El-P

Or maybe it's just WWE trying to control their audience like they are drones. Remember, they LOVED the thunderdome presentation because it allowed them to have a totally controlled environment. Obviously I have no idea about that Lacy Evans deal though, but the fact something looks awkward seems like... normal business for WWE (I have seen those Beach Break vignettes with Mandy Rose and the crew.... holy shit... vintage TNA/early00's WWE horrible comedy stuff right there).

There's nothing wring with Aubrey being charismatic. There's nothing wrong with a referee being charismatic and notable. There's a difference between being charismatic and actually adding to the overall picture of the match (like Aubrey or Red Shoes) and disrupting it (which is why most "guest referee" gimmick matches suck). What really annoys me are ref who do the awful delayed third count in a very obvious way, which has become a trope (it can still be effective if done right, but for instance that NJPW ref whose name eludes me at the moment, who does the upper-midcard matches, if fucking terrible at it and ruins every near falls if you pay attention to his count). The thing is the ref remains the most mysterious element of a pro-wrestling match to the outside observer, because half of his work (communicating with the workers, making sure they are safe) flies under our radar. Despite being the the camera all the time, he/she's actually half-execution, half-production.

The part about NXT UK had me rolling :

He works nothing like Adam Cole though, who's really a go-go-go maximalist with a taste for brawls and receiving huge beatings (a la Raven). His entire style is about slowing down his opponents, countering *each and every one* of their key moves (or preventing them from executing them in tricky ways, like dropping down on his knees from exhaustion at the right moment, almost as a half-troll), including at very key moments in the sprint to the finish segment, and being a dickhead of course. In NJPW you would also get some Gedo out the ring fuckery (although nowhere even near the Dick Togo bullshit in EVIL matches, which makes them automatic FF stuff to me). The one thing about his stint in the US, is that because he is who he is (a top guy from NJPW and a great worker), people will react to him in a much favorable way, because that's how it works. He's not gonna pander to them though, but he's also gonna bask in his glory if it happens because there's no reason why not to. So he's doing less than he would in Japan, because of his status in front of a hardcore US audience. In Japan he had some hilarious heel shit during the pandemic where he would encourage the crowd to chant for his opponents, which they were not allowed to do because of restrictions, or start clapping in an irregular cadence which no one could follow.

Yeah, that's one hell of working the masses, because no one saw that coming, unlike the Good Brothers showing up in NJPW again (I mean, that's what they wanted to do after getting fired from WWE in 2020, they just had to wait for almost two years in IMPACT in the meantime). Naito vs Okada seems like a match we've seen too many times at this point, but still, at the end of the night it was excellent (although too long). Tanahashi vs Ishii on the other hand... Holy fuck that match was pro-wrestling greatness in all its glory. Tanahashi really has a case for GOAT (and by that I mean legit greatest of all time, not GOAT this GOAT that that's thrown around about everything and everyone everywhere all the time ) and Ishii is a headcase of how in the hell can he still go at that level on such a broken body still ? If the undercards weren't so tired and cruise-control and the House of Torture shit wasn't an automatic FF, there's still a lot of promising stuff for NJ with the country opening up. Interesting line-up for the Super Juniors, but I must say 10 a block with guys like Douki is just way too much people and matches. Cherry picking in order at the very least.

Yep. This is IMPACT working its magic for ya. It took a while though, but they booked him *a lot* with Eddie Edwards in street fights, they hid his weaknesses a lot and made him look like a monster, gave him a purpose, got him over as a dirty monster heel, then as a cool monster face (a la Sid in 96), which probably did wonders for his confidence. His single match with Moose I thought didn't work that well (too long even for an improved Morrissey), but overall his IMPACT stint and rebuilt as been a success. I thought he looked quite good here too. Disappointed Deonna did not win, I must say. IMPACT sending two people to do jobs is not something I expected, I hope they get something in return (send some dude in IMPACT... like, I dunno BRIAN PILLMAN, who badly needs fresh air and a creative space to find himself, or anyone really). But anyway, I marked out big time for one of my favorite workers in the world for a few years now main eventing an AEW TV show, and shining in the process. She's still the best. Love Deonna ! And that Fénix vs Martin match was out of this world. This is what I want to see, the next level shit, the stuff that's out there, that I've never seen before, that is new and unique. Also : get Julia Hart into a gothic gear already. People just want her to be part of the House of Black and turn on the two geeks. Just do it already. House of Blacks also are cool heels. They are dark and cool and killers and they need their Witchy Bliss-like Cheerleader. Just do it already and let's put a rocket under their collective asses.

