Hollywood Cibernetico

I had no idea this was happening this Sunday. I do not like nor follow football. With that said, I always go for the most charismatic players (as the NFL hates all charisma and entertainment), so I have to go with Cam Newton and his Lucha antics. Just as Richard Sherman's great promo skills and Mr. Skittles personality almost made me watch the last two SuperBowls, Cam Newton is now that reason. Hope he does well. There is a 99.9% chance I will not be watching anyways.

I read somewhere that Owens is actually 7-2 against Dolph already. Which somehow makes it worse. Not only do they have one of the only over guys on the show wrestling Dolph every week in meaningless matches, but they finally give Dolph a clean win after establishing Owens as your upper card heel? On the build to Mania? What a joke. Going back to Dec. of last year all the way to last night: Owens/Ziggler have been trading wins and it currently stands at 3-2. Much like the Bray/Ambrose feud, I expect this to become 3-3 and the 'blow off' happen at Fast Lane. There are a lot of 'unofficial best of' series happening in WWE.

Dolph has a movie coming out? That's no reason to beat Owens. Stardust, The Ascension, Fandango, Swagger, and Sandow are all RIGHT THERE. Ziggler can go on a 2 month winning streak mixing it up with those 6. Despite being a former world champion and being THE REASON The Authority was booted from WWE in 2014, nothing Ziggler does means anything and the guy holds no credibility. He doesn't need to go to NXT (because I don't know if I can take Ziggler 'stealing the show' against someone who can actually work), but he needs to play the top dog on the under card spot for a while because he is stinking up these shows. Its partially his fault because of his style, but the booking is really not doing him any kind of favors. I really hope this isn't a "I'm Doing it for My Sister" run by Brie. She is another who needs to be as far away from the main product as possible as she is just terrible in the ring and is clearly at the bottom of the pack alongside Fox, Summer, Cameron, Eva, etc. Being the best out of them is like celebrating having aids instead of cancer. All the best to her sister, but hopefully they are both out of Mania. Braun needs to learn how to throw a god damn punch. Seriously, WWE isn't expecting this guy to be a super worker in the first 2-3 years, but the little stuff should count. The boot to the face, the body slams, and the punches. If its going to be kept simple-- practice the simple stuff so it looks clean and devastating instead of questionable. I hope he isn't another Mason Ryan, Heinderich, or Nathan Jones.

I am sorry to hear of Bret's illness and I hope it all works out for him. I hate to see the good ones go.

TNA should have more of that type of stuff. No one watches, might as well make it has fun and silly as possible.

I think the reasoning for that is that a lot of people feel the need to prove they are not online creeps and so they over compensate by going onto forums and patting themselves on the back while pretending to not have seen Jennifer Lawrence's nude photos because they were 'raised right' and 'have respect for women'. Its the opposite of what we see in real life where men usually go out of their way to prove how heterosexual they are. Online, with its negative stigma in some circles, we need to pretend we are living in the Victorian era and NEVER sully the good name of a woman, let alone pretend we find one attractive. One is neither more honest than the other, but the knighting that goes on is usually a clear sign of someone repressing something deep and dark.

I understand what you are saying, this is just my take on it.

Female athletes do not have the luxury of being primarily portrayed as performance athletes first instead of their sex appeal before all else. The long standing tradition in media is to present 'sexiness first and sports star second'. The suggestive poses, revealing clothing, and sometimes even semi-nude/nude spreads. This has been going on for years, so I am not sure why some people are pretending that even for a fleeting second that they find a few of their favorite female performers as eye candy that they would love to date. This is a long standing belief if sociology that shows that when it comes to the sexual attraction we tend to favor those whom we would like to bed a bit more than those we do not. In a nothing Diva match I would watch Nikki vs. Natalie and not Brie vs. Summer Rae. Workrate aside, I am not going to pretend that looks have nothing to do with my viewership. Again, the level that some will take it (or try and repress it to pretend they are a 'better' fan than others) is incredible.

Improving, yes. Fantastic worker, no.

I don't know why I find this so funny. I wonder what is so 'dangerous' about this site? Hehehe.

Imagine is TNA gave Alissa Flash, Awesome Kong, Hamada, Gail Kim, Sarita, and Taylor Wilde a 20 minute LL match? It probably would have been beyond amazing. As this is the first (and last?) KOs LL, I will definitely check it out, but with people like Velvet, Bell, and Rebel in it, I am not expecting much.

Here's something fun: Roman Reigns is a 12 Time Slammy Award winner. I know The Slammys don't really mean anything, but cruising random wrestlers Wikis today, it was interesting to see such a high number for him and I would venture to say he has won the most in Slammys history.

I'm home. It's late. What's the top 3 Trish matches I should check out? Her Mania match against James I am sure is still highly regarded? What are the other two?

She never worked with them. Yes she did. SummerSlam 2004. Divas Dodgeball.

Trish was over with the fans. People were buying what she was selling. I am not disputing that, but personally she was a channel changer for me once he looks faded. How well her work and run are regarded is all telling based on the pops (or lack thereof) she received during her post-retirement WWE returns.

Paint-by-the-numbers sub-standard matches with flat promos infused with cringe worthy comedy that makes Dolph Ziggler look like Rodeny Dangerfield? I am not sure how she was a highlight of the show. Trish looked good up until the end of the first half of 2001, from there it was here working at the lowest level possible with such great talent as Amy Weber, Joy, Carmella, overrated and eventually exposed post WWE Victoria, Maria, Candice Michelle, Torrie Wilson, and tons of other shitty women. An occasional passable five minute match against Molly Holly, Jazz, and Gail Kim just isn't enough in my book. Good workers elevate people and make them look credible. Trish didn't do that. Trish wasn't able to turn chicken shit into chicken salad, but she did add seasoning and spices.

