El-P

So Masha Slamovitch, TNA women's champ, was at NXT in the crowd. Really, in term of adding something fresh and exciting about their product, this TNA deal, on WWE's side, as been really smart. It would be nice if that was reflected in what TNA actually gets on their side (because apart from a Rascalz reunion, which was really cool, TNA got low-tier names and talents only while NXT featured Joe Hendry and Jordynne Grace, and the Rascalz, in big matches. TNA got Wendy Choo in a tag match at BFG...). Wait until Joe Hendry gets one of the biggest reaction at the Rumble too (again, because of the dynamics at hand). Speaking about why AEW's existence has benefited WWE in the long run, well, WWE would never do that kind of stuff if AEW had not opened the so-called Forbidden Door and made it part of their appeal (which really had been closed by WWE itself, remember back in the late 90's where you could have a MPro show headlined by Taker vs Hakushi or Vader working the AJPW dome show, and of course sending workers to SMW and ECW).

Nah, I wanted to edit my post, and I deleted it instead. 😅 So I basically requoted you as I re-wrote it. Well, to say the fucking least. I'd say it's a mix of context, timing, and of course the talent itself and their mindset. BUT of course, AEW's presentation also played a part. Andrade's debut, which could have been awesome, was marred by being paired with Vickie Guerrero (it almost seems absurd she was even in AEW when you think back at it). Miro I thought they had a super clever idea, and obviously they dit not, before they redeemed (see what I did ?) themselves with the presentation for a while (until it got obvious Miro was just a pain in the ass to deal with). As far as talent goes, I disagree for both. Miro was terrific as the Redeemer, but when you don't want to do a job for fucking Hangman Page... Malakai's issue is pretty much the same it has been with every spooky gimmick since Bray Wyatt. All aesthetic, no depth at all. In the ring, he was a terrific and unique kind of worker with a great presence. But apart from the fact he's also one of those guy who was hard to deal with apparently (and look at his track record in term of single matches), he also got badly injured and his back is gone. He's not the same guy now he was in NXT a few years back. Andrade, well. Awesome worker, but he peaked in NXT (again) when he was paired with Miss Unionization. I think for the three of them, the mindset played a big part in why it did not work. Although Andrade obviously went on his way gracefully at the end (and honestly, Malakai too). Like *I* of all people would criticize anyone else for rambling. 🙂

🙄 Yeah. I'm way too hard on AEW. Way too hard.

That would be nothing though in comparison with.... ...Tessa Blanchard in WWE. Come on. You know if she does one year or two in TNA and it goes ok, she's so getting there. I don't think AEW would bring her in, for better or worse. But WWE ? They would not even blink. And then let the "fun" begin. And speaking of TNA, JBL is announced on RAW next week. So after showing up in TNA and crapping up the main event PPV matches with an angle that has made no sense, was never explained nor developed on TV, he's back in WWE ? They aren't gonna run a TNA angle on RAW, so my best guess is that the entire TNA stuff was just basic nonsense. Then again, maybe he can fuck Joe Hendry on Sunday (which would be hilariously TNA), enter the Rumble and then get eliminated from the Rumble by Joe Hendry. Hendry is getting poached anyway in a few months, so...

The whole Penta thing made me think about someone else, and it's not even speculation because there's no word of contracts ending and whatnot. But Britt Baker has vanished again from AEW TV. And you know what, if she showed up at the Rumble, she also would get a crazy-ass reaction, because like Penta, she's an AEW original (and let's not kid ourselves, it plays a big part too in why Penta jumping is presented as a big deal). Also, she appeared not long ago in a DDP video, and it really seems her body is kinda thrashed, sadly. In WWE she could spam DMD (likewise Penta spamming Cero Miedo), do a bunch of superkicks and sling blades (likewise Penta) and do her submission (likewise Penta in LU) and get away with it. She's someone who would probably benefit a lot from jumping.

