El-P

Yeah, but that makes it even funnier to me. As of right now, AEW is still a fantasy as a company (well, not really as it does exist, but you know what I mean), so it can only be the greatest thing ever, still.

The highlight of Wrestlecon US vs the World show, which had tons of good matches but nothing special (Cage vs Tanaka was very good though) was easily Ethan Page trolling MJF by singing "You are my sunshine" and having the crowd actually sing instead of clapping when he was in a hold. "Don't clap ! Sing for me !". Terrific stuff.

Agreed Linda & Hall came off really good in the Savage & Liz episode. A lot lighter in tone until the last five minutes, with maybe too much stuff talking about actual pro-wrestling angles. This is not exactly what we're here for. But anyway, this struck me as a bitter story in the end.

Yeah, he's grumpy as fuck. Doesn't make the idea of him announcing any better to me.

A total mess. Would love to see Sasha quit and go to AEW (damn, aren't we talking like it's 1997 again ? ).

The question is, will JR shit on Meltz too.

This is so insanely stupid.

Wait. So, Vince fired the writer who helped Bret put together his HOF speech because he mentioned his name ? Really ? What the fuck are these people smoking ?

Agreed. Bitch Heel Sex Goddess Steph doing Sherry tribute spots is by far her best role. When I said it was better that way (without her), I was thinking about the main event. Mother Hen Steph is annoying as hell.

Forgot about that one. Yeah, awesome match. That Bandido spot was insane. The Fenix vs Pentagon short match from Wrestlecon was like the best 5 mn spotfest you could wish for.

Yeah, because he knows people were gonna be excited with his 49 year olf roided ass going 30 minutes doing garbage spots at a snail pace, that would make up for Rey vs Joe getting 10 seconds. He knows what the audience want, that guy, after all, he's the God of NXT and all. You know what strikes me now ? Stephy wasn't to be seen anywhere, and no one mentionned it. Hey, better that way, but still, it was kinda surprising.

I watched the Brody one. Mostly good stuff, although I'm not a fan at all of the directing. Music all the time is uneccessary, the thing never breathes. The whole "re-enactment" thing is kinda cheesy. As far as content, nothing new if you heard all those interviews for years. Atlas was really trying a bit too hard to put himself over. I would have liked to hear Savio again, a native perspective would have been welcome (I remember him basically saying Colon & Jovica were more to blame than Gonzalez as he thought they pushed him to do it). Watching those extracts of Colon in that shitty RF video, I remember how much of a dirtbag he came off like. "I believe in the law.". And this guy got the HOF treatment too… Anyway. The rest of the series sure will be interesting.

Yeah, I'm not the nostalgic kind of guy, but I admit I would mark out so bad if they recapture a bit of the feel/aesthetics of those shows. Loved Nitro back then.

Poetic justice. Billionnaire Khan videos incoming...

And then they hurt Braun. Just because. Remember when the guy was like the hottest thing in the company. See also : Rusev. Damn...

Hire Tony Schiavone already !!!!! That Fyre Festival teaser parody was quite funny too.

More Twitter drama with idiots apparently. Wait. Twitter, basically.

Favourite of that kind this year thus far was LAX vs Lucha Brothers from that iMPACT PPV. Spotfest ? Hell yeah. Great match ? Hell yeah.

Because storytelling can be overrated and actually an excuse for dreadful matches Because selling doesn't always get in a way of a good car crash Because a dive sequence with a million flips can be fun as fuck Because we all popped for a stupid, nonsensical, dumb-as-fuck matches with a zillion of great cool spots This is time to have fun with it. Yes, pro-wrestling does not have to be a Rocky movie. It can also be an orgy of incredible cool spots, insane bumps and jaw-dropping pure action sequences. There you go, you favourites of that special kind go there.

Except Kenny Omega is all about in-ring psychology and character, his matches are chockfull of this, his feud with Okada is like the greatest piece of detail storytelling in pro-wrestling ever. Again, I wish this kind of stereotyping would dissapear, it's so wrong. You may not like his style and character, but to say Omega is a guy who just does a bunch of moves without ryme or reason is the exact opposite of what he does.

