El-P

The very first angle I saw on TV was the break-up between Nikolai & Boris. So I guess Nikolai was the first heel turned babyface that I liked. Over the years, you never heard anything creepy, bad or even negative about Nikolai as far as real life went. Probably tells a lot about him as a human being considering his generation.

Hanging himself in jail ? Wow, that's creepy. When did everything went that wrong for Brian ?

Agreed. The other bit that was fascinating was the conversation about how it didn't matter to debut the Invasion in Atlanta, but it made sense to debut it with Lance Storm because they were in Calgary that week. You could hear Conrad's brain explode while he was trying to find the logic in it. Only to have Bruce answer that basically, there wasn't any. That's just how Vince works. Which, in a way, kinda expose him. It was interesting to hear that Bruce himself would simply not have done the Invasion angle.

Playing catch-up. Enjoying the new look. I wish the crazy storylines would move around a bit more. Not really feeling the in-ring action of the last few weeks, as Cage is really someone I don't care that much unless he's in a gimmick brawl. Mil Muertes remains my favourite worker of the show, while Pentagon Dark still goes through the moves way too quickly for my taste at times. Needs more multi-men acrobatics clusterfucks and less Johnny Mundo doing a hundred tigh slapping kicks. The vignettes are as good as ever, don't feel the lower budget at all. Still waiting for that crazy-ass match with old ECW vibes.

As of now, the Performance Center is less effective than the Power Plant in producing stars/workers. I mean, Enzo, Cass, Nia Jaxx, Carmella ? That's a pretty rotten records thus far. Braun sucked big time when he debuted, he learned on the road/TV. NXT is an indy/foreign workers recycling machine, has been for years now. Call it window dressing for the stock holders, really. WWE ain't producing shit themselves at this time, they are just buying the best talent around. (and yeah, one day, Corny's work will get the credit it deserves for developing the stars of the 00's/early 10's in OVW)

(double post - any way to delete it ?)

That DDP bit on the Invasion episode was another level of absurd. Even bored Conrad could not let that fly this time around, as he went back to it at the beginning of the following week's show. Bruce was amazingly dishonest on that one. Sure, DDP diamond cutting people led to WCW going out of business. (he didn't put it that way, but basically implied that it was not a good thing to do because if it had worked that great in WCW, they would still be in business) Also, the post 2001 episodes always are really non-eventful. Wonder why...

This. You simply can't get those obscene amount of money while having an ethic. The 1% are fucking up the planet badly. (I know I know, PWO, I stop now)

Well, actually, it is about accepting the money to begin with. I don't care what anybody says. I got so uncomfortable watching that Saudi show that I'm done with any WWE product (I do follow some of the hilarity such as the audience chanting the clockwork at the last PPV thanks to the board and listening to Meltz a bit). The hypocrisy only makes it worse, but doing actual propaganda work for a regime that put homosexuals in prison because they are homosexuals and stone women to death (among other things of the same ilk) just is enough for me. There's no rationalize this bullshit.

This. No one gives a flying fuck about pro-wrestling (and WWE, no matter how hard they try to picture themselves as something other than, are still just pro-wrestling). That's why this stuff or the ridiculous "independant contractor" fuckery flies under the radar. We're still at the age of carny. It's corporate publicly traded charity-as-PR carny, but it's still carny.

Reaching Day 7 of the G1, and he's easily the worst wrestler of the entire tournament. Even old-ass Makabe understands pro-wrestling much better and despite a dubious kind of offense at times has matches that make sense. Elgin can do a lot of shit and sadly, does them all. He's the posterboy for tigh-slapping indierrific work. It's too bad because he could be really good if he wasn't such a mark for his own self getting his shit in, as he got great physical tools. He's the one guy I always don't look forward to see. Can't the WWE sign him away from NJ ? Come on, look at him, he's big and does stuff, just sign him to NXT and let Jeff Cobb take his spot in NJ instead. I wish Taichi had been given his spot, matches would be better and a lot more fun. Apart from that, the G1 is so much fun to follow on day to day basis. Just gotta take some days off to not get burned out, but damn, so much great matches already and simply fun stuff to boot. Yano has been terrific. Omega, Naito, Okada, Tanahashi, Suzuki, Sabre, Ishii and White (damn, what happened to that guy ?) have been awesome. Ibushi, Goto & SANADA are really good and always intriguing to watch. So are Hangman and Juice (moreso) on the gaijin side. The Tongans running rough shots on everyone isn't exactly my cup of tea from a stylistic standpoint (in term of booking, too much US style bullshit for this context), but it works in getting tons of heat, and Fale is a really good monster, while Tama is really a douchebag you want to get slapped in the face a lot. And yes, Block B murders Block A in term of high quality matches. Great way to spend an otherwise boring summer.

