Go2Sleep

Asuka is officially the best wrestler on the roster because she brought emotion out of Eva in the ring for the first time ever. Eva looked like a kid riding their first big roller coaster during that strike flurry. A combination of fear, shock, and "when the fuck is this gonna be over" all sold through her face... There may be hope for her yet. I'm trying to temper my expectations for Takeover Dallas, because it's unfair and unrealistic to go into a show expecting a show of the decade... But just looking at that card, how can you not?

Yeah, that's the "get every other woman on the (pre)show" match. Definitely agree with this. If Neville didn't get hurt, a 4-way would be fine, but now they'd be better working Miz out of the program. I also can't see Ziggler replacing Shane, given how much more over Shane is right now. I'm sure Dolph will interfere in that match, but it looks more like they're setting up a heel turn to me.

That's a damn shame about Neville. In fact, I'd say that's the most heartbreaking injury yet. At least Cena and Rollins have already had big Mania moments. The next year is gonna be long as hell for Neville. Zayn's match this week was exactly the type of match he should be working. 60/40 in his favor and showcasing some big moves that make people want to see him again. Maybe they read all our posts about how shitty the Stardust match was at Roadblock. If that's the case, please give Sami some mic time next week. He's a natural speaker who should connect with fans quickly, but he needs to establish a character beyond "good wrestler, hates KO for some reason." I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd rather see HHH work as an ace for a few months than see Roman with the strap. He's looking leaner these days and what he's lost in mobility (which isn't a ton compared to some featured performers these days), he's made up for with expert pacing and selling. He's looking a lot more like 00/01 than 02/03. The only problem is Rollins is the ideal guy to beat him, but he's probably a bit too far from his return. As much as HHH is bringing it, I don't think him on top for more than 5 or 6 matches does the roster any favors. In contrast to HHH, Taker was looking awful. I know he hasn't looked good in years, but it just seemed like an exceptionally steep drop from the last time I saw him. That bald spot is un-hideable, his tank top isn't holding back that gut anymore, and he sounded completely exhausted. It's pretty sad to see him barely able to drag himself out for this Russo-esque feud. The worst part of this segment, though, was that even with how decrepit Taker is, him selling Shane's strikes was still wholly unbelievable.

Pretty sure he started using it during his 2008 heel run, not that anyone can really claim any variation of "best in the world."

Go to the indy shows. When else are they coming through Texas?

In fairness, he did go through a table right before the pedigree. And while I can definitely understand not wanting HHH on top in 2016, he is the champ going into Mania right now and probably shouldn't be having weak title retains 3 weeks from the show. Also need a .gif of Dean's thrusting crotch chops.

Even if they're not gonna do all that, the match was still a vintage WWE terrible face debut. That match should've been 5 minutes tops and most of it should've been Zayn offense. Stardust is a jobber. His purpose is to make other guys look good. Eating Stardust offense for 10 minutes does not make anyone look good. Why is anyone who's never seen Zayn before going to get behind a guy who's working a standard competitive formula match with one of the biggest losers on the roster? Highlight of this show was Enzo and Cass vs. Dash and Dawson. You could tell not everyone in the crowd knew these guys, but they all established their characters quickly and went on to have an engaging match. Probably not as good as their London match, but still one of the better main show outings from this year.

If you're looking for fun things to do in Dallas... Um, I hear there's a lot of wrestling shows in town that weekend. Seriously, the 6 flags there was pretty cool when I went. That was like 13 years ago so I can't vouch for it now, but it is in Arlington so there's that if you're staying near the stadium.

Tyler Breeze can salvage his WWE career with a new "dodgeball superstar" gimmick.

The triple threat was easily better, probably early front runner for MOTY. Even as far as WWE/NXT goes, Neville/Balor from last week was significantly better than the 2/3 falls, which was badly hindered by the time constraints (in the opposite direction than that complaint usually indicates).

