El-P

That is gonna be my take from this show : Takeover were much better when they lasted two hours +. Main issue with this one : it peaked with the opener. Damn, that tag match was all kind of awesome. MOTYC no doubt. The four-way women's title was easily the second best match of the show, terrific fun. Bianca BeLair's tights are the best, Rick Rude would have approved. Shirai & Sane are awesome, Bazler was badass as fuck. Yeah, just terrific stuff start to finish. I'm not as hot for Velveteen as others, mainly because of the cosplay stuff. That being said, he could be a huge star. His in-ring work is not always the crispest, but he's still super young. Plus he can follow Riddle, who's just as great as he was last year when I watch him have a zillion matches during the week-end. Overall, excellent match thanks to Riddle, and Velveteen is nothing but charisma and star power. and then, well... I thought Pete Dunn vs Walter was a total self-conscious epic. Masturbatory, went nowhere, way too fucking long, shit psychology. Remember when I complained about that stupid chop picture ? People were all "oh, but it's gonna be sold as death". And at the end of the day, well, not really, by the end Dunn was barely selling them, it was just another spot. A bunch of really great "moments", totally disjointed. Walter had a much much better match last year against PCO at Spring Break. So yeah, Self-conscious epic. As far as the main event goes. Well, in the seventies, people were going crazy for Emerson Lake & Palmer. And they packed stadiums and shit. Good for them. This is a mega production for the "Sorry, I love you" crowd. Why the fuck not. Without me though. The worst of bloated WWE wrestling by two really talented guy, but they really aren't responsible (maybe they are, in which case Gargano just has the worst taste in epic matches ever, it was already an issue during the Ciampa feud). also : MAURO SHUT THE FUCK UP. Yeah, I totally rolled my eyes at this too. At one point you could feel the frustration from one of the other two as he basically talked over his latest irrelevant remark. So yeah. Two bloated matches that took way too much of my time makes it not even close to the best match of the week-end thus far, despite two great matches and a very good/excellent one. I guess everything in WWE has to be just that, bloated.

Last year's mostly sucked. This year's mostly ruled. Nothing close to the technical trickery of the best japanese shoot-style stuff, because no one works that style anymore, but as far as working a realistic shoot-style in a post MMA world, this was pretty damn ace and actually made me think such a style could get back in style with monthly shows of the same kind of stuff. I loved the fact they did do total pro-spots at times like they would in the UWF style occasionally.

The Wrestlecon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show was all around very good. Cool moment for Liger, great comedy from the Orange Cassidy & Best Friends vs SCU match, and although I didn't see most of Cavernario vs Dragon Lee, Bandido vs Ospreay and ZSJ vs Strickland were both great matches, especially the later which is going into MOTYC category for me. Best Strickland match I've seen since the insane garbage match against Dante Fox in LU. I'd say the three-way match with Flamita is the only one which fell kinda flat, but nothing bad on that show. I'm amazed Masato Tanaka is still as good as he seems to be. Tajiri hasn't aged much either.

