El-P

Grizzled Young Vets debuting at Hard to Kill. Never seen them, but heard nothing but good things, so it seems like a good catch that fits whatever TNA wants to be. I gotta say it's good to have an off period, because it does build anticipation for the return date. I wish there was more of that in pro-wrestling.

So Maika won the title. Not a bad choice, she's really fucking good. I kinda checked out of Stardom this year though. Probably being burned out by too much wrestling. The promotion is fun and easy to follow and watch, and there are tons of talent there but I dunno. Maybe something about the presentation that just won't appeal to me to some degree. I wish I could say I'm not the target audience but the reality is I probably am, which in some respect kinda bothers me I guess. The fact Tam Nakano got hurt kinda hurt my interest too since she basically was, more than anyone else, my real entry point with the promotion, I really got into her defense of the white belt when she was working just under the Utami main events. With Suzu Suzuki they eventually have yet another awesome main event star looming, and honestly she could have won the red belt already. If they lose Giulia it's gonna be tough though, she's head and shoulder above anyone else in term of star power perception. And again, no Stardom presence at WK this year is too bad and seems like two steps back after one step forward.

Jim Breaks, most famous lately for killing his ex-girlfriend. Good riddance, fuck that shit.

The Royal Rumble has overstay its welcome a long, long while ago. Sure, the formula is an institution now, which makes it the N°2 PPV of the year, but it's been completely useless for years now since Mania is so fucking big that there's no 99% of the people involve can win it. Most men's Rumbles have been predictable bores for an eternity. Plus, the fact you've got two Mania main event now and two World titles totally negates the fact there are basically two people this year anyway. You don't win the Mania main event by winning the Rumble ? Well, you'll still get the Mania main event. And for a World title too.

Yeah, two of them. Cody and Punk, basically.

Tye Dillinger as the N°10 in the Rumble. I call it there first. Then gets an agent/backstage job, as to the surprise of absolutely no one he just exited AEW. His most memorable stuff over there was probably carrying Wardlow during the turn angle, with him being really funny as the MJF stooge. He was really good working color on Dark too for the few times he did it. Got two kids now, friends with Cody. Yeah.

Maybe that explains why my neck has been hurting for a while now. I'm certainly not neck strong right now. The CC is showing the way. Keep the lucha-libre, the joshi, the garbage matches, the random people popping up, the absurd gimmicks along the ride and do less and less of the Devil angle and Copelandverse style shit (or twist them in a meta-way to get back some of that early AEW feel if you absolutely have to). Also, AEW really should have some serious security around their lighting system control, because it seems anyone can switch it off...

People not getting that the CC was all about building up Eddie Kingston, the All Japan superfan, to win his own Triple Crown by probably using a Kawada move after finally defeating all three members of BCC building up to his best friend Moxley is just mind-blowing to me. Like, really ? Of all the things to potentially complain about ? Swerve has done nothing but gained from going to the finals after that stint of great matches, has been protected on his way out and is already slotted as a potential future world champ contender (and he obviously should win it sooner than later, now that's where the next trigger has to be pulled). Well, of course if Mox wins and Swerve doesn't get the World Title in the first few months of 2024, then I'll take all that back. But as it is, the CC was masterfully booked and wonderfully executed. Great year end arc for AEW. Yup. I thought for a moment they actually were Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly, but that MJF move they did actually also is a Bennett move I think. Joe at the very least working with the Devil makes sense, as I thought it could have been him himself. Wardlow as a heater is his best role anyway. So yeah, Devil better be Cole & Baker, basically, and the reveal should be at World's End and then move the fuck on. If not, then this is officially Aces & Eights. They should absolutely do the world title earlier on, with a downer result of an injured MJF being cheated out of the title, the Devil reveal and all, and end the PPV with Kingston winning the Triple Crown. They did tease MJF vs Swerve, but to me it was more a case of making Swerve part of the world title picture already. MJF probably needs some time to heal, they already got the ROH tag titles off of him and ended that nonsense. Yeah, transitional heel champ Joe to Swerve would be a good way to go, and you can always do Swerve vs MJF (and also Swerve vs Mox, built on the fact Mox beat him during the CC, that's basic G1 booking) later on when he's back, with Swerve as champ. Having a baby now equals face turn/face spot in pro-wrestling (well, unless you're Cody). Sammy has now turned as much as the Big Show. Callis' paintings never cease to amaze me. Hey, here's Stokely. Talk about a guy who has been totally lost in the shuffle since day one. Skye vs Statlander was quite good. I'm all for more angles and shit for the women. Harley Cameron is a treasure, glad she's still gonna be around. This little romance angle is the best thing Saraya & Ruby have done since showing up, really. That's what I thought too. Well, my first reaction was actually "fuck no, they did not book those Von Erich scrubs again ?", then I saw Bryan Keith and was like, oh ok. The entire angle totally feel like the Copelandverse to me. Totally detached from whatever AEW is. The Codyverse was a lot more fun. Unless Copeland sets himself on fire or something of course. I think I'd rather have Christian Cage vs Jeff Jarrett, really, plus that would get the true original TNA feel. All in all, World's End really has a true feel of capping off the year. Which is nice. Finally getting stuff like Miro & Andrade & Keith Lee vs Swerve is absolutely part of it too, as we finally gonna get those out of the way and move on. First AEW PPV ever without any member of the Elite too, although that obviously wasn't on purpose. And yes, Bryan Danielson. With one eye. The run of a lifetime. So lucky to get it.

