El-P

I am not gonna lie. I kinda get a kick out of everyone going crazy because they'll get the Good Brothers always, all the time. These guys are such smooth operators. That's call working, bruthas.

You won't see something more iconic this year than the Pentagon Jr. vs Villano IV post-match. Match itself was as good as you'll get from 57 years old Villano IV in what is supposed to be an epic match. And really, apart from a few spots where he badly showed his age (damn, Penta threw himself into that table, hilarious shit), it was an epic, classic mask vs mask match. That springboard footstomp on that pink old fuck looked like it killed him. Awesome stuff you'll only see in lucha libre. And really, the Lucha Brothers owned the night, with Fénix having one hell of a match against Vikingo, with a few out of this world spots. I do think Fénix is the one who hold it together though, playing subtle rudo at points. With these two matches back to back, it's probably the best Triplemania I've ever seen. And yeah, Pagano vs Cibernetico sucked, but what did you expect. Pagano did his very best, and the ending was actually super smart in its insanity, teasing a table spot from the top of a ladder, only to drop the other way through the stage. Awesome visual. Taya vs Kamille was quite good, with Taya sporting an awesome La Parka tribute outfit, really nice of her. Kamille displayed some nice heeling tendencies too. The other two matches were very fun. Johnny Caballero's entrance was ridiculous, that guy stole the show in his match by being a complete doofus and asshole at the end. Willie Mack dancing in front of the Mexican audience is never getting old. Psycho Clown got his old theme back, thankfully. Super fun show, as Triplemania always is, but this one really had a lot of good stuff and just a terrific 1-2 punch finale.

Didn't Vader work that Dome show though ? I may mix thing up. Taker working a MPro show, with Sunny doing the ring announcing and Brother Prichard managing, was one of the most surreal thing ever. Crazy to think how much WWF was working with outside promotions then (including ECW). People raised on the 00's and 10's probably don't understand that at all.

I remember they were working with several companies back in 97, with Vader, Shamrock & Foley appearing in FMW shows and the New Blackjacks taking part in the RWTL at the end of the year (and the AAA guys at the Rumble of course). I think there was talk back then of Kobashi working WWF. Imagine how WWF would have presented Kobashi in 97, holy shit. Not sure about a Starrcade-like plan though, but I'd say it was probably XIII as they were looking for something, anything to counter-program WCW's rise, by XIV they had the ball rolling with Austin & Tyson already.

Except that stuff wasn't on TV. It was after the show. And actually, pro-wrestling is not a cartoon. They are not drawings, they are real people. And pro-wrestling is much more than a "real life cartoon". Pro-wrestling is always on the thin frontier between reality and fiction, which is why some moments that are "real" in the pro-wrestling sense actually are real, and some emotions purveyed by pro-wrestling actually goes beyond fiction. Because it's not theatre, nor movie, there's still that bizarre awkward relationship with reality that makes pro-wrestling fascinating. I'd rather live in a time where pro-wrestlers (and other performers) are seen as actual humans beings too, with the good (that kind of empathy and better understanding of people) and bad (harrassment on social media, because people are shit) that goes with it. Anyway, that was a nice post-show segment. Good for Shawn Spears.

Yep. In this case, both were good in themselves, but I was like "Wait, they basically did the exact same angle twice in a row on the same show". Oh yeah, I'm glad Dalton Castle gets featured too.

That sure was something. Sometime we forget that are actual people.

They should cancel the Saudi shows, that's what they should do. Until then, fuck this company, still. The looming embarrassment of the Qatar World Cup makes the apparent normalization of the WWE Saudi shows even worse, because there's at least talks about how fucking shameful this is.

Yeah. Fuck that shit, he can stay home and thank subs while playing video games instead of risking his life.

Slowly catching up with IMPACT from this Summer. Yep, enjoying it more than AEW at this point. The July stuff had a LOT of terrific matches. The Killer Kelly vignettes is the stuff AEW needs (among other things). Very selfishly, I kinda hope Deonna, Josh and Callihan stays in IMPACT forever, they are SO AWESOME in this setting. That's the thing with smaller ponds, sometimes it's just more fun and some people shine there way more than they ever could in a bigger company, and it's not at all a matter of lesser talent (let's be real, who is more talented and compelling to watch, the fucking Miz and Bray Wyatt or Josh Alexander and Deonna Purrazzo ?). I guess I enjoy the smaller ponds better, in the end (aka ECW back in the days, LU in the 10's).

