El-P

Don't mess with my IMPACT wrestling ! Last year I enjoyed it more than AEW overall. As long as he's not burned out (which happens to everyone eventually), I don't want him anywhere else. But yeah, what you said. TK needs a smart booking assistant at the very least. He can't possibly manage all these activities at the same time without jeopardizing his focus (not to mention his health). One thing that has been very often overlooked about AEW, is that they all learned on the job when they started the promotion. That they got it so far and so successful should be commended on that fact alone, they had no business doing so well considering their complete lack of experience. They are only 4 years old and still learning. The problem is that they are going against a predatory juggernaught that has been around for ever, so it's not like they can learn under no pressure (like Triple H did when he can play around with NXT with no repercussion whatsoever).

They recruited Kevin Dunn's second hand man. Although there have been progress made at the beginning of the year with how the show was formated (there are still issues though, such as the total lack of highlight reel following a hot match), the aesthetic, especially with the red and blue color scheme and the giant screen, definitely looks more like every other WWE-lite show done in the last 20 years. And although I gave her the benefit of the doubt for a while, Saraya at this point really comes off like a TNA moment. As far as the rest goes, there are some flagrant booking issues that I won't go into details about (the reddit thread goes pretty hard on those, and I agree about most if not all of it), as really I'd rather focus on what I enjoy in the promotion (but really, Ass Boys tag champs, Jade Cargill going in circles, Hayter's reign and teased feud against Britt now sucked into a vortex of bad Saraya & Ruby Soho stuff, Christian Cage random comeback, making Takeshita tap out to MJF already, no follow-up on Willow, Eddie Kingston in general, where is Miro, where is Riho, where is Deeb, and I could go on), and the in-ring product has been ridiculously great these last two months, so I remain pretty positive about the whole thing. As long as AEW gives me great in-ring pro-wrestling, I'm gonna keep watching and enjoy it. But yeah, sadly, WWE is such a powerful looming influence, that it seems hard to escape it in any way shape or form. That's why Lucha Underground was so great for a while (although unsuccessful and with a dreadful management), because it was so very different. AEW needs to distance from them in every way, which they do to some extents (the in-ring work and working as an integral part of the entire pro-wrestling landscape, which is great), not so much in others.

Funny, I knew about most of them, but it never occurred to me that "crisse" was actually "Christ" ! *facepalm* The funniest and oh-so-French Quebec word twisting to me is the use of "fucké". Yeah, that's how we French speaking people do, we add an é and the word is ours ! (and then we crash the board)

The fact the last podcast they did before Jerry passed away was about Jeff's formative years, and they addressed Jerry being ill with cancer, is quite something retrospectively.

@SirEdger, is tabarnak really as bad as fuck ? (yes people, French and Quebecers don't share swearwords, I have no idea how "bad" it actually is) Seems like we have about 20 words that could be translated into "fuck", honestly, although I was told once from a student of mine that none sounded really as bad as "fuck".

9 billions. Sure. At least it's kinda obvious who Vince wants to sell to. What a fraud.

