SirSmUgly

...what? I mean, can you not read, champ?

I didn't think that was the actual Sid, but I could be remembering another Twitter handle that did an awesome fake Sid. Still, I don't see that it's verified. Still, Sid powerbombing any and everybody on WWE television is about the only return of a past WWE Legend that I frankly would look forward to at this point.

I don't know how to feel about this Roman Reigns title run except to say that this is the worst a world champ has ever been booked in this company, and that includes Rey Mysterio's WHC reign.

Steamworld Dig is a really fun little game with solid exploration. I wish that there were more to the combat, but even so, the moments where a TNT barrel sets off a chain reaction that ends with lots of things/people getting crushed as I try to scramble away from the commotion are more than worth it. I might have to give Steamworld Heist a try.

I just know that they're going to make my favorite gimmick match of the year terrible, and I felt more gleeful about it until I realized that it's probably just going to end with HHH as champ. Which, ugh, that's the blandest way to make me dislike the Rumble.

I did not remember that there was a Steiners vs. Chono/Muta match on Nitro. It wasn't some great match, but it was awesome just because it was these four guys in front of a hot crowd. 6/2/97 is the date. It's worth watching.

Tully/Magnum Starrcade '85.

If it is true that she lost the child and carried on afterward as if she didn't, all I can do is give her my sympathy as I can't imagine how I would react in that situation. That weird situation was just a real shame for Kong and HHH.

It's a tired talking point, but they simply don't maximize the value of their roster. For a company that just loves the Attitude Era so much, they sure don't learn the important details they need to learn from that era. Attitude-era Vince McMahon got max value out of Billy Fucking Gunn, but current-day Vince McMahon can't get max value out of Roman Reigns or Dean Ambrose, so what chance does Tyler Breeze have? Nope, the lesson they took from that era is "heel authority figures are a necessity." Question on a different topic: Is Lex Luger maybe the most underrated main event-level guy in U.S. wrestling history? People get on him as a wrestler and say that his best days were in Florida or that he peaked in '87-'89. That last one might be true, but he was a hard worker even when he was over-the-hill in 1998 and on rewatch of '98-'01 WCW, he's one of the brighter spots they have at that point, especially with that Total Package gimmick with Elizabeth which still comes off really well. His run as the Narcissist was real solid too (and I have always LOVED his time limit draw with Tatanka at KotR '93, easily my favorite Tatanka match ever) until they derailed his ascension to the main event as a heel by turning him face.

I like Breeze in that midcard spot that existed in the past WWF where he ends up as a three-time IC champion who has a couple of one-month feuds with the WWE champ as fillers between main event feuds. I wish that spot still existed.

What are you talking about? That's how we know old-school wrestlers got stabbed in the first place, because of all the times grizzled old vets kept bragging about how tough their lives were back in the day. Yeah, but bragging about being stabbed to dudes in a bar over drinks is orders of magnitude cooler than giving parenting tips on Twitter. "I can beat up your dad" is the highlight of that tweet, though.

Ah, a little tap on the arm? At least he wasn't getting attacked by a septuagenarian with a knife. And let me assure you, Ole wouldn't run online to tweet about getting stabbed even if Twitter were around then. Toughen up, Kevvy. Maybe watch some Georgia Championship Wrestling and see how real burly toughmen did it back then, dammit.

So after some deliberation, I think that my favorite thing about this game is Lynda Carter's singing. That's not meant as a backhanded compliment because I really, really, REALLY love those Magnolia songs, especially "Train Train."

It's hard to stay out of these spoiler threads, but I did it, and it was worth it. If you're going to have three guys talk for ten minutes to start a show, you could do worse than that opening. I love how it set up that everyone has a claim: Zayn is a former champ who was injured pre-rematch and didn't really get a straight-up shot at the gold after he lost it...and he didn't lose by pinfall or submission either time. Joe beat Corbin (and was a dick when he reminded Zayn who saved him from Owens) and had Finn on the ropes. Corbin beat Crews, who was the previous #1 contender. Simple and effective, and dick opportunist Joe is so much fun. I do enjoy Ciampa when he decides to work a limb. This match was sadly too short for much more of it than what we got. Also when Ciampa decides to slap the shit out of someone (and get slapped in return). Even if it doesn't lead anywhere, it's really enjoyable. "No backbone - chicken tenders." Dash and Dawson also have Arn and Tully's ability to make a virtual squash match a billion times more entertaining than most other wrestlers, minus the requisite WWE-style resthold in the middle of the match. More clubbering and targeted limb work, please. Also, Dash should do a straight-up gourdbuster just to top off the Arn cosplay. Maybe do one as his part of the Shatter Machine. Eva's terrible acting during that Nia Jax skit was awesome. It genuinely made me laugh. Elias Samson still not doing anything for me at this point, but it's early in the game for him. Emma was the MVP of the battle royal. Really active, good at scheming her way through the whole thing. Meanwhile, Eva and Carmella both being on the floor made me realize the finish as soon as Carmella went out and didn't immediately get back in the ring. That was a pretty funny finish, honestly. Eva Marie as Dick Dastardly with Nia Jax as her Muttley is actually really hilarious. Everytime it looks like she's gonna win the Wacky Races NXT Championship, things go tits up. I don't like that you have to watch Breaking Ground to get that Bayley and Carmella are friends in real life. Their friendship should have been better introduced on NXT television itself.

