El-P

Both Haku and The Barbarian did sumo too. As a sumo fan, I always loved workers with a sumo background. This seems to be more a thing of the past though. Not so many, if any at all, are making that transition these days. And hell, Hakuho, the GOAT, got fucking demoted as a coach because he did not report one of his students (the awful Hokuseiho) abusing young boys with slaps and wooden stick shots. Yeah, sumo is a wonderful tradition too. Oh well, at least I won't be suffering though Hokuseiho's borefest fights anymore since he retired, as they say. How long before this fellow ends up in wrestling ? I mean, he's tall as fuck for a Japanese (like almost seven feet). He could be the next Kitao or something (yeah, that's sarcasm). Considering all that is happening lately, this season of Dark Side is gonna look extra tame. Still gonna watch it because they mostly do a good job, but, oh well.

....................... Well, I did use Amazon super regularly for almost 15 years, and that was one hell of a mistake and I sure would not do it again if I could go back, because it's another kind of spectacular shit show. WWE ? Nope. That's not me. I certainly have been questioning myself on my choice of "lifetime" hobby lately, that's for sure. At the very least on how to approach it.

'member when people actually justified Rock vs Roman happening on *that* show. It's gonna happen for the "benefit" of the Saudis. Circle of infamy will be complete then.

When you spent your life supporting a godawful company that is build on abuse and predation, you've wasted it. And yeah, the obsessive nature of it is way more on the creepy side than the wholesome side. John Cena and Randy Orton just made public statements that are completely pathetic and devoid of any empathy nor compassion. These are two of the biggest stars in the company (and therefore the entire business) in the last 20 years. So there. Guilty by way of silence. The smell of the Mania audience is gonna be something. Especially the first rows. Super rich people spending their money supporting a godawful company, STILL. Fuck all of this, again and again and again.

It was even worse in execution than it looked reading the results. NJPW content peaked with the opener, which was ZSJ vs Nagata. Best match of the night was Shirakawa vs Iwatani. Both House of Torture title matches was the usual awful boring repetitive bullshit, the Jr. title match being extra-specially awful even for a shit finish. This stuff was terrible four years ago. Matt "Lawsuit was settled" Riddle seems to be an excellent worker still. But whatever. Gross anyway. Nick Nemeth struck me as one of these "Hey, he's really excellent. By 10's WWE standards" guys, kinda like Cardona before he actually became fun as the King of the Indies. Nowhere near what you'd expect from a NJPW main event worker. Finlay, who's not an elite worker by any means (he's really good though), looked ten times better than he did. At this point I don't even see what AEW is getting with Forbidden Door, unless they give Naito, who's way past his prime, a big dream single match and get Takagi, Taichi and ZSJ (Ishii is popping up on random AEW TV shows, so he's nothing special in that context). No wonder Okada and Ospreay are leaving. Gedo and his idiotic US-like booking fetish is completely washed up. This company badly needs a structural change.

Imagine being Vladimir . "WWE is my life". Well, you totally wasted it then.

Glad that Meltzer underlined the fact that neither John Cena (who talked like a bumbling fool) nor Randy Orton (who talked like the privilege fuck that he is) had any words of compassions for the victim(s). None whatsoever. That's how it is. That's who these people are.

Who the fuck is paying 2 grand to watch a pro-wrestling show. Hell, who the fuck is paying 2 grand to watch anything ? These clowns like "referee douchebag" I see at AEW shows are just so fucking rich they can afford hundreds or even thousands of dollars to attend a pro-wrestling show ? Last time I spend 2 grand I spent one entire month in Berlin, travel included (and not even on low-cost mind you). This world just makes no sense whatsoever. I thought about going to All In last year, but if I'm travelling, I ain't watching a show from the rafters through some shitty-ass big screen. Then I saw the prices and went "Nope". Paid 20 euros on Fite instead. And this year, if I even bother to watch it considering right now I'm numb to everything (takes Danielson vs ZSJ for me to care a little bit), it'll be through Very Legal Means, so even fucking better. Anywoo, this is neither here nor there really. I echo the last sentence, for all intent and purposes.

Not that I could give less than a flying fuck at this moment really, but SHO also beat Despy for the IWGP Jr. title. So basically, you got two House of Torture champs. One beating the awesome Despy, the other beating New New Muskeeters Shota Umino (when is that guy showing up in AEW anyway, can't get booked any worse than this). You've got an entire year of overpushing David Finlay like he's Jeff Jarrett in WCW in 2000 so he gets beat by Nick Nemeth. You've got Matt Riddle (gross) winning another one of the hundreds title they got there. Sure hope the door is kept forbidden for that mofo. Hey, another SANADA snoozefest main event tomorrow. If I'm Coach TK, I'm working in getting a relationship with NOAH or something, because NJPW is turning into a joke. This has such early 00's feel of a company going off the rails.

