El-P

Day 12 - B-Block Yano vs. Nagata If I were Nagata, I'd be pissed at the ref too. Gotta love that total "What the fuck was that supposed to be ?" look when he got counted out. Yano is always entertaining. Fun little tricky match. YOSHI-HASHI vs. Elgin Well, these two brought the best in each other. Short but intense, with strong sense of purpose (fuck up that shoulder, YOSHI) and selling (really good job by Elgin). Elgin's power spots fought through the pain and YH's quick, stiff offense countering the massive log worked wonders. Very good match and the proof that Elgin can be that good when he doesn't get ROHgoofy. Honma vs. EVIL Good standart EVIL match, in which Homna played his usual underdog-but-not-so-quite role efficiently. So, the headrropping is something that happens a lot in New Japan I guess, but this led to a finish so no complaint. EVIL has revealed himself as a solid worker through this tournament. Shibata vs. Omega Holy shit. So, when Omega tons his cooked up shit down, he can be a fucking great worker. Maybe the fact he was trying to upstage shoot-style Shibata played a part, but this is the best he has ever looked to me. Brutal and focused work, beat up each other's injuries until something breaks, superb execution, no stupid no-selling. Damn, this was excellent, bordering on great. Naito vs. Nakajima Naito's stalling is state of the art, and with stoic hiding a hot temper Nakajima, it works wonder. Great leg work as usual which was followed through, Nakajima still kicking the shit out of Naito once he gets on top. The finishing stretch with counters and shit was pretty wonderful. Great match. Ok, so B Block delivers the goods again in a big way, with Elgin & Omega looking at their best, which was nice to see.

It seems I'll never get through this thingy… Day ELEVEN. A-Block. Fale vs. Tenzan These two are not meant to meat each other and have a good match. This is sluggish and slow and sweaty and not good. Fale can be really fun to watch when he's in with the right guy. Tenzan ain't that guy. Tenzan usually gets a good match with everyone. This isn't working. Tonga vs. Goto Tonga is a jobber who gets way to much from the other guys. Which make every match of his kind of a chore to watch, as he's not very good and most probably will lose anyway. Goto does a good job though, and the finishing running around sequence works again, with RKO teases and tries. Decent stuff, but Tonga is mostly a waste of time, he should mostly be squashed. Naomichi Marufuji vs. SANADA SANADA tries to hit harder than Marufuji. He fails. So he tries to run faster than Marufuji. Nice attempts. But fails too. SANADA shows some spunk against stiffy & tricky veteran though and it makes for a good match, although SANADA clearly lacks something on his own, it's pretty clear at this point. Ishii vs. Tanahashi This had some goofiness elements at some point, and Tanahashi's execution at the end was not as good as it usually is, but what a terrific match for the most part. A bit heavy and strike exchanges, but the slapping part where Tana drops down Ishii was really good thanks to Ishii's selling. Okay, so I guess dragon suplexe are meant to be not sold, but not in an ugly Omega-match way. Tanahashi rising up as the ace that has to be overcomed was really good. Excellent, maybe great match. Okada vs. Makabe Sometimes, Okada is too much Rockyesque for me in his maneurisms. Good Makabe match though. Nothing special, but Okada does a good job making the old brawler look fine. Not exactly an epic main event though. Apart from the Ishii vs Tana match, this was pretty so-so. The A-Block clearly has some weakness which only appear even more with the wrong combinations. Is this thing ever gonna end anyway ?

Indeed. Todd is God...

I'm not really sure any revisionism needs to be done. It's not like TNA posed a true threat at any point. What would WWE really need to retcon about TNA's history? Exactly. What are they gonna do, create a narrative that makes TNA look like it ever mattered? Considering AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode were perceived like stars by the WWE audience as soon as they passed the door, TNA did matter a little bit more than people give it credit for. So there's always room for revisionism. But it would mostly be terrible for the guys looking for jobs. (whatever happened with GWF anyway ? Ponzi scheme ?)

If this is true, then more revisionism incoming and one place less for workers to go (which means less space for developping talents too). Job well done Dixie.

I still fail to see how Roman Reigns is considered by some as some kind of special worker. He sure didn't brought much special to the table in the Rusev match, it was all Rusev keeping things together and feeding for Roman usual dull superman punches comebacks. Plus he's not a great seller or bumper, so Rusev beating on him was nothing special. He's a decent power guy with a bad spear. He doesn't do anything that remotely sparks my interest. Rusev & Lana should be in the main event scene yesterday. Didn't watch the entire thing (I guess I missed something with Cesaro vs Sheamus, but Sheamus I have no time for). Really, that tag match needed fast forward, the New Day have jumped the shark a long tile ago and Doc & Anderson aren't anything special. The female trio match booking was odd. Charlotte basically beat up the two babyfaces clean. I like the Sasha/Sabu comparison someone made. Good match, but clusterfucky as every thriple way are. Jericho vs Zayn was cool. Sleazy old Jericho works for me. At some point during this match Philippe Chereau cracked me up so bad. The french announcing is a show saver sometimes. TJ Perkins vs Brian Kendrick was good, but I'm not too fond of some Perkins indieriffic spots, with odd body placements and useless bumping-on-offense kinda spots. I don't think this cruiserweight division is going anywhere, but the purple lightning was a nice touch in term of presentation.

