El-P

Honestly, if people were a bit smarter, they wouldn't be offended when there's no offense to be taken. I still have no idea about that Joey Styles joke, because like I said, I didn't hear it (and on paper, it does sound pretty fucking bad to me). But context and knowing whom you're talking to is everything. Someone too easily offended is a sign of inflated self-importance and ego to me. (again, not talking about truly awful sexist comments and rape culture level shit like your new President said during the campaign for instance)

Word policing basically comes down to : "You can't say that, it's offensive." (implying a moral judgement on the person who says the words) It's usually extremely counterproductive, because playing victims is the favourite games of the people at the right/extreme-right. The very idea that Trump is *anti-system* is as comical as... well, the idea that ECW was *fighting against the big two*

An otherwise kinda sad PPV, with only Dustin vs Kid Kash being a good little match, but these two matches did deliver. Team Canada vs AMW was excellent, with a ridiculous sense of escalation at the end leading to a spot that did pop me and had me laugh out loud. Roode & Young are quite the fun heel team, Roode being solid and rugged and Young more Eaton-like in his bumping and offense. AMW are clearly one of the most overlooked US tag team ever, simply because they worked in TNA. The Ultimate X didn't look good on paper to me. I can't stand Williams and Sabin is pretty much an indierriffic worker himself. Damn. The gimmick probably helped a lot because it gives so many spatial opportunities to do some cool stuff while keeping the focus on trying to get the belt, as opposed to ladder matches who jumped the shark as early as the late 90's. Some of the most amazing spots I've seen, but which weren't gratuitous or nonsensical. The arm-work was quite fine and played a part, with good selling too. Williams played his part well here, Sabin was efficient too and AJ, oh, AJ was terrific. Great match. I'm amazed, because I expected a good car crash at best. This is what the X-div should be built on, it's pretty unique.

Maybe you could split the non-Joey stuff into the Military Industrial Suplex. Agreed with what has been said above BTW, by both of you.

It looks like a totally depressing dull card to me. Only the woman match can save this, it's the only one that will seem *fresh* in that setting.

Agreed. I teach French (the language), so, believe me, I know the weight of meaning and social value of words. But "pussy". For fuck's sake. People are looking at symptoms instead of trying to fix the illness. Meanwhile, Donald Trump gets elected. Pussycats are sweet and cute. It's an affectionnate word for the female sex. Much, much better in French than "con" too (which has been replaced, thankfully). Pussy is a nice word. We don't have any nice ones for the male sex BTW. Dick. Hey, dickhead ! Well, it works in French too. "Tête de noeud" = "dickhead". Dawn Marie (pro-wrestlingonly) ? What has she been up to since she was (supposedly) doing seedy charity work ? (was that proven ? is she part of Jeffrey's Ponzy scheme now ?)

Except, and I'm only guessing, it probably became slang for people acting wimpish, as an extrapolation on men being "strong and brave" and women being "fragile and, well, wimpish". Therefore, reducing the entire gender identity to its actual sex (sorry, I can't use the word "genitalia", it's too stupid sounding, it's like a police report) as a metonymy. Therefore, "pussy" really meaning "girl" in a negative way, *in this context*. Therefore... But anyway. I haven't seen the video, so I canno't judge of the joke being efficient and funny or completely offensive. Needless to say, Styles being a Trump sympathiser doesn't make it sound too good/funny to me, but then again, not seeing/hearing it, not commentating on it.

A pussy is a cat. Cats are fucking cowards. (fun fact : the most usual cuss word in French to design an idiot/asshole/fucker is "con". It used to mean, well, "pussy". As in, ya know, "pussy". No one in their right mind would even argue about it being offensive to women today. Of course, I've sadly heard that idiotic argument once of twice, but it was ridiculed. Every french woman say "con" all the time (and it's female counterpart "conne", or even the more agressive "connard" and "connasse", which sound even better). Mostly to tell fuckers that they are fuckers. Something strikes me as very "anglo-saxon" in this debate.)

Whether you like it or not, the new President of the Unites States of America is a WWE Hall of Famer and former WrestleMania performer. So there. Pro-wrestling Only includes the White House now. Wait until Linda gets nominated somewhere. Welcome to the WWE Universe. The Real Shit. 4 Life.

