El-P

The flipping of the bird/hit finisher on Pac this week was sooooo Steve Austin.

This is so cool. So much to love here, but I think the best part if MJF, actually cutting a promo on the kid, then running after the referee. This is *fun* cosplay.

"Riddle huge for teenage boys" sounds kinda gross...

Omega vs Fenix could be a sleeper MOTYC if they let them have it. Will Lady Maravilla fuck Hamburgesa once again ? Drago vs Daga could be excellent too. The cage match... not so much. I guess lots of blood though.

Glad Rossy Ogawa choose Bushiroad instead of Bullshitroad... (yeah, I know the exit, thanks)

The Heartbreak Grown Up Shawn Michaels says hello. I loved his feud with Davey Mate Smith.

Pretty cool episode this week if only because it was taped at a Crash event. The first MLW match had Hammerstone vs Rey Horus in a good match. Not a fan of Hammerstone, I find him dull in the ring, but Horus really made it work and he's seen as a star there, so it's probably the best match I've seen of him since LU. This guy should really go somewhere at one point. Second one was Dynasty vs Los Parks, which really wasn't very good because of a brutal clash of styles. Dynasty can't do lucha to save their life, so they work Larry Z. style and although they did get heat, the match itself kinda died, especially with an anticlimatic finish. Salina was all over this episode though, with a good promo against Samael (who's good in the mouthpiece role but should just not work) and the best line of the show when she confronted Dynasty outside the building : "Don't get kidnapped"

Cocaine. Don't do it.

Well, no I didn't and so I probably shouldn't. Plus, every time he says "Jungle Jack", I'm expecting Bison Kimura to show up and chop the fuck out of someone. And then I'm disappointed. I loved Bison.

Just kidding of course. Hey thanks ! What happened is that I totally stopped watching any WWE main roster product (and even gave up on checking NXT this week). I would still be a fan of course, I really love her, but since I don't actually watch her, well...

Imagine that, getting diner with his wife after a day's work. How the fuck dares he ? I wouldn't say I am sympathetic toward Bischoff, but WWE people are sociopathic assholes.

Finally got to try it. Listened to the first three episodes. A win thus far, Arn is a really good storyteller, he is a pleasure to listen to and I enjoy the shorter lenghts and the fact we don't get any stupidity about "dirt sheets" thus far.

Why do you hate me ? Because I was an Asuka fan ? Why ? WHY ???!!!!

I'm kinda sorry to say, but not too much sorry because I've never been a big JR fan anyway, but thus far JR has clearly be the one thing I would put in the "miss" category in AEW presentation. I don't think he brings much to the table at all. He's spewing cliches about "being athletic", "being overlooked", "being small", "being physical" and "wins and loss matering", he has no idea how to put over people like Riho. He's ok, he's inoffensive (unlike Mauro for instance, who's a legit turnoff), he doesn't amper my enjoyment of the product at all, but Tony Schiavone is ten times better and could put over the matches and performers a whole lot more if he had more space to do so. I don't feel there's any chemistry between JR and Excalibur either. The whole "Jungle Jack" stuff is just annoying and clearly JR not getting at all what the appeal of Jungle Boy is. It might sound crazy, but Jim Cornette would be actually a terrific announcer for AEW if he put his ridiculous biases on the side. And really, Cornette & Schiavone together would be gold. JR may have brought name value to the company, but as far as an announcing in 2019 goes, he's at best neutral, at worst he's just not very good.

Well, people are just plain dumb.

Well, that's his whole appeal.

BTW, Meltz mentionned it twice, Riho is seriously spiking the teenage girls in the ratings. So yeah, she's getting over and she's interesting to an audience that doesn't watch pro-wrestling. Compare that to the ratings following the heavy emphasis on women during the #Revolution in WWE, when it was proven that women did not watch that stuff. Characters matter and getting over matters. AEW is in the "get people over" business, and Riho is doing just that. In three weeks, they have established more defined people you can begin to care about than WWE in the last XXX years. Way more than NXT is the same amount of time, at the very least.

From ? (yeah, I did the same joke when it was announced New Jack had retired from wrestling)

You seem to forget all the players haven't been featured yet on TV. Allie is a really cool character and a solid worker. The only real void to fill is the great worker/star power spot, and Foxy is neither.

