El-P

Which is why he barely talked in Lucha Underground. I mean, Prince Puma with a southern accent... not very aztec-like. He was not a very good promo anyway, and that was in Lucha Underground where *everyone* looked really good in vignettes.

I guess it doesn't warrant a thread, which speaks about how there's no hype about it at all, but the Crockett Cup redux is this week-end. Could be a fun show actually on paper. Scurll vs Aldis, Mack vs Cabana, a bunch of fun teams including PCO & Brody, Kojima & Nagata, the Briscoes, the Rock'n Roll (yeah, I know, but they had actually a good match at Spring Break).

More than anything, it makes WWE look petty and insecure. And it makes Angle & Taker come off like two old guys on a leash. Considering Taker is basically only working for the Saudi money at this point, yeah, not a good look for any of these parts.

Considering the audience of the TV is 1/4 less than last year, I think it's safe to put the "Becky Lynch is Stone Cold" narrative to rest for good. She's the hottest star of a slowly freezing promotion.

Yeah, really. And considering WWE's track records with fucked up shit like is, I'll be Cassandra and say there's nearly zero chance of it ending well. Remember when the first Wyatt's vignettes and debut happened ? It looked like the coolest stuff in years. And then they never managed to make anything but crap with it, turning Bray into a black hole of suck. Which is a shame, because the guy really has something about him, as showed in this oddball piece of business. So yeah, intriguing in a WTF way, but it might as well be another Beaver Cleavage in the long run.

Funny, Brucie talked about that during the last boring episode of his podcast, that basically they would not split married couple, but people "simply dating" was not taken in consideration. Which is bullshit, of course (fuck marriage). Good for Charlotte.

Holy fuck, that's a really terrible card on paper ! Hey, I don't live in Paris anymore anyway, so I guess I'll have to pass.

Pretty much, yeah, it feels like there has been a "last ever Shield reunion" a dozen times already. Which I guess is fitting, since it's obvious the whole was better than the sum of its part. Running with The Shield as THE top act in the company, Freebirds like, instead of trying to make Roman into The Man would have worked a whole lot better in retrospect. Plus it would have been a fresh and new approach. But nah, gotta find that next Cena. Also : I would have never thought of this one. A joke that wrote itself. Amazing.

At least it's pretty clear what are their priorities too. Gotta love the build-up to a PPV that is gonna happen "somewhere" again...

Just watched it. Tremendous indeed.

That's a super cool and unexpected news. This is gonna be the highest profile single Dustin match in how ? More than 20 years easily I'd say.

Doesn't even scratch Vanes Naldi's classic angle. Piss poor booking on every level.

Damn, Wagner Jr. and Blue Demon Jr. managed to have quite a compelling last part of the cage match main event at the big show earlier this month. Those old mofos sure have done a much, much better job than Trip & Batista (then again, we're talking about Wagner Jr., who ruled, and Blue Demon... ok, who apparently never was that good) as far as pushing a hundred years inside the ring and having a blood feud. I guess this is gonna main event Triplemania this year ? Well, I'm invested in this one now. Good job. Also, Fantasma is gone for good then ? Meltz talked about him showing up in NJPW, which would be interesting.

Seriously now ? People are pissed at the way Sasha expressed being pissed ? Is the audience working in WWE's Talent Relation office now ? That's how it sounds to me, sorry. As far as taking a leave of absence, well, considering she's an "independent contractor", I guess she can do whatever the fuck she wants... That's not being unprofessional. Being unprofessional would be, I dunno, hurting people left and right like say... Nia Jaxx. Or refusing to do a job and go home with your belt championship like multiple time Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.

Damn, you speak like Vince now. It's not a question of comparing the status of Sasha & Harper either. And honestly, although Harper is a really good worker, it's not like he could have anchored the promotion or anything like Sasha (for the women's division) could at one time. Sasha got pissed off, and then what ? People have the right to get pissy and salty. The fact people assume that they are "babies" because they don't go all corporate and shit is ridiculous to me. Again, it's not like she refused to do the job or was unprofessional as a performer, so what is the big issue with her being pissed, really ?

But come on, WWE is the dream work of every sport entertainer in the Universe. You may laugh, but I'm sure that's how corprorate WWE sees things... Like I said a few days ago, we've reached the #Brand Era, where the audience are supposed to support the Brand against its workers.

