El-P

It would be ridiculous. Okada (following Tana's momentum) got NJPW his best era since the 90's. Gedo is to blame for becoming a shitty booker, not building up the next generation fast enough, putting all his eggs on foreigners whom, in a global context, would be grabbed up by WWE, then AEW too, pushing scrubs like EVIL and SANADA to main event spots and so on. And yeah, not having his boy do jobs on the ay out. Because that part is indeed pretty fucking funny, don't get me wrong. "Hey, bye NJPW, I'll never come back". The truth is that NJPW has been cold for awhile now. Okada did not change anything to this fact. But Okada workin' Jumbo style against the Young Generation would have been awesome. The issue with this is, it was a fantasy. Nothing indicates that's where it was gonna go, considering Gedo's shithead booking of this last year. Kinda feel bad for Naito. Not only he is getting a lame-ass reign with rematch with SANADA and fucking SHO next, but the pressure is basically now on him alone, and he's way past his physical prime. David Finlay is a fine higher mid-card wrestler. He's not AJ Styles, nor Omega, nor Jay White, nor Ospreay, by any metrics (and yeah, the comparison is just ridiculously unfair, but there it is). ZSJ should probably be given a reign as IWGP champ. If anything, it would be glorious to see, even though I'm not sure he would get over at that level like Ospreay was.

They settled with MLW. Doubt Bauer can just cash out. Plus, the guy re-started his promotion after 15 years, he's a lifer or something. I mean, if the money is well spent, good for them.

Court Bauer : 20M William Corgan : ZERO (see what I did ?)

Dunno where TNA is going, but at the very least, No Surrender had a killer main event in Chris Sabin vs Mustafa Ali. And Alex Shelley vs Moose was also terrific in a very different way. Overall, the show was quite good (despite a single Kon match, what the fuck were they thinking ?), but those two matches really gave it a big time feel. ABC vs Grizzled Young Vets was also pretty damn good, with a terrific ending stretch.

I did not even realize before Meltz mentioned it that it means it's Naito vs fucking SHO at the 52 Anniversary show. Instead of Naito vs Despy, which actually was quite compelling and would probably been at worst excellent. Instead, fucking SHO from House of Torture. What a pathetic main event. Poor Naito. This guy can never get a decent title run.

It is. But for Court Bauer though. Jeez, Billy Corgan must be so jealous.

So WWE settled with MLW for 20 millions dollars. How scared of what could come public must you be to give ML fucking W twenty millions dollars...

The original old man yelling at clouds. These days, really a venial sin. Salty as fuck, overrated booker, kinda boring in a good way, awesome promo. Hated both Vince and Flair, so that's that.

It is. And it's also one of the few things that gets me legit joy out of watching pro-wrestling these days. Danielson's happiness is so obvious and contagious too. This is everything great about pro-wrestling as a craft.

Both Haku and The Barbarian did sumo too. As a sumo fan, I always loved workers with a sumo background. This seems to be more a thing of the past though. Not so many, if any at all, are making that transition these days. And hell, Hakuho, the GOAT, got fucking demoted as a coach because he did not report one of his students (the awful Hokuseiho) abusing young boys with slaps and wooden stick shots. Yeah, sumo is a wonderful tradition too. Oh well, at least I won't be suffering though Hokuseiho's borefest fights anymore since he retired, as they say. How long before this fellow ends up in wrestling ? I mean, he's tall as fuck for a Japanese (like almost seven feet). He could be the next Kitao or something (yeah, that's sarcasm). Considering all that is happening lately, this season of Dark Side is gonna look extra tame. Still gonna watch it because they mostly do a good job, but, oh well.

....................... Well, I did use Amazon super regularly for almost 15 years, and that was one hell of a mistake and I sure would not do it again if I could go back, because it's another kind of spectacular shit show. WWE ? Nope. That's not me. I certainly have been questioning myself on my choice of "lifetime" hobby lately, that's for sure. At the very least on how to approach it.

'member when people actually justified Rock vs Roman happening on *that* show. It's gonna happen for the "benefit" of the Saudis. Circle of infamy will be complete then.

When you spent your life supporting a godawful company that is build on abuse and predation, you've wasted it. And yeah, the obsessive nature of it is way more on the creepy side than the wholesome side. John Cena and Randy Orton just made public statements that are completely pathetic and devoid of any empathy nor compassion. These are two of the biggest stars in the company (and therefore the entire business) in the last 20 years. So there. Guilty by way of silence. The smell of the Mania audience is gonna be something. Especially the first rows. Super rich people spending their money supporting a godawful company, STILL. Fuck all of this, again and again and again.

