El-P

Agree with this. I actually thought they would go that way, as Battle of the Belts would be better if some belt actually changed hands. Hayter as champ and Britt being jealous si such a logical and easy feud. And it would be terrific too. Match was very good. Rosa sure made the day of that little girl in the crowd at the end. Takeshita vs Claudio was great, despite a very much WWE "let's kill the pace during commercials" optic which I guess is Claudio not shaking off 15 years of working the E. Takeshita NEEDS to win now, because he's been so organically over working great matches. Regal on commentary was so great again, especially the part he just stopped talking as Claudio was in dire straight. But Takeshita, that guy should be in the winning half of the G1 or something. On the other hand, Wardlow is not. And don't give me "But he's with Lethal", Lethal actually gave him probably his most compelling match thus far with all the powerbomb escapes and that beautiful bump off the lariat. But there's a reason why the Wardlow match and win got the least response of the three, if the guy was as over as people think, he would get those huge reactions no matter who he's in with. Also, Wardlow vs Satnam Singh is precisely what I don't want to see in AEW. I wasn't sure but yeah, of course it is. With Levesque taking over, hopefully it sparks a new flame in TK and changes will be made.There are some stuff right now that just aren't working, and for a while all the hype will be on WWE's side.

Disclaimer : I wasn't watching his NXT stuff. I liked him in LU and IMPACT, but I never considered him more than a "pretty cool monster guy", and he was never pushed as a main event act in neither of those promotions. So I guess people have PTSD from later NXT, but by that point I had moved on and did not even bother watching the Takeovers (I had AEW + IMPACT to fill my wrestling thirst). As far as his presentation, using "Tik Tok" in 2022 seems kinda wrong, because now people think of something completely different than in 2016. Also, the hair makes him look way less menacing (and younger). I mean, in IMPACT he pretty much looked like a Gestapo officer, really. To me he looked the best in Bloodsport actually, so I was half-hoping for a NJPW stint, throwing people on their heads with Saito suplex and such. From what I hear, he's really nice IRL, so there's that.

Marvelous Marc Mero's entire gimmick was that he was an idiot and Sable was the star. And he was actually great during that entire stint as a character, absolutely helped Sable too. Before that point, he had to deal with "Well you can't be Johnny B. Badd so we don't know what you are" booking by WWE with the "Wildman" stuff, and he still got good babyfaces reactions because he actually did cool shit and had Sable by his side. I must admit though, this whole "Killer Kross is the worst" running gag is kinda funny to me, because it's WAY overstated. He's absolutely a pretty good talent. Nothing *special*, ok, but absolutely not a bad worker at all. So when I saw the news, I kinda chuckled. You know Gargano is coming back too, people, right ?

That probably played a part too. His promo skills basically came down to repeating the same two words. Also, when Angle debut in late 99 and then the Radicals shows up (and the Dudleys, and the Hardy getting their first big push alongside E&C), guys like him (and Val Venis and a few others who had been pushed during the first part of the Attitude Era) are done. Much better and/or much more charismatic workers take the spots of the 97-99 crew. The New Age Outlaws as a super hot act lasted what ? A year and a half ?

He sure is fixing some of the stuff he probably disagreed with Vince. Getting people back who had been fired just a while ago is quite interesting in term of what message it sends. Funny how timing is everything. If the Vince stuff happens one year ago, Adam Cole doesn't leave most probably. Samoa Joe doesn't get fired. Steven Regal doesn't get fired. Not sure people like Athena get fired either. Now Trip is getting back some of those people who are available, and really now, whatever people think of him, Kross never got a fair shake on the main roster, so good for him. And of course, he's paired up with Scarlett again (that was the most mind-blowing thing to me, alongside the gladiator outfit of course, why the hell would you not keep him and Scarlett together on the man roster, with the elaborate entrance and such ?). As far as being a geek, sure, that guy walking around with Scarlett Bordeaux as his IRL wife comes of like a geek, sure people, sure... The next 6 months are gonna be the most interesting WWE has been in more than two decades if only for what moves Levesque makes. Of course there's gonna be a honeymoon period, and people are gonna overstate every little positive thing like it's the greatest thing ever, but it's obvious that Vince was a HUGE problem for the company, in more ways than one. Is Kevin Dunn done yet ?

