Greggulator

The Sami/Trick stuff is truly inspired. Absolute great wrestling ridiculousness. Sami is a genius. This is such a great introduction for Trick. He’s so good at this type of stuff already.

I kind of think that the peak of WWE storytelling was the Smackdown where Big E and Woods had to win the gauntlet for Kofi to get the WrestleMania chance. Inspired storytelling right there. Then the Usos forfeiting to tip the cap to their greatest rivals, followed by Dragon’s meltdown and fun finish was really epic.

New Day leaving gives me the sads. They are on the short list of best acts in WWE history. Three guys who had a DOA act and somehow morphed it into where they were the face of the company. Kofi Mania might be the single most beloved babyface chase the company ever had. But they were so important even beyond that — they could toss out a 20-minute high end tag match or do something goofy for the kids. Easy HOF shoe-ins.

Night 2 was great. Oba/Lesnar was a perfect big dudes throwing bombs and the new best big thing winning match. Fun and crazy ladder match. My little boy’s favorite wrestler is Ya Boy Bouncy. Rhea/Jade was solid. It looked nasty and sloppy at points in a good way. Rhea is the best. Jade is eh. I think Sami/Trick is Sami’s Hall of Fame reel. That was not a five star match as we usually know them to be but I thought it was a masterpiece in the story Sami told. Trick rules in having a presence and look and charisma and personality. But obviously he needs reps with world class workers to get there in the storytelling aspect. So… Trick just had to be the cool jock prick but one that is so cool you like him. Sami sold the story as the Everyman who tries to do the right thing but he’s a nerdy guy who is a bit whiny about his perceived lack of success. His heeling was great — especially loved the kick on the floor while staring right at Trick’s people ala what Roman did to Sami’s wife. His look on the floor afterwards was filled with self-doubt and questioning and wondering exactly who he is and needs to be. The main even absolutely perfect. Punk ran out of gas at the end but went down swinging. Roman was validated in everything he said in a clean win where Punk was the one with the dirty trick. But Punk was validated, too. Great great great.

Long Story Short on Netflix is a really special show. It is a cartoon from the guy behind Bojack Horseman. (I never watched it.) It is about a Jewish family from the San Francisco area. It crosses across several decades — the 90s, the 00s, touches on COVID. The matriarch (Lisa Edelstein) feels a bit tropey as the overbearing domineering Jewish mother but as someone married into a Jewish family hahahaha it’s funny because it’s true. The dad (Paul Reiser) is a former hippie turned math professor, which is also such an accurate trope from my experience as a member at a reform synagogue with my Jewish family. The children are great and also so well formed. The oldest Avi was a music nerd in high school in the 90s (“Asphalt” is the band on the poster) who is now a divorced dad. The middle daughter Shira (Abbi Jacobsen) is a disaffected teen eventually married to a black woman (Kendra, an awesome supporting character with her own episode.) Yoshi is the youngest son who hasn’t figured out things out yet. It has a lot of really funny and touching family moments. But it also isn’t afraid to be silly like having a high school infested with wolves. I really love this show.

This is the most I have liked Becky Lynch and I’ve been a huge fan of hers. She is absolutely cooking on the mic and her cowardly cheap shot heel work is so great.

The Brock return by itself is tired and lame and I don’t care. But then with the baggage of him being tied into the complaint? I’ll check back in to WWE a lot later. 1) WWE attorneys saying they “cleared” Brock is absolutely insane. While this was reported by Meltzer (details with this type of reporting aren’t his strong suit) that any lawyer in their right mind would suggest that Brock is cleared of anything is just ridiculous. Like… it is a pending lawsuit. It has not been dismissed at all by a judge. No settlement has been reached (and that’s the most likely outcome because that’s the most likely outcome of any lawsuit that a judge does not dismiss.) A settlement exonerates nobody. There is no way that Janel Grant’s attorneys shared information about Brock with the WWE regarding Brock’s possible employment. Grant presented a lawsuit with these allegations and that most likely is going to be backed with a lot of evidence. (Not every lawsuit is credible in any way, but Grant has actual attorneys who matter backing her. They don’t take cases for laughs.) It’s just insane to think that Brock is exonerated. 2) A quote always stood out to me in one of the WSJ articles about when Vince made his return. A “friend” told him he had to fight back against all of this. Who do you think that is? WSJ probably couldn’t nail it down enough to report on who it was at the time but it is Trump. It was nice watching you, WWE. I will be back when you grow up.