No. Simply jumping from AEW to a red hot WWE, which is a much bigger promotion anyway, makes Penta seem like more of a big deal. Let's not pretend the Lucha Brothers were not presented as big time stars the first (and best) years of the company. Also, there's a reason why Penta was never pushed as a single star, he said it countless times : he did not want it, he really only wanted to tag with his brother. Same thing will happen when Ricky Starks jumps. By sheer scale effect, and the fact you're jumping from one place to another (and to the bigger and hotter place), you de facto become a bigger deal (unless WWE treats you like an afterthought of course, but they would be stupid to do so). What they do after that point is another matter, although Ricky Starks always struck me as more of a WWE type guy anyway (that being said, now that Rock is back, it may be tricky because he always had that second rate Rock thing to him). And all of that, despite having some generic as fuck theme song too. Anywoo. It was the right move for Penta. He's 39. I'm guessing in current WWE he can spam taunt to death like the other guy says "Yeah !" a lot and that would be enough anyway. Fénix will be another matter though. They have done jackshit with Dragon Lee (and before someone goes "but AEW", yeah, yeah, AEW's booking of Komander and Beast Mortos is depressing as well).

Zach Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero is the gift that keeps on giving. Everything about ZSJ this last year or so as he got at the top of NJPW has been a pure joy to watch. (and I hear Hechicero had a killer match with Blue Panther at Arena Mexico last week too, gotta love it) Sumie Sakai's retirement was awesome. Crazy to think I used to get some Jd' tapes like 24 years ago and that's where I discovered her, alongside Megumi Yabushita, which was a big favorite of mine. She sure had an interesting career arc.

Absolutely not. Mark Briscoe should be alongside the likes of Darby, Orange, Kingston and the likes. He should be a perennial upper mid-card, near to the top, possibly underdog main-event guy. That's how over he can be (and already has been) and what is actual works warrant. Putting 50 years old ex-WWE guys like Lashley (and, fuck me, Benjamin, who should *never* have been presented as a serious threat to anyone in AEW) over guys like Briscoe is everything (not quite but still) that is wrong with AEW and reeks of old TNA booking. Hell, signing Lashley (and the other two, although MVP can be useful as a manager/character) was a mistake. They are bringing jackshit to the table thus far and hurt the perception of the homegrown guys. And they are not even that over anymore. Of course they got a big pop the first few weeks. Everybody jumping does. Guess what, they don't anymore. The only use for them is put the younger, homegrown talent over. Which probably won't happen. Therefore, terrible signings. There are way too many 50 years old ex-WWE guys getting TV time in this company (Christian, Cope, Lashley, Benjamin, to that add Jericho and Jarrett who are even older). No wonder it's seen as uncool. Speaking of stuff that is already overstaying their five minutes of fame, the Outrunners cute cosplay stuff is done already. They got a "polite" reaction on Collision, which had a really active crowd. And they really aren't very good at all in the ring (Magnum is pretty decent, Floyd is plain bad). Interestingly enough, Floyd did not even do the whole Hulk thingy either this week. Wonder why... (and really showed that it's the only thing he has going for him, which is a choice in itself). Still, they are programmed next week on Collision tagging with FTR, Cope (this will never cease to be funny) Hobbs vs the Deathriders and... the Learning Tree. Holy hell. Now the Deathriders are tagging with Jericho ? Talk about the kiss of death for the entire thing (as it seemed Cope was also gonna feud, kinda, with Jericho, something that no one wants to see in 2025 in the so-called alternative company). Yeah, I said I was too hard on AEW (and I probably am), but sorry, they are kinda asking for it.

In other news, WWE is going back to Saudi Arabia in June. BLOOD.MONEY. ERA ! I mean, Vince said it. "It's our home now".

