El-P

Spotify and Netflix says hello. (not saying it's a good thing, but it's how things go these days) I have a X-Box. Used the Game Pass from time to time when there's that 1€ a month deal. (but I don't play enough to make good use of it, I have mostly played only bigger games that I have actually bought, at reduced prices though)

That's twisted relativism and pathetic tribalism at its best. "Hey, nobody cares about what you like, that's why they don't get the blood money, if they were successful they would get that opportunity and run with it." I pass on the idiotic "It's easy to be on the morally pure side", when I just mentioned Jericho's awful politics and he's one of AEW biggest star, imagine the weekly cognitive dissonance (him and others). Guess what, if AEW would do the same shit, I would quit watching it in a heartbeat. Speaking of which : Passing also on the ridiculous "random indie band" as an pro-wrestling equivalent of AEW (you realize they are the second biggest pro-wrestling company in the world, right ?), that does not constitute an excuse for Beyonce, Rihanna or WWE anyway. So : relativism, fanboyism and tribalism. Clap clap clap. You see, *that's* actually the easy stance. When basically used to just play the idiotic tribalist game of "What I like is more successful than what you like" like a 12 years old on Twitter, it's not just easy, it's downright embarrassing. All of that about a topic which has nothing to do with this btw, Braun being a giant douchebag.

Wait. Are you really gonna pull the "morality" card when Braun was just flexing about a match he did on a propaganda show for a criminal regime ? Really ? Sure, Jericho's politics are awful, but it what does it have to do with this ? Nothing, really. Considering his social media game, I'm not sure Braun's politics are very different btw, so, whatever on that front. And if you think he's not serious about "Giants > flippy guys", think again. That guy is a giant untalented douche and he deserves all the shit he gets.

I mean, Corgan is a buffoon, but I would not be surprised if Aldis was indeed hard to work with and had an overinflated self of himself.

It's obvious you don't watch IMPACT. They have tons of terrific talents and the company is really, REALLY good. My favorite right now, actually.

Aldis has been suspended and won't appear at the PPV. I wonder where he may end up. Considering what Brucie said about him in the past, I would be kinda surprised to see him end up in WWE but you never know, and considering how dull he is inside the ring, I don't have any interest in watching him in AEW (he's a former Jarrett guy, yikes), especially since when he's not doing his NWA touring World Champ cosplay gimmick, he's never showcased much of anything (he's a really good promo, but then the bell rings and such).

But yeah. Actually, France may have played a very active part in the corruption that led to Qatar getting the World Cup. The guy up there probably knows a few things about it... France is also a top 3 weapons seller in the world (I think, at the very least top 5). Hurrah.

And now Corgan is getting shit for explaining that he really won't do another Empowerr show until he can have the best women wrestler available who are able to "wrestle the NWA style" and "carry a three-hour PPV". You know, like the ones main-evented by Tyrus and with marquee state-of-the-art stuff like EC3 vs Thom Latimer or Question Mark vs Question Mark 2 (wait, I thought the guy was dead ? And now there are two of them doing his former awful gimmick ?). Funny tidbits, we (rightly) complain about too many titles in NJPW and AEW, but damn in that NWA PPV you have : NWA World heavyweight title, NWA United states tag team titles, NWA Junior heavyweight title, NWA Women's title, NWA Women's tag team title, NWA National championship, NWA World Television title, NWA World tag team title. And since apparently it's not enough, you've got the prestigious MLW National openweight championship defended too. Nick Aldis having none, I understand he's salty...

That's understood. But it has to be said that back then the Knockouts were treated very seriously by what was by default the N°2 promotion in the US, and there was times where they did draw their TV's best numbers. To me it's underlining how far behind WWE was when they decided that "oh, maybe we can push women's wrestling as something serious". How does that play into Becky's argument, no idea. Like I said, she sure is important. But how important has she been really, not so sure. In term of legit influence on WWE's booking politics, the name is Ronda.

Hopefully that means a nice WK show with lots of variety and new matches. Is Lance Archer even still under AEW contract ? Good for him he's booked in Japan again.

Well, not exactly. This is the WWE version of history. In 2007 Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong in TNA had legit great matches. I know that it's being ignored because it did not happen in WWE, but erasing them from history makes no sense. The advancement of women's wrestling in the US in a promotion that was actually on TV comes with them, seven years before the "Revolution"tm. After that point there's some going backward because of Russo's booking, of course, but still, saying there was no real serious women's wrestling before 2014 in the mainstream (as in, on national TV) US landscape is misleading. They should be acknowledged, despite the fact that of course, they could not have the same influence as people in WWE because the promotion was not competitive. The fact that to this day, IMPACT does much better with its women division than AEW is pretty telling on that matter too.