The Braxton Sutter & Laurel Von Ness wedding was just a terrific display of the wedding as a classic pro-wrestling trope. Everything was great leading to it, including Mike Bennett who totally shined in his supportive role of definitely miserable husband. He finally won me over after all. The wedding itself, with the exception of Aron Rex who is pretty easy to ignore in the background, was perfectly executed, and really was in and out of itself a pro-wrestling match. There was the heat segments straight from the beginning, with Maria & Laurel getting their spots in, there's the crowd cheering for the babyface to make a comeback with hilarious chants like "We object !", "Just say no !" and even "Delete !", there's a big hope spots with Allie (the main character of the whole thing) entering the scene, then even more heat as she's getting humiliated, the big hope spot with Sutter saying he won't marry Laurel, then Maria Kanellis cutting him before the actual babyface comeback consisting of Allie kicking out of Maria's finisher (or countering it, whatever you like the most), the classic "You're fired !", with her "I quit !", and from there several babyface run-ins to dispose of the heels before the finish of the match for the big pop, which is really Allie kissing Braxton (they actually said something to each other while kissing and it was probably cute, as they were together and married already). And the last weeks of the Hardies showing up in various indies, and also Konnan's Crash promotion (with the hilarious story of the referee who had to be blurred because of Lucha Underground preventing him from appearing on a concurrent US TV), to procure tag team titles, which was such a cool angle and gave us more Broken Hardy Brilliance... And then... In a matter of two weeks, IMPACT loses : The Hardies, Mike Bennett & Maria Kannellis, Drew Gallaway, Jade (Mia Yim, who was the workhorse of the female division and just had two excellent garbage brawls against Rosemary)... And then get : Bruce fucking Prichard in all his podcast shilling glory, making a hundred WWE references; Dutch Mantell, doing his WWE gimmick and making a hundred references at guys who were in TNA and are now in WWE; all in a marketing campaign based on Donald fucking Trump's catchphrase. While Josh Matthews is now being UN-BEA-RA-BLE doing one of the stupidest WWE angle of the last 20 years aka "The lead announcer is a douchebag heel", as the big important feud apparently is now Matthews vs Jeremy Borash. And then we get the debut of Alberto el Abuser, who by then was already both confirmed as a toxic shit and if we speak strictly talent-wise, a complete and total under-deliverer who had failed to reach to the level he was expected to pretty much everywhere. Alberto who wins the title in his first appearance, but oh well not really because he gave back the belt the following week because he cheated so yeah, a Dusty finish in 2017 for ya. "We're telling a story" I guess was Brucie's excuse. And also, the Hardies left as tag champs, so oh well. Also, Cody Rhodes showed up back to work a super odd angle of him being an insecure little shit because Brandi got befriended by Moose, who saved her from Decay and was just being a good friend. Oh, and he's got some GFW belt too. Because yeah, more GFW stupidity (and useless workers) are on their way. Can't wait to fast forward through some of this shit and speedrun that dumb-ass year. I know, some good stuff are also happening, such as the debut of the new LAX (who really peaked in IMPACT and indies around those years), and the continuation of the Allie & Laurel Von Ness (who is turning into the crazy Hot Mess after her wedding was ruined, and Chelsea was doing quite a job with this too) storyline and the Eddie Edward vs Davey Richards (seconded by his wife Angelina Love, always excellent with her character work) blood feud. But still, as a reboot, the vibes given the first few weeks are probably the worse and some of the dumbest shit I've seen since the infamous Russo/Bischoff reboot of WCW in 2000, and I for one should know.

No. It was totally obvious by the announced card that this was gonna tank in the ratings, it was a C-level Dynamite with zero great match announced, and whether people like it or not, AEW is all about delivering great pro-wrestling matches, above anything else. Then again, I just went through probably the greatest back to back to back (and again and again) episodes of weekly US pro-wrestling TV ever, so really, so what ? Yeah, this was a miss. It happened before and will happen again. Yep. MJF is awesome.

"Wrestling Twitter" is 99,99% bullshit (well, Twitter is 99,99% bullshit). Why even bother ? They are all under contract until January next year. Who knows what's happening until then. Of course there's always a possibility of anyone switching companies. They are still good friends with Cody too. Of course they could jump. Or not jump. (my best guess is random NPC making shit up because of CM Punk's latest cryptic Instagram stuff, relayed by clickbait sites) In other news, ROH "TV" begins March 2, one year after the purchase.

I mean, the promotion literally planted the idea of Sami vs Cody at Mania (which could end up being playing with fire, or not, depending on what they can do with this later on). So they know what their audience is really clamoring for. Now, if they go for "we have decided this and we'll do it no matter what", well, ok that's their prerogative, but let's not pretend that the WWE audience would rather see a tag-team match against the Usos rather than Sami defeat Roman. What WWE will do is entirely their choice, and honestly in this situation, there's no bad choice to make. One choice is just better and makes more sense than the other. This is honestly the most intrigued I've been about a Mania title situation I've been in forever. Even the year Danielson got it, it was more about getting that feel-good moment that was bound to happen. Here, you got two right choices, and also the possibility that Roman might still win (although I for one can't believe it).

