El-P

Imagine having to pay for ad-free tier when subscribing on Netflix. What a scam this shit has become over the years. Long gone are the days of "Love is sharing a password" too. And yeah, the jokes are writing themselves at this point : 😂

In other news, it seems Rush and Dralistico are kinda iced because of an incident where, I know it's shocking, they got unprofesionnal by beating up a worker who was legit checked by the doctor. Ya know, at this point, I don't even see why Coach TK should bother. Rush is terrific, but he's ungovernable (see what I did ?). You can't rely on him nor his brother to behave. Let someone else have headaches with these two. And release Fénix and Miro while he's at it. Just save the money. Way too many talent on the roster already. Cut back and focus.

The real question is how CM Punk gonna manage to never bump on the Riyadh Season adds on the mat. Also, Bruce Prichard is back and apparently heavily involved with the Netflix show. Total change of an era. I sure hope Taker shows up alongside Hogan. The MAGAPowers explode.

Well, so apparently NJPW office feels Charlton going off script talking shit about AEW and calling TK a "money mark" was akin to make them lose face in front of their business partner. Which is a huge no-no.

I mean, they also chanted "Thank you Vince" not that long ago (this is still undersold how this was incredibly awful and slimy)... The audience is younger now and may be closer minded to the UFC crowd. The reaction he gets will say a lot about where they stand for sure. Honestly I'm very surprised they haven't brought Flair back already. The Whatever Energy sponsorship with AEW thankfully petered out quickly and hopefully he never shows up there again, but why in the hell WWE would not bring him back now or in the near future, no idea. Hell, I would not even be shocked to see Lesnar show up at the Rumble, at this rate.

Hilarious. In an ideal world, this turns into a big ass interpromotional war angle and NJPW brings Kevin Kelly back and Forbidden Door is NJPW vs UWF-I redux (and yeah, there's a joke in that reference too).

TKO is a full on Trump supporting act. So is WWE. They just are more hypocritical about it than UFC is. WWE has hired a "problematic" head of production *after* the Vince lawsuit was out. WWE is still dealing with Logan Paul, who is a legit crypto-scammer. WWE is partnering with Hulk "everybody is a bit racist/watcha gonna do when Trumpmania runs wild on you" Hogan and is bringing him to to Netflix debut. After years of "non-canon" bloodmoney shows that have been completely internalized as "normal business" by its fanbase, they now bring one of the big 4 (and really, one of the big 2) as a whitewashing act for MBS (ya know, the guy who ordered a journalist to be murdered then dismembered with a saw, hell, there's a Netflix documentary about it). So no, nothing has changed. Oh yeah, booking is better, let Papa Trip cook or something. Tune in for John "even Randy freaking Orton was not as offensive when talking about Vince" Cena's road to WrestleMania.

That was pretty damn cool, especially since he was part of the very first 01/04 Dome show, tagging with Dusty. Sammy seems to live his best life away from the pressure of the "AEW" shows. Also, Tay Melo going back to the ring in Stardom after 22 months had her in tears. It was so sweet. This was quite a moment for all involved. Maybe did not mean much (if anything) to these shows in the grand scheme of things, but it sure meant the world for them.

Takeshita was easily and by a wide margin the G1 Climax MVP too this year. Well, he's got a dual contract, whatever that means as far as how far NJPW can push him. Yeah, Charlton going way too hard into the "AEW has been stealing from NJPW", leaning into some of the fanboy talks online (just read NJPW reddit for a minute or two. Well, don't, because reddit is a cesspool of idiots apparently) to sell the Gabe Kidd angle, but he lacked... uh... any kind of subtlety. My take is that he's just not used to that kind of commentary work and he was just try-harding the whole thing. As much as I think he's great in a Mike Tenay role, I'm not a big fan of some of his ûber emphatic presentation at times, and this was a case of him trying way too fucking hard. He's getting some flack online now because people are shit and dumb and taking it at heart (yeah, he was just selling an angle guys and playing the NJPW good soldier). At the end of the show you could see they made it a reconciliation in a "in the heat of the moment you say stuff, but we do great together and are so happy" mode.