It was even worse in execution than it looked reading the results. NJPW content peaked with the opener, which was ZSJ vs Nagata. Best match of the night was Shirakawa vs Iwatani. Both House of Torture title matches was the usual awful boring repetitive bullshit, the Jr. title match being extra-specially awful even for a shit finish. This stuff was terrible four years ago. Matt "Lawsuit was settled" Riddle seems to be an excellent worker still. But whatever. Gross anyway. Nick Nemeth struck me as one of these "Hey, he's really excellent. By 10's WWE standards" guys, kinda like Cardona before he actually became fun as the King of the Indies. Nowhere near what you'd expect from a NJPW main event worker. Finlay, who's not an elite worker by any means (he's really good though), looked ten times better than he did. At this point I don't even see what AEW is getting with Forbidden Door, unless they give Naito, who's way past his prime, a big dream single match and get Takagi, Taichi and ZSJ (Ishii is popping up on random AEW TV shows, so he's nothing special in that context). No wonder Okada and Ospreay are leaving. Gedo and his idiotic US-like booking fetish is completely washed up. This company badly needs a structural change.

Imagine being Vladimir . "WWE is my life". Well, you totally wasted it then.

Glad that Meltzer underlined the fact that neither John Cena (who talked like a bumbling fool) nor Randy Orton (who talked like the privilege fuck that he is) had any words of compassions for the victim(s). None whatsoever. That's how it is. That's who these people are.

Who the fuck is paying 2 grand to watch a pro-wrestling show. Hell, who the fuck is paying 2 grand to watch anything ? These clowns like "referee douchebag" I see at AEW shows are just so fucking rich they can afford hundreds or even thousands of dollars to attend a pro-wrestling show ? Last time I spend 2 grand I spent one entire month in Berlin, travel included (and not even on low-cost mind you). This world just makes no sense whatsoever. I thought about going to All In last year, but if I'm travelling, I ain't watching a show from the rafters through some shitty-ass big screen. Then I saw the prices and went "Nope". Paid 20 euros on Fite instead. And this year, if I even bother to watch it considering right now I'm numb to everything (takes Danielson vs ZSJ for me to care a little bit), it'll be through Very Legal Means, so even fucking better. Anywoo, this is neither here nor there really. I echo the last sentence, for all intent and purposes.

Not that I could give less than a flying fuck at this moment really, but SHO also beat Despy for the IWGP Jr. title. So basically, you got two House of Torture champs. One beating the awesome Despy, the other beating New New Muskeeters Shota Umino (when is that guy showing up in AEW anyway, can't get booked any worse than this). You've got an entire year of overpushing David Finlay like he's Jeff Jarrett in WCW in 2000 so he gets beat by Nick Nemeth. You've got Matt Riddle (gross) winning another one of the hundreds title they got there. Sure hope the door is kept forbidden for that mofo. Hey, another SANADA snoozefest main event tomorrow. If I'm Coach TK, I'm working in getting a relationship with NOAH or something, because NJPW is turning into a joke. This has such early 00's feel of a company going off the rails.

Case in point. Don't misquote me either. By pro-wrestling community, I mean not only *us* fans, but people in the industry as well, and people who used to be in the industry. All in regard to the current situation. It's a shit show of pathetic misplaced priorities, bullshit relativism and the likes. In that context, what Paul Roma says deserves a whole lot better than "Hey, I thought he was one of the better horsemen / lulz, no". But whatever. Case in point. Gotta say this also. The very notion of "kayfabe" has been questioned just a little bit on Meltzer's show lately as definitely an element that allowed all of this to happen. "Protect the business" was also (moreso ?) a way to justify the unjustifiable (crimes of all sorts, really). All the kayfabe simps out there, who still romanticize this era of pro-wrestling have a lot of inner questioning to do. And although "kayfabe" has been dead a long time ago, and pro-wrestling was *always* known to be fake, you can see how it was still working as a system on the inner sides of the business, as demonstrated by the episode of Terri Runnels being told by good ole Dustin to "no-sell" the fact she had just been sexually assaulted by Brock Lesnar ("but he only showed her his dick, lulz, it's not a sexual assault"). That's well into the 00'. "Kayfabe brotha" has also played a role in silencing the victims, and it is still working today. Anywoo. Gotta go watch Dynamite. With Ric Flair in it. Well, can always watch NJPW. With Matt Riddle winning a title. Ok, whatever, let's watch some indies. Hey, we know who that is, TAFKA Velveteen Dream. Everythin' fine. It's Mania season. Next, maybe Rock can go to do some sportwashing for the Saudis too, while Papa Trip can keep on the "see no evil, hear no evil" routine at press conferences and John Cena can be a bumbling idiot. Business is doing great. Gotta protect it. Kayfabe brutha.

