Rolling Chris and Kevin's Bogus Journey 2017

tbh just now i think smackdown is a resolutely entertaining show that i'm happy to spend two hours watching. but yes i could really be doing with some kind of raw digest. like, last week's show had the excellent braun - sami last man standing match and also a v good cesaro - karl anderson match along with some other innocuous-to-enjoyable things, but buried amidst a 1/2 wrestle kingdom's span of stuff who can be bothered.

anyone bothering with this UK tournament?

first match was pish, second one p. good actually. Finn Balor's weird-looking protege just kicked his opponent in the head and busted him open hardway it seems, really weird shooty ending to that match. then kicked the dude in the face again during the post-match handshake to complete a pretty fuckin effective heel turn. but the other guy, Burch, has been the best so far by a distance

He legit knocked him out which is some reckless bullshit IMHO.

Until that mess-up, Birch or Burch or however WWE spells it was channeling Shibata for real. Hopefully just in-ring Shibata, considering his Twitter drama this weekend.

I always liked Danny Burch when he showed up in NXT. I had a bad feeling he would be first-round fodder for this tournament. He deserves better.

What's this about Shibata twitter drama?

I'm not absolutely certain Burch was supposed to lose. What is clear is that the match wasn't supposed to end the way it did.

As for Shibata... Allegedly, he broke up with a partner or lover around Xmas time, and said jilted person posted a bunch of illicit details on Twitter, including stuff about him being insulting to fans. Allegedly.

fuck Jimmy Snuka

yup.

but major props to tyler 'didn't have a wikipedia article until last week' bate and pete dunne and all the lads apart from budget balor

i was not at all into trent seven but the rest of them were great! better than i expected (i had low expectations tho fwiw)

Agreed! Night 2 was so much better, partly to do with everyone having more time, partly to do with the existence of actual storylines (kicking off with Gradwell and Dunne, Dunne himself just being the biggest bastard, Tyler Bate the teenage underdog).

I'm mesmerised by the size of Tyler Bate's thighs. He gives Big E a run for his money.

Was the tournament worth watching?

Will the uk champ be rumble fodder? They dont actually have a tv show lined up yet right?

first night was alright, it felt a bit amateurish but was generally decent with a v good main event. the second night was excellent start to finish. and yeah, they did a great job of very quickly building up characters and storylines. pete dunne is immediately more hateable than any main roster wwe heel.

agreed about trent seven, will, i'd heard good things about him but he left very little impression on me.

Kurt Angle was announced for the WWE HOF. I guess the question now is who will he face at Mania? Cena? Styles? Joe?

best news. god bless Kurt Angle

fuckin hate wrestling fans that haven't go

t time for Kurt Angle. i meaan the guy lost his way for a while there but from 99-03 Kurt Angle was simply fuckin astonishing on so many levels

Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle.

kurt angle "you suck" during theme song was the beginning of a terrible tradition but is still all kinds of lol imo

(not a zing on angle himself, plz don't put me in an angle lock windsor)

saw a vid clip fairly recently of Kurt Angle coming out to wrestle (I think) Zack Sabre at a Rev Pro show where they played out 'Medal' in full, bcuz clearly WWE is bigger than that kinda bullshit these days, and I tell you what, it was p. frickin special

hadn't realised until now that i has this whole "I MUST USE THE FULL NAME AT ALL TIMES" Edin Dzeko thing going on w. Kurt Angle but there we are

i think there is a cogent case to be made that Kurt Angle in 2001 is about as good as anyone ever got. the transition from weasel heel champ working The Rock to technically perfect ultimate submission master working Chris Benoit to all-time better-than-Atsushi-Onita garbage death match at King of the Ring to beloved babyface p. much revolutionising the WWE main event spectacular / WORKRATE hybrid that dominates to this day, all while being totally dope on the mic and also probably the best comedy character of the decade, ONLY 2 YEAR INTO HIS CAREER

idgaf what other shit ppl try and blame on him retrospectively ito the development of WWE main event trends, in those days he was untouchable. it's true, it's etc.

Angle seems to really have his life back on track after a bunch of really messed up years. I couldn't be happier that he's back in WWE. I'm assuming he gets the Taker/Lesnar treatment where he wrestles two or three matches per year, which has me stoked for all sorts of amazing matchups.

i think there is a cogent case to be made that Kurt Angle in 2001 is about as good as anyone ever got.

He's up there. Angle was WWE's last chance to save the Invasion angle, the Summerslam match vs Austin is one of my all-time favourites and I still wonder how big he could have gotten if they'd given him the belt there and let him carry the company for a few months. Instead they went all-in with Austin's second failed heel turn, Angle turned to the Alliance for no reason (and then back again) and was damaged goods until the Smackdown Six era picked up in late '02.

