El-P

That barn fight between Mickie & Deonna was something else. I'm sure there was some kind of Terry Funk tribute somewhere. Glad IMPACT is still doing this kind of stuff. Having Chris Daniels work those tapings is really cool too. They foreshadowed his comeback to AEW as the Fallen Angel on BTE, so this is kinda like working Memphis TV before going back to the big time (although I'm sure it will be more Dark Elevation and such rather than the TV)

The idea that people only booed Roman because it was the "thing" to do after years of Cena is interesting but really doesn't hold up to the facts. Do you really think that when Daniel Bryan got over AF, they would have booed *him* if WWE had pushed him to the moon ? No way. Hell, it did not happen when they finally gave in. Also, as much as Cena got shit for years, mainly from the male audience, he was indeed cheered by the kids and the female audience and also was about a thousand times better dealing with it than Roman ever was. The thing is, Cena was the tree that hid the forest. WWE's decline (not financial, but finances have nothing to do with the actual product at this point, at least as long as the brand is what it is) did not begin in the mid 10's. It was a long, slow road that only now begins to rear its ugly head because there is an actual opposition (I mean, two years, it took two years for AEW to get actually competitive ? How in the hell does that even happens ?). If they did not stumble onto Cena, the decline would have been much quicker.

BTW, I referred to Christophe Agius's show/podcast before, so here's this interesting tidbit about Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar at WM34 that he told (he was announcing live from the stadium that year). I have no idea if it has been mentioned before (and if it has been, then it's only a confirmation), but if you believe Agius, and I absolutely believe in his honesty, basically Roman was supposed to beat Lesnar. How he knows this is because after the match and as the show ended, as he was thanking the crew as they always do, he saw that Tom Carlucci, who had been in the company for ever as an high end official and was a friend of McMahon's family (was invited into the house and such) and who was managing the entire foreign announcers crew, was totally shocked by the result. Carlucci told him that Roman was 100% supposed to win and that it had to be an audible during the match. So there.

I totally agree with this. At some point it reached the egg/chicken case, but really there's no doubt he was rejected at first (I mean, at first when the audience wanted Daniel Bryan and no one else, of course The Shield was over AF). Then after the WM31 miss, Roman Reigns still had to be the N°1 guy and win at Mania and beat every legend, but since he had been rejected, they had to push him while not saying it too loud, but still had to because just because, which led to the hilarious fail with The Rock getting booed (ponder that for a few seconds) and such.

Which says *a whole lot*. If he doesn't get ill, I bet you anything he still isn't accepted to this day, although I guess finally the heel turn was the right choice.

Indeed. But when was that ? What was WWE's product at the time ? Not *anything* like what AEW is today. Which is why I mentioned that AEW's tv shows weren't gonna change (because that would threaten the audience they actually build upon and are almost already beating WWE with). It's still gonna be what it is today aka a pretty hardcore pro-wrestling show where you can see long match with people bashing their brains out, not to mention the occasional (?) blood and guts. The fact Total Divas and Total Bella could actually attract an audience toward WWE's PG, homogenized product back in the mid-10's doesn't mean the same kind of show translate to AEW's product which is *way different* in pretty much every way. I just don't see this happening. Hey, if I'm wrong and they get female viewers out of it, more power to them, as long as it doesn't change what I get from AEW as far as a pro-wrestling product goes. (part of me also thinks it's a bit patronizing to believe only a shit show like this would attract female viewers too, but that's another thing, I believe you can actually get a female pro-wrestling fans audience)

Being pushed for a few months has nothing to do with being the chosen one who will replace your former Ace. That's what Reigns was (since day 1), is and will be until they decide to switch gears toward the next one. Now, the fact his booking was not very good is, like I said, another matter (it's not like Seth booking was any good either, his character has pretty much always sucked, Bray Wyatt's booking also sucked during the same period, well, basically WWE's booking has sucked forever now in the grand scheme of things, which is why they are where they are today). It surely did not help. But denying that Reigns was not what the audience wanted when they started to push him and then push him more and more for years is just rewriting history.

