El-P

And there it is. Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada at the Tokyo Dome. Break a leg ! (not literally, please)

NJPW really is so dependent on who is Will Ospreay facing these days. He made Naito the epic story of the G1 during a mind-blowing semi-final. He was the headliner in England against ZSJ in yet another awesome match. Now he's facing the "New 3 Musketeers" apparently, after Yota Tsuji now it's Shota Umino. The Naito vs SANADA built for the Tokyo Dome feels cold as fuck, as SANADA just reeks of "Why he is the champ ?" energy. If Ospreay doesn't resign with NJPW, and all seems to indicate he won't, it's gonna be pretty rough. The NJPW Strong show last week-end was plenty fun though, with the CMLL presence (Stephanie Vaquer is just my new everything right now), Eddie Kingston living his best life and some cool matches all around, capped off by Shingo doing his thing against Tama. Power Struggle looks like, well, a struggle apart from the two top matches, the 6 ways which should be fun and Mox vs Great O-Khan for the fuck of it. Maybe it's enough, but they better build a solid Tokyo Dome card, because that IWGP World title match ain't it at all (no woman match also betrays the fact they made a belt strictly for Mercedes and really aren't that interested if she's not around, sounds promising for the future...).

I like the barrage of chalengers coming in from everywhere and overwhelming MJF. The one issue is that since they are building toward Jay White, who should be the biggest threat. By having Joe & Wardlow lined up too, it's kind of a giveaway that MJF isn't losing (or maybe he is, in which case, fine). Plus, White is and should be by far the biggest threat. MJF already beat Joe once, clean, and Wardlow ain't winning no world title (that would be such a joke). So there's an awkward dynamic here, unless like I said, after all White wins the title (which he very well could and maybe should). But in that case, the other two guys angles are going nowhere. The Devil stuff is puzzling, it's like they did a whodunnit before Cole was injured with an idea but now it's all screwed up because Cole ain't coming back before who knows when. I feel like they have stalling it on purpose, because there's really no development at all on that side, and no, having random appearances on screen ain't good storytelling nor CINEMA ! like fanboys would scream about Bray Wyatt's stuff. I feel there's 90% chance the reveal is gonna be quite disappointing (well, there's a way to not be, by setting yourself up for failure anyway). Pretty much, although really the only thing that matters in the one or two main event level angles/programs. When a promotion is hot, everything gets hotter by sheer osmosis, or gets ignored anyway and t doesn't matter (The Attitude Era being the most shinning instance of this). Of course that doesn't mean supporting acts aren't important, they are, but AEW is and was always all about the in-ring product first and foremost, and from that perspective, it's hard to complain. But at some point, how much really good wrestling can you watch before having your fill ? (well, you can always try your hand at really bad wrestling for a change and watch Corgan's NWA, holy shit I've watched some of that Samhain show, it's the bottom of the last fucking barrel)

Ronda Rousey & Marina Shafir working against Athena & Billie Starkz (so that's 3 AEW talents) at Pro Wrestling Revolver is certainly interesting. Really did not expect her to be one to go and work indies, but there you have it (and yeah, she did that match involving Taya (where the hell is she ?) and Brian *gasp* Kendrik).

"You've still got it ! Clap clap clap clap clap !" Or something. He looked like a crippled, crooked old version of King Kong Bundy on TV. This picture makes it even more cursed.

So, Vince said that Saudi Arabia was "their home now" at the latest UFC clown show. At least that's pretty blunt. With Roman being at the next bloodmoney show and not Survivor Series, which is still one of the big 4, how long before they book either a Rumble, SummerSlam or even Mania in Saudi ? Also, with MBS getting the World Cup in 2034 (omegalul, as they say), which is the biggest worldwide sports event (and corruption, and sex trafficking, and slavery, and such), is there gonna be a point where WWE doesn't feel essential at all anymore and he eventually drops it because there's no need for it when he can get much much bigger, mainstream events ?

