In Your House

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Night of Champions 2012.

The Miz Vs Cody Rhodes Vs Rey Mysterio Vs Sin Cara: The Miz is defending the IC title. Good to have Rey back on the scene. He still looks good, but it's actually Cody who probably stands out the most in this match. Otherwise it's standard 4-way stuff. This is the first show since Lawler's heart attack, so JBL is joining Cole on commentary. JBL always sucked on commentary for the most part, in my opinion. The end of heel Cole. Actually barely noticeable just from watching the pay-per-views. That character was a cancer on TV shows though. So, Miz retains by pinning Cody.

Kofi Kingston and R-Truth Vs Kane and Daniel Bryan: It's Team Hell No! Bryan is so fun. Kingston and Truth are a dire team. Match is more about getting the Kane/Bryan team/angle over, and they win the belts after Bryan pushes Kane off the top rope and he lands on Kingston for the pin. 

Antonio Cesaro Vs Zack Ryder: I remember when Cesaro had a first name. Here he's doing the 5 languages shtick and still has Aksana in his corner. Ryder won a battle royal on the pre-show to get this shot. Fun little match with Cesaro going over. 

Randy Orton Vs Dolph Ziggler: Oh look, it's Randy Orton going over a hot midcard act for no reason whatsoever. Who decided this match needed nearly 20 mins. Orton barely looks interested for large portions of this. Ziggler's usual faults are on full display. They have the crowd invested though, in all fairness. Feels about a 50/50 split from the crowd in the beginning, but the Ziggler fans become more vocal as the match wears on. The commentators going on about how personal this rivalry is doesn't make it seem any less like a match thrown together just to get these guys on the card.

Layla Vs Eve Torres: This was supposed to be Kaitlyn against Layla, but Kaitlyn was attacked in the back, obviously by Eve, and Booker T put Eve into the match in her place. Eve is booked incredibly strong in this match, pretty much plowing through Layla, who herself had had a strong run as champ. 

Sheamus Vs Alberto Del Rio: The whole build-up for this was based on Del Rio getting the Brogue Kick banned (remember that horrible deposition skit), so of course Booker comes out before the match starts and says that actually, he's decided that the Brogue Kick is being reinstated. So that was all a waste of time. A shame actually, because it might have been interesting to see how they could work around that. Sheamus certainly has a deep enough arsenal. Regardless, this is a really good match. Del Rio isn't afraid to mix it up with Sheamus, which makes for a really hard-hitting gritty match- the best kind of Sheamus match. I know this match was driven into the ground at the time, but the ppv ones at least delivered.

CM Punk Vs John Cena: Heyman is in Punk's corner now. Classic douchebag, rewriting history promo from Cena in the build-up, saying that the WWE title has been irrelevant since Punk won it. Because we needed your awesome ppv main events against John Laurinaitis and the Big Show, John. These two, of course, had great chemistry, and in some ways I like this more than the MITB match. Punk's character work as the prick heel is so on point here, from wearing Yankee colours in Boston, to holding up the belt for a ridiculously long time before the match, to using the Rock Bottom. What brings the match down is the finish. I don't think I've ever seen a double-pin suplex finish done well, partly because it's impossible for one referee to see that both guys have their shoulders down at the same time. So Cena, who performed the move (off the second rope, no less), is announced as the winner and new champ, but then the ref clarifies that it was a double count, and therefore Punk retains. Punk then floors Cena with the belt. I thought at the time that Punk's title reign was possibly the best from an in-ring point of view since I've been watching. This rewatch has strengthened that opinion, and it's amazing that we had this run in conjunction with Sheamus's run, although that was hindered by the weaknesses in Sheamus's character work.

MOTN: The top two matches both delivered, with the Cena/Punk match being the better of the two. I'd have that at 3 3/4 stars, with Sheamus/Del Rio at 3 1/2. 

Show rating: On the whole, an enjoyable show. 3 1/4 stars.

[Brian Fowler]

That's my favorite Cena/Punk match. Me and Matt were freaking out over all the counters and escapes on messenger during it. 

My favorite bit: after Punk twice avoided the Five Knuckle Shuffle, Cena gets him down and just does the fist drop without the preening. It's a great moment selling his frustration and need to get more serious.

The whole thing is great. It's built around Punk being too good for Cena to beat but Cena being too damn strong for Punk to finish. I think the draw would hold up better if Cena hadn't missed HIAC and they had the rematch.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

The counter from the shuffle to the anaconda vise is pretty swank. MITB has the better Cena performance, but this has the better Punk performance. 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Hell in a Cell 2012.

Randy Orton Vs Alberto Del Rio: Decent opening match, but I can't really remember anything about it, other than Orton, of course, winning.

Team Hell No Vs Team Rhodes Scholars: The era where every team name had to be 'Team _____', an amalgamation of both guys' name/gimmick, or both. The worst, looking at the bracket for the tag tournament that earnt TRS this title shot, is Team CoBro. Anyway, Rhodes and Sandow work pretty well together, and Hell No are still a fun gimmick. The match doesn't really click into that higher gear, and the finish, with Kane losing his temper and getting DQ'ed, is lame. 

Kofi Kingston Vs The Miz: This is about as boring a match-up on paper as I can think of. Announcers pushing hard that this IC title run for Kofi has taken his career to new heights, even though he's in literally the same position he's been in for the entirety of his career, which has been 4 years but feels like 400. And trying to get over this 'Wild Cat' nickname/persona, with Kofi mentioning it in a post-match promo, is typical WWE forced branding. The most interesting thing about the match is Miz attacking Kofi's leg towards the end, and stripping away his knee pad and boot. These are two guys who have their baseline, and never really rise above, or fall below, it.

Antonio Cesaro Vs Justin Gabriel: Cesaro is now Aksana-less. Gabriel is a piss-poor title challenger. If they're doing a gimmick with Cesaro saying no American can beat him, maybe actually have an American challenger. Gabriel sucks, and Cesaro pretty much takes him apart, which is fun in its own way.

Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara Vs The Prime Time Players: This is a good tag match. Simple but effective. Small, fast guys against big, strong guys. PTP have great chemistry, and I don't know why they were ever split up. Cara of course hurts himself performing a dive. Rey picks up the win.

