El-P

Holy fuck. Does he have Alberto's number ? I do not even want to listen to Drake's shit. How is this shit even real ? EDIT : WAIT WAIT WAIT : In French no less. So, Jasmine is actually a real-life racist piece of shit, this is not an act, people. (context : a young 12 girl was killed by a woman that happens to be an irregular immigrant and the extreme-rights and fascists have jumped on this like the worst people on earth that they are to weaponize the poor girl's death and make it about immigrants, last week there were actually people manifesting "for Lola" to the chants of "Immigrants, murderers", yep, that is happening in France right now and it's vomit inducing, the country is gonna be like Italy, Sweden or Hungary in 5 years at this rate)

I agree 100% with all this. And again, I *like* CM Punk as a performer, a whole lot, and I also probably agree with him about a whole lot more beyond pro-wrestling than I would with the Young Bucks for instance (I have no idea what Omega's social/political thoughts are). I will always praise him for wearing that shirt in fucking Texas. But it is what it is.

Did they really need to book Karl Anderson (of all people, BTW) at the Saudi show ? Of course not. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Yeah, I'm sure that ends whatever goodwill there was between the two companies. And really now, Micheals talked about NXT Japan in the future, so you know where this is going again.

AEW doing what they do best, rebounding from a bad show (and really now, Rampage last week was not good, with some legit hilariously cringe moment like Jade leaving the ring 5 seconds after saying she would take the show hostage and not leave). This Dynamite was pretty awesome, excellent matches after excellent matches, the MJF babyface turn in motion, Renee Paquette's influence apparently already showing with interview segments, the Elite vignette signaling their return while taking in account the "AEW Doom & Gloom" melancholic aspect that has been felt by the first days audience, Riho & Hayter killing it together (damn, Riho is so good, everytime she comes back it's like I forgot how actually good she is) with the right person winning, leading toward the Storm match with no bullshit. I love the banter between Taz & Schiavone during PiP too (I must say I do not miss JR one bit on the show, as he's being phased down apparently). Yep, great rebound.

Because no one wants to talk about Vince being outed of WWE for being a sexual predator. Everyone is too busy praising Triple H for saving pro-wrestling again. Vince being erased is comfy for everyone involved, especially since the company is hotter that's it's been in a while (which, honestly, began under Vince's last months).

Sure, of all the things that had been reported, and BTW what was reported always came from Punk's side and not the Elite, for those who bother, the fact a FUCKING DOG got injured just did not slip through before. Like it was not something that would have got out immediately and get *everyone*'s sympathy toward Punk, despite his melt-down. Just now that Steel has been fired and Punk basically is on the outs and the Elite is coming back, Punk's camp adds a "Oh BTW, my dog got injured". Sure... As Bix put it : And really now, "none of the stuff at the scrubs seemed like a big deal", but Hangman's little dig during a promo was enough for him to lose his shit ? Seriously now. That got a legit laugh out of me. Previous details agreed upon before was that the dog was across the room with Steel's wife, and now he had his teeth knocked out by a locked door that was kicked in ? And this part of the story never was told before while everybody agrees Steel threw a chair and Punk punched a guy ? And there's this stuff about Omega actually trying to get the dog out of the way to protect him too. This is really getting confused now...

I had listened to it of course, and I did not take it that way. Listening to it again, he says that Punk was going in with the veteran mindset of wanting to teach a bunch of people the way to do things, and because some of them had been told over and over again that what they do is wrong, despite the fact they have been very successful doing things that way, then it comes off the wrong way to them and therefore they don't want to listen. Then he goes on about he, himself, when he first saw those guys (and really we're talking mostly about the Bucks here I'm guessing), he thought they were doing everything wrong. And he admits he actually had to learn *from* them because it was successful. From there he goes about on about a broader point about the business changing quickly and tells the story of the interview he did with Watts, which is a story he tells pretty often (with the followup call to Pillman). Then he says that Punk was away from 7 years BUT : "He does have a lot of experience and some of the things that he says are right, are going to be right, and some of the young talent could learn a lot from his experience. You can always learn from experience. But others, because they have learned from their own experiences more recently (...) when someone tells them something is wrong (...) they are gonna block it out and say we've heard it all before." So yeah, he did not paint CM Punk as an out of touch boomer offering prehistoric advices, and he did not compare him with Bill Watts either. Thanks for the timestamp.

