El-P

I do think Corny has been insane for a long time now, but some of us (well, I plaid guilty on this one) did not want to admit that because all of his rage was focused on Vince Russo, basically the antechrist of pro-wrestling. Still, when he said on one of the Vice documentary last year that he wish he would outlive Russo to piss on his grave (which he had said before in shoot-interviews where it was thought to be ah ah because it was in the bubble), I was like... wow, really ? On an actual documentary. I know he is working, but still, the amount of bile and hate he is spewing is just ridiculous. Dutch Mantell who worked with both he and Russo in TNA back in the 00's talked about how Corny's hatred was gonna eat him from the inside and that was stupid. I mean, who needs that amount of negativity in his life ? Yeah, he's toxic.

The AXS shows have been really strong I thought thus far. IMPACT is on a roll, they may be at their best since I've been catching up with them from Slammiversary 18. Honestly they are actually better at creating characters than AEW, who are indeed reliyng too much on the idea everyone is already familiar with their workers (it doesn't bother me, but it's the case). IMPACT delivers the little promos and silly vignettes that I want from my weekly US pro-wrestling. Also, the announcing is my favourite. Callis is awesome and he's got a great chemistry with Matthews. It's more relaxed and fun, and very efficient when it's time for actual big serious angles. RVD having a total midlife crisis is brillant. The fact he now teases his big spots but doesn't deliver them is a great callback to Cactus anti-hardcore gimmick in ECW. Been having a lot of fun with Madison Raynes Locker Room Leader stuff. I hope Taya never leaves, she and John E Bravo have a great act and she's just awesome at this point. Lot of good matches this week, and The North vs Marufuji & Edwards is actually my second favourite match of the week (behind Lawlor vs Thatcher on MLW). I just can't wait for the 1983 show… It'll never get emphazised enough, despite the discutable business pratices of the promotion and lack of hype, Callis & D'Amore have done an amazing job rehabing IMPACT in term of the actual product.

I agree 100%. That's absolutely the issue. I disagree 100%. Joey Styles was absolutely a big part of getting the ECW talent over. He wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs all the time. He had the smarky smart-ass references but these were cool and different in the 90's context. He also was alone doing announcing for most of his stint (especially for the best years of ECW), so he had to carry the excitement by himself (and yet, he knew when to amp it up and when to just talk normally). But he knew how to work with a color guy and play off of them, he never buried anyone under constant yelling. Yeah, "Oh my god !" became synonymous with Styles and eventually kinda turned into a gimmick, but it's a simple exclamation, not something that is in essence totally gimmicky like Mauro's annoying "Mamma Mia" or his out of nowhere barrage of pop culture reference. Mauro is a vocal Twitter feed of memes. NXT talent never needed Mauro to get over and he doesn't help. Styles definitely knew how to get people and angles over.

Oh, and by the way "Omega is making a face like his butt plug just fell out." (it was on the same video apparently, I got it from the comments). Ok. No homophobic tone to this stuff at all...

If Corgan is smart, Corny won't be at the next taping. I mean, seriously, he's just losing his mind. Yeah, Memphis has always been the laughing stock of the territories. The style had always been derided for being a bunch of bullshit and gaga by workers who couldn't make it anywhere. And as fun as it was, there was some truth to that. Worst paying territory too. Corny is just being ridiculous.

Do you think it's because they.... trademark hair colors ???? Just joking, but yeah, I wondered why every girl had to have crazy ass hair extensions. And I think Britt has some too. And Brandi. And Tessa now (I think, not sure). Is that the equivalent of every guy in the 80's doing the bleached blonde thing and every guy in the 00's getting awful tribal tatoos ?

And so, Scarlett Bordeaux first appearance on NXT is some random backstage segment. Nice. Anyways. I wonder how they are gonna fuck that one up. She's got everything WWE should love : super hot blonde, she can work, she can be funny. I wish she would have ended up in AEW instead but hey... IMPACT did fuck that up big time, and I would guess Kross is next. I will probably check it out whenever she does her real debut though.

Have you seen the "I'm salty" video ? She's just a rotten actress. Not that even a great one could make this awful angle and script bearable, but she's not bad on purpose. She's just bad at acting. She was really good at cutting wrestling promos with a fake russian accent.

Like he had any choice.

The guys from the 50's thought they couldn't work because they did too much flashy spots and weren't credible enough.

New boom period. Seth Rollins = asses in the seats.

Matching fanny pack. How cute. That's love.

Interesting. I don't see him in WWE at all. IMPACT might grab him. I guess ROH would be interested. AEW, no idea, for some reason, I don't see Tom Lawlor as a super hot free agent. He might also just do indies.

Considering the history of WWE booked invasion angles, that's not very surprising. Yeah, this is really what I thought with this week's show. They are doing the exact opposite of what WCW was doing when they began to lose. No hot-shotting, focus on your own product, build and listen to your own audience.

