El-P

The "WWE bound" Tony Schiavone. Yeah, and I'm so glad. When I was watching MLW last night I was thinking how cool this was to have Tony back in the field and how he would fit perfectly with AEW. Really cool signing. Tony at his best is probably my favourite play-by-play guy (I realize he probably won't do that though).

I respectfully disagree. MLW shows last at best 50mn and they drag like hell because of endless replays and complete waste of time with super short squash matches. Plus MLW really never builds to anything, as the best thing they have is put random cool guy X vs random cool guy Y, as showed by that DBS Jr. vs Timothy Thatcher match, which was really solid and a cool change of pace. Plus, the old wrestling geek in me marked out at Davey saying he was gonna *procure* the crossface chicken wing. But really, out of 50 mn, it always looks like you get at most 15 mn of actual good content every week. Meanwhile, IMPACT has a 90mn show (without commercials) that flies by, and they do pretty much nothing but competitive matches. But they don't all look like a main event style match, there's a sense of purpose and hierarchy, and their show actually builds to something. To me it's the perfect formula. And it seems easy to do. Maybe D'Amore & Callis are that good but still... Anyway, last week's show was nothing to write home about indeed. The entire Contra vs Von Erich stuff simply doesn't work. The whole Marshall going to the hospital reeks of forced 80's wrestling cosplay. Apart from Fatu, Contra are lame as fuck in the ring (Samael is soooo cosplayish too). No idea who the new guy is, maybe he'll make the average talent go up. I thought Savio looked ok for a 55 years old version of himself, but he's not gonna do that much and Hammerstone is generic as fuck and works a mostly dated style, so there was not much to look at. I wonder what blown spot the super rough edit was hiding. Straight ouf of a Superstar match from 1995. Also, it strikes me how much of a star Rey Horus looked in Lucha Underground, and in MLW he's like a small luchador who does jobs. His match with Bestia was ok though, and Salina vs Konna still carries the promotion right now (doesn't say much really). An LA Park match this week, well, that could be fun, but with Havoc I should not get my expectations up too much... I dunno, MLW strikes me as mostly wasted potential and way too much of a retromaniac promotion in essence. Would love to see Salina in IMPACT or AEW, honestly. Or in a Lucha Underground last season which will never come, most probably (and really, with what cast ?).

Mariko Yoshida. Feather hat wearing mid-card classic workrate-style tag-along in Zenjo, getting injured, coming back in ARSION in the coolest, sexiest, fittest arachnoid outfit ever and becoming a mix of Tamura & Volk Han and my favourite pro-wrestler ever.

Not to mention workers too. Scott Steiner on Twitter in 1998 ?

The two things that are gonna be quite interesting when this war goes on full speed is this : _first time AEW does something that is not a big success, doesn't sell out, gets a mediocre rating. We're gonna hear the hordes of WWE fanboys and drones go on and on and on about how AEW is dead. You know it's gonna happen. _if ever AEW beats NXT in the ratings, it's not gonna look good for Trip because it doesn't matter if NXT is the secondary brand, WWE is still the global juggernaut that conquers all, while AEW is the young fresh and new upstart working from under.

The Billionaire Khan vignettes are gonna be something else. These big corporation people are trying to get food off the table of his humble family business.

I have no idea how they work out those things, but thus far, those promos are just on another level, every time around. Now it's Brandi's turn to look and sound awesome. They sure are making the most out of that Cody vs Shawn Spears feud.

Agreed. When you think that at SummerSlam, Austin was in the pre-show against then JTTS Yokozuna (isn't this Yoko's last match in WWF ? Pretty sad how things turned out for him, he was awesome). Bret made Austin.

Buried is a big word for a simple, short delay of the upcoming big push. He didn't win KOTR in 96, but a few months later he won the IC title anyway, then got Chyna, won his feud with Goldust at Mania then got the KOTR in 97. It was really more of a shortly interrupted push than anything else.

Trip never had to "rehab" his career. He was groomed for big things just as he was signed. Rehab should mean a career went down the tubes (what tubes ?), then got back to be successful, hot, or whatever.

