El-P

He is. Fenix is awesome. He was one of the big revelation, the biggest probably, of Lucha Underground to me. Penta can be hit and miss, but he has that character that gets over big time. He can be really freaking good or be on cruise control (he's older too). But Fenix totally outshined Prince Puma (who was Ricochet under a mask) as a babyface in LU after only a few shows. And when he turned heel (damn, now I'm sad I won't ever see the closure of the awesome Dark Fenix angle with Melissa Santos), he showed another side of his talent. The guy is simply one of the very best in the world. He's this generation's Rey Mysterio Jr. (but he can be a rudo too). I think there's a reason why they have been featuring Trent 'not Berreta anymore' two weeks in a row now, he's a future single worker they can push further than his tag-team.

If we can learn something from this week, is that AEW don't really act like they are in any kind of war. After the worrying ratings of the previous weeks, they just kept business as usual, doing their show and building their talents, with single Penta & Fenix matches (which can be big deals at one point, but not now, especially not against other tag workers in single like Trent & Daniels), Joey Janela in the main event, another squash match. They did not even sell last week's ratings. To me it's a good thing. Yeah, the buzz is fading, but you can't sustain a buzz for ever, especially when your aim is long term. I happen to watch the former Monday Night Wars TNA shows right now to get a grasp out how badly they fucked this up (it's amazing to watch BTW, what a disaster) and they are doing the polar opposite. They never went into a war themselves, they just are getting a company on the ground and try to make it viable. I take long-term over quick buzz any day. As someone who had quit watching weekly wrestling TV for almost 15 years until LU showed up in late 2014, I'm just glad I get 2 weekly shows I'm looking forward to (IMPACT & Dynamite) at this point.

She was a great valet for Cody and absolutely helped him redefine himself and get over on the indies and NJPW. She's a terrific promo but a passable in-ring wrestler, so manager is her best role. She's also hot as fuck. Put that all together and put her with Kong, who is past her prime but was an amazing (pun intended) worker and just has IT in term of aura and charisma and you've got a winner act to me, as it's the best of both world. The whole kinda New Orleans witch image is also super cool. Gotta love that. As far as I go, I will always prefer a promotion for the hardcores any day over any kind of mainstream appeal. Hulkamania and Attitude Era sucked in term of in-ring content.

Well, it was fun while it lasted… or maybe at one point I'll feel sick in the stomach for ever enjoying a Teddy Hart match, no idea.

That's a good question. Maybe not, indeed. Although I did not care to watch the previous PPV with Aldis vs Cody II (despite loving their match at All In), but I was curious to see what Corgan would do with the franchise. But I guess a show with the same exact roster that was named something else and would look like ROH or even MLW would probably have gotten no attention from me. Like I said, this project is at least intriguing to me, maybe for wrong reasons.

Ok. Now I want this feud to happen and Marko Stunt to play Butters.

MLW has a TV deal. They are on BEiNG Sports. No idea what their actual watchers numbers are, but considering they actually sell tickets to shows and seem to do reasonnably well all things considered (better than IMPACT I believe ?), I guess they are doing ok on TV for whatever their reach is. The reason why I keep on watching NWA is because : A/it's on Youtube so it's easy as hell to watch. If it wasn't on Youtube, not sure I would get through the trouble of grabbing it somewhere, honestly. So yeah, that plays a part. B/I guess part of me still wants to find something about the show I like and hope it will get better. Hell, I guess from what I get, I like James Storm (from his old TNA days in AMW and Beer Money) and Colt Cabana more than most. I like Thunder Rosa. I like Kamille. I like Eddie Kingston. I like Trevor Murdoch. I'm quite ok with Eli Drake. So there. The day I have no interest at all anymore (or get busy IRL, that would be a change), I will just quit watching.

Ok, cool. Oh, and by the way, I'm not angry at all. Sometimes (often ?) I make a joke or a sarcastic comment and it may come off like I'm angry to some people, but I really don't take things so seriously.

I don't give a flying fuck about anyone liking what I like or not. I guess NWA Powerr is an interesting topic to me for several reasons (the whole "retromania" issue is something that is quite fascinating in general, not just in pro-wrestling), and the thread is always quite active so I guess there's more material for discussion than say, on the MLW and IMPACT threads in which I'm quite active too usually. The day NWA Powerr delivers something I will love (and who knows, like I said I was about to quit MLW several times and then their big show was terrific and I loved it), be sure I will talk about it too.

