caley

Finally finished this off... -Opening promo I already touched on...so seriously, he really did say "We bang together" right? -Knux-Sabin was nothing terribly exciting. Sabin sure did not look like a former World Champ in there. -Brisco/Bischoff-Gunner/Storm was pretty boring. I find watching Brisco really, really upsetting. And I think Bischoff might be improving. He didn't look that bad here. -The Gauntlet match was okay. I REALLY wanted AJ to eliminate himself early on when he clothesline someone over the ropes. I also love that Anderson took a relatively easy bump and turned it into something extremely dangerous by somehow falling backwards and hitting his head on the barricade. -Sting-Bully was the best match of the night even though it was kinda sad and had something that absolutely irked me. It was sad because Sting is just kinda sad to watch now, the way he comes out and keeps doing the point at the crowd (When that was actually an NWO signal that Sting co-opted when he joined the Wolfpac but now just looks like an old guy trying to be cool: "Remember when I used to do this?!"), back and forth and back and forth, with his generic Metallica knock-off music, his receding hairline and having to wear a t-shirt in the ring. It's like that last stretch of Shawn Michaels where he was badly balding and still coming out to "Sexy Boy", look at Triple H cutting his hair, it's okay to get old, guys, just be graceful about it. The match was fine with the brawling around the ring (Even, though, in truth the amount show was probably less than 5 minutes total). But the part where they rip back the mat (I understand it was done before, this was my first time seeing it) was STUPID because it sends the message to the crowd: "You know when guys get dropped on the mat, it's padded, but if I drop him on the wood without the padding, it will REALLY hurt" basically undoing one of the basic tenets of pro wrestling: 'getting slammed in the ring hurts'. It's maybe a small thing, but it really annoyed me, much like this show does.

Thought I'd posted about this show last night. -Opening match was fine for a match with Aksana in it. Bayley's hug-plex was amazing and should be a signature spot for her. Also, I've kept quiet about this, for fear of being branded creepy, but I have to...Bayley's ass! -Graves-Victor was really dull. Just no life to it whatsoever. -I LOVED Russev-Ryan. It felt like the crowd was super into it. Russev as part of Lefort's Legion ("We're going to Sizzler!") is perfect. I love Russev's spinning heel kick. Also, the worry I have about Lefort making it to the big roster is he is absolutely ripped and is gonna show up a number of guys in the physique department, kinda like when Armando Alejandro Estrada started wrestling and was just in ridonculous shape! -Zayn-Swagger was good, then got great in the final stretch. Also have to add that Alex Riley is pretty weak on commentary, especially when juxtaposed with Regal, or even Maddox. Everything he talks about is in relation to him: "She was there when I was in my last year at NXT." "He reminds me of when I was a University athlete." "That reminds me of when I teamed with the Miz." "I know what that's like from when I managed the Miz." It was like having goddamn Larry Zbyszko out there, except a Zbyszko who doesn't say "human game of chess" and never actually accomplished anything.

Goddamn 'Dredd'! I picked it up from the library, watched and enjoyed it, and can't, for the life of me, find the damn copy! Now I'm gonna have to replace it! Argh! Watched Hit and Run which is kind of a real lot of fun. Real-life couple Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell play a couple and she has a job interview in LA and he plans to drive her, even though he's in the Witness Protection system. Bradley Cooper is the wronged man from his past who decides to track him down, and Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, David Koechner turn up in small roles and Tom Arnold damn near steals the film as the often-screwing-up US Marshal charged with protecting Shepard. Also, apparently the movie cost only $2 million to make and half of that was spent on music credits (Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel) and all the stunt-driving and cars come courtesy Shepard himself. It's fairly funny, good stunts/chase scenes and Kristen Bell is hot, so it's definitely worth a watch.

Watching Fighting on Spike and the first time I saw this (Yes, sadly, I've seen it before) I was mesmerized by how terrible Channing Tatum is at speaking (Seriously, he must have gone to speech therapy) but somehow ignored how terrible Terrence Howard is in this, as well. My brother said it sounds like he's had a stroke. There are sections where the two of them speak to each other and you can barely understand a thing they're saying.