And when the dust settles, Kenny Omega is actually still the GOAT and the most unique pro-wrestler ever. Dynasty was better as far as in-ring than WK, but both show totally flew by, including the 43 minutes of ZSJ vs Umino, which I enjoyed a lot. NJPW is very clearly on a transitional period, and the Dynasty show was not very well thought-out (and really was NJPW & AEW with a little bit of CMLL and Stardom, not that massively fun inter-promotional show it was sold to be at first). Would be better off not doing the same mistake next year, two Dome shows in a row when you're not hot is not a great idea, but I enjoyed it a lot nonetheless for what it was. Takeshita getting a dual NJPW/AEW contract is an interesting news for sure. And yeah, AZM vs Mayu deserved WAY better than less than 10 minutes (they would probably have showed up everyone else too on that day of given 15 minutes). Then again, when Mercedes vs Mina (which was excellent, AGAIN) are early on the card the next day, that tells you everything you need to know about NJPW booking women matches on their shows in Japan. Of course, the irony is, Stardom did its biggest number in eons (ever ?) at Ryogoku last week, and it was also the best show of all the major shows I've watched during this period. After New Year Dash tomorrow where they launch the new programs of the new year, it's really the end of the most exciting period of the year wrestling wise for me.

And guess who's back for the first Netflix show ? Straight from cutting a wrestling promo at a Trump rally to the first ever "brand new era" show. The smell of the audience who would cheer for him after this shit. The sponsorships on the mat are a riot too, if the leak is real. Honestly at this point they just should straight out put Elon Musk's shit plastered all over the show too (imagine a WWE show in Germany with Musk's sponsorship after he directly supported the AFD, which are basically neo-nazis). Maybe they can run Cena's retirement in China. He can even cut a promo in the language... Man. 2025 is gonna be so cursed on every level.

Let's fucking gooooooo !!!! Here we are finally ! Maybe they should do it in some shitty NEOM site too. (the amount of delusion of WWE fans thinking they are not currently still living in Vince's dream... He made the Saudi deals, he made Saudi "their home", he recruited Cody personally and promised him the WWE title at Mania, the upswing of the company began while he was still at the helm. It's crazy that last year's Mania tried to whitewash the entire thing while having Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard show up in the ring at the end. They are running Cody vs Cena at Mania this year. This is STILL Vince's product and vision out there, 100%. Minor details in booking and in-ring style don't change the overall picture of what this company still is)

Reminds me : fuck Netflix forever for cancelling GLOW before I got a final season. Fuck Netflix in general, it's thrash, but for this, fuck them a whole lot.

I would not be surprised at all if Mayu lost the IWGP title at the Dome then moved on to Marigold once her contract is up, considering how close she was/is with Rossy. If that's the case, then the top of the card certainly looks different (plus Sareee is still a freelancer, so there is that). The fact that Yumi Fukawa's daughter and I think Michiko Ohmukai's daughter too are on the roster makes me feel old as hell, as I was a huge ARSION fan back in the days. It's kinda cool at the same time. (although nepotism is running rampant everywhere, it seems like it's been less of a case in japanese wrestling. Well, maybe not the best time to say that when Shota Umino is getting that Dome Show main event, but oh well)

No one will watch it. No one watched that stuff when it was on the WWE Network. You think anyone will watch that stuff on Netflix, which is overloaded with stuff nobody watches anymore and whose entire business model is about oversaturation of new content all the time ? WWE and Netflix really deserves each other though (take that as you will). Hey, now I can watch the Rumble or at least the first one, before I get really bored, without having to find some russian pirate feed on VK or something. Yeah, would have been fun a few years back to talk shit about it around here.

Imagine thinking "I'm so excited" is not a great fucking song... Well, of course, in 2025, you better have some track from Brat if you wanna be relevant to people under 30. Then again, I hear they got Elton Jon's back for Collision, so the musical relevancy of the entire thing is not exactly striking the minds of the younger generation. Nor mine. More like Copium. Yeah, that's all I have. Been sick as a dog for the last few days. (an ok show I guess, which is not exactly what it should have been. Highlight being Ricochet's angle with Swerve, which was great. Lowlight being Hurt Syndicate running over what used to be one of the hottest act of the company while contributing nothing to the overall product. Jarrett having his last ride run to the title angle the same year as Cena is top notch carny bullshit, you gotta love it. I legit enjoy the fact Jarrett and Dustin are gonna retire with AEW, as they are the two oldest wrestler still in activity that I started watching in the 90's. Julia Hart's return was a underwhelming, and returning now after those Moné bangers made it even harder (BTW, whatever happened to Britt Baker ?). No Ospreay, No Okada. Parts of me hope they show up in Tokyo. Mercedes should honestly have been there already and show up at Stardom's show tomorrow instead of having to run a promo by herself with no interaction with anyone. Almost feels like they were waiting for after the Dome shows to load up the card in two weeks)

