El-P

Gold League was 100% awesome. Blue League, not as much. Because of Shelton Benjamin having no business being involved in this (on several levels) and the depressing booking of Beast Mortos, who is awesome and gets over because he's awesome, and gets rewarded with jackshit. Still, overall, C2 has been a success in term of delivering mostly great matches leading to what should be incredible final matches. After two years, it's definitely establishing itself as something to look forward to at the end of the year (unless gross miscast booking). Also, since he's heavy on tradition, Coach TK should absolutely keep on with the 3 Days in Hammerstein during X-mas season (since I'm guessing ROH is not going away, Final Battle belongs there). Looking forward to more of this smaller buildings thingy. Worlds Ends is probably gonna be great, all things considered. The C2 final matches all look awesome. For all its booking laziness, Mariah May and Thunder Rosa beating the hell out of each other and Mercedes Moné vs Kris Statlander 2 are top notch matches on paper that I'm very much looking forward too. Takeshita vs Hobbs look terrific. MFJ vs Adam Cole can be a great match despite the über awkward booking leading to this. And maybe we can move on from the remains of what 2023 could have been after that point. The 4-way should be excellent also and really, these are four old favorite of mine involved in the AEW title match. They really need to figure out what to do with that Hurt Syndicate that is not LOLAEW in 2025, because between yawnfest Benjamin in C2, Lashley beating Swerve Strickland clean with basically zero followup (and zero other match) and the humiliation of Ricochet which has to be a top 5 worst AEW TV segment ever, they have been nothing but damaging to me. I don't give a damn that people like to chant "We hurt people". They have brought basically only negatives to the product thus far to me. They need to Copeland their way into doing something positive or get fucked. 2024 certainly was an interesting year for AEW. They won the lottery with the TV deal, despite being less popular than ever. They have delivered some awesome cards and moments, made Swerve Strickland a star and on their way to do the same with Kyle Fletcher. Got Okada, Moné, Ospreay, Ricochet. Yeah. There's also plenty to criticize, plenty to be unhappy about. There's also plenty to be happy about and more potential for a seemingly endless streak of great pro-wrestling. AEW need to remember where they come from, not chase what they could have been at one point. And figure out what to be next and not give a flying fuck about the grifters.

Final Battle was a clear sign that Coach TK either : is completely toasted as a booker / ROH is now run out of escalation of commitment and nothing else. Either way, despite some really good matches and legit fun moments, the show overall was a complete downer, marred by totally idiotic booking decisions. And NO, at this point I do not care at all about a ROH TV deal. This ship has sailed. Even if there's a ROH TV show, guess what, I have no faith it'll be anything different from what ROH has been this year : a sub-Rampage show that's mainly a chore to watch. AEW was at its best when it was only Dynamite + 4 PPV's a year. That's the reality. Of course, getting TV right asks for something else, but more and more shows have only diluted the interests and hurt the booking in the grand scheme of things. Keeping ROH active was never ever a good idea, and right now this is getting ridiculous. Jericho vs Cardona killed the Hammerstein. Cardona's indy troll character was very fun for a while. Just plain Cardona is just that. Jericho winning way past the point of the crowd somewhat caring about the match sucked whatever energy was left in that building. Not that the crowd was wanting Cardona to win, really. By the end, they just did not care, but Jericho winning was the worst. And then a shitty comeback for the ages. After weeks of fun vignettes on AEW TV, Bandido makes is comeback at the worst time imaginable on a ROH show. And it's not like he got a big pop anyway because guess what : it is not 2019 anymore. No one in the curent audience remembers nor cares that Bandido was the ROH champ during the company's dying days. It's barely a "cool" reference. And of course, Bandido concusses himself, on top of it. And then Athena winning is ridiculous. It's not to say the program had nearly the same hype and energy it had last year anyway (pro-wrestling needs to be done with these overlong programs, they miss their peak 95% of the times), and Billie may not be ready to carry a world title belt (whatever that one means), as (really) good as she is. But guess what ? IT DID NOT MATTER. Billie NEEDED to win. She lost twice in a row now. That makes her entire storyline a complete downer and a waste, no matter how good the match was (and it was damn good, and Athena is awesome). And why in the EVERLOVING FUCK isn't Athena on AEW TV every fucking week mixing it up for the AEW title ? It's a joke. The one feel-good moment was Kommander winning the TV title after a terrific Survivor whatever they call it elimination match. Blake Christian should also be on TV every week. Great worker and great hateable heel. But of course, what is the VERY FIRST thing they show after Kommader great celebration in the ring ? Well, the C2 standings of course, with right of the middle of your screen : Kommander = 0. Nice. That also means that all the guy in the matches must be zeros too then. Straight out of WCW/TNA playbook. Incredible. Not to mention, you really have to promote AEW on that Final Battle show that only the hardcore of the hardcore of your dwindling audience is watching anyway ? Nigel coming back to the Hammerstein and it was indeed awesome. Loved the match with Moriarty, who is a complete joy to watch. The battle of the Macho Men was fun as hell. Extra points for Karen as Sensational Sherri. Enjoyed Leila Hirsch vs Red Velvet quite a bit despite some rough spots. Shibata vs El Hijo del Dynamite Kid and Mansour vs Atlantis was random as hell. Enjoyable to some degrees but random as hell and stuff right off the aimless weekly show. The MxM gimmick is still the drizzling shit. Oh yeah, and booking a blood feud for a match where you know you can't do blood is genius. So Dustin/Sammy vs Righteous would have been the worst match of the night if not for Jericho/Cardona. And really now. I know people have a Dusty Rhodes fetish, but those cowbells match never were any good, really. Plus, maybe that had its appeal in some redneck county in the 80's, but in NYC, in 2024 ? Really now ? Anywoo. By a huge margin the worst TKROH special ever, both as far as in-ring and especially the depressing booking which reeks of the awful years of WWE in the last 2010's. Which sucks for the talent involved, because they are a-plenty, and they deserves of shitload more than this. And yeah, maybe, eventually, possibly, there is a ROH TV show coming up. And guess what ? I don't care, because that show made it plenty clear that I should not care.

