El-P

I think I remember that face... I'd say early 90's.

It's basically me either cheating my way out of not finding the right English words at times or me just being not-finishing-sentences-regular-me. I also use "gnééé" WAY too much when I want to express not getting what's so special about something. Hey, thanks, glad you enjoy it ! Oh yeah, none of those made the list for obvious reasons but she was always tons of fun in those and surely made them way more fun than they should have been on paper. Yeah, Callihan to me has been the MVP of IMPACT in 2018 and 2019 (along with Tessa), always bringing his opponents UP in term of having the audience caring about them. Funny that some people who are not necessarily fans of more go-go-go style fail to see this about him, he's a great character/angle/feud driven worker and always deliver for the big matches (and is never afraid to show ass while playing 200% straight heel). I like the analogy with Bully Ray, indeed. 2020 has been more hit and miss for him, but working with Shamrock and in empty arenas has not done him any favours. I won't spoil things. But if you paid attention to the matches we have mentioned but not talked about yet, well, there is some cage stuff there... Thanks for the feedback!

For some, diving into work is the best way to cope, because it forces your mind out of your grief for a few hours.

I've been away for a few days and I'm coming back to the pro-wrestling world to this godawful and tragic news. This is so absurd and so sad. Brodie in those BTE bits with the Dark Order brought so many laughs out of me in the last few months.

IMPACT wrestler of the year as voted by the fans : Deonna Purrazzo. Super cool (she won best knockouts too of course).

IMPACT guys are gonna show up.

See what you did ?

That's the thing that has been totally ignored by the "poor ol' Roman" crowd. Roman as a top guy has been a complete and utter failure from day 1. He's been shoved down the throats of the audience for years despite the audience not wanting him (and let's not go into the "but the Shield was over"... sure, well, Mox has been a success in AEW, so there), which contributed to the trolling policy of the company, which has tremendously hurt them in the long run and has drove people away. And now that he's having his best run as a character, he's not drawing jackshit either (sure, the context doesn't help, but it helps no one). Whatever one thinks about Roman as a performer, the fact remains that he's been a miserable failure on top and *his years* are those of the WWE totally losing the sense of its own audience.

Yeah, this was the second taping and it was better than the first one ! Some really cool discussion here. That was really fun to do.

BTE Xmas episode was just glorious from the beginning to the end, from the Young Bucks popping for each of Kazarian's line on Dynamites to said Kaz meeting the ghosts of Xmas's past, present and future (of course) to the awesome Dark Order musical (funny as hell that Stu can't sing for shit and then Anna is even worse !). And really, when you think about what the Dark Order gimmick was last year and what it is today, it's amazing what they have done with it. It's literally the unit you'd want to be included in now. Anna Jay pretty much every week having to bite her lips at some point to not burst out laughing makes it even better.

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.