El-P

Ospreay vs Danielson is one of the greatest match I've ever seen. *Again*. Ospreay is just on another level. That's his catchphrase. That's also a reality. He's the greatest pro-wrestler I've ever seen. Okada knew this years ago ("When he'll be 30, he'll be much better than I was at 30"). Danielson knows this now. Talking about this guy, Danielson's last year has been completely insane and one of the most satisfying thing in pro-wrestling ever. If people want to be serious about pro-wrestling as a "craft", not to say art-form, (as opposed to "a business"), this is your model. This is what makes pro-wrestling so great and interesting to me. The mere fact Young Bucks and FTR were able to follow it same a whole lot about these four. Two of the greatest tag team ever. This match had some rough edges and it made it a whole lot better. The Jack Perry return was perfectly executed. "Cry me a river" being a chant is too funny. And then Swerve vs Joe had to follow it and they did. Hope Joe is not gonna stray too far from big matches. And Swerve. Killshot would be proud ! Oh, wait, this show had Okada vs Pac as an opener. And O'Reilly vs Strong. Ridiculous. Rosa vs Storm was damn good too. Best Rosa has looked since she came back, and best Timeless Toni Storm has looked since the gimmicked up version of herself. The week-to-week bitching about AEW, that has been going on for ever (including by me, at various points), is so unwarranted, because their ratio of ridiculous PPV quality is through the roof. That's their aim and they have the best talent in the world to do it. And so they do. As long as this is going on, I'm so there. (and yeah, Self Conscious Epic was me not being as smart as I thought I was. I learned later how much I did not actually understood. Learning how much you don't know means getting wiser. And I've probably learned more these last 6-7 years than I ever did before)

Totally out of the loops for a few weeks (not even watched Dynasty yet), but after seeing a few clips from Backlash (and learning that Gable Stevenson had been given the boot, which certainly kept me in my best dispositions toward watching some WWE product), and since it was been showcased on TV a few days after the fact, I decided I had to watch it. I told you the crowd was gonna be insane, but I that was understating what actually happened. They made the show (which really wasn't anything special, only the main event was great) totally unique, and for very good reasons which went totally above the head of the international audience. Like I said before, the biggest stars of the show were Agius & Chereau, the French announcers. Because THEY are responsible for this. They are the reason why there has been a hot pro-wrestling fan community in France. They built it thanks to their announcing, they made it popular. They've been around for more than 20 years now, and they are easily in the very best pro-wrestling announcers ever short list. So the crowd was not only hot for the wrestlers, but they were basically honoring Agius & Chereau all night long, because they know what they owe them. They are fans because of them. You could hear how humbled they both were at times. When Cody dropped Styles through their table and the "Agius Chereau" chant started, they actually were signaling the crowd to not chant for them but for the wrestlers. It was made even sweeter by the fact they were reunited for the first time in a long while for a PLE, as Chereau doesn't do the PLE anymore since they had moved them on the Network/Peacock only a few years back (he's under contract with a TV station, so he could not appear on the Network/Peacock). And haven't been announcing ringside in 10 years. I still can't wrap my head around the fact the crowd did the "Simplement deux!" (which is basically a Chereau "gimmick" call) chant ALL NIGHT LONG FOR EACH AND EVERY COUNT. That's insane. From that perspective alone, it was just a legendary night, and the culmination of more than 20 years of building a WWE fandom in France, not just "the first PLE in France". When Corey introduced them as "hometown living legends" at the beginning of the show (I was regularly switching between languages, although mostly listening the the French announcers of course), he wasn't overstating it. To this audience, they absolutely are. For Agius, who's a bit younger than me but who started watching in 86 and started announcing for late WCW as a 19 year old kid, it must have been totally overwhelming. As the class-act that he is, he paid hommage to Carpentier, Hauray, Brassard & Rougeau (and yeah, even Blondin & Letourneur, who were WCW announcers) during the show. I absolutely could have done without the chanting of the Marseillaise (jeeez, people), but apart from that minor quibble, the chanting was brillant all night long, especially the use of the cringe "Il est vraiment phénoménal !" chant for AJ which totally killed me. The performers all looked completely amazed by the reactions (Orton, Naomi, Jey were visibly having the time of their life). The fact they actually got fucking sound level alerts in the building is insane stuff. Show itself, crowd noise apart, was okay. Opening match was quite fun. Orton certainly looks like something runs in his veins, but it's not adrenaline. That was quite a memorable debut for Tama Tonga in WWE, I doubt he ever gets anymore heat. More power for Tanga Loa getting a contract despite being completely washed up after a near career-ending injury (not that he was ever better than "ok"). It really is all about the bloodline. Three-way women's match, well... Again, I never ever want to hear about how WWE's women division is so great and above AEW's. Tiffany is a lot of fun, looks awesome (and it's part of why she is pushed, let's be real) and I got a kick out of her doing the Lady Frost thingy and the Best Moonsault Ever. They sure don't learn no fLiPpY InDy ShIT at the Performance Center... Naomi has a place in my heart since her TNA stint. Bailey looked pretty sloppy at times, I must say. Jey vs Priest was such a nothing match without the crowd. Not bad, but the definition of "there". The women tag-team titles match was a mixed bag of really good and not so good. Jade Cargll is her old self, looking great doing a few spots, and kinda lost at other times. Also, next to Bianca, she doesn't look that imposing, and certainly not as athletic either. When you get both of them together, BeLair looks much, MUCH better on every level, unless you're a simp for just muscles and size. Asuka and Kairi are still excellent, and a title change was quite cool. Main event was great. It's crazy how big and jacked Styles looks. WWE surely is all about wellness and shit, between him and Orton. He's certainly not the worker he used to be, but still ace, and Cody's main event style, well, it's basically exactly the style he did before. Much much better than the Roman Reigns dullfest that they presented for years, and a great way to cap off the first PLE in France. But again. This was ALL about that damn crowd honoring Agius & Chereau. Well done.

