El-P

It what ways AEW is not a national promotion that is an alternative to WWE ? Really now. They are a three years and a half old promotion. They have done more than TNA ever did. They don't have the same context WCW had, coming off from the most successful territory and already being on TV forever by the point they got really successful. As far as having something for everyone, well, it has, really. The whole "The Elite screwed CM Punk over" is basically a nice fiction for everyone anti-Elite, but let's be real, the only factual thing everybody knows, is that CM Punk acted like an unprofessional prick by publically burying a promotion that signed him to a fat-ass money contract. That's the only factual thing anyone on this board has access to. The rest is just people making assumptions based on their own bias. The strong anti-Elite bias being what it is, I guess even in this case it's enough to make Punk the "good guy" in this occurence, despite many, many people reacting to his meltdown as plain "Well, Punk does it again, no surprise there". Honestly, if I'm Paul Lesveque, although the idea of getting Punk can seem appealing on some level, I would stay the fuck away from him at this point. He doesn't need him *at all*. They were a territory before becoming WCW, they were not a jumpstart promotion. Totally different context, also in term of how TV business works. They lasted 13 years, but their downfall is probably the most pathetic ever in pro-wrestling. Never drew jackshit, never sold PPV's, never were competitive in any way shape or form with WWE. Who knows. The fact is, the most menacing threat to AEW is not booking, it's not injuries, it's not WWE, it's merger of big media companies. I've been very critical of a lot of things about the company in the last 6 months (to the point that overall, I enjoy IMPACT more than AEW lately, especially as a weekly TV product leading to regular bigger shows), at least, but the impending doom discussion seems ridiculous to me. The company has done much better than they had the right to following-up on this Punk/Elite debacle actually.

Penelope Ford injured again ?! Oh no . She had looked so good since her return.

As I always watch in delay these days, there it went again with the "OH NO !" as I had avoided spoilers. AEW can't seem to catch a break. Great job by the ref though. Glad Page is doing okay. Hopefully it doesn't get bad long-term for him. Apart from that, it was a pretty great show, from the dynamic opener to the MIND-BLOWING MJF/Regal segment, a really good Shida vs Storm match with the super cool return from Riho (who's still probably the best worker in the division, and always gets herself over), Dalton Castle who really looked strong against Jericho. Willow signing ! Yep, she's gonna be one of them. She's can't miss.

Yeah, going from the mostly really good Dark Sides series to this is such a huge plunge in quality. It's like hearing old anecdotes from RF videos all over again with annoying production tricks. I would rather just watch Back to the Territories from the KC Vault instead. This is so awful. Nash must be so heartbroken. Just unbelievably tragic.

As far as Punk goes, there is talk of contract buy-out now. Hopefully, with Ace Steel gone too, that means the door is open for the Elite to come back.

AEW is the N°2 pro-wrestling promotion in the world. It has been in position to challenge WWE in term of ratings and swapping talents. It totally changed the landscape of the business, all in three years and being created from nothing. And in subjective term, it has gave me the best and most fun pro-wrestling show ever for about two years (and a half ?) and still delivers some ridiculously great stuff. What a disappointment, for sure... The idea that AEW would be a second WWE is ridiculous. Fuck, they should NEVER be as successful as they are. And really, the last thing I want is someone trying to be another WWE. Let them run shows in stadiums with shitbag influencers in Saudi Arabia. I don't need another company like this in my pro-wrestling landscape. I like my AEW and IMPACT, with some AAA, NJPW and Stardom thrown in from time to time.

I would LOVE for Danielson to re-sign with AEW after his contract ends, but I doubt he will. You never know though, but to me guys like him and Regal probably will end up back in WWE at one point, with Paul & Shawn at the helm of the main roster and NXT. I selfishly don't want it, but I would be surprised if Danielson doesn't chose to end his career in WWE, which was his home for so long. But yeah, the one thing that probably was undersold in all the wild signings is to actually constitute a locker room that works well together. Of course when things go well, everyone is happy. But still, it's obvious some presences aren't a good fit for AEW's locker room, nothing to do with their in-ring talent or potential star power. We've seen how CM Punk ended up being a bad idea, how guys like Black or Andrade basically only went to AEW because they got fired from WWE but really preferred to be in WWE. And this is the stuff we can't really grasp, because a lot of this knowledge is totally unknown to the outside world except when something like the last few debacles happen. I remember Kevin Sullivan talking about this in an old KC shoot, how there was a lot more than just making matches and angles to managing a locker room, and this is the stuff that only is known through interpersonal relationships.

Of course not. No one is getting creative control anywhere anymore. The last one was Hogan in WCW, and we know how that ended. I hope PCO is the next one in line after Dalton Castle !

Because "Interim champ" sounds like shit. It makes the person holding it secondary, not entirely validated, it makes it look like nothing really matters until the REAL champ comes back, and then we have to have automatically an "unification" match, making things until then pretty meaningless. If the interim champ wins, then why not have them be the legit champ to begin with; if they lose then oh well they really weren't the champs and their reign ends up kinda worthless as they were just used a placeholder. There was never any need for this in pro-wrestling before. I don't care if that's what they do in MMA, no one cares. Vacating the champion and having a new one makes everything clear and simple : the champ is the champ and there's no need to wait for the former champ to come back to actually do something with them, it's just gonna be some angle in the future *if necessary*. Not the same thing in term of booking and perception. Also, it seems like Toni Storm is legit annoyed by it. Mox sure sounded legit annoyed with it. Sounds counterproductive on every level, for no good reason apart from "but MMA does it".

After Mox, that's AEW cementing its basis in term of what the promotion is all about : those who made it since day one. I sure hope the Elite will come back and stay around too, although at this point I would not be that surprised to see them show up in WWE which would be absolutely hilarious on every level for the reactions of the WWE stans alone (ya know, don't know how to work, not real stars, all that good shit). Also, positive locker room atmosphere as opposed to toxic people. And yeah, Mox vs Hangman will bang, as you young people put it. Also, Toni Storm is right. Gotta do away with the Interim bullshit. This has served no purpose in the grand scheme of things, only made confusing situations more confusing (see also : Mox after Punk). She wasn't the one to win it when she did (Hayter was), but the fact it's hammered down that she's "interim" has really hurt the perception of her as a star. This Interim shit needs to go. The champ is out, then the belt is vacated, and the next one to win it is the champ.

This guy is a legit legend of lucha now. I know he doesn't cut promos in English (his brother does), but damn AEW at one point should push both Penta and Fénix as serious single stars.

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.