Case in point. Don't misquote me either. By pro-wrestling community, I mean not only *us* fans, but people in the industry as well, and people who used to be in the industry. All in regard to the current situation. It's a shit show of pathetic misplaced priorities, bullshit relativism and the likes. In that context, what Paul Roma says deserves a whole lot better than "Hey, I thought he was one of the better horsemen / lulz, no". But whatever. Case in point. Gotta say this also. The very notion of "kayfabe" has been questioned just a little bit on Meltzer's show lately as definitely an element that allowed all of this to happen. "Protect the business" was also (moreso ?) a way to justify the unjustifiable (crimes of all sorts, really). All the kayfabe simps out there, who still romanticize this era of pro-wrestling have a lot of inner questioning to do. And although "kayfabe" has been dead a long time ago, and pro-wrestling was *always* known to be fake, you can see how it was still working as a system on the inner sides of the business, as demonstrated by the episode of Terri Runnels being told by good ole Dustin to "no-sell" the fact she had just been sexually assaulted by Brock Lesnar ("but he only showed her his dick, lulz, it's not a sexual assault"). That's well into the 00'. "Kayfabe brotha" has also played a role in silencing the victims, and it is still working today. Anywoo. Gotta go watch Dynamite. With Ric Flair in it. Well, can always watch NJPW. With Matt Riddle winning a title. Ok, whatever, let's watch some indies. Hey, we know who that is, TAFKA Velveteen Dream. Everythin' fine. It's Mania season. Next, maybe Rock can go to do some sportwashing for the Saudis too, while Papa Trip can keep on the "see no evil, hear no evil" routine at press conferences and John Cena can be a bumbling idiot. Business is doing great. Gotta protect it. Kayfabe brutha.

And oh BTW, maybe it's time to reevaluate Pat Patterson's dealings with the workers too. Because for years, it had to be only Terry Garvin and Mel Philips assaulting ring boys, Pat could not have been a bad guy, come on, he was such a great worker and he's a wrestling genius and invented the Royal Rumble, he was only a scapegoat for a while. Good ol' Pat Patterson. Pat Patterson was *at worst* the number 3 guy in the company. Most probably #2 behind Vince. Imagine the power dynamics at plays. It's been around for years too. But since it's Pat, nah, could not be. Sure. As far as the other case that would be "even worse" than Janel Grant's story, that's coming from Mario Mancini, who is the guy who recently supported Rita Chatterton's claim. So there. 40 years.

John Cena's statement is fucking pathetic. I find the pro-wrestling community at large to be fucking pathetic, with very few exceptions. This is a system of abuse. That's exactly what Paul Roma is describing. Vince bought the company in 1982. One year later, he was covering up Jimmy Snuka's killing his girlfriend "for the good of the company". Then the rapes, sexual harassment, exploitations in various forms, up until more rapes and sex trafficking of Janel Grant. That's what the legacy of WWE is. 40 years of a system of predation and abuse for the benefit and wealth of Vince McMahon and his ilk. Shutting down and humiliating a rape victim "for the good of the company". Stephany was part of it. Really think Paul Levesque wasn't ? And if he wasn't, that he wasn't aware ? Give me a fucking break. And the TKO higher ups, they brought Vince back in power knowingly why he had been gone, because that was the deal. Oh, but everything's fine now, Vince is gone. #WeWantCody. Rock is back, and he's gonna produce a biopic on Ric Flair (great, here he is again on AEW TV too). I'm sure this is gonna be fair to Flair. To the woman he sexually harassed on a plane ride "from hell", probably less so. Jim Valley is the only guy who did set the record straight this last few weeks, with his damaged vocal chords and broken voice. People need to set their priorities right. If not, you're part of the problem. And considering how things are going, yes, pro-wrestling fans are definitely part of the problem. Hopefully all of what is happening now gives the victims the support and strength they need to speak up. Everything needs to be taken down if you want to hope for something better. If not, then you're building on a rotten foundation, with rotten building blocks.

