El-P

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.

Sending death threats is the new black. And rape threats when it comes to women. People are insane and social media made it worse on that respect (of course, most of these people wouldn't say shit to people's face). It happens seemingly all the times now. About Malakai's case. Malakai Black on Insta, September 18 : "I did indeed ask for my release" (not under quotation marks, although he did use the word under quotation marks later in the same post) Also Malakai Black on Insta, September 27 : "I never said I asked for my release" Also, it comes pretty much when TK just says "I ain't releasing shit so they can go to WWE". Honestly I would not mind if AEW would just refocus on guys who actually want to be there, and mostly guys coming from the indies or Japan/Mexico. For instance if Malakai, Matthews, Andrade or even Miro jump back to the WWE, that makes no difference at all at this point (funny how Rush has been that much better overall than Andrade in the few weeks he's been here in term of coming off like a star, although Andrade was not helped by the booking for a long time). Of these four I'd prioritize keeping Miro though, but really now, the era of "Hey, this guy would be much better out of the WWE system, let's sign him" is over. It has worked for some, not as much for others. Watching Claudio in AEW actually made it clear that he is *not* a main event player and really wasn't underused that much in WWE after all. He's an excellent in-ring worker, but I have found him kinda dry as a character thus far. With Triple H at the helm, workers will have more opportunities to actually work like they do (see : Gunther or Pete Dunn). Placement on the card and booking is a different issue. Let's not kid ourselves, Karrion Kross seems to be the current new project, Bray Wyatt is gonna make a HUGE comeback, it's not like everybody coming back from AEW is gonna be Cody Rhodes. Anywoo. I guess I always pick the worst time to want to just lurk. Crazy times all the time I guess now.

As I had legit decided to take a break from online presence and also from following closely the news and such, I only have watched All Out yesterday and this morning, in two sessions yes because I wasn't that hyped about it after all and was kinda baffled by all the missfires, tone deaf booking and plain bullshit on the show, despite a few great things (the two six-men matches, the main event). After it was all said and done, I was kinda like, well ok, let's see what happens next, although in a very cautious way of thinking. Then before I would eventually catch-up with the weekly shows, I went to F4 to see if there was a news or two... HOLY SHIT. I can't stop laughing and shaking my head since then. After Elizabeth II died, some people talked about she had been the only constant in the world in the last 70 years. But that's wrong. The only constant is pro-wrestling being pro-wrestling. I mentioned WCW circa 98 feel a few weeks back. Someone said "WCW speedrun" earlier and that's a great line. I have no idea what's next, but this last week is legendary stuff. Back in pro-wrestling lurking mode in more ways than one, enjoy the ruckus everyone.

I thought of making a new thread but thought it was cruel. Not everybody has the same empathy as I do... The PPV is probably gonna be awesome anyway. I mean, it's beginning to be seriously packed already. Too many matches actually + Eddie Kingtson vs Ishii in the free-preshow, because why the fuck not. TK is teasing that after All Out AEW will have the best roster they ever had, so I would guess Adam Cole & MJF back working.

Since I'm not familiar with Riddle's, I read that hearing Vince Russo's voice. Unpleasant. Very unpleasant.

Got it. The most puzzling one was about blackmailing WWE with a porn or something like that. Like, wtf ? The video is pretty clear cut, yeah. Posting a pic of a training session with Marty Scurll in it in this context is like, either completely idiotic, either plain vicious (you never know, although Riddle strikes me as being a completely dumb jock. Broman indeed).

Marty Scurll for ya. Also, have you listened to the latest vid from the ex-girlfriend ? There's nothing consensual about this. From all accounts, the guy comes off as a total dirtbag. No one cares about him being horny or bisexual.

The jokes writes themselves. The guy is, at very least and if nothing else, a complete and utter dumbfuck.

She is very clearly talking of sexual abuse in the last video she posted. Of course the reactions are the expected ones (people always want a "perfect victim"). I wonder if any of this will have any effect, but really now, sure the lawsuit was dropped (secret settlement ? We never knew for sure), but everybody knows this doesn't actually mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Whatever happens next, there's no way any of this is a good look, especially coming off Vince's scandal.

I wondered why Samuel Shaw's theme from TNA, which was great, seemed somewhat familiar. Well, it just occurred to me that it actually was... Pro-wrestling needs more of this.

It is that close to being really uncomfortable. I mean, just a little "And everybody knows why" from Seth and...

In all honesty by the end of his IMPACT stint he was quite ok. Playing Sid in ECW basically. I'm not sure how tall he would look in WWE though. Pretty tall still I think. I'm kinda surprised he hasn't surfaced somewhere yet, he sure looked good in the Wardlow match (hell, it's still one of the most entertaining Wardlow match thus far).

W. Morrissey is a free agent. Get him. Please. With his girlfriend in AEW, I fear something unpleasant might eventually happen.

First PPV in a stadium in Great Britain in 30 years, a Scottish guy in Cardiff, Wales, challenging for the title in front of legit 70.000 people. Yeah Roman's winning. (they should give Drew the win of course, can you picture the pop that would get ? First real Trip era PPV, in a huge setting, in the UK, way to make a statement and a legendary moment)