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that was great

Since Angle and Cory are both from Pittsburgh, i think they are texting about primanti brothers sandwiches.

Looking forward to the Observer year-end awards when 'New Japan shrugging at shoot head butts' and 'TNA pushes unstable domestic abuser' loses Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic to 'Heel manager grabs briefcase.'

You ever hear a review of a film and someone points out that a certain character or actor "was like he was in a different movie?" That's Roman here. Two badass shitkkickers about to kill each other, and then poochie there off to the side, doing his best blue steel expression and being like "pfft, whatever." Jesus H Christ was Roman exposed there.

Wrestling fans are the worst

Samoa Joe single-handedly saves this show. A furious, wronged challenger who is unafraid of the biggest, baddest motherfucker and goes nose to nose with him? Good lord. Roman Reigns WISHES he was half the man Samoa Joe is. What a terrific segment. Heyman barely hiding his fear of Joe. Brock showing actual worry before correcting himself. Joe blasting through the false bravado of the champ and treating Roman like he wasn't even there. Angle barely holding it together. Roman's not a bad promo and he got so thoroughly outclassed all he could do was mug in the background. Bravo. The rest of this show can jump in the Gulf of Mexico.

And after Al Wilson died too.

I think many of us know it and it doesn't get said much, but Joe has been a top 5 guy on the mic since coming to NXT. Any time he's on the mic, he's a total natural. Everything comes out with a ton of conviction. I never get the sense that he's flubbing lines or anything like that. And he always sounds like a total badass. Then he comes up to the main roster and he's continued to work the mic like a champ. I don't think there's anyone on Raw who touches him as a complete performer. He can work a long promo, he can work a short promo, and he's top notch in the ring. This Lesnar feud has done even more to expose Roman as a guy that isn't ready for where they want him to be. Where is that same fire? Where is that same intensity? What about Roman makes anyone think that this guy is going to fight and fuck someone up. Every time Joe touches the mic or the ring he's superfly TNT. He's the guns of the Navarone. A lot like Brock, whenever Joe talks, all of Joe's body language, and everything he does in ring tells me that he's going to beat ass. Fuck it. Put the title on Joe and do something different for a change. Beyond that, I'm conflicted. I am legit more interested in Roman vs Cena for the title at WM than Roman vs Brock. Roman vs Joe is right up there as well, but how much longer do they have to do Roman vs Cena? If you go with Roman chasing Joe, you can go with Joe as the guy Roman can't beat. Samoan vs Samoan. Roman gets the win over Brock to show he's ready for Joe. Whatever direction they eventually go in, I think Joe needs to win the title. Maybe that's the fan in me talking, but they've done too good of a job with Joe to fuck this up. Ugh. Yeah. Of course they'll fuck this up.

"No biggie"

My guess for the Angle thing is that they find out he's been secretly training to compete again, and that when he rejoined WWE, there was strict conditions surrounding this for his well-being/so he didn't fall off the wagon. Graves having his career ended early due to concussions probably is why he's there. Or they have no idea. One or the other.

Yeah I loved that segment, everyone came off well and these reactions ha

I think those crazy kids are going to make it.

After some consideration, I think Samoa Joe could be the closest they get to another Daniel Bryan-style swell of popularity these days. He's half-way between the everyman analog Bryan was and the idealized ass kicker Steve Austin was. He's just a regular guy, but he's the toughest regular guy there is and he's not afraid of anybody, while still being an underdog. Plus Joe already has the air of someone who worked for everything he got and maybe wasn't supposed to get as far as he has. Place that against genetic lottery winners like Braun and Brock and the walking representation of tone deaf creative that is Roman Reigns and you have the chance for something special. But as Matt D said, we've been conditioned to be cynical. I'm just trying not to be.

"Jerk store is the line! Jerk store!"

Reigns is such the odd man out in that promo that I almost feel bad for him. Lesnar, Joe, and Heyman are in the Super Bowl and he's playing Pop Warner. Vince must be pissed because that promo did not make Roman look strong at all.

@Brian Fowler and@Matt D do, Samoa Joe became the biggest face in the WWE ; ).

This was everything I didn't want to see last night. I don't want Bayley scoring a pin and muddying the title picture. I want a sequel to the hatred that is Sasha/Alexa.

I don't remember if I saw here or elsewhere people jumping to "So Joe's added to the match so that Reigns can pin him and not Brock." very quickly. And as much as @Johnny Sorrow might complain about those people, they've been conditioned that way by years and years and years of WWE booking and priorities. This is the company that consistently buries people in their hometown, that just lost/fired/etc. Austin Aries who could have been a new talent gatekeeper for the next five years at the very worst (which is something they really need) because they couldn't look past his size, that has given us multiple PPVs in a row with almost all heel wins, that has gone back in so many ways to the idea that all females are catty and crazy, that has weird hang-ups over certain words or things being too southern or tournaments not working because WM4 didn't draw so well. This is the company that has tried to get away from wrestlers reacting to losses like they matter because it somehow negatively impacts "everyone being entertained." Maybe on twitter or reddit it's different, but I don't know a single person here that would rather hatewatch something than actually and actively love what they're watching. There's such an abusive relationship people have with WWE because in a lot of ways it's the only game in town, certainly the biggest game, and we all have a spattering of great formative memories and maybe less great recent ones, but they stand out all the more for their rarity and just how serene and transcendent GOOD pro wrestling can be in moving us. We stay because there's not really anywhere else on the same level to go, nothing else that feels as important (and something feeling important is pretty much the most important thing in a social sense), nothing else that lets us so thoroughly be part of a community. And the company craps on its fans again and again. Now, too, the fanbase is so schismed, that even if they wanted to please most people (and they don't; they want to please one person first and foremost), they couldn't. So yeah, I'm definitely glad that Joe was given a chance to shine last night. He made the best of it, of course he did, but it's so hard not to be cynical after years and years of this stuff. In fact, if you're not being cynical, you're setting yourself up to be burned (again). Even the stuff that's good is flawed relative to what it could be (when I pressed someone on the flaws about Brock vs Joe, they replied back that "it's the best they could have done," as if that was somehow supposed to make it okay that they weren't given an environment and the direction to have something actually better).

