El-P

You don't say ! It almost seems fake, as she's basically cutting a promo on the officer, who in return could not be nicer to her... Yeah I know, "everything is a work", I'm an old pro-wrestling fan.

Naito will win the IC title and the IWGP on back to back nights at the Tokyo Dome. Yes he will.

I stand corrected. I should know (well, I wonder at times what it really was, but there was clearly regular abuse going on, not necessarily physical, although it did happen sometimes when alcohol was involved and alcohol was involved a lot, but definitely verbal and emotional one, leading me to a bunch of complete breakdowns; and clear-cut abuse in the form of harassement after I finally put an end to it, after more than ten years). And I won't go further into this, plus it seems like another life now. Let's say if I had 1€ each time I was told "I'm sorry", "It won't happen again" and "Don't leave me", I would have made quite a bit of money. So there, my two cents just to reiterate that yes, I'm against labelling people for life on the base of incidents we don't really know much about. But on the other hand I know first hand you can take abuse for years and almost think it's normal and that's how a relationship works because you don't know any better after a while. Which doesn't help your next relationships either, so you're in for the long haul anyway.

Thanks for the clarification.

I love how we got told she was done for pro-wrestling and all, and there she pops up what, a few weeks later ? Pro-wrestling will never cease to be pro-wrestling.

Well, at least it was a nice send-off for LAX with the entire babyface locker room coming to the ring to carry them in triumph. The match against Swann & Mack was excellent too, I guess these two are next in line for a title shot. In other news, Su Yung stapled Jessica Havoc's pussy. Then Havoc hung her. Then Su Yung died, then she woke up. I like how IMPACT is keeping a bit of the LU spirit alive. I wonder how Su Yung's character is gonna be altered by dying (but wasn't she some kind of zombi anyway ? I guess not, seems like she had a pulse in the ambulance). Next week, I hope a wedding ceremony gets thrashed.

The issue I have with this kind of stuff is that a Twitter thread is not a court of law. And even then, what does that make of those "Austin is so great" reactions when he comes back on RAW once in a while ? The great Austin who had the greatest angle ever with Mike Tyson… No explanation needed here. I dunno. Moose made an ass out of himself, but I don't think that reply by Bix had anything to do with anything written on his article. That being said, Moose, Elgin, Callihan, Swann (and I really like the latest two as performers) on the same roster, I understand it's a pretty poor look. Then again, every case is different, I never quite got the Swann case (he brutally pulled Su Young into his car or something ? How was that settled ? Are they ok working together today ?). Dunno, to me it's more stupidity on Twitter, and as much as I like Bix's work, I don't think that reply was needed. Take the high road, Moose's stuff was completely idiotic and low-rent.

I admit, that pic of Mike is pretty damn funny. What does Lana thinks of all this though ?

I'd rather listen to drunk Vampiro than Mauro. It's sad, because like I said, would probably check out NXT, but the last Takeover I tried to watch let my soul scarred. After three minutes I want to slap the fuck out of him so he would just shut the fuck up for ten seconds. The fact he's considered any good blows my mind. Matter of tastes, I guess, but still...

That got a laugh out of me. Well, it was part of the fun of ECW, even though it was mostly a fiction, especially when Kevin Sullivan would lend WCW people and then Heyman was receiving a check from Vince every month. But yeah, those Shane Douglas or Taz promos shitting on the mainstream were part of the fun. The only thing is, now that we live in the social media era, the hashtag culture and the likes, people will be more incline to jump on everything, all the time and do podcast about it, even though everything will be forgotten by the next week when the next "scandalous" or "embarrassing" thing is said. How many of those ridiculous "controversy" are totally forgotten in a matter of a few days ? It's hard to be a *cult* favourite when everything can be seen immediately by everyone, including the usual wave of haters and fanboys (works for both sides of the fence, mind you). Anyway, just ranting...

This. I won't, because I just won't, but really, the "war" has not begun yet and I'm already tired of the "let's compare which show is the best this week" stuff, honesty. I just want AEW to be a show I enjoy like I enjoy IMPACT or enjoyed Lucha Underground. Ratings and performances and whatever I could care less. The war to get ratings is what turned the awesome WWF of 1997 (well, the awesome main event scene ok ?) into the dump of shit that was WWF of 99.

Oh yeah. I never ever cared one bit about Cody before, never saw shit in him tbh (that odd mask in WWE, wtf was that ?). First time I saw him and Brandi do their thing together in NJPW I loved it, and by that point it was clearly the act that was better than Cody's work. Brandi is just a terrific old-school valet in the Sherri mode. So it seems like she got Cody out of his shell and really helped him find himself, to the point he can carry himself on his own now.

Yeah, to me he's clearly The Man right now as far as aura and audience reaction goes. It's quite amazing to witness how his career evolved from being "a dull guy" in WWE, to "he won't fit in ROH and will fail in the indy circuit" to a "fun act in NJPW thanks to his pairing with Brandi" to "legit superstar of AEW".

I would agree too. Still, it's not like he's been made the focus of the promotion yet, thus far the booking is having him lose all of his big matches. I guess (hope ?) there's a long term reason for that, as he seems to go back to his Cleaner character a bit. Thus far, Cody definitely looks like the hottest guy in the company (I wonder how much of the "anti-HHH" part of that plays a role).

Agreed. You only need two. It worked well in WCW during the Nitro eras because you had super strong characters with heavily defined roles : Tony the announcer, Heenan & Larry the color guys and Tenay throwing knowledge to help get the luchadors and cruiserweights over. AEW going for a three men booth is a mistake, it's not needed. IMPACT is perfectly fine with Callis carrying Matthews. LU was quite fun with Striker & Vampiro having their own fucked up chemistry.

