El-P

Agreed that was an issue. But that was not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that they fucked up pretty much everyone in the main roster, making NXT irrelevant in the grand scheme of things and uncool to its audience because there is no "I can't wait until he/she graduates to the main roster". When it began running in circle, that's when things really went awry to me and that's much later than the Finn Balor era. We're talking late Gargano/Ciampa/Cole stuff. They already have damaged Bianca BeLair by treating her like a joke, making the investment building up to Mania as a waste of time. Not to say she won't bounce back, but still that booking was the stupidest shit imaginable. Bill Demott has been removed a long time ago. The new regime is apparently as inept in term of training talent. Tay Conti showed up in AEW with years at the Performance Center looking like she was a 6 months rookie. Sure, some super talented people like BeLair may slip through the cracks, but the evidence is there in term of this Performance Center being a failure (which is not surprising, pro-wrestling is not about doing calisthenics until you hurt yourself) and the WWE star making machine has been broken since about 2005, and the last few years are basically the nadir of the promotion on that respect. There's no unfixable issue, but as long as they have the same mentality as they do now, they won't fix anything at all. Vince is thrashed. And as long as Vince is alive, he's gonna run the show. And after he dies, I could see non-wrestling people taking over and we know what it means (either they don't care, either they don't get it). Sell to Disney and do fan service shows forever at this point (which really is already the selling point of Mania, has been for years now). Or maybe Jeff Jarrett will get the book once Vince (and Kevin Dunn, who's maybe the worst guy in the company, really) is gone. I mean, that guy slithered his entire career, that would be an amazing sight considering his father was supposed to take over if Vince went to jail (despite what Brucie says).

Considering the track record of the Performance Center and the booking in the last 10 years, I have no idea why anyone is thinking this change is gonna make any difference. Their training system sucks and their booking is godawful. The future is surely bright for pro-wrestling in general, once the pandemic finally ends. WWE ? Haven't we learned anything from the last decade ? They have to rethink *everything*, especially in the wake of AEW becoming the hot promotion that delivers to its audience what they actually want and allows the workers to express themselves. Recruiting star college athletes won't change things when you can't train worth a shit and you can't book a damn and still thinks guys from 20 years ago are the real stars. Mick Foley said it, they have a problem and even *Booker T* agreed. When Booker T of all people is not simply playing to corporate bullshit card, you've got an issue. It's not like it's new, but now the chickens have come back to roost. They can thank the TV rights bubble and the Saudi blood money that make them idiot proof seemingly "forever". They would be *so fucked* if they did not have those.

That's glorious !

Thanks ! Totally surrealistic to see Raven tagging with Hansen vs Taue & Tsuruta. I had no prior idea he ever toured with AJ.

That's it, this is canon ! This is too awesome ! Is there any video of Scotty in AJPW ? That would be the lost treasure of all lost treasure.

People on Twitter : "Yeah but...."

Well, I don't really care, pro-wrestling is better now anyway.

Plus pirate streams mean no advertisements. So these are useless views for the announcers anyway.

Make it happen, I don't give a fuck. I totally plead the cognitive dissonance. And I mean, there's something to be said about some kind of hypocrisy going on with some people with really stupid opinions. Just picture if social medias existed in the 80's and 90's.I swear at least half of the classic workers of that era would get cancelled. You don't think those great southern workers for instance would not say stupid racist shit ? The sex with underage groupies (aka "rats"), the bullying in the locker rooms (aka "ribs"), the awful political stances. Tons of guys from that period most probably did stuff a lot worse than say, Austin Aries, who's just a douchebag with dumb opinions. But they are still looked at as legends. Ignorance is indeed bliss. Shut the fuck up and wrestle.

Jade is greener than goose shit, as they say. But considering her experience level, she's doing mighty fine thus far in Goldy-likes squash and she has TONS of potential. I really like the pairing with that crooked attorney, he's a really good douchebag, and I LOVE her presentation, the outfits, the music, very Narcissist Lex Luger-ish in the best way possible. Hopefully she learns and develops fast ! Totally agree.

In other news, the next goal post moving is..... key demos don't matter and they are an invention of Dave Meltzer ! I mean, it took only two years before it happened.

Anyone remotely familiar with the promotion knows who Hangman Page is. He's been there since the very beginning and has been a key character of the promotion. He's been one of the most over guy in the company for the last year or so. So, sure, they probably picked up a bunch of new fans in the past few weeks, but even if say, you picked up 10% new fans (which is a lot, I'm not sure it is that much), the day Page gets back he'll get that star reaction and people who don't know him well or at all will get the message pretty quick. As far as the long-term storyline, I mean, at some point people have to get with the program and pick up what they can. It's a storyline that can you trace back years now, with tons of layers. The main crux of the story won't be too hard to follow and get behind : Page coming back to get revenge on his former friends.

