JRGoldman

When I heard the names Sunny Dhinsa and Gzim Selmani, I just naturally assumed that those were NXT names and not their actual names.

I'm sort of morbidly curious what the worst team the US can put together and still win gold is. I'm also interested in a ranking of which NBA players would be most likely to contract the zika virus. 1) JR Smith

I'll admit that it may seem a bit pearl clutching on my part, but I am one of the more outspoken critics of modern wrestling crowds, so I guess I'll try and address what I mean when I've said "sense of entitlement". I don't care about crowds having fun at a wrestling show, or booing the face and cheering the heel. It's 2016. We all know it's fake, like who you like. I think the danger is that crowds like Full Sail have come to believe that by chanting for some and booing some others, they can decide who gets pushed, who should be champion. Wrestling is 100% narrative driven. It's a story based around bad vs. good, and moral comeuppance. Sometimes those stories fail, lord knows they have often in the past decade or so. That being said, I don't think it's the place of the crowd to actively try and undermine a narrative just because their favorite should be more heavily featured. The stories that are being told can never improve, because everyone reacts so in the moment and so viscerally that it becomes impossible to truly learn and understand where things went wrong and subsequently how to fix them. I guess I'm not necessarily asking for crowds to stop chanting for goofy shit, I'm asking them to exercise a bit of patience, both on a micro and macro scale. Don't start chanting the moment a control segment starts. Don't shit on a storyline in week one of a PPV build because you think it might lead to your new favorite getting BURIED~!. Smart crowds are great, because they hold wrestlers and writers to a higher standard than ever before. They just need to realize that there has to be a middle ground between what they want and what is on the screen.

Probably the worst officiated game I've ever seen (obviously excluding games where gambling referees were involved). Not even necessarily to the disadvantage of one team, but just impossible to get any rhythm or drive and kick with any confidence when you have no idea what's going to happen.

If you need help writing the scene where Yakov the Magician's credit card is declined at the CD store I worked at in high school, hit me up.

A Sid action figure, with squirrel crushing action.

I feel like Almas did enough cocky stuff that he can be turned pretty quickly. My only hope is that once he's a heel, it turns out he's been winning with his finish by using a loaded cup.

Apparently soul is the lucha of the music world.

It's working. Give more compliments.

If this Raw had opened with that John Cena/AJ Styles segment, this thread would be like 6 pages long already. Also, you just know that Landis wrote that "guys like you bury guys like me" line. I've never been so sure of anything.

I think that sort of speaks to my point about the changes they've decided to make lessening the impact. Jesse was a man who was forced to give up because the world beat him down. Through random chance he was given a weapon that makes him rediscover his anger and his fight and it's built up so long that he is as much a force as what is now inside him. In the show so far, Jesse is the equivalent of a guy going through a quarterlife crisis, complaining that he can't get paid for doing what he loves and taking facebook quizzes to see what he might be best at.

I don't really understand why losing two games on the road to the literal winningest team ever has caused people to clutch their pearls so hard. The Cavs should lose. They are a very good team that would have beaten a lot of teams in the finals. They won't beat GS. That's fine. No else has either. They've won 140 games in two years. The Love trade was a still a good trade. Kyrie is still a good basketball player. Two games doesn't change those facts, just like the Raptors losing the first two games in the last round didn't magically make Derozan and Lowry scrubs. I'm sad that the Cavs seem destined to be the bridesmaid, but I think focusing on Lebron in this situation really sells short how great the Warriors are, and frankly, how great and how fun this Cavs run was until the finals. All that being said, with the cap set to rise, Love and Kyrie on old maxes with a lot of team friendly years left are better trade chips than people realize. The Cavs don't have a ton of draft capital, but they aren't completely devoid of options. Griffin has proven to be a pretty creative GM thus far. I don't think or want them to blow it up, but I do think if they go that route, they won't be stuck getting pennies on the dollar.

Please stop rooting for my team. Everything you touch dies.

People lose all the time in UFC. They have built a company based around champions who more often than not don't have more than 2 successful defenses. If Lesnar loses, he comes back, Heyman says all his catch phrases, talks about how Lesnar got beat with a lucky shot, Roman has a good right hand, but it won't happen again etc. They have a pull apart brawl, someone cool has the MITB case, and we're off to the races.

I'm in as long as they bring back Muffy to get Steph in to fighting shape.

What do you think Jeff has spent more money on in the past year: methamphetamine or landscapers to make topiary in the shape of the Hardyz logo?

I'm pretty sure Ryback's Goldberg push resulted in more chants for Goldberg than it did for Ryback.

The Cavs were +11 when they played 2 bigs, for what it's worth. I think we'll see more size and more Frye next game. I thought Love tried really hard, which is about as much as you can hope for.

Can we put an end to this notion that anyone can get a big push and be as over as Goldberg? I think people are really selling him short in terms of his connection and charisma. There have been plenty of guys that get similar sustained pushes but cannot connect and ultimately get shuffled back down the card after the push is cut short. I mean, we're in the middle of the Roman Reigns era. I know the push has been different, but he's essentially a walking example that a strong push isn't everything. Goldberg also stayed pretty over after his loss, which a lot of guys can't do. He didn't really need to be built back up. That's a testament to him and the air of believability he had.

To be fair to Lue, during last year's playoff run, he was considered the 'defensive coordinator' and got a lot of the credit for the scheme throughout the playoffs, even while Blatt was head coach.

Can I ask you nicely to please stop rooting for the Cavs? I think it's hurting their chances.

I saw it yesterday. I thought it was good, and I think a lot of the negativity surrounding it is more a byproduct of superhero fatigue than the film itself. I think they tried really hard to make an Avengers movie using the X Men and it mostly didn't work. Apocalypse was a pretty generic villain, which was a shame. To be honest, without characters being in peril, I didn't care about his plan. Like, the plan involved basically everyone we had been introduced to surviving, right? I wish the stakes were more personal instead of global, which I think the X Universe is better served for. A half hour of that movie was used to set up a cameo that served zero purpose other than fan service.

I think if they keep Kofi and Xavier together, they could get a good couple months of fun out of them holding auditions to be the new new day member. I don't see the issue with AJ beating up Cena. Kids and moms are going to cheer Cena no matter what. Dudes who own Bullet Club merchandise are going to cheer for AJ beating up Cena. They are manufacturing a mixed reaction.

I am more interested in seeing NXT built around the former Sombra than I am seeing Balor dropkick his way way through middling title defenses again.

In the oral history they wrote about the Replacements, someone told a pretty great story of the Mats urinating in all the condiment bottles in Michael stipe's house while on tour. That is like a completely perfect rock and roll story, considering the people involved.