El-P

Well, you asked the question. I give you my answer. He's got a shot at GOAT for me and this year was a pretty big one for consolidating his case.

You haven't watched any AEW nor NJPW then. But yeah, both these two are great and contenders, Utami especially. And if she keeps at the same pace and level for the next 4 years, there's no way Utami is not rated quite high on the GWE 2026. My answer to 2021 was in the dedicated thread, and it's Omega. Takagi and Utami absolutely belong at worst in the top 5 though. Syuri not that far behind, but there has been a *ton* of awesome pro-wrestling this year.

And so the final of the tag-league is... Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi. This translate into : hard pass. No wonder why the tag-league is considered as a total waste of time. I'm sure Hiromu vs YOH will be very good, but honestly this show is a total afterthought. See ya at WK.

Legit cracked me up, I admit.

The only period I'm really comfortable giving an answer I'm satisfied with right now is basically the last 5 or so years, since I've been catching up with the current scene (and styles) since about late 2014. So : from 2016-2021, it's Kenny Omega and it's not even close. Okada had that awesome title reign in 2016 but he also had some gaps of not doing much. Omega during that time also had three matches which at the time they happened, I thought they were the best matches I've ever seen (G1 against Naito in 96 I believe, so at a time I did not get Omega yet, third match against Okada and tag match with Page vs Young Bucks in AEW), which gives him a serious contendership for #1 spot. 2011-2015 : Either Tanahashi or Okada. Pick your poison. Most probably Tanahashi. (if you go for 2014-2016, it's Okada though) The rest is too much scattered and/or going from memories (that I may eventually revisit, like some Japanese stuff, or won't like 90's US that I've watched way too much already. Plus there's that lucha libre thingy...). But let's say this : Thus far the 00's would be AJ Styles. Danielson I guess is the other one (I'd need to dive into ROH, which I really have never done properly). Kobashi had that awesome title reign though, but not sustained for a 5 years period. Ditto Eddie in term of not sustaining. 95-99 : I'll go on a limb and say Kiyoshi Tamura. His RING stuff was next level compared to any shoot-style ever and by that point AJPW had already peaked and gone into head-droping excess I believe to have any of them at that spot (although that would need a serious re-dive). I guess Rey would have a shot though. 90-94 : Either Hokuto, Bull, Aja or Misawa, I guess. The 80's are all about either Flair or Fujinami. Or Hansen ? (then again, Chiggy and Windham may have some to say about this for a 5 year period). Before that point, honestly, it's too vague at this point. Terry Funk in the 70's probably though.

I really don't watch or follow NJ Strong, but I did watch Brody King vs Ishii. It was as great as it sounds. That vertical brainbuster by Ishii was just crazy. How is this guy still doing it, I have no idea. Kelly mentioned that King's dream is to make the G1.

No worse than I usually am.

There isn't.

I know it's just a figure of speech, but still, there's no "winning at life". Also, I doubt Dwayne Johnson is petty enough to be bothered by whatever Triple H has accomplished by this point. Also, considering the miserable failure that NXT2.0 has been thus far, Triple H doesn't look that bad anymore on that matter.

Title match on IMPACT TV. I mean, why not, Purazzo can get the ROH title and wear it while the promotion is on (permanent ?) hiatus. I'm pretty sure she gets the IMPACT title back at Hard to Kill, so she can wear three belts for a while like Omega did. Former Braun Strowman debuting on a promotion last show is kinda puzzling to say the least. I mean, why ?

So basically : Rock beats Roman Reigns at Mania 23, Vince dies, Nick Khan fires Triple H, Shawn Michaels and RoadDog, sells WWE to Disney, who then produces Dwayne's biopic. End game.

Don't worry, none taken. Actually, they would call him Senechal Wild, have him wear a orange & black singlet and do a ton of "hidden" Taz references and never actually say he's his father.

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)