Sheamus Vs The Big Show: Now this is a fantastic match. As bruising as you like. Sheamus is great taking a beating but only knowing one way to fight and that's straight ahead, never back down. What's impressive is how they got the crowd into this match. It starts as the usual lukewarm reaction to a Sheamus match, and ended up being really hot. Sheamus hitting White Noise was the turning point. Really impressive feat, and looked easy too. Then the two finisher kick-outs were really well built to, and paid off on the build to the match, which was all about who had the more devastating strike. And the finish with Show hitting a second KO punch before Sheamus could hit a second Brogue Kick, was very fitting. I wasnt a fan of taking the belt off Sheamus here, especially for Show, but at least they did it in such a great match.

Eve Torres Vs Kaitlyn Vs Layla: The girls worked really hard here. Kaitlyn, who I always really liked, has some good strength spots and good instincts for such a rookie. Eve steals the win to retain her title.

CM Punk Vs Ryback: They really booked themselves into a corner with this one. This is actually a good match, well laid out to protect Ryback's aura of dominance, but to give Punk realistic opportunities to go on offence. Punk really works his ass off to make this work, as you can see Ryback's limitations outside of a squash match format. For those who don't remember the finish, Brad Maddox is the referee, and low-blows Ryback, and then fast-counts him, costing him the match. I did like the idea of Maddox being a guy who had been told he'd never make it as a wrestler, so taking the opportunity on the biggest stage he could, to make a name for himself. I don't think they really followed up on it though. As the only Hell in a Cell match on a ppv called Hell in a Cell, this would have to be considered a disappointment, despite Ryback beating Punk down on top of the cell post-match. But the match played out pretty much how it should have considering the booking going into it.

MOTN: Show/Sheamus is head and shoulders above the competition. 4 stars. Punk/Ryback and PTP/Rey and Sin Cara are 3 star matches. 

Show rating: Another kind of solid but unspectacular show. The biggest knock on it is that it's called Hell in a Cell. 3 1/4 stars.  

[Brian Fowler]

That's my favorite match either Show or Sheamus have ever had. At least singles matches. Just brutal, and the finish was slick as hell. Classic.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2012.

Team Rhodes Scholars Vs Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara: Tables match for a tag team title shot. Nothing really memorable about this. TRS win after pushing Cara through a table on the outside. 

Antonio Cesaro Vs R-Truth: Cesaro is getting some terrible opponents. Truth is miscast as the patriot trying to take down the evil foreigner. Even when the evil foreigner is, erm, Swiss. Pretty standard title defense.

Kofi Kingston Vs Wade Barrett: Feels like I haven't seen Barrett in a long time. Don't know if he's been injured or what. Kofi is defending the IC title. Honestly, another pretty forgettable match, with Kofi retaining.

The Shield Vs Ryback and Team Hell No: Okay, here we go. The in-ring debut of the Shield. I wasn't watching ppvs during this period, so I've never seen any of the big Shield matches that weren't on TV. So very much looking forward to watching this run. Shield definitely look badass. Match has a very hectic feel to it. Love the way they manage to isolate their opponents during the match. Very smartly laid out in that sense. The big negative on the match is the camerawork. Seizure-inducing. Shield go over very strong after powerbombing Bryan off the top rope through a table. Super-fun action-packed match.

Eve Torres Vs Naomi: Dreadful. Naomi isn't ready for this spot, and Eve isn't the person to lead her through it. These girls are exposed even in a 3-minute match.

The Big Show Vs Sheamus: Chairs match. They couldn't hope to live up to their previous encounter, but the chemistry is still there, and it's a suitably hard-hitting affair. What I don't like is Show bringing out the comically huge chair for the finish. The gimmick of Show having bigger than normal implements has officially jumped the shark. With the ladder, it worked. Here it just looks silly.

Alberto Del Rio, The Miz and the Brooklyn Brawler Vs 3MB: That babyface team though. So this was set up earlier with a Miz TV segment in which 3MB starting bullying the Spanish announcers for no reason other than to set up the ADR face turn. Crowd was chanting for ADR even before he made the save for Ricardo though, so it worked. Then this match was set up with Miz and ADR having to find a partner. We're in Brooklyn, so why not the Brooklyn Brawler? Other than that he sucks. Very quick match ending with recent WWE champion and huge international draw Jinder Mahal tapping out to the Brawler's Brooklyn Crab. Wrestling is a funny old game.

Dolph Ziggler Vs John Cena: Ladder match for Ziggler's MITB briefcase. Remember that storyline about the scandal on Raw involving Cena and AJ? With Vickie leading an investigation? That was the fucking worst. But it led to this match, which I really, really wanted to like. I wanted Ziggler to have a really strong match to cement himself as a top star, and felt that Cena was more than capable of giving it to him here. But the match just kinda sucked. Cena doing athletic moves like a monkey flip and hurricanrana is just... well, he shouldn't do them. I will say that Cena lifting the ladder with Ziggler on it onto his shoulder in an AA position is one of the best visual displays of power I've ever seen. AJ doing Cena's comeback sequence on Vickie either betrays how shitty a sequence it is, or how shitty AJ is. I can't decide. AJ's turn on Cena gets a big pop, and a new union is formed.

MOTN: Shield Vs Hell No/Ryback- 3 3/4 stars. Big Show/Sheamus- 3 stars.

Show rating: Bland undercard and weak main event, but there are some high highs. I'll go 2 3/4 stars.

 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Elimination Chamber 2013.

Alberto Del Rio Vs The Big Show: It was kinda weird how quickly they transitioned the belt to Del Rio after putting Show over Sheamus so strongly. It's a shame Del Rio is apparently such a crappy human being, as he's a really likeable babyface. His intensity translates well to his fired up babyface persona, and I love that he added more crowd-pleasing spots to his repertoire. Pretty good match with ADR working from underneath, and forcing Show to tap out to the cross armbreaker.

Antonio Cesaro Vs The Miz: This feud gave us one of the all-time great Raw moments- Cesaro swinging Miz into the guard rail over and over again. Even Cesaro can't have good matches with the crap he's been programmed with- Justin Gabriel, R-Truth, babyface Miz. What's worse is injured Miz going toe-to-toe with him and forcing Cesaro to take a cheap DQ win. 

Chris Jericho Vs Daniel Bryan Vs Kane Vs Mark Henry Vs Jack Swagger Vs Randy Orton: Henry is the best thing in this match by a million miles, and really should have been booked to win it. He comes in just wrecking dudes, eliminating Bryan and Kane in quick succession. The decision to have Swagger go over here has to be one of the worst booking decisions in Elimination Chamber match history. Giving him new music and Zeb Colter isn't making the fans care about him. All in all this is a disappointing match, and it seems a while since we had a really good Chamber match. That Henry performance though.

