El-P

Well, they did anti-bullying campaigns, which is absolutely laughable considering their company culture, so...

Yes, but what I got from Schiavone doing those ECW watch-along podcasts with Conrad is that he's way more open minded than most of his generation's counterparts and loves to actually have fun and make what he's announcing fun. Which, if you listen to JR's podcast, is really not JR's case. You can feel Tony is legit having tons of fun calling those insane matches of today, like he has a blast watching these old ECW shows. And it comes through. Meanwhile, JR is making stupid calls about "orientals" and flubs people's names, just like he was mixing up Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit in 2000.

That's understood, but he's paid to do a job. If he can't do it properly, he has to pack his bags and fucking contribute in other ways. I mean, Tony Schiavone went to make the greatest call in the history of our sport (you know the one) to be super enthousiastic calling garbage matches with Mance Warner in MLW. So there. To me Excalibur & Tony together would be just great. If AEW proves anything, is that JR is and always has been an overrated announcer (including in Watts, including in WCW, including in WWE) and Tony Schiavone, in the grand scheme of things and on a day to day basis, always has been much better.

I guess Vince thinks depression means weakness. As much as I can't stand Mauro as an announcer and he may be an asshole, fuck Vince and his office stooges. Corey's tweet was a total dickhead move.

So, what I got from the Jerry Lawler episode is that really, most of the stuff he's been involved in in WWE has been pretty bad apart from the first Bret feud (not the 1995 one) and that he had "legal issues" in 1993, which was resolved. I understand JR and Lawler are best friend, but I dunno, it came off like a huge cop out to me to just say "legal issues". Conrad basically sent people toward the Survivor Series 93 podcast with Brucie. I mean, I understand why, but it did not come off well. Also, did you know once JR had a lunch with the Rock when they were hiring him, and every waitress came to the table wanting to serve him because he had a tank top and looked like a God ? No ? Because I think that's the fourth or fifth time he's telling that story already. The SS95 episode was ok and I was interested in the topic, but really, JR is grumpy, ranting, repeating himself a lot and not very compelling at this point.

Yep. He was right on point with that one. The one thing about these AEW people, is that they are smarter. They have studied and learned, which has not been the case of people in WWE or the old TNA (apart from D'Amore). For instance, one thing that cracked me up, during the break after the Young Bucks showed up, Nick challenges Proud & Powerful & Hagger to a six-men tag for *next week*. And of course, it doesn't get over well with the crowd, as these things never do. And would you know ? Matt jumps in and tells his brother "I told you not to say that, I told you they are gonna boo that one !", which was so funny and smart. These people are aware, and they aren't afraid to show you and don't want to insult their audience intelligence, and that's a huge difference. Considering your audience is smart can be tricky sometimes, as the idiots are gonna complain, but it's way more fun and rewarding when it works. And it usually does, because when you talk to people like they are actual intelligent people, it stimulates their intelligence. I never got why "smart marks" was an insult. We all are the product of the smart mark culture. We are pro-wrestling geeks, so I dunno why we should not enjoy the fact a promotion is being done by and for pro-wrestling geeks.

Callis was so great getting that one over. Also, Tessa invented the DDT. Yeah. Classic stuff. That's how you book a babyface. (to me they all shined as performers in this, but I want to say how great Ethan Page was)

It's this weeks show, so from 11.26. It was called IPWF this week, because that's the name of the territory they were pretending to be... Some Canadian territory, sometime in the early 80's, when Grandmaster Flash was a thing and such...