The thing is, Madison really shines as a heel character. She can work babyface, but that's not where you're gonna get the essence of Madison's work, which is all in details and maneurisms and reactions as a heel (not to mention promo work and angles, she went through years of making the best out of questionable TNA stuff and has been fun as heel in contemporary IMPACT, Locker Room Talk was always a terrific backstage segment, her team with Tenille Dashwood was tons of fun too). I don't think Leila Grey was a great fit for her, as really, after the entrance was done (cool theme song, great Red Velvet impersonation), she did not look very good, she was out of place many time, she showed no intensity to the point even the announcers talked about it. Mance vs Mox was a fun little match, but also by far the lesser Mox match in a long while. Ol' Mancer, well, he's basically the guy I remember from MLW, and by that I mean, whatever. Maybe his promo style and garbage bumping can get him over, but I don't look forward to more of him at all, sorry. Never did much for me and apparently still doesn't. Takeshita getting a quickie win reeked of "Fuck, we gave him a title match but he never won on TV" booking. That's the thing about this match, on paper it looks awesome and probably will be, but Takeshita has never won a big match and there's basically no way Claudio is losing, so that's another loss after a great match for Takeshita. This guy has gotten organically over in the shortest time more than anyone, but he's basically is the guy who loses great matches. He should actually *win* that title really, or the TNT title instead of that big powerbombing oaf, because the audience is already ready for him. Tony Neese & Mark Sterling have low-key became one of my favorite act in the company. Want more of Josh Woods, who apparently is still alive after *that* spot (so is Keith lee, but really he was cushioned by Woods). That being said, there's a reason Rampage gets killed in the ratings. For all the talk about not being a B-show, it has absolutely became a B-show. A fun B-show, I like the randomness of it sometimes, but a B-show nonetheless. One year ago the debut show had Kenny Omega losing the IMPACT title to Christan Cage, which was huge because it was Omega's first loss, of a title no less, since he won the AEW title from Mox after a long reign of terror. Now we get Josh Woods & Tony Neese in the main event, Mance Warner showing up, a squash thrown on TV for a guy who hasn't won a match but stil gets a title shot for the ROH title... It absolutely feels like Thunder in 1999. They probably would need to re-think their strategy for this second show, including make it look a bit different.

And Sabin, Shelley, the Bucks, the Briscoes.... Billy Gunn is not anywhere close to any of those guys. Let's be real, he's not Marty Jannetty nor Tom Prichard either.

There you go. That's what we need : Transformers death-matches ! I mean, Lego death-match were a thing a few years back. Why the fuck not.

AEW and current IMPACT weekly shows (apart from Dark) and big shows, yes. I do not watch everything on NJPW and Stardom big shows, it depends on the card, mood, time available... I definitely ff stuff during my still ongoing older TNA watch.

You have strange ideas about me. I was all about Transformers. And no, I did not realize the cartoon was basically a toy commercial.

That's one reason, among others, why I will never even follow that promotion again. 3hours Raw + 2 hours Smackdown is just NO from me. AEW adding Rampage was already not a good news to me for my viewing habits, but it' still pretty ok. But really now, one show a week was just fine. Just like IMPACT or LU. No way I get involved in watching 5 hours of weekly show to follow a promotion. If things really change, I may watch some big shows (through Very Legal Means, let's not kid ourselves), but the weekly TV is just nope.

Plus : "The One" Billy Gunn. Seriously.

Thanks. Pretty interesting. I wonder how much % is actually happy of having bought that after the fact.

Wow. I would be interested to see the overlap with the last AEW PPV (not ROH not NJPW joint show) and IMPACT PPV (especially since IMPACT had a lot of talent involved plus the production crew, which is why they promoted their next special during the show).

Don't remember. I'm either too European or too young. Lance Armstrong was the best heel ever though. Everyone saw through him, he was detested.

And the reason is : he never was that great. The Smoking Gunns were probably the best team he was a part of in term of pure work, and they were an pretty good tag team at best, at a time WWF was about the Godwinns, Men on a Mission and the likes. Not exactly much to talk about. And I liked the Gunns. Their peak probably came in 1996 when they turned heel and were managed by Sunny too, as it was the first time Billy really showcased some personality. The NAO was an intro. Most of the matches *sucked*, that's something people tend to forget. The audience was hot as hell for sing-along the intro, then sat on their asses while a boring match with the Head Bangers happened, Billy Gunn did a bunch of routine spots while JR talked about how he was the best pure athlete in WWF and then Road Dogg did his two or three routine spots and a finish. That was 90% of the NAO stuff. And Billy & Chuck, well, I guess the less said the better. Their peak was a "lol gay wedding" angle, which I guess was less offensive than most gay stuff up until then in the company, but then again, no one will confound Billy & Chuck for anything more than a questionable comedy tag team with zero notable matches to their resume. So yeah, no one talks about him because, well, there's not much to talk about. He's been doing the same boring routine work since about 1999 too, although I guess his AEW work has been more entertaining than anything he did since the peak of the NAO.

