El-P

The meltdown of TNA reddit (which is a cesspool, like every pro-wrestling subreddit, apparently) is funny as fuck. Show was actually really good for the first half, because there is still a whole lot of great talent in the company (book Moose vs Leon Slater for Genesis and have Leon win, this is a show stealer). It's damning though when you watch the 4-way how Hendry is by a *wide margin* not nearly as good as the others. Also, it's striking how much everything he does is designed to get Joe Hendry over, while the other three work to get *the match* over, and therefore get over *through the match*. Which is another reason why his matches are basically nothing. His title reign is gonna be unbearable really, at this point I can't bare hearing his stupid theme song anymore nor people chanting "We believe". The quickest WWE snatches him, the better. Nothing against the guy himself, who apparently is really nice, and more power to him really. The Hardys at this point are 100% a nostalgia act doing fan services. They are 50 years old guys dressing like they did when they were 25 and doing the exact same spots. I never cared that much about the Hardies anyway, so there. The audience paying to see the act gets whatever money they paid for. Highlight of the match for me was Eddie Edwards slapping a dumbfuck in the audience (who actually slapped him first, yeah, great idea that). The look of panic of the referee getting in the middle was pretty funny. Also, I have no idea about his credentials, but Eddie Edwards doesn't strike me as the type of person you'd want to fuck with. Main event was awful. I did not expect anything good and it was even worse. AJ Francis is the drizzling shit and Nick Nemeth is ridiculously overrated, I can say this pretty safely after one year of watching him working big matches including against some actual awesome talents. But really now. Tessa pie-faced the FUCK out of Gia Miller (bless her). Oh yeah, I remember now why she was my favorite worker in 2019.

Harley Cameron is awesome. But it's tricky. She's basically a rookie. She's had 52 matches in two years. She needs reps. But AEW doesn't have a developmental circuit (some might argue ROH kinda is, but not really. Maybe it should too). So they have her work reps on TV and loose a lot. Which hurts her perception. And the whole "It's your turn now" booking is the laziest and less effective and compelling thing ever (see Private Party, which only worked because the Young Bucks are just that great inside the ring). She needs to win. Not being protected in a ridiculous fashion like Hook (or Jade Cargill), but certainly win quite a lot more than she does now. Also, babyface eventually, but the whole wacky character is more conducive to heel work at least at first. To me she kinda is a case of heel-that-people-love who eventually turn babyface organically. The last tricky part is that she may be too funny for her own good. Then again, she's not Chelsea Green of IIconics in that she actually shows a shitload of potential already as far as in-ring work goes. I would send her to Stardom not just for a tour, but for 6 months, sign an extension with her and then bring her back as a star.

I mean, it might bite TNA in the ass if she's still impossible to deal with. Then again, she's only 29. She may (or may not) have matured. But that's not my problem. I get to watch Tessa Blanchard's comeback on the US scene. At best, I get some really great wrestling out of it. At worst, I guess it's gonna be some entertaining LOLTNA dumpster fire in the end. As far as Jordynne not happy, why would she care ? She'll be gone by the time Rumble is there. It would be pretty funny though is that, after the angriness about Anthem firing D'Amore last year and people wanting to leave, now more people get upset again because of the Tessa hiring and also want to leave as soon as they can ! Also, would Shawn take the risk of Tessa in NXT ? I mean, let's be real, all of this might end up being as nothing as Britt Baker repeated failed comebacks (why am I bringing her up of all people, funny how the brain works), but all the possibilities of stuff that could happen are pretty damn intriguing to me. It was really not a comparison. Just me throwing the first name that came to mind of someone who's had a really sketchy attitude in the very recent past, to say the least. I don't think TNA expect Tessa to "move the needle" for them anyway. Well, maybe they do. TNA be like TNA. My point is this : at this point there's no reason why Tessa Blanchard should not be employed in the US wrestling scene in 2024 all things considered. The fact TNA took a pass on Matt Riddle, even after having him as a late replacement during their Wrestlecade show is interesting from that whole perspective. I wonder if the fact Riddle was in the WWE at the time and the fact he had a pretty decently high profile is the only reason why he got through #speakingout after all. And of course there were other issues, but still. The fact that now only MLW and AAA (where Alberto el Rapist is the champ) really will touch him, after a botched NJPW stint, is pretty telling of something.

