Go2Sleep

Is that the same thing as the show at SJSU? I assume Itami wins to get some press in Japan.

I would highly recommend not watching that ladder match.

I will say the main event was probably the best Alex Riley match I've seen. Sure it was a middling Kevin Owens match, but it was exactly what it needed to be. When it comes to playing to the crowd, how about Owens saying "I'll stay here all day" while getting a "Rest Owens Rest" chant during his chinlock? Also, his stumbling stomp to Riley as he was fleeing from Balor shows he has a better understanding of his character than anyone on the roster. Something else that's totally refreshing is the announcers putting his character over 100% the right way. The mildly heelish Corey Graves takes the family stuff at face value, the strong face presence Albert calls total BS with valid examples. I'm pretty sure this is the only reason Rhyno is in NXT. He's the first big guy that stands up to the bully, but still loses to make the bully even stronger. This would actually be a good time to use the "WWE reject" booking and find some midcarder not doing anything to come do a program with Owens. Cesaro would be a great fit... Or [troll]Daniel Bryan[/troll]

Ironically, I'm super thankful for Carlito doing the job at WM 22 against Kane and Show, since the 8 or so people above me had staked their grand prize hopes on Carlito and Masters winning the tag titles. Definitely the only time I ever got excited for a Kane/Show tag match.

I honestly think the best shot at salvaging Roman (or getting him to the level they want more accurately) is an Austin/Bret style match where Roman comes up short, but looks like a tough bastard doing so. The "stand up in the kimura with bloody face, then pass out" spot is absolute money. Rollins cash-in on Lesnar afterwards is optional.

This is the "If you don't like America, go live somewhere else" of wrestling arguments. Oh sure, you wanna come here and take our Cesaro matches and NXT shows, but you don't wanna stand up and salute Roman Reigns... Fuckin' ingrates, go back to TNA!

It is more the implementation. Are they only going to run it on RAW and PPVs? How do people get points? Etc... Etc... Remember when wwe.com did their own weekly fantasy game for a couple years in the mid 2000s? It'll probably be like that. You get $X and pick a team of any number of wrestlers that fits the budget. Pick a new roster each week that gets locked in a couple hours before Raw, week runs Mon-Sun. Get points for appearances, matches, wins, finishers, gimmick matches, main events, foreign object shots, title wins, etc. Each "season" lasted about 3 months and they had weekly prizes for the top 10 weekly scores, and big prizes for the top 10 at the end. The overall winner got 2 front-row ppv tickets with airfare/hotel/limo. That was me for Summer Slam 06, btw (my Chris Jericho "first ever undisputed champion" moment in fantasy competitions).

I know it was tasteless as hell, but I can't pretend I didn't crack the fuck up when he'd have Vincent hand him his drink to take a swig while he had his opponent in a lazy abdominal stretch.

I just realized the IC angle would be 100x better if they were feuding over the hardcore title instead. Ambrose, Harper, and Stardust are natural fits for that division, Barrett's the supposed tough guy straight-man who thinks he can beat all the crazy people, Truth's there because he's a jobber, Bryan voluntarily steps down because it's different and something to prove not because he just doesn't care about the important belt anymore, and Ziggler's there because... I don't know, you can't have a ladder match without the show off or something, who cares? Clusterfuck booking was part of the soul of the hardcore division. The title stealing would make sense because anarchy rules, and you just need one quick segment where HHH says "fuck this shit, you're all in a ladder match at Mania, hope that settles it, I'm out" to tie it all together. The matches would be something different to mix it up on a 3-hour show and the entire division could have some character beyond "we don't want to push these guys even though they're doing the same things as the guys we are pushing." You could really accentuate their insanity and make them stand out while keeping them entirely separate from the main event.

The mid-90s. Not that the two qualities are mutually exclusive, mind you. You can have a good mix of over-the-top and down-to-earth on the same show, and even within the same character.

I'm genuinely excited to spend a few days in San Francisco, for the NXT show Friday, and Raw the night after which always has some cool surprises. I'm sure the atmosphere will be cool at Mania, but the show looks pretty uninspired. I can't say I really care about any match on that card.

