El-P

Yeah, that's a puzzling piece of booking for sure. AAA probably don't give a flying fuck though. And really now, who are FTR facing at the ROH PPV for the ROH titles. Don't tell me "No one", ok ? FTR kinda got screwed by the Acclaimed getting over huge at the same time they collected belts. If the Acclaimed doesn't catch up like they did, they sure win the titles from Swerve/Lee (or the Hardies if Jeff doesn't fall off the wagon).

It happened. The day Matt probably enjoys AEW as a whole more than I do ! Never say never people ! I was thinking about this lately, that if I watched current AEW like I did my TNA watch (I've reached 2016, almost done), with the benefit of hindsight and detached from the notion of "hope" (which can be detrimental, actually), I would most probably enjoy it a lot more, because the good to great stuff wouldn't be hurt by the bad and frustrating stuff, which would be irrelevant by now. I would already know what I can ff without any second thought, I wouldn't have any "business" thought in the back of my mind either that would make me second guess some of the stuff I enjoy for what it is, but may not be productive in the long run.

Yep. No skateboard though. Can still do a decent belly-to-belly. Ricky Morton was there also, but he's been pretty active anyway. And Babydoll. Rare occurence of Gia Miller working too, she's doing the backstage announcing on the regular shows. Very fun show, as always. It's also interesting how most of the current guys *could* work exactly like it's 1985 if they wanted to. Mike Bailey was pretty awesome at doing early 80's mid-level "flying" spots and moving/bumping like a guy from this era. Trey Miguel (who was working the infamous Bill Ding the Evil Architect gimmick) was excellent at it too.

So, Rampage hit rock bottom ratings. Not surprising. At times it comes off less than a B-show and almost Dark Rampage. I have no idea what was the thought, or lack of thought behind this. At this point, I'm only watching it out of habit and really could drop it from my viewing habits without regretting much. Since it doesn't draw well at all, maybe making this the ROH based show would not be the worst idea, since TK seems hellbent on making that stuff a thing. 2023 is gonna be tough for AEW, and that's the year they will negociate for a new deal. Rampage is hurting their overall rating presentation. At the very least for the entire Mania season starting with the Rumble, WWE is gonna roll over them in term of hype, with rumors of The Rock, Austin, Cena at Mania, not to mention Sasha Banks if Trip plays his cards right. By default, this is already the biggest Rumble ever and the biggest Mania ever. AEW needs to find its own way, and they can't count on being "the alternative for disgruntled WWE viewers", because this is not that dynamic anymore. Maybe it's time to try something different, catching up back with some of the spirit of what made AEW to begin with. Something even more different.

The fun fact here is that the quote is about his work in NXT.

From what I've heard, you're on average a whole lot better imitating the French from France way of speaking than we are imitating the Quebec accent (I know, there are a bunch of different ones, like in France).

Sure. Back in the days the young workers used to sit under the learning tree and listened to every word of wisdom geniuses like Ole Anderson would tell them, like how Ric Flair's work was the shits and how he wasn't a draw. Wait, no, they did not care either, I remember a Rick Martel interview where he expressed how frustrated he was in the 70's because the old guys would refuse to work the "flying spots" he wanted do to. And instead of playing video games on their phones, they sure shot roids, did drugs and banged "rats". Oh and they played cribbage with Andre too, which I guess is akin to whatever video game you can play today while bored in the locker room. Same old same old.

Mike Bailey is just awesome. If you go stereotypical, go for broke. Gotta love the nice effort hiding his Quebec accent too when he spoke French. And unlike pretty much every American trying to do the French speaking English with a terrible accent and failing (see : Inspecteur Clouseau), he showed exactly how it's done. And yes, he cheated his way to the win using a baguette shot. The entire show was a hoot. We even got the Dynamic Dude Shane Douglas making a babyface run-in.

