El-P

There's a 37% chance that he's gonna make some Big Poppa Pump-like comments.

Pro-wrestling fans be like

Wait, what ? Did I miss an episode ? I kinda heard about some stupid anti-vax shit in the past, but is it to the point of being seen as a "liability" ? How so if she's still doing the Star Wars stuff (so she did not Gina Caranoed herself at least) ? And so she's doing some tag-team match at Mania ? Not exactly the biggest profile, indeed, compared to main-eventing.

Moose was arrested under battery charges. Not sure what has happened next. By all accounts he has not repeated any violent behavior either. That's pretty much the extent of what's known.

Well, that's quite a bunch of answers here ! So I'm not totally off-based, ok. Last year I only watched parts of Day 1 I think (or the whole show, I don't remember ?). Actually, I only remember two things about Mania last year : Alexa Bliss vomiting black goo and the terrific Sasha performance against Bianca. With my pro-wrestling mind pretty much saturated already with too much product, I must say my desire to even watch some bits of Mania this year is exactly zero. If I don't, it will be the first time in years I don't even watch like the main event or something (even in the lockdown year I watched Taker vs AJ Styles).

Well. I like Moose a lot as a performer but let's be real now, he doesn't strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer.

See, this is also where the issue lies to me. Maybe the fact Moose had that incident makes it awkward to some people. Ok. But then again, the fact Austin did not do *fake prow-wrestling shit* with women anymore makes it ok to not remind the public he used to beat the shit out of Debra until she was fearing for her life ? Whereas the fact Moose does intergender angle makes it ok to remind the public of that one incident (again, I can only talk about what's known, and it's not up to me to basically imagine wether or not there's more) and call him "domestic abuser" and basically to reduce him to that sole moment of his life (if indeed that's the only occurence, which obviously I don't know) ? Again, to me the issue here is both the essentialization of people and the difference of treatment based not on reality of facts but perception of fictional work in a given context.

Not at all. It's an example of a difference of public treatment and perception.

Let me preface what I'll say with this : to me any kind of violence against women is a red flag. Now, being involved in one incident (not very clear either from memory, but I may be wrong) 13 years ago doesn't make you a "domestic abuser". I always have an issue with this kinda of essentialization of people (in general BTW, not strictly in term of bad stuff like this). It's like people can't change or even bad stuff can't happen even once before getting labelled for life. The Moose stuff happened. Ok. There's no talk of him being a domestic abuser since (does I mean I *know* there's none going on, of course not). Plus and on the other hand, I don't see the return of Steve Austin being presented as "domestic abuser Steve Austin", despite the fact he was involved in patterned domestic abuse for a while, as opposed to one incident. So there's a bizarre (not really) difference of treatment when referring to some people as opposed to others, despite their stories being a bit different (one incident / patterned abuse going on for a while). The angle is what it is. IMPACT does intergender matches and physical interactions, it's not just Moose. W. Morrissey did it a few weeks back. Matt Cardona just did it last week on IMPACT (on Mickie James). For the sake of explanation, the storyline stems from Moose basically stealing the title from Josh (by cashing up) taking place while his wife and kid were still in the ring after his victory, then two weeks ago showing up at Josh's house to scare the wife and kids to. The escalation basically makes sense.

I mean, Angels & #10 are the jobber team of the bunch anyways. Forgot about this, but HOOK no-selling Danhausen's curse totally cracked me up.

I feel this has already turned into a meme on this board ! But yeah, totally agree. Plus, Silver firing up against all three of HoB will be an awesome visual. BTW, I find it kinda cool that Spears probably went to #10 and told him to use his old gimmick if that helps him get reactions.

As I'm following from afar, tell me if I'm wrong. But the feeling I get is that Ronda Rousey big time comeback has taken a pretty big backseat to Austin showing up, celebrity matches and the Cody incoming debut in term of hype (Lesnar vs Roman being the obvious big focus, that's been established for ever anyway). It's like, from where I am (and granted, I'm still in the niche), I don't get this feel of excitement around Ronda's involvement like there was a few years back.

Totally different situation. Danielson is a made man. He could put Page over without hurting his profile one bit. No idea if Danielson even wants to be the champ at this point honestly, his goal in WWE before he left was helping younger guys get over, and he can do this 100% better in AEW (where they actually acre about making new stars). That being said, a tag title reign with Mox or a TNT title reign I don't see why not. (I mean, in the grand scheme of things, of course you'd want Danielson to win the big one, but his personal goals probably are much different, he would much rather do a G1 for instance).

I must say ! Between this and me also asking "Where has Stu Grayson been, is he injured ?" only to see him walk down the aisle. Nooo, Bunny is gonna do the J.O.B to the new girl. Don't think so, because he was absolutely not gonna win it. Not at this point, not against Hangman. And having him show up, challenge for the title and choke, even as a heel, probably ain't the best way to go. Adam Cole can challenge and lose, because he's got the superstar aura already and can talk his way out of losing any heat. Black, unknown factor as a main event guy yet. I'd rather have them get slower, build him as part of his trio and then get the rocket on his ass if he gets over to that level. With all the talent they have, AEW isn't rushing people on top and it's a good thing, because I don't want them to book in the very WWE way of "It's your turn now", which in the end of the day means jackshit (see : Big E). You're gonna have your guys like Archer getting title shots because they are just dragons to slay, but Malakai Black legit could be an AEW champ eventually. No need to rush him up while the main event scene doesn't need him to be there. I mean, we have more Page vs Cole, then winner against CM Punk, then I would guess winner against MJF. That will take a good part of the year. Then Omega comes back although by that point I would guess we get Omega vs Cole, which doesn't need the belt either. Of course during that time, especially maybe when/if Punk gets the belt, or after Page beats Punk maybe, then Black could be pushed toward the main event scene, that's a possibility too. I could have seen an argument just when he showed up and killed Cody twice and was over as fuck as a babyface seemingly, but then again, what happens with Hangman then ? Since then, they are basically building his character, and yeah, Fénix injury really screwed up the feud with Death Triangle, which probably explains why HoB seems in limbo a little bit as far as programs go. But they are being presented super strong on TV in the meantime, so...

