Greggulator
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Posts posted by Greggulator
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I being reported that the inquiry into Vince is being dropped. Helps when your wife is a lackey to the president.
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Ricky absolutely eviscerated MJF on the mic that time they had a feud. Not a lot of people can say that. Imagine if he had the Adam Cole mastermind spot. His line last night about the pretty face and expensive fragrance was pretty killer. I love Ricky and he’s got a ton of upside.
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If this is somehow KO’s swan song (is this going around somewhere?) then where does he rank as best ever in the WWE? I think he’s the Phil Hartman of the WWE. He’s probably the best utility player of the century. He can get anything over. He’s a great face and a great heel. He can main event any PPV or have an entertaining goofball angle to chew up the midcard. He can be in singles and tags. He’s one of the best promos. Wrestling is going to miss KO when he hangs it up.
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Sami/Punk was incredible. What a TV main event from two of the best to ever do it. I was absolutely rooting for Sami. There were so many great moments in this that really showed why they are both so good. I prefer Sami’s subtleties to build sympathy like his “knocked out falling forward” sell in the corner over Punk’s preening to the WrestleMania sign and trash talk, but Punk being bombastic works. The KO run-in at the end shocked me. It felt likely they were going to do something for WM but wasn’t expecting the build to start so soon. KO/Sami having a WM match is going to be one of those matches that you know is going to steal the show and somehow surpass what you thought it could be. Wondering if we’ll get a HITC or something.
Iyo/Liv was also excellent. Babyface Iyo is so much fun and she knows how to keep the crowd into stuff in a very 1980s way. Liv has become elite at being a conniving piece of shit heel and being in the right place for whoever she’s in the ring against.
Jey was absolutely the right choice to win the Rumble. He’s as hot as any wrestler has been since Danielson. He’s really does deserve it because he got over so much by being a great character actor and connecting in that fashion. Who cares if he hasn’t had a five star singles match? The crowd loves him.
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Jey Uso was enslaved and beat into becoming Roman’s flunky. That is almost always a career ender. But he’s so talented and found a way to connect so organically that he’s going to get a title match at WM and is the most over guy on the roster right now and has been for 18 months probably. What a story.
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The Rumble is always the most fun night of the year. Both were so well paced. The woman’s Rumble had so many good moments and little pushes of people like Lash Legend or Stephanie Caquer or Chelsea being the best or Roxanna going on such a huge run. I’m the biggest Charlotte mark here. If you’re not pushing the athletic freak daughter of the most beloved wrestler and GOAT to try and surpass her father then you’re doing wrestling wrong. Charlotte has had so many awesome matches, too. Either one of her matches against Rhea or Tiffany are going to rule.
I loved the tag match and wish it was in front of a hot Smackdown crowd in like Greensboro. The end to the first fall was fantastic. I loved that it was a duplicitous set play. Fun match.
That ladder match was fucked up in a great way. Kevin Owens is the Phil Hartmann of the WWE. He does everything. The final bump was utterly insane.
That was a great men’s Rumble. It was paced so well. I love the beginning was a lot of awesome workers to put on a show like the scorching hot Penta and Rey and Carmelo and etc. The middle had some awesome moments like Joe Hendry and Bron messing dudes up and everything to do with Jacob Fatu. I loved the ending segment where it was all Hall of Fame guys (I was debating who the least was — Finn or AJ Styles) and popped when Dm came out and got to frog splash Cena.
Have they ever had a surprise winner like this? Jey Uso has been arguably the most over guy on the roster since he turned on Roman. All-time hot entrance. Good for him to break out like this. It’s a testament to the genius of Roman Reigns and The Bloodline saga to get Jey to this point.
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22 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:
This is in my neighborhood, which is pretty far from Center City. Hilarious that this happened at The Bayou. It’s a crappy frat kid bar with a notoriously bad brunch. A+ location scouting.
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Absolutely wishing the Eagles trolled Washington into another leaping offsides penalty for the ref to give the Birds a touchdown by discretion. It would have easily been a Top 5 all-time sports moment for me and the gates of hell that is Philly would have opened.
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Nia Jax is so friggin’ good. She’s such a great bully and has become so good at little things to get heat (side eye glances to the crowd, etc.) and does a really great job of looking surprised and overwhelmed when her opponent is fighting back. She and Bayley have had great work together even going all the way back to NXT.
KO being a manipulative bastard playing on Sami’s good side was perfect. I loved Sami saying “How do you want to do this?” in terms of then about to throw fists. But instead KO figured out exactly how to pull on Sami’s strings. I’m always down for Sami and KO to do battle or work together.
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KO and Sami are second-tier Mt. Rushmore guys. Legendary, HOF talent at that level behind Cena/Austin/Rock/Bret/etc. KO is the Phil Hartman of WWE. He’s the best utility guy. He can do any role at any spot on the show and it’s going to be great. As said before — Sami post-Bloodline has become probably the best sympathetic babyface since Ricky Morton. That’s not an exaggeration. (It also shows to go how great The Bloodline stuff has been.)
