El-P

I know I say it all the time, but I'm baffled by how they managed to make Roman "Cancer Survivor" Reigns a lesser deal than Roman "We don't want you as a top guy go fuck yourself" Reigns. I thought the emotion would not carry him forever, but it's not even that, they have actively made him a lesser deal than he was before when people rejected him. It's insane how badly they fucked this up.

What was ever gonna happen to him ? Nothing. He posted a pic on his Twitter. Wow. What a hero. Now, refusing to go and posting "I'm not gonna go to this show and work for this regime because of their treatment of LGBT." on his Twitter, that would take some actual balls. LGBT's (and friends) doing a Gay Pride demonstration in Istanbul when it's actually *forbidden* and getting bashed by the police takes balls. This is having your cake and eating it. Pretty weak if you ask me. Don't go or shut the fuck up.

The art department is just as awful as the writing apparently !

Oh fuck me, the two iMPACT MVP against each other ? Also, it's pretty cool after hearing that Tessa interview on Jericho's podcast about how she really likes intergender matches that they go in that direction for a while with her (while holding off the inevitable blow-off against Taya).

As long as they deliver the quality, I'm all for iMPACT throwing money away as long as Anthem is willing to do so. The episode of last week was one of the strongest TV show I've seen on a long time, with a terrific main event. I must give Elgin credit, he's got the charisma of a vacuum cleaner, but thus far he delivers in term of big TV matches (well, the fact he's working with top talent doesn't hurt). Tessa blasting Gilberti was fun. Moose & North vs the ECW Crew was cool, Sabu looked much better there than during Mania week-end. The guy can still punch better than most too. And damn I loved Eddie vs Kross, terrific garbage brawl with a classic nod-to-ECW ending which I didn't see coming but made all the sense in the world. So yeah, they announced Swann & Mack have signed long term deal, which is great news. I'm looking forward to Slammiversary again, which will mark one year of me getting back into the fold of current iMPACT, with delight most of the time.

Sexual assault. Imagine Francine being pissed at "She's a crack whore!" chants... This is a debacle. If a fan is absolutely rude, you can have him throw out *by security*. Talent spitting on a fan and dragging his ass backstage to get lectured by the boyfriend(s ?) is a recipe for disaster.

The Contra angle was pretty crappy and poor taste. Mediocre show too, with only Pillman vs Hamerstone being a good little match, but Hamerstone is kinda dull as dirt as a character (and that include his look). Teddy Hart vs Jimmy Havoc was yet another bad Havoc match that never went anywhere and with Havoc big spots looking like crap. If there's one guy I'm not looking forward to see in AEW, that's him. Give me the next Salina produced show with a bunch of luchadors & Low-Ki and less Gringo Loco too.

Bliss vs Natalya was the best thing tonight, easily.

Ganso jackhammer. Karma is a bitch, ya know... Should have retired years ago. Should have not come back to suck some of that blood money. "La vieillesse est un naufrage". Charles de Gaulle.

Never saw such a large arabic crowd chant a jewish name in a non-hostile fashion. WWE bringing people together after all... (DISCLAIMER : that's a JOKE, people (it's sad I have to point it out, but...))

He had Ali in his name though, so the WWE office probably thought he was arabic or something back then... Anyway, I was more thinking of "That guy will never win anything anywhere else in the actual roster.".

It's akin to Tiger Ali Singh winning the Koweit Cup in 97...

Hey, remember when people said the prospect of AEW would force Vince to step up his game. Yeah, I laughed then too.

I just switch to AB1 for a second. Here's the exchange between Chereau & Agius, the french announcers, during the shots of the city : Chereau : "Look, that region is beautiful, there are lights everywhere." Agius : "Great. Thanks Philippe." Chereau : "What ?" Agius : "So there are lights so it's beautiful ?" Chereau : "Lights kinda make things beautiful." Agius : "I'm sorry but the most beautiful places in the world are actually where there are no lights." They don't give a fuck.

Did Taker tombstone what was left of his dignity already ? Or has he one zombi sit-up left to cash-in yet more blood money next Fall ?

I wish you courage. For the show I mean, after this (from what you report and Dave live tweeting), heart surgery will be a piece of cake.

More beheading on the way...

#WWEArabEvolution Damn, Stephy won't show up on RAW, *again*. Hype for nothing.

Well done. I guess the biggest suspens (because no one gives a fuck about Taker & Goldie losing whatever self-dignity they had left) is will Bliss & Natalya work a match dressed as Raisha Saeed ? And in that case, will Stephy say these are the very first female athletes/entertainers competing in Saudi Arabia (which of course is false) ?

NXT UK was designed to kill the UK indy scene. Job well done. Remember when HHH announced they were gonna have NXT's all over the world ? I think that ship has sailed, thankfully, but the plan was basically kill all wrestling that isn't WWE...

Won't be very original. The opener was super fun. Then the show settled into the usual NJ undercard tag match groove (I have to say, I didn't miss the Tongans one bit). Okada/Romero vs Scurll/King was super fun too, King should be brought back over and over again, if there's one guy from ROH NJ wants, that's him. Jay vs Tanahashi was a great match. Smart, solid, always interesting. Mox vs Juice was a war. I agree some of the stuff at the beginning wasn't the best (that early dive by Juice was a big miss), but it really built into an epic brawl. I too have noticed the very old-school gaijin'esque demeanor of Moxley, reminded me of Hansen. Ospreay vs Takagi was the epic of all epic. Easy MOTYC, and at the very top of that list to boot. Just state-of-the-art modern pro-wrestling. Ospreay moving to Japan is very promising too, the guy has everything to be their biggest star eventually.

Dixie knew Vince Russo was responsible for the last boom of pro-wrestling, so there's that...

The only reason he's having this "great experience" is because of the government and their initiative to white-wash all the atrocities. He's a positive-thinking idiot of a propaganda tool. It's like people going to the Berlin Olympics in 36 and raving about the organisation and having fun meeting people. The fucking pyro ? Really ?

Understood, you can thrown the company line as stupid as it it ("WWE don't do politics, we're going to entertain the WWE fans from Saudi Arabia" and all that good nonsense), but talking about it like it's the greatest thing ever, "embracing the culture" etc... For fuck's sake. Maybe has no idea what actually happens in the country, the unwarranted arrests, the torture, the bogus trials, the decapitations, the treatment of women, the slavery, the genocide in Yemen... I'm not expecting anything, but this kind of brain-dead enthousiasm strikes me as really, really tone-deaf.

In other news, Kofi Kingston is a stupid WWE drone, or just a dumb fuck : "The crowd and the energy is incredible. I love going to Saudi Arabia because the energy is just awesome. It's almost like a second WrestleMania over there with the pyro and all the events that go on, it's an incredible experience and has a special place in my heart. I was part of the promotional tour before the event and was able to go there and meet the people, embrace the culture and it was one of the greatest experiences of my WWE career." https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2838385-kofi-kingston-talks-saudi-arabia-shows-terry-funk-on-aew-more-in-wwe-roundup