Go2Sleep

I'm surprised anyone thinks Emma should win that match in any capacity. Asuka has two legit main events waiting to happen with Bayley and a built-up Nia Jax. There are no money matches that involve Emma. She's good in her role, but right now her role is "make Asuka look like a world beater" and that involves doing the job next Wednesday.

I think Asuka/Bayley is still the money match right now. Asuka's gotta work at least one of the horsewomen, right? And Asuka has *IT* right now, so putting Emma over her would be uncharacteristically stupid for NXT. For Bayley/Nia, I wouldn't normally encourage copying TNA, but following the Gail/Kong path might not be the worst idea here. Have Bayley sneak out the win this time, then have Nia squash her at a later date.

I actually do remember that, but it never translated to bad reactions for either of them live. Well, at least during the height of the attitude era, crowds did turn on The Rock in 2002.

I'd say the bigger problem is the people at the top aren't over. Of course people are going to want the over guys to move up the card when they don't care about the people who are positioned at the top. No one was clamoring for the New Age Outlaws or Crash Holly to be pushed over Austin or The Rock.

The thing that I miss most from the attitude era is the crowd heat, which was the product of giving the fans a reason to care about people up and down the card. I'll take maybe all but the bottom 5% of attitude angles over the current landscape where all but like 3 guys are interchangable and no one has any reason to get invested in anyone because the end game is always "will lose to Cena or a part-timer."

Eh, I can't really get behind this. New Day is the only act that feels organic in any way and they have good chemistry with BAD. Anything that allows Sasha to show some personality and build a connection with the audience is going to be very beneficial for her in the long run. For maybe 1/10th of a second, I thought something big was actually going to happen when the Wyatts interrupted the LON. Then my conscious brain kicked in and said "No it's gonna be gang warz, don't get your hopes up" and sure enough, out comes the unironic ECW nostalgia act in 2015. Owens/Ziggler was decent. I don't know if they actually announced this or not, but Breeze/Ziggler screams pre-show match, which is just sad for Tyler. Nice to see they have no idea where they're going with Charlotte/Paige. Did lol at Flair yelling "Get her" though. At least the Mex-America angle shows WWE will abandon some things that suck. Swagger and Del Rio feuding again, the circle of midcard life continues. If I said I needed one .gif from this show, you'd probably assume it was the Sasha booty dance, but nope... It's Xavier laying down and blowing the trombone in Sin Cara's face with his eyebrows moving to the beat.

Obviously it means Cena's returning.

Gotta be Rhyno or RVD.

I didn't expect him to go anywhere else, but in a perfect world, he'd at least be a protected midcarder instead of having a losing record and not even appearing to be an eventual IC/US title contender.

Yeah let's take the one likable babyface in an entire division, and make her a lacky for a midcard heel stable. If they can't get Bayley over then there needs to be a fucking major overhaul within creative(which let's face it a major overhaul is already needed). I'm starting to wonder if they wouldn't just make more money off acts like Bayley by leaving them in NXT as it continues to grow instead of being brought up to the main roster and being booked like a geek thus not getting over with that audience and tainting the wrestlers value in the eyes of the NXT audience. They desperately need a face like Bayley on the main roster the question is how long before they fuck it up one month, two months? There's no way they could translate Bayley to the main roster as is and have her get the same heat she does in NXT. The fans there have been invested in her journey for 2+ years. Look at a ready-made guy like Tyler Breeze and how he was just another midcarder in his first two weeks on the main roster. They'd probably be better off starting more people off fresh and seeing if something develops organically like it does in NXT.

I think Bayley in the Wyatts would be pretty cool actually. I'd love to see what kind of range she has character-wise and I especially want to see her work heel at least once. It sounds more appealing than introducing her as face (who only gets about 10% of the heat she currently does because most of the audience hasn't followed her journey) and feuding with the Bellas for 4 months.

Did anyone really get worse on NXT this year? It's such a well-booked promotion with so much talent, I don't think anyone can help but get better (even guys and girls that were already great). The worst I can think of are completely stagnant guys like Blake, Murphy, and Crowe, but even then, you could reasonably argue they actually maintained or improved slightly over the year, just not enough to matter or avoid getting passed by new arrivals. I think by the literal definition of "most improved" it has to be Chad Gable. At the start of the year, he was a jobber that looked like an indy-ripoff Kurt Angle. Now he's one of the most over guys, routinely has solid matches, and is making people around him better by proxy. Dash and Dawson would be sleeper candidates too.

