Charlie M.

Yeah, DDP did it. Orton and RVD (and probably some others) leapfrogged Edge's spear.

Yeah, the second half (minus Goldberg/Lesnar) had most of the boring stuff. But Lesnar/Goldberg was incredible and that saved the second half.

We're friends again! High five? No? No? How about a hug?

There was a ton of really good stuff on this show. A few clunkers but considering how long the show was, the good to bad ratio was strong.

If that's the case, I could see them actually winning in a quick squash.

I think the build up to Mania has actually been pretty solid. It's just that the matches they're building up aren't ones people fantasy booked. I feel like they've made an effort to have a storyline for almost every match on the card.

Maryse and Kelly were the other two women that Maria originally claimed were blocked from returning by the Bellas. I assume Maryse kept quiet until she returned because it wouldn't have been good for Miz to go on a public tirade like Maria did.

So she's worthless and they turned down Miz wanting her around for three years but suddenly Miz wants to be on Total Divas and he's got so much influence that he gets to bring his worthless wife back? Doesn't check out at all. Probably because we all know that she probably did block Maryse and Kelly and others from coming back.

Cena had some weird logic. Maryse is a waste of space and Nikki didn't block her return but WWE gave into to bringing her back because Miz wanted to be on Total Divas? What? None of that made any sense. Nor did making fun of them for not having kids when that's never been a part of their story like it's been with Nikki. His delivery was great, though. Nikki checking herself out on the big screen and adjusting her hair while Cena was cutting his fiery promo reminded me of Shawn Michaels.

Hardys vs Briscoes from TV this week was pretty good, especially for a Hardys match at this point.

A few hockey podcast recommendations from my recent attempt to find some new ones: Puck Soup - Wysh and Lozo. Not as good as MvsW but it gets the job done. Biscuits - Lozo & Down Goes Brown. Thought this decent but I can't listen to that much of Lozo. Hockey PDOCast - Prefer this over the TSN Hockey Analytics one in terms of a more analytics based podcast. Spittin' Chiclets - Ryan Whitney has some good stories and it's a more lighthearted approach to a hockey podcast. Kurtenblog Radio - Canucks based but I always enjoyed these guys so it's good to hear them back doing radio. Pulp Hockey Show - Ray Ferraro's pod. I just discovered this one but I haven't listened to any episodes yet.

Goldberg said on the E&C Pod that they sent Curtis Axel to workout with him but Goldberg feels like he's going to save all his bumps for the actual match. He also talked about legit knocking himself loopy when he headbutted the door, pulling a hammy doing his pyro entrance and hurting himself when he did that deal with Rusev. I can't imagine they're doing a real match at Mania.

You guys are all worried about Shane but I'm terrified at the thought of what AJ is going to do in this match. He already got WWE to okay his springboard 450 to the outside through a table. Imagine what he might try in this one.

I think going back to a five game first round might solve some of these issues. You can spread out the regular season a little bit more and there will hopefully be more jockeying for position among the top teams because upsets are more likely in a five game series.

Didn't the Cavs game also tank in the ratings? I'm sure that's where Silver is getting a lot of pressure from. The networks paid for a certain product and they're not getting it because players are resting.

AJ stepped up on the mic in WWE to a degree that I don't think anyone could have predicted. He had that great appearance on the Stone Cold Podcast and basically channeled it into his wrestling character.

Miz was great again as RoboCena. Two really strong matches this week. Usos/AA got pretty good by the end. Orton/Corbin was actually quite strong up until the finish.

Taker looked like he was in so much pain.

People seem to fixate on a few things about Omega and become rigid in their evaluation of him. It's pretty much the same thing people do with Miz.

Two guys who seem inspire very divisive opinions. They're both great in their own ways and stepped up in big spots. I feel bad for people who can't enjoy both of them.

The plan seems to be to keep the machine going with Roman as the public face until someone more marketable comes along.

But he is their guy and will be as long as he doesn't actually tank business and stink up the joint like Diesel did. Having someone who can work and doesn't cut long promos be the hand picked guy isn't the worst thing.

RAW house shows have held up much better than SD without Cena and Roman does very well in merchandise. He's not Cena but Cena wasn't The Rock either and he pushed through. Are we forgetting all of their weekly schemes to get people to cheer Cena? Like when Bret would endorse him in Canada?

No one on the roster is better suited for the role of company avatar at the moment. We should probably just be happy that Roman is as good in the ring as he is. So far ahead of where Cena was in the ring at the same point. Does anyone really think the company is missing out on that much money by not having anyone else in that role? AJ was pushed super hard on Smackdown and the houses were nothing without Cena.

Maryse standing up, looking directly into the camera and delivering her money promo was great. Especially because she was looking really nervous up until that point. Nikki still couldn't come up with a good defense even with a bunch of scriptwriters trying to make her the babyface. I feel like this whole thing is a bit of a fuck you to Cena for being a part-timer.