Go2Sleep

Brock's great in small bursts, but nothing feels like a bigger waste of time than a "shoot" where the interviewee doesn't remember or care about large chunks of their career (I remember a godawful one with Scott Steiner along these lines). Plus, ever since the HHH interview, it's obvious they're telling Austin to limit the shoot stuff and give it more of a talk-show feel. I'll be honest, I'll probably check this thread before I watch the next post-Raw Austin podcast to see if it's worth a damn. The last few have been weak, especially since I've been going back and listening to the older Austin/Jericho podcasts on itunes.

Owens/Henry was great. Henry's been a jobber for years, but he built himself up to give Owens a decent rub in 2 minutes. The main event was fun too. Seth was hilarious and Dean reacted perfectly. I actually thought the chickenshit gimmick worked here, even if it's been done to death with Rollins. First it actually got the right heat since it was something people wanted to see, and second, there's no reason to do anything actually resembling a real Shield reunion right now. That's a money moment down the road, but it makes no sense for any of their characters right now. Also liked the absurdity of Dean Ambrose chatting with Finlay and Malenko on his way into the arena. It would really be nice to have some non-Bella women segments. Sasha needs to practice her hot tag, although Nikki botching the first hit didn't do her any favors. Also, it just feels so wrong to see Sasha doing her entrance routine to something other than Sky's The Limit. It was kind of weird to have a go-home show with so many people in ppv matches MIA (Kane, Harper, Orton).

Breeze is at the awkward point where he's peaked in NXT, and even though it looks bleak for him on the main roster, there's not much else to do with him. Basically the same thing that happened to the Ascension. Breeze is way more talented than those guys to be sure, but it's gonna be hard for him to get past that Adam Rose/Bo Dallas tier. I think the best play would be to bring Corbin up with him and do a Shawn/Diesel thing as tag champs.

That's because it doesn't make any sense for Cena and Nikki's characters to be connected on Raw. Just like it didn't make sense for Rusev and Lana to be connected on screen anymore, even though everyone knew they were a real-life couple.

I hope the upcoming match inspires everyone to watch this. Easily a top 10 WWE MOTD, probabaly my second favorite HIAC behind Taker/Foley. The most amazing part is that Brock was only in WWE for like 6 months at this point.

From the PWTorch Insider Terms Glossary

Kayfabe is the reason people snicker when you say you like wrestling. Maybe it made a little sense when there was a non-zero percentage of the population that believed it was real, but for at least the last 30 years, it's just fucking embarrassing for grown adults to pretend they're the same people they portray on an obviously fictional television show. Not that that's ever stopped me from enjoying wrestling, but I'm pretty glad kayfabe is dead and it makes way more sense for an "entertainment company" like WWE to get rid of it altogether. The next step is understanding that people will still enjoy old-school rasslin' storylines and characters without needing to believe they're real, and letting the wrestlers have normal lives (at least as normal as celebrity lives can be) off screen. The main shows are in an awkward place where they can't find the balance, but NXT has it down. They have lots of outlandish characters all played completely straight and the crowds eat it up. As far as I know, none of them live the gimmicks 24/7.

The Enzo/Cass comment is just ridiculous. How are they not babyfaces, number one? Number two, they already move lots of merch and their sustained heat doesn't indicate anyone is tired of them wouldn't accept them getting a push. Number three, the idea that a show as well put-together as NXT has people in charge who "don't know or care" about anyone on the roster, much less guys who get regular tv time is so beyond absurd, I'm not sure how you could even bring yourself to type it. But more importantly than all that, your idea that a babyface needs to be built from the ground up seems to go against the last 20 years of WWE history where the most successful faces were guys that got over with their heel acts and were turned out of necessity. Even in the context of modern NXT women's wrestling, Sasha is overshadowing Bayley with that exact same model.