Crews gets better reactions that Riley and Elias combined. Riley and Elias (from the little I've seen of him) can promo. This might be the best thing for Crews to be put in a program with guys who can promo and not only that but whose promos feed into the other worker(s) involved. The worse thing WWE could do right now is put the title on Crews when he is luke warm and can barely shake the stick. The crowd will turn on him quick and NXT has been pretty good, thus far, in not having a Roman Reigns on the roster.

Lana came off natural in her role as a heel, but not as a face. Alexa came off natural as a face, but not as a heel. My biggest issue with Lana as a face mainly falls in WWE's lap as when WWE turns someone face that is when the pandering begins and the removal of gimmicks that got the person over in the first place. For Del Rio it was his cars and being seen with hot women. For Lana it was the business suits, bun, and being calculating. She was the velvet glove in the iron fist pairing. Lana was also a good promo as a heel and got herself, Rusev, and Rusev's opponents over. FWIW, even when she was pandering Lana stayed over (but differently cooled off) with the crowd. Bliss on the other hand was mildly over and then went to being even less over once she turned heel. With Lana, it was as natural a transition as possible and though her character wasn't everyone's cup of tea, it made sense within the story and we could understand why she was acting the way she was. A foreign woman being in love with an American man and adopting the culture while acting completely love struck, we could see it. For Alexa, it went from twirling and blowing glitter one week to overly compensating struts down the ramp the next week. From the OTT facial expressions, inflection and emphasis on the wrong part of words (and sometimes the word itself) during promos, and generic 'mean girl' body language she picked up from watching Letters to Juliet. Its just bad all around and I still can't believe someone hasn't told her that less is more. She isn't a heel. She is playing a heel. Its too obvious and she might as well carry the playbook in her back pocket as she walks out to the ring and change her Twitter handle to @HEELALEXA. If both were released, I would only miss Alexa, because I think that ever since she started doing her squats that she became hot. Alexa also has a higher upside in the ring than Lana and I hope Lana continues to improve and breaks into that upper tier to be considered peers alongside Sasha, Charlotte, Bayley, Becky, and Asuka.

Here's the thing about Riley...I am perfectly fine with his mid-life crisis gimmick. This is a guy who went from NXT rookie to failed WWE Superstar to NXT commentator to NXT wrestler. During this transition he dyed his hair and looks much older and rugged. As long as he is no where near a title or any real wrestlers that matter, I have zero issue with him working against guys like Elias Samson, Bull Dempsey, etc. I am sure there is no over-arching story here with Riley, but WWE can play out something like The Wrestler with Riley over the span of the next year and a half as the D angle of NXT.

The piped in noise and Chris Jericho both make Smackdown hard to watch at times. Everything else was at least entertaining. Styles should re-invent himself as far as finishers are concerned. He used the Styles Clash since what 2003?

I'm just going to cut to the chase... Worst: Natalie. Unreal. Her husband has a broken neck and need surgery and all she can do is bitch about her 'career'. She is getting paid while she is out and has other responsibilities other than pro wrestling. On top of this, she has this delusion that the people are clamoring for her return and of course believing that she is a good worker. Someone on this board please name me one good Natalie match that sticks out and has stood the test of time? Sasha, Becky, Charlotte, Emma, Paige, and Nikki can all say they have those matches, but not Natalie and this has nothing to do with lack of 'revolution' to work from. She is passable worker at best, can't promo, and has spotting selling. Her control segments are the worse in the Divas division outside of Eva Marie and the NXT girls. She really is unbearable. Best: Summer Rae Summer had to lie to Natalie about Natalie being a good worker and defining the Divas, etc., but sometimes a person needs to say whatever they need to say to shut people up. Summer having her Jerry Springer-like Final Thought with Natalie ended all the needless complaining from Natalie and for that Summer is the best of this episode.

Re: LON Everyone in LON is cold. Flat out cold. WWE cooled them all down and aside from ADR (and this is not saying much really), none of them are over. WWE might have tried to NOA, Too Cool, and New Day formula with LON and it has failed to get over as they are all too high up on the card to establish any credibility. I do agree that Barrett should be doing the talking while he is out and perhaps Sheamus/Rusev WITH LANA (who I am not really a fan of, but recognize that tons of people think she is attractive and a good promo) should focus on the tag scene for a while. The pieces are there, but WWE for some reason will not use these guys to the fullest and insists on miscasting them. No one wants to see Sheamus in the WWE title picture, no one wants to NOT see Lana, people want to see B.N. Barrett make a return and deliver some BAD NEWS, and people want to see Del Rio in the suits, with hot babes and cool cars. All of these guys wearing suits while acting like James Bond villains with Lana signing the contracts and calling shots behind the scenes would actually get over...so of course the opposite is done.

This would be a great question for the guys who book The Rumble. Who was Plan B? Who was Plan C? How deep does it actually go for the winner and not only the winner but the angles? Does WWE just circle back to plan A come Monday night or do they play it out for a month?

This is one of the reasons WWE (and all of pro wrestling really) would benefit from having off seasons. Ziggler is someone who needs something fresh. He doesn't have control over his music, booking, or scripts handed to him, but he could switch up his entire moveset, catchphrases, and etc. What is Dolph's gimmick? He is the 'show-off'? I never understood that aspect of the gimmick as he is not doing anything impressive like 1997 RVD or even 2015 Kalisto. Taking a good ass kicking, being a face in peril, and doing awesome pinball bumping is something the fans should like Ziggler for, not something Ziggler should be selling to the fans as a reason to like him. At least not as on-the-nose as he does. Ziggler needs a "New Day" type re-invention ASAP.

Yep. A dunce hate made out of aluminum foil.