This. See : the Dark Order vignettes, which are terrific and actively turning what was a complete miss into something you can actually sink your teeth in now. I feel like 20 years of WWE shit booking has messed up some people's mind. Mystery can be good. The only thing odd about The Butcher & The Blade debut is that Excalibur acted like he knew who they were, yet didn't explain. But of course we're gonna get the explanation and story-arc. It's not WWE, they do things for a reason and will change the directory if things don't go well. People need to get back some patience/faith, I do get after two decades of mainstream US wrestling that has made no sense, it's not always easy. As far as Allie turning into the Bunny already, great. Yeah, I love the Pieter look, although much less strippery. Hell, as much as I know the character, she may show up as smily Allie next week and pretend not knowing what happened, since Allie's thing is that behind the smiling babyface, she's basically batshit crazy. Anyway, a team looking like characters from Gangs of New York managed by the sexy Bunny, I'm all in. I wonder if Marty Scurll is that far behind, because as far as look goes, he totally fits with the three of them... PAC vs Omega was the equivalent of Guerrero vs Benoit on Nitro. Give me PAC every week. DDP should get Waldrow & MJF do an extreme session of DDPY. They would die even trying Living in the Red Zone. Which I'm doing without dying (although it's close). Statlander was on Dark the other week. Yeah, she has shitloads of potential. Sakura is awesome when she channels the inner Taichii. The women division is shaping up slowly but surely, with girls like her and Shanna being thrown in the mix. Jericho may be the wrestler of the year, between this AEW Le champion stint and his NJPW big matches. Ted Irvine was quite funny. I guess Janela tweeted one week too early and then realized it, because they indeed did not show how he was eliminated. They need Tony Schiavone back and have him every damn week. That's all I'm gonna say about the announcing... (fucking oriental...asian... JR, really ?)

Sorry to hear that. But hey, if you have to watch one last show, this is a love letter to old-school pro-wrestling and the camp of it. Yes, it's pastiche, but to do a good pastiche, you have to legit know and love what you are parodying, which is why this show is so awesome to me. There's as much fun stuff in the second half of the show, but I don't want to spoil anything anymore.

Not since April apparently. I though the episode was pretty interesting, as Terri Runnels is always a compelling interview to me, even if it did not adress much in term of pro-wrestling content. I'll keep on listening when a guest I like pops up.

That's all well and good, but when did Taker really became a legendary character as opposed to a geat gimmick ? When he began to have really good matches, around the time Cactus showed up and pushed him further from his first way of working. He alreay had some good matches before has he was slowly transitionning to a more workraty style (for the time and WWF, absolutely), as showed by his match with Nash at Mania. Before that point, less was less with Taker, honestly. The gimmick was great (and not believable one bit, and totally "goofy performance art" too), but the matches were often dreadful (not his fault he was often paired up with shitty workers too though).

I'm not the one being upset, since I'm absolutely fine with it. A package piledriver on the apron as "just a spot" doesn't bother me anymore. Less can be more, but less can also be less. And more can be more too. There's not just one way.

Meanwhile, IMPACT's show this week was a love letter to old territory wrestling (and a bit more) in all its campy glory. Just brillant stuff.

Ok, this show is a must-see. Easily one of the most fun show of the year for me. Right up there with GLOW.

Except Pro-wrestling has never been believable. Ever. Or maybe, just maybe, in some forms of the UWF in Japan, way before MMA became an actual sport. A Canadian Destroyer is a basic nearfall in 2019 while it was a deathspot in 2005. Much like a vertical suplex was just a basic spot in 1990 while it was a finisher in the 70's, and a DDT was a transition move in the 00's (unless you are Raven, but that's another matter) while it was a killshot 10 years before. The only difference is that we lived through the last 30 years and we were conditionned to think what we saw when we learned how it works was the norm of forever. Except it wasn't. It was just a singular point in time in a given cultural context. Meltz talked about how the mexican guys he met when he was young thought US pro-wrestling looked faked as hell while lucha looked real. If I'm 15 today and discovering pro-wrestling, I have no issue whatsoever with how the matches are worked because that's the norm of today. And it doesn't make more or less sense than the norm of 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

Ok, I won't spoil anything more, I promise. Just that one because it's an obvious one : Dreamer paying tribute to Terry Funk, which you know is so totally heartfelt. This show is pure joy of being an old pro-wrestling fan and having fun with the camp of it all.