Gotta say, Willie Mack being pulled off from the GCW shows but being booked out of nowhere to Final Battle is a hoot. Good for him. Use Willie Mack more ! Also, Athena is going to the Tokyo Dome. Well, now, that's a legit "you deserve it" moment.

So, Tessa Blanchard is back with TNA. I don't give a flying fuck, I'm there. And before someone says something really stupid (although PWO is not reddit or X, but still) La Rosa Negra has publicly made up with her a while ago. About being an unprofessional prick in the past, guess what, so was CM Punk just one year ago. I don't care. She looked really good in CMLL, and I for one am glad she's making a comeback on the US scene. Love me some Tessa Blanchard again. Plus, she's someone that TNA may be able to keep for a while since I don't think major promotions are ready for her yet (although... Logan Paul, ya know, but very different story about the complete hypocrisy of the fandom and their "ethic values"). Well, of course she did not do a match to give away the CMLL tag titles, but guess what, neither did Stephanie Vaquer when she was the woman champ there. Kinda funny and ironic still considering the way she left TNA (during the pandemic when she already lived in Mexico though). Damn TNA. You never cease to be a fascinating never dying promotion.

Forget it. I loved pretty much everything about this week's show. Smaller building (which is the way to go), hot crowd, excellent matches all night, cool vignette and backstage interviews, good lead-in to PPV matches. Nice ! Toni Storm coming back as her old self is an interesting bet. I much prefer this version of her anyway and after the while, the gimmick, as fun as it was, was only gonna go in circles. Not to say they can't bring it back eventually for special occasions, Cactus Jack style.

This era of WCW is definitely the "cursed cartoon" era. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't mind some promotion actually totally leaning into this, with a post-ironic approach to it. Like, in an ironic way but also very much loving the absolute cheese and shittiness of this era. Pro-wrestling is just way too conservative and its idea of peak storytelling is crappy heavy handed blockbusters movie (yes WWE, I'm looking at you). I would probably love a "Shitty early 90's gimmicks" version of Lucha Underground, with actual fun matches.

"The monstaaaa wooooooorld !!!!" Fuyuki's FMW was less cartoon than sleazy Z-movies. That's including the use of porn-stars (not doing anything even closely approaching the sleaze level of publicly traded WWE from 1999 to the mid 00's though) and gimmicks like "anus exploding deathmatch". Fuyuki's very short lived WEW, one of the sad offshoot of then dead FMW was cartoony as hell too. And yeah, it included more porn stars, because of course it did.

I'm not watching the product (although I might watch a bit of these women matches starting with this multi-women iron whatever it is, I basically only watched Roxanne Perez vs Jordynne Grace earlier this year), but I remember Wren Sinclair working a bunch of matches during the AEW Dark (ironically enough, the "good ol" days" of AEW) as Madi Wrenkoswki. She's the kind of talent AEW should have signed and develop instead of throwing money to toe Ruby Soho's and Saraya's of the world. The few I've seen in Sol Ruca in TNA was pretty cool too.

And Jordynne Grace is coming in at the start of the year. With Roxanne Perez, Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer, this is ridiculous stacked.

Agreed about the comparison, but really I feel she should turn on Top Flight and go with Lio/Andretti. Andretti as a heel will allow him to develop his character, he always came off kinda douchebagy to be. Maybe the hair. But all five of them should be more over and up in status when all it's said and done. If done right of course. Oh, for sure. I really wasn't thinking of Joe as a "coming from WWE guy" for some reason. The fact he really has that indie cred and pedigree (including years of TNA) probably. Can't wait until Joe and Eddie come back eventually.

