Greggulator

I love how everyone has said for years that we need more managers so good workers/eh talkers can get over. Paul/Axel have that going on yet all anyone cares about is Axel's seeming lack of charisma. That's what Heyman's there for. Axel just needs to string together good matches for now (which he's doing). I think he's a perfectly competent worker with an awesome heat magnet.Heath Slater is absolutely perfect in his role. The best goofball stooge heel since the early days of Stevie Richards. Just take crazy ass bumps, do your windmill guitar and act like a total cocksure idiot who turns into a chicken at the very first opportunity.

Ted DiBiase Jr. was pretty worthless. He was like the actual Curtis Axel in terms of being an average, at best, worker without a lick of charisma.How the hell do you not get "Rich trust fund brat of The Million Dollar Man" gimmick over?

Unreal promo.I was actually researching where they came up the name of Sister Abigail a few days ago. It's the name of a character in some movie Orphan that I didn't see.There are a few meanings to this. The first is "Sister Abigail" is a nun who taught Bray who, in his warped mind, told him he's the Messiah.Abigail is also a character in the Bible. She was the wife of a wealthy man named Nabal. David, the future King of Israel (and the David of David and Goliath), and his soldiers protected Nabal's flock of sheep. They then approached Nabal for food. He turned them away.David and his men went on their way to kill Nabal (and all his family) when Abigail learned of this. She then headed David off at the pass and begged for his forgiveness while indicating that she knew he would be King of Israel one day. David spared Nabal because of her humility. She then risked her life by revealing to Nabal what he had done. However, he died of a heart attack soon after. David then married Abigail.Her story is one of personal integrity and David's future -- she allowed David to live his life (in the name of God) and smite his enemies with a pure heart when he became the king of Israel.

Finally watching Smackdown.I really liked the D-Bry/RKO introduction a lot. They're really nailing Daniel Bryan's Everyman credentials. I loved Daniel talking about how Randy was gifted everything while also taking him down a few notches by calling him pretty. Christian/ADR was unsurprisingly very good. ADR's formula has been perfected. I think he's probably the best person on the roster capable of having good matches out of RVD. He'll know how to get in the right spots to let RVD do his stuff and put it in a story of him going after the shoulder. Ricardo's introduction of RVD was really great, too. I liked his little dramatic beat. "He doesn't look down on people... He stands up for them." Mark Henry's shoulder tackle on Heath Slater is why I watch wrestling. I liked The Shield promo, too -- they're not scared of Henry/Big Show, which is a lot more interesting than them being scared. That's going to get over the inevitable "We made a BIG mistake pissing these dudes off" spot in their match pretty well. Cesaro/D-Young was a nice, snug little match. Titus was pretty good as a second. The cage match was also really good. I thought they did a really great job of incorporating Bryan's usual spots (the dropkick sequences) into the concept of the cage. The end sequence was nutty. Kudos to Wade for sacrificing his vertebrae on that powerbomb bump. I actually got the feeling that this was a test drive of sorts for these two.

I can't believe he's still trying to work the reality angle that stemmed from the Punk promo, which was over TWO YEARS ago. The Masked Man falls into the whole Grantland Overwrites Everything trap. His stuff's interesting a lot of times but it gets a bit long-winded. His past two interviews w/ Bryan and HHH were really good, though. I like Stroud. It's a fun read and he has the right opinions in terms of how women should be treated on air and the like. I don't get everyone's hate.My favorite wrestling stuff to read: I've been friends w/ Holzerman from The Wrestling Blog forever and he does great stuff. (I actually wrote a column for him this week that saw its genesis from a post on here.) I also really like anytime The Classical (best sports website in the world) writes about wrestling. They've got a guy Nick Bond who is terrific and just started up a wrestling-specific site called JuiceMakesSugar.com.

I was randomly picked before the Phillies game I went to tonight to serve as the MLB Fan Cave Fan of the Game. I stood behind home plate next to the Phanatic and a few ball girls during the national anthem. They then introduced me afterwards and I did the Chris Jericho kiss to the crowd, waved like the Queen (in homage to Naked Gun), waved like above and then gave a thumbs up. Really regretting not trying to start a "YES!" chant but oh well. True highlight of my life.

Tinted Windows are superb.My favorite pop band of the past few years is fun. They're the closest thing we've had to Queen in decades. I know that's heresy (since Queen is #1 and the best) but they've got that formula. Nate can sing his ass off, the music's produced really well, and they have all these guitar lines and the like that don't fit into the verse/chorus/verse structure that are straight out of the Brian May playbook. Obviously Nate and the guitarist aren't Freddie and Brian May (and I don't think the guitar dude is into astrophysics) but they're not a bad approximation.