Somehow that 'Robocop' trailer alternately looks kinda awesome (The stuff where he's on the robocycle) and kinda shitty ("You have to talk to your SON!"). I'm really torn. Then again, having just seen it for the first time last year, I don't have nearly the same attachment to the original that most of y'all do.

Bummed that I forgot to PVR this. Especially looking at Cesaro's slap above.

So, am I wrong, or did Bully Ray say that he and Aces & Eights "bang together". Seriously. I'm pretty sure he said that. That could be an interesting swerve if they made Aces & Eights a gay biker gang and Sting is after them because he's Christian and wants them to pray the gay away. Also, I can't begin to describe how off-putting Wes Brisco is. It actually pains me to look at him. Like, he comes out and I hold my hands in front of my face and peek between my fingers to make sure he's offscreen. He's really, REALLY off-putting.

Don't sleep on the awesome Finlay-Regal or Vader-Cactus fights on WCWSN either. Somebody link them!

WWE had to rush the Cena match because when you're dealing with a guy like Brock Lesnar, whose passions seemingly change from one week to the next (WWE forever, then bored. NFL, then didn't want to waste time working at it. UFC, then gets bored and goes back to WWE), you hot-shot that angle/match right now for the pay-off rather than build it up for a couple months and it leads to...nothing because Brock suddenly decided he really wants to wrestle in the Olympics or something. There was no point in a slow-build for an angle around Lesnar when, at the time, it was unclear how passionate he was about returning to wrestling and if he'd stick with it for the long haul. So, why would you waste him against Kofi Kingston (Keeping in mind, he only has a small amount of limited matches for the year, why put him against Kofi "I Can Fly" Kingston?!) OR put him over your top guy when you're not sure how long you're gonna have him for!

Edge is going to get "Fired" next week, right? Based off his tweet about 'good for business', I see him coming in and talking up Bryan to a hot crowd, then Triple H coming out and firing him because it's good for business and the crowd will be extremely angry.

My preferences Mike > Joel New Crow > Old Crow (But it's clooooose, Old Crow is funny, but New Crow is meaner) Forrester > Pearl (I REALLY don't like Pearl) Frank > Bobo/Brain Guy (Which isn't really fair, Brain Guy/Bobo are funny but Frank is Frank) and they're all three >>>>>>> then Josh Weinstein's character Movies with the Mike/Murphy/Corbett crew > movies with the Joel/Murphy/Beaulieu or Mike/Murphy/Beaulieu I came into the show when it was on the verge of being canceled, but find the early episodes (First 2 seasons, at least) almost unwatchable at times.

My favourite promo ever. Dusty is the best.

Well there wouldn't be a lot of suspense in a future Bryan-Show match-up if Bryan beat him up, would there?! And of course nobody was chanting for Bryan at the end of the show, he was (kayfabe) unconscious. That would be like chanting "Let's go Lakers" when they're down by 30.

Of course he doesn't win at NOC. Why would he? It would be like opening a movie with Batman in trouble, then twenty minutes later, he's the winner. I really think, at this point, the WM main event will be Bryan/Orton and Cena/Undertaker (or Lesnar or something), so settle in for the long haul, or start watching TNA where angles are hotshot every week. Wrestling smarks have to have the shortest amounts of patience of any fans ever: "Come on, this has been going on for two weeks now! Where's the payoff!?" Seriously, people, two weeks. That's it. The Triple H turn was on August 17th, today is September 2nd. Also, I seriously doubt we're going to get anyone standing up to the new corporation on Raw, it's probably going to come on a PPV. You want your big pop/big moment, you've gotta pay for it. It's not about patience in my case, it's just that this sucks cock. I mean I get what they are trying to do (I think?), but Bryan being held still by Reigns for what felt like ten minutes, while Big Show blubbered around, and the whole roster just watching again....I mean....I don't see anyway that segment was good. And I really want to because Show, Bryan, The Shield are some of my absolute favorites It was completely compelling TV. Big Show having to sell his soul to the Corporation (It's what I'll call them until they come up with a name), or get fired and punch out the most popular guy on the roster. Bryan having literally no allies. If I was a kid (Who, once again, are the prime audience), I'd be so ticked off at what they were doing to Bryan that I'd be tuning in to each and every show to watch Bryan get his revenge and Show finally find his balls. This is your basic superhero booking: superhero loses his allies and is repeatedly beaten down until there is almost no hope, then starts to fight his way back. I'm honestly baffled at the responses this storyline is generating. I have to chalk it up to Triple H's involvement and everyone suspecting what he's doing is burying Daniel Bryan like he's supposedly done in the past to others. Otherwise, I'm honestly puzzled.

