rolling (non-millenials) grabbing the brass ring 2015

Wrestle Kingdom in 3 days time with JR, Double J and Scott Steiner making Japanese wrestling watchable?

nXt is the best thing in the world, as is supposedly Lucha Underground but I've not seen it yet.

2014 was hard on those poor souls who were supposed to take over the next gen, with Cesaro, Ambrose, Wyatt etc. etc. all flunking out. At least Bryan is back.

Philly is gonna shit all over Reigns winning the Rumble. Also Brock's contract? Surely he should make it to Mania or it was all for nothing.

Anyway here's to a better year with less exploding tvs and authority figure storylines *fingers especially crossed hard on that last one*

well the authority is BACK BAYBAY so you might have some trouble

i was missing steph so i'm ok w/ this

steph! steph! steph!

I have low expectations in 2015 for enjoying anything besides NXT.

more worried than not about NXT's magic getting fucked up tbh

wait, why are the authority back? do they have any respect for their viewers at all ? (lol)

seth rollins was about to kill edge

pretty excited for Wrestle Kingdom with JR tomorrow

I'm curious whether JR can pull this off without either a) Vince-style botched calls of all the moves, b) resorting to his usual cliches in places where they don't belong (which is almost everywhere on the card, Okada vs Tanahashi won't be a "slobberknocker", Nakamura isn't a "hoss", business isn't about to pick up when Ishii walks to the ring).

no he's doing the cliches (and there's obv a very clear "explaining this japanese stuff to the americans" angle) but i think he and matt are both doing fine

that show RULED

i wound up not minding striker so much at all by the end, once he and JR had the good sense to lay off a little bit and let the matches do the talking (not hard to do when you're calling two straight MOTYCs, i realize). given what JR was trying to do i didn't mind the cliches at all; it's just nice to hear him call wrestling again

nakamura/ibushi > tanahashi/okada, although the tana/okada postmatch stuff was excellent. just a great great great show

cant wait to watch the 2nd half. my buddy & i watched everything except the last 2 matches... tonight!!! stoked. really wanna see some RAINMAKERS in the context of a full match.

check it out:
https://www.facebook.com/events/845376668819111/?ref=br_tf

need some serious recovery time after watching nakamura v ibushi and tanahashi v okada

why not wash it down with kane vs ryback

The show was great, the commentary sucked. JR seemed half asleep for nearly the entire show. Striker obviously did his homework and had been watching matches, JR was going on instinct alone and never seemed to be into the flow of the matches.

After re-watching parts of the PPV, on a sliding scale where they called a Japanese PPV for the first time and explained the product to American fans, it was a decent effort I guess. When Okada hit that dropkick in the main event it was about the only time when JR really sounded like himself calling a big match. For nearly all the big moves and cool sequences, their reactions were on a five second delay. That's on JR too -- he's supposed to be doing the PBP and I felt that Striker kept holding back and waiting for JR's calls that never came.

I watched Wrestle Kingdom 9 and my first Lucha Underground. I've had a fun night in other words.

I'm sure I saw mention of Scott Steiner being at WK9 as part of the GFW connection. Maybe I missed it, I did do a lot of washing as well while it was on. Sad about no Steiner, always. Oh wait yeah, the last two matches were incredible. The suplex over the ropes thing in the Ibushi-Nakamura is like the best thing I've seen in wrestling since Brock's SS suplex party. I love suplexes. Kenny Omega's really good too, like someone cosplaying at being Pillman. In fact cosplay 90s wrestling is what Bullet Club is, right? It was a really good show and I thought JR sounded alright, although at times it seemed like he was out of it.

My first Lucha Underground happened to be to an hour long 20 wrestler royal rumble round robin thing to crown the first champion. It was nutso and had no real story, but I really recommend it. Lots of moves, movezzz and more jumpy moves. Oh and Ezeqial Jackson and Big Ryck just laying fuckers out, like he should have done in the fed. I guess I'm hooked, hopefully next week has actual story and psychology etc. Otoh fuck off Chavo Jr. hitting people in the head with a chair in 2015. Or just fuck off Chavo Jr. in 2015.

This month has Brock/Rollins/Cena, the Rumble with a returning Bryan and the lols of seeing Philly shit on Reigns winning and whatever they do in nXt (Sami v. Neville rematch?). Basically if I just stay away from Raw it looks like the best month in wrestling since ever.

i hilariously had the ending of the LU rumble spoiled a week ago just by looking at random wrestler wikis

definitely watch the LU backlog, pentagon jr/drago/fenix in i think ep 3? is still the highlight for me

The show was great, the commentary sucked. JR seemed half asleep for nearly the entire show. Striker obviously did his homework and had been watching matches, JR was going on instinct alone and never seemed to be into the flow of the matches.

THIS. I know we all have a soft spot for JR but his time is gone, he should be nowhere near a headset in 2015. I mean, his doddering old-man routine pretending that New Japan was some newfangled craze to him when he worked for WCW during their biggest cross promotions was infuriating.

I don't think Striker was brilliant either (with all the research he did, he could have learned how to pronounce some first names, geez) but at least he made an effort. Why not give a shot to someone new on commentary with him for any future events?

Basically if I just stay away from Raw it looks like the best month in wrestling since ever.

We finally get the Network in this part of the world on the 19th so yeah, looking forward to seeing the Rumble live in HD.

i've been catching up on lucha underground lately and it's super fun - highly recommended, although i'm a big sucker for the style. more ten-man wipeout spotfests with danny trejo at ringside!

also totally enjoy how shameless they are about setting up big ryck/mascarita sagrada spots whenever possible

im pretty annoyed i have no tv or money atm because yeah i'd be so excited about the network. nxt! wcw in 1994! idk other stuff too!

The Network is brilliant so far - signed up yesterday morning after I heard there was early access for us across the pond.

The live channel stream works great (they use the same infrastructure as MLB TV and that was near flawless for me the past 2 years) so I ended up watching some of that before delving into the archive, and I stayed up for NXT last night (it's on at 1am our time so won't be doing that often).

I also watched some WCW shows from '93/'94 - the standalone Battlebowl show, which I'd always wanted to see 'cause I loved the gimmick as a kid, and the first Spring Stampede, which has some amazing wrestling for the era. Those guys were really pulling out all the stops back then.

everyone should watch lucha underground

goddamn it i can't stop playing immortals :(

update: it sucks

The first episode of NJPW on AXS was great. Josh Barnett is a bit unpolished, but Mauro Ranallo is tremendous. He's totally immersed in the competitive aspect of the matches without any OTT "storytelling" or catchphrases. They're starting in 2013 and working forward by showing complete matches from all the major feuds. Wrestlers' promos are subtitled in English too, which is nice.

yup, it was awesome - can't wait for whenever tonight's much-acclaimed episodes hit dailymotion. ranallo is just a natural.

while in boston this weekend i spent a day watching wrestling with some friends who are pretty new to it but super into it (mostly watching nxt and wwe ppvs) the best stuff i could think of offhand (the two big wk9 matches, suzuki/styles, recent lucha underground, ricochet/kushida from last year's super juniors, even the flair/steamboat clash match for history's sake)

the two things that absolutely made the biggest impression were the new japan axs show and aztec warfare, and i don't think that was a coincidence

Episode 2 was more good stuff. Okada seems to be missing something when he's not in the ring with the absolute best workers in NJPW. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he doesn't bring others up to his level in the way you'd expect from the top guy in the company. Getting the English translations of his promos is helping me get more into his character though. At least in 2013, he played a great smarmy, arrogant heel, kind of like the Japanese Alberto Del Rio. I've never seen the April '13 Tanahashi vs Okada match though, so I'm looking forward to Ep. 3.

episode 3 was really great - the commentary obviously takes it over the top, but i think that 2013 match was pretty clearly the best thing tanahashi and okada have ever done, which is saying something. the postmatch confrontation with suzuki was really good too, even though that match, iirc, eventually wound up being a big letdown

regarding your point about okada's character, he's just a great natural foil for tanahashi, but i also don't think he worked as well at this point against other heels outside of the g1 format - that said, he was so so hot in 2014 (or 18 months after the current new japan axs storyline, in other words). the goto, styles, suzuki, and nakamura g1 matches are all excellent. he even finally had a great match with ibushi!

speaking of nakamura, this is making the rounds and is unbelievably great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xb9V80LGA

every wwe event should happen in philly until the message sinks in

That Nakamura clip ... wow.

How can the WWE be this stupid? I was completely sure that Reigns was winning going in, so I expected nothing different. They couldn't have been more transparent about fucking over every wrestler that could possibly get cheered ahead of Reigns. "Cheer for Bryan and get it out of your system early" is so manipulative and fans know when they're being told to essentially fuck off. Why not make Reigns and Bryan the final two and at least both guys would get cheered up to and hopefully including the ending and they could have been concentrating on putting on a decent Rumble match instead of that shitshow that we got.

Why not make Reigns and Bryan the final two and at least both guys would get cheered up to and hopefully including the ending and they could have been concentrating on putting on a decent Rumble match instead of that shitshow that we got.

Yes, this would have worked far better from a booking standpoint. But Reigns still would've got booed at the end regardless. It's disappointing they way things were done; it makes Reigns look bad because he didn't really face much of a challenge in a Rumble full of jobbers (which itself says a lot about Creative's ignorance of the mid-card talent base).

figured he had to at least be in the final four. instead we get kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show. kane and big show.

holy shit

the only positives were bray getting some spotlight and DDP because i like DDP. managed to fuck up bubba ray by sticking him with Replacement Level Black Dude (Shhhhhh No One Will Notice)

KANE AND BIG SHOW. one of the biggest events of the year, given the same ending as every single RAW over the past two months

horribly booked all the way through

nice triple threat tho

Reigns might have gotten booed by eliminating Bryan at the end but at least it's a competitive match with a small amount of booing at the end rather than half an hour of constant booing and Reigns eliminating the combined forces of the team of the 2000's (as in literally the year 2000) to win a jobber Rumble.

In '07 the crowd was deflated when Taker won (the Rumble was in San Antonio and they wanted Michaels to win) and the match as a whole wasn't even that good. Everything from the final four until the end was great though, and smarky crowds appreciate that.

It would have still been very loud, but you're totally right and it would probably be salvageable. Having the three most over guys after Bryan be punked out by the terrible, old, heatless Kane and Big Show in no way helped matters. If the reaction on Raw is negative, which it probably will be, they'll have to change the main event or turn Reigns heel.

The only person who could possibly be excited about a final 3 involving Kane and Big Show is Vince (I think it was Alvarez who said that Reigns going over two giants and an evil Russian before having his arm raised by The Rock is the most Vince thing imaginable).

http://i.imgur.com/T5ZdBgn.jpg

lol Rocky trying reaaal hard to call a favour in

Rusev vs Ryback from Smackdown on Friday is in genuine danger of being the company's high point of the year

so why'd they show the rumble again tnite? are they hoping the crowd will like reigns better during the rerun?

storm killed RAW. Had to show something.

wait so did they show the rumble just on regular ass tv? lol

i love reading those old observer back issues they keep posting. here's a gem from 1997:

Latest weird gimmick at Incredibly Strange Wrestling is a wrestler known as the HIV Kid. His gimmick is that he does run-ins and clears the ring by obviously blading himself and chasing the heels off.

http://fat.gfycat.com/FoolhardyHandmadeBorderterrier.gif

kane and big show.

lol this company really is shooting itself in the foot, at the time they need fans the most to give them money, just because vince has a hard on for a mid card guy

title match was DOPE CITY though

my buddy made a good point to me tho, everyone hated the rumble last year and they all kinda forgot by the time WM30 was amazing.

Bryan not being in the Rumble at all last year gave them a coherent storyline reason to change it though

also last year they learnt from it but this year they just did the same thing again so they're either really stupid or they don't care any more

Trying to think of any WWE triple threats better than that one, I can't see past Lesnar's intoxicating suplex-throwing beet-coloured realness tho, it just distorts everything, what a time to be alive

Not kidding about Rusev vs Ryback either though, I need more hosses who can go throwing bombs at each other, perhaps Rusev is a superworker

that triple threat was so good that i actually don't care that the rumble was so bad. and i assume this means 100% that lesnar is winning at wrestlemania.

rusev is a superworker imo

Fandango 10 Rusev 07:36 0
12 Tyson Kidd 8 Bryan 02:26 0
13 Stardust 15 Reigns 12:23 0
14 Diamond Dallas Page 9 Rusev 02:28 0
15 Rusev 28 Reigns 35:17 6
16 Goldust 14 Reigns 06:21 0
17 Kofi Kingston 13 Rusev 02:50 0
18 Adam Rose 12 Rusev 00:08 0
19 Roman Reigns - Winner 27:28 6
20 Big E 18 Rusev 14:49 0
21 Damien Mizdow 16 Rusev 00:18 0
22 Jack Swagger 20 Big Show 12:49 0

bar ddp, reigns and mizdow, aren't these all heels? lol at coming out after bryan

kofi and big E are both faces

12-15 mins of Rusev / cesaro would be an awesome hoss match, though not one we're likely to get unfortunately, man whyyy isn't cesaro still rolling with Dirty Dutch and winning coolass trophies, these dudes don't know what they're doing.

Thought the rumble was supremely enjoyable as spectacle, the wall of sound booing for the last 10 mins was entertainment of the highest order. Sgt biscuits otm re: lesnar, just pay the dude his money and keep the belt on him at mania IMO, it's just too much fun watching him turn purple and destroy fools with throws and suplexes. Assuming that money is the issue there? Or is he just not into it again? I haven't been following.

I am not gonna get too butthurt over wwe's incompetent booking bcuz complaining about wrestling in a month where you had this triple threat, nakamura/ibushi, tanahashi/okada and the Lucha underground battle royal is just churlish really

Lesnar might want to do MMA again but who really knows with him. I'm not even sure why WWE would want Lesnar anyhow -- when he's not on TV his name is never mentioned and nobody ever talks about the title. Why isn't Rollins pissed about his briefcase being worthless when the champ isn't even around? There's so much they could be doing and it doesn't even involve Brock working more dates. They don't even care and it's devaluing the title when only John Cena is allowed to talk about it.

Brock is around to put over Reigns at Mania and then he's gone, we'd all better shut up and learn to like it.

brock is still a top draw and he's great and i hope he sticks around forever. i don't think his reign has devalued the belt -- quite the opposite tbh

and by "sticks around forever" i mean "makes three appearances a year and doesn't let anyone touch the belt forever"

even if lesnar loses to reigns at mania they could still do something w/ rollins' suitcase and he could ultimately leave wrestlemania w/ the title

for some reason i imagine them giving reigns the title and then... next day on raw... kane and big show beat up reigns and rollins cashes in

because... why bother

someone told me to watch tna the other day, maybe i'll try

Lol there aren't enough hours in a day to bother with tna.

When I said that wwe should keep lesnar that was purely a statement of personal preference, they've probably got all sorts of reasons for not keeping him around but once he's out they are looking mighty thin on top draws

I feel like they're going to give Reigns some sort of title run. They've been trying to push him since last year's Rumble where he beat Kane's record. Honestly, I really thought they were going to do more with that this year, maybe with Kane matching it and a feud between them being pushed before they set him up for a title. They're focusing way too much on making him look strong, without developing him AT ALL. I'll maybe be interested if he has The Rock speaking for him, but it's pretty painful watching him on the mic.

These rumours about Mania not being set behind the scenes are just a setup for the disappointment we're in store for when Reigns squashes Bryan.

NJPW ep. 4 was another solid episode, with a surprisingly great Makabe vs Okada match. The English translations have given me a completely new appreciation for Okada's character. Has there been a cool heel like him in Japan before?

i didn't realize cody and dustin were born 16 years a part

I was thinking of starting a poll but I couldn't be bothered writing up the 40 different answers, so I'll just ask here:

I'm intrigued in what people actually like. Raw, Smackdown and Impact are the three biggest wrestling shows in the western world, but to me they are also the dullest. At best, I will check out a match or segment from Raw once or twice a month. I'll read a report on what happened, and then maybe check out the PPV. Unless its one of the big 4 though (mitb > survivor series now), I'll usually just pick the best matches, or maybe not even watch. I love nXt, I'm catching up on Lucha Underground and big matches from the indies or Japan, shoot interviews and mma/boxing too.

I now kind of think of wrestling as my favourite 'sport' and yet I despise the three biggest avenues of watching it. So yeah I wonder what others think and watch?

notime: ummm... i presume japanese wrestling has had cool heels. Steve Austin turned at WM13 18 years ago, (and despite wwe programming me to think he was the first but he couldn't have been) and thats nearly two decades for Japan and its 3 major promotions to do it since. Or way before.

i need to get up on that njpw steez but im still far behind on everything else. and lol i was thinking of maybe going back and trying to watch a lot of the roh glory days if i get the chance to. shows how interested i am in mania 31 i guess.

(xpost) I only got back into pro wrestling last year (after like... 15 years of following it VERY peripherally thru friends who were still engaged) and the reason I did was NXT. I've since tried to watch Raw and sometimes even Smackdown but it occurred to me that A) I'm not enjoying a lot of that time and B) I only have so many gd hours a week to watch this stuff. So basically I watch NXT, PPVs and Youtube clips (from anything -- njpw, roh, random indies) when bored. I thought I should try to follow the whole "universe" but seriously 6 hours a week? No thanks.

This will become more complicated once the amazing crop they have down there starts getting "promoted." I wasn't watching when Bo, Emma, Cesaro, etc. were on the show so I haven't had to deal with this scenario yet. Kinda terrified at having to upgrade to the big fat shows to keep following Zayn but I guess I can just fast forward to his parts or whatever.

That said the 5m video packages on PPVs pretty much tell you everyhthing you need to know for the PPV, which is telling of the RAW bloat.

Tried Lucha U but it didn't grab me. NJPW is fun as hell, LOVED Wrestle Kingdom, might try to seek more of that out if I find myself having the time.

nxt is really the only thing i watch every week - i've watched some chikara ppv, went to a live show (and i'd go again), lucha underground i followed up to + thru the rumble they did to crown the champ but haven't really followed since that week.

the cage stuff since the rumble has been super fun on lucha underground. its like cage is big corporate wwe and puma is the small try hard mexindie. seems appropriate he even hits an f5 at one point.

I pretty much just watch old things now, don't even try to keep up with the current product in wwe, I'm not even checking recaps at this points. As you say, big 4 ppvs are he only thing I go out of my way to watch unless they book a match for another that tabs my attention ( and how often does that happen these days?). I will still check out individual matches if I hear that they're especially good. Does tna even still exist? Who are their top stars now? MVP?

