El-P

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).

I just spoiled myself because I'm an idiot. I honestly kind of expected it but still. The Ass Boys ? We went from the Young Bucks & FTR to the Ass Boys. For my fellow 90's boomers out there, it's like going from the MX & Southern Boys to the American Males. YIKES. (I don't dislike the Ass Boys at all, but tag-team champs in AEW ? NOPE) Can't wait to watch Danielson/Rush and the six-men though, sounds awesome. I honestly have no idea if Eddie is working or having a meltdown on Twitter. Because if that's the latter, it can't end well, sadly. As much as I love Danielson and I think MJF has really been delivering in-ring in his last big matches, I kinda dread the one-hour long match, which is not a favorite stip of mine, as there are very few workers who can make it work without having to rely on gimmickry and/or over scripting. And over scripted one-hour long match is very much WWE style, and it's not something I want out of AEW (just like I don't want to see HITC style cage matches with the obligatory going out to jump off the top on the outside). We'll see, but I must admit I'm really on the fence about this idea.

The last months of Dixie Carter's TNA really smelled like a dying promotion again. Sure, there is Cody and Brandi Rhodes showing up for a cup of coffee (Cody defeating Mike Benett is a meh match and then having an very good one putting over World Champ Eddie Edward), but you soon see the impeding signs of doom again during the last tapings, in a darkened Impact Zone. Aron Rex has already reverted into an annoying semi-comical figure, doing a "hidden foreign object" angle like it's 1985 (the guy is right at home in the NWA). Talk about a guy who was praised as underrated for nothing while doing his best stuff in WWE. Interestingly enough, he's also very much influenced by Lanny Poffo (without having half of his skills). The undercard feud of The Tribunal (the only legit french workers in a US TV company since Andre ?) vs Al Snow & Mahabali Shera is a complete waste of time (and Shera, talk about a guy who never improved one bit, he still shows up in IMPACT from time to time and is the same mediocre worker he was then). Then you have the DCC aka James Storm (they apparently had no idea for him anymore), Bram (same) and Eddie Kingston doing a crappy "creepy" Anonymous inspired gimmick. At least it introduced Kingston I guess. The X-div is really kind of an afterthought, although you have really good guys like DJZ and Trevor Lee feuding aginst each other seemingly over and over and over again, all of it seeming aimless. ECIII always in the main event scene and falling to recapture the title is ok, and the guy was a great babyface just like he was a great heel. Fine enough worker too. All thing considered, I enjoy him way more than I thought I would. The rise of Eli Drake is pretty ok too, although the constant gimmickry in his promos gets annoying fast. Can't believe he's still doing the same exact thing in WWE as I write this. The year kinda logically concludes with a match between ECIII and Eddie, who really was carrying the promotion as a workhorse all year long alongside Lashley, with a kinda crappy shit-finish no-contest. Decay has been a case of the whole being much better than the sum of its part, the whole thing being carried by Rosemary's character work. She ends up winning the vacated women's title, as Gail Kim is clearly going toward retirement because of piling injuries. Kinda crazy Rosemary never ended up in WWE at some point, although I have no doubt they would have misused her completely. Really now, Allie & Matt Hardy are the MVP of the promotion in 2016, both for their character work. Allie slowly developing into an actual worker and confronting the excellent Maria & Laurel Von Ness (a platinum blonde Chelsea Green) keeps the arc going and she's awesome at every turn. Like I said, I've never seen a better instance of a worker doing the "non-worker" gimmick, she's awesome at every turn (in-ring work, promos, big angles, backstage vignettes) and such a great lovable babyface. The Broken Matt stuff is just gold absurdity, all of it. Fitting that the year would end with a Broken Matt show, with yet another ridiculously fun cinematic match (and Rockstar Spud doing the job for 1 year old King Maxel, because of course he would). Gotta love of Matt was throwing so many stuff at the Bucks of Youth, as this was the hype of the days. The disappearance in screen of both Corgan (who was doing a good job actually as an authority figure) and Dixie Carter was the sign of the looming changes in the company. On paper, 2017 looks pretty terrible, and not just because Alberto el Patron was brought on board (that guarantes tons of FF), but also Dutch Mantell's Make Impact Great Again stuff, Corny & Brucie aka two irrelevant boomers yelling at clouds being brought back for a short while, the GFW debacle (which looks interesting from a backstage standpoint) and so many people leaving, including of course the Hardies, who were one of the only thing that made the company interesting in 2016. Seems like really, after Anthem bought the thing, it did not settle into the quality product it became before they gave the book to D'Amore in 2018.