The Shield Vs John Cena, Sheamus and Ryback: Another very good Shield match. You can see this early on that Reigns is definitely very green still. He's basically just 'come in, hit big move, get out'. Which is fine- it's called booking around someone's limitations. Ryback eats a spear for the pin, while Cena isn't really paying attention.

Dolph Ziggler Vs Kofi Kingston: Dolph comes out to cut a promo about not being booked on the show. In his wrestling gear. Booker tells him there's someone on the roster who can do everything Ziggler does but better, and we get this impromptu match-up. Ziggler has AJ and Big E Langston by his side now, and Big E is instrumental in him getting the win. E then destroys his future stablemate after the match. I wonder if they sometimes look back on this and laugh. 

Kaitlyn Vs Tamina Snuka: Kaitlyn is Divas champ, Tamina has gone heel. Man, this match sucks. Its another Eve/Naomi sitch, where neither girl should be put in this position. Tamina, especially, is dismal.

The Rock Vs CM Punk: I was a big fan of the Rumble match these two had, and think that was an all-time great heel performance from Punk. This is sort of a redux of that, but a much lesser version. Feels like we get more restholds, less interesting counters, and the end-of-match shenanigans aren't as effective. If Rock has been DQed or counted out, Punk would be champ, and that gives us one near countout, and Punk hocking an epic loogie on Rock's forehead. The ref gets bumped at the end giving Punk a visual pin, but the replacement ref injuring his ankle and being out of commission for the rest of the match is some weak ass shit. Yeah, this has its moments, but doesn't really come together.

MOTN: Shield Vs The super team at 3 1/4 stars. Del Rio/Show- 3 stars.

Show rating: Pretty disappointing all told. 2 1/4 stars.

[Brian Fowler]

Rock just couldn't go during this run.

Punk tried hard, but Rocky gassed so damn quick.

- Sincerely, someone who sat through the Mania main event in the really cold upper deck.

[Brian Fowler]

On 11/5/2014 at 5:54 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

My best guess as to why we got a six man tag instead of Vader/Yoko was due to Yoko's weight issues and it's much easier to cover up for him with five other guys in the match.

 

On 11/6/2014 at 3:27 PM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

That was my assumption. I said before that it's sad watching Yoko at this point in his career. Imagine Yoko/Vader in 1993.

Going way back to answer this, but it was actually because Vader had just had shoulder surgery and wasn't up to a major singles match yet.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

1 hour ago, Brian Fowler said:

 

Going way back to answer this, but it was actually because Vader had just had shoulder surgery and wasn't up to a major singles match yet.

Answering a question from three years ago shows some dedication to the board. I salute you.

[The Natural]

On 9/29/2017 at 3:09 PM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

WWE Extreme Rules 2012.

Randy Orton Vs Kane: This is a falls count anywhere match. I was dreading this a bit, especially after the last match I watched for this being the boring Kane/Cena match. This was actually not that bad though. Nothing terribly memorable but a decent garbage match. I like Ryder attacking Kane in the back. Orton goes over.

Brodus Clay Vs Dolph Ziggler: Brodus comes out with Hornswoggle. How long did this fucker have a job for, just being thrown randomly with different people? The Funkadactyls are pretty fly though. Basically a squash for Clay.

Cody Rhodes Vs The Big Show: So Show finally got his 'WrestleMania moment' by beating Cody for the IC belt, and now this is the rematch, tables stylie. Just a short match with the smart/flukey finish of Show losing his footing on the apron and stepping through the table. I liked it. Show was really crap during this run though, character-wise.

Sheamus Vs Daniel Bryan: High quality 2/3 falls match. Man, it looks like the two of them sat down and watched some Finlay/Regal matches together beforehand and just decided to do that, because this is really stiff and nasty, and not at all like a standard big WWE title match. At one point Bryan gives Sheamus a really nasty kick to the side of the head that had me and Lawler wincing. Bryan is great at working on top against bigger guys, and coming off like a legit threat, just because his stuff looks so painful. This could have been an all-time WWE classic match if there'd have been an extra layer to the finish. I think they could have done something more with Sheamus's injured arm to play into that, or maybe if Sheamus's selling in general was better. Still, a high end match and a feather in both guys' caps.

Ryback Vs Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton: Jobber names courtesy of wiki. Santino and Khali watching in the back like giddy schoolgirls. BIg Goldberg chants for Ryback, who really doesn't look very good.

CM Punk Vs Chris Jericho: Chicago streetfight. Punk is defending the honour of his family, some of whom are at ringside, which is kind of odd in that that's not something you associate with the Punk character. This is a really good version of a WWE main event streetfight, which to me are characterised  by big set-pieces (Punk elbowdropping Jericho through the announce table), and creative weapon use (Jericho hitting Punk with a chair-assisted Codebreaker). Certainly tighter than a lot of the big Cena gimmick matches, and deserving of being mentioned in the same breath as something like Hunter/Cactus (although I think that match is better). I appreciate both guys coming dressed for a streetfight (though Punk probably could have left the kickpads at home), and both guys' selling of the accumulated damage of the match was on point. Punk breaking the Walls with a fire extinguisher got a big pop- that wasn't the first time that had been done, was it? This match delivered.

Nikki Bella Vs Layla: So, Beth's title reign was ended by Nikki Bella on Raw. A bit disappointing. A lot disappointing actually. Beth is hurt, I guess. Nikki cuts a promo saying that she'll be the longest reigning Divas champ in history. That'll never happen. Eve has a surprise opponent for her. Heel authority figure doing babyface things is why heel authority figures suck. One of the reasons anyway. Layla's return from injury is the surprise. Very short match with Layla winning the belt. Should mention Layla no-selling Nikki's legwork, but her neckbreaker finisher does look good.

Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena: So, this was my first time seeing this show, and this is definitely the match I was most looking forward to, after hearing so many great things about it. I have to say though, I was kinda let down by it. Maybe I just have Brock fatigue, and seeing him dominating Cena, or anyone really, is just not very special anymore. I was hoping for a 5 star match, but it was more like a 4 star match to me. Cena's selling was good, of course, and I liked the finish too, although not the result. Still think it was dumb having Brock lose his first match. Cena's post-match promo was really weird too. What was the point of that?

Match of the night: I think I'm going to go with the Sheamus/Bryan match. To me that was more satisfying than the main event, and felt like just as much of a departure from the usual WWE match. Both those matches are 4 stars. Punk/Jericho is 3 3/4 stars. 

