The only emotion he ever conveyed to me was looking constipated. With and without the mask.

Sure. Which is also fitting because whenever Kane appeared on my screen, it was a "night off" for me too as far as watching, as I pretty much always took that time to go to the bathroom and take a shit (I had the decency of not doing it in public in the middle of the ring).

"Ayn Rand rulz lol I listen to Rush I so intellectual..." Or something like that. Too bad Glen Jacobs never read the book on not being a fucking bore as a pro-wrestler for 25 years straight. Val Venis also had the same reputation of being "deep". Last I heard of him was when he made really transphobic tweets about Nyla Rose last year...

You know what. I'm absolutely unable to think about what it actually is. That's telling, because I'm not that hardly hooked by pro-wrestling themes. Fuck, with his gimmick, he should have gotten some epic video game style music. Mox is ok and fitting, but not very memorable to me. I love Hangman's theme, but I believe like MJF he was already using it on the indies, I do think I remember hearing it when he was in NJPW, but maybe I'm mistaken. Ditto the Young Bucks. Agree, this one is a great theme, totally fits the character, super easily recognizable, has a great feel to it. And I like how after he wins a match it starts straight with the chorus.

The Fingerpoke of Doom did not pop the business. Flair as a babyface against Hogan did. The Fingerpoke can't be underestimated as a symbolic moment of the company signing its own death warrant (the killing of Goldy, who had been their only hope in 98 while the creative was already going awry, basically for nothing, with the belt going straight back on Hogan like the last two years had not happened), especially since it was the same show when Schiavone uttered the infamous words about Mick Foley.

The theme song of Dynamite sucks, I've gotta say that. It reeks of the late 90's too. Fuck, we're in 2020 (well, that was a typo but I still feel like we're stuck in 2020 forever). And I mean, ACDC, that stuff is old, people. The mainstream pop today is hip-hop. And I'm not talking about Snoop Dog, him wearing that shirt was a great reminder that this guy has basically been a one-hit-wonder, honestly, and Doggystyle is from 1993 ! The year RAW debuted. I don't really follow the mainstream music scene because it's not my taste, but fuck, get Charli XCX on that show or something. Or Dua Lipa. Or Doja Cat. Get some hot female pop star of *today* on the stage for a big show.

I agree that a lot, if not most of AEW themes aren't very interesting. The non-metal ones are clearly the best, like Jurrassik Express, Nyla Rose, Shida, MJF (it was his theme from MLW, so I guess the indies). Darby's is excellent, so is Omega's, I really like Dark Order's and Team Taz's too. But overall, too many generic stuff. The Lucha Bros theme always struck me as kinda lame actually for such big time characters. I mean, "Lucha Bros, Mexicans !" Fuck, really ? The music director of the company was on BTE last week presenting a video clip stared by Matt Hardy, and it was really some run of the mill, dated mid 90's metal stuff, so I guess it's not surprising. Also, the live band doing Cody's theme on that PPV was god awful. Really terrible to the point it made you long for this goofy RATM-copycat WWF used in the Attitude era... Actually, it's another instance of IMPACT doing better with less. Some of the themes I really don't care for like Eddie Edwards (totally sounds like 00's WWE) but they have plenty of good little themes (the North's dubspetish one is excellent, I love Rosemary's, Su Yung's is obviously awesome and the creepy one they did for Susie was terrific too).

Hey, he had his masterpiece, but what gigantic waste of talent and time it would be.

Snoop Dogg looks like a grandpa. His frog splash was hilariously bad, yet it was fun as hell. Sasha Banks tweeting about it only made it better (talk about Sasha not giving two flying fucks anymore, she has to be in that S3 of the Mandalorian). This has filled with with joy, and the match got really good after somewhat of a shaky start. On the other hand... sorry, but Abadon vs Shida wasn't good at all, despite Shida's best efforts. And I've seen too much Su Yung & Rosemary to be impressed or even intrigued by Abadon's character, who really does comes off like a girl doing a zombi cosplay. Fenix vs Omega, holy shit, good luck fellows to follow that up on TV all year long. This is basically the sixth MOTYC in four days to me. It's like Omega watched Wrestle Kingdom and went : hold my milk. And this was the Fenix who totally overshadowed Ricochet (as Prince Puma) in Lucha Underground as the babyface ace, and despite the ending, the match really was designed by Omega to feature Fenix, who looked godlike in this. The final angle was just all kind of awesome and it's pretty fascinating to see how things work out, as the Good Brothers were supposed to be part of AEW's debut but resigned to WWE instead. Then they get cut out because WWE can't support its workers during the COVID pandemic, ya know, they end up in IMPACT and people be like "lol" and all. And now they *still* show up in AEW in the middle of arguably the biggest angle they ever did on TV. Amazing. (yeah, we soooooo need Omega vs Ibushi next year at Wrestle Kingdom...)

Indeed it's awesome. Pro-wrestling needs more of this. One thing that was so cool about ECW was the fact it was true songs (I have no idea how can anyone enjoy the butchered versions on the WWE Network, you can find the original broadcasts...). Great original theme of course works wonder, but it's nice to have a few legit pop-culture standards as pro-wrestling themes.