Four years ago, I could see it, although he really was never anything special in the ring (no idea if he is better now), because they lacked big beefy guys. Now ? They have plenty already, and really good ones too. The last thing AEW needs is another Wardlow (well, at least Hammerstone was a good promo/vignette guy back then, that's how I remember him the most). I could see him ending up in TNA though.

Continental Classic is all that and more. That's the way. The Christian Cage angle is now totally ass-backward, with the audience booing Shayna Wayne despite her being completely in the right. Awesome promo by Christian despite the idiotic feel of the entire thing. Match is gonna be a clusterfuck, at least try make it an entertaining one after that whimper of a match they had. Is it me of Thunder Rosa got kind of a lukewarm reaction ? Abadon getting a push to a PPV spot after having that terrible match with Shida is certainly a thing. I guess the Witch vs Living Dead Girl thingy, but still. Julia & Skye together can be pretty hot, both are over already. Eddie gotta win that Triple Crown.

The more interesting question is about the overall direction of the company booking wise, as Gedo seems like he's burned the hell out by now. Tanahashi basically saved NJPW with his own approach. Maybe he'll have a vision of what NJPW should be in the future that will demand Gedo to tweek his formula a bit, if not a lot. Or not at all.

Looks like the beginning of a bizarre Xmas porn. No judging.

ROH Women television title : "When in doubt, create a new title". Coach TK.

So WWE has settled with MLW, because that's how US "justice" works, the rich people just pay so the shit goes away and even worse shit don't see the light of day. So now Court Bauer has some spare change to get Matt Riddle to show up. Somewhere, William Corgan is probably jealous of the entire thing.

Taichii vs Kanemaru in a whisky bottle ladder match. Gedo be like "Hey, that Russo fellow had good ideas". Yeah, well, Okada at Mania, why not after all.

If the latest rumors (RUMORS of her wanting more moné than Charlotte got in her new WWE deal) are kinda true, there's no way Mercedes ends up in TNA. So, better just get that out of my mind already, so to not get disappointed when it does not happen. Expectations are a bitch anyway, better to have none, in general.

Some merger fuckery, most probably. That's the WCW fan side of Coach TK, I guess. BTW, as much as some signs are stupid or annoying, the "I'd rather be at Nitro" sign got a good chuckle out of me. Ok, that is funny.

Excellent episode. CC is just a bunch of bangers, and thus far it's been well booked, despite no use of upsets nor draws, but then again, you don't need to exactly copy the G1 formula from the very first year. Swerve should win the world title next year, not the Triple Crown. Therefore he can go to the semis then not advance without losing, which is a smart trick. He got himself more over thanks to the Hangman feud and the CC, now the direction is very obviously pointing at MJF (I would have loved for Joe to win, but it seems less likely now). Triple Crown actually should probably be Eddie Kingston, for many many reasons, although if he doesn't win it there, he has to win it from whomever wins it there, so that's the direction I would go, focusing around Eddie either defending or chasing it. Saraya's game is all trash talking, and she's really fun at it, which is why she's better as an outside the ring performer. Riho should have gotten the push Shida got, really. The Devil's storyline better find its end at the PPV, because it's getting nearly Aces & Eights level of repetitive and going nowhere now. Hopefully it's one of the few character that would make sense and not some "gotcha" nonsensical reveal. It's not over 'til its over, but the ending is gonna paint the picture of whether this was well thought out after all or totally ill-advised. Jury's still out. Komander should really get some wins now. It's long overdue. They really should not typecast him as the great spectacular luchador who loses all the time until he doesn't get those awesome reactions. Maybe a trios title for starters alongside Penta and Fénix when he comes back. Hopefully Kenny and CJ get better. Scary how both situations could have gone really, really bad quickly.

This. The CC has been the saving grace of the company for me lately. It makes everyone involved that much better and interesting, just by having pro-wrestling matches against each other (crazy concept too). The round robin formula allows for diverse stories to be told both within each matches but also through the arcs of each participants and the different dynamics they have against each others, and unless you're a complete dumbfuck of a booker it's not hard to make it really good, especially when the talent is there. It has totally surpassed any expectations I had, really. And it's funny how Danielson really is having his own G1, and it's much better than if he had been involved in this year's G1 too (apart from a few possible matches like Takagi, Ishii and Ospreay, and the latest must happen next year, there's no way around it).

