El-P

When they talk about the grandest stage of all, is that the Capitol ?

Looks like a bunch of crackers ready to burn crosses. Just sayin'... Would be a good heel group in 2022 though.



Yeah, that's called relativism. And again. Making fun of a promo that he thought was bad = Making fun of depression in front of the guy after pretending to bond with him ? Hum.... "Dripping with insincerity" That shit never gets old.

May have been. Probably another reason why they don't want anyone with any rasslin' experience anymore (when you think about this, really ), because that way they can mold their talent into just accepting what they are being fed. Which also means those people will be way more afraid to leave after only knowing WWE too. Of course, when they'll get fired, because they will, that will be a different story.

It always comes back to Vince indeed (But he loved me !), and Dax may very well have been dickish. But the entire thread reeks of corporate suck-up when Dax basically was giving yet another instance of the Kliq being what they always have been, a bunch of assholes (and hey, I like their work to this day), which really isn't any kind of news. And ok, Waltman probably always was the best of them, when he wasn't shitting on women's sandwhiches (BTW, Sunny is going back to jail, right ?). But you know what I think about Twitter dramas in general. Waste of time.

Making fun of a written promo = making fun of depression issues. Suck-up to the boss spotted. Also, I don't know what kind of contracts writers get, but I don't think they are categorized as "independent contractors". The "second class citizen" line seems pretty ironic. Considering the average level of promo work in WWE, honestly most of these guys should get the axe anyway because they suck and can't write worth a shit (and yeah, I know they are working around oddball WWE verbiage and Vince re-writing shows, but still).

Yep. Omega is always an awesome guess. So well thought out.

I'm all for WWE doing nothing but reality shows and shit and leave pro-wrestling to the people who actually do it right.

Bully Ray's reveal at Lockdown as the President of Aces & Eights is an easy 11/10 on the "It was me all along !" idiocracy scale. And it legit makes Aces & Eights the worst heel ploy ever. I mean, really now, considering the months and months and months of mysteries, manipulation, beatdowns and physical toll paid by Bully himself (not to mention the faction), all of this just to get the world title, the ratio effort/result ends up being quite pathetic. I mean, Bobby Roode also fooled the people but he won the TNA title with one fucking beer bottle after one match. Speaking of Roode though, funny how booking works. After the neverending boredom of his single heel main event push, he's now tagging with Austin Aries (who's at the top of his game still) and he's terrific again because he can now work like he did in Beer Money as opposed to be a dull as dirt Randy Rorton-like in overlong single main events. And the interactions and bickering between the two are actually really good and funny. The only other really good stuff at this time is the Gail Kim and Taryn Terell storyline. Kenny King and Zema Ion in the X-division are also good.

The TNA creation episodes are fascinating, because it really goes in detail into the hows and the whys how creating a pro-wrestling promotion (which still exists today !) from scratch in the monopoly era. Also, there's this little gem, when they talk about the guys from the indies he was gonna book on EP2 : "It annoyed me even back in 2002, "Oh, they're just flippity guys". No, they really aren't." Nice. Really enjoying this show.

