El-P

Reading this thread, this whole show reeks of stupidity. The Rey Rey thing is kind odd. Seems like all Rey is interested about is getting a job-for-life in WWE for his son. He really hasn't learned anything it seems... Plus, Dominic is put in an impossible situation, he's never gonna fill his daddy's shoes, he's gonna be a total nepotism case, he's only gonna learn how to work the WWE way, and really if anything goes awry between Rey and WWE at any point, do you think they'll bat an eye before firing the guy or humiliate him ? I'd rather have him learn the job, go around, travel and shit instead of try and make him a WWE cog 4 Life. I dunno, seems like corporate culture and it's not something I expect from Rey.

One thing I noticed is how old Eric Young looks. I mean, he's only 40 ? Nature ain't kind with some of us. He's looking not one day under 50.

Can't complain about a show that had MCMG comeback, two excellent/great singles matches in Chris Bey vs Willie Mack and Deonna Purrazo vs Jordynne Grace, the main event was really good two with some great moments. So glad Rich Swann is back. Eric Young was kinda Eric Yawn to me but it was to be expected, and he was actually really good delivering that beating on Swann. The right guy won, as IMPACT needed a feel-good moment at this time and Edwards really was the guy for the job. Austin looks more like a star with every passing month. Last time I've seen Gallows & Anderson, they were in NJPW... Shamrock was as good as he's gonna be at his age, so the match was pretty good, and North vs MCMG should be terrific. Moose vs Dreamer I enjoyed. I enjoy Moose (as a pro-wrestler...) and Tommy looking more and more like Terry Funk is kinda cool. Women Gauntlet was kind of a mess, with some fun stuff at times and again, the right woman won. No Tenille Dashwood nor any surprise on that front though... Kylie Ray vs Deonna Purrazo should be gold. There was no moment like the Sami vs Tessa match from last year, but considering what they had to work with in that super complicated context, that show was a win (with technical fuck-ups galore, but that's IMPACT going live).

Oh, of course. Classic Vince fuckery.

Well, Heyman being a liar is neither inaccurate nor big news though. Cornette had this quote about Heyman being a guy who would rather climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stay on the floor and tell the truth.

They really have done a masterful job rebounding after the Tessa debacle. Those hype videos for the main event... you forget that Elgin & Tessa even existed and you don't care either way. Plus they have convinced me that anyone could actually win that match. The way they have made Ace Austin into a legit credible main-eventer in a span of a year is nothing but great long-term booking (with the added bonus of the Trey feud coming back at a different level). This guy could show up in AEW tomorrow and be right up there with Jungle Boy or MJF as a futur star. So, three glasses, uh ? Maybe two of them are Anderson/Gallows... Again, this whole teasing deal had been very fun. Slammiversary marks the two years of me following the promotion as it happens (as opposed to diving nose first into TNA) and really, Callis/D'Amore should be called the understated success story of the last two years, not because of them gaining an audience (in this context and with the bagage of the promotion, it's almost impossible), but because they made IMPACT a super cool underground lab of a promotion with some of the best booking around, a perfect study on how to work around limitations (and not only that, as their women's roster is blowing away AEW's on every level, even without Tessa).

Yeah, I mean, bitching about tag ropes in 2020... I don't think tag rope were even a thing back in the Steve Austin era. They came back in WWE at some point in the 00's I believe. That's why to me Tony Schiavone is a much more important aspect of the product, because he's the hypeman-with-credentials. He was the one who did the Greatest Call in the History of Our Sport (you know the one), he disappeared for almost 20 years and is now back, funnier and having more fun than ever calling CURRENT pro-wrestling *as it is*. That was the whole thing in MLW at first, fucking Tony "NWA on TBS" Schiavone legit marking out watching crazy indy spotfests. He was an important part of getting Britt Baker over too (don't kid yourselves, she's been great but like Jericho in WCW, she needed someone to dance with). He and Jericho calling the confinement shows before they got back to Daily's place was pure gold. He's much more valuable to the actual product (not to the investors because JR = WWF Attitude Era).

Holy shit... Meanwhile, Raw this week got its worst rating ever. Average viewer, 56 years old. Wow.

