El-P

It's tricky and complicated for sure, but it's not novel nor a recipe for disaster either. Whether Cole should turn babyface or not soon is up to debate (he'll do it eventually, I guess), but the sing-along is what makes a lot of the perception that he is a star, so it's not going away as long as he's over, whatever his stance will be. To me one of the most fun thing is figuring out what's happening and how things work, and the ambivalence in the relationship of fans toward the classic heel/babyface roles definitions in reference to the actual performers is pretty fascinating. The greatest exemple of this lately was when Tony Schiavone showed up on the ramp to give a hug to Britt Baker, there was so much layers of lectures (between the kayfabe roles which already are ambivalent between Britt & Tony, the fact the audience was cheering the heel because they love her "as a heel", the real-life friendship of Britt & Tony...) happening at the same exact time, actually would be super complex to explain to a non-wrestling fan why it was such a glorious moment (the highlight of that entire match to me, really). EDIT : and yes, I then had to google simps because English is not my first language. Oh well.

Terrible comment to make. They paid to attend a pro-wrestling show and have fun attending a pro-wrestling show. Yeah, that's awful, I know, how dare they. Good things there are people on a niche pro-wrestling board setting the record straight always not only on how pro-wrestling *should* be worked (no) but also passing judgment on the fans and how they should react (no). Seriously, this is ridiculous. You hate it ? Cool. No one asks you to enjoy it. You don't want to watch the match after that (I know, the indignity of it, my God) ? Well, then don't. But acting houlier than thou on the basis of "But that's not how pro-wresting should work ! How dare they be blasphemous with the purity of trve heat ?" is pretty... well, you used the word yourself, pathetic. And laughable, really. Respectfully of course (as always, nothing personal, I'm reacting to the posting, not the person).

Can't wait until WALTER goes on social media to explain that he actually choose his name and is very happy about it. Then after he's fired like everybody else he'll say how stupid it actually was. In an era where name are actually brands (for better or worse), changing a guy's name that has been established for *years* in the pro-wrestling field, including on their *own* TV shows and PPV's, absolutely hurts the perception and makes everybody seem less special from the get-go. All for both idiotic and petty reasons. Doesn't really matter. WALTER will never be allowed to be WALTER in the main roster anyway, his body type will sour on Vince in a matter of weeks, the German accent will displease them (if Cesaro could not pass that test, no way Gunter does it). Of course he'll be given a good shine in the Rumble or something and the usual WWEptimism will be in effect for a cup of coffee before the inevitable.

Well, that is still a nazi gimmick in a way...

Likewise Randy Orton, if there's one WWE guy of the past 20 years that I should watch, it's Edge. On the strenght of only *one* recent thing : re-watching the Edge vs Taker Mania match last year (or the year before ? pandemic has screwed up my perception of time), which not only was a great match and one of my two favorite Taker@Mania matches (alongside Batista's). It was the smartest, most interesting and smartly put together big Mania Taker matches, and it was certainly *not* Taker putting this one together. Considering that the idea that Edge is not good is pretty much one of those "niche of a niche, bubble in a bubble" odd take (let's be real, he's largely considered a great worker otherwise), he probably should deserve a fresh look. Yeah, him and Orton, ironically enough, would probably need it (Cena also, but I've already made my peace with Cena a long time ago).

What else ?

There is no decline, as showed by the two nights at WK. He had back issues at one point and took it easier for a while, and why the fuck not when you're programmed against Yujiro Takahashi and meaningless tag team matches. So yeah, booking and pandemic is pretty much all what his "decline" was all about. You put him two nights back to back at the Tokyo Dome and he's basically saving both shows (which were very underwhelming) popping out two incredible matches, most impressive of all the second being even more incredible than the first. And then he's having an amazing performance as the already legendary Ace pummeling the frustrated young hope of NOAH in a great tag match that also involved 59 years old Mutoh. Hence my first comment about Okada "waking up" and taking back what's his, maybe the spot of the greatest pro-wrestler ever.

