El-P

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.

Roman Reigns vs Authority figure. Wow. So creative. How many writers already ?

That thread just got Papa Shangoed.

Nice to see Callihan get some love ! The one thing also that bothered me is this. Elgin's whole thing is that he's BIG Mike. He's a super powerful muscular guy who also does cool athletic spots. Problem is, when he showed up and stood before Brian Cage, he looked like MEDIUM Mike, at best. And it also happens that Cage, as freakingly roided up as he looks, also can do much more impressive athletic spots than Elgin. So there, Elgin basically comes off like a smaller, uncharismatic, lesser on every level version of Cage. I hope they do go toward babyface Tessa vs heel Taya at Slammiversary and that they beat the shit out of each others. Could steal the show.

Not going into much details, as it would be redondant with what has already been said. Terrific show. Better than Homecoming. A nice build with a fun and varied undercard, with the multi-man spotfest (but nothing as crazy as what would follow), the Scarlett Bordeaux match which was a cool little bit as always (BTW, is Fallah getting in better shape ?), the six-men which has an excellent dynamic (gotta love Moose, although I agree the spear doesn't need that flip at the end, The North are gonna be really cool to watch, the Razcals you can do so much with them), a solid, rugged women's title match (glad Taya won too, it solidifies her as a heel champ). Then the last half of the PPV had really four excellent (well, would have been if not for Cage's injury) matches, which all felt important. That's the thing when you only have a PPV every three months or so and you actually put some thoughts and work into the builds, when the final clash happen they feel like important matches that you will remember. Swann vs Callihan was one hell of a brawl. I guess it's not the consensus opinion, but to me Callihan is an MVP everywhere he went thus far (LU, MLW, iMPACT). He makes the feuds seem important and intense, the big matches are always memorable, he's distinctive, he's a full fledge dirty heel and he's one hell of a worker too. And Swann has improved a lot too, and this feud and match really took his game to another level. Someone mentioned how he looked dead serious during the introduction. Yeah, attention to detail. Loved Tessa vs Gail. Tessa is so, so good. She also looks so, so much like Tully, it was obvious when they were together. I have this match above the Mania main event easily, on every level. Gail was probably thinking these were the last bumps she would ever took, so might as well go for broke. Terrific match. The post-match actually made sense to me, they really built the match as an agressive passing of torch of sorts, and it didn't come off like a "curtain wall" at all. This is the kind of stuff you'd see in joshi puroresu regularly, so yeah, more of a sport's like, enemy from different generation finally respecting each others after a war, with an antagonist kohai/senpai relationship. Anyway, great stuff. Just like in LU, Johnny is about a hundred times better as a heel. The match would probably have been excellent, judging by what they tried to do, but it's obvious Cage was in real pain and couldn't do much after the injury. Interesting to look at the way they communicated and tried to win time, and work around it. Elgin showing up was as dull as it sounded though, the guy has zero presence or charisma. I wonder what they'll be able to do with him, but yeah, not enthralled at all by this guy signing. Main event was batshit crazy. Fenix falling straight on his head on that insane spanish fly (most dangerous spot of the night) was scary. iMPACT will really miss the Lucha Bros, as they apparently will soon be working only for AEW and AAA. Over this last year, LAX have been the MVP's of the promotion I guess, with the two most memorable feuds and matches. No idea how long they'll be able to work that style though. Is that the most spectacular company rehab ever, from a quality standpoint ? Speaks a lot for D'Amore, who was responsible for the best stint of early TNA in the 00's too. Yeah, great job. They deserve a ton of credit. The title of this thread was done in jest, but really, as a weekly TV show with a few PPV a year, iMPACT actually is the best american promotion today, as been for a good year I guess.

I got a kick at this being the first thing you'd report about the show. Well, at least it means we're not gonna have to deal with another "fuck Meltzer" gimmick.

Sounds like fun. Funny, I did not even know about that website until a few days ago when I checked a company's name before sending a resume. Well, I ended up not sending my resume after all.

Mark Henry is a product of corporate culture brainwashing. He's spent his entire career in the E. He has no other point of reference. And as far as "eating shit", well, first off it's complete bullshit that it is still taking place, second of all, no matter how "hard" it has been for Henry in the locker room, the guy was signed to a ridiculous contract (back when money was dim) as a rookie, and it took him years to become even decent at his job. So he should probably shut the fuck up instead of playing veteran stooge.

Oh, of course, totally agree. In Kevin's context though, I thought it made perfect sense. It probably took him a whole lot of courage to make the choice of living.

Yeah. Completely toxic. Meltz mentioned some time ago that friends of his living in the real world told him WWE had the dirt worst reputation, like it was the shittiest place to work (and I mean as an employee doing "normal" jobs). One day, the curtains will have to fall down.

I dunno, I didn't find it depressing like Heroes of World Class (which was much more complete as far as telling the whole history in its context, obviously). The whole "It takes courage to live, not to die" bit resonated with me, it's very true. Kevin seems like he's in a good place today, finally, despite all of this. He's one peculiar character too.

He wanted to re-do the Godwinns maybe. Let's be honest, Vince has lost what was left of his mind a long time ago.

No idea why anyone thinks they are gonna do any sort of drastic change on FOX. Funny how the weekly thread as turned into fantasy producing though.

Agree about Manning kayfabing the fuck out of Fritz, painting the picture of all the boys desperately wanting to be pushed out there. Lack of drug issues while in Texas was also pretty rich, you almost get the feeling Kerry barely got drugged up before his accident and going to the WWF. It was still excellent overall, and very much about how Kevin coped with all of this tragedy.

WWE is a dinosaur. They are too set in their ways. RAW was 3 years old when Nitro showed up. It's been basically more or less the same presentation for nearly 20 years.

And really, it's neither here nor there. It's well established now that MBS had a journalist killed and dismembered. You're going, you're working for him, basically.