The iMPACT show was good and fun for the most part, but the production was terrible. Tons of fuck-up, awful camera work, sound issues, bad mixing, bad timing. Really ? As far as the matches went, Tessa Blanchard vs Joey Ryan was really, really good, I'd go so far to say it was the best match on the show. Tessa is just that good, great selling (either or she did hurt her shoulder), she went all in and did both the dick and lollipop spots (a cute moment was her trying to hide the fact she was almost laughing during Ryan's pre-match antics), Ryan was solid as hell and of course put Tessa over. Yeah, excellent stuff. The Ultimate X is always cool with a few crazy spots and dive. Lucha Underground vs IMPACT match was pretty fun, with Dreamer taking the place of Johnny and Marty the Moth subbing for Fantasma (King Cuerno no more). Damn, watching Marty reminds me that I will miss LU. This guy needs to land somewhere. LAX vs Ki & Martinez had a cool interpromotional feel with the Konnan connection, although Salina was sorely missed. Damn, Ki is good. Good match with solid structure. The four-way women's match was good when it was all about Taya vs Grace. Rosemary is a kinda cool character, but she doesn't show me much as far as in-ring work goes. The fourth girl twerked and did squats, literally and figuratively. So, Jimmy Havoc did the same Jimmy Havoc stuff, which I guess works if you see it once a year. To me it only "worked" because of Callihan. Dirty match, kinda fun, but Havoc really doesn't do shit for me, he's just a one-dimensional gimmick, and not a very good one. Sabu & RVD were sad to watch. I expected as much from Sabu, who looks more and more like his uncle, but to me RVD looked even worse all things considered. I don't think he hit one of his spots halfway right. Ok, the dual jump was cool, but really it was pretty damn bad. I dunno why I expected anything, but I sure got less. Yeah, kinda sad to watch. Nowhere near as good as the usual special iMPACT show, so in that respect you could say it was a disapointment. Then again, it was mostly quite good and fun apart from the main event. Bloodsport still the #1 show thus far for me, easily.

As much as I didn't care very much for Bloodsport last year, this edition has been pretty much terrific, with only Dan Severn showing up doing nothing (but that was quick).

"This is camping !" is my new favourite chant. The tent was probably the highlight of the WrestlePro show, along with Scarlett putting a guy through wood and Santana Jackson, who's quite the novelty kind of worker. Bah & KM vs Massage Force and the BWO was the highlight of the gauntlet. Bunny Demon vs Team Tremendous was quite funny. Dan Maff vs Swoggle was good for what it was, but I admit I didn't get that much out of it (I guess I'm not a huge Swoggle fan). Main event was also quite by the number. Anyway, shit's on.

Yeah. When I think about my ex.

Of course it will, they co-produce it.

Who else, really ? Beefcake owes his entire career to Hogan. Now, Das Racist at the HoF, well... Maybe he should induct Harlem Heat.

Probably, just as working with/for Cody sounds like much more comfortable for many reasons. Damn, I'm glad they didn't get Ranallo. I've watched only a bunch of Takeovers with him, and by the end I wanted to throw a brick through my screen...

Just to "fuck with the dirtsheets", according to Brucie. Yeaaaaaah, sure....

Well, comparing Excalibur and JR's work with the New Japan product, which is the best sports-like presentation product today, Excalibur murders JR seven ways to Sunday. JR was great at times 25 years ago. He hasn't been great since the late 90's. He's been actively bad regularly at points. So yeah, I'm doubtful. As much as I have fun listening to Corny and Schiavone in MLW, I'm not convinced JR would do the best job in AEW.

This applies to 90% of AEW's roster as far as mainstream knowledge goes, so what is the big issue to begin with ? And really, the fact they are two legends has nothing to do with anything. It's pro-wrestling. A masked guy is as pro-wrestling as pro-wrestling can be. Well, JR was arguably still at his peak during his best years in WWF. He's always been an up and down guys anyway. Sucked in UWF, terrific in Crockett, annoying as fuck in WCW when Watts was in, great in WWF at points, annoying in WWF at other points. But when you pass the 00's, JR really wasn't the same. His work in NJ was pretty ok to bad. I dunno, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt of course, but when I watch Being the Elite, I don't feel JR is the guy to understand the product for this generation.

Except he's really good, and really, when the fuck did mask got cheesy for pro-fucking-wrestling ? Seriously now. Jerry the King Lawler and his ridiculous crown and awful color scheme tights ? Jesse Ventura and his crazy hair and outfits ? But a guy in a mask is cheesy ? Da fuck.

Yes, it is definitely an interesting case. It's not like Dino has been a much talked about subject either, really.

Well, they sure want the dirt...

I hope he's only working backstage. As much as Corny & Schiavone have been fun announcing modern matches, I don't want current JR to be the voice the the brand new, non-WWE, US pro-wrestling product, especially considering some of his NJ work.

