El-P

This is actually hilarious. (edited. Godamnit @C.S. !)

Enjoy the tradition of lucha libre with Joe Hendry and the Hardy Boys. I wonder if the audience is also supposed to learn English so they can chant "We believe" at Hendry, which is about the only thing about his matches (think "yeeet" and "yeah", only with one more word).

I even made the obligatory "Sabu tried to die because of course" joke. In retrospect, yikes. Janela basically admitting they got Sabu high as a kite to be able to perform and now Lauderdale is pissed at him because "It makes GCW looks bad" is classic old-school carny bullshit. This shit is turning really sour really fast. And yeah, if I'm Sabu's family, I'm considering pressing charges, really.

Wow, this is crazy, considering I was just watching his retirement match during Mania week. Sabu was and remain one of my all-time favorites. There was an intangible quality in Sabu's matches back then in term of producing this unparalleled aura of "controlled" chaos. One of the hardest working wrestler ever for sure, the absolute cult figure of indie wrestling for the tade trading era. No matter what anyone says, whenever a table is broken nowadays, and for the last 30 years : it is Sabu. Not Terry Funk in 89, not some stuff happening in Memphis in the 80's, not the Dudley Boys nor Public Enemy, it is Sabu. He's a guy who probably was his own worst enemy, but he's also someone who really never got the recognition he deserved. THE ECW original. Yeah. His Uncle might have been a huge star, but Sabu's influence on modern wrestling is gigantic. *points to the sky*

I'm sure it did play a role. Things were never the same after 68, and feminism played a part in it, although there was still a long way to go.

I would not say NJPW is in a dark ages period again. It's not even close to being comparable to the early 00's Inoki shit, which is akin to WCW 00's in term of destructive booking and awful product overall. The younger generation is plenty promising. However the global landscape has changed, which makes it a lot more difficult than it was in the 2010's, with so much money that can be made in the US for both foreigners and native workers. But yeah, Takeshita is just way above anyone they have in term of, well, everything. He's easily a top 5 wrestler in the world today, at worst probably top 3. He's charismatic as fuck to boot, he had the credibility. He's absolutely the guy NJPW should build around, that is if he wasn't basically an AEW guy, despite the dual contract. He needs to get that IWGP title reign at one point soon though, and a real, meaningful one too, not just a token "company exchange" reign like Mox last time.

I really wouldn't go that far. There is a before/after 68, but to say traditional masculinity was challenged in mainstream culture to this extent, not really. There had been changes thanks to the wave of feminist movement that went alongside 68, but I don't think it shook society that much on the regard of pop culture. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo's movies were still super popular in the 70's. However, as far as society as a whole, and especially in term of media, there is quite a difference between the 60's and the 70's, and mostly after 1974 when Giscard d'Estaing became president. As absurd as it may seem now, Giscard's vision was one of a modernized country. He's the one who killed off the old ORTF system which had been very much a vestige of the old pompidolian France which was seen as so boring, hasbeen and passé by then. The catch culture on TV was very much a product of the post-war De Gaulle/Pompidou era. Giscard was much younger, he was much more progressive on social issues (although still a man from the right, but not the same as the previous generation) and France changed quite a bit in the second half of the 70's.

Both Dontaku shows had some really good highlights. Was really cool having Tanahashi vs ZSJ one last time. Naito's exit from NJPW was the most Naito thing ever. Like, yeah, whatever, I'm gone now. Meanwhile, Good Brothers are back. Again. With that connection I fully expect them showing up in AEW eventually (I mean, they most probably are tagging with the Young Bucks at Resurgence). It's kinda like a never-ending joke at this point.

They are overconfident because they have idiot proof money. Thekla to AEW ! I'll gladly have more of the cool Austrian spider-lady. Good signing.

A week behind on things. Damnit Kyle Fletcher vs Hangman Page was ridiculous. It took a while, but I thoroughly enjoy the MJF/Hurt Syndicate segments now. No idea where this goes in term of matches though. And the tag titles are still dead in the water. Toni Storm has reached one hell of a status. I saw the "I'm here and I'm queer" promo from Collision. Quite the statement too.

People previously cut by WWE being back heating up WWE TV while under TNA contracts is hilariously pathetic. 😂

And now Meltzer says it's actually a new WWE contract. Yeah, after cutting a bunch of people (lots of women) and one (bullshit) defense being "they made place for new talent", getting this rapist and woman abuser under contract is amazingly shitty. WWE be like. (wonder if Saraya regrets asking for, and getting, her AEW release)

Would be hilarious though if the "defense" of the company would be "Well, AAA signed Alberto to a contract, and since we bought the company we are supposed to honor these contracts"... Oh, the irony.

Apparently it's more vague than this. WWE doesn't really own AAA yet, so all of this is kinda blurry. Luchablog also reported that he had divergent infos about these (and other people not mentioned supposedly under contract). Well, AAA business be like AAA business still. I would expect no less from WWE, AAA and Konnan. But they announced the acquisition already. Don't tell me they are not controlling the promotion. If they don't have him drop the belt tomorrow and get the fuck away, it's as good as WWE keeping a rapist at the top of their Mexican brand to me. Psycho Clown is typically not under contract. Yes, he was the most popular AAA wrestler. Had not work a decent match in years from what I'd seen when I still checked AAA's big shows, but kids loved him. The Joe Hendry of AAA, or something...

