El-P

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.

In some interview a few days ago, she was asked about if she would ever go back to WWE one day, and she answered "For sure, I have no doubt I'll be back in WWE one day" and such. Like I said it's maybe just being honest to a fault, as it seems perfectly reasonable for her to go back eventually. But the timing of it makes it super awkward, and some in AEW could take it as a lack of respect as she is just gonna make her big debut. I believe the answer was edited out of the interview after the fact too, but it still leaked. The other thing about Mercedes, is that she first got told her ankle injury was career ending. Hopefully she made a good recovery.

I thought the same thing watching the last show I watched. Very much so. The day he comes back to AEW, Coach TK needs to clear the right to "Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake as his new theme song. I'm actually legit interested in long term outsider heel Jack Perry, but no House of Torture at Forbidden Door, thank you in advance.

Remember that people actually argued that him going to NXT was not such a bad idea because he needed to learn, ya know... And here he is doing the perfect storm squash match, getting over his key spots (which he really does not even need to at this point, but still). I got a huge kick at the fact Okada's first opponent in AEW has been Jon Cruz, the guy who gave us the greatest Samoa Joe "steps aside" spot ever and who is just a terrific JTTS (and wrestler, really) by all accounts. Okada the dickhead is the best Okada too.

The Buff Bagwell episode ended up much better than expected. Both tragic, absurd, funny at times, with an interesting twist at the end (the Scotty Riggs stuff). At the end of the day, Marcus Bagwell sure came off like a good dude who kinda lost himself for a while, and who's really lucky to still be alive today. People just have crazy lives. Enjoyed this one a lot.

Come on people, it can't be that bad. (check the results) Ok, what the everloving fuck is happening here ?

The Redeemer was actually awesome. Plans got derailed by injuries and a case of "that doesn't work for me brothers", apparently. Same issues were had by Malakai Black, who never EVER does any single job. There was clearly a lesson to be learned with this kind of very much WWE-brained guys. The only thing I hope now is that Mercedes is not gonna be one of them and that the interview bit was just her being honest to a fault (which very well might be the case). As far as Miro & CJ splitting, private matters. I wonder what that means for either of them in AEW, as the creative has to change if they get back on TV.

I've been a fan of Angelico since the days of Lucha Underground. He really never was featured much during the early days, teaming with Jack Evans (whatever happened to him after he left ?), but I've been enjoying him and Serpentico getting somewhat of a push in ROH quite a bit. Needless to say, watching him against Mistico made me happy. Also, Jeff Jarrett being involved in a brawl which ended up with Mark Briscoe going through a flaming table is yet another one to add in the never ending list of never to be expected "Double J facts". He's easily having one of his most fun stint ever.

Also, apparently Brock Lesnar is back on the roster's profile page ? The stench...

It's either of two things, they are dirty liars about it, or they are incompetent. That also goes for "Papa Trip", the head of creative of WWE, who "did not read the lawsuit" that everyone on wrestling forums and reddits and Twitter had read. Not aware, sorry 'bout that, learnin' as we go.... TKO is basically a dirty company anyway from the very start. They cut a deal with Vince knowing about the NDA debacle. They kept Dana White in charge of UFC, the guy who publicly slapped his wife in the face (while promoting slapfighting). UFC shows are actively promoting Donald Trump, who himself is a sexual predator, rapist, white supremacist and self-professed futur dictator. All good fun. The long-time relationship of Donald Trump and Vince McMahon (and his family) is quite the elephant in the room too. WWE has avoided as much as possible to even refer to Trump after he got elected, but he's still a WWE Hall of Famer (imagine being put in the last honorary list as this guy), and he's been a non negligeable part of Mania history. There's tons of similarities between Vince and Trump on a personal level too. Damn. I wish I thought of that one myself. Clap clap clap. This.

Nick Khan keeping on praising Vince *after* the NDA's and the first departure, *after* he came back in power, was a clear sign he was a piece a trash. So there. He's also Dwayne's long time friend. People really thought it was all over, uh ? "Move on", as JR said, uh ? Nah. Ok, now Nick Khan needs to be swiped off the wall of this dirtbag company already. Come on. He did not even know what was in the lawsuit.... Yeah... Happy Mania Seas... oh, who the fuck are we kidding ? This is not over, and the company is still dirty as fuck.

Pretty much as bad as expected. It's really sad. Of all the guys from the previous generation, only Bret Hart really has said what needed to be said. The rest is either silence, vague useless stuff like this or plain really embarrassing stuff like Orton and even worse, Cena. What a glorious bunch.

The movie was released in France. There were articles in newspapers talking about how it was very much a QAnon themed movie, with the explanation of what that meant (because QAnon is not really a thing in France, although we can see some traces of it in some circles, you can guess which kind). To me ignorance is also a choice. The choice of not thinking about what you consume. This is actually scary, especially considering the artificial intelligence stuff that is gonna totally fuck everything up in term of not being able to trust anything anymore. Well of course. And since he wasn't very good at his job, there you go.

