El-P

So, the ring boys suit is still on. Imagine that. Linda McMahon, the minister of Education, involved in a lawsuit where there are proofs of her closing her eyes on young teenage boys being sexually assaulted. And yeah, Papa Trip was at Mar-a-Lago on New Years's Eve because he's just supporting his mother in law (not because he's actually supporting the nazi loving WWE Hall of Famer president, who is now at direct war with women's rights, LGBT+ people and immigrants). What the fuck are we talking about here ? If that wasn't pro-wrestling (because don't kid yourself, WWE is not mainstream despite being the hottest it's been in 25 years), there would be massive talks about it, every bit of this and the Vince thing and the ties between TKO and Trump. But I guess not. Hey, they booed Hogan, and CM Punk cut a promo about it, lulz. Everything is fine. "Record gates blablabla This is cinema blabloubli" Yeah. YEAH ! YEET ! Or something.

I honestly have no idea what they are doing anymore. They are very much necessary to the landscape, especially now. But at this point, I'm totally disengaged and watching straight out of habit. I already dropped TNA from my viewing habits. WWE can get fucked. The most interesting/fun company to watch right now is probably Stardom, although for me it's only a few big shows per year, really. I've been following closely the current scene for the last ten years (and had the most fun ever with AEW from 2019 to 2021), but right now, I feel like I'm slowly moving away, for many reasons (one of which being the obvious one).

One doesn't exclude the other (the fact that he was a lying/hypocritical piece of shit and Patterson was an abuser, if anything in term of sexual harassement with talent at least) There are many pieces of shit *today* in that office. Hopefully Dark Side gets to work next year.

Linda : "Uh, I forgot what Master I did at university" Paul : "Uh, I had no idea about what happened on the other side of that wall" Nick : "Uh, I had no idea why I was asked to place Janel Grant in that room next to that other room" Fuck this family and this company and its fanboys so fucking much.

False. Or not. At this point, people need to reevaluate what has been the official WWE narrative in the wake of what the culture actually was. Patterson was the first lieutenant of a sexual predator and rapist. His name has been out there in stuff that absolutely are cases of sexual harassment. So there.

Well, uh, actually... The entire segment, which as always is a Youtube interview show, begins with Renee addressing that elephant in the room. And it is actually great stuff. Too bad none of it is reflected in how the angle has been going for the last month or so on TV.

How did we get from Moxley murdering Danielson in front of Orange & Darby to the Deathriders feuding with cOpE and Jeff Jarrett ? (well, not really, but you get the point in term of weekly TV) The week to week booking is incredibly low effort. Omega vs Cage then Ospreay vs Cage. Same beatdown. Swerve vs AR Fox then Ricochet vs AR Fox. Moné vs Sakasaki main eventing was cool as hell though. Maybe Coach TK has read that Sumie Sakai tweet. Hopefully Grand Slam is more akin to a PPV. Because AEW does awesome PPV's.

New complaint filed. More Brock Lesnar (probably not coming back at the Rumble, uh). Nick Khan being namedropped (time to end the joke now, just do a background check, this guy is a massive piece of trash). Micheal Hayes (and his crew, whoever they are) in the mud. More dirt all over. (but no one knew, and it' an entirely brand new company now) "Papa Trip" at the Rumble's press conference (if they actually let any real journalists in) : "I haven't had the time to read the complaint yet"

Yeah, HITC is major yawn material. Enough recycling tired WWE stories. Some of the subject are very interesting (Eddie Gilbert), some are gonna be heartbreaking (Daffney), but there's no serious shady WWE business going on here, sadly. (the Muhammed Hassan should be interesting if they go deep into the racism aspect of the entire thing). Ludvig Borga is pretty out of nowhere. What is there to say apart from the guy being, well, a neo-nazi (or just an over enthusiastic guy with autism vigorously sending hearts, ya know...) ?