I thought this was a perfectly fine interview. Funk is 72 years old and lived a life like no other. He really wasn't repeating himself "all the time", not much more than anyone his age would, and he always had that soft-spoken voice delivery anyway. He was witty reacting to some of Cornette's stuff, with some dry humour, and told some hilarious stories (really, Bob Thornton, I'll never be able to *not* think about it). Sure, they didn't go into details about the territory, but what's more to be said about it really, more interesting than Terry Funk and Jim Cornette shooting the breeze anyway ? (yeah, the Hart picture was a rare production fuck up from KC, but the Twitter thing went on for about… 45 seconds at the very end… no big deal) Good stuff.

The 2016 US Presidential elections.

Three HiaC match in one card is dumb as fuck. Way to make your gimmick match totally generic, especially without blood. It does allow comparison though. Rusev vs Reigns. Plodding, kinda dull. My turn/your turn, lots of Reigns selling, which is sleep inducing (well, so is his offense, but him selling is just the receipe for me not giving a flying fuck). Rusev is good, but his new look is awful. No use of Lana whatsoever while she could be shrieking at ringside and play an active part. Suuuuuch a waste. Didn't feel the hatred. They lost me eventually. Decent match. Owens vs Rollins. Well, the beginning was much, much better than the previous match. Spotfest ? Nah. Owens is working Rollins injury, badmouthing him, fucking with the crowd. This is very good until Rollins makes a comeback and never sells shit about his so-called injured back. Then they do a choreographed exchange that would only appear in the last five minutes of a G1 match. Then it falls apart. They do a lot of stuff, Jericho (who looks amazingly creepy and glorious) gets in the cage. Clusterfucky and shit. I gave up actually. Sasha vs Charlotte.Super cool entrances. Ok, I love Charlotte jumping on Sasha while the cell is lowering, but the powerbomb spot was both awkward (Sasha gently jumped in Charlotte's arms) and stupid. Total gimmicky-drama. Terrible idea. Ok, so the match gets on. And these girls manage to school the guys as to how convey violence and whatnot. Charlotte has improved a lot as a heel. "She rested enough!" after that evil monkey flip where Sasha fell on her neck, ah ah, what a complete bitch ! Well, okay, they beat the shit out of each other. It feels like it. That bump on the table outside was really awkward though and it did kill the pace for a moment, but they got it back. Terrific selling of the long-term pain and frustration. Yeah, I know Sasha wasn't that consistant to sell the gimmick-drama, but it made for a better match, who wants her crawling for twenty minutes ? Plus it was simply bad booking to begin with. So, let's go on with the match. Yeah, this is getting better and better. Hey, a Raven spot, just for me ! I love you Sasha. Hey, that's how you get out of the figure four/eight ! Charlotte's desperation is really good, yes, she has improved a whole lot. Hey, Sasha crumbled because of her back, no powerbomb on the table. Well, ok, Sasha losing was anticlimatic, but I loved that finish. Charlotte just didn't give a fuck, she throws Sasha on that table randomly in a "will you fucking die already bitch ?" way, twice in a row, Sasha rolling down made for a great visual and the finisher was on point and NO KICK OUT ! COOL ! Ok, again, questionnable booking at best to have Sasha do the job *again*, and in fucking Boston to boot, but this was very obviously the best match of the three (not even close), developed into a great match despite the stupid beginning and a momentary lull, and well yeah, I'd call it a MOTYC without second guessing myself too much. Terrific job by both overall. Mayumi Ozaki and Mima Shimoda would be proud. I really have to cherry pick what I care about in these WWE cards, because 95% of it I think is worthless, boring and unwatchable, but there is regularly some great stuff in this sea of goo.

nWo beginnings Nitro. Most fun pro-wrestling TV ever (and that's an old ECW fan saying this).

