rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

cody's statement: https://twitter.com/PrinceCGR/status/734501299337584641

if he ends up in like,ROH, i might actually have to start watching ROH. can't wait to see what he does with an actual opportunity.

also he says no "tell-all nonsense" but makes a pretty damning statement against the current head writer of SD/former head writer of NXT from when it was good i think

at least damning enough if you're used to people going on about how great he is

spare er thoughts:
-IC match was hot fire, fine with the finish except for sami and cesaro both looking like massive idiots at different points (lolwwe)
-new day basically squashed vaudevillains ??
-the jbl/cole-bully-byron thing is the worst, they sound so fucking serious about it sometimes! it sounds like VKM-sanctioned hazing. they went in on him in the beginning of this dumb asylum match (cole said i think "you need a writer" ?) and he's been pretty silent since.

**big ol spoilers**

main event was generally hot fire as well but they are never gonna realize that the #1 way to keep hate alive vs wrestlers they don't want us to hate is wins-outta-nowhere, especially wins with a terrible spear after a zillion chair shots

it doesn't work with roman! it never will. even if he was a beloved babyface it wouldn't work.

**continuing big ol spoilers**

yeah absolutely, though i remain confused as to what they're trying to do with roman - that uso save from the second styles clash was so heelish, and they surely can't have any hope for roman being more popular vs rollins than he was vs styles. shades of grey is one thing and i'd be fully behind a 100% shades of grey roman, but as it is we have shades of never being quite sure what to think and nothing concrete happening to show us

Wow, that main event was incredible, better than almost any Attitude-era brawl. When was the last time a championship feud in the WWE exceeded expectations like this?

The four way was predictably great, and Rusev-Kalisto was exactly what it needed to be. The only zero on the show was the women's championship match.

Ambrose and Jericho had ten minutes tacked onto their match at the last minute, so I skipped the first ten minutes and watched the rest. I thought they did a good job considering the stupid stipulations.

yeah i've seen a lot of negative comments about the main event booking but tbh 1. it maybe wasn't ideal but still not that bad, the spear was a bit anticlimactic but it's hardly like aj hasn't already received a lot of damage (that powerbomb through the table was so gnarly), and 2. aj and roman are good enough at beating each other up that i'd have been happy with anything but a booking nightmare

The crowd didn't give a crap about Kalisto/Rusev until the end, that pissed me off unreasonably. Like, if Sami Zayn busted out that corkscrew off the ropes the place would go bananas but Kalisto does it and nothing.

One thing i love is how the commentary can never explain why every week a half canadian half syrian guy gets massive ole chants and just accept as normal support

Like, if Sami Zayn busted out that corkscrew off the ropes the place would go bananas but Kalisto does it and nothing.

Nobody cares about Kalisto because he's booked as a fluke champion whose matches barely qualify for the pre-shows, and he gets hardly any TV time on RAW. Whereas Zayn is a three dimensional character who mixes it up with top guys on RAW every week.

Nobody cares about Kalisto because he's booked as a fluke champion whose matches barely qualify for the pre-shows, and he gets hardly any TV time on RAW. Whereas Zayn is a three dimensional character who mixes it up with top guys on RAW every week.

Aaaaand that should all be completely aside from the spectacle of the move itself, which should be enough to get a pop, even if it's just for that one moment.

Smackdown going live on USA Network, rumours flying around (confirmed? unconfirmed? idk!) that it's back to the brand split. totally down for this.

Thought it was confirmed by the article that went up on the WWE site minutes after the Variety piece? Or did they re-edit it?

xp yeah i didn't read it properly, my bad

CONFIRMED that there's gonna be a draft and a brand split, this pleases me exceedingly. now give me Styles, Owens, Zayn and Cesaro on Smackdown with Mauro Ranallo on commentary, Shane-o-Mac as authority figure (seeing as it's inevitable that him and Steph are gonna take one show each) and that former NXT writer dude (who has allegedly been skeezing on all the divas)on writing duties and i'll be a happy camper.

more women! more tag teams! more mid-carders! more main-event spots! you can stick your Monday Night Raw

oh shit a draft this was my dream!

now i actually wanna watch again :p

I'm totally down with Smackdown meaning something again.

cool!

I hope they don't split up any established good tag teams in the name of shocking draft pick moments - the New Day just need to count as one pick for everyone's sake

They could potentially do the thing they had before where the cruiserweights were on one show and the women were on the other. It'd be better if women's wresting was just embedded in everthing from this point on rather than a novelty USP for one show, but they don't have that many non-injured women to split across (some of) 5 TV hours on two rosters unless they're going to gut NXT

In favour of important-seeming US and IC titles exclusive to one show each with a (not very widely) touring world champ dropping in and out of both

I am not in favour of John Cena squashing Rusev, the greatest professional wrestler alive, just to try to hotshot more interest in the US title - the US title belongs to Rusev

The rumor is that they're going to have two world titles again. I maintain that this is one of the stupidest ideas in the history of wrestling.

