El-P

Well, it has to do with Kazarian's funny story about him meeting Bob Holly...

DO YA ?! (see, that's typically a reference only those watching BTE and the Wrestlers on the Road Ordering Food videos would get)

That's ok. None taken. Yep. I follow BTE since basically AEW was announced, so I'm familiar with a lot of stuff, and I have watched Kenny in NJPW for a while before. I do get why someone who is just discovering the TV show would feel a broom is kinda odd. Although broom + barbwire still looks kinda cool in a awkward Cactus Jack way.

It is CRAZY to me. Like, unbelievable level crazy. His real-life story is what should have turned him into what they always wanted him to be. And.... no.

Hey, thanks for calling me a stupid fanboy. Always appreciated. If you paid any attention, I have criticized some stuff about AEW before. Not fan of the Dark Order gimmick at all. Britt Baker is not very good right now. Tully with Spears at this point seems like kind of a waste. I could totally do without JR, I don't think he's been very good. And so on. Then again, I show patience and good faith because, yeah, I've said it, right now, count me as an AEW mark. Doesn't mean I can't be critical of the stuff I don't like. Truth be said, thus far, the stuff I really don't care for hasn't been very much. I wasn't a fan of Hager showing up *at all*. They have proved me wrong thus far on that. As far as Omega goes, I had seen him countless times with the broom, so it's neither new nor surprising to me. It was part of the old Kenny Omega presentation, so it kinda makes sense to me that's all. Like I sarcastically alluded to, the announcers could have explained why he was carrying that particular object. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but they probably should have.

Oh damn, I know, that was so stupid !

Come on. Aldis vs Tim Storm was like an OK to good TV match. Aldis is the champion of a Youtube cosplay show. He's great at it too, no argument from me about that part.

Yeah, Omega with a broom makes all the sense in the world. Omega used to come down the ring wit a broom. "But the announcer don't make it clear yaddiyaddi yadda…." Yeah, he's got very cool music too. Cody should indeed try to make himself the guy who doesn't need the belt, and more importantly maybe, that the belt doesn't need. Right now, the belt needs Jericho.

New boom period.

I encourage all to play the game of taking a shot every time JR says "physicality" or "athleticism". You'll get toasted way before you'll get to Cody vs Jericho.

This. I have loved the first 3 seasons of Lucha Underground and IMPACT has been my little secret love this last year and a half, but with AEW I feel I'm going back to the RAW/Nitro era of 96/97 as far as just being a fan, with the advantage of 22 years of watching and learning and evolving, so it feels like the most fun I've ever had watching weekly pro-wrestling, honestly.

Well, actual, legit Money Promo don't happen often. This was one of them. And that Jericho video, my god. VIRGIL ! The random old lady from church swearing. Hager saying zilch. Also, that Brandi/Kong vignette. I'm gonna love that. I love it already, as it seems it's gonna emphasize each of their strenghts (Brandi : promo / Kong : murder). Speaking of the women's division : Riho is OVER. Emi Sakura as a short, fatty 40 years old japanese woman thinking she's Freddy Mercury is awesome. Also : my girl Shanna killed it again, she's a worker, she shows tons of explosiveness and has actual charisma (she got a "this is awesome" chant, well deserved too). Add to that Hayter who's also adds some wild brawling quality to the whole thing, this women's division look much better all of a sudden. Cool to see they are listening : Dark Order is not over, let's have them have good matches (because they are very good workers) to put other people over. Britt Baker isn't quite ready yet and not getting over much, let's push her match back on the pre-show and feature other women that have got over in the last two weeks on Dynamite (Shanna) and Dark (Hayter). Pac is OVER. And he's a terrific worker. Can't get enough of the Bastard. Hangman is getting over. "Cowboy shit" is my new favourite chant. People just lack patience, and it's a product of 18 years of WWE monopoly to me. It has fucked people's mind. Guevarra vloging on his way to the ring was brillant, as nothing screams more "millenial dickhead" than a wrestler watching at his fucking smartphone on his way to the ring. Now he needs to refer as every older guy as "boomers". On the "not working" side, Shawn Spears is a solid worker, but he's not getting over and his character seems to attached to an angle and a feud that he quickly lost. Much like Tully was a great idea for that feud, but it doesn't really make sense now and seems like kind of a waste. Also, they have done a great job not referencing WWE in any positive way, so Spears needs to stop doing that 10 sign. I would hope Janela wins that one, although he's a guy who really doesn't need to win matches to get over. The ending brawl was so WCW Nitro at its most insane. Yeah, Dynamite is the best weekly TV show in 22 years. There, I've said it.

Honestly, I think this is one of the most fascinating issue when you reflect back at the last 15 years. John Cena was the tree that hid the forest, in the super favourable context of monopoly.