Well, maybe it's because they toned their post-modern act down, maybe it's because I used to focus on the wrong stuff, but I actually really liked Young Bucks vs Motor City MachineGuns. The Bucks were legit old-school heel tag team here, and with their funky offense and demeanor, they did remind me of the MX, indeed. Excellent match, and the best of the show along with KUSHIDA vs Kenoh. Death spots sold as death spots. Hey. Was I wrong all along on the Bucks ? Glorious tights too. Final KUSHIDA vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru So, Kanemaru focuses on KUSHIDA's injured neck. Constant all-along selling by KUSH. Nice. Started solid, then actively built into a very good, even excellent match at points, with Kanemaru being all old and rugged. They did spam a bit of DDT's by the end, which I wasn't a fan of, especially after a dangerous spot on the apron, but KUSHIDA's snappy arm offense really works well into hot finishing stretches. More heeling and outside interferences, including by TAICHI, so I guess that was the style in vogue for this J Cup. KUSHIDA has been quite the most consistant worker of the bunch and delivered the two best matches, so It's only fitting he's given the win. He's a very good worker. Kanemaru is still quite solid. Overall, despite an excellent first round and show at Korakuen Hall, this has to be the worst J Cup thus far. Too much indierriffic stuff from non-japanese workers (Ospreay, yikes), too heavy on heel matches, bad venue choice, and light on really good matches. Curious to see how things will evolve in the future, but junior pro-wrestling as a style is way less special today than it was twenty years ago because of the overall heavy-on-athleticism style that prevents everywhere. It takes special workers to carry the load of making it someone really different, and there's no such worker today it seems. If guys like Will Ospreay are the future of junior pro-wrestling, then it can't be any good. Yeah, I sound like Vader. Well, it's time, it's time to put this to rest.

Good for Harada. Although, is NOAH in 2016 any bigger than Osaka Pro was in its days ? Semi-finals TAICHI vs KUSHIDA More heeling and cheating by TAICHI, who does it well, including Abe preventing a dive to the outside, Sherri Martel style. He's also quite a solid worker who sells well and has dynamic offense when he wants. KUSHIDA focuses in the arm, as always, but has to rely on another trick to win the match since TAICHI's croonie is distracting the ref when he's actually getting a visual submission. Good little match, but not exactly worthy of a Super J Cup semi final. Speaking of which... Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Matt Sydal You know, Matt Sydal may be the instance of great athleticism being a negative, because he's just using it too much and not to the best effect. Very showy, but not stupidly indierrific like Ospreay was. Still, these two just didn't click. Kanemaru looked disinterested, using a lot of heeling tactics (which makes it too much at this point in one single J Cup card) and not doing that much. Match fell flat, didn't build to anything. Decent, but just nothing special. Well, this J Cup did fell apart on this second card. The half-empty building ensures no heat at all, some interesting workers were dropped in the first few rounds (Eita, Ishimori, Kenoh) while Sydal, Ospreat and even Taichi, to be honest, made it too far. Junior wrestling in Japan in 2016 seems to have been contaminated by the worst aspect of US-indies work at this point. Damn, now the Young Bucks are next...

Petey Williams was such a terrible, terrible wrestler. He was the embodiement of everything wrong about the X-div and indierrific flippy wrestling. Unwatchable. Sabin wasn't much better, to be honest, he's just a spot monkey himself and hadn't progressed one bit since he debuted. I was actually disappointed by the cage match, their 2003 match was much, much better. Yes, it was a good violent brawl, with double juice galore, but the way they used the big cage spots was all fucked up. You've basically got the two heels doing the top big spectacular cage spots and they succeed at it. Makes no sense. Of course this got "this is awesome" and "best match ever" chants (YAWN). Hey, AMW were supposed to be the babyface to be cheered for. Then they really didn't got much out of those two spots anyway and built into a cutesy avalanche 4 guys spot which looked awkward and ridiculous. So yeah, good brawling match but when the "let's do token holy shit spots for the sake of it" took over at the end, it totally fell apart to me. That early iMPACT era was such a disaster with Petey Williams (awful worker) as X-div champ, Jeff Hardy (who is truly awful too) pushed to the top and the worst nWo rewash angle ever. And a DX invasion angle too, with WWE trolling galore. It's like despite getting rid of Russo, they decided to do the worst possible Russo style booking as far as big ideas went, without the clusterfucking and sex baiting which made it even more boring. Not to mention the last depressing and pathetic appearance of Randy Savage. Actually, the best surprise of this PPV was Abyss vs Monty Brown, which was done rather well (until the botched finish) and DDP vs Raven having a decent little match until the awful finish involving ever-useless Erik Watts. The early iMPACT era looks so terrible.

