El-P

One issue with Metallik, is that ten years ago or so, he was the hot CMLL prospect as Mascara Dorada. He was all the hype during the NJPW Fantastica Mania and such. He was a star then. Then fast forward to post-WWE, not only the perception about him as shifted dramatically, as he's seen as a JTTS from WWE, therefore someone with no cred for a push unless you're TNA in 2010, but he's also been pushed way back in term of spectacular work by the Vikingo's and the Komander's of the world. He was the King of the Ropes, now he's just a good luchador who is not as spectacular as the new generation. Wrap all that into one and you probably get a frustrated Metalik with a distorted view of himself. I would say, bad choice of career in the grand scheme of things. He sure made way more money in WWE than he would have in Mexico, but not millions either I would guess, but now his value in the US has been pretty much killed in term of being a hot commodity, and the "eso no me functiona, hermano" (or something, I don't speak Spanish) bit is only gonna fuck him up even more, including toward AAA. La Parka can do this (well, he should not, but he can), Metalik... no so much. Makes you wonder where Dragon Lee is gonna end up in 5 years... And honestly, the same goes for most luchador going to AEW right now that are not called Rush or Lucha Brothers. Komander is the amazingly spectacular guy who never wins. Vikingo is more protected because he's a big star in AAA, but...

Damn ! I don't know, but most probably Clermont-Ferrand. And Flesh Gordon was never a household name. This needs to be scrapped. The only time he was part of a "mainstream" TV show was when he showed up on a Strip-Tease episode, the documentary series. That's not even a blip. FWIW, Carpentier often referred to Ben Chemoul and Chéri Bibi as big stars when he talked about that period during WWF shows. This very serious sociological book about French pro-wrestling calls him Exbrayat. https://books.openedition.org/pumi/13531?lang=fr Most probably was written in a way at a time, then evolved (the name exist today mostly as Exbrayat). Also, establishing what's correct and not correct in French writing is a bitch. Don't even get me started.

I like Butcher & Blade quite a bit, but they did get a lot of TV time for a while, more than anyone would have expected at first really. I always enjoyed them as that gatekeeper team, and with ROH around, I sure would have enjoyed them being featured over there more prominently. In AEW though, it's as far as they were gonna go. No idea for how long they are around still, I sure would not mind to see a reunion in TNA, the big fish in small pond stuff would work wonders there, especially against smaller guys who would make them looks like monsters. All things considered, and despite the big missteps with the first weeks of Copeland being over-focused on and *gasp* Flair showing up, this has been a really solid build-up to Full Gear. I feel like getting more PPV will make things easier for booking toward a goal, which is something that has hurt them in the past (including having to wait forever to do such and such match that was supposed to happen but did not because of injury). Dynamite was high quality of matches and focused promos toward very clear match-ups at the PPV. Can't ask for much more really. Swerve looks like a surefire world champ more and more with each passing week. The Gunns have to be some of the most improved of the year, ditto Julia Hart & Skye Blue. Glad to see Red Velvet back too. Mariah May is an excellent catch, hopefully used well (more TV time for women Coach TK. That's still much needed. Making progress in term of character work though).

Damn, I had no idea they did a show post Paris in 93 (which even had a VHS edition btw. Which I bought. *sight*)! With Hogan no less ! In Toulon ? So random. And Brutus Beefcake vs Terry Taylor. Duggan vs Bastion Booger. Whoever the hell the Predator was. Vintage quality 93 WWF here.

I really only seen the 2022 video from FFCP, so maybe it's more a case of them evolving toward more of that style, but started off as more "old-school French wrestling", but I really couldn't say. The 1993 show is "significant" in that it was the last from the Canal + era. After that point WWE only came back during the Cena era, when they really got big in France, thanks to the Catch Attack show, carried by Agius & Chereau's announcing.

Something akin to "Coke, hookers and headlocks", in ancient gaelic.

And now IMPACT gets ZSJ, tagging with Alexander vs MCMG. They seriously have been cooking lately.

Some notes : Flesh Gordon is not and has never been a household name. He was never even a blip on the radar of mainstream culture at all. The second run of New Catch on TF1 was in 1991, not 1990. WWF also ran the Palais Omnisport de Bercy in April of 1993 (after Mania 9), the last time they did it before some time in the 00's. One memorable Nasty Boys vs HeadShrinker match where they broke tons of wooden chairs, and I believe Yoko vs Hacksaw as the main event. The ICWA really did not have a goal to "supplant the old school European style in France". It was founded by people raised on WWF wrestling (Pierre Booster Fontaine, trained by Carpentier in Montreal, and Christophe Agius, who was already announcing US wrestling for French TV at the time), but it came from just the desire to have some nice wrestling shows with stuff they liked. There was no ideology of "supplanting" anything behind it, because there was nothing to supplant, really. Also, if you look at the latest FFCP videos from 2022, they're absolutely a modern, "american US indie" style promotion right now. Which is not surprising, since probably their biggest name is Tom LaRuffa, who was in Lance Storm's reality show, worked both in TNA and NXT (and is also an anti-vaxx conspiracy theory nutjob, to say the least). Otherwise, really good write-up as far as I can tell. Kudos for putting that out there.