I'm half-way through and it's the most absurd pro-wrestling show this year since the Penis Party during Mania Week-end. It's also actually the right way to pay tribute and have fun with the territory era. There's SO MANY little references beyond the obvious ones. From Callis being Sexton Hardcastle to Sami Callihan being basically Cornette and Ethan Page doing a better Ric Flair than Nick Aldis, to the big-ass stain on the mat, the squeaking sound of the ring, to four Horsewomen (basically) with Jessica Havoc cutting a female version of Flair-banging-rats promo, to the rare appearance of Bill Ding (so he WAS a thing) teaming with Jim Nasium, Tim Burr and Ray Strack, nods to Dusty promos & Austin promos, Fallah Bah & D-Lo paying hommage to Tazmaniac/TNT/HeadHunters while referencing the Demolition theme song, Cody Deaner being a perfect Fabulous One Steve Keirn (and he could be a Freebird too), Johnny Swinger being himself (of course) and an innovator of moves and maybe my favourite : Madison Rayne as Jazzy Fitbody in a classic angle (although that wicked second rope splash was way too dangerous for my likings, this diving shit is gonna kill the business, there's no need for this movez insanity, and then what do you do next ? Top rope splash ? Seriously...). And that's half-way through. Seriously, IMPACT is killing it.

The two best matches I have seen this decade, and ever, pretty much : Omega vs Naito, G1 Climax Final 2017 and Omega vs Okada 2/3 falls from Dominion 2018. Okada is pretty easily the wrestler of the decade. Most important promotion, to me : Lucha Underground. It got me back into the groove of modern pro-wrestling after pretty much 12 years of not caring anymore, opened my mind to look toward the future instead of the past. Best development : the creation of AEW.

Don't kid yourselves, Omega is gonna be the AEW champ eventually. They really should bury the hatchet with NJPW. Omega vs Ibushi in AEW would break the Internet.

The thing is, Cornette being here or not doesn't change the booking and the end result one bit. This is where they were going since the start. I guess the whole storyline is unfolding at the PPV, but yeah, like I felt this whole deal was kinda going nowhere for weeks now. However, the fact this show is getting almost as much dislikes as likes on Youtube is totally the result of the Cornette debacle. With idiotic comments polluting the entire feed. So, if there's only one thing to learn from this whole deal, it's that Cornette is indeed totally toxic and shouldn't be touched with a ten foot pole. If the NWA had not hired him in the first place, this week's show (if it had happened under this format, which very well may have been) would have merely been dismissed as a missable recap show. Instead, you're getting a complete backlash because Corny has built a cult of hateful, behind-the-times followers with an agenda (and who also don't mind racist and homophobic stuff and whine about "SJW"). The irony is that in he end, the most faithful NWA Powerr watchers may end up being the crossover section with the hardcore AEW fans, since Meltz reported 1/3 of Powerr's audience came from Dark. And these people are not crying over Corny being gone... (somewhere, Court Bauer is breathing with relief, having dodged a bullet)

Honestly, I have a hard time thinking of Kenny Omega as a geek, since I saw him sell out (almost) the Tokyo Dome and the Ryogoku Kokugikan and have the two best matches I have ever seen in my 30 years of fandom. And since it's all a matter of perception, I see Omega as that guy. The quirkiness/meta aspect of his personality has always been there, including in Japan. Maybe when all is said and done, he'll be one of those "He was bigger in Japan" guys (like Brody, Hansen, Dr. Death), and it's perfectly fine.

Ok. Corrected. Booker was not from Harlem either, so my analogy is even better that way.

Yeah, he's making good points, get the match over, can be funny. Well, I hope they noticed, because he sure can make a transition when needed. Loved this episode, best Dark thus far. Shanna vs Swole was a fine match, with Swole showing more personality and looking more comfortable. And then don't even expect me to be objective on Shanna, but she's quite good anyway and I'm glad she seems to be in their plans. Awesome Kong's new presentation is glorious. Leva Bates & Peter Avalon getting squashed will never get old. And then they go overtime for a really good title match. Evans can do some crazy looking stuff. Not on par with the Janela match, but a cool showcase for Evans in singles and Omega is just a pleasure to watch anytime.

I dunno. Omega basically is like Bret Hart or Chris Benoit, he is canadian and he's a great wrestler. That's about it, he doesn't need to be a "character" beyond this. Oh, and he's got kind of a quirky personality and loves video games and Japan. As far as Page, same deal. He's a young, good looking workhorse pretends to be (corrected) from Texas, hence the cowboy look. What was Barry Windham's "character" anyway ? I mean, if you take some of WCW's comparable workers in term of status on the card, what was Booker T's character apart from being a workhorse from pretend Harlem who said "sucka" a lot ? Well, Page is a guy from pretend (corrected) Texas who says "cowboy shit", uses a bunch of lariats and has ridden a horse to the ring once. Works for me thus far...