El-P

Ridiculous PPV. Britt vs Rosa was the only underwhelming match, although the ending got hotter. Sure, they got put in the death spot, but considering what the trios clusterfuck ECW tribute match ended up to be, it's understandable (even more when you consider how *there* most of the match was in the end). And let's be honest, Britt has been kinda underwhelming inside the ring lately, seems like she's plateaued. This match went nowhere for a good amount of time before the last part, which got much better. But apart from this, holy fuck. Jericho vs Eddie was basically a 90's japanese fetish "let's kill each other match". Terrific Young Bucks vs reDDragons vs Jurassik Express was just an awe-inspiring spotfest with great dynamics. Top 3 match of the night The ladder multi-men was the expected craziness, with some really great creative spots. The least interesting guy to me won, but it makes sense considering the overall booking. Jade vs Conti was pretty good, although I find Tay to be pretty self-conscious still at times. Jade is a great heel and she showing new shit every time around is like the best thing about Goldy in 98. She needs to not lose before long. CM Punk vs MJF was a great storyline infused match, high on selling and blood match. CM Punk coming to his old theme was such a nice touch (no idea why some idiots would bitch about it, it was explained right there by the announcers). Mox vs Danielson just beat the living fuck out of each other and it was awesome. Top 3 match of the night. I did not expect Regal there, so I popped like crazy. The trios match was just complete insanity. That spanish fly... I though Kassidy was dead. Sting channeling his inner Tommy Dreamer/Terry Funk was just... WTF ? Page vs Page, well, if you don't get why Cole is a great worker there you probably won't get it ever, personally I'm sold (which I wasn't 100% before the match), the match was absolutely brilliantly structured toward the final escalation, Cole got so much interesting ideas (he's also such an amazing and smart bumper). Page proved once again why he absolutely deserves his spot and why he's one of the best workers in the world today. Top 3 match of the night. I expected Strickland as soon as Tony referred to them working together before. Comes off like a star too. That fucking company has been on a historical streaks of insanely great PPV's.

I actually wanted to do the exact same thing ! And I won't be able to watch it before two days or so, so there I go avoiding any news or spoilers and discussion on the board until then ! Enjoy the show everybody !

BTW, I'm very surprised to see no bitching about Erik Redbeard. With all the talent already in the company, and all the guys available, do they really need to add Erik Redbeard to the roster ? At this point AEW has *too many* big guys already. Plus, there's always what it could lead to eventually... Nothing against the guy at all, but... really ? Plus I gotta say, Alex Abrahantes looks like a guy doing a Vampiro in Lucha Underground cosplay (I mean, in the most literal sense). If you really wanna do Dark Penta, hire Catrina or Salina, someone evoking some Mexican bruja creepy shit, not a goofy hypeman dressed up for Halloween...

Totally agree. Plus, like in music (among other things in life), accidents and dissonances are also part of what makes something great, and there's no "formula" to what a song should be, even a pop song.

In a span of a few minutes we went from "Cody may not go to WWE after all" to "Cody may debut on a MSG house show". This is so 1997.

This whole thing is gonna be a classic part of pro-wrestling folklore in a few years. Fuck, now I want Cody & Brandi in IMPACT, why the hell not !

Another TV show of they still got the spot, sure, but don't call it ROH, as the brand as been a non factor for a while now. Meltz mentioned that at this point, it's even below NJPW and IMPACT in the US in term of awareness. Now, I don't even watch any Dark anymore, I doubt I would watch a third AEW show a week, no matter how much I enjoy the promotion.

Considering how bad the Codyverse has been, there's no good reason why TK would go "Hey Cody, come back, I give you that non-drawing company that I just bought so you can play more fantasy stuff with my money." I mean... Don't think they should run ROH anyway, really, this is a losing proposition.

Well, you can't disagree with something that hasn't been exposed yet. The issue is that quite honestly, I believe pro-wrestling is at the same time infinitely simple (the old quote about luchadors doing nothing that the 90 years old uneducated grandma would not understand) and way more complex (and rich, which is probably why it's so fun) than it's actually usually thought of, including in the most obscure part of our geeky Internet fandom niche. It's not just about the idea that pro-wrestling psychology is more than an inner-match narrative (which is it also, of course), but also that what sometimes passes for "great psychology" actually is something else. If I ever was to develop an entire theory about it, I would need to use some concepts from aesthetic criticism, which I'm not overly familiar nor very at ease with, although very much interested in (in many more ways than one), and quite a bit of sociology, especially the field theory (of the one and only Pierre Bourdieu), plus I guess some semiotics. Considering how much of a lazy fuck am I, I've quite often been thinking about all of these things these last few years (= way too many time on my hands), but the odds of me actually trying to articulate in details what I mean by all that is probably not that high (well, especially since whenever I think about those kind of "conceptual", to use a big word, topics, I think about them in French, as my English level just isn't there, maybe on a reading level I would be ok but certainly not on a personal expression level). Not to mention it's always a work in progress. Not to mention also that there are parts of working I will *never* be able to get or grasp, for the simple reason I never did it, and whether we like to admit it or not, it does play a part in how we perceive the whole thing (doesn't mean we can't learn tons about it from the outside, but I will *always* know some stuff about teaching a language that someone who never did will never, ever know, for instance).

Hollywood ? Politics ? Challenging Nick Aldis again ? Would be hilarious. I mean, Cody isn't going over there cheap and to do usual bullshit if he left the company he helped founded.

I wonder how much of that was an overstatement though, as Brandi really did not had that kind of power (plus the fact Brandi had to be blamed about everything, all the time). I believe he was more agenting, as the booking per say is pretty obviously TK anyway. He probably isn't doing shit right now apart from rehabbing.

Yeah, they really could get strong singles run. I wanna see Dark Fénix again. Just put Melissa Santos on TV so we can get the end of that storyline. She's the real talent of the couple anyway. The issue is that there's way too many talented people already on that roster. Just not enough time, it's crazy.

I've said it for a while now that pro-wrestling "psychology" viewed only as an inner narrative that "makes sense" (that term being loosely applied on many, MANY elements that actually don't even on a very widely accepted pro-wrestling sense) in the context of a match is completely flawed and has misled people for a long while now, ignoring a lot of stuff that actually plays a part in pro-wrestling psychology, form and pacing (aka moves, and their quality of execution) being one of them, always in relationship to an audience and a context. Took me a long time to realize this and unlearn lot of stuff I thought I knew (I mean, I would be so embarrassed of MANY of my old posts about some of my current all-time favorites ). But yeah, tremendous match. Honestly at this point I view it as a running joke, as a mechanism defense. When I see how IMPACT's women are booked, it's day and night.

Damn. Plot does thickens.

I mean, it's big stage US WWE pro-wrestling. He's not much goofier than Hulk Hogan. Of course Hogan has never been accused of being a tremendous actor either. Edge looks more painfully constipated than violent though. He looks about 10 years older than Christian. And they are the same age. The beard and long hair don't help one bit (crazy that Chris Jericho, with the life he had, which wasn't the most healthy at times in term of alcoholic consumption, looks way younger too these days).

Thanks. Wow. Texas indeed...

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).