Mostly I tend to just grab stuff from xwt classics and watch that, got some good DVD box sets on bruiser brody, nick bockwinkel and Harley race from there which I've been enjoying. Watching Harley race hoss the fuck out of dudes is at least 15x more entertaining than anything the wwe is offering these days.

Watched and loved Wrestle Kingdom, like every other fan that was new to NJPW I've developed a bit of a mancrush on shinsuke nakamura.

Apologies for dodgy spelling, autocorrect on this phone is unforgiving

do wwe announcers know that they're announcing matches for "one fall" and not "windfall"? other orgs don't mumble it quite like wwe announcers do.

Sami Callihan's entrance music should be vaporwave

just finished Rivals - wow intense

Balor v Itami was the match of the night; I'm sure Zayn and Owens would agree. Also, I see what they did there with the title match: Kevin Owens won by KO because *that's what his T-shirt says*

Balor v neville

balor neville was crazy. sasha banks is the best. she looked so happy to win. i really hope sami is really good at acting and wasn't concussed. 6 powerbombs or whatever, fuuuck. steen gave the best vader performance in forever*. i'm gonna look back in 10 years time and say they are my favourite period in wrestling. like possibly better than pre-hogan 93/94 wcw or 97/98 wwf.

i cant really figure out a realistic/polite way to say 'i wish vince never has anything to do with these guys but i still want them all to make it to the best wrestlemania ever' because the only way that happens in reality is vince dying or getting seriously ill.

*unless you count brock, but brock is brock

if you watch the replay, sami tucked his head when he hit the ramp - i'm sure he's fine (alsothey sent him to abu dhabi with the main roster this weekend)

really loved those last three matches. can't imagine how they're gonna fuck up balor eventually, but i have faith they'll find a way - it's wwe creative after all

notime: ummm... i presume japanese wrestling has had cool heels. Steve Austin turned at WM13 18 years ago, (and despite wwe programming me to think he was the first but he couldn't have been) and thats nearly two decades for Japan and its 3 major promotions to do it since. Or way before.

I assume you're right. New Japan ran the original NWO-style angle that Bischoff stole for WCW, so maybe they were the first? It definitely didn't happen in All Japan, they were super old-school.

I really need to start watching NXT. With every passing special I feel like I'm missing out on something huge. I've caught some matches here and there but haven't followed regularly. Lately I've been on a Japan kick, with recent New Japan and re-watching old All Japan and NOAH matches from the days when I used to buy comp tapes from tape traders.

looking back on it in hindsight, the long-term development of the sami zayn character over the last 18 months has been kinda amazing - here you have this guy who's just a natural heroic babyface, never sacrificing his morals to win the title, always getting betrayed and screwed by cesaro/dallas/kidd/neville's opportunism, and then finally reaching the top...only for his "best friend" (and blood rival, obviously, but ROH is non-canon even though everybody knows the backstory) to screw him over by being the most opportunistic of all. this feud is going to be so awesome.

i don't always watch the weekly NXT tv, but the builds to the specials are always incredible. just such a well-booked, enjoyable promotion.

i actually made oscar scorecard style sheets for my buddies when we watched Rival, incl. who will win, by pin/sub/dq/"other", with some funny prop-style questions in there too ("who will cry first?" with the choices: zayn, owens, me, my buddy or my other buddy; when will crowe's video show up; will the dubstep cowboys cut an awkward grinning promo post-match; stuff like that) and for some reason i wrote OWENS - OTHER for that match and wrote "KO" beside it... everyone was like "holy shit will, how did you call that" and i was like "I THOUGHT I WAS BEING FUNNY"

tbf it was tko but they decided i should get it

word from the recent tapings is that NXT is about to get real weird.

Balor v neville

I'm sorry, I have a cold.

i've never been as excited for a RAW episode as i am for tnite's NXT

fucking hell solomon crowe looks like shit. fake tan midget in a taz onesie and a bad studded leather jacket with a neck beard and shit my chemical romance hair?

Yeah, well they jobbed Parker out to him, right?
On the other hand, I am pretty interested in Rhyno's return and the possibility of Samoa Joe getting an NXT run.

Samoa Joe seems like one of the only potential people left big enough to debut on the main roster, if he'd lose a bit of weight and showed commitment, right? Him, Angle... Yeah I guess its just Angle left now.

CJ Parker jobber to all new débutants is maybe my favourite gimmick in wrestling atm bar bayley.

I did not like the end: "we now return to your regularly scheduled program."

So you're using your elite hacking/smashing skills to... make sure the show runs correctly?

That was a pretty uniformly shit PPV. Tons of blown spots, people completely out of their depth, and the highlight was a promo. Ugh.

that bad huh? i picked the oscars.

(also bad)

Rusev v. Cena was good.

Reigns vs Bryan was really good, but I'm not sure why fans are supposed to accept Bryan's endorsement of Reigns when they wouldn't accept the Rock's. It's no different from the Rumble -- they're being totally transparent in trying to manipulate fan reactions rather than just letting people cheer whoever they want. They had Brock backstage at RAW yesterday and didn't use him ... WTF??

it's actually kind of impressive how quickly they managed to kill bryan

Yeah, that meltzer quote doing the rounds about how they've fucked up basically everyone on the roster barring cena, orton and the part timers is otm, you gotta wonder how bad shit is gonna get in the post wm lull when lesnar, taker, sting and HHH have gone on their way and you're getting 20 minute roman reigns main events on every show. Fastlane doesn't augur well.

could make a very good argument that the "creative" side of WWE has never been worse in 2015

As someone who has literally only watched the Royal Rumble and the 3way, is it worse than 1995? 1995 surely had nothing as good as Lesnar-Rollins-Cena, but it also didn't have the fucking Big Show & Kane main event equivz nearly 20 years after they were popular (Lawler and Backlund maybe?)

Roman Reigns vs Rusev for the WWE title at Summerslam could theoretically be a fucking shitty main-event match I suppose? But then again nah, nothing could be as bad as Diesel-Mabel.

But the thing is, in 1995 what had they got work with? I mean ok, they really weren't making the best of the Harts, Michaels, Ramon by having Diesel main-event every month against Sid/Davey Boy/Mabel/whoever. WWE's current roster so stacked, they could be putting out a great product if anyone gave a shit and they weren't trying so hard to stop anyone from ever looking bad that they never let anyone look any good either.

1995 might have been worse from a purely qualitative standpoint. idk, the year is young yet and you know that Bryan / Ziggler / Rollins / Ambrose are gonna keep having good matches against the majority of opponents (if they're allowed to, gotta think the focus will shift to some of them post-WM when the roster thins out). So there will probably be redeeming features? But yeah, this is certainly the least interested I've been in things since that time The Miz had a WWE title feud with Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole started commentating from within a plexiglass box.

But it's all ok guys, the entire G1 Climax tournament from last year is up on Dailymotion in HD and it is awesome beyond the dreams of men (I am new to puroresu btw)

I don't think I've watched a whole Raw since The Miz & R-Truth power couple made me give up. It really does seem crazy they have such an insane depth of talent (Bryan! Rollins! Ziggler! Wyatt! Harper! Ambrose! Cody! Rusev! John fucking Cena! Brock fucking Lesnar! Cesaro! Even the guys I don't really care for can still make for interesting matches and fueds occasionally like Orton/Sheamus/Miz/PTP/the Dusts/the Usos/Paige/AJ/Swagz/Barrett) and maaaan... does anyone give a shit?

I was thinking while I was bored today at the 1995 thing. If the internet existed when Diesel was pushed to the moon while midcard Bret fueded with dentists, pirates and lawler's faceless survivor series goons after the big WMX confetti win, it would have been juuuust as bad as today. Just change the names: when Diesel (reigns) was pushed to the moon while midcard Bret (bryan) fueded with dentists (still the same guy), pirates (sheamus at wm again supposedly?) and lawler's faceless survivor series goons (j&j security and big show?) after the big WMXXX confetti win... people are just not going to care, watch or pay for whatever you are shilling. 1996 they nearly went out of business despite having a list as good as the current one - and then they weren't losing money for a network.

yeah the idea of people watching Raw these days kind of makes my boggle a bit. Three hours of their bullshit is too much for some PPVs, let alone useless throwaway tv programming with no proper matches.

take the point about the Diesel/Reigns comparison but the infuriating difference is that if people didn't like 1995 WWF then they could just start following WCW instead. Business got so bad that things had to change up, but how could that happen now? It's the same problem everyone's been harping on about recently - what are the alternatives? I mean obviously for more interested fans there will always be alternatives out there, but none that a more casual fan would be bothered about.

Megapushing Reigns might not do gangbusters at the box office but it can only hurt them so badly, right? It's kinda unimaginable that things could ever get to 95/96 levels of bad ever again in business terms, Diesel was only the tip of the iceberg.

nxt is a really good wwe product

that's true. let's hope they just leave everyone there for the foreseeable future. Apparently The Ascension got squashed by the Prime Time Players last night. I mean I'm not gonna feign regret, The Ascension are a pair of total cloggers, but it doesn't exactly bode well wrt the booking team's esteem for NXT talents. I mean what of Bo Dallas and Adam Rose?

if people didn't like 1995 WWF then they could just start following WCW instead

i was thinking about this wrt to the last two rumble reactions, how it's sort of a new thing how crowds can force themselves into changing the course of kayfabe (there's always been like... x-pac heat, but this is on a whole new level). that wouldn't happen if there was still a WCW around for fans to defect to. everyone's stuck with WWE so they're gonna want to fix it.

Well, with Lucha Underground, NJPW, ROH and Impact, there ARE other options. Hell, even within WWE, there is NXT, which consistantly puts out better shows than main roster. I think that the slew of "released" superstars have brought a decent amount of followers to the promotions they have moved on to (Brodus Clay in TNA, Del Rio in ROH, Morrisson in Lucha), which I appreciate.
I'm pretty disappointed at their push for Reigns. I have no problem with Reigns, but it just isn't his time. He's not ready to main event XXXI, and the fact they have to get other wrestlers to "belee dat" just proves how prematurely they are pushing him. If they held this off for a year and gave him a good build, I think that the fans would be more willing to accept him. Then again, both Bryan and Reigns were out for a while last year on injury, which surely changed their career trajectories, but I feel like the WWE just didn't account for that lost time or adjust their plans.
I think that this new "reality" era has really screwed many superstars out of really getting to show off their talents, both in and out of the ring. Ambrose's Lunatic Fringe gimmick is a great callback to Mankind, Pillman, Piper and the unpredictable legends that came before him. Rusev as the new "Iron Sheik" (complete with camel clutch) is another one that I wish they would do more with.

As far as NXT goes, I would love for some of the talent down there to come up to main roster (I hear Neville's next in line?) but I'm afraid that the move would ruin them. Paige was the only transition that wasn't totally a waste (though I'm wary of what they do with her as far as storylines/total divas/etc.). When The Ascension (who I didn't really care about while they were in NXT) moved up, they were turned into the new Demolition/Road Warriors, which didn't work for them. Not even having them beat New Age Outlaws got them over (but it did prove that Billy Gunn is still doing pretty well).

Also, let's take a moment to appreciate the Kevin Steen/El Generico reprise in NXT.

The Shield and The Wyatts transitioned fine

I actually forgot about them completely. The Shield did very well and the Wyatts had a pretty interesting run. Adam Rose and The Ascension, however, were less successful. Bo Dallas had a pretty entertaining streak and had a decent amount of feud potential that I hope they bring back because I thought the character was hilarious. I desperately want some of the divas from NXT up on the main roster, but I'm worried that they won't be handled well.

Paige was the only transition that wasn't totally a waste (though I'm wary of what they do with her as far as storylines/total divas/etc.)

https://twitter.com/WWEAJLee/status/570390583853895681
https://twitter.com/WWEAJLee/status/570390665726693377

this could go well or it could go very poorly indeed

o i suppose aj and paige aren't the same person. but anyway

I saw those, but doubt that anything will really come of it, unfortunately. I was late to being a fan of A.J. but I've really missed her in the divas division, lately. Her more recent storylines didn't seem quite as forced as the Bella Twins (and Nikki's weird heel turn at Summerslam).

Well, with Lucha Underground, NJPW, ROH and Impact, there ARE other options.

they really aren't, though. wrestling fans, esp smarks who grew up with WCW/WWF, are always going to want their massive top-of-the-food-chain promotions. anything else right now isn't in the same tier. they're all better -- LU is probably my favorite show on television right now -- but they occupy different space in our brains. there's a reason smarks hate WWE the most and still spend 95% of their time talking about it.

why is "belee dat" a thing? he pretty much pronounces all the letters when he says it

like literally the queen's english

it reminds me of barbershop window shawn's "i don't think so" in corniness and stopping a talented dude in not getting over

The meltzer article copied and pasted here is really pretty good on the current situation re: Bryan and Reigns

http://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2x6e60/dave_meltzer_but_the_biggest_story_on_fast_lane/

He makes a strong case, but I'm not sure why it means that Bryan is finished as a main eventer. Couldn't you have said the same thing about Bret Hart in '93, for instance? He was supposed to get a big win over Hogan at Summerslam and get solidified as the top guy, instead they jobbed him to Yokozuna and Hogan left the company. You could say that they missed the boat with Bret and didn't strike while the iron was hot, etc. They changed their minds with guys before, they can change their minds with Bryan if they wanted to (they don't want to, but that's a separate issue).

He's definitely right about one thing with Bryan -- nobody has ever done so much with such a crappy push.

Yeah some of the doom-laden "oh it's all over and finished forever!!" stuff is silly, Rollins and wyatt still look like sure things to get a run at the top soonish and Rollins/Bryan will no doubt tear the house down at some point.

But I think that meltzer is otm in his analysis of how this reigns push is egregious in its pigheadedness even by wwe's usual standards.

The underlying stupidity of Reigns' push is nothing new though. People are reacting so strongly to this piece because of what he says about Bryan.

I actually feel bad for Reigns. I'm sure he works his ass off but the company isn't doing him any favours by a) pushing him too fast, and b) giving him such horrible material to work with.

it reminds me of barbershop window shawn's "i don't think so" in corniness and stopping a talented dude in not getting over

― a hoy hoy, Thursday, February 26, 2015 2:56 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not talking about roman saying "believe that" i'm talking about smarks mocking him by spelling it "belee dat"

i think this is good news:
http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/02/triple-h-and-stephanie-mcmahon-have-been-elected-to-wwes-board-of-directors-wait-thats-real/

"Belee Dat" has become a habit with me and my friends talking about Reigns, really. It's asinine, but whatever.
It's unfortunate for Reigns that so many people are being turned off of him because he's being shoved down our throats. I rolled my eyes at the Bryan endorsement, mostly because I am a huge fan of DB, and I was really hoping for a David and Goliath win from him at Mania. I think that assertion that he already had his Wrestlemania moment is a ridiculous copout for not letting him have another.

it's odd to think back to how much of a star reigns looked while losing at last year's elimination chamber, and how much of a chump he's looked since the shield splitting. is there any instance in any form of entertainment, business, anything, of an organisation getting everything so consistently and idiotically wrong yet still being basically successful in the way that the wwe's been doing for years now?

idk if i would agree that they always get everything consistently and idiotically wrong from a creative perspective - maybe you could argue that they have been doing so since last year's Wrestlemania?

I mean sure, I recognise that they've been fucking up loads of stuff on a semi-regular basis for years now, but they've always been careful to throw in just enough of what the more hardcore fanbase actually wants to see in order to maintain a little bit of buzz. The Summer of Punk, the return of Rocky, the return of Lesnar, the rise of the Shield, the Bryan push and the whole Yes Movement thing, the rise of the Wyatt family, the launch of brand NXT - some of it was undoubtedly fucked up (lol Johnny Ace and Diesel getting into it with Punk), but he still went on to hold the belt for more than a year eventually.

I actually think part of the reason this year has seemed so creatively bankrupt this past year is that for a couple of years prior to this they hadn't been doing an entirely shit job (certainly when confronted with all the barricades and obstacles of modern WWE - that they themselves have erected!) of building new talent that people want to watch and putting on matches that people want to see. Certainly when you compare it to the years before of endless Cena/Orton feuding, The Miz title run, Michael Cole as top heel, R-Truth as main-eventer, the Nexus abortion etc.

But yes, this year they've got it completely bang wrong, and not just with Reigns. I mean they've botched the Sting arrival so badly. A couple of years ago, a WM with a Lesnar main-event, a Taker match, Cena wrestling a hot new heel and the WWE debut of fuckin' Sting would've felt like a surefire hit. Instead it's shaping up to be the worst WM in 4 years.

R-Truth's 1 solo main event was dope, he was crazy and everything a heel upper midcard should be.

But yeah, WWE is so stale and the booking is horrible on top of that. Even with the russo-esque ghost finishes, "wish you died in the woooomb", exploding tvs and stabbing a mannequin etc. - fucking hell the characters are mostly so dull. Sandow, Cody and Wade don't really do anything for me but at least they've tried in the past year to come up with a gimmick for themselves. What the fuck is idk the usos or kane or ziggler or swagger or or sheamus or eric rowan etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc doing to get themselves noticed? nothing? oh well then who gives a fuck?

Bryan isn't going to be Hacksaw like Meltzer says. He'll be the new Eddie. But who the fuck is the new Hacksaw? What the fuck is worth watching on the 5 hours of Raw or Smackdown when one of the top 8 wrestlers aren't involved?

Just fucking fire everyone.

With my day off with nothing to do but wait for a package, i'm watching WMXXX. Fuck me this is beautiful. EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT (I've not yet got to Taker's concussion but hell if he didn't hit his head, I'm sure it would have been 5* too.)

What the hell happened to Cesaro? Poor fucking guy. Putting Big Show over the ropes got a reaction nearly as big as Bryan.

Tbf to ziggler he works to get himself over by having good matches whenever they give him a bit of TV time. but he's also probably reaching the stage where he gives the whole thing up as a bad job and acknowledges that it's not gonna happen for him.

Swagger I have grown to kinda like in that he's a big dude who can do moves and they probably should have done much more with him by now, but obv he hasn't exactly done himself many favours.

The Usos are a good tag team who have good tag team matches and, this being wrestling after all, I have no problem with guys whose gimmick is "happy go lucky Samoan". The problem is with the rest of the division, if there were fresh matches to be had then they'd be completely fine as they are.

But yeah, fire Kane, big show and Vince McMahon. They've made a good start by ditching mysterio.

what happened to wee rey anyway, i missed wrestling for a decade and i came back to find that who i knew as one of the best workers around was a pariah.

ziggler and cesaro (and to an extent ambrose) being inexplicably buried seem to me some of the most egregious failures, a lot of the rest correspond to some backwards business logic but in those cases it seems that wwe just has an objection to certain people being good and popular.

