El-P

Awful massacre of a match, ending with a screwjob no less. I hated, hated the Rock at this point. I didn't realize Foley was as much if not more to blame. The chairshots barrage is also basically the reenactment of a match between Cactus Jack and Shane Douglas. So much for ECW not being an influence at all.

This is it. I had been pretty much a diehard WWF fan since I stumble onto pro-wrestling sometime in 1990. And during those years, the Royal Rumble was always my favourite event of the year. And Russo killed it for me. It was really disheartning after a super hot 97/first half of 98 which had been the most fun I ever had watching WWF. Not just the Rumble itself, but the whole PPV was a total downer. And yes, after that Rumble, I wasn't a fan anymore. It was a pretty sad time, which would only get worse with the death of Owen a few months later, while at the same time WCW was gooing down the crapper quickly, and even quicker once Russo would also proceed to ruin that too. Yep, this is where everything ended for me after a decade of having fun. I never went back, really.

Russo really proceeded to make every title a joke by this point. Debra's boobs were the only way they managed to get some reactions during Jarrett's matches. Poor guy.

Bret the sarcastic heel was awesome. He did some underrated promo stuff during that time.

Oh man, totally forgot about this stuff. Jaguar was kinda trying to go back to the 80's with Jd' at the time I seem to remember. Which meant : bloooooood. Kimura was a blood worker anyway, quite a terrific brawler. FLIK could give you more infos if he see this, as I really don't remember the specifics. I got into Jd' a little bit later, although there was always a very 80's element to it, with blood thirsty heels (The Bloody anyone ?).

Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto, Jaguar Yokota, Devil Masami, Chigusa Nagayo, Megumi Kudo, Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida and many many others work circles around so many men wrestlers it's not even funny. It's really sad they have been kinda brushed aside because of a stylistic backlash.

When well done, shoot-style wrestling was one of the most fun and beautiful thing ever in pro-wrestling. And it was probably a lot safer than taking a billion simple bumps too most of the time.

One of my favourite Thunder worker in 98.

Underrated worker in the mid-90's WWF as soon as he dropped the stupid Kwang gimmick. I'm really curious to watch his PR work.

So, no one to say anything positive about Steve Keirn ? Won't begin with me. This guy bores the living hell out of me. And I'm not just talking about his days as Skinner, or the fact he managed to make a shitty tag team with Bobby Eaton of all people in WCW in the mid 90's. His days as the Fabulous Ones are a complete blurr to me too. Watched quite a bit of their stuff, in several different territories, and they never did anything for me, especially Keirn. Neither as heels or faces. So.

Blame me for not following 00's WWE closely. Doesn't change the fact I don't see much if at all of Michaels in his early work. The hair, maybe.

The idea that Jericho worked light is pretty funny considering his rep. That he was sloppy and thus didn't always hit, yeah, but Jericho worked pretty stiff, and it showed too. And I really don't see any Shawn Michaels in Jericho either. Jericho was a guy who "watched too much Japanese shit", dixit Jim Cornette. Early Jericho is a sloppy version of Benoit * Ultimo Dragon. He's one of the WCW guys that actually got better in the WWF (as opposed to most of them), but maybe he was also working much lighter in 2001 once HHH and such complained about his stiffness, but I haven't watched that stuff in ages.

One of the best, I dunno, but certainly far from the worst. He sure was better than a bunch of them. No mention of Vampiro yet ? Shit worker, shit promo.

Sue me, I enjoyed this for what it was.

Sloooooooooooooooooow climbing up the ladder. And for the first time in a WWF ladder match, chairshots on the ladder, which I never understood how it was supposed to hurt more than chairshots directly on flesh. Amazing heat, but a far cry from either Michaels vs Razor matches (I'm typing this from memory, haven't seen this in at least 10 years if not more). As far as significance goes, very important match as both guys are over big time and look like the future of the company.

Worst ever, I doubt it. One of the most annoying ever, he has a shot.

Nah, Ice Train was green but showed some potential. He never got the chance to developp. Poor Big E Langston would be a more fitting description actually. He wasn't that bad and actually had some fun little matches here and there.