Darby vs Ospreay was awesome, but I was too depressed by the dogshit Hurt Syndicate stuff earlier on (and Toni Storm wasn't enough to bring me back) to pay much attention to it. Gotta watch it again some time I guess. Meanwhile, it's Final Battle at Hammerstein, with ROH bringing the most whatever show possible in the cult venue. Athena vs Billie Starks had so much more momentum last year.

It would be an interesting thing is it actually changed the way pro-wrestling shows were produced. There has been pretty much no evolution since the early 00's now. Even AEW is still basically shot, produced and formatted like a WWE weekly show. Nitro revolutionized TV wrestling. I doubt moving on Netflix will change anything though. Netflix has only made TV shows more conventional and formatted. How pro-wrestling is produced will probably be set in stone forever, sadly. I wish there would be a lot more creative propositions, like Lucha Underground was. AEW is "just another pro-wrestling promotion" after all, and it has failed recapturing the feeling of freshness of those early Nitro shows (although it was there to a degree the first 2/3 years or so). That's my pet peeve with pro-wrestling. It's treading water esthetically. With every big money entertainment doing exactly the same shit over and over again and exploiting old franchises to ridiculous degrees, with a streaming business model that is all about submerging the audience with a neverending flux of content to keep them captured, I don't see how this could jumpstart exciting changes. Especially as long as WWE is hot as it is. I don't see Lesveque as someone who will take any risks. Hell, he's still running with the hand that was given to him by Vince (the Bloodline and Cody).

I mean, there was the opportunity of doing Umino vs Okada right there. Or Tsuji. The "asshole veteran megastar that abandoned the company" vs the nex generation star, in a true interpromotional war no less. Okada putting over one of those two at the Dome would have been huge. I guess that doesn't work for brutha TK. Also, Dave Finlay vs Jay White was right there too. Huge match considering their history, if anything else. And Ospreay could have any match with any of either the young generation or the higher ups. Yeah. Missed opportunity all over in term of booking big stuff. Interpromotion is always tricky, but still. The fact The Elite OG are coming back on NJPW shows is certainly a choice, and one I actually enjoy a lot, for reasons explained above. It gives that kinda nostalgia, bittersweet feel about it. It's obvious the three of them are contemplating their last ride (although you never know, but Matt and Omega certainly do, and I doubt Nick is gonna pursue without his brother), so them showing up first on NJPW has this "end the loop" kinda foreshadowing thing about it. Of course who knows how this will end up being booked, but a last big time babyface stint in AEW seems the most logical. Ibushi ? who the hell knows. Seems like the guy is toasted, sadly.