Kurt Angle > Benoit by an astronomical factor, in my view.

I see the board is as excited for Royal Rumble as I am.

i'm actually always excited about the rumble tbh, it's the funnest dumbest thing. i've actually been watching old rumbles over the past 2 weeks! it was the first thing i cared about as a "casual" because it had ALL OF THE DUDES and to this day i still love the glorious idiocy of it all

i'm excited bc it really does feel unpredictable this year, but i'm sure they'll find a way to disappoint

The Royal Rumble is the WrestleMania of wrestling.

That being said, it's always best to go into the things with low expectations. Even with the NXT show tonight, I'm not holding my breath. And I'm not staying up for it, either; one all-nighter for the Rumble is enough for me.

Im super excited. I think i could make a list of genuinely like 15 potential winners. I dont think it has ever been this unpredictable. The last one i can remember that even came close is the one where edge returned from injury. Even wildcards like joe, nakamura, zayn and balor dont seem out of the question (they also definitely wont happen).

On the other hand I can see them bursting such a bubble with something that will piss fans off like craaazy, like cena winning and orton winning and being like "omg they have never fought at wrestlemania (1 on 1) lets do itttttt" and it being worse than the mega sheamus push from a year or so ago.

way more psyched for the RR (the whole 14-hour event) than takeover

yeah for sure. Takeover was pretty flat on the whole I thought. i like the Authors of Pain and I thought that was the right result, and Nakamura / Roode was as enjoyable and competent as it was always gonna be without ever really being anything special. cba with Nakamura in NXT anymore really, but apparently there aren't any plans in the pipeline to bring him up yet. presumably they need him to anchor the WM-weekend show in his rematch against Roode. meh.

i like all the new women well enough - Asuka is just killing that division now. get her up on the main roster soon too plz

Tye Dillinger is so obviously the man. they're getting away with doing that Tyler Breeze thing to him at the moment but he's seriously the only guy on the whole roster (except for The Revival) who feels like he has that proper organic connection with the fans based on his character and NXT work rather than reputation (i.e. Nak, Roode) He'd make an awesome sympathetic babyface champ at some point. if he gets passed over for Austin Aries or Andrade Almas or (heaven fuckin help us) Roderick Strong this year it'll be a huge missed opportunity.

but yeah, all told a disappointing show.

majorly hyped for the Rumble, p. sure I will stay up to watch. honestly can't think of very many permutations which wouldn't be quite cool (unless it really is Cena / Reigns / Taker all winning in the three big matches, that would admittedly be pretty flat). this would be a good year for a dark horse outsider pick for the Rumble i reckon. although with that said, Jericho's never won it yet has he? I could see him winning, KO retains to set up their thing at WM for the title

lol i have nothing on tonight so i'm actually watching the pre-show shit, making for a grand total of 6 hrs of Royal Rumbling in the Davies household. fuckin A. HBK is on the pre-show panel, unexpected bonus early on.

loooove listening to HBK kayfabing about the 95-96 Rumbles. still to this day THE all-time prick.

wait what, Rosenberg is doing presenting for them now? at least he didnt bring the Masked Man with him i guess

man Jericho is selling the shit out of this shark cage gimmick. this latest run for him ended up being so good.

Roman Reigns, otoh, is still just such a fuckin goof. how is it possible that a guy with so many of the necessary raw materials sucks so much? can it really all be Vinnie Mac micro-management? I'm not the biggest fan of Kevin Owens as a wrestler tbh but the difference between Owens and Reigns in those little "intangible" character moments is like night and day

lol no wai they're actually doing Strowman vs Reigns at Wrestlemania, this is astonishing

tbf though that is a MOUNTAIN of a man jfc

it'll be fun to see everyone cheering for Strowman.

2 minute intervals tonight, sweet.

love both Cena and Styles unreservedly. gotta think Styles is winning here though, potentially with shenanigans. they've made nowhere near enough of a thing in the pre-match out of Cena breaking the world tile record for them to actually do it

fuck though Styles was gonna hit the BURNING HAMMER for a second there

didn't Brian Kendrick hit a Burning Hammer on someone recently? And it only got a 2? That sorta shit should lead to an automatic revocation of all pro-wrestling certificates and credentials for both parties imo

almost as bad as KO barely getting a two count on Reigns tonight off of a Stone Cold Stunner.

welp! shows what i know! totally burned out on these WWE finisher kickout epics now but that rolling AA to finish was flyyyyyyyy

k i would like one Kurt Angle appearance plz, give me that and i don't really gaf what else may happen.