It's kinda eerie that it was a possibility that both Jarrett and Lawler had passed away in the span of just a few days. All-time favorite anecdote about Jerry Jarrett and him famously being a crappy payoff is the infamous Dutch Mantell quote when Jarrett gets the workers in the locker room and ask them if any are on steroid, and Dutch goes "With what you're paying us, we're not even on food."

Thanks ! These are totally non-formal, but I'm trying to keep posting some thoughts about my seemingly never-ending TNA watch. Ain't gonna stop now, so close to the end of the road (I started following IMPACT as it happened in June of 2018) Thanks for the reco, I'm gonna check those out because I really loved every minute of the Broken Matt suff.

Memphis Wrestling. The guy who would have taken over WWF's operations if Vince had gone to prison. And yes, TNA.

He's the one who should beat Roman Reigns. Simple as this. And really now, with this segment, they planted the idea of Cody vs Sami at Mania, and you know what, after years and years and years of Roman Reigns and despite the fact he's the hottest he's ever been, this could absolutely be the way to go, because Mania would then look more fresh and different than it's been in forever, and they are in a position where they take zero risk being bold. That is, if they had a special opponent for Roman on the side (wink wink). Now, that would have been some mindfuck and way to really adapt to what's been happening. Of course, they could also do a three-way, but I'm not sure anyone wants to see that formula. As it is and if Sami doesn't beat Roman, oh well, it will still be huge when Cody beats him (he will, won't he ? RIGHT ?), but that's clearly not the optimum scenario. Now, if they don't do Cody vs Sami at one point after Mania, and preferably SummerSlam, then it's pretty much done, the peak will be behind. Of course, there's this whole "sale" thingy that nobody seem to think about anymore that is looming and could change many things too.

I really enjoyed the Rosemary stuff I had seen when I started to watch then current IMPACT in 2018 (she was already batshit Bunny then I think). She's been really misused since, but AEW really hasn't been very good in term of making strong or fun strictly character based angles (they screwed up a simple wrestling wedding, come on now). It's why sometimes it's just better to be in smaller promotions when you can be used at your best, monetary issues notwithstanding. Maria Kanellis was a wonderful foe for her too. I agree that after the Summer, Bennett became more fun to watch, because it became obvious his entire gimmick was being a loser (as opposed to the guy who would became the champ) and he was going all the way with it, humiliations after humiliations. His in-ring work at the end of 2016 and early 2017 seemed better too (he's ten times better in a tag team setting with Taven though). Yeah, that was an interesting idea on paper, but you gotta have the workers to go along with it. Aron Rex getting the title made it immediately meaningless. Moose was not as good as would become, but he was much better carrying the thing, but really, that was a useless title in replacement of the King of the Mountain title which basically was a useless belt that changed names a bunch of times and came from a gimmick belt made for Booker T when he was there. When you see the Wolves, at first Davey Richards looks like the star, because of his obvious Dynamite Kid filiation, but Eddie Edwards developed into a really good babyface despite questionable promo skills and no "jump at the screen" charisma, and really over the years has evolved into the heart of soul of IMPACT Wrestling, terrific worker, great babyface and since last year has showed really good work as a heel too. He's gonna stay under the radar for ever because he's associated with IMPACT and I doubt he ends up in WWE ever now (even in AEW, I'm not sure how far he would be pushed), but he's certainly a super high end worker of the last 10 years who can do anything and work with anybody (he really made W. Morrissey, excuse me, Big Bill, look better than anyone ever had).

Sean Oliver's Lynch impersonation made my day. Did a pretty damn good job (Lynch is my favorite director ever and I love his music and art in general, so I'm quite familiar with his interviews). Should have made the hand gesture though (the Lynch fans know). Thanks for posting this. That sure gives me the urge to check some of those clips too.

Aron Rex doing a Liberace/Lanny Poffo gimmick in 2017 is one of the most cringe inducing shit I've seen in a long time. Totally died a painfull death immediately too. Seriously, this guy, apart from the short time doing the Mizdow gimmick, is the fucking pits. Early 2017, before Jarrett and the GFW crew made any more creatively, was basically 2016, for better (the same people praised earlier) or worse.

