El-P

This is basically Fort Boyard !

2015 : "Women's Revolution !" 2021 : "Puppies !"

I usually don't watch Dark because I just can't watch everything, but I did watch some this week. That Dark Order clash was really good with some nice angle advancement, as Evil Uno seems to get more and more isolated. Sonny Kiss vs Joey Janela was a good little banger and I have missed watching those two. Not familiar with Kayla Rossi, who's with Janela, but she got one hell of a look and that post-match spot she did was *wicked* (standing backflip footstomp into a chair on Kiss' back, and she did not even lose her balance !). And then QT vs Dustin showed how it's done. QT gets a lot of flak because of the TV time he got lately, but he's a *really good* pro-wrestler, smart too. Watching those too together, it kinda make sense they would be such good trainers, because they had really a strong match with tons of cool details (loved QT escaping the infamous Dustin punch, which is something you almost never see, or getting trapped into the Curtain Call because he put himself in a dangerous position). Less important but still cool, when did the Gunn Club got that nice synthwavy new theme ? Eddie Kingston announcing with Schiavone & Wight is as fun as expected. Should check out Dark Elevation more often.

Of course. But the real thing is, Kenny Omega is a GOAT contender and has had some of the greatest pro-wrestling matches ever in the last 5 years both in Japan and in the US. And Bryan Danielson knows, as a GOAT contender himself. He's not stupid. He wouldn't say quite the same thing if he faced Cody, for instance (nothing against Cody). As I said before, Danielson vs Omega truly is Misawa vs Kadawa or Okada vs Tanahashi. And it was never supposed to happen. And it will. It must be just the greatest feeling for both of them, really, they must be totally stocked and elated.

Bryan Danielson just called Kenny Omega one of the best wrestler in the world and his match against him the biggest of his career. The level of triggering for some people is gonna be too much.

You don't say. That whole show was damn good ! Alexander vs Sabin and Cage vs Austin were great, the multi-men X-div match was just was you needed, Dashwood vs Wilde was very good (I'm SO glad about that Taylor Wilde comeback), Cardona vs Rohit was way too much fun and totally over-delivered to me, FinJuice vs Bullet Club was quite a terrific little match too (first time I'm really getting impressive stuff out of Hikuleo, and Bey was his usual great self, the guy keeps on improving). And the final scene was exactly was I expected and hoped for. That's what's so good about IMPACT, their booking is the most straight and logical you can find out there, predictable in the best possible way possible. Bound for Glory is probably gonna be terrific building from there. (too bad Sami hurt his ankle during the next tapings though, he was on fire with Eddie, hopefully he gets some role like Eric Young)

That Owen thing is awesome. Funny how Dark Side of the Ring has had some actual repercussions IRL, because you know this doesn't happen without the documentary. That's when Martha reconciled with the fact pro-wrestling fans did sincerely love Owen and that was a big part of his life. Considering the shit she was thrown at for years thanks to the wonderful propaganda by WWE to make her appear as the villain, while she has actually done everything right that you can think of, it's pretty damn awesome to see something like this happen (another one that just would not even be imaginable a few years back). Owen was always one of my very favorites back then, so this will be pretty special. That Kingston "promo" is something else too. Amazing that this is your letter @gordi, so cool ! The Kingston story is pretty insane. And it sums up pretty much everything right about AEW and why it was needed for the pro-wrestling landscape. A guy like Kingston would never have been given a look by WWE, ever. And if he had, just picture him being jobbed out in humiliating fashion in NYC, because that's how things go. Instead, the guy is living his best life way past the point of his career where he thought even a fraction of this could ever happen (hell, he was basically done). Apparently the Mox/Kingston vs Archer &Suzuki match is closing Arthur Ashes. So you know what that mean, pun intended. This is going to be one for the ages, people.

Cursed. Which is why you gotta enjoy whatever good happens when it does (and no, I'm not referring to crappy carpe diem bullshit positive thinking). They have to stuck someone else, after only one match it's still doable. Is Bad Luck Fale available ?

Yeah, Okada vs Tanahashi is the greatest rivalry in the history of our sport. Tanahashi is the GOAT. That said, Okada is only 33, the next years will be fascinating to watch. Taichi vs Goto was kinda rough at first (but you know they gotta kill those first minutes) but when it got good, it got really good. Also, Taichi hopefully has Miho with him everyday too. YOSHI-HASHI vs EVIL was a lot more fun that I thought it would. I want more of that YOSHI-HASHI. Chase Owens & Tama Tonga were involved in pro-wrestling matches too, they absolutely were. You know, like everybody else I bitched when I saw the line-up, but after these first too days and two awesome matches already (granted, it was pretty much two of the greatest on paper) and Kevin Kelly in G1 mode, I can't lie, it's still the fucking G1 ! And we get Danielson vs Omega next week ? So lucky, overall.