"I just hope both wrestlers have fun" sign. Yeah, you know, that whole "wholesome" thingy has gone too far now.

Tell me you don't watch TNA without telling me you don't watch TNA. You mean Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Alan Angels, Eddie Edwards, Josh Alexander, Moose, Black Taurus, PCO, Crazzy Steve, Deaner, Deonna Purrazzo (probably not anymore though sadge), Frankie Kazarian, Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans, Jake Something, Jody Threat, Killer Kelly, Masha Slamovish, Joe Hendry, Jordynne Grace, Jonathan Gresham, the Rascalz, Tasha Steelz, Rosemary, Dani Luna, Kylinn King or even Eric Young who despite a few years in NXT, is clearly identified as a TNA guy 4 Life or Steve Maclin whom by now has pretty much build his identity in TNA ? is KUSHIDA a former-WWE guy or a former NJPW guy ? Even guys like Rhino and Bully Ray have has long a connection with TNA as they do with WWE. So yes, you've got Trinity, Brian Myers (who's been in IMACT for a few years now though), Dirty Dango, Kon, Santino if you count the authority figure... that's about it. This hasn't been this TNA for a good decade now. No one thinks of it that way anymore. She absolutely would be. Mercedes is a big time star. She's a much bigger star that the Steiner, Booker or Christian type ever where too when they got them too, especially in the current landscape. Ad yes, I do agree I thought she was WWE bound once the AEW discussion dropped (I'd love to know the reasons why). I still would be shocked if it's her. But then again : Unless it's a big time foreigner name, and there aren't that many (who really ?), I can't think of anyone either. It would be a TK-big-announcement-moment if that was Ziggler, it would be a TK-hires-Ric-Flair moment if that was Riddle, so no and no. No one from the recent WWE cut fit the bill. Although I do think someone like Tenille Dashwood is gonna be back with them, and that they'll get some of the guys, but that won't be the big surprise, obviously. Maybe it's gonna end up being a really surprising surprise, not a surprise-that-everyone-knows-what-it-is...

Okada already is announced at the tapings. They already "got" him. Mercedes absolutely fits the bill. She's a former Mania main eventer, you don't get much bigger than this for TNA. And the Trinity connection is there. Now that the AEW discussions fell through, it only make sense rumors would go in that direction. They apparently made a serious offer to Ospreay, they absolutely could make the same for Mercedes. Of course Coach TK has taught people to not believe the hype anymore over the last few years, so hopefully D'Amore has learned this lesson of not taking the risk of overhyping.

Yup. It's hard in a company where Danielson had *that* year, but she's clearly one of the best worker in the company period and she has been awesome at every turn, anchoring this ROH thingy in promos, angles, squashes and epic matches. Of course Billie has been terrific too and Lexy Nair has to be included in why their long-term angle has been my favorite in AEW pro-wrestling this year. Which makes it even more baffling why it had to happen on the ROH shows and not on Dynamite/Collision.

I would legit be shocked if that was Mercedes, honestly. But I would love it. Well, there's always the threat of Dolph Ziggler looming, ya know... Or even (way) worse, Riddle. Now, that would be vintage TNA.

Whoever decided it was smart to have the hard cam facing the giant ramp during that ROH show... That's one thing I never got about japanese shows over the last 20 years (was that AJPW which started doing it in the early 00's ?) and I still don't get. Why show a fucking empty space instead of your audience ? It's no big deal in smaller companies when you actually see the audience on both sides, as the ramp and screen are a lot smaller, but this looks just awkward and... empty. It was so obvious they tried to correct it during the main event. Komander is never winning a match that matters, ever. He's typecasted as a spectacular jobber already. And Billie should have defeated Athena. Terrific matches, both (I mean the Komander vs Fletcher part of it), but bad booking decisions. Athena should be done with ROH now and be on the actual TV show. Her losing the title is just gonna be a moment of "it was time" instead of being a climatic end. Agreed. I guess this is a typical case of real life events making it seems much more special as a match than it was. Thought the show was too long. The Nyla Rose squash (really ?) and the Eddie match were waste of time (not to mention the fact Eddie is having a "proving ground" match for a title he DOESN'T OWN ANYMORE, so dumb). And ROH doesn't feel like a different kind of show at all. It's just an AEW show that is neither on TV nor on Youtube with a different logo, in half-empty looking AEW-booked venues. I just didn't feel this show, despite the really good in-ring matches. Then again, maybe I'm just totally burned out. Not even watched Collision yet. Thunder Rosa is finally back I heard. Good for her.