The Jeff Jarrett vs Dixie Carter's promos in September about holding shares in the company and power overturns are absolutely fascinating considering this entire angle was basically real life, as basically the Carter's were legit buying Jarrett out for good after he left in 2013, so they agreed on the HoF spot and GFW promotion on their TV (well, what was left of it) in exchange for Jarrett going the fuck away (until he came back with Anthem.... before leaving again, because he's Jeff Jarrett). I can't wait to hear the podcast episode about that one.

Precisely my point. People "reading between the lines" doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Whatever the "truth" may be about Cabana's position, whatever it was, being hurt by Punk's arrival, the thing is, we don't really now what happened. Hangman using the line was a good line for a promo, which back then was very much a case of Shawn/Bret in 97, with stiff shots taken that played on backstage stuff. Like I said, Punk had all the right to be pissed about it, whether it was right or wrong. But the way he retaliate was highly unprofesional because it fucked with the program. What also did not happen as far as "people reading between the lines", is a grand conspiracy by the Elite feeding their friend Meltz who talked about Punk as an "out of touch boomer" (which *never* happened, anyone not hate-listening to Meltz knows that, he never painted Punk that way). It's the same thing as the infamous "Young Bucks are avoiding FTR because they don't want to put them over"... then the Bucks put FTR over on TV in an great match but there's no way to winning that argument anyway, the Elite trigger people for reasons that have nothing to do with anything other than people are pissed at them forever. Even when the "antagonist" is CM Punk, who was the poster boy for being a volatile prick for basically his entire career. This. The entire thing is a debacle, and the Elite (although the role of Omega isn't clear in term of was he a cool down factor or not) should not have acted the way they did, but in term of strictly business, one guy fucked with the program, one guy totally shit on the company during a press conference and one guy threw a punch. It's the same guy and it's Punk. And although I'm sure some people around here still paint me as "the Elite stan" and you know what, as far as pro-wrestling goes, sure. But I LOVED Punk's stint until then, and this will deprive me of matches I really though I was gonna get, one of which being Punk vs Omega, so indeed, it's not fun. But at this point, I already moved the fuck on from Punk. His absence really hasn't hurt the company like some people thought it would after the press conference, and although the silence on this from TK gets to the point of being ridiculous (really now, AEW was better than this at first), one thing the company has done pretty well is moved on too in term of booking, which they would have too anyway since Punk got injured.

It's not a double standard. There's a HUGE difference between taking a shot that may be a low-blow during a promo exchange that is part of building toward a big match and calling out someone who is not even there and who is not supposed to get in the ring at this point and reply.

Brian James making a fool out of himself in the process. A normal day at the office. Dutch, I'm disappointed about. I thought he was smarter than this. Untrained "wrestler", complete with quotation marks, really now ? Maybe he's gonna end up in Bray Wyatt's new family or something....

Maybe this source red between the lines that Colt Cabana vanishing in thin air once CM Punk got hired had everything to do with Punk pulling his political weight to screw his former friend... And so reading *this* between the lines is complete bullshit, but reading between the lines of an elaborate political hit by the Elite against CM Punk is just making sense is a very objective manner ? Sure... As far as Hangman using that line in a promo, why the hell not. It was in a context of an exchange inside the ring building for a match, using stiff points on each others *back and forth*. CM Punk did not like it (and he had every right to not like it, whether the assertion was true or not BTW), but instead of dealing with it as a pro, he chose to make a stupid, unscripted call-out of Hangman and insulted him *while he wasn't even there*, *while he was not involved in an angle with him*, on live TV, knowing he would make Hangman look like an idiot for not responding. He crossed the line of being unprofessional *during the show*, it had nothing to do with building a match at all by then. And then of course the ridiculous public meltdown and the punching backstage, which pretty much everyone agrees on as @NintendoLogic said. Really now...

