El-P

"Where the big boys play. They do play."

He sure looks in awesome shape, the best I've seen in years. His matches with Jeff Cobb have been a true highlight of the year, and that was another. One guy who isn't in the best shape and doesn't move better is Tanahashi. And yet, watching his 44 years old broken down ass having a terrific yet restrained (and so, exactly the right kind) match with Ibushi coming back from Covid, I'm just thinking, he might just be the greatest pro-wrestler ever all things considered (been watching a lot of his peaks in the past few months). He truly still is the Ace. The opening match was very good and really did the job in teasing some incoming greatness for Takahashi vs Eeagles. I too skipped Yano vs Owens, because are you fucking kidding me a piss poor garbage "I quit" match ? No. And then there was SHO vs YOH, which I guess you can rename YAWN now that he's yet another guy cursed by the Gedo US fetish of boring-ass heels and beyond tired tropes. That guy, as great a booker he's been for the big picture in the 10', has definitely spent way to much time with Kodo Fuyuki in the past. It's not like I think either really have the potential to go past the Yoshi-Hashi level anyways, but still. Match got good eventually, really good even, before falling into the trap of suck of ref bump, chairs, ballshot and whatnot. And of course YOH is now joining the Bullet Club B-Team of EVIL, Dick Togo & Yujiro, who apparently go by the name House of Torture, which is fitting. Sounds exciting right ? Don't be shy about it... You know whats coming tomorrow : a brand new run-in. For all the great training NJPW is doing with the young lions, the immediate future still looks very dire, as all the great guys in the main event are pushing 40 (Takagi, Ibushi, Naito, Cobb) except Okada, but I have no idea what's next for him, at 33 it's like he already has done everything. And it's not like the great batch of Young Lions from the past few years are gonna be main eventers in two years. Then there are Ospreay & White, who are awesome, but I wonder if them staying away from the G1 is not them seeing the writing on the wall and thinking about maybe going into another direction eventually. Really, the most exciting things in the future of NJPW is basically.... AEW. And what AEW can bring to them for their big shows once the pandemic allows them to. Overall, I have a much better time watching NOAH big shows these days. Old grumpy asses Tanaka & Sugiura beating the living fuck out of each other is so refreshing. The fact they showed the Stardom match, which was very good, was very cool though.

The same. I believe I watched pretty much everything these last three years (2017 I only watched the final I remember and 2016 I watched most of it), and 2019 G1 Climax is the best month of pro-wrestling I've ever seen (2018 not far behind). But this year ? There's already way too much fun stuff I'm actually following now, I'm definitely gonna cherry pick. There's so much potential with a more open door policy. Even guys from IMPACT like Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards (who was a top NOAH guy for a long time) or Moose (that match with Ishii was awesome) or NJ Strong. G1 needs some japanese outsiders too, like Akiyama, Tanaka or Marufuji did in the past and it always was a blast. I really have to pace myself in the upcoming days, because I don't want to watch All Out already burned out. Probably gonna spread the watching over a few days and avoid spoilers like the plague. Still probably gonna watch that NJ show tonight though.

Yeah, what a huge bummer that would be. The issue with EVIL is double, not only he isn't a guy good enough for a main event spot but his heel style made him worse than he was before and the Dick Togo shit makes the whole thing totally useless anyway since you know exactly what's gonna happen after 30 minutes (because they always go too long, so that's another issue but not limited to EVIL matches). He's like the worst Jeff Jarrett ever at this point. In the LIJ days Shingo would probably have got an excellent match with him, but these days with Togo doing his stupid bit (and really now, *always the same shit over and over and over again*, please !) it's just go-away heat for me. I honestly dread the G1 this year with this stuff + Chase Owens (he's gonna do job but really now, he's like the less interesting guy imaginable to put in this position) + Great (not) O'Khan (who I'm sure is getting wins a plenty to boot)... yikes.

The four men announcing team is a mess but in a fun WCW way. But a mess nonetheless, Excalibur & Taz by themselves would be so great. I understand the idea of stockpiling stars to make it fell like a special night every week though, but still. Henry speaks in soundbites only, he really should be given another role (like, keep on using his social web to get stars on the shows apparently). As much as I enjoy Statlander, I'm afraid the women match is gonna pale considering all the legit great stuff on paper. Thunder Rosa would have been a much better choice for this show which has "greatest AEW show ever" marked all over. Funny how Miro redeemed (see what I did) his character after confusing first months. I honestly had very few doubt he would, because that's been AEW's track record thus far, but still, he's basically having the best days of his career (sure, the Cena stuff was obviously bigger but it also led nowhere and he wasn't nearly as good as he is now). Hope CJ eventually shows up as Daenerys or something. Also, I've notice an improvement with music production over the last few months, Miro's new music is pretty awesome, with a great Age of Empire vibes (boomer ref I know, but it's a classic game and this horns just reeks of "attack ! attack !"). Dustin vs Malakai should be a blast. They did not screw around with Andrade vs PAC, dropping it as soon as next week on tv (really now, why don't they keep announcing it for the PPV even though they know it won't happen, that's what a professional company who respects its audience would do). That bump by Darby was legit insane. If Mick Foley was a sk8ter boi.... So 2.0 spent time in 205 Live purgatory (can you picture if Kota Ibushi signed with WWE after the Cruiserweight classic a few years back, how it would have killed his career dead ?) ? And they show up here and totally rule and rub off shoulders with main event guys. And they are Quebec boys too like the Dark Order main team ? Pretty cool. Yeah, Rampage has been a blast. The one hour format is soooo easy to watch too. That's what I loved about LU too.