I would agree it's hard to give any of these guys any sympathy when they come off like corporate empty shells with no character whatsoever.

Agreed. That's why I called it cosplay. They are re-enacting a process of work that existed and worked in a context that doesn't exist anymore. Nick Aldis is the world champion in the void. He's not the great worker you send from territory to territory to make the regional star look good. He pretends he is, while there's no territory. Tim Storm is not on the list with Ric Flair, Lou Thesz, Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes, he's on the list with Colt Cabana, Jax Dane and Joseph Samael. IMPACT can say that Ken Shamrock was their first champ, or that Brian Cage is up there with Kurt Angle and AJ Styles, because it's true in their own context. The only context of NWA Powerr is a re-enactment shell, which is why it comes off faker that any other pro-wrestling product to me. Yeah, the promos are very good, but I don't buy Nick Aldis as this great world champion, because he just isn't, in any way shape or form. So there's a feel of "let's pretend" that I don't get from any other promotion, because of the context they are acting into. In a way, I'd enjoy the product way more if that went as absurdly into Retro as they do in their commercials.

Worrisome ? IMPACT still exists after 18 years. AEW had what ? 6 episodes ? Come on people. On the other hand, all sign tend to point to : absolutely no boom period at all. Which means the niche audience that is pro-wrestling today has to be split between all those promotions trying to get their part of the cake, instead of a growing audience making pro-wrestling stronger as a whole.

Except Cornette is not relevant at all in 2019. He was barely relevant in the 90's honestly, when he was bashing ECW while not understanding what was happening and was still booking race baiting angles in the South (and for the record, I liked a whole lot of SMW). And no, doing some announcing gig on a cosplay Youtube show main-evented by old TNA guys (sorry, but it is what it is) doesn't make you relevant in today's pro-wrestling landscape. And that is why it's sad. Corny to me was actually a whole lot more relevant 10 years ago when he was doing shoot interviews with KC, because that's what he was great at, doing historical pieces and talking about a business he had studied, loved and had a passion for. Not work a gimmick to please a crowd of mindless social media fanboys while shitting on a business he doesn't get, or want to get, anymore.

MJF on commentary is gold. Tully BLanchard swept on Nakazawa's baby oil. Send a GIF to Corny. That women's match had tons of clipping, again. Sadie Gibbs doesn't look to be ready to be featured, honestly, it seems quite a bit of editing is done when she's in the ring. I can't hear Big Swole and not think about the No Limit Soldiers. Janela/Havoc vs Jungle Boy/Stunt was very good. Hey, remember when people went apeshit because of Marko Stunt ? Yeah, that was last week's "let's get offended" from that crowd, no one cares anymore now, they moved on to some other stuff. That finish though, how brutal. Janela vs Spears at the PPV maybe ?

I made my point earlier in the NWA Powerr thread. Always been a huge Corny fan. Defended him for years before he had a cult following on social media. Right now, it's just sad. 2019 has been an amazing year for pro-wrestling in term of content, pro-wrestling is evolving and tons of old-schoolers sem to be perfectly fine with that and have tons of fun with it. Corny has turned into a bitter carny. Just sad.

Only Corny is embarrassing (well, he's actually working, we know that, but it's a sad case of working like I said before). The Rock'n'Roll Express worked for Bar Wrestling aka Joey Ryan. Ken Shamrock, a bad mofo if there's one, doesn't mind bumping for the dick flip. Yesterday on AEW Dark, Tully Blanchard didn't mind taking a bump for Micheal Nakagawa's baby oil gag. You know, nevermind the holier than thou pro-wrestlin' fans crowd, if guys like Ricky Morton, Ken Shamrock and Tully Blanchard think there's no issue with Joey Ryan's promotion and some of the most out there comedy today, well, that's enough for me. (not that I need anyone telling me what's acceptable of not, I don't give a flying fuck, but the fact guys like them get it is just refreshing)

Damn. Also, he's doing the same thing he was doing as a "journalist", commenting Tweets from WWE accounts.

Thunder Rosa looked good stiffing the fuck out of jobbergirl. That was the highlight of the show. Cornette saying they put "her picture in prison to cure sex-offenders" shows how far-off he's gone, we're in 2019 Corny (ditto "pearl-harbouring" people). I dunno, the heel turn afterward from Belle seemed kinda stupid since we don't have established one bit of a relationship between her and the champ anyway. Kinda cool to see the ex-Kobra Moon reappear somewhere though. Not sure were this is going, but this is going slow. Aldis vs Drake I would guess. Or Tim Storm vs Drake and Aldis vs whoever (hopefully not Anderson). Aron Stevens is basically the Genius. I dunno, he's not that funny either to me and he takes a whole lot more time of the show that say, The Librarians on any AEW broadcast. I mean, give Trevor Murdoch some TV time... Storm vs Cabana was a decent little match, old Cowboy still looks like a decent worker. I would not blame anyone for finding that Cabana's stuff looks out of place. Corny trying to put him over is never gonna get old though. I give them credit for going all the was with the Retro thing with that video game commercial.