I have a hard time with this mentality. I explained why in endless details in this very thread. To me it doesn't work because just like you said, it's about aesthetics only. It's cosmetic. And that's why it's empty to me. The fact this show got way more traction that MLW, which is also on Youtube and available to everyone, speaks volume about how a simple cosmetic choice can create a positive bias for a product which, overall, really isn't very good. Yeah, the promos are good because they have a bunch of really strong talkers, but the wrestling has been mostly pure nothingness because of the cosmetic choice of doing super short matches. The reason the old territory shows were doing super short matches in a studio setting is because they were selling house shows. That was the necessity of the business model and had nothing to do with the belief that "Oh, short match and squashes are what makes a good pro-wrestling show". NWA Powerr isn't selling house shows, so they are replicating something totally out of context and so the cosmetics end up weighing more than the actual content of the show. What's left if most of the wrestlers, matches and angles aren't very good/cool ? Cosmetic. Aesthetics. The difference with Lucha Underground is that Lucha Underground was basically studio wrestling too, but with a modern, hell, you can argue even avant-garde approach with the entire vignette stuff being unseen by the announcers, as the whole thing was basically its own universe. The cosmetic was super important, but the matches were also presenting something looking forward, whatever people thought about it. And yet, it was studio-wrestling, quite literally.. So yeah, I agree there's a place for a cool, different kind of presentation, hell it's even needed. But this hasn't been it, because NWA Powerr has been a clear case of the cosmetics smothering the entire product, instead of just giving you that old-school style with a twist. I would watch a vaporwave studio wrestling show every week. Hell, I'd watch IPWF (the fake IMPACT early 80's promotion) every week. Yeah,it's pastiche, but at least it is funny and it is a more heartfelt and smart tribute to territory wrestling that Powerr has been to me. Wait, what was that ? FTR, Momma Storm is Judy Bagwell level lame. No idea why anyone thinks it's cool. A 50 year old guy talking about his "momma" sounds dumb as fuck. There's a George Carlin quote about that somewhere...

Not even close. Okada. Defined the state of the art pro-wrestling of the decade; took the torch passed on by Tanahashi and kept on rebuilding NJPW into a hot promotion (the only hot promotion in Japan, really). Reigns has been the rejected chosen one of a slowly crumbling down (in term of interest and attendance) WWE. So there.

So, last week meant zilch. Interesting. About all those wacky cult gimmicks, you know what, I for one love the fact AEW already has moved clear away from "sports oriented" approach and embraces the sillier aspect of pro-wrestling. More Lucha Undergound/BTE, less Mid-South fetish ! Yay !

So, basically, people were hyped about a LEGO studio setting and a Dokken song.

I only find it ironic that after years and years and years the old TNA (not the IMPACT of Callis/D'Amore) was the laughing stock of the pro-wrestling landscape, got no credit whatsoever, most of every workers who where TNA-originals (or affiliated) were considered like jokes (see how a super solid worker like Robert Roode got shit on by most when he got to NXT), but put them in a LEGO Georgia Territory Studio and have them feud on top of the card and all of a sudden it's cool and old-school. ALdis vs Storm is old-school all-right. Old-school TNA from the early to mid 2010's. The rest is dressing up. I for one have no issue with this, hell I've probably spent more time than anyone talking about old TNA on this board, but the idea that NWA Powerr is a fresh product because it "looks" like an old territory show when they deliver stuff like Eli Drake vs Ken Anderson is kinda, yeah, funny to me. Also, the insane amount of TV time devoted to a guy like Aron Stevens reeks of old TNA. Take a guy who was a joke act in WWE and push him at the US title level. Same for the new announcer, who's immediately referred to by his old WWE gimmick. Because it's funny and ironic that *now*, these are are cool, apparently, when for the last ten years any of them would have been loledtna out of any conversation. I mean, Nick "Brutus Magnus" Aldis and James "Beer Mooney" Storm. Old TNA failures, that's how these guy would be refered of they showed up on NXT I would believe (unfairly, but that's how it goes). Please, let's not make that an AEW vs NWA thingy because it's not at all. I shit on what I find shitty about NWA Powerr because I actually followed the promotion for the last two months, much like I have blasted whatever I have found shitty on MLW for the last year and a half (and I have found tons of shitty stuff on MLW, and also things that I like). And like I said about MLW, hey maybe NWA will turn things around, but to me they have to change quite a bit of stuff on those seconds tapings. NWA isn't ROH yet to me, I'm still at least interested in checking them out (for how long, no idea). And also, if we're perfectly honest, if AEW fails and collapse, it will be a very bad thing for the pro-wrestling landscape and its workers. If NWA Powerr disappears, it will barely be a blip on the radar, as it's not exactly on the same range. (it's not even on the same range with LU at the end, with guys like Fenix & Penta, Cage, Kross, Hijo del Fantasma etc… signed to those ridiculous contracts)

