El-P

I noticed it too. Ogogo definitely got Codyed.

Damn ! Ok fair enough. But really that was not the main point, that's just a guess on my part and you know what, maybe that one is because of following WWE politics for far too long. My main point is that basically it's fine. Nothing coked up about it. If Windham Rotundo would show up and beat Hangman Page, then yeah, the white powder argument would apply.

Actually, it's neither rambling neither "WWE brain" (from me of all people, that's pretty fucking hilarious considering my watching track record in the last 20 years), but hey, whatever. Apparently whenever QT or Matt Hardy get on TV you are triggered as all hell as you endlessly have to point out each and every week how much you hate them and want them out of the show forever, but, really, neither are bad and QT vs CM Punk is exactly what I said it is, just a guy for CM Punk to beat on a rating's death show in Chicago. And yeah, the hot program will probably get an angle too that week, I guess. It might not be the greatest booking trick of all time, but it's nothing bad either. Not enough to warrant the "OMG Tony Khan is doing so much coke he's booking QT on TV" kinda reaction really... QT is not making anyone look bad. That's not what I said. QT is a very good worker and always gets heat. In Chicago against CM Punk, he sure gonna get even more of it. Sorry, but instead of talking about me "arguing against imaginary points", which I have not done (I just explained what the probable thinking behind this is), try to understand what I'm going for here. I know you can't stand QT (why, who the fuck knows and it's irrelevant), but the point is not to book Punk against someone who will make them look bad, which would be dumb, it's not giving away a big marquee match (for instance Wardlow) on a night that will not do well anyway. And a nice little JTTS match against someone who is designed for that role won't hurt anyone. Sure, you could have booked another JTTS, but QT is fine for the reasons I already explained three times already (good worker, gets heat).

I know "Lul Tony Khan is doing coke" is the new gimmick posting thing around here, but really what's so bad about it ? It gives CM Punk someone to beat in Chicago (as opposed to Colt who's going to get beat in Chicago), there will probably be some angle advancement with MJF. People complain about "too much epic matches on TV" then you serve a JTTS match and they'll complain too. Plus, in a night were they are gonna get killed in ratings anyway, there's no point to give Punk a big time opponent as it would reflect poorly. So there it is. It's Punk winning a (good, a always with QT who's a really good worker and also gets heat everytime) match in Chicago during a cool-down period (next TV special night is on December 15) on a garanteed ratings death night. Makes all the sense in the world actually. Billy Gunn looks like the freaking Warlord and moves about as fast, but him throwing Darby around was about as compelling a Billy Gunn match you'll see past 2005 or so (and I'm feeling generous). Jade & Velvet are both obviously still green, especially Jade, but they had a cool match, one of the better Jade ones yet. Love them both, Velvet is always quite the sparkplugg and you gotta love her bumping and fire. Gotta say this : I have loved every Bobby Fish match thus far. This guy is a keeper. Salty old guy with a grin kicking the fuck out of people is all you need.

Indeed. Keep in mind, she was one of those "My dream is to go to WWE" people.

24 years and a few months ago, Billy was on Monday Night Raw against Steve Austin. Say what you will, in 2021 he's against Darby Allin on TV. Not a bad career arc when you think about it. Also, he's 58 years old. Look at him and think about THAT.

I love Austin Aries as a performer, but after his complete lunatic posting during the pandemic, I'm surprised he's getting any booking at all. Of course it's not like he's Joey Ryan either but still. Of course, NWA is still employing Tyrus (who is godawful, I have no idea why he's getting work anywhere). Mick Foley making an appearance follows him showing up in GCW. He has to eventually show up in AEW. ROH titles being defended on an NWA card speaks less of "Forbidden Door" than "Our company doesn't exist anymore".

Omega out of the show, going for multiple surgeries. It's amazing how great he has been for months while working on a completely screwed up body.

There is already too much pro-wrestling on TV though. The ratings are going down for everyone. It seems we're closer to a pro-wrestling crash than a pro-wrestling boom. Which makes it even worse for everybody involved. Sure, it may fuel a new cool indie scene though, but for the workers, it's not nearly as good of a context as it was when AEW was just getting the new TV contract. Yeah, Top Dolla, whoever he is, is an idiot. I don't believe in karma, but hey, I'm gonna make fun of this imbecile anyway.

