El-P

Damn ! That is old school ! There's an old story about a famous champion forgetting his belt on a cab or something, isn't there ? I seem to recall something like that from some shoot interview. The next BTE is gonna be interesting to say the least.

Best announcers in the biz (in English) from what I know and watch are Kevin Kelly (old, best announcing job ever during the G1), Jim Cornette (old, whatever I may think of his opinions on modern wrestling, he mostly killed it in MLW) and Don Callis (old, does a terrific job in IMPACT). Excalibur has been really good, but there needs to be some chemistry with a partner. JR ain't it. The Goldenboy guy ain't it (and I'm not sure why he was even there). Mauro in AEW would legit make me question following the promotion. He's that bad of a turn off to me at this point.

If Cody abused Kylie, someone should look into this matter, because AEWMeltz won't do it.

Oh, so rovert has reported me now. Ok. Point taken. I guess he doesn't like when someone is reading through his bullshit. I'm out of this argument, my point has been made well and clear.

Nope. I simply analyzed what you wrote. Science langage are a bitch, I admit.

Nope. I am trying to have a discussion. But just like you can't take a joke, you can't take the fact people are questioning what you are saying. So, what are you saying about the Kylie Rae situation that you know about *exactly* ? Because if you don't know shit, why are you even talking about systemic bullying that journalist maybe should enquire about and Meltzer possibly hiding it because he's AEW's boys ? I reply to whatever post I want, really.

That's absolutely what you said. It's actually a much better and complete rephrasing than what I did.

You know how the English langage works, right ? I mean, it's even my native langage, and sometime I feel like I understand it better than you do. Your use of "rephrasing", that you put under quotation, means that I did more than just rephrase but that I gave another meaning to what you first said. Which was not the case. So when I answered to you, I used the term "rephrase", again, because that's how langage works, but this time I used it the way you used it under quotation, meaning "modify" more than simply "rephrase". I'm being difficult for a reason, I'm absolutely not trolling. I'm trying to make sense of what you said in your first post, which was chockfull of stuff you implied. Pretty much.

Well, the joke was a few days ago. You made a big deal out of it. Bad timing I guess I'm not rephrasing your posts at all. "If" makes it a question. Why ask that one question, when Kylie could have left for pretty much any reason in the world we have no idea about ? Maybe simply because that's the very first thing you thought about. Ok then. But then going on about how Meltz, if that would be the case, would probably not talk about it because he's friends with the AEW people is basically making it a stronger case of implying about stuff. I'm not being "difficult for the sake of it", but your flaunt your knowledge and connections and whatever all the time, so I don't think it's odd for me to wonder why you would talk about "systemic bullying" out of nowhere like that, even going so far to say Meltz would hide it if that was the case... That's a process of intent on something that isn't out there yet in any shape of form. Well, yeah, I am difficult for the sake of it, because of your habit to say that you know but can't talk about but then give hints and then whoops sometimes you were wrong. But hey, you said it yourself, "people are gonna overly read into what am I saying". There you go.

Well, actually it is. Because there can be a thousand different reasons why Kylie Rae went silent and left the company. It could be anything, really, that have everything or nothing to do with her job. So, just asking that simple question is implying. The use of "systemic" actually goes further into implying, giving an attribute to the nature of said implied bullying. If you don't know anything about the reason why she left, why ask that one question ? Either you now something and you are giving us a hint by asking that question, either you don't know and then you are just implying something out of thin air.

This however, is not a joke : Ok, so are you implying there is systemic bullying issue in AEW ? And if you are not a journalist and have no evidence about this, why are you throwing that out of nowhere ? And now you are implying that Meltz is gonna rub that one under the rug because he is friends with the AEW people ? So, let me rephrase. We don't know why Kylie Rae left, yet you still are implying that 1/ there may be systemic bullying and 2/ of course Meltz is not gonna talk about it because #MeltzisAEW. Ok, sorry, but that is pretty fucking thin.

Well, it was a joke. You quoting yourself about Schiavone being WWE bound and then Schiavone ending up in AEW was funny to me. if I were you I would have poked fun at myself for that one. But apparently, you so serious about your knowledge of things and you can't take a joke and have to be on the defensive all the time. Tough shit.

