El-P

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 !

I mentioned before how I don't get the "hype" for Nick Gage at all and how I have never got anything from watching his matches (granted, few of them and all in the last few years, but still) but I would lie if that did not spike my interest. That's some real good hype job. Also, I understand that Joey Janela vs Minoru Suzuki is happening. This is the stuff Janela was really good at (the WTF is this happening kinda match) and since he really hasn't been featured in AEW apart from a few bright spots (his tag team with Sonny Kiss followed by a break-up and a really good match / the hardcore match against Omega), I'm quite interested in that one too.

Nick Jackson is the second best worker in the Elite, but everybody in the world is second best to the N°1 worker in the Elite (or not, Takagi, Ishii, Okada & ZSJ are making everything possible to disprove that fact). Remember that match with Fénix a while ago ? Yeah, this is gonna be awesome. Speaking of the Lucha Brothers, anyone thinking that Andrade is bringing la familia to AEW after that (tremendously bad) interview on Dynamite ?

So, Lio Rush is unretiring after retiring then only working the matches he had scheduled for NJ now apparently unretired for good. What's next ? Kylie Ray ? People bitch about modern worker not able to control a crowd, take notice : crowd goes batshit crazy for Cole's little catchphrases, but also chant his name a little too much during the match, and so what Cole does ? He starts to bitchslaps Jungle Boy and the crowd actually boos him. Also, that Panama Sunrise kick out was perfect because it makes Jungle Boy special, which he needs to be since he's losing the match (not clean, ok, but still). Plus, the Panama Sunrise is not Cole's #1 finisher, that Shining Wizard thingy is. Miro vs Sammy Guevara was just the perfect match for the perfect moment, although I would have loved to see Miro keep on with his streak. Hopefully his momentum doesn't stop because he has been an awesome TNT champ (the best actually). That Dark Order vs HFO match also was exactly what it needed to be, with the nice moment of Amanda, Tay & Anna (damn the matching outfits makes them look so good too !) setting the record straight and -1 doing the infamous paper throw. That's not one but 2 feel-good moments (both paying homage to Brody since he was the original monster TNT champ). Well, make that 3 with the brutal Arn promo. Of course Cody is aware, it's very obvious. He gotta turn heel. Brandi comes from the heel tunnel already.

The tricky thing being to rate both while they really never work singles match. Let's say if I have Matt at #25, Nick has to be #24 indeed.

Every match I've watched from Nick Gage, he has looked like complete and utter crap in it (can't do shit that looks halfway decent). And I'm a fan of the Sandman. I do not get it at all. I mean, I get that he's a cult hero. But I get *nothing* out of his matches. For all the shit that Jericho gets lately, I thought he did a masterful job making a Gage match somewhat watchable and fun.

Funny, I have been watching Christophe Agius (the French WWE announcer of these last 20 years and to me a legit top 5 announcers ever) show/podcast on Youtube, and at the WM31 episode he's been saying the same thing. I must preface by saying he's incredibly genuine (and humble. and fun to listen to) and never just giving the company line (very seldom does he appear to do so and even when that happens he manages to balance his arguments). He said that in his opinion they missed the opportunity that night with Reigns, as although he was rejected by the crowd, you could feel that the way the match was structured, with Lesnar walking over Roman, had the crowd slowly but surely gaining support for him. To him if Roman had won, the pop would have been lesser than with Rollins on that night, but that would have won over the crowd and would have got Roman to be finally accepted. That show is awesome BTW in term of little backstage tidbits and anecdotes from the few times him and Philippe Chéreau have been brought to the US (a few Manias, Summerslam and Rumbles in the last decade), gives you a peak to the backstage and mostly the WWE company from a very different point of view. I guess only @SirEdger around here can really make something about this info, but there you go.

Drawing money. As late as early 1999 Hogan vs Flair was a major success for them and actually drew their last big PPV number. Nope. Him vs Flair in 1996 is what got the company hot before the nWo had it going over the edge. His feud with DDP was one of the hottest of 1997 and it absolutely made DDP. The idea that Savage was good for commentary is exactly what bit Vince in the ass. As far as Piper's go, his first angle leading to Starrcade was pretty great and it drew big time. Hogan also stepped up quite a bit to work that match and make it ok, as Piper, who was always a struggle in the ring (yeah, I know, the Bret and Valentine matches, that's two in an entire career), who pretty much done by then. So, that first stint was really a success. After that point, yeah, it became a laughable mess at best and horrific at worst (Age in a Cage). Should have ended at Starrcade. Well ok, the first stuff with Flair was actually pretty fun too.

