El-P

The character is kinda fun, but it has absolutely damaged the title and the quality of Toni Storm's matches, which was her entire selling point. The fact that it is over only demonstrate that you can get over for entirely wrong reasons. I don't dislike it, but the women division should have actual workhorses on top, not gimmicks. Meanwhile, Athena is having killer matches on ROH, is a great and credible champ that is anchoring the entire thing and makes it seem way important. Why can't they do this on AEW TV, I still have no idea. The sooner Mariah May gets the title the better, and then Toni Storm's character can maybe get some sanity back and we can have some real good matches again.

Best place for the three of them, really. Callihan was doing stuff in MLW, but that company is a hot mess. Been enjoying Revolver lately, and it is a LOT of TNA talent anyway, he's basically a lifer. Mike Santana is a good fit for the promotion too. He would have gone nowhere in WWE. Let's see what he can bring to the table in a smaller pond. And Matt Hardy, you know what, he peaked as a character in TNA years ago, and he's now basically physically broken, so he can have way more fun doing more cinematic stuff, and this will only get some focus in TNA at this point (although apparently he's still a free agent). Totally fine with all of this.

It's not like the booker is foreign to blood & guts Wonder if that means maybe next time they do a Wargame, Cody Rhodes gets all crimson mask and all.

Appalling people doing appalling things, the news of Vince and his legal team being in regular contact with Donald Trump, with maybe the hope of everything being dropped if (when ? gawd....) the white supremacist-rapist gets elected is certainly something. Also, Linda is still in the Trump game. What a family. But of course this has nothing to do with WWE anymore. Even though the son-in-law is at the head of creative. And Minion #1 is still employed. And the daughter was at Mania. And TKO celebrates Trump everytime he shows his ugly fascistoïd mug at an UFC event.

Interesting that basically 4 of the released people are "localisation" workers. Jinder Mahal received one of the most ridiculously forced push in the company ever only because they wanted to conquer the India market (with a Canadian, mind you), Veer & Sanga were part of the Indian crew too. Xia Li was really pushed as a way to get into the Chinese market (what did she ever do ?). They also got rid of Mansoor a few years back. I wonder if they have just reached the point of giving up with this kind of approach, which really did not had any effect at all apparently. And really, unless you're pushed as a star, having an undercard guy from a specific country is not gonna change anything in the grand scheme of things. Well, Jinder was pushed as a star. He also fucking sucked. Also, remember the exchange with Coach TK a few months back ? Not that he had any chance landing a spot over there anyway based on talent, but yeah, karma is a bitch, uh. I could see him headlining against EC3 though in a "syringe on a pole" match. EDIT : I did not even realize the fifth guy was Australian. And that he's Harley Cameron's husband. And that they are married, so they basically have the SAME NAME (Daniel & Danielle, which in French is pronounced exactly the same). Crazy, that.

Thus far, the departure of D'Amore hasn't affected the product. This is pretty much exactly the same week-to-week logical storytelling approach, with regular really good matches, some fun segments (Ash by Elegance has been a fun character) and really good produced vignettes (the Gresham stuff). The build to Rebellion has been effective, some promising stuff on the show, Hammerston vs Alexander 3 last man standing, Eric Young vs Kazarian in a Full Metal Mayhem (basically TLC) match of the OGs, Mustafa Ali vs Jake Something which should be spectacular. The result of the main is interesting too, I could see it going either way, with Nemeth putting over Moose before moving on to other things or Nemeth becoming the champ until Slammiversary, possibly against Alexander (depending where his booking is going with D'Amore gone, the result of the Hammerstone match will probably be a giveaway). Leon Slater & ABC vs Rascalz on the pre-show should be a killer match too.

You ain't packing Ryogoku with this. Korakuen Hall was the way to go. Card looks pretty ok, although Bloodsport is always very hit and miss (the last one was the most fun to me).

Isn't Oklahoma the first state to ban abortion when they could ? The entire state is a ridiculous anachronism.

Her debut was cool. Since then she has been a complete miss thus far. She needs to change her ways, because the 2017 WWE-like promos are terrible. Hopefully everything changes when she actually works, because that's what AEW is all about, having really good pro-wrestling matches, ya know (as opposed to grinding 4 minutes of in-ring action in 6 months, if you catch my drift). Yup. That's where I am too lately, I can't say I'm super excited about the weekly stuff, which has been hit and miss (that god damn Billy Gunn match, I still haven't got over that one). Haven't even watched the week-end shows yet. Probably burned out a bit after the Mania week, but still. Dynasty should be awesome though, whenever I get around to watch it. On paper it's a ridiculous peaks show, really : Okada vs PAC, Ospreay vs Danielson, Young Bucks vs FTR ladder match, Joe vs Swerve. The two women match could go either way, one because of injury, the other because of gimmick. 6 men should be really fun. Strong vs O'Reilly will be technically terrific I guess, but could have zero heat too. Jericho vs Hook is gonna be one of the matches happening this night.

Fuck Oklahoma and its hateful inbred redneck bigots. I hope next time AEW comes around, they have Nyla Rose fucking main event and win the woman or TBS title. Time to send a very clear signal. Everything is political.

Damn. So many "new eras" these days. But yeah. Same old same old process. Especially with Rossy. It's like, the third promotion he's starting or something. Thanks for the links. Podcast was definitely interesting. I actually saw that documentary, I remember it well ! Some parts were REALLY sad and REALLY creepy too.

Actually : Shota Umino. Wins G1. Takes belt from his mentor. Then again, I do not think Mox is keeping it until the Dome. SANADA should never ever even approach the main events. Tanahashi, that ship has sailed too by that point. I've been quite impressed with Naito's last matches. For a guy who was thought about to be kinda washed up, he had some great performances against Tsuji and Mox. He's still by far their biggest star, so he probably got some more mileage in him. Takagi should have another shot on top, really. They probably missed the boat on Taichii too, who was getting huge crowd support as he became a straight babyface worker having great matches. Anything would have been better than EVIL/SANADA anyway.

People around here are already frolicking in expectation, I can feel it.

The Chris Adams episode sure was Dark Side. Nothing really redeeming. Sure, the kids want to remember him a different way, but Adams sure needed professional help. The one fun part was the bit about the angle with Austin and Jeannie. Can't get more pro-wrestling than this. The rest of the story, well, pretty much a downer about a guy who was a mean drunk/junkie, and not that much of a "gentleman" to begin with anyway. Don't do drugs, kids (alcohol being one). The one striking line of the episode goes to Kevin Von Erich, about how often pro-wrestlers used to be high-school bullies. Talk about summing up the entire culture of the era (and beyond) in one sentence.

I guess it runs in the family, uh ? AAA is really gonna go on about booking Alberto when his father and brother are involved in *this*, putting Alberto's own bagage in perspective ("charges have been dropped" and all) ? Jeez Konnan, grow a fucking sense of dignity already.