El-P

*yawn* Apart from the super grim Adams story, and the Sandman episode which probably be a nice little funny one without much to it (unless they dug up some real bad stuff), this is all very safe, not very intriguing topics at all for the series. I guess the Plane Ride From Hell episode scared everyone, and they don't wan't anything like that anymore.

This is what I was thinking about. Samoa Joe, world champ, is the gift that I never expected to happen anymore. I fully was behind transitioning to Swerve pretty quickly. The thing is, if I'm real, Joe is better by every metrics. I still think Swerve should be the champ at one point if he maintain the overness, but Joe should keep the belt longer. Fuck, now I'm envisioning Joe vs Ospreay. DAMN. PLEASE.

I know. This chant ain't going away anytime soon, ain't it ? To me, since it's mostly guys chanting it (you can hear it), it kinda comes off like some Fight Club masculinist/incels fantasy.

The "meat" chant was funny as a novelty the first time around. It has officially overstayed its welcome already.

I have no idea how Nakamura looks right now in WWE. But I watched that Great Muta in NOAH match last year. Entrances were awesome. But as soon as the match started, holly fuck. Nakamura looked washed up behind beliefs. I guess that's me not haven't seen him since about 2017 (hose underwhelming matches with AJ Styles, of all people, is the last thing I saw of him apart from the Rumble matches), but still. It was one of the biggest match of his career, so the guy clearly was not unmotivated. But damn, he looked thrashed. And that's standing next to Mutoh.

He could have had the Jumbo role for a while, working against the new generations. But apparently Gedo thought Tsuji had to lose every major match this year and Ren Narita was a House of Torture scrub, so there was quite a time before they were Okada-ready. Well, you certainly sold me on the idea that well, PLEASE GO TO AEW OKADA-SAN, WWE IS A BAD FUCKING IDEA ! And I mean, the guy went through TNA, so he probably is very aware of everything. Also, there's the point about moving to the US. It's not something everyone wants to do, no matter the money. Especially when you have a family, a wife with a very successful career in Japan too. It's more than just "Mania Moments, playing golf with Nak, booking", basically wrestling bubble stuff.

NJPW is so fucked. They lose Ospreay and Okada at the same time. Hope people enjoy those SANADA and Dave Finlay bangers. The good thing is that Gedo has no choice at all now, it's a kick in the ass. So maybe in the long haul, it'll end up being a positive (like, say, Tenryu leaving All Japan, although not comparable of course, very different context). Tanahashi has one hell of a plate in front of him. I agree Okada in WWE is more intriguing at this point (yup, I of all people am saying this), plus he really has not touched that at all, whereas pretty much all the top people in AEW are guys he already had his best stuff with anyway (Omega, Ospreay, White, Danielson). Of course, selfishly, I'd rather have Okada in AEW, but in the grand scheme of things, him going to WWE would be quite the mind-blow, and under Lesveque, who know. Between this and Giuilia most probably leaving Stardom, that's quite the terrible beginning of the year for Bushiroad.

Yep. So happy that Drake is getting showcased. Main event was great at times, but went for fucking ever, which has been a recurring issue on Collision since the beginning. Watching Deonna on the AEW stage made me happy, not gonna lie, and Red Velvet has indeed looked terrific since her comeback.

And he's been feuding the CM Punk. Oh, the irony.

That all well and good, but this is a company that declared John Cena old when he was 40. Cody also was in WWE for ten years before he came back. And no, I don't believe anyone watching WWE today thought Cody was "a new superstar" coming in out of nowhere. He either was Cody from the old days, or Cody Rhodes from AEW, and mostly the later, hence why he got so over. Of course TV age is more important, and hell maybe they'll make him the new face of the company for the next 5 years or so, who knows. Wait, didn't Cody said he was retiring at 40 or something a few years back ?

The actual irony of the thing is that I actually totally agree with you about the fact Nick Nemeth is a perfect signing for TNA, once they got rid of "one of the biggest signee we ever did" hype. That being said, thinking he's not gonna put Moose over is totally in contradiction with how they've been operating for years now. That being said, maybe Nemeth has the biggest profile of anyone else coming from WWE (although his world title stint was years ago, right, back when everybody and their mothers got a WWE title, including Jake Hager and shit), so that's a slight difference there. Still, if you look at how their booking works and has worked for years, the first thing that comes to mind is that Nemeth is putting over Moose. I would be surprised if Nemeth did not became TNA champ eventually if he's there for a while, and I don't see anything wrong with that either. As a regular viewer since 2019, like I said this show was like "another good IMPACT years PPV show", but nothing that different or special either, so I can totally see why that show was not really an incentive. The best way to watch TNA to me at this point is binge watch two or three months at a time using their Youtube channel, that way you get several bigger shows at once, plus the shows are an easy watch. Yup. And not everyone wants to be in a huge corporate machine either. I for one would be a lot more happy in a smaller company with actual human rapports. AJ Styles did not really "bet on himself" (I fucking can't stand that new empty cliché saying everyone is using now BTW, it's even worse then "finishing the story" !). Dixie fucked up with the contract negociations. Those were the days.

Short term, for sure. They have an easy plate. I was more thinking about long-term, after the Roman Reigns reign is over, like the next 10 years of so. BTW I just realized why bubba @KawadaSmile doesn't want Roman to lose the title anytime soon. It's because obviously, the day he does, it's probably the beginning of the end for him in term of being the face of the company. I'm guessing he got some Hollywood envy, which is why the Rock match is also meaningful. So yeah, I feel ya bubba. Enjoy every bit of it while it lasts !