Drew since the Punk feud has been amazing, and I never dug him too much before that. He found his voice. Rhea is also so high on the list. Same with Chelsea Green, Jacob Fatu (duh), Liv and Shinsuke in his current form.
Kofi and X are getting Southern heel heat. They had so many little things in that segment I loved — Kofi’s mom in the middle seat, X saying “we have you people the 10 best years of your lives.” They’re going to get trash thrown at them if and when they beat the War Raiders.
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Loved last night’s show. Bron/Kaiser was really smart work. It leaned into what both are super at. Kaiser is so good at knowing how to play his shtick to the back of the arena — leans into being a total douche. Slowing things down and working on a limb with some good dickhead cheap shots made Bron’s explosiveness pop even more. Bron is so good as a babyface who has to overcome something. Great stuff.
Triple threat woman’s match was fun. Loved KC getting her shine in the match. Zoey winning and advancing is solid — she’s been such a solid worker.
Main event was exactly what I wanted. It really got the War Raiders over in a big way — not sure they connected with the audience despite those guys having great work. Judgment Day are such good pricks. Story beat was predictable with Priest getting his revenge but I loved the camera framing of it to make it a surprise when it happened.
Fun show. Good angles. New Day getting ousted from the locker room is such a good touch.
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Wrestling Degrassi means I have to carve out time for NXT. That rules.
Speaking of ruling: Smackdown tonight was absolute fire. Tiffany won in front of the hometown. Bianca and Piper Niven had a banger with an awesome ending. The KO/Cole Carpool Karaoke segment was so fun and weird and the end with KO saying “Get out of my rental car!” before doing the window bit was aces. Cody/Gable was predictably very good.
But major tip of the cap to DIY stealing the titles via a long con. You can see how they put the plan in place a few weeks back. “Hey, you know MCMG watched when we had our issues back in NXT. I used to complain about you all the time to Alex. They trust me. Let’s tease animosity to get them to put their guard down. We’ll lure them into a match, will tease a breakup, and then use the distraction and become champs!”
I always love that sort of scheming you can see happening without actually needing to see it happen.
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The devastation of The New Day overshadowed that really fun Gunther/Dom sprint. I loved that Dom wrestled face-ish (using a bunch of topes and counters.) That was a great test run for when Dom eventually goes face. He can be the heir apparent to his real father and lie, cheat and steal. Gunther is so great at being dominant and also making his opponents look terrific. I can absolutely get behind these guys getting 20 minutes or Dom having the briefcase.
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The New Day segment was a masterpiece. We knew our heart was going to get broken. But we didn't know how. They somehow figured out that the most devastating way to do so was by having Kofi and X act like total dicks to Big E. No violence needed. Just two dudes who felt slighted and unleashing their anger on the injured, vulnerable E. (The same day that article dropped just to add to E's vulnerability.) That was cruelty at its peak. It really felt like when your best friend from middle school starts sitting with the cool kids freshman year and tells you that you have to go sit elsewhere. Or when your college girlfriend tells you "we need to talk" and it turns out that she and your roommate are now an item. A+ and something I never want to see again.
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I was at the Raw all those years ago where they officially broke the streak for longest tag run. It was so great and fun to see in person. They barely even were getting started with their run, which is wild to think about.
I think one of the real turning points for the WWE creatively came during the pre-Sami Bloodline days. The USOs had the belts and were eyeing up breaking the New Day’s streak. So, the New Day stepped up to take a final stand to keep their record. Those four can throw out a four-star match with each other in their sleep. But when you put in stakes that go beyond the usual and it touches in on the world building the WWE has done over the decades? That is really awesome. It’s one of my favorite WWE TV matches ever.
Another peak moment of storytelling was when The Usos forfeited in the gauntlet match against X And E with Kofi’s spot on the line. Absolutely fantastic moment during Kofimania.
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How are we all prepping for a possible New Day breakup at their 10th Anniversary? Man — what a great piece of long-term storytelling they’ve had with the tensions between the group, even when they had to audible when Odyssey Jones got cut.
I think this really shows the magic of The New Day. They were pretty much lower mid-card tag filler the past year but at anytime they needed someone heated up they could have a banger like Kofi or Woods vs. Gunther. Or even the tag matches — they had a lot of really good TV matches against dudes like The War Raiders.
They have been absolutely invaluable the past decade. Things like “quality 15 minute tag matches” are really important on a 3-hour show. Three hours is a lot of time to fill, and having people who can do quick, entertaining promos and segments and a good match after are absolutely invaluable to keeping a show together while other characters and stories get highlighted.
Kofi and Woods and E being able to being fully committed to that type of work while also being main event level talent really shows their talent more than anything else. And that’s even considering Kofimania, which is high on the list of most beloved wrestling storylines ever told.