I mean, I don't give a flying fuck about HoF, much less the WWE HoF. But the term "merit" next to Paul Lesveque is the most hilarious one ever. This guy's "merit" in one sentence : "Married the boss' daughter". Hell, he's *still* living off Vince's last successful projects (people don't want to hear about it for many reasons, but the company's upswing started under Vince) : Cody as champ, Bloodline storyline, Netflix deal under the TKO umbrella. But that's neither here not there. The truly hilarious thing to me is that all we heard was how Triple H did not want to be in the spotlight, yet he's putting himself in the spotlight all the time, to the point of inducting himself in the HoF one year and a half after being the #1 guy in creative. I can't think of a more Trip thing, ever.

I mean, Scott D'Amore's plan with going back to the TNA name was "invest more, think bigger". Anthem wasn't going for this. Meanwhile, under the NXTNA deal umbrella, they are booking arenas they would totally sink in before (and maybe still do in 6 months from now, who knows), while rumors of guys being asked to take pay cuts. So yeah, there's this impending, floating idea that WWE is kinda using them like puppet masters, helping to fill the cards with more NXT people (we'll see how that goes or doesn't go over the next few months) as Anthem is slowly disengaging themselves from the process, while WWE also tries to push deals with their former TV partners worldwide to get them to block off eventual AEW deals (which would sound crazy if we were not talking about WWE and really, TKO, with their background of predatory tactics in the MMA world). Anywoo, I honestly would not be surprised if this ended like every other WWE "relationship" ends. Which, again, would be a sad end and a bad thing for the landscape. Meanwhile, "Papa Trip" is going into the WWE Hall of Fame. This is HILARIOUS how everything revolves around this guy jerking off at the screen. Yeah, he really doesn't want any spotlight, ya know... 😂

That first live episode in 8 years surely was something. I can't remember less actual wrestling on IMPACT in eons. Dry talking segment after dry talking segment. With a overlong, dull-as-dirt main event marred with stupid (and repetitive, how many times is JBL gonna show up to lariat some dude without any kind of actual development to it, it's been 7 months now) booking. Countless "NXT this", "WWE that". TNA, dropped.

Their audience is chanting "NXT!"... The ultimate irony for a promotion that was born out of the idea that a monopoly was bad for pro-wrestling. WWE is killing them softly, leading them to the slaughterhouse to eventually get gutted (this part is gonna be even more evident if Josh also joins WWE at the same time Jordynne does). And they follow the leader with a smile on their face. Right now they're in that phase of getting a massage with a happy ending, so everything is great and shiny. They really are being weaponized against AEW (let's be real here, it's another way to dry up the talent pool and multiply the ways of access to WWE) and to prevent another case of MLW anti-trust based lawsuit. They are enjoying their best business in years despite their product being also the dullest and most TNA-lite in years. The interesting part is the post-Joe Hendry era. Once either people get tired of his gimmick (both main-events back to back against Nemeth and Cardona and it's SOOO dreadfully samey and limited), or his contract runs up and he ends up in WWE (I mean, he's gonna show up at the Rumble and get a giant reaction, everyone knows it) before the end of the year, and once the novelty of NXTNA runs dry. THEN, things gets interesting. Does WWE just gets bored and forgets about the relationship ? Do they buy TNA (which would really sucks) ? Does TNA's new "glory days" quickly dies after Henry is gone and the WWE relationship goes away/fades in the background, or do they actually get to keep some sort of momentum ? TNA really never ceases to be a fascinating story.

I wish I had that private line with my former fellow DVDVR poster, ya know. I'm just that smart. (sometimes) Yeah, that angle on the show was perfect, complete with Tony acting like Mariah did when they first met. And really, the entire show was tons of fun and felt *right*, from the angles, the matches (most of them, Gates of Agony I don't care about and at this point never will, although Liona has potential still), the backstage stuff, the vignettes (loved the Callis one and the tease for Renee's Youtube show with her husband). It does. And yes, there's a sense of nostalgia about it too because in a very odd way, my favorite overall time in AEW probably was during the pandemic. Totally carried me through it too. And yeah, Okada's back was getting thrashed in NJPW already. There was this entire period where he carried balloons to ringside after his long-ass reign. The guy doesn't look like it, but he's got serious mileages on his body. Whenever he needs, he can switch on to be one of the best ever on the big stage, and that's everything you want from him at this point. I wonder who Callis was teasing as a fifth man... Anyway. This Collision felt more like the AEW I loved than any TV show this year (and a whole lot in the previous 6 months).