Immediately thought about that. Yeah, that's never a good feeling to give. Also, are you telling me Nanae Takahashi is actually still an egotistical old fucker ? I will pretend to be shocked. When I saw Mayu's fist match was Nanae, I went like "Yeah, hard pass". Glad to you she's still have passion for putting over no one for real, even months shy of retiring. They could not even sell out Korakuen Hall for this. Marigold ain't taking over Stardom. Not happening. How long before Levesque reveals they bought Marigold and that he loves the tradition of women's japanese pro-wrestling ?

So, between Riley Osbourne alluding to the fact he was not medically cleared, Cora Jade alluding to the fact she was body shamed by "bosses, co-workers and fans", yeah, business as usual. But the really batshit news of the day, if confirmed true, is the list of AAA people under WWE contract, per Superluchas. Which contains : Alberto del Rio. Holy fuck. Really ? Also, La Hiedra is in the list. I believe she's a sister in Law of Cuatrero, and Stephanie Vaquer has a restraining order against her. After cutting a bunch of women, nothing better than to put a rapist/woman abuser under contract, alongside someone who harassed a victime of feminicide attempt. WWE, Now, Then. Forever.

I kinda like the trios title. But yeah, hopefully they do unite the Continental and International title. I don't even remember which one is which. It's honestly not even needed anyway, but the TBS title has been a secondary title for ever now, so I guess it's like the old NJPW hierarchy of IWGP and Intercontinental titles as major ones and the rest is midcard stuff. The ROH titles are absurd. They just added a Women pure title. They are like 6 regular women in ROH (that aren't JTTS) for 3 titles. But yeah, a women tag title that is meaningful, big time emphasis on the term, would be a welcome addition while you trim down some other belts. On the front of more good news, a residency at the ECW Arena is cool as hell.

It's Eric Young and Steve Maclin, on the last set of tapings. Every TNA news is just demonstrating that they are a bunch of bozos. They are being cucked so hard by WWE it's not even funny, and whatever I read from the news is just dreadful in term of content/talent (apart from Santana and Mustafa Ali, which I don't doubt is excellent in term of matches). But yeah, Mance Warner just signed with them a few months back. Since the *only* thing he has going for him is bleeding a lot, though shit, guy. And I guess Sami is getting ready to concentrate fully on Revolver, which is always a cool little indie show with a chaotic vibe. Also, apparently the Tessa Blanchard experiment is a catastrophy, with fans chanting random shit during her matches to express their disdain. Well, that and "She's a racist". Honestly we should be back posting in that *other* thread. 😂 All of this honestly kinda makes me want to go back and watch the trainwreck in motion... Kinda.

Well, since Rey was injured, Dragon Lee almost had his WrestleMania Moment tm. Losing to a racist anti-Mexican culture (that was cheered by the audience) gimmick in 5 minutes. But hey, it's all about creating Moments tm... But yeah, the privilege went to Fénix. All of this time waiting for *this*. And yeah, cutting people right after getting their hands on the second biggest promotion in Mexico, meanwhile they have been stuffing their bottom-of-the-card NXT people into TNA's programming. What a joke.

This. 200%.

Watched the first night of Mayhem since why not. All jokes aside, Mauro is fucking unbearable. Making a useless, totally unrelated reference every two minutes (he's what we call in French a prouveur, yeah, we get the fucking point, you have a whole lot of REFERENCES) and worst of all, *interrupting his co-host all the time* I swear Veda Scott has not been able to finish two sentences in a row. Add to that the constant screaming. Jeez. Apart from this, some good stuff (mostly thanks to the external talent from AEW, NJPW and NOAH), but holy shit, a TAFKA Baron Corbin (as Mauro actually called him several times) match against Bram from the NWA was one hell of a lame-ass main event (not *bad* per say, but boring and basic, with a really lame finish). Don't see the point of working with the cursed Corgan's NWA (for fuck's sake, Bram). And Bishop Dyer may be a bit better than Baron Corbin as I remembered him for years ago, but I don't need to see another match of him, ever. Basically I wish AEW would sign Gisele Shaw, really (but I thought the same thing already when she was in IMPACT).

Sure. Like Hikuleo... We're getting near the one year point of him being signed. Not even *one* match. 😂

Agreed. AEW has too many belts already, but a meaningful (and that's the main point : meaningful) women tag team title would be very valuable and different. A CC Women Tag League could indeed be a really cool idea to make it work from the beginning. The Forbidden Door show in London appear to be a big-ass gate too already (since people love to talk about gates and shit these days, although honestly the fact it comes from being ridiculously overpriced doesn't suit me well). WWE tried to hurt it by running in Great Britain around the same date but it obviously has already failed as a strategy.

Damn, the title of this thread is so cursed... But yeah, the MLP project still looks interesting. If anyone Canadian was released by WWE, you can sure D'Amore will have a try at them.

Skipped the last previous two shows (although they're on Youtube now), but the next one doesn't look half bad on paper. Serena Deeb vs Miyu Yamashita, Kylie Rae vs Gisele Shaw (although Rae is a WWEID, there's no way Gisele doesn't win there), Micheal Oku vs Speedball vs Gabe Kidd. Well, of course Mauro is still announcing, so there's that, but hey, Callis is there too.