Greggulator

Yeah, the atmosphere made the match. The match itself was a very acceptably good wrestling match but the build to it was great and the split crowd was good, too. It's sort of like college basketball in a way -- the level of play isn't nearly as good as the NBA, but a heated college crowd has a great atmosphere that makes the game so much more epic than it probably is. I know I forgot Regal/Ohno and Regal/Cesaro. My list is pretty much just random crap that came to my mind after the Top 4. I'm not about to sit-down and rank all of them but man oh man are we lucky people.

Yeah, it sucks. He works the gimmick really well. But methodical doesn't always translate. It's probably smart of him to try his hand at doing something goofy like his new bit.

RSUEV VS. KOFI -- I'm pretty sure Lana is the most attractive female wrestling personality of all-time. This is purely subjective. But I love her. Stone cold fox. Anyways, Rusev is taking on Kofi Kingston. Regal's on commentary and gives a big tip of the cap to Antonio Cesaro after their amazing match last week. Nice and quick to wrap the angle up in a bow. There's no need to linger. I can't help but think of Cesaro during this match and the next one. Alex Reilly talks up Kofi's experience and how many titles he has won. Anyways, this match lasts about 3 minutes. I don't mind Kofi but man he totally mailed this in. His boom drop stuff looks so weak. Thankfully, Rusev wins with the Accolade. This was rough. NATTIE VS. EMMA -- This is for the number one contendership for Paige's title. This, too, is like that. Nattie does one cool spot in this -- a really nasty looking surfboard type thing. It's so awesome looking. But the rest of it is why I don't like Nattie at all -- her stuff isn't snug, her selling is awful, etc. Emma wins after the Emma lock. Afterwards, it takes about three seconds of prompting for Nattie to do the Emma dance. Ugh. Cesaro goes to NXT and has Match of the Year type things with well thought out angles. These two come in and it's a snooze. I don't know who books WWE guys on the NXT roster or not. But it looks like from this angle that Cesaro goes down to Florida and looks to make the show his in the best way possible. Everyone else just wants to not get hurt and don't really care about making the young people look any good. AIDEN ENGLISH/BIG CASS SINGING CONTEST -- Oh my god, this is the best. Must-see television. This is such great wrestling camp tomfoolery and a great way to set up a feud. Aiden English does his super pretentious operatics. Regal talks about their relationship and something about getting tea together with a dwarf friend. Cass responds with some lunkhead song that's not so bad and a diss of Aiden and the NXT crowd eats it up. The crowd votes for Big Cass and Aiden is beside himself. He demands a second round! Aiden sings some showtune thing to diss Cass. Cass responds with a version of My Girl, but replacing the words with "You Suck!" The crowd joins in the prompt perfectly and it's spectacular. Big Cass takes his eyes off Aiden to cheer with the crowd and English clips his knee. And a feud begins between two very silly and fun characters. Great stuff. TYLER BREEZE/MASON RYAN -- Regal talks about how Renee gives him the "Cobbywobbles." Breeze is now wintering in some Brazilian getaway. Man, I can't believe Mason isn't on the main roster. He looks like every wrestling promoter's wet dream. We live in a new era when guys like Bryan and Punk and a bunch of other guys are on our television while this stiff isn't. Anyways, Sylvester LaFort (I forgot to throw that in -- he had a segment where Mason called him an idiot) comes to ringside and Ryan, like a total moron, goes to attack an ineffectual French manager. Breeze hits the Beauty Shot for the win. I love Breeze's gimmick and character but he hasn't been in a match longer than 45 seconds, I don't think. I really want him to be great. Hopefully he ups his game. SAMI ZAYN/KRUGER 2 OUT OF 3 FALLS -- What a great touch with this gimmick, since Leo started attacking Sami in order to capture the attention of Antonio Cesaro, who he also challenged. Is Leo officially changing his gimmick? I hope not because his hunter character is really cool. Match starts with Kruger stalking Zayn on the floor. Alex Riley says he favors Sami because of his previous experience in 2 out of 3 falls matches. Regal says he favors Kruger because he took a beating from Cesaro and thinks Zayn is still suffering from his. Kruger has most of the early part of the match but Sami comes out with an Exploder Suplex into the corner, followed by his running boot. And Sami gets the first fall. When we come out of the break, Sami is on the top rope trying for a superplex. Kruger LAUNCHES him to the floor! It's CRAZY. Sami barely beats a 10 count and then survives a DDT. Kruger goes back to slowing the pace down and doing his stalking style offense of chokes and punches. Zayn gets a second win and hits his spinning powerbomb thing. Zayn goes to the apron. Zayn gets caught up and Kruger hits a spinning neckbreaker with Zayn's feet on the top rope like Orton's hangman DDT. It becomes a great battle of Zayn's flying versus Kruger's methodical nature. Kruger hooks his GC3 finishier -- a cool looking arm clutch -- but Sami gets the ropes. Kruger looses his temper. Kruger continues to lose his temper and ends up ripping off his shirt after hitting the spinebuster. He sets up Sami for The Slice clothesline. But Sami ducks and hits a facebuster type thing. And then Sami hooks Leo in some arm submission and Leo taps! Sami wins 2-0! Has a 2 out of 3 falls match EVER ended 2-0 like that? Anyways, I really liked this match a lot. It wasn't as exciting as a lot of other matches but the story was well-done. Sami's resilience got the better of Kruger's patience. Now does Sami learn the lessons and finally beat Bo Dallas?

