El-P

Not to sound like a dick (pun intended), but as opposed to what ? Judas Priest ? Hell, classic heavy metal's imagery is gay as shit, and there's a reason why. Demolition was such a gay gimmick, it's not even funny.

When Al Snow was using Prodigy back in 98 in ECW, it totally fit his insane character too.

WTF ? Still ? Really ? Seriously ? I wasn't aware of that. I mean, electro is everywhere. Days of Chicago house and Detroit Techno being played mostly in gays (and black) clubs really goes back 30 years ago now. Since the second Summer of Love and the rave craze in the 90's in Europe, the international success of the "French Touch" (idiotic term, but still) in the late 90's, I thought electro was just another genre by this point. Well, ok, it's stll rooted in gay culture somewhat, I mean, the last really famous electro club in Paris was the Pulp, which was a lesbian club, but still. David Guetta is mainstream (for better of for worse. Ok, for worse). Daft Punk are mainstream.

I had to google that. Amazing, indeed.

She does sounds a little bit like Chyna. Which doesn't bring back any good memories. Balor & Joe vs Lucha Dragons was a decent little TV match. Joe looked much better here than against Corbin, although a few spots with Sin Cara looked shoddy, but Cara doesn't help. Not being overly familiar with Balor on TV (as opposed to specials I mean), it seems obvious to me WWE should push this guy to the top on the main roster. The Demon entrance = draws kids. Everyday Balor = draws women. And yeah, I can totally get behind a Balor vs Joe title match.

Yep, that struck me as well. It's not always *good*, but it has character a lot of the time. I've seen Emma once and I remember (and enjoy) her theme for instance. The Vaudevillians, Fynn Balor, Tyler Breeze, Sasha, Bailey, all have music that really fit and is memorable. Randy Orton's bland and dated neo-meal stuff in the mid-00's was an integral part of the dullness of the product that carries on to this day on the main product. It was stricking that pretty much all the entrances on TakeOver were much better than anything at the SummerSlam.

Ether smells like crazy. But really, referees are dumb in pro-wrestling anyway. But yeah, the worst is when you have stuff like guitar pieces all over the ring with a guy down and the ref counts like nothing happened.

I can understand it working in the 50's or 60's. But by the 80's, it really looked goofy. There's a reason why stuff like the heart punch wasn't used by then (well, ok, Crush did it in 97, and it looked idiotic).

Garvin wasn't that much worse in the early 90's than he was in the 80's in Texas tagging along with the Freebirds on occasion. They had a few decent and fun performances against the right opponents, but it's still pretty much a horrid team.

Yeah. but wrestling has never been about what DOES hurt, it's about what LOOKS like it hurts. Abdominal claws just look weak. bingo Trapezius claw = islander worker catching his breath.

The sledgehammer is by far the stupidest I can think of on a major stage. Dumb as fuck. Now, my favourite dumb foreign object may have been Mad Dog Vachon's prostetic leg at IYH. And of course, the lethal women's heels in WCW the same year.

The iron claw is dumb as fuck. The iron claw on the stomach is downright retarded. "Owww, he's pinching my tummy !" All the Von Erich boys had that kinda awkward way to move around, and Kevin was the most awkward of them all, rendered worst by the somewhat creepy barefoot look. Why the fuck would anyone wrestle barefoot unless you're an islander native (gimmick) or doing a martial/arts (MMA today) gimmick ? Kevin was just not very good.

Ok, she's my new favourite worker although I've never actually seen her.

For those who aren't familiar at all with her (that's me), what is she about exactly (apart from being a relly good worker, from what I understand) ?

Ah, Japan… some things just never change apparently. Where is that quote about Vince being outraged about the very fact asian porn would even exist or something ?

Not a good exemple though. Onita was a much bigger star in Japan than Randy Orton ever was or will ever be in the US. And FMW was not a marginal promotion by any means. When you pack 40.000 people in the Kawasaki Stadium without strong TV (or any TV at all for most of the original Onita run), you're not what I'd call marginal. Onita isn't the Sandman.

Dean was pushed right away in the cruiserweight division. Benoit was pushed almost right away too with the new Horsemen. With Eddie it took a bit more time I believe (although he was US champ as early as 96), likewise Jericho. But yeah, there's really nothing wrong about Jericho putting himself in that group. If one doesn't belong in term of worker, it would be Malenko actually (well, and Saturn, since he was the fourth one alongside Eddie, Dean and Benoit).

If Snuka is thrown in jail, does he lose his HOF spot ?

Okay, let's not get ridiculous now.

I doubt Jaguar Yokota was watching ECW tapes while training Jd's girls in the mid 90's. And I don't see how or why she would get aware of the Sandman later on. But what's mind blowing and cool as hell was that the Sandman knew about Jaguar. Because I doubt ECW guys were watching too much old school Zenjo or current Jd' in the locker room either.

That Alexa Bliss vs Blue Pants match on NXT was pretty bad. Blue Pants theme is one of the oddest I've ever heard, no idea what it's about. She doesn't seem to be any good though. And you got Emma talking about the "Diva Revolution" over there too now. Yikes. But I guess that ship has sailed anyway at this point, with the stupid beat the clock match on RAW.

That's pretty much why I got to love it when I was 14. Never cared about sports that much. It was just a living cartoon with violence and goofy characters. I was watching Saint Seya at the time (hell like every other boy from my generation). There was no reason I wouldn't watch pro-wrestling when I stumbled onto it. Then, it became an addiction. Then I had to deconstruct the thing (when I got on the Internet and became "smart"), then reconstruct it (when I realized I wasn't that "smart" after all). And that became fun.

That's a great story. Gotta love Hak.

I have an odd fondness in my heart for WWF in 95. I really liked those wacky vignettes and characters that year : Hakushi, Jean Pierre Lafitte, Skip, Make a Difference Fatu, and of course, Waylon Mercy and Goldust. WCW in 95 had Hogan being truly unbearable. I take the Diesel push over that shit every day and twice on Sunday. At least he's got the Bret Hart matches and the Shawn Mania match.

"Soyons désinvolte, n'ayons l'air de rien." (this quote would go over so much on a French board) (ok, this is a quote from a very famous song by french rock band Noir Désir, whose singer Bertrand Cantat killed his wife, famous actress Marie Trintignant, by basically beating her to death. He was sentenced to jail though and served his time, unlike some others...) (and it means "let's be jaunty, let's be nonchalant", as in "let's pretend nothing happens", of course the song predates the incident by a good 10 years, but still, applied to that Snuka case, well...)