Probably partially because Vince was such an effective on-air performer (and such a theatrical guy off-air such as when facing off with reporters who question him about drug use, Attitude-era content, the legitimacy of the XFL, etc.) that he's totally conflated Mr. McMahon the performer with Vince McMahon, owner of the WWE. Probably partially because Vince is legendary for being a bit weird, such as judging people who sneeze in a negative manner, whether those stories are apocryphal or not, and people assume that this applies to many of his decisions. I do agree that for most questions about why this company does what it does, Occam's Razor applies.

I'm so glad that someone just told Axel to act pretty much like he does on UpUpDownDown because he's not necessarily talkative, but he is entertaining, much like on UUDD.

Alton being a heel on Cutthroat but a face on Iron Chef and Good Eats is the Food Network version of HHH being a face in NXT and a heel on the main roster shows.

I'm definitely not hating on Malenko or trying to say that he wrestled "the wrong way." As I said, he was crucial in differentiating Nitro from RAW. I just think that in retrospect, his work isn't as fun to watch because now everyone in the WWE wrestles that sort of spot-heavy go-go-go type of match. I do enjoy Malenko on my re-watch of Nitro, but certainly not as much as I did in 1995-1997, and that's almost certainly because in a broad sense his style is over-saturated now. Not really his fault.

Yeah, he could definitely emphasize a narrative in his matches when they really needed one, particularly during the Jericho feud that was so good. Watching through that time period, though, most of his matches are moves exhibitions. One charitable way to look at that is that he particularly tended to go really moves-moves-moves in Nitro matches, and that makes sense because those matches did so much to help differentiate WCW's undercard/cruiserweight style from the slower and less movesy style of RAW. It shouldn't be understated how much Dean Malenko trading moves with/being a strong base for cruisers helped to make Nitro feel must-watch even before the nWo angle got rolling.

Kanyon's approach was "do a bunch of cool shit" when that approach on the mainstream U.S. wrestling level was still novel rather than played out as it is now. He and Dean Malenko benefited greatly from treating matches as moves exhibitions at a time that people like me, who weren't watching anything other than WWF and WCW, viewed that stuff as fun, fresh, and much different than what was typically on TV at the time (especially when compared to the working style in mid-'90s WWF).

Yeah, it's almost like rain on your wedding day.

AR looks more interesting to me than VR, and I am more excited for Hololens than Oculus or PSVR, but I am also pretty excited to see what the early adopters think about VR.

I want Cuphead. And Horizon: Zero Dawn.

People will roll their eyes at this, and understandably so, but I think beyond being progressive, they also won't clear him because they want to protect themselves just in case something awful happens to a big star in a WWE ring that could have been prevented and because they don't really want him on TV anyway because he might gum up the Reigns push somehow. I also think they won't clear him because they genuinely do think that he came back before he was ready and went right back to injuring a still-injured head and neck and are doing it partially for Bryan's own good. The problem is that they're clearly singling Bryan out, but they let Tommy Dreamer come out and take bumps and have table matches, so even if at least some of their intentions are selfless, they come off as petty and dishonest. Really, they should just let him go. Vince wants Bryan around because Bryan is clearly useful with a significant enough part of the fanbase, but he doesn't want to actually put him on TV for a bunch of reasons. It's not like letting Bryan go is going to cause New Japan or RoH to overtake them as a promotion, though. Vince really should let him leave and let the chips fall where they may.

Actually, I am most excited about the Rumble because they seemingly don't remember how to properly book the titular match. We will get something surprisingly awesome or something so bad that everyone actively shits on it yet again, which is way more promising than the typical forgettable mediocrity we get from most WWE PPVs.