JCM

WTF is up with an unprotected headbutt in the year 2017 right after Shibata had to retire?

If current WWE was going up against the hottest angle ever in a rival company like 96 WWE was they would be doing just as bad if not worse.

I really want an Asuka/Becky feud so hopefully they do a Bayley or Sasha for Becky trade. Sasha has already won the Raw title four times if she isn't turning she needs to go to SDL.

Most of the Raw audience has no idea about Bayley and Asuka's matches against each other in NXT. They also might want to get Bayley to the point where she's actually over before they bother with a redemption story line.

Yes Asuka having a two year undefeated streak, and leaving the territory after running through every challenger makes her look strong we know that. The issues are the division of losers she left behind. They almost have to put the title on a MYC competitor at this point. Also this angle made Ember look like an even bigger chump which I didn't think was possible. "Yay I'm so glad the person I couldn't beat for the title is leaving as the undefeated champ." They buried the current NXT women's division so Michael Cole can spout off some stats about Asuka on Raw.

Abbey/Mercedes is one of the few matches I've lost interest in so far. Pretty poor match imo, and I have no idea why they put Martinez in the final four. Candice/Baszler was really short, but still pretty awesome. They set up Shayna as the big heel in the tourny only to have her face another heel in the next round. Storm's performance was too hammy for me. Piper should've went over here as she's easily the best of these two based on this tournament. Kairi/Dakota was good as expected. I'm bummed we're not getting Kairi vs Piper in the final four as I think they've been to two best in the MYC.

Owens seems to have lost weight since he bought that Big Show shirt as a kid. What was that a XXXL?

Lacey is too green to be in working on top, but she did have some nice signature spots in this match. Toni Storm looks like a star, and carries herself like a star, but hasn't really backed it up in the ring yet. I thought Mia/Shayna was really good even if Mia pretty much no sold the ankle after the ankle lock. The redone commentary was probably for kissing Shayna's ass. The Horsewomen stuff is a distraction from the tournament and I'm not a fan of it. Ripley is going to be a star sooner rather than later. I think she looked even better here than the first round. Obviously she was in there with a better opponent as I think Dakota is one of the best in the MYC, but still for a 20 year old with her level of experience this was impressive. Candice/Savoy wasn't bad it just never really got going. Savoy wasn't very impressive even with someone who could bump for her suplexes.

I didn't like anything Serena did in that match. Her offensive choices were bad, and kicking out of that wonderful Vader bomb was bullshit. Kairi's reaction to seeing the trophy was great. Kairi's timing on the kickout of the 450 and Bianca's reaction were perfect. Holy shit at that spinning backfist. That was a great showcase for Bianca, and she should only get better.

I have next to no interest in SDL right now. I watched all of Nak's NXT run, and it was decent at best(and that was with good booking). Roode as a face is just wrong. Jinder as the champ is the pits. Ditto for Nattie as women's champ. The tag division has all of 2 teams in it. AJ has been saddled with uninspiring opponents. Then you have acts like Orton and Ziggler who I go out of my way to avoid. Corbin is now a running joke. Charlotte has done nothing since coming over( turn her back to heel please), and Becky is an afterthought. It would take an Asuka/Becky feud to get me back into this show.

Meltzer is just taking a guess he isn't in the room with writers. I have a hard time believing "I'm still here because you can't do your job" was scripted unless Vince fucking hates Roman.

Agree with Conti being more impressive than Evans, but I get why they put Lacey over. Taynara, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca are some good looking prospects. Sara Logan was also impressive. I like that they have time to build Kairi up with Ember and Nikki Cross being over and near the top of the card. Kairi vs Ember should be a money match down the line.

Candice's match was pretty good. Taynara Conti has a lot of potential. She has a good look, seems to be charismatic, and was using her judo skills quite well. Savoy/Gonzalez was a match. Yeah so many of these matches have been held back by one of the women just not being very good. Here it was Gonzalez who really just didn't bring much to the table. Kairi and Tessa had a fun bomb fest I'd say one of the two best of the first round along with Piper/Santana. Kairi is head and shoulders above the other women in this tournament with her selling and crowd interaction. Everything fells natural with her such a great babyface. Kairi is so likeable even the people she beats likes her lol.