The "over jobber" is a role that's always in demand for WWE. Truth, Ryder, Santino, Scotty 2 Hotty, Funaki, and Brooklyn Brawler... Just off the top of my head. There's way more value in Dillinger being an over jobber than a heatless midcarder.

I can't remember if it was Bryan or Jericho that said it in the podcast, but wrestling fans like to do two things at live shows: Chant and move their arms Gonna have to go knock the dust of that MOTY list for Joe/Ciampa. I had nearly forgotten good wrestling existed since the last Takeover.

Don't forget the rub from Lesnar breaking Taker's streak going to, uh, the Undertaker.

So how long until Neville gets his win back on Breeze? Still no KO? (Apparently he's sick according to the newz sites) And, damn it, I thought Monday was supposed to be the emphatic end of the Bellas.

This is all part of too much airtime. If the matches get cut in half, what fills that extra time? The "floor spot -> (Insert wrestler) is rolling! -> commercial" thing has to be one of the more annoying tropes in WWE, though.

There were a bunch of guys who are alright (all those late 2000s guys), but did they have anyone who would've been a top 5 worker in any year from 2012-2014? Del Rio maybe? Again, seriously who was the best worker? Raw was no great shakes 4 months ago, but going from Rollins as the primary double-duty match guy to Roman and losing a reliable decent 10-minute match guy like Cesaro is still going to have a noticeable negative effect on the show.

Sheamus and New Day dancing was easily the best part of this show. The women's stuff was at least moving in a good direction. They haven't messed with Sasha yet (well other than saddling her with Naomi and Tamina but what's done is done), and Becky finally got to do something. The whole Dunn/McMahon "all women are bitches" booking reared its ugly head, but a 4-way ladder match with Charlotte, Paige, Becky, and Sasha would be something I legitimately want to see. This is what WWE looks like with no star power and no talent. Seriously who was the best worker on this show?

First half WCW is terrible, but every WCW ppv from June-December of 96 falls somewhere between good and all-time great. WWF wasn't great overall, but most of their shows were only 2 hours so it's not too hard to get through. Plus Shawn, Foley, and Taker were all working their asses off that year if nothing else. Hopefully you enjoy WWF attitude era shows, otherwise you might die when you have to watch WCW from 98-01.

It helped them get their feet in the door, and to some extent, I'm sure the small percentage of hardcores constantly chanting for them gave them a little boost with the rest of the audience. Still, I doubt more than 5% of WWE fans saw any of Bryan or Punk's work in ROH. Bryan was definitely their most recent star, but it took them forever to figure out how to use him, then he got hurt right after so... I also think Rollins has a subtle star quality about him. He's at least at that Edge level where he's a reliable main eventer if nothing else. He could easily be a huge deal when he comes back, but I think we're all through giving WWE the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making things like that happen. On the other two questions, I think everyone agrees overexposure is a huge problem and has been for some time. Even HHH hates the 3-hour Raw model, and Smackdown is useless at this point. It's only going to get worse the thinner the roster gets too. I don't think the quantity of promos are as much a problem as the quality. Sure, sometimes that opening segment gets into serious overkill territory (which leads to the trickle down effect of a commercial break in every match), but the attitude era had lots of well-remembered long promo segments. Overscripting is another issue people have been harping on forever and it definitely has merit. It's a big reason why just about everyone feels the same, because their words are all coming from the same person. They could probably stand to mix in more backstage interviews and taped interviews instead of everything being an in-ring monologue, but without guys getting more creative license, changing the scenery won't do much.

The main roster is having some atrocious luck with injuries right now, but it's been pretty uninspired all year. I only watch ppvs or whatever they're called now live, I usually watch Raw in less than an hour on DVR, and I can't remember the last time I actually watched any SD. The storylines haven't been interesting at all, and the match quality is the worst it's been in several years. If you took away NXT matches, the MOTY list would be embarrassing right now. That said, overall it's probably better right now than it was at this time in 2013 or 2010.

Not too surprising about Crowe. He was getting lost in the shuffle bad, and with the rumored new names coming in, and it wouldn't appear he was getting out any time soon.

I guess Raw is more watchable now than it was at this time in 2013. The problem is that the only person on the horizon that can inject any life into the product is John Cena, which dampens my hopes for an early 2014-esque rennaissance heading into Mania.

Can't go wrong with watching everything on the network, but honestly, if you want the GREAT NXT you're used to today, start with R-Evolution.