The fact Power & Glory gets referenced in NJPW in 2022 is kind of a thing of beauty, as Power & Glory was actually the very first team I saw getting together, and I was a big fan (ah, those formative years). I totally want Dax in the G1 in 2023.

Becky Lynch is one of the first three women to have main-evented Mania. But if Ronda Rousey is not in the picture, she doesn't main event Mania, no matter how big of a star she was at this time, that's a given. From that perspective, Rousey is much more significant than Becky, and her significance comes from her MMA success. Just throwing that out there. I don't see any shift in WWE booking that is due to Becky Lynch per say. If anything, one of the biggest shift in term of how women got booked in the company was Paige vs Emma. Sure, none got even close to the level of stardom Becky has attained, but arguably their stuff together was more influencial in actually changing the way women have been portrayed since the mid-10's than anything else.

That big dumb fuck is being owned not only by people outside of the company, but his co-workers too. He's such a complete douche. I have no idea why WWE brought him back, especially now that Triple H will be more open minded about the types of people he wants to push (Karrion Kross notwithstanding).

Absolutely.

What a complete douche. That reply though...

Of course. I'm sure there are people very ambivalent about it in the bunch (if only because of the precedent of basically being taken hostage on an airport tarmac). But it would be nice sometime to hear voices raising against it from within the company. And MVP.

I don't even remember the last full show I watched. Something in the Spring maybe. Probably gonna watch the Stardom joint show, with the last Mutoh match in NJPW. I really hope WK will indeed be full of fresh matches. FTR vs Aussie Open at the Dome would be really cool.

And really now, just a few months ago : "Thank you Vince" chants. Only in pro-wrestling.

Considering the amazing amount of stupid bullshit, propaganda gobling and total lack of empathy displayed over the last 24 hours, yeah, that seems like a reasonable take. Hell, football fans are displaying way more ethics questioning around the World Cup in Qatar. I take the 5th, or as Coach TK would say "I have no comment on that."

You're almost selling it to me. I do need to laugh at dumbshit wrestlers.

Getting mad is not always a choice. I feel like I'm getting madder by the day about what happens (again, all hail to Brazil for the little bit of positive news this week). Or more depressed. But if one is gonna kill me, then I'd rather live mad.

I mean, people on Twitter were all "lol" and "wtf" about the way Claudio pronounced Ian Riccaboni's name. That struck me as an amazing occurence of why the rest of the world think what they think of the USA. Claudio's an Italian-speaking Swiss, and so he actually pronounced Riccaboni the Italian way. I was just shaking my head at the amazing display of proud ignorance. Riccaboni even went on Twitter to explain it was actually the best way. There is actual actions taken against the Qatar World Cup, actual boycots from some supporters organisations. When football fans are better than pro-wrestling fans, well.

That's just plain relativism. Not everything is the same. Doing nothing about it, or even finding excuses, is a super comfortable stance. If even a third the WWE audience would protest against this and be vocal, at least there would be serious talk and awareness about it, of nothing else. I feel like despite the vomit inducing propaganda, the Overton's window has been wide open to the point of no one is caring anymore and the only thing we hear is about how great Logan Paul is. And when Pride Month is gonna be there, WWE is gonna be all rainbows and shit and people are gonna talk about how great and progressive all this is and how important this is and how homophobia is really bad you know. So no, it's not all the same. This is World Cup in Qatar level of gross. It's very hard for me to not feel completely ashamed of being a pro-wrestling fans right now, honestly. Because of its fans. Because of the workers who don't dare to say a fucking word (hey Roman, the guy with the weigh, don't you open your mouth, we could mix you up with someone with actual ethics). And I don't want to hear the embarrassing music about "Oh, but you would take the money". Nope, not everybody is like that, actually, as shocking as it is. And plus, these people don't *need* the money. Logan Paul ? Brock Lesnar ? Are we fucking kidding ? Even the undercarders don't need to because WWE as a company does not need to either. Anyway. I guess pro-wrestling deserves its audience. It's just not fun at all being part of it sometimes.

He just took a massive amount of money, that he doesn't even need to begin with, to do propaganda work for one of the worst regime on the planet. Legit piece of shit. He's not the only one of course. The less said the better I guess.