If you had locked the site forever after making that post, it would've been badass. The answer to your question is : yes, of course. Now you can lock the board.

One month later, in a building too big to host this show, as seen by the many empty seats all over the place. Pretty sad. I guess the idea of running Korakuen in 2009 was the right one at this point. Juniors aren't a draw anymore. There are a bunch of intermezzos too, which I don't care to get into. Second round Jushin Liger vs TAICHI TACIHI's entrance is worth the price of admission alone. Bullshit & gaga match, with Liger punting TAICHI's minion Desperado but getting slapped by the hot-as-hell valet Miho Abe, who's better at her job than Lana or Maryse in WWE already. Not much in term of a match, as it ends with Liger being beat up and hold down far away from ringside while count-ount occurs. Odd to use Liger that way. But glad TAICHI gets a round more. Hopefully in a better match. Kenoh vs KUSHIDA So, KUSHIDA's thing is going for the arm, which is does in spades here while Kenoh has pretty creative, in a good way, stuff to counter him. Ok, this Kenoh is the revelation of the tournament thus far, he's stiff and quick and sells really well, while KUSHIDA is pretty impressive and focused himself. Excellent match again from those two guys which I wouldn't mind seeing more of. Crisp work leading to a logical finish with exciting action is the right formula. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Ryusuke Taguchi Good, solid match with the usual funky ass, well, hips offense by Taguchi, mixing comedy taunt with actual work, while Kanemaru is grumpy as fuck. Taguchi clearly still has good work under his hood, while the old NOAH veteran keeps on looking solid as hell. Nothing extremely impressive in term of spots, but I take this solid match any day against... Matt Sydal vs Will Ospreay Ok, so it took me two matches to already be annoyed by Ospreay. If this guy is what is considered a state of the art worker, call me Vader, because Ospreay simply isn't any good. Yeah, he does some incredible athletic spots. And ? Shit setling, bad striking, exegerated facials, all style and no substance, and the creative spots already look transparent the second time around. He's a worst RVD for now. Sydal didn't help either. This was the pucture perfect *flippy-floppy indierrific* stuff I couldn't care less about. Blah. More intemezzo with some luchadors who will hopefully clean the taste of this shit. Decent second round but Ospreay vs Sydal is everything wrong about indy wrestling mentality, while Liger was really wasted in a nothing match.