Actually, I brought up Dustin Rhodes before in this very thread and was the first (and only one thus far I believe) to do so. I don't bring him up in the context of the Dreamer discussion because it pertains to the Dark Side of the Ring documentary and the reactions on social medias (and this board). And Dustin was not portrayed as an abuser on the documentary, so I can't blame people who watched it and aren't aware of the details of the lawsuits (hell, I only learned about it myself after having watched the show) of not knowing that Dustin was part of the abuse too. The three sexual abusers in the doc are Flair, Hall & Lesnar. Hall is so far off the radar that I'm not shocked he's not mentioned on social media. Lesnar ? Kinda different case.... (would be pretty interesting to have statistics on the number of tweets about Flair/Dreamer/Hall/Lesnar... not to mention honestly the most horrifying, to me, extract which is the RVD bit about what pro-wrestling culture was. But it would be too depressing.)

Well, Tommy Dreamer is not a sexual abuser. Yet he received more attention and real-life repercussions because of how the documentary was formatted than one of the actual sexual abuser that was mentioned (and who would not respond BTW). So the neverending outrage about Dreamer, including, as I predicted, his apology, gets kinda ridiculous and yes, annoying, after a while. So yeah, I'm bringing up Lesnar over and over again because I'm a dick like that (but I don't do the helicopter). Well, that illustrates the point Meltz was making this week-end about the mentality of "made men" compared to low-carder, men or women, in the locker room. Taker, that great locker room leader. As we probably will learn more about next week in the Kanyon episode.

Of course not. Plus, they are performing for a guy who had a journalist murdered, so really now, an old story about showing your dick... Speaking of which (and airplaines, and lawsuits settlements), considering the ridiculous settlements lately, the infamous delayed airplane debacle would make a fucking insane Dark Side of the Ring episode. But no one will talk about it as most are still employed there anyway.

"From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry" Really now... Also, "I apologize to anyone I offended" doesn't mean "I"m sorry you got offended". Not at all. Obviously if you're not offended, you're not in need of an apology, therefore the apology doesn't concern those who are not offended. At some point, people need to fucking understand how language work. And yeah, that's my professional realm, so at points I get really annoyed (can you feel the slight annoyance in my latest posts ) about stuff like this, because people just twist stuff around with their own attribution bias and imply stuff that just aren't there. Anyway. Lesnar trending yet ? Yes ? No ? No. Maybe at Blood Money Mania. Yeah probably not.

Well, if that's the case, they don't even understand the English language, because that's not what he wrote. It's irrelevant anyway, people who are complaining now are the exact same who would complain if he had not apologized. The great thing about a double bind is that you're always right. Oh anyway, it's not like it was not predictable.

I don't have to be satisfied or not. I'm not involved. I'm just an observer. I won't imply stuff just because it's "convenient" to confirm my own opinion. I'm also not a judge and I'm no one to put Tommy Dreamer on trial. What I saw is Tommy Dreamer say real stupid shit on a doc, Tommy Dreamer got suspended from his job, Tommy Dreamer apologizes. It's not up to me to judge or weigh the validity or sincerity of his public apologies, because I just know *nothing* about how the guy feels. He apologizes, which is the right thing to do, I say good for him. That's about it as far as I can say. I don't know how the women in IMPACT took the whole thing, I don't know the private exchanges he may have had with them, I basically don't know anything apart from what was shown in the documentary and now his public apology (which sounds allright to me). Again, I'm not involved and I'm not owed anything.

What I just said... Also, implying he's apologizing *only* because he's been suspended is simply gratuitous. It's not above anyone to say stupid shit. Maybe also Dreamer saw himself in the doc, was embarrassed by what he said especially confronted to the interview of the flight attendant (which, like everybody else, he probably had no seen before) and felt like shit about it. No one knows. So there.

"Your apology is not sincere enough" in 5... 4.... 3... 2.... (I guess it's there already in the comments, but I'm not stupid enough to read them) Good for Dreamer.

The bad thing about Ishii vs Takagi, is that no one will be able to follow it during this G1. No one. No idea why anyone would want this one to go shorter. If there was ever a time to chant "Fight forever", that was it. It will also the mere high point of his matches. I mean, Gedo ain't an idiot, if we're gonna have to suffer through Yujiro's matches, at least gave us something, anything to look forward too. Pretty cool that spoilers have been avoided, too, thus far.

Well, if that's true, it's another crappy tidbit about our friend JR. I guess the flight attendants were too old to get any attention from The King though, so there's that...

