El-P

Nope. Rusev Day never got the equivalent of the TNT title reign he had in AEW. He had a cuck angle. People forget Miro got injured and was out for a while. Then he was out filming a TV show. Then he was in a deal with the House of Black and then they requested their release (kinda sorta) and the whole thing was dropped. So yeah, I also would love me a lot more Miro (fuck, he should have been given the Wardlow push), but it's not like he was put on ice on purpose. Some bad timing there. Now, if he's ready to return and did not like his creative, that's another story. I would sure love him to get in that storyline of him needing his wife to be at his side leading to the debut of CJ, as he's just winning back his TNT title or something.

Random fact of TNA : Kurt Angle's last appearance, which happened in England and really was a very nice send-off in front of a big crowd, which TNA still had in the UK back then, also saw a King of the Mountain match involving Big Damo, Jimmy Havoc and Will Ospreay ! Talk about forgotten stuff ! Early 2016 was also MUCH better than 2015. Big Money Matt Hardy as the heel champ with Rebi (she's a born heel), ECIII babyface turn, Mike Benett & Maria Kanellis, Decay, a nostalgia run by Beer Money, Mia Yim (as Jade) getting a push in a much more kick-ass incarnation of the Dollhouse. Lots of stuff that gave the product a fresher feel.

I know. I cringed about that one too (not the only time with Foley, which comes off more disappointing, lately about Tyrus). Lance Storm had the best take of all : Vince did not make them all this money, *they and their work* made Vince a billionaire. So they should not feel the way they do, especially in this context.

Yeah, NJ Strong is probably the best wrestling TV show no one talks about (and I say that as someone who very seldom watch any of it, but whenever I do I always find it really good).

The end year show has Syuri vs Giulia, which should be awesome (they will beat the hell out of each other, let's be real) and KAIRI vs Hayashishita, which should be awesome too. The rest of the card looks pretty fun as well, but these two matches could end up being the last MOTYC, before 2023 kicks off with WK and the earliest MOTYC (at very least).

And so Regal is coming back to WWE with .... a Vice President title. Not sure what it entails it term of what his role will be, but this is not just "coming back to work as a coach in NXT, including with his son". Not to say it wasn't predictable, but still, it's a pretty big coup for Triple H to get a guy in that position who just spent 8 months with the talents of the opposition. Gotta say too, talking about Vince in a "whatever he's going through, he was been excellent to me" way is very tone deaf. Yeah, he's been sexually harassing/assaulting women and paid them with the company's money to shut them off, but hey, he kept on paying him while he was in AEW because of his talent contract overlapping a bit (as opposed to his employee contract), so he's a good guy. This whole "I treat people like they treat me" is quite problematic.

They are trying really hard to make me watch some WWE next year, uh ? (I haven't watched any since Royal Rumble apart from clips)

That was the first thing I thought about. And then him and Rush bashing their opponent's head in with chairs, I was having a LA Park feel out of the whole thing. And although I really enjoyed Rush's work thus far, this is kind of a red flag. First Dralistico match in AEW too, way to make a good impression.

FWIW, I believe TK said that he already made more money out of ROH with the PPV's than he spent buying it. The fact he said that there will be a heavy NJPW involvement and that the details will come out after the Tokyo Dome is pretty intriguing though. A merger of sorts with NJ Strong ? A ROH presence in NJPWWorld ?

Keith Lee catching Shane Taylor was jaw dropping incredible. They should replay that shit every week.

Last great "trilogy" is Syuri vs Utami Hayashishita, as they had their third match in one year and a half a few days ago. Funny enough, likewise FTR vs Briscoes, their match 1 & 3 were the best to me. Although I think I prefer FTR vs Briscoe III and Utami vs Syuri I. Above everything, I'm just glad I'm able to get this kind of pro-wrestling now. Lucky me.

Story of AEW PPV in 2022 be like : Show happens : AWESOME ! I love pro-wrestling ! Media scrub : Dude, WTF ? So yeah, I loved the show top to bottom, and that's including the Zero Hour stuff. I felt bad for Joe & Juice (hey, they can tag-team and here I give you their tag team name) because no one could follow FTR vs Briscoes. This is up there with any legendary series of matches. Funny, with all the complaints and criticisms (including from me) about the booking of FTR, they actually had a legendary year. Dax may be right there as the year long MVP of the promotion for 2022. Honor Club ? Really now ? So that means that Claudio & Athena are gonna work on Honor Club ? Fuck, put it on Youtube at least. But really now. I want Athena to kill it like she did today on AEW TV. And I don't want none of that ROH stuff on my AEW TV because it's been an albatros (apart from the Jericho as ROH champ angle, which has been great and has delivered bangers after bangers, Jericho haters notwithstanding) to the company. Listen Coach TK. Buying the ROH library was terrific for a future streaming catalogue. Very cool. Running ROH as an active promotion : BAD IDEA. I remember Meltz said it since day one. And he was right. It NEVER WORKS. Stamp the AEW label on Final Battle and you sell more of it. It would not be as great for obvious reasons (Briscoes, nope), but it doesn't really matter, it would still sell more as an AEW PPV. And you would not have to dilute the focus of the promotion with a dozen more titles. Just LET IT REST. FOCUS ON AEW. Fucks's sake. Show was awesome though, and I think FTR and the Briscoes have outdone themselves. I did not think the 2/3 falls match was better than the first, but this one may be.