They did not sacrificed Swerve's run at all. Danielson winning at Wembley was an all-time great moment. Swerve lost nothing in this deal. The issue with Swerve is that they did sacrifice part of his top guy aura by feeding him to 49 years old dumbass Lashley, with *zero* followup. The Hurt Syndicate brings nothing to the table that's worth Swerve or Mark Briscoe losing to them. And don't give me that "But they look like stars" shit. They have produced zero in term of interest, ratings or attendance. They are 50 years old ex WWE guys, one of them being a JTTS for life. Their booking is straight out of TNA circa 2011 thus far. And now they are gonna win the (ice cold, and that's the booking fault for not having built Private Party, despite the Young Bucks working their magic *twice* and making the crowd care about it on those days) tag titles ? Jeez. Right now, the top guys are Ospreay, Omega and Hangman. Hopefully Swerve vs Ricochet ends up another awesome personal Swerve blood feud which will elevate Ricochet and gives Swerve his wind back.

The angle, which started awesome, has totally petered out. I still like the Deathriders as a bad ass heel group of great workers, but the angle itself has turned into generic heel group feuding with whomever. The Orange stuff was very cool, because Orange and Darby were the two people in the shot alongside Danielson. But after that, the 4-way felt thrown together kinda randomly. Cope & FTR feels completely off-topic. And yeah, Darby is off doing his stupid rich-boy hobby (fuck rich people going to the Everest, it's awful). If he doesn't die (which could happen, people die all the time there, there are actual corpses on the way and the long line of rich idiots waiting to go to the top collapses regularly because of the weight), at this point it'll be too late anyway. Ospreay is the way to go. Or Omega. Either of those two. Or hell, Hangman. And it should not be at All In. It should be way before this. Also, Jericho needs to retire/go away. Even Dax Harwood could not get a really good match out of him. He has failed time after time the last 6 months, with Mistico, with Ishii, with Cardona. He's 54. Enough.

After trying my hands on that NXT show, I realize that I'm way too hard on AEW. And that despite lots of great and promising talent (and some... not so good), I really don't miss anything not watching any WWE when my wrestling brain is already saturated watching a bunch of other stuff. And damn, the announcing is *godawful*. I have no idea how people even handle this shit. (and that's after I was rather annoyed by Matt Menard screaming banalities for two hours on Dynamite)

Back to back 10 minutes non-wrestling segments, one involving Jarrett (and yeah, I like Jeff but come on now), the other involving Cope (and after a week, I can say I have really zero interest in this program, the Deathriders which really started really great as just petered out into "generic heel faction" stuff). After watching two other 50 years old ex-WWE guys get programmed against the tag champs, who are cold as ice anyway. This is not how you wanna start 2025, especially with WWE getting on fucking Netflix. Omega's return was what it was (great jumping on Callis ass, super promising face-off with Ospreay, in front of a disappointing crowd sadly), but it seems obvious why he preferred making his big return at the Tokyo Dome delivering a classic. So, Malakai Black seems to be gone, finally. interesting stint for sure. Protected as all hell but never really pushed either. House of Black did get Julia Hart and Brody King over. Buddy Matthews has resigned with AEW some time ago. At 39 with a really fucked up back, I don't see him ever getting too far when he goes back to WWE (after a gigantic initial pop, of course). Heyman would probably pushed the hell out of him if he had the time and maybe things would have been different. The Von Erich are All Elite. Major fucking *yawn*. They are 30 something Brian Pilman Jr. Tier talents and will get pushed above much better and more deserving people while trying to sell tickets for that Texas stadium show. Talk about more turn-off for me when I need none. It's gonna be a long two months before the next PPV I'm afraid.

He's the first noticeable jobber I remember from watching WWF in 1990. I think he may have been in the very first episode I ever taped. And he was noticeable because the announcer would put him over as a tough guy. Only seen some of his WCW and territorial stuff way later of course. Yeah. Black Bart indeed.

