El-P

Ok, I never said he was the next Angle though (good luck for that). I said that as far as "debut" (I put it under quotation because I don't know how many matches he has worked before) matches, it was up there with Angle and AKINO (Arsion worker, for those who don't know) in term of looking terrific. Of course there's no way to know what will happen in the future. But he sure looks like he could be someone. Considering how many people on the roster still look green as grass, I was pretty damn impressed.

Roman Reigns will now have main evented more Manias than anyone in the company but Hulk Hogan (and Triple H, yeah, I know how laughable that is). He won 3 out of 5 thus far (Taker, Triple H, Edge & Danielson) and will win next year in a rematch from 2018 AND 2015 (technically speaking) and also won his only non-main event match against Drew the year of Rousey. FTR, Rock main evented 5 Manias and won only ONE time (first match against Cena). Triple H only won 3 out of 7. Micheals only won 1 out of 5 too (against Bret). But Roman hasn't been the Man since 2015 apparently. Yeah, honestly I have no idea how anyone can be excited about this honestly, even as the most hardcore WWE fan. Lesnar is basically the only guy left that Roman hasn't beat at Mania and they have made NO ONE over these last 7 years (Brock being a product from the old OVW anyway, alongside Cena, Orton & Batista). Well, I guess 2023 is the Rock... This has seemingly gone for ever, because really, it has.

Classic Muto overshoot. The Kamala pin attempt I must admit is quite confusing. (15000 posts ? My life, what happened with my life !!!!)

IMPACT got more out of working with AEW than anyone else. Omega drew bigger key-demo audience while he was on their show and the PPV match with Rich Swann, which *was* the big money match made them their biggest PPV numbers in years. The Moose match was on IMPACT + special and really what's wrong about having it at Daily's place ? It made the match look more special and you got the cool Sami Callihan cameo at the end which was even cooler because it was in enemy territory. Which then led to the other big match at Slammiversary, Omega vs Callihan, which happened in your regular IMPACT setting on PPV. IMPACT got nothing but positives from working with AEW. Unsurprisingly though, it basically ended when Omega left. As far as AAA goes, they had their big feel-good moment at Triplemania : Vikingo winning the main title. FTR are gonna go back in AAA and play the dastardly US heels and have a blast doing it and everything is fine, really. I was so gonna do that one ! Damn ! Seriously though, WHAT THE FUCK was that ? Like I mentioned before, I did not expect anything specific out of Hook because why should I, and the guy looked great. And for some reasons (because he's the son of Taz and looks like Vegeta ?) it seems the crowd was really into him from the get-go. It's been a long time since I've seen a debut match (I guess he has worked a bit before though) that good. Seriously, it's Kurt Angle/AKINO level of "holy shit" to me. If everything goes fine, this guy could be a legit star. Yes. Bunny was so holding things together when she was in there. She's the unsung glue to these matches with green people. Soho, as usual, is more over than her actual in-ring work to me, but hey, that's cool. Nyla was really good too. Penelope did really cool shit. Anna Jay is really tentative, I dunno if she lost confidence after such a long layoff, but she surely needs more work. Ditto Tay, but she's more advanced. She does have that MMA-style gunshy thing about her where it seems she's afraid to hurt her opponent with her kicks and elbows. But yeah, overall, quite fun. The big multi-men matches between Best Friends & Superklik match incoming will be insanity and you all know it.

Considering AEW's existence basically killed ROH (well, it made it irrelevant to the point AEW and NJPW would rather work alongside IMPACT), it must be kinda bittersweet.

Seriously, he's a rookie. Any judgement passed on him at this point would be ridiculous. How many matches has he even worked yet ?

No. Beat him if you can. Survive if he lets you.

So much to love on this edition, again. But really now Dynamite is the best TV pro-wrestling show ever, there, I said it. Coach Tony K. should just pay the rights to use War Machine for Hook. I would mark out the fuck out of that. Those burns on Cody's arm, yikes. Well, not the worst thing to have the inaugural and two time TNT champ to put over Sammy. The crowd should be molten for that one to. It will be a while because he's so ridiculously great as a heel, but yeah, after a point, he'll reach the "We loved to hate you so much that we just want to love you now" level. That whole CM Punk feud has been nothing but gold (apart from a WWE ref too many the other week, at one point I thought it was a bit too much, then again AEW exists in the real world so you can talk about real world stuff that happened elsewhere). John Silver main eventing Dynamite against Danielson. Crazy 2021. Next week is a big time show to cap off the year (although I guess the last show will be made special, and in a much more happy way than last year). Deeb vs Shida, Hangman vs Danielson. Oh yeah. Also, a surprise appearance maybe ?

