El-P

That's kinda crazy when you think they kept the French market during the 90's when business was down. They lost Canal + when Bischoff got it for Nitro in late 96, wo then we got WCW with... gasp... Blondin & Letourneur which from memory were godawful. But by 97 I had switched to satellites and English channel so I got both WWF and WCW in English (which basically helped me a whole lot with my English as I spent countless hours listening) and ECW (at first in German !). I know that in the early 00's Rougeau was announcing the PPV's with another guy whose name I don't remember. Too bad. They are clearly very differents from the guys from the previous generation, Chereau being a legit sport broadcaster (he was still doing other sports while doing WWE) and Agius basically a superfan, but damn they got *great* judging from the PPV's I was watching in the mid 10's (just for the live threads here, really). For the generation raised on John Cena, they are the voice of pro-wrestling in France. WWE really fucked its audience when they stopped doing the PPV on TV two years ago. Agius constantly refers to Carpentier & Hauray's catchphrases and idiosyncrasies.

Hauray and Carpentier were French (well, Carpentier was born in Poland I believe) but they lived in Montreal, so as long as they were in charge, I don't think there were much differences (apart from promos for house shows in Quebec). I'm not too sure how it worked in the 00's and on, as French announcers Agius/Chereau work for a French TV channel and I think Rougeau/Brassard (whom we got in France after Hauray left) got put back on for the Quebec version in the 2010's. I have no idea if Agius and Chereau were the announcers for Quebec TV during the 00's and 10's. But yeah, we all speak French but there are big time differences. The other day I was watching a Quebec movie (from Monia Chokri) and some parts were subtitled, and thank god because when quebecers speak slang, I get about half the words at best.

I want to say he turned heel in like the Fall of 91... I think. He was so damn funny in this role, and Carpentier acted so annoyed. "Tu rêves en couleur Carpentier !" No shit. I never could stand Brassard, really. Hauray leaving in 94 almost made me quit watching, it was really hard at first to get used to Brassard's annoyance. I can't believe they got Rougeau & Brassard back in the 2010's ! (well, it's absolutely fitting with their demos and obsession with the past though). Also, Christophe Agius must be quite sad, because he's absolutely the spiritual son of Guy Hauray as a heel announcer.

I got aware of this stuff years ago when someone (but maybe it was even on the old Smarkchoice board, to say how long it is) mentioned meeting Carpentier and how he told him that Hauray had turned into a sort of "guru". So I checked back then and found the infamous "neuro-coaching" site, which really reeks of stuff like Neuro-linguistic Programming, which is basically complete bullshit. Doesn't surprise me that much, really, Hauray always had that super convincing tone and deep, charming voice when he wanted too, he probably was one hell of a salesman and public speaker as showed by his talent on selling me fucking Boris Zhukov vs Nikolai Volkoff as some kind of super hot feud when I was 14 ! Anyway, he was truly one of the greats, for sure.

That part that is all over his Wiki, I always kinda suspected bullshit. I mean, the "neuro-coaching" stuff is totally in the realm of fake science that is all over "coaching methods" and whatnot. Wasn't there an instance of Carpentier saying Hauray turned into some sort of "guru" (as in coaching guru rather than cult guru, but still bullshit though) after their relationship fell apart (for a reason that never was clear to me) ? I kinda remember that from some board a long time ago.

Wow. Just learned listening to Meltzer that Guy Hauray died at 77. For us French fans from the 80's and (as far as I go) 90's, he was basically the equivalent of Gorilla Mansoon/Jesse Ventura (the later when he turned heel in the later years). Great talker with a smooth as silk elocution (and great vocabulary too). My favourite memories came with his heel turn, he was just godlike at it, Ventura/Heenan level of greatness to me. To this day with my father we still refer to the routine he did during Royal Rumble 93 when he asked about a hundred times about Bob Backlund "What's his name already ? How old is he ? I can't see him...", to the exasperation of Ray Rougeau (and of course he only managed to identify Backlund at the very end when he was getting squashed by Yoko and got into a maniacal laugh while Rougeau was totally appalled, just classic stuff). Although I also was a fan of Carpentier, it was Hauray who was really was the glue to me and it was never the same when he left after WM X. Hauray pretty much turned me into a pro-wrestling fan, as the announcing was what made you a fan then (come on, squash matches with the Bushwhackers and Brutus Beefcakes, you know the announcing was 90% of the job).

