El-P

Well, I must say also I'm glad I'm gonna switch to my TV to French announcing (although not really *live*, as always)...

No.

So it's the first time I've watched a WWE show since, well *that first show over there* (I barely watched Evolution, really). Watching the pre-show matches, fuck me if I forgot about the brain damaging camera work. Kill me already. The setup looks great though. The absence of ramp gives a cool old-school feel to it. Reminds me of the first Mania I ever saw, which was 8. Nak in the pre-show. Well, that's the story of his year. Rusev & Lana in the pre-show, because you know Shane O Mac gotta have a spot in the main show. It's been a long day, there's no way I'm staying awake 'til 5 am. I'd like to see one Rumble before going to bed...

Kushida is ending his NJPW contract on January 31 I believe.

You actually got a laugh out of me.

Amazing how Gargano/Ciampa last year was like "OMG it's the greatest thing EVER in pro-wrestling" to "fuck this... boring...". I guess NXT ain't the shit anymore at all. I remember loving Bianca Bel Air from the tournament two years ago. I would guess she only got better. When does she sign with AEW already ?

Yeah, that struck me too when I was doing the WCW Highway to Hell. There was this idea at one time that the Morrus push had been long overdue and that he was finally getting a shot and that his stuff was some of the only good in-ring work of WCW at the time. And really.... No. Storm was having good matches with everyone. A way past his prime, banged up Douglas was making chicken salad out of chicken shit most of the time. And yet Demott could not have a good match with either of the two. He sucked as a promo. It's a clear case of "This guy was underrated" when infact he wasn't. At his best, Morrus was a decent big guy with a moonsault. Good use of him as a JTTS and doing tag matches in the undercard. As far as training goes, no fucking clue why.

One thing is for sure, they have no Wellness Policy in Hollywood. Dwayne is 46...

That's pretty sad. It's also pretty ironic. #empowerment, ya know… And really, the FOX deal ? Good thing is, the Saudis probably don't care too much that she won't be available for their next Greatest Whatever show, so there's that.

Well, Rush came out like a star again. I don't know what's not to get about him. The guy clearly has It. Maybe the match against lanky Roh guy #6372 (yeah, I'm being mean, but neither the name nor the look nor the work, apart the damn spinebuster, registered with me) was a bit too competitive, but since I have no idea of the rankings of the promotion… I did enjoy Silas Young vs Beer City Bruiser a whole lot though. Silas has a great 80's look without pushing the revivalist card it seems. And I always like a fat guy who can work. And garbage spots when done right. That indierrific guy landing straight on his head on a poorly caught dive was something else… Of course he didn't sell it because it wasn't supposed to happen...

ECW 1999 then, when it became tired, past its prime and cliché already, with the occasional really good match. But yeah, the trainwrecky, not boring aspect of it reeks of the 90's. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker. All stables and no good match make Konnan a dull booker.

I actually kind cracked up when he took off his mask, because he looks exactly like you said. WTF ? I guess he wants to look younger or something. Did Blue Demon call him a mediocre luchador ? The irony... I don't mind a AAA show once in a while. It's always such a hot mess... Intergender matches. Clowns masks galore. Garbage matches. Two La Parkas. Plus a La Parka Negra. Shitty looks and... Dave the Clown ? Really ? And bad announcing (yeah, you can feel it despite not speaking spanish), camera missing spots... I wonder how that company managed to be that bad with so much consistency for so long... Well, the first two trios matches I enjoyed. From there it was not very good at all (though never boring, except the awful four way) until the main event. Which wasn't good either, but had a train wreck appeal to it. Also, El Hijo de la Parka sounds like a kid (which he is, but it kinda kills the gimmick). One thing, neither CMLL nor AAA give a fuck about copyrights I guess. There's no way they have the rights to all those classic songs. (Oh, and fuck the Shield for making bulletproof vests fashionable. I hate it. I hated it when Bossman came back in 99 with that look. It's not only a bad look, but it makes the body shots look stupid. Callihan at least does the deal where his opponent open it to chop him, but still...)

Thank you !

Can anyone point me to the TV episode where Rush has made his debut ?

Yeah, it's a new year, so whatever, let's try this *again*. I'm gonna do the way to Mania (big PPV only, who am I kidding), if only because I'm interested in watching the big women's matches (and that's pretty much it, honestly). Then in the Spring they'll do another Saudi bullshit show and I'm gonna get disgusted again and drop this shit down the drain again probably... Oh, I'm not paying for it anyway. Gonna kill time until AEW becomes a thing.