Really, people are surprised that a 34 year old guy who loves doing pro-wrestling and has exactly zero future in WWE apart from a coaching job (yeah, security whatever, there's no secure job in WWE as a lot of people have learned the hard way) is gonna get the fuck away ? Again, it's pretty telling, as Gargano was one of the main figure of the latest NXT era and apparently really loved it there. Yet, doesn't want to stay.

Randy Orton and Batista (or Edge, who came back after 7 years and moved exactly jackshit) were pushed hard during the Cena years, probably harder than any "second fiddle" during these last 7/8 years, but no one would argue it wasn't all about Cena (booking notwithstanding). The promotion long term was never built around Rollins and Owens. Or Finn Balor. Or the Fiend. Whom all got big time pushes. Sure, they got main events on PPV's that don't really matter (or at all, once on the Network). But the promotion was all about pushing Reigns to the top anyway. Who is in ALL of Mania main events from Mania 30 to Mania 34 ? Roman Reigns. Then it's Rousey's year (an actual draw), then it's pandemic time and Reigns won't take part in that, then Reigns is back main eventing Mania 37. 98-01 : Austin/Rock Attitude era and peak of the promotion in term of popularity 02-05 : Triple H reign of terror 06-13 : Cena saves the day 14 : Daniel Bryan ???? 15-now : Reigns As far as Lesnar goes, I wonder if he's instrumental in getting that Saudi Money or if they just wanted Yokozuna and the Ultimate Warrior alongside Micheals, Taker and such...

I know we've had this discussion a thousand times now and it's really beating on a dead horse at this point, but Reigns really has been the company's Ace for 7 years now. It doesn't matter if the trigger wasn't pulled in a kayfabe way and he had been losing big matches, the company has been built on Reigns since about 2014, with year after year after year of Road to Mania main events no matter what the booking was during the year. Now people finally see Reigns as the official Ace because he's been beating everybody for what, almost two years now, but what good has it done except legit make everyone apart from Lesnar look like cannon fodder for the allmighty Reigns ? WWE basically went from gunshy for years (but still having Reigns every year getting the big Mania main event) because of the hostile reaction from the audience to go full-bore and make 99% of their roster completely irrelevant (including new You Deserve It Champion Big E, who already has been beaten by Reigns), and the whole time they only had one goal in mind : push Roman Reigns. Everything else was either a distraction to gain time or a special (old)attraction (hey Goldy). One way or the other, it has failed in keeping their own audience interested.

Of course he is. There's no twisting around this fact. The Roman Reigns era of WWE is the era of the company fighting its fans and killing an entire roster to make *one* guy. As it's said in the article, *of course* he's selling the most merch and getting the most Youtube views, it would be completely pathetic if he wouldn't considering how the promotion has entirely been structured around him. By default he's a big star because he's at the forefront of WWE. In the grand scheme of things, the Roman Reigns era is the era of viewers fleeing off from the screen years after years and sections of building getting tarped. But it doesn't matter, right, because TV fees and Blood Money. But what when Roman finally get some good movie opportunities ? Who will be the next "chosen one", since apparently that worked so well for the past 8 years ? Pro-wrestling, as odd as it may seem to some, is also a culture, and WWE has dried up its own landscape to the point of being a desert of engagement for his viewers. Sign university hosses and TikTok influencers all you want. If the audience doesn't care anymore, they just won't. People are creatures of habits, but even habits die at some point. Look at the numbers of viewers shrinking over the past few years. And if habits don't die, people eventually do.