That would freshen the NJ cards so much. This is what 2022 needs ! Old-ass Masato Tanaka (who is still a great worker, that guy is amazing and his career basically has gone under the radar because he's mostly been a Z1 and NOAH guy) just busting people up, Kiyomiya going against the NJPW elite and Nakajima & Ibushi trading kicks and sending the universe into oblivion. That would hype the fuck out of me.

As a sumo fan, that's awesome. @gordi, look up !

Let's put in into words. A few years ago, WWE signed everybody under the sun with the aim of smothering any competition, including killing off the UK indies and trying to prevent AEW from surviving. Which mean : preventing pro-wrestlers to be able to make a decent living outside of their "Universe". During the pandemic, while even smaller companies like IMPACT or ROH kept all of their contracts, WWE, while making record profits, released people. Now, as AEW has grown into legit competition and whose existence really isn't in danger for the years to come, but also has already way to many talent under contract and can't allow themselves to sign everyone under the sun, WWE is releasing more and more and more people (and that's including tons of office people who aren't been talked about as much), knowing full well they can't all be picked up, especially now that ROH has more or less turned into a non-contractual indie at best. While, still, doing records-making profits. When you add the brainwashing of their emplo independent contractors with the idea that there's no life outside of WWE, the whole things reeks of the most disgusting cynicism and pathetic ubercapitalism greed you can find. These people are complete trash. WWE management is complete trash. I have no earthly idea why anyone would want to work for them at this point. The creative completely sucks anyway. Let's be real, with the profits they are making, the workers are all underpaid apart from a few top stars. Just unionize. Actors are unionized. NFL players are unionized. It's not the 80's anymore. Pro-wrestling is supposed to be a legit business ? Treat it as such an unionize already, pro-wrestlers of all countries !!! (I know, I'm giving an epic Internationale fell here ) Can you imagine John Morrisson and Taya ? Fired, the both of them, one after the other, after they moved from California. Please AEW, PLEASE, just sign both of them and push them like stars, they could be so much fun used as they were in LU or IMPACT. I guess it's Black Friday soon. Get pro-wrestlers for nuthin'.

Ok, now I think we've reached the point where NXT really gets some revisionist history. Fact : for a while, NXT was the hot and cool brand of WWE. The show was the hot topic, the Takeovers were talked about as the best stuff the company was presenting, stealing the shows on Mania & SummerSlam week-ends, with some of the best matches in the history of the company. One of the most anticipated stuff in WWE was "Look who's in the crowd at Takeover !" and "When X or Y from NXT is gonna show up on the main roster ?" and when it did happen, it was always a big deal and those people were mostly received as stars (until they weren't, but that's an upcoming point). NXT absolutely was successful in creating buzz about workers and a coolness aura about its product and the people in it. Now, with times, it became obvious that the incompetence of Vince and his booking basically wasted 90% of the potential that was presented to him coming up from NXT. Some people tried to put the blame on NXT as they were not making "the right kind of workers", which is a completely ass-backward argument that shows that people have been watching WWE for far too long. When something is considered cool and has showed it can get over, you try and capitalize on its strenghts, not make it lesser or something else because that's not what you're used to. Case in point : Adam Cole, who looked like a big star in NXT including in the time when the coolness factor had dwindled down (because of several factors : the tiredness of watching everybody gets wasted on the main roster and being hurt by AEW mostly), was not even considered to be able to be one on the main roster. NXT has showed what he could be and absolutely had built him to that level. And what happens : Cole shows up to AEW and he looks like a star. Ditto Ales... Malakai Black, FTR and I would guess pretty soon a few others. So actually, NXT *was* successful in getting people over and presenting them like stars. The treatment they got in the main roster is what killed the buzz. If all the guys and girls who looked like star in NXT were pushed as such in WWE since 2014, the company would look very very different today. Now, this NXT2.0 may or may not develop talent. The thing is, it's also, and mostly, a weekly TV show, which for the longest time NXT wasn't, as a Network exclusive. As a TV show, it's more designed to actually get ratings, which is why the focus is on hot young women and tall guys, because that's what Vince believes works. And only after a few weeks, it's pretty obvious it doesn't work. Like, at all. As far as developing talent, who the hell knows, since it's not a given any of these people will ever become good working *that* show, working short matches and giving these awful scripted style promos. Sure Bron is pretty much a natural, more power to him in the main roster. But as far as a TV show that tries to attract a younger audience, which is what the program is designed to be about, it's just not working : lowest rating ever, median age 62.