When I think about Veracruz, I don't picture cold wind and rain. I guess it's Winter over there too. Probably did not help the show. So, Taya won the fun multi-women match and challenged Deonna Purrazzo. As expected. Lady Maravilla took a spanish fly from the apron to the floor, because of course she would. She's low-key one of my favorite performer, she's always fun to watch, and she's bitchy as hell. Tons of clusterfucks on the undercard, the mixed tag title (which is something IMPACT really should do) multi team strap lumberjack match was as fun and ridiculous as it sounds. The new Sexy Star looks quite good, plus she doesn't shoot on people, so there's that. Nice tribute to Arturo El Rudo Rivera, he comes off like he was the Bobby Heenan of AAA. Also, Carlos Cabrera reunited with Hugo, but no one broke their table. Rey de Reyes match was *there*. Laredo Kid and Bandido obviously were fun to watch, Psycho Clown was absolutely part of this match (I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed him, he has to be the most annoying pushed guy in the world next to EVIL, for different reasons), Cibernetico hobbled his way into sucking and hey Heavy Metal showed up. What the fuck is this, WWE ? So, Fénix could not wrestle on the show, so it was Dralistico (wait, the first Dragon Lee who became the second Mistico in Mexico, right ? This guy has legit personality issues) vs Penta, and it was pretty okay although Dralistico was sloppy at times. Turned into an angle at the end, with Dragon Lee showing up and beating down Penta while Fénix was held back by security and the medics, really great at selling the despair of watching his brother get killed too. Lee's vs FTR vs Lucha Brothers incoming. I was half-excepting Johnny Lucha, but we got Johnny Superstar. Got a chuckle out of that, how more literal can you be ? Was a total asshole too, which is his best role. Vikingo was out of this world again. One spot that had me die laughing was toward the end as Johnny tried to grab the camera from the guy taking pictures outside the ring, and the guy visibly would not give him, like, he wasn't gonna do it. Johnny had to give up and take a huge-ass light from the rampway instead, which did not look awkward at all. Finish was incredible though, as Johnny took a moonsault bump ONTO the rope rope, which Vikingo followed by a reverse rana from over there of course, before his usual finisher. Just insane looking sequence. Match was quite good all things considered. AAA is such a clusterfuck though. The trios match in particular had Los Mercenarios show up at the end for a crappy DQ (although, La Hiedra, respectfully, as we say now apparently)... LA Park is 56 and really begins to show his age too, although he did a nice tope.

They won't until they are absolutely forced to. As long as they can have Brock, can bring back Goldy, legit fantasize about having that Rock match at Mania and as long as Roman is not going to Hollywood, they just won't. One reason is that they SUCK at booking, of course. They other is that they have pre-existent and dated idea of what a star should be. They have learned nothing from the Bryan Danielson years, nothing. The concept of not wanting anyone with actual wrestling experience because they want to brainwash model their own workers from the very start won't make things better. No one will learn how to get over in a company that doesn't let anyone actually get over unless it's a pre-planned decision. Meltz mentioned the Brock interview in which he criticizes the younger guys who "don't know how to make money and get over", which is ridiculous coming from someone who was destined to be pushed as a big star even before day one (much like Orton or Roman BTW). No one will ever get over organically in this company anymore.

MAJOR FACEPALM And they seem proud of the idea too, considering this is the official Twitter account. This company, for fuck's sake. Zero conscience whatsoever.

Arabic is the most talked Semitic language in the world, ya know... And yeah, I know what you mean, but it's not like Goldy has not been cheered over there before. #Influencing the world my ass. To me this shows really have been the wrestling equivalent of the Overtone Window. At first there was some outcry about it, now it's like, nobody cares, business as usual. When really, it isn't. Then again, how are the Olympic Games in China going ? Uyghurs concentration camps ? What's that ? Hey, a Gold medal, play our national anthem now !

Yeah, it's insane he worked for so long at that ridiculous level while being so banged up. Vertigo, for fuck's sake.

Oh, for sure, it was an important part of the show. The match itself wasn't that great and tons of smokes and mirrors (Aldis just isn't that great), but it played as a memorable moment. Just like Cody vs Dustin looked like the biggest match coming off Double of Nothing to a lot of people. Funny thing in retrospect, is that if you look at the booking of Cody's big matches, there was always that aspect of him doing the "Codyverse", of sorts. From winning the NWA Title like his father, to the match against his brother, to creating the TNT Title, everything was more or less about his own little heritage. Meanwhile, the Elite, and by that I mean Omega, Hangman & the Bucks, basically booked themselves into a long-term storyline (referred around here in what I find to be an annoying and honestly ridiculous derogatory term as "Elite drama", when in fact it's just good storytelling based on actual personal relationships and long-term history through several promotions) designed toward one goal : making Hangman Page a legit main-eventer. That was the entire purpose from day one, from the split from the Elite to the tag-team with Omega, to the betrayal through Callis, the Bucks heel turn in a Bullet Club reunion of sorts to finally Hangman beating Omega with the Bucks looking out and not interfering. Cody had basically no role in this and once he got done with the TNT title reigns, the last real good thing he did in the company, getting over many people in the process, it seems he had no direction anymore, and this is where he gets lost into the jingoist promo and lost the love of the AEW audience. In the end of the day, the name of the company was All Elite Wrestling, and it seems that Cody, by getting estranged with the Elite in more than a kayfabe way, lost the sense of a common vision for the company because of his own tunnel vision, which was all about his dad's name legacy.

