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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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WWE Elimination Chamber 2014.

Big E Vs Jack Swagger: IC title on the line, and this is a fun hoss match. Crowd is very pro-Swag. Big Ending for the win.

The New Age Outlaws Vs The Usos: After the great run of tag team title matches, it's fucking embarrassing that these two old bastards are now carrying the belts. Cody and Goldust deserved better than that. And now they go over the Usos too. 

Titus O'Neill Vs Darren Young: Another tag team broken up for no good reason. They have a hard-fought, but not particularly good match with Titus going over.

The Shield Vs The Wyatt Family: Okay, here we go. Never seen this before, super pumped for it, not disappointed at all. This is awesome. The electricity even before the match begins is awesome. I'm noticing that they're positioning Roman as the leader of the group now. He's always standing in the middle, whereas before it was always Ambrose. Although it's Wyatt and Ambrose who are really the focus of this match. Ambrose is so good as that unhinged soldier willing to die on his sword. This is everything you'd want it to be- hard-hitting, chaotic, lots of good character work. Everyone looks great in this match, but Harper and Rollins stand out as the MVPs of their respective teams. The Wyatts do 'a Shield' and eliminate Ambrose (who never comes back after brawling with Wyatt through the crowd) and Rollins (slammed through a table by Harper and Rowan), and isolate Reigns. Reigns gets a good flurry in but ends up falling to Sister Abigail. Tremendous match.

AJ Lee Vs Cameron: Oh boy, this is rough. Now this is a match AJ should have won clean in about 90 seconds. Instead, Tamina accidentally kicks AJ, and then attacks Cameron to make up for it, resulting in a DQ win for Cameron.

Batista Vs Alberto Del Rio: Poor Batista. The guy gets absolutely crucified. Del Rio comes out on crutches, but does a Jerry Lawler and attacks Batista. This is a standard rumble winner warm-up match, with Batista taking a beating but coming out on top. I wonder at which point they realised that an Orton/Batista main event was going to be a disaster.

Randy Orton Vs Daniel Bryan Vs John Cena Vs Cesaro Vs Christian Vs Sheamus: Elimination chamber match. This is an epic war. Nearly half an hour before the first guy is even eliminated. Sheamus and Cesaro start and just beat the shit out of each other as you'd expect. Then Bryan joins in. My favourite spot was Sheamus Brogue kicking Orton's pod. I knew it was coming, but it was still awesome. Sheamus is first to go when Christian splashes him off the top of a pod. Then Christian eats a running knee to go out. Cesaro gets a really strong showing before he's eliminated by Cena, then the Wyatts show up. They take out Cena to 'Thank you Wyatt' chants and leave us with Bryan and Orton. Kane is in the chamber too after trying to get the Wyatts out, and he stops the refs count after Bryan hits the knee. Bryan kicks out of an RKO and the pop is amazing. The crowd must have really thought Bryan was going to win at the point, but Kane gets involved again and a second RKO keeps Bryan down. Cole has a JR-esque meltdown about how Bryan keeps getting screwed and how ridiculous it is. Knowing how this pays off at WrestleMania, I can enjoy this for the great piece of fan manipulation it is. At the time I'm sure I was cursing the company's name.

Match of the night: The 6-man tag, 4 1/2 stars. Main event, 4 stars. Big E/Swagger, 3 stars.

Show rating: Any card with 2 4 star matches on is definitely recommended. This show also features numerous Bad News Barrett sightings as he delivers bad news after several of the matches. So it has that gong for it too. 3 3/4 stars.

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WWE Extreme Rules 2014.

El Torito Vs Hornswoggle (kickoff match): WeeLC. A mix of bad comedy and ridiculous bumps. Fun.

Cesaro Vs Rob van Dam Vs Jack Swagger: Elimination rules. Cesaro is a Heyman guy now. I don't think any of us expected that to stall his career quite the way it did. Swag is the first to be eliminated. Cesaro does that deadlift superplex on him, and RVD follows up with a frog splash. Cesaro and RVD then have a spirited little match, made really to showcase Cesaro I think, and he gets the win with the Neutralizer onto a trash can.