Wasn’t able to catch everything. I have a six-year-old and we are traveling tomorrow. Valid excuse. But from what I did see: 1) Sami is the absolute best at telling stories in concise manners. The whole “virtue versus victory” story was well-done and Sami winning while doing the right thing hopefully has payoff tomorrow night when Cody and Cena go at it. Feels like this is a good way to justify their moral codes and we also heard the announcers talk about Sami’s ultimate quest to win the top title. 2) Stratton is a star. Jade isn’t it. Despite her presentation and physical charisma, she’s just pretty lost with a lot of the little things like organically getting in position for the finish or taunting and flexing when she’s not a heel. Tiffany isn’t experienced enough yet to glue a match together. I actually would love to see Jade/Bianca back again to go after Charlotte and Alexa (even though I did not see that match yet.) 3) That main event ruled. Man, Gunther is just the absolute greatest. Every single thing he does in the ring matters. Punk is also so great against a monster type like Gunther in selling selling selling everything, Gunther’s moves are chops, a dropkick, a powerbomb, a frog splash and submissions. Such a simple offense that works so well because Gunther’s timing is impeccable and he knows how to radiate being a smug prick. Punk amplified that so well. The end was a bit off — The ring generals taking his eye off the ball — but I’m always a fan of a heel losing because of hubris. Gunther is also great at panicking when his gameplan goes awry. That match ruled. I am probably the only person here who loved that cash-in. But I love the psychology of Rollins feigning an injury just to get that bastard Punk on a giant stage to humiliate him. Absolute great petty asshole heeling and Heyman doing the cross-cross applesauce to gloat was A+.

Good show. The end ruled with Bronson jacking Roman’s sneakers. The 8-woman’s match was really good. I really wish Nikki Bella would go back to not being on my TV set but I liked so much of that match. Naomi has really hit her stride with her heel turn. The babyface entrance was so badass with Rhea leading the way. Punk is the absolute king of cheap pops. He’s so good at knowing how to use his voice to sound convincing when he’s saying the most generic stuff possible. I really like the Sami/Kross segment. Sami is just the absolute best babyface (duh) and he is so good he is making me interested in Karrion Kross.

Here are my thoughts on Hogan: 1) I grew up in WWF territory. But I for some reason was never into Hogan to the same degree as other kids in my town. Always others I liked more. 2) Early cable had a plethora of wrestling. So I had NWA, random 80s southern stuff, WCCW, AWA, etc. So much of that was just better than the WWF and Hogan. Show a kid the LOD from that era and then put them against Hulk. 3) I at some point became a fan of heels. Heels are just naturally funnier than babyfaces and Hogan was also the least cool babyface. All that stuff just got so boring, especially if you had the ability to watch Sting as a babyface. 4) Then Hogan went to WCW and it was a neverending dreck of terrible stuff and neverending feuds with the Dungeon of Doom and the like. I love wrestling camp and stupidity so much. Kevin Sullivan is right in my wheelhouse. But man even that stuff with Hulk was so lame I could find nothing to even pretend to like about it. I can’t even like it in the “so bad it’s sublime” stuff. All the great stuff with the Warrior feud is from The Warrior’s insanity. 5) His heel turn was fun for like six weeks and then it just became the same repetitive thing for like three years. 6) Easy enough to avoid his WWE appearances and the like. 7) He was just a gross scumbag. I never really liked Hogan as a performer. I can’t even really like his stuff in an ironic manner. He’s just one of the most boring performers ever to me. This probably sounds terrible since he just died. But man that guy sucked up so much oxygen when there was so much better wrestling to find and care about.

Lyra/Bayley ruled so much. God damn that match told such a great story. Bayley really is the GOAT. So many of the other top women in the company need the title or to be in the mix for the title to be compelling and have great matches. Bayley is almost the exact opposite at this point of her career. That was just a special performance from one of the best to ever do it. And maybe “one of” should just be taken from the sentence.

I just wrote in a comment on the New York Times Facebook page that said ECW was wrestling’s punk rock. But Sabu was its Velvet Underground. Only a limited amount of people knew who he was at the peak of his powers, but those who did went on to become obsessives or indie wrestlers.

Epic stuff, Phil!

NY Times wrote an obituary!

To make this perfect ECW: Lou Gregory was Sign Guy Dudley for those who didn’t know.