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Money promo from Charlotte. That had a fantastic motivation for her appearance and later actions. It was nowhere on the same page as The Rock’s legendary promo in Toronto (maybe my favorite promo of all-time), but it was very strong in informing the audience of why she returned in this form, made excuses for not being on WrestleMania, references the smark criticisms of her “stealing opportunities” and announced she was the best, and then attacked when her rivals were spent from their match and vulnerable. Perfect heeling. I will never understand at all why people hate on Charlotte. She rules so incredibly much. I like to compare the Horsewomen to the Novak/Federer/Nadal tennis rivalry in that all four have a great claim to make as the GOAT. 1) Sasha has the throne right now. She was the second best performer of the FY 2021 (WrestleMania to WrestleMania) after Roman. She and Bayley carried the promotion during the pandemic, which threw off everything. Then she ended her year in the best match of WM weekend with Bianca Belair — gifted, but still relatively green and in her first big match in front of one of the biggest crowds post-COVID in any form of entertainment. 2) Charlotte is my number two. She has had as many classic matches as anyone on the entire roster since she arrived. I think she’s had a lot of really iconic moments — jumping off the table with her crazy reckless dive before getting wrapped in the Banks Statement between the railing in the classic Last Man Standing against Sasha against Raw, kicking through a car window when brawling with Becky and Rousey, etc. She is an athletic marvel and has become a fantastic heel promo. She co-headlined WrestleMania. Her only downside is that she’s a pretty bad face. 3) Bayley. She is the least athletic of the four but the best at performing as her character. She was the best babyface of her generation on NXT and was a great anchor as a face in the big roster for a long time. She eventually found her voice as a heel and has been lights out. There is no way anyone would have thought that she would be this great as a villain but it makes sense since she is just so incredibly gifted at understanding storytelling. 4) Becky Lynch. Becky was the biggest star since Daniel Bryan for a stretch and somehow is my fourth. She went from being a sort of afterthought of the four who had really good matches that established others as stars (Alexa Bliss) who was an overlooked good promo to finding her truth as a defiant badass. Her best moment was standing tall after having her face (!) broken at the end of that Raw she hijacked was one of the best moments ever in wrestling history — up there with Bryan on top of the cage during The Yes Movement!, Foley winning the title, 1-2-3 Kid beating Razor and so many things I am forgetting. The only reason she is fourth on my list is because she sat out to have a kid and that she didn’t get as strong a push as the other three did, which was not her fault. But when she finally did get that push, she became the biggest star in wrestling — and as over as anyone ever — who was the face of a historic WrestleMania main event. We really have been blessed to have these four and see them take the worst part of wrestling (the ridiculously dumb Divas) to possibly the best part of the show. And that is also not even counting the fantastic Asuka (maybe this should be a Top 5, it she is a clear fifth) and Alexa (not a great wrestler but as good as anyone at playing a character) and Shayna and the criminally underused Riot Squad and The Iiconics (best temper tantrums ever) and Nikki Cross, with Bianca and Rhea and everyone on NXT in the wings.

I'm pronouncing this as "Ch-ch-ch-charlotte", like the old Chia Pet commercials ("Ch-ch-ch-chia!"), and I'm glad this came into my life.

Needs more pouches. So many more pouches. Plus tiny and/or misshapen feet.

Three hour show and where the hell were the new champions? No AJ Styles, no Omos, no Sheamus? What the flying frell? This is unforgivable for a post-WrestleMania show. Why was Riddle on the show tonight but not the guy he lost clean to? This is hot garbage.

This thread two pages from now:

I said this in the Mania thread and it’s absolutely true. Asuka too.

As one of the seemingly few Bray Wyatt fans on here, he really should ask for his release. They've butchered everything he's gotten over and any idea he has is neutered. He deserves so much better than this epic shitshow.

The most stunning thing about this is that it proves it's actually possible to defame Joe West.

Good Lord - is Murphy’s shirt painted on?

Wrestlemania Backlash will 3 hours of IWC dorks complaining about the booking.

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-Charlotte turning face is strange ..."

I was hoping maybe he could sell real estate or perhaps manage a chain restaurant.

The alternative casino Eddie takes Clark to is hilarious, with games like War, guess the number and coin flip. And that buffet, "You're right, this is the beef and this is the chicken". . . LOL

I also love "The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority presents Vegas Vacation" it drags during the Audrey stuff but Clark losing at gambling, Ellen being stalked by Wayne Newton and Rusty becoming a high roller are really funny. I'll note that I never found "Christmas Vacation" funny and always get confused that it's kind of considered a "classic" xmas film, I also loved the Ed Helms as Rusty re-boot and think they should have made a sequel.

Rhea Ripley gets a crowning title win at the PPV, so of course CHHHarlotte returns and takes the title from her immediately. Classic. I would feel blessed if the most over-pushed and over-protected worker in the WWE for the last decade was capable of putting someone else over for once.

While we're sorta on the subject: However good they are, punches should mostly be saved for heel cheating/face retribution high spots, or concession stand brawl type matches. That is, wrestling is better with an acknowledged closed-fist rule, and the exceptions should mean something.

I disagree strongly. I want them in the suits with the masks.

What an absolute shitshow. Fuck this company, and fuck me for getting excited for what's usually the most fun Raw of the year. And fuck Kenny Omega, just for good measure.

So, Wrestlemania. Bray Wyatt faced an established main eventer, goes out of his way to use unusual mind games (involving special effects!), but his opponent no sold the weirdness, hit their finish and won clean in the middle. But which year's Mania am I talking about? Is it more than one, possibly?

