El-P

Ah ah ah ! Actually, I am a fan of Uncle Eric as a performer and quite marked out when he showed up in AEW. Also, loved the Nitro years. So there. Cool story though. And all the best for the upcoming heart surgery too !

Not too shabby. Tana vs KENTA, White vs Ibushi, Suzuki vs Shingo, all great matches on paper. Hopefully they do something different for EVIL vs Naito because the same old-shit again is tired. Okada vs Great-O-Khan kinda looks like a do-or-die for the character though... As long as we get an awesome Okada vs Ospreay at WK, it's fine.

Also, is there a draft every week or so now ? Seems like there's already be been two drafts this year or something....

NXT is apparently not just a cluster of COVID, but a cluster of idiots.

NXT is apparently not just a cluster of COVID, but a cluster of idiots.

And I was right. I was soooo glad when SANADA beat EVIL, so I guess Gedo's booking worked his magic well once again and all the bullshit did kinda played off, but honestly I found the EVIL stuff so tiring and predictable. I really enjoy SANADA, but I wonder if he's not gonna be this generation's Goto. The good worker who can slip in a few great wins and a bunch of great matches with the right opponent, but who will never get to the top. Between the final, the Suzuki, the Ishii and the Tacihi (fuck me that was another kind of awesome) matches, Ibushi clearly was the star of the show and his win was well deserved. The Ospreay heel turn I like, it was cool to have Bea out there. Great O Khan.... well, let's see how good the guy is, but I can't say I'm jumping in the air with excitement at the prospect of another gimmicky guy (but maybe it is because the guy isn't that great so the gimmick will help him). I hope we get some straight-up *pro-wrestlers* from the guy coming back from excursions, this is kinda missing from current NJPW where everyone is seemingly forced to be in a faction and have some funky gimmick now. Great G1 thanks to the A Block and booking magic (the intrigue of the last two days really worked for me). Glad it's over like every year, as it leaves me kinda burn out.

Mostly a terrific show. Best Friends vs FTR was terrific, Orange vs Cody was excellent and got better as it went (glad Cody went back to blondie too), Mox vs Archer was the expected brutality. I loved Jericho & MJF. Miro killing people is gonna be so much fun and I like the gamer personna because, well, that's who he is. Eddie Kingston being a player on a major level in 2020 is so awesome. However, it was a pretty poor showing for the women, and considering the number of actually really good stuff this first year with Riho's super fun underdog reign, Nyla showing up everytime, Penelope developing into a really solid worker in no time and of course Shida's excellent reign, you could not get a worse representation than this mach for the one-year anniversary. I realize Swole was part of the first bunch of signees when there was not much female talent available or something, but she is just *bad*, plain and simple. She has the distinction of having the worst feud of the company history thsu far against Baker and dragged Shida down to having an actual terrible match (after having also a bad match with Serena Deeb of all people). She hasn't improved one lick in the ring since she showed up, her so-called charisma is annoying to me, plus she's got that awful Kidman-like spot she does every time where she forces her opponent to do the exact same two counters so she can do her headbutt, her shit is sloppy most of the time, she's got bad timing, she fucks spots up all the time. Easily the worst (pushed or not) AEW performer to me. Why couldn't you get Nyla (Vickie is such an inept manager in kayfabe, here's another total useless character to me) or Ivelisse to kill it in the ring instead ? Meanwhile, IMPACT can have two legit good and interesting women matches (not to mention fun storylines) every week... When is Shanna coming back already ? Yep, that was a miss, a big one. But enough negativity, AEW is a gift to pro-wrestling fan who were craving for a mainstream alternative, and in that one year they have mostly overdelivered to me, despite the terrible context. Kudos and hopefully it lasts long and gets only better.

Monty Brown was 15 years too early. Shows up in AEW in 2019 instead of TNA in the mid 00's = big star. Anyhoo. It's been an awesome year, mostly. I pretty much "waited" 20 years for something like this, and it has pretty much exceeded all expectations I ever had. So yeah, long live AEW !

When I used to do the PPV watchalongs on the forum a few years back (good memories), I was definitely drinking wine and/or beer the whole time.

That remains one of my all-time favourite Raven one-liner. I died back then watching that shit. So brillant.

I've been kinda following from afar as usual, and I came to the conclusion that I have no earthly idea how can anyone still follow much less defend this company without consuming an ungodly dose of heavy drugs (which seems confirmed by the fact some people around here are praising the signing of Eva Marie, that has coke + alcohol + MDMA written all over it).

That makes me a sad puppy. Gonna rewatch the last season (which at least could look like an ending of sorts).

