El-P

OMG this is great indeed !

That's not wrong. That being said, trying to pass Google for a virtuous company is one hell of a joke. OK, still, when does his and Lana's contracts runs up already ?

Answer to your question : no, not even close. He's a lesser version of Rey Fenix (and that's from his days in Lucha Underground). Still terrific though, don't get me wrong.

Ok, I just watched the match. Nowhere near as bad as that clip would make you think it was. I thought it was actually pretty good, and Evans again shows tons of heel personality and hangs on pretty well out there as far as work goes, although some transitions are pretty shaky. Becky calls like a mofo though, I stand by my "she's the new Cena". Tagging with Seth sounds bad for Becky, as Seth has not set (pun intended) the world on fire, like, ever.

I found it very interesting, I had no idea the Fighting Cholitas even existed. The Luchadors episode is fantastic. The story of Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito is quite something. Rey Fenix comes off like such a genuine, nice guy here. He really is the next Rey Jr, hopefully he and Penta will explode in the US with AEW. Enjoyed the political/social side of things is those two episodes too. I have to agree, although I've not watched all episodes, this is much better than Dark Sides. If I had to explain why I was a pro-wrestling fan to someone who doesn't know anything about it apart from the usual stereotype, I'd probably show him some of this (not the deathmatch episode, of course).

Becky is not the new Stone Cold, she's the new John Cena. And Lacey, well, she looked lost as all hell here. I guess I should watch that one for comedy purpose, although really, it seems like all the momentum Becky had early on this year has vanished in thin air.

I wasn't very sleepy last night so I turned on the TV for a few minutes and watched the ending of Owens/Zayn vs New Day, which seemed like a good match. Watched the beginning of Ricochet vs Joe, and I must say for the first time it struck me how heavier and slower Joe looked. I wanted to see the two women matches, but I guess I missed Becky vs Lacey, and I got tired very quickly. The production of WWE is just unbearable at this point. At one point I counted the sc per shots. When the action is fast, no shot lasts more than 2 or 3 sc and when they do, the cam zooms for every spot. Unwatchable. Seriously, it's probably dangerous for people with epilepsy trouble. It's funny, it seems like people in the industry wonder where the AEW fans come from, and that apparently there has been a lot of pro-wrestling fans who don't watch pro-wrestling because of the monopoly. And really, I can totally get it, I'm one of them. Because of a certain personal context and the fact I got WWE stuff free on my TV for the last few years, I've watched more of their stuff that I have the last 15 years before, but honestly, the day I move out, I'll probably be done. No matter if they have good matches on TV and talented guys, their product is such a complete turn off. And they wonder why the prospect of AEW get people excited ? Yeah. Because for 20 years almost, it was WWE or zilch as far as major US promotion, basically. TNA had a shot for a very short window and they blew it. ROH never had a shot. And now, it seems things are gonna change big time. So yeah. WWE best be glad for the TV fee bubble and the criminal saudi prince PR department. They'd be in so much shit if not for that. (not even mentioning the XFL, which probably gonna kill Vince if he tries do both at the same time)

Don't remember who thought about that (Jerry Jarrett maybe ?), but it was a take on James E. Barnett, ma boy.

I know it's fitting the TNT name, but still. Nitro, Dynamite. They are going for the jugular, bringing back nightmares to people in NY.

Now that they've granted her release to Scarlett, it would come off like a dick move to not grant his to Kross, especially if they don't work things out as far as money goes. Yeah, totally agree it would be a big loss and he should totally be in the main event instead of Elgin, who has been predictably the same old self, only worse because his lack of promo skills or charisma mattered less in NJ. Honestly at this point, I'd rather have Kross get his release and join AEW along with Scarlett.

Seconded, excellent episode.

Kofi Kingston vs Dolf Ziggler : WWE title match. I don't think you need to say more. Oh, actually yes, I've got two words for you : Baron Corbin.

SJW at work is a very sad and pathetic thing. I hate homophobic and racist shits, but I despise SJW just as much (their way of acting is very much alt-right, actually, so there's a connection here). That's the annoying thing about the entertainment industry in the world of social media, you know too much about people, on either side.

Have you seen Onita vs Funk from Kawasaki Stadium 5/5/93 ? If anything, you need to watch that one. And also Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda from 5/5/96, which was Combat's retirement match and to this day one of the greatest match/spectacle I've seen. You need to see the entire thing though, with intros and post-match, which is totally part of the whole FMW presentation. (both are in complete form on Youtube, damn,when I think about how much I paid for VHS tapes back in 1999 )

Hum... I doubt he got close to the deal Nak got. Plus Nak was broken down and had accomplished everything he could in NJ already. KUSHIDA sure gonna waste a few years of his prime left being taught "how to work" and at best be totally forgotten in 205Live purgatory...

Yep. Even some of the early Gangstas matches, despite some stiff object shots, were a whole lot of bullshit that *looked* like a giant brawl (the "Natural Born Killaz" blaring through the PA system helped the atmosphere immensely too) but really couldn't be that hurtful.

DDP Yoga update : That Living in the Red Zone 70mn routine probably wouldn't be so damn hard if DDP wouldn't have you try to do 9 10sc push-ups at the very beginning. And a few ones later on. No idea how I even manage to go through this. Only did that one 4 times in the last year and a half. It's quite a ride...

