StretchMediatedHypertrophy

Irony is, Russell Brand has become more like Bray Wyatt, only less fun.

It was apparently on the WWE App so I would have to assume that it is..... ah never mind. Too bad she quit. I'll miss her. She was getting quite good. I thought she was with Barrett?

I think in the previous times of two MITBs he's win the World Heavyweight one, but I'm not sure he'll win this one and it might be too much, too soon anyway.

They'd probably just go with Kane, unless they think Batista is worth placating and can be booked around. But do you stick the title on a huy who just nixed a program? HHH is too busy with his real job, Cena would get booed more heavily than ever, I can't see them reverting to Orton. A possible problem they have is Money In The Bank PPV is only 6 weeks away, so any more problems and Daniel Bryan misses two PPVs. Battleground is 3 weeks after MITB; it's a tight PPV schedule until Summerslam. On a related note, who will win Money In The Bank. I like Wyatt for it, just because the idea of waiting for the sheephead wipe and the big entrance with the briefcase just seems too obviously dramatic to miss. Plus the Bryan-Wyatt feud was essentially left open.

Clearly Bischoff is still covering for Hogan, but Steve Austin pointed out that he himself said no to a whole lot of things.

I think they did enough for him not to be just a Hogan goon. There's some good stuff with DDP, Sting and others. I mean, sure we could all fantasy book that period of WCW a little better, I just think the idea that there was a ton of mileage in ace babyface Bret Hart is more than a little questionable and that really his run in WCW is more than a little underrated. What was the value in making him heel Bret Hart was a really good heel, and played out as a babyface. I appreciate that you think that Montreal makes Bret Hart a huge untouchable babyface, but Bret Hart had became a whiny prick and just plain difficult to like. Even if we didn't know it yet, he was still nuts. Bret Hart was a heel in the Goldberg angle, most definitely. I don't see swerves as turns - they're swerves. I'm sticking with 3. I think the Nash feud idea is pretty smart. Obviously yeah, Hogan was a problem politically no matter how much Bischoff wants to downplay it, but that's not 100% on Bischoff and I'm not sure I would have used him much differently anyway. They had Goldberg as their number one, and Bret Hart was a guy who Vince didn't see as a top guy anymore. The thing about Bret is that even his push in WWE was half-hearted. Think about it; second WWE Title reign happens because Yokozuna falls over (possibly with assistance from Piper). Diesel, who is nothing at that point, beats him by DQ with Neidhart saving Hart's title. Yeah he goes over Owen (big deal really) in the cage, and looks valiant in losing his title to Backlund, but he only wins the title again after Nash has a momentary lapse of compassion and Hart takes advantage. Bret Hart goes on to having title matches against Taker and Diesel where both pwn him and only interference saves him. He then loses the Ironman to Michaels. Truth is that Austin is the only guy who ever really put him over! Backlund didn't even say I Quit! Bret's beloved among big wrestling fans, but you're essentially asking Hogan and Bischoff to give Hart more than Vince ever much cared to.

I think they did enough for him not to be just a Hogan goon. There's some good stuff with DDP, Sting and others. I mean, sure we could all fantasy book that period of WCW a little better, I just think the idea that there was a ton of mileage in ace babyface Bret Hart is more than a little questionable and that really his run in WCW is more than a little underrated.

He wasn't the most sympathetic man in wrestling, because he was still Bret Hart. Additionally, he couldn't feud with the people who wronged him. Bret Hart came in as a babyface, turned heel to join with Hogan, turned babyface when Owen died, and turned heel again not too long afterwards. There was a couple of angles where he faked a face-turn but I don't think you can seriously count those. I have 3 turns for his whole tenure, with the babyface turn being dictated by events. Even when Owen died, they didn't keep him babyface for too long.

Just think about how many factions versus authroity figure story lines there were in Eric's TNA tenure. I listened to Eric on the Steve Austin podcast this week and though maybe WCW having so many terrible ideas weren't his fault. There was a lot going on and all kinds of pressure I love how now he says that he knew the ship was sinking right when Thunder was introduced. Anyway, I'm think he isn't so bad....then I listened to Jericho's podcast with Bret. Then it all comes back. How big of an idiot he was. How he blew having the biggest free agent in history and literally did not draw one dime with him. Ahhh...what the fuck do I know. I've said this before, but I think the mishandling of Bret Hart is majorly overstated. Bret Hart was an important guy in WCW; what are people actually suggesting was done with him? Hart was played out as a babyface, Montreal or otherwise. If Owen hadn't died, you may well have seen Bret Hart vs RednYellow Hogan. I really think if Bret sat and watched his stuff in WCW then he'd think differently about it.

Agreed that Kalisto is money, and they need to get him on TV and just let Hunico be Hunico as soon as possible - I wonder if they've got the guts to have Hunico lose another mask vs mask as Sin Cara; I'm thinking yes. I'm almost all for Camacho remaining Mexican, because Hunico and Camacho were great together and I'm not really seeing him as a Meng guy.

