El-P

I figured it would be the case when I realized they were doing their shitty "wargames" matches two weeks after Blood & Guts. I have no idea what happened though, I'm sooo behind on things (not even watched Full Gear yet) and don't wanna get spoiled so I'm so out of the loop Vince McMahon could have died and I would not have known.

I was there for both, I don't really remember when SC went down exactly but since I joined PWO in 2008, well. I do remember that the last GWE ended up being a toxic debacle, whereas the SC one was mostly great fun (at least that's how I remember it). (I have nothing to say about the current GWE, for which I have zero interest, and it doesn't even have anything to do with that particular *incident* that happened and was handled very poorly (someone should have been banned from both PWO *and* the Discord, he hasn't been and was still talking shit after his fake-ass "apology". Duly noted). I still have a specific screen cap though, you never know when I might post it, probably at the worst timing imaginable too 😎. But really, ranking wrestlers in 2025 is something I have no interest in whatsoever) Forums have been dead for a while now. PWO peaked in early 2010. We're in 2025. The fact there are still a few people posting on this one is more of an oddity than anything else. It had its run.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. That was, weird. 😄

I mean, good for him in this case, and if the title is indeed made to be defended in funky outside places, that can make for some fun stuff. Although that was supposed to be the International title too or whatever its name was. There was really no need at all for yet another title. There's talk about Anna Jay's contract coming to end soon. I dunno. She's an original, and I'll always have a soft spot for that pandemic era and the amazing Dark Order vignettes from BTE back then, when she would do her best not to burst out laughing at the silly stuff around her. She hasn't improved that much overall inside the ring, apart from when she came back from that Stardom tour, but they really did not build on it. Lack of reps hurt people like her. I'd like her to stay, honestly, alongside Tay.

They completely ruined the tag team scene for months. They always have the worst match on every big show. Jetspeed were on fire when they debuted and then they got made into complete geeks. They only recovered once working with FTR. Ricochet, who was working alongside Swerve as a main event level player, has been reduced to some trios geek (and BTW, how can anyone forgive Swerve being squashed by Lashley with NO FOLLOW-UP whatsoever ?). MVP is burying everyone he's working with in promos (hating on Triple H is great, trying to emulate him, not so much). The MJF feud has been going nowhere for obvious reasons. They did not put over anyone as they refused to drop the tag titles by themselves. Apart from me kinda warming up to Shelton as he's been quite good in ring, they're easily one of the worst signing in AEW ever. They did nothing to beat the allegations of not wanting to put anyone over either (don't give me that crap about putting Ricochet and GOA over, as MVP did the job). And they are 150 years old combined. Hopefully none of them is in the CC this year. They are taking up TV time younger and better talents should get. (EDIT : if either of them wins that useless new title, then we know what's what)

I mean, I agree with this of course. There's plenty wrong about refs holding their count or counting when shoulders aren't at all on the mat, which also happens all the time. But the mere fact Shelton Benjamin beat Speedball is awful. Especially after Lashley basically squashed Ricochet like he did Swerve. I feel like I'm watching AEW in November of 2024 again, and that's not something I wanna feel for the last month of the year.

How long are the Hurt Syndicate still under contract ? Don't tell me TK gave them 3 years ? The first year has been unbearable enough, and keeps on being unbearable. RIcochet looked so awesome before hooking up with them. Now he's stuck in that shitty vortex and looks like a geek. And Shelton Benjamin calling an audible ? Blame the ref all you want (and you kinda should), but why the fuck is Shelton Benjamin calling audibles ? When you manage to make Mike Bailey look stupid, you're one special kind of bad. And yeah, BOTH HS guys won their match, of course, because they absolutely have no problem doing jobs. What can you say, after that awesome special episode last week, this week was a disapointment and the worst episode in a long ass time. Well, PPV should be awesome anyway. Mox vs O'Reilly in a no holds barred match sounds like fire. This has been the great feud no one ever thought would happen. Pac vs Darby ? Same. And then it's CC season. What a year this has been, in term of quality.

Add this C) a *black woman* that is not doing it in the WWE machine. 20 years of WWE monopoly has made wrestling fans way stupider on average, really, it's a scary thing. Honestly I would not mind her winning the belt against Stat either, although the arc that the AEW belt is the one she can't seem to win is probably better for a win later on. But yeah, Ultimo Moné is awesome. Gotta love how she behaves with the fans on these shows too, saluting and taking pictures with everyone at ringside like she's Tanahashi. It's so obvious she loves doing this.

