Jiji

I didn't catch the 'Taker sit-up before the laugh. That is so perfect! What a guy, this Brock Lesnar. Looking forward to: Brock beating the piss, blood, and vomit out of jabrones, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a Hell in a Cell match, Rusev in general, and more Paige and AJ. Not looking forward to: John Cena getting his win back. Massive props to him if he isn't the one to slay the dragon.

You can get Dean to win over even more fans if you have him do this in a losing cause. He's perfect as the last challenger before the big Mania match to put over how sadistic Brock is. Would be a great match with both guys coming out looking great. Roman vs. Brock would be a disaster. Very fun show with things going into a mini-lull with Bray/Jericho, Steph/Brie outside of Steph's brilliance, and Roman/Orton. Orton tried so fucking hard to make Roman look like a million bucks but he couldn't do it. Props to him, though. Rusev is the man for selling the ankle and working the ribs. Ambrose and Rollins made a lumberjack match fun by not having a lumberjack match.

It's interesting to chart Lucas Leiva's Liverpool career. Bought for the then pricey fee of £5 million 7 years ago (how the years go by!) and used heavily in the squad rotation by Rafa, Lucas was much maligned for the first three years of his career for the Reds. Then he broke out, due in large part to all of the first team football he received under Benitez, during Rafa's last season or so. He was everything a holding midfielder should be: tactically astute, fearless in tackle, aggressive but poised, great at dispossesing the opposition's best players, and able to make safe passes in tight areas due to good technical ability. In my opinion, he was the best holding midfielder in England from late '09 up until that awful knee injury suffered from an awkward tackle on Juan Mata against Chelsea in a league fucking cup match (he was overplayed due to the lack of cover in midfield). Since that shitty day in December '11, Lucas has never recovered. He's often looked slow, a step behind play, his tackling ability erratic often leading to wild swings of the leg leading to a great deal of fouls in key positions, and his passing has been off as well. Despite today's start, he's probably third or fourth on the midfield depth chart and his poor coverage on that beauty Clyne goal shows his lack of form. From scapegoat to revered figure to forgotten man. Pretty lifeless second half and we were lucky to come away with three points. It'll be interesting going forward to see how we balance attack, control, and defence compared to last season. Think we need a bit more incisive attacking movement. Henderson (who is following Lucas' trajectory as a LFC player) was great and crucial in both goals for. Manquillo impressed the heck out of me, Lovren looked solid outside a mistake or two, and Mignolet made some key saves. Johnson and Skrtel both look like players that should be moved on at this point.

Is that the sugar hold? I was just talking about that with a friend in regards to Ole stretching wannabes and geeks. Couldn't quite figure what it looked like exactly but the first hold Roop has him in looks and sounds (Ole always talked about the screams of agony) like the sugar hold. If not, what the hell does the sugar hold look like?

That is so gross.

Agreed. Brutal faceplant on the Ambrose tornado DDT.

They didn't even have him come out as #30 during the Rumble (and instead put fan favourite Rey Mysterio there, golly! I can't believe he got booed O_O). These people are half-assing Bad News all the way. Remember that awful angle where Lawler told him to shut up just to never have it brought up again? They don't know what to do with him.

There's no way Jamie could go 45 minutes without dropping a few racial slurs, is there? Highlights from that highspots shoot he did with Wolfie D were just wrong.

DID HE EVER?! And how!

He and Windham were a fun tag team and had a great mini-feud with the Midnights during the period when Dennis left and Stan arrived. The fireball on Garvin, the resulting Jimmy turn and backstage segment and the series of matches that followed were good. Didn't care for him as a top of the card type guy but he was a solid midcarder. I really didn't like Valentine and Garvin's matches with each other but it's been years since I've watched them. They seem too similar stylistically to have a good match.

It seems like the audience is just waiting for Zayn to match up with Neville. How many singles matches have they had in NXT? Wrestling Data says nine times but I think all but the #1 contender's match in October were house shows.

Yeah, Brandon's right, you'll probably find out about NXT/Legends in September. Perhaps, IGN reveals them as part of their coverage this month. I'm guessing you'll see the main NXT wrestlers and recent post-WM callups and a dozen or so legends. I read that they had the 92 roster spots in last year's gamescon/whatever demo, so that number may not be accurate.