I expected the main event to be quite good, but certainly not that great, but who am I to doubt Kenny Omega ? Everyone looked terrific in this, Moose clearly took the ball and ran with it. Omega pinning Swann is so interesting because now this probably insures a title match between the two with Omega maybe capturing yet another belt. Plus I guess Moose, whose basically built up to be the next champ, can now go all out on Swann too for losing the match. With that said, fun conspiracy theory : Hint 1 : Don Callis introduced Kenny Omega as "The God of Pro-wrestling". We know who declared himself the God of Pro-wrestling two weeks ago, right ? Hint 2 : Omega & the Good Brothers all wore Bullet Club garments to the ring, hell, Doc Gallows wore straight Bullet Club tights. Hint 3 : the announcers did mention the relationship between Omega & Ibushi at one point So yeah, it will probably not happen or not that way anyway, but next year, WrestleKingdom, Omega as AEW, AAA & IMPACT champ vs Ibushi as IWGP & Intercontinental champ. DO IT !!!! Eddie Edwards vs Sami Callihan was one hell of a bloodletting in old Onita fashion, with lots of teasing/selling and a fair dose of brutality too (although it probably looked worse than it was). Taya vs Purrazzo was really, really good and now Purrazzo needs another opponent since this was a straight loss for Taya (who I guess could be on her way out, which would be sad but she's been in IMPACT for years and referred to going to Slamtown after her win...). Deonna is having one hell of a stint. Ethan Page vs Karate Man was a fun as hell FMV video game sequence, basically. Ethan Page got his heart ripped out in a fatality. A bunch of fun stuff on the undercard too, Hogan & Steelz won the tag team titles in a decent match (Steelz & Nevaeh aren't that good, the match was straight carried by Hogan & Havok), they got the new belts from Gail Kim & Madison Rayne, which was pretty cool. Matt Cardona fits much better here than in AEW if he wants to try something new, but from what I see he's there to do the J.O.B to Ace Austin, who's a future star. Going back to Madison Rayne, yeah, she basically announced her retirement and going home to be a mom. Good for her to get out of her terms. I'll certainly miss her a lot though, she was so much fun in any role she was doing. They really should induct her into their HOF eventually, she's the most valuable woman worker they had this side of Gail Kim and has been a staple of the company. Interestingly enough, IMPACT is running a PPV in April, so they are adding another one to the schedule, so it shows they are certainly serious on not dying...

So, Alex Shelley can't make the PPV for undisclosed reason (of course everyone is going COVID! COVID! because that's how it goes) and he's replaced in the main event by... Moose, who's basically on his way to challenge Swann as the N°1 heel built these last few months (and they did a great job at it). That's intriguing to say the least. Totally changes the dynamics of the match, I'm curious to see how they work it out at the PPV because obviously Willy Mack would have made much more sense, but IMPACT doesn't do random stuff. BTW, Callihan vs Edwards could be the show stealer in an old-fashioned barbwire blood-bath.

And now time for the unavoidable "Jay White at the Royal Rumble" rumours...

She probably hasn't done as much coke though. Can you picture the WWE run by an 90 year old Vince ? Holy shit, the disaster !

Come on, Raven vs Tommy Dreamer was the main feud of the promotion for like one year and a half at its creative peak.

Sure, but that's another time another place. And honestly that wasn't really enforced past the generation of the 70's, the big stars of the 90's who came up the previous decade kept on working (well, Zenjo was almost killed in 97) and even Chiggy and Jaguar came back eventually. Still, the fact remains the biggest and mosts serious female promotion ever did not need a woman as a booker to draw, and draw the biggest female crowds ever (until they switched to mostly male crowds in the 90's). It's not a matter of gender when you're talking about booking. It's about being a booker with the right ideas for the times and the talent you have. Agree, but the bolded part is true of all talent though. That's getting rid or the idiotic 40 writers, and yes in this specific case it's also allowing female workers to not do stupid shit no female would do or say and also prevent the truly embarrassing stuff Russo booked in WWF and TNA (the era of every female promo being "slut, skank, bitch", basically). As far as appealing to a wider audience, again I don't see why it's related. Even the female performers themselves don't aways appeal to females, and why should they ? In Japan Chiggy did, because the product was geared toward young girls while Aja & Toyota (and their generation), much less so because they were all about out-working the guys in AJ & NJ at the time and that was for the hardcores. Anyway, I'm rambling. There's no way to know what former female wrestler would be good in the role, really, because unless you do it... Gail Kim I believe does agenting in IMPACT. Considering the work they have done, maybe she would be good in that role, but who knows. Yeah, same here. I can see Shane as an agent though. Raven probably would still be good in creative in some sort though. But booking ? Nope.

AJPW was booked by men. Having a woman booker for the sake of it (and only booking the women side of it) because #feminism is window dressing. If you're a great mind, either man or woman, just have the book and book the promotion, gender has nothing to do with it. With that said, Missy Hyatt sure could probably have been part of any booking team at one point.

