El-P

RAW has been the same for 20 years. The heel authority figure has been there for more than 20 years. The McMahons have been the main characters for the last 20 years. This is the past. Funny how Jim Cornette has been called a dinosaur and now everyone is lamenting over the 80's. Guess what, the Golden Age did not exist. Most of wrestling in the 80's sucked. We only cherry pick what was great about it. What's the most important for AEW as far as looking at the past goes, is learning from the mistakes of WCW and TNA. Like it's been said before in this thread, it doesn't take a lot actually to do a solid good pro-wrestling show. iMPACT is doing it right now. The good, logical stuff is easy. Not doing the stupid stuff of the past seems the hardest. Not doing stuff from the past, actually, seems the hardest. People don't like changes. Older people want their childhood back, basically. But it's 2019, not 1989. Fuck people's childhood, really. As far as WWE goes, the day Vince dies is the day some change is gonna happen. Or not. Probably will, to some extent.

The issue is that people, including Vince, look at the past. Not the future, not even the present. Anyone dismissing Kenny Omega for instance can pack his bags, the business has passed him by. There's a reason why the guy sold out the fucking Tokyo Dome with Tanahashi and was a big part of NJPW being as hot as it was in 2017/18 and got himself two huge contract offers from both WWE and AEW. These are the workers and characters of the 2020's.

You don't. Ever. Bischoff makes a point in explaining how Thunder began WCW's downward spiral. No one wants to watch 6 hours of bad TV every week just because you might get some "good matches".

Couldn't agree more. Which is why, at first, I had no idea what to make of the Gino episode. Of course, by the end, I was like "ok, so basically Gary Hart was right and that's that." From a narrative standpoint, I thought it was excellent. My big reservation is the last bit with the mother, which I found quite exploitative. Apart from that, yeah, it sure tells a good story, with twist and turns. The two most interesting bits are the story of the funeral told by Bruce, and Jeannie describing Gino high as a kite on cocaine, on a complete paranoia trip. First thing that came to mind when I saw Jeannie was "I wonder how much money she got from the divorce", because she sure had a crucial part in that "Stone Cold" deal... But anyway, basically, what Gary Hart told in his last shoot interview was basically it, Gino had a tremendous cocaine habit.

Of course, agreed. They have been able to do it in the past, but they had incentive to do it. They don't have that anymore.

They have showed over the last 15 years, at least, that they aren't able to write for shit. I have no idea why anyone would think they are magically gonna book something hot in 4 months when they haven't been able to do so in years, haven't been able to make a star since John Cena and their product is the coldest and shittiest it's been in a long while despite the deepest roster ever.

Dustin Thomas in the Over the Budget Battle Royal. They signed the right no-legged man. Interesting rules too. They truly want to innovate, which was one of the *right* thing about TNA early on.

Let's face it. The whole "R-Evolution" deal and PPV was simply because of Ronda. And Ronda needed to be pushed as the star to get the FOX deal. That's it. The rest is PR bullshit.

Remember when people (including some on this board) defended WWE for years with arguments like "TV ratings don't matter, Youtube views and social media followers do" Yeah. L' fucking OL, uh ?

Sting also sold record setting merch during the nWo era and his feud with Hogan ended up in with the ridiculous Starrcade 97 buyrate. Seth is not a dot on Sting's career's radar.

Corporate hypocrisy at its best. Charity business. PR bullshit. Gotta love big corporations and their awful people with no morals acting like they do something good. The responses are kinda funny tough.

The Dynasty vs Hart Foundation Tables match from Ep55 is a must see. They beat the shit out of each other, Teddy Hart did some of his truly insane stuff, really good, intense brawl with a sense of purpose (if you follow the weekly TV). And the announcing of MLW is the best today with Corny on the mic, he works very well with Rich. Pro-wrestling should have a whole lot more of this. Looking forward to watching Salina's produced episode from this week. I wonder how Teddy's cat can be so laid-back...

Well, ok then. He can be happy he's not on TV being humiliated on a weekly basis then.

Then again, I'm not sure what's the benefit of using Rhyno... At this stage of his career, he may be quite happy to get paid to sit at home too.

Yeah, it's fucked up. Also, it takes one to know one, so Bubba knew what he was up against. He was also smarter politically. PE all of a sudden didn't want to do a table spot because "They liked to dish out but wouldn't take it", which is hilarious (well, not really, but you see what I mean) considering PE made their name by taking stupid garbage bumps, and that includes WCW. So there, APA had to "made them take the spot" in the ring, which is how you do business in a line of work where you're supposed to work together and protect each other.