If he only wanted to maximize his cash-out, he would not have bothered getting back controlling the creative. The power-plays in WWE for the last 18 months have been much more interesting than whatever booking they've did apart from that small window where Sami Zayn got the Bloodline storyline going. Hunter went from being ousted from NXT and having really serious health issues, to being the man in power for the entire company, then not so much in power, then in power again.

Maybe they simply watched the Samhain PPV and thought "hum, nope".

Vince selling stocks is, interesting. The more it goes, the more it seems the evil plan to get back into full power is blowing in his face. Well, money wise of course, it's ridiculous. Apparently gets him 700M$. Who the fuck needs that kind of money anyway (no to mention at his age, but at any age really) ? Give 699 millions back to the community already. But anyway, what a year for Vince, that Netflix show should be put on hold forever, because the story ain't finished yet.

Yep. That was peak AEW in term of feeling uniquely different. Totally got me through the pandemic too.

The Bunny gone. Talk about a waste. She did a few things early on, but they never even began to tap into what she was able to be. That's the perfect picture illustration of what has been one issue with the women division focusing on only two of three names at a time because there's just no TV time for more. I hope she goes back to TNA where she can actually shine as a character.

Lucha Underground was basically a studio wrestling show and it looked like the coolest shit ever. AEW does not even has to do that, but the issue with pro-wrestling is that the presentation is always the same, pretty much has been for 25 years. The first AEW design looked a bit different from WWE and it was cool, with the TNA tunnels and such, but they never went back to the WCW themed show production either (although I understand it takes money to throw out). When they switched to blu and red with a giant screen, they felt more than WWE-lite even from a visual standpoint, and now that they book half-empty building, well they definitely look second rate. We're not even talking about reinventing the wheel here, but there's no out of the box thinking in term of pro-wrestling presentation, because WWE has just monopolized not just the market, but the minds too. It's kinda boring. Maybe the new TNA will try new stuff, it's not like they have the same pressure.

I was thinking about that. I would love to see AEW in smaller places with truly hot crowd. That would give them this "cult" atmosphere which is much more fun than them having a "WCW circa 1991" feel. Hell, bring me AEW in the old IMPACT Zone (which they used for the early ROH tapings). Give it a very distinctive look and feel. They are in a TV rights business, not a live event business. Make big live events an event every time and make the TV the best and most cool they can. I loved the early AEW shows at Daily's Place. 'member, when AEW was cool, young fresh and new ?

Even worse in execution than on paper. Especially after Ospreay vs Umino went from being 25 minutes of already awesome pro-wrestling to the last 15mn pushing it toward all-time great, career defining stuff. Gedo has his head so far up his own ass it's not even funny. Show was excellent though, fun undercard with a great second half. Mox vs O-Khan was a hoot, the six-men title with the dream-team vs TMDK was excellent, the junior tag league was very good (this is a rare case of House of Torture bullshit kinda working because of the result, like EVIL vs Okada at G1, although not nearly as heated), Takahashi vs Ishimori was excellent and Ospreay vs Umino was yet another MOTY level match by Ospreay (how many at this point, in how many different promotions ?).

When PPV business mattered, of course not. Now, it doesn't at all. The money is with the Saudis. Vince said it was their "home". Major UFC attraction are gonna take place over there. The latest Crown Jewel already felt like a major event, with LA Knight, their new big merchandise draw, getting the main event against Roman. And hell, Roman being at Crown Jewel but not at Survivor Series is telling. Add in Kairi Sane making her comeback over there and not on RAW, Smackdown or a US based PLE. The timeframe is much better for the European viewers, and their European presence for PLE is only gonna get bigger too, with at least Germany next year and maybe France (and I would guess the UK too). With WWE becoming more and more a real global entertainment company getting a huge part of the money deals from the Saudis, there's no reason not to do one eventually. Unless MBS gets bored of it and looks at much bigger, more mainstream things (hello World Cup). The one issue would be the fly-in audience of course. Going to Dubai is one thing (although Dubai is disgusting too, don't get me wrong). Going to Saudi Arabia is another. TBH, they absolutely don't *need* to do it, and they get so much money from cities around the US to bring Mania/SummerSlam/Rumble they have no particular reason to do one of the major PLE over there. But there's no reason not to either considering the Saudis is the most valuable business partner this side of US tv deals.