The fact his booking wasn't good, because creative in WWE has been shit forever, doesn't change the fact Roman Reigns was pushed down the throats of the audience, and was rejected for it. That's two different things, and certainly the bad booking probably didn't help his case (we talked about how they missed the boat at WM31 when they had a chance to maybe win over the crowd, but this also came from a situation where he had not been accepted and they freaked out because of it). But he was absolutely pushed down the throat of the audience, he was the chosen one to replace John Cena from day one. After the 31 miss, he main evented WM 32 against Triple H and won. And did not get accepted. Main evented WrestleMania 33 against Taker and won. And did not get accepted. Main evented WM 34 against Lesnar : people infamously *left* during the match. That's a pretty bad streak of getting pushed down the throat of people and being absolutely rejected. It's too easy to put the blame on the booking, no matter how poor it may have been creatively in term of details and angles : in term of strict constant rocket push to the top, no one got the Roman Reigns treatment in forever. And after more or less 6 years of being the chosen one, he's being fed every babyface to have one or two big matches a year against part-timers, one of which happening in Saudi Arabia because that's where the money is. I don't think the Roman Reigns years will be looked at very favorably in the future, no matter how good a pro-wrestler the guy is.

Long story short : garbage. Ok, let me preface this by saying that Reality TV (which is the most oxymoronic name possible for this kind of show) is garbage period. I have no idea why people even watch that kind of format, it's 100% fake, it's empty, it's ugly and pretty much is all about obnoxious rich people getting more famous because they are obnoxious rich people. Now, as far as this show goes, the few behind the scenes stuff at AEW shows is pretty cool (Mox being "hangover as hell", the Darby stuff, Coach Tony K. looking like an owl in disbelief when Cody was cutting his promo, which in retrospect is absolutely the Promo of Death as far as his character goes, although the gender reveal and shit was bad already), but it's not really what it's about, so I'm not sure why it would appeal in masse to the AEW audience who has already so much stuff to watch. Cody & Brandi surely need to turn heel, because this won't help their case, with the permanent self-importance and putting themselves over. As far as the "Real TV" bullshit, I'm telling you, I did fast forward through a bunch of stuff because it's just unbearable to me. I have zero interest in fake discussions between family members about this or that. I don't give a flying fuck about the lives of rich people, wrestlers, actors, TV stars, whatever. Gotta say this, the baby shower stuff looks like the 6th circle of hell to me. Yeah, Cody's sister is the heel, we get it. It shows that she's totally playing the part too. But the main thing I get from this, is that it goes against pretty much everything AEW is all about in term of their approach of pro-wrestling. AEW is all about being more organic, non scripted promos, letting stuff occur in a way that flows, and that show is exactly the opposite. There's nothing faker than a "reality TV" show. Case in point, that stuff with the wine tasting (what a joke too) at the end, which is your typical Real TV crap, comes off incredibly fake, scripted and non-organic, basically absolutely like a WWE segment. And since it's not supposed to be a rassslin angle, well, makes everyone involved look bad. Anyway. This is the expected run-of-the-mill reality TV garbage. I doubt it will help AEW in the slightest (I can't see any pro-wrestling AEW fan wanting to watch that every week despite the little bits of cool backstage stuff, and I can't see how this will attract anyone not already a pro-wrestling fan and make them want to watch AEW which will remain what it is, a promotion where Minoru Suzuki can pop up at anytime and get a huge pop ie, a hardcore pro-wrestling promotion at heart). At best it can get Cody & Brandi big time heel heat on the show, but they already are getting booed like crazy, so... (interestingly enough, no mention *at all* of the Young Bucks or Kenny Omega, to the point someone not familiar with the promotion would have no idea they even exist or also are EVPs (and really now, isn't Omega the one working with the woman, really ?), which is kinda odd but not really. I wonder if we'll get some shit about this stuff on BTE now...)

To say the least. That being said, Block A has peaked with these two matches. And it's kinda scary looking at the up coming line-up, because every great combination has been done already and apart from KENTA vs Ibushi and ZSJ, I look forward to exactly nothing. I'm sure Great O-Khan's ass is gonna be dragged around by Ishii, Ibushi and Takagi to matches he has no right to have on his own device, but that's still a pretty weak prospect. It's not like B Block has many bangers left either, but on average what's coming looks much more digestible and fun. Yeah, the peaks have been awesome, but the second half before we get to the final (ZSJ vs Okada or Takagi vs Cobb, yeah I've said it) is really were the weakness of this year's G1 will show. Usually it's when I kinda feel the burn out coming too, so maybe I need to adapt my watching pace... The best ! (ya all know that Danielson wants to do that shit next year, right ?)

