El-P

So we should believe this person, whoever she is, but not Kimber Lee when she talks about abuse ? Why ? Like I said, I don't know, nor do you, nor do 99% of people talking about it on social medias what really is happening here. And it's not a matter of "taking sides" either. I'm just not comfortable with the "Oh she accused him and then she was cool and now she's accusing him again, it's fishy" stuff because it's *always* used against victims of abuse. What actually is happening, I have no idea. Whatever it is, it's bad. That's all I have to say about this.

That's called victim blaming and it's at best very ignorant of the process of abusive relationship. At worst it's an extremely shitty thing to say, honestly, and it's why victim of abuse are afraid to speak up. That's how it goes, without even going into genders : Person A & B are in a toxic relationship. Person A abuses (mentally, physically and/or sexually) Person B. Person B cries, is in pain, wants it to stop, threatens to leave. Person A apologizes, cries, say it won't ever happen again and how much he loves Person B. Person B believes Person A because Person B is in love and always tries to find even the worst reasons to believe it can get better, even after Person A lied many times before Person A & B are happy again for a while. Person A abuses Person B again. Rince, repeat X times (1, 10, 100) until either something really bad happen (accident, suicide, homicide) or Person B is able to leave, which is NEVER easy. As far as Kimber Lee & Nash Carter go, I won't say anything because I don't know what happened. But assuming someone talking about abuse is the one with issue is part of the problem. The one thing that is obvious is that there are bad stuff happening there.

Admittedly, that one made me laugh though.

I mean, that's obviously the stupidest of the stupids. These people do exist... Can the believe the negative IQ (I mean, the entire post is mind-blowingly stupid on so many levels)? As far as Cody's emotional promo goes, he was already overdoing it in AEW. Sure, he's in a fresh environment now, but like the reaction at Mania showed, it's not like people don't watch both shows and aren't just "wrestling fans" too. As long as it's working for him, good for him I guess. That being said, after all the years of speaking 'bout Revolution and changing the business and shit and crying about it, crying *again* because of the WWE title (which isn't linked to his father's legacy in anyway shape of form) really makes his promos sound shallow as hell and over-performative.

"Bouhou it's not fair, they are using Hardy's WWE theme that's why they get great reaction, they can't do anything of their own, it's like CM Punk, they are just stealing WWE's former stars and even use their music." Yeah. It was real.

They always had that petty mentality. Nobody would know who Cactus Jack was. Nobody would know who AJ Styles was. With Cody, the irony is even greater since he's coming straight from the pissant company which is not competition (unless we're talking about the MLW lawsuit, in which case they are), where no one is a star because only WWE guys can be star. Of course he gets a huge reaction using the entire AEW presentation (which makes the whole drama about the Hardy's theme even funnier) and now WWE stans are stuck in a double bind contradiction.

Maybe he can tag with Matt Riddle *wink wink nudge nudge*.

The WWE CodyUniverse.

Mania pop. Fresh out of AEW. See ya in 6 months after usual WWE booking.

Which is why it's so great when something so obviously goes wrong and they manage to work around it and make it part of the match. The most famous occurence maybe the infamous Sasuke botch during J-Cup where Liger doesn't even bat an eye and goes "LOL you dumbass". With pro-wrestling getting more and more complex in term of moves and sequences, and more and more agented too, it's becoming even more difficult for them to be good at it, but sometime it still happens. And of course there are also probably times where we actually don't realize they changed something on the fly too because we don't see what went wrong.

He's just not a pro-wrestler so he doesn't think like one. Not a matter of "more clear head", just a matter of not being caught in certain kind of automatisms.

All jokes aside, so they have murdered their entire roster for this fake-ass dream match that was only the third time it had happened, always the same stuff, and now Roman Reigns as a heel is the ultimate world champion of the universe who has killed yet again the guy who was the ultimate killer and the only real plan is an hypothetical match against The Rock at Mania next year. So compelling (no). I really wonder what Mania will look like in a few years. They gotta get John Cena back to work some big ass nostalgia matches and more celebrities willing to do stuff. And maybe try to sign people away (or back) from AEW to freshen things up. Otherwise, they are making zilch in term of going forward. This year in particular was stunning on that level. Apart from Bianca Belair (which was also the most lauded match) and Kevin Owens to a degree (although I'm not sure it will mean anything more than it was in the grand scheme of things, a moment, plus Owens has already been there for years now and was already established as a main event guys for a while).

Lone Star Shootout show was super easy and digestible (a nice quality during this week-end), capped off by two legit great matches in Jay White vs Mike Bailey (interesting to see Bailey excel too in this different setting of strict heel/face dynamic and slower style) and Ishii vs Dickinson (just what anyone could expect from these two). Suzuki vs Kross was good and really Kross is the most at ease in that kind of style. Much easier to watch than a regular NJPW Japan show and the second best show of the Mania week-end to me (haven't watched the IMPACT show yet though).

The benevolent NXT "Can't wait until HHH takes over when Vince is done" Godfather of Real Pro-wrestling was a carny con-job, and although it changed the perception of his character for a while, it had been exposed pretty badly in the last years. People being driven by emotions, of course right now there's this temptation of looking back and go "Oh, but it wasn't that bad". Live through those years again people, and let's talk about it then.

Just seen the gif from Vince taking the stunner.