There were other matches from the WWE's farm system that got a decent amount of hype. Ambrose/Rollins did. So did Ambrose/Regal and Ohno/Regal.Some people crapped a bit on Ambrose/Rollins but I thought it was a terrific Ironman match, which is my favorite gimmick. Just a heated match between two dudes who hated each other but couldn't even pin each other (it was set up by a bunch of time limit draws), let alone beat the other guy. So one the pinfalls happened, it was IMPORTANT. And it definitely felt like the future was coming. Those dudes (and Roman) have been awesome in The Shield. I even think Ambrose has been misused a bit since he's an A+ mic guy.Ambrose/Regal was just an awesome climax to the relationship between the two that developed over time. Ambrose punked Regal at some point (I forget the exact details) and it woke Regal's inner demons. The match that capped the feud was a disgusting brawl that saw Ambrose target Regal's eardrum. Post-match, it ended with a knocked out Regal getting to his knees seeing he was unable to defend himself against Ambrose's incoming knee trembler. Regal applauded Ambrose as a sign of respect (it's what he would have done) and then was crushed.Regal/Ohno was another nasty brawl that involved Regal attacking fingers.I also loved the six man Regal was involved with against the Wyatt's. It wasn't high-end like these matches but was really effective in how it was structured. That match is proof that those dudes can work in the realm of their characters like no one else.

I forget if it was here or somewhere else but someone tossed out the idea that Cena is the ultimate tweener and perfect since he can wrestle as the heroic face for the kids and against smark darlings as a heel.I completely agree with this assessment. It's 100% true.The thing that's interesting -- has Cena turned the definition of tweener on its head? I always associated tweeners as a rogue cool heel, like Punk circa the Pipe Bomb or Shawn Michaels when he started transitioning from his first heel run into a face turn back in like 91 or whenever. But Cena's tweener is that he's a doofus, corporate face. The smarks hate him because he's a perceived pretty boy who can't wrestle who will whore himself out to sell dumb merchandise. But he's still a good person who has morals, thus keeping within how a babyface should act. It's pretty genius when you think about it and it's absolutely great from a business plan. Cena's interesting to everyone but for completely different reasons.

He also gets heckled a lot with Goodburger.

Other stuff from the episode:1) Fun competent match between AJ and Bailey. They're REALLY drilling the whole "wrestle as your persona" character into the NXT kids. Bailey does starstruck really well. I loved AJ getting the win by using Bailey's kindness against her. AJ also hit a really stiff elbow and her Shining Wizard looked great. AJ's at the point now where she can carry someone without a lot of seasoning to a perfectly acceptable 5 minute show opener. 2) 'You're ruining my life." That Tyler Breeze segment was really good self-involved heeling. Asking some random girl for a picture of himself, discovering the photoombing, and getting sad. Obviously Tyler Breeze is overcompensating. 3) I skipped The Ascension match. 4) CJ Parker's "Aging Phish fan at Phish side project show" ring entrance is really dumb and good. He's really bad in the ring. His interview with Renee Young was pretty great bad wrestling acting. If they want to get the shtick over, they need to update him a little bit -- less 60s flower child and more of the granola aspect of the Occupy movement. Tyler Breeze's whining and pouting was great. He's also sorta right about CJP. 5) A Bulgarian Muy Thai dude who wrestles barefoot, dresses in raggeddy clothes stolen from some Gladiator LARP thing, breaks wooden boards over his knee and makes a lot of snarls is pretty much exactly why I watch this stuff.

I honestly can't believe Sami ever worked under a hood. I'm sure he made some money selling gimmicks but the guy knows how to use his face to convey emotions. He's also a very good interview with a unique style and charisma.I really hope they're setting him up to be the backstage guy who finally stands up to Ryback (as I believe someone suggested elsewhere). He'd be absolutely perfect for the spot.