Orange & Ishii vs Blade & Butcher was as WTF in its components as it was great. And of course Okada is not coming to work a mid-card feud if he ever shows up. He's all about Omega/Danielson. The HFO is a fine midcard heel act with a fine working manager, they always deliver the goods at the level they are supposed to. And they got the Bunny aka the Roman Reigns rating killer. But it was a great episode overall anyway, as AEW has been on a ridiculous roll with their TV shows lately. So much seeds for greatness in Punk vs MJF and Danielson vs Dark Order leading to Hangman. And of course the tease of the eventual split of Cole and the rest of the Elite (or Omega alone ?). Lio Rush could be AEW's ReyRey. I like the outfit, it makes him stand out even more. And although he's a natural heel, his work is so exciting and unique that he managed to turn himself babyface to the crowds in a matter of weeks. This guy is a keeper. Anthony Bowens has looked really strong in the past few weeks too. AEW doesn't do a bunch of rematches and that's a good thing. Intertwining feuds makes the whole thing more fresh and less predictable. At some point I guess we'll see Eddie and Punk again, and MJF is eventually gonna challenge Hangman after the Punk stuff but the Darby story isn't over either, and Danielson vs Omega II will eventually happen too. They have so much talent, it's better to mix it up. (I wonder, does Ashley Flair speaks Spanish ? Because Andrade's English really doesn't strike me as super elaborate... I mean, I used to be in a relationship with someone where we spoke English together because we didn't speak each others languages, but... dunno, just wondering)

Skulls.

But... but... but Sunny was the most downloaded personality on AOL god damnit !!! I know he's a corporate guy and all, but I can't imagine Triple H not finding some comfort in the fact NXT 2.0 has basically been a miserable failure after the first few weeks of curiosity... Wait for Motörhead to be heard again once his heart is in better shape.

In the most bizarre "in retrospect" moment I've watched lately, Taeler Hendrix's Gut Check was interrupted by... Joey Ryan. Which honestly was very well done. Considering how things turned out (Hendrix being an accuser of Jay Lethal and Joey Ryan being... well... ), this sequence is pretty odd to watch now. Also, the Claire Lynch promo the previous week was one of the most hilariously bad shit I've ever seen. Also, Austin Aries may be a douchebag and has turned into an anti-vaxx idiot, but his stuff at the time was pretty awesome, be it in-ring work or promos and connecting with the crowd. A breath of fresh air after the walk-of-death that has been Robert Roode's neverending reign of dullness and awful finishes. Bruce Prichard certainly made TNA a more focused and organized promotion, but damn the booking was still saturated with terrible, terrible ideas. Yeah, you're "telling a story", but that story kinda sucks. Hogan's first year in the company was a mess, but at least it was funny in a car-crash way. As it is, I'd say 2011 and the first half of 2012 were basically worse than 2010, which has been pretty much the pattern since 2008 (apart from those few months in late 2009).

With the Survivor Series being basically ignored by WWE, have they reached the point where, in their current business model, the only things that matter and are gonna get focused on are basically WrestleMania (and by extension and to some extents Royal Rumble) and the Saudi shows ? Survivor Series was quickly the lesser of the Big Four, but it was still historically a very important PPV, that has only gotten ridiculed by the awful brand vs brand supremacy booking in the last decade or so. This year has to be the absolute nadir in term of building to one of their historical Big Four though. I guess it doesn't even matter if people watch it or not anymore as long as the Peacock deal is safe.

Let him debut as the next member of the nWo first though.

A few years ago, WWE would probably have thrown silly money to get the guy to add to their NXT revolving door of already established super workers and to prevent AEW would getting him. Now ? Not too sure they would even consider it. Sure, he's young but by their standards he's also quite small. If I'm White and I look at how they screwed up 99% of the people they got their hands on, unless I get totally stupid money there's no way I step a foot in this toxic waste of a company. My guess is that playing between NJPW (who really doesn't want to lose a guy like him once the restrictions are lifted) and AEW is the way to go.

Oh, ok, I did not get it. Well, it would have taken too much time between her first appearance and the next PPV. Plus since Baker would have won anyway, having a long-ass build to a defeat for Ruby's first big match would not have done her much good probably.