The main event sounds like the usual boring finisher spamming Lesnar match that has been boring for ever now. So, how many times has poor Roman being crowned at Mania already now ? All this and now you've got a year of useless booking coming up until they get to Mania season at Hollywood so they can have The Rock. Mania truly has turned into a variety show geared toward celebrity stunts and nostalgia. Which, if it works for its audience, is perfectly fine and all. Reading the reactions though, there's nothing from day 2 I'd want to watch (as AJ vs Edge apparently was pretty underwhelming). Still probably gonna check the best stuff from day 1.

Yeah, the best heel promo of the year. Most disgusting is still putting on two shows a year to promote MBS's regime BTW. Nothing gets even close.

Every time I hear the "He has a family" argument (about him or anyone else) I fucking cringe. Like with the money he would have made in AEW, his family would not have been secured or whatever. Sure... I'd rather have someone be frank and talk about just making the most money like Lesnar. A least it's honest. But anyway, that was never the most cringe thing about his fatherhood, the worst (well apart from *that* promo) was always his thing about not wanting to turn heel because he would not want his daughter watch him do bad things. What a markish attitude and honestly what a slap in the face of every heel wrestler who had kids ever. I always found it utterly ridiculous. Plus, let's be real, as much as Cody's debut was a success, it would have been a thousand times better if he had come out full fledge invading dirtbag cutting a promo on HHH like : "Hey you might have seen me destroy a throne some time back, now I'm here to claim the whole kingdom. You heard it right King of Kings. I would gladly rip your heart out but woopsie, apparently life and karma has already taken care of that piece of business." Now THAT would be a Mania Moment tm. So bubba, what's your take ? Lesnar or Roman ? I know you'll enjoy the thing anyway so !

Not gonna lie, all the "Wow, Cody in WWE is so awesome, he' such a star, such a huge loss for AEW" from the same people who were going "Cody was a midcarder in WWE and is a midcarder for life" is really fucking ironic. Won't even mention the whole music thingy (cf Hardies & Punk debacles). Really now, it's a matter of choice. Of course he would get a huge pop at Mania. Will he sustain it ? Will the booking sustain it ? If Vince wants to send a message to guys he might want to get like MJF, he sure needs to keep Cody in the top spots forever, and Cody has to know this. Now, is he right to think that way (because Vince making sense is an irrational bet at this point), only time will tell. But hey, he got "an absurd amount of money" (I think we got that point), which also validates AEW as serious competition, so good for him for playing his cards. Now, in the long-term, who the hell knows.

"I had to come back to accomplish my true dreaaaaaaaaaams"

Actually, it's just a matter of context. 5-6 years ago, NXT was the hot product in the US pro-wrestling landscape. Of course AEW has changed the perception since there was no other alternative back then, and WWE had produced its own alternative of sorts (which was great). Sure it is. Especially after the last few years. It's just interesting how after years of Mania being perceived as this slog of a show and NXT was the hot shit, this year's Mania was very well received (although let's be honest, it's been talked about as a 3 matches show, and that's including the Austin stuff which is strictly nostalgia). But, NXT on the other hand went from a hot brand name to an after thought (putting it on the same day pretty much tells the whole story too). And yeah, I know they have changed the philosophy behind it, but they also have lost the hype that used to go along.

Funny (not really, actually predictable) how Mania thus far has been very well received while there is exactly zero hype about NXT's show. Remember a few years ago when the Takeover before Mania was always the peak of the week-end and everybody was going crazy about it ? Of course it was also before AEW existed, but still.

Nick is indeed better than Matt. But both are awesome pro-wrestlers in their own way. And together they are the greatest tag-team ever (encompassing all styles) and really genius minds at work. Some aspects of their work will still look ahead of their time in 20 years probably (including the subtle or non-subtle, depending on the context, play on tropes and meta stuff). Having them in my weekly TV pro-wrestling diet has been the greatest thing, really. I could not be a happier pro-wrestling fan. That FTR match with a new dynamic will be quite the match. And yeah, that Top Flight match already, holy shit... And the reDragon matches coming up. Really now. Their tag team scene is ridiculous (just get the Acclaimed, Varsity Blondes and Gunn Club out of the way now, please, no offense). Well, D-Von kinda did. But yeah, Hobbs would be pretty cool doing it.

Meanwhile : Funny mofos.

Pretty much exactly where I am. I honestly wasn't *that* hyped up about the whole show because I had no idea where this would go. But holy shit. FTR vs Briscoes was a legit MOTYC. Just ridiculously great match, maybe the best FTR ever had. Gresham vs Bandido was great as well. Man Gresham is such an awesome and unique talent, kinda like ZSJ I feel I'll never get bored watching him. Joe sure looks his age, but still in the ROH context his presence takes another meaning, and it's really a cool arc. When you think last year he was under the rain at Mania just before getting fired ! The undercard was also really fucking good, top to bottom, apart from the woman's match, I was not overly impressed by Willow, who was kinda sloppy at points. Mercedez vs Deonna should be really good though. Suzuki's match was nothing special either really, but the old guy already had a few wars in the last day or so, and the fact he won is just terrific. The Jay Lethal heel turn was wonderfully done, and once again I've been super impressed by him. Seems like I was sleeping on this guy because of his kinda underwhelming TNA stuff (he does have the last really good Flair match though, so he was coming around just before he left for ROH). The Brian Cage squash was pretty great too, interesting way of giving him a fresh start (if you're gonna resign him, might as well get your money's worth). Yuta winning is a clear sign he's gonna get a push in AEW under Regal too. All in all, now I'm interested in ROH. Damnit.