anarchistxx

It isn't that, I was more thinking of the crowd dynamic. I suppose with it being a ladder match people are popping for the spots rather than the workers anyway. True enough, Dean Ambrose is going to be ridiculously over in the heel match presumably.

So they are doing two ladder matches, each with seven participants, one with all heels and one with all faces. How does that make sense at all? Seven is a really weird number which is always going to leave an odd man out, and couldn't they just shuffle the participants so there were at least a couple of heels and faces in each match? The dynamics are going to be strange. I'd have thrown RVD into the World Heavyweight Title MITB, give him the huge pop of winning over all the heels and it would be a title he could realistically hold for a while. Also striking was how weak the heel lineup looked, somebody has to be due a turn soon, they have a ton of strong faces and pretty much no strong heel challengers, unless they plan to elevate somebody.

Don't tar wrestling fans unfairly, football fans apply the same principle to OJ Simpson and his achievements. Chris Brown still sells millions of records despite his despicable crimes. People still love Phil Spector and praise his music despite the fact he was a murderer. Actors who have committed awful crimes still get praised. It isn't wrestling fans who do this, it is a good proportion of society.

Haven't most reliable sources exposed that as bullshit? Murdering Daniel with the crossface was just a rumour going around when it first happened. Not that it makes it any less horrible, but still. YouTube comments on Benoit stuff are over 50% people praising him, either by saying "He was a great wrestler, that is all that matters" or by claiming he was crazy and brain damaged due to wrestling and didn't know what he was doing.

Steamboat for the matches. Dusty for the promos. Funk for the hate.

I wouldn't get too excited - signs are pointing towards a major HHH/Vince feud over the company. Another 'McMahon power struggle' storyline could suck life out of anything, especially with Trips as the focal point. Vince has been fun lately but HHH has somehow seemed to get worse.

Maybe, who knows how many dates he has this time and when they plan to use them. Could be a slow build to a Summerslam match, but I can't see why they would start it this early and what they plan to do with Punk between them and now.

Lesnar vs Punk Cena vs Henry Del Rio vs Ziggler Looks like a very promising Money In The Bank card, especially with the big ladder match, The Shield and the return of RVD also to fit in on the show. That last segment was perfect from the Ziggler attack onwards.

I would say the Daniel Bryan thing was a work, but they seem to have run that kind of mid match 'injury' storyline several times in the last few months, surely they wouldn't do it yet again? The Henry segment was fantastic as others have mentioned - it's just a shame Cena was out there from the start, as that kind of telegraphed where it was going. Awesome acting by Henry though to make me sort of believe it was a genuine retirement. Very interesting vibe in WWE. A lot of faces aligned with heels (Punk/Heyman, Ziggler/AJ). A ton of tweeners (Henry, Ziggler, Punk, Orton, Vince). I thought it was an extremely well put together episode of Raw. Nothing was especially great, and the matches were fairly bland, but most of the segments hit the spot (Henry/Cena, Steph/AJ and Punk/ADR were all very entertaining), there were surprises that didn’t seem forced, like the Henry turn and the return of Christian, a lot of intriguing story developments were hinted at, a lot of guys got time, there were fun cameos from the likes of Vince. Three and a quarter hours is still way too long though. I could never just sit and watch an episode, the only way to get through it is to have it on in the background while you're on your laptop, and that is never a good sign. The ridiculous amounts of adverts don't help. Edit: And here comes Lesnar to top it off. Seen about 40-50% of Raw's this year but this is by far the best, perfectly paced and a load of interesting stuff.

The classic Lawler quote of the night was "All women secretly hate each other", which he said with a straight face and complete seriousness.

Main event was dull. The ambulance looked hilarious cheap, like a toy. The bits they ripped off and the worked roof break were too obvious as well =- like the Punk/Jericho it lacked the spontaneity, and if there is anything a hate fuelled brawl needs is it a bit of chaos. This was worked too neatly.

Well I have to disagree on that. Don't think I've seen a memorable Cesaro match this year, but I can name nine or ten fantastic Bryan matches. Many of them were tags, but he was usually the MVP. As an overall worker there just isn't anyone better right now - versatile, likable, exciting and charismatic. The guy has made Kane interesting, which is an absolute miracle. Cesaro is technically good but there is no reason to care about what he does, nothing to make the matches especially compelling or meaningful. They are just exhibitions. Bryan gets you emotionally invested, he makes you care. He makes cynical smarks jump out of their seats. He has that undefinable x-factor. Think we might as well agree to disagree anyway, people were pimping Finlay as best in the world a few years back, and all I could see was a bunch of enjoyable, entertaining, competent but essentially inconsequential matches.

Nah, no way. In ring you could make a tenuous argument that Cesaro runs him slightly close, but as an overall worker taking in character work, promos, charisma, getting yourself over, presence and excitement Bryan beats him hands down. DB is also a ton more versatile, he can play any role and make it believable. He can do comedy, drama, fired up ace, face in peril, high flyer, technical worker, brawler. Cesaro is more limited from what I've seen of his work over the years. I think people like him because he works that believable, interesting style that Finlay and others worked, but it is pretty fanciful to say he is in Bryan's league right now. Punk/Jericho wasn't anything like a match of the year, if only because it was so obviously laid out like something meant to resemble a 'great match'. That lost it any spontaneity, it was all fairly predictable. Reminded me a lot of something like Owen/HBK from In Your House early in 1996 - fun match where both guys got their stuff in, nothing more.

Daniel Bryan is the best wrestler in the world right now, by a long distance. So exciting to watch, best hot tag in the business and one of the best face in perils too. He is ridiculously over now, they are complete cretins if they turn him heel. Fantastic match, best on the show.

They just randomly showed a video package hyping his return, it came on without any announcement or anything. Punk/Jericho was pretty standard stuff, didn't really hold my interest. Seemed like both men were trying for a good match, but it still felt a little by the numbers.

Ziggler/Del Rio was weird. Most of the match was really sloppy and incoherent, but I quite liked the story and those kicks were nasty, the last five minutes or so were very compelling considering I don't care about either guy. If they were working it as a double turn match they did a fantastic job, helped by the solidly pro-Ziggler crowd. Not sure about the logic of a title change, unless Ziggler is in the doghouse with management or injured.

Average match there, smart finish again, kept Kane semi-protected while still giving Ambrose a fairly decisive victory. And fucking hell, RVD! Came out of nowhere.

- Can't believe Sheamus is only working pre shows now, he certainly is due a heel turn or something to make the fans give a fuck again - Opener was better than it had any right to be, the great crowd helped and the finish was really cool - Divas match was so-so - Ambrose is getting cheered like crazy

There is absolutely no reason they couldn't have done that first loss on the PPV this weekend. Other than maybe they want to keep the tag belts on The Shield. Even so, it still should have been a huge Raw main event with some build at the very least. WWE booking is so baffling at times.

Thinking about it, Monty Brown is a good example of what would probably have happened to Joe. Silly name, decent push, fell off the radar, jobbed out/comedy skits etc. They are two guys of a similar size, ilk and background in terms of WWE thinking. As I mentioned earlier, people are forgetting how fat the roster was back then, and how heavy it was on big name stars. Even given the brand split, it would have been hard for Joe to get a sustained, well built push with HBK, HHH, Orton, Batista, