El-P

FWIW, I believe TK said that he already made more money out of ROH with the PPV's than he spent buying it. The fact he said that there will be a heavy NJPW involvement and that the details will come out after the Tokyo Dome is pretty intriguing though. A merger of sorts with NJ Strong ? A ROH presence in NJPWWorld ?

Keith Lee catching Shane Taylor was jaw dropping incredible. They should replay that shit every week.

Last great "trilogy" is Syuri vs Utami Hayashishita, as they had their third match in one year and a half a few days ago. Funny enough, likewise FTR vs Briscoes, their match 1 & 3 were the best to me. Although I think I prefer FTR vs Briscoe III and Utami vs Syuri I. Above everything, I'm just glad I'm able to get this kind of pro-wrestling now. Lucky me.

Story of AEW PPV in 2022 be like : Show happens : AWESOME ! I love pro-wrestling ! Media scrub : Dude, WTF ? So yeah, I loved the show top to bottom, and that's including the Zero Hour stuff. I felt bad for Joe & Juice (hey, they can tag-team and here I give you their tag team name) because no one could follow FTR vs Briscoes. This is up there with any legendary series of matches. Funny, with all the complaints and criticisms (including from me) about the booking of FTR, they actually had a legendary year. Dax may be right there as the year long MVP of the promotion for 2022. Honor Club ? Really now ? So that means that Claudio & Athena are gonna work on Honor Club ? Fuck, put it on Youtube at least. But really now. I want Athena to kill it like she did today on AEW TV. And I don't want none of that ROH stuff on my AEW TV because it's been an albatros (apart from the Jericho as ROH champ angle, which has been great and has delivered bangers after bangers, Jericho haters notwithstanding) to the company. Listen Coach TK. Buying the ROH library was terrific for a future streaming catalogue. Very cool. Running ROH as an active promotion : BAD IDEA. I remember Meltz said it since day one. And he was right. It NEVER WORKS. Stamp the AEW label on Final Battle and you sell more of it. It would not be as great for obvious reasons (Briscoes, nope), but it doesn't really matter, it would still sell more as an AEW PPV. And you would not have to dilute the focus of the promotion with a dozen more titles. Just LET IT REST. FOCUS ON AEW. Fucks's sake. Show was awesome though, and I think FTR and the Briscoes have outdone themselves. I did not think the 2/3 falls match was better than the first, but this one may be.

For fuck's sake.

People obviously have no idea who he's named after.

*sigh* "The culture has changed" my ass. Speaking of being angry and depressed, can the British football team do me a favor and Joan of Arc the French idiots tonight ? And maybe if someone could bash Lloris's face in as to teach him to say really stupid fucking shit like "gotta respect the culture of the country you're in". Thanks in advance. God save the Queen or something.

Takeshita is a total package. Now it would be nice if he won some. Because he's gonna get settled with "Great worker who can't win a big match" perception soon enough if that goes on. Great match though (spoiler alert : he lost). Da Bunny. Yeah, that's what I want. Her and Penelope have so much potential as an act. Maybe they should ask to get more of what they did with Anna & Tay, but it's not like you wanna do that too often. Big Bill, uh ? *sigh* Yeah, we need another tall heel guy doing chokeslams. Maybe put a Dinosaur mask on him and then we'll have the New Jurassik Powers. The Hobbs vignette are very good. Maybe they should think about doing that kind of stuff *before* someone debuts too. Like, there's too much of a feel of "catching up to the matchmaking" in stuff like Athena vs Martinez for instance. Maybe you can build it instead of throwing it from nowhere and then doing an express 60 sec video in which you're told "oh btw they met before in Shimmer, yeah it's actually meaningful bye". Gotta, say, I'm thoroughly enjoying Orange defending the AP belt against random people. Wouldn't mind get a lot more of that Trent Seven fella either (as opposed to, Big Bill, you know). Mascara Dorada vs Jeff Cobb at the pre-PPV free-show ? Wow, talk about out of nowhere. Could be awesome if given enough time.

Can't wait until Gable Stevenson feuds with Matt Riddle in a "proofs were insufficient" on a pole match.

I mean, instead of fighting or even wrestling, which is probably even worst in term of hurting your body, sure can't blame her if she doesn't come back at all. But I was under the impression she actually had signed a contract. It's been a while though now, seems like another world altogether.

BTW, talking about the anti-indies anti-Japan stuff made me think about Dan Lambert and all. Whatever happened with Paige Van Zant ? She was signed, right ? Is she still training ? Her first match sure was a misstep (akin to the Anthony Agogo match with Cody), but when she was standing next to Dan and talking shit to Jericho she looked like she had some star potential. It's probably better not to rush her back before she's ready (we begin to see how Cargill is plateauing and how her streak is going nowhere now, while her matches don't get better and are losing their appeal), but I wonder if she's still under contract at all.