The NJPW line was a dead giveaway though. I mean "I watch everything except NJPW because it's shit. I think Great O-Khan is kinda cool though."

Was a fun of Hunter Hearst Helmsley from the day he debuted to 1998. I thought he was a great bumper, I loved the finisher which looked brutal. Enjoyed the IC title reigns, the feud with Goldust, the Chyna years, early DX. When he came back from injury in late 98 (I believe, or was it early 99 ?), I wasn't such a fan anymore, I thought his work was much less interesting, he was doing run-of-the-mill Attitude Era brawling, only with sub-Austin intensity and crispness and not half the charisma. When he got the huge push in 99/00 I had moved on from WWF but was watching from afar. Never bought into the hype in 2000. Got his ups and downs as performer after that point. Both overrated and underrated I guess. The long-ass dull-as-dirt matches during the reign of terror really hurt WWE before Cena saved the day. Totally got over big time first thanks to Chyna, then thanks to the pairing with Stephy and the Cactus Jack feud and he had Motörhead as a theme song. That helps quite a bit. Gut lucky to be around the hottest period in the business, was never as big a star as the other big names during that time, but politics and revisionist history makes him to be an all-time legend. Which I guess he is, by virtue of being at the right place at the right time. Could have been Jeff Jarrett. His intros at Mania were a hoot. Was responsible for some of the worst tropes in post 00's WWE because it fit what he thought he was supposed to be (the long-ass promos, heels making babyfaces look like idiots all the time, overlong and over patterned matches). Elephant in the room : although he would have reached the top because he was destined to (because he was tall and a body guy and had the right friends and was good at politics), he would not have been that dominant a figure if not for, well, ya know. That's life. He had the funniest Undertaker match ever at Mania (yeah, that HiTC comedy club). The old rumor says there are easily 500 workers better than him. Julie Hart once told him "What goes around comes around." But I don't believe in karma and such things.

Athena ? Toni Storm ? Please make it someone cool who's also a really good worker.

That's pretty random. I would have bet it was a Mania or a Saudi show. Life...

It was way worse than it appeared. The guy is lucky to be alive. Probably gotta take care of his condition in term of not going through too much stress also. What would have been is last match then ?

It just occurred to me who Sammy Guevarra reminds me of in term of visual douchebagery : Alex Wright.

I did not notice ! Apart from that, yeah, like I said I agree he's not been very good at all for a while now (even before the Black angle really) and I also think Griff Garrison has potential (plus he got points with me during that Lexy Nair interview where he said he did not enjoy heat and he was always tired ! And where the fuck has Lexy Nair gone ?!?).

I dunno, a simple mention of Julia Hart triggering "BRIAN PILLMAN JR. SUX !" is awkward for me, yes. Like, I wasn't even talking about him... Whenever people act like this it always reminds me of that hilarious "HE'S FAT !" Scott Steiner promo though.

Rebellion : Jonah vs Tomohiro Ishii. Holy shit. Eddie Edwards vs Rocky Romero was excellent. Romero has to be one of the most underrated workers of the last 20 years, as he never seem to be in conversations but damn he is so good and has been for so long. Finally, the Chelsea Green turn that was expected and built on for a while now, and it was just expertly done, with Cardona jumping on Mickie James to boot. AEW badly need some big time angle of the sorts for their women division and badly need someone as good as Mickie (granted, she's been doing it for ever now and she's really good) as far as working angles.

Yep, I was thinking the same thing. Wasn't a fan of his MLW Loose Canon redux either, but the whole Hart Foundation stuff was fun.... well... I mean, of course there was the whole Teddy Hart stuff and DBS Jr. is that Canadian guy who supports Trump.... yeah, I said it back then I wasn't sure how I would look back on me enjoying those Hart Foundation bits when the Teddy Hart shit hit the fan and... maybe better forget about this whole deal... So Jungle Boy was somewhere in the vicinity. Him and Sammy are two of the pillars of the company apparently. (kappa Emote)

Won't get an argument from me, I was enjoying the Alexa stuff everybody hated back then when she was the dominant heel champ. She's definitely someone I would enjoy watching out of the system too. No idea what's the plan for Julia. And really, the Varsity shouldn't be a priority anyway. The Young Bucks have made them look ten times better (and more over) than they actually were and Pillman hasn't been very good for a while now (dating back from the MJF stuff, which still was kinda cool as they put him over in his hometown). There's so many very good to great tag teams in that company (i's ridiculous actually, they could run a tag-team G1), I don't see why they should be pushed above their current level now. If they want to actually work on developing Julia, she should indeed be given a new role.