El-P

It should. Well, I did like Justin Hawk up to the Blackjack days. His JBL stuff was mostly boring as fuck inside the ring. Well, he should also be remembered as the biggest piece of luggage to ever have a legit MOTYC thanks to Eddie, too.

Office stooge, corporate kiss-ass and petty bully who got knocked out by Bart Gunn. And Joey Styles. That's JBL's legacy, basically.

One of the most overrated match of the decade. And what turned the corner from cool ladder matches toward pure stuntfests and falling from high places mentality, thanks to that idiot Jeff Hardy, whose only quality is to be the unfunniest New Jack ever. Awful match in the long run because of its influence.

Damn, Asashoryu's brother used to be a pro-wrestler in NJPW. Reminds me of Zach Arnold's neverending rumours of Asashoryu is gonna do MMA in the same time frame.

Yeah amazing. And not only that, but the Henka of Doom on Kotoshigiku ! HEEL HEAT !! Is Riki Choshu circa 93 booking sumo now ? (I've been watching too much pro-wrestling) The issue with Mania is that it reached the point of being a self-conscious epic event as a whole. From a bunch of Mania Moments ™ by the mid-00's (which was already annoying as fuck) to ManiaMoment ™.

Obligation is right. It's like "well, it's Mania, I kinda "need" to watch it". When in fact, I really don't. I'm perfectly happy going through TNA 2006 now D'Amore is still booking so it's quite the fine product. Until VR gets hired in the Fall or something. I look forward Destination X 2006 myself. And the next basho. That Kisenosato win this month was fucking legendary. Perfect booking.

Agreed. I noticed that too. The first Takeover I watched seemed quite different from the main stuff. Last Takeovers I saw mostly looked like the main stuff. And since I can't stand WWE overproduction, well...

I'm really excited about going to the Arnaud Rebotini "30 years of techno" all-night DJ set this week-end. Plus I'm gonna see Monarch! & Birushanah tonight. So yeah, probably gonna be a terrific few days. Oh, you meant ? Nah, gonna watch bits & pieces on Monday. Mania has become a real chore. Too bad it can't be as idiotic as last year, at least that gave us a fun thread.

Was that on the Fukawa career retrospective comp they released after she retire ? I do think there was an unreleased Fukawa vs Yoshida match on there, so I think this might be this one.

Yeah, the rose is definitely off the bloom for me. It's become transparent and predictable. Nak should have been brought up immediately, he lost a lot of luster after one year. His match again Sami was terrific and remains his best WWE match to me. It has only gone downhill since then, he doesn't seem as special anymore. Roode getting the NXT title is the sign they have no plans other than just bringing up the next NJ/TNA/ROH guys they sign, wash, rince, repeat. And Asuka has been wasted, she has no none to work with, I like her a lot but her NXT stint has been totally uninteresting. Give me Asuka vs Charlotte and Sasha instead.

I don't care about the *booking* of AJ vs Shane. It's Shane McMahon. I don't give a flying fuck about a fucking McMahon in a pro-wrestling match, especially stroking his dick and ego by giving himself the best worker in the company to have his own Mania Moment ™. I was sick of Shane McMahon by SummerSlam 99 when he took that ridiculous stunt bump into a matress in that stupid Test feud. That was 18 years ago. EIGHTEEN YEARS, for fuck's sake. And we're still there. Like I said, if I watched only one match, it would be Cena & Nikki vs Miz & Maryse, because it will probably be fun. (until the proposal, which will be cheesy and bourgeois and shit. I hope Rusev shows up and ruins it.)

Oh, this was the beginning of the faction I forgotten all about, expect it was all girlie and shit. You probably won't like where this is going. In 2000, good luck. Almost everything was edited. They finally got TV in 2001, but by that point, the company was nothing like it's first 18 months.

To be fair, they did just post nine episodes of Mid-South, so they have that. I downloaded entire Mid-South TV seasons for free like 10 years ago.

Agreed. I have zero interest in this card. Cena & Nikki vs Maryse & Miz could be fun thanks to the bullshit, and maybe the women's multi-match will be decent despite Nia, but this card is chokfull of matches I couldn't care less about, with most of them that will be overlong "epic" affairs, which will be a complete chore to go through. Lesnar vs Goldy was fine as a one shot, but Lesnar has been garbage for the entire year and Goldy has not worked more than 20 seconds. AJ vs Shane is a complete disgrace (worst of all will be idiots giving Shane he usual "credit" for "working hard"). Taker has been shit forever and I could live without ever watching Roman Reigns. The undercard with Jericho vs Owens and HHH vs Reigns are like nap time on paper already. There's no cool little match, there are only a bunch of boring big matches and useless undercard stuff. The New Day hosting is a nightmarish idea. Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Oh, the excitement. Even Takeover I have zero desire to watch, after two years of being the really cool part of the week-end, at this point Nak is not that special anymore and him jobbing to Bobby Roode is the formulaic NXT transition of champions just sounds dull as fuck. I doubt I'll stay awake to watch Mania live, there's no way I'm going through stuff like HHH vs Seth, AJ vs Shane and some of the undercard stuff without FF. That being said, after last year's godawful show, I can't see how this one would manage to be worse. Right ?

