Well, we're here, the end of the road to WrestleMania!   

But hey, we still have a few more loose ends to clear up, and we also have the return of the SLAMMYS!

Remember Thursday is DEAN~!  Sign up and watch!

I have the Roman Reigns A&E Legends on my DVR and will probably watch it but based on the videos that have been released online it seems it is heavily kayfabed.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u5P0n2t9RNA

One for Niners and Casey.

Only about an hour into the Bray Wyatt documentary on Peacock and this might be the best one they ever did.  The detail of his life as a kid to his time in FCW and NXT to the beginning of the WWE is so good.  And everyone is featured in this from Luke Harper, Eric Rowman, Braun Strowman, and others.  Even John Cena who is mostly an emotionless robot was really good into.  I wish they would have spend more time talking about how he became as over as he was given how how he was given absolutely no favors in booking especially at Wrestlemania.  The family stuff was so great and how getting married to JoJo almost saved his motivation and desire for the business.  And then the deep detail in coming up with the Fiend and the Firefly Funhouse Match against Cena.   The last 30 minutes of this will just break your heart for everyone involved.

The stuff with Bo Dallas was great and really makes you feel incredibly sympathetic for.   And it really looks like something might happen with him.  Maybe they are bringing back Uncle Howdy or even a next generation Bray.  

Edited April 1, 20242 yr by hammerva

Didn't expect Lil Wayne.

The Rock holding up the Nightmare "Championship". Heh.

We’re booking heels getting heat…I’m here for it.

I am watching Raw in bits and pieces tonight. I just finished Richochet vs. Ivar. How many weeks this year has Ivar been involved in the best match on Raw? Because it has been many weeks. He is this secret awesome worker. 

9 hours ago, hammerva said:

Only about an hour into the Bray Wyatt documentary on Peacock and this might be the best one they ever did.  The detail of his life as a kid to his time in FCW and NXT to the beginning of the WWE is so good.  And everyone is featured in this from Luke Harper, Eric Rowman, Braun Strowman, and others.  Even John Cena who is mostly an emotionless robot was really good into.  I wish they would have spend more time talking about how he became as over as he was given how how he was given absolutely no favors in booking especially at Wrestlemania.  The family stuff was so great and how getting married to JoJo almost saved his motivation and desire for the business.  And then the deep detail in coming up with the Fiend and the Firefly Funhouse Match against Cena.   The last 30 minutes of this will just break your heart for everyone involved.

The stuff with Bo Dallas was great and really makes you feel incredibly sympathetic for.   And it really looks like something might happen with him.  Maybe they are bringing back Uncle Howdy or even a next generation Bray.  

Yeah, Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal is one of the best wrestling documentaries I've seen. The last 30 minutes are particularly poignant.

Opening Bloodline segment was long but good in setting up the main event.

New Day/DIY vs. Judgement Day was solid fun. Went quicker than expected and had an unfortunate lack of R-Truth. Enjoyable enough though I was hoping for something more.

Sami/Bronson was good once again though it had a non-finish. I would be more disappointed, but I enjoyed Gunther getting some nice heat for Sami's beatdown alongside Samis rise up attempt. I don't want Sami to win, but I'm not sure I would hate it either with how things have built up. Hoping Gunther has to choke him out to put him down.

Ivy/Maxxine vs. Indi/Candice was surprisingly alright, probably the best Maxxine ha slooked. Still it served mostly as another story moving component to heel Candice. Will be interesting to see if Indi turns with her after this loss or goes another direction.

Ricochet/Ivar was damn fine match as expected. This was easily the hottest match tonight and a great showcase for both guys.

The Drew eulogy for Seth was good.

The Becky/Rhea brawl wasn't anything we haven't seen before, but it still served as a solid final moment before their WM match.

Damage CTRL vs. Shayna/Zoey/Tegan was fun and a solid showcase for Tegan & Zoey before the end.

Seth/Solo was good, but the non-finish with Rock and Roman somehow was even better. They blasted the shit out of Seth and Cody with the belt shots. Was a great heel heat segment for the Bloodline. Was also nice to see Rock get a little physical and take some hits from Cody before the rebound with Roman's surprise return.