Well, these people are dumb as fuck, therefore... Stalling until Christian Cage comes back ? And yes, it sucks and is hurting Jungle Boy. The match was really fun, but I was appalled by the result. JUST DO SOMETHING ELSE. This feud is bad WWE level frustrating now. Let's be real, the episodic nature of the show, apart from the top angles, is not good in term of the undercard and mid-card. We had that really good Storm/Shida vs Baker/Hayter match, and once again, there was *nothing* furthering the story of Baker and Hayter. ZILCH. It's like they are also stalling until Rosa or something comes back. Meanwhile, Hayter is gonna lose steam, or at least it's a risk, and there's no explanation why all of a sudden Hayter is fine with Baker. And there could be, just tell the story. Another exemple. We have now THREE angles about making business deals and buying contracts, The Firm with Private Party & Matt hardy, which really comes from nowhere and was a complete afterthought, Jose the NPC wanting to buy Soon-to-be-not#10-anymore for whatever reasons, and Daivari from WCW Saturday Night wanting to buy Hook's title apparently. If I never hear "buy this guy's contract" EVER AGAIN on AEW TV it'll be too soon. Shawn Spears getting the Perfect #10 gimmick back is certainly an idea. At least that way he can get over I guess, but retreading to old NXT stuff from years ago doesn't feel fresh at all. Glad Brian Cage is back on TV. The fact he comes off the most charismatic of his trio says a whole lot about Gates of Agony though... Like, yikes, this isn't MLW. The Kingdom in AEW ? I say YES. A case of the whole being much better than the sum of the part. Were very fun in NJPW years ago and come from a very fun stint in IMPACT as part of Honor No More. And speaking of IMPACT, someone in AEW should watch the product to get how to shoot backstage stuff and introduce new people. They literally TRUMP AEW on that matter, with vignettes and build-ups (as well as episodic booking, tbh). The way the Kingdom walked in and Excalibur almost casually said "It's the Kingdom" was legit cringe in term of making it look like "yeah, whatever, these guys are here". Mox vs Hangman promo segment was great. The Jericho ROH stuff is great. PAC is a MONSTER worker, everything he does is absolutely incredibly great, even the way he contorts his body as he falls down selling a punch. Technically (not in the "technical way" as in ZSJ, but in term of mastering everything about the technics of pro-wrestling) probably the best pro-wrestler in the world. I wanna see him every week for ever. Match against Orange was wonderful and Orange winning was an awesome moment, well deserved too. It's not like I don't enjoy the product anymore, I do, I think some of it is still great. But there are many issues to fix, both in term of booking (not matchmaking, because that's the strong point of AEW, no one can compete with that part, but rather the episodic element of it) and production (always the same issues, rushed, repetitive backstage stuff, no time to breathe especially on Rampage, questionable directing choice that makes them look like WWE at times). The Blade looks eerily like Goldberg. And Bunny almost had me wanting to sing Oh Canada ! More of them + the Butcher on TV, please. Way more.

Well, these people are dumb as fuck, therefore...

Seriously. It's a tweet. Literally no one cares. It's not real life. As far as giving credit to whomever did it first, yeah, people have borrowed from everyone everywhere forever. It's 2022 and I still wait for anyone giving credit to Etsuko Mita whenever someone does a Death Valley Driver.

He's SO humble and harsh on himself. Gotta love how he praises Bret. Got a kick out of "the show sucked" about Mania 11 and "I thought I was at a Michinoku Pro show" for a terrible gate. WWE in the mid-90's did not sound much fun at all, and even worse for a foreigner barely speaking the language.

So basically, he's right.

Do some people in the US still think "Born in the USA" is a patriotic song ? People only listened to the chorus I guess...

Fascinating stuff. More gets uploaded on regular basis. Thanks to BAHU for sharing this. https://twitter.com/BAHUFMW/status/1579628681328459777

They probably don't get what the movie is about either. Like gangsta rappers apparently not having watched the entirety of Scarface and stopped midway through.

Gallows displays shitloads of personality on TV (well, in IMPACT he did at least). Kross, not so much. I don't know what her hair color has to do with it really, to me the issue is that Scarlett on her own is a fun character/worker, and she's being kinda wasted in this role. She's good at it, but she could be more on her own. Kross is a bizarre case of WWE seeing big things in him when IMPACT did not even bother to make him a main event player.

Give that shit to EVIL then. Forever. And keep him and especially Dick Togo on those smaller shows, whatever they are.

Dexter Lumis is basically the same thing as Samuel Shaw, which was basically Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Angelina Love literally got her name from porn actress Angelina Love.

This is as Vince's WWE as anything I've ever seen. Awful bump in the cake too, Maryse being Maryse notwithstanding.

Guess what we get at the Tokyo Dome ? The final of a tournament for a new title. Because NJPW needs a new title. New titles are always a good thing. Everybody wants more tournaments for new titles, because that's the pure sports build everyone has been craving for since the days of Bill Watts. New titles is something AEW should do too, there's never enough new titles and the final of a tournament for a new title is the most exciting thing in pro-wrestling, especially when every match doesn't have a title in line yet. Every match should be for a title, therefore new titles are always welcomed.

He'll probably lose the title at the next big show in Osaka. Totally forgot they had one NJPW title still. Like I said, they are smooth fucking operators.