Matt D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xkJPWCqx1c Very fun match vs Crash "Mad Mikey" Holly in there, starts about 14 minutes in. Which I may have posted on another day by accident.

He can feud with Kane. He can absolutely feud with Kane. In fact, the way he's feuding with Kane right now is good. Yes, it is good. I know people are complaining about it but I'm perfectly fine with it. He's coming off as really strong, still something of an underdog but not running in fear. Instead he's standing up and facing him. And that's not even as the champ. I might have even put Kane over in one of their four or five matches. It's not that he was feuding with Kane. It was the execution of it and how he was presented. Come on. It reminds me a little on how the Magazines presented Bob Backlund as champion, actually.

I love this stuff.

There's also an understandable sense of hopelessness and expectation of the worst happening and paranoia from decades of following WWE though. You can draw a line from Perfect not winning the Rumble in 90 to WM IX to Vince running with Luger and Nash in 93-95 even though Bret was the one that was drawing to Benoit's short reign to Mysterio's horrific booking as champ to The Punk fiasco in Fall, 11. There's a tradition of resentment and an understanding that WWE is a big man's territory and a strong babyface territory and how Vince McMahon likes to promote wrestling. Now a guy's come up who is nice and genuine and who most of us have seen wrestling since he was just, just starting out and he's connected with the crowd in a way that is so blatant and obvious and exciting and despite that, they're not going to run with him the way that they've traditionally run with other people. I think the most damning thing was last April-May when the had him feuding with Kane and it looked exactly like the way they were making Rey Jr. totally neutered when he had the belt. It was a cross between that and the Ryder destruction from a couple of years ago. That's how they envisioned Bryan as Champ. Really, they should have been pushing him like Backlund was pushed as champion in the early 80s, where he takes a ton of a match and doesn't sell a whole lot. It doesn't make for great matches a lot of the time but the crowd loves a winner.

Bo being shoved down people's faces as a babyface for two years gave the heel character underpinning.

That's not how WWE works. As for Terri, the thing she has going for her is the amount of charity work she seemingly does.

If Koloff goes in, does Bruno induct him or does Lana?

Hickman is the obvious person but I don't think he's going to be doing that much Marvel for a little bit after Secret Wars.

Koko B. Ware, jr.

Working on my Friday Segunda Caida write up:

So when they get inducted who's gonna be the poor bastard to tell them they're speech is going long and they need to wrap it up.

BleedingCool reviews aren't usually necessary reading but I thought this had a good point. The actual A story was probably the 7th most interesting thing about Flash this week. And it was still fine, but I love the amount of mythology in this given its villain of the week format.

AJ was the hipster nerd anti-diva. Paige was the goth second generation anti-diva. you can sort of hear that it was intentional on her podcast appearance with Jericho. They brought her up and then basically told her not to do anything that had gotten her over in NXT.

The fact they didn't call Paige up as Paige - anti-diva warrior was pretty striking.

That is a dangerous assumption to make considering how small his output is

For alive WWF centric guys, past Demolition: Patera Beefcake, if he doesn't have too many marks against himself. Neidhart, if he can drop some weight to look halfway human Rougeaus make a lot of sense. Hillbilly Jim should be in there. Likewise Brawler as lifetime service guys. Barbarian and Haku should be in there. HTM and Bundy would go in if they just said yes. SID needs in. Butch Reed. Martel One Man Gang/Akeem The Rockers (lets them induct Shawn again, but Marty's always a mess) Bushwhackers are totally viable. Ronnie Garvin is doable, I'm sure. Tatanka is as good as anyone else. Keirn's viable between his early run, Skinner, and training guys at FCW. There's no shortage really.

I know nothing about anything, but I want to see Brock Lesnar do Brock Lesnar-y things in wrestling and not in UFC. Is this going down a good reason for UFC to toss even more money at Brock as an attraction?

Almost everything that Bryan brings to the table, Sami does as well to some degree. Frankly, I thought they were a little nuts not to bring him up last spring with Bryan endorsing him to try to transfer as much buzz as possible.

It'll probably just lead to some transitional tag matches. Traditional babyface vs babyface build in WWE is having them tag together.

Oh god, that Rude/Patriot gif. I couldn't stop laughing.

If this was 1986 it'd work fine. This year, I think it wouldn't move the Mania crowd because they'll just see it as the WWE writers (and Vince) making Bryan both lose to Reigns and then endorse him. Reality era.

Stacy Kiebler and Torrie Wilson are famous enough, in general, to get in without a second thought. I could see them putting Beth in. I could see them putting Michelle in to appease the Undertaker. I'm not sure how Jackie is with the company but I could see her going in pretty easily and them touting she was the first black woman's champ maybe? Ivory is not going in. I could see a case for Molly given how she's pretty universally loved and Beth could induct her given their background. I don't know what condition Lealani Kai is in but she's a great choice being at WM 1 and WM X. It's not hard to put divas in if they want to.

Part of me wants Mizdow/Goldust vs Miz/Stardust at Mania.

Insurance contacted us because someone reported her car in an accident (with personal injury) yesterday on a road we've never been on when she never even left the house yesterday.