Agreed. Very different from their earlier one, much more spotfest oriented. And yes, a great one at that. A great workrate match, basically (and no, it's not a dirty word). These three were just on another level as anyone else at this period, piling up great matches after great matches. For their run alone, TNA can't be called the worst promotion ever (and really, the entire promotion has been very good since the debut on Spike). Finish was particulary smart, with Joe taking advantage of a mistake of Daniels & AJ going at each other while Daniels was on the outside and AJ on the top rope, which allowed Joe to execute his Muscle Buster on AJ while Daniels was too far to interfere. The main event of Jeff Jarrett vs Christian Cage was a quite the fun Double J Special too, with solid work and well timed Gail Kim interferences (and overall work), only marred a bit by a terribly overdone job by Earl Hebner who debuted that night (so they had to work a quasi-Montreal spot). I admit I grew a likening for the Double J Special formula at this point when it's done well, which was the case here. Perfect feel-good post-match too. They made a really good job with C.Cage thus far.

Not to play the "old fucker" gimmick again, but really, that match was talked about when it happened back in 2000 in the little circles of Japanese indy sleaze fans. Glad to see this stuff being dug up, but this is not something that flew under the radar back then.

Yes, there are, but I wouldn't be able to grasp them I think. To us in France, all Quebecois speak like Céline Dion. (she's hilarious) There was a very distinctive Parisian slang and accent, but it has mostly and sadly disapeared over the years, since most "Parisian" now aren't from Paris anymore. I should now, I've been a Parisian for 16 years. That's sad. I always say to my students (yeah, I'm actually teaching French to foreigners) that they should always try to speak the language, even if it's just very basic and simple stuff, that's it's appreciated. But I understand the situation was a bit different at that point, especially since "fighting for French language" is somewhat part of the Quebec identity. It was during the ridiculous "Freedom fries" era, so it was a xenophobic gimmick. But these guys were not French. And using "La resistance" as a name was idiotic, as if there's *one* symbol of the US-France friendship, it is the French Resistance fighting the Nazis on the occupied field during WWII. There are soooo many gimmick I can think of to make fun of French people and get heat. Every flag other than the Union Jack was booed I guess. I loved how he was using a slowed-down, looped version of La Marseillaise too. Raising the Quebec flag and using the natinoal anthem of another country ! The only successful "quebecer" gimmick was the Fabulous Rougeau to me. The song, the mini-US flags, it was brillant. Well, I admit I loved Jean Pierre Lafitte too.

First off, average French is not "parisian French". Basically, Quebecois is deriving from older French mixed in with some English influence. On one hand, Quebecois speak "more French than French", translating in French words tons of expression we (French from France) use in English (like "week-end" for instance). On the other hand, they use some English structure sometimes and lots of other English words, not to mention tons of purely "Quebecois" stuff. With the amazing, lovable Quebec accent. Average, normalized Quebecois is absolutely comprehensible at 95%. Joual, well, give me subtitles. That being said, two guys from Marseille speaking together using slangs and shit, good luck to your average guy from Quebec city, he'll get nothing out of it. Exactly. Not sure if the difference is more or less pronounced, but that's the same thing. That's why La Resistance was the most idiotic gimmick ever (on every level). They sounded French like I sound Italian.

I actually had to look out for the translation, because I just could't grasp what he said. And people still are surprised when I tell them French people don't understand Quebecers sometimes and this was a clear case of this here. So yeah, he said "You know I hate you." From what I gather, Zayn, at least, is definitely from the English-speaking community of Montreal. Not sure about Steen, although I guess he is too. Neither have the very recognizable french-canadian accent when they speak English (the kind Rick Martel has for instance).

Oh yes you should. Cf my WCW Highway to Hell thread... You've forgotten what you're in for.

Can't believe there were two workers named Haystacks. What are the odds ?

The Loch Ness monster ?

At this point, TNA and rats are the only thing that'll remain after a nuclear apocalypse.

WWE buying another company means less work and alternatives for the workers. Of course it's bad. (not that I care about ROH per say)

Yep. I like this match quite a bit too. Not sure if I'd say it's better than Bret's stuff with Luger or DDP on Nitro later in the year (but I like Bret's WCW more than most), but it is Savage's swan song for sure.