El-P

Danielson actually is getting Blue Panther at Arena Mexico. This timeline is incredible.

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought of this. Making a special "show" just for fucking X in 2024 is the most WWE thing ever. Takes one to know one.

Damn. So I guess Rossy and Aja still have heat dating back to the ARSION days (Aja wasn't at the ARSION reunion show). The Mania week-end shows are still my favorite part of the wrestling year. Janai Kai vs Tam Nakano !

Basically AEW & Stardom & TNA in one match. Plus, a Stardom 6 women match at the ROH show the next day. Things are way in motion now that Rossy is gone it seems.

That makes him Laurinaitis. Not exactly much better.

There isn't. Never have been either. They are the greatest ever at it. They made people think that Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrisson were ready for a run as tag champs because of how great they looked. Ponder that one for a minute. No shit Sting selected them for his last match ever. Workers know. AEW is the greatest in Dream Epic Match Randomizer mode. And they have the greatest roster and all the connections to keep on bringing that good shit for years.

Can't really complain when on the same weekly show you got matches like Josh Alexander vs Tracy Williams, Eddie Edward vs Mike Bailey and Chris Sabin vs Steve Maclin. Ash by Elegance keeps on being a fun character, Xia Brookside definitely has lots of potential. AJ Francis does what he does, that is being charismatic and talk while the work gonna be on the shoulders of a way more talented guy (in this case Rich Swann, who really needed a change, so a heel turn is welcome). Mustafa Ali has been straight awesome in every way, and the ABC/Rascalz/GYV are high quality always. Won't complain either about a TNA OG Full Metal Mayhem match between Kazarian and Eric Young. So far so good, the next PPV is shaping up nicely. Not sold on Nemeth nor Hammerstone yet, and Kon vs PCO is a pretty shitty program, but thus far the post D'Amore product really has not changed from what it was before. I wonder what is the status of Gisele Shaw though, she hasn't been seen in a while, she is also D'Amore's girlfriend, so there. If she's done, I would hope AEW would grab her, she's good.

For sure. David Sammartino and Erik Watts represent. With the landscape changing from the model of the territory where the owner/booker would push his not-so-talented kid to today's big-ass corporations owning pro-wrestling promotions, it's not exactly the same dynamic either (not to mention the much, much bigger emphasis on being actually good). Still. Honestly, if Brian Pillman Jr. was not who he is (and despite the fact he actually wasn't privileged at all during his upbringing, for obvious reasons), there is ZERO chance he gets signed to an NXT deal and pushed after his AEW stint. ZERO. The funniest thing in this is that they change nepo-kids names (see also, Bron Breakker) almost as if it's not as obvious, despite the fact no one can ignore it in today's world.

Interesting. I had no idea about Misawa having kids either btw. I was thinking about Sumo wrestling, which inspired a lot of how pro-wrestling functions in Japan, where you actually have quite a bit of wrestler dynasties, but it doesn't seem it has really worked the same way in pro-wrestling, to the point Shota Umino being the son of a famous referee really stands out as an exception. Hashimoto's kid really never made much strides. Of course you had Hana Kimura. Out of the top of my head, I really can't think of anyone else in the current scene.

Months after the fact, they haven't run any PPV since Coke-a-Mania and every "big" event has now been turned into tapings for their "TV" show. What a wonderful dumpster fire this entire thing has been. Meanwhile, Court Bauer got 20 Mil.

Ronda Rousey throwing Vince and his croonies under the bus is my favorite news bits of the week.

Irony aside, it will probably only get worse now that you'll get entire families where both the father and the mother are pro-wrestlers, especially in the case of the really weathly ones in WWE. And it's really not just a pro-wrestling thing at all, really, it's all over the map. But anyway, the point I was making with that list is that the nepo-babies all came through the WWE system, while the non-nepo babies come from the indies. The one thing that I find fascinating is that it actually hasn't really worked that way in Japan. I have no idea why. Lucha libre is basically mafia level shit. Big time US pro-wrestling has way more than one royal family (although you could say that WWE really has become the Samoan mafia too lately). Still, I think a study on a very large timescale would be super interesting. Even by the standards of the time and the promotion, he was a weak-ass worker. Valentine did all the work and he would do a stomp or two and a bodyslam. Gotta love the fact he really believes he "proved all his detractors wrong" when he got back in WCW as the Disciple. The level of denial is insane.

Yup. Try "no one" actually. Fun fact, all big men singles match participants in Mania this year that came through the WWE system are nepobabies : Rock, Roman, Jey & Jimmy Usos, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes. And pretty much all of the others are products of the indies (Rollins, Owens, Zayn, Gunther, Styles, Knight, Drew), basically. Dunno what that says about the WWE developmental system.

Damn, they're out of luck with lawsuits and rapists. I have no doubt Gable Stevenson will end up on the roster anyway at some point, so there. I guess the point is "Vince is gone, izoké". I just realized I haven't watched a second of Mania since the beginning of the second night of Mania three years ago. Strictly for significance purpose and overall quality, I probably should watch this one though (through Extremely Legal Means ofc).

