Mad Dog

This week we reach into the Bag of Holding. Why is the WWE obsessed with breaking up Lana and Rusev? Who would we build a promotion around? What is our favorite video game console?

I would give him like 6 months off and have him be the post-Mania return. I would also tell him to keep his Twitter deleted because he's so unlikable.

I'm guessing Seth retains or it's some non-finish. I have no faith that they don't kill Bray with this match.

I think Zayn on top is when NXT was at it's peak and worked as it's own brand. I think it largely lost its identity when Roode got the belt and has struggled since then. The current problems with NXT is that they have spent the last 6 months breaking the formula that worked. Cole got a rematch he didn't earn, War Raiders went out on a win, Baszler and Undisputed Era have hung around longer than they should have. I also am not an Adam Cole fan and can't understand why they have him on top and not Dream. Dream is the real star of the promotion and they have done a poor job of communicating that so far on the weekly TV.

I would kind of argue we have largely seen that HHH isn't as smart of as good as hyped since the New York show. The last couple of Takeovers have been mediocre, they ruined Gargano and people have been begging them to mercy kill Baszler's never ending title run. It feels like he ran out of ideas and is just repeating everything.

The bait and switch on the Rollins vs. Misterio match is a perfect example of why I don't give them chances anymore. I'm not a Rollins fan but that match was interesting enough to make me tune in and they had zero intention of ever doing it. I also think a lot of people owe Stephanie an apology for blaming her for the Al Wilson shit back in 2002.

This week we talk about Matt's top 10 list of color commentators. The list is as follows: 1. Bobby Heenan 2. Jesse Ventura 3. Jim Cornette 4. Larry Zbyszko 5. Jerry Lawler 6. Paul Heyman 7. JBL 8. Dusty Rhodes 9. Don Callis 10. Don West plus a special shout out to David Crockett. We also talk about Shad's 24/7 title belt video from the Cincinnati Comics Expo.

How drunk are the squirrels?

Mauro now feels a lot like Don West if he had no redeeming qualities as an announcer. He's loud but lacks the energy and charm.

Undisputed Era is played out as fuck if you ask me. I think jobbing Dream on their debut show was one of the dumbest things they could have done.

For all of this talk about a wrestling war, the possibility of both promotions just falling on their face and failing on TV never seems to come up a lot. NXT is just too niche I think. It gets a lot of buzz online but I don't think a huge chunk of the audience was watching the show. We also saw over the summer they had trouble drawing for a Takeover without a main roster PPV attached. I just don't see how they last long term because fans never support things seen as a B show or a side project for WWE. The ratings for the debut, I honestly see that as a complete disaster for something they promoted as happening. AEW has a lot of warts and things they need to figure out. I don't think they were ready for Cody to kind of become their best guy and I think they are going to not adjust to that. I think they have a slightly better chance of success because they have to succeed. But they have a higher learning curve and people don't seem patient to let them learn. I think they have a small window here where they should put the belt on Cody and I think they aren't going to do it.

I would argue there are no good commentators left in the company. Renee is good in that Mean Gene kind of role but she's terrible as the third announcer in the three man booth. The three man booth is death and I think it's awful that it seems to be the standard now with WWE and AEW.

I defended him for a long time and liked his commentary for a long time. He's been unbearable since the New York Takeover. He doesn't actively ruin shows like the main roster announcers do but there are a lot of shows where I end up thinking "why is he yelling at me?" The pop culture references can be okay but he throws them out with the finesse of an ox more often than not. He also matches Nigel and Beth worse because they then feel the need to yell. I think his commentary is also getting more exposed because the NXT product has kind of been mediocre since New York and it feels like he's trying to make mediocre content look better by being loud.

Okay, I can do. I will go back and edit the last one.

This week we take a break from wrestling and talk about some of our favorite childhood cartoons. We talk about Looney Toons, the Disney Afternoon shows and Ghostbusters among several others.

Removing link, it didn't upload correctly.

We discuss the RevPro incident. Shad shares his perspective on this having been a wrestler. We also talk about real life and storyline incidents with championship belts in celebration of the AEW Title being found.

Great Lakes All-Star Wrestling #7: 8/18/1984 Rip Rogers starts off the show. He talks about the fact that he came to the Great Lakes region for one reason and one reason only and that is to win the Great Lakes Championship. Ray Stevens defeated Gerry Morrow at 7:47 The Bullet is out for an interview. He announces that he has been offered employment in another area of the country. He thanks the great fans in the area for all of their support. Tonight is going to be the final showdown with the Masked Superstar and he plans to go out a winner. Mike Miller and Rip Oliver defeated Barry O and Dusty Wolf at 3:19 Angelo and Lanny Poffo confront Miller and Oliver after their match. Lanny points out that the Poffos have been waiting for a title shot since they got to the Great Lakes region. They aren't just going to let a couple of guys come in and steal a title shot from them. If Miller and Oliver want a shot at the National Tag Team Titles then they need to beat the Poffos to get it. Miller and Oliver throw out next week's show as a good time to settle this. The Poffos agree. Thunderbolt Patterson defeated Roger Kirby at 5:18 Main Event: Brad Armstrong and The Bullet defeated Don Carsen and Masked Superstar at 18:31 Note: Shawn Michaels came out and helped The Bullet escape the Cobra Clutch from Masked Superstar.

They do a pretty good job of announcing a match and then using promos after the fact to make you care. You obviously have to go find it but Cody's stuff especially gets really good promo work.

I think Cody has become the clear ace of the promotion through his work.

I think the guy makes a point but I rarely go to a channel looking for content. I usually search for exactly what I want and get things based on that. But I am 38 years old and stuck in my ways.

Any show post 2000 has a better than average chance of sucking. Though I kind of thought they should keep the gambling theme to their show names.

Also, I think the best thing with the missing title belt was Virgil's Tweet on it.

Jericho has always seemed to keep his drinking separate from when he's on the job. So I think as far as the company goes it's really not on them. When you start breaking into management at any company you quickly realize anyone at the director level and up is some form of functional alcoholic.