So long as it isn't Randy Orton, who apparently is the overwhelming bookies favourite :S

ahhhhhh i'm excited this is the best hour or two of the wrestling year. let's dooooo it

fuck man they are properly giving Strowman the main-event push tonight. it's gonna have to be Lesnar to fuck his shit up isn't it

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh they did Tye Dillinger at 10, YES

so at #15 we haven't seen hide nor hair of Y2J for about half an hour, so he's gotta be hiding somewhere for a late return and victory

holy shit Kofi just nearly killed himself on the ring post

or not

My favorite Rumble prediction of those I've read is that this will finally be Kofi's year. As of this writing he's still in, so I hope that's what happens.

this has turned into a pretty shitty Rumble. damn. wouldn't have thought that the first half of it where it was all about Strowman would be the hot half but there it is.

ring all full of dudes now for one of/some combo of Lesnar / Goldberg / Taker to come in and clean house. meh.

Welp, there go Kofi and Cesaro, my sentimental favorites.

No Mercy has a freaking wrestlemania card, it's gonna be great. Wrestlemania maybe not so much

Yeah, this is the biggest non-big 4 PPV in some time.

yeah i don't really get that tbh. why are they bothering? have they even put a big promotional push behind the two main-events here? seems like a bit of a waste of two of their money matches

leaving aside the on-paper lineup, would anyone actually advocate tuning in for this show? is there a single hot angle? i saw that Cena had been chatting breeze about Roman Reigns on tv in a sufficiently "ooooohh is he kayfabing or is he FOR REAL?!!!!" sort of a way to get the internet all excited. anything to it?

can't front, the only WWE show i've watched in the last, idk, 18 months or so was the Royal Rumble (because no matter how much i disengage over the course of the year, i will always watch a Royal Rumble) and before that it was probably an NXT special? Or the bizarro-world Wrestlemania from hell in 2016. and nothing i read about anything that they're doing makes me want to check back in. which is horrifying really because i love wrestling and they've got so many potentially awesome guys and girls on the roster, and i just do not gaf about any of it. the presentation of everything they do is terrible

WWE is like the pro-wrestling Saturday Night Live. It gets a bunch of talented performers, gives them the highest production value of any show in their genre, and uses it all to churn out mediocrity and worse. But people watch it because it's the big leagues for that kind of entertainment, and every once in a while there's something brilliant. (And fans are always nostalgic for an earlier era that mostly sucked too.)

Impact/TNA is MadTV in this analogy.

yeah maybe. tho i do wonder how much blame should fall at the feet of the wrestlers? lots of "top guys" on this roster who are fundamentally bang average at lots of the important bell-to-bell stuff (Rollins, Ambrose, Owens, there are others). it's like they spent their whole life watching really good and special wrestling but totally failed to identify what it was that made it good and special. or is this style being imposed upon them from above? idk, i feel like if i ever have to watch another 30 minute WWE main-event with finisher trades and hundreds of kickouts etc. ever again then it'll be too soon. i don't really want to watch Cena vs Reigns this weekend, but more importantly i don't really think i need to, i already know exactly what that match is gonna be like, whoever wins

That SNL analogy is so OTM.

lots of "top guys" on this roster who are fundamentally bang average at lots of the important bell-to-bell stuff (Rollins, Ambrose, Owens, there are others). it's like they spent their whole life watching really good and special wrestling but totally failed to identify what it was that made it good and special.

I think that's too harsh; Owens really gets what it means to be a live performer with a nuanced character. Maybe it doesn't translate as well on TV but that's not necessarily his fault. Commentary, for one, does an exceptionally poor job of explaining WHY we should, as viewers, be invested in any particular match.

Well sure, Owens has an excellent line in mannerisms and trash talk during his matches which admittedly does add a whole lot to the overall effect, but I'm still not convinced that he has the least idea how to put together a match that I want to sit down and watch

And that's OK too. I can't pin down exactly why I enjoy his matches, I've never sat down to analyse it in any depth, but I do. On the same note I also cannot understand how anyone can rate Randy Orton when he puts me to sleep (only exception being his Mania match with Rollins).

I think this card and other ppv cards (as well as the apparent return of starrcade in november) are being used to prop up network subs, which the higher ups have been thinking will sag in q3

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cagesideseats.com/platform/amp/wwe/2017/7/27/16050802/wwe-network-subscriber-count-down

not sure if the hoo ha over jinder's clumsy "you hated me because you're racist and you secretly hate nakamura too because you're racist" promise these last two weeks will help on that front either

"If you hate the ethnic heel then you're a racist too" is like the modern day "shades of grey" character profile in WWE-universe Land.

the wwe style where every single match is structured the same boring way is absolutely an imposition on the wrestlers, evident via 1. every single match being that way, and 2. it not corresponding to how those wrestlers wrestled in the indies (and often even in nxt). i'm not as anti-wwe style as a lot of people are, but it's nevertheless probably no coincidence that my favourite wwe match of 2017 is the bate-dunne takeover match that seemed unrestrained by that standard format.

had a great time last night.. crowd was really into it and very generous with the 'this is awesome' chant. show kinda lost steam at the end, and the main event finish seemed kinda out of nowhere. womens match was amazing!

