El-P

The commercial for Swingers' Dungeon legit had my jaw ache from laughing. Not to mention it was introduced by Zicky Dice out of nowhere "Maybe I suck as a wrestler", which really took me by surprise. Between Eddie Edwards vs Rich Swann the previous week and MCMG vs Jay White & Chris Bey this week, IMPACT has delivered big time. Also, PCO vs Jonah II seems on the books, which is really promising. They are on a roll lately with the booking and the new talent coming in (Gisele Shaw has won me over in no time, gotta love the pseudo-Beyonce theme that would make Jimmy Hart proud too).

I don't care at what time it started, with the roster they have, having Max Caster in a main event just doesn't register. The guy just isn't very good at all. They want to make Keith lee look awesome, have Matt Sydal or Tony Neese bump around for him. This was the worst match on AEW TV this week, although Keith Lee is always fun to watch, but really, I'm not far from sharing @KawadaSmile's opinion that Caster is turning into Bowens albatros (yeah, some of his punchlines can be funny especially when they sting really hard, but it only goes so far). I wouldn't mind him as his manager for a while, although he's bigger, which is never a good visual.

Rampage was a nice B-show. Although now that Jericho has turned back heel, the 4 guy announcing team, which is way too much anyway, gets really too awkward with Excalibur surrounded with 3 guys heeling up on the babyface, and Jericho is kinda plugging his new gimmick way too much. Really enjoyed Hirsch vs Velvet. The heel turn did wonders for Leila, I'l digging her tiny tank style, and Velvet is another one who should get more TV time. Darby vs Butcher was very good (Matt Hardy trying to do a run in really shows how banged up he is though). House of Black competitive squash was quite fun and the main event, well, you don't want Max Caster's single match as a main event, sorry. That last segment also screamed of "How dare you call me out Big Swole ?". I totally can get behind a Lee & Swerve vs Hobbs & Starks match, could be excellent.

Not to mention Meltz on his last Raw report was totally like "Yeah, nothing has changed, Cody is gonna be at Mania against Seth". This really is like, to the surprise of no one. Also, as much as I was curious a few weeks back, now I'm like, yeah, whatever.

Yeah, hum... one of those parameters is not like the others !

I dunno, but probably lifted quite a bit, I'm watching the current Osaka basho and the floors are pretty full. Hiromu vs Suzuki sounds like it was quite the spectacle.

Details brought on by Waltman are kinda heartbreaking. Was isolated during the pandemic which started his drinking habits again. Fell on the floor when he broke his hip and couldn't get back up for several days until DDP showed up after being alerted by friends they could not join him. Very, very sad stuff. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/further-details-on-scott-hall-broken-hip-pandemic-isolation-issues-emerge

To me he's been pretty meh even has a big guy tossing around other people. I was never a fan of Goldy, ever, but when he showed up on Nitro in 1997 and began to kill dudes, he looked unique. The way he moved, the spots he used, the fact he seemingly always came up with some new ways of fucking up people, not to mention the incredible intensity. That was something unseen at the time and it was different from pretty much everything else in wrestling. The one thing that got over with Wardlow is him doing a bunch of powerbombs in a row. Powerbombs. Sid was doing powerbombs as a finisher when I was 14 years old. He's not very interesting to watch on offense when he's not doing a big spot (those throw away suplexes were cool looking), he's not compelling at selling and clearly the crowds really only pops big for his intro and the powerbombs. The most fun part of the act has been Shawn Spears to me, acting like a doofus waiting to get killed. So like I said, I totally get why they are pushing him now and yeah and they absolutely should do it. But I'm waiting for him to show me more. If he gets to good Batista kinda level, I'll be happy about it, but he's not there. I can't think of one really good or really fun single Wardlow match thus far. And yeah, I don't care one bit for his presentation (stick tongue, grab suspenders, this is WAAAAAAAR.... ok).