Alexander Rusev Vs R-Truth and Xavier Woods: Rusev! Wasn't expecting him for a bit. He looks good in this handicap squash match. Lana chants already.

Big E Vs Bad News Barrett: BNB won a tournament to earn a shot at the IC title, and he's very much the fan favourite here. Another guy who was super over but never moved to the next level. Interesting how much he's playing to the fans here, encouraging them to clap along with him. Decent hard-hitting match, with Barrett going over thanks to the Bullhammer, and much to the crowd's delight.

The Shield Vs Evolution: Evolution is one of my least favourite acts ever, but I always trust the Shield to have a good match, and that trust is paid off yet again. This is solid when it's in the ring, but gets really good when it descends into chaos. Another big performance from Rollins, flying around with reckless abandon, including that big dive off the balcony. Ambrose brings the selling, and he was great as soon as the Shield turned babyface. Once again it's left to Roman to be the hero in the ring. I'm a big Roman fan, but watching these back two things are clear; 1, they are really forcing the idea that Roman is the star of the group, and 2, at this point, he's the least interesting of the 3, at least to me. Batista does the job via spear.

Bray Wyatt Vs John Cena: Steel cage match. This is a joke. A cage match to keep the Wyatts out when Cena has already handled the Wyatts all at once. Harper and Rowan interfere here more than they do in a normal match, including Harper being in the cage. And Cena still dominating. And then the little boy with the vocoder to finally cost Cena the match. I don't know if Wyatt ever recovered from this feud with Cena honestly. Just terrible from start to finish.

Paige Vs Tamina Snuka: Another bad match. Tamina is awful. She walks out looking like she's just woken up from a too-long nap and isn't quite sure where she is. Paige looks shitty too.

Daniel Bryan Vs Kane: I think we all wish that Bryan had been paired with someone else for his first (and sadly, only) title programme, but it is what it is. Bryan brings the passion like only he can, and Kane walks through offence about as well as anyone, so they craft a decent brawl. When it goes to the back is when it loses me, as Bryan beats Kane with a tire iron and then brings him back into the arena on a forklift. Neat idea, but it's a lot of dead time which hurt the match. Diving headbutt off the raised forks is a good visual. Kane makes a comeback and we get a flaming table spot, which took me by surprise. Bryan managed to send Kane through the table and then hit the knee for the win. That would have been fine for a one and done, but then Kane sits up and Bryan acts all shocked, so you know the plan was for another match. Did they announce what that match was going to be? Well, time to get ready for life after Bryan I guess. At least for now. :(

Match of the night: The Shield-Evolution match is the one that stands out here. 3 3/4 stars. Bryan/Kane and Cesaro/Swagger/RVD are both 3 star matches.

Show rating: Not a great show all around - the cage match is a major knock against it - but some good matches and other fun stuff to make it worth a watch. 3 stars.

 

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7 hours ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

That would have been fine for a one and done, but then Kane sits up and Bryan acts all shocked, so you know the plan was for another match. Did they announce what that match was going to be? Well, time to get ready for life after Bryan I guess. At least for now. :(

They had announced a stretcher match for MITB before Bryan was ruled unfit to compete.

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I re-watched that Elimination Chamber and holy balls is it good. Is it the best one? Maybe the interference brings it down but not for me. And as Yo-Yo said, knowing how it turns out, it's not so disheartening that Bryan lost. Also, I miss Hawaiian shirt Bray Wyatt. Somehow those shirts grounded the character.

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WWE Payback 2014.

El Torito Vs Hornswoggle (kickoff match): This is mask vs hair. The usual comedy shenanigans. Torito wins and Hornswoggle gets buzzed. 

Sheamus Vs Cesaro: Sheamus is defending the US title. Typically hard-hitting match between these two. I could watch them go at it all day. The crowd is very solidly with Cesaro who is one of the most over guys in the company at this point. I like the finish of Cesaro doing the swing, but Sheamus small packaging him to win.

Cody Rhodes and Goldust Vs Rybaxel: Cody Rhodes has the losing streak gimmick going on. This is another good Rhodes brothers match, following the tried and true formula of Goldie as fip. Rybaxel aren't interesting enough to take it to the next level though. Cody gets the hot tag and gets a couple of near falls before getting caught by Shellshocked and pinned. After the match Cody said Goldust deserved a better partner than him.