Sorry my friend, but it has to be the worst take I've seen on Jay White thus far. As far as "not doing anything heelish", I don't even know what match you're watching then, because Jay White IS heel personified. Every little steps he takes is heel, every look he gives, every smiles he makes is heel. He's doing *nothing* but heel things. And the psychology, well, I love Mike Bailey, but this was 95% a Jay White style match, so yep, the psychology was great and the fact Bailey missed a lot of moves is absolutely a stamp of White's style, as he's all about countering every move his opponent does and make them miss and make mistakes, anyone knowing their Jay White's well would recognize that this match was typical Jay White. If "doing heelish things" is acting like a cliché 80/90's US guy, sure, he's not gonna do that. If "doing heelish things is" then Jay White is still the best of them all. Which he is.

Seems like she has some issues controlling her narrative. (the biggest waste of talent of the last 10 years)

Anna Jay & John Silver aren't going anywhere. Preston Vance honestly, he's just a JTTS and don't see him going much higher.

Yeah, this show sounds to be as filled with bullshit as a regular Hogan interview. That being said : Cursed Taurus is awesome.

Yeah, it's kinda sad as he's such great worker but he's been hurt by the first version of the gimmick, then when they finally got over as a unite John Silver is the one who got the most out of it. Uno & Grayson are a terrific tag-team and it's too bad they won't get to be thrown into the current scene as serious contenders. With ROH maybe becoming a thing, they could have been sent over there. Hopefully he rebounds, I'd love to see him in IMPACT (I guess I say that with every other guy I'd want to watch more).

This was really good indeed and although Madison Eagles was the star of the match by a wide margin, it seems like McKay did fell off a cliff. Maybe she took the PC training of unlearning everything she knew from the indies because it's the wrong way to work a bit to much at heart. I enjoyed their IMPACT run, but mostly for her characters and interactions, the matches weren't anything to write home about.

Rollin' rollin' rollin' Making sure everybody there is uncomfortable and anxious all the time. Toxic management indeed. Roderick Strong would be so at home where you know, plus his wife already works there.

That's understood, but don't you think sex69 would have reported it as it happened ? Plus honestly, AAA doesn't work with NJPW anyway, so none of it makes sense anyway.

Interesting. We have the same thing with the meaning changing depending of adjectives being placed before or after too. All these Latin languages share a lot of stuff.

This did not happen. Why post bullshit from random idiots from Twitter on the board ? Young Bucks vs Vikingo & Fénix was everything expected. Great match, some insane spot by the technicos, Vikingo is from another planet it seems (and that's next to Fénix). The final was botched by the inept as usual Hijo de Tirantes, who interrupted his count then counted again, and Matt Jackson displayed his genius mind by making him count again and again so as to drawn the botch, as if it was just part of him being a dick and making the ref count several times to humiliate Vikingo. Matt Jackson is that smart, amazing. LA Park vs Villano IV was ugly as hell but kinda great if you don't mind two barely mobile old fucks bleeding on each others but making the most out of their legendary status. Blue Demon vs Rayo de Jalisco was just ugly as hell. Probably for the first time ever Blue Demon Jr. was the best worker in a match by a large margin. Canek did show way more than I expected, although that doesn't mean much. Clown did a really hood job bumping for him. Like in the Demon match, the whole thing was having an old rival to fuck the match up so Canek could win. Pentagon vs Ultimo Dragon was a fine opener, it was cool to see Ultimo back in a AAA ring. Still the best outfits this guy ! Jeff Jarrett & Karen were pretty awesome as they usually are in this setting. Vampiro ! This is WCW 2000 !!! Well no, it was actually fun. The announcers kinda sucked though, they did not recognize Vampiro's theme, they did not recognize Dr. Wagner Jr's theme (and not even the guy until he took his mask off apparently)... I mean, they were a hundred times better than Vamp & Striker being drunk as fuck of course, but still... (well, drunk as fuck Vamp was kinda funny honestly) Multi-team mixed title match was fun, as these match usually are, and Tay & Sammy were a terrific rudo act at the end. The high-flying clusterfuck was just that, some really good shit in this. Johnny Caballero was a hoot. I wonder how long until we get to see Johnny Elite... The mixed-tag clusterfuck was great when Andrade was facing Bandido, very good when Taya was against Deonna (who did not really shine in that setting, too clusterfucky for her style), sucked whenever CIbernetico was in, as expected. Fuck finish sucked though, they did not want to beat anyone. The vignettes from the rouletta de la muerte were pretty cool and well done I thought. Usual production fuck ups during the shows though, what would a AAA show be without it ?

