El-P

50 years old single guys buying toys. That make sense. WAIT ! That actually does !

Here's Alfonso just setting the record straight about this "much ado about nothing" thingy.

Because one is fun and self-aware of its campiness, the other is shit is self-important. Well, after re-thinking about it, I have better things to do with my day actually... Like, taking a shit and stuff. Reading the thread, this show looks like the absolute pits.

As far as Brucie goes, there's basically two ways. Either he's exactly what he has always been accused of being (before a large crowd began to buy his bullshit when the podcast got hot), a transparent yes-man who gives Vince what he wants. Either he's complete shit as a booker, as this stint demonstrates in spades. Either way, he's been totally exposed.

The morbid fan in me wants to see that Firefly Inferno Match.

Stephanie.

So yeah, Mil Muertes indeed. I wonder how this is gonna fare in MLW context. Mil Muertes with Lucha Underground's production values looked like the greatest killer in pro-wrestling for a few years. A few years older (he's 45), against not exactly the same caliber of workers... hum... not too sure. It is kinda cool to get Mil Muertes & Salina together though (well, in IMPACT it would be killer) and I will check it out when he finally shows up.

Bill Alfonso addressed it a long time ago in a shoot interview. It was all basically a misunderstanding and it was blown way out of proportion by folklore and urban legend. If this happened today, it would be blown out of proportion by Twitter dweebs posting gifs and making up drama for a week and would be forgotten.

I don't get that one. How is "The Collective" significant ?

Mika Akino (then AKINO) in ARSION. Very first match, she already looked like a legit very good worker. The usual suspects : Owen Hart, Kurt Angle. Also obviously, Ronda Rousey. Yes, she worked in a super controlled environment, but you can't hold that against her.

Considering she herself basically said on TV that WWE booking made no sense, I could see some pettiness on their part, because they are this stupid. Fuck, here's someone I would love to see leave the company, give them the middle finger and show up on the other side with her cousin. Probably will never happen because I don't see any of the 4 Horsewomen leaving ever, but still. That girl should talk to Batista (she probably already is).

Classic dead-pan Dave. The last few shows have been kinda heartbreaking for him, talking bout his mom, so a little bit of smile can't hurt.

The fact they can lose someone like Kylie Ray and not even blink is telling. One thing about their women roster is that it's also so various is shapes, bodies, wrestling styles, characters. There isn't one worker in the bunch you can say is "there" (well, Nevaeh really is kinda there as mini-Havok, and I don't understand why her name is pronounced NevEAh, it's as annoying as some French shit). They are so far above and beyond AEW in that aspect it's not even funny. Plus like it's been said, there's always something to do for everyone so you get legit multiples women angles/feud at the same time, usually including one or two that are major ones on the totem pole.

It was always smokes and mirrors. It was not hard to grab hot people from the indies/other companies and push them in hot matches when there was no alternative, that way he looked like the "cool guy", the "wrestling guy". Except it was in a protected vaacum during a monopoly. His show gets mandated to kill the brand new opposition and the result ends up he gets his ass handed to him by a pissant company. Triple H is a con man, always was always will be. The ONE thing he managed to do right in the business is make friends with the right people, work with the hottest stars the business had seen in 15 years and marry the boss daughter. That's Trip's legacy.

That's really the strenght of their booking, everything has a purpose, from the comedic stuff to the serious main-event stuff to the vignettes, you know everything is going somewhere, the episodic nature of the show is really very well defined and built. Which is why it's so easy to watch.

That and Tony Schiavone : "Coming up after IMPACT, the City Council". The IMPACT diss are glorious. I'm loving this shit so much. And on the IMPACT front, the Machinegun working solo has quite impressed me in the last two weeks. Betting on Hogan & Steelz winning those tag team titles, they are the perfect fit for it. I guess Taya vs Deonna is upcoming, that should be really good too.

"Are you The Acclaim or Men on a Mission ?". I died. Yeah, the Acclaimed are absolutely not ready for this spot (and the "rap like John Cena with a fake gold chain around the neck kinda screams bad idea, at least try to do a fucking triplet on a trap beat so you don't look like, well, Men on a Mission), but it's basically feeding some bodies to the Bucks. Top Flight on the other end... If I were Private Party I'd be kinda worry about those two flying above their heads. I also died at "Kiss my ass" by Tony Schiavone. I loved most of the show, apart from the Big Swole vs Diamanté parts of the women match, which really looked bad. I mean, it's useless to say it every week, but Swole sucks and she will injure someone with this Tiger Driver where it looks like she has zero control over her opponent's body. Ivelisse vs Serena would have been really cool. That women's division really needs a lot of work still. Thunder Rosa vs Baker on the other end, that is gonna be fun. Loving Pac back, he's just the total package, the feud with Kingston, the upcoming match with Omega, all of this will be so great. The whole main event was just gold, between Calis announcing from ringside to Omega up-garbaging Janella and looking like a total dick. Their act is absolutely fantastic. A match with Fénix ? If the poor guy can be held together, that should rule pretty hard. Also, remember the Dark Order from a year ago ? Amazing what this has become (like, one of the best act in the company and the best on BTE). Talk about guys who will face the Bucks at some points, both Uno & Grayson (BTW, they had a super fun match with Bear Country on Dark in which Grayson looks godlike) and Silver & Reynolds should have tremendous matches with them. The three last show if the year are gonna be fun, and I would not be surprised to see the Good Brothers show up.

MLW ? Talk about a promotion with zero hype at all. Ditto ROH. As IMPACT is getting some attention from the AEW angle, why would anyone sign with those two nothing happening promotions at this moment ? I'd love Ethan Page in AEW because he's the perfect fit, but I'd love The North better.

Gotta love Bret Clarke !

This, and of course, The Summerslam.

NJPW and IMPACT definitely are already in speaking terms. Chris Bey was booked for the SJCup, announced as an IMPACT guy and actually went to the semi-finals beating Clark Connors, whose a NJPW Young Lion (interestingly enough, Rey Horus from ROH did the job in the first round). So IMPACT has promoted the JCup in the weeks leading up to it.

But TNA sux and KennY omEGA is not a draw at allllll !!!! Yeah, it's really, really ironic, in more ways than one. And I mean, I was basically one of the two or three people posting in this thread, I kinda miss the IMPACT social distancing now ! I mean, it has reached the point I need people to use spoiler tags ! As opposed to what ? I mean, unless they give you real stupid money, what's the incentive to sign with WWE now ? They waste and ruin everyone they get. But yeah, I really would love to see The North vs Young Bucks and FTR.

Wait until the pathological deniers go all crazy with "Yeah but...". You know that is gonna happen.

In more IMPACTful news, apparently Ethan Page is basically done with the company (and pro-wrestling ?) once the contract is finished (hence him basically screwing up the team and working solo at Final Resolution). That's too bad, The North are an awesome team and Page looked like a really creative guy and really won me over in the last year and a half, he was easily one of my favourites.

Wow, that joke from two decades ago... You should book for WWE.