The character is kinda fun, but it has absolutely damaged the title and the quality of Toni Storm's matches, which was her entire selling point. The fact that it is over only demonstrate that you can get over for entirely wrong reasons. I don't dislike it, but the women division should have actual workhorses on top, not gimmicks. Meanwhile, Athena is having killer matches on ROH, is a great and credible champ that is anchoring the entire thing and makes it seem way important. Why can't they do this on AEW TV, I still have no idea. The sooner Mariah May gets the title the better, and then Toni Storm's character can maybe get some sanity back and we can have some real good matches again.

Best place for the three of them, really. Callihan was doing stuff in MLW, but that company is a hot mess. Been enjoying Revolver lately, and it is a LOT of TNA talent anyway, he's basically a lifer. Mike Santana is a good fit for the promotion too. He would have gone nowhere in WWE. Let's see what he can bring to the table in a smaller pond. And Matt Hardy, you know what, he peaked as a character in TNA years ago, and he's now basically physically broken, so he can have way more fun doing more cinematic stuff, and this will only get some focus in TNA at this point (although apparently he's still a free agent). Totally fine with all of this.

It's not like the booker is foreign to blood & guts Wonder if that means maybe next time they do a Wargame, Cody Rhodes gets all crimson mask and all.

Appalling people doing appalling things, the news of Vince and his legal team being in regular contact with Donald Trump, with maybe the hope of everything being dropped if (when ? gawd....) the white supremacist-rapist gets elected is certainly something. Also, Linda is still in the Trump game. What a family. But of course this has nothing to do with WWE anymore. Even though the son-in-law is at the head of creative. And Minion #1 is still employed. And the daughter was at Mania. And TKO celebrates Trump everytime he shows his ugly fascistoïd mug at an UFC event.