Collision was another proof that smaller buildings with dynamic crowds is much better. Can't wait until they book smaller buildings regularly next year. Really good show too with three killer CC matches. Gotta love Serena Deeb's T-shirt too. That's some nice trolling.

She blasted Trump after the abortion right ban and has denounced anti-trans legislations, so at least she's not one of those people. Maybe WWE should just have hired Kamille and put her in there. Or just throw in Nia Jaxx, the legend that she is. That would have been more on point.

The Copeland/Christian feud was cringe as hell and total TNA-lite. Copeland having fun doing random matches against random people doing stuff he would never have done in WWE was fun. Never understood why it was not called Royal Battle anyways. I mean, it is called the Royal Rumble, not the other way around. Since "royal" is a French word, it always triggered me that the name was basically constructed like it would be in French instead of English.

The "cash-in" stuff is one particular WWE trope I really never wanted in AEW. The "delayed cash-in" stuff is even worse (and yes, they are doing the exact same in TNA with Kazarian right now).

FTR, what ? These guys are beloved. Well, Dax has had a terrible social media game, but apart from that. And quite frankly, why the fuck are they settled into an angle with the flavor of the months Outrunners (who's hype is massively overrated) at a time the tag team division is weak as hell ? Mercedes has had a rough start, but once she has settled into being her awesome worker self, she's been a delight to watch. Hopefully that Kamille nonsense is over too. Who else ? Well, Claudio, obviously. And really, when you look back at the entire stint until now, Malakai & Buddy have been really consistent, despite the never ending rumors of them wanting out. Oh, that Toni Storm fellow too, whatever happened to her somewhere in Mexico or Tokyo...

So, a new reality-TV show with coaches Taker, Booker T, Bubba Ray and Mickie James. Bubba Ray's getting the most out of his anti-AEW grifting. Can't wait for good ole advices of "bring weapons to the locker room", "don't be a pussy, nobody cares about your depression and addiction issues" and other good stuff like this. The fact that Taker was last seen promoting Trump's campaign and is now gonna be featured in a reality show tells you everything you need to know. Maybe they are getting more confortable with this likewise UFC...

The fact Bobby Lashley is one of those "Let's defend Vince McMahon still" is another reason why the Hurt Business is actual bad vibes for AEW. Also, Vince McMahon did not feed thousands of people. Thousands of people's work made Vince a billionaire. I think Lashley might be a legit MAGA dumbfuck too.

And so Jericho's opponent for ROH Final Battle at the Hammerstein is... Matt Cardona ? What in the actual fuck ? I wonder if there's some GCW fuckery going on too.

There's no way. They booked a big-ass building for Genesis. They're doing a live IMPACT (first in 8 years they say, so that mean last time was in 2017, which is surprising in itself considering how wrecked the company was then) the following day. And then the elephant in the room is Royal Rumble, because TNA does book for WWE "visibility" (that's why Zach Wenz won the title from Mike Bailey just to appear with it on NXT). What they want is Hendry winning the title, going live with him as the champ and then having a stadium (maybe) chant "We believe" when he makes his Rumble entry, announced as "TNA World Champion". Santana is really good but he's been kinda there thus far. The funny thing is that in the LAX days, Ortiz was always considered the charismatic one and potential single star. Where the hell has he been anyway ? I guess having drinks with Scorpio Sky somewhere... Yeah, Maclin is the next workhorse carry of the company after Alexander is gone (if I'm Coach TK, I'm sending ridiculous money on his way to get him, although apparently he already got Mike Bailey). The women division is so depleted it's not even funny and only getting worse once Grace is gone. They really are gonna have Masha vs... Rosemary at Genesis, or so it seems ? Jeez. And they got Lei Ying Lee, TKAFA Xia Li, and from what I've seen, she's not very good at all. Neither is Ash, but Ash at least is an entertaining act in the midcard/tag team division now with Heather. I've been watching this week's show still, and of course there has been ZERO follow-up to the JBL angle. And this has been going on for the last six months. There is no story told, just a washed-up shithead getting money to lariat people every two months during main events.