The tag matches were decent-solid though could have been more. The singles matches here were all good despite two non-finishes. Two non-finishes would annoy me more, but I feel I can forgive it a bit more than usual as the final build up to Wrestlemania. They also both served well as heel heat segments. Pretty solid Raw overall.

Oh man, the final segment on RW was absolutely epic. I love a good heel whipping babyfaces angle. Rock and Roman properly laid in the lashing. Good on Seth and Cody for taking the beating. Great touch by Cody keeping his shirt on, because that got some crowd “noooo” murmurs when The Bloodline ripped the shirt off. Roman talking smack on the floor to the camera with the carnage in the background was so good. Only note was this had the opportunity for fans to pelt the ring with garbage like 90s nWo or a father trying to hop the railing since his kid was crying. 

The Rock in 2024 just got a New York City crowd to chant “Rocky Suxks” less than a week from WrestleMania. So amazing.

Everything Sami/ Gable/ Gunther this show was fucking perfect. 

Edited April 2, 20242 yr by Johnny Sorrow

4 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Everything Sami/ Gable/ Gunther this show was fucking perfect. 

Sami has acting chops. We saw it during The Bloodline stuff and even the comedy side with Knoxville. Would not surprise me if he ended up as a lovable goofball in a family comedy.

Wow what a great episode of RAW. I know I said it before, but i shall say it again. The Rock is on a whole other level since coming back. He could have easily phoned alot of this stuff in, but he's just been cooking straight fire.

The Sami/Gable training bit was great. Someone worked fast on twitter and added Eye of the Tiger to it and it's a billion stars now.

https://twitter.com/HaangEmHiigh/status/1774967866778907122

Ricochet vs. Ivar was awesome. I legit popped when Ricochet caught Ivar and did that standing flip slam on him.

Solo vs. Rollins was all right, but it was just a set up for everything post match. Cody coming out and getting some revenge only for Roman to pop up out of nowhere and help The Rock whip them both like a dog...with one of Cody's own Nightmare belts. That was such a nice touch.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h7isZB0ViIs

The Bray Wyatt documentary is absolutely incredible. I don’t know if there is another wrestler whose work I have ever enjoyed more. Not everything was for me or for you, but we were really lucky to have a guy like Bray firing off all kinds of ideas and making a lot of them happen. You can tell how much he was liked and respected and enjoyed his time. 

If it was almost anybody else the Rocky 3 montage with Sami/Chad would have been at best really funny and at worst corny bullshit.  But while funny it actually did a pretty good job building up to him beating Bronson and feeling ready for WM.  But man if they shelled out the bucks to have "Eye of the tiger" it would have been incredible much like the link Phantom posted.

I hope with Rock being around more some backstage have a chance to pick his brain.  He hasn't been heel for a long-ass time and it's like riding a bike to him.  And yet somehow last night was on another level.  The part that got me the most was him talking to the kids and progressing from empathetic father to full-on shit-talking Rock.  Man, he rules.

8 hours ago, Eivion said:

The Drew eulogy for Seth was good.

When it started, I was worried that it was going to be a straight rip of the David Starr/GUNTHER promo, so I was glad to see it turn out otherwise.  Drew has been pretty damn good on the mic lately.

Another good opening segment and I think Roman actually managed to out-promo Rock this time (well, until clystal crear). Someone had a "Dijak > Rock" sign, the board was represented

New DIY/Judgement Day was good stuff except for Gargano going headfirst into the announce table, hope he's okay

Oh hell yeah, a Zayn/Gable training montage (although a little too movie of the week for me). Cole pointed out the flaw in Sami's game against Bronson Reed plus the mention of Gable wearing Zayn out and I think Gunther's attack on Gable is a fake. Also, Reed disappeared and the match never ended? That was sloppy

Ivar and Ricochet did it right. So weird there's just a mid-card Vader hanging around

My favorite little moment was when Rollins was on his way to the ring for the main
Seth: I ain't dead yet
Drew: Yet.

