El-P

This. He's the epitome of mid 00's style WWE comedy. Aka "don't enter the room while I'm watching this, please". Yeah... ya know, I tried to avoid the subject in the IMPACT thread, because as much as I really enjoy the promotion, this one did not make me happy at all (not to mention his first appearance was a miss in term of booking to me). D'Amore was so great in his role of babyface authority figure, which was realistic (because, well, he is) with just a little bit of dry sense of humor, the last thing I want in my IMPACT program is a WWE comedy product. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt (IMPACT has the knack for making things work), but I'm not thrilled about that one at.

Well, GOOD. Someone finally heard what time it was.

Well, at least a good news ! Much needed. That will probably also be positive for Mark's state of mind.

By the way, the Bellas did not come to the show because they were kinda pissed apparently. Brie is also retweeting Mandy Rose's latest special offer or something. That's quite unexpected from whom you'd perceived as more or less lifers (whether in the company or not). Case in point, they really did not bring out any women at all (well, expect the Bella's, who ended up not showing up). Food for thought in term of who you want to sell to or just your usual pettiness ? I dunno...

Well, if anything he could still show up at Mania to announce the attendance number then.

Cody wins the Rumble. Sami wins Elimination Chamber in Montreal (he has to, since Kevin Owens is doing the J.O.B at the Rumble, and not getting a huge win for the local crowd would be ridiculous when they have two Montreal boys at the top of the booking sheets). Then what you said. And Cody "former EVP from AEW" Rhodes can slither his way into crying after winning the biggest match at the biggest Mania ever, because Dwayne can't be bothered anymore. What a life !

Well, it says that the guy knows nothing about pro-wrestling, for one. But it also says something about how pro-wrestling fans are perceived, for sure. And you know, it's not exactly completely undeserved either, let's be real. The fact it's already a complete flop is kinda comforting though.

Nothing screams "Royal Rumble match actually don't matter" more than the fact we're 4 days before the show and only 7 women have been announced. Hard to not give less of a fuck in term of booking. As far as nostalgia goes, I think the question that should be asked is what does that kind of nostalgia even means. Racism and sexual assault notwithstanding, do people really are happy to see old guys standing there looking old while they are reminded or remind themselves of the "good ol' days" when "wrestling was good" and had "real stars" ? I mean, if that's your thing, then why don't you just watch some prime Flair, Hogan, Taker stuff. Is there a kind of schadenfreude to remind yourself that you don't actually consider pro-wrestling good anymore and that the people from 25, 30, 40 years ago are always be better in your mind ? Ins't this a little morbid to begin with ? If I'm a huge Roman Reign fan, I really don't care to be reminded that, hey, actually, John Cena is a much bigger star and he's going on the cover of the pro-wrestling game. If I'm a Sami Zayn fan, I really don't want to have old guys telling it's time to suck it like boomers edgelords on Facebook. And of course, you have the elephant in the room. Hulk "I guess we're all a bit racist" Hogan being celebrated. Ric Flair showing up at the same time Vince McMahon is taking back control of his company while paying ridiculous amount of money to women he absolutely did not sexually assault. Lawler's case is so old that most people don't even think about it anymore, since back then it was still the "groupies will be groupies" mentality, but if that happened during the #speakingout movement, I doubt he would be allowed on TV (then again, here goes Matt Riddle). And Taker, oh well, he apparently came on his bike, full on MAGA style, at least he's owning up his shitty views on life considering it was even part of his promo. So yeah. What's the point ? What's the message being sent ? What's the fun in this, expect blind validation of awful people from the past who also happened to be huge stars and great workers ? In 2023 ? Really ? (looking at the state of the world) Oh, of course. Obviously. Meanhwile, Mark Briscoe, who has not done anything wrong, won't be allowed on TV by WBD.

...... WBD really comes off sleazy and hypocritical as fuck, ESPECIALLY while at the same they have fucking Dana "I slapped my wife in public in front of cameras" White promote SLAPfighting (which in itself is sleazy as hell anyway).