Show rating: The top 3 matches all delivered in spades, which is all you can ask from a ppv really. 3 3/4 stars.

I decided at the last moment to watch this live and it was worth it. I went ***** for the main event, such a wild out of control match with Brock beating the shit outta Cena for Cena to somehow get the win. You ask about Cena's post-match promo. The talk was Cena was getting time off or he fucked his arm with Lesnar's attacks on it.

I give 2 out of 3 falls Sheamus/Bryan ****1/2. Sheamus best match IMO. I liked the work to Sheamus' arm. Bryan gets disqualified conceding the first fall by not stopping his strikes when Sheamus is in the ropes. Bryan follows this up with the Yes Lock to tie the match and as Sheamus is recovering, Bryan gets the crowd involved with dueling Yes/No chants only to get hit with a flash Brogue Kick for a near fall. A later one will win the match.

****1/4 for Punk vs. Jericho. 

[The Natural]

On 11/6/2017 at 7:01 PM, Brian Fowler said:

That's my favorite Cena/Punk match. Me and Matt were freaking out over all the counters and escapes on messenger during it. 

My favorite bit: after Punk twice avoided the Five Knuckle Shuffle, Cena gets him down and just does the fist drop without the preening. It's a great moment selling his frustration and need to get more serious.

The whole thing is great. It's built around Punk being too good for Cena to beat but Cena being too damn strong for Punk to finish. I think the draw would hold up better if Cena hadn't missed HIAC and they had the rematch.

I'd like to see that again, haven't in a long time. My top three Cena vs. Punk matches be:

1. Money in the Bank 2011.

2. RAW, 25th February 2013 (for a brief time WWE put up the full match on YouTube WITHOUT ad breaks).

3. Night of Champions 2012.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Extreme Rules 2013.

Chris Jericho Vs Fandango: I'll never forgive Summer Rae for replacing Fandangirl, but that's beside the point here. Decent opener with Jericho getting his win back from Mania. 

Kofi Kingston Vs Dean Ambrose: Kofi defending the US title. Wait, wasn't he just IC champ? Not a particularly good match. I forgot it took me a while to warm to Ambrose. Reigns and Rollins come out to celebrate with Dean after he wins the belt, which I liked.

Sheamus Vs Mark Henry: Strap match. Decent affair, but they really booked Sheamus to go over dominant in this match. Henry really didn't get a lot of offense before losing.

Alberto Del Rio Vs Jack Swagger: This was supposed to be Dolph defending the world title against ADR, but he got the concussion so we have this I Quit match for the #1 contendership instead. Boring promo from Colter before the match. Dirty Dutch Mantell may have been a great promo, but this character was just dull as fuck. They took away all the things from ADR that made him cool as a heel, and now he's just a bland babyface. They do a false finish with Colter tricking the ref into thinking that Ricardo threw the towel in for ADR, but a replay reveals the truth and we get a restart, with ADR winning with the armbreaker. Okay match.

Team Hell No Vs Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins: Tornado match for the tag titles. I was expect a real doozy here, but it just didn't go into that higher gear. Inadequate sense of chaos. The Shield boys go over clean to win the belts.

Randy Orton Vs Big Show: 'Extreme rules' match. We're in St Louis, so Orton gets the hometown pop, and even gets to go over. Again, a bit too measured for an anything goes match, but fine nonetheless.

John Cena Vs Ryback: Last Man Standing for the WWE title. This is just.... eh. I dunno, I wasn't feeling it. Marked out for Ryback press slamming Cena. Not enough press slams in wrestling anymore. Otherwise, this really didn't go anywhere. Tepid. Then the finish... why has there always got to be a stunt in these big Cena main events? This time they went through the lighting wall and there was a little explosion, and the announcers acted like they were both dead. Then they replayed it like 10 or 15 times it seemed. No decision in a last man standing is crappy anyway. Why can't they just work an intense brawl without the props? I did like Ryback's selling in the match, I guess. He'd struggle up to beat the count, then collapse down again.

Triple H Vs Brock Lesnar: Steel cage match. Man, Hunter dominating Lesnar in the cage is something. Lesnar selling his knee is something too. Not a good something. Heyman took a pedigree as well as anyone ever. He shouldn't have been conscious like a minute later to low blow Triple H though. Although that gave us the highlight of the match, hell the night, with Brock proudly saying "my manager..." That Lesnar needed Heyman interference to win this match is a booking decision I don't agree with. In a vacuum this match was okay.

Match of the night: The tag title match was probably the most fun match of the night, but it falls shy of 3 stars for me.

Show rating: Weird show. No match that I'd say was outright bad, but nothing getting to that next level, which is surprising for this period of WWE. I guess just a bland, forgettable, but inoffensive show. 2.5 stars. 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Payback 2013.

Wade Barrett Vs The Miz Vs Curtis Axel: This is exhibit A in how a great crowd can help a match. The Chicago crowd are electric here for 3 guys one normally doesn't associate with molten crowd reactions (pre-Bad News Barrett, babyface Miz and anytime Axel). Axel is definitely the crowd favourite, and it's the Perfect-Plex that gets the biggest pop of the match. And then big pop for Axel getting the win with a nice finish (Miz has Barrett in the figure four, Axel sneaks in and covers Barrett for the 3).

Kaitlyn Vs AJ Lee: This mystery admirer storyline was pretty humiliating for Kaitlyn. Actually might have been fine had she mowed down AJ, but doing that and then having her lose the belt pretty much killed her. Neither one of these girls is very good, but they both bring things to the table that compliment the other, namely AJ's willingness to bump, and Kaitlyn's strength spots. The most impressive spot in the match is her rolling through with AJ and deadlifting her onto her shoulders for her gutbuster. She also kills her with a spear. The crowd turn heel by chanting 'you tapped out' at a sobbing Kaitlyn, though I don't know why they have to book Kaitlyn to look like such a loser anyway.

Dean Ambrose Vs Kane: Dean defending the US title. No real chemistry between these two. Not a good match. Dean wins by countout.

Dolph Ziggler Vs Alberto Del Rio: Good bit of business here with Dolph coming into his first world title defence with a concussion, and Alberto viciously taking advantage. If I was going to nitpick I would say Dolph kicks out of one to many straight kicks to the head, but otherwise this is a really good match, with a really well-done double turn.