Nah, Triple H, the guy who doesn't want to be in the spotlight yet puts the spotlight on himself every time there's something to brag about, announced it was a new era. So it has to be a brand new era. They really should have made it a special episode though and call it, I dunno, Capitol Carnage or something.

The question remains. If Mania was the beginning of the new era, as showed by appearances of Stephanie McMahon, MAGATaker and the Rock, does that mean that this new era is actually over already, as WWE has now entered into yet another new era, as showed by appearances of the Rock, MAGATaker and Hulk Hogan ? Lots of new eras in a very short span...

He literally made a video alongside Glen "I'm a piece of human trash" Jacobs and Donald Trump replying to Dave Bautista. Also, him coming out to Kid Rock was the perfect MAGAmatch, if you will. But yeah, the only thing missing on this outfit was a Blue Lives Matter cap. Also, Dana White is now part of Meta. These fucks are everywhere now.

Hogan getting booed still is hilarious. Taker not getting booed is also hilarious. The amount of cognitive dissonance is amazing. No Penta debut ? Really ? Consensus seems to be quite underwhelming. Business as usual with a heavy dose of corporate masturbation. All of this on a ring splattered with adds for the Saudis. Yeah. Netflix era indeed.

Imagine having to pay for ad-free tier when subscribing on Netflix. What a scam this shit has become over the years. Long gone are the days of "Love is sharing a password" too. And yeah, the jokes are writing themselves at this point : 😂

In other news, it seems Rush and Dralistico are kinda iced because of an incident where, I know it's shocking, they got unprofesionnal by beating up a worker who was legit checked by the doctor. Ya know, at this point, I don't even see why Coach TK should bother. Rush is terrific, but he's ungovernable (see what I did ?). You can't rely on him nor his brother to behave. Let someone else have headaches with these two. And release Fénix and Miro while he's at it. Just save the money. Way too many talent on the roster already. Cut back and focus.

The real question is how CM Punk gonna manage to never bump on the Riyadh Season adds on the mat. Also, Bruce Prichard is back and apparently heavily involved with the Netflix show. Total change of an era. I sure hope Taker shows up alongside Hogan. The MAGAPowers explode.

Well, so apparently NJPW office feels Charlton going off script talking shit about AEW and calling TK a "money mark" was akin to make them lose face in front of their business partner. Which is a huge no-no.

I mean, they also chanted "Thank you Vince" not that long ago (this is still undersold how this was incredibly awful and slimy)... The audience is younger now and may be closer minded to the UFC crowd. The reaction he gets will say a lot about where they stand for sure. Honestly I'm very surprised they haven't brought Flair back already. The Whatever Energy sponsorship with AEW thankfully petered out quickly and hopefully he never shows up there again, but why in the hell WWE would not bring him back now or in the near future, no idea. Hell, I would not even be shocked to see Lesnar show up at the Rumble, at this rate.

Hilarious. In an ideal world, this turns into a big ass interpromotional war angle and NJPW brings Kevin Kelly back and Forbidden Door is NJPW vs UWF-I redux (and yeah, there's a joke in that reference too).

TKO is a full on Trump supporting act. So is WWE. They just are more hypocritical about it than UFC is. WWE has hired a "problematic" head of production *after* the Vince lawsuit was out. WWE is still dealing with Logan Paul, who is a legit crypto-scammer. WWE is partnering with Hulk "everybody is a bit racist/watcha gonna do when Trumpmania runs wild on you" Hogan and is bringing him to to Netflix debut. After years of "non-canon" bloodmoney shows that have been completely internalized as "normal business" by its fanbase, they now bring one of the big 4 (and really, one of the big 2) as a whitewashing act for MBS (ya know, the guy who ordered a journalist to be murdered then dismembered with a saw, hell, there's a Netflix documentary about it). So no, nothing has changed. Oh yeah, booking is better, let Papa Trip cook or something. Tune in for John "even Randy freaking Orton was not as offensive when talking about Vince" Cena's road to WrestleMania.