SirSmUgly

And of course, they'll be renamed "Piper" and "Alex."

I like Jason Jordon/an and all, but Titus O'Neil is amazing and deserves a better spot.

Reigns is really reliant on his signature moves and his finisher. There's not much there in-ring for him between all those things. I know WWE style is very much predicated on hitting signature spots (or having them reversed so you can hit them later), but Reigns's reliance on those things is overkill even for the style. He needs to get an upper-midcard feud with a guy that can help him grow in the ring and learn to space his spots out better (and what to do in between going for those spots). The Wyatts have lost their mystique at this point, plus Bray Wyatt was protected a bit in those trios matches or being matched up against Bryan. Bray's best match was that Rumble match. He badly needs a feud with a D-Bryan type to help him along in the ring. I personally do not enjoy Punk at all and I think he's a mediocre guy in the ring overall, but he had a very good sense of how to pace a match the way WWE likes it. They could really very badly use him as a heel against Reigns or as a face against Bray Wyatt in an extended feud to really get those guys working closer to a main event level in the ring. Missing Bryan and Punk at the same time has turned out to be really bad for the development of some of the guys they want to push because both those guys could have been great partners to help those younger dudes gain experience. I'm just hoping that at this point, Luke Harper can get away from the sinking ship that is the Wyatt Family and get a big push of his own as a singles guy. He's going to be the guy that I get the most frustrated for over his stop-start pushing, even more than Cesaro, when he eventually breaks away.

I definitely haven't lost my love of wrestling, and at this point in my life, it will never happen, but watching tons of World Class and WCW/NWA on the Network makes me wish there were a stridently southern wrestling organization again. The South does three things better than everyone else: food, jazz, and pro wres.

While I get being irritated about a salary question on Taz's end, I think Keller was making a good point here. Trading on ECW nostalgia might have popped that particular crowd, but it will do next to nothing to grow the company. Plus, I'm pretty sure Keller was asking that rhetorically in order to make a point and didn't expect an actual response. Taz was losing that exchange, though, so it was smart of him to take offense and bow out right there.

They should save one-on-one main event matches for PPV and do lots of tags, trios, and even eight-man tags that team up multiple guys from different feuds. Bring back the Survivor Series style of four-on-four elimination and just do those on RAW and Smackdown. That would be much better than running the same one-on-one match a billion times.

FTFY I know you're not totally serious, but let's not downplay that Lana has the unique ability to make non-wrestling fans say "She's really good at that" and pay attention, or at least in my experience with the non-wrestling fans that are in the room when she's doing her schtick. My wife, who rolls her eyes at all non-Andy Kaufman wrestling stuff, actually enjoyed Lana last night.

The thing is, he already has had his day. It's like when people were clamoring for Bryan to FINALLY win the title when he had already won both the World and even WWE titles. The people don't want Ziggler to have his day, they want him booked exactly the way they want, which is an entirely different drive than wanting to see the underdog finally triumph. This isn't to say the way he's been booked has been good or interesting, but I think it's an important distinction to make. I don't even think they want "his day" necessarily. They just want to see him presented as a threat and as an important part of RAW. I wouldn't say that WWE fans don't know what they want at this point as the gentleman below you said because there was pretty much a mass uprising when D-Bry was getting shoved aside and Ziggler is still massively over after being booked into oblivion (remember his first WHC run where he never won the belt and then immediately lost it, see how he has been shoved way down the card). I don't particularly like Ziggler or dislike him, but I am impressed that the guy is just over no matter what. That counts for something.

Huh, he DID win. I had to go look that up because I could have sworn he lost. Oh yeah, the little kid showed up after Cena had destroyed the three Wyatt members. A Pyrrhic victory for Wyatt in terms of his long-term viability if there ever was one, but you are correct, and I should change my post.

You forgot to make WarGames fit in there somewhere. Call me a true believer, but I really do think once HHH is in control, we'll get WarGames back. Remember when we thought Evolution/Shield was going to be a WarGames match? That would have been amazing. Actually, I keep hoping they will at least do a trios match in the Elimination Chamber, but I guess that if they didn't do Wyatts/Shield in the Chamber back in February, they'll never do it. That match was perfectly set up for the Chamber (though what we got was awesome anyway, of course).

Having two world titles is just a bandaid for a bullet wound. The real issue is that they need to figure out how to book compelling midcard angles again. Adding another title for midcarders to trade wins over isn't going to help the underlying problem.

I didn't think the Alexa Bliss promo was actively bad. It was just ordinary. I do really enjoy Sasha Banks, though. She's solid in-ring, but everything about how she gets into that character works for me. She's kinda become a face for me because Charlotte and Summer Rae both really took/take her for granted. I really am hoping that she wins the NXT Women's Championship next.