Well, after the Dream Queendom show, it appears that despite Rossy leaving with a bunch of talents and the formation of (the quite underwhelming thus far) Marigold, Stardom is doing just fine. Excellent attendance at Ryogoku and a damn great show capped off by two awesome title matches. SLK vs Natsupoi is easily a MOTYC and the crowning of SLK was quite a moment. That girl is so great. Only 23 years old too. Most charismatic masked wrestler since, I dunno, Rey ? Liger ? Main event was on par and a heel performance for the ages by Saya Kamitami. Undercard also had the expected Saori Anou banger against Mika Iwata and an excellent bloody brawl (that's certainly new in Stardom, I'm guessing the Netflix show about Dump played a big part) between Natsuko Tora and Maika. The depth of the roster is still incredible. Consider this, they got a stable with AZM, Mei Seira and Suzu Suzuki, all of them being only 22 to boot. It's ridiculous. So yeah, unless there's a bunch of people leaving with the renewal contract season, Stardom will probably be fine. Meanwhile, Marigold has its first big show of the year counter-programing Stardom on the 3rd, running Hayashishita vs Sareee, by far their biggest match (well, their only big match at this point, really), which on paper sounds awesome. Undercards have been very hit and miss from what Ive seen, and the company totally comes off like "Stardom with a yellow logo and lesser talents" thus far.

That would be pretty damn horrific ! 😄 Hook is someone I have currently zero interest in. He hasn't shown much (any ?) progress because of the way he's booked (hint : don't protect rookies, they need to learn how to work), his promo work has been pretty terrible, he's not over (the cult/meme thing can only last for so long) he's basically nepotism 101 at this point. Wanna push a son-of ? Nick Wayne is right there, he's already miles ahead of many, many guys on the roster.

But really, now that I think of it, the C2 final should have been the main event. No one could follow it up, especially not a clusterfuck kinda match carried by a main event angle that is not clicking (I do enjoy it, but more in theory and look than in execution), and you still had the feel-good return at the end, and really, Omega getting face to face with Okada would have made for a much better closing of the show than Copeland & FTR chasing off Moxley, let's be real. I wonder, with the way they shot it, if they plan to build Omega vs Okada for All In. It's a long ass way away. Of course, it is a stadium show worthy match, but like everything, it's about building to a peak and not missing it (on that topic, it was kinda sad to see MJF vs Adam Cole, as this match would have gotten molten heat a year ago if Cole had not been injured and then came back while MJF had turn back heel, which screwed up pretty much the entire dynamic and made the whole angle just totally awkward, shit happens). The question mark is Omega's health and how he'll look once back in the ring. That will be answered pretty quickly now. Okada, well, that part is covered.

It was very good overall and could not follow Ospreay vs Okada anyways, so, I guess they went for not too fancy stuff. Same could be said about the Tijuana Street fight. I half expected some funky lucha-inspired props and shit, Lucha Underground style, but it was basically you basic brawl with chairs, table and whatnot. A good one mind you, but apart from a pinata, there was nothing Tijuana about it. But that's the way it is. I have built enough good will and appreciation for Copeland's last months of activity to overlook this. Like I said, it's basically a big match for Mox on his way to the Darby finale anyway. Plus, FTR vs any Deathriders combination is quite ok with me. It's a big return to send the crowd happy and it absolutely worked (although let's be real, the return that really matters was earlier on the show). Poor Jay White though. He's the kinda guy that can always eat a pin because he's a long haul worker, but still. Two years in a row now. (of course, if Copeland wins the title, then it's straight LOLTNA booking, but I highly doubt it's happening. I would appreciate if we could be done already with the neverending Christian Cage not-cashing storyline, because it has been gong nowhere for ever alongside the cold as ice story with Hook. Hopefully they move on from all of this soon).