I think you need to learn that a babyface isn't actually determined by how a crowd reacts. It's based off of how he or she is booked. And it's always been that way. Uh, if that's the case, then Cena is the #1 face in the company without question with Roman right behind him, but I think there's definitely a difference between being booked as a face and being over as a face in the sense that the crowd really likes you. I know Morelock can be abrasive at times, but he's pretty right on this one. With all the necessary caveats about how much I love Bayley as a worker, she's not even the most over face on NXT, let alone all of WWE. In NXT, Enzo and Cass are definitely the #1 face act as far as getting crowd heat goes. Sami Zayn is Bryan-status, meaning he would easily be the most over face if he wasn't hurt. Finn and Bayley are neck and neck after that. Shit, you could make a case that the most over pure babyface on the full-time roster right now is Randy Orton, and he hasn't done anything relevant in almost a year. He still gets some of the best pops every show, though. You could also throw New Day into the "faces that are supposed to be heels" category with Sasha. They're getting unsolicited "New Day Rocks" chants in almost every city.

I guess the other possibility is that they didn't want to wait for Lana to get healthy to finish this angle, and this was a convenient excuse to drop it. The way it was done didn't help anyone involved or make any sense if you think about it for more than 2 seconds, but it does free everyone up to go in different directions.

The reason the Rusev/Summer segment was so awkward is that kayfabe has been dead for so long it was surprising to see someone actually get punished for breaking it. Like everyone knew Rusev and Lana were a real life couple even though they were feuding on screen, so I'm not sure how acknowledging their engagement off screen changes anything.

A full-on double turn would actually be pretty good with these two. Joe can kill Breeze, move on to the NXT title, and dominate while Breeze begins his redemption face run. Nia Jax was underwhelming after the months of video packages. Like anything NXT, I'll give it some time, though. Blake and Murphy sounds fine when introducing them as a team, but they really need their first names back when the spotlight is on one of them individually. It's hard to think of a way to make someone look less important than wrestling as "Blake." I hope the title angles they started tonight get blown off before the next Takeover. Asuka/Bayley and Joe/Balor are the money matches in NXT right now. I like Alexa and Crews, but they both have "filler program" written all over them. This also means Joe/Breeze would need to wrap up soon, but that's the one angle of those three I think has some longevity potential and would actually be "special-event" worthy.

I think it'll be Charlotte/Sasha.

The Rusev/Summer "blowoff" was very fitting for that angle. For a couple weeks there, it looked like they were about to stumble ass-backwards into revitalizing Dolph and Rusev's careers with a double turn, but this ending keeps the feud as pure wrestlecrap through and through. Is there anything on Raw these days worth watching besides Owens, New Day, and the rare women's match not built around the Bellas?

I could listen Dean Ambrose talk about wrestling all day. Did he ever do a podcast with Jericho or Austin?

Cena/Lesnar (Extreme Rules 2012) and the first Shield/Wyatts match are still the clear 1 and 2 for MOTD, but it warms my heart to know that a WWE women's match can be in that discussion. In fact, at the rate things are going, there will probably be several by 2019.

