El-P

Nah, Triple H, the guy who doesn't want to be in the spotlight yet puts the spotlight on himself every time there's something to brag about, announced it was a new era. So it has to be a brand new era. They really should have made it a special episode though and call it, I dunno, Capitol Carnage or something.

The question remains. If Mania was the beginning of the new era, as showed by appearances of Stephanie McMahon, MAGATaker and the Rock, does that mean that this new era is actually over already, as WWE has now entered into yet another new era, as showed by appearances of the Rock, MAGATaker and Hulk Hogan ? Lots of new eras in a very short span...

He literally made a video alongside Glen "I'm a piece of human trash" Jacobs and Donald Trump replying to Dave Bautista. Also, him coming out to Kid Rock was the perfect MAGAmatch, if you will. But yeah, the only thing missing on this outfit was a Blue Lives Matter cap. Also, Dana White is now part of Meta. These fucks are everywhere now.

Hogan getting booed still is hilarious. Taker not getting booed is also hilarious. The amount of cognitive dissonance is amazing. No Penta debut ? Really ? Consensus seems to be quite underwhelming. Business as usual with a heavy dose of corporate masturbation. All of this on a ring splattered with adds for the Saudis. Yeah. Netflix era indeed.

Imagine having to pay for ad-free tier when subscribing on Netflix. What a scam this shit has become over the years. Long gone are the days of "Love is sharing a password" too. And yeah, the jokes are writing themselves at this point : ?

In other news, it seems Rush and Dralistico are kinda iced because of an incident where, I know it's shocking, they got unprofesionnal by beating up a worker who was legit checked by the doctor. Ya know, at this point, I don't even see why Coach TK should bother. Rush is terrific, but he's ungovernable (see what I did ?). You can't rely on him nor his brother to behave. Let someone else have headaches with these two. And release Fénix and Miro while he's at it. Just save the money. Way too many talent on the roster already. Cut back and focus.

The real question is how CM Punk gonna manage to never bump on the Riyadh Season adds on the mat. Also, Bruce Prichard is back and apparently heavily involved with the Netflix show. Total change of an era. I sure hope Taker shows up alongside Hogan. The MAGAPowers explode.

Well, so apparently NJPW office feels Charlton going off script talking shit about AEW and calling TK a "money mark" was akin to make them lose face in front of their business partner. Which is a huge no-no.

I mean, they also chanted "Thank you Vince" not that long ago (this is still undersold how this was incredibly awful and slimy)... The audience is younger now and may be closer minded to the UFC crowd. The reaction he gets will say a lot about where they stand for sure. Honestly I'm very surprised they haven't brought Flair back already. The Whatever Energy sponsorship with AEW thankfully petered out quickly and hopefully he never shows up there again, but why in the hell WWE would not bring him back now or in the near future, no idea. Hell, I would not even be shocked to see Lesnar show up at the Rumble, at this rate.

Hilarious. In an ideal world, this turns into a big ass interpromotional war angle and NJPW brings Kevin Kelly back and Forbidden Door is NJPW vs UWF-I redux (and yeah, there's a joke in that reference too).

TKO is a full on Trump supporting act. So is WWE. They just are more hypocritical about it than UFC is. WWE has hired a "problematic" head of production *after* the Vince lawsuit was out. WWE is still dealing with Logan Paul, who is a legit crypto-scammer. WWE is partnering with Hulk "everybody is a bit racist/watcha gonna do when Trumpmania runs wild on you" Hogan and is bringing him to to Netflix debut. After years of "non-canon" bloodmoney shows that have been completely internalized as "normal business" by its fanbase, they now bring one of the big 4 (and really, one of the big 2) as a whitewashing act for MBS (ya know, the guy who ordered a journalist to be murdered then dismembered with a saw, hell, there's a Netflix documentary about it). So no, nothing has changed. Oh yeah, booking is better, let Papa Trip cook or something. Tune in for John "even Randy freaking Orton was not as offensive when talking about Vince" Cena's road to WrestleMania.

That was pretty damn cool, especially since he was part of the very first 01/04 Dome show, tagging with Dusty. Sammy seems to live his best life away from the pressure of the "AEW" shows. Also, Tay Melo going back to the ring in Stardom after 22 months had her in tears. It was so sweet. This was quite a moment for all involved. Maybe did not mean much (if anything) to these shows in the grand scheme of things, but it sure meant the world for them.

Takeshita was easily and by a wide margin the G1 Climax MVP too this year. Well, he's got a dual contract, whatever that means as far as how far NJPW can push him. Yeah, Charlton going way too hard into the "AEW has been stealing from NJPW", leaning into some of the fanboy talks online (just read NJPW reddit for a minute or two. Well, don't, because reddit is a cesspool of idiots apparently) to sell the Gabe Kidd angle, but he lacked... uh... any kind of subtlety. My take is that he's just not used to that kind of commentary work and he was just try-harding the whole thing. As much as I think he's great in a Mike Tenay role, I'm not a big fan of some of his ûber emphatic presentation at times, and this was a case of him trying way too fucking hard. He's getting some flack online now because people are shit and dumb and taking it at heart (yeah, he was just selling an angle guys and playing the NJPW good soldier). At the end of the show you could see they made it a reconciliation in a "in the heat of the moment you say stuff, but we do great together and are so happy" mode.