So there it is. There has been a J-Cup in 2016. It's quite cool that the concept still lives on and comes back every few years. Time for a new scene of juniors to develop and for already established ones to grow. This is New Japan putting this one on again, because, who else, really ? Korakuen Hall for a first round show only. It's kinda full and quite hot. Warms my heart. First round Matt Sydal vs Kaji Tomato Sydal is super indy american pussy magnet. Tomato is a tomato. From K-Dojo. Only in Japan could this stuff could get over. He knows how to work too. And Sydal looks pretty hot. As a worker too. Hot opening match, much more competitive than you'd thought. Gurukun Mask vs Kenoh Gurukun has a cool fish-like mask. No idea where he comes from, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me he was some sort of Delphin protege. Anyway, Kenoh is a guy with a blond helmet and very hard kicks. Damn, this match gets good quick. Kenoh is kinda heelish with a second using a kendo cane or something. Funny how the match, after some hot sequences, basically stops so they can test their machismo by exchanging hard kicks. Anyway, excellent match. Will Ospreay vs Titan So, here's the infamous Will Ospreay of "Vader thinks you sucks" fame. Cool english style work. Titan has the exact same style as BUSHI. Was he the inspiration ? Damn, Ospreay has insane spots, but his selling is awful, going from a totally exagerated, coked up overselling of a figure four to not selling his knee one second to do flippy flops (which look great, but still). Good little match, but Ospreay needs to settle the fuck down. Jushin Liger vs Eita Not sure what Eita's character is, but he's got some. Oh shit, Eita is doing a tope con hilo while Liger is walking down to the ring, straight callback to the Hayabusa match in 94 ! How cool is that ? Classic veteran vs young hungry up and comer match. Liger has to slow the pace down and hit shoteis, but Eita actually work on his hand. Smart. Really good match, although for the first time in a J-Cup, Liger doesn't look like a *great* wrestler, just a really solid one. He's past 50, so there you go. Eita looks all kinda good. Taichi vs Yuma Aoyagi Taiji has evolved into a complete MMORPG character, all baroque and shit, with a super hot and slutty valet (probably a model/actress, as she clearly knows how to play a part). Aoyagi is either green or not too good. Or both. Taichi does all kind of heelish stuff, but the match never gets too good because of Yuma's subpar work and charisma. Should have been more of a squash. BUSHI vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru Kanemaru, haven't seen this guy since the early days of NOAH when he was setting their junior division on fire. He's older and grumpy. I like LIJ a lot, but haven't seen much more of BUSHI's than his tag work. He has some good stuff, but I resent his use of the code red, which is one of my least favourite spot. Didn't impressed me that much, while Kanemaru looks as good as he was more than ten years before. Good little heel vs heel brawling match. Surprised BUSHI did the job. Ryusuke Taguchi vs Daisuke Harada Taguchi was all fro and shit in the last Cup. He's been mostly in undercard half-comedy match during the G1, so no idea how he'd fare. Harada looks like a semi-power worker. Slower build than the other matches. But it does build to a really, really good match. Harada impressed me and Taguchi is still a good serious worker, and paying for it when he gets too cute. Hot finishing stretch but the finisher (code red ugly modification) was bad. KUSHIDA vs Taiji Ishimori So, KUSHIDA's gimmick is that he's Marty McFly. Okay. Why not. Work the arm on Taiji after a cool shoot-style matwork. Some nifty flying around, crisp execution and counters from both. Damn, this match gets really good despite a few awkward set-tups on the top ropes. KUSHIDA tries to get back to the arm from incredible acrobatic spots and Ishimori finds the way to fight this, being super quick himself. Well, they sure capped off this first round show by the best match. Damn. This was maybe not as good overall as the last first round (no really great match), but still super good. Don't get the "bland" criticism. Tomato, BUSHI, Titan, Gurukun, TAICHI brought plenty of colour. There was diversity too (heeling, european style + insane flying, veteran vs youngster). Crowd was also super hot at points, especially in the main event. Clear winner of a show.

G1 Climax final Kenny Omega vs Hirooki Goto A very good/maybe excellent match can only be seen as a disapointment of sort after the al-time classic of the previous day. Just a typical all-action Goto match, with Omega pulling off a very good performance, lower on goofiness and strong on selling from the day before. But there was not much in term of build. The finishing stretch felt a bit too much finisher spamming too. Still, this Climax was certainly a star-maker in term of Omega as a main-event fixture. The long promo in fucking japanese was quite impressive. I guess, with the video game theme gimmick, Omega really is the total Japan nerd worker, which also explains some of his idiosyncrasies in the ring. Overall, the G1 was quite impressive in term of delivering strong matches. Too long and draining, but way too much great stuff to complain. Glad I'm finally done.