"Soon women will be able to drive in this country. Wait, no, that's the other country they go to." Meltz about the ridiculous way WWE is selling its women only PPV. I burst out laughing in the street. Sometimes, you can't deny the man has a great deadpan humour.

Nice tribute at Korakuen Hall during the G1. Sakaguchi has gotten old though.

Between doing commentary work in red hot NJ and the revitalization of iMPACT, who would have thought Don Callis would be the talk of the wrestling business in 2018 ? Funny how things work out in ways no one could envision. I've got that Slammiversary show on the side, can't wait to watch it (the fact they got LU talent only helps getting me interested about it).

Actually, taking the money and doing propaganda work for a criminal regime IS making a political statement. (don't even get me started on the hypocritical "they have family to feed" bullshit, it's just about making shitloads of money, no matter how dirty it is)

Don't be so damn negative people. WWE are actively helping women around the world. The Saudis probably allowed women to drive because Stephy convinced them to do so. And now that they are running the very first all-women PPV ever in the universe, AJ Styles' daughter can go to college and shit.

"Welcome to beautiful progressive Jeddah !" "Be careful before you say stuff like "fucking niggers", brothers, you might get recorded. Anyway, sorry about that and all." That's contemporary, modern, 2018 WWE. In a way, it's more out front in its seediness than it's ever been.

Following Misawa/Ogawa vs Marufuji/KENTA, this has to be one of the greatest 1-2 punch ever. Greatest Kobashi match since the Misawa epic. The finish was one of a kind and pure brillance.

I have no idea who that Pectacular guy is (don't even remember him from Aztec Warfare), but he's got the goofiest name this side of Justin Crdeible. The WU vs the Tribe should be a whole lot of fun though. I love Vibora, this guy really looks like a legit freak.

Pretty much. The more I watch Misawa's post-prime in NOAH, the more I'm struck by how brillant he was, despite looking like an overgrown pixie. And yeah, this match was as great as pro-wrestling can be.

I laughed.

I was that close to ask him if he liked Volk Han yesterday...

1 - I did not defend Kenny Omega for "employing pedos" (which is a really stupid thing to say; I already made the point about difference between pedophilia and sex with underage under constraint, but actual meaning of words aren't important when you just want to make an impression). I said it was a mistake and that he acted on it with several apologies and refund offers. Those are the facts. Which are not a big story compared to, for instance : 2 - Jerry Lawler, who is a very creepy guy whose chances of not having had sexual relationships with underage is pretty slim. He most probably got away with rape accusations because of who he was in Memphis. To me it is an interesting comparison in term of how he is viewed by the moral outrage crowd of pro-wrestling. 3 - Back when I was going through territories footage years ago, I mentioned time and time again that Memphis was the most fun to me (more than Mid South, more than AWA, more than Crockett). More because of Lance than Lawler, but whatever. This is neither here nor there though (and the fact one would think I'm mentioning Lawler in this case because I "resent Memphis wrestling" really should get the fuck out of the bubble and think twice before writing stupid stuff, honestly.). Lawler is a case of a guy who's infamous for liking young girls, and there's at least one occurence of him being accused of rape, with charged dropped in the most convenient way imaginable (the excellent work Bix did on this a few weeks ago only exposed more shady stuff about his story). I was making a broader comment about the whole thing.

Why ? They eat soy sauce ? I eat soy sauce when I go to a japanese restaurant.

As far as Lawler goes, yes, probably. As it is, without any conviction, the fact Lawler likes his girls really young is just a good joke to tell around and make puns of. That being said, Mike Tyson, 5 years after raping a 18 years old girl, was part of what was the turnaround angle in WWF history. Omega did a mistake. That's life. He apologized. Twice. Offered refunds (and like I said, it would be interesting to know how many refunds were asked because of this). He will probably be a lot more cautious next time around. The sleazebag in question will probably not get that much booking after that one. That's pretty much it.