Well Kenny Omega did sell out the Tokyo Dome working against Okada. Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano aren't exactly on the same level as far as resume goes. Will that translate to the US in the long run, no idea, but he's not factually wrong, him, the Bucks, Jericho, Mox are much bigger stars than anyone on NXT. I wonder what KUSHIDA thinks of this though.

I did not realize it was the first "fuck AEW" NXT already. I would watch it out of curiosity, then you all talk about Mauro and I go "eww, no"... That's how much of a turn-off this guy is to me because whereas I can shut off most bad announcing (I did not even notice Bloodsport's for instance), Mauro you just can't ignore, which makes it even worse.

Well, this ended up a super fun card and honestly one of my favourite show of the year. They may not have packed MSG, but in the end I thought this was a complete success. The Hulu theatre is a really cool looking setting, the place looked full and the atmosphere was certainly great, as it was a total mexican/lucha crowd (I guess the "build that wall" crowd would not approve of the Mexican anthem being played in MSG, ah ah ah) LAX vs Lucha Brothers was excellent/great as expected, Taya vs Tessa worked in complete AAA dynamic (reversed from their IMPACT role) was also very good, the Cain Velasquez six men match was basically the same stuff as Triplemania, Blue Demon vs Dr Wagner was as good of a straight match you could get from them (this is where the crowd being a true lucha crowd helped as this match would have died in front of a random US audience). The undercard was good match after good match, Chris Dickinson teaming with Mascara Dorado in the opener was quite fun, the IMPACT six men tag was very good and shockingly Elgin showcased actual personality (him "catching" the puto chant and throwing it back to the audience was a great spot, why can't he be like that all the time ???) and Fabi Apache really shined a whole lot there, the four way ended up really hot and King Puma was sporting a wonderful classic Tiger Mask outfit. Yeah, that show was certainly not promoted well, but it came off excellent. Oh, did I mention Melissa Santos was ring announcing, and she's still the best at it ?

I don't watch any WWE anymore, I'm barely reading the threads here for amusing facts. The Lucha Brothers stuff in IMPACT was indeed quite stylish. As far as subtitles go, Lucha Underground was doing it in 2015. Still, I'm glad we get japanese talent allowed to speak japanese.

Hasn't there been subtitles promos already on AEW stuff ? I mean, Lucha Brothers used to cut subtitles promos on IMPACT the whole time they were there, so it's not exactly new either way. So no, WWE did not beat anyone to the punch anyway about that deal.

How cool is that that they let Riho cut her promo in Japanese with subtitles instead of having her use broken English ? That's what I want to see, just like LU had promos in Spanish. MJF on TV is gonna become a big star in no time. The guy in red whom he spit at is Garrett Sakahara, a guy from the DDPY Center, that was pretty cool to see him pop up here. Hey ! Brackets for a tag team tournament ! That's very un-WCW.

I was more alluding to the lack of talk on this board, really. I like the concept a lot, but the execution isn't always the most exciting. I mean, why even book Nick Gage for instance ? I know he's the GCW champ (god, that tells me all I need to know), but in this setting he's just useless (well, he's been useless every damn time I ever saw him, but that's another matter). I dunno, maybe I was tired, as honestly I did enjoy watching Wentz do shoot-style as well as the Kratos match. Tom Lawlor vs DBS Jr. was quite ok not nearly as good as the Kross match from the Mania week-end though, so there you go, I just don't think Lawlor is that good overall (showed way more charisma here than on MLW though). Come on. If you're following pro-wrestling even a little bit more than WWE, you know who Killer Kross (great name too) is. If anything, he's been a regular gringo in AAA lately and was part of the first match of Cain Velasquez (and should have been in NYC if IMPACT was not fucking with him, which is ridiculous). Kross is one guy I really hope gets grabbed by AEW when his contract runs up, alongside Scarlett Bordeaux (they are a couple). Two big loss for IMPACT.

I see there's no hype for Bloodsport 2, and honestly I get it. As a novelty, it can work if you have some compelling matches, but this had pretty much none as far as I'm concerned. Barnett vs Dickinson was largely on the boring side of the fence to me, as an old shoot-style fan. Some cool flashes and the finish was really good, but really, this kind of post-MMA (with total pro-style spots worked in) shoot-style match really isn't that interesting to watch, it's not exactly Tamura vs Khousaka. The rest of the card was mostly meh stuff to me. As always Nick Gage was a complete and utter waste of time. Killer Kross challenged Batista, yeah, that's gonna happen... If I'm honest, the two most fun moments were two former WWE comedy guys doing shoot-style (for the sheer WTF aspect of it) and Sumie Sakai still kicking ass at 47. I would not mind more of that style instilled in regular cards in IMPACT or AEW, but for a complete show, you really need more compelling stuff than what was presented here.

What crossover ? Angle's career happened during a time pro-wrestling became less and less popular. Hell, his better years happened in TNA, where he was barely even watched. I don't see how there was a crossover of any sorts with Angle. Old-timers marked out for him because of his gold medal, but apart from that… I guess you could argue Lesnar getting in pro-wresting came from his success... Meanwhile, Jericho was part of the hottest era of pro-wrestling of the last 30 years, him jumping to WWF in 99 was a big deal and probably propelled the jumps that followed (Benoit & Eddie being important in the early 00's), he's still relevant after 25 years, he made his name in New Japan in a hot period too. He was probably a key part in AEW getting a TV deal as he's the big "mainstream" name of the bunch. It's not even close to me.

Don Johnson could play Bret Hart, it's almost scary :