IMPACT & NJPW are doing a joint PPV March 30th. Forbidden Doors II before the fact. And as if Josh Alexander vs KUSHIDA and Moose vs Jeff Cobb don't look great enough (it does), Will Ospreay vs Mike Bailey. Jaw drops.

That kinda cracked me up.

That's a good observation. And really, Cody likes to listen to himself talk a lot. And WWE style promo is mostly monologues after monologues, it never ever comes off like people really talking to each others. That very practiced, slow (because they have a lot of time to fill) and obviously very scripted WWE pacing is yet another reason why I don't care to watch their stuff (that is, if I did not find the company repulsive to begin with). Even the great Roman/Sami angle at the Rumble, I noticed that it went way long and was super heavy handed (don't get me wrong, I thought it was an awesome, all-timer WWE angle) compared to what I usually watch (AEW, IMPACT, Japanese stuff which of course is not exactly heavy on angles either). Even the great stuff they manage to do, there's something so "operatic" about it, so non-organic. It would be interesting to see when this style of promo really started. I'd say sometime during the early 00's, maybe only to that degree with Cena, not sure.

For sure, awesome promo from both. I still can't do anything but chuckle at Cody doing his facial "emotional ticks" that he's done a hundred times by now and comes as forced and fake as any goofy Shawn Micheals pathos acting, really. That being said, the closer of Cody saying he just wanted to win a championship and people always want to make it personal was a nice line. A bullshit line, because he's always referring to his father"s legacy anyway, but still, quite a necessary line. All in all, from an outside point of view, Sami vs Reigns at Mania still looks like a much better peak match, but they did as good a job imaginable to jumpstart the feud. I said it before even when he was in AEW, Cody was made for WWE's style. From memory, angles and promos were terrific, match was garbage. But that was eons ago, there's a possibility I would enjoy the match much more now (but maybe it was just garbage too, I dunno and probably will never rewatch it at this point anyways).

Meltz had a very nice interview with Mary Fries, daughter of Pampero Firpo, talking about Lanny Poffo.

Beyoncé and her damn French accent breaking the board.

Well... From a mainstream POV, *nothing* equals the Rock being at Mania. But really, the hilarious part is when he mentions "one story is about finishing something that started in 1978". HOLY SHIT how much BULLSHIT can you feed your audience ? That's what is annoying as hell. The totally made-up story of Dusty Rhodes never winning the WWE title and how it's an actual story that somehow happened. For fuck's sake. Story dating back to 2016, when Cody left, sure, that's the one to tell, but trying to make-up a fake-ass storyline dating back to his father is exactly why in the grand scheme of things, the Cody stuff is carny bullshit meets WWE revisionism (since Dusty "never winning" the WWE title means it's what mattered to him, sure, SURE) as opposed to the actual hot storyline, which was Sami finally facing Roman Reigns at Mania. I wonder after all if at one point (not at or before Mania obviously), the audience won't turn against him anyway because he just can't help himself.

He censored "cunt" as well. I thought "cunt" in Australia was basically a punctation mark.

The reality is that it doesn't matter to them. They make more money than they ever had thanks to the status they have acquired as a brand, and whoever is on top really is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The Rumble and Mania were to beat the record numbers of viewers no matter what for the simple reason Peacock has way more viewers than the previous year and because they are not on PPV anymore. The TV right fees bubble for live "sports" profited them to amazing degrees. And of course, the Saudi money (hey, btw, there has been a recent report about how executions in the country have doubled during the reign of MBS, blood money is a real thing, not just a "cute" tagline) which makes them profitable beyond beliefs. Since last year, they got hotter and hotter after a long down period, and hell, retrospectively it's argue to argue against the fact Cody jumping was absolutely a factor. The company is idiot proof in term of booking. I would even say they are idiot friendly since Bray Wyatt sells a whole lot of merchandise despite being a terrible act on pretty much every level, but then again that would be pretty condescending toward his fans (still, when I see people going gaga over this shit like it's "next level cinema" or "such a deep storyline", it's just hard not to be sometimes). Then again, being popular or big has never had anything to do with being any good, especially when you consider the entertainment industry and how it works. WWE is striking gold with not one, but two main angles at the same time, which has not happened in, how long ? 20 years ? Their finances are at the highest its even been. On one hand you could argue, well, then now more than ever they could put Sami Zayn in the Mania main event, because it really doesn't matter who is anyway. But nope. Even now, when the "risk" is exactly zero (and really, we're talking about the "risks" of putting over the most over babyface in the company since Daniel Bryan), the guy has no shot. I don't see why anyone should be surprised though. Triple H's track record is well known and although he's much more open minded in term of in-ring style for the overall product, WWE is still WWE. It's always gonna be limited because of their limited mentality. And of course, there's no way to know what happens after it's sold. Cody Rhodes being a huge success in WWE absolutely opens doors for some people from AEW that might not had the same opportunity before. But then again, Cody Rhodes started in WWE, he was groomed there. I have no doubt they see him as a WWE guy first and foremost. Hell, they might even be delusional enough to think that they are making him a star now and that, no, it has nothing to do with where he was before. But there's a reason he fits their needs. Cody is a good looking American guy with (fake) blond hair, blue eyes, a stars & stripes tatoo on his neck. Sami is a muslim Canadian redhead from Syrian origins with a crazy beard. And he supported Bernie Sanders.

