El-P

...in 2020. If only shitty clickbaiting sites report something, it's because it's shitty clickbaiting.

The Young Bucks showing up to challenge Sting & Darby for the final match saved the "Homecoming" feel that was absent until then. No one will give Sting a better final match than the Bucks. Add in Darby in there, and you got the best possible match, really, and one that feels like AEW too. The card was fun, though, although the 8 men was random as fuck. Why was the Dark Order not involved, really puzzling. If Brodie Lee made anyone during his stay, it's the Dark Order, and especially John Silver. Anna Jay on the other hand was the right choice to be featured. Thunder Rosa seems to get her groove back, which is nice after such a long absence and painfull injury. Skye Blue is really my favorite to watch and grow. She's the real keeper here, it's been so fun to watch her show up at Daily's place as a jobber on Dark and see her evolve and get better and better. As far as Moné goes, who knows. Plus really it would not be smart to overshadow Deonna's debut. Still, who knows. Ricky and Sammy together was kinda interesting because both really have been kinda cursed with injuries, face/heel turns back and forth and outside shit they are not responsible of (CM Punk being CM Punk, idiotic people getting angry at a guy they don't know hooking up with a woman they don't know either). It's funny because Ricky is so much better than Sammy on the mic and Sammy is so much better in the ring. They should tag-team. Perfect match. Yeah, that was kinda funny, as it's obvious no one is gonna boo Judas, plus it doesn't matter since you would not hear it anyway. Still, if this crowd would have booed Jericho, they're the biggest hypocrites considering how they reacted to Flair, who actually has been publicly accused of sexual assault. I gotta say, Flair being there really ruins the mood for me, and the hypocrisy of the crowd makes it even worse. Just get this decrepit fucker out of my sight already. One issue with calling them Undisputed Anything is that it really is a reminder of "Hey, remember this kinda faction was over there in NXT, back when we kicked their ass". Jury's out, I hope Roderick doesn't get lost in the shuffle and lose the overness he had thanks to the Adaaaaaam thingy. The Kingdom are a really good tag team anyway, they'll always be fine, although never better than when Maria is alongside (whole > sum of the parts). But yeah, dunno how I feel about this unit. Can he please do that ? Darby, Hobbs and Sting all trying to die was kinda compelling. Maybe Flair should try his hand at it. Like I said, the Bucks kinda saved the mood at the end. Daily's Place reminds me how important AEW has been during 2020/2021 for me. The good old da.... aww, shit. But yeah. I wanted some Moné, I got me some Flair. Yuck. I miss the TNA tunnels. Hangman vs Claudio was terrific. Joe as champ is terrific. Swerve/Joe/Hangman in the title picture is great and fresh. That's for the really good stuff.

See. I did not use the accent. How fucking smart am I (not to mention it would be natural for me to do so) ?

Well, that's for sure. Wasn't too challenging either.

He's playing the algorithm game, people.

Matt Striker saying dumb shit about Matt Riddle just to be a edgelord heel is so Matt Striker. I watched a littlebit here and there of the latest stuff. MLW is just an odd-ass promotion. They have some cool partnership with CMLL and NJPW, they are doing some kinda ironic take on old-school 80's wrestling with the WTF stable, they have Salina who is still tons of fun, they do lots of garbage stuff and comedy. Some good talent and some very subpar talent too. It feels they kinda are what the NWA tries to be. Well, I'm sure Corgan would want Matt Striker after this one anyway.

Not only that, but I feel now that there's no way "one of the biggest signing in TNA history" can possibly live up to the hype considering who's on the market, once it's clearly established it's not Moné. Losing both Deonna and Trinity (after the first session of tapings most likely) doesn't help. Also, where are Killer Kelly and Masha ? They are not listed on the PPV yet. Out of sight out of mind, I guess. Still interested in what will come out of this, but yeah, the hype has kinda died down.

Jinder replying "Who the fuck is HOOK ?" is fair game. Especially considering he can always hope for a spot on ROH when he get cuts next time TKO decides their bottom line is not good enough (seriously, who even thought the guy was still employed ?). Hell, this might get him over with the WWE crowd for the first time ever. He'll still be Jinder, mind you, but better than what he ever was at his "peak" (token Indian Guy pushed out of nowhere for the India market, well not really since Triple H beat him before he could even make it there anyway, then vanished for ever). And then there are just plain brainwashed dumbfucks with cult-like attitude like this. Yeah, sure, tell the boss of the second biggest pro-wrestling company in the world to STFU just because you feel like a soldier fighting the good fight or something. The guy sure hopes he's under WWE contract for ever, because if not, then he can always shoot for TNA, MLW or a William Corgan's big ass contract.

I was clearly way into CM Punk fatigue last Summer already, but there's nothing I read (and the few Youtube clips I watched at first) about his WWE comeback that makes me think I'm missing something.

This is so cool !

YES ! So, is Tama actually leaving ? He's 41, it's basically now or never if he wants to taste some of that 'murica money.

Now that's some old-school carny shit.