I finally got around to the extreme rules main event and fuck it... its up there with zayn/nakamura as best match of the year. If you cant find that incredible and lose yrself in that.... well theres a lot of jaded wrestling fans. And hey seths back! And he sorted out his blonde streak

I actually really liked the blonde streak. He looks a lot more generic without it.

i am glad they're splitting the brands but also VERY ANGRY that they're splitting the brands, because they are not going through with my tremendous bring-back-WCW plan even though i sent them a large scrapbook and intellectual property deed and everything

either way, if they're splitting the brands they should really SPLIT the brands. one of the best things about bringing back WCW as a kayfabe competitor is that one show isn't inherently the B show and one title isn't inherently the B title, and you know WWE's gonna play it like that again. kill smackdown, it's already dead. replace main event or superstars with it. make the new brand something that's actually new and big and not just raw's kid brother with the really-ugly-shades-of-blue obsession. ALAS.

one rumor i'm glad to hear about is that they'll be promoting a lot of NXT talent and supposedly going on a big signing spree to fill NXT back up (for 2 separate ongoing tours apparently?). you split the brands because you have too much talent but you definitely don't want either brand just being 50% of the entire current roster. something closer to 75% each, still overstuffed. injuries happen anyway. and this will immediately inject a lot of life into NXT, hopefully.

also on a now-note people keep saying (uh smackdown spoilers?) that because titus challenged rusev, we won't see cena beating rusev for the title on monday, but i could easily see them pull a WMIX and have rusev squash titus, get cocky and do an improptu open challenge and suddenly there's bret hart on the ground yelling "GET HIM, BIG MATCH JOHN"

i'm not sure they even have any intention of putting cena back in the running for the US title (everyone assuming they're gonna put him right back into the open challenge like nothing happened just because they really liked the open challenge, when that's not really how WWE ever works) but that doesn't seem any less likely than anything else

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4d2isb_ochet_auto

Ospreay vs Ricochet, while it lasts

A stunt show, of course, but what a fucking stunt show

I liked that match better than the one on WM weekend but yeah, it's a stunt show where you never have the feeling that anyone is trying hard to win a wrestling match. I know why people like seeing these kinds of matches, so I'm not really criticizing, it's just not my preferred style. Ospreay's match vs KUSHIDA is one of the best matches of the year so far, but KUSHIDA is pretty much the man right now.

Ospreay's match vs KUSHIDA -- at Invasion Attack, btw.

Speaking of which, Naito is killing it as champion and I've yet to see a CHAOS vs Los Ignoberables de Japon undercard tag match that didn't rock bells. These factions should keep feuding forever AFAIC.

Is KUSHIDA all caps like MADVILLAIN?

yep

I signed up for NJ World last night so I just caught up on KUSHIDA/Ospreay, much more terrestrial yeah. It's kind of hard to browse NJ World if you're not looking for a specific thing, as might be expected

Going to watch Chris Hero/Sami Callahan/Dayjob Son of Havoc in London now

Reigns wonders how he can call himself the man when he keeps running from the guy.

The music hits and out comes Rollins to a pop. He stops on the stage and Reigns motions for him to come on. Rollins is wearing tights and takes his time. Rollins acts like he's going to hit the ring but he stops and walks back up the ramp as fans boo. Rollins takes a mic at the top of the stage as Reigns looks on. Rollins keeps acting like he's going to talk but doesn't. Some fans boo him. Rollins finally tosses the mic without speaking and heads back to the ring. He stops again, laughs at Reigns and heads up the ramp again. He stops again, runs back to the ring but stops right at ringside to taunt some more. Reigns looks on unimpressed. Rollins walks back up the ramp and picks the mic up. Rollins goes to speak but throws the mic down and walks to the back without speaking. Reigns' music hits and he mouths to the camera while holding the title. Rollins suddenly runs back down but stops at ringside again. He laughs at Reigns and heads up the ramp again. Rollins says we do things his way around here. Reigns raises the title in the air.

beautiful how rollins has refined his talent for filling up vast periods of airtime with nothing

kinda weird that the network has a documentary about cowardly heel rollins' brave recovery from injury

also apparently WWE's been keeping goldberg in a hatch for the past decade? feel like that should be a bigger deal

Wait what?

the huuuuge announcement that you can play as goldberg in wwe2k17 (also goldberg was in the ad)

didnt jericho do basically this whole "pretend to talk, don't talk, laugh" thing when he made his big return?

Yeah, he trolled the crowd for a couple of weeks but then it was dropped and never explained.

The Rollins thing felt like an elaborate setup to keep him from getting cheered against Reigns. I still don't have the slightest clue how any of this is supposed to help Reigns.

This is unintentional comedy gold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXIgHq_h8Z0

ALREADY rumors of wwe looking into splitting enzo and cass because wwe is a parody of itself and I really just need to stop watching entirely. they're so good at doing things just wrong enough to completely suck the joy out of everything.

love how back in the 90s the prehistoric smarks were going crazy for technicians like benoit over clunky NAO type stars, now we'd all settle for a modicum of charisma and likeability

OMG there's a director's cut of that Hardys video. How does TNA have money to spend on mini-movies?