The issue I have with this is that why should there be *specific* reasons for women to care about Thunder Rosa (as a woman performer I think), or anyone else really, apart from "being a pro-wrestling fan" (unless you're making it strictly a feminism issue, which is an entire other story)? If we're talking about casual fans, fine, but I don't care about what casual fans think in those instance (which is why I did not care about Cody's attempt to lure this audience by doing celebrity matches and such). At heart, AEW is still very much a hardcore pro-wrestling promotion (which is why I wonder how sustainable a guy like Wardlow can be after the MJF feud, if the biggest selling point of the guy is doing four powerbombs in a row). There's a very gendered way of thinking behind all of this too, with the whole "women are more about the emotions" and whatnot. Which is not untrue BTW, specifically because that's what they have been geared toward to by patriarcal society (the whole "care" stuff). There is probably so much that could be said about the whole thing, but again I guess sociology would be more adept to study this kind of subject.

Yes indeed. Because it's all about selling stupid shit to people, including bad literature, which is the one which sells the most by a wide margin. (So I guess it's not 90% of the books, but 90% of what's sold the most... anyway, it was not supposed to be any kind of realistic figure either, I just wanted to underline the fact that "reading books" doesn't mean jackshit in the grand scheme of things if all you're reading is stupid shit)

As I said before, the IMPACT women roster is much more fun to follow, and that includes people who aren't very good workers at all (I mean, the IInspiration, please). They are doing a much better job making everyone seem important on their own level. But it's also easier in a much smaller roster with not a ridiculously stacked male roster of all-time greats too. That's the reality of things that I think many people aren't willing to hear about AEW's roster. The last PPV was really telling. They just don't have a Sasha Banks on their roster, nor a Utami Hayashishita, nor a Syuri, nor a Deonna Purrazzo. Their best female workers like Rosa are very good (Riho actually may be better than very good honestly, but she's hurt). They have some really solid veterans workers too (The Bunny, who should get way more time as a character). Some would argue Mercedes Martinez, who has a rep on the indies, but although I've seen her look really good on many, many occasions, I have not seen her look *great* either (granted I have not seen a lot of her work). And they have plenty of workers who are still green and look like it in-ring (Conti, Jay, Hirsch, Cargill, Velvet, Statlander). Ruby Soho has been a miss to me. Came off looking like a star because she was at the right spot at the right time, but she really has been underwhelming in the ring. Serena Deeb at this time is without a doubt the best of all, hopefully they have her do something meaningful beyond feuding with Shida (who's also good/very good). On the other hand, they do give time to Wardlow, who's neither a great worker nor a great promo nor a great character. Then again, it's a first occurence of me not caring about a major AEW angle also (I guess the worst was still Baker vs Swole, which legit sucked because of you know who). When you consider that a major main event between two women (the biggest they have in that division, and a legit big moment in the company period) doesn't draw women, well...

Total Bellas had really nothing to do with pro-wrestling. It's the format of the show that drew women to watch them on WWE shows. Cody tried for AEW. (where's my Kappa emote ????!!!) The 4 Horsewoman, I dunno, maybe for a while. But in the long term it hasn't really paid off. The all-female PPV really did not work that well either. WWE surely has way more of a women audience still, despite Alexa Bliss vomiting black goo and cosplaying creepy fetish, so what do we know ?

Wasn't Kane supposed to be intelligent because he "red books" ? And I mean, I mean, 90% of books sold in this capitalistic economy are full of bullshit, really, it's not like there's a Kafka on every corner. It's like Val Venis, who was thought of being a super smart guy. Except reading Ayn Rand pseudo-philosophical trite doesn't make you any kind of a smart guy, ya know

Funny how perception works. I never got the feeling he was hyped as a great worker, and I never ever got the impression he was hyped as being as great as his contemporaries, some of which who were overrated during their time (Malenko). Even back when it happened, the talk was all about Jericho being super entertaining but not as good in-ring as the Rey, Benoit, Eddie, Malenko's of the world. Maybe that changed in the early 00's when he got to WWE (and got better also), but I never got this impression of Jericho being pimped a great worker, surely not on a constant basis. (I probably made that same post a while ago too !) I have no idea if he would make my list. Not quite sure actually.