CM Punk Vs Chris Jericho: This is Punk's comeback match, and of course, he gets the hero's welcome in Chicago. This takes a really long time to get going, but is saved by a really good last quarter or so, where they trade finisher kick-outs and then Punk goes over strong with successive GTSs.

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Vs Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton: This is a fun match, almost entirely because of Daniel Bryan, who gives a great performance as a fired up babyface. I liked the finish on this with a little miscommunication between Orton and Bryan (foreshadowing Orton's heel turn at Summerslam), and Rollins hitting the curb stomp on Bryan for the win.

John Cena Vs Ryback: 3 stages of hell match. Doesn't seem a feud worthy of that typpe of blow-off, but I guess when you start with a last man standing, you don't really have too many places to go. The first fall is a lumberjack match, won by Ryback in dominant fashion. Ryback continues to dominate in the second fall, a tables match, but Cena pulls out a desperation AA through the table to take it. Ryback then powerbombs Cena through the announce table, showing his continued dominance leading into the deciding fall, an ambulance match. Cena wins this with an AA through the roof of the ambulance. Good visual for the win, though it did explain why they did no teases into the back of the ambulance (presumably the inside was kitted out to protect Ryback), and instead did a weird tease with Cena trying to force Ryback into the driver's seat. This, for a three falls match, was quick and breezey, and I enjoyed it.

Match of the night: ADR/Ziggler is the only match that's really memorable on the card, although there are other good matches. I give that one 3 and a half stars. Punk/Jericho, Cena/Ryback and the tag titles are all 3 stars.

Show rating: A pretty enjoyable show top to bottom. 3.25 stars.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Money in the Bank 2013.

Antonio Cesaro Vs Jack Swagger Vs Cody Rhodes Vs Damien Sandow Vs Wade Barrett Vs Dean Ambrose Vs Fandango: Smackdown's money in the bank match. How weird to have a MITB match with all heels. Fandango is probably the marginal fan favourite coming into the match, but they do a really good job babyfacing Cody throughout the match, leading to the 'double-cross' on him by Sandow. Everyone worked hard in this to make it work, but it was definitely the Cody show in terms of offensive performances. Probably should have just had him win it in hindsight.

Curtis Axel Vs The Miz: Axel defending his IC title. Miz playing Eddie Guerrero early on to get Heyman ejected is gross. There's a huge difference between being a loveable rogue and a smug cunt. Axel gets the win anyway.

AJ Lee Vs Kaitlyn: They keep to the reasonably high standard they set the previous month, with once again AJ going over by submission. 

Chris Jericho Vs Ryback: These two seemed to have more chemistry together than Ryback and Cena did. Just a very solid power guy vs skilled vet match, and Jericho worked well within this environment. Ryback winning with a roll-up was unexpected. I guess he needed a big win, but something more dominant would have worked better.

Alberto Del Rio Vs Dolph Ziggler: These two continue to work really well against each other. Both bring the intensity, and Ziggler gives a strong babyface performance. Ziggler was still as over as about anyone in the company at this point, and should really have been cemented as a main eventer. It's a shame; the concussion was the catalyst for his babyface turn, but really killed his chances of being a long-term main eventer. AJ Lee makes a run in to try to ruin another good match, and ends up hitting ADR with her belt to give him the DQ win. That would facilitate the break-up of the Dolph/AJ partnership.

John Cena Vs Mark Henry: I was super looking forward to watching this match. I loved, like all normal people, the angle which set it up, but had never seen the actual match before. Happy to say it lived up to my expectations, and was a very good championship match. Henry looked like an absolute beast here, but man, Cena's offence looked especially shitty. I mean, fuck, would it kill you to learn how to throw a decent working punch? But of course his selling is good, and Henry brings more than enough to the table. The crowd is very pro-Henry here, and I would have loved another title run for him, but it was not to be.

Randy Orton Vs Christian Vs CM Punk Vs Daniel Bryan Vs Rob van Dam Vs Sheamus: Billed as Money in the Bank All Stars, and this is all babyfaces. RVD is making his return to the company, and is a big fan favourite in Philly. Bryan and Punk are both very popular too. Poor Sheamus is the only guy really getting booed. This is by the numbers as fuck. Really noticeable how long guys are selling shit (ie lying around waiting for their next spot) on the outside. Sheamus takes some brutal bumps in this, one uncontrolled when RVD recklessly pushes over the ladder with him on it, causing him to land on the ladder. Highlight of the match is Bryan's big offensive run, which has the fans coming unglued. Then Curtis Axel comes in to cost him the match. Not sure if there was a real reason for that other than to lead to Heyman coming out and turning on Punk. I think everyone in the arena had to have seen that turn coming a mile away, but they made it look good, with Punk leaning into the ladder shots and getting busted open hardway. That left the door open for the least interesting guy to win the match, Randy Orton. And not just the least interesting guy in the match, the least interesting guy that ever lived and will ever live. Some memorable moments in the match, but overall a sloppy and largely uninteresting affair.

Match of the night: On a show where nothing was really outright terrible, Cena and Henry felt like a match that stands head and shoulders above the others. 3 3/4 stars. ADR/Dolph was heading towards that territory, but the finish took it down a peg. I have that at 3 1/4, and Jericho/Ryback and the Smackdown ladder match exceed expectations and get to 3 stars.

Show rating: Another sneaky good and consistent show from this era of WWE. 3 1/4 stars.  

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Night of Champions 2013.

The show starts just like you hope all ppvs would start, with a long Triple H promo. Terrible segment which sees Hunter acting like a babyface by banning any interference in the Orton/Bryan main event, and then sticking it to Paul Heyman who comes out begging to be taken out of his handicap match against CM Punk. The Authority really were the worst. Axel stands up for Heyman, but also gets punked out by Trips, and put into an impromptu IC title match with "the first person I see backstage". 

Curtis Axel Vs Kofi Kingston: And here's Kofi, the WWE's answer to a question nobody wanted asking. When does New Day start again? Very dull match. Axel is fundamentally sound, but pretty uninteresting. They go back and forth before Axel picks up the clean win with his awkward facebuster type move.

AJ Lee Vs Brie Bella Vs Natalya Vs Naomi: AJ running down the whole women's division as being talentless reality stars, and then beating them all clean by submission was really shitty. Really nothing to this match. Nattie gets to do the honours.