And this ended up with vacating the titles... 🙃

I used to watch MLW too back then, and I thought both were overrated. The only great match Jacob Fatu ever had there was that LA Park brawl (at the PPV which pretty much ended the stint of MLW being a fun watch). Then again, I have learned over the years that MLW is the worst place to gauge talent, as pretty much no one has great matches there. That being said, Hammerstone did nothing to disprove my feeling in TNA. He had by far the lesser Josh Alexander matches this side of Joe Hendry. Then gets injured all the time. He really has nothing that special going for him, especially when paired with Jake Something, who looks just as big but can work like a mother. The guy looks like Lex Luger ate Shane Douglas, and his work is right in the middle too. In 2025, that doesn't cut it. If you haven't watched in a long time, you don't want to know. It's just be a sad, cheap-ass telenovela stuff that is really a pathetic attempt at getting some LU nostalgia. MLW's only selling point these days is CMLL talents. (unless Matt Riddle is considered a selling point, which is kinda gross) I always thought Salina would end up in a bigger company, even TNA. He's awesome in G1's, he won titles. He probably will never get the big one at this point, but he's been awesome all these years. His style is picture perfect for Japan. I for one am glad he choose this path.

This is actually what he's saying. Speaking about the opponent's leg. (why the hell do we hear the horloge parlante in the background ? What the hell is this ?)

Indeed. I also never said it was. I only mention Russo because of the "handing out a belt to another guy". I could have mentioned Vince also, this they did the same shit at one point. Well, I think it is hilarious and does make NOAH looks like idiots, basically. Giving out a belt to some other guy is always awful, no matter the circumstances. One of my most hated shitty booking trope. If their business has been helped, good for them. Likewise TNA...

I don't see any evidence it has helped them in any way. You think people in Japan know who the fuck Omos is ? It's one thing when they send Nakamura to face Mutoh for a big show, but Omos... But honestly, I don't think it is gonna hurt them either, I don't think it makes any difference one way or another, really. NOAH is a small company, but it's bigger than AJPW. It just cracks me up that WWE sends a guy to win a title and then not even do a match to lose them (it's not like he even had to take the pinfall).

You realize I can still read your posts, right ? 😂 Jeeez. Like you haven't exposed yourself enough by now.

The Jacob Fatu case is a perfect illustration of how nepotism works. For years, they haven't touched that guy because of his bagage, whatever his talent is. Then, the Bloodline gets hot and then have to bring every family member in to milk it to death. The guy never did anything in pro-wrestling apart from indies. MLW is the biggest place he ever worked for (not even TNA). And he got put straight into main event matches with Roman Reigns. The same guy, with the exact same amount of talent (in-ring, charisma, promo, what have you), not being a part of the family, probably never ever get signed because of his past, and if he does, I swear he spend 2 years in NXT to "learn the style" before getting moved up on the main roster and probably stays on the midcard forever before eventually his talent gets him higher. Classic stuff.

NOAH having an outsider win a belt and just give it away when he leaves without doing a job is good for NOAH ? Ok. I didn't talk about a partnership with Russo era WCW. I mean having a guy just hand a belt over to someone else is WCW Russo level shit booking.

The guy worked 6 matches, won the tag titles, and now he going back to WWE, so he just relinquish his half of the tag titles and gives it to another guy. Way to go NOAH, you don't come off looking like complete fools in the process, and the handling of the tag title is now full Vince Russo era WCW or something. Yeah, that TNA partnership is surely gonna end well too...

And so TNA got Mustafa Ali. Who is awesome. And Mance Warner. Who is not. That's one + and one -. But the hilarious news is that the biggest merch sellers at Genesis and the live IMPACT were Joe Hendry, Hardys and... Tessa Blanchard. Never change pro-wrestling fans... 🙄

On the positive side, I've been enjoying the Toni Storm angle a whole lot. I expect the revelation at the end to be that it was a master acting job by Timeless Toni Storm and that she really never had amnesia at all, and she returns as herself at the Australia show and get the title back. Also, giving Harley Cameron a match with Moné at Grand Prix is the best decision. She needs to break through, and Moné working her magic with her can only help.