Mick32

I keep hearing how great Orton is. Why don't i fucking see it? His promos blow. He's plodding. His matches are predictable. "Out of nowhere" = "contrived". I hear others say that he's one of the best in the world so much and think I must not understand pro wrestling.

Jericho doesn't believe you saw that Orton turn coming.

Stephanie followed by HHH was a little much, if you ask me. For those of you that dislike so much Authority, here's some more Authority.

What he's saying would/will be fine if/when someone actually steps up to call him out on it. That's historically the issue with HHH's promos, though; he says what a heel is "supposed" to say, and presents himself as the strongest, smartest, toughest, most iconic star in the history of the WWE...and then the face responds with, "all of those things are absolutely true, but I'm going to beat you anyway!" That's the biggest thing - HHH isn't a fucking icon. He'd like to think he is, but he isn't. And nobody has sat in their home fantasy booking a HHH-Sting feud. I'm sure the match will be good, but I could have lived with not seeing this matchup just fine. I'll probably regret asking this question, but.... if Triple H isn't an icon, who does fit your definition? Just curious. I know a lot of people hate Triple H - I'm not a huge fan either - but I generally find the way people minimize his contribution to the past 15-20 years kinda odd. I'm not sure that I agree with the idea that he carried the company while other stars on his level (Austin, Rock) went on to greener pastures, but a case can be made for that. It's not an crazy idea. I don't consider him on the Austin, Rock level or, honestly, the Michaels, Bret, Foley, Sting level. He's decidedly on the third tier, in my opinion, to answer your question. He certainly has had a great career, but to try to put him on the level that he obviously considers himself to be on is a stretch.Edit, I'm an asshole as I forgot about Undertaker, too.

Everybody comes back. Hogan and Bret came back.

What he's saying would/will be fine if/when someone actually steps up to call him out on it. That's historically the issue with HHH's promos, though; he says what a heel is "supposed" to say, and presents himself as the strongest, smartest, toughest, most iconic star in the history of the WWE...and then the face responds with, "all of those things are absolutely true, but I'm going to beat you anyway!" That's the biggest thing - HHH isn't a fucking icon. He'd like to think he is, but he isn't. And nobody has sat in their home fantasy booking a HHH-Sting feud. I'm sure the match will be good, but I could have lived with not seeing this matchup just fine.

Between Ross and the "dark clothing/Eddie Haskell/slow down" meme again, Jericho bitching about people calling a telegraphed finish telegraphed, and Austin harping over submission/ref stoppage incessantly like it mattered, it was a rough week on Podcast One for the Wrestling fan.

Mind you, I'm a guy that doesn't believe half the "shoots" we've heard about really are, but what's to stop Lesnar from deciding if he's going away anyway that losing hurts him and just shooting on Reigns in the main event?

I hear people pining for the "attitude" era to return and then hear hate for Enzo and Cass and wonder if people actually were watching back in the Attitude Era.

Russo can't be serious.

Just watched old Mid Atlantic from Black History Month package. Holy shit. Briscos vs Steamboat/Youngblood. Valentine vs Hart (Horowitz). Bob Orton. Flair promo with Steamboat. That's a big pile of money. And speaking of money, "SOMEBODY TAKE THE DAMN MONEY!" This was a genius episode of wrestling.

I hated Taz as a wrestler. I'm not particularly impressed with him as an announcer. I really dig his podcast, though. I have no idea why, but I just really seem to dig his opinions and insights in this forum when I've never found him particularly interesting at any other time.

Graves on the Sam Roberts podcast last week referred to Zayn as living a "rockstar" lifestyle or some shit in real life. He wrestles hard but likes to "have fun" all the time. I'd think the 30 something guy with 2.5 kids would relate more to a lunch pail guy that would take a bullet for his wife and kids more than that guy, in fairness.

I was a little taken aback by the Zayn comment that seemed to try to get sympathy because his buddy chose his wife and kid over him. Of course Owens is going to make that choice or he'd be an asshole. There's a lot of shit Owens has done that is heelish that I don't understand the uber babyface bringing up that point. This show was awesome yet again, though.