Steve Austin should be in that discussion too. Edit: And Taker

It would look like the Fast Lane thread.

Did you expect a segment involving Vince Russo and Ric Flair's kids to be tasteful in any way?

The Nash/Steiner/Goldberg "improvised finish" match might have the most confusing and counter-productive commentary I've ever heard. Ignoring how ridiculous the angle itself was, if you're trying to do a worked shoot, isn't the best play to have the announcers no-sell what's going on in the ring try to act like nothing's wrong? I have no idea how them talking about "political stroke" and "who WCW wants to go over" helps the story in any way. The way Schiavone, Madden, and Hudson drifted in and out of kayfabe was trippy as shit.

Re: IC Title Is it just me, or does this feel like an angle WCW would've run in 2000?

Bryan/Lesnar has been a dream match for the last couple of years, so I think there'd be a little more anticipation for the show with that alone. It also would've eliminated the need for Heyman to talk about Samoan cannibals in his promos, so that would've been a plus. People still wouldn't care about the rest of the show, but I'm sure most people here would gladly pay 10 bucks to see Bryan/Lesnar.

This show might have set a record for "highest percentage watched in fast forward" for me. Of the little I did watch at regular speed, the most captivating segment was Rusev/Lana backstage, and that wasn't even in English.

I think the big thing missing for them is some type of character. There's not much reaction for them because we know basically nothing about them. They have no obvious face or heel qualities. They don't really play up their hard work climbing the ranks. They don't have any real backstory about how they know each other. All we know is that they're two dudes who randomly teamed up and just won the belts. A team name would also help, but a good team name is only likely to present itself when they have something that sticks out.

Watching Charlotte handcuff Vince Russo at the GAB 2000 might have been one of the retroactively weridest things I've ever seen in wrestling.

I was trying to find footage of Bill DeMott in WWE, and this was my first hit.

Now that's a quality finisher. If the Zayn/Owens match can get ref stoppage on the map as a believable finish in NXT, Crowe should definitely start doing this. Also, someone should bring back Bryan's UFC 8 elbows.

It says a lot about Cody that the most over he ever got was when he grew an intentionally bad moustache.

Neville being the first to beat Rusev would be perfect. Looks like he'll be on Raw by 3/30 at the latest. There's no doubt Neville has the talent to stay over, the biggest challenge is getting that initial investment from non-NXT viewers for a guy who's not a killer promo. A ready-made angle with a ton of heat thanks to John Cena putting it over would be the ideal intro for someone like that. Plus it'd be on the one-year anniversary of Rusev's debut/streak and coming off a second win over Cena, setting up the obvious cocky promo just begging to be interrupted... Jesus, it's so perfect, you know we'll never see it on Raw.

Got around to my re-watches. I'm adding Bryan/Rollins, although I see it being toward the bottom of the list by year's end. The first half isn't super interesting, although I loved Rollins only doing a dive after J/J were gooning Bryan on the outside. The second half is really good, though. There's a couple good near fall sequences to play off the earlier neck work, but believe it or not, Roman Reigns is what really puts the finish over the top. First he comes out with spear of spears to take out Show, then he wipes out Mercury. Rollins backpedals, but leans through the ropes with the ref looking over his shoulder and is begging Roman to hit him for the DQ. Noble being the stooge that he is, tries to sneak attack Bryan with the case, which causes the ref to turn around unbeknownst to Rollins, then BAM superman punch. Totally underrated finish. I'm still not sold on Cena/Rusev. I did pick up some extra depth from the first time around. Both guys did a great job acting convinced they were better, and being frustrated when their normal moves didn't put the other away. I dug that aspect of the story, but the striking is pretty bad at points, and the counter sequences are slow and unnatural. Also, the finish really took me out of it since Lana getting in the ring either undermined the story they were building, or made Rusev look weaker than he should have. The ref missing a ball-shot would've been fine, but Lana's slow and awkward interference didn't make a lot of sense to me. Definitely a match of ups and downs for me.