El-P

Really now, this is awesome. Best promo of the year. How can sad Mox with hair on fire stuck in barbwire be so cute ?

We're clearly running in circles now.

I swear whoever shows up now will be a disappointment anyway, so might as well be Christian anyway. Wait, he's signed. And he's not a huge star. But it's him. Unless it's a surprise. Which it is. Unless the surprise is Christian. Which would be a letdown.

That mentality has been absolutely true in the US for the last 20 years too. Kane has never missed a show.

Tony Khan used the words "a huge, huge star" on AEW Unrestricted. Christian is not a huge, huge star, by any metrics. He was never a huge star in WWE. Selling Christian as a huge, huge star to the AEW audience would be a huge, huge mistake.

Damn millennials with their video games. Pro-wrestling ain't what it used to be...

GOldberg ? Sure hope not.

I was thinking about him too, but didn't he resign not that long ago ?

Will they fine Nia and Shayna every time they concuss someone ? This is ridiculous. Kota Ibushi fucking slaps his tighs. I guess he doesn't know how tow work either. It's a simple trope. The best guys and biggest stars would stomp while punching for ever (yes, that includes Bret Hart, The Rock, Steve Austin), that was just as idiotic. Fining the workers is just yet another exploitative bullshit move from the pieces of shit who run that company.

No, you don't get it, *most young pro-wrestling fans* see Christian as a mega-star. And although I like him a lot as a worker, honestly when I did the top 25 TNA match for the Pro-Wrestling Love podcast which you all have listened to of course, I could not get myself to put one single Christian match in there. He did really good there, he had some excellent matches against some great workers, but nothing that would reach the legit *great* level to me. And that's coming from someone who considered him better than Edge from day 1 when I saw him in WWF in 98. Christian is like, a great fucking hand. The best Tim Horner ever.

Ok, he had two *good* matches with Naito & Tanahashi. It's akin to having two *good* matches against Misawa and Kawada. Or Flair and Steamboat. There's nothing to write home about. Lex Luger, who got shit on for years and years for being a nothing worker, had two *great* matches against Steamboat & Flair in 89/90. O-Khan is a joke, the gimmick is trash, whenever he's on offense I die a little inside (the fucking claw on the knee, pleaaaaaaaaaase), that's 0-2 for Gedo after the disastrous EVIL main event push. Where the hell are Ren Narita and Shota Umino already ? And please don't give them stupid-ass gimmick either. Okada should definitely take some time off and come back fresh.

It's like fining people for punch stomps in the 80's. Dumb as fuck. Is Orton getting power ?

Hey, I would love for you to be right about this. I just can't picture it happening (but honestly, I can't picture Cena or Lesnar or Batista showing up instead so I guess I got my hopes to a lesser level already). Totally agree about Christian like I said before. Just, no.

No way. AEW ain't signing the current NJPW champ, come on. (yes, of course, it would just blow my mind) I'm almost surprised no one dropped the "nZo & Cass" joke yet. And so I do. If anything, it's fun to play the guess game. That's something that AEW has brought back which was part of the fun 25 (and now I'm gonna be depressed because I'm old AF) years ago. You know, "Yokozuna is gonna join the nWo" and such. TNA's years of "we know who that is" a week after some guy got fired was not nearly as fun.

Also, the "world of wrestling" makes me think it could also be not-a-worker. Why not ? Honestly, I'd take Jim Johnston, because a lot of the music themes of AEW needs a revamp *badly*, especially most of the new ones (Sting is cool, Team Taz is cool, but most sound exactly the same and have no personality whatsoever).

Spot on.

Batista, Rousey, or some very top NJ guy. Apart from those, yeah, a "huge huge star" I don't see. I mean, fucking Becky Lynch showing up with her baby would be a Lex Luger moment for sure but the odds of this happening are zilch (not that I believe any of those previous 5 are gonna show up either).

Damn, I would give you soooo much shit for that one if we had not done this podcast thingy and I knew you're a cool guy indeed. Come on now ! Open your eyes to the greatness that is Riho !!! Prediction : half of the people on this board will be a bit disappointed. There, you can quote me. Also, if I never hear anyone talk about AEW should do this or that to reach a wider/mainstream audience ever again, it'd be too soon at this point. I'm already watching. Book for me already.

The reference went straight above your head I see. It's not what the AEW roster thinks about Christian as a worker. I like Christian as a worker a lot. But the perception of Christian is absolutely not "HOF worthy big time superstar". 47 years old Christian sold by AEW as an all-time legend would be TNA level shit, and even more because he's actually been through this in TNA when his midcard ass was put over all the main event TNA talent then.

Christian is a mid-card worker from WWE who never ever reached main event superstar status. He's also and most of all in this context the posterboy for the kind of TNA booking that AEW has to avoid at all cost. Although he would be a *decent at best* addition to the roster (but really, there are already better, younger, fresher workers who don't even get on AEW TV each week), Christian would indeed be a Savio Vega level letdown after going HOF worthy announcement.

Easy to watch, undercard matches were fun but nothing special. Kojima vs Cobb was very good indeed, you watch this and there's no way Kojima is 50 years old. Best match of the show to me. Great O-Khan is better than sleeping pills, he's the death of every form of joy whenever he's on offense. Knee Claw ladies and gentlemen, that's next level godawful offense for 2021. The lesser said about the result the better. I shudder to think this guy is gonna be in the G1... Ibushi's performance in the main event was great, as he had a very good match with Desperado, who's really nothing special at all. Desperado was game, but it was totally the Ibushi show in term of trying to make the most out of a match with zero doubt as far as what the result would be. Plus, it was basically the same dynamic as the previous match with work on the knee to try and get a submission, so the difference was really striking and not in favor of O-Khan at all but it also came off repetitive in a way... So really, for a Budokan show, I'd say it was pretty underwhelming. Running two stadium shows in May sounds like complete insanity in this context.

It doesn't matter anyway because it's obviously gonna be Dwayne Johnson.

People would bitch because they would not introduce him to the mainstream audience. Who cares what the mainstream audience understands or not, fuck them. This is hardcore pro-wrestling shit. Everybody should know who Volk Han is anyway.

Worthy of HOF is pretty subjective, honestly... I mean, with all due respect, Koko B Ware is in the HOF... I guess the rumors are gonna be about Lesnar now, since he has basically vanished from the surface of this Earth for so long now. Come on people, bitch about that one and then it doesn't happen anyway.

That would be all kind of awesome, but I don't believe it for even a second. I'd take Dario Cueto...