In other news, I would not be surprised to see Matt Hardy go, as his contract is up soon. I enjoyed old, broken down Matt Hardy more than most (pretty easy around these parts), but him expressing frustration about how they were used is a bit puzzling, considering the ridiculous amount of talent they have to put on TV. And really, the fact they still used Jeff after his latest issue is already more than they could have hoped. The time of the dream matches have passed for them, it's a cold hard fact. They were like the Rock'n Roll Express during the Nitro days, fun to watch to a degree, but way past the point of relevancy. He could still be a fun addition to TNA with the right creative though. I would not mind that. Ditto Mike Santana I guess, although really, the guy kinda QT Marshall himself.

Come on now. This movie is a straight QAnon propaganda piece. Anyone even talking about it in any other way has a gigantic red flag over their head. As far as Ian, he talked about it on a Discord, which he thought was private I believe. But anyway. This is serious stuff. If I'm watching a show, I'd like to be informed if one of the performer is a Q-pilled idiot. Taking it to Twitter (who the fuck says X btw ?) is another thing entirely, especially when you cry about libel and such. Actually, that's another red flag, of sorts, these kind of people just love to paint themselves as victims. That being said, people should always be careful about what they say on private Discords, indeed. Never know when some stuff might bite them in the ass eventually...

Rumors now are that Kevin Kelly has been fired. He wasn't calling Collision, which has been pre-taped. Gotta say this. He has been awesome for years in NJPW, his G1 Climax announcing was the highlight of the year and brought so much to the whole thing. It did not translate well to AEW at first, and it seems he wasn't aware of the product, notably botching talent names too. Once he got "demoted" to color, I thought he got more comfortable after a while and I actually enjoyed him in that role. But then again. He's publicly shitting on Ian Riccaboni, who by all accounts seems to be a great guy and is a terrific announcer, because he called him out for promoting some QAnon bullshit movie I understand. So there. Maybe William Corgan can make him call some EC3 classics. Dunno if Ian would make the transition to Collision, as he did not want to overload his work charge for family reasons, but really, AEW does not need Kevin Kelly, and they certainly don't need a sour and bitter QAnon wacko at all. They have a-plenty of terrific announcers and color guys. And guess what, why not get Veda Scott if she's available and willing ?

The same who would go "OMG Will Ospreay ! WWE has picked up another GOAT !". And yeah. The idea that Ospreay or Okada would have spent some time in NXT... Gotta throw this out there. ROH has become a really fun and easy show to watch, with a good regular crew and nice revolving door of supporting talent. Red Velvet vs Leila Hirsch this week was really good. Enjoying guys like the Jon Cruz, who is hilarious, getting featured, and Spanish Announce Project feuding with Maria Kanellis, Dalton Castle vs Johnny TV with the Boys and Taya involved. Just lots of good stuff, really. The Mania week show should be pretty cool, with the addition of the champs who work AEW shows, Kingston, the Kingdom, Fletcher. And of course, Athena stil carrying the thing.

Yeah, Kingston's story is insane. He went from basically wanting to retire because he wasn't making ends meet anymore to being a legit star in the second biggest promotion in the world, meeting some of his tape trading days heroes, feuding with Danielson on his last full time year, and now being part of Okada's debut in the company, and probably Okada's first PPV match, for some Triple Crown title. He's another case of, if only for this, AEW was worth it. Gotta love Ospreay. First match on TV," Hey, I'm gonna make my little Aussie bruv a star." (I'm sure somewhere some idiot is bitching about kicking out of the Os-cutter and how that has already ruined him as a main eventer though) Also :

I have no word. This 1-2-3 punch over two weeks (counting next week) is just ridiculous. This. Been following since the start. And even before that. This too. Pretty much. Joe > Swerve > Ospreay at Wembley > Okada at the end of the year > feud with babyface Omega returning. And then, Jay White is gonna be right there. If nothing goes terribly wrong, they have all time greats feuding for a year without even having to think about it.

Yep. To me, the more intimate the better. I'd take a red hot ECW, Korakuen Hall or Lucha Underground (although we're not talking about *that* small) show over any kind of huge arena. I'd be perfectly happy with AEW running smaller places.

Knowing Sid, he probably thought it was planned and did not get why everybody else was laughing. The most interesting thing about the episode is the sumo stuff (cool footage). Tenta being a super nice guy and all, and the ending about his death was trying way too hard to make the audience cry (really, I felt I was a voyeur in a private matter that had nothing to do with pro-wrestling, and it made me feel both sad and awkward), but there was nothing really compelling about the episode itself, which is why they spent like 5 minutes on Shockmaster falling on his arse I guess (that Haku laugh was gold). The idea that Golga was a way to humiliate Tenta is kinda bizarre, but who knows.

Ok, now we're talking. The garbage blue and red WWE-lite color scheme is finally gone. Tunnels are back. Says how much they thought of Sting and how significant he was to them that they consider his retirement to be the launch of an entire new season.

The smell of the entire thing...