James F'n X

'Diseased eggplant of a shoulder' is a phrase that's going to stick with me.

Mick is the last name. Shirt's on PWT.

It's amazing how much NXT has made me miss the fake woke Joe Gacy gimmick over the past couple of months. Bron should go over here, Gacy is a good enough and experienced enough worker to be a good foil for Bron. Kinda wish this was a spot for someone like Roderick Strong as an experience builder for Bron, but this will be fine and overbooked and I'll hate the overbooking. The whole of Toxic Attraction have to be close to being called up at this point - two fairly large roster spots are opened up and they're the most TV ready group of women in the promotion. I don't think Wendy Choo is the woman to take the belt off Mandy, but I really like a switch to Kayden/Katana. Not sure who the next challengers are after that, though. Rose/Choo should be very good. Grimes/Hayes one on one should be very good as well, and a title change here wouldn't surprise me. It's hard to tell if Hayes and Williams are going to be heading up post-Summerslam or not, but they're pretty good candidates. Hayes's gimmick translates well to the big stage, Cameron Grimes does not. I can see them putting the belt back on Hayes to elevate someone else Summerslam weekend or keeping it on Grimes to give some stability to the title. Pretty Deadly/Creeds has a decent chance of being match of the night and I expect Pretty Deadly to retain so they can cement the Creeds face turn vs. Roderick Strong. It actually feels like all of the Diamond Mine folks are likeable and I kinda expect the resolution to this angle is all of them kicking Strong out. Decent chance that within a year of the group starting, everyone that was in the initial Diamond Mine group will likely be out of it (and most of them out of the company entirely). I don't care about the family feud. Santos is languishing in NXT at this point and probably either needs to be called up or released. Should be a pretty good show as usual. NXT has a great track record of delivering on these events, even when the cards are a little lackluster.

Daniel Bryan did as well, and then cashed in/heel turned in the Big Show/Mark Henry feud.

I can't wait for the first time the crew forgets to secure the ramp or the box and Cody tumbles. I'd say it looks bush league, but bush leagues wouldn't waste their money on that.

I was aware of it. The most protected move in wrestling finally busted. Unlike Cross Rhodes, which was busted night one back. Becky/Bianca was great, easy MotN, a little sloppy at times, but in a good way for the most part. Charlotte/Rousey felt sloppy and awkward throughout, which, Rousey's only been back for a little bit and is still really green. Logan Paul could be really good at this wrestling thing if he ever wanted to do it more than once a year. Just wildly charismatic and pretty decent for a first showing. The Three Amigos/Frog Splash section was fantastic. Kevin Owens is a goddamned treasure, bumping like a maniac for Austin and making this a real main event worthy moment. Austin looked damn good for being out of the game nearly 20 years. A worthy sendoff for the Rattlesnake. Cody Rhodes's entrance was a starmaker, but then the bell rang and it's Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins working WWE main event style and... it was fine. I don't care for it, but it was fine.

I'm not a big Lucha guy, but Flamita was dope in this and when Vikingo sold the leg, it made some of the sloppiness of his spots (the slam from the inverted DDT position after the twisting plancha to the floor) look more story-based than his general chaos. Not sure why Flamita rushed to roll into the ring from the stage after Vikingo's 450 to the outside and the cross armbreaker segment was pretty bad, but very enjoyable overall. EDIT: Almost forgot Flamita's frog splash, which was really, really impactful. Choice stuff there.

As long as you're not a WWE diehard bubbler. Enjoy that Cody Rhodes!

Which of those guys do you sign over Claudio if you knew he was available? Keith Lee? I don't think you can compare Danhausen - you're certainly not spending money to do the same thing there. Brody King is a little different look and style so that's hard to compare too, but I'd rather have Claudio than Swerve, Buddy, Nese, Moriarty, reDRagon, and Lethal. Claudio's a guy that can play face or heel believably at any level of the card. Can he draw? We've never found out, but can any wrestler draw in 2022?

Yeah, Ricochet is butts.

There's a sick part of me that hopes the competition show format is back for LVL UP. Probably not, though.

Aberdeen has two things going for it that make it make more sense to bill Bryan from there and not Seattle - it's actually pretty far away from Seattle (2+ hours on the central Washington coast) and already had someone famous from there (Kurt Cobain)

I've already taken one for all the teams and yeah, the Batman pizza is not good. The pizza part is standard fair Little Caesars, but cut into squares, and those middle squares are real sad. The calzone parts are borderline inedible.

In different ways. 99/00 WCW creative was trying, but just really bad. This didn't even feel like they were trying. It was like watching a video game Rumble.

That's the rub. They don't want to build up anyone new. A rotating Greatest Hits section is good enough to keep the diehards watching and ratings good enough to keep Fox placated. The Rumble used to be building 2 month programs for folks based on who eliminated who because you have that hour to start and tell stories. What stories were told in either Rumble last night involving people who didn't win and will be on the weekly TV in a month? The only tiny thing I can remember is Gable throwing Damian Priest to the wolves before getting Omos out. Will that lead to something considering Gable and Otis are chasing the tag belts? Probably not. Pat Patterson was the master of taking advantage of this storytelling format to plant seeds that ripened 3, 6, 9 months down the line. The Rumbles this year felt like a dust bowl in comparison.