I said they were gonna be the New Age Outlaws redux (with a bit of Kid Kash & Dallas because of the characters and sizes) the very first time I saw them. Enzo is an awful worker to boot, and Cass is just another Test clone. No depth whatsoever and their match aren't good.

Une fois n'est pas coutume : I TOTALLY agree with this. Couldn't have said it better.

And you wonder why no-one remembers about it ? Well : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/page-24&do=findComment&comment=5549868

No one said Mero had a great WWE run either. And yes, I was watching the product week to week. Mero had good matches on PPV all the time until he blew out his knee. Then he was a fun heel as Marvelous Mark. It's a decent run. (didn't he innovate the TKO too or did he stole it from someone ?)

No, he didn't talk I don't think, he couldn't. It was a "Hey, look who's here !" moment. Sable did it too when Russo was in charge (or maybe they were together, but I doubt it), but they could not use her anyway. DUMBFUCKERY.

Maybe you just have no sense of humour. Or empathy. You certainly don't get the "wink" of some people around here, so. (another semi-smart gif on the way ?)

Same thing here. At some point, you just have to draw a fucking line."You don't deserve love or happiness in your life". Seriously ?

Well, considering Mero & Sable were married, it didn't matter in the end, all the money went to their household and Mero says he had tons of fun working at putting her over. I'm just surprised Mero never showed up back in WCW but I guess he was smart with his money. He did came back as Johnny B. Badd in TNA for a while though, which was odd to say the least.

How was Mero a colossal disapointment ? He was never gonna have any great matches anyway. Mero was a solid worker who had good PPV matches with DDP. Oh, yeah, there was that Pillman masterpiece, in which Mero was game. But really, a very good match with Steve Austin isn't a disapointment, it's exactly what you could expect out of him. I say it was better than Michaels vs Bulldog actually. Vince thought for whatever reason that Mero and Sable would be the new Savage & Liz I guess. Not good judgement on his part, although Sable's fake boobs ended up drawing well for a while.

Yeah, a four-way cluster with nothing in term of why the audience should care about any of them, already fighting for a shot at a title they have no idea about hold by a champion they don't know and have not even seen yet was a brillant way to introduce the cruiserweight guys, indeed. (and I haven't watched the CWC shows. So. There.)

Come on. Atrocious. Yeah, the gimmick was bad and nondescript (he said it himself he had no idea what they wanted him to be), but Mero had plenty of good matches there. He stole the show working with Austin at KOTR 96. And then he was a lot of fun as a Marvelous Marc bullying Sable around.

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

Day 10 - B Block Nakajima vs. YOSHI-HASHI YH's got a bad shoulder and Nakajima knows it. I have trouble getting a connection with YH. Maybe it's because if some of his offense, which I find too indyffied. Maybe it's because he's ugly. That nose. Wear a mark already. I don't get the baton whirling. Anyway, this is quite good, and YH is damn over especially against that NOAH parasite Nakajima, beating on their New Japan favourite underdog this side of Homna. Maybe a bit of iffy selling toward the end, but this got really good. Nagata vs. Elgin This is one day where Nagata doesn't look good. And Elgin needs someone to wear him in. Elgin's got a bad shoulder and Nagata doesn't go for it. It's goofy like that for the whole match. And sloppy on occasion. And with awful transitions, like Angle-cruising. Yeah, this is bad Nagata, which is too bad. He looked out of it. Elgin has this bad ROH-like instinct of running through big spots, like that stuff on the edge of the canvas which leads to zilch. This was a bad match by two guys who could have a really good one, so it's not excusable. Shibata vs. Yano Yano is one swift motherfucker. Shibata just threw himself without thinking. Hey, what are you gonna do ? Omega vs. EVIL Sorry, but Omega just needs to settle the fuck down. In each of his serious matches, there's a point I don't give a fuck anymore because of his ridiculous acting and tendencies to thrown huge spots around and do nothing with them. So yeah, this is a good match but using a double nelson headdropping suplex as a transition spot and basically forcin EVIL to transition into offense without seeling shit is bad work. Then it's big spots galore, but I couldn't care less. EVIL is a solid worker. Omega has crazy potential, but he sure needs some serious taming. Honma vs. Naito Naito is piling them up at this point. Ace leg work, the stuff on the barricade was brutal. Honma sells. Crazy concept, I know. And Naito always comes back to it. And it tells a story. He doesn't let Honma go into his stupid headrop shit early. Naito is smart as fuck and I love the character. And then we get to the part where Homna is pulling through and we get to the big spots, bit it means something. Did the crowd chant "Hon-ma" for the entire match ? This was excellent. No. This was great. Yeah, Naito is piling them up despite not being the greatest mechanic by a long stretch.

