El-P

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 ?

Hum... I don't think so. I believe when you think Goldy, you think "Spear/Jackhammer/Who's next". If they thought "cattle prod", he probably wouldn't be a star for WWE in the late 2010's. It's usually a bad thing to judge anything by the ending anyway. Everything usually ends bad. Love stories, life, pro-wrestling winning streak... Thanks. Yeah, I'm not surprised. I thought about the loss on PPV to Taker after WM13 and that was the only one I could remember. Also, the *loss* to Bret hart at Mania did not made him a huge babyface : the angle, the promos leading to it, the great match itself and the way it was worked (with the masterful job of Bret Hart all along the way) did. Sure, the fact he lost actually helped, for many reasons, and it was the right booking move at the time, but it's not just the loss which mattered.

Well, the ending matters less than the streak itself. Goldberg became a huge star thanks to the winning streak. The Taker Mania streak was a big time part of the appeal of Mania during the years where it became a huge event out of itself.

It would be interesting to see Austin's record leading to WM XIV. To be over as a babyface, even when you're doing the underdog gimmick, you gotta win and win more often than not.

WWE in 2021 : run a sexual harrassement angle where the victim is a 70+ year old womanizer, of course. Also WWE in 2021 : Fuck, my joke early on was way to close to home !

Fuck that. I'll watch Raw if I get a Damian DeMento match and they bring back the ring card girl.

All these different couples working in different promotions need to stop having orgies together during vacations.

I wonder if Vince is gonna rename Retribution into Destitution and have them all lose in a gauntlet match against Jaxson Ryker.

And that's why it absolutely sucked. The reaction in the crowd tells it all. Yeah, it was a "shock", it was a "surprise". Which is truly the dumbest way you could end that Streak if you ever needed to. They had absolutely built no tension whatsoever during the match at this point, no one bought that pinfall attempt as even an early nearfall because of the way big WWE Mania match are worked. Yet it was not a nearfall, it was the pinfall that ended up the Streak. They did not bring the crowd up to a boiling point of *believing it could happen* before doing the killshot, which could have been awesome if executed right. They could not have fucked this up worse than they did. Worst execution ever.

Nope. Money don't buy you happiness. If you're a pro-wrestler who really care about your craft in 2021 and you're not the WWE type, you have exactly ZERO reason to go to WWE. None. They fuck up and waste everyone they touch.

Imagine that, these days he would be such a great fit in the PC. Totally agree. Brock did not need the win, the match sucked, the pinfall totally sucked (the lack of reaction was astonishing, people were just shocked the match ended like that). Taker's streak was too big for anyone to gain from it, it was just something that should have remained mythical. All the Mania Taker matches after that point felt like they fucked it up and knew it.

Both Goldy and Tatanka are instances of a winning streak being booked poorly with no follow-up, although the argument for Tatanka is that it gave credibility to Ludvig Borga (he ended the streak, not Yoko) which they were building as the main event foe for Luger (of course they did nothing with Tatanka after that point and he was totally screwed by turning heel). The winning streak gimmick is not the issue, bad booking is. The end of Taker's streak at Mania was also completely botched BTW with the worst built-up shocking pinfall ever. Winning streak is usually a good thing if it does not comes off totally forced and gimmicked.

What was the MOTY? What were Some MOTY contenders? Young Bucks vs Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (AEW Revolution) Tons of MOTYC during the G1, since I don't keep notes I really can't name any. What was the promotion of the year? AEW What were the best promos, angles, and skits of the year? Kingston promos leading to the I Quit match (AEW) / Don Callis "See you on Tuesday" (AEW) / Wrestle House (IMPACT Wrestling) What was the best weekly TV Show? AEW Dynamite Who was the wrestler of the year? Tomohiro Ishii, for his G1 alone. What was the show of the year? Double or Nothing (AEW)