That's the Idol culture for you. When you think back at the old rule of retirement at 25 in Zenjo, it sounds so completely ridiculous on all levels. I think the "oldest" one who gives her age is Syuri, born in 89. I wonder if that's their choice or the promotion though. Mina Shirakawa is gonna turn 36 at the end of the year, she looks basically 10 years younger then she is, so I guess not giving her birth date plays a role, not that it should make any difference. It kinda blows my mind how good she became in the last two years or so, because when I started watching some Stardom it was obvious she was there for reasons that had nothing to do with in-ring talent (she wasn't bad, but). Then again, she started wrestling at 30, which is way late, especially in Japan. But even in the US, who started that late and became really good ? I can think of DDP off the top of my head, but not that many. Yeah, Maika is a good one to give a strong push too. Then you have the AZM/Starlight Kid/Suzu Suzuki who are ridiculously awesome. It's not like Stardom is not loaded with talent if Giulia leaves (although apparently, that "news" was kinda nothing solid, the try-out isn't happening as long as she's under contract and WWE had their eyes on her since 2019. Of course it's like Ospreay, a case of contract ending soon).

Tiffany Straton's outfit is nothing. You want something really actually trashy ? There : This my friends, is trashy as fuck. Everything in this picture is.

Yes, we simply aren't meaning the same thing. Of course a guy like Logan Paul for instance has "legit heat" with me and he's a huge turn-off that's one many reason I won't give WWE the time of day. Plus I did not even bring up "legitimate heel heat" since like I said I don't really believe in it anyway, and @sek69 pretty much nailed it down talking about the "despicable heel" vs "cool heel", which is where I was going about Bully. But I must say, when he showed up, I was yawning in a very much "oh no, not him" way, after the stupid shit he said (about Mox and his rehab mots notably). But his work sure won me other.

With NXT moving to CW, I wonder what's up with coked up NWA. Don't laugh Court Bauer, it happened to you too !

That's not "legitimate heat". That's "I don't like this person/worker". It has nothing to do with heel work. Bully Ray was a tremendous heel during the Josh Alexander feud, and he also was tremendous in taking his comeuppance, including taking more than most would from Josh's wife, who had been involved in those "legitimate heat" moments. Although I must say, I don't believe there's anything like "legitimate heat" as opposed to whatever "play-along heat" would be. *everybody* is playing along, whether they want to admit it or not. However there's absolutely something about wanting to play "cool heel" as opposed to "legitimate heel". Christian Cage and Don Callis are absolutely playing legitimate heels right now, but you won't convince me for one second that *anyone*, apart from children maybe if they even watch, has "legit heat" with them. Bully Ray was like that in the last big program he worked in TNA. He was just super efficient as a performer. That's about it. With the talk of making things innovative and faster, not too sure where he would fit nor if he's in the plans to begin with, although I wouldn't be negative about it like I was when he first was brought back (and proven wrong in the process).

Speaking about companies grabbing talent, TNA signing Leon Slater is telling of the company getting more aggressive in building something fresh and exciting. Slater is the UK 19 years old prodigy than many think of as a future WIll Ospreay. Now, that's ridiculous unattainable praise at this point, but he's indeed already great for his age. I think I'm more interested for this TNA "relaunch" than anything else on the horizon right now.

There was this story back then than Rossy wanted to give Tam a title run as he felt it was deserved and before she got past her peak (she's what ? 35 or something ? I always get a kick out of the age never being mentioned for women past 34 or something, I think Mina is like that too. Some stuff never change). But surely it reads differently now. BTW, I wonder if Mina is gonna get the big push to the top if Giulia is a goner. Yeah that story is quite odd. Plus if Megan Bayne really was under contract with AEW, in the wake of losing Jade Cargill, I would pretty much not have waited long to just introduce her as a new monster star of the roster. Then again, AEW and its women division is an story into itself. Can't blame Giulia for wanting to go to WWE right now. Personally I'd love to have her in TNA, but oh well. What the hell ? I really enjoyed her when she was touring the US some months ago. She's supposed to work MLW I believe, but then again, MLW be like...

We already have a president who thinks he's some kind of king and who is slowly but surely turning our country into an illiberal democracy. And by 2027, probability is that France is going the way of Italy, Hungary and such. By that point, it will be as shameful doing business with France as it is with the Saudis. (well, France is already a shame, really, we're like the top 3 weapons seller in the world or something) Them chanting Seth Rollins theme for 10 straight minutes blew everybody's mind, and rightfully so. If they do a PLE in France, there's no telling what this crowd will do. They are fucking rabid. Again, credit goes to Agius & Chereau.