And this is why Google Translate is *not* your friend. (that would literally mean it's shit)

That would have been insane ! And really now, The Rock owes quite a bit to Mutoh...

Taichi is an interesting case of late blooming. Not that he wasn't good before, but his gimmick wasn't conducive to have good matches. And in the last few years, he became El Hijo del Kawada. That Will Ospreay match was almost entirely focused on that aspect too. Terrific match, of course (Ospreay vs a quality opponent is at worst very good), but it's not like it was an Ospreay carry job either. Some of the selling by Taichi toward the end was beautiful. Shota Umino's matches being reffed by his own father is quite the X factor in what it could mean for future storylines (and I mean intra-matches storylines). He's clearly not there yet, but overall he surely did good for a huge match, main eventing against his idol Naito. I'd be mean if I said that right now he's looking more like Akira Nogami than Keiji Mutoh, but he's got a way to go and plenty of time. Speaking of Mutoh, he basically has no legs left after he injured both in his last Muta match. Naito is in for a tough ride to make it enjoyable, probably.

What indy would be dumb enough to get in bed with WWE and think they'll get anything other than getting fucked in the end ? It's like wanting to date a known sexual predator. And I mean, literally too.

Hum... I think so, yes. But really, it was me talking shit about people being booboo about "devaluing finishers". BTW that match was really good for 1992 WWF TV. Can't get more 1992 pro-westling than those outfits too.

They had a bunch of trios matches in 92, including some squashes, so maybe that was it. I mean, it's not like they were winning even against High Energy & Max Moon. (I wonder if back then some people got pissed at Koko for using a DDT as a transitional move )

There was this one Lanny recited during a KC shoot interview... "There once was a man from Nantucket...". Sean Oliver's reaction was priceless. I admit this never crossed my mind. On the other hand, Steven Regal's Man's Man gimmick had a strong Monty Python's "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok" vibes. I think I remember a match they had against the LOD & Paul Ellering. Lanny was wearing the infamous full bodysuit then.

Classic deadpan Meltzer. They are talking about some angle in NXT where Booker complained that the babyface was outsmarting the heels and how it's not fair. Alvarez : "It's not fair to be intelligent ?" Meltzer (without missing a beat) : "Not with Booker T. Haven't you noticed ?" Had me rolling.

Wasn't that Dr. D Dave Schultz ?

Yeah, I was thinking about this. Those skateboard guys are on another level when it comes to taking risks and horrible bumps on very unforgiving structures.

Anyone has any idea why Korea never developed a strong pro-wrestling scene ? They have followed suit the J-pop model and actually have won the soft power war on this side of things (incredible how K-pop is popular with zoomers, much bigger than J-pop ever was). Why isn't there some company that would invest into creating some high-rent pro-wrestling product with global reach (thanks to their current science of ridiculous production values) ? I get that the state would probably not support such a project like they do with movies and music, but still. Some of the most important pro-wrestlers in the history of puroresu actually have Korean origins (Rikidozan, Choshu, Maeda), it's interesting that this is not something that grew big as its own culture yet.

Agreed. The thing about Thatcher is that he really wasn't over, so that hurt. But it was so cool to see him against Danielson still. This is part of what makes AEW so cool. You can have Nick Gage, Shibata or Tim Thatcher show up and have a marquee match for no other reason than "why the fuck not ?". As far as Darby goes, he's like the "perfect" mix between Mick Foley & Jeff Hardy. The way Samoa Joe just dropped him over the top rope at one point was so ridiculous than even the announcers were incredulous, their legit reaction was quite something.

This is tremendous "Calm down Yeti". Raven is still the best.