A Block B Block ***** Omega vs. Naito MOTYC Ishii vs. Okada ****+ as they say Marufuji vs. Tanahashi Elgin vs. Naito Tanahashi vs Okada Naito vs. Shibata Honma vs. Naito Naito vs. Nakajima YOSHI-HASHI vs Naito Nakajima vs. Elgin Quite excellent SANADA vs. Tanahashi Nakajima vs. Shibata Okada vs. Marufuji Nakajima vs. Nagata SANADA vs. Okada Shibata vs. Omega Tenzan vs. Marufuji Ishii vs. Marufuji Tanahashi vs Goto Ishii vs. Tanahashi Goto vs. Marufuji Damn fine Tenzan vs. Ishii Nagata vs. Naito Fale vs. Goto Shibata vs. Honma Ishii vs. Goto YOSHI-HASHI vs. Honma Fale vs. Marufuji Omega vs. Yano Goto vs. Okada YOSHI-HASHI vs. Nagata Fale vs. Tanahashi EVIL vs. Nakajima Tenzan vs Okada EVIL vs. YOSHI-HASHI Tenzan vs. Goto Nakajima vs. YOSHI-HASHI Ishii vs SANADA YOSHI-HASHI vs. Elgin Goto vs Makabe Nakajima vs. Honma Makabe. Vs Ishii EVIL vs. Naito Shibata vs Nagata Nagata vs. Honma EVIL vs. Shibata Good it is indeed Makabe vs. Tenzan Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI Tonga vs Ishii Elgin vs. EVIL Makabe vs Marufuji Honma vs. Omega Marufuji vs. SANADA Shibata vs. Elgin Okada vs. Makabe Omega vs. Elgin Tonga vs. SANADA Omega vs. EVIL Fale vs. Makabe Honma vs. EVIL Tanahashi vs Tenzan Shibata vs. YOSHI-HASHI Okada vs Fale Nagata vs. Omega SANADA vs. Tenzan Omega vs Nakajima Fale vs. Tonga Honma vs Elgin Unoffensive Makabe vs. Tanahashi Yano vs. Nakajima Ishii vs. Fale EVIL vs. Nagata SANADA vs. Makabe Naito vs. Yano Tonga vs. Tanahashi Honma vs. Yano SANADA vs. Goto Shibata vs. Yano Okada vs. Tonga Yano vs. Nagata Tonga vs. Goto Yano vs. Elgin Marufuji vs Tonga EVIL vs Yano Yano vs. YOSHI-HASHI Not good Makabe vs. Tonga Nagata vs. Elgin Tenzan vs Tonga SANADA vs Fale Fale vs. Tenzan

DAY 18 - B-Block - Kokugikan Nagata vs. Honma And another really good match by old Nagata. Quite the good performance overall by the veteran over the G1, save for a bad night. Honma really has his act down pat, and although the rush to the headbutt early is quite goofy at times, he's proven to me he's a super solid and fun worker, 16 years after he was the best deathmatch worker in the world. Yano vs. YOSHI-HASHI If I were a pro-wrestler, I'd want to work with Yano all the time. EVIL vs. Shibata EVIL beats Shibata's bad shoulder unmercifully. Shibata does look beat up. This was very good. Sorry, I'm just burned out. Nakajima vs. Elgin Holy shit, it's kinda like the previous match, but taken to another level entirely. Funny how Elgin, with the right opponent, can deliver a great match and not get goofy. Nakajima sure has proven he was the right opponent for everybody in the thing. Stiff, focused, dramatic, epic. Great match. Omega vs. Naito Very seldom in my 25 years of watching pro-wrestling did I think I was watching the best match ever, or something to that effect. I don't think I've considered much more (if that much) than ten match ever reaching the infamous ***** rating. When I saw the comments in that thread, I was very doubtful to say the least. As much as Omega showed me if could be a great worker, he also showed way too much goofiness on day to day. I expected a great match, counting on Naito to work the same brilliance he already showcased and Omega reigning down his bad instinct. Nope. This is one of the best match I have ever seen. Both were absolutely awesome. The build, the selling, the moves (yeah, fuck a gazillion punches in the ass with a barbwire bat), the escalation, the drama, the body language. Yep. This one I'd give the ***** rating. MOTY. Pro-wrestling can be so great. It's rare, but when it happens, i's beautiful. Well. Tetsuya Naito is the best wrestler today and my new favourite. VIP of the G1, along with Nakajima, Tanahashi & Marufuji. Kenny Omega has the potential of being a true all-time great if he works more like he did his two best matches here and does less of the bad ROH-isms.

The progress bar is a complete nightmare in every context.

Where ? On Twitter ? Damn, we miss all the "good stuff" here on the good ol' forum nowadays.

What more do you want from neck surgery news? "Ok. And? And she started snorting coke with the doctor and nurses. Then they all had an orgy with Alberto. After she was put under the knife, they got some HLA Katie Vick-style action going. Paige's father tweeted his strongest disapproval at the way his daughter's medical care was handled." Edit: Never mind. You were responding to that weird Twitter gif. Not sure what to make of that myself. Well, this slight misunderstanding was all worth your quite funny extrapolation.