El-P

Considering their match on August 9, Ciber has to be one of the shittiest guy around. When you can't have a good match with Ultimo Guerrero, you're useless. Has Cibernietico sucked for the last 25 years ? Sky Team vs NGD should rule though, the trios matches they worked this summer were all fantastic despite the fuck finishes.

I've said it before, I take Tony at his best vs JR at his best any day. And honestly in 2019, I take Tony over JR in a heartbeat. To me JR has been mighty fine in AEW thus far, much better than he has been on NJ, but Tony's work in MLW shows how dynamic he still is today (plus I feel like he enjoys the modern product more), and he doesn't have that grumpy side good ol' JR can showcase at times (moreso on his podcast than on AEW broadcast thus far though). JR still is the Name, so he's valuable for that reason only.

Please, no. You can give whatever argument in favor of "pro-wrestling is an art", but accusing anyone who doesn't think it is do it because of "class taste" is a really bad sophism and judgement of intent. I've been a fan for 30 years. I don't consider it an art-form, for the various reasons I already ranted above. Not everything as to be an art-form to be interesting or even great. Totally agree. I'm sure tons of old timers said the same shit about the MX in the early 80's than old-timers say about the Bucks today. Work too fast, too much comedy, do too much spots, unrealistic... Well, Omega is actually is one one the best details guy ever and putting him in the same sentence as Jeff hardy and Shawn Micheals is actually an insult to the guy, really...

Amazing. It's got to be pretty recent too since Corny is sporting the grey hair. And you know what ? It *could* work, especially with Corny cutting hilarious promos on the guys (although I hear the usual bunch complaining about "body shaming" already, and for once they wouldn't be completely wrong, I mean Corny is the one who thought Kevin Steen could not be a star because of his look). I mean, it's nothing too different from Tough Enough and the likes. It's also hilarious in hindsight Corny would take part in this while shitting on anything "meta", because at least the meta comedy guys plays on tropes to get some legit results as far as comedy goes in the context of a pro-wrestling show, while this is downright "exposing the business" by cutting down matches like the Meltz and the forum geeks of the world are doing on a daily basis. Why the fuck is BB there BTW, apart from the obvious reason ? This stuff can only come from Memphis guys too, the parangon of pro-wrestling purity, realism and credibility...

Following the Jordynne Grace debate, I heard Lance Storm made the most baffling argument that pro-wrestling was actually a *competitive sport* : workers are actually competing for spots on the card. Coming from someone supposedly as smart as Lance Storm, this is a terrible (to stay polite) argument. First off, pro-wrestling is a fiction. Even JR says so in his podcast. There's no two ways around it. If "people fighting for spots" make anything a competitive sport, then what about people trying to climb up the ladder in their company, in their acting career, in their academic hierarchy, whatever. I mean, it's just a ridiculous argument. Storm also made the Mike Oles analogy with figure skating. Well, if that's the case, who is giving the prizes away ? Meltzer ? PWO ? Except it's not the case. Meltz is a critic. THE critic maybe, but NJPW did not boost its attendance in the 2010's by trying to get snowflakes from a newsletter guy and journalist from the US. Pro-wrestlers don't go sit on the bench after their match waiting for notations, with the highest ones getting the golden medal. Let's not even talk about the fact of how biased and screwed up figure skating as always been because of that "jury gives notes" way of working anyway. Of course it has a sporting base, and it has never been as important as it is today, because no matter what some people say, "great matches" have never mattered more than today. Because people know what pro-wrestling is and no one is gonna go crazy for Brutus Beefcake or this kind of 80's useless guys in 2020. People care about the performance because they know it is just that. But then, what is supposed to be sports anyway ? I mean, when the organization of the Tour de France makes the road of the next Tour, then make it so it can be a spectacle and a source of entertainment, because competitive sport at the highest level in term of mainstream appeal is just that : entertainment for the masses and money for the corporations and brands. When the rules of a game is modified because it makes it more entertaining, what is it exactly ? The whole ideology of competitive sport as a value is a complete joke in a capitalistic economy (generally speaking too, I might say). Now I'm thinking about the old pro-wrestling/porn analogy that everybody hates. I had seen a documentary about the relationships between porn and sports. At times it was eerily similar to pro-wrestling, again. There's no question that most of the girl are actual athletes, if only because their work is extremely physically demanding. One retired actress talked about how at 40 her knees were fucked up because of the thousands of hours on all four talking it doggystyle. Well, you can laugh, but it's basically the same thing as Keiji Mutoh doing too many moonsaults. There's also the performance aspect of it that some porn stars actually value, whether of not taking three dicks in your ass at the same time is more or less ridiculous/repulsive as taking a razor blade and slicing up your own flesh and actually bleeding buckets for visual effect in a pretend fight. Not even going into the performance enhancing drugs to stay hard or to be able to take the aforementioned three dicks in the ass. But like pro-wrestlers, porn workers are engaged in a simulacrum. Yes, they are actually "having sex", physically speaking, but not really. Like pro-wrestlers are actually taking bumps and hitting themselves on the chest while not really fighting. And selling is really important in both cases, really... Yet, porn really will never been seen as actual art, even though the old "non simulated scene in art movies" gimmick surfaces from time to time, and even if some efforts have been made from some directors to go well beyond simple masturbatory material. I guess what's make pro-wrestling so interesting and unique is the fact it can't really be classified. It's a sport, yes, but not only, and certainly not competitive. It's also a performance, but will never be taken seriously as performance art because it really isn't just that either. The day pro-wrestling gets into modern art exhibitions or the like in a non novelty way, I will change my tune, but for now, it's still its unique beast that has a very complex relationship with the truth and its own status. In the end, I do agree that the current generation has a much healthier rapport with pro-wrestling overall, like @sek69 said, which is why it's not an issue for them to, for instance, laugh with Orange Cassidy and later in the same card, be totally, sincerely immerged in a serious match with Cody.

