El-P

Jonah in the G1 is awesome. Aaron Henare actually is really cool too (he's gotten really REALLY good). Tom Lawlor will probably get over because he's a douchebag, but as far as match quality goes... But inflating the numbers of participants and matches so much to end up with so few actual added value is pretty deflating. Of course you got White and Ospreay back this year, to this is a HUGE plus (let's be real, it still will end up being a ridiculous amount of great matches). But come one. Archer is like Scott Norton from WCW coming back to NJPW. It's cool, but it's not new or different. Hopefully Pieter comes out with Takahashi this year again. That's his only saving grace. No cool Young Lion, no cool veteran, no junior apart from Phantasmo (who is excellent, but will probably end up doing jobs for Takahashi), no odd surprising entry. But yeah, guys like PAC in the G1 would have been so awesome. Not to mention Kingston. Now, I must say, a long, meaningful Jay White stint as IWGP champ is not the worse thing. He's sooooo great now. And if ZSJ vs Danielson happens. Holy shit. Dreams are made of this.

Lot to love as far as in-ring stuff, as always. Give me KOR every week in a big match. The guy is terrific. Funny thing, I'm willing to bet everything Regal & Danielson would say he's terrific and love his work. Matthews vs PAC was everything I want from AEW. Kris Statlander has finally figured out what works for her the best. Cool match with Red Velvet. Storm vs Rosa hopefully bangs hard. That Will Ospreay & Aussie Open vs FTR & Beretta match, holy shit. Ospreay in AEW seems both surreal and makes total sense. This opens an infinite number of awesome possibilities. On the other hand, now that the MJF feud is over, sorry, but I could not care less about Wardlow powerbombing 20 guys. And the day he's put in the main event mix is the day I watch AEW PPV's through Very Legal Means too. That promo was shit too, although not his fault. Yeah, let's bury the interim champion deal we're building as the main event for Forbidden Door and bury the TNT title too with the dreaded "The title has been disrespected" stuff which *never works* and *always underlines bad booking*. I know, I've seen countless promos in TNA about "rebuilding the X-division" and "rebuilding the Knockouts division". And really now.I think this is the very first time when I legit lol at AEW for making a really stupid decision. Nothing about this All Atlantic title works. Not the name (gotta love the NJPW announcers at Dominion making light of it by saying technically every ocean mix with each other), not the tournaments ending at Forbidden Door with a 3/1 ration of AEW/NJPW guys, not the fact that the LAST thing AEW needs on its TV is another title. Expect for the trios, because it would be different. But adding another midcard single title is just completely useless and dilutes the value of the TNT title even more. Damn Tony, what were you thinking with that one.

Waiting until it's actually confirmed to go all "Well, it's been fun."

Page getting involved in this whole interim stuff would be a waste of time (not to mention him doing a job to Mox right after losing the belt would be to much big loss). They have two weeks to build a PPV with NJPW. Page has to have a big match. He's facing a NJPW guys this week. Priorities, people.

There's nothing wrong about cooling off the former world champ after he lost the title, especially if you don't want him to job again on his way to not regain his title immediately. The Dave Finlay match will be one thing : excellent. Plus it may be the platform to an angle building to the match for Page at Forbidden Door (like being attacked by Bullet Club or something). They have two weeks, so they can't focus all their guys in that bullshit interim champion deal, they have to build the card as much as they can (while "waiting" for the Dominion results in the meantime). And I would guess Page gets a big match there, so that's the priority.

Adam Cole is injured and won't work until the PPV I believe. No idea why they don't just do Mox vs Tanahashi. I never cared for battle royal to determine n°1 contender for major titles. Plus this is basically just gonna be "who does the job to Mox", unless they do something creative in term of facing Tanahashi. Or Goto. Ah ah ah. Goto. Sure.

Meanwhile, in Paris Can we get a baguette on the pic too so we can get even more cliché ? I mean, it's not their fault per say, it's the pathetic influencer/Instagram culture, but still. No wonder regular people get a traumatic shock when they come off the RER train at Gare du Nord, this gives such a totally warped idea of Paris... And really, there are so much more cooler and nicer place to go in the city than those awful luxury arrondissements full of awful people (as it was demonstrated by the last election).

Sledgehammer really ? This is weak shit. I'm sure Cody asked for WAL Gunther to give him a good one then twist his nipple but alas, Vince was having none of it.

Damn. If this was AEW he would get booed out of the building for this. My booking prediction for Cody for the next year : _comes back at the Rumble and cries. _win the Rumble and cries. _point at Mania Sign tm and cries _makes his entrance at Mania and cries _cries again, but whether it's because he win or loses to Reigns is still Vince's decision, so that's on the morning of the show. He will cry though.

Is he crying again ?

That's how you define a torn pec ? How cruel.

I know. Which made it even funnier. Cody Rhodes fully morphing into Mick Foley certainly wasn't on anyone's radar 5 years ago.