Nothing could follow that ladder match. Nothing.

Is that Jaguar ?! She's still working ?! Kyoko looks as good as she ever did.

I remember not being that impressed by Mercedes watching the first MYC, but last night I thought she looked like a star. The thing is, thus far there hasn't been much opportunity for the women to shine in singles matches, so we don't exactly know what they have with Britt and the likes. Penelope Ford can do tons of fun stuff but I have no idea how good she is in a straight match. Allie can be a super cool character, but she's "only" a solid worker, not a great one. And they definitely don't have anyone with the star aura to her yet. Hell, IMPACT has a more diverse and really cool female roster with legit star Tessa Blanchard and even Taya Valkyrie (who's really stepped up since her LU days I think, although she was already good there), and now Tenille Dashwood, strong characters like Su Young & Rosemary, Jordynne Grace who's a unique kind of worker, Jessika Havoc who's a really good monster, Madison Rayne who's solid as hell and a really good bitch heel, Kiera Hogan also stepping up since her heel turn...

It doesn't happen very often during a pro-wrestling show, so there it is, I actually laughed out loud during the Alesha & Ace Austin vignette on the beach. The music when Ace chased the "thiefs" into the water, and then Austin emerging out of the sea in slow-mo, totally cracked me up. Ok, so this is like the Undead Realm stuff. I would rather not have the announcer talk about any of this like in LU, but there it is, it really got me. I really like the back and forth banter about Madison Rayne too since she turned heel. Some old-school wink-wink kayfabe going on, it's pretty funny. The Rhyno vs Elgin match (which wasn't any good, surprise surprise) got an ECW chant. In Mexico. That has to be a first.

Nyla didn't look that good in the battle royal. She might be really exposed in a single match, depending on Riho's performance. Then again, she might do ok. She clearly has tons of potential. I must say, about the pre-show, there was some really disgusting transphobia going on on the youtube chat. I know, Youtube is like Twitter, it's the pits of hell, but still, some WWE fanboys comments were repulsive.

Pretty much sums it up. Conrad's podcasts have jumped the shark a while ago for me. I have loved Schiavone's debut and the good first tier of Brucies, I really enjoyed a bunch of Bischoff's in-between the rants-o-rama and JR's was fun for a few weeks. And he's gonna do yet another one ? I'd be interested to see how the numbers of downloads have evolved for all these podcasts over the last two years.

Settle down, trooper, and have some sense of humour. It's healthy to laugh at your own expense, ya know. It was not trolling nor even mean spirited, really. It's called "a joke". Ya know, an attempt to make some people smile, or even laugh.

CM Punk's reaction to learning about Becky & Seth going on vacation for two weeks at Starrcast was pretty damn funny. The guy looks pretty happy with his life too (and why shouldn't he ?). Good for him.

The product has looked the same for 20 years.

He had the scoop on Schiavone going to WWE though. He even quoted himself having the scoop... Well, that is unfortunate for Kylie Rae. Hopefully she is ok.