Bruce has been exposed badly by JR's podcast. It's not like anyone had mistaken Brucie for anything but a WWE shill anyway, but really... Remember when Bruce apparently didn't give a fuck because he never thought he could work for WWE again and this podcast was a lot of fun ? Yeah, me neither. Seems like in another lifetime.

Fenix is insane. So, injury or not, he'll probably be at All Out.

Catching up on IMPACT. Yeah, Santos thrown in the mix can only help Cage as a character, especially since he really haven't been around because of his injury. I salivate with the perspective of Callihan making Cage & Melissa's life a living hell leading to their title match, hopefully at Bound for Glory. And I second the love for The North vs The Rascalz, just a terrific match with two teams that seem to be made for working against each other, as they compliment each other perfectly. Ethan Page is such a underrated talent, he's not gonna overshadow anyone, but he's holding things together both in the ring and on the mic. Kinda like a subdued Arn Anderson type.

Sounds like some movie indeed...

Me neither Then again, the move-going culture in Europe (not to mention France) is probably insanely different from the US. (that being said, I did go "oh ! Jeff Jarrett !" in my mind when he popped up at the beginning of Spring Breakers, which is one of the most bizarre cameo you could think of)

Agreed. Having the Omega vs Moxley feud really kick in when the TV is on is probably better actually. Yep. It brings him back in the mix with what will probably be a terrific match (it is on paper).

That's another thing that doesn't help. With how they operate, they should just burn through whatever "dream" indy matches they can deliver quickly as much as they can, because people tend to come and go. Instead they try to build and build and build toward.... not much of anything. Add in the fact every big match they deliver after a long build ends up a disappointment, they really should focus on building week to week. In term of scale, they are not even IMPACT. Yet they try to make their product be like weekly WWF from 1995, without any actual PPV. Well, I'm intrigued enough about how they will actually deliver one in November, if I can still keep my interest above sea level until then.

Until the divorce.