Here are my favorite matches of the year in a loose order. I didn't see any WWE PPVs before SummerSlam so I'm missing a lot of stuff. 1) The Rhodes Boys vs. The Shield, some episode of Raw -- Cody and Dustin win the belts over one of the most dominant tag teams (plus corner man) of all-time. The work in the match was very good -- not great, but very good -- but the ending is what made it. The rules were tailored to tilt the match in favor of The Authority's lackeys. This is the same Authority that fired Cody over petty reasons (HHH and Orton not getting invited to his wedding/Cody lipping off to HHH), fired Dustin in order to further humiliate the family, and tried to force Dusty to choose between his sons only to get punched in the face by the indentured Big Show. However, the fired Big Show comes out from the crowd and saves the day and punches Roman Reigns to get payback after being forced to punch one of his idols in order to keep his job. The match ends with Cody and Dustin celebrating as Show goes into the crowd and does the Yes chant -- reminding everyone that the larger story is the arc of Daniel Bryan, which is why this whole thing happened in the first place. For everyone who says the WWE is incapable of telling a layered, complex storyline, please look at that. That's legitimately amazing storytelling. If you want to rank matches based on work alone, be my guest. But I think the bigger context of the match and those intricacies and callbacks is way more important. Legitimately, I don't think the WWE ever told anything like this as well as they did. The only match I can think of off the top of my head in US wrestling as good was Raven/Richards vs. The Pitbulls in ECW, which is only probably the best match in ECW history. This match is on par with the best match in ECW history. This my MOTY and on the short list of best matches ever on Raw. 2) The Rhodes Boys vs. The Shield, Battleground -- Superb and masterful work that ends with Dusty punching Dean and the good guys defeating The Shield. Another amazing match between a lot of amazing workers.The work in the match itself is better than number one. And if anyone wants to say it's overall better, you won't get much of an argument from me. This is one of the best tag team matches in a ridiculously long time. 3) Bryan vs. Cena, SummerSlam -- This match was essentially a reset button for the WWE. It was so friggin' crazy and wild -- the Ganzo Bomb, the flying knee, etc. Bryan as maybe the best all-time underdog vs. Cena, who got to work as an ace, and he's terrific in the role. Bryan beats the WWE's lone icon and cements himself forever. Then the crazy ass end comes with HHH and Randy, creating The Authority. This match essentially launched the best six months of in-ring WWE wrestling since at least The Smackdown Six and maybe even longer. There were so many classic matches and angles (the two above, so many friggin' awesome Shield things, the Wyatt's reign starting, etc.) that happened because of the aftermath of this match. None of that has the gravitas if those two didn't put on one of the great matches in SummerSlam history. 