The fact there isn't more replies says less about the show than about the board, really... I thought it was an excellent show, with Lucha Bros vs Young Bucks easily getting MOTN and honestly, this was a MOTYC to me. Just insane. And they really didn't fell into the most tired ladder match tropes like the slow climb (which they made fun of on BTE). Matt Jackson is such a terrific mind for details too. I guess Fenix's leg was okay... LAX won't be called LAX I guess. I wasn't crazy about the way they showed up though. The matches between these three teams are gonna be crazy though, LAX vs Lucha Bros in IMPACT was great stuff. Second best match was Omega vs PAC. Great match too and quite the surprising result. I like how they are doing stuff that make sense. Omega had his mind set on Mox, he overlooked PAC and got caught. Riho vs Shida was probably my third favourite match of the night. I agree Shida should be the star, damn that girl is dynamite. Not that Riho is anything less than very good, and I get the underdog vs monster story they want to tell for the first championship match. Speaking of which, Nila is not ready. She's better than Nia Jaxx when she was thrown into the mix, but she's too green still to be put in this position. I hope she doesn't get the title already, because it could hurt her if the perception is she isn't ready (which she isn't). Anyway, I want to see more of Shida, I'm a fan already. Jericho vs Hangman was a very good match, but it had no shot of following the Bucks vs Lucha Bros, which emptied the crowd of its energy. It's clear also no one really wanted Hangman to win yet. Plus he should settle down on those shooting star press, although the counter on the outside by Jericho was the greatest thing ever in that it made an otherwise awkward spot into something cool . Jericho is AEW's Terry Funk. He'll have a really hard time getting booed. I thought he looked fantastic, better than Page. Right man won. Page's wife was funny in that she was having way too much fun ! Page is still young and had shitload of potential. Cool entrance on the horse too. Cody vs Shawn Spears was tons of fun. Not a great match, just good, but excellent booking. Honestly Spears was just there. And it was designed that way too. Tully was the second best guy in the match. Seriously, he did a better manager job than I've seen in years. The Arn spot I could see coming from miles away after, but was cool nonetheless. They are slowly building Cody vs MJF, and that is gonna be gold, probably. Loved the six-men SCU vs Jurassik Express match. That Jungle Jack boy is something (more on that later). Totally the kind of opener you want to get the crowd going. SCU are awesome at this. The Dark Order gimmick needs to be revamped badly. They are not over and although their in-ring work is good, they just drag whoever works with them into a hole of silence, despite the goodwill of that crowd. Worst match on the show and still technically good, but yeah, that gimmick is a failure. Kill it before the TV. And it's like they know it, since Orange Cassidy showing up was there to make you forget about the Dark Order. Janela vs Havoc vs Allin was exactly what I thought it would be. Ok, with Janela throwing a tennis racket away, and since we know Corny & Callihan were actually working a rivalry online, I'm that close to expecting Corny showing up in AEW at one point like he did in ECW back then for a showcase against Janela. Allin is going to kill himself, but hey, what are you gonna do. Janela was the star of the match in term of personality What the hell was that orihara moonsault BTW ? The monkey flip in the chair was hilarious. Havoc was kinda hidden by the other too, and in a way he was the smarter worker in not taking the biggest bumps, and I guess the paper cut spots are fine the first time you see them but... The pre-show match with Angelico & Evans vs Private Party was the greatest flippiest match ever. Evans & Angelico as heels is exactly what you need. PP are not ready for anything other than doing awesome spots yet, let's see if they can grow out to be more than that. They certainly have charisma too. Yeah, the women battle royal was a miss. Felt rushed. No real big surprise. Tenille Dashwood from IMPACT working the show was certainly interesting. I hope Ivelisse gets signed. I'm glad Scarlett didn't show up there, would have been a waste. I get what they want to do with Nyla, but when you have a lot better workers around her, I dunno, I would hope the don't go Nia Jaxx with her (although she's got a much better presence). Some good spots at the end though, Britt looks like a star. So yeah, tons of fun, love the presentation and production, love the approach they have with zero backstage segment and stuff. The announcing... Ok, Excalibur is excellent, that's a fact. I have no idea what Goldenboy is here for. Thus far he doesn't display much personality, doesn't add anything to the booth. And then there's good ol' JR. Sorry to say, but he wasn't good. Jungle Jack ? Again and again and again ? And it's not like it's something new. He used to mix Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit in 2000. Did not know how to put Riho and Shida over at all (to say the least), basically saying they have no chance against Nyla anyway. Seriously, I know he's valuable as a name, but his performance here was pretty damn bad. You want a classic voice ? Put Schiavone in. Hell, call Corny, who has been *great* (despite the bullshit) in AEW. Call Don Callis, who's simply a terrific, terrific announcer who also adds humour and character to his stuff, something that is really lacking from this announcing team (hell, even super serious NJPW announcing during the G1 had a lot more flavour and personality). So yeah, that's my big criticism. JR just isn't up the snuff and will not grab a younger audience with this kind of announcing. Goldenboy, I have no idea. Keep Excalibur, he's he anchor. Anyway, terrific show, can't wait for the debut on TV.

I may check it out eventually, although this week-end is already ridiculous with All Out, the London NJPW show and a big CMLL show last Friday. WALTER in NXT UK is a waste to me. He would be so much more interesting doing tours in NJ.