YOSHI-HASHI had the match of his life against Okada. Agree Tama vs Tanahashi was a pretty cool match, and the difference to me is striking in term of what Tama brought to the game compared to Tanga Loa vs Ishii, in which I thought Loa really didn't measure up at all and in the end it was Ishii just forcing a more meaty match than it had any right to be (I would not have minded this to be a semi-squash, but it would not have made sense in this context, and less so when the shows are way shorter because of the pandemic). ZSJ is the MVP, that's official. That Great O-Khan match was the most enjoyable I've seen. He's much better when he's rolling around than when's he's doing claws and shit. I guess Ibushi vs Yano was the "best" (as in, less offensive) Yano you'll get. KENTA vs Takagi was a worthwhile main event, as KENTA really is putting himself on his opponent's level (well, as much as he can), so you'll get this match against Takagi and you'll get jackshit against Yano or Yujiro.

AJ had the best match of then night. Shane was also in the ring, alongside the ref.

What if the Khan vs Khan feud was a work ? What if in the end, Nick Khan is working for a sell and the one buying was.... Shad Khan ? All jokes aside, if that means no more Shane O-Mac match at Mania, this is a win-win for everybody.

The one thing that WWE always had over WCW is that it was Vince's vision, for better or worse. The fact there was one decision made at the end of the day. Of course that was before Vince lost his mind. But that's a really good thing especially since, judging from his track record until now, he is a good booker who also learns from his mistakes. The issue is indeed him running himself into the ground by overworking himself. The two Dark shows should probably been given some other people to oversee them. I don't want Coach Tony K. to burn himself out. As far as creative people, I guess Callis would not be bad, although IMPACT's booking was always D'Amore more than anyone else.

@Coffey Should I stop posting on this board ?

Sure ! Who's left who's out there though that would make a big impact ? And no, Braun Strowman is not a good answer.

Apparently Kiera Hogan has been signed. Yes ! Hopefully she keeps on doing that good heel shit she was doing in IMPACT. She just can't stop moving her lips, just annoying (and funny) as hell, pretty cool to have a very vocal kind of worker these days (see also White, Jay).

That would be pretty cool. And have Brian Pillman Jr. work against Rey Fénix or something.

Honestly, having Wyatt & Rowan show up to pay homage to Brodie would not be the worst idea. Bray and him were very close.

Holy shit ! Clap clap clap

The old idea of "cool" looks like "toxic masculinity" to younger folks.

The Young Bucks are the GOAT tag team. Kenny Omega is a GOAT contender. All three have pushed pro-wrestling forward in more ways than one (stylistically, building upon teams like the MCMG but also bringing that meta aspect we talked about before; building upon the deep modern Japanese style created by Tanahashi & Okada with a twist from the geeky culture of comedy wrestling via DDT) The Usos are a good tag team, they are better than the GoD for sure. Roman Reigns is a good wrestler, he's also the most protected pro-wrestler in the last 10 years so like Orton and the likes, we'll never know exactly what he could be all about outside of the overproduced, overpatterned, and in his case, overprotected environment. With his physical attributes and charisma and tendency to be game, I think he would have done pretty damn well, probably be more interesting even. Young Bucks & Kenny Omega are part of the foundation (including in term of in-ring style, but also in term of relating to an audience that has been dying for a main alternative product) for the hottest new pro-wrestling product in 20 years. Roman Reigns will always be synonymous with WWE fighting and trolling his own audience and has been the Top Dog in an era ratings and attendance have dropped (of course, being pushed forever as the Top Dog makes him still the biggest "mover" by default, as showed by last Monday). John Cena he ain't (in any way shape of form). Usos have produced lots of good matches and many DUIS but are protected because they are not related to Samoa Joe. There. I think this is about the fairest picture I can paint. (and I do mean everything I wrote here)

Totally agree.

Kurt Angle vs Mr. Anderson in TNA at Lockdown 2010. Awesome match, brillant performance by Angle (as a pissed off babyface), Anderson is game as fuck (in more ways than one). Angle walks out the door by stepping on Anderson's balls. One of my favorite TNA matches ever.

They need gamers from Twitch. Youtube is almost for boomers at this point. Is WWE still streaming stuff on Facebook ?