For fuck's sake.

People obviously have no idea who he's named after.

*sigh* "The culture has changed" my ass. Speaking of being angry and depressed, can the British football team do me a favor and Joan of Arc the French idiots tonight ? And maybe if someone could bash Lloris's face in as to teach him to say really stupid fucking shit like "gotta respect the culture of the country you're in". Thanks in advance. God save the Queen or something.

Takeshita is a total package. Now it would be nice if he won some. Because he's gonna get settled with "Great worker who can't win a big match" perception soon enough if that goes on. Great match though (spoiler alert : he lost). Da Bunny. Yeah, that's what I want. Her and Penelope have so much potential as an act. Maybe they should ask to get more of what they did with Anna & Tay, but it's not like you wanna do that too often. Big Bill, uh ? *sigh* Yeah, we need another tall heel guy doing chokeslams. Maybe put a Dinosaur mask on him and then we'll have the New Jurassik Powers. The Hobbs vignette are very good. Maybe they should think about doing that kind of stuff *before* someone debuts too. Like, there's too much of a feel of "catching up to the matchmaking" in stuff like Athena vs Martinez for instance. Maybe you can build it instead of throwing it from nowhere and then doing an express 60 sec video in which you're told "oh btw they met before in Shimmer, yeah it's actually meaningful bye". Gotta, say, I'm thoroughly enjoying Orange defending the AP belt against random people. Wouldn't mind get a lot more of that Trent Seven fella either (as opposed to, Big Bill, you know). Mascara Dorada vs Jeff Cobb at the pre-PPV free-show ? Wow, talk about out of nowhere. Could be awesome if given enough time.

Can't wait until Gable Stevenson feuds with Matt Riddle in a "proofs were insufficient" on a pole match.

I mean, instead of fighting or even wrestling, which is probably even worst in term of hurting your body, sure can't blame her if she doesn't come back at all. But I was under the impression she actually had signed a contract. It's been a while though now, seems like another world altogether.

BTW, talking about the anti-indies anti-Japan stuff made me think about Dan Lambert and all. Whatever happened with Paige Van Zant ? She was signed, right ? Is she still training ? Her first match sure was a misstep (akin to the Anthony Agogo match with Cody), but when she was standing next to Dan and talking shit to Jericho she looked like she had some star potential. It's probably better not to rush her back before she's ready (we begin to see how Cargill is plateauing and how her streak is going nowhere now, while her matches don't get better and are losing their appeal), but I wonder if she's still under contract at all.

Humm.... AEW is hardly anti-establishment. Maybe it appeared that way at first, because there was this enthousiasm and desire to change the landscape. AEW is now just another part of the establishment as the landscape has evolved. Which actually is one reason why the energy is not the same. One thing I wish MJF would stop doing, is positive references to WWE. That's very counter-productive, especially in the current context. The last thing you want is to point at the other company as being bigger and better than yours. Likewise insulting NJPW, it's just cheap heat, and toxic cheap heat in this case. The thing no one really knows is whether is actually has signed for an extension (which he would never say) or not. If not, then we're witnessing another Pillman sequence and it's not good for AEW.

Totally forgot about that one ! But again though, I don't see how this relates to the Miz at all. Just kinda cheap heat like he insults the city he's in, really. BTW damn, I wish you are right on that one too.

I dunno. I don't even get the anti-Japan or anti-indies stuff. What does that even means ? MJF comes from the indies. He doesn't come from a TV reality show or a corporate developmental program. If by "Japan" or "indies", that means "lol movez" and is strictly a "stylistic disagreement" (which infact it is not, since it would be an idiotic generalization anyway), then it's something that only WWE drones and the likes of Corny audience says. I don't get how this relates to MJF at all, honestly. It's not like he's working like a cosplay of guys from the 80's/90's either. The fact he doesn't do a thousand dives doesn't make him less of a very contemporary worker. Not that Miz is doing it either though. Miz just work like a shitty mid 00's WWE dullard.

They actually have too many hoss right now. W. Morrissey is so not needed for what he can bring to the table (which is better that what he ever could, but really now, when I saw him chokeslam poor Jungle Boy on the apron, I was thinking hell, poor Jungle Boy is running in circles now, hopefully he doesn't get settled with a Luchasaurus Minus). Complaining about your push on social media has done no favor to anyone in AEW before. Brian Cage literally vanished after his wife made that tweet about how he was underutilized. There is so much that could be done with Miro, but I'm fearing this is one guy who will end up Andrading himself eventually. Hopefully not.

Thanks for the clarification. Seems like fair criticism.

MJF is a pure product of the indies though. One of the funny point of him saying he was gonna send Starks back in Corgan's NWA and wrestle on Youtube, is that himself was wrestling in Court Bauer's MLW on Youtube not too long before still (maybe even at the same time during his last MLW days where he was on both shows for a short while). First time I saw him was on one of Janela's promoted show, and he never came off like he was working some "anti-smark/indies" gimmick.