El-P

Probably, and that's one really good thing about the current scene. That's why I find it ridiculous and immature when old-timers are sobbing because the current guys like to "play X-box" and don't got shit in each others bags and drug-rape female fans (sorry, RATS).

PPV 41 Lead-in PPV before the big Jarrett / Raven match, and the final angle was disapointing. First off, Jarrett comes off like a complete scumbag beating on Alexis like she’s just another warm body. Twice in the same show, with garbage weapons. Especially on a show where the hottest new heel is all about mistreating his former girlfirend because he’s a jealous prick. Plus we get Eric Watts thrown in. At least the whole second generation stable seems to be done, Watts is just a goof now, and it’s not clear what is his purpose. Anyway, the whole ECW team joigns Raven at the end, wraps Jarrett in a straightjacket and barbwire and… well, ok they are ECW guys, but what about the Raven vs Sandman feud ? I wonder how Raven will explain that… Talking ECW, New Jack, Sandman & Saturn vs Brian Lee, Slash & Mike Awesome was quite the garbage match, with barbwire on the ropes a la PR and New Jack busting sickles and staple gun and shit. He and Slah exchange bloodcells. Awesome remembers he debuted in FMW by talking the painfull bumps. Guys going through tables. Well if you go that route, might as well go all the way. Looked like an old school japanese sleaze garbage match, so I actually enjoyed the insanity. Justin Credible shows up again and has an impromptu match against Slash, who really earns his money. Justin looked pretty good, although his outfit is even worse than during his ECW days. What’s with the giant… stuff hanging on out of one back pocket ? So yeah, the big undercard match was Kash vs Trinity, preceded with a promo segment that turned into a slapfest. Huge reaction for that. Yeah, less is more. As far as the match went, it was as good as it could be, with some sloppiness obviously and awkward moments, but they made it work. Trinity took one hell of a beating. Too bad the ending involved SEX again, it kinda ruined the feeling, but Kid Kash is made as a scumbag heel. AJ Styles is still paired against Gilberti, this time teaming up with D-Lo against Sanders too in a fine opener, but he really should be used better than this. D-Lo, well, D-Lo ain’t a star, no other way to twist it. And then two really good matches, XXX (Daniels & Skipper) vs AMW, although it was only Storm for a good part of the match. I guess they were teasing a Harris turn with the old « fake beating in the back » angle, but nope. This pairing gets better everytime. They still tease disension in AMW, with Storm acting bitchy that time. Can’t they just get along ? Main event was really good too, Amazing Red vs Jerry Lynn in a pure babyface match. Red looked a bit banged up and wasn’t as quick or precise as usual, but it didn’t keep the match from building to a hot finish. I like how Lynn’s opponents do counter his stupid guillotine move from time to time, nice attention to detail here. Also, Lynn really doesn’t approach this kind of match the way he would against straight heels, he’s not using much punches for instance. Since Konnan was talking about minorities and shit on color, we get a screwjob finish with Ron Killings attacking Lynn. Isn’t this the third time Killings turns in like four weeks ? I guess we get a heel minority faction soon, which is kinda ironic when you think about it. Some good stuff with the tag team and X divisions, a nice payoff to the Kid Kash heel turn (although SEX involvement sucks). As an old ECW fan, I don’t mind to see this Team Extreme having bloodletting, it gives a different flavor to the show. Basically, the stuff that really doesn’t fly at this point is SEX (what are they trying to accomplish ?), although Gilberti has been pretty good on the mic, and sadly Jarrett who’s an awful babyface champion. Raven has totally carried the feud and made it seem like a big deal. Overall, the product is much better than just a month before, there seems to have much more focus despite the surprise appearances every week, lot of them not even showing up again (Viscera, Mike Barton). I actually look forward to PPV 42. Maybe I shouldn’t. 2003/04/23 New Jack, Sandman & Saturn vs Brian Lee, Slash & Mike Awesome 2003/04/23 XXX (Daniels & Skipper) vs AMW 2003/04/23 Amazing Red vs Jerry Lynn

I'd agree with that though. Throw a great punch and have it sold like shit, the result is shit. Throw a shitty punch and have it sold beautifully, and the punch looks pretty good after all.

You can't be sure how hard a guy is hitting. Terry Funk's punches, if you believe Mick Foley, are apparently fucking rough. As far as inspiring the imagination, it sure works with Lawler considering how much people make shit about how creative he was in multiple ways of using his punches when he fact he was just... punching. (but hey, Parv's stuff about Flair's chops is pretty unreal too, so you see, people hitting very hard also inspire imagination)

Can't say this is surprising, but I thought she had been doing better teaching in Japan these last few years ? Well, this is a prety sad story, she's a girl who pretty much had it tough since childhood and she apparently extremely smart. Didn't she speak like four of five languages or something ? The way her life spiraled out of control after she got fired from WWF, from the most petty reasons, is an amazing trainwreck. I was a fan of the character until she became an actual worker, which she sucked at. But the whole amazon woman bodyguard was pretty fun and played a big part in getting Hunter over in the first place. I guess she could have dropped dead anytime in the last 10 years it wouldn't have been surprising news. Another sad casualty of pro-wrestling. Word. French ex-porn actress and feminist Ovidie talks about "social tatoo" for the people working in the porn industry. You just never can get away from it even if you did one scene, it follows you all your life. Coupled with the slut-shaming culture, this can get pretty ugly especially for girls doing it for all the wrong reasons, like Chyna or Tammy did.