Alberto Del Rio Vs Rob van Dam: These polls they're running about best champions are making for some pretty hilarious results. Booker T as the greatest world heavyweight champion ever? I like Book, but come on. DX as best tag champs ever is just gross. Hogan taking more than half the vote as best WWE champ ever was eye-opening. RVD just feels out of place in this era of WWE. The partnership with Ricardo Rodriguez is kinda odd too. The match is pretty dismal. I don't know who RVD has chemistry with, but it ain't ADR based on this. RVD wins by DQ when Del Rio refuses to break the armbreaker. Ricardo gets involved after the match, and RVD ends up hitting the van Terminator on Del Rio, and it looks as good as it ever has.

The Miz Vs Fandango: Oh jeez. Just what this card needs. I don't blame the crowd for chanting for Summer Rae during this one, as she's a lot more interesting than what's going on in the ring. Fandango taps to the figure four.

Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman Vs CM Punk: This is a no DQ handicap match, ostensibly wrestled as a straight one-on-one between Axel and Punk. One wonders why Heyman doesn't at least try to run interference, although I do appreciate him not shaving to get over how worried he has been about this match. Punk can't get anything interesting out of Axel, and ends up putting him away with the GTS, before turning his attention to Heyman. Now it's torture time, as Punk goes to town on Heyman with some pretty stiff kendo stick shots, and handcuffs his hands behind his back. Before he can deliver the coup de grace, Ryback runs in and puts him through a table, then drags Heyman on top for the win. Not a fan of how this all played out at all.

Dean Ambrose Vs Dolph Ziggler: Ambrose looked much bigger in his Shield days. More badass too. Dolph has already been demoted back to the midcard. This is a spirited affair, by far the best match of the show so far, and the best Ambrose singles match of this project to date. Neither guy has much in the way of good offence, but they both know how to make subpar offence look good. Ambrose surprisingly goes over clean as a whistle.

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Vs The Prime Time Players: PTP won a tag team turmoil match on the pre-show to get this shot. It's weird seeing Roman stooging in these tag matches for the likes of Darren Young. Titus has awesome reckless hoss offence, and was great off the hot tag. Crowd was really into his stuff too. PTP had so much potential as a team. This is a fun match, with the heel champs on the run until Roman hits a spear on Titus and they retain. The Shield have saved this pay-per-view.

Randy Orton Vs Daniel Bryan: Another fantastic performance by Bryan here makes this a fun main event. Obviously we're entrenched in the Authority storyline here. Triple H told Orton he banned interference so that he can see whether he picked the right guy or not. Teasing dissension a month in. Bryan and the crowds carried this storyline, because the booking and the heel side for the most part was awful. So Bryan does what Bryan does by bringing all the intensity and fire to the match, and Orton contributes what you'd expect him to contribute. The booking on the finish, I have to assume even in real time people knew something was up. Bryan hits the running knee, but Scott Armstrong delivers a fast count to count Orton down, and awards the match and belt to Bryan. Bryan celebrates as we go off the air. It was so obviously a  fast count that everyone knew that was the out, right? If I remember correctly, didn't Armstrong claim that Bryan had asked him for the fast count? Such an unnecessary development. Just stack the deck against Bryan and have Orton get a cheap win, if that's the way you're going to go. This just strikes me as trying to be too clever. 

Match of the night: Despite my issues with the finish, the main event was the best match on the show. Not a high end Bryan match, but enjoyable. 3 1/4 stars. Ambrose/Ziggler and Shield/PTP both earn 3 stars.

Show rating: A pretty horrible show saved by Bryan and the Shield. Which is funny because when you think of this era of WWE you probably think about Bryan and the Shield being awesome. I really wouldn't recommend this show though. 2 stars.

[Brian Fowler]

Oh yeah, everyone saw it coming with the fast count. Armstrong whispered something there next night like 'they're on to us" to Bryan, H fired him, he's gone until Mania.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Battleground 2013.

Alberto Del Rio Vs Rob van Dam: No DQ match. Well, I have to say I enjoyed the heck out of this. Adding the weapons was a miracle worker, because now RVD gets to do crazy stunts, and ADR has tools for his aggression. ADR is one of the biggest stock going up guys of this project for me. I liked him at the time, but I think his second run combined with all his personal baggage being out there kinda affected my opinion of him as a worker. This first go around he really was a very good worker, and has been one of the better workers of 2013 at least. Really refreshing to see a heel who isn't Triple H or Randy Orton go over so strong as well, as here he sees off the interference by Ricardo and then makes RVD tap out to a chair-assisted cross armbreaker. Both guys take some painful-looking bumps. RVD doing a frog splash off the apron onto ADR who is under a ladder stood out in that regard. Crowd was super into this as well. Credit to both guys.

The Real Americans Vs The Great Khali and Santino Marella: Fuck you Cesaro for getting me to root for a Tea Party gimmick. USA chants leading to JBL asking why the crowd is chanting USA for the Great Khali... This was not a good match, but was totally worth it for Cesaro doing the giant swing on Khali. Everyone lost their shit for that. Great visual.

Curtis Axel Vs R-Truth: This Axel title reign is lasting a lot longer than I remembered it doing. These two work hard and have a pretty solid match. One of the better Axel matches actually.

AJ Lee Vs Brie Bella: AJ is paired with Tamina now, which at least means she's cheating to win. This is another spirited affair. Brie has improved loads, and AJ bumps with her usual gusto. Tamina attacks Nikki on the outside which causes the distraction for AJ to win.

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Vs Cody Rhodes and Goldust: Now this is everything that pro wrestling should be. From the pre-match interview with the Rhodes family, to Dusty swinging his belt at Dean Ambrose, to Ambrose having 'Errand Boy' written on his taped fists (a reference to a famous Dusty promo), to the crowd heat, to the sense of high stakes, to the incredible in-ring action and the feel-good ending and celebration. I have the flu right now and I'm not quite feeling myself, but I have to say I got a little emotional watching this. Goldust is my man of the match here. Great on offence, and a great face in peril, but Cody looks better than he ever has. So intense. The way he hits that match-ending Cross Rhodes is a real goosebumps moment. The Shield, for their part, put in a great old school heel tag performance. Great, great stuff.

Bray Wyatt Vs Kofi Kingston: Good competitive squash, which maybe goes a bit longer than it needs to. Bray's offence looks great, especially the running tackle he does that looks like it breaks Kofi's ribs.

CM Punk Vs Ryback: All that stuff with Heyman proposing to Ryback was really weird. And not good weird. Punk looks like he's working hurt. Or just really worn down. I think he said he got hurt when Ryback slammed him through a table on Raw, so it's probably that. Coming to the end of the line for him. Ryback is weird. Sometimes he looks like a great killer heel, other times he looks like he barely knows what he's doing. And I'm talking in the same match. This is pretty good, mostly dominated by Ryback. Punk wins with a low-blow.

