El-P

In other news, I would not be surprised to see Matt Hardy go, as his contract is up soon. I enjoyed old, broken down Matt Hardy more than most (pretty easy around these parts), but him expressing frustration about how they were used is a bit puzzling, considering the ridiculous amount of talent they have to put on TV. And really, the fact they still used Jeff after his latest issue is already more than they could have hoped. The time of the dream matches have passed for them, it's a cold hard fact. They were like the Rock'n Roll Express during the Nitro days, fun to watch to a degree, but way past the point of relevancy. He could still be a fun addition to TNA with the right creative though. I would not mind that. Ditto Mike Santana I guess, although really, the guy kinda QT Marshall himself.

Come on now. This movie is a straight QAnon propaganda piece. Anyone even talking about it in any other way has a gigantic red flag over their head. As far as Ian, he talked about it on a Discord, which he thought was private I believe. But anyway. This is serious stuff. If I'm watching a show, I'd like to be informed if one of the performer is a Q-pilled idiot. Taking it to Twitter (who the fuck says X btw ?) is another thing entirely, especially when you cry about libel and such. Actually, that's another red flag, of sorts, these kind of people just love to paint themselves as victims. That being said, people should always be careful about what they say on private Discords, indeed. Never know when some stuff might bite them in the ass eventually...

Rumors now are that Kevin Kelly has been fired. He wasn't calling Collision, which has been pre-taped. Gotta say this. He has been awesome for years in NJPW, his G1 Climax announcing was the highlight of the year and brought so much to the whole thing. It did not translate well to AEW at first, and it seems he wasn't aware of the product, notably botching talent names too. Once he got "demoted" to color, I thought he got more comfortable after a while and I actually enjoyed him in that role. But then again. He's publicly shitting on Ian Riccaboni, who by all accounts seems to be a great guy and is a terrific announcer, because he called him out for promoting some QAnon bullshit movie I understand. So there. Maybe William Corgan can make him call some EC3 classics. Dunno if Ian would make the transition to Collision, as he did not want to overload his work charge for family reasons, but really, AEW does not need Kevin Kelly, and they certainly don't need a sour and bitter QAnon wacko at all. They have a-plenty of terrific announcers and color guys. And guess what, why not get Veda Scott if she's available and willing ?

The same who would go "OMG Will Ospreay ! WWE has picked up another GOAT !". And yeah. The idea that Ospreay or Okada would have spent some time in NXT... Gotta throw this out there. ROH has become a really fun and easy show to watch, with a good regular crew and nice revolving door of supporting talent. Red Velvet vs Leila Hirsch this week was really good. Enjoying guys like the Jon Cruz, who is hilarious, getting featured, and Spanish Announce Project feuding with Maria Kanellis, Dalton Castle vs Johnny TV with the Boys and Taya involved. Just lots of good stuff, really. The Mania week show should be pretty cool, with the addition of the champs who work AEW shows, Kingston, the Kingdom, Fletcher. And of course, Athena stil carrying the thing.

Yeah, Kingston's story is insane. He went from basically wanting to retire because he wasn't making ends meet anymore to being a legit star in the second biggest promotion in the world, meeting some of his tape trading days heroes, feuding with Danielson on his last full time year, and now being part of Okada's debut in the company, and probably Okada's first PPV match, for some Triple Crown title. He's another case of, if only for this, AEW was worth it. Gotta love Ospreay. First match on TV," Hey, I'm gonna make my little Aussie bruv a star." (I'm sure somewhere some idiot is bitching about kicking out of the Os-cutter and how that has already ruined him as a main eventer though) Also :

I have no word. This 1-2-3 punch over two weeks (counting next week) is just ridiculous. This. Been following since the start. And even before that. This too. Pretty much. Joe > Swerve > Ospreay at Wembley > Okada at the end of the year > feud with babyface Omega returning. And then, Jay White is gonna be right there. If nothing goes terribly wrong, they have all time greats feuding for a year without even having to think about it.

Yep. To me, the more intimate the better. I'd take a red hot ECW, Korakuen Hall or Lucha Underground (although we're not talking about *that* small) show over any kind of huge arena. I'd be perfectly happy with AEW running smaller places.

Knowing Sid, he probably thought it was planned and did not get why everybody else was laughing. The most interesting thing about the episode is the sumo stuff (cool footage). Tenta being a super nice guy and all, and the ending about his death was trying way too hard to make the audience cry (really, I felt I was a voyeur in a private matter that had nothing to do with pro-wrestling, and it made me feel both sad and awkward), but there was nothing really compelling about the episode itself, which is why they spent like 5 minutes on Shockmaster falling on his arse I guess (that Haku laugh was gold). The idea that Golga was a way to humiliate Tenta is kinda bizarre, but who knows.