Ring name Real name Notes
Adam Rose[3] Raymond Leppan - FIRE
Bad News Barrett[4] Stuart Bennett[5] WWE Intercontinental Champion
Big E[6] Ettore Ewen[7]
Big Show[8] Paul Wight[9] - FIRE
Bo Dallas[10] Taylor Rotunda[11]
Bray Wyatt[12] Windham Rotunda
Brock Lesnar[13] Brock Lesnar[14] WWE World Heavyweight Champion
Makes limited appearances

The Bunny[15] Unknown Inactive; has not appeared in over 30 days - FIRE?
Cesaro[16] Claudio Castagnoli[17] WWE Tag Team Champion
Christian[18] William Reso[19] Inactive; has not appeared in over 30 days - FIRE
Curtis Axel[20] Joseph Hennig[21]
Damien Mizdow[22] Aaron Haddad[23]
Daniel Bryan[24] Bryan Danielson[25]
Darren Young[26] Frederick Rosser III[27] - FIRE
Dean Ambrose[28] Jonathan Good[29]
Diego[30] Edwin Colón[31] - FIRE
Dolph Ziggler[32] Nicholas Nemeth
Erick Rowan[33] Joseph Ruud - FIRE
Fandango[34] Curtis Hussey[35] - FIRE
Fernando[36] Orlando Colón[37] - FIRE
Goldust[38] Dustin Runnels
Heath Slater[39] Heath Miller[40] - FIRE
Jack Swagger[41] Donald Hager[42] - FIRE
Jey Uso[43] Joshua Fatu[44]
Jimmy Uso[45] Jonathan Fatu[46]
John Cena[47] John Cena[48]
Kane[49] Glenn Jacobs[50] (storyline) Director of Operations - FIRE
Kofi Kingston[51] Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah[52] - FIRE
Konnor[53] Ryan Parmeter[54] - FIRE
Luke Harper[55] Jon Huber
Mark Henry[56] Mark Henry[57] Inactive; unknown injury
The Miz[58] Michael Mizanin[59]
R-Truth[60] Ronnie Killings[61] - FIRE
Randy Orton[62] Randall Orton[63] - FIRE
The Rock[64] Dwayne Johnson[65] Makes limited appearances - LOL
Roman Reigns[66] Leati Anoa'i[67] Royal Rumble winner
Rusev[68] Miroslav Barnyashev WWE United States Champion
Ryback[69] Ryan Reeves
Seth Rollins[70] Colby Lopez[71] Money in the Bank contract holder
Sheamus[72] Stephen Farrelly[73] - FIRE
Sin Cara[74] Jorge Arias - FIRE
Stardust[75] Cody Runnels
Sting[76] Steven Borden Makes limited appearances
Titus O'Neil[77] Thaddeus Bullard, Sr.[78]
Triple H[79] Paul Levesque Minority owner
Executive Vice President (talent/live events/creative)[80]
Member of the Board of Directors[81]
(storyline) Chief Operating Officer
Tyson Kidd[82] Theodore Wilson[83] WWE Tag Team Champion
The Undertaker[84] Mark Calaway[85] Makes limited appearances
Viktor[86] Eric Thompson[87] - FIRE
Xavier Woods[88] Austin Watson[89] - FIRE
Zack Ryder[90] Matthew Cardona[91] Inactive; has not appeared in over 30 days - LOL
Female wrestlers

Nikki Bella
Ring name Real name Notes
AJ Lee[92] April Brooks Inactive; neck injury[93][94][95]
Alicia Fox[96] Victoria Crawford[97]
Brie Bella[98] Brianna Danielson[99]
Cameron[100] Ariane Andrew[101] - FIRE
Emma[102] Tenille Dashwood
Eva Marie[103] Natalie Coyle[104] Inactive; breast implant rupture[105] - FIRE
Layla[106] Layla El[107] Inactive; has not appeared in over 30 days - FIRE
Naomi[108] Trinity Fatu[109] - FIRE
Natalya[110] Natalie Neidhart[111] - FIRE
Nikki Bella[112] Nicole Garcia-Colace[113] WWE Divas Champion
Paige[114] Saraya-Jade Bevis[115]
Rosa Mendes[116] Milena Roucka Valet of Fandango - FIRE
Summer Rae[117] Danielle Moinet - FIRE
Tamina Snuka[118] Sarona Reiher[119] Inactive; torn ACL[120] - FIRE
Other on-air personnel

Stephanie McMahon
Ring name Real name Notes
El Torito[121][122] Unknown Mascot of Los Matadores - FIRE
Hornswoggle[123] Dylan Postl - FIRE
Jamie Noble[124] James Gibson Security for The Authority
Occasional wrestler
Also producer
Joey Mercury[125] Adam Birch Security for The Authority
Occasional wrestler
Also producer
Lana[126] Catherine Perry Manager of Rusev
Paul Heyman[127] Paul Heyman[128] Manager of Brock Lesnar
Stephanie McMahon[129] Stephanie Levesque Minority owner
Chief Brand Officer
Member of the Board of Directors[81]
Occasional wrestler
William Regal[130] Darren Matthews General Manager of NXT
Talent scout/evaluator
Zeb Colter[131] Wayne Keown Manager of Jack Swagger
Inactive; unknown injury
Broadcast team
Ring name Real name Notes
Booker T[132] Booker Huffman, Jr. Color commentator for Raw
PPV Pre-show analyst
Hall of Famer
Byron Saxton[133] Bryan Kelly Color commentator for SmackDown and Superstars
PPV Pre-show analyst
Carlos Cabrera[134] Carlos Cabrera Spanish color commentator for pay-per-views
Co-host of WWE en Español
Corey Graves[135] Matthew Polinsky[136] Color commentator for NXT
Pre-show analyst for Raw and PPVs
David Otunga[137] David Otunga, Sr.[138] Pre-show analyst for Raw - FIRE
Eden[139] Brandi Runnels Ring announcer for SmackDown and Main Event
Backstage interviewer on Raw and pay-per-views
Jason Albert[140] Matthew Bloom Color commentator for NXT
Also NXT trainer
Jerry Lawler[141] Jerry Lawler[142] Color commentator for SmackDown and pay-per-views - FIRE
Hall of Famer
Jerry Soto[143] Jerry Soto Spanish color commentator for pay-per-views
Co-host of WWE en Español
John "Bradshaw" Layfield[144] John Layfield[145] Color commentator for Raw, Main Event, and pay-per-views - FIRE
Co-host of The JBL and Cole Show
JoJo[146] Joseann Offerman[104] Ring announcer for NXT
Kyle Edwards[147] Arda Ocal Co-host of Bottom Line and Experience
Lilian Garcia[148] Lilián Garcia Ring announcer for Raw, Superstars, and pay-per-views
Marcelo Rodriguez[149] Marcelo Laprea Spanish color commentator for pay-per-views
Co-host of WWE en Español
Michael Cole[150] Michael Coulthard[151] Lead commentator for Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-views
Co-host of The JBL and Cole Show
Renee Young[152] Renee Paquette Co-host of Bottom Line, Experience, Vintage and Free for All
Backstage interviewer on Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-views
Color commentator for NXT
Host of This Week in WWE
PPV Pre-show host
Rich Brennan[153] Rich Bocchini Color commentator for NXT
Lead commentator for Superstars
Scott Stanford[154] Scott Stanford[155] Co-host of Free for All - FIRE
Pre-show host for Raw
Tom Phillips[156] Thomas Hannifan Lead commentator for Main Event and NXT[157]
Backstage interviewer

Fuck it, just pay for Lesnar v. Bryan or Rollins or later Zayn, Neville or Kenta every week and fire everyone else.

Rey, as opposed to WCW Rey Jr., hits all the reasons why everyone hates Orton. Can't cut a promo & has annoying spots where wrestlers keep having to find themselves waiting to be 619-ed* eternally.

*an example for Orton is that inane DDT using the ropes.

+ A wrestler who relies solely on speed who has had many knee-ops and is as slow as big show.

Oh man, poor Ascension, not even the New Age Outlaws could get them over. I don't really like them, but what a sad debut.

Christian, if I remember correctly, has officially retired. It wasn't announced because it has been years since anyone has cared about Christian.

Lol perhaps I am missing some glaring sarcasm here, but I've read "not even the new age outlaws" in some other places too, so even if you were kidding i am gonna take this opportunity to vent a little.

I mean, how the fuck are the fuckin road dogg and assman billy gunn gonna get anyone over in 2015? They were never, they were fucking never remotely good at any stage, they just had a catchphrase that caught on. You might as well be surprised at someone not getting over on hacksaw jim duggan in 2015 (curse you meltzer for puttin that analogy on my head).

Perhaps the bullshittiest part of wwe's latter-day revision of its own history is the deification of these two hacks as the greyest tag team EVAR in an utterly transparent metaphorical rimjob to hhh and hbk meant to ensure that every aspect of attitude era dx is enshrined forever after as the pinnacle of what pro wrestling could and should be about.

Don't get me wrong, I have watched and enjoyed a number of jeff jarrett's mid 90s wwf matches, but even so. I don't wish him any ill feeling on a personal level, but fuck Brian James forever imo

619 spots or not, rey was one of the best workers in the world well into the late 2000s, even if he was mostly useless since then. he got a lot of smark hate but whatever

fwiw christian claims that he isn't retired but wwe says he is, so who knows

also i fuckin hate the outlaws more than any team maybe ever but they were undeniably over and are still pretty beloved by the general fan

well w/e, who gives shit about shouting along to a chant, that does NOT make you over. no one in 2015 is tuning in to watch the New Age Outlaws, no matter how much the ppl in the audience enjoy giving it some beans during their intro on PPV. The Ascension will never be nothing unless those two dudes change their gimmicks bcuz apparently it was more important for Rd Dogg to get his chant in on one of the big PPVs and fuck the biggest tag team to come through developmental in several years (once again, idgaf that the Ascension are a pair of goofs, FUCK BRIAN JAMES, FUCK BILLY GUNN AND FUCK DGX IN GENRAL IMO)

There was no problem with bringing back the Outlaws for nostalgia's sake. You bring them out for the opening match, they hit their catchphrases, there's plenty of room for that in wrestling. The problem was forcing people to take them seriously by making them the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS. The Outlaws got over by making of fun of old teams like the Road Warriors, who weren't as old in 1998 as the NAO were in 2015.

their 2014 title run was horrific. also pretty bad: the philly crowd at the rumble chanting "you still got it" at billy gunn

brandon stroud:

Best: Stephanie McMahon, Professional John Cena Wrangler

Sometimes the Bests and Worsts in these columns can be muddled and facetious, so I want to clarify that when I give Stephanie McMahon a Best for being a boss (and a baws) and shutting down John Cena’s fussy temper tantrum I am giving her the Best Possible Best.

Here’s the thing: John Cena is used to getting what he wants. He’s popular with children because he’s the Ultimate Child. Why do you think he’s always dressed like that? He’s the perfect adult version of an upset, raging toddler. He’s able to hold his breath longer and stomp his feet louder than any child could and get what he wants, every time. He can’t be punished. He can’t be grounded. He says I WANT THIS and if you tell him no, he calls you names and threatens you. You have to give in. He’ll “never give up” because he doesn’t (or can’t) have an adult’s perspective. He’s Veruca Salt in the body of a 37-year old body builder.

Think about his motivations. He says he wants something and his boss tells him no, so he calls her a bitch. She still tells him no, and he’s so mad that his rage bubbles over and he violently attacks the next person he sees. He’s mad because he’s not getting what he wants for the first time in 15 years. When people are calling him “old,” they don’t mean he’s an old man … they mean he’s getting older, which if you’ve ever watched an episode of ‘Rugrats’ is the worst thing that can happen to a little kid. You’re not daddy’s little princes any more. It’s time to learn how to make your bed and wipe your own ass.

Stephanie and Triple H aren’t bad guys because they’re evil bosses like Vince was, they’re PARENTS. Parents are the ultimate bad guys now. They make this decisions about what’s best for everyone that seem selfish and withholding. They seem mean, then say they aren’t. We’re seeing the story from the child’s perspective, with the Special Precious Baby (Cena) suddenly losing his parents’ attention because of new additions to the family. Why do you think Cena’s always ranting about how NXT guys aren’t gonna show up and take his spot? He’s worried that when the new baby comes, his parents won’t love him anymore.

Stephanie McMahon as the angry mom who loves her son but knows he’s being a little brat is the best. She’s keeping it together in front of all these people, but when they get home so help her God she’s going to light his ass up. And wait until his FATHER gets home.

The more I type it, the more it makes sense. Triple H used to be the John Cena character. He was raised as a pageant child, then rebelled when he met some cool friends. He raged against all the “grown up” characters on the show, pointed to his dick a bunch, spray painted stuff. Made jokes about how “cock” meant both chicken and penis. He then “grew up,” cut his hair and became the adult. Now he’s got these kids of his own and these rose-colored memories of how good he was when he was their age, and how everybody loved and praised him for being such a good boy.

Solomon Crowe has a shit stain on his butt. Also he's punk rock taz? another week and i still dgi.

I don't think I could care less about Solomon Crowe than I do. He doesn't draw any sort of interest or emotion from me. I was more interested in watching CJ Parker's temper tantrum and Jordan and Dillinger than anything he has done thus far.

at least they apparently replaced his dumb finisher with, uh, the stretch muffler

idgaf about crowe either but i feel like that's almost amplified by how awesome all of the other debuts have been on nxt over the past year or so... itami, balor, owens, etc. hopefully he'll kinda figure it out because it seems like nxt generally does a good job of curating its talent, but... yeah.

owens is already approaching top-tier of fave wrestlers ever with this insane bully schtick. i kinda wonder if this would translate to 30000 people audiences but goddamn i am loving the fact that he's just petty and mean to everyone because family.

i saw someone describe it as a walter white gimmick, which i think is perfect. like him and hunter had a discussion about how waiting too late and then getting the chance finally to gain the love and protection of your family can turn ww/ko into a psychopath.

and if true, thats amazing, cos if it was vince who'd watched breaking bad he'd had told him to put on the hazard suit and called him Gordon 'The Cook' Grey or something and he'd be a heel by hitting people with science.

so now breaking in the Rumorz mill: samoa joe and the briscoes heading to nxt. heard something about the latter a few weeks ago and it's blowing up today, and joe himself confirmed negotations with hhh recently.

is hhh the biggest money mark of all?

loooool the briscoes. really smart hiring racist homophobes that will give champion face promos about things like how interracial marriage is wrong.

funny you should mention that, since jay's twitter is what kept them from getting signed a few years ago: he deleted his twitter completely. they know where their bread is buttered this time.

Yeah one can only hope that they are the last of a dying breed in this regard. I mean this personal politics thing is maybe the single most recurring obstacle to my uninhibited enjoyment of pro wrestling in general, this constant reaffirmation on all sides of just incredibly backwards and occasionally borderline evil/despicable attitudes and prejudices.

Inevitable, perhaps, given the history and nature of the business, the way that these dudes live their whole lives in this insanely testosterone-driven and steroid-fuelled uber-macho alpha-male environment, but nevertheless it makes me sad that in 2015 it is still not the least bit surprising when even the guys who seem at times to be more like proper human beings come out with just the most awfully depressing shit (Jericho stepping up to defend this Bill DeMott skidmark on Twiitter was a recent example).

It's the start of a slippery slope, interrogating (or paying any attention whatsoever to) the personal politics of pro rasslers, bcuz I mean even now there are just SO fucking many of them with these shitty out-of-time views of the world. I generally try not to think about it because as i say, it can really kill my enjoyment of the whole thing if I dwell on it too much.

Disclaimer tho, I say all of this as a guy who can happily still watch and enjoy the in-ring output of a dude that murdered his own son with his patented and incredibly badass finishing submission hold, so maybe i am just a hollow shell of a person like those two boys in Oryx & Crake who spend their free time watching ppl get killed on the internet. Also Usos-Briscoes in a 10 minute spot-fest to open Summerslam this year would be totally fine and, like-as-not, actually a p. fucking enjoyable nothing-match

i am certainly no stan for the Attitude Era in general, but man oh man, amongst the many many things the WWE could do with right now it is more tag teams made up of brothers (preferably real but kayfabe would do)

wait that's wrong i typed it too fast, preferably kayfabe but real would do

first off: yeah, would really be into usos/briscoes

secondly yeah, i kinda think it's best not to dwell too hard on lots of these dudes' personal politics if you want to keep watching, because jesus christ it is a slippery slope. being aware of them is definitely good, because there are stand-up folks in the business for sure, but so many of them are just garbage and that's before you're getting into the ones who've killed human beings

re: jericho, he's really shown his colors as an asshole in the last few years, think his very public midlife crisis has exposed a lot of that

Speaking of rassle-dudes who've killed human beings, I was re-watching and thoroughly enjyoing this match earlier this evening - first watched in the immediate aftermath of Wrestle Kingdom 9, when it became clear to me, as it did to all other fake-fighting fans who were hitherto living in ignorance, that Shinsuke Nakamura truly was the Second Coming - and like, the finish is fucking incredible, that kick to the head is just the most ruthless thing ever and imo far more wrestling matches should finish in a comparable style (I mean how much more interesting would it make the WWE if every once in a while someone won a match with an out-of-nowhere move that looked totally devastating without necessarily needing to become a signature move deployed in every single fucking match) but man oh man and boy oh boy but does it ever change yr opinion on this kinda shit knowing that Katsuyori Shibata once hit an elbow-drop so hard that it straight up killed a man. Lol sorry that was all 1 sentence, my bad

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21ui6p_g1-climax-2014-block-a-match-katsuyori-shibata-vs-shinsuke-nakamura_sport

I have thought the same wrt The Great Khali in the past but how brave/stupid do you have to be to get into the ring with a dude knowing full well that once upon a time that dude legit killed a man in a pretend fight?!! I mean srsly, fuck that. At least Lesnar only broke Bob Holly's neck ffs.

I post this only bcuz I like this match and it has been on my mind and I think probably I am going to watch their IWGP Intercontinental Championship match from last Autumn (also available free of charge on Dailymotion) on my lunch break tomorrow and furthermore I hope that at some point in the not-too-distant future they get a good long slot on a major show to really try and knock it out of the park, because though this is thought is only recently and gradually and dawning on me I am pretty sure that this is my favourite kind of prowrestling right now and there ought to be more of this in the world, whatever it is

i have no way of being certain but i am pretty sure that Shinsuke Nakamura is not the kind of guy to proofread anything and since this year he is my unquestioned lord and master i am following his example as best i can, deal w. it

You could tell that Demott was a fucked up dude from his segments on Tough Enough all those years ago. I don't understand why the WWE kept him around for so long. Didn't Jim Cornette get fired for slapping a guy in the face in developmental? Demott has done far worse, no doubt.