Like shit mostly. Few good edits and a lot of bad ones but when someone makes one you like, it's really easy to see the other stuff they did. I'm working on this:

Heyman put over Joe so strong by basically begging for Brock to face Roman instead. I loved Brock talking for himself for a change and Joe being ready to hurl insults at both Roman and Brock. It felt less scripted and more organic than "your turn / my turn / your turn."

Angle is in the Steele Dossier. The George Steele Dossier.

Hunter cosplays as Lemmy. Based on her WM outfit, Steph is Ronnie James Dio. My guess for Kurt is Rob Halford.

I did see Joe's promo. Summerslam should be Brock/Joe II. I was half expecting Braun to come out and give Roman the "I'm not finished with you." treatment. Starting the show with Big Cass is a pretty bad idea. He might as well shave his head and become a Nazi biker because he's DOA. Mostly, my focus was on Aaron Judge killing baseballs, winning the home run derby.

Between "Lana isn't as hot as she thinks she is" and Tye Dillenger telling Miz "I fucked your wife," this thread is going down a bad path...

They mentioned Braun beating Roman but Braun isn't around to fight because he's up in the mountains eating bear meat to regenerate a new eye. He'll return and let the pretenders know he's not finished with them yet.

Worse than that, it was the return of ultra lame cornball Roman. Whenever he smirks like he does and fires of a one liner, it's like he's saying, "OH YEAH? Uh, well, YOUR MOM!" And if he's not doing that, he's doing the other stupid lame thing where he has NO comeback at all. Someone busts him out and he does the lookaway whatever face because he doesn't have any retort. I don't get their total inconsistency on Roman. I kinda want them to actually succeed in making him remotely interesting, and all they do is make him look like a total dork. For fucks sake. The guy is a on a losing streak and comes out to say that he's challenging for the world title. In what fucking world does that make the slightest bit of sense? And if you are going to come out and make that sort of proclamation, at least try to come across as remotely convincing.

Oh shit, Zach Lowe just uploaded a podcast with Jerry Stackhouse. This is gonna be good. I'm still disappointed that Stack and 'Sheed didn't end up being Bucks assistants as was rumored when they hired Kidd. It would have been the most unfuckwithable coaching staff of all time.

Good on Deadpool Movie congratulating Wonder Woman passing Deadpool Movie's domestic total. Wonder Woman: $368.5 million, Deadpool: $363.1 million.

A 40 year old man, ladies and gentlemen. This is what social media hath wrought.

I woke my wife up watching it. I was popping so hard throughout it. She rolled over in bed and said, "must be good." Then I answered..............

Someone Angle loves... Rulon Gardner on RAW next week! Wait, what?

Let's hope. Then Brock can take a powder during the match and let the three guys who want to put in some effort do their thing before he comes in and spams his Two Moves of Doom.

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN.

WWECW was probably my favorite show/promotion for its last couple of years. Even the early run has stuff I enjoyed, like Flair going full Onita in the Big Show match. It was definitely a link in the evolutionary chain of what's become modern NXT.

I decided to go Rusev first.

So, she's just very attractive instead of incredibly attractive? Rusev on the other hand we all know is the most handsome.

Joe being angrier than a motherfucker has always been money on mic and in ring. Except for the Nation of Violence thing, but whatever. Joe and Brock looked like they legit wanted to come to blows. Also, this is why the PG era is good - when people actually get to cussing, it actually has some impact. There was some kid in the front row who was shocked when Brock dropped that S-bomb, like he couldn't believe it and he just knew things were going to escalate. I'll have to see whatever match comes of this someday. The last time I saw Joe this intense, he tried to turn Finn Balor and some random security guy into two matching puddles of grease.

Magic realist novel set in the future. In a post-apocalypse Sudan, a woman is raped and conceives a child. Child is born in the desert under extraordinary circumstances and is revealed to have extraordinary powers as she grows up. Eventually the girl comes to realize that she has a destiny which is tied up in the fate of her mother's oppressed people and that she might have to die to achieve that destiny. She's also caught the attention of something powerful and magical, which wants her dead. That's the setup. Thematically, the book balances the supernatural elements with heavy doses of African culture and sexual/racial politics. I read it after it won the World Fantasy Award and thought it was very good. The title comes from the main characters name, which translates into English as "Who fears death."

RDJ looked like he showed up, was given his sides right before they shot, and only gave them one take. It didn't ruin the movie or anything, but he's on autopilot. I liked the more realistic take of Peter, Flash, Liz, and Ned all sort of being in the same social stratosphere with bullying and pecking order angst amongst them. That's much more what high school is like. Keaton is dynamite. He's always been an actor that knows how to show a character thinking, processing information, and adjusting. That car ride...whoa. I thought outside of the Stones/Ramones most of the music was more deep cut 80s stuff so it wasn't too jarring, but needle drops are here to stay I guess.

"1st place are you kidding!?" Holy shit, guys! Right now it's slid down to 4th in global sales. Still!

I thought that this was a new character, the Cougar...

Here's hoping Angle was on the phone with Braun at the end of the show.

Lots of people on the board have been requesting and waiting for this.

Quads~! Arms~! Not impressed~!