It did seem like a great crowd at No Mercy (judging from TV). The women's match, tag title match, and Cena vs Reigns really delivered. The main event was an all-time stink bomb in terms of expectations.

cracking up at how michael cole was dancing around saying "bullet club" to intro this finn/aj match

watched Lesnar - Styles last night, my first match in god knows how long. it was very good. AJ Styles seems to be fast approaching the Flair / Funk / HBK / Hart god-tier status and WWE are unexpectedly acknowledging it and playing to it. and Lesnar still sells better than just about anyone else has in the past 20 years when he can be bothered.

seriously, if you missed this match, seek it out. 15 mins or so, one of those ones where they actually let Lesnar's opponent look competitive. rock solid storytelling, totally comprehensible strategy from both men and some fantastic near falls that made sense in context, not just the usual finisher kick-out bullshit.

seriously seriously. there's a bit where AJ gets Brock caught in the Calf Crusher and Brock is forced to use an unorthodox counter. it's unbelievable. shocking. a moment of visceral brutality that no one other than Brock could make work. best spot i can remember in WWE

That was a good match for sure

didn't bother with the rest of the show, apparently the main event was a stinker? lol at the idea of putting together a match with all that talent involved and turning it into a story about Triple H punking Kurt Angle. Shane McMahon top babyface in 2017, jfc

one of those ones where they actually let Lesnar's opponent look competitive

Except for that first half where Brock completely rag-dolls SD's top superstar.

'Rock solid storytelling'? What are you on?!

I really liked it but Yeah, brock should have just pinned him after 5 mins.

I also watched velveteen dream v Alistair black on recommendation. They both seem like guys with a lot of potential. I cant believe noone has tried to be modern rick rude before. That he has also tried to make him a strong face character instead of vince's awkward attempts at queerer cowardly heel types made it even more interesting. The guy has a lot of potential, especially as he has cena's physique.

Were any other matches from this weekend worth watching? I dont think I will ever be so down on life that I would watch that main event.

Lol agree to disagree. If you don't think lesnar should be ragdolling styles then I don't know what to tell you. He's like 5 times the size of him!

And the storytelling was rock solid! Lesnar obviously has too much if you try and go toe to toe, take out the leg, take away his base, hit every big move you've got in your arsenal while he's grounded, pray like hell you keep him down for 3. It was bang on!

Anyway, dope match.

Oh I get it on principle, but it falls apart when I consider the whole thing holistically: Brock being an older part-timer who hasn't actually *wrestled* a match in years, and who got obviously blown up in minutes, versus the (slightly) younger, better conditioned and more highly skilled WRESTLER. One can't be all graps-mad one minute then change the tune just 'cause it's Brock. It's bullshit.

Idk, I kind of take the point but brock is a special case, no? Through virtue of his sheer size, athleticism and legit fighting skills. I don't think it'll ever be believable NOT to have him toss around any given opponent like a sack of straw in his matches, certainly not during the early exchanges. Maybe once he's considerably older and more broken down.

Besides, I still love that aura that he has and the fact that they protect it. Obviously too often these days they go too far the other way (ambrose squash lol) to the detriment of his matches. But I thought that they got it about right this time

Brock as a special case - that's where we differ. For me it just breaks my suspension of disbelief to make exceptions for this one man, whose big fight aura is completely blown out of proportion in my estimation. And a man whose presence never fails to undermine the active roster, too. He's just one aspect of many, but the way he's booked is not unconnected with the worrying decline in house show attendance, I'd argue. But hey, that's really a blend of my objective and emotional reading of it all. If you or anyone else gets a kick out of him, then fair enough.

To be fair I've not actually seen him recently - missed the Goldberg, Samoa Joe, strowman stuff - and I gather he's been consistently phoning it in harder than ever this year while still being the super protected end-game boss baddie the whole time, which certainly isn't great from an entertainment perspective.

WWE house show attendance / business health generally is pretty high on the list of things I don't gaf about, makes no odds to me if they wilfully tank their own company

Anyone watch the njpw big shows? Is there anything actually interesting enough going on in wrestling for a rolling 2018 thread title? "Rolling Samoa joe is the only really interesting wrestler in 2018"? "Rolling young bucks sell all the merch to people who have never watched them wrestle 2018"?

i'm excited about the mixed tag challenge, but i'm more excited about rusev day

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-mixed-match-challenge/article/rusev-to-team-with-lana-at-wwe-mmc

Rolling 2018: Where Every Day is Rusev Day