If anything, they should get a per appearance contract out of it. They certainly looked better than the two other idiots. Maya World in particular looks like she's got good potential. And so Mercedes is winning another title today. Well, unification of the ROH tv title, whatever it means. She got a 13th belt a few days back defeating Malaysian worker Nor Phoenix Diana at HOG. She's really doing the Ric Flair thingy by having matches she should not have, neither in term of competitiveness nor quality, with local champs. I mean, she went 18 minutes 50/50 with Diana, who has had 43 matches total per Cagematch, and although she does have good potential, you can see she's very green still and some of her stuff did not look great (she did a bad botch near the end in which it looks like she stunned herself). This stint is one for the ages in term of what it accomplishes for these people. (because really now what are the odds most of these match would even happen anyway ?)

Nothing can follow Tanahashi's retirement. Especially with Okada doing his best to give him the best match possible. And while Takeshita is one of the best worker in the world, Tsuji just ain't at this level at all, and basically whatever combination of main events you get, he'll be a very distant fourth best. So might as well end up with Tanahashi. Apparently Aaron Wolf has the charisma of a wooden door. The fact he's working with EVIL is like... well, I guess smokes and mirrors will be in effect to carry a guy on his first match. He may be a mainstream name in Japan, but if he sucks in the ring or has zero charisma, that is not gonna cut it, not to mention the possible resentment of him getting pushed ahead of better talents. I have no idea if the current generation of fans still cares about this kinda thing either (I mean, the legit amateur wrestling star). The fact there will be no IWGP junior title match (not single nor tags) at WK doesn't sound like the booking is getting any better in the grand scheme of things. Like, how hard was it to present a major single junior match at the biggest Dome show in 25 years ? Saya vs Syuri hopefully get enough time to shine.

Of course, Dezmond Xavier was the "mystery" partner for the Rascalz. Talk about a career move that went nowhere. 5 years later, he's back in TNA at the exact same spot, only his tag team partners very well may end up leaving soon to go where he came from (although at this point, who knows, these four guys should really try to go to AEW instead , they ain't going nowhere far, as demonstrated, in the WWE system). Not to mention, he *still* is gonna work with a NXT affiliated product, only he's like the Indi Hartwell's of the world (no, I don't mean he's a crappy worker). The dynamics are legit funny as hell. Also, TNA is basically now feuding with Evolve-level workers. N°2 company, baby.

And they darkened the place for their 13/11 tapings because they couldn't get 350 people in Full Sail. Yeah, those NXT fans surely are turning up to see a bunch of mid-carders beat up the World Champ of the N°2 promotion in the world. The promotion is so hot right now thanks to the WWE "collab", you know... But Carlos "Cuckchair owner" Silva said new big TV deal was coming (I mean, he's been saying it for 6 months now, so it must be big), so everything is great. And now apparently they want to turn people being pissed about it into an angle. Are we sure Russo is working for JCW and not TNA again ? I mean I'm all for it. I would take a Russo booked TNA clown show over the dull-ass boredom shit that TNA has been since D'Amore has been fired.

I wonder if Jericho already feels like a complete idiot... (I mean, he should have already but) Yeah. N°2 company right there. The "TNA is growing and breaking records" bullshit HAS to be studied and debunked in a serious way. There's a reason there's no numbers at all apart from the fake numbers of the two biggest shows, both of them pushed by AJ Styles showing up and Hardies vs Dudleys "last greatest tag team match" and comped to death.

And it's even worst when you see it because it looked like *shit* Seriously now. 😂

I fell right on my tailbone once and the pain is unbearable. Yeah, this was lowkey the worst spot of the night. That being said. The Marina spot where she walked on glass to then use it for her kick, visually speaking, was the most bad-ass shit of the night.

OMG I didn't noticed the first time, but when they showed the replay of it I CRINGED hard.

They have gone dark for a month after that show that "made them look like the N°2 promotion" (per Chris Jericho), and which had classic LOLTNA booking and the embarrassing Hardies vs Dudleys shitshow, they come back for a Full Say university taping (I mean, if you're gonna book sitting in the cuck chair) and THIS ? 😂 I mean, they *could* do it, considering the entire TNA thing right now is being astroturfed by WWE to look like "the N°2 promotion" (I love to repeat this stupid shit), but they don't have a PPV before early 2026. Still, in the end Mike Santana comes off as such a fucking geek. Did not win in his hometown. Gets his big win at a show where a bunch of people left before his match (BTW, gotta love Bubba Ray burying their match on the infamous podcast too, way to go dipshit). Company goes back to black for a month. Loses the title in the worst WWE trope day one of his reign after getting beat up by a bunch of NXT people. In the end, it doesn't matter because he's ending up in NXT soon enough (Joe Hendry is still under TNA contract and he's basically been a NXT worker for a while now scratch that, Hendry has signed with WWE). TNA becoming WWE's toy really is sad though, in the grand scheme of things. (BTW, if anyone wonders, Kaz has been dull as fuck in the ring since he came back to TNA. He's "solid", at very best. He's also 48 years old; so yeah, WWE booking in effect)

By the way, I'm convinced it flew over 90% of the audience's heads, but Timeless Toni using a *pearl necklace* as a weapon totally cracked me up. She's just hilarious.

