El-P

They sound even lamer when you write them. Crazy that when this whole Wednesday deal started, I was interested in checking out NXT and Mauro drove me the fuck away in like two weeks. And that's with people I really like on the roster (as opposed to say, NWA which I watched for a whole 9 weeks). BTW, has Scarlett Bordeaux done anything yet ?

Plus the fact it's not actually funny is what makes it even better and smarter, and thus funny in the end. Because the original joke ain't funny either. I don't care about his lack of fundamentals or crappy punches, I can't help but love Janela.

They had no audience to kill.

But Baron Corbin gets heat people. He's a good worker, really. People wants to see him get his c… Nevermind. Is this guy the longest, hardest pushed, confirmed audience killer ever ?

You realize Marko looking twelve is his whole appeal, right ? So it's an advantage for his role ? So, yeah, it is a bit comparable actually from the point of view of the quality of looking like twelve being a positive for the act/character that is played. And yeah, I am and will make fun of people being irrationnal about things and taking this pro-wrestling stuff and themselves too seriously, I've been reading so many absurd things lately. And really, my first statement was "*cough* Marko Stunt *cough*" which if you are translating into "It's exactly the same !", well, you're just projecting and creating a strawman. I have never said nor even infered it was exactly the same thing at all, I even said everything was extremely different in term of context, audience, overall business dynamics. But the fact Arn said Morton looked like twelve was both funny and interesting because there is absolutely an obvious comparison to be made (much like with Meltz talking about watching Rey Rey in Tijuana looking like he was a ten years old, again in a totally different context). I can't really say more about that one because it doesn't go further than this.

Wow, really ? Arn said Ricky Morton looked like he was twelve. It doesn't matter that he said it pertaining to guys in the audience not getting jealous, because it doesn't change the fact that Ricky Morton looked like he was twelve, as in, that's how he actually looked. He didn't look like he was twelve only in the context of how he was perceived by guys in the audience not getting jealous. What Arn is saying is that guys in the audience were not getting jealous because he looked twelve even outside a context of only being perceived by guys who could get jealous if he did not look twelve. Hence, Ricky Morton looked like he was twelve years old. There's no way anyone can twist it into a matter of "context" in the sentence that was enunciated by Arn, as he did not construct a sentence in which he would have said the guys in the audience *perceived Morton as looking like he was twelve* hence them not getting jealous. He very clearly enunciated that Morton *looked like he was twelve*, which is the reason why guys in the audience did not get jealous. "Looking like he is(was) twelve years old" is exactly what you heard about Marko Stunt. That's basically it and it's a pretty clear thing.

It's odd they are airing the ACH stuff considering how well this turned out. I guess they got what they paid for. This guy was a real good pro-wrestlers, but whatever. Don't get the appeal of King Mo thus far. Not impressed. Thatcher vs Holliday was really good and Holliday looked the best he ever did. Thatcher is so much fun to watch. Good stuff. Salina's comeback was such a letdown. So that's her big comeback on TV ? A aborted interview segment ? I was waiting for a grand return, evil bruja style. That how Catrina would have done it. Glad she's back though. BTW, MJF, Alicia Atout and now CIMA and the Stronghearts, this company is full of AEW people now. Is Alicia still gonna show up in AEW eventually ? This Von Erich segment had way too many bare feet on the screen. And it was framed that way intentionally too. I can't stand rich hippies. Pillman vs TJP was another good little match. So this Opera Cut thingy has been cool thus far and the brackets promises other interesting matches. Solid episode indeed, apart from the first segment.

He's like Pillman in early 96. Few dates more in ROH so he can make good for his old friend Aldis in NWA, then sign the big-ass contract with whoever. You can quote me on that one.

The fact is Ricky Morton looked like a kid. That's the main point. And really, considering the Rock'n'Roll were a blowjob tag team, maybe the men should have been jealous. Is there even a point asking such a question ? The contexts are entirely different. The audience is entirely different. The business is entirely different. I guess the closest point of reference would be Jungle Boy actually. But really, everything is so different. I was just making fun of the crowd of people saying Marko Stunt had no business in wrestling when infact, in the old-sKool context of the golden age of the greatest purest pro-wrestling form evah, Ricky Morton looked like a kid, as said Arn Anderson.

I see WWE is still the safest style on the planet apparently...

No, what is the most interesting in the latest Arn podcast, apart from the Buddy Landell story, is when he said that Ricky Morton back then looked like he was 12 years old. *cough* Marko Stunt *cough*

I was thinking the same thing the other night watching Dark. Cassidy = smartest guy in wrestling today. Guys like him or Joey Ryan get what it is all about : getting over to whatever audience you can. The ways are yours. Cassidy and Ryan are smart. Janella & Allin are crazy. I enjoy both, myself, but if I were to be one of those (or work against one of those), I'd totally be Cassidy or Ryan.