Through their anti-Elite bias. I mean, let's be serious for a minute here. CM Punk is the one who had been acting like a complete unprofesionnal prick *twice*. It's easy to "read between the lines" and make up stuff about political hits and whatnot, but there's one guy who has been acting like a little shit on TV and during the press conference here. I don't see where the sympathy comes from, really. And I have been enjoying Punk a whole lot, so it's not like I wasn't a fan of his stint thus far either, no certainly no anti-CM Punk bias from me. I love everybody (well, not everybody everybody, ok ?). I for one hope the Elite gets back on TV soon now and this debacle gets put in the rearview mirrors. As far as Punk goes, there's something that gets totally undersold, is that his body has been betraying him very badly. Wins the title, hurts his foot and out for months. Gets back, wins the title and gets hurt *again* and was gonna be out anyway even if the debacle had not happened.

It's kinda funny, Bray Wyatt seems to be one of those "super creative" people who actually has about two or three ideas and recycles them over and over with slight variations. In that sense, yeah, he's made to work in Hollywood making shitty horror franchise re-boots over and over again. Isn't there some half-ass Cicada3301 references in this ? That's.... dated.

It what ways AEW is not a national promotion that is an alternative to WWE ? Really now. They are a three years and a half old promotion. They have done more than TNA ever did. They don't have the same context WCW had, coming off from the most successful territory and already being on TV forever by the point they got really successful. As far as having something for everyone, well, it has, really. The whole "The Elite screwed CM Punk over" is basically a nice fiction for everyone anti-Elite, but let's be real, the only factual thing everybody knows, is that CM Punk acted like an unprofessional prick by publically burying a promotion that signed him to a fat-ass money contract. That's the only factual thing anyone on this board has access to. The rest is just people making assumptions based on their own bias. The strong anti-Elite bias being what it is, I guess even in this case it's enough to make Punk the "good guy" in this occurence, despite many, many people reacting to his meltdown as plain "Well, Punk does it again, no surprise there". Honestly, if I'm Paul Lesveque, although the idea of getting Punk can seem appealing on some level, I would stay the fuck away from him at this point. He doesn't need him *at all*. They were a territory before becoming WCW, they were not a jumpstart promotion. Totally different context, also in term of how TV business works. They lasted 13 years, but their downfall is probably the most pathetic ever in pro-wrestling. Never drew jackshit, never sold PPV's, never were competitive in any way shape or form with WWE. Who knows. The fact is, the most menacing threat to AEW is not booking, it's not injuries, it's not WWE, it's merger of big media companies. I've been very critical of a lot of things about the company in the last 6 months (to the point that overall, I enjoy IMPACT more than AEW lately, especially as a weekly TV product leading to regular bigger shows), at least, but the impending doom discussion seems ridiculous to me. The company has done much better than they had the right to following-up on this Punk/Elite debacle actually.

Penelope Ford injured again ?! Oh no . She had looked so good since her return.

As I always watch in delay these days, there it went again with the "OH NO !" as I had avoided spoilers. AEW can't seem to catch a break. Great job by the ref though. Glad Page is doing okay. Hopefully it doesn't get bad long-term for him. Apart from that, it was a pretty great show, from the dynamic opener to the MIND-BLOWING MJF/Regal segment, a really good Shida vs Storm match with the super cool return from Riho (who's still probably the best worker in the division, and always gets herself over), Dalton Castle who really looked strong against Jericho. Willow signing ! Yep, she's gonna be one of them. She's can't miss.

Yeah, going from the mostly really good Dark Sides series to this is such a huge plunge in quality. It's like hearing old anecdotes from RF videos all over again with annoying production tricks. I would rather just watch Back to the Territories from the KC Vault instead. This is so awful. Nash must be so heartbroken. Just unbelievably tragic.