Man, Sami/Antonio was awesome. Anyone who dogs on this match needs to stop. If you took the same feud with the same build on Raw and had the same match on SummerSlam, we'd be talking about it on at least the same par as ADR/Christian.The psychology in this was perfect. Sami went in with the game plan knowing he could catch Cesaro off guard with his aerial moves (see his previous matches) and stole the first fall. He kept at it until Cesaro got control with his freakish strength. I loved how they kept on working the reverse chinlock as an actually dangerous move -- Cesaro is SO good at making that move look awesome, and they've also really pushed the hell out of it being dangerous in previous weeks (especially Regal). Cesaro swinging Zayn around with it before the tap out looked so incredibly nasty. The third fall ending with both guys throwing bombs -- that's how third falls pretty much have to end. This was really breathtaking. I haven't seen too much Generico stuff before -- that corner/swinging DDT on the floor was easily the best spot of the year and something I totally marked for. It had a total 1997 ECW/WCW vibe to it where Rey or Juvi or someone would bust out some crazy deal that you never would imagine was possible. And, even better, there was a really good reason for how the spot was set up and Sami would naturally want to use a little bit of a shield when trying to hit a big move on someone with the insane strength to counter absolutely anything like Cesaro. And I loved Sami waiting and hoping it was a ten count -- winning on a countout like that is even more impressive than a pinfall in a way, and Cesaro scampering back in last second was a great save.The final sequence was great. It worked better in how awkward it was -- not being clean shows Cesaro's athleticism and strength more than anything else.There were also a ton of really small things on this that I loved. I loved Cesaro's little King Dick stuff --- grabbing Sami off the apron by his ear, feeling the need to trash talk him, his pantomime of kicking dirt in his face after his win. And Sami's reach for the ropes while wiggling his fingers was great. Loved Cesaro going for the chinlock again but Sami using it against him getting a near fall. This match lived up to the hype. Awesome, great stuff. A well-told story with excellent execution. It combined simple moves like reverse chinlocks an Sami's crazy-ass dives seemlessly.Oh yeah, it's also the third or fourth best match of the week. That's how crazy good things are right now.

I would attribute a third-hour drop-off to bedtime for anyone under the age of 15.

Actually, HHH was pretty right about his comments to Foley. The dude didn't put his hands up. Who the hell wouldn't put a hand up (or flinch) on instinct when someone is swinging a chair at your head, unless it's by a complete and total surprise? And 90s Japan garbage wrestling -- I love it but it's a completely separate thing from everything else in pro wrestling. Foley ended up translating that stuff really well into the WWE (thumbtacks, his stuff with Randy Orton) but it is a different thing entirely.I love Foley to a ridiculous degree. The guy's awesome. I like him a lot more than I do HHH. But the chair thing always did bother me with him -- it was more "HEY I CAN GET HIT IN THE HEAD WITH A CHAIR!" than anything that conveyed the violence and brutality of someone cracking a chair over your skull. And more power to HHH if what he says about his work ethic is true. If he busted his ass to get up in the morning to contribute to the product and wasn't afraid to give his feedback, than he does deserve a big spot. He was doing all that stuff before he married Steph so it's not like he married her and was gifted this spot.

Oh yeah, worst dude on the roster is Zach Ryder. Hands down. That dude stinks.

I think the assessments are more of this:TARVER: Had a lot of potential but was a total lunatic backstage, apparently. Everyone says he's tearing up the indies. He blew his chance to be anything.YOUNG: Decent tag worker now in the spotlight. SLATER: Best JTTS of his generation and the goofy, hilarious leader of a comedy heel stable.That's a huge spot. GABRIEL: Decent enough JTTS babyface. He's had a lot of really solid matches. OTUNGA: Great on-air personality. Definitely willing to take a beating like when Randy Orton beat the absolute hell out of him that time on Smackdown.SKIP: Caught on after a mega-push. His face push was more a victim of bad timing -- Punk was on an epic run and was being built up to put The Rock over. The Rock was over against Cena. Ryback's really starting to come alive as a good bully heel. He's far from done. BARRETT: He was the best guy on NXT, even beyond Bryan. They gave him a huge main event push right out of the gate. I was such a mark for him -- the most ruthless, smug j-o who ever graced a wrestling ring. I loved his "leader of men" gimmick and he conveyed the rush and corruption of power like no other. He's very solid in-ring, too. Victim of injury and poor-timing. He's a guy who is always capable of being a really good upper mid-card villain once he gets some momentum. BRYAN: I hate that dude.

This is me and Ty Garland. Ty plays basketball for La Salle, my beloved alma mater. He made "The Southwest Philly Floater" against Ole Miss and that dumb dumb Marshall Henderson to send the Explorers to the Sweet 16. It was the greatest sports fan moment of my life. The kids on the team came back to school for the first time since they left for the tournament two weeks earlier. There was a welcome home thing for them and I went. Ty was so nice and couldn't believe people made cheap, chintzy T-Shirts about his shot. Rooting for college sports is weird. I'm emotionally invested in how teenagers and kids who can barely drink play basketball. But it's also awesome to root for my school. It's not a sports factor at all. And since it's tiny, you get to actually meet the players and get to know them. The players on La Salle are just nice dudes who actually go to class (they have a "highest GPA" contest among themselves and my man Ty won and might be Academic All-American next yer) and care about each other and the school. A true prize photo.