Did you guys hear Bryan's reaction when he came out tonight and interrupted Triple H's promo? Did you hear the reaction when he came out on Smackdown with the chair? Did you hear the reaction when he kept attacking Big Show as Big Show cried? Did you hear the crowd chant "You sold out!" at the Big Show? So, how is Bryan being buried? Every time he gets beat down, he becomes a bigger and bigger star. I think he's getting even bigger reactions now than he did pre-Summerslam. Bryan is teflon. It's not like Fandango is one-punching him unconscious: he's getting beaten by three guys at once/the biggest guy on the roster/the world champion, and it's never clean one-on-one.

Of course he doesn't win at NOC. Why would he? It would be like opening a movie with Batman in trouble, then twenty minutes later, he's the winner. I really think, at this point, the WM main event will be Bryan/Orton and Cena/Undertaker (or Lesnar or something), so settle in for the long haul, or start watching TNA where angles are hotshot every week. Wrestling smarks have to have the shortest amounts of patience of any fans ever: "Come on, this has been going on for two weeks now! Where's the payoff!?" Seriously, people, two weeks. That's it. The Triple H turn was on August 17th, today is September 2nd. Also, I seriously doubt we're going to get anyone standing up to the new corporation on Raw, it's probably going to come on a PPV. You want your big pop/big moment, you've gotta pay for it.

-Taven-Fury was kinda lousy in a TNAish-way with too much focus on stuff going on outside the ring that detracts from the goings-on inside the ring. It probably would have made way more sense if you had Kongo win the match last week and take on Taven this week and have Taven just not able to hit most of his moves on him because he's too big, leading to the extra interference and shenanigans. -ACH-Anderson was a lot of fun. That one dive ACH hit was nuts. I liked him a lot more this week with Anderson as the better base for him. Nigel's commentary is just dreadful, at times, though, like when he said that Anderson allowed ACH to get back into the ring because he wrestles in Japan and is used to longer matches which tells the crowd "Hey, if you want good long matches, you're watching the wrong show" and basically telling the viewer "This will be over pretty quickly." -Brisco-Cole was fine though I wasn't terribly invested in the match until the concussion/bad sportsmanship angle at the end.

Those canot possibly be Piper's real abs. Piper is sucking in his gut so hard, he's about to create a black hole in the center of his stomach.

It could be, but why wouldn't they save it for TV? On another note, the poster for Hell in a Cell has been released: http://www.indemand.com/product/view/405701 I'm hoping this is leading to an angle with Ron 'The Corporate Truth' Killings..otherwise, I'm kinda baffled.

I still expect to see him on the main roster at some point. He's too big, looks too good, and has too much presence to not be on TV at some point. He can't really wrestle or talk, but WWE'll find a spot for him.

Loved this show. -What's so great about this angle is that it's done a better job of making Ziggler and even, The Miz (!) into bigger starts than neutered World Title runs ever did. The crowd (I know some of it was piped in) was totally crazy for everything The Miz did. His match with Orton was just fine. The pop for Bryan coming in was nuts. -Sandow-RVD was kinda disappointing, but not awful. -Ziggler-Shield was good. -Wyatts-TOF was good. Probably time to start doing something new with the Wyatts, though, before the crowd starts to get bored. -Ryback-Bryan was fine. Post-match angle was great. BTW, I would fantasy-book that angle as following. On Monday, Big Show finally comes out and saves Bryan, Triple H fires him. At NOC, you get a ref bump, both guys down, Triple H slide into the ring with a ref shirt under his suit jacket, Big Show's music hits, Show comes down, then choke-slams Bryan as Orton comes to, pins Bryan, Triple H counts 3. Big Show becomes Orton's bodyguard. Bryan is given another Title Shot, but it's at the end of a Gauntlet Match for the October PPV. He barely outlasts Ambrose, but pins him. Then when he's about to lose to Rollins, Ziggler's music hits and he comes down and helps Bryan win. Repeat same formula against Reigns with Miz coming out. Then Bryan manages to small-package Show and win, then as Orton is coming down to face Bryan for the title, Big Show chokeslams/WMDs Bryan, and Orton rolls into the ring for the easy pin and win. So, on the next Raw, Bryan is told that he can put together a Survivor Series team to face Orton/Show/2 Shield Guys and if his team can win, he can have one last Title Shot in December. So, we get Bryan recruiting guys all night, first Ziggler, then Miz, then in the main event as he's getting attacked by all of them, Mark Henry's music hits and he comes out as the 4th member of his team. Bryan gets the visual win in December, but Triple H screws him out of the title, Bryan has to win the Rumble, all the way from #1 to get his title shot and win at WM. Done. Now send me my cheque, Vince.