Jokes write themselves. (although it's probably just being interviewed for some "documentary" about the Attitude Era)

Yeah, there's something odd about Tessa. Either there's *much more* to it than what is public knowledge (which are basically backstage hearsays, not to say it's not true), either it's an odd case of absolute fear of Twitter outrage. I mean, her "case" is that she has been a bully in locker rooms and that she used a racist slur years ago during an argument. Ok. Bad stuff. Does that mean she *can't work anywhere anymore* in a the pro-wrestling business ? The *pro-wrestling* business ? There's really an odd case of cognitive dissonance here, because what about AJ Styles saying homophobic stuff years ago ? What about all the wrestlers supporting Trump, who is a legit white supremacist (not to mention the McMahon family) ? What about Matt Riddle, who is still accused of rape ? What about the Usos who *drive drunk on multiple occasions* (that means legit putting other peoples lives in danger) ? What about what about what about... Yeah, whataboutism indeed, but what is SO bad about Tessa that no one will even touch her (after IMPACT did push her to the moon) ? Is there something we don't know that makes her that much more toxic or is it just an odd case of someone serving as kind of a "scapegoat" while other people who are just as bad or even way worse have no trouble getting or keeping a job somewhere ? I'm kinda scratching my head about Tessa's case... (like you said, I get AEW not wanting to take any risk at all, and the chants at All Out were pretty telling of the sentiment of its audience, at least part of it, but WWE, really ? Hasn't Charlotte been accused of saying racist stuff before too or am I imagining this one ?)

Fuck, watch Takada's big matches in UWF-I. He's the most pro-wrestling shoot-syle guy ever (which is why shoot-style "purists", whatever that means, don't like him). He's all about the big epic matches against monsters and douchebags. He's the John Cena of shoot-style, his stuff doesn't always look the smoothest, but there's no one making a better bigger spectacle than Takada, which is why he was arguably the biggest star ever produced in this style (which is, as I said, pro-wrestling).

The Hangman is a long, long term storyline. It will pay off. But when people will think it's the pay off, it won't be the payoff yet. Quote me on that in a few years.

Brian Cage is a guy who can do a lot of things inside the ring and looks unique doing it. In that respect he's like RVD. Paired with the right people, it can produce super fun matches. But he lacks personality and charisma, and certainly won't put a compelling match together on his own unless he's part of an insane spotfest, which is something in itself. He's useful in the upper mid-card, maybe TNT champ level if he really gets over big but I'm not sure I'd go that far. The irony is that actually, Melissa Santos is the one person that should be thrown into the mix if they want to get Cage over as a superstar. That's exactly what they did in IMPACT and it gave us the best Brian Cage ever (that and of course being paired with Sami Callihan who's been the MVP star maker of the last few years, elevating and making care about everyone he's been paired with). Melissa was also awesome in the Dark Fénix storyline in LU and she was the best ring announcer ever there too. When Cage was signed I was hoping to see her used in a meaningfull capacity in AEW eventually, and since she won't be the ring announcer she had to be part of an angle to help her husband get over. That was be pretty awesome to see Melissa again. Then, there's the fact Cage may not be the smartest guy in term of politics (let's say he would be right at home with Jericho I guess)... He's also good friend with Tessa Blanchard I believe.

Well, it was quite the ok little match indeed. 3 falls in 12 minutes definitely strikes me as rushed though, but they did a pretty good job with it. Swole seems to have improved a bit (I mean, she could not get much worse) and Diamanté is pretty decent as usual. But honestly when I see those two, I just think it's too bad Ivelisse and Shanna got attitude issues, because they were so much better pro-wrestlers and it was a blast to watch them. Damn those cursed workers !

Credit Raven for that. For sure. His ups and downs only makes him even more fascinating. I mean, although I watched his WCW stuff much later after the fact, I remember him popping up on WWF Superstars in 1990, so I've been watching him (on/off) for those 31 years. I remember figuring out by myself that Goldust was that Dustin Rhodes fella from years ago (I had not watched WCW at that point and I had no inside knowledge at all, I got on the Internet in 97) and I was kinda proud of myself for being so pro-wrestling smart ! (I also figured out quickly that Savio Vega was Kwang and Abe Knuckelball Schwartz was the Brooklyn Brawler and Who was Jim Neidhart, but these were rather obvious... fun times)