At this point it's kinda like Taker's streak. It wasn't supposed to be that long, and it's on the verge of overstaying its welcome I guess. I mean, whoever wins the title from him, does he really get that legendary rub for ending such a long-ass title reign, or will it rather end up being a case of "Well, this was time" ? And how do they build the following years after they had such a successful run under such a patterned booking ? Not to mention the two things that turned the company were the Bloodline storyline getting hot thanks to Sami Zayn and Cody jumping from AEW. One of those is done. It's crazy when you think of it how one year ago he was the hottest guy in the business, and what could have been. So, once Cody gets the belt (arguably), how do they go with that ? Their business model has been "push John Cena forever" then "push Roman Reigns forever" for the last, say, 15 years. Then can't do that with Cody, who's the same age as Roman. He is just gonna be a transitional champ toward the next chosen one, whoever that is, or since Vince is out, will Lesveque have a different approach ? Also, Jade Cargill is debuting at the Rumble, right ? I mean, this was always the easiest way to make her look like a big deal. Then again, does she win (in which case, does she enters late) ? Does she get eliminated by a big star to set-up a big match in the middle of the thing ?

Pro-wrestling and hip-hop, kinda. Anyway, that was quite unusual.

Well, no, I actually meant a bunch of people. Well, not that astounding, really. Did I just kinda made fun of myself by tripping over my own feet ? Yep. Shit happens when you write as you'd talk, as the thoughts go along. It doesn't bother me at all. I'm like, whoopsie, just contradicted myself from what I was saying two sentences ago. But then again, did I say "Her work is so and so and that's the way it is" ? Nope. I just mentioned what her rep was. And in the end, I just don't know because I just haven't seen her in eons. That's quite different from people who most probably don't watch the product and still gives their evaluation of what it is about, if not pass harsh and dismissive judgement on it (and on this particular case, yep, I mean you). It sure is, it's been established years ago already. But it's more than that too. There are people who made their career (if not spent most of it) over there too, and who should not been dismissed as second-tier talent because of it.

And this, this is pretty cool :

Last time booking was dumb in TNA was in 2017. That's a long-ass time ago. It's a different lifetime it seems almost. If he signed and gonna be around for a while, there's no reason not to do him vs Shelley too eventually. I could see Shelley turning heel again, he's great at it. Well he's great at everything. I'm not even sure I watched more than ten Dolph Ziggler matches in my lifetime, so it's pretty much a clean slate for me. Rock rock don't stop 'til ya drop. Or, something. Some would argue it's old-skewl. Others would it's corny (see what I did there ?). I have no idea, like I said, I haven't watched him at all basically, I vaguely remember a guy doing his best Shawn Michaels tribute show while wearing Billy Gunn kinda boots or something.

The Rock's last match ain't happening anywhere but at Mania. And no, there's no reason for Roman Reigns not to lose clean. Anything else would cheapen whoever wins the title. After that neverending long-ass eternity reign, it would be completely ridiculous. For booking politics alone, this is quite the fascinating Mania season, really. Doing the Australia show : one too many that would endangered his health, most probably. Doing the next Saudi show : I'm willing to bet there's no issue at all.

The guy is already everywhere. NJPW, TNA, now GCW too. It's obvious he's one of those guys who really wanted to do something else while he still could.

Roman losing the title without getting pinned would actually be a complete disgrace and a total joke. Even with Cody pinning Dwayne. A three-way actually makes it a lesser match, but then again, it makes Cody's profile even bigger by the mere fact he's in there for Rock's last match at the biggest Mania ever. So, why not. Plus, Dwayne needs to beat Trump at the next election (I mean, someone, anyone has to do it, right ?), so he can't do the job here anyway. You know what match would have been hilarious ? Rock vs CM Punk. Main eventing Mania instead of whomever. First guy's body breaking down first loses.

I'm not hating on Roman Reigns the performer. I couldn't care less. How he's booked and what he's the symptom of, on the other hand, is very interesting. And pretty dirty. Still, did anyone really thought you'd get Rock vs Roman in Australia ?

He sure *deserves* jackshit. He's the poster boy for privilege, has been since day one. At this point I would not even be surprised the Mania main event to be a three way with Dwayne and Cody, and Dwayne eating the pin out of respect for Dusty, while Roman gets protected so he gets to the next Bloodmoney show unstained. By the booking I mean.

That Jack Perry thingy is actually pretty intriguing. That's a nice little twist and hopefully making the best off that NJPW/AEW relationship. Gimme Jack Perry vs Takagi, Ishii and Taichi already too.

Ok. I mean, it's not that I take anything I hear for granted anyway, but it's true I really haven't heard lots of good around here (and elsewhere, really). Then again, it happened before that I watch someone I only heard bad things about and I go "WTF are people smoking, that guy is perfectly fine". The idea I got from her name was that she was... a perfume ?! I have no idea where they are going since she has had no vignettes. But TNA have been very good developing characters and letting performers developing their own.

Yep. Classic stuff right there. Direct link to THAT week, which was also the last match of Bret Hart's career, which sucked, and the last of Russo's first booking stint, which also sucked, but in a different way.