Well, since we're at it, I guess it's time for this gem. And no, I don't use it when I give French courses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD_rXE9GyyY (sorry for going off topic, although I guess curse words are in line with Corny losing his shit)

I think "putain" is more or less the equivalent of "calice" in the way it's being used and how it's perceived. Maybe it's more vulgar, maybe less, I'm not sure. I say those two words (putain & bordel) all the time (which is why I use "fuck" a lot on the board, because I tend to write like I speak in everyday's life. Like Tony Schiavone once said, I use "fuck" as a coma.)

Funny, because we (I guess younger people do it more ?) tend to do the same thing at times, as "fuck" is gonna sound less vulgar than "putain" or "bordel", only because it's English (much like we say "black" instead of "noir"). I had heard "fucké" before, it sounds sooooo québécois and awesome.

Oh, I totally agree. It was more of a sarcastic take on the somewhat puritanistic climates that sometimes prevails even in (mostly ) intelligent hives like PWO. As far as the Leva Bates character, no idea. It seems like she's really taking into the shitty gimmick, while Avalon is mildly annoyed by the whole thing. I guess at some point she'll do something else.

Glad I'm not the only one not getting the right feel about that main angle, so I don't feel like such an idiot. Kamille is like those old-school valets, Precious or Baby Doll. She doesn't do much, but if she's not there, there's a void.

And they are doing a "Wargames" match with that mentality ? Won't be pasteurized at all...

Can we still say that in 2019 ? But yeah. Leva Bates is funny and adorable. And she's got dat ass too. She's basically the comical relief to Avalon's Barry Horowitz. I believe Nakazawa is mostly office and Japanese relation, working the occasional comedy/job match. Him throwing out the oil was a nice attention to detail too.

Ok. I promise to never EVER say this word on this board, ever again. Because I'm cool like that. Callihan is just terrific though, best grudge angle worker I've seen in the last three years, always delivers and elevates the person he's working with. MVP everywhere I've seen him, in late LU, MLW and IMPACT.

Agree. Schiavone was saying on an MLW broadcast that you don't need to talk all the time and you should let the match breathe and let the viewer digest what is happening. A three men booth doesn't allow that. It could work if you had at least three very defined roles, like a total straight play-by-play, a fun heelish color guy and let's say a guy like Tenay in WCW or Charlton in NJPW bringing detailed infos when needed only. Here you have three straight guys, one of which... Well, yeah, basically.

As far as using the term derogatorily, well, it comes straight from Cornette, who has used it for a long time now to shit on the indy guys (some of which AEW employees on TNT now, outlaw mud show notwithstanding) he felt weren't "real wrestlers", whatever that meant. So, when he used it on the very first episode on NWA Powerr which had this absolutely, completely retro look and presentation, well, the irony was on himself, really. Ah, yeah, the old "you have awful taste" thingy. Well. I'm a Raven fan.

If this show proves anything, is that they don't care about winning a bogus ratings war and they are focused solely on building themselves and having a promotion. People can bitch all they want about Dark Order, but at this point, what is even annoying about them ? They have really good matches with everyone and have been used to help get other talent over, much like today with Luchasaurus. People can bitch all they want about the Librarians, but they are just funny jobbers, what's wrong with that ? Avalon is actually a really good worker too, he can run circles around a bunch of people... So, people wanted squashes and promos and angles ? They got just that. Also, Spears did not do the 10 sign this time around. They are paying attention. Well, I kinda like that the whole Janela thing is gonna develop, because it shows they demand patience and I will do too although I'm not exactly interested in Spears at all right now. I just hope it's gonna be an opportunity for Janela to show character and cool ideas and get over more. Allin vs Mox ? Don't tease me like this. Allie on TV, finally ! That MJF vs Jericho segment was all kind of awesome. They had me legit laugh my ass off at points, and it doesn't happen often. Dustin selling an injury, what a crazy idea. Omega selling his wounds, what a crazy idea. They could put PAC vs Page every week, these two are just having a terrific series of matches. PAC is easily one of the best worker of any promotion that I'm watching. Main event was quite interesting, in that I had guessed the finish before it occurred. I was feeling the whole "Jericho is making a mistake putting himself in a tag title match just after his big single defense, and someone is gonna be made." Scorpio is sure gonna get pushed as a single eventually, so here we go, he's the first guy pinning le champion. That's booking. The only criticism I'd have this week is that they put the Nyla Rose squash and Awesome Kong attacking Allie back to back, which was redondant. Also, no Shanna. Hope she's on Dark ! And also, JR sucks. "Waldrow, whoever that is." "Swagger... Hager, well, he's got Swagger but he's Hagger... he's not Swagger... uh..." Meanwhile, Schiavone on MJF : "You can cut the J is you ask me". Fuck, send JR backstage do production work and let Schiavone kill it with Excalibur already. Anyway, that company is in for the long run, and that's very cool.