And oh BTW, maybe it's time to reevaluate Pat Patterson's dealings with the workers too. Because for years, it had to be only Terry Garvin and Mel Philips assaulting ring boys, Pat could not have been a bad guy, come on, he was such a great worker and he's a wrestling genius and invented the Royal Rumble, he was only a scapegoat for a while. Good ol' Pat Patterson. Pat Patterson was *at worst* the number 3 guy in the company. Most probably #2 behind Vince. Imagine the power dynamics at plays. It's been around for years too. But since it's Pat, nah, could not be. Sure. As far as the other case that would be "even worse" than Janel Grant's story, that's coming from Mario Mancini, who is the guy who recently supported Rita Chatterton's claim. So there. 40 years.

John Cena's statement is fucking pathetic. I find the pro-wrestling community at large to be fucking pathetic, with very few exceptions. This is a system of abuse. That's exactly what Paul Roma is describing. Vince bought the company in 1982. One year later, he was covering up Jimmy Snuka's killing his girlfriend "for the good of the company". Then the rapes, sexual harassment, exploitations in various forms, up until more rapes and sex trafficking of Janel Grant. That's what the legacy of WWE is. 40 years of a system of predation and abuse for the benefit and wealth of Vince McMahon and his ilk. Shutting down and humiliating a rape victim "for the good of the company". Stephany was part of it. Really think Paul Levesque wasn't ? And if he wasn't, that he wasn't aware ? Give me a fucking break. And the TKO higher ups, they brought Vince back in power knowingly why he had been gone, because that was the deal. Oh, but everything's fine now, Vince is gone. #WeWantCody. Rock is back, and he's gonna produce a biopic on Ric Flair (great, here he is again on AEW TV too). I'm sure this is gonna be fair to Flair. To the woman he sexually harassed on a plane ride "from hell", probably less so. Jim Valley is the only guy who did set the record straight this last few weeks, with his damaged vocal chords and broken voice. People need to set their priorities right. If not, you're part of the problem. And considering how things are going, yes, pro-wrestling fans are definitely part of the problem. Hopefully all of what is happening now gives the victims the support and strength they need to speak up. Everything needs to be taken down if you want to hope for something better. If not, then you're building on a rotten foundation, with rotten building blocks.

And people wonder why she "apologized" later. Imagine the power dynamics at play, to make this woman who has been raped and left behind and intimidated by executives of the company to actually *apologize* to them for making the company look bad. Also, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque is just as big a piece of trash as the others. And who exactly were the other executives in the room that day. And who is the one who picked up her limp body from the place she was raped ? That's another insane part of this story. And of course, what about the military rapist ? All of this certainly did not stop WWE from going back to "support the troops". What a shit show. But hey, Mania 40 is gonna be the biggest ever, right ? Well, it's been built by these people. It's their legacy. *vomit*

I actually thought about that since the news was "He got an office job in AEW" but not "He's leaving NJPW". Romero has a fascinating career arc. But really Rocky. You know what I want, what I really really want. Since he's also working in MLW. Get Salina de la Renta in AEW. A luchador invasion led by Salina would be so perfect.

That's not a totally accurate view of what is actually happening though. If AEW did not exist, WWE would have gotten White, Ospreay and Okada. They wanted all of them. TK did get them, and that's a feather in his cap. Meanwhile, WWE is getting Giulia, and has gotten Kairi Sane back. The reality is that since the business has become more global, and has since WWE decided in the mid 10's that NJPW was their rival, it's much easier for both foreign and native talent to get bigger contracts in US promotions now. It really started when Nakamura left (and KENTA before him, but he really was nothing comparable in term of star power). And it probably won't get any better. Add in that the joshi puroresu scene will most probably be hurt by Stardom spitting into two rival companies. So yeah. Tough times coming ahead. Romero has been very instrumental in getting the Forbidden Door opened, as he has probably in AEW working alongside CMLL (dunno how Konnan feels about that one), he's certainly an excellent catch in term of office people.

Prichard has *nothing* to say because there's a lawsuit going on. When even Seth Rollins is giving a less corporate bullshit answer (ya know, saying about how disgusting the entire ordeal is), you know how deep in the mud you must be. The fact that on this week's episode of the podcast they revisit Survivor Series 93 all of shows, you know, the one Jerry Lawler could not attend because he was accused of raping underage girls, is amazingly and sadly ironic. The smell of their audience right now...