El-P

Big time Randy the Ram energy from that pic. The guy wants to try and die in the ring it seems. Plus doesn't he have a broken foot already ? If it ends up being against Jay Lethal it's so ironic for several reasons (two of them fun, one not so much). But anyway, escalation of commitment right there. The undercard actually is pretty cool, but really now, this isn't a good idea at all.

Look at this, I'm off the board and news because I'm way not in synch these days and want to avoid "rassslin' matches and angles" spoilers, and this shit is going down. I'm soooo grabbing a beer and watching the world collapse right now. Even some of the most powerful end up facing consequences at some point. Hopefully it's this time for good ol' Vinnie Mac. And yes, that has to be the tip of the iceberg too. Get on with the full-on exposé and let's have us some mega Dark Side of the Ring specials on Vince next year.

I dunno. He's been in AEW for three years now. He hasn't improved a whole lot to me in term of his in-ring work thus far. He's 34 years old. It's not like he's even at Batista's level when he was good. So I don't think there's a huge progress margin unless he really figures out something different. To me as of now he's like the best Adam Bomb ever or something.

Agree. I've said it before, I thought Shawn Spears also was GREAT during this time, the best he's been in AEW. He easily was more fun than Wardlow himself during those segments. Also, in what ways is he special ? He's a big jacked up dude that does a bunch of powerbombs in a row. Even by Goldy's scale, which is what it is, it's not special. Especially not in 2022. Also, honestly I've been thinking this for a while now, but the entire "This is WAAAAAAR" stuff kinda strikes me as kinda bad taste right now. Maybe because here Ukraine is in the news everyday and I'm actually reading about it too much, but still. Kinda cringe to me too.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, more than anything else Wardlow needs to be able to actually work a great match by AEW standards. If he can't, there's so much goodwill for a guy who's game is basically sticking his tongue out and doing a bunch of powerbombs in a row in a company where they got Keith Lee or Miro (who are better at *everything*, work and promos, and way more charismatic), for starters. To me he's still absolutely unproven and MJF was the sole reason he ever got those great reactions. I don't look forward to his title reign at all if he's gonna be another Goldberg clone, because he's nowhere as unique as Goldy was, nor does he have the freakish looking intensity (not to mention I was never a Goldy fan to begin with, but back then he was pretty unique in every way possible). Not saying he can't be something, but as he is now, with the lame-ass "Wardlow's World" line to boot, my interest in him has dropped back to zero after the MJF feud.

You're talking about what you perceive as superior "working" skills. I was just referring to the straight athletic abilities displayed in modern matches, which are more "real" because, well, they actually are what they are (in term of flying, very intricate and quick sequences with tons of counters, also feats of strenght too although to a lesser degree). Whether this is taking less "working skills" or not really wasn't the point I was making. Strictly speaking about the spectacle of legit athleticism that has become more prevalent.

When did they plain stop blading in WWE ? 2008 ? Later ?

Was that really a lot worse than during the Attitude Era or do we just remember stuff like the infamous Eddie vs JBL bloodbath because it was so striking ? Honest question, this was not a period I was following the promotion nor its business anymore and although I have watched most of its most famous stuff after the fact, I don't have any precise contextual recollection of it. But yeah, I was thinking more about the post Benoit murders era, when the company really got deep into the Cena/Orton era and really went PG, so this is more than just "going public", a lot if not most of it was about going after advertisers and changing their public image.

Yes. Yeah, I thought about this before. But not only correlation doesn't equal causality (obviously), in the end the correlation also doesn't work that well I thought. For instance, AEW is by far the bloodiest mainstream pro-wrestling promotion since JCP (or WWF during the early Attitude Era), and it's also the heaviest ever in term of high-risks and crazy bumps. Blading really stopped in the US mainstream not because it was replaced in term of producing a spectacular visual (or because the average athletic level got better, or the influence of guys like Micheals, or the influence of lucha-libre in WCW) but because of WWE going public and looking for big time advertisers. It's also notable the style of WWE wrestling at the time was also much tamer in term of high-risks spots and bumps than it has been a few years earlier (Attitude Era and the following years) and than what was happening in ROH or TNA (which also had the bloody Abyss style matches, as one way to be an alternative). There are really a multitude of factors playing in, a lot of which have really nothing to do with actual in-ring style tendencies, but rather political and economical. There also are cultural factors (VIH and hepatitis awareness) and yes indeed, certainly a switch toward a style more impressive in term of moves (aka a much more real demonstration of actual physical skills) also played a part for sure in why some old tricks were seen as less needed. Interestingly enough, the latest cage matches in STARDOM worked wonders without the use of blood, and it's not like joshi doesn't have a history of bloody matches, but the politics of the promotion probably plays a big part in why this was worked the way it was (let's not kid ourselves, looks play a big part in that company and how they promote their talent, which doesn't detracts anything from their in-ring talent). And they really did a great use of the cage gimmick, much better actually than plenty bloody matches which have blood only because cage = blood (and much better than WWE ever did in term of escape cage match rules).

I have legit no idea how people watching WWE endure this kind of directing To me it's completely unwatchable and totally hurts what the workers are doing. I'm amazed people actually got used to it (well, you can always get used to the worst, sadly). There is apparently 72 cuts in two minutes, it cuts every two seconds or so. For no reasons whatsoever. I have no idea why Kevin Dunn is still considered any good at his job.

Abdullah dropping the infamous greco-roman hepatitis on his opponents wasn't exactly the safest spot either. It was also a very different context where "freaks" were still drawing people. I mean, Abby was actually a good worker, but the Sheik was a perennial novelty act.