And Alberto Del Rio rules. I think he's really underrated. Everything he does is great. He has awesome facial expressions, knows how to work a crowd (his timing at doing things like looking up and smirking while having a dude controlled in an arm bar is great) and sells really well. His picking one body part to work around is perfect. It's so simple for an audience to figure out, especially when he's in the ring with a guy like Christian who works the same sort of thing. A rich jerk character will always win me over, too. ADR might me better off, though, playing up a Mexican Heartthrob role since he's a very good looking guy who could talk about how he could have any woman in the arena right now but they're not good enough for him. I could get into that.

Just give Bray some time. The dude can work. He's also still really young. Sometimes it takes a little bit to click perfectly. His character work and ability to wrestle as that character is off-the-charts for someone his age with his experience. I'm pretty sure his ability to string together good, heated matches with good storytelling is going to catch up with the rest of his shtick. But that part is dependent on working with good workers and getting the time to develop. He's had two matches -- against Kane in a really gimmicked match and against R-Truth. Truth has his strengths but making another guy look like a world beater isn't one of them. Luke Harper's really good. He knows what to do. Rowan's green as hell but as long as he just clubs and splashes dudes for now, that's all you really need. I don't even know Bray has been up with in house shows -- I think Alex Riley? He's gotta get in the ring with someone like Ziggler.Brodus Clay is pretty bad and a waste of time on TV. He serves a good purpose of being a fun character that kids love for stuff like house shows and promotional appearances. But in terms of what I want to watch -- no thanks. Khali is still terrible but he's just there to get beat up and have his ethnicity used in a degrading manner. Titus isn't great but he's not bad at all -- the PTPs haven't had any epic matches or anything like that but they're solid. Jack Swagger's kinda useless but he still looks good in tag matches. I think everyone who gets significant TV time right now is at least decent. There are no absolute bottom feeders.

I think Jawbreaker might be the best band of the 90s. I liked them a lot when I was of the age but it didn't hit me until I was an adult just how amazing a band they are. They're super tight and Blake's one of the best, most talented lyricists and vocalists who has ever lived. I just got into vinyl again and picked this up -- it's such a great vinyl album. It's so intimate and the record scratch and personal investment it takes to put on a record and actually have to flip it clicks a lot. I love this so much. The one current band that stands out like this are The Menzingers. Those guys are cut of the same cloth.

I'm totally fine with Darren Young (and the PTPs) getting a push. Yes, it's because he became out and he's now a really public figure. But the WWE is a corporation. They push dudes based on how much they're willing to shill. Sometimes they're really talented like Cena or Seamus. Other times, it's The Miz. Darren became a face of the company by making a really brave statement -- he threw himself into a potential firestorm knowing how many trogladytes are in the crowd in an industry that has always cast perceived homosexuals as villains as opposed to raising his hand to attend some public appearance to enhance corporate branding.If he's good enough, who cares? He hasn't gotten that chance, though.I know people get butthurt when Cesaro loses. And he's one of my favorites -- he's been remarkably great all year and has an argument as the best WWE wrestler in 2013, a year that has been off-the-charts in-ring. But part of being great is to also get other people over. Darren's done that his whole tenure. I'm glad someone as talented as Cesaro gets to give him that shot. (Especially since Cesaro's going to get a bit push at some point.)

I didn't see the beginning of Raw until just now. WTF? Cena's elbow is disturbing. I've never seen anyone look like that.Cena rules.

Actually, the PTPs joining ranks with Daniel Bryan might be something on the horizon. Darren Young's the other new face of the company and you can't turn him heel. Titus is charismatic enough to hang with the big boys on the mic. They'd be feuding with The Shield who could carry me and my dog to a *** match at this point. They have to push them a bit more first to establish their credentials and give them some sea legs. But I would bet it's on the way.

Wrong. Daniel Bryan is actually employed and owns his house. I'm in the 99% and have a job and own a house. Not everyone in the 99% is in dire Detroit Red Belt condition. But we all know that it's going to be impossible to put a kid through college or retire by the age of 65 and it's also likely we'll get laid off.