Re: Nakamura, it took me a while to really "get" his character and in-ring style, but once it clicks for you, yeah he's just amazing. Whereas most main event level guys follow a set pattern both in North American and Japan (i.e. slow feeling out process to start, middle section with big bumps and highspots, trading finishers leading to the pin) his matches usually break with that formula completely. You do get that feeling that his matches can end at any time -- as if it was a real fight.

Character-wise, he's kind of like the Japanese Randy Orton. Youngest guys to ever win their company's respective championships, the can't miss blue chip prospects, etc. They both floundered for a while and took six or seven years to really nail their characters. But of course Nakamura is 100X better than Orton.

By that I mean they're similar in that they both failed in the "youngest ever champ!" role and took a long time to find themselves while their companies stuck with them. Their actual characters are nothing alike.

I mean how much more interesting would it make the WWE if every once in a while someone won a match with an out-of-nowhere move that looked totally devastating without necessarily needing to become a signature move deployed in every single fucking match

i suppose the brock shooting star press ruined this idea for wwe forever

In the WWE everyone has to get their stuff in before the finish, which helps to telegraph the end of the match because you know Cena isn't winning his match until he hits all his signature moves (usually in a set order). Nakamura can Boma Ye someone's head off at any time (with about five different variations of the move) and totally change the complexion of the match at any time. That kind of unpredictability is almost unheard of in the WWE.

doesn't rollins very sparingly use a crazy spinning top-rope move that isn't strictly his "finisher" that i can't remember the name of?

have we talked about how absurd solomon crowe's finish is?

LOVE Shinsuke Nakamura. His matches never fail to keep you hooked.

I think the general consensus was that Crowe was barely worth talking about in general. That being said, I agree.
A part of me wants to feel bad for him because they really missed the mark with his character. Does anyone really care about Solomon Crowe?

Also in NXT: Alex Riley wrestles again to feud with Kevin Owens. I'm looking forward to the destruction, honestly.

i think he should become some kind of posthuman cranial programmer that brainwashes wrestlers by hacking into their brains

i honestly feel like his character would work better with a "dumb GM" to play off of, but regal is absolutely not that guy. like if you had a dopey GM who meant to do certain things (rowan vs harper!!! again!!!) but then the graphic gets 'fucked up' and all of a sudden it's CROWE VS HARPER and he keeps injecting himself into other people's matches, it creates awesome feud opportunities, and even awesomer opportunities for him to heel out on his rivals (did you see that? that singles match just turned into a gauntlet, poor rowan).

but yeah. doesn't work with regal because he'd just be like "i wrote these down on paper, and you can't teachhack that."

wow, i think i just earned an IWC badge. first fantasy booking in my life!!! *confetti falls*

crowe has definitely been a huge bust so far, but i really liked him on the indies. had a couple killer matches with finlay in EVOLVE a couple years back.

been rewatching and enjoying the NXT specials the last few days, it really is just so, soooooooooo much better than the main shows and sometimes I forget this.
I just got to the Fatal 4 Way show and it has occurred to me during this hair vs hair deal between Enzo Amore and that other dude that no matter how distinctly average and immensely disappointing this whole Roman Reigns main-eventing Mania and gettin the rub from the besting of the Streak and all of that sorta stuff inevitably is, we should nevertheless all be grateful that it is no longer 1994, because in spite of the internet's best attempts to convince you that Roman Reigns is basically Kevin Nash reborn, these shows, when watched in tandem with a bit of mid-90s WWF, effectively demonstrate that this dude they call Big Cass is actually way, way, way more like Diesel than Roman Reigns will ever be, and although the main show may be a steaming pile of turd, on NXT at least the fact that the hulking sidekick of the douchey showoff heel has not been pushed as a big deal at the expense of Zayn, Owens, Balor, Itami and Neville is a good thing and a sign of progress having been made in the last 20 years imo.

I am making my peace with Roman Reigns as the next guy for WWE in so far as I have let my Network subscription expire and if my torrented copy of WMXXXI doesn't deliver the goods then I am gonna retreat into my archive of 90s AJPW and assorted WWC Puerto Rico matches (and maybe a bit of contemp NJPW) and just write of the majority of contemporary pro wrestling as a bad job

you say this two days after enzo and cass pull off a great match, first match i've seen of them where i've felt like enzo could actually end up being more than just a manager-who-can-take-a-bump. they suddenly figured out their in-ring dynamic and it was great, i'd be so happy if they were on the main roster right now.

b stroud got it down perfectly i think

I’ve written about it a bit before, but Cass and Enzo have the perfect tag team dynamic. You think it’s little guy/big guy, but it’s not about that. It’s a little guy who can’t wrestle but has endless confidence teaming with a giant guy who could beat anybody in the company if he had any confidence whatsoever. They’re two halves of a whole, and that’s what a great tag team should be. Also, they called the Lucha Dragons the GEICO Lizards and told them they should save them 15% or more on car insurance or get out of their way.

if you don't like their promos idk what to tell you

Oh man that was in no way intended to run down how enjoyable an act those two have got, I think they're both great fun and personally I hope they don't move up to the main roster for a while yet bcuz they'll only get split up and have an underwhelming match on a Ppv preshow.

It was just a thought that floated through my mildly intoxicated brain having recently watched some 1994 shows that they brought to mind a kind of modern day hbk/diesel vibe and I experienced a moment of satisfaction that the lumbering bodyguard figure no longer gets pushed to the top of the card as a matter of course. Then I thought about roman reigns again and got a bit sad. But I'd been out and was drunk so it is hardly surprising that I made not a whit of sense.

But yeah fear not, I DO enjoy enzo and cass for what they are. Will have to check out that match you mentioned

no way reigns beats lesnar at wrestlemania. i just can't see it.

also there's this rs interview w/ reigns:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/roman-reigns-wwes-heir-apparent-just-cant-win-20150317?page=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA

The latest rumours are that Lesnar is signing a new contract and will be keeping the belt. Maybe they're trying to add some intrigue to the match because Lesnar leaving and Reigns getting his big coronation has felt like a foregone conclusion for a while. I'm not sure what to believe right now.

Man if they don't put him over after all of this then he's gonna come out post-WM looking like THE biggest chump going. I mean it's theoretically possible that they could change their minds on him I suppose, in which case this whole thing will go down as a bigger fuck up then Lex Luger in the 90s, but if they really do want him to be the top guy at some point soon then jobbing him out on his supposedly breakout night is a terrible idea, it'll kill him.

Idk, I'm tired of the whole thing now really, part of me just thinks fuck it, get it over with and have Rollins cash in on him the next night on Raw, let Lesnar go back to UFC, the part timers go back to their retirements and then let's see where we are. Probably up shit creek without a paddle, but at least we might actually get to see some pushes for some of the useful midcarders (i.e. everyone in this fuckin IC title ladder match)

the rumors (brock keeps the belt, cena and bryan pick up the mid-title belts to legitimize them) sound like too-good-to-be-true fantasy booking. but that'd be great if it worked out. i'm suddenly rooting for cena?? i love lesnar turning the WHC belt god-tier and basically treating the mid-card belts like the pre-unification championship belts. maybe we'll get a brand split out of this!

tbh, have lesnar and reigns put on an actually-great match where reigns beats the shit out of lesnar, to the point where rollins feels confident enough to cash in -- i think that's enough to save reigns from complete burial -- and then have ambrose interrupt like he promised and restart their feud.

then have sting go over and magically take over smackdown and turn it into WCW Nitro and make himself Commissioner Surfer Sting and WWE is back in my good graces for the first time since i was 11

There shouldn't be any shame in losing to Lesnar. But I hope their master plan isn't to beat Reigns, have Rollins cash in, and have Reigns chase Rollins for the title.

That is, Lesnar beats Reigns, Rollins cashes in on a weak Lesnar to win the title, and Reigns gets his "big" win over Rollins at Summerslam. They're better off biting the bullet and having Reigns win, let him sink or swim, and if they need to get the belt off him, Rollins can cash in later.

rollins with the belt sounds a lot better than reigns with it, but i can't see that happening after this match has been so built up. either brock retains or reigns keeps it for a month or two.

There shouldn't be any shame in losing to Lesnar.

Yeah see it's fine saying that and in theory I agree but history suggests that you can't just pull out of a push like this at the last possible second on such a high profile show and not expect the loser's momentum to stall p. badly (what momentum tho I suppose). keeping the belt on Lesnar appeals to me as a fan because I love mid-00s Brock Lesnar and I think he is basically the king of pro wrestling, long live the king, but from a booking perspective I think it creates more problems then it solves. Who do you have go against him once he's beaten Reigns? Sting would work, I suppose? Bryan needs his title shot at some point. Rocky? Again? I just dunno how they're intending to make anyone look like they could credibly beat him now, and having him lose it on a Rollins MITB cash-in without eating a clean pin at some point would be pointless.

And yeah Seth Rollins is looking like a pretty decent get out of jail free card right now if Reigns does get the belt and doesn't take off like they hope. Ambrose involving himself in the situation would be all good stuff and tbh an ongoing three-way dance between the Shield guys for the title would be a totally acceptable use of a Roman Reigns title push to me at this point. Though that would still leave them with the problem of him being the least popular of the three.

lol not 00s Lesnar obviously, mid 10's (feels strange to me to type that, is that what people say? I'm not sure I've had cause to type or think about it before)

I enjoyed the Max Landis vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qws2ex--Tc

moment to reflect on how great this theme is and how much i want to hear it on every mixtape

just watched the Max Landis thing, very good fun, would watch more of a similar ilk

Perro Aguayo Jr dies after suffering an injury in a match with Rey Mysterio: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2404465-el-hijo-del-perro-aguayo-dies-from-injuries-suffered-vs-rey-mysterio?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

shit!

holy shit, rip

watched the video (highest recommendation not to do this btw - it's pretty disturbing)

it's your basic 619 setup spot, if you've ever seen a rey mysterio match you can picture it; rey has the presence of mind to swing over him on the 619 itself but then the match just goes on for a couple minutes as this dude is lying there dead

word is it was an accumulated injury thing a la misawa that led to this. seeing some of the wrestling newzsites blaming rey for it which seems pretty ill-advised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc0Mhe2iLoM

ugh, such a great natural shithead heel, can't recommend his mid-00's cmll perros del mal stuff enough

Lesnar re-signs, boy oh boy I hope they keep the belt on him forever, this has nothing to do with Roman Reigns and ones wishes the guy well but it has everything to do with Brock Lesnar and the fact that he is the best thing in modern American wrestling by a million zillion miles he is the king long may he reign o'er us

wowowowowo <3 lesner 4eva

how the fuck do they not try to keep that a secret? that should've been the #1 stipulation in the contract, "keep your mouth shut until WM is over"

idk, is Sportscentre a big thing in the US? I kinda got that vibe from the comments I saw but lol I am ignorant. Anyway if it is then I suppose that keeping it secret is the last thing they would want to do because this has been a truly shitty build for a Wrestlemania by pretty much any metric and I suspect that perhaps the ppl in charge are kind of aware of this bcuz no matter how far out of touch they drift they p. much ALWAYS have something up their sleeves for a WM and this year there has really been none of that except for Sting being here but even that has been totally meh thus far and what reason have we to suppose that his match with Triple H is gonna be any better than the build thus far?

SO bearing that in mind you might think that it makes perfect sense that they would be supremely grateful to get some momentum-generating and intrigue-building coverage out there on a genuinely commercial and mainstream platform a week before the big event, especially because the problem demographic, that they have never been able to please and that they obviously scorn and hate with a vehement passion and that may well have partially if not entirely ruined the biggest night of the year for the company by hijacking the show and just shitting on all comers is right now losing its collective hivemind with communal anticipation for this event rocketing from 20% to 120% all with one press conference.

Like, a swervey sort of ending with Lesnar retaining over Reigns and then a reveal at some later date that he was sticking around after all would've been a good ending to the show, but this way they get a big publicity boost running into the show, they maybe change the minds of some people who were thinking of ditching the Network very soon by convincing them that maybe things post-WM won't be a bleak wasteland bereft of cool main-events after all, and maybe they have defused a potential douchebag-crowd timebomb that could've derailed their annual supercard. So like I think this is all good really.

If it means Lesnar goes into the show as the biggest, bluest-eyed babyface to ever kiss a baby in the eyes of all those in attendance then what does it matter? People have been booing the so-called top face in WWE for years, it's part of the landscape now.

Anyway, i almost do not care if I am overthinking this bcuz the construction of fake narratives surrounding wrestling is one of the best things about the whole enterprise imo and I for one am happy to sit back and believe that everything building to this with all the shitstorm last month about Brock walking out on Raw to attend the UFC thing and the rumours of a stand-up row with Vince and all of that stuff was all just a gigantic work leading up to this point in order to generate some jeopardy heading in and say what you will of the wider state of things right now (I have and will continue to do so) but right now I want to watch this show and more specifically I want to watch this main-event and that is the mark of good wrestling promoting, right? lol Vince McMahon i can't even

sure, maybe it's better for WM's numbers. maybe. i just can't imagine it making a huge difference... WWE fans are going to watch WM no matter what, and Brock sticking around doesn't really immediately make it more of a draw for casual fans or w/e. either he draws in his last match or he draws with a new contract. i don't think that number's gonna change.

i'd think it'd be better for business in the long run if they just produced an excellent mania capped off with a genuine shocker. that might actually convince people to buy the network and not just stream PPVs illegally. but what do i know. watch reigns go over anyway lol

Brock sticking around means there's some intrigue to who will win the match at WM and less of a chance that the crowd shits all over it like they did at WM XX with Brock vs Goldberg.

If Brock's contract negotiations were a work then you'd think they'd do a better job of building the match, instead of keeping Reigns and Lesnar apart for almost all of the past two months.

i was gonna say, more than anything they can't have it be brock v goldberg and this stops that - even if reigns is booed like he's right to censor

was brock/goldberg booed from the start? i thought it started after it became clear they weren't trying

heyman has talked about brock leaving in his promos and it was great, i don't think it would've hurt to keep that speculation going through the match. everyone has assumed brock would be gone after his contract and he's still gotten cheered like a face through it all. i don't think this would be comparable, unless he clearly had no interest in having a decent match.

yeah you may be right about that, it would certainly take a peculiar kind of wrestling fan to boo Brock Lesnar on current form (aside from the younger kids of course) regardless of his career plans. but i do think that doing it this way has created some much needed buzz about the main-event. if they'd kept it a secret and then had him retain it would've drawn a great pop to close the show but I think the danger was as much that the crowd would just be a bit flat and disinterested throughout the main-event rather than actively booing the guys. hopefully this way the crowd will be pretty live for the match.

and i suppose this might always redeem the Roman Reigns push eventually. have Lesnar go over here by the skin of his teeth and then spend the next year building Reigns up for a rematch at WM 32 where he finally gets the belt? idk they'd have to be batshit crazy to have Reigns go over now but they'd have to make a good job of rebuilding him if they have him lose here

Did Brock get cheered before the Rumble match? He got cheered by that smarky crowd in Philly by default -- he was in the ring with Cena (no explanation needed) and Rollins who played his role as the weasel-y opportunist to a tee. Point being I don't see where crowds are supposedly dying to cheer for Lesnar. But now that he's re-signed, it looks like his babyface push is coming whether we want it or not.

He got cheered in both cena matches, but Cena was always the heel to adult male fans who also likely booed him v punk or bryan / watch ufc.

Reigns being michaels at wm11 looking to be good enough to have a wm12 moment seems like the best option tbh.

This news makes me more excited that we are likely to see Brock-Bryan, p much my biggest dream match, plus maybe Brock-Rollins/Ambrose and to dream about Cesaro or Rusev matches. Hell i'd give over like a 3 year network subscription to have Sami Zayn as 123 kid to Brock's Bret on Raw.

I dunno man, it's entirely possible that I am projecting and I need to rewatch some matches but it feels like the crowd has been popping massively for him straight up ruining other guys, whether that be Cena or Rollins or Punk or whoever, for some time. That impression might be based on the Cena matches though, and as you say everyone always loves booing him.

Possibilities for great and interesting matches involving Lesnar are pretty extensive if he's really done forever with MMA, but it'll be interesting to see how they use him. We've spoken before I think about his SS match with Punk, which for me is basically the pinnacle of modern WWE main-event style wrestling and the bar to which they should be aspiring, but I know that lots of people think that Lesnar gave Punk a bit too much for the match to feel believable. As awesome as he is right now, it'll be interesting to see how they maintain intrigue in his matches if he keeps kicking out of Attitude Adjustments at a 1 count.

feel like whatever else they do the start of the match should just be a 1999 callback where reigns rushes lesnar like a rabid dog before they can get started with ring intros in which reigns will probably be mercilessly booed

it's just totally implausible to me that reigns could beat lesnar, esp since cena has been unable to do so over and over

when i think about lesnar/bryan i keep thinking about that scene in the princess bride where wesley beats andre the giant by being quicker and ducking under his legs + shit

I want Rollins to interfere (without drawing a DQ) and help give Reigns the win and the title. Brock doesn't lose clean, Reigns would still need to prove himself despite having the belt, and sets up lots of story possibilities.

only possibility i would be ok w/ besides lesnar retaining is reigns weakening lesnar, losing, and then rollins cashing in

nonsense logic of it be damned, the only way i can see him taking down lesnar is if he reforms the shield

ok i could kind of see that bc i feel like they just did a similar story for the bella twins. they had a high profile breakup that helped nicki cozy up to the authority and win the woman's championship. the moment she wins, the sisters are all lovey-dovey again like nothing happened. obv what happened is that they conspired to feud so that nicki could get her shot (and there's a whole rant she gave early in the feud about how this is her moment and her turn to win the championship etc) and then once she got the belt they no longer had to keep up the facade. seth realized that as a group obv the shield wasn't going to be able to contend for the heavy weight belt so he orchestrates this entire breakup to center the three of them as close to the belt as possible. now that they're perfectly set up for it they can work together, take down lesnar, and celebrate << my fantasy booking

at this point would not be averse to the theory people had online about brock retaining/defending every couple months while bryan/cena held the ic/us titles and were the focal points

I'm also intrigued by the idea that the secondary belts could mean something again. But they couldn't even keep the two world championships strong for most of the years they were in existence, so I don't have much faith in them keeping track of three championships (even if one is held by a part timer).

The Shield reunion wouldn't make much sense, but most of their storylines don't make sense anyway. It might be the only thing that can salvage Reigns' main event career though.