I dunno. Miz is a clear case of being both underrated and overrated at the same time. He's much much better than some give him credit for (see also : Taichi). I also totally see the point of him looking like someone "playing pro-wrestler", especially as a babyface. Kofi should get the upset win at Mania and then lose the title back the following day. Because let's face it, he's not a main event player at all.

iMPACT does it again with an excellent special edition. Strong angles (Tessa & Gail, LAX & Lucha Bros), a very solid Taya vs Jordynne Grace match, leading to another, more conclusive one in the future. Grace still looks green at times, but Taya as a heel is even better than as a babyface (that's also true of her husband). Scarlett Bordeaux vs Glen Gilberti was as expected really fun and actually a lot more solid than expected. Really, 50 years old Disco Inferno is better than 50 years old Kurt Angle. He's also still better than Baron Corbin or Nia Jaxx. Kross vs Cage was a nice bomb throwing match, although they really need a better main event babyface, Cage just doesn't do much for me in that role. And really, what put this episode over the top was the whole Undead Realm sequence. They don't give a flying fuck, they just want to do cool shit. I guess that's the influence of Lucha Underground and the Matt Hardy stuff they did before. Three things in particular about this. First, I really got a kick out of Luchasaurus getting killed *again*, after his brutal murder in the Temples of Snakes in LU. Just too funny (although I hope we'll get to see him again, he's being wasted in ROH dull-land). Second, well : Yeah, I do think we can all recognize that the best we can say about Hogan's acting here is : it's not hot. And yes, the leader of the Undead Realm. When I saw that silhouette coming, I hoped for an instant it would be... bam, they delivered. Just perfect. So yeah, it's goofy, it's kitsch, it's pulp, it's not nearly produced as well as LU (not the same budget either I guess), but it's fun as hell in small doses. It's pro-wrestling in 2019. Why the fuck not ! iMPACT is the best, people.

Wasn't she accused by Randy of being kinda responsible for Liz straying away from him ? Yeah, could be fascinating.

So, Allie was on BTE already, and there's tension between her and Brandi. Cody doing an entire movie monologue was kinda Goldustian, if you catch my drift. How cool would it be to see Dustin landing in AEW for a last stint ? They teased Marty Scurll as a ghost... The Librarian is gonna be the biggest unveiling since the Narcissist. Micheal Nakazawa ? Sorry, couldn't help it. This guy is gonna be OVER at Double or NOthing, is nothing else. "Dollar Store Tom Selleck". MJF is the best, between this and his MLW stuff, he's already the best old-school douchebag heel today.

Speaking of people leaving, Tenille Dashwood is now free agent, so here's another one who would fit either iMPACT or AEW's roster. Meanwhile Madison Rayne is going back to iMPACT (which is cool, she was the third Beautiful People). Well, I understand why the women's division came off like an afterthought in the TV shows. Only one women's match at the garden. And isn't Kelly Klein AEW bound too anyway ?

Agreed. I couldn't care less about most of the ROH side (apart from PCO/Brody and Rush & Bandido, but they aren't exactly "ROH" kind of talent) but the big time NJ stuff at the Garden should be amazing if anything else in term of atmosphere and image for NJ. Just hope Gedo won't americanize Okada vs White too much with run-ins and shit. Jeff Cobb vs Ospreay should be an awesome match too, and at this point I really hope Cobb works more and more in Japan. Especially since... Oh I care. He's probably my least favourite gaijin in the company, if not my least favourite guy in the company (he sure was the worst worker in last year's G1 I thought), so him going away is a good news. Hope he lands back in ROH or NXT (aka places I don't follow). Hope Cobb gets his spot and works G1. Now that would be a terrific new element in the mix.

John Oliver on AEW payroll rumours on Twitter already ?

Amazing piece. Yep. Gotta love the fact he made it clear he was a wrestling fan too. It's nice to hear someone from outside the bubble on those ridiculous matters.