El-P

That's not only true but quite funny to me as I always thought Richard Beymer in Twin Peaks would have made a perfect Vince. Terrific episode. Opening was awesome. Say what you want about Dark Order, but they are such a solid team of solid-to-great workers. I really enjoy the addition of Cabana as the "useful idiot" of the groupe and Anna Jay as a potential female star in the future. Page took a wonderful bump on that finish. More slow-burn build... Best Friends vs Santana & Ortiz was very good and the angle is leading into more yet I guess different in feel, so, good stuf. MJF's vignette was excellent, glad they put some of the Dark talent out there too. Cody & Cardona vs Dark Order went too long, and jury's out on Cardona. You can't hold against him years of being nothing in WWE but still, it kinda get awkward to see this guy get a huge entrance with pyro... Don't be TNA guys. That's also something to ponder, as someone younger now should think twice about signing a 5 year contract with WWE, as AEW definitely won't turn into TNA (I don't think), so by wasting years losing your hype and being put in stupid situations (Ricochet, remember the name ?) you can hurt your chances of getting over in AEW. Nothing against Shawn Spears, but he really did not get over and has not turned himself into a compelling character. John Silver is terrific, he's been funny as hell on BTE and he really shined here. Agree. Why no segment for Hikaru Shida ? She's the fucking champ. Britt Baker has cooled down so much as a character with this Swole feud to me, as I don't give a flying fuck about Swole. Match won't be good, I don't even get why Swole is picking on an injured woman who hasn't done shit to her. This stuff is pretty bad, honestly. Rebel did a good job playing incompetent worker. But yeah, they have so much better things to do with women, get Ivelisse beating some bitch up again. The tall redhead Kylinn King is doing jobs on Dark but she is much better than Swole on every level, put her out there. Get some more personalities over. I know Shanna is stuck in Lisbon but hopefully when she comes back she gets a push. Get Raché Chanel and Abadon on the show, even if the matches aren't super solid, get those characters over. Will Riho ever come back ? And yeah, mix-up the women with the men characters more, only the Nightmare Sisters and Ford (and Leva, but she really isn't doing matches) really have ties with what is happening on the other side of the fence. The debate was great. Schiavone selling Uncle Eric back on TNT was quite cool. I can dig Easy E. showing up *from time to time* doing special stuff like this. Kinda crazy year for Bischoff when you think about it, he spent months doing nothing in WWE and play scapegoat then shows up on Dynamite only a few months later. Also, Conrad has now basically 3 "AEW" guys on his podcast roster. Orange's promo on global warming was funny as hell and the angle capping off the bit was executed perfectly (Hagger is great a those). Oh, and that look and body maneurisms Jericho did when Orange was cutting that serious promo at the end and walking toward him, just awesome work. Jericho is the greatest 50 years old pro-wrestler ever (and still the MVP of 2020). Main event was great. Darby is a star. Most compelling young guy in YEARS. They really should focus on him, Jungle Boy and the likes, these people need to get some big win SOON. Hopefully Orange gets the big one next week. But yeah, apart from the women segment, which was weak as hell, this episode was the best since Fyter Fest.

Anyone having trouble connecting to the site and getting Error 525 ?

Thanks. Silly me ! I should have guessed. OK, so the transcription is "Ce combat (...) va se disputer en deux manches ou une belle si il y a lieu". Basically, the match is in two rounds and a final round if necessary. When you play a game (like card game) and if you are 1-1 after two games, you do a final one which is called "la belle" to determine the winner. Ok, so, Couderc says that L' Ange Blanc has no name, no country, no face while the other has a name, a country, a face, his name is Paul Villars, he's from Bagnolet (blue-collar west suburbs of Paris), therefore his nickname the Dragon of Bagnolet. Well, can't think of a more matter-of-factish explanation ! So, this is L' Ange Blanc's debut too, apparently.

Do you have a link to provide ? Because the transcription is no good I'm afraid.

Why are people treating this whole Raw Underground stuff like anything other than some more "cinematic shit" ? Because it is, really. Except it's directed the same godawful way any WWE show is (seriously, I have no idea how you people manage, when you don't watch that stuff regularly, even three minutes of this "directing" is impossible to watch). But hey, WWE's got their hands on pop culture, Fight Club was big in 1999, during the Attitude Era.

Wait. Does Shane-O Mac like Volk Han ? Is shodate booking RAW in 2020 ? So many questions unanswered...

