El-P

Interestingly enough, after a later part of 2014 that was pretty slow (but still mostly fun) and the really odd (but cool) Bound for Glory show from Korakuen Hall, pretty much totally detached from most of the booking, the 2015 re-debut in New York then in Great Britain was again a super fun and easy product to watch, culminating with the awesome ECIII vs Rockstar Spud match in London. I actually enjoyed the long-term James Storm vs Mickie James angle (you know, the one which culminated with Storm pushing Mickie on subway tracks, very LUesque infact), as James always shines in this kind of relationship-based angles, and James Storm's character as an evil cult leader was actually refreshing (and hell, he was making much more sense than Bray Wyatt ever did too). Best feud Nick Aldis ever did, really, although he did not bring anything special in the grudge match at the end. Tons of strong matches week-in week-out with the Wolves, Young, Aries, Roode, Lashley, Angle as well as the Beat Down Clan, and a few crazy performances by Jeff Hardy. And then Samoa Joe leaves quietly. Taz leaves quietly. And Billy Corgan gets in creative.... and things take a notable downturn. Just like the announcing team of Josh Matthews (who was perfectly fine alongside Callis and Madison Rayne later on) and Pope which gets really bad really fast, the booking gets way more gimmicky and screwy, almost Russoesque at times. It's really striking how quality drops super fast once Corgan gets on board (around May). By the time we get to the show following-up Slammiversary (basically an afterthought of a show, despite an awesome Aries vs Richards match), there's shitload of bullshit on the TV show. Jarrett & Karen showing up was kinda cool though.

Oh, wonderful.

Enlighten me, who's that jolly fellow next to the huge loser on the left ?

Very sorry. I was counting on Brazil to re-balance things up a bit after the Italy debacle. Who books this shit ?

The one thing about the core audience, is that there was a very strong engagement from them in term of supporting the product, buying tickets, buying merchandise, being super hot crowds. Now it seems a good part of their audience has been replaced with a more casual audience that not only is less engaged in buying stuff but also makes for more apathetic crowds, hurting the perception and the experience of AEW shows, which was so great at the beginnings and for a while. One thing is for sure, WWE is mainstream pro-wrestling. You can't change that. If you're not different, you're not WWE and you have to be less than WWE (this is what killed TNA). WCW got mainstream for a short while but they had Hogan/Piper/Savage/Flair, and AEW does not have this (and no, CM Punk wasn't this, the entire cult of CM Punk was part of that "anti-WWE" feeling that got so strong in the mid 10's and on). Chasing the dragon of being a mainstream promotion while having built your entire identity on being a hardcore at heart promotion was probably an insurmontable task. I for one would be happy with a clear cut smaller N°2 which is satisfying to watch as a hardcore pro-wrestling fan. Which I why I never cared one bit for Cody's lame attempt at mainstream attention and I don't care about acts like Wardlow. Hell, I was super happy with the 3 first seasons of Lucha Underground. I'm more interested in what's next, what's new and different. Maybe also, the simple truth is that real exciting and important stuff never lasts too long. ECW best days was about three years. WCW's peak was about three years. NJPW's super hot period in the 10's lasted a bit more, maybe 5 or 6 ? It comes and goes (literally also, if you catch my drift).

He's under contract until mid-2024 and TK is apparently not releasing jackshit so they can go to WWE. Really, Andrade vs #10 in some sort of "big" gimmick match is some extremely lame booking, makes Andrade look third rate. Crazy that Alan Angels and Stu Grayson did not get renewed, but #10 was kept under contract. Of all the Dark Order members...

Case in point : the most successful year of AEW in term of growth and hype was when Omega & the Bucks were finally booked on top and dominated the programs. The so-called "Elite drama", which BTW was long-term the bets booked and most compelling arc in pro-wrestling, spamming over several years and several companies, was finally taking its right spot in the company. Meanwhile Cody, who arguably was the biggest star from the Elite in 2019 and part of 2020, was doing Codyverse things that was very divisive to say the least and wasn't pushed as a top star anymore (he absolutely made the right move leaving when he did, he was the right guy at the right moment and turned himself into a biggest star in the process). And it led to Danielson, Punk & Cole signing which at the time looked to be the beginning of the next level for AEW. Except apart from a few big gates attributed mostly to Punk, that's not what happened. The neverending flux of talent coming from WWE, most of which in the end not making much difference after the initial pop, the seemingly ghosting of departing people who had been there since day 1 (some of whom who really did not need to go like Stu Grayson or Marko Stunt, who had much more to add), the awkward infiltration of ROH leading to a multiplication of useless titles (so now Joe & Wardlow who both hold secondary singles titles are a tag team, wonderful; remember Mercedes Martinez the ROH women champion ?) and oversaturation of new people when they don't have time to get their main brand roster over, all that probably played a part in the audience changing and being a lot less hot than it was before. The streak of injuries derailing booking plans + bullshit dramas (MJF, Punk) + people wanting to leave back to "Papa Trip" all makes for a completely different landscape in a different context. There is need for changes in AEW to adapt to the new context. The Money in the Bank briefcase is one of the worst trope WWE introduced in pro-wrestling. It's so annoying to see people with briefcases in NJPW and it's goofy as hell to see a giant chip. I sure hope they don't go toward the stupid cashes-in bookings. This. All this.