Honestly I dunno why. Maybe people are just stupid about cannabis and just stereotype. Because, from memory, RVD in shoot interviews always struck me, as a pretty level headed guy. In some ways, it just proves that cannabis is the lesser of all drugs, alcohol included. True. As long as Dreamer is talking pro-wrestling, he's obviously super cool and lovable. But I'm not sure I'd expect a lot of deep thinking especially in things relating to pro-wrestling, since he's the picture perfect of a boys stan. This. Ok let's be fair to Fl JR about this one. The quote as reported by ThreadKiller is this : “The Flight Attendants partied pretty hard with the boys...and you know what that means. No good can come of that. Nobody was looking for a nice, romantic interlude and none of those guys was looking to meet the girl of their dreams. Those girls didn’t do a lot to help themselves, but that absolutely doesn’t give anybody the right to be sexually abusive.” Ok. He says the flight attendant partied with the wrestlers. And you know what ? It very well may have happened. Anyone who doesn't believe some flight attendants who do that on a party flight full of booze and celebrity aren't living in the real world. He says no good can come out of it. That's not blaming anyone, that's him knowing the context. Then the "Those girls didn’t do a lot to help themselves", which may be interpreted as blaming them, but it's not really the case. Again, it very may be true that some of the flight attendants were unprofessional too. That they partied hard. That they were flirtatious (again, if you don't believe that to be a possibility, you're kidding yourselves). And that is indeed only adding trouble *as an overall situation* when you're dealing with a bunch of boozed-up idiots who are fighting in an airplane, cutting hairs, doing drugs and shit. HOWEVER, Ross concludes by "but that absolutely doesn’t give anybody the right to be sexually abusive." That sentence alone leaves no interpretation. Ross is asked to describe the situation, which he does from his point of view. To him, yes, some of the flight attendants were unprofessional partying with the boys. Knowing the boys, that was not gonna end up pretty. BUT : "that absolutely doesn’t give anybody the right to be sexually abusive." The "absolutely" and "anybody" are a pretty clear cut emphasis too. In other word, he said it doesn't matter what the flight attendants attitude was pertaining to the sexual abuse that went on. From there and again from TreadKiller's transcript, Ross said that the WWF had no leg to stand on because there was too much evidence against them, they were guilty and apparently implies he's happy the flight attendant got a large settlement. So I'm sure some will say "But why is he mentioning flight attendants being flirtatious at all?" Well, he's there to gives his recollection of the flight. And he isn't using this element as any sort of excuse. On the contrary, since he explicitly says it is NOT an excuse to be sexually abusive. Of course then there's the fact Flair gets a free pass. He's obviously not proud of it. It would be stupid to put that on Ross alone, as Vince is taking the measures and it's not just an individual thing it's a social system (that should be broken once and for all). I wonder what the Kanyon episode will bring us in term of "WWE is/was a toxic company"...

That's a good point. I'm sure Dreamer is pretty much loved by everybody there, so it must be quite a heartbreak for the women there to see him say those stupid shit. Also, IMPACT is running a women only special this week (shown in October I believe), during which they will also pay homage to Daffney (and have Melissa Santos doing the thing she does the best, yes !), so that comes with an even more awkward timing.

Hum... The thing about this documentary is that it also builds a narrative where there is one main villain (well, two I guess with Dreamer). But if you believe the extract of the lawsuit from back then that popped up on social media (yeah, I know), Dustin Rhodes absolutely was part of the deal, as he apparently sexually harassed the *other* flight attendant (nowhere near as bad as what Hall & Flair did, but still). So there... Now, there's the legal aspect of the whole thing : they settled. So, from a legal standpoint, it's done, for better or worse (worse, if you ask me). Of course some people are gonna go on a witch-hunting crusade now because that's what they do on Twitter. Just wanted to point out that there are the facts and the story told and the way it's told through directing and editing. (and in the midst of this, idiots are complaining that *AEW guys* are getting a pass (yeah, I swear) and other idiots ask for the flight attendant to receive the Warrior Award, because of course there's nothing better than more whitewashing from the company that basically bought her silence, all with the name of a piece of shit on top) Clips of old shoot interviews from Shane Douglas (who always said Flair was a piece of trash, guess who was right ?) and Teddy Long (exposing Flair acting racist) popping up here and there really hits you on the head as far as a reminder... it's not like this was not out there.

Him too, yes, of course. He did confront Omega in IMPACT a few weeks ago, so it's not like they did not plant some seeds.

I love Allie. She's just so adorable which is why the Bunny is a fun character (I would like her to switch toward the cuty side of things at some point though, and then snap again). She's never gonna have the great killer in-ring performances, but she brings other things to the table, and she's really solid and a good veteran for the up and comers to work with and learn. She's a keeper. I just want Miro to show up at Arthur Ashes in that car and of course have CJ get of the car looking like only she can. That NYC show (split into two TV show) is gonna be the equivalent of those Nitro shows in the Atlanta dome.... except it's in "enemy" territory, so even more impressive when they squash RAW in the demos. Like, I don't care about the ratings per say, I only care about watching a product that I like (hi IMPACT!), but the fact that this pissant company, two years after its debut on national TV, is doing what it is doing, is just too insane not to mention.

Funk vs Brisco. Flair vs Steamboat. Jumbo vs Tenryu. Misawa vs Kawada. Misawa vs Kobashi. Tanahashi vs Okada. Okada vs Omega. And then next week on TV : Danielson vs Omega. When is Ospreay showing up in AEW already ?