No words on Tammy Sytch threatening to kill her partner with scissors ? Come on now, that's the old Sid spot, only better. What a life this poor girl had... She probably would have needed some help a long-ass time ago.

After the last 2 (well, 3 actually) days of this year's Wrestling Kingdom, I'm like "fuuuuuuuuuuck, this guy actually may be the greatest Ace ever". His match with Ospreay was next level. It's like he just had awaken (not entirely true though, as he ruled in the G1 this year and his feud with Cobb had been great) and was determined on showing how it's done and then some. The complexity of the sequences at one point where just out of this world. And not only you had to think about them, structure them, but actually having to execute them. Of course Ospreay is THAT dance partner, but still. And the guy has developed a style, working from Tanahashi's years, which does not require you to bump on your head more and more and more, so he's got so many years in front of him still. One year ago I wasn't thinking about him as a #1 spot contender, but now and with 4 years + before the poll... Yeah, he could end up just there.

This is bizarre as fuck, especially the fact they gave him the TNT title back at this time. Also, having a TNT interim champion with a belt for two weeks was odd as fuck too. Everything is just bizarre and none of it makes sense. Unless he's very at odds with Omega & The Bucks (he says he is not), I have no idea why anyone would think he'd leave the company he helped create only 3 years ago when they are still growing.

Agree with everything. The ROH stuff has been very well done thus far, having Gresham on the show brings another flavor with the Pure style (which is indeed very cool, I had not watched it when it happened in ROH). Deonna remains one of my very favorite workers in the world, glad she got that ROH title too now. Slammiversary will be the 20 years anniversary of the company. Who would have thought. And when you look at its history, the most obvious lesson is that Scott D'Amore is a terrific booker. He was responsible for its best years in the 00's (2005 and a good part of 2006) and the comeback since 2018. I hope they get Jarrett to make an appearance, I mean, he's smashing guitars in GCW these days, so why not.

The use of the word "women" is really telling too. Not even "women wrestlers" (and really, they could have simply said "wrestlers"). Just "women self-mutilating". Such a dirty, shameless tactic. Of course apparently blading and bumping on tacks is sleazy but promoting an authoritarian regime run by a war criminal is not, but hey, capitalism is hypocrisy so of course sponsors would care less about this (when are the Olympic Games taking place already ? What ? Uyghur ? What is that ?). As far as Ali wanting to get the fuck away, I can only imagine the kind of angle they would have him play.

Not sure what is worse. The fact they are burning yet another remain of the Attitude Era (ya know, that period when people mutilated each other all the time and which apparently, is still the best period evah in the WWE Lore) because they can't possibly make anyone (and have people actually flying off their company while they can, see Toni Storm or pretty soon, Mustafa Ali). Or that bump Charlotte took.

WWE 2022 Day 1 : cursed.

That's cool. Yes and indeed. So yeah, with all this, it got quite undersold that AEW just signed Mercedes Martinez (who has a match with Deonna this week on IMPACT, yeah, 2022 already cool as hell). That's a pretty huge addition to the women's division and opens up tons of really good matches. Not to mention her mentoring and helping the young workers.

It's pretty much a toss up between her and Utami (BTW, she isn't nominated yet ?), I'd probably have Utami above but both have had an awesome 2021.

The Ryogoku show capped off the year in great fashion. SO easy to watch, good matches up and down the card and two great matches to end the year, Nakano vs Kamitani and of course the amazing final between Utami & Syuri, which was an easy MOTYC yet again. These two have written one hell of a chapter for joshi puroresu and wrestling in general. Can't wait to see what's next for the company.

Yeah, no idea either. It kinda looks like a slip up, which is kinda hilarious, but at the same time it was such a great spot, too great for it to be a simple coincidence. If that was planned, Bunny did wonders with it because it really looked like she slipped on the tacks. And then the selling of it was awesome indeed. Agreed. Gonna probably re-watch it, just because ! The four of them deserves tons of credit. So glad Allie finally got a real chance to shine and show that batshit crazy side of her.