Kinda outdated method if you ask me. The little girl even made one little mistake. I'll post this last bit because it's actually hilarious (because it's soooo true). (hey, PWO whatever, WWE was in Paris today apparently)

Actually, none sounds any good in French ! Really the literal translation make it sounds in French like his nickname is "The bastard" or something ("gros chien" comes off as an insult). There's really no good way to make it sound any good in French without sounding either really awkward or plain bad. Literal translation often don't work. "Chef tribal" works though, but anything dog related is a no-no. Apparently they brought Amale Dib to the ring to say hello to the crowd, she's the French worker on NXT UK.

Taya and Johnny moved from California to Floria and they got fired one after the other in a span of one month of so. Taya almost got emotional during her first promo back on IMPACT talking about reclaiming her worth after having hit rock bottom.

And the announcers made sure that point was made clear, that he believed he had run off Neese through his curse while obviously Neese was escaping Hook's hooks. Danhausen's curse is basically homeopathy.

In other news, Chris Dickinson domestic abuse (mental and physical) accusations by Christina von Eerie. Withdrawing from the next GCW show.

Yes. And yes. Darby totally gives me Cactus Jack's vibes. Match was terrific too. The idea that WWE let Strickland go is just one of these mind-puzzling making no sense decision. Like, WHY ? Main event was terrific too. For all the talk about Joe being done in NXT, he has looked nothing short of excellent thus far in AEW. That Trent match was a war. It's also nice that the ROH stuff actually revolves around historical ROH characters thus far, it's a nice way to connect what happens now to the history of the promotion. So much cool matches with Joe in... Da Baddies are gonna be awesome if they develop a cool chemistry. I for one to have Kiera Hogan back on my weekly TV after years of following her in IMPACT. She looked kinda nervous I thought, whereas Velvet comes off confident AF. A trio will bring a new dynamic to the division too, which is needed, and Jade getting her own reDragons is not the worst idea in terms of mixing things up for her in term of matches. Yeah, loving the Baddies already. Danhausen is the kind of stuff that will have some head explode, but that pop is undeniable. Hookhausen ? Yeah, need some shit to go viral on TikTok or something. Orange Cassidy has now some competition in meme pro-wrestling. Him doing the hand-in-pocket spot with Satnam Singh certainly got over too.

Two interesting bits of under-the-radar TNA greatness from the One Night Only Knockouts PPV in September of 2013 (WWE Evolution my ass, here's one women only PPV already, years before) : Mickie James having a very good match with Serena Deeb of all people (who basically was already a version of her current self); Gail Kim doing one of the greatest bits of selling I've ever seen at the end of the gauntlet match, when after one bump on her leg (she's legit a GOAT contender in term of the art of bumping) she does such a great job of selling it like she legit injured her ankle and is pissed at Mickie (with the help of Mickie who sells it right and the actual medic checking her out) that despite being the oldest heel trick in the book, people actually began to clap for her when she hobbled seemingly out of the ring, before of course jumping on Mickie's back (and winning the match in a super smooth way to boot). The more Gail Kim I watch, the more I'm convinced that you throw her in her prime today and she's legit a very top female worker in the world still (not sure who would be much better actually, Sasha Banks and the very top Stardom workers I guess), she was just great as so many things.

Talk about so much hype for zilch in the end. I wonder if he'll end up Controlling His Narrative (ok, that's only because of how he looks, I know, not nice)...

Was about to say, now we maybe knowing who did not attend that "gotta put those butt in the cheeks" lil' meeting.