When you really think about it, it's amazing how the managed to fuck up Roman Reigns coming back from leukemia. They had one last shot to make him The Man and maybe it would work that time if you surfed on the positive emotion. They could have made CM Punk a star. They fought him until he was too fed up and quit. They could have made Daniel Bryan a star. They fought the audience to the point they fucked up their relationship with them, which killed Roman's push. Yep. Cena is the last real star they made. They made zilch in the 2010s.

Crazy theory : WWE is sabotaging themselves on purpose so AEW doesn't get a TV deal because pro-wrestling is shit now. Since they already are set for a few years, it doesn't matter. And then they can get better by the fall.... Ok, they just suck ass and are in total panic mode. AEW can't happen soon enough, that will have them totally lose their shit, if they've not reached that point yet.

Yeah, amazingly embarrassing, as was Bruce's "explanation". Even Conrad had to slip in "Aren't you supposed to take care of the people you work with ?". So what if PE didn't want to do this or that spot ? Toxic jock bully mentality. The one thing I found interesting is that, without really admitting to it, Bruce actually painted the picture of Bradshaw not being that tough of a guy, which is often the case with bullies.

Well, if a friend of mine acts like a dick to someone I don't know for no good reason, I'm gonna call him on his bullshit. As far as the fucking nazi salute, I don't even get why it needs an explanation. A live pro-wrestling show is not a movie. Bradshaw is not an actor playing the character of a nazi in a movie dealing with that time period. He's a pro-wrestler in front of real people. He's some Texas dickhead doing the fucking Nazi salute in Germany because he thinks that's "getting heat". It's like saying him doing a Klan salute or whatever of that ilk in Alabama would be ok because he's a heel. Just a no no.

I never quite got how Hijo del Santo basically ended up being "banned" from both CMLL and AAA. Shouldn't he be the biggest masked legend in activity still ?

Yeah, to me I think he meant the audience would get sympathy for the actual person and not the character.

I beg to differ about the JBL podcast. Of course, Prichard is a close friend, so it's not like he was gonna be honest about anything here. But to me he really, really came off like the con-man he's been described by, well, pretty much everybody. So, JBL being a bully ? Nope. Nothing at all. Nothing there. Rumours and innuendo. The PE debacle ? Just business. The Blue Meanie debacle ? It ain't a ballet, they are fine now. Being punched out by Joey Styles ? Well, they never said a word about that, it was just another night out with JBL. Dirt-sheet don't know shit etc... Ok. Also, I thought Conrad's stance of "I treat people like they treat me and my family" quite hypocritical. So I can be an asshole and a dirtbag in my locker room and treat people with no pull like pieces and crap and haze then to no end, but if I'm nice to your kids, that makes me a good person ? But anyway, that was to be expected. Only the Germany deal got some real discussion, but then again, JBL's "excuse" in the media back them was basically "It's entertainment, it's the fault of internet sheet-readers." For a guy who used to work in Germany when he was young, he displayed amazing ignorance. Also, if I remember correctly, it's not like the JBL reign set the world on fire. I remember rather dead crowds, dull, mediocre matches. And apparently, the PPV numbers weren't very good either (it was even alluded, only once, by Conrad). Only the Guerrero feud was really memorable, and that was pretty much Guerrero working his magic. The idea that Cena winning his first world title from JBL "made Cena" is pretty laughable. It was a mercy killing at this point. Also, it really came off apparent how unremarkable JBL's entire stint was in term both of memorable storylines or matches. I always thought the APA were insanely overrated, and going through the results here, there' nothing that hit your as "Well, yeah, that one was really special." Anyway, a few fun stories thought, especially the Shamrock telling him to put a hold on him. Most clever line of the night was Conrad talking about the mini-Undertaker. "I need to find where this guy is. I have a booking for him.", which was no-sold by Brucie.

He just showed up at the Crokett Cup to challenge Cabana. But yeah, Storm vs Callihan, I'd buy. Odd he wasn't picked up by MLW too for some shows.

Agreed. It's not that it was bad either, it was actually a real solid, long match that never was boring, but it never got going either. Surely the lesser Okada performance in a long, long while. I have loved SANADA in the Japan Cup, but despite the cool new look, he hasn't shown he was ready for the main event here. Honestly, Taichi was much more impressive against Jeff Cobb and that was a better match too. Dragon Lee vs Ishimorii and EVIL vs Ishii were great though. Best single EVIL match ever, surely. Okada vs Jericho and Naito vs Ibushi should be an amazing 1-2 punch at Dominion.

Well, if you believe Wikipedia, Jules Strongbow was actually a Native American, unlike his kayfabe italian brother. That doesn't make the whole thing less ridiculous, of course.