Still no R-Evolution, but this was an excellent show. The first two tag tournament matches were really good. I loved the Finn/Joe vs. Mechanics match a lot. That was how you do two singles superstars vs. a lower ranked full-time team. Dash and Dawson's swarming offense was on point (they didn't look out of place at all here despite hardly ever being on tv), Joe was a perfect foil, and Finn was doing some smart stuff (like dodging the second attempt at knocking him off the apron before his nice hot tag sequence) and some good selling. I liked the reluctant use of the double finisher at the end. I'm disappointed Jordan and Gable didn't win, but that was a sleek End of Days. I did love Asuka's debut, though I'd hesitate to say "best NXT debut." Kevin Owens still has that distinction as far as I'm concerned, but this was very enjoyable. They really made Asuka look like a world-beater, and Dana held up her end very well. As great as Asuka looks in the ring, this was no carry job. The way Asuka completely punked Emma after the match was beautiful as well. If they keep booking her like that much of a badass, people aren't gonna miss the 4 horsewomen for long. Breeze/Crews was nice little match that allowed Crews to do more than just run through his spots. I loved that moonsault sequence that forced him to debut a new finisher. Hopefully Crews can find a character trait or catchphrase that connects with the crowd, because he looks effortlessly good in the ring. The tag final was the only blah part of the show. It was just a worse version of the first Finn/Joe match. I will say that I applaud them for playing it completely straight, though. They teased the finish not working, but it did, and they resisted the temptation to do any kind of post-match swerve in lieu of a tasteful tribute. You have to have these kind of things go off without a hitch enough times to make the swerves mean something. The main was another strong outing from Bayley and Sasha. I think the time factor hampered it relative to the Brooklyn match, but only in the sense that you knew exactly when it would end. There were lots of great sequences here and it flowed nicely. I wasn't all in on Bayley up until the Brooklyn match, but her performance there and here has sold me on her 100%. There were a lot of nice counter spots and stuff that played off the last match. The finishing run was elite stuff with the modified bank statement due to the hand work, and that nasty reversal/new sub finisher that drew the verbal "I Quit" to end it and make Bayley look like the absolute best. I know it'll never happen, but I wanna see heel Bayley at some point after seeing how brutal her offense was down the stretch. Again, I applaud the restraint of not doing any post-match swerves and letting these two enjoy their much-deserved moment.

The MNM series was good. I'm fairly sure there were some good regular matches against E/C too, but I can't name specifics off the top of my head. Maybe the first 4 matches of their best of 5 before the ladder match, or No Way Out 2000. They also had a fun 3 on 2 match with Michael Hayes against the Acolytes if that counts. Edit: Can't remember if they had a regular tag with the 2-man power trip. I know they did an intergender 6-person with Steph and Lita that was super hot on Raw not long after Austin turned.

The crazy thing about HHH's backstage perception is that his on-screen dominance from 02-04 looks like Rey Jr's world title reign compared to Cena's decade of destruction.

If WWE wants to turn a comedy guy into serious main-event threat heel, there's this guy in the midcard bumbling around for Kane every week they should look at. I think he has a title too, but I can't really remember.

Didn't Paige get into some trouble at a bar a couple months back? Although I'm sure the real answer is that Paige's losing streak is supposed to fuel her jealousy heel turn and Cesaro's just in "creative has nothing for you" hell, but that's not very exciting.

With Rollins circling the drain the last couple of months, it really highlights how bad of a decision it was to give Sheamus MITB. Literally everyone else in that match would've been a better choice, including Bray Wyatt who wasn't officially a participant. Neville - Not a great choice this early, but he can work and pops the crowd occasionally and would be undeniably fresh. Orton - Very uninspiring choice, but he's always credible and always over. Roman - Made sense at the time and is the only upper midcarder booked like he's ready to take the next step. Kofi - New Day is red-hot right now and would be fine with a run in the Summer Slam to Rumble doldrums. Kane - Would also be uninspiring, but his split personality gimmick is catching on and the case would fit right into the current feud. Ziggler - His window's probably closed, but you might be able to get something going with him and Summer as a new power couple. Bray - The Wyatt Family gimmick appears to have lasting power and it's credible main event character just about any time.

I would think Bayley/Asuka has to be the London match, though.

I think this formula would work really well with ND/Dudleys. The Dudleys get the feel-good win for #10 (in WWE) in NYC. When ND demands a re-match, the Dudleys agree only if it's a table match, which ND could win at HIAC. Then they can start proclaiming to be the masters of the table match, until they get mauled by Harper/Strowman at TLC in such a match. They are also of course still US champion in this scenario. No way Owens should be dropping a fall to Jericho, especially as IC champ, although history says to always bet against the IC champ in a non-title match.

New Day for US Champ is the only answer.