I feel you're only talking about WWE. Nothing on IMPACT nor AEW seems like killing time for the sake of it. No match on Dynamite is a 20-30 minute epic (main events are usually longer, maybe reaching toward 20 minutes yes, but nowhere close to what a PPV main event would look like either). Unless a good competitive 10-15 minutes match on TV is now considered too much (and really, come on now), I feel like the "everything has to be epic" talking point is a complete overstatement mostly from people who don't actually watch the shows or simply are so biased against modern wrestling that their view is totally tainted. You have shorter matches, you have matches with a clear feel of hierarchy (Kenny Omega vs Kip Sabian on Dark was competitive, but it was also nowhere close to an Omega epic main event style match, neither in lenghts nor feel), you even have pure squashes. Nothing at all screams "forced classic" on either company's weekly shows (not even talking about MLW, because they lack actual really good matches too often). NXT, I dunno, I don't watch it, I've given up quickly. Mauro sure makes the announcing like a forced classic for two straigt hours, which is unbearable.

Yeah. I gave that promotion all the time I could, really. Unlike MLW, which totally renewed my interest with what ended up being one of my favourite and most fun event of the year, NWA just did not deliver at all with their PPV. On the positive side : _if you steal, might as well steal from the best : total Lucha Underground rip-off presentation with the wrestlers coming down the steps, complete with their portraits on the wall ! Gave a much more dynamic presentation to the whole thing. _the announcing was really good. Stu Bennett did a tremendous job. _Eli Drake vs Mr. Anderson was way better than I thought it would. Drake in particular looked like a star here, and honestly I thought Anderson wasn't bad at all. Quite ok in a older version of himself trying to keep it up with the young jacked up guy who works fast. Surprisingly good hot opener. _Thunder Rosa vs Tasha Steels was a good little TV match. Rosa is explosive and Steels seems to be quite ok with some actual character. And... that would be it for me. Only went south from there. I love how NWA is supposed to be this more serious old-school promotion yet two out of seven matches featured wins by comedy workers, one of which being a complete meta-gimmick, the other one actually winning the secondary title. That's way too much silly shit in spot that actually matters, as opposed to them being jobbers as they should (I mean, Question Mark is basically Hack Myers). Remember when watching the Rock'n'Roll Express having a good match in 2019 was a cool novelty ? That was before the NWA made them their actual tag-team champs and exposed them as 65 years old dinosaurs. But, hey, Marko Stunt is unrealistic and killing da business, people... That women tag match was awful. Cool to see ODB though. Belle is just that, but she's not any good, and she still looked like Gail Kim in her prime next to Melina, who still does the split and that's her highspot. The main event was what I'd call an Aldis Special : it reminds me some of the bad overbooked TNA main events of the early days. Work was kinda shoddy to me at points, it's obvious Storm is passed his prime, Aldis was never very good and still isn't, and when Kamille isn't there to add flavour to his presentation and take a few spectacular bumps, he comes off dull as fuck to me. It was ok I guess, but the 2/3 falls and useless referee fuckery gimmick just made everything more complicated than it should and gave a sense of forced drama (especially in this studio setting with a controlled audience). But the worse part to me was how they used Kamille. After she was a central part of the intrigue, hey, let's throw her ringside after only two minutes for no reason so it kills any sense of expectation to see her show up at the end or at a critical time. The quick fall came off lame and totally anticlimatic because of it too. Complete dumb fuck booking. What a waste. Plus she was there like ten seconds on the screen, while Question Mark and Aaron Stevens got seemingly half an hour between the two... Way to feature one of the only character who actually come off like a star... I guess Scurll is doing a favor to his old pal before signing a big time money deal with either WWE or AEW (hell, he could go to NJPW if he cared, this guy can do whatever he wants), but even though I really like him, he could not make me care to watch ROH this year, and will certainly not make me care enough to keep NWA on my rotation. Especially as I'll have less time to watch pro-wrestling next year as my life is gonna drastically change (in a good way, hopefully).

Too bad it comes at a point where ROH is at its most irrelevant, but yeah, crazy career arc. Anything else from Final Battle worth mentionning/watching ?

I don't agree with everything that is been said here (and agree with some of it), but I'm glad people seem to realize Flair was a total go-go-go worker and had piss-poor psychology in the grand scheme of things. I've been saying that for years now. Flair/Angle/Toyota = the same. (and I do think they were great for their own reasons)