Rusev Vs Big E: Furious flag-waving competition before the match. This is a super intense hoss sprint. Big E with the spear to the floor looks killer, then Rusev comes right back with a jumping thrust kick to the face. The Accolade takes the win for Rusev. A great 4 minutes.

Bo Dallas Vs Kofi Kingston: I hate Bo Dallas. Guy gives me the creeps way more than his brother does. Kane comes out right off the bat and destroys Kofi.

Bad News Barrett Vs Rob van Dam: Again, a very hot crowd, with dueling Bad News Barrett/RVD chants. This is a pretty good match also. RVD has looked better during this run than I ever would have expected him to. Barrett picks up another win with the Bullhammer. This is probably the best push he got in his career, going over all these guys cleanly.

Next is a segment where Daniel Bryan must relinquish the title or Brie Bella will be fired. Stephanie is terrible here, no-selling all of Bryan and Brie's lines. She does sell Brie's slap though, running away in shame. The crowd was hot for this.

John Cena Vs Bray Wyatt: Last man standing match. I was dreading this after the cage match. I owe these guys an apology though. This was pretty awesome. No nuance or subtlety, just a big, dumb spectacle, but a very fun one. The Usos come out to counter Harper and Rowan, so this is almost like a 6-man at times. Crazy spot of the night is Harper suplexing one of the Usos from the top rope through a table on the outside. Just an insane bump. I loved the Usos in this, being good old-fashioned babyfaces. Cena busted out his throwing the steel stairs at his opponent spot, which always looks awesome. Wyatt put Cena through the wall with his running tackle, and crushed him with a senton off the steel steps. I knew they had some high concept finish planned, but thankfully it wasn't anything involving explosions or anything like that. Just a simple AA through a wooden box, and then Cena pushes a big box of electrical equipment on top so Bray was trapped. It worked. Really fun match.

Paige Vs Alicia Fox: Fox looked pretty good when she was in control, but Paige's comeback was kinda weak. I remember these two having a good match on Raw during this timeframe, but this was forgettable.

The Shield Vs Evolution: No holds barred elimination match. On paper, this looked a banker to be a great match, and I entirely blame Triple H for the fact that it isn't. The long, slow beatdown of the Shield has his fingerprints all over it. Actually, that may not be totally fair, because a lot of big Cena matches have had sequences like that too. This is actually a bit like that 5-on-3 Shield match from not long ago, where the heels were just beating down the babyfaces for so long. It's not compelling. Reigns was the one singled out here for the most punishment, powerbombed through the announce table, and beaten with kendo sticks. Evolution did, at least, put the Shield thoroughly over once the eliminations did come. First Batista went the way of a spear (did Batista just not give a fuck by this point? he seems in pin me pay me mode), then Orton got pinned by Dirty Deeds. Triple H got a bit of resistance in, hitting Ambrose with a sledgehammer, before he too fell to a spear. Very disappointing match for the Shield to sign out on.

Match of the night: I never would have expected it, but Bray and Cena actually topped the opening match for me. Cesaro and Sheamus were probably 3 1/2 stars, whereas Bray and Cena were 4 stars. Big assist to the cornermen in that one too. Barrett/RVD and Big E/Rusev both 3 stars.

Show rating: Man, if that main event had delivered this would have been a great, great show. Everything else on the card pretty much delivered, and the crowd was hot throughout. 3 1/2 stars.

 

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Quote

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.

I remember Flair being special guest ref for Austin/Taker and getting bumped off of a shoulder block. 16 time world champion Ric Flair who has bled buckets and gone toe to toe with Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Vader, Undertaker and Hulk Hogan was knocked out by a shoulder block.

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WWE Money in the Bank 2014.

The Usos Vs Harper and Rowan: The Usos are so good at this go-go-go style of tag match. It's pretty much a formula they perfected, and has become the prominent tag style in the company. Too many superkicks though. Harper and Rowan more than hold up their end of the bargain. Harper is so good. I dug these music they used to come out to as well (sans "he's got the whole world in his hands"). I wish the Bludgeon Brothers used it. Really good match.

