El-P

Ok, what's happening in Texas lately, because I don't get the refs being made about it ? Kinda busy with not one, not two, but three extreme-right candidates for the most depressing Presidential election ever incoming in two months, plus war in Ukraine woohoo such a fun time. (I know, PWO, but I admit the refs of Kevin Owens being loved for being anti-Texas flew right over my head)

I don't even follow French sports. I doubt I would be able to name one member of the World Champions French football team out of the top of my head. So, yeah, cricket ?

Micheal Elgin is suing IMPACT for breach of contract (he was done after #SpeakingOut allegations). I guess he's another one who want to control his narrative.

Bodyslam.net, purveyor of legit news since... when exactly ?

If there ever was a picture to tell how much Drew McIntyre is *not* a top guy after all, that would be it. Cody is gonna have such a blast with the company's creative for him...

IMPACT running two shows at Wrestlecon, first of which being a Multivers of Matches show, with Good Brothers vs Briscoes announced already (same night as Supercard of Honor mind you). So I guess we can expect some more interpromotional stuff, considering the title of the event. Second show will be yet another IPWF show, which are always very fun. With ROH now being part of TK's catalogue, I wonder how IMPACT will position themselves in that new landscape.

Yep. See also, Ishii. The fact she would kick the fuck out of people and bash their head in with that damn uraken (that really no one has mastered since, sadly) also helped.

I really never thought of Aja as a tall woman though, plus I don't expect a bunch of japanese women to be really big anyway. But talk about perception of a tiny worker, here's Mayumi Ozaki for you. She's like 1,55 (do you think we're losing all the anglo-saxon posters with our beloved metric system talk here ?), but she absolutely was credible beating Kansai's ass into a bloody pulp. Sabu is another guy who's smaller than he probably looked. On the other hand, when Jeff Hardy shows up, he'll tower above guys like Darby & Sammy.

For sure. Meltz made the point the other day about how Christian Cage in WWE being considered a "small guy", which played against him in term of being seen as a top level guy, and how in AEW he looks bigger than most folks (apart from the few really big guys). Guys in AEW are smaller, and even in this context, Cole looks smaller than most of them. But it's really ridiculous to me that size would play any kind of factor in pro-wrestling in 2022, big men slapping meat notwithstanding (and really now, some of the best meat slapper today are guys like Ishii and Suzuki and they are not big guys, Ishii is another one who looked small appearing in AEW).

Also, to rant about something more fun , I guess the Supercard of Honor ROH tag team titles match with the Briscoes is now pretty much 100% happening with FTR. Deonna Purrazzo working the show as ROH champ is quite interesting too, I would hope AEW keeps a good relationship with IMPACT in the midst of all of this.

Mark Henry has the better catchphrase in 2022, that's for sure. I sure hope he does something else in the company too. Speaking of which, what was the purpose of Paul Wight again ? I admit I don't watch Dark anymore, does he still do the announcing ?

Actually, it isn't. It's about a certain kind of perception. It's been said that "Adam Cole is a polarizing figure". My point is "I don't think he is, this idea that he is very much is only part of very small bubble". And yeah, I will endlessly make fun of the old "Mark Henry is better than Shawn Micheals" little adventure, because it was typical of the way sometime, the small echo chambers effect distort the overall perception of worker X or Y. Ok. So, first I'm not "ranting". Second, you mean dropping "X is a geek, I don't want him on my TV!" every fucking week ? Yeah, sounds quite fun indeed. I'll keep on "ranting" or talking or discussing about whatever I please, if you don't mind me doing it. Respectfully. You're actually really getting awkward now, sorry to say. Yeah, NXT lost the ratings war. They were still very much a watched show on national TV. To say that NXT was irrelevant and under the radar in term of mainstream US pro-wrestling is just unrealistic. The bolded part exposes your point completely though. Ok, so Adam Cole is as over as Ice Train in WCW. End of debate.

Coming from the guy who had to write *every* *single* *week* how much he hated the Good Brothers (and later Matt Hardy, for a while at least) and how you wish they would go away when they were on TV with no other argument than "they're geeks", it's kinda rich, honestly. I mean, no offense, but it seems you're the one taking it personally now, really, for whatever reason... I'm not ranting nor do I care one bit about the opinions of others in term of my own enjoyment, I'm just discussing pro-wrestling on PWO. I know, the audacity. As I said, I don't think Adam Cole is that much of a polarizing figure, not as much as Omega was for instance (while at the same time never receiving the same kind of praise Omega got, which I guess is also why he is not as much of a polarizing figure), and I gave my reason why, recontextualizing the whole thing. Are you serious ? He was the main star on NXT for literally YEARS. Including when it was on *national TV* in the midst of a pro-wrestling war. He got a huge, main event star pop when he showed up on PPV for arguably the second biggest pro-wrestling company in the world. What, you think he would not have gotten that pop in WWE either (for instance, debuting at the Royal Rumble) because NXT doesn't matter on the mainstream US wrestling scene ? Come one now... It's not like we're talking about a guy who was having "hidden gems" on obscure indies and then appeared magically on TV. It's the same mentality that had WWE people think people would not know about AJ Styles because he was a TNA guy, and no one knew about TNA, of course...

So, Vince is gonna induct Taker. Not that it will make me watch a second of this stuff anyway, but that certainly says a lot.