Hey good for you ! I did not watch the credits (was focused on Onita putting himself over like crazy ) and did not know your last name anyway, so I would not have noticed. Awesome that you got the daughters involved, that was really interesting and cool to have them here. Got a chuckle at Ricky Fuji looking... well, like Ricky Fuji would in 2021. I mean, he's not Mr. Liar for nothing. But yeah, those most familiar with FMW could see through some holes, but that's always what you deal with with Dark Side, you're gonna get some bullshit from wrestling people. Yeah, loved the episode (just would have wanted more mention of Kudo, but it really wasn't about her, plus she happily retired before all of the disasters). Terry is just the best, but Foley & Sabu were excellent too.

Who would have bet that one of these two guys would get over as fuck in the brand new big time US wrestling company two years later ? Page would not be bad, although I wonder if he's not due only after Omega defeats Danielson. Usually the joker is a surprise newcomer. Kingston did namedrop Chris Hero on Dark last week. I sure hope Steen and/or Generico will show up in AEW eventually. The tide of coolness is not reversing anytime soon, the momentum is clearly going in one direction and not the other.

He had me rolling. Danielson being vicious again is so much fun. From the two matches he worked thus far (granted, against two of the best guys in the world who are able to do that kind of shit), it's so obvious that 1/he's been waiting for so long to do that again 2/he wants to work in NJPW so badly. I did enjoy Jade Cargill not giving a flying fuck and just bashing Thunder Rosa with a chair for the win because why the hell not. If she ever get legit good in the ring (let's face it, she's a rookie), the sky is the limit for that woman. Thunder Rosa should win the title from Baker. She's the one. She's their best in-ring worker, she connects, she's got fire, she's got the cool look and outfits. So, who is the joker for the ladder match ? It's the second anniversary, so there should be some cool stuff happening.

Thanks ! Not that bad. I actually thought about what you'd think of this episode.

Which is why they never had that one great match together, just a clash of ideas probably (much like Bret with Flair). They both had great matches with some of the same opponents though (Nash, Razor) though, so needless to say, there's no *right* approach. Bret getting fucked over by Goldy deprived us of the potentially great stuff Bret would have done with all the guys from the early to mid 00's in WWE, and it would have been fascinating to see how he would have fit with that crowd. For that only, fuck you Goldy.

Bret was absolutely also about having the best pro-wrestling match on the card. "The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be" was not just a catchphrase that worked in a kayfabe way. The biggest difference is, WWE actively marketed Shawn as this incredible guy who had the most spectacular matches. And that's pretty early on. When they switched Sid at SummerSlam 95 to instead put on Razor in the ladder match part2, it was implied that it was the right match to produce, because it's what the fans would want (and really, who would argue with that ?). And it was clearly all about how great the first match was and how this one had to be too. Meanwhile, poor Bret had to work something watchable out of Isaac Yankane, not DMD. But Bret was all about stealing the show too. That's the Bulldog match at SummerSlam 92. That's his disagrements with Flair about how they should work their match, despite him not ever (and certainly not in 92) being on Flair' social status level. That's wanting to do the first ladder match in WWF (woops, did not work out like he envisioned ! ). The idea of stealing the show has probably been there since day one, because it's human nature. Steamboat and Savage absolutely went "fuck that Hogan shit, it's us people are gonna talk about" at WM3. And they successfully did it. For years and years it was referred to as one of the greatest matches ever. No one talked about George Steele abducting Liz and Steamboat finally winning the IC title, but everyone talked about how this match was the greatest thing ever. Hell, even Guy Hauray and Eddie Carpentier, the French announcers, talked about it that way when The Dragon showed up in 1991. With Shawn it took a life of its own probably because of many contextual elements, one of which being it was a good way to market him then. Like the Streak, Shawn's "Mr. Best Match at Mania" became both a gimmick and a real life thing, smartly so (which is also why the first Taker Mania match had that aura that you almost never see anywhere, because of how "real" everything was). But anyway, I've gone back and forth on two of my early favorites, Shawn has gone back up lately (thanks to the Taker @ Mania project which surely taught me quite a bit) after my opinion of his work kinda took a nosedive during the "I'm sorry I love you" era, but I'm still firmly way more of a Bret Hart fan, maybe more than ever (maybe because of Tanahashi, GOAT contender, who reminds me of Bret in some ways)

That would have avoided the handshake of doom at the very least, which sealed the deal for WWE as far as their hottest run was concerned.

Yeah, I don't mean the usual week to week Authority bullshit, which was godawful and lasted years. The McMahons are extremely overrated performers anyway, even Vince was only great for a short time during the Attitude Era (at a point where he was bouncing off Austin, Foley and Rock aka three of the greatest performers in the history of the company) and in short bursts after that point. When he reached the point of having competitive matches against Hulk Hogan, it was completely ridiculous (him winning the Rumble in 99 was the point that really killed the WWF fan in me).