I was about to say I liked a lot of the show (I mean, Claudio vs Orange, Shida vs Willow, the Skye Blue & Julia Hart angle, the Young Bucks tease of more Elite drama, which is ALWAYS great, the main event, even the Copeland angle worked well I thought), despite stuff like Paul Wight (although Paul Wight teaming up with Kota Ibushi is random enough to make it kinda cool) and the huge announcement that was not a huge announcement at all (color me surprised. Not). But then Ric Flair has signed a multi-year contract with AEW. So he's not just making two or three appearances. Fuck that. But hey, I liked most of the show. But Coach TK surely has tons of money to waste if he's signing Ric Flair and agrees to promote his energy drink in the process (yeah, make this guy more money, SURE, NOT GROSS AT ALL)... Maybe he should sign actual talent who can produce and who haven't been accused of sexual assault in a documentary. Maybe, like, great women wrestlers and such instead. Just a thought... Oh well... Pick your poison I guess. CM Punk was an exciting spicy drink that sadly turned sour. Flair is straight out emetic. I'll always cherish AEW 2019-2021 though in my pro-wrestling fandom chaotic road.

In term of strictly business, sure (although in AEW smokes and mirrors will carry you so far, there's a super high level of work that's expected for a main event guy). In term of what I actually want to watch, not as much. And the later is the only thing that really matters to me. Honestly I have much more fun watching Tony Neese be the best Barry Horowitz ever on ROH than whatever Starks has been doing for the last year apart from when he's getting the fuck beat out of him by Danielson. Hey. Coach TK has a big announcement on Nitro Dynamite. Yeah, I'm at the point I wish Schiavone would drop the "greatest night in our sport" line from time to time while we're at it. That being said, Wembley was a damn big announcement last time around, and it more than paid off. Still. Come on TK, you better not carny this one up. The last "dream match" announcement was kinda bullshit (although excellent and super enjoyable (well, injury apart)).

Gotta say this also, as everybody is seemingly in love with Ricky Starks, at this point I'm on the fence. The first time I saw him on NWA Powerr years ago, I was struck by how charismatic he was and how good of a promo he was, although he did had that Rocky Maivia vibe to him. Fast forward back to 2023. He's having that match with Dax Harwood, who's one of the best worker in the world, really, and the match is good. But nothing special at all. Likewise, the tag -team match the previous sunday against Wheeler & Claudio, who are terrific workers, felt overlong and a bit on the dull side for me, especially during never-ending heat segments which had no heat nor very compelling work (here goes whatever I said about Big Bill the other day ). I thought the CM Punk matches he had this Summer were exactly the same : kinda on the dull side. So sure, the guy had two awesome matches with Danielson. But guess what, if you really think about it, they were against Danielson, and they were both gimmick matches. That's two cheat codes for you. At this point, Ricky Starks to me has not stepped up as an in-ring worker to the point I'm actually interested about most his matches. Unless he's in with an exceptional worker (Danielson), I can't think of one memorable Starks match, in a company that produces great matches galore. So yeah, he's got charisma and can talk, but there's still something missing from his game compared to most of his peers, in a company where the average level of in-ring work is just so damn high.

Yes, I had seen it before, it comes up quickly when you search for his name. Half the video is actually about the imaginary sport (La barre à roue) and how he edited bits of stuff that you could not identify and spoke with the most serious tone so it was "credible". Says the sports director came to him after the show ended and actually asked him if he did exist. They talk about how he was a very memorable character of Stade 2 as the facetious guy who often had very little time to rush through results of different sports at the end of the show.

