El-P

Poor fucker. Pro-wrestling fans are fickle bastards.

Well, Meltz reported the plan for Lacey Evans is : big push.

Shawn Micheals rumour incoming ? I mean, he already came back for this shameless show in Parts Unknown, so at this point, why not have this match with his former student ?

This. No idea if that's the true about Wilson, but yeah. Smarts and character changes a ton in term of perception. And as far as pro-wrestling goes, talent. Or comical lack thereof (because clumsiness can be quite charming IRL, and I say that being clumsy as hell myself). Speaking of which, I think Lacy Evans is gonna be a gift. Matt Morgan totally looks awesome, and he has this really *sympathetic* face which makes him very appealing. Maybe the fact he's got that reputation of being a very nice and friendly guy plays a part, but yeah, he's got something going for him. (Randy Orton would be the opposite exemple in term of "guy with great genetics", he looks like a complete creep) Finn "facefuck me" Balor, yeah, no shit. If I had that face and body... Speaking of character, Scarlett Bordeaux is only hotter because her character is actually fun, she's a complete throwback to burlesque strip-tease artists, she's doing the sexy-yet-comical bit very well. And yeah, Tessa Blanchard looks like Tully with Dat Ass, but her charisma, attitude and talent in the ring makes her super appealing and charming. That girl, AEW needs to sign her yesterday.

Well, that's as compelling as an argument I've heard for Jeff. But I never got it. To me his work when he wasn't about falling from high places always looked pretty bad. I never found him to be overly charismatic (nor enigmatic for that matter; what a dumb nickname). I never got the Hardys to begin with, the baggy pants, the emokid looks, that botch-spot highlight reel Lita doing awful dives alongside. Matt was the solid worker who became quite good and carried the team in non-gimmicked setting. I don't think I've ever seen a single Jeff Hardy match where I have found him to be *good* or even *fun to watch*, and I've seen plenty where he was just awful. I know about the 08/09 run and the connection with the crowd. It goes totally over my head, I don't get it.

Agreed. Totally felt in the trap of WWE self-conscious epic of the times.

Well, apparently, that doesn't count since the current history teach us that real women's wrestling began with Stephy's #WWEWomensevolution. And ironically enough, less and less women watching apparently. I know what you're saying, but you're missing the point by focusing on the TNA stuff (which I did not even mentioned first, I was just responding to another post, and like you said, I would throw tons of other shit to counter the ridiculous hypocrisy and revisionism). The point is that Paige is so full of shit with her statement that it was the fans and not the promotion (we're talking about WWE here) which were responsible for the women not being taken seriously. She's now talking about women getting "We want puppies" chants back in the day. Oh yeah. And that was because why and of whom already ?

Yeah, because Vince Russo gained more and more power and Dutch Mantell, who was responsible for pushing the women, eventually got fired. Well, it's not a matter of holding someone to higher standards, it's just facts. TNA promoted serious women pro-wrestling way before WWE. That's a simple fact. Of course it turned bad, because it always did with TNA. But WWE is still way behind the times (let's not talk about Japan, that would be unfair), and to blame the fans for it is just amazingly hypocritical. Well, maybe if WWE buys iMPACT's library, Gail Kim and Amazing Kong will get their dues, but until then revisionist history will still be running rampant.

Well, that women's match was pretty bad, all things considered. The first half was just a car wreck. Sloppy as fuck, tons of awful stuff that only benefited from the fucked up camerawork. Honestly, the IIconics looking the worse workers in a match that had both Nia Jaxx and Tamina Snuka is a feat. Billie has that kinda comedic charisma which at least works, but Peyton Royce is just god-awful, every spot she tries looks like hell. Riot Squad vs Bayley & Sasha was the best part of the match. The ending stretch was pretty decent too, but on average, terrible + ok doesn't equal good. Not gonna be as high as many people on the men's Chambers match. I dunno, the crowd was great going bonkers for Kofi, but did anyone really thought he would win ? I had zero doubt about the outcome. Kofi was made to look like nobody's business by Bryan, but anyone thinking he's *that good* is smoking funny shit. Orton was just his boring self. Jeff Hardy I will never ever get. That guy looked like a relic of old-ass indierrific work from the early 00's, although I guess that sick swanton was cool enough (as usual, Jeff is only good for one thing : doing stupid shit). I thought the match was really excellent for the first part, then kinda began to stall once Styles got in, oddly enough. Then it only got great for the last part. So yeah, not that great masterpiece I'm hearing about. Not even *great* overall. Excellent and definitely on the first tier of Elimination matches though, with a great last part. The rest of the show looked like a complete waste of time.

Oh, for fuck's sake. They only featured Amazing Kong vs Gail Kim as the hottest part of their product in... well... 2007. Which got the biggest rated segment of iMPACT back then. And only had a women tag team title a whole decade before WWE did... With fucking Vince Russo at the helm. Fuck Paige and her corporate ass. You work for a company getting shitload of money from a criminal regime treating women as third class human beings. And now you're blaming the *fans* for years of pillow battle royale ? Yeah, those WWE feminists people...

They are more worried about people googling Saudi Arabia these days.

Fuck those people. Pretending pro-wrestling isn't selling bodies and sexuality is beyond hypocritical. You think Kota Ibushi getting those crazy reactions from women has nothing to do with his body and look ? Anyway, I hear you on Billie Kay, although she's funny (in a goofy way) and got character, which is halfway through sexy to me. That being said, what cracks me up about the IIconics is everytime Meltz mentions them as not being any good in the ring, I'm waiting from some angry tweet from Royce, but apparently saying you suck at your job is nothing compared to an awkward yet inconsequential remark about your body (reminder : the IIconic are selling sex-appeal, that's half of their gimmick). The ressemblance between Charlotte and her father never struck me before. Tessa on the other hand...