Ok, sorry about that. Overall, like I said I think it's a good feud for Jungle Boy. He needs to win that one clean.

Scott Armstrong became a big star ?

See how it goes ? I just make a comment about Christian Cage's stint being underwhelming to me, and it goes to "Christian Cage bashing" to "complaining about Christian Cage taking the time away from younger talent". I said nothing like this either. I said there's probably 50 people I'd rather watch right now, I never said I only wanted to watch the younger talents. I know what the point of the feud is.

They were both basically useless in TNA, but Billy Gunn was funny for a minute or two when he was paired up with the Beautiful People. I don't think Road Dogg did anything worthwhile after the NAO. Which is kinda sad because he was actually quite good, but his issues really damaged him. I do remember at one point he was a producer on Smackdown and some people were all "He's an Armstrong that's why Smackdown is so great right now", which in itself makes no sense (because he's "an Armstrong" says nothing about his actual producing abilities) and was forgetting that Vince was the one making the decisions anyway. That being said, he worked at production during Flair's last match show alongside the IMPACT team, and if anything good can be said about the show, is that it was well produced. Apparently he's gonna be at the next IMPACT show in the same capacity, so maybe he can bring something positive to the table, who knows. His social media game and interviews have been extremely cringeworthy.

He's not been hired as a coach though (unlike Madison Rayne for instance, who apparently will also work from time to time, but she definitely is a coach first). He was presented as "a HOF pro-wrestler" and a big star. From that standpoint he has not delivered as much as I think he would have. I'm sure he's helping plenty backstage though, and he sure would be super useful in that role.

Absolutely. This goes hand in hand with one of the most off-base criticism that comes back from time to time : big guys shouldn't fly around, because then why should people care about smaller guys doing acrobatics. Which on paper sounds pretty fair, but the issue is that it isn't rooted in any kind of reality. By this time, after seeing Muto, Vader, Hugh Morrus, Bam Bam do moonsaults, seeing 2 Cold Scorpio, who wasn't a small guy by any stretch of the imagination, do stuff that would still look impressive today, see Lance Archer walk the rope into a moonsault and other big dudes do tope con hilos and such, guys like Rey, Juventud, Psychosis, the X-division guys and today the Lucha Brothers, Sammy, Darby and Vikingo really should get no reactions anymore. And of course, that's not what happened, ever. There's NO occurence of a promotion anywhere where a big guy doing a big flying spot has hurt the smaller guys doing flying spots. It doesn't exist. It's a fictitious idea based on "pro-wrestling should/shouldn't be", as opposed to what actually happens. And yeah, fucking Vikingo. I saw that Triplemania match the other day, and that guy showed up Fénix in term of "How in the hell he is doing this ?". Ponder that for a minute. And now, Komander is gonna be around more I guess too, he's another one.

Sure, saying a gut is a solid worker is "bashing". To me the angle with Jungle Boy works overall (the turn angle was actually greatly executed), and I hope for an excellent match in the end, but I thought the promos were a bit much for nothing, it came out of nowhere. That's an issue with AEW booking though in general, things kinda happen because they do. Brian Alvarez made what I thought was a super interesting point the other day, TK knows how to end his stories, but has issues with the beginnings. Which kinda goes along that feeling of booking kinda going nowhere or being flawed after a super hot PPV or TV show. The destination always ends up being a really great show, but the starts are not always the smoothest. Doesn't apply to everything of course, but there's maybe something to that. All Christian Cage issues aside, on this, totally agree. That's a criticism that makes no sense whatsoever. Even back in the "old days", the MX had a bigger and cooler moveset (thanks to Eaton mostly) than any babyfaces anywhere. Which is one reason, among many, why they were considered so much better than anyone else.

Yes, exactly this. Kinda got the same feeling when I went through his TNA years. On a more positive note, I thought Austin Gunn really shined during the dumpster match. That bump on the ramp off that garbage can was a hoot.

It doesn't because I wasn't making reference to this match in particular (which was fine, and as Broken as he is I thought Hardy was fine too) rather a thought on Christian's AEW stint in general. I don't find his in-ring work to be either super impressive nor very interesting (sure, he had two excellent matches with Omega, who can have an excellent matches with anyone). He's been solid, that's pretty much it, no more, no less (which is good I guess, but you would expect more out of a so-called great worker). I don't see how he's been better than guys like Kazarian for instance, in term of veteran worker. And tbh I've not been a big fan of his edgelord-like promos about "Your daddy is dead !" either. But I wasn't about to pile on Christian Cage (whom for the longest time I considered underrated). He's just not a super interesting part of the product to me (despite me hoping the heel turn would benefit him). He clearly got a super deal, because he seems to work a match every now and then only, as showed by his W/L record.