4) Punk vs. Lesnar, SummerSlam -- 1B to one of the WWEs best-ever PPVs. A complete and total war and awesome story. Punk has to somehow survive Lesnar in an effort to destroy Heyman. He uses his guile and wit to do so but his hubris and obsessive quest for revenge leads for him to lose to the monster. 5) Punk vs. Cena, that Raw -- The culmination of a two-year rivalry that saw Punk consistently win the upper hand on the way to a historic title reign that lasted longer than any of Cena's multiple reigns. Up until SummerSlam, Cena and Punk were the WWE's two most compelling figures -- Cena, the mainstream hero and face of the company against the anti-hero Punk. Both guys have to break out stuff they've never done before -- the Cena-canrana, Punk's piledriver -- in order to try and end the match. Cena wins and makes it clear that he's better than Punk and goes on to take back the title against The Rock. 6) Del Rio vs. Big Show, LMS -- Del Rio as a face sucked but this was a terrific moment. Del Rio's biggest kayfabe strength is his cunningness. He works body parts, finds weaknesses, looks for flash moves (and cheap shots as a heel), etc. Here, he manages to figure out a way to defeat the giant in a super clever fashion. 7) Jericho vs. RVD, the Raw in Brooklyn -- This match wasn't for wrestling nerds. I'm sure there's a ton of stuff old Jericho and RVD do that we'd all rip apart. But these two had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands like it was 2000, and that's more important than anything. It felt like a US Open tennis match between Sampras and Agassi after Federer took over -- two long-time favorites going at it, without a lot at stake other than the personal pride in beating the other. 8) Sami vs. Cesaro, NXT -- The best pure babyface in the world showing fire against one of the greats going right now. This was just an awesome spot-fest, but told magnificently well -- Sami's crazy dive and his insane tornado DDT spot, Cesaro getting a fall off of a nasty spinning chinlock, and one of the most insane feats of strength from Cesaro to end the match. So friggin' great. 9) Punk/Bryan/Rhodes Brothers/Usos vs. The Shield/Wyatts, Raw -- The WWE became tag team heaven the past few months and tag wrestling is the best wrestling. This was such a friggin' awesome match. The six faces against the two heel factions. The Shield and The Wyatts the week before squared off in one of the most hot segments of the year. They don't trust each other to start things but learn to work together during the match, which resulted in all of them jumping the faces in the corner all at once in one of the most fun sports of the year. It ends with all of the insane dives, etc. that has made this year so awesome. 10) Emma vs. Paige, NXT -- The NXT women's division is terrific. These two put on a really good match made even better by the great crowd. They have such a great juxtaposition -- Emma is the bubbly ditz who is really very good, Paige is the ultra-serious "anti-diva" who believer her hype a little too much. Paige becomes the first NXT Divas champion. 11) Emma/Santino vs. Fandango/Summer Rae -- An insanely great comedy match, something we should always support and want to see.