When Meltz said it last year, some people made fun of him. One year later, with tons of gory self mutilation, the female audience has shrinked. As he predicted. So yeah, Uncle Dave was right on the money on this. Also, this really puts in perspective all the talk about "representing", because it's a proven fact that women pro-wrestling doesn't attract a female audience. It has not done it for WWE, it doesn't do it in AEW. It is not doing this in Japan either, hasn't since the late 80's. The Crush Gals were an anomaly.

As far as pro-wrestling goes, the show peaked with the opening match, which was great. As far as pro-wrestling trainwreck and emotion, the show peaked with Britt bumping like she's Shoji Nakamaki at Kawasaki Stadium in 95 and Thunder Rosa (gotta love the female mariachi band and the Kobra Moon hommage reptile tights) winning the title in her adopted hometown (what a concept). The Wardlow vs MJF angle is the first big angle AEW does I absolutely don't care about, because I can't care about Wardlow. He's ok. He's Adam Bomb with less cool moves and too much of a Batista redux. But the angle is very well done and I get why they are running it. I just don't care about it nor the upcoming match. On a side note and although I kinda hate being that guy, the "THIS IS WAR !" intro with the nuke graphics kinda come in poor taste considering the international context... Wouldn't be against changing that up. Hardys 2000 just need some hot chick with them to really drive the point home. I mean Broken Matt looks like he's just that working that style (and yet, that counter before the hot tag was just great shit, and was the reason why the hot tag got hot, because the move got such a huge reaction just before it happened) and Jeff Hardy is kinda Animal in 1998, doing the same spots that he always did, but with less flash and velocity. I have no idea how much legs this stint has, because honestly there's so much *other* tag matches I'd rather see in AEW than Hardys 2000 against everyone. But with the cost of Jeff, gotta make the most out of it I guess. Great job of getting Wheeler Yuta over. I was expecting him joining Regal's team as the match went on, so that's job well done. Statlander is making her coming out as a human ? Daniel Garcia "the sport entertainer" is a masterful troll job. I did see it coming, but still, it was great stuff. Some echoes of Cactus Jack anti-hardcore gimmick in ECW I guess. Jericho has reached the status where no one really wants to boo him anymore (like Flair in the past), but the SE-word will do just that. Not the greatest show in term of matches (I mean, Mox & Danielson beating the piss out of anyone is great, but it's still a competitive squash), but the beginning and the end were great for different reasons, the new Jericho faction is all designed to get Garcia over which is awesome, just as maybe Yuta going with Regal's killers. Gotta give Scorp some meat for his TNT title reign now though.

I dunno. Their last PPV truly was something for everyone. Also, they just signed Danhausen and he's been on TV every week, and he's pretty much in the same vein as Marko or Orange in term of being a cult indy name with meme value (see what I did here ?). Of course as more big time talent get signed, you'll probably get less "oddities" or less time for them though.

#4 but #5 What ? Seriously, everything in this is fucking gold !!!

#3 is kinda redondant. If you tap out, you quit, if you can't stand up, you are probably knocked out. Who wrote this shit ? Hey, if that ensures we never see Adam Scherr anywhere near a company I care about, GOOD.

#1 and #2 but #5 What ?

#6 is totally a motivational post on Facebook from some random Karen.

#5 : Make Pro-wrestling Great Again This is getting more and more idiotic with every news. Can't wait for the next one.

For the longest time when I saw the name I wasn't sure if it was two I or a capital I and a simple l. Pretty sure me brain read "ilconics" for quite a while too !

The forms of his "reinventions" matters less than the fact he has managed to keep himself relevant into his late 40's (and early 50's) after leaving WWE, including drawing big in NJPW during its hottest period (post 90's) and being a key player in the formation and early success (in term of "mainstream" validation) of AEW.