I've been very critical of MLW in the last 6 months, to the point I was ready to drop it off, but damn that PPV overdelivered. For a company the pretty much was always underwhelming as far as putting on the important matches together, this was the opposite. Only The Von Erich was Dynasty underdelivered to me. The Von Erich guys are just there to me. Take off their name and they are basically two guys. Not bad. Not very good either, nothing special about either and nothing notable really, save for the fact their name is Von Erich. No Aria Blake, so that lacked in Dynasty's presentation. Interesting to see Aries & Ki matches back to back, because these two have a long in common, most notably to being professional malcontent and burning bridges left and right. And also, they are damn great pro-wrestlers. Aries got maybe the best single Teddy Hart match I've seen, this was quite good, while Ki worked a very fun short, really stiff match with Pillman, who was sporting his dad's Hollywood Blonde outfit. I also enjoyed a lot how you got very different kind of matches. Then followed the 6 men lucha/indy crazy spotfest, and although I couldn't care less about Gringo Loco, the other two made up for him being a souless spot monkey, while Injustice, despite the goofy gimmick, are very good at that stuff too and showcase character. Koto Brazil is such a joy to watch too. And then you get Lawlor vs Tatcher in a shoot-stylish match which I really, really liked a lot. Stiff as hell, looked like a struggle, sweaty and brawly and agressive. Tatcher is awesome and Lawlor works much better in this context than in classic pro-wrestling style. And then yet another completely different style with the ECW Stairway to Hell match. Again, I'm slowly warming up to Havoc because I noticed how he does some little things, like putting the stapled dollar bills on his pocket, which was amusing. Warner is a total vampire worker, bleeds like a freak. And then Bestia looked good too. And then yet another style of match, with DBS Jr. vs Hammerstone, which totally overdelivered as a hoss match. Best I've seen from Hammerstone, who's been really good on vignettes woth Dynasty but still comes off like a Thunder JTTS to me otherwise. DBS Jr. should be somewhere in the major leagues (no pun intended). Main event was everything and more. Old-school double bloodletting intertwined with some crazy-ass highspots (including by LA Park, which twisting senton from the top after an inverted jump from the second rope looked impossible, especially for a guy his age and size) and booking fuckery involving both managers. I've gotta say that about Samael, he's got a great look and is a very good promo so this is his best role. And Salina was like the hottest La Catrina ever, and did she contribute, and more than with her expressive acting... Yeah, that main event was exactly what you'd want from these two (Fatu is still green in spots during his control segment, but he's gonna be big, LA Park is just ridiculously good). Salina selling her injury on Twitter is kinda cool too BTW, in a old-school-on-social-media kind of way. MLW working with AAA is interesting. Now AAA is working with AEW, IMPACT and MLW. Also, a women division is gonna be cool, I wonder who are they gonna use from the indy scene since the talent seem scattered these days.

Why am I not surprised AJ Styles is a corporate stooge ? As far as Meltz apology, yeah, it was, but the "I don't want to spread misinfirmation" clearly had a very tongue-in-cheek dry humour aspect to it, because of the choice of words. So it had the best of both worlds. I apologize, but fuck you nonetheless. That's how I red it anyway (maybe because that's the kind of thing I would do myself). Is Seth a worst world top-of-the-promotion champion than Kevin Nash in 1995 ?

Right, and it's true of every topic in society sadly, which is a major problem that is already having effects (the rise of populism across many nation on the planet, including that good old Europe who's been there already; the puritanism that goes along with a fake progressism spread from american colleges across the world via cultural imperialism; conspirationism and whatnot…). But let's keep it PWO. Yeah, it's crazy how much people are acting like little soldiers, while the reality is of course way more complicated. For instance look at all the Youtube comments (yeah, I know, when Youtube comments are an instance of people not being dumb, we've fell off) under NWA Powerr looking forward to the show AND to AEW Dark, so obviously there's no disconnect between being a fan of the two shows, unlike how some people would want to represent the situation of X vs Y. Everything is not polarized. They already are, honestly. They get shit all the time for doing actual journalist work. Ah ah. Yeah, I'm sure of that. People know. How ? Doesn't matter. They just do. Hopefully yeah we can maintain some space of actual share and exchange, and not validation-seeking posting and hive mentality that is inherent to social medias.