Henry essentially worked heel against Reigns - using The Shield's former antics as justification. If this means more Mark Henry in Shield matches and maybe even a Daniel Bryan TV match or two then this is a good thing, even if he is a JTTS at this point. Maybe Kofi can get his heel-turn too and they can pair up.

The song was short, which is good. The song was sweet, which is good. The song was bad, which is bad.

Have you not seen any of the Wade Barrett vs Sheamus matches in which it they were just a ref bump away from killing each other? He can deliver the ring work, but not the promos. I think Sheamus is great in the ring; if anything, the problem is that he's at 11 all the time.

He didn't though, he instructed the ref, who got knocked out by Bully. It does indeed make complete sense.

I think Sheamus' problem is that he's a World Heavyweight level guy on a show with no World Heavyweight Title. It doesn't feel like they'd put the WWE Title on him as a babyface, and he doesn't really seem capable of making a blood feud work or have any obvious way to adjust his schtick. So he's just treading water. ADR has similar problems, but at least Sheamus can go heel or maybe pair up with Cousin Becky. Although I think the title unification is broadly a good thing, having the two belts gave them a lot of flexibility and enabled guys to have 'big fight feel' matches without necessarily being the main-event. I don't think they've fully committed to a permanent 1 main belt strategy, and nor necessarily should they. Making Daniel Bryan defend the belts separately could be a workable Authority storyline.

I think heel Sheamus with the US belt gets in Barrett's way somehow. Rusev's act is different enough that it would make a lot less difference. There's no point turning Sheamus unless they're going to throw him at Daniel Bryan and/or John Cena, which he doesn't need the US Title for.

Ya'll know Lana did nude scenes when she was an actress, right? (Insert picture of guy snorting cocaine off Lana's breasts)

I have a weird feeling that he is a psychotic scrapper that generates Meng levels of legit fear in the business. The guy can certainly take a shot or two. He once finished a match with Samoa Joe after getting a concussion about 10 seconds in, then he went on to another match with Danny Burch later in the night. He's not from an old-school British background by any stretch of the imagination, but he'll have learnt to trade heavy shots in the Indyz and I would not try my luck. Garett Bischoff feels like the one guy worth at least trying.

Wade getting over with the crowd is bittersweet as he was the one guy who could draw consistent heel heat, and now that's over.

Exactly. I'm not sure about Langston's schtick doing well on TV, but I think it has potential to and hopefully he will get the opportunity to show it. The crowd haven't been chanting for him to die or anything.

He hasn't had anyone to interact with to show any personality in recent months. It's always been 'declare No. 1 contender, title defence, repeat'. As soon as they decided to have a 8 man tournament his reign was so obviously living on borrowed time. I'm not saying he's all that, but they haven't given him much opportunity.

Was Big E doing that badly with the crowd though? He seemed to be doing okay a couple of months ago - I really don't see how losing the surname helps him.

I see NXT was ahead of Main Event this week in the Network Top 10. Naomi is also throwing some moves, that facebuster she put on Aksana this week was pretty nasty. I'm not sure how trained Lana actually is, but Aksana and Lana could be fun as a tag-team at some stage. The Rybaxel/Brotherhood feud carries on - what this Cody Rhodes heel turn is supposed to do for anyone I'm really not sure about. Supposed main-event of Swagger/Ziggler was the usual. Ziggler partying with Rose made sense - I'd definitely rather see those two pair up than Ziggler/Miz. Though a massive Team Douche might work.

To be honest, the first time I saw the Funkosaurus, I thought "What did Brodus DO to have them bury him right off the bat?" Seriously, going from an NXT wrecking machine to a jumpsuit-wearing "dancer". I thought the same thing when Albert joined him in Tons of Funk. Jesus. They hardly buried him though - he was undefeated for a good while, had lots of TV time and would have been pushed if he could handle it; but he couldn't so he wasn't. Tensai being in Tons of Funk wasn't a good spot, but it was a spot for a guy on the way out, better than what he was doing, and now he has a chance to do something on commentary. It's pretty funny that they've finally given him a sensible name now that he's semi-retired.

The same reason David Hasselhoff is so popular in Germany.... nobody knows. Main reason: TNA is available on the nationwide TV channel Challenge TV, as opposed to WWE which you need a cable/satellite hookup to get. The two nationwide (i.e. across England) promotions are LDN and All-Star - both may have their moments (I think the latter more than the former) , but both are fairly family-orientated and not especially focused on ongoing storylines. ICW could maybe do something if they can get on TV, but that's a pretty big if. Lots of other small promotions holding regional shows, and a few people putting on irregular 'supercards' (Dragon Gate UK, IPW:UK etc) - but nothing really to compete with TNA.