Paige Vs Naomi: The story here is dissension between the Funkadactyls, as Cameron is pretty much actively cheering against Naomi. The bigger story for me at least is that Paige is terrible. Totally not living up to the hype at all.

Damien Sandow Vs Adam Rose: Sandow is in his dress up phase. Here he's dressed as Paul Revere. Rose really should have been a heel from the get-go. There's really nothing likeable about the gimmick.

Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose Vs Jack Swagger Vs RVD Vs Dolph Ziggler Vs Kofi Kingston: Money in the bank match. Some totally insane bumps in this. Swagger powerbombs RVD from near the top of one of those really tall ladders, and then Ambrose superplexes Rollins basically from the top of it. Made me cringe. Ambrose gets taken out of the match with an injury, and gets a huge pop when he returns to stop Rollins grabbing the briefcase. That brings Kane out who tombstones Ambrose, and allows Rollins to win. Not a bad ladder match, but it's those bumps I'll mostly remember.

Goldust and Stardust Vs Rybaxel: I appreciate Cody's commitment to the Stardust character, but I liked this team better when he was just Cody Rhodes. That said, this is still a decent match, maybe a bit better than the match they had last month. Rybaxel are improving as a team as well. Stardust pinned Ryback for the win.

Rusev Vs Big E: These guys get twice as long as they did last time out, and build off that match nicely. The two major offensive moves from the previous match (E's spear to the floor, Rusev's thrust kick) are both countered. When E does land the spear, he just about spikes himself on the top of his head. Just a real fun hard-hitting contest. Big E tries to fight out of the Accolade, but it can't be done.

Layla Vs Summer Rae: Fandango is the special ref here between his former girlfriend/dance partner, and her replacement, Layla. Layla gets to go back to her stooging Lay-Cool character, which was probably her best work. Layla wins and leaves with Fandango.

John Cena Vs Roman Reigns Vs Randy Orton Vs Kane Vs Alberto Del Rio Vs Bray Wyatt Vs Sheamus Vs Cesaro: I found this pretty boring. This is another ladder match, this time for the vacant championship after Bryan was finally stripped of the title. Kane is in there to help Randy win. Let's go Cena/Cena sucks chants. Biggest pop of the night is probably when it looks like Bray is going to win. The fans totally would have bought him as the top guy at this point. I guess he DID recover from the Cena feud. Reigns is definitely feeling a bit of a backlash, and doesn't feel ready to be the guy at all. This is very basic in it's lay out; one guy tries to climb, someone stops him, they try to climb, the next person comes in to stop him etc etc. Sheamus goes on a tear which mixes things up a bit, and there's a fun spot where a second ladder is inserted into the rungs of the first, and then acts as a sort of pivot when the first ladder is tipped. Generally, I didn't think this was a god match, and Cena was a very uninspired choice to win, though probably the right one given what happened at Summerslam.

Match of the night: The opening tag match was super heated and exciting, and I'd go as high as 3 3/4 stars for it. Rusev/Big E get up to 3 1/4, and the MITB match just about gets 3 stars. 

Show rating: A reasonably solid show, but once again let down by the main event. 3 stars.

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WWE Battleground 2014.

Adam Rose Vs Fandango (kickoff match): Summer and Layla are with the Rosebuds now. Really quick match won by Rose.

Cameron Vs Naomi (kickoff match): Another quick match. Not sure the point of having Cameron go over.

The Usos Vs Harper and Rowan: 2/3 falls. They don't make good use of the stip at all, as the first two falls are over pretty quickly, but this turns into a hell of a match in the deciding fall. The crowd are really hot for it too. Probably 50/50 on fan support. I think they should have put the belts on Harper and Rowan here. Big powerbomb by Harper was a great nearfall. Again too many superkicks. One Uso delivering a big splash wasn't enough to keep Rowan down, so they both come off the top together for the winning fall. 

AJ Lee Vs Paige: AJ has returned and taken the belt off Paige. Now they're running this 'frenemies' storyline between the two. This match is absolutely rotten. Man, what a letdown Paige has been. AJ wins with a shining wizard.