This. The amount of hypocrisy and overreaction about everything AEW has always been completely ridiculous. I'm out of the loop, so I was not even aware that there was some "Twitter outrage" about Hook getting a title shot. Which is, indeed, completely ridiculous and even more in the wake of Jinder fucking Mahal getting in the title picture from outta nowhere (apart from getting owned by the Rock last week in an "angle" reeking of 30 years ago when "fuck yeah 'murica" was in vogue. Wait... MAGA this MAGA that, ok, maybe not that passé after all). But anywoo. I have my (large) shares of criticism for Coach TK, but him staying a DVDVR shitposter at heart certainly ain't one of them. And the fake concern for the business aspect of it from people who never ever cared about AEW anyway is comical at best. Yeah, that's not "responsible", probably. What is responsible is striking big money deals with the Saudis, for instance. Speaking of hypocrisy though, the same people booing Jericho's name on Collision yet popped for Flair early on, jeeez. Maybe that fly attendant should have posted an emoticon under a Dark SIde Tweet or something.

Or even better. At Korakuen Hall.

It took me about 5 seconds to find that information on the video itself. And that's true. And that also doesn't mean anything in term of where it was actually taped. Even if there was no way to know where it was taped, just making shit up about it happening in a rural village is just giving fake informations based on nothing but a random, unsourced youtube video description.

Oh yeah. Clichy. That famous rural village. Holy fuck. When you don't know, just don't make shit up. Just don't make shit up in general.

Missing the point, again. I did not cited these kind of matches as an exemple of the decay of French wrestling.

I never got the Ellering thing. He was last relevant sometime in 1988 or something. He never brought anything to anyone since then the few times he popped back on TV (the closest was in 1992 when he reunited with LOD for the first time, then the fucking puppet happened). The AOP were the dullest shit ever during their NXT stint. I dunno. I guess it's fitting that Karrion Kross would be part of that unit. Too bad they did not sign Wardlow away from AEW though, he would be right at home. One thing is for sure though, that show in England really won't happen now. A promising promoting career cut short. C+ ? That's generous. Also, Lemmy would not be proud, Trip, he would not.

I did not do that. I never even mentioned swimming pool matches, ever. The one thing I did was say I saw a Flesh Gordon match once in a harbor during a festival in 1990, and the ring was floating on the water. You must have misremembered, as they say...

Tell me about it. Taichi not getting a main event push with the arc he went through in the last few years, ditching the chickenshit heel to gain the respect of his fellow wrestlers and from the audience and legit becoming a terrific Kawada-like worker, is completely ridiculous, and even moreso when SANADA is put in the spot. The Just 5 guys name is a stroke of ironic genius I guess. Here's telling that SANADA, the guy with the least amount of charisma of maybe the entire roster this side of YOSHI-HASHI, is effectively Just A Guy. Even his fucking music theme sounds generic. And why hasn't anyone told TAKA that "You Already Die" doesn't actually mean anything and sounds dumb as fuck ? I know this is the country that gave us the awesome franponais, but when you try to sell your product to an English speaking language too, maybe don't do stupid sounding shit like this.

And now Kamille, of NWA "fame", is expected to join. Ya know, Jade Cargill has not even debuted yet and there's gonna be a brand new toy with more experience (although I never was overly impressed by her in-ring stuff, but it's been a while) and kinda the same appeal in term of "character". EDIT : Oh, it's an NXT deal apparently. So there.

Not to mention he's working a GCW show next week.

Damn... Sucks for Stardom.

Nothing was close to the 1-2 punch of last year's WK, but overall the show flowed much better to me. With the exception of the House of Torture match. The fact this is still going on is mind boggling to me. If there's one thing to get rid off immediately, it's this shit. Also, the tag match was quite underwhelming and pretty much a nothing match. Kinda like last year BTW, so I dunno what that tells about Bishamon (although the booking is doing them no favors with completely rushed afterthought of a match in less than ten minutes). Overall I thought it was a very fun WK show, really. The real issue is when you look at the overall picture and who's in it. Tama Tonga. Who is mighty fine but nothing *special* (nothing against he guy, and he really is peaking as a single's babyface now, has been since the G1 in 2021 basically). Dave Finlay. Who is mighty fine but nothing special either and therefore way overpushed right now in a Jeff Jarrett in WCW way. Yuta Tsuji losing on the undercard when he basically should be the IWGP champ already. Shota Umino is a "generational" feud with Ren "House of Torture scrub #12" Narita instead of feuding with the bigger stars of the previous generations. The over-reliance of old gimmicks who have now way overstayed their welcome like the Bullet Club. And yeah, I like the War Dogs, all are really good workers. But the Bullet Club thingy was super hot during the AJ Styles/Kenny Omega days. It's a long time ago now. Just plucking whoever's left in that spot is not making them AJ Styles, Omega or Jay White (who was never as hot as the previous two, but who was/is an exceptional worker nonetheless). Tanahashi should really shake up some things here, that is if he's got the power to do so, which is not a given. So Matt Riddle has challenged Tanahashi. A few years back, this would have sounded exciting. Today ? Not so much. I mean, on a purely "pro-wrestling" level, I guess it still is, although I haven't seen a Matt Riddle match since, I dunno, since some GCW show on a Mania week-end years ago probably. But yeah, Matt Riddle. That being said, if Battle in the Valley looks like this : Ospreay vs Okada Mox vs Takagi in a no DQ match Danielson vs ZSJ part II Holy hell. That's basically Forbidden Doors III level shit.

In less than a calendar year, AEW has signed three of my very favorite pro-wrestlers of the last 5 years in Jay White, Will Ospreay and now Deonna Purrazzo. That's quite something.