Yeah, Fascist Berzerker was awesome. Living the gimmick. Cool Valknut tattoo too (hey, it's a viking tattoo, nothing to do with extreme-right at all "wink wink nudge nudge")...

Camp Auschwitz Guy was a nice touch though. That's a true heel. I wonder if the Harris Bros were somewhere in the scenery.

Has Linda Tweeted something stupid already BTW ? I mean, she has said they had won the election before...

So, Trump books a better Invasion angle than Vince apparently... That's counter-programming at its best.

Dustin has credited Russo for many things about Goldust, including the vignettes. Russo was already working in creatives at the times, he was just not writing TV yet. The "best" TV Russo ever produced was TNA when Dutch Mantell was still around sharing booking/writing duties. Much better than the Attitude Era which is mostly unwatchable today and much better than WCW 2000 (and late 99) because, well, everything is. As soon as Corny and Mantell get fired, the product goes into the toilet again.

Yeah, Russo is more of a broken clock. I give him credit for the Goldust vignettes (which I loved) and that's it. And before anyone says anything, I dare you to watch every WCW Russo TV shows & PPV and every TNA Russo TV shows and PPV.

Defending Vince Russo in 2021. The dumbest dumb fuck ever. So yeah, this thread is also 23 years behind the times.

Angle. He would own AEW. But he's got the NJPW Lifer profile (he's a dojo product) and why not, he's assured to be a huge star for years to come. He's just beginning (although that match was stuff of legend, really). Winner of G1 Climax this year maybe.

Well, I just have to eat my words about night 2 and I'm glad. Shingo vs Cobb was simply awesome and I would probably have it higher than Ibushi Naito from yesterday. Best Cobb match and performance ever. I hope Shingo is not gonna be the next Ishii aka the best worker ever who never gets to the main event level. He was godlike in this. Well, he was his usual self. And then SANADA and EVIL actually have a really, really good match, with ton of cool psychology of them knowing the other like the palm of their hands, the best use of Togo yet (taking about him being countered on his senton, not his goofy-ass bump on the table which would be a laughing stock if a WWE green woman would have done it), a really excellent ending stretch to a perfect finish. As I was watching Hiromu vs Ishimori, I was thinking how Hiromu was having the best performance of the week-end. If only I knew... Yeah, great match, although to me they may have gone 2 or 3 minutes two long, I felt some of the stuff at the end became a bit redondant. Maybe that's me getting tired, I dunno. That part where Ishimori was blasting Hiromu with elbows was insane. However, I did not get tired during the incredibly long yet always compelling Jay White vs Ibushi. First, Jay White... That guy, people, is a pro-wrestling genius. He's just SO GREAT at what he does, and no one does what he does. I never ever get bored during a Jay White long-ass match. And then, fucking Ibushi, whom I'm not the biggest fan of, but still, there's just no way of denying the jaw-dropping back to back performances. This is legendary, really. So, I don't know which match I think was better, this or Okada vs Ospreay, but this demands a bunch of rewatching to truly enjoy everything. But at no point I thought this was going too long or this was getting redondant or not compelling. The post-match really had this very unique, special aura of truth that few moments in pro-wrestling have. Glad SANADA is gonna be the first one challenging, after his impressive outing today. Job well done Gedo. Ya did it again, despite a mostly underwhelming 2020. Here's me getting hyped again. (of course, the wet dream is Ibushi vs Omega next year, but let's not get crazy and enjoy the moment)

So that's where WWE is in the 2020's : a 54 years old guy from WCW, a company that died 20 years ago, is the best thing they can come up with for Mania season. I have no idea how people even rationalize this. Also, no wonder younger guys aren't sure to re-sign. The writing is on the wall.

Wow. So, the answer is Goldberg. Shouldn't surprise anyone, really. There's a sense of irony that the desperate booking of WWE in 2021 is bringing back the only guy WCW managed to get over during the Monday Night Wars. Like, they have reached WCW 99 level of ineptness and they are reaching for the last of the WCW guys.

Actually, #SpeakingOut was kicked off with accusations of rape against David Starr.

No kid watches RAW, people. Only people who actually have watched Tatanka in real time watch RAW nowadays. Well, I did and I don't, but...

Gross has nothing to do with legal or not, it's a private matter. Yes. He says it wasn't. She says it is. That's about it as far as we know. If it was rape, he should be sent to justice and condemned for his crime. If it wasn't, it's nobody's business. Also, there's no way in hell Scurll ends up in AEW with this accusation on his head.

Because evidence are always extremely difficult in rape cases, because most of the time it's just the word of the victim vs the word of the accusee. Which is why most rape case don't go nowhere, which is why most victim don't even bother go to justice (not to mention the victim shaming that goes along). The Speaking Out movement was sad but necessary. Sure, some cases probably were just rumors and evil people trying to manipulate others. But most cases probably were true, because that's the reality of things, sadly. Which is why it was long overdue, and hopefully it doesn't stop there in term of raising awareness of everyone on the topic and will encourage victims to speak up.