Ospreay has dealt with severe depression issues before. And again, people just seem to ignore one very important point : you don't harass people. Whether they are innocent people or complete assholes, you just don't harass people. Period. And yeah, we don't know what is the extent of what Ospreay has to deal with, so it's easy to make assumptions about people just "asking for answers and explanations". Considering the level of idiocy on social media, I wouldn't be surprised the guy received death threats and the likes, from people who think they are "on the good side". If so, that would be exactly the same thing as Hana Kimura, because the person being harassed doesn't matter, it's the process of harassment that does. (which is why people harassing others online just move on from one to another, because the *actual people* don't matter and people doing the harassement always feel "justified" to do so). It's like any kind of abuse : the fact the victim of abuse may be an asshole (or let's push it, a criminal) doesn't make the abuse less abusive. EDIT : ok, and now I've listened to it. Sorry but it's ridiculous. Meltz saying the culture of harassment is toxic is not like saying both cases are *identical*. LIke I was saying in this very post, the fact Ospreay may or may not be an asshole is irrelevant to the matter at hand, which is social media harassment. As far as the Ospreay case in itself, yeah Meltz is playing the "I know more but won't say it" card. So there is that, but since apparently he is investigating, wait and see on that front. Which is not the same front as social media bullying and harassment, which is the same front as Hana Kimura.

Indeed. Lance Archer doesn't need Jake Roberts. Nyla really doesn't need Vickie. But Cage absolutely needs Taz, and Taz has cut the best promos of the last few months.

Awesome show, there's no two ways around it. Kiss entrance was great. Match was kinda tentative at times but still good and Sonny is really improving his game. He can be a future star, no doubt. Enjoying all the small teases with Tully. FTR vs Lucha Bros was a very good TV match with a smart finish that protects the LB. Hope to see them get a classic on a big show. Jurassik Express vs The Elite was just a great, great match. They made Marko Stunt look like a total star and legit threat here. Jungle Boy is crazy good. The other three are the other three, what can you say, they have showed repetitively that they are awesome TV workers. Omega showing signs of Cleaner insanity, that's interesting. Really, the whole Omega/Page/Bucks is the most compelling storyline of the last year. Long term stuff. Jericho's angle was classic shit. Ortiz not able to ever get up was the icing on the cake. The aim of the drop was absolutely, well, drop dead perfect. And really, Jericho calling himself the Demo God is an ultimate fuck you to idiots on Twitter going insane because of ratings. Hilarious stuff. Enjoying the Nightmare Sisters stuff on Dark already, glad they made it on the main show. Ok, so it's Vickie. Whatever, I'm indifferent, maybe it'll be good, hopefully not too silly which would not fit Nyla. On the other hand.... IVELISSE next week ! YES ! Finally my girl from LU gets back ! Very happy with this. Cage vs Mox was really good and it was obvious to anyone who has followed Cage for years that he's been working with a lot of restraint, not doing a whole lot of the big acrobatic moves he did before (Jericho even mentioned it), which is very smart. Also, again a very smart finish as Cage is protected despite losing. Darby is back, great stuff. This was a Perfect, or very close to it, as far a special weekly TV show. Only Schiavone would have made it even better.

Except he doesn't understand that Cage does need Taz, at the very least for now. Cage is not a good promo nor a great personality (in the ring at least). He does need someone who cuts strong promos on his side (like Taz in AEW) or on the other side to trigger him and the emotional reactions of the fans (like Sami Callihan did in IMPACT where he really made Cage look better than he ever had in term of a character, also thanks to Melissa Santos).

You wanna talk about it ?

I've followed how Dave has handled the various cases he talked about on WOR over the weeks and it is not the case at all.

What ? Thorough investigation that is taking actual time and work ? WTF is that ? Can't he just tweet something like NOW and point fingers at someone instead ?!

He screwed up a bunch of spots during the match, and it's not like EVIl is a guy who works super fast or intense. He gave me the impression of someone who's on the verge of falling apart at times.

I reserve more comments before I actually hear what Dave said, because he had done a fair job on the issue thus far. The Ospreay case itself is not exactly clear cut either. But that's neither here nor there. I'll only say this : online bullying is online bullying. People are doing it because they hide behind keyboards and feel justified to do so, because they feel they are on the "right side", whatever the side be. You can't draw a line between "good victims" and "bad victims", because if you do, then it becomes ok if the person being bullied is being bullied "for good reasons". Except it's not. That's why the SJW acronym is so problematic, because it does comes of the alt-right spheres and is used mostly by those people, but it is actually pretty accurate in describing the actual phenomenon. So you can't really use it (unless you're alt-right), but you have to tiptoe around the notion because it is actually a really fair one in many cases. Again, not heard what Meltz *actually* said yet. I would be surprised he said both were "the same thing" without adding layers of complexity to the whole thing, because that's what he has done thus far on the matter (which some people don't like, because complexity is the enemy of social medias, who can't tweet in complexity). Once I do listen, I'll see. On this topic, everyone should watch M, by Fritz Lang. Still as accurate today as it ever was.