As an old FMW/Onita fan, everything about this is fascinating. The one thing they got wrong is that it's not Joan Jett's version of Wild Thing, it's X ! And Onita got axed from his own company before Fuyuki really got on with the atrocious "entertainment" stuff (can't believe I had to watch the circle piss and exploding asscrack footage again !), but that's a detail. It's so cool they got to talk to the daughters of Hayabusa and Arai. It's probably undersold how much Hayabusa has influenced indy workers over the years. His story really is a such a sad and tragic one, as it was just bad luck, he did that move probably hundreds and hundreds of time. Arai was a really singular ring announcer, you can't think of Onita's classic era without thinking about the way he was announced, and the voice of Arai announcing the time left during the bomb matches. The footage from Kudo's retirement is so grim (that ridiculous fireball and the totally unsafe powerpomb into the exploding wire outside, Shark Tsushiya was such an unprofessional bitch), she would have deserved more than an in-passing mention (not by name even), as she really took the role of Onita after he retired, she was the one carrying the promotion with the gory deathmatches much more than Hayabusa. That's the only real miss of the documentary. I have no idea when this was shot, but Terry looked ok then. He's just the greatest. I legit cracked up at his mention of the idiots buying first row ticket for exploding deathmatches. Also, finally I get a translation of Onita's infamous crying promos !!! And I'm not disappointed ! There is so much that could be said about the whole thing, from the mad genius of Onita to the japanese culture of Yakuza ties that could be an episode into itself. Also, struck me how Jericho really is the last of this generation, his career is quite incredible when you really think about it, having worked matches in the FMW, WAR (including the J-Cup), SMW, ECW, going through the Monday Night Wars, the WWE peaking, the Cena years, the Roman years, NJPW's latest peak and now AEW. He can tell stories about pretty much every topic from the last 30 years.

1000% this. I know he has the good rep because he's probably a "cool" guy IRL, but as a performer, holy shit he was bad. His shit looked bad, like horrific level bad, he went toe to toe with Kurt Angle doing mat wrestling, he did not show fear of the Undertaker in a HITC match, he took completely ridiculous bumps to satisfy his ego while not actually having to work a schedule as a pro-wrester, thus uping the ante for other people to get reactions while taking zero responsibility on the long term because as much as he fantasized it, he wasn't one of the boy, he was the boy from the boss, who did not need to work a day in his life. Stephy has been unbearable for ever both as the Authority and IRL corporate asshole, but as a performer she has had many shining moments as a valet or even an in-ring performer, not because she ever was a good wrestler but because she was a good character (for instance in the Rousey match, of course) and actually got her comeuppance to get her opposition over.

As far as universally acclaimed match, no, he really doesn't. Now, the fact some people may like his Portland and Mid-Atlantic run, sure, why not, but it's not like there is some other consensus must-see match involving Piper. I always thought Piper to be one of those "And then the bell rings" guys, dating back to when I was 14 years old mark. Always thought there was a complete disconnect between the guy who was talking and the ability displayed when it was time to get the match in the ring. He's a clear case of social status (if you consider the pro-wrestling landscape like it's his own little society) playing a huge part in how his in-ring stuff is perceived, like many others who are praised but whose stuff that have less to do with actual in-ring ability but a lot to do with *who* they are. People always focus, sometime to a ridiculous degree, to when and why moves are executed, but you never hear about one that's as much if not more important : who is doing them. Anyway, the one other thing about Piper is how cringe a lot of his classic stuff has become in todays society in term of racism (coconut city, half-blackface) and homophobia (many, many promos). Sure does not help. Oh, yeah, that match is really fun. But It's really Flair & Greene (that guy could have made a terrific pro-wrester on a regular basis) being on fire on the babyface side and the nWo having a terrific night putting their opposition over, Waltman in particular.

I didn't even think about that ! But right on !

He's the GOAT stooge, so in a way yeah he's #1 ! Plus he looks like millennial Justin Credible, which I find kinda annoying in a good way.

I forgot that one happens too and I'm interested in Suzuki vs anyone... Hey, if I can mark out for two Nick Gage matches (make it three since I really enjoyed the Jericho one) in 2021, that's another case of "WTF is happening this year ?". I can see the GCW crowd really enjoying that Psycho Clown music theme...

Just have him seat on the broken throne !