So, The Nightmare Sisters beat Penelope & Mel, you guessed who did the job. Allie vs Penelope was solid. Brandi is akin to Mongo : great personality, excellent promo, bless her heart in the ring. BTW, she's turning heel *again*, but this time I believe it will make more sense because I got the feeling a Cody heel turn is coming too at some point. I'd love to see the Cody & Brandi heel duo machine again. Ariane Andrews sure got character. And yeah, she screwed up one spot. One or two, ok... She also did the job and was KOed by Nyla afterward. Nyla sold her knee like a champ, that girl can do anything, she's got so much potential to become great eventually. Anna Jay & Tay Conti can be a fun team, Conti kicking Nyla square in the face was a highlight, that girl also got tons of potential. She really sounds brazilian when she speaks English too. Not getting any classics from that stuff, but a fun 40mn Youtube show, plus it gets the women some more in-ring time too.

So, this is indeed WCW 2000 level now.

So, that Women Battle Bowl thingy : Veda Scott announcing with Schiavone, Shaul Guerrero doing ring announcing, Madusa doing the introductory speach. And then Allie totally cheated to get to team with Brandi, which was a really fun take on the old wrestling trope of "OMG ! what luck !". So, this should be fun...

Heart-attack on a pole at SummerSlam. Book it.

WWE don't do man on woman violence. Ok. So a few weeks only after #SpeakingOut, you have a guy monster abusing a woman by shoving his fingers in her mouth... Kinda looks shitty of you ask me. If that was in Lucha Underground which had intergender matches galore and torture scenes and murders, I would not even bat an eye. In the WWE context, it strikes me as quite odd.

Yes, I would absolutely agree with this. This is going along the contempt they began to show toward their own audience when they would not play along their plans.

Thanks for the references, bubba !

I know it's horror-movie bullshit but still, not tone deaf at all to basically have a guy physically abusing a woman by putting his fingers into her mouth... (I know this is a "wrestling finisher" but still... come on now...) People bitch about intergender wrestling in which women shine (and win matches) but this is ok ?

Yeah. Three tournaments for three titles that are already (and will be) way disposable for a company that has way too many. Sorry, but between this and the EVIL bullshit, NJPW's comeback has been a total and utter disappointment. Get on with the G1 already....

Yeah, I love his stuff. Would you namedrop some brazilian poets/writers that would maybe interest a Pessoa fan like myself ? (I know, I know, PWO, but hey, Shanna is PWO !)

He sure got the entertainment part of it right. I mean, when he appears on screen, the audience just begs for entertainment and switch the channel, seeking for something that is actually entertaining in the context of an entertainment program.

Stephy got game.

Yeah, WWE worked themselves into believing their own false narrative. It's insane. Bryan got over despite the booking, not because anything they did. At some point they had to give in and push the fuck out of him. But the narrative now is "WWE got Daniel Bryan over by having him lose all the time and it was planned all along", which is not only complete bullshit, but also totally screwed up their thought process about how to book a babyface. And when you really are honest about it, who are the two biggest stars ever who got themselves over despite shitty creative at first ? Steve "The Ringmaster" Austin and The Rock "Die Rocky Die" Maivia. Hell, you can argue they also stumble on John Cena becoming such a big star...

Be glad if there won't be any *babyface* doing the whole bit...

What a load of bullshit, really. After 8 years of George Bush Jr. ? The Katrina disaster ? Really ? Come on now. As I read it this was race baiting angle by a dumb-fuck pro-wrestler, simple as that. There's no defending it. Excalibur, Owens and whoever were stupid to go along with it, it's no better than Corny telling New Jack to scare those racist rednecks in SMW.

Ok then. Whatever they are, they are pests and idiots. Not to mention wasn't he supposed to retire like two years ago ?

The most ironic thing is *I guess* a good number of people digging this are WWE fanboys. I mean, why else bother ? And really, when you are financially supporting a company that is doing propaganda (just doing the shows out there is propaganda work) for a regime (and its leader) which is legally murdering homosexuals, having a nice genocidal war in Yemen and treating their women as third rate citizens... ya know... old clips on Twitter from guys "saying bad words 10 years ago"... well... you really should just shut the fuck up and question your "wokeness"...

I was wondering why he was not there and his absence was not addressed. I couldn't not agree more. The level of hypocrisy is astounding. That being said, it will probably be a matter of a few weeks before everybody forgets about it and moves on to the next fake outrage.

Wow, I did not realize so many worked indies before (knew about Becky and Emma) and Charlotte was a product of FCW. Shorty G is not what I call "going somewhere". He's clearly a guy who would need to fly the fuck away from the E. Carmella is absolutely pushing it in term of actual talent, but hey, she survived Enzo & Cass so that's something. Of those, I'd say Bliss & Strowman are the only ones I'd call really becoming "stars" and mainstays of the main roster. Bam ! Nia Jaxx ? ..... ok, nevermind. She should be the next big thing. Which probably means she won't. But yeah, can't miss. So, we can safely say that NXT, as a star developmental system, is really a complete joke thus far (not to mention the creepy abuse stories from the Hugh Morrus days) and the entire thing has been a total smokescreen for Trip. By becoming an indie signing machine and failed AEW counter-programming, the smokescreen has vanished and, as we could say, the emperor is naked.