Well, that's another issue. WWE's gravitation pull is so huge that for most fans, it's basically unthinkable to not watch WWE if you watch pro-wrestling. The reasonnable thing to do would be indeed to stop fucking watching and go to events (and honestly, it is slowly happening, but Mania is a special case alltogether). If their business would crumble like WCW did, maybe they would kick themselves in the ass. But I'm afraid with the FOX & Saudi deals they've reach the "too big to fail" level, financially speaking.

That type of stereotyping is so lazy, annoying and quite frankly, stupid. First, yeah, for instance, NJPW has guys marked as "tag in japan". No shit. Japan is an important part of the pro-wrestling culture, including, and I know it may shock some people, to JAPANESE. I know the MOVEZ crowd (by this I don't mean people who like pro-wrestling moves, because every pro-wrestling fans like pro-wrestling moves, but people still using that stupid meme to show how "smarter" they are) and the anti-Meltz culture propelled by Brucie's gimmick podcast loves to shit on everything Japanese like this wrestling culture was about snowflakes and Observer awards, but at some point, just let this nonsense disappear, please. And yeah, people love exciting moveset in pro-wrestlers. Like, Ric Flair (yeah, for an 80's guy, he was totally workraty), Steamboat, Savage, Hart and whatnot. It is absolutely not the point here. The point is, WWE has trained its audience to not care and spent years trolling them to death. So the audience either do not care and acts like asshole at times. Also, built-in Indie Cred ? Like.... Kofi Kingston, the guy who got the biggest ovation at Mania ? And yeah, other company, which are more indies, have tons of built-in indie cred, for sure... And finally, yes, Roman Reigns just recovered from cancer. Great for him. Fucking A. Then what ? The audience is not gonna sustain that wave of positive emotion forever. Roman Reigns the pro-wrestling character is still the same Roman Reigns who they didn't care for as the guy on top to begin with. They should just carry on the real-life emotion of "cancer survivor" forever and project it on the character ? First, there's something kinda sleazy when you think about the whole "Well, it took recovering for leukemia to get over" thingy (and let's not pretend WWE is not banking on it, as Drew's promo was full of "You beat leukemia, you won' beat me" bullshit). Second, the emotion is simply not sustainable forever. Like I said, I doubt he's gonna get booed (he wasn't at Mania, like it's been said it was about people not doing the wave, which BTW speaks about how much they care about the character at this point), but I also doubt he's gonna be accepted as The Man now just because of this fact, he's the same guy, same character, same work and he already has been seen for too long doing the same thing. (EDIT : well, if he was booed out of the building during the RAW post-show, well, that means the emotion is totally gone already and nothing has changed, which in a way is still better than the audience not giving a shit anymore at all now that they don't boo anymore) Anyway, I'm just ranting, but I'm quite tired of the blame being put on the fans, especially with non-argument like "they want MOVEZ and indie guys", when in fact it's all the fault of years and years of stupid, incompetent, and deaf booking.

WWE is the only company I know of where this stuff happens. You usually deserve your audience.

Hasn't Bruce already referred to Corny as more of less the guy behind the idea already, at least indirectly ?

I have been critical of the promotion lately, but Battle Riot II was a very good and very easy two hours to watch ! And it looked slick as fuck too, awesome production, easily the best of the Mania week-end this side of NXT. The Battle Riot itself ran a little long, and there weren't any crazy surprises, although Dan Severn showing up in the beginning and actually throwing some people around a bit was really cool, also one unexpected tag team showed up to a huge pop. Much better than the Honor Rumble. The backstage vignettes with Salina chasing for better spots for her guys were very good and funny, she's really the life of the promotion in term of character. The first hours flew by with two good little matches. Myron Reed turning heel did wonder for him, he paces himself much better and shows character instead of just flying around. Minoru Tanaka ! Damn, they just don't age in Japan or what ? Wonder if she's still married to Yumi Fukawa. Havoc vs Lawlor I enjoyed a lot, for once, probably the first Havoc match I can say that about. The fact it was about brutality and not comedy papercuts and stuff helped a lot I guess. The Contra stuff attacking him at the end was also quite heat-seeking in a very old-school style. Lawlor vs Fatu could be really, really good. Also, more Daga vs Low-ki on the horizon, which looks excellent. And the right guy won Battle Riot And finally, Corny is awesome. Finally got into his groove, and he's like the best color man today. I liked the fact he didn't hide his distaste for Havoc's style, but he worked it inside the story of the match. So yeah, well done, I recommend this show.