Another great beatdown to end Raw. Some of those belt shots sounded gnarly

Also, the product feels so different and fresh with the change in production. I never minded the Kevin Dunn stuff as much as everyone else. Producing live television is insanely hard, and there’s a benefit to doing things the same way in order to make it as easy to produce as possible.  People always pointed out when a spot or a big moment was missed by the camera… because of how little that actually happened. It’s not like real sports has changed its production too much over the years. 

But the WWE also has the benefit of being scripted. And that adds in flexibility. Just the simple “walk-and-talk” quick promos they do before matches or the video segments like the Sami/Gable and Drew funeral stuff is so fresh and fun. They also have been experimenting with long tracking shots. Some of that feels a bit too much — it’s such a show-off technique in film and TV since people want to bite from Goodfellas. But last night, they had a really good one where Seth did his interview walk-and-talk, Drew’s awesome cameo, with the camera then trailing him for his entrance (which was so rad to see up close with how he switched right into the orchestra bit) and then to the ring. It really added to the atmosphere and gave a sort of “here’s what Seth sees when he comes to the ring” appeal. 

They really are being smart about how to do these segments and who they are doing them with. The first one I remember doing a taped segment with was the KCs — they were probably used to it in NXT and if it doesn’t work with your low-card babyface act, who cares? Now they are using Sami and Gable and it felt really natural coming from two of the high end performers who have some acting chops. 

I have no memory of who did the first walk-and-talks but I remember Kofi and Xavier having some quick bangers before their matches with Imperium. You have two all-time greats who know to not miss their marks for the blocking and staging and can deliver really concise promos. 

It’s all so fun to watch.

2 hours ago, Godfrey said:

Someone had a "Dijak > Rock" sign, the board was represented

 

Just spent the past 30 minutes crying during the Bray documentary. It's tough but it's well-worth two hours of your time.

Thank CHRIST Axiom and Nathan won. I think that's gonna be a huge sleeper hit for the weekend, and hopefully get more people invested in the new champs. 

Supernova Sessions is always fun and I have no idea who's winning Sat.

I don't hate Joe Gacy as a performer, he's had a few very good matches, but man do they work hard to make him too viscerally unpleasant to work as a face or a heel. "Cult leader who uses therapy language to manipulate his disciples" was absolutely not working, but it was better than Cockroach Joe.

...wait, Tony said they were going to the Civic Hall, but this looks more like a warehouse full of goons half-assedly doing repairs!

The 6-woman tag will be interesting; this is Izzi's first PLE match if I'm not mistaken, and Kelani's second or third. The other 4 have shown they can acquit themselves just fine outside the super enthusiasts that go every Tuesday. Either this or the North Am title match will be the least of the day, probably, but they'll both still be watchable.

 

Triple threat tag was good. Happy Axiom/Frazer won. The rematch with WolfDogs has great potential. Hope it delivers.

Fallon/Jacy was fine while it lasted. Mostly served as a nice win for Jayne andfinal setup for the 6-women tag for S&D.

King/Wagner was alright.

Lola/Karmen was decent. Thought this was probably Karmen's best showing yet though I'm still not really interested in her as a character. 

Supernova Sessions didn't offer much at first glance with Lyra's points against Roxanne still not really hitting home, but the backstage segment between Lyra and Tatum kind of brought it all together with Lyra clearly being frustrated and pushed to a breaking point by the situation. Kind of hope a double turn is somehow pulled.

Oba/Gacy was fine. Did its job in Oba looking strong and setting up Gacy/Spears.

Arianna/Wren was solid. The two meshed together well, and Wren look to be coming along well as a "rookie."

Sol/Blair was pretty solid and a good showcase for Ruca. Was surprised to see how much she dominated early on. The leg work from Blair to hold Ruca down was nice alongside Ruca's gradual comeback. Still was surprised to see Ruca win though the flash pin makes me think they run it back sometime soon. Sol Ruca would be a good challenger for whoever comes out of S&D as women's champ.

The final Trick/Melo segment was good even ending on the expected big brawl.

Solid go home for Stand & Deliver even if it could have delivered more match wise outside of the opening triple threat tag. That match was good and easily MOTN. I did enjoy how much focus the women's division took up both in and out of the ring. 

WWE Speed episode 1

 

 

They set up an AEW division jk jk