Yep. Plus, to me it speaks volume of the confidence they have in both guys to end the show and apparently the PPV when CM Punk vs MJF and Mox vs Danielson are on the same card. I'm still getting to know Adam Cole, really, as my viewing of him has been very scattered to say the least before AEW, but although I get why he would irritate some people and how his unimpressive frame and athletic abilities would turn other (or the same) people off, but I've seen enough already to get the feeling he's a master at this game. Quite impressed thus far, especially by the way he carries himself and the little things he does. In a way I kinda see a bit of Raven's work in him.

I dunno if you've seen a lot of TK, but he's always like that when he's excited to talk about pro-wrestling. He was actually much cooler when he was cutting actual heel promos on IMPACT TV with Schiavone. This simply looked like Coach Tony K. being excited to announce he had purchased ROH.

So, no WWE for Russia anymore...

Makes it even greater. MJF and Punk are having an all-time classic feud.

At least she's consistent. Wearing mask and getting vaccinated was not just about protecting you, but also the other people around you. And protecting the other people around you is a notion that never entered her mind, as showed by her work. Of course she would say stupid shit like this now. I know it's kinda petty and a bit Schadenfreude, but I would lie if I didn't say I'm glad she's predictably awful on all accounts. Also, that Max Caster punchline on Kane on Dynamite cracked me up real bad.

The thing is, I don't think Adam Cole is really *that* polarizing of a figure. The niche of the niche of the niche has its own bizarre idiosyncrasies (which sometimes had led to honestly comical stands like "Mark Henry is a better pro-wrestler than Shawn Micheals" for instance), but Cole was over as fuck in ROH, then over as fuck in NXT (despite overlong main event style which was a staple of the promotion, not Cole in particular), and is over as fuck in AEW to the point it seemed obvious when he jumped that WWE had fucked up not recognizing a potential main event star. It's like Omega, to a lesser degree, some people for some reason just won't give him his due. Being burned out on his NXT stint probably has played a part, but not acknowledging him as both a great worker and a legit main event player seems kinda odd to me at this point. I don't think he'll win the title now, seems too soon for Page to pass it around, but he absolutely could and it would not shock me at all either. He just has it, whether it's your favorite style or not. Adam vs Adam looks awesome on paper, really, as they display natural chemistry together in the ring already. Shawn Spears is the best part of Wardlow's act. There, I just said it. I am so not interested in the whole "Big guy sticking his tongue out doing three powerbombs in a row" character. And as much as CM Punk vs MJF has been awesome, I think the Wardlow/MJF stuff has been awkward and the opposite of subtle, as there is really no reason given why MJF acts so poorly toward him (and not toward Spears or FTR). With the never-ending afflux of great talent to the company, I don't see Wardlow as a sustainable long-time push, unless he grows way past his current style and presentation, not to mention in-ring work (which is ok but nothing special, when guys like Archer, Rusev, who has to come back, or Keith Lee are around, hell even green-ass Will Hobbs is much more interesting to me). Is it me or Britt Baker is losing a little bit of steam ? Time for Thunder Rosa to win the belt and have to hotter women's match on the show, honestly. Fuck, just bring Mickie James over as an outsider already. Fact, I almost posted a joke about TK buying ROH and then Shane showing up saying he actually bought the company, so I did get a kick out of TK getting the ref out. Well, I did call it a few weeks back too that it was gonna be about getting ROH as a farming system and going into streaming. Kinda not that surprising either, but still quite an interesting move. Because you know it is all about getting content to sell to a streaming service. I though about TK getting burned up with so many hats too, but I feel that if they still do some ROH shows, TK is gonna delegate. I wonder if guys like Danielson or Punk would be interested in working around that project eventually. Of course that Regal fellow is out there, as is Samoa Joe. Cody leaving just before TK acquires ROH certainly is a nice bit of irony, too.

Under 25. Sexy looking. Being good at pro-wrestling not mandatory. I've heard that one before. And in 99% of cases in the last 10 years, it never actually happened because WWE wastes everything they touch. Maybe now that it's NXT 2.0 it's gonna work out well though (Why don't we have a kappa emote on this board ?).

Come on guys, gotta teach the mizarks and the rizats some respect for locker room etiquette, da bizness and deez nuts.

The biggest announcement in the history of our sport.

NJPW is so *there* now. Unless there's a really big match pimped after the fact (really enjoyed SANADA vs Tanahashi, another feather in the cap of Tana), I'm so over NJ at this point, as the shows are basically a bunch of tag matches that never produce anything special even when great workers are involved. The main take from the Anniversary shows to me, is that aging does suck. And that GLEAT has some cool guys. Main event was pretty fun, legit great during the Okada vs Suzuki parts of it. Fujinami was in great shape for his age and did nothing really notable or fun (shocking I know), while Fujiwara at 72 in tights is not a visual I needed but he was as fun as one could expect from a 72 years old Fujiwara. The mount of goodwill from the other workers was way past the Hansen-sells-for-Baba-in-93 though, let's be real. And now this ridiculous Japan Cup with a hundred guys ? Hard pass. NJPW badly needs some outsiders (hello AEW) and some more interesting booking, because there's no way I'm going through 3 hours shows with about one worthy match, there's already way too much good stuff out there.

Aries is gonna cancel himself out of controlling his narrative...