Rusev Vs Jack Swagger: Another fun hoss fight for Rusev. These two take some heavy shots at one another before Rusev picks up a countout victory. 

Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose: This match never happened. Ambrose attacked Rollins in the back and was thrown out of the building by Triple H. Rollins came out to be declared the winner by forfeit, but Ambrose attacked again. Crowd was super into Ambrose, who looked great here as a man possessed. Ambrose would go after Rollins again in the parking lot. What was the story on the match not happening? Was it just to prolong the feud, or was there something else going on?

Bray Wyatt Vs Chris Jericho: This was okay, but a bit lifeless. Jericho going over was a surprising result for what felt like it should have been just a one-and-done type deal. I remember the fans being really into it when the Family interrupted Jericho though. 

Intercontinental Title Battle Royal: So poor Bad News Barrett, on the run of his career, picked up another injury and was stripped of the IC title. He did get to come out and deliver some bad news before the match though. Ziggler is by far the most over guy in this match, and it's amazing how over he still is really. He went from world champion to jobbing on the pre-show, hasn't had a meaningful programme in months, but is still one of the most over guys on the roster. Actually, you would hear 'we want Ziggler' chants during other matches from time to time. It comes down to Sheamus and Ziggler, who have a nice little sequence before Ziggler eliminates him. However, the Miz has been hiding out at ringside and comes in and throws Ziggler out to win the match. Sigh. This finish is so played out. They should have one where they do that finish, but then it turns out that someone else had also been hiding at ringside, and then they sneak in to win. 

John Cena Vs Kane Vs Randy Orton Vs Roman Reigns: Kane and Orton work together early on, but eventually they end up fighting. They try to hype up a Cena/Reigns showdown but it's lukewarm. Everything about this match is lukewarm really. The main event scene has pretty consistently had the weakest/most negative crowd reactions for a while now, outside of obviously Daniel Bryan, and when they throw someone like Cesaro or Wyatt in there. There's definitely a Cena/Orton fatigue, and Roman isn't providing the antidote right now. Cena wins to advance to getting his head kicked in by Brock at Summerslam.

Match of the night: Once again, the tag title match takes top honours. If they could have made better use of the 2/3 falls stip, or even just got rid of it, this would have been even better. 3 3/4 stars. 3 stars for Rusev/Swagger. 

Show rating: This felt like the weakest show for a while. Denying us probably the most anticipated match on the card seemed kind of shitty. It doesn't matter to me watching these 3 years later, but I'm sure it pissed a lot of people off at the time. Another weak main event doesn't help. 2 1/2 stars.

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11 hours ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

 It comes down to Sheamus and Ziggler, who have a nice little sequence before Ziggler eliminates him. However, the Miz has been hiding out at ringside and comes in and throws Ziggler out to win the match. Sigh. This finish is so played out. They should have one where they do that finish, but then it turns out that someone else had also been hiding at ringside, and then they sneak in to win. 

 

They kind of did do that once in NXT during a #1 contender's battle royal for the Women's Championship. It appeared that Asuka had won, but then Eva Marie snuck back in and threw out Asuka. As she celebrated her "win", Carmella - who had been out of the ring for a long time - came back in to eliminate Eva.

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On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 4:06 PM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

WWE Elimination Chamber 2014.

The Shield Vs The Wyatt Family: Okay, here we go. Never seen this before, super pumped for it, not disappointed at all. This is awesome. The electricity even before the match begins is awesome. I'm noticing that they're positioning Roman as the leader of the group now. He's always standing in the middle, whereas before it was always Ambrose. Although it's Wyatt and Ambrose who are really the focus of this match. Ambrose is so good as that unhinged soldier willing to die on his sword. This is everything you'd want it to be- hard-hitting, chaotic, lots of good character work. Everyone looks great in this match, but Harper and Rollins stand out as the MVPs of their respective teams. The Wyatts do 'a Shield' and eliminate Ambrose (who never comes back after brawling with Wyatt through the crowd) and Rollins (slammed through a table by Harper and Rowan), and isolate Reigns. Reigns gets a good flurry in but ends up falling to Sister Abigail. Tremendous match.