The EWF episodes from Eurosport... I forgot about those. Regal, Owen, Benoit, Iizuka, HERODES and random superworkers showed up, on the other hand you had Flesh Gordon, who was horrible, and gimmicks like TRAVESTI MAN. Yes, his name was THE TRANNY. He was a fat short dude wearing polka dots who actually was a tremendous bumper. I never actually saw that on Eurosport, only saw a few episodes on national TV TF1. Damn, I missed some stuff that seems awesomely random. Here's a vintage match with Flesh Gordon & Prince Zephy, the two babyface "stars" : (and yeah, you've got the French equivalent of rednecks in the audience) (damn, there was actually some pretty good stuff here from Zephy & Jessy Texas. The valet holding the ropes each time his guy makes a tag is a great gimmick too).

I saw him in France too in a shitty promotion that had a few episodes on TV in 91 or so. I remember guys like Carlos Plata, Johnny Saint or Doc Dean showing up too, along with some French wrestlers (the "star" and owner of the promotion was a guy named Flesh Gordon. Yep.)

I did. I'm surprised Tiger Jeet Singh hasn't been mentionned yet. Well, okay, he drew, so maybe we can't say he was worthless. Still. The ony guy who I've seen got something, anything semi-watchable out of this load was Fujinami. Dave Sullivan was indeed pretty worthless in the ring.

Crusher Maedomari. Yep. Definitely. Even Shark had a few moments where she would look half competent. But Crusher has always been godawful. On every aspect.

Watched the few part I could be interested in. Yeah, those Bella girls did some decent stuff aout there, especially during the ending stretch. Nice knee, nice missile dropkick. Some awful acting on N's part too. The tag match was pretty disjointed, but some good stuff from Dustin. How old is he by now ? Damn, this guy is good. They need to bring Terri back just once for the nostalgia kick though. I still associate Goldust with the entire act. And speaking about male/female act, glad to see Rusev is still my favourite part of the show. I'm not sure how I feel about hearing "please show some respect and rise for the playing of the Russian national anthem" in 2014. Part of me finds it kinda sad that the best part of the only game in US pro-wrestling today is basically the best Nikolai Volkoff ever. Part of me finds it cool. The fact Rusev got better in the ring and delivers an actual good power match here helps. So does Lana, who's not only one of the hottest valet ever, but her maneurisms totally crack me up. She's great. Considering the diplomatic relations between US and Russia won't get better anytime soon, they might as well push this act to the moon. Of course John Cena will get the last word and that will be a bummer, but Rusev as the best Taz ever (yeah, also) works for me. And Lana's as.. act, is really awesome. Yeah, that too. That main event was garbage. Straight out of late 98/99 WWF. Yipeee, they jumped out of high places in the first third of the match. Hey, an ECW chant. The only thing missing element there was Kane. I guess Bray Wyatt will do now, since he's the recipient of all shittiest-corniest-goofball "creepy" angles now. Yeah, he's definitely the new Kane character. And people thought Taker's ghost at Rumble 94 was dumb. So yeah. Rusev and Lana and stuff like Goldust being so good might be enough for me to fast forward through the load of crap and select just a few little things here and there.

A hologram ? Bray Wyatt really is reprising the role of funky cartoon Undertaker from the mid-90's. They need to bring back the freaky kid too. A fuck finish in a HITC ? So WCW 99 indeed. Rusev vs Big Show ? The only thing that looks appealing to me reading the comments, as Rusev (and LANA, be real), was the only act I really enjoyed when I stopped bothering months ago. I may look at this one quickly, and the hologram, just for the hell of it.

No. I'm just a little bit surprised by the enthousiasm, considering the backlash Benoit got (and again, some have been vocals around here about the fact they haven't been able or willing to watch Benoit since the murders, while I could, so...). My initial post also had a part of sarcastic black comedy in it, but it got lost in translation I think. Then it got all real serious, which is a good in the end thing since I believe it's an interesting point to discuss.

It's really not a matter of caring for Brody himself. It's a matter of "Do I want to actively seek out matches from a guy who most probably murdered a guy and get enjoyment out of his work ?" My personnal answer is no. Like I said, it's a case by case matter, as I know of (and understand) people who can't watch a Benoit match anymore, while I've been able to (in a broader context, again). Now if you're talking about caring about the victim, indeed I have no emotional link to Brody at all while I was a fan of Woman. Plus, I am very sensitive to the issue of violence against women, so in all logic I should have had more issues watching Benoit. Like I said, my own personal question here is "Do I want to willingly search for some new entertainment from a guy who killed ?". The key points are *willingly* and *new* to me. At this point, I'd rather not.