I agree that Roman Reigns vs Big Cass is looking more and more like a potential Survivor Series main event with each passing day.

BOTSJ was great today, I had time and watched the entire show. Don't skip the undercard matches if you can help it, especially the CHAOS vs LIJ six man tag, I can't say enough about how good those matches have been. This is my favourite faction vs faction feud in I don't know how long. Even Goto, who I usually find boring, is suddenly interesting again just by being involved in this feud.

been taking a little break from the rasslin just recently but i watched the Ricochet vs Ospreay match tonight out of some sense of duty bcuz everyone has been talking about it, even though i usually hate this sort of thing. it was interesting! wasn't anywhere near as bad as i feared it might be anyway.

i feel like it occupies quite a strange space rn in that it was a match that supposedly exists on the absolute cutting edge of what wrestling can be yet in many ways it felt kinda... unfinished? like it points to something greater to come at some unspecified future date.

this seems to have been the fate that eventually befell the canonical Tiger Mask / Dynamite Kid series, in that it was uber-modern in its day in a "this is what we are capable of now" sorta way but it was quickly surpassed by guys doing the same sort of thing while telling a much more interesting story, and if you watch those matches back now it's difficult to see them as these timeless classics precisely because so much of the appeal was bound up with the athleticism and the wow factor and the choreography. compares unfavourably with e.g. some of Jerry Lawler's best 80s stuff because in those matches the story was doing all the heavy lifting and that stuff doesn't age in the same way.

various people, Ricochet included, have come out on twitter this week saying "well it's horses for courses, different styles of wrestling will suit different fans" etc. but i do feel that what's at stake here is something more than simply enjoying different styles. feeling like there are actual stakes involved in a match is not a stylistic thing imo, it's fundamental to the appeal of wrestling. and there would be ways to work this kind of match without it being quite such a relentless, no-selling go-go-go spotfest.

but idk that either of these guys are in a place yet where they can deliver on the promise they showed here and put on a match that offers the same virtuoso athleticism while telling an awesome story it'll definitely be cool to see what they can do together in a few years.

also Will Ospreay's facials are the worst, that guy has got all the physical ability and moves~! that one could ask for but he needs to work on those extras real bad. he could be incredible in a couple of years

Ospreay vs KUSHIDA showed that with the right opponent he can work his athleticism into the story. Plenty of famous wrestlers never figured that out in their entire careers (e.g. RVD, and even Kota Ibushi to a large extent).

Brock is fighting at ufc200 and punks debut is ufc202

i hate will ospreay's entire face so much, not just his facials but during promos and everything, he should realize his face sucks and incorporate it into heeling

on a brighter note i want to commend mattel on a meta job well done on this comic con exclusive
http://news.mattycollector.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DWF99_005_600px-198x300.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/F6BlB1H.jpg

Yesterday's BOSJ final was a perfect example of what Ospreay can do in a "story"-driven match with the right opponent (although who would have thought that Taguchi would be that opponent).

KUSHIDA vs O'Reilly on day 1 was the best match of the tournament for me. O'Reilly moving up to heavyweight would be great, especially if it happens in time for the G1. There are a lot of free spots in the G1 this year (Styles, Anderson, Ibushi, and Nakamura have all left, Yano is in NOAH, Tanahashi might be injured). At least there will be plenty of fresh matchups.

i guess you take bailey off the card and i dont even notice there was a nxt ppv. anyone watch it? im sure its really good but i guess i just dont care that much atm. might catch it later in the week. feel a bit like an internet nerd with the view 'but its not developmental anymore, its njpw v. tna!' but man, that just loses half the fun.

Not watched it yet as I'm on holiday and the sun is shining but I'll get round to it tonight probably.
Don't really gaf about the to show rn but there's no way I'm skipping out on nak/aa or the la sombra debut. Or fuxkin JOE man, he's great at.m

I wasn't nearly as stoked for this as I was for the Dallas ppv, but I'll watch this sometime in the next few days. I've seen the results, it sounds like a typically good NXT show.

It was fine. Spoiler-free musings: Dillinger looked great in the opener with Almas, he's the new Tyler Breeze (for good and for ill). The tag match was super, the booking in the NXT tag division is where all the action is at the moment. Nak/Aries was good but it went too long, and lacked the spark of something really at stake (like a title shot or something). Asuka and Nia Jax was my second favourite match of the night, yet another Women's Title match I was more pumped for than the main event - Jax is so close to being great as a badass. The cage match disappointed, I just don't feel any heat in that feud. Balor is great, but I didn't really feel him as champion last year, and I didn't see the hunger to get the belt back in the run-up. Think of Zayn and Owens and it doesn't even compare. Also, it was another TakeOver main event suffering from the lack of a cooldown spot. Nice how they fit the cage in Full Sail, though.