Yeah, Abyss leaving iMPACT, ever, is really unexpected. Surprise Rumble spot anyone ?

That would be hilarious.

I too have decided to get into lucha seriously just these days (I have watched a bunch before, and the anniversary shows of these mast few years, but never really followed it). My method ? I go the the CMLL youtube channel and I watch the shows beginning with this year. Not all shows, just the Arena Mexico stuff (I have no interest in watching isolated matches anymore). Works wonders for me thus far. I've enjoyed Fantastica Mania a whole lot more than usual because of this too. PS : and really, lucha is not hard to get. Like someone wise once said "They don't do anything that the 80 years old grandmother at ringside can't understand". The whole "lucha is so sophisticated" is bullshit from the lucha snobs. The whole "lucha is too hard to get" is a cop out from the lucha haters.

First night of Fantastica Mania at Korakuen was just a smooth two hours of fun pro-wrestling capped off by two terrific matches, Cavernario vs Soberano Jr. and the Family Tag Team Tournament Final (cool idea), Mistico & Dragon Lee vs La Sangre Dinamita (Sanson & Cuatrero). Gotta love the horns at the Korakuen Hall too. (on a side note, damn, Mima Shimoda on my screen in 2019. She's 48 and looks awesome btw. Is she still living and working in Mexico ?)

I finally listened to it, and yes, it was quite enjoyable. The story of Bischoff in a van with the interview set-up driving down to Memphis with his family was pretty cool.

That lucha talk didn't exactly catch up... I was about to watch NJPW's Fantastica Mania cards from Korakuen, then realized I didn't know jackshit about the CMLL guys. And since CMLL shows are on Youtube now, wy the hell not watch them to get a bit more familiar. From the 01/07 show, I enjoyed Fenix & Penta & Dragon Lee vs Templario & Cuatrero & Forastero quite a bit. Fun to see the Lucha Bros in a straight lucha libre format (you know the drill, that odd pacing, three falls worked in formulaic ways... damn, it's like I'm trolling the trve lvcha fans out there). Templario impressed me. Cuatrero, not as much. I'd call this very good, and the post-match angle was promising. I'm all for a Penta vs Dragon Lee match. The main event was odd, to me. Great looking work between Caristico (the guy WWE never managed to get over because he had a "big head" and "didn't know how to work" and "didn't speak English"...) and Ultimo Guerrero, but after a quick first fall, it ended up from nowhere with a foul. What ? Ten minutes or less of superb looking work, but as a main event, it was kinda puzzling... Then again, I'm not familiar with the lucha ways...

Do they even make (or need to) any money from the Network at this point ?

What strikes me about him his the way he carries himself during the match. I've seen exactly two or three matches with him, and he comes off like a star and someone I should care about. FWIW, Meltz mentioned on WOR that ROH was probably not the best choice for him to showcase his ability because he wasn't about the big moves and crazy action, he was more about character. Yeah, Callihan vs Park could be really good if they go into crazy brawl mode and if Park shows up to work as opposed to cruise forever and do a thousand obscene gestures...

Not really. Some of the early ones are really good. Some of the 90's are really good. Some of the 00's are simply god-awful. Like everything, overscripted Rumble delivered some good stuff but also a bunch of terrible ones. Two years ago I re-wachted every one of them and wanted to do "analytic" reviews, but I was too lazy. Still, You can see the way the Rumble got totally overscripted at one point. Some year it worked (last year's women's Rumble was the case). Most year it sucked. Lot of the 00's are much more of a black hole than the 90's in term of star power too, which is pretty stricking. At least in the 90's you had the odd participations, like Dory Funk or Carlos Colon showing up for no reasons. Damn, I should have taken some notes two years ago… One thing that became prevalent is that no one knows how to work the ropes, so no one does and people just mostly stand there and do regular spots and kick/punch instead of the tricky rope work guys like Martel, DiBiase, Terry Funk, Hennig, Owen did. The old-school guys knew how to do rope work. By the early 00's, pretty much no one did anymore.

The Rush vs Strickland was clearly the highlight of this week's episode (well, Rush is already gone, sadly), which was pretty non-descript apart from this. The February 2 card looks interesting though. MLW will really have to secure some key guys, because stuff like El Gringo Loco vs Ricky Martinez ain't gonna do the trick...