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After hearing the "bottom of the third" reference in regard to this storyline, I'm wondering if there are any other baseball references that can be made. Should the umps call curfew on the game? Do we add someone from NXT in as a September call up? End it now via the 10 run mercy rule, Roman wins again.

Battle Royal and last two matches were a lot of fun. The rest was middle of the road at best. Did JR have a more censored version of the Heenan/Pillman "What the F are you doing?" moment at the Clash? He yelled "Hey! Stupid!" at one point and no attention was brought to it. Excalibur said at one point their ankles were getting bumped into, so I wonder if that happened to JR (what with his surgery scar and all).

I'll say it's jarringly weird to hear Bobby Heenan reference high schools you're familiar with, one of which you went to.

Felt like a flash pin by Cody, I'm wondering what that exactly does for the story. Is a rematch coming? Hopefully the Bloodline angle will move out of the stasis it's been in for the past few weeks. I guess Kevin and Sami can say that they followed through with their mission statement of bringing down the Bloodline, technically speaking, but it's seems more like the Bloodline is doing it to themselves. Otherwise the show was A LOT of fun, which I wasn't completely expecting.

"Now go with me here...instead of hunting crocodiles...he hunts...PEOPLE!" I can visualize that conversation being had.

They just put the trailer with the 10 episodes out on Twitter. With cursory knowledge of some of the topics, there are certainly going to be some grim ones. But then there will be episodes on BATB 2000 and Doink the Clown...

It may be worthwhile to revisit the old wrestling saying: is they money in the chase anymore? Is the money in the catching now? Or should we just say "the money is in the TV rights deals" in current times.

I was set to give things a chance last night, but then was left thinking "does WWE even know what a babyface is anymore?" after Raw last night. But then, I thought "well, we have to go alllll the way back to...Saturday night to see them present a babyface well". ." I then thought that I'll be going back to watching 10% of Raw like I have been for the past 5 years.

Just saw this now, Roman "Dostoyevsky" Reigns says we're only in the 3rd inning? He's probably going to get a few pitch clock violations throughout the rest of this game. Remember, only two pickoffs per batter now! Pace of play!

Maybe just me, but I think Cody winning would have been the perfect bow to the story between Roman and Sami, since he'd have gotten some consequential revenge against Roman with the helluva kick.

Sami didn't need to appeal to Kevin's better angels or use a logical argument. All he had to say was "I love you" to break through. Love always wins!

Any guesses on the next Shawn Michaels homage they're going to do? Maybe a bodyguard turning on their client angle ending with an out of control power bomb, a la Sid and Shawn in '95?

Agreed. Wrestling show as participatory experience, whether you want to or not, is an interesting choice.

One more observation before I sleep and groggily work my way through Monday: I called the OT period. The match started a little after 10:30 and thought that there’s no way an AEW PPV ends that much before Midnight.

Excellent show, the theater experience was great. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm not a huge proponent of MJF throwing the drink on the kid. (SRS tweeted that the kid was visibly upset.) I don't like when comedians make someone who doesn't want to be, a part of the show. I guess I don't like it when wrestlers do it either. Is the front row the theoretical "splash zone" at the water park? Was that always the case? Should front row fans be prepared for that like fans that bring tarp to a Gallagher show?

I decided this time to take in the PPV theater experience, and after checking just now, it seems like I'm the only one who will be there. I don't necessarily think that it's indicative of anything besides the fact that they're probably not going to come back to North Carolina any time soon. (A shame we're missing out on the sing-songy Justin Roberts "North Carolina" as opposed to the Ray Clay version that it's based off of.)

I'm starting to buy into the whole sentiment that people couldn't have really thought/convinced themselves that Sami should have won. I feel like the February PLE should be renamed "WWE: Manage Your Expectations" from now on.

To me, if I view this story in isolation, it feels like they've told us a "feel-bad" story. (They seem to have gotten very good at that over the years.) They greatest story in the history of pro-wrestling (as purported by some) is a "feel-bad" story? That's just a weird vibe.

100 percent true. It's the age old debate, isn't it? Should a certain type of entertainment hold up a mirror to real life or be escapist nonsense? My vote doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but when it comes to wrestling my vote is for escapist nonsense.

People always say good stories have a beginning, middle, and end. If this is the end for the Sami part of this story, the conclusion is that no matter how much hope there is, how much you believe in yourself, and how much everyone loves and believes in you, forces will always work against you. You're just not going to win. Move on to something else. What a nice story! (The best in wrestling history, I guess?)

How much Mountain Dew product placement is everyone anticipating for the Pitch Black (TM) match? There are a lot of Mountain Dew variants that sound like they could be matches in the future. A Code Red match? A Spark match? A Baja Blast match?

Two Vince themed DSOTRs (Montreal and the steroid trial) aired right before it, so anyone who stuck around for at least 3 hours saw some of the same content twice within that evening's programming block.

I actually thought the same! I went to the show and heard his voice over the PA, so I think he must have done the announcing on FITE.

Would have laughed uproariously if Shane Douglas got up from commentary and was the mystery partner.

There's a city in my mind, come along and take that ride...