That being said, the Long Beach show was tons of fun top to bottom (almost). Tsuji and Perry actually displayed excellent chemistry, so there's that, and Perry gets insane heat on these NJPW cards. Seeing the Young Bucks back on the NJPW ring also brings back a long gone feeling and a sense of nostalgia. Oh, and Mercedes... She's so back into her groove, being the ultra-wrestling machine nerd she's always been at heart and that's a thing of beauty. The 1-2 punch of the Statlander and Hazuki matches is something else. Her getting Mina at the Dome is really cool too.

Kushida is full on NJPW again, although I dunno what it means when you're living in the US. I have zero faith in an actual ROH TV deal unless it actually happens (and gawwwd if it ever happens, make it a studio wrestling show completely separated from AEW and give it for someone else to book, current ROH is zero effort given), but yeah, he would be the kind of guy perfect as a veteran presence. Ditto Josh Alexander actually, as I don't see him get that big-ass push in AEW. Then again, there's so much awesome matches for him to have there (Josh vs Joe... damn). AEW already got Speedball apparently, so I get to still watch at least one of the two TNA workhorses of the last few years.

Yup. In many more ways than one. Speaking of which, Logan Paul, the Crypto-scammer, is back. Not in jail, where he most probably should be, but on RAW.

Yeah, I dunno. At this point it seems neither Okada nor Ospreay will end up being on the show, which is kinda ridiculous. A NJPW x AEW cross promotion show without these two seems like missed opportunity on every level. And really, as much as some of the card is fun on a vacuum, at this point I can't help to feel it's underwhelming in term of booking. Takeshita vs Ishii is cool and all, but in a AEW context, it's a Collision match where the result is 100% known. Following WrestleKingdom, it's even worse because it makes WK more obvious (they aren't gonna do a NJPW vs NJPW match at Dynasty) and the second day match is obviously lesser (not to mention Ishii has been announced against Gabe Kidd on the next US show, so he's challenging for the NJPW ROH championship basically). Tsuji vs Perry seems like a complete style clash. Umino vs Claudio would be weak as hell as an IWGP match (sorry Claudio, love ya, but you're not being pushed at that level), so again, same issue. Brody King vs Dave Finlay is probably gonna be terrific, but again, this is not exactly what comes to mind when you think Tokyo Dome interpromotional show. Naito & Hiromu won the Tag League, but the Young Bucks are facing O'Khan and Templario ? What ? The CMLL participation is gonna be a random lucha gauntlet ? No mach for Mistico ? Honestly the card is probably gonna be a fun watch, even a great show maybe, but on paper, I'm not looking forward to it like I probably should or like I did a few weeks ago.

Anthem apparently asking some workers to take some pay-cuts, after the company was the most successful in years in term of attendance of big shows (doesn't mean *that* much either, really, let's not get carried away) and the higher-ups basically got Tessa back without informing a bunch of the TNA people is peak LOLTNA. This brand is so cursed. What a crazy-ass year. Kushida's US stint really has been underwhelming as hell. At least he's still awesome when given the chance, as opposed to KENTA who basically ruined himself there. Still. His TNA time was probably a bit better than his NXT, but not that much. Bad timing.

So, the head of WWE production is an interesting guy, for sure... https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6000968/2024/12/18/lee-fitting-espn-college-gameday-allegations/ Yeah, sure, WWE's culture has totally changed.

So Hammerstone is injured (again), which sucks for him (the second time thus year). The interesting thing is that he made a video to get the news around, in which is also states that he has some merch to sell and if anyone could hime in, because doctors ain't cheap. That says a lot both about how fucked the health system in the US is (and RKJ surely is gonna make it a hundred times worse sadly) and how much when you're not in WWE/AEW with a big contract, you're not earning that much in pro-wrestling. Nothing new really when you're talking TNA, actually.

It would take me a LOT of time, thinking, writing and probably research to articulate everything that I'm still vaguely thinking about, and probably discover stuff along the way. Not sure I'm up for the challenge. Maybe eventually. In the meantime, in classic pro-wrestling board shitposter mode, I do feel like more than ever, WWE stands for White Washing Entertainment.

Ok, so Toni Storm is 100% doing Mick Foley. And if done *right*, and Storm has proven before she can get over any kind of crazy shit, it could be pretty entertaining. And of course the payoff would be the actual return of Timeless Toni Storm. Some people are gonna hate it because it's not "realistic" or "serious enough", but nothing about Timeless Toni Storm ever was (which never was an issue when it was time for blood angles either), so that actually fit the long arc of the character. Also, Thunder Rosa getting a PPV title shot at Mariah May doesn't make any sense, but Thunder Rosa vs Mariah May in a street-fight, yeah, whatever, I'm sold.