Interesting that basically 4 of the released people are "localisation" workers. Jinder Mahal received one of the most ridiculously forced push in the company ever only because they wanted to conquer the India market (with a Canadian, mind you), Veer & Sanga were part of the Indian crew too. Xia Li was really pushed as a way to get into the Chinese market (what did she ever do ?). They also got rid of Mansoor a few years back. I wonder if they have just reached the point of giving up with this kind of approach, which really did not had any effect at all apparently. And really, unless you're pushed as a star, having an undercard guy from a specific country is not gonna change anything in the grand scheme of things. Well, Jinder was pushed as a star. He also fucking sucked. Also, remember the exchange with Coach TK a few months back ? Not that he had any chance landing a spot over there anyway based on talent, but yeah, karma is a bitch, uh. I could see him headlining against EC3 though in a "syringe on a pole" match. EDIT : I did not even realize the fifth guy was Australian. And that he's Harley Cameron's husband. And that they are married, so they basically have the SAME NAME (Daniel & Danielle, which in French is pronounced exactly the same). Crazy, that.

Thus far, the departure of D'Amore hasn't affected the product. This is pretty much exactly the same week-to-week logical storytelling approach, with regular really good matches, some fun segments (Ash by Elegance has been a fun character) and really good produced vignettes (the Gresham stuff). The build to Rebellion has been effective, some promising stuff on the show, Hammerston vs Alexander 3 last man standing, Eric Young vs Kazarian in a Full Metal Mayhem (basically TLC) match of the OGs, Mustafa Ali vs Jake Something which should be spectacular. The result of the main is interesting too, I could see it going either way, with Nemeth putting over Moose before moving on to other things or Nemeth becoming the champ until Slammiversary, possibly against Alexander (depending where his booking is going with D'Amore gone, the result of the Hammerstone match will probably be a giveaway). Leon Slater & ABC vs Rascalz on the pre-show should be a killer match too.

You ain't packing Ryogoku with this. Korakuen Hall was the way to go. Card looks pretty ok, although Bloodsport is always very hit and miss (the last one was the most fun to me).

Isn't Oklahoma the first state to ban abortion when they could ? The entire state is a ridiculous anachronism.

Her debut was cool. Since then she has been a complete miss thus far. She needs to change her ways, because the 2017 WWE-like promos are terrible. Hopefully everything changes when she actually works, because that's what AEW is all about, having really good pro-wrestling matches, ya know (as opposed to grinding 4 minutes of in-ring action in 6 months, if you catch my drift). Yup. That's where I am too lately, I can't say I'm super excited about the weekly stuff, which has been hit and miss (that god damn Billy Gunn match, I still haven't got over that one). Haven't even watched the week-end shows yet. Probably burned out a bit after the Mania week, but still. Dynasty should be awesome though, whenever I get around to watch it. On paper it's a ridiculous peaks show, really : Okada vs PAC, Ospreay vs Danielson, Young Bucks vs FTR ladder match, Joe vs Swerve. The two women match could go either way, one because of injury, the other because of gimmick. 6 men should be really fun. Strong vs O'Reilly will be technically terrific I guess, but could have zero heat too. Jericho vs Hook is gonna be one of the matches happening this night.

Fuck Oklahoma and its hateful inbred redneck bigots. I hope next time AEW comes around, they have Nyla Rose fucking main event and win the woman or TBS title. Time to send a very clear signal. Everything is political.

Damn. So many "new eras" these days. But yeah. Same old same old process. Especially with Rossy. It's like, the third promotion he's starting or something. Thanks for the links. Podcast was definitely interesting. I actually saw that documentary, I remember it well ! Some parts were REALLY sad and REALLY creepy too.

Actually : Shota Umino. Wins G1. Takes belt from his mentor. Then again, I do not think Mox is keeping it until the Dome. SANADA should never ever even approach the main events. Tanahashi, that ship has sailed too by that point. I've been quite impressed with Naito's last matches. For a guy who was thought about to be kinda washed up, he had some great performances against Tsuji and Mox. He's still by far their biggest star, so he probably got some more mileage in him. Takagi should have another shot on top, really. They probably missed the boat on Taichii too, who was getting huge crowd support as he became a straight babyface worker having great matches. Anything would have been better than EVIL/SANADA anyway.