Gregg, what would you say about how the Wyatts have been treated in their feuds since EC? Let's just look at Bray Wyatt on PPV: Lost to Cena, beat Cena (in a virtual 3 on 1 in his favor and only after creepy kid interference), lost to Cena, lost the MITB match, lost to Jericho. Even if we wait to critique the Jericho thing, would you say that after Wyatt was rung up by Cena three straight times, a loss to Jericho in the first match of the feud was probably not the best choice? How would you look at the Cena feud now that it is over? Finally, I think that Bray Wyatt was so over by the Rumble that he could have credibly feuded with Bryan over the big gold post-WM or could have held the gold himself. Do you think, like I do, that this is not true now and that how he was booked in the Cena feud is a big part of why this is not true, or do you disagree with my whole premise here?

When Sting blew out his knee at Clash X, they really panicked by turning Luger back face. If the plan was to wait for a title change until Sting was ready to wrestle again, they needed a strong heel that Sting could match up against that wasn't Luger. They pretty much did nothing to plan for that. Instead, they turned Luger face and phased Muta out. In an alternate universe where Muta could have stuck around and was booked stronger (like to earn at least a few points at the Starrcade round robin and as an upper-midcard killer otherwise), Sting/Muta in another short feud would work if you have to turn Luger face or Sting/Luger if they stay the course and keep him heel. Also, there's always just a Sting/Sid feud available there beyond just Halloween Havoc. Instead, we got this Black Scorpion thing which was just a mess and was a really bad way to have Sting start his first World Championship reign.

Every Fatal Fourway match feels structured exactly the same in WWE. They really should liven up the formula by making them elimination-style matches. That would really help the variety. As it is, I feel like I can just skip to the very end of every fourway they put out there.

This a million times over. What good does this do? I wasn't thrilled about it, but at least it was referenced somewhat obliquely and only to throw Afghanistan in the U.S.'s face. It wasn't a totally tasteless "THEY DESERVED TO BE SHOT DOWN" sort of thing, which honestly I half-expected. Not that "It wasn't as bad as it probably could have been" is much of a defense.

I loved the third fall of Usos/Wyatts, but the first two falls were so rushed that they were pointless. Lana is amazing. I didn't think Swagger/Rusev was very good, but I liked Rusev's little gestures and mannerisms in the ring. When Swagger was running up for a Swagger bomb, Rusev noticed and weakly put his hands up to half-guard himself, half-shake his hands to beg off before getting hit. I liked that. Also, he remembered to sell the ankle like a champ. Paige is totally lost up here on the big show. Her timing with AJ was off and her character work sucked. They should let her do the anti-Diva thing she was doing in NXT. Remember January, when Bray Wyatt beat D-Bry cleanly and the Wyatts seemed like an unstoppable machine? It feels like well over a year ago by now. I kind of want to see a Kofi/Cesaro series even though their spots were a bit awkward tonight. Titus Young was my favorite thing about that battle royal, and I wish they'd just stick him and Darren Young back together as heels to face the Usos next. I will say that I hope Miz and Ziggler wrestle over the Get Depushed and Lose a Ton of Matches title for awhile so no one else gets tagged with it. The Fatal 4-Way was average. I feel like it was so paint-by-numbers and they could have cut out the first fifteen minutes and gone straight to the finishing run. I thought Ambrose was coming out of the ambulance in a callback to Stone Cold Steve Austin on that last ambush. Ambrose rules, and Rollins is awesome too. Can't wait 'til they have their big PPV match.

I was looking for a used copy of FIFA at my local game shop when I found a copy of AAA Lucha Libre: Heroes del Ring for the Xbox 360. It plays really, really differently from most wrestling games. I wouldn't call it a great game, but it's kinda fun! I'm about three matches in and still getting used to timing counters. Any tips on being better at this game from anyone who has it? It has me wanting to watch some AAA, actually.

If I were going to do a list of the guys with the coolest body language and mannerisms, Sid would be way up there, maybe at the top. Even under that mask, he just physically emotes like this fired-up dude who's going to start dishing out powerbombs any moment.

I really like CJ Parker's entrance theme. I really hate Sami Zayn's entrance theme and the dancing, on the other hand. Sasha Banks was awesome tonight. I am looking forward to Callisto/??? vs. the Vaudevillains so very much. That's all I got for this week.