YAY ! I mean, he's being doing the whole "Rock de wish" gimmick for a decade. From what I've seen earlier in the year, he's basically the same guy he was in TNA years ago in term of in-ring, which is pretty good but certainly not big main event material type. Whatever gets over gets over, but there's something ironic that he would when he's basically a way more gimmicky Ken Anderson. I guess enough time has passed now since the days of the Rock/Austin. There certainly is a very subtle irony in the fact he would get to that level to finally get his first big main-event in a bloodmoney show in Saudi. The guy who left IMPACT because he refused to do a job for a woman (Tessa) is getting a main-event in Saudi Arabia. *chuckle* As far as Roman, when all is said and done, he'll be the poster boy for the bloodmoney era. More of a lapdog than a big dog, really. Then again, even Cena goes now, so him giving lip service to China was not just an accident, and apparently he reached the point of it being ok to go to Saudi too. Those big stars sure have values for which they will put their foot down... YAY !

MJF vs Kenny Omega is exactly why AEW needed to be. Omega has had a ridiculous year. So did MJF in term of stepping up as an in-ring worker. Awesome match. As expected because Omega, but still. Danielson also had a ridiculous year, but sadly he's breaking down. Apparently the injury happened during the Andrade match, he just worked the Okada tag (which was awesome) already injured. Also,I realize this was Halloween and all, but poor, poor Hikaru Shida. After the really shitty Ruby Soho match, she's given a really shitty gimmick match (seriously, there was no effort put into this setup) with another nothing worker (Abadon never showed anything apart from cool makeup during the Jacksonville era, and hasn't improved a bit apparently). Plus, although I really enjoy batshit Toni Storm, her whole presentation after that particular match kinda made the title look like a complete joke. And you know Shida is gonna do the job *again*, after a nothing reign (yes the Sakura match was terrific, but it was just a token defense, there's no angle going on). The cosplay was quite cool though, but man, this is rough (oh, and Robyn Renegade getting beat by Racheal Ellering on ROH ? Racheal Ellering ? Fucking really ?) 'member Adam Copeland ? I won't complain a bit he's not all over the show anymore, but it does seem like there's exactly zero buzz about him already. I do enjoy the psycho-sexual undertones of the Miro/CJ angle. She basically gets off on watching Miro beat the fuck out of the guys she picks do be her "clients". Kind an "inverted cuck" angle. Well, that's absolutely how they should play it, at least.

You mean the guy who actually gave results of a totally made-up sport in the most serious way during the most watched weekly sport magazine (and made it a running gag for a while if I remember) ? Yep, he was indeed a tongue-in-cheek joker. As far as many French announcers having a snide sarcastic attitude, I dunno. Not saying it wasn't there, but the most famous of them all, Roger Couderc, certainly did not, and he was the voice of the classic era of French pro-wrestling. I actually remember to this day of Eddie Carpentier saying a word about Claude Darget when he died in 1992 during a WWF show, and from what I remember he seemed to respect him a lot (it's kinda blurry though, he also talked about Couderc quite often).

Because no one noticed it was on to begin with. And it *was* scrapped. There was some shows on TF1 in 1988, how much I dunno, but most probably not many. And then there were a few shows for a few weeks in 1991. That particular string of shows started with an introductory bit about how "Pro-wrestling is back on TF1". So yeah, it had been scrapped a while ago. And was scrapped again very quickly. Never to be shown again on terrestrial TV. In the Strip-tease episode I referred to before, which dates from 1995, you can hear Flesh Gordon, in between awfully vulgar and sexist shit, complaining about how celebrity sports announcers were the reasons why the show was scrapped because they did not like wrestling, and despite the fact they did great ratings even though they were programmed at midnight on Monday (which they were). Sure... Shows were shown on Eurosport under the New Catch (or Nu Catch, depending on the source, and I guess the language) around the same time, but my best guess is that it did not last very long. I have no recollection of it, and I used to watch Ring Warriors/WSW (aka NJPW) on Eurosport all the time during these years. If to believe a source from WrestlingClassic, it only aired for a few months in 1991 too (and Ring Warriors/WSW only started in late 93). But it would be a stretch to even call that "old-school French wrestling" anyway, considering how many guys from England, CWA and even Mexico (through the UWA) were booked. Well, the name said it, it was supposed to be "european", because it was supposed to be showed on Eurosport to begin with, to French, German and UK audiences. Hell, the opening credits of the first show on TF1 even had Vader vs Otto Wanz on it, as well as Dave Taylor, and I highly doubt this was anything but some CWA footage.