And when the dust settles, Kenny Omega is actually still the GOAT and the most unique pro-wrestler ever. Dynasty was better as far as in-ring than WK, but both show totally flew by, including the 43 minutes of ZSJ vs Umino, which I enjoyed a lot. NJPW is very clearly on a transitional period, and the Dynasty show was not very well thought-out (and really was NJPW & AEW with a little bit of CMLL and Stardom, not that massively fun inter-promotional show it was sold to be at first). Would be better off not doing the same mistake next year, two Dome shows in a row when you're not hot is not a great idea, but I enjoyed it a lot nonetheless for what it was. Takeshita getting a dual NJPW/AEW contract is an interesting news for sure. And yeah, AZM vs Mayu deserved WAY better than less than 10 minutes (they would probably have showed up everyone else too on that day of given 15 minutes). Then again, when Mercedes vs Mina (which was excellent, AGAIN) are early on the card the next day, that tells you everything you need to know about NJPW booking women matches on their shows in Japan. Of course, the irony is, Stardom did its biggest number in eons (ever ?) at Ryogoku last week, and it was also the best show of all the major shows I've watched during this period. After New Year Dash tomorrow where they launch the new programs of the new year, it's really the end of the most exciting period of the year wrestling wise for me.

And guess who's back for the first Netflix show ? Straight from cutting a wrestling promo at a Trump rally to the first ever "brand new era" show. The smell of the audience who would cheer for him after this shit. The sponsorships on the mat are a riot too, if the leak is real. Honestly at this point they just should straight out put Elon Musk's shit plastered all over the show too (imagine a WWE show in Germany with Musk's sponsorship after he directly supported the AFD, which are basically neo-nazis). Maybe they can run Cena's retirement in China. He can even cut a promo in the language... Man. 2025 is gonna be so cursed on every level.

Let's fucking gooooooo !!!! Here we are finally ! Maybe they should do it in some shitty NEOM site too. (the amount of delusion of WWE fans thinking they are not currently still living in Vince's dream... He made the Saudi deals, he made Saudi "their home", he recruited Cody personally and promised him the WWE title at Mania, the upswing of the company began while he was still at the helm. It's crazy that last year's Mania tried to whitewash the entire thing while having Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard show up in the ring at the end. They are running Cody vs Cena at Mania this year. This is STILL Vince's product and vision out there, 100%. Minor details in booking and in-ring style don't change the overall picture of what this company still is)

Reminds me : fuck Netflix forever for cancelling GLOW before I got a final season. Fuck Netflix in general, it's thrash, but for this, fuck them a whole lot.

I would not be surprised at all if Mayu lost the IWGP title at the Dome then moved on to Marigold once her contract is up, considering how close she was/is with Rossy. If that's the case, then the top of the card certainly looks different (plus Sareee is still a freelancer, so there is that). The fact that Yumi Fukawa's daughter and I think Michiko Ohmukai's daughter too are on the roster makes me feel old as hell, as I was a huge ARSION fan back in the days. It's kinda cool at the same time. (although nepotism is running rampant everywhere, it seems like it's been less of a case in japanese wrestling. Well, maybe not the best time to say that when Shota Umino is getting that Dome Show main event, but oh well)

No one will watch it. No one watched that stuff when it was on the WWE Network. You think anyone will watch that stuff on Netflix, which is overloaded with stuff nobody watches anymore and whose entire business model is about oversaturation of new content all the time ? WWE and Netflix really deserves each other though (take that as you will). Hey, now I can watch the Rumble or at least the first one, before I get really bored, without having to find some russian pirate feed on VK or something. Yeah, would have been fun a few years back to talk shit about it around here.

Imagine thinking "I'm so excited" is not a great fucking song... Well, of course, in 2025, you better have some track from Brat if you wanna be relevant to people under 30. Then again, I hear they got Elton Jon's back for Collision, so the musical relevancy of the entire thing is not exactly striking the minds of the younger generation. Nor mine. More like Copium. Yeah, that's all I have. Been sick as a dog for the last few days. (an ok show I guess, which is not exactly what it should have been. Highlight being Ricochet's angle with Swerve, which was great. Lowlight being Hurt Syndicate running over what used to be one of the hottest act of the company while contributing nothing to the overall product. Jarrett having his last ride run to the title angle the same year as Cena is top notch carny bullshit, you gotta love it. I legit enjoy the fact Jarrett and Dustin are gonna retire with AEW, as they are the two oldest wrestler still in activity that I started watching in the 90's. Julia Hart's return was a underwhelming, and returning now after those Moné bangers made it even harder (BTW, whatever happened to Britt Baker ?). No Ospreay, No Okada. Parts of me hope they show up in Tokyo. Mercedes should honestly have been there already and show up at Stardom's show tomorrow instead of having to run a promo by herself with no interaction with anyone. Almost feels like they were waiting for after the Dome shows to load up the card in two weeks)