I think the problem is that there's not a well-booked midcard. It seems like the only well-booked programs are main event programs now. Back when you could push, for example, Steve Austin, The Rock, and HHH at the same time by sticking HHH as a second to Shawn Michaels against the Undertaker, pushing Austin vs Bret and then Owen, and pushing The Rock as an agitator within the Nation of Domination, this wouldn't be a problem. If they would just have Cesaro and Big E having a meaningful midcard feud over who is the strongest while Ambrose and Rollins work each other and Reigns gets the main event feud by being paired with Cena, we wouldn't be having this issue. It's just that we know that WWE is so bad at doing anything coherent as far as mid-card feuds go. EDIT: Just saw your second post, Gregg. I agree that a guy who is really, really good can keep himself over, but I don't think that is a good argument for de-pushing or sidelining a guy. At best, you just aren't getting full mileage out of someone that you should be utilizing. Bryan got sidelined to some degree, and now that they're finally ready to use him, his career might be over (though I would say that the Bryan/Kane pairing is one of the best, most consistent mid-card acts that they've actually developed in a few years; they actually do really well with telling the stories comedy tag team pairings - see Black Gold/Bookdust/whatever for another example). At worst, when you don't protect a guy, you don't get what you could have gotten out of him. Let's say Cesaro cannot recover from this, which I don't believe, but let's go with that. This is a guy that you could have gotten a compelling run out of opposite Bryan (or Cena once Bryan got hurt) for at least a couple months that would have found better reception than Bryan's work with Kane. If you're trying to sell the Network, you have to rope in as many hardcores as possible, and Bryan/Cesaro or even Cena/Cesaro is more likely to do that than Bryan/Kane. Furthermore, isn't a mark of admiration for some promoters that they got more out of guys than they should have? Isn't this why people exalt Paul Heyman? He was able to get 911 over or whoever by being creative and milking what he could for all it was worth. We should expect good bookers to emphasize the strengths and play down the weaknesses of their wrestlers, not just say "Oh, well, he couldn't stay over on his own, so forget him." One last thing re: Dolph being over. He is over, but he's over for meta-reasons; the fans wanted him on top, and WWE never gave them that. It's actually funny because while Dolph got over by being super-athletic and cocky, he stays over purely because the fans are doing a miniature version of what they did with Bryan for him as well. I don't think that he is a fair example of guys who stay over even when being crapped on just because his circumstances are so weird.

I understand why people are disappointed with some of the gaps in footage, and I definitely agree that some of the flaws of current WWE are reflected when watching something like WCW's 1992-1994 shows where everything is way, way better booked. I also know that people here probably have seen much of the footage that I have not seen and are bored with it - those MSG and Toronto shows in Old School are new to me most of the time, but some people here were talking about how they had long since seen them. For me, there still is just a sheer amount of stuff that I don't even know how I'll get to, and they keep adding more each month. I'm still working through the Clashes/WCW PPVs and they put up SNME too. I have to get back to ECW and World Class, both of which I started and then broke off from. I also broke off from following the weekly RAWs from the beginning, too, and I have to get back to that. On top of that, NXT is my favorite weekly show right now by a very wide margin, and I get to stream those without having to deal with Hulu. I see getting access to the current PPVs as a nice way to loosely keep up with what's going on now. I really don't watch RAW or Smackdown at this point unless this board makes a big deal out of a segment or match; then, I track it down to watch it. However, one PPV a month on a Sunday is easy to make time for, and if the shows seem to be getting stronger, then I make time to catch the weekly shows as well. If Ambrose gets a rocket strapped to him at Battleground, then I'll know to start watching RAW and Smackdown more closely. If not, I can just ignore the shows until I see how Summerslam goes. I'm of the mind that I am being pretty damn undercharged for what the Network is giving me. They could ask for twenty bucks a month and I would pay it without hesitating. I'd still probably stick around at thirty bucks just because of the sheer amount of value that I get just because I do a ton of writing and grading at home, and I have a show going on in the background at the same time to help me work.

Luger never really did a full heel turn. Jimmy Hart did, but a big part of that whole storyline was that Luger wanted Jimmy Hart's representation, but he actually fought The Giant for the gold and tagged with Sting, who chose to trust him. Before that story played out, the nWo showed up and the Hogan turn shifted the focus of the main event. I often wonder how things would have ended assuming no nWo storyline because that Luger-Sting-Hogan-Savage-Flair five-way feud might be one of my favorite main event storylines ever. When those early Nitros are put back up on WWEN, people who don't remember this thing are going to really really enjoy it.

If you count his Heroes of Wrestling PPV spot, yes. Actually, he was a really good face on that show and cut an awesome promo on Stan Lane. I'm pretty sure Tully was a face in ECW, too.

Well Sting did beat the tar out of Flair at WW3 1995 (I feel so stupid typing that ppv name) so I'd say that portion of the turn didn't work out so well for Flair. However, it did lead to the reformation of the Horsemen and him getting the belt at Starrcade 95 so it wasn't all bad. Yeah, the best part was that Sting was so genre-savvy by this point that he explicitly told Flair that if Flair used the pleas of the kid fans as a way to suck him in and turn on him, he would beat the crap out of Flair, and that he would only help Flair for the kids and not for Flair. Sting's character becoming progressively more genre-savvy over the years (he sniffed out that Hogan and Bischoff would turn on Dixie early on and ended up being driven insane by how crappily-run TNA was and turning into nutbar Joker Sting as a result) is actually a pretty cool meta-aspect of the character.