Ok, now we're talking. The garbage blue and red WWE-lite color scheme is finally gone. Tunnels are back. Says how much they thought of Sting and how significant he was to them that they consider his retirement to be the launch of an entire new season.

The smell of the entire thing...

MJF was over as fuck during his entire title reign and totally overdelivered in the ring. AEW had a great year on PPV, which was headlined by MJF title defense. MJF/Adam Cole was the hottest thing in the company for as long as it lasted. The fact his absence is not missed on TV, just like Omega, doesn't reflect on him, it reflects on the fact AEW's main event scene is really hot right now. And yes, speaking strictly personally, I enjoy the current main event scene a whole lot more than MJF's reign, which I did enjoy quite a bit despite some of the stuff (well, the MJF/Cole thingy) not being my alley. Sammy Guevara is becoming more and more a case of what if. Maybe needs a change of scenery. Or attitude. Or both. Jack Perry going to NJPW (as an AEW contracted talent) was an interesting twist. He just joined the House of Torture. So here goes nothing. Him coming back in AEW eventually as a heel will be intriguing though. Darby has been the most compelling of the four, since day one, and still is. The fifth pillar is probably coming back at some point too, and hopefully she regains the edge she had when she was really fun and got over by being a bitch to Tony Schiavone as opposed to being your stereotypical "This is my house" kinda promo. Wardlow is the most overpushed wrestler in AEW's history. It's ridiculous. If half the effort of pushing and protecting him had been given to someone like Hobbs or Archer, you'd have a monster star already. Ricky Starks, oh well, when you actually look back at his run thus far the guy has been wildly inconsistant and was last seen being completely overshadowed by Big Bill. After all these years and despite being regularly featured in big feuds, the guy never really sustained overness nor constant quality (both in promos/in-ring, which varies from terrific, mostly when he's in with great workers, to just ok and sometimes even boring). My verdict after watching him for the last 6 years or so, is that he's been overrated, by myself included. Maybe WWE would suit him better, although at this point it's debatable. They are so hot and so big that anyone being put under the limelights right now is gonna de facto become a whole lot bigger (see also, Jade Cargill, although she really has done jackshit and from what I've seen at the Rumble, she's the exact same worker she was in AEW, an overpushed rookie, not a diss, just a fact), but I'd say, they already have LA Knight, who is the same kind of profile. Plus, now that Dwayne is part of the show, it would make it extra-hard for Starks to stand out for obvious reasons.

Jack Perry shows up in NJPW as an outsider with an anti-AEW gimmick. Eh, that's interesting. Jack Perry debuts in NJPW. Join House of Torture. *facepalm*

This. Also, Will Ospreay. It's just not fair for everyone else. The best wrestler in the world alongside Kenny Omega (when he comes back), Bryan Danielson and possibly Kazuchika Okada. In the same promotion. At the same time. AEW is just ridiculous. Rename it GWEW already. BTW, give me Danielson vs Ospreay, quick, before it's gone. And in the middle of all the main event awesomeness, which was the greatest retirement anyone had in the US ever (and right there at the top with the rest of the world), here's Scotty Riggs. This was wonderfully random. This was clearly one of those peak AEW events. More to come, I'm gessing.

Copeland is hurt already ? Jeez. I mean, I really like Garcia a lot, so him winning the title is fine with me, but this match is out of nowhere. Plus, sorry to say, Christian's "Your father is dead" gimmick has soooo jumped the shark a while ago for me already. He's a one note Bond villain. Great delivery, but totally empty and campy as fuck. I wish they'd do something actually remotely interesting with it. Nick Wayne is who it should be about, because he's the future. Gotta say this also. Flair's involvement in Sting's retirement has totally ruined the fun for me. I have no doubt the match will be awesome, because Young Bucks + Darby + Sting giving everything he has left, but the angles involving Flair are just so cringe and tone deaf, especially in the current context (hopefully he's gone for good after that point). I'm very much looking forward to the 13th show a whole lot more than I am Sting's retirement. Gimme the Moné/Okada/Ospreay AEW already.

Agreed. Oh well. And so now the scrambled eggs match or whatever is Jericho, Hobbs, Archer, Wardlow (sigh), Hook and Brian Cage. Totally unnecessary, totally random, taking up space and time for nothing. Have Willow & Statlander against Skye and a partner of her choosing. At least there's a program going on. Gotta say too, Christian Cage vs Daniel Garcia is just out of nowhere, and I don't even see the point if Garcia doesn't win the title. They need to trigger him to the next level now. Well, at least it's not Cage vs Copeland II I guess.

There has been a better presence of women wrestlers on the shows, with more angles going on at the same time, but they still can't put Willow & Statlander vs Julia Hart & Skye Blue on the PPV. Since the cringe Meat Whatever match is off (cringe because of the title, not the match itself, although I could live happily forever never seeing another Wardlow match or segment), why not have *this* one on the show instead of another random match ? They better make this stuff evolve when they get Mercedes. All In is gonna be something else.