People around here are already frolicking in expectation, I can feel it.

The Chris Adams episode sure was Dark Side. Nothing really redeeming. Sure, the kids want to remember him a different way, but Adams sure needed professional help. The one fun part was the bit about the angle with Austin and Jeannie. Can't get more pro-wrestling than this. The rest of the story, well, pretty much a downer about a guy who was a mean drunk/junkie, and not that much of a "gentleman" to begin with anyway. Don't do drugs, kids (alcohol being one). The one striking line of the episode goes to Kevin Von Erich, about how often pro-wrestlers used to be high-school bullies. Talk about summing up the entire culture of the era (and beyond) in one sentence.

I guess it runs in the family, uh ? AAA is really gonna go on about booking Alberto when his father and brother are involved in *this*, putting Alberto's own bagage in perspective ("charges have been dropped" and all) ? Jeez Konnan, grow a fucking sense of dignity already.

WWE. Now. Then. Forever.

Agreed. But if anyone deserves a nice run in a major company, it's Shelley & Sabin. Maybe the most influential tag-team of the last 20 years, awesome workers both, still. And yeah, what a great get for training talent, Shelley especially.

MCMG are AEW bound. Unsurprisingly. Hopefully they get used right. And by right I mean, having big matches with the Young Bucks and FTR and such, not jobbing on Rampage to Top Flight.

Although I really love the quality of the talents and the work, there is a lot that could, and should be said, about the japanese women pro-wrestling business. The fact it may end up being basically a feeder system for WWE, which Rossy directly alluded to, is another issue entirely.

Late 90's flashback anyone ? Giulia helping jumpstart the promotion is cool and all, but when she's gone in six months (wild guess, no idea), it's not like you can have her be that huge star people will invest into. So after that fact basically, it's Utami and a supporting cast(Mirai was really pushed in Stardom lately, but I don't see her at that level, not yet anyway). Oh, yeah, so I guess that means Nanae Takahashi inject herself on top. Wonderful... Yeah, doesn't exactly comes off very exciting, this one.

I guess Aja Kong appearing at All Star Queendom is yet another effect of Rossy being gone. She's facing Tam Nakano too. Which is kinda Danielson vs Blue Panther honestly. Super cool, but they are not on the same timeline.

Death is a strange thing. So people are gonna pretend that the Bray Wyatt "creative genius" wasn't actually dogshit now that Windham Rotunda sadly passed away ? Because it was actually dogshit. His "genius" ideas would not pass the test for B-level straight to video (back then, before streaming, ya know) horror exploitation movies. The Fiend was a legit worker killer. And even before that, although the production of the Wyatt family was always awesome, once the bell rang, Bray Wyatt was mid as it comes. And then you had the infamous Mania match with Orton and worms on the rampway or something, the terrible Broken Matt erzatz videos, and of course Alexa Bliss doing creepy lolicon inspired gimmick, which peaked with her vomiting some black (thankfully) gooey substance. All of this is WrestleCrap material, as they said back in the 00's. And yeah : Think about that one, Bray Wyatt vs LA Knight won WON (see what I did ?) Worst Match of the Year Award, THE SAME YEAR THE GUY DIED. And it wasn't even close to the worst shit he did (although everything about the Uncle angle was amazingly cringe and stupid). I know the new cliché to praise wrestling stuff is THIS IS CINEMA, except that makes me wonder what movies pro-wrestling fans are actually watching. (not to mention I always find that very ironic that the highest praise you'd give to a pro-wrestling angle or match would be to qualify it as something other than pro-wrestling, oh, the level of insecurity). And yeah, although I understand the feeling of the brother, this very much comes off as kinda exploitative, when you think that Bray Wyatt was, indeed, a huge merch seller. Which, call me cynical, may play into why WWE would even consider booking something like this.

Pretty much what I was thinking when I red the results. This is Walking Dead level of overstaying its welcome. As long as the audience gobbles it up, it's fine I guess, but really now.