El-P

Visual trauma denial ?

Kevin "shittiest director ever" Dunn says hello.

I also realized that this date will pretty much mark my 30th anniversary of becoming a pro-wrestling fan, as I began taping my first shows (WWF TV, french version, Saturday at 5pm on Canal +) more or less two weeks before the Christmas holidays in 1990. Wow. What have I done with my life ?!

Yeah, that's the perfect gimmick (well, it was *his* gimmick anyway). Total Rick Rude feel, but with the twist that Peter Avalon ain't Rick Rude, as showed by the vignettes that have been airing for the last few weeks. Shanna looked really good for someone who's been off for 8 months ! PUSH HER ALREADY ! Also, Ivelisse vs Lindsay Snow is the kind of stuff I want, more if this. I hope they sign Snow, she's pretty unique. Gotta say how much I love the announcing on the show, Taz & Excalibur are great together in this relaxed setting, and whenever Starks shows up it's even better. Too bad no doctor office this week though.

That's a crazy stat ! It's even more insane when you think that it happened during the fucking PANDEMIC year ! With mostly no crowd to pop for killing yourself.

For once we can say without a doubt that he was one of the greatest of all-time, was one of the masterminds behind the Hulkamania years, great worker of his own right, great finish guy, created the Royal Rumble... Yeah, Pat's a legend of the pro-wrestling business for sure...

Hyped as fuck. Yeah, it's Omega time.

As far as Lana goes, it's as simple as this : money don't buy you happiness. Of course, there's this glorious picture with glossed-up Lana in her 100k outfit and this totally influence the perception we may have of her life, but the truth is, no one knows CJ Perry. The fact is she came off totally depressed and distressed in the WWE doc, talking about feeling lonely without her man and crying about social media harassement, you know what, you can make all the millions of dollar you want and speak 100k a year on your outfit, if you're unhappy, you're unhappy. Slight tangent : I remember when Chris Cornell killed himself, Cornette went on a especially stupid rant (yeah, shocking, I know) about this guy having nothing to complain about because he was rich and famous and successful and how committing suicide was a cowardly thing and whatnot. Here's someone not understanding jackshit about mental health issue (hey, I can use that term too, for a change). And honestly I kinda feel like most people blabbing about mental health this mental health that actually never experienced the urge of throwing themselves under a bus, literally I mean. I know that's a digression and no one is saying Lana is actually depressed, but I just wanted to throw that out there... And yes, that too. They should be employees and that's it.

That's pretty well put. I mean, 10 fucking grand ? That's obscene. Capitalism fetish lunacy.

So yeah, first episode = NWA matches from the first UWN PPV from months ago (is that still going on ?)... Will they show Thunder Rosa lose her belt too when she has been on AEW TV for weeks and weeks ? That would be awkward. Old school in a way (like, WCW 1993), but awkward.

Two huge news from Dark that no one is talking about, and why ? Last week, Pretty Peter Avalon won his first match ever in AEW. This week, Shanna is back !

Working Mexico doesn't seem like the brightest idea considering how bad they are doing. Would really suck for AEW if Omega would get sick or even test positive because of this. Also, if there's one promotion where the idea of empty arena match don't appeal to me at all, it has to be AAA. I can't even picture the usually terrible matches that only go by because of crowd heat being watchable in this context. I would be only half surprised if Daga & Tessa Blanchard would show up. Isn't this on the same day of the Super J Cup, the NJPW tournaments finals and that IMPACT monthly special ? Damn, that 12/12 is stacked with stuff.