Cena with the US title would be interesting but maybe kind of unnecessary? I just don't really see it restoring much prestige to the title, it'll be a prop and nothing more. Even if he goes out and defends it in the main-events, we'll still be talking about the Cena match, not the US title match. If this were to happen it'd no doubt slide right back down the card as soon as he loses it, so why bother?

Predictions for Mania?

Lesnar
Sting
Taker
Cena
Bryan
Bellas
Orton

Taker should be putting Wyatt over here but it's Taker so what are the chances really. Agree with your predictions mostly, though maybe Rollins gets a dodgy win against Orton? This one is a bit difficult, they could do without damaging the momentum of either guy but yeah I suppose Orton is coming in off the back of the turn so he probably goes over here.

I don't think you can have a basically straight babyface win down the whole card. I know Wrestlemania is where the babyfaces historically triumph, but not across the board.

Yeah, I can't see it happening either. Orton/Rollins is a toss up, but by WWE logic Rollins has the briefcase which means he can lose over and over again until he cashes in, and Orton is a Big Star so he should win. I can see Rusev winning too.

I think everyone will get cheered in the ladder match, but Bryan is super over on the west coast and the SF Giants used the YES chant all season long on their way to winning the World Series (baseball) this year, so if they don't put Bryan over they're morons but it turns out that they are morons so who knows what will happen.

I've got some time to kill so I may as well tldr. Also Balor v. Owens was dope and you should all go watch this weeks nxt.

Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (c) (with Natalya) vs. The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (with Xavier Woods) vs. Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito) vs. The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) (with Naomi) Fatal 4-Way tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[40]

What I think happens: If the injured Uso can go, they win and dance with Rikishi. Or maybe if he can't, Rikishi tags? I see it being a 'WM Moment' in a night where there is a need for love of Somoa.

What I want to happen: Cesaro does 100 swings of El Torito before the Usos win and dance with Rikishi.

André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal[Note 1] Battle royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy[41]

What I think happens: Mizdow wins and really ignites that feud and babyface return of Damien Sandow. Kofi does something impressive.

What I want to happen: Kofi has like 7 tricks in his arsenal and genuinely can't be thrown out, so he wins it. Or Hideo Itami does and gets put straight in a feud with the IC champ.

Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship[42]

What I think happens: Reigns wins, all Shield members, Heyman and the Authority and maybe the Rock make it a clusterfuck. Unsuccessful attempt at a cash in, so it can maybe done on Raw? Brock is still comes out the baddest motherfucker on the planet, but the clusterfuckery kinda negates the potential boos cos the crowd is just confused and a bit sleepy by the end of the night, while Reigns fans will still cheer.

What I want to happen: Brock win obv, but more importantly I want Reigns to go strongman like he did with Bryan and to have two hard hitting motherfuckers try and beat the fuck out of each other. I think in all the talk about Reigns, everyone's kinda forgot that when he plays tough guy, it can be really good viewing and why Vince saw what he saw.

Sting vs. Triple H Singles match[43]

What I think happens: Sting wins, maybe a UT WM32 tease.

What I want to happen: See above.

Bad News Barrett (c) vs. R-Truth vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Daniel Bryan Ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship[44]

What I think happens: Bryan as Smackdown champ, Dolph bumps like crazy.

What I want to happen: See above, or alternatively Ambrose as Smackdown champ so they can try and rebuild him as something credible, whereas Bryan is like Foley and can bounce back easily.

The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt Singles match[45]

What I think happens: UT wins, next night on Raw they try and set up UT-Sting at WM32, Bray tries to say he's learnt from the master to be even more of a boogeyman or something.

What I want to happen: Some clusterfuck where UT ends up giving his powers to Luke Harper to become the scary demon of the next 10 years.

AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki Bella) Tag team match[46]

What I think happens: idk, don't really know the storyline. I've heard the womens division is p much the best part of Raw these days so hopefully they do something interesting. Unfortunately the only Raw related thing I've watched in the past year is Heyman promos.

What I want to happen: Kharma comes back and lays them all to waste, idk.

Rusev (c) vs. John Cena Singles match for the WWE United States Championship[47]

What I think happens: Cena wins in a screwy finish (Lana distraction?) to keep Rusev strong and put the belt on Cena.

What I want to happen: Brock-Cena from NoC, but with Rusev instead. Cena doesn't need the belt or to beat Rusev's streak but they can have a strong hard match and have him admirably lose.

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins Singles match[48]

What I think happens: Orton wins, Rollins has bigger things on his mind and they need babyface pops. Also iirc every Orton WM match ends with him rko-ing someone doing something they never usually do from the top rope.

What I want to happen: Rollins to beat Orton, cos Orton sucks and Rollins is dope.

----------

Despite not watching Raw, agreeing with everyone about Reigns being too much of a rookie, not really caring or understanding the storylines - I've got excited over the past couple days and think it will be a really fun show. Any match featuring Brock could end up a classic, same with Cena, Rollins, Triple H, Taker, Bryan etc. And fuck it, for what seems like hundreds of years people have been calling for a new card - well this is the making of it - potentially Taker/Sting/Triple H's last WM, Cena has been out of the title match 2 years in a row, potentially 2 new stars have been crowned (DBry last year, Reigns this year) etc. or even 3 if Rollins cashes in. Every match bar HHH-Sting has a nXt alum in it too, and you can't really fault them for Sting's first WWE match. I think it's going to be an underrated show. I'm excited about the entrances and stuff too.

People who pretend to not care about Mania are basically liars.

Yeah man the pageantry is probably the bit I'm most looking forward to this year. Triple H has got some work on to best his entrance from last year though. I've let my Network subscription expire so I think I'm probably gonna give it a miss tomorrow night and download it on Monday instead.

Taker should be putting Wyatt over here but it's Taker so what are the chances really.

Wyatt kinda yawnful right now so why even bother putting him over? Why not instead have taker go 22-1 and have paul heyman yell about how brock lesnar is going to be the 2 in 22-2 for 4 months leading up to wm32? ok maybe not. actually i hope not. i like a hoy hoy's wm32 booknig better anyway.

I'm yet to really love Wyatt in anything outside of his matches with Bryan / the six-man tags with the Shield, but I don't see what putting The Undertaker over here is going to achieve. Dude doesn't need the win at all, but for Wyatt this could be a pretty big deal. One guy is basically finished, the other might turn out to be a big thing for the company for years to come. And after so many years of his bullshit it's about time Taker started putting over a guy or two if they are gonna keep dragging him back. Kozlov doesn't count.

I hope this is the last hurrah tbh, they've been teasing it for years what with all the "End of an Era" stuff (lo and behold 2 years later HHH and Taker are still occupying two of the three top spots on the card). Enough already. The idea of Taker main-eventing next years' WM is just ghastly to contemplate, so it's a good job that it won't happen in a million years

I expect Taker will retire next year in Texas unless he literally can't go.

yeah was just reading that apparently the venue for next year's WM is this uber-super-gigantic capaity stadium in Texas, Taker's retirement match would be a big drawing point if they're intending to put together a really loaded card to try and get a big gate

Yeah. I kind of want to go to the fan access stuff next year but I'd have to be paid to go to Wrestlemania itself.

so i just listened to this fantastic new aerosmith album about wrestling. really enjoyed it.

goldust in the battle royal is the most depressing thing ever

can't find a decent stream and honestly considering signing up for the network :/

If bray is fucked this could be lolz but also we can get closer to my hope of luke harper new zombie spirit god genie

Unless they have to amputate I assume Bray is going to be out there.

god Rusev is just the fuckin best

surely the Rusev-Lana act must be getting monster babyface reactions in every non-Poland-or-Ukraine country they go to

Lots of good storytelling so far. Give me good ring psychology over high spots every day.

surely the Rusev-Lana act must be getting monster babyface reactions in every non-Poland-or-Ukraine country they go to

:(

sounded like big reigns boos to me

omg

that was perfectly done imo

^^ so great

holy shit

And so ends the Roman Reigns experiment.

when brock was dazed and bleeding i was into the idea of reigns winning, obviously i am a much bigger mark than the 77k in the stadium

Well that main event was fucking dope.

Overall that was a really entertaining show. Nothing was bad, and nobody got stiffed for time unlike pretty much every other WM. The pacing was a bit off, the crowd seemed to peak for the Sting-HHH match but they followed it up with an hour worth of commercials/HOF stuff/divas match and lulled people to sleep somewhat. It must have been tough to be out there in the sun for five hours too.

The ladder match was kind of paint by numbers, but the right guy won and the backstage segment to put over Bryan and the title was great.

The finish to Orton-Rollins was insane.

The ending to HHH-Sting was telegraphed once it turned into WWE vs WCW. I still don't get the build up for this feud, first it was vigilante Sting vs the Authority, then it was WWE vs WCW with exactly opposite heel/face roles, why couldn't they just make up their damn minds about what they were fighting for. For me it hurt the match a lot and I didn't like this as much as most people seem to, but the spectacle was definitely something you'd only expect to see at Mania, and that justifies the match by itself. The post-match handshake was BS by any measure though. Sting's entrance was great.

The divas match was good time filler, but nothing was on the line and I still can't figure out who is supposed to hate who in this feud.

Rusev rode out in a Russian tank to the Russian national anthem waving the Russian flag and they STILL BOOED CENA!$@! I had no problem with Cena winning, but the finish didn't do anything for Rusev. The guy goes undefeated for a year and crushes everyone he gets in the ring with, and in the end he eats one AA and gets pinned just like any other jabroni.

I loved the Attitude era HHH-Rock feud, but they were staring each other down in the ring and I realized I didn't really care if I ever saw this match again, even though it would probably be really good. Then it turned into Rock and Rousey vs HHH and Steph and suddenly I was all like HELL YES GIVE ME THIS MATCH.

Taker vs Wyatt was about what I expected. Taker was jacked. I guess they'll do Taker vs Sting next year but Sting got buried against HHH and they definitively established that WCW has no chance against the WWE, so does anyone think Sting has a snowball's chance in hell against Taker in Texas?

Lesnar's performance in the main event might have been the best of his WWE career, he single handedly made it into a semi-legendary match. I think WWE thought that Reigns would get sympathy cheers, but that plan backfired because Brock throwing him around like he weighs 150 pounds was beyond awesome. I even bought into Reigns' comeback once Brock started bleeding and was sure he was going to win.

i did love that john cena was here representing and defending everything that is great about america, but eh fuck it, BOOOOOOOOOO.

it would be great if lesnar has more dates on his new contract and we get to see him spend a few months trying to catch rollins so he can murder him while cowardly slimebag rollins evades him

Only Sting could give a handshake to the guy who just hit him with a sledgehammer. It would have only been a better Sting performance if Flair came out to turn on him. And Luger too. And the nwo again.

Im over multi man ladder matches with no story but i love the bullhammer party and them taking ambrose out so he couldnt stop rollins for once.

Orton is so dull.

Cena Rusev was dope. Boo the guy with reagan and bush in his video! Cheer the guy in the tank with the hot chick! That stunner was fun too, i love cena. I love rusev.

Flair chopped Steamboat!

Rousey held Steph arm in arm so they could skip around together? Steph has been in matches before, was she really scared of 1 worked punch in the face?

Taker is so old and i kinda fell asleep during it.

Brock Lesnar is tge greatest professional wrestler of all time. Rollins and Reigns are both acceptable and enjoyable parts of the main event now but... fuck Brock is the greatest ever. Better than flair, savage, austin, funk, whoever. Still wish i had a time machine and could get him vs big poppa pump in his prime though.

I'm interested in who Cena feuds with and who he puts over at Like SummerSlam. Bryan as Smackdown champ could actually make me watch SD again. Lesnar has a new fucking deal and will be chasing motherfuckers down. WM did the best thing ever, which is make me care again about what happens.

rousey murders people with armbars so a tiny little armbar-ish type thing should be expected

Yeah but that wasnt what took out cat zingano, that was best friends foreverz

Just finished watching this, bit too drained for coherent impressions right now, but that main event was basically as good as it could possibly have been

what are some sites with good thoughtful writing on wrestling? whenever i want to catch up on stuff i check 411mania (only coz it was the only one i remembered from years back), but their level of critical insight is sub-sub-av club

http://uproxx.com/author/brandon-stroud/
http://grantland.com/contributors/the-masked-man/
http://aubreysitterson.com

i stopped watching raw and started reading stroud's recaps instead because A) life's too short for 3h of raw per week and B) they are entertaining as hell

i knew brandon back when he was just B, i randomly decided to click on his fbook link to his survivor series recap which is 90% of the reason i got back into wrestling

we mostly argued

in case anyone is missing raw right now, brock lesnar just burst out laughing at the crowd's SUPLEX CITY chant, confirming he had no idea the mics even picked it up last night

kalisto just destroyed in front of a smarky af crowd

if yesterday hadn't happened in a huge outdoor park it would've been the best mania ever

ADRIAN NEVILLE PROMO

lol at JBL and Booker being completely taken out by the announce table being pushed on them but it taking another F5 to put Cole away

those things are really getting devalued

it really made the announce tables look weak

was hoping the rest of raw would be arty and completely announcer-less

NEVILLE IS BILLED AS NEVILLE AND HAS A CAPE

FUCK

still using his shit theme

that is...the stupidest arbitrary forename cull yet

IF ONLY AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED HE'D IN FACT BEEN CALLED RIPLEY BISHOP ALL ALONG, HE WOULD'VE SOUNDED KIND OF BADASS WHEN HE DEBUTED ON THE MAIN ROSTER, BEING GUARANTEED TO HAVE THE NAME OF A CHARACTER FROM ALIEN WHICHEVER WAY VINCE'S WHIM WENT

The Neville Brother

he could steal the hulkamania theme from axel

ahaha mick foley just tweeted aaron neville by accident

Hehe

Cena making Ambrose look like $0.9 million in a cold title match

*kevin owens chant*

lawler: listen to the wwe universe, chanting "randy orton"

besides that main event and the usual wreddit mutant crowd tryna get themselves over, real good raw. most of the work was good, debuts that are def long overdue, sheamus turn that was WAY long overdue

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/31/cardboard-children-luchador-mexican-wrestling-dice/

3 hours is way too long. i started watching last night (without commercials even) and i still had to stop after the 6-woman tag and save the rest for later, TOO MUCH STUFF.

Oh yeah I'm fascinated that many still do it regularly. Or that so many used to for Nitro to see like Hugh Morris v. Alex Wright or whatever. And I fucking love wrestling.

3 hours is way too long. i started watching last night (without commercials even) and i still had to stop after the 6-woman tag and save the rest for later, TOO MUCH STUFF.

if you haven't already there is no need at all to watch past this point

I watch the 90 minute version on Hulu if I watch at all. 3 hours can fuck right off.

apparently the 90 min hulu cut off the debuts of kalisto and ~!NEVILLE!~ so they can fuck off, just use watchwrestling.ch and skip the obviously horrible shit

such great debuts. am i naive to hope they'll have good careers on the main roster? i know the last few call-ups haven't been spectacular but Rusev! Rollins! Reigns!

i worry about kalisto being tethered to sin cara, he could very easily be the ~next rey~ vince wants so bad, not gonna happen with anytime soon w/mr relative snoozefest

AJ Lee is retiring. Guess she came back for the Wrestlemania paycheck and nothing else. At least that's what her completely uninterested wrestling showed since her return.

yeah respect but she's been half assing it for quite some time--that AJ/Paige series of PPV matches from last year was outright bad tbh

neville vs rollins

not exactly cena/angle

Haven't caught much of Lucha underground since it started but I just finished watching the Grave Consequences casket match from the other week and it was totally really good as casket matches go, probably primarily because the casket actually had very little to do with anything except for the finish and a couple of big spots. Mainly it was just a damn fine brawl, another solid big monster / little underdog fight of a similar vibe to zayn / Owens (though Fenix got in a good amount of offence here).

Thought that fenix was good as the sympathetic though kinda non-descript tecnico getting his ass kicked all over town, but more so I really enjoyed Mil Muertes, who actually didn't seem very Lucha-y in terms of his style, aside from the odd tope or two which seemed kinda obligatory just to prove that he could do it. He worked well as this big bruising asshole, his look and demeanour reminded me of The Spoiler or someone, one of those big and surprisingly athletic masked heels you might sometimes see watching old southern territories stuff. But old-school look or not, he worked a great pace here. I am also a fan of mask-ripping and bloody-forehead-biting as heat-seeking offence in these kind of matches. I'd certainly have been booing the dude if I'd been there, anyway.

Basically it is only a short match really and the pace is wicked fast from the outset so if you have a spare 15 mins at some point then I would definitely recommend this as a good watch.

On the down side, everyone there was chanting "holy shit" every time either dude in the ring moved a muscle while matt striker was sitting there going "lol right on guys" while also, and perhaps even more annoyingly, providing the most infuriatingly smug and self-satisfied meta commentary one can readily imagine I.e. At the climatic moment when the apparently conflicted valet is holding the casket open as the two dudes struggle on the apron and vampiro is doing an ok job of selling the "but which dude is she helping?!" tension, matt striker is literally sitting there saying "this is building tension" yes thank you you fucking goon we have read books and seen films before, we do not need you to signpost the fucking plot points for us, I mean one of these guys is carrying a magic stone from which he draws mystical occult powers, whyyyy would you want to draw attention to the artifice of this whole thing??? He wasn't totally terrible for WK9 imo and I do like that he calls the moves, but my god, trying to get over with the "internet crowd" by saying shit like "I'm markin out bro!!!!!" On a fuckin royal rumble ppv of all places or nodding along sagely for every superfluous overkill This is Awesome chant or w/e srsly fuck matt striker for always

But yeah matt striker and wrestling fans in general are the worst, check out that match

matt striker is only saved from being the worst commentator in history because mark madden exists

that Grave Consequences match is absolutely fantastic though, good shout, I've been hearing people recommend it but this is what finally got me to watch it

still have a nagging doubt this Ricochet-Nakamura match in London is gonna turn out to be a hoax

lol please come to watch Leo Messi and Harry Kane at this testimonial match my god but how i love wrestling. wish i was in the UK this summer

but my god, trying to get over with the "internet crowd" by saying shit like "I'm markin out bro!!!!!"

And that's not even his most annoying habit, which would be yelling "OOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!" after literally every high spot or finishing move.