Agreed. How the crowds have evolved is also very much telling of a negative evolution. The shows in Philly and Albany had really shitty WWE-like crowds, sitting on their ass during matches, popping only for bigger stars and entrance/catchphrases (god, don't make the Acclaimed the new NAO, please) and eventually big moves, and not reacting to outsiders. Meltz mentioned how one year ago, a regular AEW crowd would have popped for Juice and go crazy for Bandido. The atmosphere is not the same. There's something to the fact that AEW at first was basically hardcore fans sick of WWE, who followed the Elite in ROH and NJPW and wanted them to continue their own story out of the WWE system. There was an sense of general excitement that is not there anymore. Let's face it, AEW right now is "just" another pro-wrestling company, especially after all the dramas and politic bullshit that happened this year. Not to mention issues with the booking, which at times badly lacks focus, the difficulty of building the women division underlined by an all-time bad segment of the promotion this week, which after a while makes it just as frustrating as it would be with any other promotion. I've been catching up a bit with IMPACT, which I had stopped watching during the Summer, and although things are very different in term of scale, roster and goals, I quickly forgot how fun and easy it is to watch and how *everything* is focused in term of weekly episodic TV (and really to pile it on, they had *three* women matches at Against All Odds, and all involved came off as bigger stars/characters that pretty much anyone in AEW save for Baker and Jade). AEW needs to be different than WWE, not recycle their shitty ideas from 20 years ago. Rampage is already a B-show that I watch out a straight habit at this point, I sure hope they don't get more TV time to fill. Thunder helped kill WCW sense of booking. Rampage has honestly been a completely skippable show for a while now, and adding another hour just to get more money won't help the product in the long run (yeah, I know, money will help the promotion, but please don't add another hour). I dunno what the solution is. WWE getting hotter again and the hope that everybody puts in Paul (for both legit and imaginary reasons) is hurting AEW and that's out of their control. AEW was born out of frustration with WWE as a pro-wrestling product. WWE getting better as a pro-wrestling product makes it harder for AEW, who can't just position themselves as "We are defending true pro-wrestling" anymore and sure need to fly the fuck away from anything too WWE-like, because getting this kind of audience is not gonna work for them. AEW need to keep being different. Coach TK needs some help with the booking of his undercard/midcard, the detail work of week-to-week writing and better formating of the shows.

Andrade feuding with JTTS #10 on Rampage says everything you need to know about how he's seen right now. Which is a shame honestly. Back in NXT with Zelina he came off like a surefire main eventer. They have totally screwed him up at first by putting him with Vicky Guerrero and he never really recovered despite the cool Cody Rhodes series of matches (which he lost in the end, like Malakai Black). The pairing with Whoever the Assistant never made any sense to me, one of my pet peeves in pro-wrestling has always been guys like the Assistant, bland second who don't bring anything to the act. He's been doing nondescript stuff every other weeks with his "stable" which has done nothing. He's been completely overshadowed by Rush in a span of a few weeks. Was that too hard to pair him with a hot latina valet who could talk for him and cheat and have him win the TNT title and have a lenghty reign ? It would not be surprising if the guy would want back in WWE to be alongside his wife, for sure. Hell, Zelina is doing nothing of note either there. They need to sign Bandido and push him and Rush as latino stars on a serious level.

Checked out NHK World just the the heck of it. Very first headline : Antonio Inoki passed away.

50 years after founding arguably the second most important pro-wrestling company ever (arguably because CMLL), Inoki passes away. He's legit one of the most famous and most important promoter/wrestler in history (top 3 ?) and one of the most insane too (top 1 ?). The Queen is dead, the King is dead.