Block A has been insane. Ishii is easily the MVP of the whole thing. He's insanely great. And then Ospreay, Suzuki, White, Takagi and Ibushi have been awesome as well. Okada's insistance on working that damn Money Clip has hurt the early matches to me. Maybe now the hold is gonna be over and the match with Takagi was awesome. Taichi has been soooo good this year, even better than last year. Cobb is hit and miss but he can be a great dance partner. Takahashi is a waste of time for everyone involved. Block B.... not so much. Naito has been the best surprise of the G1 as he simply has had the best match of everyone in his block. ZSJ has been terrific, Tana is still working his magic despite being shot. Goto has been mostly quite good, and SANADA, Goto and KENTA I've mostly enjoyed too. Yano is more annoying this year because of how ridiculous the whole tape thing is getting. I mean, the ref are all totally dumb (and I've never noticed how BAD Marty Asami actually is before, but he ruins *every* nearfall with his Hebner-like delayed count). And so there's EVIL. Who has legit turned into a turn-off to me. I barely pay attention to his matches because it's always the same bullshit with Togo, who's completely useless in this role (sorry for the old Tog fetishists out there). He drags this block down so much. And I fear he's gonna get to the finals too. Yikes.

Vince sure did not.

Well, I guess it's here ! Enough of the silly bullshit, time to get serious now !

Can't work a lick, as showed in the NWA. Which looks more and more like a non-existent entity as each day passes and its talent is being signed here and there.

Please no. No MMA match on pro-wrestling shows. As far as Tay Conti, she has terrific potential, and I like her game already with all the funky submissions, but at this time she's still green as fuck. Let's not act like she's Mariko Yoshida already. Which is why AEW should bring girls like Serena Deeb, Sarita or Cheerleader Melissa. Need some more veterans.

The good news is that the shows will only have one pre-G1 match and then the 5 G1 bouts. Much easier to digest. That being said, still a crazy time to not get behind, not get spoiled and not burn yourself out with pro-wrestling. Anyone got a cool grid like last year ?

I have seen the whole match (well, what was showed of it). Of course there was some awkwardness because Ivelisse absolutely did fuck with Rosa at times. And I don't make my opinion from a stupid gif posted on Twitter (especially from *that* Twitter account, thank you very much. ).

Yeah, "shooting"... Funny how there are people talking about how Ivelisse was so unprofessional and how she should be gone and making Gifs on Twitter because of my god this was sooo bad, but there are also a bunch of people who are like "Really good match there", basically, not making anything more out of it. Why I mentioned tight slapping, in a bit of a jest because I have talked about that before, is that watching the match, to me it just seemed rough around the edge and a wee bit heated, but that actually gave it an interesting edge and realism to it, which was *fun* to watch. People complain all the time that matches don't look like a struggle and too much like cooperation. Well, this looked more like a struggle. It had an old-school kinda japanese feel to it. So yeah, I think some people are way overreacting. Give me Ivelisse trying her opponent a little bit any day, it makes for fun stuff.

The overreacting is amazing. People act like Ivelisse injured someone or something. Yeah, match got stiff (and was no less fun because of it). Big fucking deal. It's not like she carelessly threw a chair into someone's head or something. Or threw a helpless opponent straight into metal steps...

So, Mike Benett totally looks like a younger, jacked-up Eric Young. Hey, he's actually quite a good worker too ! Total sprint. 10 minutes or so match with a ref bump ten seconds in. Kamille (who looks even more impressive than on Powerr) back at ringside to prevent Maria to protect her husband, I guess, although she did nothing when Maria gave Mike the belt (which he did not use in a very bad drama spot, as he would have been DQed if he did since the ref was right there). Awful announcing totally overselling the drama and emotion. Match itself was quite a good TV match, kinda like a Cody TNT title defense. Maria really good as a valet still. These two could be used pretty well somewhere. But, PPV ? Weekly PPVs ? Come on now.

Yeah, she will always and forever remain a highlight of the show that brought me back into current pro-wrestling. She did not have it easy at all. Damn, and now I realize I do miss Dario Cueto sitting in his office, planning some evil stuff... As much as I really enjoy AEW a lot, LU was the future.

People complain about too much tigh slapping and whatnot, then this happens and they complain again. I guess that was the AEW drama spot of the week. Gotta have one. Twitter People are bored. And boring, mostly.

He's not doing that right now. Nothing clearly indicates he's gonna do it again in a near future either (the weekly PPV are not his deal apparently and definitely aren't done under the NWA umbrella). Hey, I'm an Ivy fan, I don't care. I'm also a Thunder Rosa fan. So, if I get Rosa on my AEW TV every week anyway, I'm fine with it. I'd rather have both, of course.