Yeah, the flux and pacing got all goofy because of the commercial breaks, and you could easily cut off 10 minutes from the men match (the entire sequence of going on top of the cage was really not needed, although I'm glad they did not drop anyone off this high, hopefully we're past that). And yeah, those tables were even less cooperative than Nixon Newell & Miranda Alizee. Apart from that, holy shit Blood and Guts, did they delivered loads of this and that. Of course Skye Blue was the first one of her team and of course she bled two minutes in. Mina did her best Mima Shimoda tribute. And damn Marina, ya crazy bitch. They peaked like crazy for the last period for sure. Hangman vs Hobbs managed to follow that with even more hardcore shit, although of a different kind. Of course Cage match, perfect time to set it up. The FTR/Stoke vs Steamboat angle was just perfect. Damn, that FTR/Stoke alliance is the best thing no one even thought about. Kyle O'Reilly certainly deserved that one. Holy hell, Muta would be proud. It has to be said how insanely *great* Claudio is in his role. And really, Mox and the Deathriders, all things considered, it has to be repeated, really fucked all year long (yeah, apart from the early days and Cope and shit, I know), such an awesome heel faction. The story arc of Mox repeatedly ending up taping out after All In is quite great. BTW, that time where Renee was reporting in a very "newsflash" way while her husband was on screen butchering O'Reilly with broken glass had me rolling. Oh yeah, and Darby went through flaming table, because of course. Tell me he had some protective liquid on him before he did that stupid stunt. That's certainly how you do a fucking TV special. For the sickos, indeed.

That would be unfortunate. I still see potential in Top Flight, especially Dante, but they have been running in circles for years, sadly. I don't see the alliance with Scorpio Sky & Leila Grey going much further but you never know. On paper this is a pretty decent faction. CRU, I forgot they even existed. Lio Rush should have been used in a different way, he's a very singular talent.

Meanwhile all this worthless drama, Collision was one hell of a TV show, with terrific TV matches in Mox vs Strong and Fletcher vs Austin, who is getting over by sheer force of his in-ring work. FTR vs the other Austin & Juice was very good too, Hayter vs Blue was solid as hell and Thekla vs Cameron made up with heat what it lacked in clean work, as Harley still is basically a rookie. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Caster/Bowens angle, leading to the inevitable real Acclaimed reunion (damn, they really are the NAO of the 2020's, except much better in-ring of course). And ROH had a terrific Komander vs Lee Moriarty 10 mn draw leading to a championship match at the next special. Also, the Swirl needs to get a serious push, if only because Blake Christian is such a great wrestler. Insane in-ring and slimy as fuck character. Eventually gotta make his way into the "main roster", as they say.

Well, the more you know about lots of them, the harder it is to care one way or another. Meanwhile, AEW has been delivering with fun adds lately.

Queen Aminata was a jobber for like three years. Doing 3 minutes and less jobs on Dark and Dark Elevation. The Youtube shows. Worked out ok for her. (and damn I am gutted about her getting injured just as she was gonna go into Blood & Guts, she would have ruled in this. Penelope and her worked so hard those last few months, it's really too bad)

They've been hired for enhancement matches. That's what you do. Lose in 3 minutes. The rest is irrelevant. There were two other women matches on the same show, that went 10mn +. Also, there are regularly men squash matches on TV on Collision. It has *nothing* to do with how the women division is handled and everything to do with a WWE coded person and her dumbfuck gf having an overinflated sense of ego. And it's drama for social media engagement that everyone will have forgotten in three days also, really.

Damage control being that they wanted "more time for their match". Sure girls, you're brought up to put someone else over, not get your shit in. Apparently Leila Grey (actually Taya Walkyrie too) pointed out plenty of workers *under contract* would love more TV time too, which is actually a great point, that is if any point needed to be made. In the end it's still two dumbasses with an overinflated sense of themselves playing the "that doesn't work for us, brothers". Let's not pretend Nixon has to be the smart one just because she's not a MAGA shithead (why is she dating one then ? oh well, people. Maybe she shares *some* of her beliefs, ya know). She was complaining months ago about not getting bookings, but I never heard anything about her from her WWE tenure, and now she thinks she's some big shot that needs to be competitive with two actual member of the roster who have been there for years and are taking part in a tournament for new belts. And yeah, fuck Miranda Alizee and her hateful views. (EDIT : and now Nixon said on her Twitch that she got a bunch of death greats, which of course is completely abhorrent and awful. What's up with dumb fucks sending death threats to people, especially women ? Internet was a bad idea)