Not only the move to TBS, but the final of the TBS tournament. Now expect this : Ruby Soho wins : idiots online are gonna make it a racial thing and say it's the proof AEW is not doing the "right thing". Jade Cargill wins : idiots online are gonna make it a racial thing and say it's the only reason why Jade is pushed. So yeah, more stupidity incoming. (as I've said before, I want Jade to win, for strictly selfish pro-wrestling reasons stated before)

Not only that, but Kofi was basically thrown in the spot because Ali got injured... So much could be said about *that* swap too. But anyways, and then his reign ends with a total squash by the real star, and then where is Kofi Kingtson on the first card of 2022 ? Hum.... New Days vs Usos. Like it's 2016 of something. Same match that has been done approximately a thousand times in more than half a decade. Kofi had his Mania Moment tm, then went back to the same old same old he has been for years. He hasn't been elevated in the slightest in the long run. The Jinder push had a specific goal in mind. Great success too, remember the panic mode at the end ? Drew is kinda different in that he went away, came back as kind of a big deal but his main event push happened during the no-crowd era, so it's hard. Big E. totally feels like a "Your turn to get the belt, you deserve it" with nothing more behind it.

Dark are mostly JTTS shows, it's not supposed to be about great matches, plenty of those on the TV shows already. And they do have some micro-feuds built exclusively for the shows, like the Janela vs Sonny Kiss saga. There are plenty of good and fun matches on there last time I checked. And really now, the quality was always up anytime Big Swole wasn't on the show with her crappy work which peaked with like a ** match against Diamanté.

Agreed. The way they operate just doesn't work for me. For instance, the infamous Mexico episodes of MLW which I guess will (or won't, who knows) end up being the Azteca Underground stuff have been taped on December the 3rd ! And none of it has surfaced yet. It's ridiculous. There can't be any serious follow-ups nor hype about anything when the content is more than a month old already. Meanwhile, IMPACT does tapings over two days but those are immediately showcased during the whole following month, so of course you can get spoilers but it's actual spoilers of what's gonna happen tomorrow and the following week, not something that has happened a month ago and hasn't been showed while even older stuff pops up on Youtube every other week in the meantime.

Yep, this is a case where the sloppiness actually helps, because it's supposed to be organic and sloppy, not carefully planned. Also : no trash can nor kendo sticks galore. Someone has been listening. Tremendous match. Anna Jay doing her best Mick Foley impersonation at the end was quite unexpected too.

He hasn't been just doing commentary. Last time I checked, he was a key part of a key match on TV, costing Dante Martin the Diamond Ring in the final match against MJF. I do love Starks and having him on commentary every week is a pleasure, so I don't want him to stop doing that either. Is he still injured ? (edit : apparently he has deleted his Twitter account, so he doesn't want none of that bullshit) One worker I'd like to see more on TV is Red Velvet. Also, I thought they signed Kiera Hogan but maybe I was mistaken, although she did show up back on Dark after being on NWA TV, and this time to win a match, so maybe she'll end up on the actual roster. I miss Kiera ! They definitely should bring in Ember Moon. And the men side of things, Keith Lee, if he's healthy, is a no-brainer, so is Shane Strickland. Jonathan Gresham is working the next IMPACT PPV, so maybe he's not going in that direction. Well, learning something everyday. This is why you should never make those big private life celebration public. Didn't he ask his former girlfriend just a few months ago during a show ? Private life should still be a thing.... But yes, Twitter is not real life.

This was all about the Bunny. That's the Allie I know and love. Of course she's gonna bleed bucket and take horrific bumps in tacks. Ozaki would be proud. Gotta love Conti just wanting to fuck some shit up, hey, she said it herself, she wants to go to Japan and kick people in the head too. What a crazy match. Won't help the female demo for sure, but what a memorable way to end the year. Ethan Page was excellent there. He always delivers when called on (see also, his match against Darby).