Spike was a Paul E. booking one-trick poney. He also had one move that he was doing a zillion times and the rest was getting thrown around and fall off stuff. He also has a shitty character and was a crap promo. I could't stand Spike Dudley when I was doing my ECW complete watch a few years ago. Like, to the point of irrational hate ! Easily on my all-time least favorite workers ever list (well, then, have no idea how I would take him now). 20 years of not being able to push any cruiserweight to star status, including Rey Mysterio, by WWE will do that, I guess...

Riho has something than you can't teach : she gets over. She's also actually really good (not great, but these days I guess "good" is an insult) as a pure worker, those fucking footstomps she pulls out of nowhere, just a thing of beauty, she's also quite explosive, as small as she is. And every time, she is getting that crowd. That's the main thing. As far as the Spike Dudley comparisons, yeah, to a degree, but Spike Dudley kinda sucked, so, not really.

Hey, we're gonna have that Aries vs Teddy match soon. I say make it a three-way with Low-ki, loser walks out no-selling the finish !

What the most scary is because they feel safe as heel because of their TV and Blood Money contracts, there's absolutely zero urge to change anything and try to improve. Which means they can coast for the next five years. Of course, when this money is gone, and eventually at least the Saudis will get tired and buy some other shit, and they will have alienated their audience to the point of no return and created no star and raised an entire generation of miserable workers who wants to leave but are stuck with their contracts, then good luck...

Well, fuck Jim Cornette, for a start. I've defended him forever, but if he really went that route, well, he's an embarrassment with no excuse. Like @C.S. said, now that he's in the public (somewhat, don't get too crazy) eyes, he's just doing the NWA no favors with shit like his idiotic opinions on AEW, especially when you realize the first episode of NWA Powerrr got a bunch of viewers from AEW Dark, which means the hardcore AEW fans who also are interested in a show like NWA Powerrr apparently. Anyway, he's just making more noise and actually promoting AEW, so there you go. It's still sad. Now that this is out of the way, how good has been AEW TV ? Well, now I actively want to watch a Jack Hager match, that's how good it has been. Darby Allin truly has something unique about him. Some bits of underdog Mick Foley, some bits of Jeff Hardy is he ever was any kind of good worker and cool character. That whole last part of the match was batshit insane. Loved the tag match, truly the MOTN to me. When Mox flipped off Pac, there was something out of Stone Cold there. I agree Hangman is not a top player yet, but I really enjoy his work, those damn lariat are a thing of beauty. Omega is just awesome. And PAC finally gets shitloads of heat. Dr. Baker is not ready to be put in this kind of spotlight. She looked lost as hell when she screwed up that spot early on, then she didn't look good at all (like, barely above IIconics level) until the finishing sequences, which were totally made by Riho. I did like that her finisher is something a dentist would do ! Yeah, she needs to be a heel. And they need to put Allie on TV, now. Maybe next week to fuck Dr. Baker's homecoming ? Riho is so getting over by just being her small, adorable, footstomping self, it's so cool to watch. Now she needs a real good worker to have that killer match she needs. First match was very good, I hope SCU got into the finals, because Dark Order really don't work (I kinda dread their first real TV match). And the Lucha Brothers are just insanely good, especially Fenix. It's just a joy to watch these guys and they really made Jungle Jack (ok, I won't say anything bad about JR, but I really am not a fan of his work) and Marko Stunt look credible. The hate on Stunt is ridiculous, that match was fun, compelling and different. That's what you want. That Cody video was tremendous. Is Kevin Sullivan producing these (he was producing the IMPACT videos up until recently) ? I like how patient they are too, not throwing tons of shit on TV. There are still a lot of characters who have not been truly featured yet, and that's cool. Also, you get a feeling of, gasp, LOGIC from week to week. Mox vs Pac ? Of course, makes sense. AEW fanboy, however you like. Just having a blast watching pro-wrestling at this time. Not bad after 29 years doing so and tons of down periods.

Ok, I am probably missing some cultural knowledge here, but what a "Man Eater" tattoo means (and why is it an issue, apparently) ?