Although this is not NJ, I'm gonna post this here. The Great Muta retirement match was everything you possibly wanted from a Great Muta retirement match in 2023. SO much improbably great elements, like Sting being a part of it (they played his old theme too, with stills of his matches with Muta), the fact Hakushi came to the 1995 WWF Hakushi music theme, Darby Allin getting over in Japan because of course he can, AKIRA doing an amazing 56 years old superfly splash, Hakushi being a ghost (he's been killled by Taker in 97 in a match announced by Sunny at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, gotta love pro-wrestling facts) and looking *exactly* like he did 25 years ago, Hakushi trying to one-up Darby in term of taking a death bump, Hakushi drinking his own blood, an exchange between Marufuji and Darby (a match between those two would be so awesome), the fact they brought Great Kabuki who did the nunchakus trick (despite really looking like a legit zombie now, aging sucks), Muta doing calligraphy with Hakushi's blood... In term of maximizing what everyone could do, and that's including in term of character presentation, you can't ask for more in a match were the second youngest guy was a frisky 42 years old youngster, as Gorilla Monsoon would say. Yeah, there was one blown spot toward the end, but after all it humanized the one character that did it, and he did pay for it quickly enough. I'm still stocked to having seen the Great Muta retire against Hakushi, another of my all-time favorites, teaming with Darby Allin, a current absolute favorite of mine. I am so lucky. Also, and it was very apparent already at the January 1st show, NOAH's production values are ridiculously great. The undercard also has a terrific Timothy Thatcher vs Mochizuki match, and also a women tag team match that was the very first on a NOAH card. Considering they'll do that again at the Tokyo Dome (Maki Itoh at the Tokyo Dome !), it's quite interesting to see if that will end up being a more regular feature on NOAH shows. They also had way more time to showcase their stuff than KAIRI and Tam Nakano had at WK. Well, bye bye to the Great Muta, legit one of the greatest character in pro-wrestling history. The career of this guy is absolutely fascinating when you stop and think about it. Now, one last stop and Naito's plate is something else, considering in what shape Muto is right now (he really looked banged up as hell after this match, despite doing really not that much at all).

Awesome. They can bring so much to the table with the expensive promoting experience they have gathered in the meantime.

Actually, he debuted the "all black" outfit at the Tokyo Dome as a tribute to Inoki. But yeah, what an awesome angle, terrific execution, totally Maeda/Choshu inspired. There's nothing like puroresu interpromotional cards. I guess then waited for the cheering crowd to be back to have that actual legit interesting card after the so-so proposition las year. It's gonna be HUGE for Kiyomiya, facing Okada at the Dome under Mutoh's retirement match. That's a make or break it night in term of star making performance. You know Okada is gonna be the all-time great big match wrestler he is, so here goes everything for NOAH's great hope. It will probably be quite intense too. And speaking of intense, Takagi vs Nakashima was ridiculous. Nakashima is such a hard hitting mofo, and kind of a douche too (that horizontal choke spot), so there's nothing more satisfying that seeing him get hit really hard. Crazy that guy is only in his early 30's. Debuting at 16 and being really good early will do that to you. Kenoh vs Naito was very good too. Kenoh is certainly a mood. Not overly familiar ('ve seen a bunch of his big matches over the last few years), but he doesn't disappoint. Naito was his brillant self and gave a lot to Kenoh. He's really the perfect opponent for Mutoh's retirement, in more ways than one. This is gonna be big. The last of the Musketeers, the biggest star of all, the last of the mainstream generation and really, when I think of it, a guy I became a fan of as soon as I saw him on Eurosport in the mid-90's (I'm guessing around 93/94).

Come on. I really don't see what's the issue here. (as I'm putting my baguette under my arm and my beret on my head, going out the door to the sound of the Amélie from Montmartre theme, crossing the Tour Eiffel straight away even though I don't live in Paris anymore, and all the people in the street saluting me with "Sacrebleu !") Blame Mick Foley. There's an entire study to be made about WWE "humor" over the years aka "Vince thinks this is good shit".

It certainly would fill up a sleaze thread. Gotta love that DDP (from WWF RAW fame) is back on RAW too now that Cody is back in the WWE (some people have noticed where those Cody promos were shot). What a hustler ! Oh, for sure. I cringe everytime I see one of those damn headbutts in Japan, I have no idea how they did not learn from Shibata. And some Naito vs Ibushi matches were uncomfortable to watch (I remember Meltz talking how about he hated one in particular because of how dangerous it was).

Sure he is. A few years back he was broke and about to retire, he's now probably making more money than he ever has, is being featured in the second biggest promotion in the world, working with incredible talent on regular basis and just had a match with his idol Jun Akiyama a few months ago. What a mistreatment. See also, Harwood, Dax. Was a heel turn needed ? Nope, but it gives him a new dynamic and he works great as a heel too. So, might as well enjoy him in that role anyway. A heel turn was certainly needed for Saraya though. That's the best thing they could have done with her, on every aspects. In other news, great week of AEW again. Loving the promotion so much again, after a more questionable 2022. (Willie Mack !!!!)

I've only watched a select few, mostly the women only PPV because it's interesting to see how the scene was evolving at this point, but nope, they were not related at all to the TV show. Not canon, if you will. The fact some were showed months after the fact made it impossible anyway to tie them with the ungoing product. I have no idea why anyone thought it was a good idea, and I'm pretty sure no one watched these back then.