I know. The issue is that it should not have just put everything on hold. After DSOTR, it should have been cancelled, pun intended. It sends one hell of a message. The fact there is no awareness at all about this, and that overall there doesn't need to be because it doesn't matter, speaks loudly about how "far" pro-wrestling really has evolved. And really, if we speak real and strictly pro-wrestling : Flair looks like a senile clown with his ridiculous bling bling jewelry, slurring his words and all. It's not like he's Tully or Arn out there. If he had appeared at Sting's retirement to shake his hands, you know, not great at all but understandable. But having him actually part of angles and shit ? For the next few months ? Not only this is gross, but it also promises some really terrible stuff. Flair was embarrassing last time he appeared on WWE TV, trying to have sex with a woman that could be her grand-daughter. I sure hope they are not dumb enough to have him interact with any female workers in a shady way. I wonder what Triple H thinks of this. Aren't they gonna take this as some kind of high treason or something too ? Maybe they're gonna dig up some old walking corpse of their own (and no, I'm not taking about MAGATaker, who apparently as a Patreon now, fascinating stuff for sure) to counter-program the old creep (very fitting for Halloween though). Parts of me wants them to have Charlotte do a straight job for Jade, and she goes "That's not working for me brotha". Since we have a debacle going on, might as well make it the most entertaining possible. I mean, Dana White slapped his wife in public while promoting his grand idea of slapfighting (that turned out well), and he did not get even a slap on the wrist for it.

I think it's much much simpler than this. When it comes to sexual violence, people just don't actually care that much whenever we're talking about whomever with any kind of powerful status. Abusers on stage at Hellfest. Abusers at the Cannes Festivals. Abusers in high places in governments. Abuser as the head of the biggest pro-wrestling promotion in the world. Sure, when it's a "nobody", then the outrage is massive. If AEW had brought Marty Scurll for instance, the negative backlash would be huge, people who be so outraged about it, how it would be the most disgusting thing ever. Flair ? Same people just go "WOOOO !". Coming out of the Dark Side episode, you know who got the most shit ? Ric Flair, for being accused of sexual assault ? Brock Lesnar, for being accused of sexual assault ? No. Of course not. Tommy Dreamer, for saying something stupid akin to "boys will be boys, helicodick is funny come on". People asked for his head, because OMG this was so bad. He actually was suspended from his job without pay for a while. Flair ? Oh, he was cut out of a WWE intro. Made more money after the fact than he ever did, apparently. Brock ? Nada. People did not even mention him, I guess exposing himself to Terry Runnels was nothing but another shitty anecdote. So yeah, Flair on AEW TV feels gross, a move that I really never expected. I foolishly thought that maybe, maybe they were a little bit better than this. That's what Sting's retirement tour is looking now too, gross, since Flair is apparently gonna be a big part of it. And everyone is giving lip service to the "legend", the fans, the wrestlers, the announcers, the boss. *yuck* Talk about tainting everything in a heartbeat. And looking from a purely creative standpoint, it reeks of desperation. Do anything for ratings. Like throw out Omega vs MJF, which should be a huge PPV match in a big time setting with a long-ass build, on a random Collision with 3 days notice.

The 4th Anniversary show concluding with an angle between Adam Copeland & Christian Cage felt like TNA. Which strictly on a pro-wrestling show level, wasn't a good thing. Ric Flair showing up feels like WWE. Gross. AEW truly has failed. Not failed to be perfect, because nothing is never gonna be. But failed to be different. They just gave in. Ok then.

