sek69

Pretty sure AAA won't put any restrictions on Omega/Fenix, I expect them to go balls-out. Konnan said the mixed tag program might lead to a hair match with Lady Maravilla and Big Mami so I would expect some fuckery there.

He did, and to be fair I did LOL heartily.

AAA's #2 show of the year takes place Saturday, and here's how the card looks so far (keep in mind AAA is the most "Card Subject to Change"-est company in the world): Psycho Clown & Rey Escorpion vs Averno & Dr. Wagner Jr vs Pentagon Jr & Texano Jr vs Chessman & Pagano (Relevos Increibles cage match) Fenix vs Kenny Omega (AAA World title) Aerostar, Laredo Kid, Murder Clown, Myzteziz Jr, Dragon Bane, Dave the Clown, Monsther Clown, La Hiedra, Faby Apache, La Parka Negra and a mystery person in the Copa Antonio Pena. (not saying Rush is going to be in this match, but there's a mystery guy listed and Konnan posted a photo of him and Rush on Twitter) Dinastia, Octagon Jr, Puma King vs Abismo Negro Jr, Arez, Super Fly Drago vs Daga (AAA Latin America title) Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr vs Chik Tormenta (who will be replaced since she announced last week she's pregnant) & Latigo vs Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa (AAA Mixed Tag title) Argenis, Lady Shani, Octagoncito, Pimpenela Escarlata vs Australian Suicide, Demus, Mamba, Vanilla (AAA Special man/woman/exotico/mini match)

I know people don't like the comparison, but Rey's looked like he's 15 for about 25 years now.

Nothing will change as long as Vince has final say, and no one has the balls to call out any bad ideas. He's so encased in a cocoon of yes men despite his ideas being demonstratively out of touch, their TV is so over produced/over scripted it is going to take a complete overhaul to change things.

Nearly everyone in AEW (and ROH, and NXT) has had some sort of "he's too small" complaint thrown at them. Marko's the most extreme case of course, but I see a lot of people on the wrestling internet circles sounding like Vince deciding certain folks aren't believable.

It really is adorable how Corey is trying to sell his officially WWE sanctioned podcast as him out there shootin'. Bruh, you got Uncle Paul as your first guest, quit acting like you're going to be out there calling out the company.

A lot of luchadores are smaller than you think, guys are much closer in size so the differences don't stand out as much as they do in American wrestling. According to the Luchawiki, Caristico is 5'7 and 165 pounds, as is Dragon Lee. Most top guys in CMLL and AAA are around that size. Penta and Fenix are actually on the big side for luchadores, both are around 6 foot, and they didn't look out of place against Marko. Honestly all the fuss is largely the result of 20 years of unopposed WWE programming turning fans into size queens like Vince and Hunter. People have issues with Marko because they're used to WWE taking guys like Chad Gable (who is 5'8 I believe) and turning him into a joke because of his height.

Someone (Bix maybe? I forget) pointed out that we've gone from "Push the Cruiserweights" to "X is too unbelievably small to be a wrestler it's ruining the biz". Hell, they didn't even air the best part of the match, during a break Penta got on the mic and said Marko wasn't a Luchasaurus, he's a Babysaurus. Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, and Marko being a human Russian Nesting Doll of awesome is one of the great parts of AEW.

I'd say it's unpopular. Riho's not a techincal marvel but she connects with the crowd and has undeniable underdog babyface charisma. She drew the crowd into her matches two weeks in a row and made them come off better than they would be otherwise. I think what kneecapped their women's division is that they clearly were going to have Kylie Rae in a key role, and then whatever happened went down, and it seemed to blow up whatever they had in mind.

I still have no idea how MLW didn't explode from having Low Ki, Teddy, Park, and Corny all at the same time.

If Bushiroad promotes them the way they did NJPW, this could be the biggest platform for joshi since the All Japan Women days.

Everyone gets full time contracts and the idea is for them to build the brand with TV and advertising which was what helped NJPW climb out of their dark period. They seem to know how to promote wrestling so this seems like a win for everyone involved.

It's always been stated that CMLL owns the arenas, but a lot of other things that CMLL was thought to own were actually in Paco's name so who knows? Mr. Lutteroth built Arena Mexico, so who's to say it wasn't something passed down the family?

Marko's great in that Spike Dudley "little dude who gets thrown around" role.

Seems like a pretty glaring mistake to have the portion of the Network that attracts the history buffs call Central States the "predecessor to Mid South".

Dunno, but it's pretty TNA-tastic for ROH to put such a push behind her when she only had a 6 month deal that expired before she ever had a match.

Well Liger is an NXT alumni after all.....

The ROH appearances are due to Rush more than anything else. NJPW guys have flat out said they don't want to go to ROH anymore since they've gone downhill, and ROH wants to make Rush as happy as possible to save whatever sliver of a chance that exists where he would re-sign with them when his deal is up next year.

Dragon Lee got replaced by Volador Jr in the tag league, but he is announced to be on several ROH shows in the next month or so.

I remember watching Ken Anderson in OVW back in the day and thinking he was going to be the next star to come out of there. I don't get the hate he seems to get from a lot of folks, he's not the greatest ever or anything but he's not as terrible as everyone makes him out to be.

The Fantasica Mania shows are still a good draw for NJPW, their fans seem to enjoy seeing the CMLL guys come in for a tour. The sourness between AEW and NJPW seems pretty much centered on the Bucks. Omega has stated he would like to go back and his AEW contract states he can work there if he gets booked. The Bucks seemed particularly stung by not getting an offer from NJPW that (to them) didn't match the value they felt that they brought to the company. They were pretty vocal about feeling they got lowballed when the offer was made to them to stay. Also I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of partner loyalty in play as well. Intentionally or not, the Elite guys ended up using ROH to get the idea that became AEW off the ground and New Japan is not going to be inclined to work with a group that used one of their business partners.

I think he's being scapegoated for things like being promised Ronda and not delivering. As much as I think Eric's an asshole, he was set up to fail big time here. He was brought in with no clear job description, no direct control on what he was supposedly in charge of, and no way to fix it when things didn't go as promised. Vince just wanted to have big names to tell investors about in a conference that was mostly bad news. Paul had the advantage of being around the product and being able to hit the ground running, Eric hadn't been around for decades and had no chance of ever being able to deliver. Plus now Vince has one of his top yes-men in the spot, which guarantees SmackDown will be written to exact Vince-pleasing expectations for the foreseeable future.

I hope there was a "plans change" moment, because if Booker talking on Raw about "rumors regarding a major trade" on RAW were about Alexa/Nikki being traded for Jobbers to be Named Later, then we've moved from 1998 WCW to 1999 WCW.

If faced with a Japanese option and a foreign option for a product, the public will pick the Japanese option like 95% of the time. It's a weird product of being such a homogeneous culture, there is a feeling anything Japanese is automatically superior to anything non-Japanese.