For sure. But maybe some of these guys would actually enjoy the opportunity to perform in front of a large crowd and be appreciated for their own talent and show what they can do. I doubt KUSHIDA will be able to do so very much. In NXT maybe so. In the main roster, no chance in hell. AEW would have been a much better fit considering the audience, but it wasn't even a thing then.

To me these two elements are linked, indeed. And it works for KENTA too. I would agree about the KENTA being "liberated" from NOAH by leaving and making himself basically a free agent when he came back, but to me what is overstated is the WWE factor. The main selling point is "KENTA was gone from Japan, now he's back as a free agent.". He could have gone anywhere, really, especially considering what he accomplished. Now, if he had become a legit star or even let's say upper-mid card talent in the main roster in WWE, I would say otherwise. Despite the fact WWE probably means jackshit to Japanese fans, they still are the biggest global promotion in the world. But spending your time in NXT or wallowing in 205 purgatory really sounds like a non-factor in Japan, I would guess.

I get a kick that this one is still used on the board. Well, I had all the time in the world to get to know him... not sure I really wanted though. Still less dreadful than Baron Corbin, how scary is that ?

Sami Callihan, same thing. Left NXT, reinvented himself on the indies and went everywhere from LU, MLW, IMPACT and to me is a MVP everywhere he goes. The other obvious one : KENTA.

Well, Tessa vs Taya at the Garden is enough for me to hope it will happen. (well, unless MSG is almost empty, which would be kinda sad).

He was a star in NOAH. Assuming he would not have got injured while unlearning to work in NXT, there's no way KENTA would not have got in the G1 earlier (and probably healthier) this decade like Marufuji did. To say that KENTA benefited from his WWE stint in any way shape of form is a huge stretch. KUSHIDA was a star in NJ already. Having done everything in the junior division, he could very well have been pushed to the heavies anyway like Ospreay & Shingo in the G1. Again, saying KUSHIDA doing jobs in 205 Live will increase is position in Japan seems like a huge, huge stretch to me (apart from resting his body, assuming he won't get hurt).

Speaking of which, I said it before but, ain't KUSHIDA glad he signed with WWE ? I mean, he's so hot right now. Whatever happened to that Ideo Hitami guy BTW ? Yeah, I thought about that too watching Triplemania. Tessa, Killer Kross & Scarlett are the three AEW wants to get eventually.

That would actually be a great name for some jobber now that I think of it. Yep. It's pretty much spot on when you think of it. Not that it should be used, because it still makes pro-wrestling sounds like... figure skating (Mike Oles, where art thou ?). "Sports entertainer" never made a lick of sense to me. What is your job ? You do sport that is entertaining ? What ?

Off topic but : That's fascinating, because in France we are actually feminizing a whole lot of profession names, so that women have the female form of the noun (which doesn't exist for plenty of jobs, especially those who are/were occupied by men mostly). Performance Fighter reminds me a Karate Fighter though... It's equally stupid as sports entertainer, but flows better at least.

Really, is that because or the FOX move ? They can't be entertainment there. Anyway, some are gonna have a field day with this...

Is Reckless Youth available ?

When is the MSG card scheduled anyway ? That's pretty bad for AAA, although predictable. That being said, NJPW got some of the same issues with their US cards earlier this year I believe.

The issue for AEW is, who is available and got hype on the indie circuit. With WWE signing everyone and the rest being under contracts to either ROH, IMPACT or MLW, it's not like there's a lot of "big" indy names from the last few years who are up to grab. I'm sure AEW would love to have PCO, Brody King, Marty Scurll, Willie Mack, Killer Kross, Shane Strickland, Brian Pillman Jr., DBS Jr., Tessa Blanchard and Matt Riddle in their roster. The reality is, they have to seek out where some lesser known talent is available and also who got some hype on the current indy scene. Orange Cassidy sure got some, for better of worse. He's a really tricky case but : Yeah, that could work. Hopefully though, LAX are coming to town.

Strawman alert. I of course never ever made that argument not even alluded to something like this The use of the term "brown people", which I of course have never used, god forbid, as a way to racialize the proposition, also infers that I may be racist. Don't feed the troll (note to myself too)