Great show. Ospreay is the greatest, has been for quite a while now. Okada is still ridiculously great when the context calls for it, like, ridiculously great. Mercedes is back at being the greatest American woman wrestler (gotta love the details of the outfit and the finish being winks toward Mina, who she faces at the Tokyo Dome). Fletcher and Takeshita are the "future" greatest. Kenny returned ! (Eddie is not even near to be ready to come back, latest news was said to be about sometime in Spring of 2025 or something. Copeland was pretty much expected at the latest on Dynamite alongside FTR. He's just a bump in the road for the Deathriders, Darby most probably ends up defeating Moxley, if he doesn't kill himself doing that Everest nonsense)

Gold League was 100% awesome. Blue League, not as much. Because of Shelton Benjamin having no business being involved in this (on several levels) and the depressing booking of Beast Mortos, who is awesome and gets over because he's awesome, and gets rewarded with jackshit. Still, overall, C2 has been a success in term of delivering mostly great matches leading to what should be incredible final matches. After two years, it's definitely establishing itself as something to look forward to at the end of the year (unless gross miscast booking). Also, since he's heavy on tradition, Coach TK should absolutely keep on with the 3 Days in Hammerstein during X-mas season (since I'm guessing ROH is not going away, Final Battle belongs there). Looking forward to more of this smaller buildings thingy. Worlds Ends is probably gonna be great, all things considered. The C2 final matches all look awesome. For all its booking laziness, Mariah May and Thunder Rosa beating the hell out of each other and Mercedes Moné vs Kris Statlander 2 are top notch matches on paper that I'm very much looking forward too. Takeshita vs Hobbs look terrific. MFJ vs Adam Cole can be a great match despite the über awkward booking leading to this. And maybe we can move on from the remains of what 2023 could have been after that point. The 4-way should be excellent also and really, these are four old favorite of mine involved in the AEW title match. They really need to figure out what to do with that Hurt Syndicate that is not LOLAEW in 2025, because between yawnfest Benjamin in C2, Lashley beating Swerve Strickland clean with basically zero followup (and zero other match) and the humiliation of Ricochet which has to be a top 5 worst AEW TV segment ever, they have been nothing but damaging to me. I don't give a damn that people like to chant "We hurt people". They have brought basically only negatives to the product thus far to me. They need to Copeland their way into doing something positive or get fucked. 2024 certainly was an interesting year for AEW. They won the lottery with the TV deal, despite being less popular than ever. They have delivered some awesome cards and moments, made Swerve Strickland a star and on their way to do the same with Kyle Fletcher. Got Okada, Moné, Ospreay, Ricochet. Yeah. There's also plenty to criticize, plenty to be unhappy about. There's also plenty to be happy about and more potential for a seemingly endless streak of great pro-wrestling. AEW need to remember where they come from, not chase what they could have been at one point. And figure out what to be next and not give a flying fuck about the grifters.