I might be passing through Toronto in May, I'm seriously thinking of tweaking my travel dates to be there for the ROH/NJPW show.

still not as bad as cole inserting one or two OH!!!s in the middle of a 15 minute conversation about hobbits

i've been without internet for the last few days so for the want of anything better i've been going back over a few things i had saved on my harddrive and it really is p. heartbreaking to watch how completely earth-shatteringly awesome Stone Cold Steve Austin was in 96-97; I mean when he comes down the ramp for his match with Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1996 he shoots the camera this look that communicates more than a million amazing promos ever could and you just believe (sorry Roman Reigns) in this guy and man as a guy who first tuned in to pro wrestling in late 2000 / early 2001, when Austin's time was most definitely past (aside from that one awesome 2/3 falls match he had with HHH), it is still completely fucking tragic to see how he went from this incredible harbinger of the new era of professional wrestling to this fucking goof in camo shorts driving SUVs or quad bikes or whatever down to the ring to do the same old beers'n'stunners routine.

Also it occured to me while watching some Attitude Era stuff that in addition to being pretty much the best pro wrestler that has ever existed c. 2000-2002, The Rock's legacy in this business is a despicable one bcuz due to his overwhelming awesomeness he clearly replaced Hulk Hogan as Vince McMahon's platonic ideal of what a wrestling champ should be at some point in the early 00s and therefore we have only him to blame for a great many things, potentially even Cena himself tho in particular one might pick out Miz's 2010-11 title run and that godwaful WM main event

Austin's comeback in 2000-2002 was incredible, with HHH injured and the Rock AWOL much of the time he carried nearly every big main event for the promotion for a year and a half. Nobody wanted to see him as a heel, which was of course a monumentally dumb decision that everyone involved has gone on record as saying they regret, but in the ring he was as good as he ever was.

You can't really hate on peak Attitude Era Austin's in-ring style without hating on the Attitude Era itself. If technical wrestling was the key to the wrestling boom then Bret Hart would have set the world on fire. Austin as a brawler was the final break from the dominant styles of the 80's and early 90's, that style (which at the time was completely fresh in WWE main events) was what made the difference between two million and seven million people watching RAW every week. It fit his character and the car-crash era of TV perfectly because you could advance the storylines by hitting guys with chairs week after week and just creating complete chaos just as easily as you once could by exchanging holds in the ring.

lol i ought to include some kind of disclaimer on any posts i make here on Thursday nights to the effect that the following is likely to be a poorly punctuated mess of unsubstantiated drivel and should probably be ignored by the public at large (I have Thursday evenings / Friday mornings off work).

but yeah i was being silly and hyperbolic and I went totally overboard with the criticism the other night, but even so, agree to disagree on this issue i think. though it is very likely that my opinions on this matter are shaped by a childhood in which I was a total mark for The Rock, to such an extent that I really wasn't into Stone Cold at all, I just take very little joy in Austin's character and performances back then relative to his work from 96-98. And it isn't just a ring-work thing either. I love his 2001 stuff with Angle, Benoit, Jericho and the aforementioned HHH match. That stuff was all great. And I'm absolutely not trying to deny what he achieved in terms of revolutionizing the prevalent style of the day and what he did for the business. I'm just saying I can't take very much pleasure in a lot of it now for whatever reason.

I can rewatch his rise from 96-98 and be utterly thrilled decades after the fact with how intense and how obviously superior this guy was to everything that was happening around him (and I would probably include Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in that) and it's like when you watch that stuff any element of mystery as to how this guy carried the company and the industry as a whole into such a hot period just kinda vanishes because it is immediately obvious when you watch him how completely sand occasionally transcendentally awesome he was at the whole shebang. But his stuff post-98 tends leaves me cold and idk i can only apologise but i do disagree and there are a ton of guys from that period who i would rather watch now

2001 is a sneaky contender for his best in-ring year tbh. it's not fashionable to say so because nobody liked the heel run/the invasion but he was clearly hungry after missing most of 2000, the angle/benoit/jericho/hhh stuff is absolutely great (and even with that heel turn, rock/austin at mania 17 is a strong contender for the best mania main event.)

austin in 99-ish is important obv but a little too pander-y, his best year as a babyface character is definitely 97 imo

2001 was easily his best in-ring year IMO. He was tearing it up on PPV and free TV all year.

v sick of getting LU championships spoiled via wiki, and nerds who act like the dates they were filmed are "canon"

generally don't look up any wrestler who has ever appeared on the show it'll be like "super fly is a wrestler who has appeared on lucha underground. he is not lucha underground champion; prince puma, instead won the championship in october 2014 in an episode that aired in 2015. super fly had nothing to do with that."

not lying, i literally found out prince puma was LU champion in 2011

it really made the announce tables look weak

― qualx, Monday, March 30, 2015 9:34 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, my literal response to that reigns/show spot was "so fucking what" so gj wwe booking

everyone is stupid:

1. what is the point of a cage match if the authority is in charge and can do something like stick kane in as "the gatekeeper"? how did orton not think of this?
2. aren't cage matches no dq? what was stopping orton from using it?
3. why are the announcers making a big deal out of rollins using it? no dq! and if it were dq he'd retain anyway so who cares?
4. if rollins does it doesn't that automatically make it not an RKO? why can't it just be a diamond cutter?
5. was orton dq'd when he RKO'd kane? none of this is clear!
6. the entire point of this match was to put over the importance of being clear and thorough when declaring rules

intro to raw tmo should just be steph admonishing the two of them for their decisions

I haven't even watching Extreme Rules yet because I felt like it was going to be garbage and I chose sleep instead. I do like Rollins using the RKO since they banned his curb stomp.

The return of heel Bo Dallas is something I really appreciate and so is Sandow. I'm glad we're getting to see more of him.

Also: the return of King of the Ring. How much did people care?

extreme rules was solid enough for what it was. tag match and pre-show match both great, and reigns has figured out how to be a good big match worker. kind of terrible main event

re: king of the ring, they basically just kinda threw it out there and it was done by tuesday, so probably not much beyond the initial nostalgia pop. we got a real good neville/harper tv match out of it though

https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/595019376513949696

Worth checking out Sami Zayn's Raw debut against Cena last night. They let him kick out of the AA, promising start

It was about as perfect a debut he could have. He was allowed to stay in the ring as JOHN CENA backed away clapping and saying "tough kid" to the camera. He kicked out the AA and got out the STFU. He hit that diving through the ropes DDT, a blue thunder bomb and got Cena in the koji clutch. And Bret fucking Hart, in Montreal, introduced him in his home town, by hitting jobber Heath Sleater with the mic.

Raw in general was great. I've not seen much Raw recently, even clips of much. I guess I love the New Day and the Kidd/Cesaro team.

i really want to believe it's all a work but http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/0505/593997/sami-zayn-injured-on-last-night-wwe-raw/

i'd be more doubtful if the aggravation didn't visibly happen during his entrance, or maybe it's just a well-planned work

At Verne Gagne's funeral, Bob Backlund "started yelling out out what was described as a heel promo at Greg Gagne while Greg was delivering the eulogy

itami's hurt too after they were kinda building to him being the new #1 contender. nxt might have to undergo some panic booking soon

such a bummer. i have tickets for nxt philly next week and i was looking forward to seeing zayn + itami :(

yeah man, i'm going to the friday philly show and i'm really bummed about it

kevin owens tho!

wooo! live nxt tnite!

good news fad- they announced a championship match for tmmrw finn-Owens and Finn says he's bringing the demon

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt/nxt-takeover-unstoppable-2015-05-20/tyler-breeze-declaration-of-intent-27390265

how was nxt?

loved it. the crowd was great. mick foley came out to say hello, hhh came out to introduce the main event which was a sasha/charlotte title match, he got lots of "thank you, hunter" chants from the crowd. the crowd also gave tons of "E-C-W" chants, esp when rhino faced corbin. corbin won and then teased the crowd afterward about how he'd beat any ECW legends, and then rhino gored him. owens-breeze-balor triple threat for the title... whole thing was a blast.

Sounds like the best show. How was Owens? Does he show signs of his injury?

Sasha Banks is like my favourite current wrestler. Hope people appreciated her in the main event.

I was annoyed Corbin was getting boring chants after like 10 seconds On tv the other night. Was that match good? I presume it was a warm up for the rookie before takeover?

Owens looked great. For the first 1/3rd of the match he sat down outside the ring and watched and the crowd chanted: "Rest, Owens, rest!"

Corbin got boring chants too - hard for me to tell tho whether it was bc he was facing Rhino or bc people are generally cool to him. He was definitely in heel mode on the mic after the match. The Dempsy-Jason Jordan match was so bad, the crowd cleared out to hit the bar and bathrooms. People in both lines were joking that in NXT the Divas aren't the bathroom match, Bull Dempsy is.

the crowd at the last nxt episode was awful 100%

feel like sasha/charlotte are one of those pairings who are just going to be totally electric together for years ("wrestling soul mates" as ambrose has said)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHsuWP7q-mQ

I'm sad they've decided to go back to making Sandow a joke. Ascension is such a waste. Has anyone watched the whole PPV?

yeah. best things: tag match was terrific, bray/ryback overdelivered, main event was a lot of fun albeit predictable finish

worst things: cena/rusev. i like both guys and think the us open challenge has been one of the best parts of raw, but christ this was unwatchable

i thought cena/rusev was fine apart from the obviously terrible ending, though maybe 80% of the credit goes to rusev's facial expressions.

i liked that rollins got a clean win (errrr or as clean as you can get having three guys interfere on your behalf, i guess) and the shield reunion bit was great. would be good if rollins spent another few months trying to settle on a new finisher.

yeah, tbf i think the ending really colored it for me. and i've probably just seen too many of these things, reusing spots from cena's older matches with umaga and orton stuck out. rusev worked hard as always, really hope this breakup doesn't leave him dead in the water.

man i love the shield

can't wait for MITB!

also uhhh elimination chamber

Uhhhhlimination Chamber

I am kind of fine with the idea of these short-notice mini-Ppv special provided they use them as an opportunity to let some of the mid card guys to go out there and tear it up in the ring without the pressure of a buyrate or whatever. The tag match elim chamber might be a total clusterfuck but it's certainly better than having a 4 minute thing on the preshow

i am really really deeply excited to watch kevin owens do anything. so i guess i will watch uhhlimination chamber

kevin owens is in uhhlimination chamber??? sold!

KO vs JC for USA strap!

so kinda like the zayn/cena match?

hope KO powerbombs JC into the ring apron multiple times

did anyone watch raw? i only watched that bit bc my friend was like "WATCH THAT PART ASAP"

owens goes out when the open challenge starts, he and cena shit talk each other, he says he doesn't even want to fight for the strap, then he kicks cena and pop up power bombs him and u cant see me's him in the face. then steps on the us belt and holds up the nxt belt. guys it was the best moment.

i love kevin owens so much

since the montreal one, the last couple raws have been shockingly solid tbh

Shit so wrestling is really pretty good right now, huh? Just finished watching Takeover - Unstoppable, lordy lordy lordy but I never thought we'd see this

yeah, that said, i have to commit to not watching smackdown now, and maybe raw, even though it's showing signs of life. it's taking up all my free time now and i'm close to burning out.

tbh i find myself increasingly taken aback at the very idea of actually watching an episode of Raw in this day and age, and Smackdown you gotta be fucking kidding me. i'm sure i'm not the only one feeling like this (honestly not trying to be a snarky little bitch about this but my god, who the fuck would watch 5 hours of contemporary WWE a week?!) surely the only sensible way to interact with this stuff in this day and age is to read the after-action reports while trying to remain as spoiler-free as possible and then checking out the potentially interesting stuff after the fact. sure you lose the element of surprise but on the other hand you avoid literally hours a week of total bullshit. i honestly can't imagine committing to watching a WWE TV show all the way through anymore, i can only just manage it with the PPVs, and this is during a period when the product and match quality is in a relatively good shape.

btw if anyone hasn't already seen it everyone should watch the Sasha Banks / Becky Lynch match from the other night, it was fucking next level good and more proof (as if any were necessary) that women's wrestling could totally be a major and important part of the show if anyone in a position of power were inclined to make that happen.

i can't think of a better match in 2015, period

you watch raw cause occasionally it's great. i'm glad i watched it a few weeks ago for the awesome sami (among other things) episode. it's been better lately, and there are inklings that NXT talent is on the rise. if enzo and cass are on the main roster how am i not supposed to watch come on. ideally, WWE goes back to giving the slightest shit about serialized storytelling and makes it actually feel like a tv show rather than a neverending buildup to PPVs. also back to 2 hours. i'll probably still watch :(

ONE thing that annoyed me about the sasha/becky match bc i guess i wanted it to go 100% perfect: there was a botch, apparently, where sasha took a suicide dive and becky was supposed to catch her, but becky got knocked over and quickly did a sort of awkward pickup to get in place. it wouldn't have been too bad if the announcer, whoever it was (brennan?) didn't call it like "uh... er... SHE CAUGHT HER!" and it just highlighted the botch instead like come on it's your job to not do that.

I was wondering about that. Still though, those sequences were so good and made sense and HOLY FUCK their arms bend far

yeah that bit where Sasha wrenched Becky's arm back and stepped on it looked unfathomably painful. in fact the match as a whole had some of the most interesting and visceral limb-based story-telling I can remember seeing in, erm..... god I can't even remember.

I really need to see unstoppable. People are lauding it as the best ever american womens match of all time.

keeping up with wrestling seems impossiblE. Ive heard lucha underground has had some excellent stuff recently (best casket match in forever? 7 man ladder match?) but jeez ive got no time. Wrestling needs to stop being so damn good everywhere atm.

i still like charlotte/sasha better, but it was a great match and it had the feeling of being a main event even if it technically wasn't.

i've probably said it here already but LU is my favorite show on TV right now and should be the #1 wrestling priority for everyone.

that's kind of my deal wrt to watching Raw I suppose. I can only justify spending a certain amount of time spent watching wrestling per week (let's say in two longish sessions a week, on average, max) and in general I find i'd rather just check out the highlights of the WWE shows in that time.

This enables me to watch other cool and interesting new things from NJPW (still going back over the 2013/2014 G1 Climax tournaments too) or Lucha Underground or Evolve or whatever that I find recommended on the internet. I also like watching old shit that I enjoy but haven't watched in a while or have never seen before (e.g. watched the Chris Benoit / Kevin Sullivan Falls Count Anywhere match for the first time the other day, man how influential did that end up being, weird), or sometimes just odd cool stuff that pops up on the internet - the other day there was a Shinsuke Nakamura / Zack Sabre Jr. match from a UK independent show that popped up on youtube, for example.

That was really my point upthread, I suppose. There's so much great wrestling happening around the world right now, and such ease of access to awesome old wrestling from the past, that I just don't get why people would tune in to watch Roman Reigns fighting Kane to a no-contest for the 12th time this year or whatever. The pleasurable surprise of seeing something like e.g. the Sami Zayn / Kevin Owens debuts in real time just don't justify it to me.

you watch raw cause occasionally it's great.

i basically used this comparison when trying to get a wrestling fan to understand why i haven't missed an episode of SNL in like 10 years

Going back to Unstoppable: as much as I've never really cared about Becky Lynch, I thought that her match with Sasha (who I love) really showcased her skill. I know Charlotte has often been billed as the powerhouse of the women's division in NXT, but Becky Lynch really proved herself. She earned those chants at the end.

she's been doing this long enough to have been legit retired at one point. her experience as an indie wrestler gets downplayed compared to everyone else it seems

it seems kinda perfect that they downplayed it though, only to have it become part of the kayfabe around the time they finally built to this match -- if they had built to it while everyone else was in the spotlight she might have seemed like she was "stalling out" during the charlotte/sasha feud or like she sucked in the fatal 4-way. really impressed that they a) kept it on the DL for a while and b) put it out there EXACTLY when they should have.

stream all chikara matches for free this week:
http://chikarapro.com/chikaratopia-subscriptions

STONE COLD v BROCK LESNAR IN TEXAS DEATH MATCH AT WM32

a boy can dream.

also asking paul heyman 'whats up with jewish conspiracys to own the media' out of nowhere on live tv may be the first time ive ever seen paul heyman speechless.

RIP Dusty Rhodes

wow rip

:( best voice in wrestling

he will be dropping bionic elbows in heaven

still have a nagging doubt this Ricochet-Nakamura match in London is gonna turn out to be a hoax
― Dadjokke (Sgt. Biscuits), Saturday, 11 April 2015 15:26 (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YEP

Roderick Strong was a passable substitute tomato can to be kneed to pieces though

There is something intrinsically hilarious about rpw having now booked gedo/okada vs tanahashi/Liger in Bethnal Green for October

Been watching back some of the Shield stuff in the last day or two and I've just hit their match with the Wyatts at Elimination Chamber 2014 (man oh man but wasn't that just a great fuckin' match?! in retrospect it was a p. much perfect payoff to almost 18 months of superb booking), and now there is a little distance I kinda feel like, at that point, who the hell could blame them for putting their eggs in Roman Reigns' basket? I'm watching this match knowing full-well what comes next and I stillp feel like he is just the BEST and I could cheer this guy forever. God I wish they'd reform The Shield. I feel like so many sins could be undone just by sticking those 3 guys in 6 man tag matches against the entire roster week-in, week-out.

the bit early on where Rollins bails and Reigns steps in to take on Bray TOTALLY has the feel of two future mega-stars colliding for the first time

also triple-team moves are the best

the best of new japan go to bethnal green? interesting! i knew there was something around there as colt cabana used to pimp it on his podcast but to see actual stars 5 minutes away from work, im excited! anyone else go to these shows?

also poor colt cabana for the unintentional zing.

i'd like to go to the october rpw thing but it's a bit too close to deadlines, definitely hope to check it out at some point though.

i re-watched that shield - wyatts match a while back too and yeah it seems astonishing how much wwe managed to ruin two sure-things with reigns (though imo he's pretty much back on track now) and wyatt (oops maybe reigns isn't back on track after all).

though re rpw, i watch too many botch videos and now fear ever seeing independent wrestling live because it feels almost certain that i'll witness someone cracking their skull on concrete at a high velocity

I don't think there were any big obvious botches in the Sunday one, notably nobody really did any no-hands topes to the outside - there is definitely a more palpable sense of tension seeing high flying stuff live as opposed to on Botchamania, where you know if it's on there nobody got paralysed or died

The Matt Sydal 2/3 falls workrate match did have a reverse frankensteiner though, that one always makes me wince

If ricochet hadn't pulled out it probably would've been a significantly scarier show to watch

njpw people -- which are the 'biggest' PPVs aside from WK? there's so much craziness over dominion right now, and i caught some of it this morning and thought man i feel like i should be watching this front to back.

Dominion has been good the past few years. The midpoint between WK's is a good time to wrap up feuds, and the next event is the G1, which is great for starting new feuds. Speaking of which, the G1 is coming up later this month!