That Brutus episode could be summed up in one question "What does friendship means ?". It was quite interesting from that perspective, really, as the rest of it is already well known. Especially interesting the differences of perception of his friendship with Hulk and how it played into his career (basically, 100% responsible for it) and how they fell apart. The "no-comment" from Knobbs really resonated as a "I won't lose *my* meal-tick friendship with Hulk over that one" to me. Missy Hyatt came off like she usually does, and that's really good. My brain was kinda confused at how Brutus girlfriend is named Missy too and actually looks more like what you'd think Missy Hyatt would look today. Greg Valentine looking EXACTLY like you'd picture a 70+ Greg Valentine would is always funny too. He almost has the best line (pun intended) of the doc too. Bischoff had the meanest (yet most pragmatic) line with the "Hogan tax" bit. This was also a great illustration of how people who are getting privileges (because that's what Brutus did for a while) almost have to convince themselves that they work so hard for what they got as a way to overcompensate. The fact he thought he did a great job with all his gimmicks in WCW is amazing. When Brian Knobbs of all people says you're the shits, well... I gotta say though, it never struck me before the irony of Brutus finisher being a high knee to the face, and that's basically what he took.

Final Boss is a term that you just see more and more in very different fields now, as video game culture has gotten more and more mainstream. And Rocky is indeed the final boss in WWE today. I wonder how much of the current booking on top is Levesque (who indeed was never exactly known to be a great babyface maker in his days....) and how much is directly coming from the Rock when it comes to him and Cody.

Yup, exactly. Except you don't use the MCMG like the Hardys of course. The Bucks, FTR, Callis boys, BCC, the Kingdom, House of Black, Lucha Brothers whenever Fénix is back, every other young team they got. Please. PLEASE.

The idea Court Bauer would spend some of that settlement money to get Mauro Ranallo is so funny to me (aside from the fact that it would insure the guy would not risk ruining a product I actually enjoy, which is a good thing, so please do). The whole thing about Ranallo is calling epic matches in the most epic way possible (for better or worse). Except there's not a company less epic than MLW this side of Corgan's NWA. Lately only Mistico vs Rocky Romero (which is a CMLL match) and Kojima vs Suzuki (which is a NJPW match) have been really good. Usually the rest of the card is still underdeliver city. Gotta say, Matt Striker not getting booked anymore after making a really stupid edgy comment about Matt Riddle is the most Matt Striker thing ever. I still would rather have him than Mauro though (his replacement has been quite competent, but Striker idiotic edgy shit fit the product quite well actually, and with Cesar Duran around, that added to the "Hey, 'member Lucha Underground ? Well, we're not quite the same at all" vibe).

Utami is obviously the biggest loss (apart from Giulia, but how long is she even gonna stay with Rossy before going to WWE ?). The fact there's no mass exodus is quite interesting though. Who knows in one year where Rossy's new promotion will be, and if by then some Stardom people will leave, but thus far, it doesn't look that bad for them.

Triplemania headlined by fucking Alberto is such a complete disgrace. Shame on Konnan. I get Nic Nemeth wanting to work everywhere, but jeeez. A little self-respect maybe ? It's interesting that meanwhile AEW is all about the CMLL talents and showing up at Arena Mexico, the only two guys they send for Triplemania this year are QT Marshall and, *gasp* Parker Boudreaux, who apparently is still under contract (why in the hell is that, no idea). And that despite Dorian showing up at TNA Hard to Kill to underline the collaboration with TNA, there's actually no TNA contracted people at all on the card (unless Nemeth is one of them, but I'm not sure he is, he's basically working everywhere). But yeah. Alberto ? AAA is such a shitshow.

The current All Elite (3.0, if you will) may very well be the most amazing roster ever in term of in-ring talent. It's just mind-blowing, and that's what AEW should aspire to be. Now I just want the MCMG to get signed and have a very much deserved stint as a top tag team in a big company, to complete that picture.

From the perspective of someone not watching the product and only being aware of what's getting all the hype, it's all about Rock and Cody. To the point where it's like : hey, remember about that Roman fella, who used to be the champ for a long ass time ? Whatever happened to him ? Oh, he's actually part of that supporting cast too now ? Wait, he's still the champ ? But, so Cody vs Rock at Mania is not for the WWE Title ? Wait, what ? That's not the actual match ? There could be so much said about how the biggest (in term of business) and maybe, at least on paper, the best Mania is taking place first thing after Vince is gone for "good" (although the fact the company has not been cleaned up and some of his corporate drones are still around make that statement relative), both how ironic it is and how it totally serves the purpose of making the audience look the other way and forget about the entire thing (which is a shame, really).

Ca$$h rules everything around me. AEW 2024 be like : + Stardom finally involved with AEW. Stephanie Vaquer @ Forbidden Door defending her IWGP Strong title. Gimme all that good shiznit Coach TK.

Much more a case of Maclin being awesome than anything else. From what I've seen of Nemeth lately, I'm not overly impressed. He really strikes me as a guy who was thought to be great "by 2008 WWE standards", which doesn't cut it in today's landscape. He's good, but he's nothing special, and has some pretty annoying traits (the sub-sub-Micheals style mixed with some Billy Gunn stuff). Agreed. I've not felt the women division either lately, it seems like Jordynne has no really credible challengers, and although Ash by Elegance is actually a fun presentation, she's not gonna set the division on fire. There is some really strong matches thanks to the MCMG/Kushida/GYV/System/Ali/Rascalz/ABC/Bailey/Maclin/Alexander (although he's not been given the most exciting talent lately, and Hammerstone is definitely seriously overrated) core, but something has been kinda missing, I don't see where they are going toward, and that's the first time in a long while it has happened. Usually you get a good feel of the long and middle-term feuds. I wonder about Maclin too. He would be lost in the shuffle in AEW, although he would be pretty fun in ROH for a while. Gimme Maclin vs Briscoe already. In TNA, he should be boosted straight back up to the main event picture really, but losing to Nemeth is not a good sign. I wonder if TNA is not feeling the absence of D'Amore already in term of vision... I guess the key is what they build for Slammiversary. By then things will get clearer in term of what has changed, if anything, in the booking approach.

Which is really pretty damn bad already, in term of company policy.