RAW : all-time lowest in 18-49 NXT post Wargames : second all-time lowest in 18-49 Gotta get those TikTok stars on TV *soon*. But wait. I do remember during the peaking years of Youtube in France, some TV channels made great offer to the biggest Youtubers to be on TV. Guess what ? It did not work. Because Youtube watchers were Youtube watchers. They did not care about the people they'd watch on Youtube on this boomer media that is TV. I wonder what's the next panic move will be ? Bron Breaker on the main roster tomorrow ? Watch him get wasted in less time that it takes Scott Steiner to resolve a single unknown equation. (fuck, if I'm WWE I just throw him in the Royal Rumble and have him throw 15 people out)

Right. Which is why it will be interesting to see how many of these people will actually make it first to the Performance Center, then to the actual roster etc... Yeah, that was precisely my point, or what I was trying to get my finger on. I mean, if I'm a hot young 20 years old girl who's already an influencer on TikTok, WWE sounds like "Yeah, bring me some money, advertisement is my job" but really if I'm not a pro-wrestling fan at heart, why would I bother going further ? Not to mention we have no idea what's next in term of business for these kind of "social media jobs", but I would guess that for the ultra-minority already making big money off of it, the future is more and bigger money (and that's without having to actually work for a company like WWE and just managing you own business).

They have a pretty terrible track record of building people from the ground up. Also, getting non pro-wrestlers (and maybe even mostly non pro-wrestling fans) pretty much garantees an even bigger homogenization of the WWE style, with people only knowing one way to work, which is never good unless you're a prodigy like Kurt Angle. Obviously on paper, if they had Shibata and a dojo system like in Japan it could produce really good results, but we're talking about WWE here, look at their last 15 years... (not to mention the attention span of a coke addict of Vince) The very obvious most star potential you can spot here are the Cavinder Twins : two hot young girls who already are influencers on TikTok. I guess they are inspired by the Bella Twins (just kidding, of course they have no idea who the Bella Twins are, they are 20 years old). The question remains : why are two young hot women who already are influencers on TikTok would even bother, but that's another matter. On WWE's part, it's smart I guess. As a *pro-wrestling* fan, I couldn't give two shits about this, as WWE is obviously gearing itself less and less and less toward pro-wrestling fans, less than ever it seems. The one interesting part though, will be the percentage of people signed to those kinda deal actually making it to the WWE and then actually becoming good and/or actual names, and if some of them would then leave and/or get fired and then work for other companies. In which case, the WWE would have actively contributed to the dynamism of the business as opposed to wanting to crush it from within (since it will also reduce the number of guys/girls getting signed away from other companies just to hurt them).

Cesaro seems like a lifer (unless he gets fired), sadly (yes, selfishly).

Luchasaurus was over as fuck way before Jungle Boy got over. During the first stages of AEW, when Jungle Boy was the guy in the background, Luchasaurus was getting huge reactions all the time before he got hurt. Because he's a dinosaur who does cool spots. Now, as a worker of course he's blessed to team with Jungle Boy, because he's good in a certain role and I don't want to watch a single Luchasaurus match for sure. Gotta say this though, having Christian Cage basically getting Marko Stunt spot is basically having a grown up steal a kid's dessert. That's not nice. But hopefully he turns heel and we get Jungle Boy vs Cage and Marko can come back. I miss Marko ! Jericho is over. Period. There is no goodwill involved, he's a star. I think he gets way too much shit for his work which is still quite good for a 51 years old guy. I do think, apart from the political opinion that taints perception, that his age is totally taken for granted at this point. He's 51, not 41. There absolutely is some goodwill sometimes with some not-so-great women matches, but of course saying that will not sit well with some people. Wether people want to admit it or not, AEW is about having really good pro-wrestling matches, and although I really enjoy girls like Britt Baker, Tay Conti and Anna Jay and such, the fact is they still are pretty inexperienced in the grand scheme of things and it shows at times. Lately there as been a streak of really good TV matches though. But it's always a work in progress.

Could not disagree more about Fish. He's been one of my favorite things about AEW TV since the day he showed up, he's been killing it. As a tag team, there's plenty of bangers on the table for reDragons, in a company where tag team wrestling actually matters. And then, sure they are two not solid but actually great workers for the younger guys to learn from. Obviously Gargano would fit in AEW, there's no doubt about it. Where, is the question though. If the guy wants to settle down a bit, a coaching job is not the worst thing, especially since he can go the Serena Deeb way of coming back after a few years too.