And he's also on the NJ Strong special against Josh Alexander. Needless to say, it sounds like a killer match too.

Yeah he said that it was the same kind of "travel issues" as Sasha Banks.

No shit ? About that BTW, one thing that I really enjoy about IMPACT is that they know their place in the landscape. You don't get the overinflated sense of importance that is kinda annoying in the NWA or even MLW (last time I checked their stuff, they have been AWOL for a while now). They have their little place in history (they'll be 20 years old next year, how crazy is that ?), they have their own totally screwed-up history and they regularly made fun of "themselves" (because really, it's not the same company at all) while at the same time making the best use of the best part of this heritage. Sure, they put over their championship and events as big deals because that's what you should do, but there's definitely this feel of a place where you can have big fish in small ponds (which is cool, Shane Douglas was never better than in ECW) and where some guys and girls can develop their skills or characters, or get cool little cameos. I think they are very comfortable with their spot right now, even moreso now that AEW is around and they are working with them alongside NJ (and AAA, although that has been the case for a long time). No way. Although you don't seem to see it, PAC is one of the best pro-wrestler in the world, has been for years (back when he was main eventing NXT). Which is why he was one of the early signings of AEW. If he had not been signed, he could have gone to NJPW and be the IWGP junior champion in a blink of an eye. He's that kind of talent. AEW has signed people coming from IMPACT like Brian Cage and Ethan Page and neither have the profile nor the talent of PAC (I like both of them, Ethan especially and I'm glad he found a good fit with Scorpio). He's neither Matt Cardona nor Matt Renwholt (who is indeed a super cool worker, unlike his former partner who has been a total bore in MLW). This guy is a total package as an elite, no pun intended, worker.

Pretty big week-end for NJPW. Cobb vs Okada, Tanahashi vs Ibushi and Eagles vs Takahashi should be great matches (you really don't have to go 40 minutes though.... really you don't... like, really). Could be some cool stuff on the undercards too like the two matches for the tag championships. And then there's that Yano match and Evil in a main event...

This Daniel Garcia I had never ever seen before (much like 2.0), but he sure won me over immediately, he's like an updated version of Little Guido !

As the official IMPACT fan of the board, I take exception to your disdain for this company you don't even follow, but that's really nothing to the heartbreak you cause to the reigning IMPACT champion who seems to have quite a lot of fun on these tapings working with terrific young talent like Ace Austin and old friend Tommy Dreamer. And fuck yeah give me Pac in IMPACT yesterday ! Pac vs Sami, Pac vs Moose, Pac vs Eddie, Pac vs Sabin, Pac vs Trey, Pac vs Austin, Pac vs Taurus, Pac vs Alexander, Pac vs Doering. I want all of this and I'm not gonna get it ! *sigh* (BTW, W. Morrisey aka Big Cass is been given a chance, and yes, he still sucks, and that's in a company where even Bryan Myers found a way to be kinda fun to watch with his current character of a carny veteran)

To me The Elite reign of terror is the best thing in pro-wrestling since the Hart Foundation stuff in 1997, easily. Except the matches are about a hundred times as good. Funny how AEW really began to grew bigger as they finally positioned themselves as the top stars. The addition of Callis was what pushed it from simply great stuff to classic. Of course they'll never ever get credit from some people, neither for being some of the best pro-wrestlers ever neither for being actual stars that made it possible, but there you go. Like I said, after 30 years of being a pro-wrestling fan, I've been living my best life thanks to these guys, and yeah, especially these three guys (+ Callis, whom I was a fan of in 97, how sweet). The addition of ex-WWE guys is an inevitability after 20 years of near monopoly + a politic of trying to kill the indies. If AJ Styles showed up tomorrow (he won't but that would be a sweet end to his career), some people would consider him a WWE guy when really the majority and peak of his career was in TNA and NJPW. When Adam Cole shows up, sure he was the star of NXT, as was Andrade (but he was a much bigger star as La Sombra), but again it comes after a time where *everyone* on the indies was signed by WWE to prevent, well, what just happened. So sure, I don't want Paul Wight to be a regular *at all* and Billy Gunn should stay on Dark shows (at best), but considering they have been doing a masterful job building up younger stars thus far (and with the numbers of pet project they have like Dante Martin, Powerhouse Hobbs, Jade Cargill, Anna Jay, Tay Conti etc...), I'm not worried at all.