I came off completely the opposite. And I'm an old FMW fan and loved Onita (past tense only because I don't watch it anymore, but really was a huge fan). But there's a HUGE difference between what Onita used to do and what CZW and Freedom of Big Japan are doing now. I thought Onita was the best thing on the doc (he aged kinda gracefully too and the setting was EXACTLY where you'd picture Onita to be), although you could feel the old carny bullshit about "I was ready to die". Fuck yeah, sure, he wanted to have sex with a zillion women instead I'm sure. Anyway, Onita's style was based on selling and teasing a whole lot more than doing a hundred insane bumps into glass and shit like this. Plus, he packed stadiums and made himself a shitload of money. With no TV. And worked the Tokyo Dome in NJ shows. And got elected to the Diet ! What are these indy sickos accomplishing apart from killing themselves and destroying their bodies and becoming physically repulsive and unhealthy with their scarred up bodies (and before some dweeb goes all #bodyshaming on me, sorry people, I find Jun Kasai's body to be repulsive) ? Mick Foley did some really, really stupid shit, and he's paying for it now, but he also made himself and his family quite a living, at least. I dunno, to me I stopped caring about the style exactly when CZW got on the scene in the early 00's and fucked up things for Big Japan, which was developing the crazy-style-to-be with guys like Honma, who thankfully quit. I don't see the point of bump a hundred times in glass walls and mouse traps and pouring salt on the wounds. Do I still enjoy a crazy-ass garbage brawl with some sick spots once in a while ? Sure. Emphasis on "once in a while". But this to me is unnecessary bullshit. Most amazing scene to me : Kasai's wife lovingly preparing boards with fucking *saws* for her husband to bump onto. Looked like an extract from the horror movie Audition. I don't want to be that guy, but it actually made me think very strongly about Pierre Bourdieu's Society of Spectacle where he refers to how entertainment only conditions people to violence so they forget the actual social violence they have to endure everyday and don't go into resistance and fight against it and basically comply to the capitalistic world. Of course it's true of all pro-wrestling, really, but it really stroke a nerve here, especially when Kasai said they hoped this would give people the will to work harder the next day at work or school. Yeah...

I just thought of something. With guys like Takagi, Ospreay and the escape-from-205Live KENTA entering the G1, you know who is probably soooo glad he took that sweet NXT deal ? KUSHIDA. Talk about terrible timing to join the WWE army of shadows. And AEW would have jumped on him for sure of he really wanted to try and make a name in the US. The guy has literally vanished the the radar, and you know he's gonna be completely wasted anyway.

Watched the STARDOM episode and I loved it. Of course, it's too short to really go deep into the issues. Still, it was super enjoyable to have different perspective, including from the gaijin girls. As an old ARSION fan, it was cool to hear Rossy Ogawa, although he came off like a cold-hearted bastard, but then again, it's only snipets. The whole idol aspect was exactly like what I saw in a documentary about the idol culture, and honestly I find it creepy. As someone raised in a european and especially a latin country (because honestly, the puritanism of anglo-saxon culture turn me off a whole lot), I find this extremely unhealthy as far as men/women relationship. I know this had been the case basically since after the 80's and the Crush Gals era ended, but the fact 95% of the audience is older guys just doesn't sit well with me, I know I would feel absolutely uneasy in that crowd. Need some mix of gender and age. Hey, a Ni Hao ! concert, that was pretty cool although I'm not too sure how it really fit with the narration. The training footage is always cool, as is learning more about the culture. I'm very interested in watching the lucha episodes, especially the one about the exotico culture.

Gotta get that brass ring, sucka'.

Rap is Crap was great (it saved Hennig otherwise mostly worthless WCW stint), but the Master P stuff was godawful. 'member Swoll ? The funniest thing is that of course things just happened, got over but since it wasn't supposed to, especially as babyfaces, it got cut off at the knees pretty quickly. Wait, does that ring a bell ?

Fuck me. And Rusev vs Omega. Rusev vs Janela. Rusev vs Moxley in a Fuck-WWE-On-A-Pole match ? Lana doing actual *fun* manager work ? Damn, isn't this fun ? We're all speculating about when people's contracts are up and shit, like it's 1997 ! That guy is snakebit. Possible still a racist asshole, the anxiety attack deal which got him off Mania vs Cena, now this...

It's not the first time Rusev acts all "Fire me please, I don't give a fuck anymore" on social media. I doubt the guy is signing any new contract.

Bischoff defending the Master P deal is pretty pathetic. It was a laughing stock and a disaster. Damn, he also defends the awful contortionist angle. And the dog attack angle. WTF is up with Bischoff this week ? Too many long rants again too... to the point of the thing getting hard extremely annoying to listen to, honestly. I dunno if this podcast has jumped the ship already, or if the much more sane approach of JR hurts this one and Brucie's (who I don't listen to anymore for now), but yeah, way too long of an episode with way too much uninteresting bullshit. EDIT : could not finish it. I'm going to give this podcast a rest and only check episodes heavily pimped on here next time, because this one was insufferable.