Bolded : that's the ultimate boomer line, really. People on their phone at any time in 2022, how shocking. Sounds like "damn those millennials playing video games" stuff we heard since the 00's. Because we like Regal as a performer doesn't mean we should ignore when he's saying stupid shit. And yeah, there has something to be said when we talk about management issues. Sure, there are management issues in AEW. Meltzer mentionned that the office staff of WWE totally dwarfs AEW's, and the reason is twofold : WWE is a huge machine that has been there as the dominant juggernaught for more than 35 years now, and the other is that TK invested mostly in talent and not so much on the office. The other thing is that, we can bash AEW's "immaturity" all we want, but it's also a company built by people learning on the job (speaking of the EVP's). They probably need to work on the office staff for sure. And also, if the model of "good management" is WWE in the last 20 years, holy shit, now this is really a fucked up way of looking at things. Sure, we hear that "the culture is changing", but last I checked, a holocaust denier was given a job opportunity last week, and I've watched Paul & Stephy give "his excellency" LGBT killer a honorary belt. Like @Coffey said, I'll gladly take some immaturity and EVP's acting like shitposters over any of this. The tweet by Pillman also makes you think there is an overstatement from the older guys side on the fact "no one would listen to them", which is not surprising either.

These two should be like the Rougeaus in Montreal right now. Biggest Quebec stars in the history of WWE for sure. Hey, speaking of people who used to be smart but are now completely irrelevant old fucks, here's Dutch Mantell saying Kevin Owens looks like car driver and doesn't have the body fitting the promotion, and that he blows up and is not in good in-ring shape. The same Mantell who jumped on AEW during the fake Athena drama where he called her untrained and such. Damn, I used to think so highly of this guy's mind. "La vieillesse est un naufrage" (aging is a sinking ship), as De Gaulle would say.

Gotta love how it's formulated like Regal left WWE to go to AEW. He got paid a probably nice amount of money to work with Brian Danielson again, I'm sure he "immediately regretted it" while not having a job with WWE anymore (and considering where Triple H was in the totem pole then, he wasn't gonna come back anytime soon).

That's the main point. There are a bunch of people who ended up in AEW but who really only wanted to be in WWE, but they took the job because they got fired by Vince and he would not sign them back in a hurry. Vince being out and Trip being back in power totally changed the deal for all those people. Regal included. Regal probably more than anyone else.

Damn, he's controlling Regal's narrative now. That's from an interview ECIII did with Vince Russo. Talk about great source. But hey, I'm sure when you compare WWE and AEW, not the same kind of machinery, for sure. The later is obviously lacking in management. The former.... well, considering the last 20 years, probably better say nothing about it. It's a company that sent Mickie James her stuff in a plastic bag and fired a lot of people during the pandemic. But they sure are a lot more professionals in term of running things in a professional way. Especially now that Vince has gently retired after a fruitful career.

Not even sure what you are asking there. TV role and actual backstage mentors is two different things. And there's only one I can judge, as a spectator. As TV characters, I never cared for the babyface coach role. Arn was efficient at times with Cody, yes, and it was cool to have him trade spots with Tully too. Dustin I don't remember really what he did as a coach. I remember that awkward angle with Thunder Rosa. More than anything Dustin was cool to have as a worker, because I've been a fan forever. Regal in AEW had some great spots. But I agree with the sentiment that overall, past the pleasure of seeing him again, he did not came off super important to me. It was just cool to have him around. It honestly won't change the product much to me in term of what's actually on the screen. Backstage, what do I know ? Old guys complaining about young guys not listening is just how it is.