Well, after the Dream Queendom show, it appears that despite Rossy leaving with a bunch of talents and the formation of (the quite underwhelming thus far) Marigold, Stardom is doing just fine. Excellent attendance at Ryogoku and a damn great show capped off by two awesome title matches. SLK vs Natsupoi is easily a MOTYC and the crowning of SLK was quite a moment. That girl is so great. Only 23 years old too. Most charismatic masked wrestler since, I dunno, Rey ? Liger ? Main event was on par and a heel performance for the ages by Saya Kamitami. Undercard also had the expected Saori Anou banger against Mika Iwata and an excellent bloody brawl (that's certainly new in Stardom, I'm guessing the Netflix show about Dump played a big part) between Natsuko Tora and Maika. The depth of the roster is still incredible. Consider this, they got a stable with AZM, Mei Seira and Suzu Suzuki, all of them being only 22 to boot. It's ridiculous. So yeah, unless there's a bunch of people leaving with the renewal contract season, Stardom will probably be fine. Meanwhile, Marigold has its first big show of the year counter-programing Stardom on the 3rd, running Hayashishita vs Sareee, by far their biggest match (well, their only big match at this point, really), which on paper sounds awesome. Undercards have been very hit and miss from what Ive seen, and the company totally comes off like "Stardom with a yellow logo and lesser talents" thus far.

That would be pretty damn horrific ! ? Hook is someone I have currently zero interest in. He hasn't shown much (any ?) progress because of the way he's booked (hint : don't protect rookies, they need to learn how to work), his promo work has been pretty terrible, he's not over (the cult/meme thing can only last for so long) he's basically nepotism 101 at this point. Wanna push a son-of ? Nick Wayne is right there, he's already miles ahead of many, many guys on the roster.

But really, now that I think of it, the C2 final should have been the main event. No one could follow it up, especially not a clusterfuck kinda match carried by a main event angle that is not clicking (I do enjoy it, but more in theory and look than in execution), and you still had the feel-good return at the end, and really, Omega getting face to face with Okada would have made for a much better closing of the show than Copeland & FTR chasing off Moxley, let's be real. I wonder, with the way they shot it, if they plan to build Omega vs Okada for All In. It's a long ass way away. Of course, it is a stadium show worthy match, but like everything, it's about building to a peak and not missing it (on that topic, it was kinda sad to see MJF vs Adam Cole, as this match would have gotten molten heat a year ago if Cole had not been injured and then came back while MJF had turn back heel, which screwed up pretty much the entire dynamic and made the whole angle just totally awkward, shit happens). The question mark is Omega's health and how he'll look once back in the ring. That will be answered pretty quickly now. Okada, well, that part is covered.

It was very good overall and could not follow Ospreay vs Okada anyways, so, I guess they went for not too fancy stuff. Same could be said about the Tijuana Street fight. I half expected some funky lucha-inspired props and shit, Lucha Underground style, but it was basically you basic brawl with chairs, table and whatnot. A good one mind you, but apart from a pinata, there was nothing Tijuana about it. But that's the way it is. I have built enough good will and appreciation for Copeland's last months of activity to overlook this. Like I said, it's basically a big match for Mox on his way to the Darby finale anyway. Plus, FTR vs any Deathriders combination is quite ok with me. It's a big return to send the crowd happy and it absolutely worked (although let's be real, the return that really matters was earlier on the show). Poor Jay White though. He's the kinda guy that can always eat a pin because he's a long haul worker, but still. Two years in a row now. (of course, if Copeland wins the title, then it's straight LOLTNA booking, but I highly doubt it's happening. I would appreciate if we could be done already with the neverending Christian Cage not-cashing storyline, because it has been gong nowhere for ever alongside the cold as ice story with Hook. Hopefully they move on from all of this soon).

Great show. Ospreay is the greatest, has been for quite a while now. Okada is still ridiculously great when the context calls for it, like, ridiculously great. Mercedes is back at being the greatest American woman wrestler (gotta love the details of the outfit and the finish being winks toward Mina, who she faces at the Tokyo Dome). Fletcher and Takeshita are the "future" greatest. Kenny returned ! (Eddie is not even near to be ready to come back, latest news was said to be about sometime in Spring of 2025 or something. Copeland was pretty much expected at the latest on Dynamite alongside FTR. He's just a bump in the road for the Deathriders, Darby most probably ends up defeating Moxley, if he doesn't kill himself doing that Everest nonsense)