It doesn't really matter. And really, Sasha has been booked like shit for the last year or so. Yeah, her and Bailey was given the brand new tag titles. And then what did they do ? Tell them they are gonna job the title away to an undercard comedy tag team and split them up without doing anything more with their brand new team. So yeah, whatever, Sasha had all the right in the world to be pissed about her current push, honestly. As far as someone like Bliss understand the game much better, no issue about that. Hell, I would even agree about pushing Bliss over Sasha, simply because I thought Bliss was terrific in her role anyway. But that's neither here nor there.

Well, yes. Sasha has been called every name in the book, been laughed at, been called a baby, people talked about her attitude problems and whatnot. Harper asks his release ? Awesome, great talent, deserved much better, gonna kill it in the indies... Also, apparently dropping the belt was not the only issue, the fact they were gonna get split as a team was also a reason why they were pissed, Meltz said. Which is perfectly understandable. Bailey & Sasha's booking has been horrendous last year (the "feud that wasn't a feud"), and now this ?

Wow, what a shocker. Corny has talked about him explaining to Vince and the crew what a screwjob was only for years on podcasts now... Anyway, he came off like a star though, no one tells a story like him (can't believe he did the "piss on his grave" promo at the end though, that and the framing of death threats were soooo pro-wrestling). You gotta love Corny dropping knowledge with historical details in his attics full of memorabilia, and then you got that complete idiot Russo going "Bro, I told Vince what to do bro." No idea why they even bothered with this imbecile. Scott Hall was also worthless here. Never talked about the Montreal Screwjob with Shawn. Yeah. Sure. A fair amount of bullshit in this episode, but Corny & Bruce made it smooth, at least. Gotta love Bruce talking about "dropping the championship". Even in a documentary, he has to speak like a WWE drone...

The way iMPACT currently presents its product is actually really good, it's a shame no one seemingly watches it. Two man both near ringside, but in an old-school setting. Usually begins the show with a hot match. No authority figure, really. No epileptic directing. Some Lucha undergroundesque cool little fuckery (although with less budget and less well done). Booking that flows pretty well with nothing overcomplicated or convoluted. A few special TV shows which allows more important matches to happen without having to go on PPV. Fun vignettes, some of which have a musical theme (LAX, Scarlett Bordeaux). I mean, it's really easy to watch and follow. Sure, there are still some stuff from the 00's that could go away, like the "Hit girl holding the mic and looking disgusted/bewildered at the heels and not doing anything else", but overall, they present a really good pro-wrestling TV show now. As far as AEW goes, the further away they go from WWE presentation, the better it is. I used to love the Nitro era for its themed PPV and different kind of settings. Hope this comes back eventually. As far as Smackdown goes, who the fuck cares, as long as Vince & Dunn are there, it's gonna be awful anyway. Not sure it's gonna get much better whenever Dunn is gone, but NXT is a lot more watchable (although still over-directed) at least, if not more listenable (Mauro, shut the fuck up).

And they still do Nu Metal videos.

Yeah, that would be it. Definitely the Cena at its peak era.

Yeah, this would be my timeline too, although I would probably go from around Rumble 97, really, for the unravelling of the world title scene and the Austin vs Bret feud putting itself together. SummerSlam 98 is the end of the road, indeed. A Bundy episode would probably not be that interesting. He was gone pretty much as soon as Bruce got in, and his 94 stint was nothing.

Yeah but what is Lacey's character ? She dresses old-fashion ? So she's a female Vaudevillain ? I have no fucking idea.

Lacey has shown exactly zilch in the ring thus far. Her very short sequence at the Rumble was awful. As far as a character she comes from exactly nowhere, she just walked down the aisle for weeks, now she's gonna challenge the top woman. Reeks of shoving down someone who's not ready, yet again. If she catches fire, good for them. But to me it has failure written all over it. With the actual life story this girl has, they managed to just make her a non-character because she's just hot and tall and blonde and they figure it's gonna be enough. That's why they pay a hundred writers, I guess. As far as Ronda goes, well, she sure ain't gonna be on FOX for the big debut. Not kicking any ass anyway. So there... Totally agree with the gap issue, at this point you have Becky, Charlotte (who would be the third now ? Bliss ?), then a huge void, then the rest.