-Parker-Breeze was pretty perfect. Parker's gimmick was a lot less annoying this week and a lot funnier. Breeze is so good in this role. -Not sure I've seen anyone in a long time work a crowd as well as Amore/Cass did this week. He just had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand...it was really amazing. Happy to see Dawson get a win, even happier to see Lefort aligning with Russev. That should be a fun stable and feud. I'm not sure I've ever seen Cass wrestle...is he any good? -Emma-Summer was really good. I'm not sure the Emma gimmick can translate to WWE TV, but damn if I don't want to see them try. It's just legimately a fun gimmick: the music, the dancing, the way she uses her name in everything ("Dance Dance Emmalotion", "Emmacrats"), the bubbles, and the entrance she almost always struggles with. -Zayn-Bo was fun. Love the "No, they're chanting Boooooo!" -Neville-O'Brian was kind of a mess from the way it went into commercials with one guy dominating the other, only to come back with it going the other way and the obviously missed kick-out that they tried to edit around that befuddled the announcer to the clean ending with Rick Victor nowhere to be found to help out. Really NOT looking forward to Graves/Neville-Ascension. Not at all.

Isn't this just basically done as a courtesy to Omark? Play well and you can make the team, not good enough and we'll expose you to waivers and maybe someone else will give you a chance. It's basically Omark's last shot at the NHL, most likely.

Sorry, but the WHAT shit is just fucking everywhere. If it's a heel, or a struggling face (a la AJ), then yeah. But have you heard anyone "What?" Daniel Bryan? When John Cena is nailing one of his rare serious money promos, there's not a "What?" to be heard either. My point being, say something interesting and say it well, and, generally, the "Whats?" will die out. AJ had that crowd eating out of his hand until it was "Oh here he goes whining again...let's shout What at him!"

Pretty fucking wild given the time I spent browsing the WCW PPV threads on here and PWO while at work today. I didn't think what he said sounded that bad. Basically, what I think he's trying to say is that if TNA wants to challenge WWE than they're going to have compete on similar financial ground. It's not that he's complaining about the money Panda is providing, he's basically saying if the goal is to overtake WWE, then they're going to need a lot more money.Now if you were to criticize it on the basis of Hogan basically giving up (And they can't compete unless they're not on equal financial footing and short of Donald Trump waking up tomorrow and going "I want to own a pro wrestling company!", that's NOT going to happen, so he's basically saying "This is as close as it's gonna get..."), then I'm all for it. Personally, I think TNA should just follow the old WCW format: load up the undercard with high-flyers, Mexican wrestlers, Japanese wrestlers, and talented workers who WWE had nothing for, basically give said undercard carte blanche to try to outdo each other, and load up the top of the card with the most well-known ex-WWE/WCW/UFC even ECW guys there are (Moreso than it is now, bring in guys like Piper, Tank Abbott, Shamrock, Steiner, Dreamer, Sabu, Masters, Lashley) and make it a spectacle: garbage brawls, run-ins, cheating, title matches that end in 30 second knockouts etc. etc. So, you give the fans solid wrestling in the undercard and something to talk about in the main. So, I mean, one is less likely to complain about Tank Abbott knocking out Tommy Dreamer with a flash punch in the face in the main in 30 seconds or the main being thrown out after Sabu jumps off a balcony and knocks both guys out, if you provided a MOTYC in the undercard with a couple lucha guys going against indy guys. In short, stop worrying about providing main events with good "work" in it, and just make them memorable with big names.