The way Hunter made it sound like "hey, I'm with you guys" while Vince makes all the unpopular decisions, leads me to believe these interviews are eventually going to lead to a HHH-Vince feud at some point and we're all being worked. Then again, I always think we are being worked.

Heard the part with Meltzer so far. I hope to get to Jericho level one day where I can openly criticize my bosses like that. He actually called the booking of the Rumble "lazy".

I've read on the net about people complaining about the crowd. I don't buy it. They are cheering for faces, as they're supposed to do - Bryan, Ambrose, Ziggler, Ryback. They just aren't cheering for the face the WWE wants them to. I honestly don't know how the WWE could be so tone deaf to the wants of their audience. If the crowd is cheering for a guy more than anyone else, push him. Keep pushing him until they stop,I don't know, cheering him more than anyone else. Why would they hate money so much that they do something else? It's fucking maddening.

I watched this show through nefarious means today and wow, just wow. I haven't seen shit of New Japan, so I may be a little off from conventional thinking. The Sakuraba - Suzuki match was friggin ridiculous. That is like nothing I think I've seen before in 35 or so years of watching wrestling. Why WWE doesn't try some shoot style matches is beyond me with the popularity of UFC in America. The NEVER match, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and everybody in the last two matches, especially fucking Okada, were absolutely awesome. Okada might be as good as I've seen since Ric Flair in 85/86 or so. I've seen one Okada match and now want to see 100. Seriously amazing PPV.

The Rumble is sold out and tickets are ridiculously over-priced on the secondary market. I don't get the reasoning behind giving away the Bryan surprise. And seriously, Hinter and Steph have been off tv for like 5 minutes. What a joke.

I'm watching going "Wow. This show has been pretty goo.... Nevermind, there's a bunch of McMahons at the end like always. "

Just watched Michaels vs UT from WM 25. I must be a jaded motherfucker, because I was like "it's good, but" about this match. Do people really call this the top match of all time?

Re-watched this today. It was just about perfect. I don't get to really see much indie wrestling, so this is the first I've seen of Owens. Fuck, he's a star. From the second he walked out, I was hooked and he didn't dissapoint at all. Parker got him hardway, and it probably added to the match. This guy will be wrestling on Sunday nights before too long. The tag title match was the weakest of the night, probably, but perfectly acceptable wrestling. I've said before that they're giving Baron Corbin the Magnum TA push, and it continued tonight. I'm curious to see if he can deliver when he gets paired up with someone that he isn't going to beat in 30 seconds or so. The one negative, I think, was the Roman Reigns interview. If the WWE doesn't realize that that crowd was going to shit on him, they're out of their mind or delusional. I suppose it's too much to ask that they're shoving him down your throat on every show - sure the Slammy voting isn't worked - because they are doing a Honky Tonk Man/Rocky Maivia thing with him, right? Because he's not as popular as they think he is or want him to be. Bālor and Itami vs the Ascension was just money. Unless he turns out to be a Phil Brooks level asshole, Bālor is going to make more money than he knows how to spend one day. And judging from Mr. Brooks, he may even make that much money if he is that kind of asshole. They put the women's match in the "go out and die" slot, and the ladies did better than anybody could have expected. Charlotte has been involved in probably 2 of the top 10 matches I've seen in WWE this year. Sasha is better than anybody they have on the WWE Diva roster and she's like the third best woman in NXT. I can't add anything about the main event except that the Zayn DDT on the floor might have been the move of the year. Holy shit. And the Owens turn was Orndorff/Terry Funk-ish. Bra fucking vo.

I get that he was on Vince's network and all, but I thought Thursday was a little late for Austin to go on a "it's fucking pro wrestling" rant like he did.

Watching the Ricky Steamboat story right now. I'll take a really controversial opinion - Ricky Steamboat was good. Good doc, by the way.

Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Road Warriors, X-Pac. There have been worse SS teams.