Oh, the glorious world of pro-wrestling. We all live for this kinda shit, right ? Too bad they did not send Jeff Jarrett though, who was last seen on the indies before he went to WWE beating up Effie. (I wonder how Ricky Starks feels about this whole thing now ? ?)

Doing a nostalgia show about the glory days of Vince McMahon's WWF during Hulkamania (there's nothing *more* Vince & Hogan era than Saturday Night's Main Event, hell it basically was the flagship show that defined the entire era), without mentioning either of them of course, with Cody Rhodes draped in the American flag colors weeks removed from the US people electing basically a fascist candidate to the White House, a fascist candidate whose secretary of commerce is gonna be the mother-in-law of creative director of this very show, is certainly a vibe. There's SO MUCH that could be written about all of this, indeed, from a sociological/political/historical aspect. A fascinating dive into the american psyche, for sure.

Maybe they went in panic mode realizing that Jordynne Grace was gone in a few weeks, and they have done a piss poor job of preparing anyone to "replace" her, as Masha was pushed into the spot Private Party style (not even mentioning losing her edge by having her speak perfect English out of nowhere, display her being a teenage fan of the Hardies in a wholesome picture and being "longtime friend" with Jordynne, which absolutely has never been the case on TV. Talk about understanding jackshit about why Masha got over initially). The weirdest part to me is keeping a whole lot of people in the dark about it ! That's just asking for trouble from the get go. Say what you want about TNA doing better attendance wise, but since D'Amore left, TNA has reverted back into being good old TNA. It's not like Anthem knew what the fuck they were doing before they called D'Amore back to take over. From what I remember from the Jarrett podcast, they were pretty clueless and not great business partners during the short time they tried to work together. They have booked some big-ass buildings for 2025 too. Seems like they way overestimate their drawing capacity. Now, if this stuff actually hurts them, it would be kinda hilarious in a TNA-only way. Maybe we should post back in the old thread again from now on. ?

The meltdown of TNA reddit (which is a cesspool, like every pro-wrestling subreddit, apparently) is funny as fuck. Show was actually really good for the first half, because there is still a whole lot of great talent in the company (book Moose vs Leon Slater for Genesis and have Leon win, this is a show stealer). It's damning though when you watch the 4-way how Hendry is by a *wide margin* not nearly as good as the others. Also, it's striking how much everything he does is designed to get Joe Hendry over, while the other three work to get *the match* over, and therefore get over *through the match*. Which is another reason why his matches are basically nothing. His title reign is gonna be unbearable really, at this point I can't bare hearing his stupid theme song anymore nor people chanting "We believe". The quickest WWE snatches him, the better. Nothing against the guy himself, who apparently is really nice, and more power to him really. The Hardys at this point are 100% a nostalgia act doing fan services. They are 50 years old guys dressing like they did when they were 25 and doing the exact same spots. I never cared that much about the Hardies anyway, so there. The audience paying to see the act gets whatever money they paid for. Highlight of the match for me was Eddie Edwards slapping a dumbfuck in the audience (who actually slapped him first, yeah, great idea that). The look of panic of the referee getting in the middle was pretty funny. Also, I have no idea about his credentials, but Eddie Edwards doesn't strike me as the type of person you'd want to fuck with. Main event was awful. I did not expect anything good and it was even worse. AJ Francis is the drizzling shit and Nick Nemeth is ridiculously overrated, I can say this pretty safely after one year of watching him working big matches including against some actual awesome talents. But really now. Tessa pie-faced the FUCK out of Gia Miller (bless her). Oh yeah, I remember now why she was my favorite worker in 2019.

Harley Cameron is awesome. But it's tricky. She's basically a rookie. She's had 52 matches in two years. She needs reps. But AEW doesn't have a developmental circuit (some might argue ROH kinda is, but not really. Maybe it should too). So they have her work reps on TV and loose a lot. Which hurts her perception. And the whole "It's your turn now" booking is the laziest and less effective and compelling thing ever (see Private Party, which only worked because the Young Bucks are just that great inside the ring). She needs to win. Not being protected in a ridiculous fashion like Hook (or Jade Cargill), but certainly win quite a lot more than she does now. Also, babyface eventually, but the whole wacky character is more conducive to heel work at least at first. To me she kinda is a case of heel-that-people-love who eventually turn babyface organically. The last tricky part is that she may be too funny for her own good. Then again, she's not Chelsea Green of IIconics in that she actually shows a shitload of potential already as far as in-ring work goes. I would send her to Stardom not just for a tour, but for 6 months, sign an extension with her and then bring her back as a star.