Indeed. But it looks cool. Pro-wrestling is visual. That's what drives me crazy (well, not really but kinda) with all the stupid "lol movez" criticism that should have died sometime in the mid 00's when the meme got old already, back when the DVDVR board was still green. Pro-wrestling is also (and mostly, realistically, as the narratives really are repetitive as fuck and not all that interesting unless you add out of the ring storylines) a visual form, and a dynamic visual form, it's not a painting either. Moves matter. The form of the moves matter. Execution matters. Creativity matters. Inventing new forms of using your body, the body of your opponent, the space you're moving into (inside and outside, and using every element of the space that is the wrestling ring) matters. It's what makes pro-wrestling fun and instills new life into it, always. Of course some move can look too awkward or too stupid, that happens, especially if you don't find good solution to make them look cool (that damn jumping stunner by Cena for instance), but most pro-wrestling moves are stupid in themselves. Who runs into someone's boot and drops to the floor, and who gets hurt by someone breaking his collarbone while he's kinda dropping the back of his knees onto your throat ? Yeah Hogan, I'm looking at your dumbass offense. Despite its more than iffy physics, the Destroyer is a commonly used move now, and not even a finisher anymore (and why should it be unless someone makes it a finisher again, this is a 15 years old move now, bitching about it is like bitching about a superplex in 1990). Anyway. Kinda went off the topic slightly, but that's what I do, I rant. And yeah, the Meltdown is a big part of what made Wrath look like the coollest mofo in the company for a month or two, before Kevin Nash decided that he had to get over good old Adam Bomb before killing off Goldy.

That show was a reminder of how much Ospreay & White have been missed on NJPW shows. Ishii vs White was awesome. I have no idea how Ishii keeps on going on like that, he legit looks like an old guy when he walks to the ring. It's gonna be striking on Dynamite how small he actually is too. Okada vs Buddy Matthews, Ospreay vs Narita and Moose vs Robinson were all excellent matches in their own way. Narita is gonna be so great, hopefully not given a stupid gimmick though. Robinson's contract is ending soon I believe, maybe it's time for him to seek other options, I don't see him get much further in NJ. That being said, way too many people in AEW already, and WWE is just cursed. Matthews certainly did himself good for getting a high profile match like that. I guess NJ is the way to go, he doesn't have the WWE style stench like some did when they left (Cardonna at first). Alexander vs Uemura was a very good opener, as expected. Alexander is one of the wrestlers of the year to me, just terrific every time around. Did not watch the rest. I'm already way oversaturated now. Too much wrestling available, and too much really good pro-wrestling to boot. Gotta take a rest. Production sucked though. The sound quality was about as good as listing to a podcast on Winamp or Realplayer, and during the main event the announcing just disappeared for a while. For such a huge company as NJPW, this was pretty amateurish. Shingo vs Okada and then whoever wins against Ospreay, well you can't complain about those WK main events.

A 1-2 punch of Danielson/Punk would indeed be pretty great for establishing Hangman. Omega will probably take some time off, as he's been working on a very banged up body for a while now and he's been killing it all year long. And when he comes back, Danielson II has to happen. I agree with the idea Hangman's reign probably won't be a super long one like we've seen with Omega, it doesn't need to be. MJF would absolutely make sense to me too as the next guy getting the title and the first pillar to do it. Also, at some point, you know we'll get that Wardlow "Batista" turn and babyface push against his former boss, and he could be the first hoss worker to get the title (Miro & Keith Lee, if he signs and his health allows it, have a shot to). The one thing about the AEW title, is that it's not gonna be bounced around for the sake of it or because "you deserve it !", so the people getting it must be very meaningfull.

Yeah, I got a very Austin vs Bret or even Bret vs Micheals 97 feel with the promos. It was fascinating to see how the crowd got with one of the other during the match too. Now, we finally got Hangman as the champ, and he's really the first AEW original main-eventer. One thing great about AEW and their world title reigns is that they all have been very distinct. Jericho's was very different from Mox's, which was very different from Omega's. And as Jericho was the Terry Funk of sorts, with a heavy WWE background and Mox was the WWE outcast/rebel, Omega was the first former non-WWE main eventer getting to the position and now we got to the point of having a guy who has never been in the top spot before. The next step I guess will be one of the pillars, although at some points I could see either Danielson or Punk getting a title reign (although that doesn't seem needed). What will Hangman's reign be like ? Was the chase better than the catch ? There's plenty of heel they can line-up to build a strong reign, Miro, Andrade, Black, Cole, MJF. The dynamic is gonna change drastically and I'm pretty excited about it, although I won't lie, I'm gonna miss Omega & the Bucks on top, as the Elite's reign of terror in 2021 as been my favorite thing in pro-wrestling in decades (probably since 1997).