A Block:
Togi Makabe
Hiroshi Tenzan
Toru Yano
Doc Gallows
Bad Luck Fale
Tetsuya Naito
Katsuyori Shibata
Kota Ibushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi
AJ Styles

B Block:
Hirooki Goto
Satoshi Kojima
Yuji Nagata
Tomoaki Honma
Michael Elgin
Karl Anderson
Yujiro Takahashi
Tomohiro Ishii
Shinsuke Nakamura
Kazuchika Okada

beast in the east was great fun

It kind of sucks that they entered exactly the same participants as last year with the exception of Ibushi and Elgin. OTOH, we'll get to see Nak vs Okada, Ibushi vs Tanahashi, Shibata vs Styles, and at least one or two wins from Honma!

yeah tbh the weird lineup PWG threw out for BOLA this year is way more interesting than the G1

I watched the first half of Dominion '15 last night, the highlights were Sakuraba vs Shibata and Naito's heel act.

I've been missing so much wrestling lately; I only just watched one episode of Tough Enough and I couldn't get through the whole thing.

I am interested to see what they do with Steen now that they had him drop the belt.

I could really live with him as US champion just relentlessly heeling on every town he defends it in and somehow winning

I thought that he was in great heel form in Japan to contrast with Devitt. That being said, of course he was going to drop the belt. I selfishly would love him as US champ, but I'm scared that after he drops that belt, he'll fade into the background instead of dominating like I feel he should.

Getting the belt off of Cena to give him a bit of a break from the whole challenge thing would work out well right now if they were to turn the current situation into a Cesaro / Steen feud. Maybe have Steen go over Cena for the title via some foul play then have Cesaro chasing (with Cena's endorsement following their recent matches).

I love watching Cena right now but I'm not sure how viable it's gonnna be to keep sending him out there for hard-hitting 20 minute matches every week if they want him to stay healthy in the long term.

I still don't quite understand what's been holding Cesaro back, he's got all of the rings skills and hipster cachet of the other indy favs without any of the usual drawbacks. Guy's no worse on the mic than some of the other gubbers they've pushed to the main-event, and it seems like pretty much all his signature moves were made for the kind of "instant replay MOMENTS" vibe that the company is so into. His freakish strength and crisp technique alone should make him a constant presence in the upper-card, he'd be believable against absolutely anyone in any era except maybe current-Lesnar.

I'd be so down for cesaro lesnar

conventional dirtsheety knowledge is he got depushed bc he complained publicly about cena/orton booking

also because he doesn't connect

that's only half a joke, i do think he has serious character problems... it's not so much that he can't talk, he just can't ACT, which is important to me at least in the ring. i love the guy but i can never really believe him. he's always surrounded by this cloud of anxiety and his eyebrows are glued in place. that might be most of the problem. even when you stick heyman in front of him he just stands there with like negative presence. he's the anti-lesnar, and lesnar doesn't even act.

he just needs SOMETHING. he probably has less character than anyone else on the roster. someone mentioned a while ago that in every single tag team he's been in he's just absorbed the personality of his partner.

ofc this is WWE's problem, not his. a promotion's supposed to be creative enough to get the most of its roster, not leave the talent flopping around helplessly.

man it'd be awesome if he and kidd had had the belts when kidd got hurt, and cesaro just decided to defend the belts by himself for a few months

ignore the fact that i used "awesome" and "when kidd got hurt" in the same sentence, you know what i mean

I'm not sure whether Cena's long term health is a priority for WWE right now, they've been phasing him out of the main events since the Lesnar feud. I'm not saying that they don't care about his health, but they're not counting on him to carry main events for the next ten years.

In terms of having great matches with a variety of opponents, Cena might be the best in WWE history. How many people did Steve Austin ever bring up to his level and turn into stars?

I think the start/stop pushes are hurting him more than any character problems.

finally got round to sitting down and watching Beast In The East. It's totally amazing to me how much more enjoyable everything is when they don't pretend like they're the only game in town. From remarking on Jericho's history in FMW and correctly calling his use of the Lion Tamer to acknowledging Balor's achievements in Japan (Cole actually explained Balor's tweet from earlier in the day by explaining that in Japan they used to call him Prince Devitt!), they did a really great job of providing context for everything that was happening in the ring.

Would be entirely satisfied if they sacked off half of the annual PPVs and made these unique Network specials a regular thing. When there isn't the pressure of having to sell a PPV as a big-time event it really gives them freedom to divert from the usual routine. Which is totally fuckin awesome. How long has the monthly-PPV model been a thing now, 20 years? It's totally time to experiment with different models

xpost yeah Cena's recent run as the go-to-guy for bedding in these new indy-bred up-and-comers has totally transformed my perception of the dude's place in history. he was always better than people said but he's now having 4* matches on the regular with guys of completely contrasting styles. perhaps there will start to be diminishing returns the more people kick out of the AA or whatever, but right now he is putting these guys over fuckin strong and having amazing matches into the bargain.

and it's awesome because you know that he has requested this position out of a desire to prove to all the haters that he can go with the best of them, and whaddaya know, he can totally go with the best of them. if they really are happy to let him keep doing it in spite of potential injury risks at this stage in his career then long may it continue imo. John Cena vs Samoa Joe on a WWE supershow would definitely get my money

Owens running the ropes only to drop into a chinlock at Beast was a fuckin great heel spot

As someone who has never particularly liked Cena I have to say this US title challenge is selling me -- also has a perfect concept of who his character is (even if his character is, uh, basically him). During RAW in the triple threat, him on mic putting these guys all over but then every time there was a near fall he'd get up and stretch his legs/shadowbox/whatever, holy shit. Cena as the gatekeeper is perfect and I hope they can do it for a long time.

yeah various people have remarked on it already but the way that he kinda-sorta nearly-but-not-quite botches all these new moves that he's whipping out in this run of matches fits in perfectly with where his character is right now in a way that having him just perfectly execute a load of new moves just wouldn't be. it engenders this positively electric atmosphere of Cena being pushed absolutely to the limit as a worker, like they're just starting to get to the pay-off of having treated him as another species from the rest of the roster for so long

guys guys guys

BROCK BEAT UP A CAR

also

rusev v. cesaro v. owens was incredible

WRESTLING IS THE BEST

i now really want to buy like a 3 disc john cena dvd, as long as it has no orton, del rio or kane matches on it. (i like the big show one at wm20.) umaga at the rumble, hhh @ wm22, winning the rumble in 08, the michaels raw match, batista at wm26, jericho & christian from whenever that was, like every match with punk, bryan at ss13, brock at extreme rules 2012 and all the ones from last year, rusev at fast lane, all of this current run, cena & hell no v. the shield, cena had a great match with cesaro last year, that mark henry one from his fake retirement... fuck me john cena is the 4th greatest wrestler of all time.

I've just started getting into Tuesday Night Titans, it might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. The "At Home With Dr. Schultz" stuff from the first episode is just fucking staggering.

man why does no one ever talk about Dr. David Schultz? I mean I know it's because he punched that photographer or whatever so that's what people remember, but Jesus, the guy was fucking magnetic! I thought he was just an average hick, I didn't realise his charisma was so off the charts?

xpost can't forget about Cena vs Edge (my favourite was the TLC match at Unforgiven '06 in Edge's hometown, which was like the precursor to the more famous match vs Punk), at least one match vs Eddie Guerrero, the triple threat vs DX, the first Rock match mainly for the spectacle ...

It's true that the monthly PPV model is played out, especially in the era of monthly themed PPV. The storylines are timed around the PPV, when it should be the other way around. Two guys fight inside Hell in a Cell not because they hate each other and want to settle their long running feud, but because it's the gimmick of the month. Cena's "fighting champion" storyline avoids all that crap, people are dying for something different.

Guys the Prime Time Players have been sneakily getting really very good while I was looking the other way. Helps no doubt that the New Day are really good (everyone should check out Xavier Woods doing his hype-man thing in this match - "Worst. Legdrop. Ever.") but yeah, Prime Time Players have somehow turned into a thrilling big-man little man combo, Darren Young was doing actual good wrestling and took a couple of vicious bumps. Titus O'Neill could get very over indeed if they keep protecting him like this.

Orton / Sheamus was completely fine, rescued by the hometown crowd going mad for everything Orton did (also because Randy Orton is AWESOME), Reigns / Wyatt going on third. Maybe I'm riding a pleasant buzz off the previous match but I am cautiously optimistic, I feel like both these guys but especially Reigns are starting to know where it's at in PPV matches.

woods crawling on the floor to taunt young and then clapping like a baby is the best wrestling match of 2015

Haha, so yeah that was misguided optimism, they're not doing very well here

had this one pinned as a possible mini-show-stealer but yeah it's just standard roman match vs standard bray wyatt match

i guess roman matches are only good when he's a serious underdog (brock) or when he can be dominant and cocky (big show)

those seem to be the only times he loosens up

It got better to be fair. there were a couple of cool moves (they did a reversal spot off that Roman Reigns apron dropkick that was nice) but I'd hoped for more.

Ah Luke Harper, thank fuck for that

Man Sasha/Charlotte/Nikki triple threat getting 15 mins here would be a fucking TREAT, I'm not used to feeling this way about divas matches

YES this makes me happy right now, I think I am enjoying this PPV... oh wait it's Brie, sure that'll do i suppose

oh wait yeah i remember Brie Bella is the one that sucks

lol I quite like the Bellas as personalities but Brie just isn't from the same planet as these two, it's actually pretty interesting, kinda like past vs future of the divas division

eurgghh what did Charlotte just do to Brie Bella?!! so many great submissions in the divas division right now

i honestly can't remember the last time they ran the same match 3 times in less than 2 months and still had such an electric atmosphere by the third match. I am very excited for this

looooooool that springboard-stunner attempt from Cena was outrageous, dude just did a backwards starjump across 3/4 of the ring, what did he expect to happen?!

oh man that was such a bullshit ending. Match itself was fine, just all the same moves from their MITB fight but whyyyyyyyyy the fuck would you end it like that??? things aren't changing quite as quickly as people hoped i guess

Brock Lesnar though you guys

so many issues with the booking of that ending

seriously, what is the fucking point unless they're planning on giving Grandpa his win back? Could they be that stupid? who the fuck am i kidding

solid undercard ruined here by two spectacularly poorly booked main-events. really disappointed actually because the wrestling in the first few matches was quite good

well, cena always loses at summerslam so i can see why they wouldn't want him losing here. hopefully cesaro and/or rusev get added to the picture (and hopefully cena still eats the pin if that's the case)

KO tapping wasn't the worst thing in the world imo

hard to understand the undertaker thing though. not much else they could've done with him i guess.

woke up early to watch battleground, looks fun. but also opening this thread, yeah i forgot edge and also Cena v. RVD at One Night Stand

Hasn't Bray Wyatt been doing weird shit with pictures of Roman Reigns's kid? Way to want to fuck up the scary heel with starting the match with some lock ups and head locks.

Also the Undertaker never wrestled in merch. Bray Wyatt sucks these days, he really needs someone to have a word about his character development.

fucking hell, on paper that looked like a cracking show. instead it was so dull. tag match was fun. i love the tag division at the moment, its redevelopment means as much to me as BIG MATCH JOHN and new guys in the title picture.

Every match went like 20 minutes too long, and Cena Owens III was really bad, with no storytelling at all. At best, Owens had more beef with Michael Cole than he did Cena so he lost? idgi

I wish they put on Cesaro-Rusev.

I have no interest in old man Taker in 2015. I hope he doesn't beat Bork fucking Lazer: God of all wrestling.

i just think they shouldn't be cooling off either of Lesnar or Owens one month before their second biggest show of the year. The Lesnar / Taker stuff was straight bullshit though, Brock Lesnar should not be made to look afraid or weak by anyone, ever. Especially not by an old corpse he beat the shit out of more than a year ago.

Way to job out your champion as well - Seth Rollins is a ragdoll that can't even get near giving Brock Lesnar a fair contest (good) but an old-as-hell looking 60 year old fuckin Undertaker can scare Brock just by looking at him menacingly and then give him a bunch of finishers uncontested (none of which looked very good tbh, not easy to Tombstone Brock I suppose). Brock shouldn't get scared of anyone ever! He never got scared at his fucking Streak match, whyyyyy did they do it this way ugh I'm actually making myself annoyed just thinking about it. even if he goes onto Summerslam and beats Taker's old ass this is still the wrong thing to be doing with Brock

yeah there is going to have to come a time when someone goes toe to toe with lesnar but dont make yr champ look like a bitch and have it be a goth pensioner

http://i.imgur.com/ybZ1FoP.gif

Holy shit that is just the greatest gif ever haha

imo undertaker's goth pensioner look would be significantly less goofy if his eyeliner wasn't so sloppy, jeez mark have some pride in your appearance

holy crap that gif is the best

ko fans vs cena fans = ppl who don't know how to experience joy vs ppl who don't know how their own limbs work

that gif is a perfect metaphor for wwe 2015

I watched most of the G1 Climax night 1. Naito's heel act is so great but the dynamic doesn't work vs Fale. The best part was when he stumbled up the ramp after the match and appeared to collapse with exhaustion, only to land in a Burt Reynolds pose while doing his eye-opening thing. Shibata's arm is messed up badly and he needs to completely change up his matches on this tour seeing as 3/4 of his offense is hitting people with forearms to the face. You wouldn't think that asshole heel AJ Styles vs plucky babyface Shibata could possibly work, but it did. Ibushi vs Tanahashi lived up to expectations, twenty plus minutes just flew by.

The WWE's main roster booking is definitely a bit of a black hole as of Battleground but god damn I loved the goofy house show main event finish of Raw, and cena is the greatest exuberant tag team apron cheerleader in the game

shibata's a plucky babyface? thought he was totally the heel at dominion

Shibata's arm injury has turned him babyface for this tour -- he can't do the vicious stuff he normally does, his offense vs Styles consisted of "spirited comebacks" and not much else.

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/rusev-throws-a-fish.gif?w=650

You gotta respect Rusev's willingness to play this mostly wretched material completely straight-faced and then just kill it in the ring anyway

oh man, RIP Hot Rod :( we shan't see his like again. Dusty, Hogan, now Piper - the Legends roster is getting depleted at a very depressing rate right now

Watching the 1984 Tuesday Night Titans was something of a revelation to me - they're in this weird place where they haven't quite broken away from what the company used to be under Vince Sr. and VKM doesn't seem to have quite decided exactly how to achieve what he's looking for. There's still "ethnic hero" guys like Salvatore Bellomo getting TV time and a push and being completely fucking useless, and the whole thing is strange as hell.

Then on the 5th or 6th episode, Piper makes his first appearance and, as someone who was too young to have ever seen Piper in his prime, I immediately got why he became such a huge deal for them. He was this whirlwind of charisma and hilarity and menace and he just blows the fucking doors off the place. He wasn't from the same planet as the rest of them in those days, he even made Captain Lou look kind of ordinary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36b1u9zTp1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8Jz9o2H_s

wrestling's a beautiful thing

I still can't stop watching this.

https://twitter.com/okadaasicecream

AJ vs Tanahashi in the G1 far exceeded my expectations, I hope Nakamura brings it tomorrow.

Ive fallen back in love with lucha underground. Only got like 7 episodes left. Pentagon jr. is so gnarly.

it gets better and better and better

I'm kind of happy that the G1 is over and out of my system. It gets dragged out over a month and that's a slog to get through (even if you're only catching one or two matches per day like I was) but the important matches get more time to shine and the wrestlers have more recovery time, so I'd call it a net win. The final wasn't as great as people seem to be saying (nor was the Jr. Heavy championship match) but definitely epic enough to suit the occasion.

So Summerslam and takeover is this weekend, should someone start a seperate thread or are we cool?(also who is mod of this board? Is it dom?)

I heard that g1 had a ***** final and some other great matches. Ive booked Monday off work specifically for watching wrestling, so whats been good?

Paul Heyman is so good at promos i feel kinda sorry for anyone else in the whole history of wrestling.

I think ken c is in charge

i've had paul heyman singing "glory glory BROCK LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESNAR" in my head all day, just that part

"I heard that g1 had a ***** final and some other great matches. Ive booked Monday off work specifically for watching wrestling, so whats been good?"

check the early run of shibata matches, especially shibata/aj. i generally hate michael elgin but elgin/goto was great, as was most of his matches in the tournament tbh. honma/ishii was a total blast. the finals were real cool too of course

sasha/bayley honestly either should've gone on last or third-to-last cause i'm having trouble giving a fuck about the owens/balor match after that

Yeah they might have been worried a big insane gimmick brawl would've tired the crowd out and ruined the vibe of the women's match if it went on last, but as it was it ended up just kind of hoping nobody got crippled in the ladder match so the show would remain an overall home run

But yeah, ungodly great women's match, so much vicious ROH arm-mutilation stuff mixed with the sentimental WWE main event epic style

The struggle to give a fuck about Owens/Balor is a drop in the ocean compared to the impending struggle to give a fuck about Summerslam

"I heard that g1 had a ***** final and some other great matches. Ive booked Monday off work specifically for watching wrestling, so whats been good?"

If you're pressed for time, watch Styles vs Tanahashi, Okada vs Nakamura (IOW the two matches that decided the A and B block winners), and the final.

Digging deeper, check out Honma vs Ishii, Shibata vs Ibushi (this was stiff as all hell), Elgin vs Ishii, and just about any other Tanahashi match. He had an unbelievable tournament, the matches you wanted to be great were great (vs Ibushi) and the matches you kind of dreaded were miraculously good to great (vs Tenzan, vs Fale).

The tournament itself was predictable in the sense that all the big names tended to deliver in their matches (save for Nakamura who was working around an injury) but there were almost no sneaky surprises. You can look at the card for each day and know exactly which matches are skippable by looking at the names. I think one reason why Elgin got over huge was because he was new to NJPW and all his matches were fresh, otherwise it's been almost exactly the same guys participating for the past few years.

Ok, gave in and signed up for the network today. Y'all watching this?

y...yeah

it's a stacked card, a card stacked with ten banana skins above the precipice of Not Being As Good as Takeover

I have enough cheap beer and Diablo III on my desktop to make this worthwhile. We need a Slack group.

the network currently running at 2005-vintage Youtube quality for me

Yeah, me too. We do what we can.

Orton Sheamus was actually...alright, and sensibly early on

I have never secretly hoped that Vince would die so a small wrestler I like could get pushed wholeheartedly but I have secretly hoped that Vince would die so the commentators might stop saying you have a 25% chance of winning if you're in a four way match

obligatory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFoC3TR5rzI

on one hand, a shitty ending to the title vs title match. on the other hand, lolololol

it probably took 20 guys a whole week just to come up with a finish that aggressively shit

xpost btw, talking about the main but could easily have not been

Honestly thought you were talking about the title v. title match.