Match of the night: The 6-man tag, 4 1/2 stars. Main event, 4 stars.

I love the Wyatt Family vs. the Shield at Elimination Chamber 2014. Luke Harper's the Man of the Match.  I had a stab at a Best WWF/E Matches of All Time and it made my top 10. ***** match.

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WWE Night of Champions 2014.

The Usos Vs Goldust and Stardust: I refuse to call them 'Gold and Stardust'. The Rhodes brothers are so sweet together, even as heels. They just really seem to love teaming together. I love their celebration after winning the belts. Dustin is so happy for his little brother. Good match - wouldn't expect anything else from these two teams. Good to see the Rhodes' can still do it as heels. This is kind of a mash-up between a Rhodes match, with traditional tag structure, and an Usos match, with big bombs and nearfalls. Crowd is split about 50-50. Usos never did feel completely beloved.

Sheamus Vs Cesaro: This is fantastic. It's basically the modern-day incarnation of Finlay/Regal, total stiff-fest. Sheamus defending the US title. Some great sequences. Cesaro looks like a total beast, bringing not just stiffness but great power spots, great agility, and great wrestling. Sheamus pretty much just brings the stiffness, but he does it so well. Crowd was clamouring for a Cesaro title win, but Sheamus pulled it out. No Heyman. I guess that relationship is done. Would have been so easy to book a Lesnar/Cesaro feud, and that match would have been incredible during this period.

Dolph Ziggler Vs The Miz: IC title match. Dolph won the title off Miz at Summerslam, so he's defending here. Mizdow! Crowd is already into this act. It's so fun. Ziggler has his own stunt double- R-Truth. The action in the ring is pretty good, and the crowd is hot for the match. Mizdow helps Miz regain the belt.

Seth Rollins Vs Roman Reigns: This scheduled match was cancelled because Reigns needed emergency hernia surgery, so here comes Rollins for another forfeit victory. They really give Reigns the star treatment despite his absence, with breaking news updates about the injury. Rollins issues an open challenge, which is answered by the returning Dean Ambrose, who pulls up in a taxi with impeccable timing. Huge pop for Ambrose, and once again he looks great taking it to Rollins. Security, led by Triple H, come out and end up cuffing Ambrose and dragging him out. Good angle.

Rusev Vs Mark Henry: Incredible stuff here. Lillian Garcia delivers an awful rendition of the national anthem, and Henry is crying his eyes out. Proper blubbing. The Nashville crowd is eating this shit up. What year is this? The match itself unfortunately can't live up to this pre-match bullshit. It's fine, but I think the problem is that they actually put Rusev over too strong. He pretty much dominates the whole match and then makes Mark tap out to the Accolade. I wish Henry had got more shine. I think it ultimately would have made Rusev's win more impressive.

Randy Orton Vs Chris Jericho: The commentary team are trying to sell this as a great match, but this is the weakest stuff on the show so far to me. A bit too contrived. Terrible Jericho jumping into an RKO for no reason finish to boot.

Paige Vs AJ Lee Vs Nikki Bella: Paige is defending the title she won at Summerslam. She's an outright heel now, and that suits her better. This is the best she's looked so far. Very aggressive. Nikki looks good too. AJ wins the belt back with the Black Widow on Paige. Not sure the point of passing the belt back and forth between the two.

Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena: This is the rematch from the Summerslam mauling, and has that big match feel. Much more even match, with Cena trying to take it to Lesnar before he gets destroyed. I don't like the trope in big Lesnar matches of finishers being used as hope spots. Cena's entire offence is pretty much AAs and STFs. But both guys sell well, and put over the magnitude of the match. Another AA from Cena, and Rollins comes out to break the count. Just to clear up any controversy, Lesnar was already kicking out when Rollins came in. Rollins curbstomps Lesnar and is going to cash in, but Cena fights him off. Lesnar than F5s Cena to finish the show standing tall.

Match of the night: On a show where no match was truly bad, it was Cesaro and Sheamus who stole the show. 3 3/4 stars. 3 1/4 for the tag team title match, and 3 stars for the Lesnar/Cena rematch.