A certain someone's signature. It's Captain New Japan laughing at all of us for not being captain of New Japan.

The only part of that panel worth watching was Cesaro faking out the stalker asking for a hug. Natural heel instincts, bruddah.

Ahem...

Nerdlingers going crazy because WWE revealed only 40 something guys and fans think that's it even though we've seen the 92 slots and have a few confirmed guys not mentioned during the reveal (Wade Barrett for instance). Rene did mention that career mode sees your character start in NXT and work his/her way up from there but she also said the rivalry mode featured Trips and Batista, so who knows. My guess is the remaining dudes and dudettes are a combination of legends and the NXT roster.

Hmm, yeah, I thought I had unblock-us off and it was working but unblock us somehow was still working around the blackout. Shucks. There's always other means of keeping up with NXT. I think I've seen people mention daily motion but I could only find short clips when I searched. Sorry, brah. I haven't watched NXT regularly since the super shows started happening and Bo dropped the title but this week's episode was fun. Bayley and Sasha impressed the heck out of me with their mat and chain wrestling. Didn't care for the main and Neville seems really flat as a champion.

With one belt now, doesn't that mean it's likelier that the MitB cash-ins are less likely to succeed?

Yeah, the one problem with Brock winning is what the hell do they do with Rollins' Money in the Bank contract? Lesnar losing to Cena after ending the streak would be hilarious.

Best quality video yet: http://youtu.be/nsv6LbLy_Fo Kid doesn't know how to play but he's not button mashing at least.

Unless he suddenly gets it between now and then, which is possible, I don't see it going any other way than flopping big time. He's not even close to being ready to be the guy. Wrestlemania 32 is probably more accurate. Both he and Wyatt have such huge potential but need to progress a tonne before moving up to those top spots.

http://www.hulu.com/wwe-nxt

It'd be neat if, starting on Sunday, Super Cena begins to show some cracks and eventually joins the Authority to stay on top. It would seem an organic story that could play out really well if they have a strong babyface to take the reigns. Currently that guy's on the shelf. I'd slow burn the heel turn until Bryan returns. Have them match up and either do something similar to the WM X7 heel turn or shortly after Cena loses to Bryan again. Edit: I was wondering, Will, where did you get the info from that Hardy sold more merchandise than Cena back in '09? Does Meltzer get that kind of information? Fascinating if true, as I wasn't watching WWE at the time but knew of Jeff's renaissance.

I don't know about that. He'll still be the best in-ring performer in the company by quite a bit (Cesaro's push stalled, sure, but he didn't do much to change anybody's mind. Whereas, alternatively, Bryan worked his way through and out of shitty booking), he's the most human of the top stars so that people can relate to him, he's an amazingly humble, likable guy (look at the press conference after the robbery) and has shown to be magnificent with kids, and probably will have the most fan support on the roster on his successful return from a lengthy absence. What happens when they fuck him around again, perhaps in a more subtle manner than last time and the fans still reject whomever they push in his place (Roman Reigns)? He's too good to keep away from the belt for long if he can stay healthy. He's 33-years-old, he's got a lot of time left he makes a successful recovery and cuts out a few of the top rope moves that Austin warned him about. He's not great on the mic, but he's incredibly smart in manipulating crowds (at a house show as a heel, he had the building in a frenzy from shushing them for three minutes. It was fantastic, he had them eating out of his hand.), is genuinely charismatic, not the Cena/Hogan fake charismatic, so again people relate to that... To me, it's a no-brainer that after he works a few programs to show he's not made of glass and working the rust off you put him back at the top or near it. Yeah, I like Bryan Danielson. Just re-watched the Brock/Cena match from Extreme Rules 2012 with a friend last night and had a blast. Brock vaulting himself off the steps over the top rope and then no selling his flop was incredible. I think they have a better match in them and I'm looking forward to seeing it on Sunday. Ambrose and Rollins can make a lumberjack match work, I think.

Have we accepted that they're never going to push Bryan as the guy because of his injuries or something?