I mean, at this point, what else... (if they had got Warrior and Yoko you'd knew they'd want to sell to the Saudis) (also, go back in 1996 and tell people that by 2023, Shawn Michaels will be by far the least offensive of the bunch, talk about something highly unpredictable)

Agreed. Him getting the perennial main event spot and working a bad NWA cosplay style certainly played a part in that evolution (see what I did there ?).

Yeah, I'm baffled honestly. I had no idea there was even discussions about *this*. Maybe it's different in those parts of Europe, I dunno, but like, it would not even cross my mind not to put on a seatbelt and I don't think I ever heard any debate anywhere about this. And yeah, fuck WBD.

We were talking about stupid shit like the chairshots to the head in the late 90's already. I hated Mick Foley doing the HITC jump and to this day considers it one of the worst thing that happened in term of influencial spot in modern pro-wrestling. It did not take Benoit murdering his family for people to actually think about these kind of issues 10 years before. I mean, this : As far as WWE style evolving into a duller style, it has everything to do with them going public and choosing advertisers for the entire family as opposed to protecting their workers. The 00's and early 10's was also a period of Money in the Bank every year, ladder matches galore, HITC becoming a staple of the promotion. The debate of "safe vs unsafe" is something that has a place of course. But it doesn't equal the issues of stylistic evolutions. Tanahashi and then Okada for instance, have clearly taken the Japanese (well, NJPW) style into a direction that is a whole lot safer than the previous peaks of NOAH and AJPW, while having arguably even greater matches. Also, safe is a matter of controlled risk and personal tolerance for what you can do. What is risky for some ain't so much for others. Some terrible injuries (or worse) happen doing pretty mundane shit (Perro Aguayo Jr.), or stuff you've done hundreds and hundreds of time (Hayabusa). In the end, pro-wrestling isn't safe. Roddy Piper had no hip left at the end. Roddy Piper.

The one thing I learned the other day is that McMahon's family shares did not had the same voting power as other shares. How the fuck is that even legal ? Capitalism as a whole is just a fraud, but this entire WWE thing reeks more and more of ridiculously carny shit. Also, the one mystery question remains : who from the board leaked the story ? I'm guessing he/she ain't on the board anymore, but still. Who did it ?

One thing is for sure, this entire deal really has exposed Nick Khan as a piece of shit lapdog.

David Starr. Talk about some random appearance. Gotta say, the entire Broken Matt stuff is amazing to watch even all those years later. Complete insanity and legit funny as hell at points. "Obsolete mule" ! Ok, Mike Benett is basically the Honky Tonk Man. It wouldn't be so annoying if he just wasn't so overexposed. Him being awkward as hell working X-division matches is actually funny. They are doing a good job with the Eddie Edward single push, and the matches against Lashley (who by that point really has developed into a complete deal, promo included) are terrific. No idea Rosemary actually got an origin story ! They really were doing cool things with the outside the ring stuff, probably the influence of LU, which is something I would gladly have a lot more. Hey, Moose debut. Summer is actually getting better.

It's amazing how McDevitt has been neutered. The only reason they are still denying the rape accusations with Chatterton is because it's an old case and they had denied it back in the days. But apart from that, it's "Hey, take a whole lot of money please" with zero fight. Yeah, MLW getting a shitload of money because of all this would be hilarious. Them getting none would be even funnier though.

There would be a lot to say about how the Benoit murders has affected the mentality of a part fo the pro-wrestling fandom (what I have called half-jokingly "Post Benoit workrate guilt" in the past), but WWE absolutely had developed a dullard style before it happened. The thing with Benoit, and it's even more apparent today, is that it really has nothing to do with pro-wrestling and taking hard bumps and everything to do with systemic patriarchal violence (men killing their wife along with the family when they want to go away is something that happens a whole lot). The entire discourse about "safe work" (aka "smart work", which really said nothing of the work itself but was a sign of distinction for those who had said discourse) that got really in vogue after that point had a bizarre pro-wrestling bubble pseudo moral stance (when you think it led to the massive rehabilitations of guys like Lawler and Invader I in our circles, what a joke, really) doubled with a heavy dose of gatekeeping, which to some degree is still in effect today in term of prescriptive views of what pro-wrestling "should" be. All of this happened at a time when there was not the same perceptions of violence either, Benoit not only was revered as the GOAT (as they would say today about a dozen guys) but also a great human being in a sleazy business, ignoring some of what would be considered red flags today (in term of backstage hazing for instance, during the wonderful days of JBL and Taker running the locker room, and of course, domestic violence). But anyway, I just drifted. As far as WWE style went, it would take a stylistic study to see when the dull style got really prevalent and with which workers, and probably there's something to be said about them not feeding themselves into other sources because, well, there were none anymore (none that they would touch for a while at least) after they had dried up the territories and WCW/ECW (which basically were the remains of the territories) days. The style evolved past that point when they got interested in other sources again. Bray Wyatt, to get back to him, is a product of the former period.