This will be the greatest night in the history of our sport. Young Bucks vs Lucha Brothers is gonna steal the show with its insanity. Omega is gonna have yet another MOTYC single match with yet another different kind of opponent, further establishing him as the GOAT (at this point, it's either him or Tanahashi). Mox vs Kojima are gonna beat the hell out of each other. Ditto Kingston & Miro, whose hot wife is gonna show up. QT is gonna take an awesome bump, because he's a terrific performer (and a great trainer to boot). Jericho's career is legit in doubt to me, so there will be one great false finish. Britt Baker is gonna have the second biggest entrance pop of the night. CM Punk is gonna have the biggest entrance pop of the night. You know who that is is gonna show up in the women's battle royal. Orange Cassidy & Jungle Boy are gonna kill it to open the show. Yes ! Yes ! Yes ! More or less. I'm so gonna avoid any spoilers with this one.

Thanks for this.

That's awfully sad. I always was a fan of Daffney, both in WCW and TNA. She was such an underrated performer for sure. Just tragic...

It will be a failure of epic proportion and they will turn out jack shit. You can quote me on that in 5 years. (what a glorious 14500th post, even if I end up being wrong )

The funniest thing about that Jungle Boy thing is that the fact he's already so fucking good and knows how to get over (and get over big) despite "only caring about moves and creativity" and not not giving thoughts about promos demonstrates that in pro-wrestling, there's nothing you should or you shouldn't do on paper, only the output matters (of course he will only get better with working with veterans giving him tips about details and promos, and by growing up himself, but still, he's already really good and really over). Also, are people really amazed that a young guy is more interested in doing cool moves and creativity than anything else ? I heard pretty much the exact story in a Rick Martel shoot interview where he talked about him being disappointed by veterans in the 70's because all he wanted to do was... well, cool moves and creative shit and they weren't up to it because it wasn't "good work". Of course I doubt guys like Cage have the same boomer mentality and he's much more about being generous with advices like a guy like Tracy Smother was without judging the work of the current young guys (and really, Christian was *all about* cool moves and creative shit when he showed up in WWF in the late 90's, although he looked better at it than most of his counterparts then). Still, there's nothing new or shocking about that.

That's the best part. I have no idea why anyone bought into his shit when he was playing the benevolent purveyor of the true pro-wrestling spirit. It was not different at all from Stephy inventing women's wrestling, really. The talk that he would be the savior of the company when he would took over was always baffling to me considering his own history of burying talent and working overlong matches to feed his ego. Triple H has been great at one thing in his career : politicking. The road was straight to the top from endless years of push, marrying the boss daughter, having his protected pet promotion.... and then the guy who started the sleaze thread got hooked with a bunch of indie geeks working in Japan and made a "pissant company" and it was all spiraling down from there. And now Brother Love, who was doing impersonations on a podcast 5 years ago, is gonna "write" (aka say "Hell yeah Vince, that's good shit") NXT.

Sure, but the big difference is he's married to the family. Big fucking difference. Unless the family sells the company entirely, I can't see him doing anything.

HHH isn't a bigger pro-wrestling star than CM Punk relating to the core audience of AEW. CM Punk's return has a very distinct symbolic significance to the pro-wrestling fans. HHH is never and has never been close to anything like Hulk, including at his peak, where he was nowhere close to the Rock or Austin. Him jumping as an almost retired/past 50 would be a mindfuck for sure, but there's no way it would have the same *actual* impact as CM Punk (not to mention the 1-2 punch with Danielson). Cena, even now (I mean, part time and past his prime), for sure, because he is legit mainstream, which HHH has never been (and of course a much bigger pro-wrestling star to begin with). It's a moot point anyway, he isn't going anywhere.

Already happened. Name was CM Punk. Hunter would be both totally surrealistic and a terrible idea for obvious reasons. That said, Cody & Brandi vs Hunter & Stephy at All Out 2022 would be eazy money. And yeah, that throne trashing thingy that Cody did at the beginning of AEW... well... in retrospect...

Time for Jean-Paul Lesveque is All Elite jokes already ? He could do backstage interviews on Dark.

Awesome. Thanks.

Holy fuck ! The guy who thought Booby Roode was the go-to guy to carry TNA while turning him into a droning, boring as fuck Randy Orton-like worker. The guy who thought the infamous "AJ is having an affair with Dixie Carter" was a great way to showcase AJ Styles personality. As I'm halfway through his TNA stint, I can say without a doubt that Bruce Prichard is one hell of a crappy booker with crappy ideas about talent and angles. "We're telling a story..." NXT ? More like YSD (in like, yesterday) It is. I wonder what Stephy thinks of all of this...

I'm not as active or present on the board these days so I just noticed you got into this new project. Thank you so much for this, awesome stuff to read.