Daniel Bryan Vs Randy Orton: So, yes, after the fast count shenanigans, Bryan is stripped of the title, which is now vacant. Oh shit, I forgot about 'abeyance'. WWE and their stupid terminology. This is another step up from the Night of Champions match. Bryan is so, so good on offence, so intense. The match is escalating beautifully to the point where Bryan gets Orton in the yes-lock, and then here comes the Big Show. Crying, failed-strip-mall-owning, gonna-die-early-cuz-he's-a-giant Big Show is really the worst. So he knocks out Bryan, but then gets all conflicted and knocks out Orton too. Then his music plays and the show ends with him celebrating. Like, the fans were gonna be happy with Show freeing himself from the Authority at the expense of Bryan winning the title. Really deluded move from the company there, but that was par for the course for this whole period.

Match of the night: Rhodes/Shield at 4 1/4 stars. ADR/RVD and Bryan/Orton get 3 1/2 stars. Punk/Ryback gets 3 stars.

Show rating: I just read on wiki that this was voted worst show of the year in the WON awards, which is a real head scratcher to me, as I thought this was a tonne of fun. I can see at the time the main event finish leaving a seriously bad taste in people's mouths, but it was a very good match leading up to that. Otherwise, you had a hot crowd, 3 very good matches (one of which was legit great), and the one match you might say was actively bad at least had the great spot of Cesaro swinging Khali. I think this is one of the best shows of the year. 3 3/4 stars.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Hell in a Cell 2013.

Cody Rhodes and Goldust Vs The Usos Vs Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns: The Rhodes boys are the tag champs now after winning the belts on Raw. This is as good a multi-team match as I've ever seen. One simple rules makes all the difference, and that's that it's only two men in the ring at a time. That allows for proper heat segments and proper selling, the latter of which Goldust does so well. This is, for the most part, a Shield/Rhodes match, with those two teams legal for the lion's share. The Shield are very good at isolating Dustin who, as mentioned, is a great fip. Great to see old school tag wrestling with the crowd super into it. Great moment when Goldust finally gets a chance to tag out, but Rollins pulls Cody off the apron. So, Goldust is in the corner with no-one to tag and the fans start screaming at him to go and tag one of the Usos. He finally realises and starts to make his way over there, only for the Shield to pull both of the Usos off the apron too. Quality working of the crowd there. Then it breaks down and we get a super modern-style finishing stretch, including an insane spot where Cody superplexes Rollins off the top to the outside on top of the other four guys. Match ends with a Cross Rhodes to Rollins, and the Rhodes brothers retain. 

Fandango and Summer Rae Vs The Great Khali and Natalya: Why is the Great Khali back on my screen? This is what it is. Mercifully short with Summer Rae pinning Nattie in her debut. The announce team amused themselves by calling JBL John the Geek (instead of Jimmy the Greek) for calling Summer Rae's win.

Dean Ambrose Vs Big E Langston: US title on the line. E has some great power offence, but otherwise this match is unremarkable. Ambrose takes a deliberate countout to retain his belt. Big E lays him out after the match with the Big Ending. 

CM Punk Vs Paul Heyman and Ryback: This is the first cell match of the night. Heyman comes out on a scissor lift and ascends to the top of the cell, where he will stay for the duration of the match. Ryback and Punk have another decent match inside the cell, with Punk playing scrappy underdog and pulling out a win with the GTS. Punk then climbs the cell and lays Heyman to waste with a kendo stick, before hitting him with a GTS too. Hopefully that puts an end to the Punk/Heyman feud, as it really didn't do a lot for anyone outside of the Punk/Lesnar match.

Los Matadores Vs The Real Americans: Other than Cesaro swinging one of the Matadors for like a minute, there's nothing really memorable about this match. The Matadors win.

Alberto Del Rio Vs John Cena: This is Cena's comeback match like 2 and a half months after a tricep tear. What a freak. Really disappointed with this match. Didn't see any of the aggression from Del Rio I was expecting. The story wrote itself with Cena just having arm surgery and Del Rio's signature move being an armbreaker, but there was a surprising lack of focus on the arm. Maybe Del Rio wasn't into it because he was doing a job. Can't blame him in a sense- Cena's first match back from injury and they put the belt on him. But yeah, not feeling this.

AJ Lee Vs Brie Bella: Standard match between these two. I'm a bit surprised they didn't put the belt on Brie given the success of Total Divas at the time. I don't know if that's because they already had Steph/Brie planned out, or they just liked AJ as champ. AJ is really boring on offence and has terrible mannerisms. Brie taps out to the Black Widow.

Randy Orton Vs Daniel Bryan: Hell in a Cell match for the still in abeyance WWE title, and for the distinction of being the Face of the WWE, with, in a move that can only be considered Best For Business, Shawn Michaels as special guest referee. This is Shawn's best ever refereeing performance. One, he's wearing trousers; two, he's not hamming it up at every opportunity. This is, for the meat of the match, at least, all about the action between Bryan and Orton. Which is to say, it's all about Bryan. I don't even say that to denigrate Orton, who has been fine in these matches. Just that Bryan is on such a roll right now, and is such a magnetic performer, and is being booked so strong in these matches (which helps) that really his opponent is incidental. They do some stuff to play off the previous matches, a little learned psychology, and bring the cell into play a fair amount too. Of course, there's a bunch of shenanigans with the finish. Hunter comes out to argue with Shawn over why he hasn't counted Bryan down yet. "He keeps kicking out" is Shawn's reasonable response. Shawn gets a bump and Hunter gets into the cell to check on him. Bryan hits the knee on Orton but Shawn can't count. Funny how you practically had to murder Shawn to keep him down in a match, but when he's a ref a strong wind puts him out of commission. So Bryan gets in Shawn's face, Hunter shoves Bryan on his ass, Bryan gives Hunter the knee and Shawn retaliates by superkicking Bryan. Shawn then has no choice but to count 3 when Orton covers Bryan. I guess that was meant to be it, for now, for Bryan as a genuine main eventer, and now the stage was set for Batista to swoop in and slay Orton. Of course we know that's not how it went down. There's still so much about the booking of this whole angle that beggars belief. Namely, why did they tease the fans for so long with Bryan beating the odds and becoming champ if this was how they were going to end it? It's almost like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. 