I could not disagree more. Park was ok and actually did quite a bit of stuff, but it was still a terrible, slow, plodding, no intensity, no impact Jimmy Havoc match. I thought he looked ok in the AEW six-men where he actually worked a bit, and Sami Callihan actually got an enjoyable crazy brawl out of him (what a testament of Sami's talent, really), but this one was back to the usual Havoc dreadfullness. He can't even make his death bumps spectacular. The constant use of the dumb balsa wood boards really hurts the perception of violence too. I guess it's some Kevin Sullivan fetish. The post match with Warner showing up with a chainsaw was another kind of idiotic too. Also, why can't Salina have Park & Havoc just beat up Konnan in the locker room and take back her phone ? He has no one in his corner. Hell, honestly, Salina looks like she could push Konnan down just grab her phone with no trouble... Did MLW announce a partnership with some.... scientist lab ? WTF ? Let's see. Apart from that episode with Park vs Wagner, which really was a AAA lucha brawl anyway, this whole summer has been a complete disappointment on the front of MLW. Salina, the Harts and MJF (and to a lesser extent Holliday) are the life of the promotion as far as regulars go. Losing Sami Callihan was, as predicted, pretty bad as far as getting grudge matches that actually deliver (Warner can be ok, but I don't care for his gimmick which is, well, way cosplayish). Contra sucks and they have done nothing of note with Jacob Fatu, it's telling there's zero match to recommend, really. I have forgotten about Tom Lawlor, who worked best as a heel anyway. Low-ki has been doing nothing but squash matches lately, because we really need to establish that guy who has been around for 20 years and was the Champ for the longest time. The Von Erichs have done nothing yet to show they deserve to be in that spot (they have not sucked either, but have not shown much either). Savio showing up was a letdown. Aries showing up has been a letdown thus far. At this point, I'd just hope for the few cool guys and Salina to show up in either IMPACT or AEW (apart from Havoc, whom they can keep), because I'm having a hard time even wanting to keep up with this promotion. Not sure I would bother anymore if it wasn't on Youtube...

Actually, Meltz mentioned several times statistics about either AEW PPV buys or tickets sales (not sure which one, so don't quote me on that) and how it barely overlapped at all with WWE buys. The overlap was mostly with UFC events and also partly with NJPW events. But basically, the people who bought AEW PPV/tickets were not the same people who would buy WWE events. And yeah, add in to that the approach by Cody, Omega & the Bucks on BTE, which is from where the audience has been built in term of the core of the core.

To me the odd thing is that people seem to forget that AEW's audience, for now, at its core, is a total anti-WWE crowd. It's not like there's a fight to get "these" people. They are ether people who are pro-wrestling fans who are not WWE fans (aka me for instance) or guys tired of the WWE product. It's not like putting NXT face to face with AEW is gonna drag *those fans* away. And as far as grabbing the mainstream audience, for AEW we don't have any idea yet, but for WWE things are very clear at this point : they don't draw the mainstream audience at all. They can't even keep their own audience. So, I dunno, to me the whole NXT move should not worry AEW too much as of now. There is gonna be a saturation of WWE product on the airwaves, and that can't be any good for a company who already has this "uncool" feel about it from the hardcore audience. Not to mention the risk of destroying what was NXT's special appeal to the hardcores with turning it into just another WWE weekly night of TV.

So, their big idea for Sasha's big return is feuding with the never over Nattie and saying her father is in hell. Ok. Great job...

Seriously, who would want to watch this ? I mean, pro-wrestling is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun and light. If anything else, it's gonna make Mania even more of a death march than it already is. Maybe they just want to kill Meltz via work overdose.

AEW Monday Dynamite Parties. Soon on Youtube.

I should not laugh though.

Ah ah. Most French announcers these days are awful. The only thing I was listening in French was the WWE PPV because Chereau & Agius are that good and always made me crack up at some point. Holy shit. Ok, so Sacrebleu is the most old-school cliché possible and also a cool album from Dimitri from Paris. Damn, France was Johnny fucking Halliday, now we're the Gilet Jaunes ! Well, Les Gilets Jaunes would be a great heel brawling team though. Recognizable look too. Honestly, that's me trying to watch the Takeover before Mania :

Fuck no ! I hope WWE locks him for life. It would be the worst signing possible. Last time I tried to watch a Takeover, I was legitimately wanting to shut it down five minutes into the very first match. Give him a lifetime contract WWE. Give him a job for life on the Network. Money. Hoes. Whatever he needs. Keep him away from any promotion I might want to watch. Please.

Both Bischoff and Schiavone have stated that Thunder is what killed WCW. Because it was the beginning of the overexposure. WWE presenting RAW, NXT and Smackdown every week can't be a good thing really in the grand scheme of things. Especially when your product is not hot to begin with.

I didn't realize things got so bad so quick in Brazil... Hang on man !

This. It would be disheartning to see the first big time true alternative in US wrestling in 20 years quickly fail because WWE can't stand the idea of not being a monopoly and has to put every ressource they have to put every bit of alternative out of business. NXT UK was designed to fuck the UK scene and it did exactly that, apparently.