I remember those ones from a VHS tape I bought back in the days. Was never into shoot fights, but these were pretty awesome indeed from memory. This thread really makes me want to rewatch some RINGS too. I mean... I probably haven't watched this in 20 years now. I bet to this day this would be one of my GOAT matches contender. I probably would enjoy it more today, if that's possible.

Well, actually... it already had happened when Adam Cole jumped. The fact they had to bury NXT and replace it with that... thing, pretty much validates that NXT as you knew it got killed by AEW and the main star graduated to the main roster... of the opposition. Whoever follows is just a reminder of what the cool brand used to be. Job well done.

Until you get fired of course. O'Riley in AEW I can see, reDragons vs Young Bucks, FTR, Lucha Brothers, Jurassik Express, so much potential. Gargano ? The roster is already saturated with really good workers. Of course I'd rather have him and Candice over some of the people over there, but really, it's not like he would be a game changer.

It's an annoying trope for sure, but honestly that's not what was the most annoying about this particular spot. I mean, it is kind of a killer looking spot and she sold the cover like she was winning for sure. But the whole crawling back to the ropes like she seen a ghost is what put it over the top into "yeah, a weeeeee bit too much, girl" territory for me. Also, the eyes got WAY too bulgy to the point of being uncomfortable for me to look at ! That being said, she should make this her finisher, as her combination of kicks is just not that good looking.

Well, of course, it was strictly a figure of speech. "That's such good shit", literally. Well, it is knocking them dead. Literally, too.

And people wonder why WWE booking is going nowhere and nothing matters. 90% of the year just doesn't, because the only idea they have is "Let's get Rock against Roman at Mania !". Their only goal is seemingly to get that huge Hollywood actor who used to be a huge pro-wrestling star (the last one of that magnitude), who's gonna get 50 years old (but when Goldberg is apparently an exciting prospect, what difference does it makes) and who hasn't worked in 10 years. And every passing year it's like "Yeah, the goal is The Rock at Mania" and it doesn't happen. The question is, although Dwayne still cares about his pro-wrestling fans, why in the hell would he want to do that when he's the highest paid actor in Hollywood ? What can WWE offer him that he doesn't already have, in much bigger scale ? And what does that do for the company's future apart from a gigantic Mania gate, probably followed by more cuts for "financiary reasons" (unless you're 72 years old Jerry Lawler of course, whom they resigned again despite the guy being useless for years and years and a potential PR liability) ?

So, no report of Fenix getting hurt ? He literally vanished from the match after taking that horrendous head bump on the apron and was never to be seen again apart from freeing Penta's mask. Vickie's outfit was glorious. Match was quite fun but I thought it was kinda underwhelming overall, because, well, Fenix vanished and it seems the match ended early. I dunno, I watch so much great and fun wrestling on a weekly basis, the constant sloppiness of pretty much *everything* only gets you so far. And honestly the one thing I thought about was how I miss CMLL's great Friday shows, and the Dynamitas and Diamante Azul kinda looked out of place to me in AAA's clusterfuck environment. The Cain/Park stuff was fun, but if you don't care about MMA and therefore don't give a fuck about Cain, it really did not register to me as anything special. The interference at the end was soooo AAA in its total lack of efficiency (crowd totally shit on the guy, finish came off flat). The undercard match with the clowns had a few fun spots, but it was also pretty awful overall TBH. Dunno who Estrelitta is, but she was fun though. Monster Clown should just lose the mask. Too much fucking clowns in this promotion, it's unbearable. In other news, Psycosis tried to die again in 2021 and Poder del Norte are still the best trio in AAA in term of making the best of AAA's clusterfuck style, against anyone. Favorite match to me was Dralistico & Dragon Lee vs Willie Mack & Laredo Kid, Mack kinda stole the show too. Dralistico & Dragon Lee vs FTR and/or Lucha Brothers could be awesome, but honestly I would rather see that match in a non AAA setting... Ditto Deonna vs Taya Valkyrie, which is kinda poetic justice as Taya is the one who passed the torch of the Impact title to Purrazzo. Main event was quite fun too, Fish & Lethal looked good, Del Sol and Bandido looked like stars and the right guy won.