Billy Corgan is controlling his narrative. Not sure what's worse and most irrelevant though, current NWA or the latest Smashing Pumpkins albums. Granted, I have not watched nor listened to either. But sometimes, what's obvious is obvious.

Tanahashi vs Okada in San Jose. That's a nice fan service match for sure. Without his front teeth, Tanahashi now has the Kawada smile. That ages him about ten years. Okada vs Takagi was one of those "we've seen it before, yet it was a wonderful display of pro-wrestling" match. Tama Tonga sure has become an interesting late bloomer, excellent match against a serious El Phantasmo. Jay White made Hikuleo look better than he ever had, and probably will in a long time. Bittersweet great performance, as his goodbye to NJPW. Him checking Tanahashi on commentary was pretty significant. Whoever gets him gets a prodigious pro-wrestling mind.

It gives meaningful wins to the champ without having to resort to bullshit "title matches". It makes the actual title matches more scarce and therefore more special. It makes sense that if you are not #1 or #2 contender and well below in the ranks, you might only be worthy of a title shot if you can prove you can actually beat the champ (unless there's a special issue or angle going on). It allows a surprise from time to time. (and it prevents WWE-like idiocy of champions losing non-title matches and then not ever having to defend their title against the person who beat the because oh well) It's just simple, efficient and logical booking. This is actually one of the smoothest thing about AEW's booking right now (which is anything but smooth in other parts).

I was thinking about listening to some of this, I had listened to his interviews with Chavo and Kia Stevens (Awesome Kong) back then during the G.L.O.W. days. I miss G.L.O.W. Never got the end of the story. Fuck you Netflix.

Selfishly I want him in AEW, but I believe he ends up in WWE. The guy is not big, but he's very simply one of the best workers in the world. His in-ring style I believe can mesh up in WWE because it's slower and more deliberate (but at the same time, very much organic crowd interaction based, which is not WWE's style at all), but it needs to be seen how seriously they would take him because of his frame. Basically, if I'm Jay White, I only go to WWE with a FAT-ASS contract and with a guarantee of main-event level spot (likewise Cody). If he ends up debuting in NXT, then it's a complete joke. Also, I only sign a 3 year deal at most. But of course, I love to watch him so please go to AEW. He's working against Eddie Kingston next week-end at the NJPW show (the one with Mercedes vs Kairi), so at least I'll get this before he probably (sadly) vanishes from my radar.

With his head shaved, Butcher looks like he's ready to put a jabronie into the camel clutch and make him humble.

The 1-2 punch of Danielson vs Rush and The Elite vs Top Flight/Fox was ridiculous. AGAIN. In some time, this era of Dynamite will be looked upon as the ultimate apex of US pro-wrestling TV in term of average level of matches week to week (and again this week, MJF vs Takeshita was an excellent opener). The fact we get to see Danielson & Omega back to back doing their thing is kinda taken for granted I feel, those are two of the greatest ever and they are in the same promotion at the same time doing incredible things. Before it's too late, AEW needs two other Danielson vs Omega matches. The main event on the other hand, well considering it had no shot of following the two previous matches, it was obvious some big angle was happening, teasing a Billy Gunn turn (that would have been awful). But really now, it was the Acclaimed worst match in forever, not bad, just there, and the result totally deflated the awesome crowd. I don't think the "bullshit" chants (which traditionally is less a chant toward a heelish act rather than toward a booking decision) is something you want to close your show. Hopefully it's just opening the door for FTR to come back and get the title off the Gunns *quick* (so they did not had to directly beat the Acclaimed, saving that big match for later). If that doesn't happen, then I guess it's as good a way of saying FTR ain't signing back. Mostly a terrific show because these two matches were ridiculous. Although hopefully the Bunny did not get badly injured and is ok, it really looked like something wrong happened at the end.

Yep. Plus, there are trying to establish a championship that really doesn't have a history of being seen as a big deal in US wrestling. And it's been an uphill battle. I loved every second of the best of 7 series, but the truth is, these championships should be made akin to legit main event material to really matter and they are far from it right now. It's like the audience is rather taking it as a transition period for the Elite, having awesome matches in the meantime while waiting to go back to the actual main event scene in more meaningful feuds (for Omega at the very least).