Yeah, younger people don't like to listen to older people. Wow, what a novel concept. That's amazing and such an huge issue. Wait, it's been that way since the beginning of times. The only people thinking it's an issue are the older guys. In 30 years, the same young people who don't listen will become the older guys telling the new generation they don't know how to work, and some 50 years old dude will yell at clouds about how back in the 20's pro-wrestling was much better because people knew how to work. Pro-wrestling is such a conservative environment and mentality. I wish there would be actual punk-rock attitude where 20 something would just tell 35+ years old workers to fuck off already. Maybe if pro-wrestling wasn't so obsessed with "tradition" and "paying dues", it would have evolved into something way more different and maybe more interesting too. And maybe that's part of why AEW has plateaued and the mood has drastically changed. AEW was born out of that idea of changing things. But three years later, it's basically just another pro-wrestling promotion, in some aspect really good and in others needing a whole lotta work. But it's just another pro-wrestling promotion. Maybe part of the hardcore audience wanted more, and they have been replaced by a more "generic" pro-wrestling audience, hence the kinda boring crowd you get sometimes. To me that's the issue with AEW, an issue that has really been hurting my enjoyment of it overall. Maybe I (and others) wanted something more bold. Bolder than, well, shitty angles with Bow Wow and Cole Karter getting a competitive match with Darby Allin.

And there we go. Regal is done and supposedly beginning with WWE early 2023, in a backstage role. What an ODD-ASS year for AEW.

Of course. And it says nothing about the Bloodline either, they are the biggest act in the company by far (well, with Wyatt I guess for now).

In other news, Dustin Rhodes announced on an indy show that he was gonna retire next year. Hopefully he gets some cool random matches in AEW and a nice send-off.

31% drop-off on Monday for the Bloodline segment apparently. So yeah, it's not just "who is in this segment" that matters. Agree that best out of 5 was probably enough, although I for one won't complain.

I always enjoyed E-li- Drake in IMPACT, for the time I saw in there, but I never saw him as a main event kinda guy, especially in a bigger league. Good for him though. The guy is 40 years old, so I guess now or never. It's crazy how growing his hair back makes him look that much less menacing. I heard he's a really nice, very friendly guy IRL, and with the hair he actually looks too much like it !

Nah. They're way too cheesy. (and that one is only making ME laugh. Just google what AOP means in French if you want)

I mean, they are legit the N°2 promotion in Japan, right ? That's unheard of. I wonder if they may be considered bigger than AAA at this point or not, which would make them the 4th company in the world, really. But at worst, they are probably top 5.

Even weirder, how does anyone even recognizes or remembers Kevin Thorn enough to spot him in a lumberjacks assembly ? I could not even spot him on WWECW once Ariel was gone. But hey, that's gonna be some fun random trivia in ten years or so, for sure.

My best guess is that he's gonna work with the NXT people and then moved to an agenting job, as he's pretty banged up. Damn, you're really not a fan a Trip's booking ! Speaking of which, who wins Booker of the Year award ? I'm pretty sure Coach TK is not gonna get it ( I mean, really now), and although most of the WWE drones would give it to Papa Trip (I fucking hate this nickname btw, it's so dumb), the reality is that WWE started its upswing during Vince's last few months. From there they got the momentum. Sure, Trip is gonna get the praise for the Bray Wyatt comeback, which has been incredibly successful thus far (then again, working against LA Knight ? A guy whom, like Kross, was never even a main event guy in IMPACT, ponder that for a moment), but I'm not sure how much of his is the Bloodline storyline (and how much is Heyman's, how much was Vince's). He probably wins it anyway, because of the success of the company. Gedo sure ain't winning. I would give it to Scott D'Amore, without hesitation. (hey, maybe Billy Corgan, for his brillant take on pro-wresting in 2022)

Yep. I'm still on the fence with MJF not going full babyface. I feel the crowd wasn't that hot for or against him this week. Same thing with Jaimie Hayter. It feels like they should have hit the mark of her split with Baker a while ago, and although she did get a big pop winning the title and they are clearly working toward the eventual split, we really are going at a snail pace again. Next PPV is March, seems way too far to extend this stuff until then. There's a risk of cooling down Jaimie in the meantime if they don't work hot angles with her and Baker going at it. Almost forgot, there is a subtle tease of Ortiz joining the House of Black, and honestly it would not be the worst idea. He's completely lost in the shuffle, and his aesthetics and style could fit right in (he loves to wear the death mask kinda paint). I sure hope we get that HoB vs Elite feud, as those trios matches would be killers again.