Because WWE is the progenitor of all modern wrestling tropes in the United States, and in WWE, a good guy stands on his own two feet or gets his ass whipped. Strength comes from standing alone against the hordes who look to destroy you, not from relying on other people for their grace or help. It's been said before by people far smarter and more eloquent than me, but look at how the WWE historically books its good guy aces, and you see essentially VKM's very worldview.

Dream blunt rotation, etc, etc

As dumb as I find all of this to be, I'm really happy for Alexa. Being attached to this act and having very little physicality to endure must be great for her long-term health. Yeah. I find the gimmick to be silly trash, but count me among those who've always had a high-tolerance for Bray's actual wrestling. Of course if they're going to keep trying to make the red lighting during the matches a thing, I'm not going to want to see any of it.

On the bright side, that might actually be an improvement.

Hold my Slurm.

My first reaction was "Matt Flynn took fewer bumps than Matt Cassel" *checks Spotrac* Matt Cassel made 60 million dollars?! My God. I stand corrected. Let's chalk Flynn up as WCW Lanny Poffo

My mom called all wrestling “wrestlemania” when I was a kid. She couldn’t tell you what WWF or WCW or anything else was but she knew the wrestlemania name. Maybe they are trying to hit the “old people who call things by one brand name market” I don’t think the rebrand will encourage her to order the show or subscribe to the network.

"IT SOUNDS MORE IMPORTANT WITH THE TITLE OF THE GRANDEST SPECTACLE OF THEM ALL ATTACHED TO IT PAL"

I hope y'all enjoy this interview of Werner Herzog by a skateboarding magazine as much as I did.

I'd watch a series about the Dora Milaje just fucking people up. They're so cool.

I realize his current position is much better for him financially, but I selfishly wish Bobby Roode were splitting his time between the NWA and Impact right now. I don't think he's a lot of people's #1 guy they wish weren't locked up in the WWE, but he's my #1.

For those interested in the AEW figures, it looks like they're now being sold in places other than Wal-Mart. Over the weekend, I saw some in the Target store near me. They had both Bucks, Riho, and Orange Cassidy. They only had one of each left except they had two of one of the Bucks. $20 each.

For the record, I'm enjoying his new nickname, Steph "Despite The Loss" Curry

Maybe you play the sound of a railroad crossing closing no matter whether he hits it or not. HOW IS THIS BRAINSTORMING BETTER THAN RAW ITSELF

Damn, that's telegraphing whether he's gonna hit or not, then! If that's the case. Also, if he's running and doesn't hear the choo-choo, he should automatically hit the brakes, because he's about miss or crash!

I've always loved Vegas Vacation. I know it has a terrible rep but I've never understood that. Probably my favorite part is the further degeneration of Cousin Eddie's family.

Hey now, that photo doesn't show his legs, how do you know? ? It would be really funny if he was wearing cargo shorts with a lot of pockets btw

He definitely has a Liefeld drawing come to life look to him.

Corney has made this point on his podcast numerous times and it make so much sense that it really bugs me. When a good guy is getting beat down why don't the other good guys come to help?

My hot take is AEW and WWE both seem uneasy in their own skin and seem unconvinced with what they are offering. WWE seem like they want their product and stars to be what it used to be and therefore underplay their own product constantly. AEW seem to second guess what they want on an almost weekly basis, that leads to a directionless show.

Can we have the Confused emoji back please?

Here's a fucking HOT TAKE for you: Good factions: Four Horsemen, Dangerous Alliance, Stud Stable I guess. Bad factions: All the rest. EDIT: Okay La Faccion Ingobernables gets an honorary since I am part of the Death Valley Driver contingent

The house is SOLD. Aaaaaand I have a job interview tomorrow morning. I hate bringing good things up before they happen out of fear of cursing them, but this is really swell news.

It's quite a tired talking point now, but each night had a one hour preshow to recap and hype up all the angles with no matches interspersed. They still had to proceed every match with a video package that was almost as long as some of the matches themeselves.

Proof is in the pudding really. They’ve been haemorrhaging fans. Shaq episode apart (since which they’ve lost more & more viewers every week without fail), they’re down roughly 15~20% on viewership for same period last year, and as much as 50%+ on viewership from their first episodes in ‘fall 19. There was a lot of excuse making for quite a long time about a fairly significant amount of terrible decisions. Nepotism and favours-for-friends has clearly been rife. That rating this week is one of the 10 worst they’ve had, and in real-terms one of the very worst as previous 600s ratings were mostly during height of riots or presidential election coverage. It’s a very high intensity profession and endeavour; if they don’t address problems now then things escalate quickly. At the outset it was a really cool concept and obviously there are still great elements mingled in, so I really hope they get their shit together. I think Khan becoming an on-screen personality after steadfast saying he’d be away from that at the beginning is a very bad look. I think strapping the belts onto the EVPs is a very bad look. These are not decisions that give the impression of a neutral, fair-minded management of the product. Next week looks good to me. They’ve got a ton of athletic, attractive, cool young roster members. Get the shine on them & stay away from the bombardment of faction bullshit & dweeb-chaos. I really hope they take advantage of NXT moving away and get this straight. Fuck the egos and run what works. Whatever the fuck that Main was ain’t it.

It's a dumb gripe. Jericho's character is that of many thing, a big one being an actual rock star. He comes to the ring to a song he wrote and performed, a song that went to No. 5 on the Mainstream Rock charts and that everyone's learned the words to. He should pay the front row to sing it. He should be smug. That's the point.