I can understand this argument, but then again, it's not one I really care about. If you had 62 matches in which you displayed fucking genius ability at what you do, you're a GOAT contender. That doesn't mean I have to agree. Versatility can be an element of greatness, but it doesn't *have to be* to me. One reason I believe Kenny Omega is of the the GOATs is actually his ability to have the greatest matches with *everyone and everybody* in any kind of style he tries. One reason I believe Volk Han and Tamura are some of the GOATs are their absolute genius at shoot-style pro-wrestling. There's no preconceived, mandatory element to greatness, especially when workers don't exist in a vacuum but in very specific contexts which allows or not to display such and such qualities (not to mention stuff like booking which influence what they will be allowed to display or not). I thought pushing the logic of what defines pro-wrestling or not was kinda funny actually. Well it was, especially considering the linguistic quirks of WWE which actually kinda define what they want to be perceived as, and even more in the lights of that CM Punk promo. But really, it all comes down to you not considering shoot-style as pro-wrestling. So it doesn't matter and you can't make it an argument for or against his work. I ignored it because it's a flawed argument. I actually replied to it in my first version of the post but then deleted it because I'm lazy and maybe I felt it was a bit aggressive (I'd rather make jokes and stay light-hearted). So here's what I wanted to reply to the bolded part : Who are "we" and what is "what we know and love and call pro-wrestling" ? In the name of whom are you talking exactly ? I've been a fan of pro-wrestling for 30 years. I've seen my first straight shoot-style stuff about 10 years in. It caught pretty much immediately for me and I became a fan of that style in a flash. Meanwhile, it took me forever to get hooked to lucha-libre and to catch up with whatever contemporary style that evolved from the US indies and 00's japanese stuff. So, first off I'm not included in that "we". Second, it's very much a UScentric point of view, I'm sorry to say. Japanese shoot-style is not that far off the old classic world of sport UK style in spirit and form. And if you're a Japanese salaryman brought up with Inoki or even with the 80's generation of NJ, the UWF pretty much looked and was sold as the purest form of pro-wrestling that was, and RINGS was just an extension of this. Shoot-style was much more "real pro-wrestling" than the goofy ass shit americans were watching on TV (funny thing, that's how the UWF-I was sold on the Bushido programs too for english-speaking audiences). So, that first statement holds no water whatsoever and only displays ignorance for a different kind of pro-wrestling culture, really. It's only foreign and removed from your own perspective. There you go. I did not make any "imaginary, false" starting point for myself. I totally accept the "shoot-style isn't for me" point of view, I totally get it. But "shoot-style isn't pro-wrestling" is factually false, and saying Volk Han or Tamura can't be considered pro-westlers because they only worked that style just doesn't make any sense to me. Yes it is. No offense taken, I never make or take things personal (unless I'm trolled by assholes of course) Well, I never took a punch in the face either so...

I would LOVE Dustin to show up in IMPACT. Hell, Dustin could have an IMPACT title reign, the matches and promos interacting with the roster there would be gold. Fuck, now I want this and I'm probably not gonna get it !

I noticed Abadon too getting in shape and better. I'll check out those two matches, as I really don't watch either Dark unless there's something I really want to watch.

The plan is to tape Dark (not Elevation) in studios soon to get that old WCW feel too. I've heard good things about Swole vs Diamante, which is surprising to me because Diamanté is not exactly a world beater and Swole really wasn't any good at all when she was pushed on Dynamite the first year. Maybe she has finally improved.

That's a pretty damn good point. Visibility and cultural relevancy surely plays a part. The Black Thought period was as bad as anything you'll come across, but since it was TNA not only it means it was kinda under the radar but also people would be tempted to put it on the company (which at the same time had some of the greatest workers in the world having some of the best matches of the era).

With the talk about "revisionist history" on Jericho's career the other day, I was thinking about Dustin and although I'm a big Dustin fan and pretty much always have been (was a huge Goldust fan), there's really a huge rose-colored glass/confirmation bias effect going on with him. He was quickly great in the early 90's in WCW. Then at some point during the Goldust era he became worse... to the point of getting actually pretty bad (including his last WCW stint)... then he got good again teaming with Booker T, then he had the godawful Black Reign stint in TNA, then really wasn't around much until he was teaming with his brother in WWE in the mid 10's, which is when he began to get good then really good again, basically getting great to the point of having a classic match at 50 years old. So it's really an up and down career, with highs that go pretty damn high and lows that go pretty damn low. The idea that Dustin has been that great worker for 30 years is really not true at all and I'm sure he would be the first to admit that. Great first years, great last years, some good/very good stuff in between but also a lot of really bad periods.