Show rating: A very good show up and down the card. Even the lesser stuff is still enjoyable. 3 1/2 stars.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

WWE Hell in a Cell 2014.

Mark Henry Vs Bo Dallas (kickoff match): Total squash win for Henry. As it should be.

Dolph Ziggler Vs Cesaro: So, Dolph is IC champ again. They really flip-flopped the title between he and Miz. This is a 2/3 falls match, and is predictably rather good. Not on the level of Cesaro/Sheamus of course. Dolph goes over 2 falls to 0. I don't mind 2 straight falls. It's predictable if you always do the deciding fall. It is frustrating though to see Cesaro constantly failing to win the big matches.

Nikki Bella Vs Brie Bella: Loser is sentenced to be the winner's butler. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Both women have improved a lot just in the last 6 months or so, it seems. And both have distinct styles that compliment each other. Brie is pretty over. Nikki wins clean with a Rack Attack.

Goldust and Stardust Vs The Usos: Rematch for the tag belts. Stardust is getting increasingly out there, and I can't decide whether I like it or not. I don't really think these two teams could have a bad match against each other. The Cosmic Twins (I like that name, even though it doesn't really make sense) use sneaky heel tactics to counter the Usos, and pull out a win to retain the belts. A bit of a departure from previous Usos matches, as it lacked a lot of the big nearfalls that they usually work into their matches.

John Cena Vs Randy Orton: I fell asleep 3 times trying to get through this match. It isn't unusual for me to fall asleep watching wrestling (I'm old), and it necessarily an indictment of the match. On the other hand, this match was dull as piss. As usual, the commentators are selling this as one of the most epic battles in wrestling history, the culmination of the greatest rivalry ever, etc etc. It doesn't exactly endear me to the match. The winner becomes number one contender to Lesnar's title. They don't do a lot with the cage. Some nearfalls. Mostly just big move, lay about, repeat. Cena sells way too much in some of these matches. Cena wins with an AA off the top through a table.

Sheamus Vs The Miz: So I guess Ziggler and Sheamus just switched dance partners. Mizdow is the main attraction here, in full mimic mode, taking bumps on the outside. The action inside the ring is pretty good too. Sheamus wins with a Brogue Kick, then does some silly stuff after the match, making Mizdow his puppet by moving Miz's unconscious body around. Very Being John Malkovich.

Rusev Vs The Big Show: Okay, this is what the Henry match should have been like. Show gets to dominate Rusev a bit before being slain. It just makes everyone look better and makes for a more complete match. This is about as dominant as a heel has ever been booked. He takes out Henry who is out to try to fire Show up, and then destroys Show, making him tap to the Accolade. Then stands over the fallen giants as his flag falls from the ceiling. What a hero.

AJ Lee Vs Paige: Paige looks 100 times better as an aggressive heel. AJ Lee matches are like 90% skipping at this point. Finish was kinda weird. They were doing something on the barricade and AJ yanked Paige off. Then Alicia Fox, who was seconding Paige, rolled Paige back into the ring to beat the count, but AJ whipped her straight into the Black Widow and Paige instantly tapped. Paige slapped Foxy after the match.

Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose: Nice to see these two get the main event spot over Cena/Orton. Ambrose wants to start the match on top of the cell, so Rollins sends Noble and Mercury up. They get beaten with a kendo stick, but Rollins climbs up for the sneak attack. Ambrose and Rollins both end up taking dual announce table bumps from half-way up the cell, which was a cool spot and a good way to show how Dean is willing to destroy himself to destroy Rollins. Back in the cell Ambrose mostly dominates, seeing off interference from Kane. They really, really should have had Ambrose win this match, but they did the Wyatt interference instead to give Rollins the win. I actually liked the hologram thing, with Wyatt coming through the smoke to attack. It's just Ambrose really needed this win.

Match of the night: I actually think Show/Rusev might just take this. I give that about 3 1/4. Same for Cesaro/Ziggler. 3 stars for the tag title match and the main event cell match.

Show rating: A pretty consistently solid show, especially if you treat Cena/Orton as an intermission. 3 stars.

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