A few years back I got into watching old Hogan matches. I enjoyed a great many of them especially the blood feuds and the hot sprints. But honest to God, watching Hogan is like staying home from work sick and getting into the daytime soaps. If you keep watching them for long enough at least one of the storylines is gonna get you hooked. You'll come back for more all right, and by the end of the week you might even convince yourself that they're really well written, but if you have any sense you'll go back to work the following week and forget the whole thing ever happened. Apologies to Hogan and soap fans. Awesome. Really enjoy you going through the names BTW. Keep doing what you're doing !

I really have't seen/watched any Dick Togo since my last MPro tape in early 00 or something. That's the only reason he doesn't get rated. Togo was a great worker. The WWF did its best to ruin him. Just picture Togo in 1998 against Rey in WCW. Damn.

Pillman. My WCW watch saw his stock rise a lot. #43. Excellent in pretty much any role he was put in. The most underrated worker of the early 90's. The injuries killed his career and at the end his life, he had so upward potential still by early 1995. The Loose Cannon had some really good moments, but overall it was the weakest part of his career even as a character, too forced and the shooty stuff led nowhere and had a terrible influence on someone like Russo. But anyway, love Pillman the worker.

When an obvious joke goes over the head of someone like that, it's really telling...

I would agree with peak Nash (the few instances that exist) being better than Hogan, Piper, and Dusty. Those guys were cartoons and I never bought into them. Dusty was a bad ass on promos but the magic was gone as soon as he stepped into the ring. One thing for Piper is that he has absolutely the best movie/acting output of any wrestler ever. The Rock disagrees with that last statement.

You've giving out cred points now ? You think I gave two fucks about whatever "cred" ? Seriously now. And by the way, when is Hogan gonna finally drop ?

To me Piper had zero great match to his resume, it's as simple as that. A bunch of really good stuff with really strong workers (Bret, Valentine, hum... that's it). And his stuff looked shitty most of the time, even in his prime. Piper was all talk and no game. As far as Nash goes, he was much better than he gets credit for. Funny that in this days of minimalistic work being approved over "movez", Kevin Nash has not been recognized as one damn efficient big man worker. If Lawler "hid an imaginary foreign object for ten minutes" routine is considered great work, Nash framing an elbow and leaning on the ropes onto his way to mega-contracts and getting himself over like a madman on Nitro should be considered state of the art too. These days, even fucking Kamala gets more credits. Just hilarious.

Yes. You'll be able to handle it or you want a Temesta ?

You're just flat out creating revisionist history now No, I'm just stating what I think of these workers. No match from Dusty, Hogan or Piper get close to the matches Nash had with Bret & Shawn in 95/96. It's that simple. Don't use big words around me.

I should have rated Kevin Nash, really. He's better than Dusty, Piper or Hogan. Talk about getting the most out of the least and still have some great matches with great workers, which is something none of the other three ever managed to do.

Isn't Jericho way past his prime anyway now ? If that if held against him, what about Flair past 92 ? (leaves the room quietly)

After your Hogan posts that is hilarious. Not really. The idea that Hogan all of sudden is a great worker is a total product of Post-Benoit-Workrate-Guilt. Jericho was considered a really good worker for most of his career, with ups and downs. The "Jericho sucks" stuff just comes from nowhere. And it's not like I'm a big fan. He ranked in 2006, so thinking he's great is not entirely new. Not entirely new, but equally asinine, especially when he gained almost ten spots.

After your Hogan posts that is hilarious. Not really. The idea that Hogan all of sudden is a great worker is a total product of Post-Benoit-Workrate-Guilt. Jericho was considered a really good worker for most of his career, with ups and downs. The "Jericho sucks" stuff just comes from nowhere. And it's not like I'm a big fan.

Avalon. Not talking about the early 70's stuff of course.

The rant for funny indeed. First time I heard "cunty man". However I stopped when Cornette talked about LU was a disgrace to pro-wrestling. I really like Corny, but he's so off-base on this. Well, and calling Sami Zayn the "ginger muslim" on the post Mania show just didn't seat well with me.

The hate on Jericho is downright comical at this point. He was #77 on my list.

Hogan represents the wholesome, moralistic, respectable facade of the 80s. Flair represents the sleazy, money hungry, decadent truth. Hogan represents the foreign policy and the jingoism, Flair represents the Yuppie culture. Hogan is Rocky IV. Flair is Wall Street. Hogan is Foreigner. Flair is Roxy Music.

Say how you really feel about Hogan, Parv.

I'll pass this time since I talked about "dumb american kids", but I usually don't appreciate essentialization. I guess you're refering to the fact Jerry Lewis was take seriously by the movie critics here. Well, as it should. Although I never understood why Jude Appatow was revered though. Anyway. Hey, don't give me too much shit about Hogan. I said before that his work later on in WCW was much better than Flair's.

No. it's been well established that Hogan kayfabe character was an asshole mistreating his friends and a whiny egomaniac bitch. There's a whole thread about this. Plus he was cheating his ass off and using shitty heel tactics (like scratching his opponent's back) despite being a colossus. It was so easy to agree with Jesse Ventura on color when he was pointing out how awful Hogan really was.