Apart from Matt Taven, who has zero hype whatsoever and whose reign has totally tanked the promotion anyway (in his case, I wonder why ROH would want to keep him) and the Briscoes for obvious reasons, I dunno why anyone with a profile would want to stay in ROH while WWE and AEW are in a war for talent. Especially NXT signing anyone just for them not to show up in AEW. It will not last forever. Scurll staying in ROH now makes no sense. He's gonna waste years of his career in a dying promotion with no guarantee of being a sought after commodity in a few years (and will AEW will even be a factor then, no one knows, so that's another risk). Right now, he could rule NXT feuding against Adam Cole or be a big name in AEW. Same goes for guys like PCO (whom I guess would love to get another shot at making it in WWE), Brody King (AEW badly needs a guy like him) and Rush (who can do whatever the hell he wants). And whatever side on the fence they go will only improve their profile. Staying in ROH makes them afterthoughts at best.

They ran the Rock'n'Roll Express match, when it leads to nothing concrete on the PPV. Why could they not ran the three-way since it does determine the PPV main event ? Also, Storm lost the US title, so why winning some three-way would make him the n°1 contender when the US champ, by NWA rules, is the n°1 contender ? None of this makes any sense.

That's a pretty great description. But that's actually a great heel gimmick. Also, his face (not the haircut) really reminds me of an old friend, who's an old college cinema teacher and intellectual. So there's a bit of odd cognitive dissonance whenever I watch Jimmy Havoc.

I can totally relate to that. I mentioned on the JR Podcast thread that basically the Lawler episode reminded me that most of Lawler's WWE stint had been awful. I only appreciated the first Bret Hart feud from 1993 way after the fact, at the time, not having any notion of who Lawler was (and watching the show in French, without Lawler's announcing), "slightly pudgy commentator" was exactly how Lawler came off to me. I probably wouldn't be so hard on Lawler from 95-97, but I definitely agree he was far removed from Heenan or Ventura, hell, even Heenan on Nitro was much better in getting the NWO angle over. And yeah, "puppies" is pretty much his legacy from the Attitude Era. When you add the fact he had "legal issues" as they said on the aforementioned podcast for allegedly raping 16 years old girls and his infamous taste for younger women in general, that has aged horribly (and honestly was already awful and annoying as fuck back then). Lawles is definitely an overrated figure in pro-wrestling folklore (and yeah, I mean overrated in general, I never ever bought into the post-DVDVR Memphis set narrative of Lawler being this all-time great worker either, I debated for countless hours about this back then; I settled on "very good", which came off as an insult to the Memphis-heads) and honestly a shady character that is getting multiple passes where most people would not. Maybe that's because he throws a great punch.

I forgot that one. He may very well be excellent in his role, but the way he was introduced reeked of old TNA, immediately refering to his WWE character. "We know who that is…" I mean, of all the people you could get, you had to pick some clear cut 00' WWE reject and not someone fresh from the indies or a surprising old-timer. Yeah, total TNA feel. That being said, maybe he'll be great in his role, so hopefully it works. I do hope their next set of tapings will follow a different pattern, because that "first season" really wasn't good.

Jimmy Havoc stapling the fines he gets for stapling people on his opponents' forehead is quite a smart and funny idea. I like the fact he referred to him getting drunk at a bar too. Also, he guy can actually work, as showed by this good little match with Cutler. Between this and some ridiculous stuff on MLW, I'm warming up slowly but surely to Jimmy... I guess Nyla didn't get the memo about not referring to the Perfect Ten. She's pretty good though, but nowhere near Spears last week. Santana & Ortiz vs Jurassik Express was really good. Marko shined in that one (not even mentioning the dart-style canadian destroyer during the post-match). The one thing with P&P is that they probably are better suited as babyfaces (Ortiz especially as that goofy babyface charisma). Guevarra on the other hand can't be likable, ever, so just hanging on with him balances things. They were quite funny along Hager on this week's BTE (which was Being the Inner Circle). Tony & Dasha work quite well together hosting this show BTW.