For all the shit I give to WWE for their outlandish nepotism policy, Hook being still pushed and protected like he's something special is ridiculous now. The guy being over as hell was a cult thing that is long forgotten. If he wasn't Taz's boy, he would be at best getting some wins on ROH and doing jobs on Rampage. The only notable match he ever had was Samoa Joe beating the living fuck out of him. He's still a rookie. A rookie should not be protected. See also, Cargill, Jade (who at least had the great presentation and for a while was fun in squash matches). That's always been a pet peeve of mine with Swerve. I love his work, but the double stomp is annoying because it requires the person taking it do do something that is*never* done otherwise, including the placement on the mat (unless you're facing Doink). It's a "You can't powerbomb Kidman" type of thing, in a way.

Next "special event" main event is Nick Nemeth defending his title against.... AJ Francis. Yeah, LOLTNA is back in full effect. Also, the Hardys vs the System for about the nine millionth time this year. In a table's match. Yeah, it was a month ago or so that the Hardys said their BFG table, ladders, chairs clusterfuck was gonna be the last of this kind. I guess this time it's only tables (which always has been a shitty gimmick btw), ya see. Like the last match wasn't embarrassing enough. But hey, they have a 4 men challengers match so Joe Henry can fINiSh tHeStORY at Genesis. So compelling. The good thing is that I can drop TNA from my viewing habits tomorrow and not even think about it. Kinda sad though, they have been a lot of fun for so long (like, 2019 or something is when I started watching in real time). The saddest thing is that they do better numbers with this product, but then again, numbers don't mean anything. I wonder if they are eventually gonna fall on their ass though if Joe Hendry's hype ends up fizzling out or WWE just gets bored with the "relationship" after picking up Jordynne (and well, Hendry when he's done).

Court Bauer got a shitload of money from the WWE settlement and his company and he's booking Eric Bischoff. That's telling about as much as anyone should know. The good thing is that you can watch it for free on Youtube. The bad thing is that you gonna get your money's worth. I gave them countless chances over the mast year or so. It's just not any good. The only saving grace is when CMLL guys show up, but really you only get lesser-than Arena Mexico matches anyway. TAFKA Dario Cueto is still there, doing sub Z-movie version of Lucha Underground. Everything is a poor redux of stuff from the past, basically. The announcing is awful too, and that is even after Matt Striker got striked for his stupid edgy line about Matt Riddle. Oh yeah, they actually have Matt Riddle as their biggest star. Should have started by this.

Exactly my thoughts. I do enjoy the stuff they do with vignettes and backstage stuff with Renee's interview set (and even, *gasp* the Jericho self-cringe stuff announcing matches). Apart from the useless Battle Royal, whose result was a given, this episode was tons of fun top to bottom.

Wait until Papa Trip's girls want to do pro-wrestling. The nepotism in the next 30 years in this company is gonna be insane. Also, gonna love how Uncle Eric gets some WWE TV spot because he's still grifting on his shitty podcast. Lately on an interview with "journalist" Ariel Helwani, he was talking about AEW was actually dying and that the TV deal was "hospice care". You'd think the TV deal would be humiliating enough for these guys but no. This is Trump level of post-truth, it's insane. The fact WWE rewards these guys shows that the pettiness never stops. Still, WWE is hot as fuck right now and NXT is seen, at least partly (the women side of the roster mostly, from what I get), as cool again. Running the ECW arena was certainly a thing (although so very ironic), but booking Bully Ray or Uncle Eric on your show that is all about youth and cool vibes, just to reward them for being an anti-AEW podcast parasite, I dunno. Leave that for RAW anniversary shows or, ya know, Court Bauer...