El-P

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.

I hope Nick Khan explains us how it's a great move for WWE that Vince has paid off yet another woman who has accused him of rape, I really do. The amount of mental gymnastic would be uncanny valley level of cerebral twists.

The amazing outpour of love from the pro-wrestling community is a pretty telling story of how much this guy was universally loved. It's really heartbreaking.

"Who remembers him ?"

The same. I had this brief moment of "Is that Gerry he means ?", because it made no sense otherwise. Life is absurd.

WTF ?!

You really want a 27 parts podcast on Bret Hart, don't ya...

Despite the good premises, TNA in 216 was actually mostly dreadful in term of output. The only people holding the thing together are the Hardy family (Jeff, Matt & Rebi) doing their crazy thing, and do they go crazy, Maria Kanellis as a complete unbearable entitled delusional Karen (meanwhile, the try-hard overpush of Mike Bennett is giving me retroactive PTSD, and I do like Bennett today but this was painfull as all hell) with Allie at her side (damn, she was so great in her role, give the Bunny some food already, she can do so much) and Lashley/Galloway/ECIII as top guys. But WAY TOO FUCKING MUCH talking all the time, an X-division rendered into an afterthought (I guess Corgan did not like the flippy dudes, uh, I mean, Tyrus was right there, that's talent), Decay was a cool presentation but it was still Abyss & Crazy Steve, mind you.... Slammiversary was actually a really good show, but the weekly TV is just a complete drag to get through most of the time. Al Snow with two French assholes (legit) doing goofy shit with Grado & Shera is everything you need to know about the undercards, alongside Eli Drake lame as hell "talk show" segment which made his entire gimmick so tired back then already (dummie, yeah, gawwwwd shut the fuck up).

Let's say the timing of him showing his wrinkled dick face just a few weeks after Vince gets back in power despite you know what, all of it makes it one hell of a story to tell in term of how much "the culture has changed". That's the same company that could not keep Mandy Rose for "moral issues" that was deeply detrimental to its image, ya know...

Ya know, AAA is maybe taking the whole "We'd like to work with WWE instead of AEW now" a weee bit too far now...

No shit he has already taken over.

The ultimate irony is that, the ONLY reason it can happen is because of AEW happening. If Cody doesn't come back from a red hot AEW, he's the former Stardust who had a bite in ROH, IMPACT and NJPW. He's not even close to a main event star to their eyes. Even after All In, there's no way Cody comes back with this kind of status. Their star making process has been so broke over the years that it took a strong competition to actually build one of their former whatever talent to a legit star status in their own eyes. I'm not convinced he's beating Roman. They probably should do it and shoot their shot with Cody while the iron is hot, but I'm not convinced it happens.