Don't you wish pro-wrestler had seasons ? I actually liked that about Lucha Underground. I'm at the point I would gladly take a month off and benefit from the anticipation of the beginning of a new season, with a fresh mindset.

Hopefully the Rose/Shafir unit means it's over for Guerrero on TV. And I mean, if she's a positive element backstage, cool. But she brought nothing positive as a character. And Nyla Rose absolutely doesn't need anyone to cut promos for her. Glad they are trying with Shafir, I really like her, probably because of her uniqueness and shoot-style tendencies. Really good match too, Toni Storm is the one, there's no doubt about it. I like what they are doing with the announcing team, getting Taz doing Dynamite and having only JR show up for the second half (I will miss Taz on Rampage though). Very WCW of them, likewise this double battle royal deal, which was short and fun, with enough booking element to build for future matches and the cool fakes by Silver and Hangman (never saw that before, that was nice).

It's a long time ago and I really don't care about this stuff anymore but I'm guessing when he was hot in WCW, WWF could have snatched him then and he absolutely could have been thrown in major angles against Austin & Foley. The Invasion stuff was cursed, so by then it was probably too late anyway. Although as showed by his TNA and CM Punk feud, he actually was in better shape by then and had tons of great ideas left. One could argue that actually, his best match was against AJ Styles. But was it his best match or his best match (in a kinda pro-wrestling Tinder way )? The second question is also pretty interesting, but that's even more taking wild guesses about how other people think. My question really is, who do you think never had their best match, if such a thing even exists (someone extremely rationale would tell you that it doesn't). Part of me believes that the actual best match is always the one that never occurs, and that there are only "best possible" matches in given contexts. By this reasoning though, everybody had their actual best match and that's it.

I stand corrected. But yeah, what deathmatch workers do now, and have done since about more than 20 years now, is far removed from the ideas of Onita. The US indy sleaze scene from the early 00's is much more to blame. Well, and Great Kojika I guess.

I thought exactly the same thing when I asked myself about Orton. Then again, is having your best match necessarily about being in command or expressing your own style ? Maybe having your best match for someone in particular would be being the greatest dance partner you can be.

He regrets not having been pushed as a top guy in WWE, as he feels he could/should (and I agree). But again, that doesn't mean he would have had his best match in this context, in the end. You're reducing what you think his best match may have been by saying "I can only imagine", which shows that you are putting your *own* idea of what Raven's best match could be above what it actually could be, which is someone no one, including Raven, knows. Which is why it's a fascinating question and why I asked it on the board. In essence, I don't really care about what Raven meant for himself. The idea of a guy who never had his "best match" (putting aside like I said the obvious of a career cut short by injury, illness or death) is quite fascinating, because it goes against the very idea of rating matches in some sort of order from the best to the worst, as the top match actually still isn't the best, a best match that never actually happened.

Not really. It's a pretty deep question that goes way beyond "opportunities". As far as being able to, of course he was. Everyone can have their "best match", whatever it is for each different worker (not a matter of scale, the best match of Barry Horowitz may have happened for him, as far as we know). Regal absolutely fits the bill to me, and maybe he would even agree (considering his self-deprecating tendencies, I would not be surprised). Another one that comes to mind is Randy Orton.

Charlotte is not impressed. (and yeah, of course)

Well, considering she wants to go back to Japan, not sure there's any money to be thrown. HOWEVER, I absolutely talk to Rossy Ogawa about bringing her (as I expect she would sign back with Stardom) and/or KAIRI to do shots in AEW.

There's no other promotion that you could do it with that reaches the US audience. And even then, Meltz reported that the audience of the last two PPVs were very different, not overlapping as much as you'd think. A lot of people who did not buy Double or Nothing bought Forbidden Doors because of NJPW. And a part of the audience who did not buy it gave the reasons that they don't watch NJPW and this is minor league stuff. So, it's a bit more complicated (and interesting). FWIW I don't want AEW to run more PPVs a year. I'm fine with 4 + a special NJPW joint show.

They absolutely have to do another one next year, and this time hopefully it won't be snakebit by injuries. Plus, there is a precedent established of a great show now, which should help the perception, as would NJPW guys popping up from time to time on AEW TV, making them more familiar faces. Considering all the negativity leading up to it, pretty good result indeed.

Watched the promo. Don't see anything wrong with it. Stiff but to the point. But hey, if people aren't satisfied with Ronda's social game, WWE signed former MMA star (I guess, I dunno, I don't watch it) Valerie Loureda. And judging from that video where she is already whining about people "not knowing her story" and "just being a girl with a dream" who "has trained every day of her life" in the most cringe way imaginable, all the while already throwing some WWE corporate love, well, I hope they train her to be a heel from the get go. I dunno. Social media, influencers and this kinda shit has really damaged people's mindset.... I wonder if in ten years WWE will basically be a bunch of influensports-entertainers (I should copyright this shit right now).

I was listening to a recent Raven interview (after seeing him popping up on IMPACT) and he made quite an interesting comment about his own career : "I never had my best match". Which of course can seem absurd since de facto, one of his matches had to be the best of all the matches he worked. But what he means is that he never had the best match he potentially could have had. And that's quite a thing to say I thought, in a time where everything is deemed GOAT every two seconds. And so I was thinking, who are other pro-wrestlers who "never had their best match" ? I can think of many for obvious reasons (died too early or having way too much health/addiction issues), but as far as guys with an entire, well rounded, life-long career, this becomes a much deeper question.