Yup. Ah, the good ol' times of Elite haterz back then who acted like Omega leaving meant nothing, that he was overrated and never was a factor, that NJPW was doing exactly the same if not better without him. When you look back at it, NJPW peaked in the 10's with Okada vs Tanahashi, the Naito craze and finally Okada vs Omega. As far as the House of Torture, it's the shittiest, most painfully dumb, boring and ineffective shitbag stuff I've watched in pro-wrestling in years. And I watched NWA Samhain.

What a peculiar career this dude had. Two stints in major promotions at their hottest, as an inside-joke named character. And people think meta was invented in 2014.

Okada caught fire after a few months. We're FOUR years into House of Torture. Gedo is just way too set in his ways and/or listening to the wrong people. The feedback from Uemura vs Tsuji hair match has been pretty underwhelming too. Haven't watched it, won't watch it, but apparently Tsuji did not set the world on fire this time around.

Yep. The "Virtuosa" character doesn't translate well as a babyface. And that also plays into her in-ring style. She's all about slowing the pace down and stomping babyfaces around, putting them in submissions, cutting them off and being an agressive bitch about it. And she's so awesome at it. Her having to sell and get sympathy did not really work that well either in TNA after she de-facto turned babyface at the end of her 4 years stint (basically putting people over on her way out). She also has that super condescending body language, including that damn vocal fry on promos, there's just nothing likable about her. Which is even more amazing when you see her in interviews, as she always comes off so lovable and fun, there's just nothing left of her in-ring character at all, that's quite a testament of how good she is. So yeah, amazing heel, but ok babyface only. She probably ain't beating Toni Storm anyway, so here's a way to have her frustrated and switch to straight heel quickly enough.

Not that I'm overly concerned by stuff like this these days, but I gotta say, they made a mistake by debuting Deonna Purrazzo as a babyface. She's a heel. Her game is being insufferable and arrogant and torturing people on the mat, not working from underneath and making comebacks, which she is not nearly as good at (that was obvious during her last 6 months in TNA when she turned babyface). The debut in her hometown was cool, but the Virtuosa is a heel, period. That's why it's not connecting that great thus far. And then, there's the Timeless Toni Storm issue. She's like Goldust (without the homophobic overtones, of course), the gimmick is unique and making her a bigger star, but it's also being limiting in term of match delivery, and it also kinda makes the entire title picture scene gimmicky. It's no wonder she won best gimmick in the WO Awards but also placed high in worst gimmick. Athena is still by a very wide margin the best women worker in the company. Her 2/3 tables match against Nyla Rose last week is the best match from a major company (because ROH is AEW, come on now) no one is talking about. I would rather have her vs Mercedes than any other program involving the regular AEW crew, with all due respect.

Yeah, I know. Can't argue with that. I would be fine for him being away for a while (or even transitioning to color with only occasional in-ring programs). And there's plenty other guys I would rather have working with CMLL guys. But it does not bother me that he of all people does.

Hey, Nick Kiniski was also "proposed" by Terry Garvin, complained about it to Vince, who did not do anything. So yeah, Vince knew everything about the sexual harassement that was going on in his company. That brings you back to the Ashley Massaro rape. They knew too. This company was rotten to the core since day one Vince Jr. took over. Dark Side of the Ring should just do an entire season on Vince and WWE. No idea how that Netflix show about Vince can see the light of day, especially now that Netflix is in business with TKO.

When true and tried nepotism doesn't work, just make shit up.

There's reasons to despise Jericho, out of pro-wrestling reasons mostly. But as far as this, Jericho being a part of the CMLL thingy makes all the sense in the world, more than anyone else in the company really when you think of it, considering he actually went over there to learn lucha when he was young, and his feud with Ultimo Dragon in WAR and his stuff in WCW were very instrumental in pushing lucha (through Japan also) influence in modern pro-wrestling. So yeah, PWO be like "hates everything Jericho" (sometimes to a laughable degree), but there's nothing wrong at all with this. This CMLL working agreement as also been a hundred times better than anything AAA related (and well, CMLL when it's good is a hundred times better than AAA anyway). The main thing to me is Will Ospreay making his debut as an AEW talent. The guy is the greatest in the world right now and one of the greatest ever alongside Omega and Danielson (and they all are working in the same company now, it's mind blowing). And because of the overall mood, I'm not nearly as happy as I should have been. Oh well. I'm still getting Will Ospreay for a few years more. Plus Mercedes soon. Plus probably Okada (also one of the greatest ever, the roster is gonna get completely ridiculous). If it's gotta take as much, might as well be now.