Loyalty to what ? A company that barely even exists ? It's not exactly Tanahashi never leaving NJPW, ever... Yeah, probably not. Big fish in the small pond is not the worst spot. But considering the situation, I don't see the NWA, who don't have a regular roster and not even one creative hand right now (Lagana was it, basically) running anytime soon. MLW isn't doing it, ROH isn't doing it... Does not sound too good to me.

It didn't strike me but it's possible. Yeah, Tana looked shot too honestly but he can still pull off enough and he's so great at selling that he gets by. Naito's super explosive style is really hurting now. The guy should Chono his way into cult figure doing one or two simple moves a match at this point...

That would be ridiculous, he's only 33. The NWA doesn't mean anything. I honestly don't really care one way or another because although he's a great promo, I find him to be kind of a dullard in the ring, but really he's got too much potential star power to remain with a non-existing promotion if things don't develop much further.

Takagi vs SHO was awesome. The tag-team title match was also excellent bordering great, and honestly Taichi is stepping up like crazy. The main event... well... Needless to say it was way too long. I'm really not a fan of american style booking in NJPW with ref-bumps and run-ins galore. It works at times, but when it's in every big Bullet Club match... yawn. Plus, the "Bushi" spot got a totally tedious reaction, with good reasons, and it was total overkill, and made the ending of the match totally anti-climatic one, especially after the downer ending of the tag team match. So yeah, the reveal of Dick Togo was kinda cool (I mean, it's 2020 and he's gonna probably be in some Gedo role, so nothing to be super excited about either), but his spot hurt the ending a whole lot to me. Yeah, no one needs even 25 minutes EVIL matches. That is maybe THE big flaw in NJPW where every title match has to go ridiculously long no matter what because that's expected. 15-20 minutes titles match is ok. The one thing that struck me is that Naito is really not looking healthy at all. Screws up spots left and right. Really looks to be banged up as hell, and that's after months of lay-off... So maybe his time has flown away already and the best thing is to have him be a tragic figure, because the Ace he'll never be at this point (and maybe his character doesn't translate well in that role anyway). That's saying a lot about what he actually brings to the table, because what does Pieter do apart from some stripper's moves before the match ? But yeah... No idea who wants to see a Yujiro "push" in 2020... In comparison, Taichi is absolutely fine without Miho Abe (especially now), she just makes the act better. Yep. And hopefully it is, because I really have trouble buying what he's selling me with this EVIL push.

I wasn't aware about Zicky Dice, but wasn't every talent "released" anyway for the time being due to COVID ? Yeah, not really a big surprise, and honestly this project never felt like it was a viable one. Now, if really this thing is done, if I'm AEW, I'm throwing money toward Kamille & Nick Aldis now, although I could totally see WWE want both of them. Thunder Rosa would be a really good catch for anyone too, especially AEW (WWE really doesn't need anymore really good women). Dice would feel right in either IMPACT or AEW. Is there anyone else that wasn't an old TNA/IMPACT guy (like Storm, Drake or Anderson) ?

So, Tony Khan was a guest on Eric Bischoff's podcast and was all about how he was a fan of WCW and learned so much from it. Two funny quotes from Uncle Eric : When Khan talked about how he studied Nitro from 96 to 98 : Eric : "Stay away from WCW 1999 at all cost !" When Khan said he actually asked a question during an old Prodigy chat, Bischoff popped. Then Khan said "You did not draw enough to keep Prodigy alive though." to which Eric replied "I didn't draw enough to keep WCW alive !" Honestly, I wouldn't mind to have Eric as a guest on Dynamite at some point. He's always a great performer no matter what and it would be cool to see him appear on what really is the followup to Nitro in many ways.

Did Corny address his (supposedly) own piss-poor booking of the match ? Because these two restarts fucked the match up as much as anything. Just a terrible idea.

That's beyond his control. Everyone who had great potential before WWE has been swallowed by the machine. Think of when Ricochet was in Lucha Underground, people thought of him as the next big thing in a Rey Mysterio way. He's a complete nobody today. FTR have to rebuild themselves in AEW because although everyone knows how good they actually are, they have been hurt by years of nothingness.