El-P

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) ?

Short answer : no. Maybe. Once Vince dies. Then again, it would take a complete refont of the entire company culture, which is highly unlikely. Stephy is gonna be there forever no matter what in some role. Her long-time influence in creative that she instilled when she was put in charge in the early 00's coupled with the monopoly was a disater for pro-wrestling as a whole, because it contributed to the perception of what pro-wrestling should be (aka writerzzzzz). Which gave us TNA aka WWE-lite, the only failed alternative during those 17 years. The myth of HHH "great booker" has been debunked a long time ago as NXT was a sandbox company with toy indie stars being shuffled around to the pleasure of the smart-marks-yet-WWE-fanboys of Full Sail. The futur seems to be Shawn Michaels-like dramaturgy. Sorry, I don't love that. So, maybe Vince dies and either nothing much changes or something drastically changes. Then again, maybe Vince dies and the company crumbles. CMLL is not exactly crumbling, but it appears the death of Paco Alonso was a bit more than just the big boss dying and on to the top gen like nothing happened. Financially, thanks to Blood Money Mania and the FOX heist job, they almost reached the "too big to fail" state. Creatively, they are broken. When the last resort of hope for the big FOX show is Brucie, you kow you're fucked more than a hooker in a gang-bang. Hell, when even Brazzers make fun of your booking, you know you have reach a pathetic state. Creatively, they are the AWA in 89, they are WCW in 99. They are WWE in 2019. They should open an office in beautiful progressive Djeddah and make whoever that guy who will win the multi-man match at the next Saudi show but you never ever see on TV otherwise the world champ, because that's where their bread is buttered.

Rossy Ogawa has just made it, 21 years after ARSION. I would love for the joshi talent to finally get a full feldge platform to be showcased. Anyway, this sounds like a really cool news. Again, how crazy has been this year ?

Omega vs Janela was insane. Just insane. I cringed a bunch of times, which is a sign of a good Janela match. Omega reminds me of Benoit circa 96-98 in that he looks like the crispest, best performer in the world. Tons of batshit insane spots. Cool details like Janela paying hommage to Eddie Guerrero on the anniversary day and Omega actually using the rebound clothesline to make fun of Mox (he also used his finisher). Just a brutal match that did not under-delivered nor went a minute too long (especially compared to the NJPW main events of last week-end). If there's two criticisms to be made, is that next to Omega, Janela's selling really appears as lacking (but of course that's not what you ask from him anyway, you want him to kill himself again and again, not do long term selling drama); and really that this match on Dark was a waste as it was the best match on any AEW TV tapings thus far and could very well have been booked for a PPV with an actual storyline. Great match. The other two matches were pretty fine, although the Dark Order is painfully not over. Peter Avalon actually is a really solid in-ring worker. Sonny Kiss stuff is cool but again, it came off a bit too gimmicky, I have no faith in him looking good in a meaningful singles match yet (he was really helped by LU production). Leva Bates is adorable, but... dunno what she is really good at... give her some funny promos or something...

Lucha Brothers need to win to establish the tag titles as really important. We need a star team on top to start, not underdogs.

Hey, I look forward to this one to see how well Riho will work with a non-monster and to see what Dr. Baker has to offer at this point.

That would have been so depressing. Even though NOAH is not a blip on the radar, it was once the glorious home that Misawa & Kobashi built.

Probably. Speaking of which, I wonder what will come of that in term of luchadors/doras showing up on Dynamite. Hopefully this happens and we get guys like Taurus in big heavyweight matches or Aerostar with Janella and Allin in a "who dies the most times ?" crazy-ass matches. And bring Ayako & Mari Apache already !

Well, so ROH gets him but he can't work NJPW ? That makes NJPW the loser in that deal and they get nothing from being in business with ROH on that one either. Volador Jr.... ugh....

I watched Anderson in TNA, he was rotten. Total 00's WWE boring worker, and not even a decent one at the style. His act was beyond annoying too after the third time you saw him. Typical NOA mentality of having an intro and then nothing much.

Well, the fact is the Bucks & Omega were more the vital partners for NJPW during those years than "ROH", whatever that meant then, ever was. So you could argue they could stay loyal to people instead of companies (of course I know it doesn't work that way). What are they even getting out of this ROH deal (pun intended) right now ? Mox was the biggest outsider deal in the G1, and he's AEW. Jericho is still getting main events, and he's AEW. In every way but contractually, they already get more out of "not-working" with AEW than they do with working with ROH. Well, maybe that's the thing too... About CMLL, is Dragon Lee still allowed to work the NJPW junior tag league ?

Rumours and innuendos. I'm really tempted to listen to Eric podcast this week...

They really need to. NJPW's relationship with ROH is exactly worth two things right now : jack and shit. With CMLL crumbling with discontent and the biggest stars leaving/being fired, that relationship doesn't seem vital either, especially since we're talking about the strong relationship with the Alonso family. I mean, Sofia is gone and she was supposed to run things. NJPW needs to evolve. No idea how AEW would feel about working with NJPW, it seems like there's some sourness of Omega & the Bucks. But really, with Jericho working the Dome, he's already identified right now as an AEW guy. Let have Omega go back and work a main event in a huge building while NXT Japan is half-packing Korakuen with nise-puroresu matches.

The introduction of BTE this week was nothing short of brillant. They not only shows that they are aware of the criticisms (basically why was there no DQ when Mox jumped on Omega the first week on Dynamite?), but they find a way to "explain"/make fun of it (aka themselves) while also shitting on the opposition. Also, I eagerly awaits for the day Bob Holly is gonna make that cameo. I mean, he has to.