Cena is also just barely the main event in this. Bryan and Punk were heavily involved in the contract signing -- in fact, their involvement ended the show. I think there is an argument to be made that the Cena/Orton feud over the unification of the belts is overshadowed right now. Hypothetically, imagine if you switch Bryan with Cena right now? People would gripe that Cena's feud with The Wyatt Family was out shining the title picture, which should be the most important feud ever, etc, and prof that Bryan is being buried.

Steven Regal is the best hand.

This. Gregg, you asked for worst-case scenarios. You got them, and in response you're just arguing that they won't happen, that something better will. Yeah, maybe. And maybe not. Believe me, I'd rather live in your sunny, optimistic world, but I don't think that's the likely outcome. No. I'm arguing that they're telling a story that they'll finish. It might not be the finish to the story everyone wants. But they're telling something. People say this will end up w/ Bryan vs. The Miz or what have you. No it won't. Or they're saying the Bryan/Authority storyline is over. No it's not, since the whole reason Bryan joined The Wyatt Family is because Bray convinced him he can't beat them by himself and he's better off fighting alongside Bray then having Bray and his monsters continue to pummel him. Everyone talks about the failure of The Nexus storyline. Well, what failure is that, exactly? The Nexus came and invaded. Cena led Team WWE to fend them off in a very good and heated SummerSlam match. Wade then shifted tasks to humiliate Cena, which he did when Cena was forced to join. Cena did Wade's dirty work for a few months. Wade then got cocky and wanted to have Cena raise his hand as champion as opposed to just merely winning the belt. He fired Cena. Wade's strategy then came back to bite him in the ass because Cena was punishing Wade's lackeys to the point where they turned on him since the Nexus was no longer about the collective but about Wade's aims and goals and they were being put through car windshields because of it. Cena then got a one on one shot against Wade and buried him under a sea of chairs. Some of the details of that story could have been a little tighter -- the whole "you'll be gone from the WWE" part could have been done better, obviously. But that was a story told from start-to-finish. The initial Summer of Punk stuff got too complex for their own good and could have been simpler. But Punk's arc was complete. He went after Cena because he thought he was the best. He won the belt. He then held on to it for a long time but was jealous of Cena's popularity and ended up with Heyman in his ear steering his career. Cena finally -- after Punk went on a historic title reign -- got his comeuppance against Punk on Raw in January in one of the best matches of the year. Story complete. Or what about Punk/Heyman? The reason why alliances like Punk/Heyman are formed are for the inevitable break-up. Punk wanted to a different route and Heyman got jealous. It took Punk months to finally get his hands on Heyman. Punk went through wars to do so, including an epic against Brock, and finally was able to do so. Story told, start-to-finish. Yes, the Invasion angle was completely botched. That was, what, over ten years ago at this point? How many stories have they finished start-to-bottom since then? They ran a story for FOUR YEARS with The Undertaker taking on Shawn Michaels in two matches and HHH in two matches that ended with UT essentially having to beat both men to keep The Streak alive. Just this whole stuff with Vince changing tasks doesn't add up to me. Are there some stories better told than others? Yes. Of course. But to automatically say these stories fail or what have you just isn't there.

So, in other words, they tell a story from start-to-finish? It's just not the story you want to see. Just like the Bryan vs the Authority story was told start-to-finish. Who says Bryan vs. The Authority is over? Why did Bryan join the family? Because Bray was right all along. And what was Bray right about? Bryan will never defeat The Authority without The Wyatt Family by his side. Assuming the Authority isn't behind the Wyatt's. Or that, too. So Bryan vs. The Authority isn't done. And look at Cena. He's promised Bryan a clean shot at the title if and when he beats Randy Orton for the title. Another part of The Authority tie-in.

So, in other words, they tell a story from start-to-finish? It's just not the story you want to see. Just like the Bryan vs the Authority story was told start-to-finish. Who says Bryan vs. The Authority is over? Why did Bryan join the family? Because Bray was right all along. And what was Bray right about? Bryan will never defeat The Authority without The Wyatt Family by his side.

So, in other words, they tell a story from start-to-finish? It's just not the story you want to see.

Badd/Anderson was pretty good, and Vader vs. Duggan was the last good match of Duggan's career, and was shockingly excellent. They just beat the living hell out of each other. But, yeah, the rest of that show was garbage with a side of garbage. Pretty much everything after Havoc 94, up to like, early 96 was buttcheeks. I can't remember the build-up to those matches at all. I assume they're terrible. I love Vader like everyone else but Hacksaw in that era was the pits. I'm sure the match was good but who cares? I'd rather watch Mikey Whipwreck and Foley.

I would assume those votes are rigged from the start?

Bryan becomes the Wyatt family's whipping boy, the audience begs for him to turn back, the wait and see bunch creams themselves in anticipation for a turn that only comes after Bryan has lost his heat, and when it finally does, and the crowd doesn't give a shit, you'll be telling us all "SEE? SEE? YOU JUST HAD TO WAIT!" at which point Bryan goes off and has a feud with Miz or something. When has Bryan lost his heat in the past? He's the only guy possible who could somehow become even more popular after losing at WM in under 20 seconds. And he exploded because of Team Hell No. The guy has a track record of being teflon.