I understand Christian got hurt but yeah, really now. The Christian turn was great. Since then, between the edgelords promos and the double-swerve / delayed because of injury, this angle has stalled Jungle Boy's arc for no good reason. He should move on after beating Luchasaurus and have Cage come back to screw him later on whenever he's ready to go. I feel like a broken record, but AEW needs a Scott D'Amore to book a consistant week-to-week product. The super exciting and feelgood period of All Friends Wrestling is gone. The era of barrage of surprises coming from Vince's WWE is done too, the paradigm has changed. TK needs to find the right balance now, he has a shitload of great talent, great relationships with IMPACT, NJPW, AAA and indies basically, there's unlimited potential there. But we need focus, attention to timing, some work on the backstage stuff which always feels rushed and repetitive (or don't do it at all), better booking of the women division with more emphasis on developing personalities and feuds that matter.

That's been a constant issue with some of their angles. They hit the exact right moment to hit the spot... and don't do it, for no good reason whatsoever. Jamie Hayter should have turned a few weeks back already, when the crowd was at its hottest for her (sadly for Toni Storm, it was not her time to win the title, that's not what the audience wanted). Hit the iron when it's hot, especially when you really don't have that much long-term plans. Same went for the Julia Hart turn, they totally screwed that one up (and really, apart from dressing up cool, poor Julie never had anything to do, until she took that wicked bump last week). The reason why the Hangman Page storyline was so good is basically because it was a long-term Elite angle, and they are the masters of it. I have no idea where they are going with Saraya, but this has to be by far the worst debut angle AEW ran since it's beginning (Andrade was bleh, but inoffensive, Miro was goofy but I had hope the wedding angle that it was leading toward would be great, which it wasn't in the end). Awful Stephy/Brooke Hogan vibes from it. Her talking about the "Revolution" like we need more reference to WWE revisionist history (the true "revolution" in US women's wrestling was in TNA with Gail Kim & Awesome Kong in 2007) was absolutely cringeworthy. This. Wardlow doing powerbombs has jumped the shark a while ago. Powerhouse Hobbs is better on pretty much every level (he's just not as tall). Get the TNT title on someone fun to watch at least. As far as the TBS title goes... I guess as long as Jade can do crazy shit like that catch of Diamanté last week, it still has some sails, but there has to be a point where thing evolves, it is stalling way too much now. Hopefully we get FTR vs the Acclaimed before FTR lose the IWGP titles too. The Acclaimed are super over and but really I don't think they even need to keep the title for too long. They could be an act that doesn't need it to stay over at that level.

Sorry to hear that. Wish you the best in your fut... (sorry, I had to). Hopefully you go to the opposition and cut a shoot promos on them !

There was exactly *nothing* right with that segment, and that tweet, apart from her being rusty and admitting it, is even worse. The last thing AEW needs for its women division is a former WWE star (former is that she was a star years ago, since she hasn't been on TV forever anyway) showing up and acting like she's the mother hen (that segment had strong Brooke Hogan in TNA vibes), with all the babyfaces acting subservient and looking like minor players (from having to "re-introduce" them like Toni Storm the champ needed a fucking validation, to the fact,oh well, we don't actually have time to). The WWE references were completely out to lunch, especially considering Saraya got the mega-push from day one during her time there and had The Rock produce a movie about her. And the guy who "did not listen to her" is gone now. Like, that ship has sailed. Different approach is needed. No, women matches were not 5 minutes afterthought before she showed up. That's shitting on 3 years on AEW women's wrestling which, despite still needed work, had tons of excellent matches and people like Riho, Baker, Rosa was got really over big. I dunno, it's like she CM Punked herself there already. (really, I would be Baker or Bunny or Melo or Shida, I would not be happy with that tweet at all) Booking a shitty gimmick match on the fly like she's kind of an authority figure (please DON'T !) is not a win. It dragged forever and was mostly heatless (Jaimie Hayter was the most over of the bunch because the AEW audience wants Jaimie Hayter to turn on Baker and win the title, DO IT ALREADY !). If she is not gonna wrestle anyway, then what's the end game ? And really, if you wanna do a heel, preferably, authority figure (which they should not do), Madison Rayne is right there Holy shit, that segment had strong bad WWE/TNA vibes. I'm sure Saraya has the right use in her, but that was *not good* (I blame booking as much as bad execution) Also, one pet peeve of mine is them never re-showing big spots/finishes after matches. Toni Storm hit that gnarly second rope piledriver, which looked awesome, and not even the time to re-show it in slow-mo or something ? Let the show breathe and re-show the finishes and big-ass spots. Well, Bandido got himself over (yeah, surprising I know, SIGN HIM) and Jericho the ROH champ I'm already loving. Yeah, line-up the former champs.

