El-P

The amount of awkwardness, between the guy on the left looking totally uncomfortable, the girl shouting an untimely and totally forced 'woo!' and the host looking like he realized he fucked up big time .

It's called Performance Center, not Learn how to Wrestle Center.

I don't see Hangman just returning in a multi-men ladder match to earn a shot against Omega. Just doesn't really fit with his storyline and character, which is a long-term, personal relationship based storyline, not "win a clusterfuck ladder match and win the title" kinda stuff. Omega should beat Danielson first, then Hangman shows up and when he defeats Omega, it means even more since there really isn't anyone left.

Chris Hero as the joker would be really cool. Last time Coach Tony K Promised a huge announcement, it was Christian Cage (much love to him), so hopefully he learned his lesson.

So I've been binge watching Breaking Bad, and I can't unsee Nick Jackson as Jesse Pinkman with long hair.

They have no idea what people want in 2021. No idea. From what I've seen thus far; NXT 2.0 is a corporate acid trip to the 90's with workers greener than grass with gimmicky gimmicks having bad matches. Also, this has to eventually die in the ratings. Boudreaux. I know you people are confused by all the French "ou" and "eau" and "x" that you don't hear. Fun fact that I used to give my students, the word "birds" in French, "oiseaux" has NO letter that you actually hear when you say it. Like, none. BTW, where the fuck is Scarlett not Bordeaux anymore ? Talk about someone who has signed in the wrong company (see also Monet, Francky, I've watched her match last week and it's probably the worst match I've seen her in years). Considering we got this whole deal in France where its has been officially revealed that hundreds of thousands of people (about 330 000) have been abused by the Catholic Church since the 50's, it's a rather timely reference. But anyhow, that Joe Gacy shit is godawful. Neo-nazi guy and Bron Steiner of course have potential, but fuck me this show is dying a quick death for me from the snipets I get. How long before someone get dressed as a garbageman or a plumber ?

Understood. I wasn't sure what was your feeling about his heel stuff. Yeah, I used Tamura as kind of an off-topic, extreme example, since other people talked about versatility and there was this discussion in the poll section about shoot-style. Since there really isn't any babyface/heel dynamic usually in shoot-style (although there are other dynamics like underdog/monster, veteran/new young star which absolutely relate to basically every other styles, which is why it's not an alien style that is separated from the rest of the pro-wrestling landscape), he's typically the case for which the question can't be asked. Well, yeah, can't get two more extreme opposites in every way. I have no idea if I'll end up having someone like Dump in my top tier (or top ten) and if he or she would be higher than guys like Terry Funk. I don't think so, but then again, I do not know ! Yes, pretty much.

WTF ? Yeah, exactly like that ! And now I want QT Marshall to use this as a troll (since he was given the Diamond Cutter by DDP when he was still a poor underdog babyface).

It depends what those things are and how exactly great are you at it. Tamura is the best example I can give of an absolute specialist (great at one style period, and who only did this one style ever) who is a lock for the top tier, if not the top ten. That being said, it's absolutely possible that when everything is said and done, most if not all the workers from an environment where babyface/heel matters in my top tier will be those who indeed were great both ways. But I really don't know and I'm not looking for that at all. So I'll probably be able to give a better (and strictly descriptive) answer after the fact.

As much as I enjoy the Horsemen inspired theme from the Pinnacle, that new FTR one is pretty puzzling to me. It's like they wanted to re-do the cheapest version of the already cheap-ass ersatz version the MX used in WCW after they couldn't use Moroder anymore. So it's kind of a tribute to not the original theme but to the cheap-ass one. Like someone who pay homage to DDP using a warped version of his pseudo-Nirvana theme. Without the slightest bit of irony either. In the end I have no idea if I find that pretty cool or if that makes FTR really look more and more like "The Revival". I can so get behind that Sonny Kiss vs Kayla Rossi feud. Agism alert ! Speaking of Abadon, yeah, she doesn't do it for me either. I've watched way too much Su Yung, with the awesome IMPACT production, to be scared by this girl, who looks dressed freaky for the party, not like an actual scary zombie. She has improved though compared to where she was when she first showed up.

What about it ? Do you mean it was not good therefore it would detract from his case as a whole ? I dunno, where I stand now is that whatever good I see add to your case up to a certain point, there's nothing that really detracts from anything, you're just going up to a certain level (which can be top 10 or lower 90's I guess, depending on what I get). Martel's babyface stuff was awesome so that's the crux on what his case is built on. Then he was still a very good worker during his heel stint (and afterward too as I enjoyed his WCW stuff quite a bit), so that's a bit more positive to add, although nothing too notable either so in the grand scheme of things, it won't weight that much (if at all, really, because at some point you just can't possibly weigh in everything about everyone, it's simply not doable and not even relevant because of all the contextual elements that play into the output anyway, so you have to focus on what is the most relevant). I won't look at Martel being a great heel (if you consider him a great heel, that's just an exemple) as something very important if I don't get what to me is actual great work and to an extent matches (of course taking in account he wasn't working in a super favorable environment either). Like I said, the answer to your question to me is : no. Too much of a role-oriented factor.

No. Because it's just too much of a booking thing to begin with, so you can't put the blame on someone to not do and/or never getting good at something they barely ever did for reasons out of their control (are we gonna blame Steamboat or Cena for something they really never got to do ?), plus it's putting to much emphasis on a dynamic that is not always present in pro-wrestling (most pro-wrestling has it, but not all pro-wrestling, the 90's AJ stuff really barely has any of it). Also, is Ricky Morton or Rey Mysterio working heel for a short while really relevant or is it just a miscast (and although I thought Morton was quite good at it, does it really add anything important to his case, as it was nothing but a footnote) ? Too much simply of a role thing to me to be that important. That's a trick question for sure ! I'd say the later, but then again I might disagree because having your own style and sticking to it can also be a sign of greatness when you make it work. There's no right answer, really. To sum up, Kiyoshi Tamura worked the same style his entire career, a style that barely has any heel/face dynamics (UWF-I kinda sorta did sometimes) and he's absolutely a top 10 candidate. That definitely frees up the process for me.

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.