Yeah, there's nothing inherently wrong with triple threats, they're just harder to pull off. This one was great as you'd expect with 3 of the best wrestlers going today all with perfectly complementary styles. My favorite aspect of this match was as soon as someone hit a cool move and tried to celebrate, someone else was there to strike. The pacing was so good with just the right amount of Pentagon and Puma fighting each other, but knowing they had to pull out all the stops to slow Mil even a little. Mil Muertes came out of that looking totally unstoppable. The Cage/Taya match is obviously going to be polarizing, but I think that was actually the first LU intergender match that actually was what Matt Stryker always tries to say LU intergender matches are. No light working around the women and no cheap sexual harassment heat for a change. I won't try to convince anyone it was appropriate, I'll just say that for what they were going for, they pulled it off very well. Mundo's heel work at the end was great, and you're probably lying if you didn't bite on the lead pipe nearfall. Cheerleader Melissa's new gimmick is... Interesting. Not really a big Moth fan, although he did bring back the curbstomp. The bathroom fight was vintage LU ridiculous awesomeness.

Yeah, I'd say the match was certainly good, but not MOTY level for me. I think it would've worked better as a one-fall match with Joe wearing Zayn down with his nifty strike combos then ultimately winning by ref stoppage. The slow opening gave away that they were going long, and didn't make a ton of sense with them "feeling each other out" in a long-ish match two weeks ago plus the margin for error being greater in a two-fall format. Definitely some cool sequences in the second and third acts, but the epic-ness was a bit forced.

Nice 2-post combo here. I was surprised they didn't transition him to some sort of knee-strike finish after he busted Cena's face. It would've had instant cred and fit in with his flashy opportunist style, much moreso than the clunky pedigree.

Is there a pending lawsuit where a kid died because he took this move or something? I just can't fathom how they went from building up this move as an elite finisher to never speaking of it again seemingly overnight.

Definitely AJ.

Paige, AJ, and Nikki were like the first astronauts sent to a distant planet with minimal resources tasked with making it habitable for future generations even though there was a good chance they wouldn't survive to see its success. The horsewomen are the better-prepared second wave who discover the breakthrough that makes life sustainable.

Dario Cueto, while being a psychopath, was also a businessman who liked to have a professional, well-rounded product to keep that payoff drawer full. Catrina's motivations are more ambiguous thus far, but she's clearly got more on her mind than bumper music.

The tag title match was very good. Lots of nice nearfalls, and the finishing run was strong. The turn was logical and executed fine, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't want to see more Jeicho/Styles matches. Even with the women already doing a triple threat, I wouldn't mind Owens/Zayn/Neville for the IC.

Lucha Underground won't be everyone's cup of tea. If you don't like it by about Episode 10, you're never gonna like it. Either you're gonna dig the wacky storylines and match style or you won't. That said, the first two episodes are among the worst in the series. Showcasing Blue Demon Jr in back to back weeks isn't the best hook, I know. If you're new to LU, you could probably just start at the S1 Aztec Warfare (Episode 9 I think) and go from there. You won't miss too much (and the important stuff gets recapped) and you'll get a better feel for what you're in for.

If only more football players and wrestlers smoked weed.

Is Rey actually gonna wrestle? I'm sure he'll be more physically involved than Konnan, but I get the vibe he'll primarily be a manager.

Orlando's also already a tourist city, so the logistics are probably a lot better than Minneapolis.

I'm glad they went with Ambrose/Brock for Mania since it's legit good angle/match which is something that show desperately needs, but I am disappointed if it costs us Brock/Harper. Is Bray even gonna make the main card this year or his best hope winning the battle royal? HHH/Ambrose will be better than HHH/Roman in every way, unless you're really into trainwreck matches where both guys give up in the first 2 minutes because they know there's zero chance they can win the crowd.

Owens could definitely withstand a clean job to Styles at this point, especially if he gets a program with Zayn or even champ Roman after Mania. Even as a "wins and losses matter" guy, I'd still say a loss to AJ in a good match is more high profile than a win over the freaking Big Show.

27... Shouldn't have fast forwarded all those Ryback main events.