Throwing in Bryan and Harper on the final Raw of the year. Harper beats the hell out of Bryan. His stuff is stiff as hell. He breaks out his Michinikou Driver and a Top Rope Powerbomb that was one of the craziest spots of the year. Bryan fights to survive, being the sympathetic underdog. He hits two GREAT dives to the floor that Harper eats like a champ. There's no surprise there -- Harper did a lot in Chikara and spent a lot of time as a base for small guys doing a lucha interpretation. Bryan's the best in the WWE. Harper has somehow climbed up the rankings and is probably Top 5 right now. Nasty stuff. Is there a way to get Harper/Cesaro somehow?

And for all the talk about how the WWE doesn't create new stars -- guess what? They spent an entire 3/4's of a year making Daniel Bryan the most sympathetic wrestler possible. He's the second most popular babyface on the roster. He's more liked than CM Punk by the smarks. He's almost as beloved as Cena by the kids. They trusted him to elevate a religious cult. The Wyatt Family have gone from feuding with Kane and mid-carders to spending an hour closing out Raw. The spot didn't go to Punk/Shield or Lesnar/Henry. It went to Bryan and The Wyatt Family. They put three guys who weren't on the main roster a year ago in the upper end of the card right now. They also managed to get the intended reaction for Roman Reigns last night, with the chant for his name when Punk was looking for an opponent. They spent months making him a total beast. Now the payoff is going to start.

Do you know how this is a good angle? Because there are so many friggin' routes it can go. 1) Does Bryan see this as a way to get revenge on Bray? He joins the Family and waits until the right time to finally get his hands on him, as he had no other way to do so. 2) Is Bryan that beaten and broken that he joins, only for his fans to turn him back? 3) Does Bryan turn The Wyatt Family face and they join forces to destroy The Authority? 3A) Is Kane working on the inside on behalf of The Wyatts and his former best friend/tag partner? 3B) Does this lead to an evening of the odds? The Wyatts take out The Shield, which was on the verge of disbanding due to personal ego as it is. Does Kane take out HHH and Shawn Michaels? Do Punk and Cena somehow get involved? Does Daniel Bryan finally get a chance at Randy Orton by himself? Listen to the speech again -- Bryan says Bray was right because The Authority will never let him win. The odds are stacked against him. He needs help. His former allies have gone off to their own thing in the tag division. Bray's motivation for attacking Bryan was to convince him to join forces to take down the machine. Bryan's speech last night wasn't about how he can't beat Bray. It was about how Bray was right about this. And also, this slipped under the radar -- look at how the angle has unfolded. Whenever Bray speaks, Bryan has listened intently. This hasn't come out of nowhere. Bryan initially fought The Wyatt's out of pride. But now he's listened. For those that hate this angle, what's the worst case scenario you see unfolding? And please put up a realistic answer.

xxx

Watching the Punk/Shield segment right now. You hear the crowd getting behind Roman Reigns in that segment? The dude has been the powerhouse of The Shield and the one they want to make a star. Those seeds got planted a long time ago. Remember when he speared like six dudes in a row in the 11-on-3 match? Or won the Survivor Series match? That's long-term booking right there.

But this is part of The Authority angle. Bryan joined them because he's convinced he can't beat The Authority (Machine) alone.

There's also the possibility for some long-term continuity where Citizen Kane is an inside man put in place by Wyatt.

Bryan + Wyatts vs. Randy + Shield is now a thing on the table. So is Bryan + Wyatts vs. Usos + Rhodes Boys.

Also, Daniel Bryan just got the entire final hour of Raw for his matches/angle. That's the exact opposite of mid-card.

I'm pretty sure Daniel Bryan joining a religious cult is a a payoff.

Man, the end to that segment is going to tear the Internet apart w/ Bryan marks. But when was the last time there was an ending to Raw that captivating? Also, Brock/Henry was epic. I didn't see anything else yet.

I don't hate ECW at all, though I wish some folks would just let it die already. I loved it at the time and much of it still holds up. Oh yeah, all of the reunion shows are the worst. But it's not really any different from guys like Tatanka still getting booked on the indies. It's just they collectively represent a brand that still carries a decent bit of value. Whoever is promoting these is smart to capitalize on that while he still can. I've never been bothered by fans chanting anything other than Husky Harris. Who cares that's who the dude was for five weeks three years earlier in the dying days of the Nexus angle. Thankfully, his work is strong enough that's been long forgotten.