Considering how this entire series turned out in term of actual matches and booking, the Corny debacle really ends up being a smokescreen to hide the fact this promotion is simply not very good. The top of the PPV card kinda looks like a TNA tribute card : Aldis vs Storm (old TNA champs). Drake vs Anderson (TNA dream match of guys who act like Rock/Austin). And a WWE reject comedy guy who is getting way more time than he should (TNA staple) and gets a title match against Cabana (and people complained about comedy wrestling in AEW ?). And then, 60+ years old Rock'n Roll Express as tag champs. Don't get me wrong, I popped hard for Ricky Morton doing a cool spot at Spring Break (thanks Janela) and on AEW TV & PPV. But there's a difference between do a cool little match on a crazy indie show and be your actual tag team champions in 2019, in the times of the Young Bucks, Lucha Bros, Revival, Undisputed Era and whatnot. I kinda hate to be that guy, the in the end, there's nothing there but nostalgia pop and retromania. For the record, the title match was also a complete nothing match, so you didn't even get the real fun of an actual surprisingly good match in 2019 like they had against the Briscoes or LAX (hell, or even that fun match I saw from a Bar Wrestling show). It's not old-school, it's just old. And as far as Kamille go, the booking has also been a smokescreen of pseudo mystery, as in a matter of 8 weeks, they haven't made a actual understandable storyline out of it. IMPACT has been my favorite promotion for the last 18 months (not counting AEW since it's so new), mostly because they make the most out of everything they got and they know how to build feuds that make sense and tell stories, even if it's ridiculous ones (like Ace Austin vs Eddie Edwards, which was total camp). In 8 weeks, it doesn't seem so hard to actually build to a PPV with simple storyline advancement every episode. They pretty much have done zilch in that respect, while at the same time delivering nothing in term of actual good matches (I can think of one or two decent ones) because of their "old-school studio wrestling format" which puts all the emphasis on promos and quickies. So in the end, you get the worst of both worlds : no really fun matches that you get on MLW at times (despite their dubious at best booking) for instance, and no good booking either, with stuff like James Storm losing his US championship yet getting the title shot, and matches and stips thrown in seemingly from nowhere on the last two episodes, one of which being a recap show. So yeah. When I think we won't ever have a Lucha Underground season 5 but this promotion will go on (under what format, I have no idea, I can't see them doing any good PPV numbers nor keeping any hype after the last few weeks), well, let's say the pro-wrestling landscape is not better for it. I may still keep on checking out what they do after the PPV (and hey, I was about to drop MLW from my watch-list and then they delivered one of the most fun show of the year to me), but at this point, I simply wish some of their talented people will end up somewhere else where they can shine eventually.

Funny that some years after the #womensevolution, the only notable angle they are running in late 2019 is all about a women getting totally sexually objectified and painted as a complete slut. (and for those who wonder, I do follow the angle on Youtube, it's fascinatingly terrible)

Eddie Gilbert was a small guy who had a great mind for new ideas. He was instrumental in kicking off garbage wrestling cult matches with Cactus Jack in the Phillie area before ECW, and then was instrumental in putting ECW on the map. He had a super cool act with his hot-as-fuck and great valet Missy Hyatt. He was deemed "too small" by old-school mentality. Joey Janela is a small guy who has a great mind for new ideas. He's made his name in cult garbage matches and was successful in promoting some of the most crazy and innovative indy shows at Mania week-ends for the last few years. He had a super cool act with his hot-as-fuck and great valet Penelope Fort. He's deemed "too small" by old-school mentality.

No, but a valet leaving a wrestler to go with another wrestler is pro-wrestling angle 101. This is Missy Hyatt leaving John Tatum for Eddie Gilbert (and now that I think of it, you can definitely make an analogy between Eddie Gilbert and Joey Janela too). I hope they do work that angle at some point. Ford is super fun as a valet who can bump and do cool shit.

That angle reeks of Russo 1999, with the only clear heel in the whole trio being the woman. It's a more developped rehash of Dustin/Terri/Val.