As far as Punk goes, there is talk of contract buy-out now. Hopefully, with Ace Steel gone too, that means the door is open for the Elite to come back.

AEW is the N°2 pro-wrestling promotion in the world. It has been in position to challenge WWE in term of ratings and swapping talents. It totally changed the landscape of the business, all in three years and being created from nothing. And in subjective term, it has gave me the best and most fun pro-wrestling show ever for about two years (and a half ?) and still delivers some ridiculously great stuff. What a disappointment, for sure... The idea that AEW would be a second WWE is ridiculous. Fuck, they should NEVER be as successful as they are. And really, the last thing I want is someone trying to be another WWE. Let them run shows in stadiums with shitbag influencers in Saudi Arabia. I don't need another company like this in my pro-wrestling landscape. I like my AEW and IMPACT, with some AAA, NJPW and Stardom thrown in from time to time.

I would LOVE for Danielson to re-sign with AEW after his contract ends, but I doubt he will. You never know though, but to me guys like him and Regal probably will end up back in WWE at one point, with Paul & Shawn at the helm of the main roster and NXT. I selfishly don't want it, but I would be surprised if Danielson doesn't chose to end his career in WWE, which was his home for so long. But yeah, the one thing that probably was undersold in all the wild signings is to actually constitute a locker room that works well together. Of course when things go well, everyone is happy. But still, it's obvious some presences aren't a good fit for AEW's locker room, nothing to do with their in-ring talent or potential star power. We've seen how CM Punk ended up being a bad idea, how guys like Black or Andrade basically only went to AEW because they got fired from WWE but really preferred to be in WWE. And this is the stuff we can't really grasp, because a lot of this knowledge is totally unknown to the outside world except when something like the last few debacles happen. I remember Kevin Sullivan talking about this in an old KC shoot, how there was a lot more than just making matches and angles to managing a locker room, and this is the stuff that only is known through interpersonal relationships.

Of course not. No one is getting creative control anywhere anymore. The last one was Hogan in WCW, and we know how that ended. I hope PCO is the next one in line after Dalton Castle !

Because "Interim champ" sounds like shit. It makes the person holding it secondary, not entirely validated, it makes it look like nothing really matters until the REAL champ comes back, and then we have to have automatically an "unification" match, making things until then pretty meaningless. If the interim champ wins, then why not have them be the legit champ to begin with; if they lose then oh well they really weren't the champs and their reign ends up kinda worthless as they were just used a placeholder. There was never any need for this in pro-wrestling before. I don't care if that's what they do in MMA, no one cares. Vacating the champion and having a new one makes everything clear and simple : the champ is the champ and there's no need to wait for the former champ to come back to actually do something with them, it's just gonna be some angle in the future *if necessary*. Not the same thing in term of booking and perception. Also, it seems like Toni Storm is legit annoyed by it. Mox sure sounded legit annoyed with it. Sounds counterproductive on every level, for no good reason apart from "but MMA does it".

After Mox, that's AEW cementing its basis in term of what the promotion is all about : those who made it since day one. I sure hope the Elite will come back and stay around too, although at this point I would not be that surprised to see them show up in WWE which would be absolutely hilarious on every level for the reactions of the WWE stans alone (ya know, don't know how to work, not real stars, all that good shit). Also, positive locker room atmosphere as opposed to toxic people. And yeah, Mox vs Hangman will bang, as you young people put it. Also, Toni Storm is right. Gotta do away with the Interim bullshit. This has served no purpose in the grand scheme of things, only made confusing situations more confusing (see also : Mox after Punk). She wasn't the one to win it when she did (Hayter was), but the fact it's hammered down that she's "interim" has really hurt the perception of her as a star. This Interim shit needs to go. The champ is out, then the belt is vacated, and the next one to win it is the champ.

This guy is a legit legend of lucha now. I know he doesn't cut promos in English (his brother does), but damn AEW at one point should push both Penta and Fénix as serious single stars.