They sign pretty much every talent available everywhere, yet they still push (scratch that, use is offensive enough) Baron Corbin on TV and big shows. This company...

With Billy Gunn signed with AEW, that one is pretty awkward. So, Chyna finally goes in the HOF ? Those gangbang videos don't bother Stephy no more I guess...

Women tag team championship !!!! WWE is always ahead of the curv..... wait. TNA had women tag team champions ten years ago. Plus, well, the match probably is gonna suck with a good 2/3 of the people involved being crappy workers. Smackdown Elimination Chamber match could be really good, despite the modern cushioned gimmick. I'm pretty sure yesterday's AAA show on Twitch with Jarrett in the main event has potential to be better than this one.

I wouldn't go so far to say golden period, but 2009 had been mostly a terrible year and all of a sudden you get some really strong in-ring stuff (the booking was always rotten, Russo gaining power without counterbalance anymore, with Dutch & Corny getting fired, really showed). The last show of the year with the knockouts tournament had Ayako Hamada really killing it and ODB stepping up too (while Tara was the champ, of course since she was the WWE girl, despite being not very good at all and not even compelling nor fun as a character either). Sarita & Taylor Wilde really were a cool tag-team. Oh, makes me think WWE is just gonna revolutionize women's wrestling *again* today with their tag team championships, a whole decade after TNA mind you.... Yes, this last ECW reunion angle of sorts is something I want to watch eventually. I remember hearing about it back then, seems like in another life though... The whole Hogan debacle and the ECW stuff definitely picks my (twisted ?) interest in TNA 2010. I thought I was done for good with this stuff, but apparently I'm not.

I have closed up on TNA 2009, just for the hell of it. These last few months are pretty much a continual infomercial for Hogan showing up. You can also see how Dixie's ego blew up at that point, with the ridiculous "talk to the talent" bit where she really comes off as the entitled rich daddy's girl that she was. In retrospect, the whole angle with Foley worried that Hogan was gonna run wild on the company with his old friends and fuck the party up is pretty ironic, because that's exactly what ended up happening. That being said, the booking not giving a fuck anymore and putting Angle vs Wolfe and AJ vs Joe vs Daniels in feuds for the last two PPV delivered four great matches. The 1-2 punch of Final Destination was pretty amazing, really capped off the decade in grand fashion for TNA. AJ vs Daniels in particular was fascinating, as it seemed like they were aware with Hogan coming down nothing was certain as far as what opportunity they would get, so they go all out to have a really sick match, and a sick match it is. MOTYC, hell maybe even MOTD contender. Kinda too bad that Chris Daniels will never be talked in the same respect with Styles & Joe for obvious reasons (never got the same sustained push, never got the big WWE stint), he was just as bit as great a worker as they were (and that's without having watched his ROH stuff).

From memory, the true greatest match I've seen in the WWE in this decade were : Andrade Cien Almas vs. Johnny Gargano John Cena vs AJ Styles (from Rumble) Sami Zayn vs Nakamura (from Takeover Dallas) I had loved that first women HITC match (Charlotte vs Sasha), but I have no idea how it would hold up today, I kinda fear it was a bit rated on a curve back then.

Agreed. Hell, Jackie could probably *actually* beat up a lot of guys in the locker room. Agreed. Sometimes, things are odd like that. Sidebar : the gay wedding law was like a piece of cake in catholic, very much macho Spain, where seemingly no one cared. In much more progressive (on paper) and mostly un-religious (thank god, pun intended) France, it was hell with the resurgence of ultra-right anti-gay demonstrations for weeks and weeks and a huge rise of assault on LGBT people. Go figure... That Lawler video is cringeworthy on so many levels. (I guess Jackie was too old for him already too...) The thing is, with most modern day intergender stuff, it's not even an issue. The only thing that is taken into consideration is that the woman's body is usually smaller (I say usually because there are some darwfy motherfuckers on indies these days), so they are treated like Rey would be against a bigger guy (which was always the case). Like I said, Tessa was just treated totally as equal and damn, her work was spectacular.

The Luchas Bros vs Daga & Tessa Blanchard at the January Bar Wrestling show was the most fun ten minutes spotfest I've seen in a long time. Tessa is crazy good and she worked wonderfully with these guys, I sure hope AEW grabs her whenever she wants to graduate from iMPACT. It's so cool to see these kind of intergender pro-wrestling matches where no one even blinks at the notion of Penta chopping Tessa or Tessa kicking out of Penta's finisher. Both the Lucha Bros & Daga put her over big time after the match too. Pro-wrestling has come a long way from Disco Inferno quitting over doing the job to Jackie in a novelty match.

Fuck me, he'll be The Artist, remember that late Prince Iaukea gimmick ? That's it, you've ruined Velveteen for good.

Like it's been said, Conrad Thompson is one hell of a seller. And he's connected like nobody's business at this point.

I can't believe this happened, but during the great comedic TV game Burger Quiz, one question was about Joey Ryan's dick spot. They showed the original one to confirm the answer. Awesome.

Yeah, me too. And by interpromotional matches, I don't mean ROH guys. Those Honor shows in Korakuen are completely missable, nothing to see there apart from Cobb vs Goto.

Yeah, two years ago he was the host of a podcast with Prichard, now he's hosting the AEW press-conference... Personally I can't stand sellers, but he sure knows his way around.