I mean, it might bite TNA in the ass if she's still impossible to deal with. Then again, she's only 29. She may (or may not) have matured. But that's not my problem. I get to watch Tessa Blanchard's comeback on the US scene. At best, I get some really great wrestling out of it. At worst, I guess it's gonna be some entertaining LOLTNA dumpster fire in the end. As far as Jordynne not happy, why would she care ? She'll be gone by the time Rumble is there. It would be pretty funny though is that, after the angriness about Anthem firing D'Amore last year and people wanting to leave, now more people get upset again because of the Tessa hiring and also want to leave as soon as they can ! Also, would Shawn take the risk of Tessa in NXT ? I mean, let's be real, all of this might end up being as nothing as Britt Baker repeated failed comebacks (why am I bringing her up of all people, funny how the brain works), but all the possibilities of stuff that could happen are pretty damn intriguing to me. It was really not a comparison. Just me throwing the first name that came to mind of someone who's had a really sketchy attitude in the very recent past, to say the least. I don't think TNA expect Tessa to "move the needle" for them anyway. Well, maybe they do. TNA be like TNA. My point is this : at this point there's no reason why Tessa Blanchard should not be employed in the US wrestling scene in 2024 all things considered. The fact TNA took a pass on Matt Riddle, even after having him as a late replacement during their Wrestlecade show is interesting from that whole perspective. I wonder if the fact Riddle was in the WWE at the time and the fact he had a pretty decently high profile is the only reason why he got through #speakingout after all. And of course there were other issues, but still. The fact that now only MLW and AAA (where Alberto el Rapist is the champ) really will touch him, after a botched NJPW stint, is pretty telling of something.

Gotta say, Willie Mack being pulled off from the GCW shows but being booked out of nowhere to Final Battle is a hoot. Good for him. Use Willie Mack more ! Also, Athena is going to the Tokyo Dome. Well, now, that's a legit "you deserve it" moment.

So, Tessa Blanchard is back with TNA. I don't give a flying fuck, I'm there. And before someone says something really stupid (although PWO is not reddit or X, but still) La Rosa Negra has publicly made up with her a while ago. About being an unprofessional prick in the past, guess what, so was CM Punk just one year ago. I don't care. She looked really good in CMLL, and I for one am glad she's making a comeback on the US scene. Love me some Tessa Blanchard again. Plus, she's someone that TNA may be able to keep for a while since I don't think major promotions are ready for her yet (although... Logan Paul, ya know, but very different story about the complete hypocrisy of the fandom and their "ethic values"). Well, of course she did not do a match to give away the CMLL tag titles, but guess what, neither did Stephanie Vaquer when she was the woman champ there. Kinda funny and ironic still considering the way she left TNA (during the pandemic when she already lived in Mexico though). Damn TNA. You never cease to be a fascinating never dying promotion.

Forget it. I loved pretty much everything about this week's show. Smaller building (which is the way to go), hot crowd, excellent matches all night, cool vignette and backstage interviews, good lead-in to PPV matches. Nice ! Toni Storm coming back as her old self is an interesting bet. I much prefer this version of her anyway and after the while, the gimmick, as fun as it was, was only gonna go in circles. Not to say they can't bring it back eventually for special occasions, Cactus Jack style.

This era of WCW is definitely the "cursed cartoon" era. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't mind some promotion actually totally leaning into this, with a post-ironic approach to it. Like, in an ironic way but also very much loving the absolute cheese and shittiness of this era. Pro-wrestling is just way too conservative and its idea of peak storytelling is crappy heavy handed blockbusters movie (yes WWE, I'm looking at you). I would probably love a "Shitty early 90's gimmicks" version of Lucha Underground, with actual fun matches.

"The monstaaaa wooooooorld !!!!" Fuyuki's FMW was less cartoon than sleazy Z-movies. That's including the use of porn-stars (not doing anything even closely approaching the sleaze level of publicly traded WWE from 1999 to the mid 00's though) and gimmicks like "anus exploding deathmatch". Fuyuki's very short lived WEW, one of the sad offshoot of then dead FMW was cartoony as hell too. And yeah, it included more porn stars, because of course it did.