Storm/Raymond was just sort of there. Dakota/Devi was ok for what they were going for. Bianca's hair is ridiculous and distracting. She's almost stepping on it when she walks. Sage wasn't very impressive in this. Man Bianca did that spear head first. She'd get flagged and fined in the NFL for that. The Santana/Piper match was a testament to how good Piper is. Great bumping for someone her size, and great looking hurty offense. Santana held up her end, but to me that was the Piper Nevin show.

That Evers/Belle match was embarrassing. Belle was worse than someone wrestling their first ever match lol. Rhea Ripley is a good looking prospect. She has good ring presence for a 20 year old. I think she's been one of the most impressive in the tourney up to this point. Yim/Logan was the first legit good match of the first two episodes.

I actually think the bright spot of the episode was Vanessa Bourne not being terrible. Shayna's finish was cool, but the match was nothing up til that move.

I can't say I was impressed by anything on that first episode.

Ember is the one who broke by tapping out. Asuka fought on with a fractured collar bone thus looking like an even bigger bad ass while winning the match.

The women's title is a far bigger deal now(as is NXT) and it had very little history behind it when Paige moved up. It didn't hurt the Horsewomen because they were better wrestlers than Paige, and they were they ones who really put the division on the map. Who's going to come in and be head and shoulders above Asuka? It could help, but she doesn't need it her talent speaks for itself. Is giving Asuka some help when she may not need it worth gutting the credibility of NXT's women's division? For the foreseeable future they most certainly will. And what exactly does that do for the women still in NXT fighting for a belt Asuka gave up because they couldn't beat her? Yeah a perfect end for Asuka while the women who make up the division she left are seen as second class citizens. How can you call any of the current women in NXT a legit champion when they couldn't beat Asuka while she was there? They will probably have to turn to someone from the MYC to be the champ now, and it almost certainly has to be a heel. How could Ember win a tournament for the belt and be seen as legit at this point? Everyone will just say "yeah but you couldn't beat Asuka". Maybe it'll work out ok, but as someone who has been highly invested in NXT's women's division for 3 years this stinks.

Heyman really missed out not selling Sandman beer cups. I HATE Asuka giving up the belt. It fells like a total rip off to me as a die hard NXT fan. We've invested 2 years watching her undefeated streak, and nearly a year and a half for her title reign. What do we get as the big payoff to this? Absolutely fucking nothing. Imagine if Brock gave up the belt after beating Stroman because no one could beat him and went back to UFC for real competition. How does anyone follow him as a credible champion? They killed the credibility of the next NXT women's champion(and potentially a few more after that) so Asuka could debut on the main roster with a Goldberg like winning streak. Asuka doesn't need a winning streak to get over. She's the best women's wrestler on the roster, and the most charismatic. Telling the audience she has 200 match 2 year winning streak that they haven't followed isn't going to make her more over. In fact it'll put even more pressure on her to be great right out of the box. I don't think it helps Asuka, and it's a huge blow to the NXT women's division's credibility going forward. Every title match will have mentions of Asuka's reign, and how none of these geeks could beat her.

taping spoilers/rant

Pretty generous ratings for Black/Itami, and especially the main event.

Corbin buried himself by running his mouth on Twitter and being terrible. Without a brand split he would've never been so overpushed. The thing I responded to was that nobody but Orton, Cena, Brock, or Roman would be champ without the brand split which I disagree with. If Lesnar is going to be fighting Jon Jones he'll drop the belt. Even if he doesn't I would think WWE wants to have their world champ on tv every week during football season. Brand split gives flexibility, and it also gives shallow women's and tag division on each show with every match up ran into the ground. So far the best thing to come from the brand split was Heath Slater's push on SDL.

Cena put over AJ and Nak clean, Orton put over Bray and Jinder, Roman put over Braun and Joe, and Lesnar is about to put over Stroman. So yeah I could see several other people with the belt without a brand split. Those guys aren't being booked as unbeatable. Brock has been dominated by Stroman two times in a row now.