Not between the big companies, no. It happened with indies in the early 00's though, I remember a show with ARSION and Battlarts working together for instance (it was actually an intergender tournament). And of course FMW had a women division of its own, which was the exception to the rules. But yeah, NJPW & Stardom doing a joint show is pretty big news. Quite interested in what this means for the future, if anything. They have tested the water at WK for the last two (I think) years. Could that mean some major Stardom matches on major NJPW shows in the future ? Would be a big shift in japanese pro-wrestling if that happened. In other news, Tanahashi just invited CM Punk to take part in Wrestling Kingdom. Oh boy, what could it be if nothing goes wrong...

"Fire me you fucking mark !" Sorry, wrong thread.

Case in point : Cody Rhodes receives most of the praise for working with a bad injury. Meanwhile, Seth Rollins who most probably hold the thing together and took care of his injured opponent gets what kind of credit for being a pro ? Everything is about Cody, despite having done something that he should not have done. Yeah, this is all screwed up.

Not in this way, no. The entire mythification through working through a very visible, grotesque and obviously very painfull injury to this extent has no equivalent that I can remember. Again, the main issue here is not "working injured", it's the glorification of working injured, pushed through absolute extremes because of the visual. That glorification in a very blatant meta-narrative (people did not feel sympathy for Cody because of his pro-wrestling selling but because of his actual pain because of a very visible and graphic injury) is what is the problem with this stuff, and what sends a terrible message.

He has lived with it for a while now, to the point he could not lay straight on his back without seeing the room circling around, as he has told in an interview a while ago now. Very clearly it did not affect his work, as showed by the way he would perform, as he found ways to counterbalance it. But still, pretty much a mindfuck.

No one said it was about martyring himself "for the boys". Of course it's all about business and marketing himself. When I talk martyrology, I'm speaking purely about the spectacle of a grotesque looking injury and the narrative of being able to endure the legit pain as a way to get himself over. He's absolutely making it worse for people coming after him with this display. Just like Foley in 98. I do think the guy has also issues in term of wanting to show his toughness though, or what he perceives to be toughness in a very old-school, toxic, mentality.

So Matt Cardona was supposed to face Nick Aldis next Sunday for the NWA Title but he's injured with a torn bicep. He should 100% do a mock version of the Cody Rhodes show now.

I had the exact same thought. Fuck Cody and his martyr syndrome. This is not about being concerned for Cody's own health. I'm telling you honestly, I couldn't give a flying fuck, I've been a pro-wrestling fan for far too long to ignore I'm watching people destroying their bodies for my enjoyment (which in itself, asks a whole lot of questions). I obviously don't want anyone to get injured, including Cody Rhodes, but I laughed my ass off watching his stupid ass take a bump onto fire because he was desperate for cheers. The issue here is the martyrology. Onita was working on the same vibe, with the cries, the blood and the entire presentation. But he was a cult hero on a sleazy Japanese indie with no-TV, not the guy showcased by the n°1 wrestling promotion in the world shooting for the Mania main event. Let's be real, if not for the visual injury, both guys would probably have had a great match no one would talk about two weeks later.

At least the booking is easy now. He goes away. Comes back to win the Rumble, beats Roman Reigns at Mania. Oh wait...

This is completely different. Omega never told anyone he had vertigo until he stopped working. People wearing straps is usual in sports, sadly, people work injured. This is not good, but this was another thing entirely : this is Cody entering the match with a severe injury and *making a spectacle* out of *his real pain*, and being glorified for it. Glorified for enduring the pain, glorified for working injured not only as part of the story of the match but *being the integral story of the match*. This sends an absolutely toxic message. The fact he worked hurt is one thing, and one thing that is done all the time and is problematic for sure, but this is not what this is all about. This is all about the absolute glorification of working hurt and the spectacle of sustaining the real pain of a real injury as the story of a pro-wrestling match. This is making things worse for everybody on a different level. The fact so many pro-wrestlers have tweeted their admiration shows how fucked up the mentality still is. I'm sure some think it's bullshit, but I bet they would never go public with this kind of opinion, because they would get murdered on social media for it... Can't wait 'till he comes back after the magic John Cena cure too...

It's easy to make an audience "feel", whatever that means, when you're actually in tremendous pain. Even Onita's stuff looked more painfull than it probably was. Gotta invent a new term for this. Pain-porn wrestling. "Look at me, I'm working injured, look at my grotesque looking body, I'm suffering for real ! I'm suffering for your ! Please glorify me !". Yuck. Someone pointed out that it was also on a C-level PPV with no hype going on, against a guy he already had beat, so it's not like the overall picture is fantastic. So he had to suffer that much to beat a guy he already beat twice in a row ? What a dumb fuck kayfabe-wise, so unnecessary.

Women's side is obviously WWE by a ridiculous margin, of course.

Poor child. And of course, pro-wrestlers loved that Cody did it. It's argue to garner sympathy for them after that point, really. This, the reactions, everything is so off-putting to me. Positive thinking and survivor bias bullshit galore.