Other thoughts from the show. I'm surprised no one mentioned the awful Tully Blanchard/Janela angle. I've been a fanboy since this show started, but to me this is the first time I can point out a spot where I thought "Well, this is really bad". It looked goofy as fuck, Tully was barely tied to the chair. Also, they are clearly overdoing the "lights go out" gimmick. Once every blue moon, why not, but when it's every two weeks, it's like every one has a remote control to the light system of the show ! As far as overdoing things, yeah, they clearly are overdoing the "recruit" gimmick. Jericho trying to recruit Mox was very nWo like, ok, but Dark Angle is recruiting jobbers, Brandi is recruiting people too. Everybody is recruiting on this show. Stop recruiting already ! BTW, speaking of Brandi, loved her vignette, which to me had a bit of a Basic Instinct taste to it, not sure why (the music ? the setting ?). I wonder who the bald guy is... I like vignette with mystery. How did the Dark Order (a complete miss of a gimmick at first) vignettes became a weekly highlight of this show ? I thought JR was better than usual. Him poking fun at his own fuck up of the names was refreshing. Tony has some great lines again. Penelope Ford in her best role, be a hot valet who does great spots. This is gonna help Sabian get over and help her too in the process. Good deal. I'm liking the dynamic of Page having split up with the Elite. Really good match too, Omega is totally the Benoit/Guerrero of this promotion now. Blade & Butcher are gonna be a refreshing change of look and pace in the tag team division. I do hope the Bunny gets to work though, she's too good a worker to only do valet work. Damn, Cody, that scar is there for life... Gotta love "Cody's partner" chant. That's how over this guy is. Maybe the idea behind not challenging for the title ever again comes from the idea he can be the guy who doesn't need the belt, like Piper or Taker was. It's good to always have a guy like this in your promotion.

Oh, yeah, I enjoyed the hell out of those too. Good reminder.

ODB getting bookings so she can get her food truck bad is pretty cool. Kamille barely being involved after all the fuss they made about her seems like a waste, just like the whole referee gimmick. Marty Scurll showing up is odd to me. They have worked together before and it was a good match, and finally they can have a legit great worker in the roster but... Dunno, maybe Scurll is gonna do that before signing a big-ass contract somewhere. Another PPV in one month already ? While AEW, IMPACT and MLW (?) are only doing a few a year ? That's pretty odd too.

2 hours/ 90 mn show are perfect if there's enough good content. 50 minutes is only fine if it's really heavy on good content, which is why NWA Powerr has been mostly a nothing show and MLW is super inconsistent. Meanwhile, AEW Dynamite as been a joy to watch. So has been IMPACT for the last year and a half. Big events should usually be at worst three hours. No need to go longer than this. NJPW can do it (and still, some of the undercard ends up being way forgetable and skippable), but most promotion can't.

BTW if anyone wonders who is the new Dark host Lexi Nair, she's DDP's daughter (well, the daughter of his wife). She has done one DDPY video so I knew her from there. Speaking of which, that Big Swole video was straight out of DDPY's Motivational Monday videos… This stuff has DDP's fingers all over it (and yeah Tony mentionned they were taping at DDPY). Which is kinda cool I guess, although I'm always on the fence about this stuff tbh. I'm more of a fan of out there stuff (like Catrina the immortal bruja) rather than "real people" in the end.

The "issue" with Luchasaurus, and I knew that already because I've seen him in several different context, is that although he has a great look and really cool character, he's simply not a guy who's gonna have a great single match at this point. He's a big guy who does cool spots, and there's something a wee bit too choregraphed in some of his stuff (his sequences of kicks for instance reminds me of Stan Lane), lacking intensity or even intent. So yeah, not surprised about this match not clicking. That's the issue with some of these AEW guys, is that they need the ring time to get better, but they will only get the ring time on TV, so they have to put longer matches that may not click that well at first.

Yeah, I always keep your recommandation about this period in the back of my mind, since there are people I'm interested to watch being featured (Aries, Roode, Storm, heel veteran Jarrett + Karen, I'm intrigued about veteran Kid Kash, Bully Ray, the return of Gail Kim too). The only thing I'm really interested in checking out still in 2010 is the whole ECW angle leading to the PPV, the last of its kind I believe.

I agree. Like the poet said : "War is the slaughter of people who don't know each others for the benefits of people who know each other and don't kill each other." Yeah, this too.

Well, that last (hopefully ?) Tampa show was awful. Battle Royal was awful, the big guy from Dynasty who won looked awful (his name sounds like Kurrgan and he was about as good while looking generic to boot), they promised a Warner vs Havoc match they did not delivered, Marshall Vo Erich is the least pissed off guys in the history of pissed off guys. RVD high on weed sounds more agressive than this dude. Contra vs Hart Foundation simply wasn't any good (as usual with Contra). They promised an interview with Salina, and it wasn't on the show. Like, really ? (they also played that ACH vignette. Fail.) The only watchable thing was a totally "swamp match" between Savio Vega and Leo Brien, basically worked fifteen feets from houses in some suburbs I guess, old road and a fence will do as a swmap. A bunch of cowbell shots and playing around in a parking lot, without much use of the environment at all. Kinda like the tamest Holly vs Snow ending stretch from 1999. Those next tapings sets better be a whole lot better than those ones, but I have no confidence considering what direction they are going into now.