Match of the night: I just favour the opening tag over the main event. Both 3 1/2 stars. Punk/Ryback/Heyman gets 3 stars.

Show rating: Not as good as 'worst show of the year' Battleground, but still decent. 2 3/4 stars.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE TLC 2013.

CM Punk Vs The Shield: 3-on-1 handicap match. Man, Punk just looks shot physically. He's sweating like Shane McMahon early into the match-up. That's probably that infection he had. This is still a really good match though, with Punk playing cat and mouse with the Shield. Roman is booked like a monster, destroying Punk until he misses a spear and goes barreling over the announce table, injuring his eye. That leaves a crack in the door for Punk and he isolates Rollins until Dean gets back into the match. Rollins ends up getting put to sleep, then Punk side-steps another Roman spear, which Dean takes, and Punk pins Dean for the upset. Really well laid out.

AJ Lee Vs Natalya: Nattie is booked pretty dominant in this one, but AJ pulls out another win to retain. I don't think any of these matches have gone more than 10 mins, but none have been terrible either.

Big E Langston Vs Damien Sandow: Big E is the IC champ now. It's amazing how few matches Sandow has had on ppv, for a guy that seemed to be a pretty solidly pushed guy on TV, and was even a Money in the Bank holder (though he's lost that by this point). Just a very solid but unspectacular match from these two. E continues to look good, and is pretty over with the fans.

Cody Rhodes and Goldust Vs The Real Americans Vs Curtis Axel and Ryback Vs The Big Show and Rey Mysterio: Another great tag team title match. The tag division is on fire right now. This is elimination rules, and Rybaxel bite the bullet fairly early. The Heyman/Punk feud really didn't do these guys any favours, particularly Axel, who by necessity was cast as the low level henchman in that feud, and never really recovered from that perception. I noticed during this match that he even leapfrogs like his dad did (more of a hurdle motion, leading with one leg). This is when the match really picks up, and we get another awesome Goldust face-in-peril segment, with the Real Americans administering the beatdown. Goldust busting out a Code Red and second rope hurricanrana as hope spots is amazing. Show finally tags in and knocks both the Americans out, pinning Cesaro. The match just needed a strong finishing stretch to put it over the top, and Cody and Rey obliged, trading counters until Cody hit Cross Rhodes for the win. Nice to see all four guys shake hands after the match too.

R-Truth Vs Brodus Clay: This is part of Brodus' heel turn, as he got annoyed with Xavier Woods for outshining him or some such, and laid a beatdown on him. Clay dominates the match but refuses to go for the pin, so Tensai gets in his face. Tonnes of Funk implode and Truth schoolboys Clay for the win. 

Kofi Kingston Vs The Miz: No disqualification match. Crowd starts a boring chant during this. I join in. At least the babyface Miz experiment is over. Kofi picks up the win.

Daniel Bryan Vs The Wyatt Family: The second 3-on-1 handicap match of the night. Interesting how this is booked compared to Punk's. Punk was booked as a guy trying to survive, waiting and hoping for a mistake. Bryan is booked as just going out there and looking to kick the shit out of anyone in his way. Bryan is the best hot tag in the company, and here he gets to be his own hot tag, and the moment where he rallies and beats down the whole family is predictably great, before he gets caught with Sister Abigail and pinned. Fun match.

Randy Orton Vs John Cena: This is the TLC match to unify the two world championships. They've been laying it on so thick all night about how this is the biggest night in wrestling history, and things will never be the same again etc etc. The build-up video called this a match 11 years in the making, which made it seem like these two had never faced each other before, but thankfully they didn't try to pretend that was the case on commentary. This had one or two brutal-looking moments, but generally failed to inspire. Too many chair shots to the back, which always look awkward. I know you can't do the head-shots anymore, but it kinda looks lame when you have a guy on his knees in front of you and you have to shift position to strike him on the back. They re-do the handcuffed to the ropes/remove the turnbuckle spot that Punk did in a prior TLC match, which is a neat spot. The finish looked seriously brutal as Orton pulled Cena off the ladder, and he was supposed to go through a table that was standing up in the corner, but he undershot it and his head just kinda crashed into the table. Looked like it could have seriously broken his neck. So, Orton is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and Vince, Steph and Hunter come out to congratulate him and that's how the show ends.

Match of the night: The tag title match at 3 1/2 stars. Both handicap matches earn 3 1/4 stars.

Show rating: Another solid show to end 2013 on. One of the best years on ppv I think. I give this 3 stars.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Top 3+ star match-getters:

Chris Jericho- 41
Edge- 36
Rey Mysterio- 35
CM Punk- 28
John Cena- 28
The Undertaker- 28
Christian- 28
Triple H- 25
Kane- 25

[Brian Fowler]

The AJ Lee run is really weird now. She was so much better than everyone on the women's roster then, and the company had buried the women so much before actually giving her time and thought out angles, that watching them then, she was the savior of women's wrestling .

Then came the NXT women and great matches and dropping the word diva and giving them twenty+ minute matches and ppv main events and now her stuff sits in this weird limbo.

Her character work was so good though.

[piranesi]

5 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

The AJ Lee run is really weird now. She was so much better than everyone on the women's roster then, and the company had buried the women so much before actually giving her time and thought out angles, that watching them then, she was the savior of women's wrestling .

Then came the NXT women and great matches and dropping the word diva and giving them twenty+ minute matches and ppv main events and now her stuff sits in this weird limbo.

Her character work was so good though.

It seems like they didn't know how to capitalize on her insane bumping. It should have been easy enough as her character was a pre-Bayley enthusiastic nerd who would never give up. But they don't quite get how to make those characters likable anymore without making them grating.

And then as a heel, she wasn't credible size-wise so they just went with their laziest idea for women: "She crae!"

She even got that over enough though.

I mean the shallowness of WWE creative can be summarized by the fact that she debuted basically as "SHE LIKES VIDEO GAMES, GUYS!!!! REALLY!!!! FOR REAL!!!!" and honestly any woman who gets over even a little bit with that has got something.

Also some day her commentary with Lawler is going to be like Seth McFarlane's Harvey Weinstein joke.

[Johnny Sorrow]

At least it won’t be Seth’s Kevin Spacey joke.

[Brian Fowler]

She really was a tiny bump freak. Kaitlyn used to got spears on her that looked like they might legitimately kill her. And she was downright reckless with her own health, sprawling all over with limbs flailing around. Of course, that's probably why she had seven concussions and major neck surgery and retired all by the time she was like 28.