After Takeover (read; Sasha v. Bayley) last night, Summerslam really felt flat. The women's match really overshadowed everything else on the card and really should have gone on last.

I can see what they were going for with the two wonky finishes, kinda commendable to at least try and do something to get people talking, given how average the rest of the show was. But the execution of those two finishes was fuckin rotten and what you're left with is four hours (!!!!!!) of competent wrestlers wrestling competently. Fine, whatever. Their own fault for trying to follow up Takeover, which wasn't perfect but was perfectly balanced, giving you just enough of everything.

Rumours have been going round ever since these NXT specials started that the main roster were fed up of going out there with handcuffs on and getting shown up by the supposed 'developmental' talent, wouldn't be surprised to hear more complaints of this sort in the near future.

ok now THIS is money

Brock Lesnar has been instructed to Bolieve

Fuck me that was a shit show. Still not seen takeover. Wcw is 1998 had the best roster ever and they went bankrupt two years later cos she fucking booking defeats all. 2015 wwe roster could be even better and i just really dont give a shiiiiiiiit. The timekeeper couldnt see taker tap out and the ref couldnt either and so... yawwwn. Fucking ruined an awesome match too. Takers sit up and the brawl was especially dope

Shit* booking not she obv

Eh, I think the fault was in the execution rather than the booking. The idea itself wasn't bad. They've clearly got it in their heads that this is their real money match this year, sure, whatever, I'm not really into it but I do see the logic. In theory having Lesnar pass-out while giving Taker the finger etc. was as a good a way to build heat for the rubber match as I can think of without killing Brock's aura. It's just that the whole thing felt entirely unrehearsed and everyone involved did a shit job of explaining what was happening.

Anyway, watch Takeover ASAP imo. Typically exciting work in the ring from most everyone involved, deceptively simple common-sense booking, awesome unique black-and-white look to the whole production giving it a very different feel to the usual stuff they put out. It's no great revelation to say that NXT a promotion firing on all cylinders right now, but I think taking it out of Full Sail and sticking it in front of a sold-out arena really drove home how well-booked the whole thing was and how much momentum they're building up. I'm not used to seeing shows that well put together taking place in these kind of venues with such a "big night" atmosphere.

The shit that the crowd were into as well!!! Mega-pop for fuckin Blue Pants! The Vaudevillians hot-tag! The Sasha-Bayley match was absolutely molten. It could've and should've main-evented, which is frankly kind of astonishing given this is the WWE we're talking about.

It's not totally beyond WWE to put on great and well-booked PPVs - I think Wrestlemania this year was an excellent show pretty much top to bottom, for instance (Sting shouldn't have shaken hands tho) but this particular show was bland as fuck and running it the night after the best NXT show so far has thrown a lot of the problems they have with the main roster currently into very sharp relief.

From the women's POV the Divas on MizTV segment last night was absolute flaming death and only made this worse

Sasha is now pretty much Daniel Bryan, in several key ways

so now sasha has wrestled my top 2 matches of the year, i think she's the best working wrestler

side note: aiden englsih and simon gotch are fucking excellent, i cannot wait to see more of them

side note 2: did they change their billing from "villains" to "villians" when they decided to go face with them? i see different spellings wherever i look! maybe it's a spellcheck thing?

Wcw is 1998 had the best roster ever and they went bankrupt two years later cos she fucking booking defeats all.

WWE won't be going under anytime soon (not that I'm implying you were saying that) but point taken. When was the last really satisfying payoff to a 6-12 month long feud in WWE? The main event of WM 30? Rock-Cena I? You could argue that neither one had a proper payoff considering how they followed up on them.

I still haven't seen Takeover either, but at least in NXT they understand how to book a big match -- Wrestler A beats Wrestler B, Wrestler A becomes the clear focus of the promotion and Wrestler B moves on to something else. At Summerslam it's all "Brock vs Taker, 16 months in the making!" but can't decide on a proper payoff so they book a fuck finish. If the goal is another match at Mania, why not just have Taker win clean (setting up the rubber match) or Brock win clean (continuing the theme of Taker never having beaten Brock), either option books itself.

As for Rollins vs Cena, they must have booked it to get a few more mentions on the E! Network rather than booking to set up future matches that people might want to see. It's really too bad because there was some great wrestling up and down the card on Summerslam.

When was the last really satisfying payoff to a 6-12 month long feud in WWE? The main event of WM 30?

Well if we extend this to include NXT then the Sasha-Bayley match on Saturday definitely counts. But yeah on the main roster this is a real problem. Match quality is as high as it's ever been across the board but they're giving us no reason to care about 95% of it.

if NXT counts, then sasha-bayley, sasha-becky, sasha-charlotte, zayn-neville and maybe zayn-owens (if you count that as payoff) all require inclusion.

I meant main roster only.

Craziest week in recent memory?

The champion Seth Rollins girlfriend is released after revealing she hangs swazticas around the house and shes said some other racist shit before too.

TNA's Bram, Charlottes former husband, has been arrested for domestic battery.

Snuka's case has been reopened and he has been charged for murder. What this means for Vince, who supposedly had a lot to do with why he wasnt charged in 1983, god knows. Also i presume Tamina's career is very much on hold, poor lass.

A man has been shot by the police outaide the performance centre after going at the officer with a knife. He was repeatedly turning up trying to stalk a female wrestler, supposedly lita or aj lee, who both definitely wouldnt work there anymore.

Its Only Tuesday.

imo it reflects badly on seth, not that i was assuming he was a saint before but there's no way he didn't know about 'that side' of her. a lot of the stuff that came out was already public knowledge, just got rehashed following Literal Nazigate

I would just like to say thank you to Sting and Ashley from HR for my new respect for Seth Rollins as a whole.

Best part of NOC was KO winning the IC strap from Ryback, who should have never had it.

can you believe his reign was 100+ days? he defended it what, twice?

worried about KO with the belt until they show they're going to book him decently and not just as a scared baby who walks out of matches twice a week

wowee wwe sure is bad nowadays

Pretty staggering that things could possibly be as shitty as they are right now given the talent they have at their disposal.

If you were dropping back in after a viewing break, a cursory glance at the list of champions might lead you to believe that the company was in the middle of something of a purple patch. It's just EVERYTHING ELSE that's wrong with the product.

just keep wondering when they're finally going to evolve

they need a sweeping change in "era" again, but they also don't, and it blows. i honestly think wrestling is more ready to crossover now than it's been since the AE, but it's never gonna happen because the risk isn't worth it this time. and honestly, out of all the overglorified crap they constantly brag about re: the AE, the #1 best thing about it was that people gave a shit.

omg sasha banks is the best heel in the world

lol when she made that little girl cry oh my god. feel like Sasha vs Bayley should be one of those once-in-a-liftime rivalries they come back to once every few years, they are just SO fuckin good together. also give me Asuka vs Sasha Banks ASAP plz, I would pay down cash money for this (or really like Asuka vs any of the "Four Horsewomen", they're all awesome.) I'd never seen Kana/Asuka wrestle before but based solely on that match with Brookes it seemed to me that she has unexpected reserves of physical charisma and I reckon she'll get over like gangbusters if they give her a decent build. otoh she is a Japanese wrestler working in WWE so who the fuck knows

Was disappointed that they had Tyler Breeze get beat again, I thought this might've been his night. Didn't see any real need to give Crews the win, he's a guy who just needs to be floating round doing awesome stuff in the ring whenever he's on TV and he'll be good to go whenever they decide to push him. Especially with Balor occupying the NXT top spot right now, I'dve thought building your heels would be more important than building your faces. Breeze is starting to look like a lost cause which sucks cause I think he is legit.

Remain utterly unconvinced by Baron Corbin, he looked good in that match from Brooklyn against Samoa Joe but eh, go figure. He looks like a rubbish rejected Shield member and I'm really not that interested in seeing him vs Balor or whatever else they're intending to do with him as top heel. They've gotta be turning Samoa Joe soon, right? Him vs Finn would be a good programme, would watch.

found both the semifinal results of the tag team championship disappointing. two legitimate tag teams getting beaten by two tag teams comprised of singles fighters. would've liked to see both of the losers win instead, esp jordan + gable who seem so over right now. crowd was going crazy for gable.

yeah Jordan and Gable as the new WGTT works for me, Jordan even did the pulling-the-straps-down spot off the hot tag

yeah, my jaw dropped when corbin got the win. seems like main roster booking, having two singles guys who don't need any more accolades winning a tag team tourney. was also hoping breeze would go over, hopefully they can actually spin his losses into a story going forward.

it sounds evil to say it but that shot of izzy turning to the camera sobbing took that match to another level

watched this tonight, here are my possibly challoppy notes.

NXT TAKEOVER: RES-POILERS

- i kinda wanted to see The Mechanics (a) win, and (b) actually be called the Mechanics, which is a pretty weird aborted tag team name. The Mechanics is fine! I like the idea of these two heel wrestlers who are basically really strong level 1 Final Fight badguys. The Mechanics is a perfect name. Get the announce table to use the word "dismantle" occasionally or something.
- when they didn't win, i was ok with that, but i really wanted to see corbin/rhyno win so that it wouldn't be gable/jj vs finn/joe, because that can go one of two ways: you either feed this over new tag team to the champ and joe in the FINALS, or you give them waht would feel like a pretty stupid win. i was glad when corbin/rhyno beat them. it didn't make sense for gable's cute tricks to work on two men made of steak and cocaine.
- i'm actually kind of interested to see more booking of rhyno/corbin as a tag team, i hope they hang onto it--papa hoss and baby hoss dynamic is pretty hilarious to me right now. in the finals, when they come out, corbin did this "pff whatever" move to the audience when they were booing him, and rhyno immediately threw his arms up like he already won/the crowd loved him and it was fucking hilarious. these two as anakin and beefcake palpatine forever.
- was half-expecting a heel turn by joe after the match but once they trotted out the rhodeses, was really glad they didn't & just let the trophy have some... uhh, respect.
- i might not be enough of a wrestling watching veteran to tell, but dana brooke either did a great job or asuka carreid the fuck out of her, because that was a really solid and entertaining match. i don't know who they'll book her against moving forward, i guess emma at first?, but damn she is legit. and dana brooke is getting great FAST.
- apollo needed to beat tyler because tyler's current trajectory is "losing to all of the hot new dudes" which i am hopeful that they can leverage into a grizzled veteran wilyness in the future. we know he can go and we also kno that nxt has a prety good track record for these guys. i'm confident that once this current crop of outsiders move up, he'll "have an edge" against the next group of outsiders and there's a great nxt champ heel reign in his future while indies try to challenge him. KEEP HOPE ALIVE.
- bayley is everything.
- sasha banks is everything.
- i said to my friend: "holy fuck, we are going to find out that izzy is a tv child actor hired to be bayley's superfan, and kayfabe inception will destroy us all" and i half-believe it.
- this is a really odd time in bayley's arc to have her go straight up DARK. using stairs and kicking sasha in the fucking head and shit. i was kinda like "what is even happening. why is izzy crying about bayley crashing into a wall, but not crying about her holding someone down & kicking their fucking brain in?" like, why is she alternate-timeline-sami-zayn NOW?
- i was so impressed by full sail's restraint until i realized they were saving up all of their obnoxiousness for the main event. jesus christ can the ascension just come back long enough to cast an ancient egyptian spell on them that turns them all into mummies or something (or at least cut out their tongues manually & wrap them in gauze)

that's all i can remember now

oh i forgot one note.
- jason jordan is so legit. i can't believe how great he's been. gable is fun to watch but basically every time he did anything i was mirroring jj and doing a golf clap. hopefully he can leverage his incredible talent into something that makes me feel something, and maybe that'll happen because nxt seems like a great place to learn that, but for now it's just a little too cute and a little too smark for me to give a fuck, you know? jason jordan's so legit though. ducks under a clothesline and shakes his head "no." that head-shake no is everything. he's got it. a bit more mic confidence and he's main eventing a years worth of wwe ppvs.

i just wish wwe in general would stick to idea that the two best singles wrestlers stuck together shouldn't be able to beat the best tag team in a tag team match (instead of having randy orton beat champions cesaro/kidd singlehandedly that one time)

like actually go with making your tag team division look like a division and not a trashyard for midcarders

yuss i agree with that, your best tag team should be able to beat your 2 best singles wrestlers in thrown-together tag team match any day. unfortunately that is just not how WWE does things (or has ever done things)

apparently breeze is going to the main roster

axs tv finally caught up to wrestle kingdom - damn what a promotion

i saw the thing from breeze and i'm pretty sure it's just danielle from uproxx seeing that he won a dark match and i guess not knowing that he's been working house shows/dark matches for a while now. which to be fair happens like once a week whenever someone reads house show results. with leather should be better than that though. it's weird how they function, they ignore 90% of the rumors from dirtsheets and then report the other 10% as absolute fact.

I really wish they had let an actual tag team win the TAG TEAM classic. Honestly, after reading about Dusty's relationship with Enzo, I was hoping that Enzo and Cass would finally win something. I thought that their tag team winning would be the most meaningful since they actually spent a lot of time with Dusty as a tag team. That being said, I guess they couldn't have the champ and one of the most over guys lose.
I can believe that Asuka carried the fuck out of her, but I also do believe that Dana is improving, both in the ring and as a character. Also, the "you fucked up" chant made me laugh until I cried.
Tyler Breeze losing is just disappointing because he went from being No. 1 contender to this. After he lost to Liger, I just figured that he would keep losing, and sadly, as far as televised matches go, I was right.
The Sasha/Bayley match was excellent for both of them. Hats off to both of them for having what may be my favorite match of the year (unless they fight again, because they get better every time) and for putting on a quality match both physically and emotionally.
Sasha is the best heel in WWE today. Her stuff with Izzy was perfect.
Bayley going dark felt like my dreams coming true (because for some weird reason, I am semi-obsessed with the idea of a Bayley heel turn).

only just checked in on the Raw report from this week, didn't realise they'd had Roman Reigns get a win over Braun Strowman already. Only a count-out I suppose but even so, that was a PPV semi-main a few months down the line. Not necessarily ever gonna be a real money match or a 5* classic, but this was... what exactly? Why would they do that? It doesn't achieve anything in any direction. See also Kane beating world champion Seth Rollins 2 weeks before their PPV match (or Kane having a world title match on PPV in 2015, for that matter).

they're so lost right now. will be interesting to see what they do if the ratings continue to plummet, especially with all this talk of Cena needing time off. Presumably Taker is gonna be out for a while if even survives a HIAC match with Brock, who is himself seemingly limited to major occasions only with a few promotional episodes of Raw thrown in. They're gonna have no one to draw if those three all drop out at the same time. And even if Cena soldiers through, giving him the belt and the top spot back and bashing the Cena-reset button might be less effective than it was in days of yore. I dunno, will it have affected his aura that every man and his dog has been allowed to kick out of his finish at least once this year after all those years of it being p. much the silver bullet against all but the very top opposition?

the counterpoint to all this doom and gloom is that this whole Evolve / NXT thing has the potential to be extremely awesome. I've only caught a couple of their more recent shows which I grabbed from a torrent site but there were a couple of guys who I would happily see come in and work with Balor / Breeze / Joe et al.

I will also share some miscellaneous NXT/WWE thoughts:

1. Backstage interview segments in WWE are almost always nigh-unwatchably awkward for me. But there's one wrestler who comes off as completely smooth, natural, and convincing in them, and that's Scott Dawson. Literally every other performer in the whole company, top to bottom, could learn from him.

2. I like the Vaudevillains, but the Whirling Dervish has to be the worst tag team finisher in all of wrestling. And this ties in to a general gripe I have with WWE. In general, I feel there's no excuse for a weak finisher. Giving a wrestler or team a strong, character-appropriate finish is one of the most basic thing you can do to help them connect with the audience. So it's perplexing to me that WWE has all these wrestlers ending matches with really unconvincing moves.

For a recent example from NXT, witness this thing they've got "Perfect 10" Tye Dillinger doing. Other offenders include Tyler Breeze, Big E, and, sad to say, Cesaro, whose Neutralizer looks weaker than most of the stuff he does beforehand in every match. Oh, and John Cena.

3. Finn Balor looks cool in a leather jacket, but he does not look cool in his "demon" getup, which is one of the corniest things going. The headdress, in particular, looks like it would pair well with some gigantic zipper-covered jeans from Hot Topic. But I guess his opponents are supposed to be intimidated when he puts this stuff on and crawls down the entrance ramp. I'm not sure the demon version even wrestles any differently.

4. On a positive note, how about that roll-through deadlift German suplex by Chad Gable on Baron Corbin? That was one of the coolest things I've seen in the ring in a while.

They're gonna have no one to draw if those three all drop out at the same time.

maybe they'd actually feel the pressure to build new stars!! lol jk

the problem with cena's us title reign is that i'm weak and automatically assume they'll actually use the tremendous value they built up and MAKE someone. should've been owens or cesaro. i just assume this. in reality i know it'll be wasted on someone who doesn't need it, and it won't be a clean transfer, because WWE sucks at booking. that's really all it comes down to. it's been like this forever. at their best they're great at making stars and entertaining drama, but they'll always suck at just plain booking. if they ever make a good booking decision they probably lucked into it somehow.

anyway their current slump is probably negated by the ESPN deal, right? how fucking lucky are they to have coachman on their side? that's huge, and probably another obstacle to vince/friends ever feeling the heat to take risks again.

also when i imagine a bayley heel turn i just see season 6 willow

also the whirling dervish is an amazing finisher because it's called "the whirling dervish", it could be a fingerpoke and it'd still be great

I admit, I can find no fault with the name

apparently meltzer confirmed the tyler breeze callup, rip tyler breeze

great shirt

I've heard a rumor that Tyler Breeze is crashing SmackDown this week?

and yes. I'm really glad that New Day is working out so well.

maybe he'll challenge for the us open title at hell in a cell and win it, hahahahaha right? :(

**spoilers i guess***

i read the spoiler and... i pray that they cut it from broadcast i guess. they threw him in the middle of the worst storyline in a way that doesn't reflect his NXT character at all. did he ever have a girlfriend? or anyone else? i think he was paired with carmella for a tiny bit? one of my favorite things about him is he's always alone, so narcissistic that no one else can really fit into his world.

So wait, who is he paired with? Summer Rae? Doesn't Prince Pretty have higher standards than that?
I'm not going to watch SmackDown for this, so please feel free to spoil for me as much as you want, even though I do like Tyler Breeze.

Maybe this is going to be a sort of character reboot with him like they sort of did with (Adrian) Neville?