Okay, maybe the whole Bray Wyatt hype has already passed its peak.

It's great marketing, that's for sure. Bray does have some terrific ideas. Not sure he would be worth a shit as a horror movie director as some said though, as his character was always completely empty behind the super cool presentation, which was one of the issue with him (the other being, nothing special inside the ring). Maybe that'll come bite them in the ass again, but in the meantime if they can pop a few big ratings and sell some merch, whatever it is, he's probably a really good investment while the company is hot.

I don't see much speculation. I see a lot of "OMG it's Bray Wyatt coming back !". Bray Wyatt vs Karrion Kross to claim the title of true White Rabbit. All in Black and White. At Mania next year ! With Bliss vomiting white goo and Scarlett randomly throwing paper fireballs ! BOOK IT PAUL !

That's exactly the reason why and why they got a better ratings with a younger audience. It was never gonna be Black. Corbin, holy shit seriously, a guy who has been in the company forever now. Kross is already on the shows. Like I just said, complete denial. EVERYBODY knows it's Bray Wyatt. Well, they don't know. But they do. Like with CM Punk. (and really, if it ends up being Baron Corbin or something, expect a HUGE negative feedback, that would be a big time misstep on their part, because there's no one out there who can match up to this kinda hype right now)

You are all in denial about Bray Wyatt (understandably so, you have suffered through the Fiend quite a bit). He was selling a shitload of merchandising. So did Alexa Bliss when she was the female version with the doll (which is why she kept the doll even after dropping the Brayism). He's not "just another surprise". The whole "who jumps shit" has been going on for a while now in AEW, with somewhat diminishing returns. People come back seemingly every week now in WWE too (Lumis, Kross, Gargano, Braun, LeRae). This one is obviously different, as showed by the incredible hype online and the big-ass rating by a younger audience hooked up by social media communication work. Whether people like it or not, Bray Wyatt is seen as a big star, only rendered bigger in perception because of his absence. This hype is unlike anything since probably the teases of CM Punk in AEW. Not to say it won't cool off once he'll have a bunch of matches killing every of his opponents like he did before, but there's something definitely unique going on now. The question is, will they past the peak or not in term of delivering.

And yet, it's exactly what happened. Of course it's always a case of people getting hot for someone coming back. Then, how it turns out is a very different thing. Funny how we haven't heard one CM Punk chants in the last three weeks... There's obviously no way to know how things will turn out for Bray. I hope there's more black goo (wait, that was Bliss, well put her with him anyway, she apparently lived her best life during that period), giant hammer and goofy lightning incoming ! The White Rabbit was Karrion Kross' gimmick in Lucha Underground btw. Interesting twist there. Also, we know who the real Bunny is. On paper, again if the Rock things doesn't happen, it sounds like the most obvious thing to do, unless there's that "yes but he is from AEW" sting in the back of their mind (let's be real, Cody Rhodes came back as a big star *strictly* because of AEW). There's also the possibility of Roman beating Cody in the main event, as they go "well, we'll get the Rock next year"...

The fanbase LOVES him right now. But yeah, that Bray teasing is working like a house of fire. If they don't miss the peak and play their card right, the guy can be HUGE. I was thinking about how Cody Rhodes winning the Rumble and going to Mania to beat Roman (if the Rock match doesn't happen) seems like the obvious way. But then again, is Triple H, the guy who politicked his way in so many bullshit booking over the years, really gonna book the guy who came back from "that pissant company" (not to mention the throne breaking) as the one to dethrone Roman ? If Bray gets that megastar treatment and gets over to that degree, what if he was the one to do it in the end ? Yeah, I bet no one had thought about that eventuality yet ?

That was all the Bray Wyatt tease, bubba.

bUT thE DIrtSHEets Ar LyIn' Also, pretending like "nothing happened" runs in the family I guess. Remember the infamous "I support unionization" tweet from Zelina just as she was getting released, then gently got re-hired and, oh well nevermind.

Bobby Fish vs Mike Bailey ? I really need to catch up with IMPACT. RAVEN in their HOF ! Yeah. Need to catch up. I guess Mickie James is retiring at BfG too.