No shit ! For that reason only I want to see it, it would be epic on that level alone. And ridiculous stiffness too, as White, for as light a frame he's got, throws really wicked chops.

Not sure putting a bunch of big men in a ladder match is the brightest idea ever though. Especially Keith Lee, the last thing he needs is to get injured again. Intriguing choice though. Hobbs is a cool choice, he's also much better than Wardlow. Jay White vs Trent was a great TV match. White is still one of the best wrestler in the world, watching him is taking a masterclass. It's tricky because both are heels and I guess Jay is not here for the long haul at all, but White vs Danielson is a dream match of mine, that would be a ridiculous level of brillance. Jade's outfit !!! Hey, I'm all for a match against the Bunny, that's a pretty cool mix. Yeah, Jeff Hardy is coming BTW... It's interesting focusing on Adam Cole's work (which I'm not overly familiar with, since I only seen like two NXT matches before), because he really comes off like a total star despite the fact he's really small (let's be real) and not the greatest athlete around. Again, watching him work against #10, who looked quite good, is like taking a lesson. So many tiny little stuff he does that makes him stand out. Of course he's a great mechanic too, which doesn't hurt, great control of timing and space. That bump he took on the lariat was godlike. No wasted motion either, even in the little steps he takes. That guys knows...

Like I could not love Bret more than I did. Bump him one spot higher on GWE.

She's a Cancer too. Well, apparently she is.

This thread is completely baffling to me with all the praise for this match, with a few exceptions. Even not considering the godawful booking that contributed to kill NJPW in the 00's, this match, like every other Hashimoto vs Ogawa match, was the drizzling shit. Don Frye and Scott Norton had a WAY better match (not hard, but I mean, it was quite good) based on MMA guy vs wrestler. Ponder that for a second or two. Piss poor work as usual from Ogawa (I wonder if even Takada in his prime would have gotten a decent match out of him), Hash gets a few little flashes of really cool spots, like turning one STO into a DTT, or the leg swipe when he enters the ring, but he already looks like a shell of his former self, following one year and a half of legit character assassination by Inoki. Sure, it's heated. So what ? The work is terrible and could have only been redeemed if the right man had won. Not only does that not happen, but the finish is a stupid anti-climatic KO following a bunch of STOs. The only good half-match that happened between those two was the late 99 match, before it turned into STO City. This was not good at all, slimmed down Hash has already lost a ton of aura and self-confidence it seems. Legit one of the worst major feud ever, both in execution (apart from the heated angles part of it) and of course, in booking. Rewatching this entire feud, with an open mind I might add, it's even worse today because Hash comes of even worse than I remembered (and really kills his prime dead, as his last great match appears to be the G1 finals in 98, which really makes it a short stint as a top worker, 5 years at best) while Ogawa is mostly the same (aka, not good). Their 97 match was better than any other one during this entire debacle. No wonder Inoki is so hated by NJPW people today.

So, I guess the Austin level stuff is Taker getting in the HOF. Apart from a Rock appearance, I just don't see anything else. Hogan can't be it, not anymore.

Off the top of my head, it absolutely would be my 2021 MOTY too. Maybe some Takagi match would take it upon further reviews, but I'm not sure about that. Yeah, seems about right.