They’re also really important in terms of representation. I listened to their podcast during all the George Floyd stuff and it hit me more than anything else during the era about the fears Black Americans have when interacting with law enforcement. It made me also confront my own listening skills and priviledge since I live in Philly and have black friends but never truly appreciated what a difficult situation it is until I heard three goofball wrestlers talking about an issue that I knew was important but never felt it until Kofi was talking about jogging in a hoodie being a potentially fatal act for him.
X’s Up Up Down Down stuff isn’t for me (I haven’t played a video game in decades) but that stuff also feels like a great way to build culture in the locker rooms. They talked about this in a recent YouTube thing the three of them did. It let out everyone’s nerdy stuff. Wrestlers aren’t bodybuilding lunkheads anymore. They’re really athletic nerds, which I like a lot more.
I am bracing for a breakup that may actually lead to tears tomorrow night. But The New Day have been something really special for a decade, and I hope we get a decade more.
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Take all the stuff Adam Cole has done but reimagine him as Ricky Starks. Ricky would knock it out of the park as a slimebag manipulative heel so much he’d become a face in months. I love that guy so much.
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Some more thoughts from the show, even though I was distracted by playing Jurassic World on the floor with my kid.
1) The Women’s War Games match was a blast. It’s a hastily put together grouping of women made for the sake of the match. It had a lot of plunder and violence and crazy spots. I really thought Tiffany was going to cash in. Would have been epic. Fun end highlighting the best women’s feud going.
2) I had to run some errands so skipped on LA Knight and Shinsuke, assuming LA was going to get the win. Now I might have to check it out. I think the bloom has fallen off the LA Knight rose. Guy is perfectly fine at that Upper midcard spot. Happy Shinsuke gets at least one last title run and has an awesome new persona.
3) Triple threat was everything we expected it to be and was awesome. Ludwig Kaiser needs to get his flowers. Guy really does great shtick throughout every match he has. He was the star of the match for me. But I want to see these guys fight every week for the rest of my life.
4) Priest/Gunther was awesome throughout. I hate the end. Not because of heel slimebag victory but I really was hoping Priest would be able to get some distance from Finn and the JD.
5) War Games for me was a perfect match. Great storytelling throughout. Incredible spots. Jacob Fatu is a madman. The end where everyone got their licks in on Solo was fantastic.
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That main event was pretty much a perfect match. Loved it so much
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I love the Dom World Title shot. At some point in time, Dom is going to be in the Final 3 at the Rumble to a gigantic pop or he’s going to get the “try to run the Gauntlet but just come up short” Kofi type of push. I always want to boo him since he’s such a great sleazy heel but he’s also a really friggin’ great professional wrestler.
He’s just so good at what he does — the right type of panic whenever Rhea gets his hands on him, etc.
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Man, that main event was really great. I fell for a lot of the falls — especially Jey’s big splash, since I thought maybe The Bloodline came down to help him to try and woo him to the cause. The Jacob Fatu/Braun tease was incredible and man that’s a possible WM Main Event in two years. Bron licking his chops when he realized he had Jey dead-to-rights was awesome.
This stuff with Sami beating Bron and then Bron slipping up against Jey to get it back is really great. They just had a dominant Gunther run with the IC strap and you need to differentiate. Bron being ascendant but able to lose and willing to take shortcuts makes him so incredibly interesting.
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Shelton needs a heel title run. He’s always been great when he’s had TV time. But surly 49-year-old Shelton looking to wreck everyone to show he still has it is money. Deserves way more than to be Bobby Lashley’s heel buddy.
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Oh, the ultimate “there is no hope” ending is Dump shaving Chigusa’s head. Duh. That’s the peak.
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I can’t remember if it ended the show but Jerry Lawler and co beating up a bunch of ECW dudes and hitting Tommy Dreamer in his testicles with a Singapore Cane comes to mind.
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WWE TV - 2/24 - 3/2/2025 - Braunhouse In Your Soul
in WWE PROGRAMMING
Posted
The Sami sit down promo was so friggin’ good. Really great job in explaining why this time’s different and (most importantly) making it sound so dangerous that I have to go out of my way to watch.
God damn that main event was something special. I like how different it was from a lot of the usual tag formula — the champs jumping the heels at the start, Dom not being at ringside but sneaking down at the right moment, insane double teams and impeccably timed kick-outs. That end was also a chef’s kiss in heel chespshot victories.
Everyone played their role so well. Liv since her heel turn has turned into such a great little shit stirrer always looking for shortcuts.
But man Naomi has just put things together the past year or so. Naomi has been around so long that she was in the Funkadactyls and was out there for AJ Lee’s Pipe Bomb. She didn’t come through NXT or any kind of development system worth anything. She’s always been a freak athlete but I always thought she needed her hand held for someone to get her from move to move — stuff that you actually learn by being treated like an actual wrestler and not to be the eye candy for a future Fox News grifter. But Naomi pretty clearly has always wanted to be good at wrestling and has worked really hard to the point where she was the babyface in the ring during the final section of one of the best tag matches in a really long time. Damn that match ruled.