Michael Sweetser

Naito completely underestimated his opponent and it cost him dearly. Fantastic, fantastic match.

Chris also wrote the absolutely fantastic Lion's Pride book. Backing Eggshells was an easy one for me.

It read to me like 95% wrestling bullshit, but I've smelled so much wrestling bullshit in just my own career alone that after a while, you just get used to the stench.

With the LED boards around the ringposts, I'm guessing there's a fair amount of space between the boards and the post, so there's some "give" there. The spot happens WAY too frequently, just like the apron bumps. Someone getting piledriven on the apron should be a hospital trip, not a mid-match spot.

You say that like WWE's ever had a problem in the past heavily papering major shows.

They tried that when he came in and he was boring as fuck. New Day gave him personality.

I just cannot stand Matt Striker. I find him insufferable. I got a recent comp with Cornette sight unseen and when I played it, the first voice I heard was Striker's. I returned it immediately for a refund.

My wife hasn't given a flying fuck about wrestling since Team Hell No broke up, so that'll be a quick poll.

I completely forgot Red Dead Redemption has a third act. My memory was that it ended once you resolved Mexico.

It's not even his personality, it's just how try-hard he comes across as. The stories weren't that interesting to me, and not nearly enough of them to counterbalance the rest of it. I've actually purchased a few of the KC videos in the past, but stopped because I just couldn't stand him. He's the shoot interview version of Matt Striker. (And when I found Matt Striker's doing shoot interview questioning now, I pretty much swore off the whole genre.)

I read both books - Sean Oliver is a self-important twat even in pro wrestling and I feel dumber for having read it. The "worst PPV ever" book was a similar waste of time.

To be fair, both could be true about the same person.

$10 a month seems about right for my total monthly contribution to WWE. I mean, having every major wrestling PPV at my fingertips is worth that to me. Anything fun in their new content's just a bonus. Reigns becoming The Man at Mania by cleanly pinning Lesnar is something they've waited three years to do at this point - they're not going to change course now. But they'd be stupid not to add Strowman to the match, especially with how much they put him over in the Chamber match. Kicks out of a quadruple powerbomb at two, then kicks out of the AA at ONE. The dude is fucking over like a motherfucker right now, especially when he's hitting motherfuckers with other motherfuckers. Continuing on the Braun Train, I enjoy that they don't portray him as this dumb brute, but as a beast that's actually just as smart as everyone else, but he's also HUGE and UNSTOPPABLE and that combination is nearly unbeatable except in extreme situations. I think the smartest thing they did was add one more person to the Chamber match - starting it off with three almost forces them to go right into the action and cuts out the slow period before the first pod opened. It was very noticeable in the women's match, but having Miz as a disturbing factor gave the men's match something to do in the meantime. I enjoy that the pod walls are treated as impenetrable armor, but someone runs at them at half speed and suddenly they're paper. Rest of the show: I've given up on Bray Wyatt. They had the next Undertaker in their hands, and they didn't just let it slip away, they actively threw it away. In response, he's let himself go and obviously doesn't care at this point. And Matt is a shell of what he even was in TNA; I hope Jeff coming back and helping to expand the Woken universe helps because this has been a complete clusterfuck so far. The solution to making Titus O'Neil appear competent is to book him in a bog-standard tag team formula match - at least it was well done in that regard. Titus is the world's shittiest Robert Gibson. Nia Jax is one of those that should've stayed in NXT another year at least, and when they start sending main roster people down to NXT to freshen up, she should be on the first flight down.

Oh fuck yes. If done properly, this will be amazing.

Just got to Mexico in Red Dead Redemption on PS Now. It remains one of the best games I have ever played.

If you cut 5-7 minutes out of HHH-Rollins at Mania, it's a fantastic match. But they didn't, so it's not.

Agreed. In the time I've played Yakuza 4 and RDR, I've had only a few periods of slowdown, and those might just be the games themselves slowing down and not the streaming connection. I've been very impressed.

Are there any Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Funk singles matches out there besides Slamboree 94?

I bought a year's worth of PS Now because of Yakuza 4, Yakuza 5 and Red Dead Redemption. Started playing RDR again and this game is just as amazing as I remember it being. It does such a fantastic job of properly setting a tone with its visuals and music. I love the slower pace compared to a standard GTA game - you can just lose yourself in the setting. I don't remember this bug where lassoing someone can cause them to just go limp and not be able to hogtie them, which is fucking me over more than a few times. Suggestions from anyone?

It's a day off so I'm finally diving back into the five-disc Wrestling Gold set (still on sale for ten bucks on Cornette's site). I love the Cornette commentary on Lawler vs. Bob Sweetan, dissecting how Lawler is masterfully getting heat and outworking Sweetan on the strength of his body language without breaking a sweat.

I like that AAW was fine apologizing AFTER they had drawn the house.

Time limit draw. Either the match or the PPV.

Oddly, the Broken gimmick got more interesting to me once Jeff turned into Brother Nero. They were able to bounce off each other and Matt's stuff didn't just seem to be in a vacuum. There's also the fact that it wasn't expected to be worth anything and turned out fun; now we've got actual expectations for it and it's going to be difficult to equal.

The Bill Kazmaier in Stampede story has me on the edge of my seat. The book's already worth it.