Humm.... AEW is hardly anti-establishment. Maybe it appeared that way at first, because there was this enthousiasm and desire to change the landscape. AEW is now just another part of the establishment as the landscape has evolved. Which actually is one reason why the energy is not the same. One thing I wish MJF would stop doing, is positive references to WWE. That's very counter-productive, especially in the current context. The last thing you want is to point at the other company as being bigger and better than yours. Likewise insulting NJPW, it's just cheap heat, and toxic cheap heat in this case. The thing no one really knows is whether is actually has signed for an extension (which he would never say) or not. If not, then we're witnessing another Pillman sequence and it's not good for AEW.

Totally forgot about that one ! But again though, I don't see how this relates to the Miz at all. Just kinda cheap heat like he insults the city he's in, really. BTW damn, I wish you are right on that one too.

I dunno. I don't even get the anti-Japan or anti-indies stuff. What does that even means ? MJF comes from the indies. He doesn't come from a TV reality show or a corporate developmental program. If by "Japan" or "indies", that means "lol movez" and is strictly a "stylistic disagreement" (which infact it is not, since it would be an idiotic generalization anyway), then it's something that only WWE drones and the likes of Corny audience says. I don't get how this relates to MJF at all, honestly. It's not like he's working like a cosplay of guys from the 80's/90's either. The fact he doesn't do a thousand dives doesn't make him less of a very contemporary worker. Not that Miz is doing it either though. Miz just work like a shitty mid 00's WWE dullard.

They actually have too many hoss right now. W. Morrissey is so not needed for what he can bring to the table (which is better that what he ever could, but really now, when I saw him chokeslam poor Jungle Boy on the apron, I was thinking hell, poor Jungle Boy is running in circles now, hopefully he doesn't get settled with a Luchasaurus Minus). Complaining about your push on social media has done no favor to anyone in AEW before. Brian Cage literally vanished after his wife made that tweet about how he was underutilized. There is so much that could be done with Miro, but I'm fearing this is one guy who will end up Andrading himself eventually. Hopefully not.

Thanks for the clarification. Seems like fair criticism.

MJF is a pure product of the indies though. One of the funny point of him saying he was gonna send Starks back in Corgan's NWA and wrestle on Youtube, is that himself was wrestling in Court Bauer's MLW on Youtube not too long before still (maybe even at the same time during his last MLW days where he was on both shows for a short while). First time I saw him was on one of Janela's promoted show, and he never came off like he was working some "anti-smark/indies" gimmick.

Would you mind clarifying this bit ? Being unfamiliar with the issues at hand that you seem to point out, and having a "distant" only knowledge of lucha libre (but also some opinions about the way it's been handled in term of prescription in the last 20 years), I would be interested in what you precisely mean by that.

I expected a great TV match. I did not expect *that* kind of match (thanks for not spoiling any of it btw). Easy MOTYC. These two are just two of the best workers anywhere in the world today. Both had an incredible year and this capped off in a very classic way. The more I watch Bailey, the more I'm convinced he is one of those rare pro-wrestling "genius" (I don't like the term, which is also overused, but there you go). Alexander is one awesome worker too. Just wonderful pro-wrestling, that will go unnoticed because it happened in IMPACT, but it's not exactly a rare thing nowadays. On a totally different topic, I enjoy the fact Deaner is taking a totally different approach with the cult gimmick, while keeping it in line with what EY did. He totally looks like a creepy guy on Youtube trying to convince people that he can heal cancer with vegetable juices.

Mind blown.

I never understood the Miz comparison with MJF. Like, at all. On any level whatsoever. They are nothing alike, in any way shape or form. On the other hand, as I'm still going through my TNA watch, it's obvious that MJF is basically the best ECIII ever. There's a LOT of similarities. And really I find ECIII to be a fascinating case of "what if", especially now that I've reached his babyface turn in 2016 and see that he was just as efficient in this role. It's easy to make fun of him now because of the CYN stuff, but really, ECIII at his peak in TNA is a fascinating study because you see him as a guy you could/should have been a HUGE star in WWE, as he had *everything* they wanted at one point. MJF doesn't have the same kinda body, although he really worked on it, and he is an even better promo (and really, ECIII was a great promo guy, legit great, at least in TNA), but he's a better in-ring worker. Not to say ECIII wasn't good, as he was quite decent and worked quite hard too. But anyway, to me the ECIII (again, in TNA) and MJF comparison make a whole lot of sense.

I was glad to have Regal in AEW, even for a short time.

And that he could work with anyone from any style. Put him against Arn, Rey Jr., Ultimo, Finlay, Davey Boy, Goldberg, Benoit, he's gonna deliver every time. That's not always true when someone feels he has to force his style (whatever it is, but technical makes it harder for obvious reasons) onto the match and his opponent. Regal was one of those, "No matter who he faces, it's gonna be worth watching" workers. And there are not that many of them (although now more than ever before probably, for different reasons).

By definition, they are. There is a whole thing about why smaller guys *had to* be more technical too, but that's for another day. Josh Barnett is a quite okay shoot-style pro-wrestler. Never struck me as a technical wizard though. I'm searching for bigger guys who were doing a lot of technical shit now... The fact most British wrestlers were smaller guys doesn't help me thinking.

Yeah I know. But that makes her a tricky character to use. Obviously like I said before, as long as she's healthy and doesn't paralyse herself, it's all good. Let's not be stupid about working pro-wrestling matches.