And people wonder why she "apologized" later. Imagine the power dynamics at play, to make this woman who has been raped and left behind and intimidated by executives of the company to actually *apologize* to them for making the company look bad. Also, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque is just as big a piece of trash as the others. And who exactly were the other executives in the room that day. And who is the one who picked up her limp body from the place she was raped ? That's another insane part of this story. And of course, what about the military rapist ? All of this certainly did not stop WWE from going back to "support the troops". What a shit show. But hey, Mania 40 is gonna be the biggest ever, right ? Well, it's been built by these people. It's their legacy. *vomit*

I actually thought about that since the news was "He got an office job in AEW" but not "He's leaving NJPW". Romero has a fascinating career arc. But really Rocky. You know what I want, what I really really want. Since he's also working in MLW. Get Salina de la Renta in AEW. A luchador invasion led by Salina would be so perfect.

That's not a totally accurate view of what is actually happening though. If AEW did not exist, WWE would have gotten White, Ospreay and Okada. They wanted all of them. TK did get them, and that's a feather in his cap. Meanwhile, WWE is getting Giulia, and has gotten Kairi Sane back. The reality is that since the business has become more global, and has since WWE decided in the mid 10's that NJPW was their rival, it's much easier for both foreign and native talent to get bigger contracts in US promotions now. It really started when Nakamura left (and KENTA before him, but he really was nothing comparable in term of star power). And it probably won't get any better. Add in that the joshi puroresu scene will most probably be hurt by Stardom spitting into two rival companies. So yeah. Tough times coming ahead. Romero has been very instrumental in getting the Forbidden Door opened, as he has probably in AEW working alongside CMLL (dunno how Konnan feels about that one), he's certainly an excellent catch in term of office people.

Prichard has *nothing* to say because there's a lawsuit going on. When even Seth Rollins is giving a less corporate bullshit answer (ya know, saying about how disgusting the entire ordeal is), you know how deep in the mud you must be. The fact that on this week's episode of the podcast they revisit Survivor Series 93 all of shows, you know, the one Jerry Lawler could not attend because he was accused of raping underage girls, is amazingly and sadly ironic. The smell of their audience right now...

Except t's not about a rasslin' angle. It's about making the WWE simps going "Papa Trip gives us the match we want !" while forgetting about his appalling response at the press conference when confronted with actually meaningful real life issues including rape and sex-trafficking by his father-in-law.

Triple H babyfacing himself by being the one giving back Cody vs Roman at Mania to the people, after he disgraced himself at the press conference, while Nick Aldis is supposed to be the storyline authority figure, is the most Triple H thing ever. Embarrassing.

The CMLL crew challenged the BCC to come to Arena Mexico. This is happening. Danielson sure has an amazing last year (as a full timer). Oh, he's also working ZSJ again, this time in Japan, tomorrow.

This. Above. All of this. Triple H being involved on the worked scene after "I did not read the lawsuit" is fucking pathetic.

Bret Hart denounces Vince McMahon. He's really the first one of the major stars who worked closely with him to do so. Good for him. Also : https://www.vice.com/en/article/epv78z/ashley-massaro-wwe-vince-mcmahon-sexual-divas She had accused Vince on preying on Divas, including herself after the Playboy shots. After she refused Vince's advances, he personally wrote some of her promos to make her look bad, to the point even Micheal Hayes reacted with "You're not saying this ! Who the fuck wrote this ?" when he saw some of the scripts. Kevin Dunn was apparently one of the person on that meeting where she was told not to talk about being raped (aka, "a bad experience"), because that could damage WWE's relationship with the US military.

The timing of Stephy's departure ad comeback and departure again are even more fishy. What did she know ? The fact she led that "Thank you Vince" when he "retired" the first time remains one of the most appalling thing ever. Although they have done a really good job of getting the attention away from it with the Cody/Rock debacle/angle, this ain't going anywhere. Another bombshell dropping later this year around Mania time would not surprise me. People acting like everything is fine now because Vince is gone are in denial.

So apparently D'Amore approached Anthem to buy TNA. And there goes nothing. It's so ironic that TNA was basically rebuilt under the IMPACT Wrestling name, and that's when the company turned around in term of perception and as an actual product (in term of quality, not business/awareness and all that good shit that have nothing to do with actual quality). And as soon as they went back to the TNA brand name, it's a mess again. It's really too bad for all the talent for were all hyped up and optimistic, and of course D'Amore himself. Corporates are useless people.

Corporate bullshit trite. Per Meltzer, D'Amore was all in on rebuilding TNA and going harder on the market, and Anthem went like "yeah, no" and are just happy with filling their TV time as with TNA/IMPACT as it is. It's completely pathetic. The company is also build around a bunch of guys who are super loyal to D'Amore (Alexander, Young, Kazarian, Moose, Edwards). This is a really dumb move on Anthem's part. Old double J is gonna have a field day with this, considering what he had to say about Anthem before. Come on Coach TK. D'Amore is your guy.

Dynamite was the show I badly needed.