Quite the main event indeed. I did not remember about the crucifix deal although the move attempt looked familiar. Best Brian Cage match since the last Sami Callihan match in IMPACT, in a totally reversed role (he was a fiery babyface there). Darby is kinda the best mix of Mick Foley, Raven and.... even Jeff Hardy (yeah, that's me saying this) ever. Loving every minute of the Bullet Club/Elite drama. As soon as Callis got the mic, I saw the thing coming. Brillantly done. I love the reaction by Matt backstage, going "ok, whatever, you got us this time, that's cute". Of course The Bucks aren't gonna "turn" on Omega just because of this. And they did not "join" anything last week either, it's the Bullet Club, it's years and years of history and relationship, plus the stuff on BTE last week hinted at the direction they are going into (Bucks unsure about the Good Brothers real intentions). This is layered booking with people acting like human beings not simplistic heel/face turns and that's exactly what you're gonna get from the Elite everytime. And this is what I wanted from AEW, as opposed to... ...Jade Cargill. Ok, I get it, the whole "amazon look" thingy + mainstream star program. That being said, that ship has sailed as far as I'm concerned, in today's landscape (especially in a promotion like AEW) if you can't work, you won't get over. Has Cargill even had one match yet ? She's a total rookie, and usually people with her kind of body aren't the best suited for being good workers (yeah, I know, Brian Cage is right there but he's an oddity). She obviously can't talk worth a shit as it's been shown, so at this point she's basically a bodybuilder/fitness model body. In 2021 ? Hey, maybe she'll learn and be a good worker, but she has no business being on TV *now*, much less in a major angle. Serena Deeb owns this women division, just give her the belt that matters. Really good match with Tay Conti, who's still learning but looks like money already. Her and Anna Jay are definitely the young girls to watch, they both got huge potentials. It's kinda cool and expected that the Dark Order is de facto becoming some sort of "babyface" group, or at least the group we saw on BTE. Tully posting Marco was such a dick move. Come on Tully ! The whole Inner Circle segment was gold. "Come on you're booing food ?", "Sammy Hager ! Sammy Hager ?! Ok nevermind...", and at the end Hager almost burst out laughing when MJF did the "Championship !" bit.

So, Sting was never a legit main event babyface before 97 ? Come on now... What matters is the inner context of the promotion and are people getting over there. WWE is making more money than ever now, that doesn't mean they got anyone over a a legit main event babyface. Actually they haven't, for years and years and years.

That being said, who was the biggest star in ECW from about 97 ? RVD. And RVD had since year-long TV champ stint that he actually never lost because he ended up injured. Total win streak for RVD too. Dreamer indeed is like the guy who did not need to win. Kinda like Sandman was at one time the biggest heel in the company (then babyface) while pretty much always losing. Very much in the Mick Foley mode indeed. The characters, the promos, the angles and the matches were more important than the wins in their cases.

Worked in All Japan with the best wrestlers in the world and the best booker in the world for way too long to not pick up something. He also pretty much invented the Cutter, before DDP picked it up and made it the hottest finish in the world. As far as booker goes, I honestly have no idea, only I'd pretty much not want anyone over 50 whose heyday was in the 90's or before and no one whose claim to fame is working for WWE only in the past 20 years. I want pro-wrestling from the future.

Well you never crashed the board by way of using funky accents in the title though...

I'm not stealing someone else's gimmick !

Why not make a weekly AEW show thread that doesn't start with a post that isn't a total downer for a change ?

Muertes looks like his old self, but without LU's great production and with MLW's annoying production (what's up with that odd fake crowd noise in an empty building ?), he just doesn't comes off the same at all (and I still can't endure Fusion's awful pacing). Damn, I wish Salina would work in a promotion I can care for...

I'd miss her, but whatever makes her happy. She comes off as a quite smart person too (really quick on her feet on announcing). Yeah, what struck me when I was watching her basically grow out of the BP is how quickly she became a highlight of the show and how she totally carried the division at a time where the emphasis on it was gone. She was never a great in-ring worker, (although really solid) but she very quickly became a great character and she does tons of little things right. Totally a detail worker, always so much fun to watch no matter what she was doing.

I really enjoyed Josh and Madison together (and honestly Josh & Callis too), it's been fun while it lasted. As long as she keeps on being featured and doing cool stuff, I'm ok with it, she rules whatever she does. I'm still gonna miss her doing the announcing, for sure. Matt Striker... I enjoyed him in LU with Vamp, but that was totally in a specific context and a matter of the whole being much better than the sum of the parts. I really have not enjoyed him anywhere else lately. No idea how D-Lo does. Hard to Kill is a really cool card on paper. With the matches of all matches : Ethan Page vs Karate Man.

It's two completely different things though. A winning streak in pro-wrestling is not a story with a beginning and an end that has to be satisfactory in and out of itself, it's an angle to get someone over, the end leading to something else for everyone involved. Unless you kill off the character because he leaves the territory, there's no "end" to that character's story, it's not at all like a TV show having to conclude its entire arc. If pro-wrestling TV had actual seasons, it would be different, but the neverending flow makes things pretty different. As far as Game of Thrones goes, well, to me it was always pretty bad like I said before, poorly written with reliance on swerves and rapes and torture, it's basically Vince Russo level of stupidity at times, with entire arcs leading nowhere (hey, remember Arya getting all those super cool powers ? Sure paid off...) and gratuitous misogyny at every corner. So really, the ending kinda cracked me up. I mean, Dani goes batshit insane now that Al Snow (or whatever his name was) won't kiss her Auntie anymore after he already fuck the hell out of her and goes straight Nazi on everyone... Yeah, kinda funny to me honestly.

I wonder what happens when Vince dies, after the obligatory tribute to the great dead guy. Are the floodgates gonna open on all the bullshit that went on in this company for seemingly decades now ?