Go2Sleep

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.

Can't really argue with this. My question would be, who should replace them? I think out of their available personnel, the best combo would be Cole, Regal, and Renee Young. Sadly Regal doesn't appear to be interested (can't imagine why else they would've taken him out of the booth in NXT), and Renee is stuck on host duty. She showed some promise in her limited NXT work, and I can't imagine giving her a chance to sharpen her skills on SD is a worse use of an announcer spot than throwing Jimmy Uso out there every week. Graves would be fine if he wasn't over-directed. He was great on NXT Kids, but it's tough to imagine him not becoming JBL v.2 on the main shows.

I would say the heel announcer concept just sucks in general and I have no idea why it's lasted as long as it has. Ventura was the closest to getting it right, but he still went over the top with it quite a bit.

Finn Balor's entrance posing with his leather jacket reminds me of Alex Wright. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

I think you're confusing two separate things. Kane and Vince buried Taker alive at Survivor Series 03, and the Dudleys faced Taker in a match where Heyman would drown Paul Bearer in cement if Taker lost. Taker won but finished Bearer off himself.

I think Big Cass dressing up as Kane would be suitably ridiculous for this angle.

Speaking of chokes, I was a bit surprised to see Strowman putting Darren Young in a straight chokehold (not the arm triangle finisher) when he pulled Young out of the ring. And I'll sum up exactly what went wrong with the women's segment with my live reaction to Charlotte's promo: Charlotte: This revolution isn't about you or you or you, it's about... Figment of my imagination Charlotte, as I finish the promo in my head: The Divas Championship *shoves belt in Nikki's face* Actual Charlotte: The Fans, something something something. Me: You see that Sasha/Bayley main event promo from NXT, the writing quality contrast is a bit jarring.

The Natural Born Thrillers were getting hosed. They were every-week midcarders making less than some refs and de facto retirees, and arguably not even a living wage if their travel wasn't covered. Stacy was getting it pretty bad too. She had some per-show bonuses that might have gotten her near the 100k range, but seeing that makes the whole "writing her off with a pregnancy angle" thing look really bad in retrospect.

On the subject of lesser NXT talents, are Blake and Murphy done at this point? I sure hope so, because while fundamentally sound, it's tough to think of two more boring guys on the NXT roster. That's fine when your gimmick is two former jobbers who back into the tag titles, but after 6 months, you should probably have something that connects with the crowd. They tried to get them going with Alexa, and while the heel turn has been great for her individually, there is obviously no chemistry with the three of them as a unit and their blandness is overpowering her intrigue. I'd much rather see an Alexa Bliss solo heel run than any angle involving Blake and Murphy together. I know it's cliche to break teams up right after they drop the straps, but I think it might be justifiable in this case just to see if either one has any singles potential before going into complete "disapear and wait for repackaging" mode with them.

If they clear Bryan, I would bet on him for the Rumble. Brock would be cool, but I don't think his Mania feud will involve the title. Hard to see them doing Roman back to back, Cena winning is blah, and it's tough to think of really anyone else in position for that spot. Cesaro would've been a viable candidate if he hadn't been jobbing for the last 6 months straight. Owens maybe, but even if he's booked strong as the IC champ (and when was the last time that happened for anyone), he's still a stretch at this point.

I'm not sure WWE wants to try a violent policeman gimmick in 2015.

I assume that's a distinct possibility, but this feud doesn't need the belt to be over. It seems like keeping the title in this feud would make more of the women seem irrelevant, even Nattie and Becky since they'd just be seconds in the payoff singles match. A payoff tag team match (or series) with tweener champ Sasha having her own feud or even doing a "challenger of the month" thing sounds way more appealing and gets more people over. None of the women are strongly over so using the belt actually does help. W/o the belt it wouldn't have even really made sense for Paige to turn. That's why you go the 4-way route, where Sasha can sneak out with the belt while Charlotte/Paige remains unresolved.

I assume that's a distinct possibility, but this feud doesn't need the belt to be over. It seems like keeping the title in this feud would make more of the women seem irrelevant, even Nattie and Becky since they'd just be seconds in the payoff singles match. A payoff tag team match (or series) with tweener champ Sasha having her own feud or even doing a "challenger of the month" thing sounds way more appealing and gets more people over.

I'm down for Paige/Nattie vs. Charlotte/Becky, but hopefully Sasha will sneak out with the title via some 3 or 4 way cluster so the belt doesn't go undefended and they can have two unrelated and meaningful women's angles running concurrently.