I doubt he would, because Warrior is not a significant part of Sting's legacy in term of mainstream pro-wrestling (really, who the fuck cares about the Bladerunners in 2023 ? Or at any point, really.). And Warrior's image was deteriorated for a long, long while before WWE whitewashed his putrid hateful ass. Flair's "only" dent was that Dark Side episode (if you discount the hundred stories of him exposing his dick to everyone in shoot interviews for the last 20 years of course), and it's very different from having actual recorded proof of you being a hateful homophobic shit (the reaction to Hogan's name last week demonstrated this too). But it's neither here nor there, really.

What makes it worse, and I don't think much people will make the connection (but maybe they will), is that last week Coach TK was making this super stiff (no pun intended) tweet about Vince's "issues", only to book Ric Flair a week later. Well, point taken. Would it have been that hard to, I dunno, roll out Lex Luger instead ?

THIS. I actually think Bunny is dealing with mental health issue, or so is the word out there. Hopefully she gets better. But they still never did anything with her really (despite the fact she beat Roman Reigns in the ratings once, yes she did). I'm still waiting for an angle for women as strong, focused and well written and executed as the Allie & Maria Kanellis angle in TNA from way back when. Saraya at least is actually fun as an outside the ring performer, her getting in the face of fans is never getting old. She's got tons of presence and personality that makes up for her physical limitations (which also are understandable). I guess she got a fat-ass contract too, and she only wrestles every other week (or less). But I sigh everytime I have to watch a Ruby Soho match. Kinda like I sigh whenever Wardlow is on screen, but that's another story.

Damn, and I see Okada was on that show ? Talk about highs and lows. I'm glad I spoiled myself though, so I don't get the bad vibes of the surprise. I just hope Flair goes the way of the roll of coins, and just as quickly. Just starting ? The jury was out for a while because I wasn't familiar with her WWE work, but at this point, I've written her off as easily one of the worst in-ring worker in the company. She just isn't good. Her offense looks like shit, her bumping is awkward, her running his awkward, her timing is mediocre at best. Yeah, she's got a different look and a cool personality I guess (although she really came off poorly in the TV series I thought). But that's pretty much it. It's insane and ridiculous she's still featured as much as she is, and Athena is stuck at being awesome on Honor Club. Not to mention the tons of other much more talented women worker in the roster getting no time. I guess she's got a nice contract, coming from WWE, and they make the most use of that money. Wait, Athena ALSO CAME FROM WWE. Yeah. Nonsense.

This. I haven't seen it yet because I'm way behind my watching schedule so I just read the spoilers. *HUGE SIGH* Yeah yeah yeah, this is pro-wrestling and he's a legend and yaddi yaddi yadda. I guess it's ok then. Well, can't wait for Matt Riddle's debut now. And yeah, it's foolish to expect any level of decency in major entertainment companies, and people gonna cry about cANceL CuLTuRe if you do. But you know what, apparently, Flair made more money the last two years than he ever did. So yeah, so much for the "but accusations destroys powerful men's career" and shit. Hey, Coach TK, I've gotta sleaze thread entry for ya : "AEW booked Ric Flair after he was publicly accused of sexual assault in a documentary TV series". Jeeez. If there was no Bloodmoney show in a few weeks, that would deserve the most disgusting promotional tactic award. This is very disappointing, but then again, but what would you expect I guess...

TF1 broadcasted Flesh Gordon's promotion twice on French TV for a very short while. Once in 1988, the other in 1991 (which I actually watched, since I would watch anything pro-wrestling than as a very new fan). That Collins/Harvey vs Ocean/Dean match I'm pretty sure I saw then on TF1 actually (with French announcing of course), likewise the Lailee vs Kapo Woman match I posted earlier.

Yep. That's the mood.

Well, Aces & Eights was most probably the worst major angle in TNA history ever. And that's saying something. That was Brucie working his magic creative talents. Totally unbearable stuff, and Bully was the centerpiece of it, I give you that. He probably had bad stuff to do in Corgan's NWA too, because Corgan's NWA.