El-P

Don has been Omega's friend for 27 years. Callis sneaked his way on AEW's announcer's desk once for Omega's big match at the PPV and everyone was all respectful and happy, so they invite him again to announce Omega's title shot. Omega told to Mox it was gonna be a clean match. In the end Omega lied and cheated with Callis' help. They fly away without celebrating with the rest of the Elite. They show up with the belt (ahhhh, the old WWF/WCW stuff) on Callis' promotion's TV show, so Omega winning the AEW title profits... to IMPACT. Like... What's not to understand ?

Yep. *cough* Nia Jaxx *cough*

Hum... that was actually the appeal of ECW. The freak show. The mad scientist lab. The outcasts promotion. That is part of the fun of it. Who wants to fit to WWE's mold anyway ? But in all honesty, the top women of IMPACT could show up on AEW tomorrow and they would, well, show up their entire women roster (both as workers and characters). And The North, MCMG, Moose, Swann, Callihan, Mack could all be players, easily. Hell, even Swinger would fit on Dark and BTE.

After the passing of Road Warrior Animal, Dreamer paid hommage by getting the Animal haircut (and make-up). He's now growing his hair back to usual. Glad you watch the show without a bunch of confirmation biases and WWE references in your head while fast-forwarding a bunch (fast-forwarding Taya !!! Crazy you !!!). Anyway, Swann vs Omega is indeed a dream match for any self-respecting pro-wrestling fan ! About Callis, yeah, it's crazy to think this guy was never given a chance in WWE and was bullied around by that idiot JBL. In 2020, he looks like the smartest man in all pro-wrestling. I WAS FUCKING RIGHT ABOUT HIM BACK IN 97 !!!!! Honestly, I did not expect anyone unfamiliar with IMPACT becoming a fan overnight, especially during this time of empty arena stuff, but I hope it helps their brand-awareness level to some degree. At worst it gives us ME a bunch of stuff I could only dream about, so I'm all in (pun intended). There is a clear sense of irony that AEW would end up working with IMPACT and not ROH. Looking back like 3/4 years ago during the GFW debacle, who would have thought IMPACT would get in bed with the hot new thing (or even exist) in 2020 ? Life is sure full of surprises, and good ones sometime.

I know. But if you give me an opportunity to shit on Randy "Black Hole" Orton, I will take it.

None No No No

I would put him higher than all of them. Maybe not Hase... not sure though. Probably higher than Hase too actually, if I think about it for more than ten seconds.

To me that is where the vast overstatement about Taue begins. I can think of maybe two or three great singles match Taue had in NOAH period, one of which against Kobashi when he was the Ace of the World while being actually way more physically broken down than Taue. Taue had his way of working around his own limited physical abilities, but to say he was smarter than Misawa, Kawada and late Kobashi (who was fucking brillant), no way in hell. If he's not thrown in with these three again and again and again, he's not having even close to the same career. He was the smartest Taue ever, for sure, and one of the best awkward looking workers ever.

So, on BTE this week, Evil Uno is playing a game of Uno while wearing a cool-ass Jushin Liger Motörhead-style T-shirt. What's not to love. Anna Jay trying her best not to laugh during the Dark Order bits is always adorable to witness.

"Roux" means "redhead" in French. It's the masculine form of the word too (Becky is "rousse"). And no, you don't pronounce the X at the end. It also pronounces exactly like the word that means "wheel" (roue). Basically, "ru" in English, like Ruth, but without the th... So there. I guess in the US it's exotic or something (that girl is gonna hear the question "How do you write it ?" a billion times). In France it would sound pretty stupid/odd, like someone called "Blonde" or something. Back in WCW, Lash LeRoux = Lash TheRedhead.

You are. There was absolutely nothing dismissive about Becky, he only has Rousey higher because of her unique status (no Rousey, no women main-eventing Mania, that's a fact not even Becky can change), but he put Becky over super strong as a surefire HoF in the future because of her being the key person in the promotion last year and getting over at the level no one was then. I have no idea where this "Meltz is disrespectful to Becky" stuff comes from. It's juts not the case.

Nothing can possibly be as terrible as the 98 edition. Three teams. Stevie Ray. Warrior bullshit. Can't possibly be worse than this.

It was one of those "Mark Henry is a better worker than Shawn Micheals" hot takes... I mean, I love Taue, but for fuck's sake. The funny thing is that Taue really was never downplayed at all, honestly.

You have no idea how much that actually defines my whole life. Thanks for listening, glad you enjoyed it. The best episodes are yet to come. I think.

Tony Schiavone has said that he hated the submission or surrender rule, because it always came off anti-climatic and visually lame, and this is something I was so glad to hear because it was always by N°1 criticism with the concept. The yearly gimmick PPV has always been a totally dumbfuck idea. I guess since they were doing the Royal Rumble (which is a totally different beast) and to a lesser extent Survivor Series, WWE figured it would work the same way for big dangerous gimmick matches, expect it doesn't for a number of reasons. It has only got worse now that the women have to do the exact same thing as the men, always, because #womenrevolutionthankyouStephanieinnovatoroffeminism, as it waters down the gimmicks even more.

Thanks a lot for asking me to do this with you Martin ! It was indeed tons of fun ! (I do have as bad of a French accent as Miss Kittin though)

"People’s thoughts and misperceptions, their perceived knowledge of what we do and how we think is often greatly misinterpreted and not accurate." Holy shit !

So... AEW and IMPACT are gonna have a relationship... IMPACT contracted guys TJP & Chris Bey in the Super J Cup, promoted on IMPACT TV... Mention of NJ guys like Suzuki on AEW TV... Don Callis, former NJPW announcer and IMPACT executive, basically "managing" his old friend Kenny Omega, AEW champ... Ok, don't get me salivating like that, it's still COVID era and such. Still. Soooo much potential for cool stuff opening up.

Answer to this topic in 2020 again : Yes. And Don Callis is the smartest man in pro-wrestling. I wonder what Jeff Jarrett (and Dixie Carter) think of this little twist that happened today. Anywoo, IMPACT rules people, and I will do without condescending LOLTNA comment on MY FUCKING FANBOY THREAD ! Sorry. You're all welcome. Late to the party, but welcome

I haven't read the thread yet (because I expect the bitching about IMPACT this, Sting that, whatever (EDIT : I was right )). Just want to say this : I was a huge Nitro era fan. I was a Don Callis fan dating back from 1997. Kenny Omega is one of my favourite pro-wrestler ever and gave me the three best matches I've ever seen in 30 years of watching pro-wrestling. I've been a big fan of IMPACT Wrestling since Slammiversary 2018 and it was basically my own little promotion before AEW appeared. This December is basically marking (in a few days) my 30 year anniversary of being a fan of pro-wrestling. So, basically, it's almost like it all came full circle and I just recieved a big-ass gift to celebrate. Almost to the point that I could say, you know what, my pro-wrestling fandom life is now complete. Whatever I get after that point is just bonus. Yeah, AEW made me a very, very, very happy pro-wrestling fan today. Of course, you could also put it like this : Triple H at Mania 31 : Sting, the war is now over Sting in 2020 : hold my beer Mark out city.

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.