I don't remember, did you watched NWA Powerr last year and if so, did you enjoyed it ? As much as I criticized the cosplay aspect of the thing at first, and especially during the first season which I really did not like, I actually enjoyed the second season but to me, there was kinda of a tongue-in-cheek or at least a bit meta feel to it especially during the commercials stuff. From that perspective, it was more "21th Century" than MLW which is going for a more straight forward approach. And actually this has struck me the other week : the one thing I don't enjoy at all about MLW is that it's what I'd call, for lack of a better term, "fake serious", and it's something I usually can't stand about anything. For instance, I love the wacky stuff on IMPACT (which really comes from LU in a way) and I have no problem believing that people were stuck in Wrestlers House or that there is an Undead Realm where Allie was murdered and that Su Yung is a zombi and Rosemary is a demon assassin and that someone shot John E. Bravo etc... I totally buy it and am willing to play along. On the other hand, watching MLW, I don't buy for a second that Contra is an evil terrorist organisation of whatever and that they "invaded" MLW's headquarter (whatever that is !) and that I should give a flying fuck about the oh so prestigious Opera Cup. Because those are gimmicks that absolutely echoes the old territory days where basically they were overselling bullshit all the times, because they had to. The issue is that MLW is playing it totally straight, like 100% straight. So, the whole Opera Cup deal totally comes off like an NWA title match in 1994 at a crappy indy show where announcers where talking about Dory Funk Jr. and Harley Race in a gym of 200 people. I just don't buy it at all and I just feel they are selling me bullshit. I did enjoy MLW at first, but at the time its appeal was much bigger because you had guys like MJF, the Lucha Brothers, Sami Callihan, Swerve, tons of cool guys from AAA showing up regularly, Salina de la Renta was all over the TV and one key for me was Tony Schiavone announcing for the first time in 18 years and marking out watching crazy-ass indy matches. And there's so much less people I actually want to watch now : Holliday, Hammerstone to a lesser degree (much better in vignettes than in the ring), Salina... Jordan Oliver & Myron Reed have potential but #Injustice is such a trash gimmick. It's odd, I was already quite bored by the TV for a while last year when they had that one PPV which actually came off very well and had that great Fatu vs LA Park match (and Salina taking that awesome bump), then the TV became worst while NWA Powerr was getting a lot better (although I did watch that much later, during the first lockdown here).

Heel Rey Mysterio. Yeah, this is WCW 2000 level.

That's fucked up. And depressing. That being said, it should not matter. Aren't there actual proofs of his assault ? Shouldn't that be enough ?

Fuck me, I loved pretty much everything about this episode (the Miro/Sabian bit, Vickie's promo and Shida backing down from Abadon I wasn't crazy about). Excellent opener, John Silver looked terrific out there and I like the idea of Hangman being chased by the Dark Order once more, especially now than the DO has become basically the best gimmick in the entire company and gets new people over (Silver, Jay). Kinda crazy that Jericho & Daniels have never ever faced before and you could see Daniels was motivated as all hell, he looked the best he has maybe since the debut of AEW. I'm totally in for a Young Bucks vs TH2 big title match, could be a great one. Anna Jay has improved a whole lot already and she totally looks like a futur star. Wow, Taz's kid is getting involved now, I feel old, people. But yeah, Taz has been so great in his role and this was yet another occurence of it. Loved the main event and the Archer attack, which made sense dating back to that Battle Royal, had a very WCW Nitro feel to it, with several feuds and storylines crossing path together. Next week looks stacked and Omega vs Mox should be awesome, not matter what they do with it (funny how people have been conditioned by WWE to always expect the worst).

I have been watching South Park S22, and the fact they brought back so many old characters from the "glory days" (remember when Road Dog was wearing South Park T-shirts and Tenta was carrying a Cartman doll ?) definitely made me think about WWE booking (was much better though, some episodes were really funny... others, not so much).

Well, that was one hell of a send-off that IMPACT gave to the Rascalz, the main event spot, Matthews & Rayne basically spent 25 minutes putting them over as great guys that everybody loves. If you consider they never won any title in the promotion (I thought Trey would have got the X-div at one point but nope) and basically never went above mid-card (upper mid-card for Trey) level, that's pretty telling. It was actually legit moving. I sure hope for their sake they got some great contracts (and since it's NXT, probably not *that* great) because to me they were much better fits for AEW (characters, work style, size). That one sure is a loss for IMPACT, they were good workers and fun characters.

This thread is like when it's the World Cup and everybody around you is talking about something you don't give a flying fuck about in a context where usually you don't have to listen to it. (damn, I wish that Covid thing had hit on a World Cup year instead)

Wow, that's a name I have known since probably day 1 of my online pro-wrestling fandom. That's sad.

I'm watching some Dark and in the very first match, Big Swole nearly drops Vipress straight on her head in a total careless fashion, Tiger Driver/Ganso Bomb style. That girl is the Nia Jaxx of AEW, her work sucks and she will end up injuring someone with her sloppy looking shit.

The issue with that argument is that Meltzer only "sacrified his reputation" from the point of view of the people who refuse to even *consider* that Omega and the Bucks might actually be great and successful and don't even try to understand why they *may* be in the wrong. There's no "in crowd" to be part of, there are only people who love what great pro-wrestling has become in 2020 and are establishing the current canon, which doesn't have to refer to the past as some kind of untouchable monument (because it would be ridiculous). Like in the 80's when Flair and the MX were the "best thing going today" (and you know the rest).

So, odds that this is stuff from those UWN shows no one watches ?

Where's the facepalm emoticon ?

Well, until he asks for his release to go to WWE. Can you picture anyone with talent staying with MLW that long ? Pillman & DBS wants out already apparently.