What did I say ? Funking Terry !

A Block - Day 9 Tonga vs Ishii Highlight was a good looking woman at ringside wearing a Tonga mask. And camouflage pants. So, this actually exist, a hot Tama Tonga fan. I think she cried when he got teh victory. Lucky girl, he probably won't win much more. I wondered if Tonga ever hit the RKO, until he finally did, after several attemps. Maybe the most enjoyable Tama match too thus far, a cool Road Runner + Will Coyote running around sequence and nice build to Tama finally hitting the RKO. So, it appears Ishii is more than just stuff epics. SANADA vs Fale Big load of nothing. They didn't click. Both appear to need a strong worker to have a really good match. Their style didn't mesh. Yup. Not actively bad, but... Makabe vs Marufuji Smart match. Maru sees stiffness doesn't cut it at first, so he chooses the way of quickness, but gets cut off. Finally leads a to final stiffing encounter, whom Maru wins eventually because he's better at it. Good dynamic, good finishing stretch, good match. Best Makabe match. These two both were in J Cups at one time. Crazy when you see Makabe now. Tenzan vs Okada Super veteran underdog vs, kinda more bitchy than usual Okada, which was fitting and made the match even better. Oh yeah, Tenzan worked hard and was fiery. Again, good dynamic and built to a very good match overall, with he crowd really pulling for the older guy. Okada did a super solid job there too. Tanahashi vs Goto Isn't Goto kinda the underachiever of the mid-00's generation ? He kinda looks like it. He lacks something to get to the very next level, but him and Tanahashi probably had so many excellent match together that he shows. In both a good and bad way (as in, it feels like they are having "just another" match, kinda). But mostly in a good way, pretty much all action, with faliliarity playing a part and Tanahashi busting out some really sweet stuff. Excellent match, mostly based on pure action more than strong storytelling.

Why don't you go somewhere or do something away from the computer where you don't have to act so hard anytime someone on the forum shows sympathy to their stupid heroes. What is not sad is him retiring for good, if it is, at 72. What is sad however is that Terry Funk probably had to work and beat himself up way longer than he should because pro-wrestling is a fucked up business with no pension for guys like Terry Funk. Getting old and health deteriorating, yeah, it's sad. It's also life when you reach a point. And all things considered and with the life he lived thus far, Terry still made it much better than most of his peers actually. So, there.

Terry Funk may be my all-time favourite wrestler, but are we gonna pretend it's a sad thing ? Seriously. He's 72 years old. Go fishing and live happily and the healthiest you can Terry, you deserve it. (probably be back in 6 months do something stupid at ringside somewhere anyway)

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

DAY 8 - B Block Honma vs. Yano Standart Yano bullshit, which works well with goofy-grotesque Homna. It's interesting how Japanese wrestlers are so much better on average at working comedy than US guys. I mean, from guys who can also work serious, very good matches. Anyway, this is Yano doing his thing. Ya know the drill. EVIL vs. YOSHI-HASHI Both guy from the middle of the card I'm slowly learning to enjoy more, although I'll never be a fan of YH indierrific tendencies. EVIL is much more solid it seems. This pairing works though, as YH makes a good underdog and the equal footing creates a nice dynamic in which I can buy YH actually going to the extent he does to win a match. Hell, I was disappointed for him when EVIL kicked out at one point, so they made it work nicely. Really good match indeed. Nakajima vs. Nagata Kicks. Lots of them. And Nakajima actually being a dick by jumping old man Nagata. Damn. Those knees in the chest, he had it coming. This is my kind of stuff, especially when a grumpy guy kicks a young punk really hard and the young punk retaliates. This is where slaps exchange work too. Simply excellent. Omega vs. Elgin I hate to be negative about a match that had so much really good stuff going on. Best Omega has looked. But really, when you make a bunch of headropping and powerpomp neck first into the corner look irrelevant, you lose me completely. To the point the kick outs at teh end annoy me because it's like nothing matters. Yes, indeed it reminds me of Cena vs Owens, and it's not a compliment at all. So there, it built as being very very good and ended it doing ROH no-sell/kick-out galore bullshit. No idea what to do with this. I guess I'd say it was good, because it was really good then really stupid. Naito vs. Shibata And this is the exact opposite. Everything made sense, the selling was great and consistent, the work was smart. Naito was like a trolling shark, with great stalling and great attacks on the injuries. They milked the submissions like crazy. The counters were on point, beautiful and at the right time. Naito got dropped on his head and guess what ? He stayed laying down face against the mat. Man, this match was terrific. Leaning on MOTYC to me. Naito really is something else despite not having the most crisp or impressive offensive repertoire. But his facials, sellinga dn body language is beautiful. And Shibata did an ace job as the injured warrior pulling through. Yeah, beautiful match. One hell of a card, with a super hot crowd. Day 8, what a day.