Final Battle was a clear sign that Coach TK either : is completely toasted as a booker / ROH is now run out of escalation of commitment and nothing else. Either way, despite some really good matches and legit fun moments, the show overall was a complete downer, marred by totally idiotic booking decisions. And NO, at this point I do not care at all about a ROH TV deal. This ship has sailed. Even if there's a ROH TV show, guess what, I have no faith it'll be anything different from what ROH has been this year : a sub-Rampage show that's mainly a chore to watch. AEW was at its best when it was only Dynamite + 4 PPV's a year. That's the reality. Of course, getting TV right asks for something else, but more and more shows have only diluted the interests and hurt the booking in the grand scheme of things. Keeping ROH active was never ever a good idea, and right now this is getting ridiculous. Jericho vs Cardona killed the Hammerstein. Cardona's indy troll character was very fun for a while. Just plain Cardona is just that. Jericho winning way past the point of the crowd somewhat caring about the match sucked whatever energy was left in that building. Not that the crowd was wanting Cardona to win, really. By the end, they just did not care, but Jericho winning was the worst. And then a shitty comeback for the ages. After weeks of fun vignettes on AEW TV, Bandido makes is comeback at the worst time imaginable on a ROH show. And it's not like he got a big pop anyway because guess what : it is not 2019 anymore. No one in the curent audience remembers nor cares that Bandido was the ROH champ during the company's dying days. It's barely a "cool" reference. And of course, Bandido concusses himself, on top of it. And then Athena winning is ridiculous. It's not to say the program had nearly the same hype and energy it had last year anyway (pro-wrestling needs to be done with these overlong programs, they miss their peak 95% of the times), and Billie may not be ready to carry a world title belt (whatever that one means), as (really) good as she is. But guess what ? IT DID NOT MATTER. Billie NEEDED to win. She lost twice in a row now. That makes her entire storyline a complete downer and a waste, no matter how good the match was (and it was damn good, and Athena is awesome). And why in the EVERLOVING FUCK isn't Athena on AEW TV every fucking week mixing it up for the AEW title ? It's a joke. The one feel-good moment was Kommander winning the TV title after a terrific Survivor whatever they call it elimination match. Blake Christian should also be on TV every week. Great worker and great hateable heel. But of course, what is the VERY FIRST thing they show after Kommader great celebration in the ring ? Well, the C2 standings of course, with right of the middle of your screen : Kommander = 0. Nice. That also means that all the guy in the matches must be zeros too then. Straight out of WCW/TNA playbook. Incredible. Not to mention, you really have to promote AEW on that Final Battle show that only the hardcore of the hardcore of your dwindling audience is watching anyway ? Nigel coming back to the Hammerstein and it was indeed awesome. Loved the match with Moriarty, who is a complete joy to watch. The battle of the Macho Men was fun as hell. Extra points for Karen as Sensational Sherri. Enjoyed Leila Hirsch vs Red Velvet quite a bit despite some rough spots. Shibata vs El Hijo del Dynamite Kid and Mansour vs Atlantis was random as hell. Enjoyable to some degrees but random as hell and stuff right off the aimless weekly show. The MxM gimmick is still the drizzling shit. Oh yeah, and booking a blood feud for a match where you know you can't do blood is genius. So Dustin/Sammy vs Righteous would have been the worst match of the night if not for Jericho/Cardona. And really now. I know people have a Dusty Rhodes fetish, but those cowbells match never were any good, really. Plus, maybe that had its appeal in some redneck county in the 80's, but in NYC, in 2024 ? Really now ? Anywoo. By a huge margin the worst TKROH special ever, both as far as in-ring and especially the depressing booking which reeks of the awful years of WWE in the last 2010's. Which sucks for the talent involved, because they are a-plenty, and they deserves of shitload more than this. And yeah, maybe, eventually, possibly, there is a ROH TV show coming up. And guess what ? I don't care, because that show made it plenty clear that I should not care.

Darby vs Ospreay was awesome, but I was too depressed by the dogshit Hurt Syndicate stuff earlier on (and Toni Storm wasn't enough to bring me back) to pay much attention to it. Gotta watch it again some time I guess. Meanwhile, it's Final Battle at Hammerstein, with ROH bringing the most whatever show possible in the cult venue. Athena vs Billie Starks had so much more momentum last year.

It would be an interesting thing is it actually changed the way pro-wrestling shows were produced. There has been pretty much no evolution since the early 00's now. Even AEW is still basically shot, produced and formatted like a WWE weekly show. Nitro revolutionized TV wrestling. I doubt moving on Netflix will change anything though. Netflix has only made TV shows more conventional and formatted. How pro-wrestling is produced will probably be set in stone forever, sadly. I wish there would be a lot more creative propositions, like Lucha Underground was. AEW is "just another pro-wrestling promotion" after all, and it has failed recapturing the feeling of freshness of those early Nitro shows (although it was there to a degree the first 2/3 years or so). That's my pet peeve with pro-wrestling. It's treading water esthetically. With every big money entertainment doing exactly the same shit over and over again and exploiting old franchises to ridiculous degrees, with a streaming business model that is all about submerging the audience with a neverending flux of content to keep them captured, I don't see how this could jumpstart exciting changes. Especially as long as WWE is hot as it is. I don't see Lesveque as someone who will take any risks. Hell, he's still running with the hand that was given to him by Vince (the Bloodline and Cody).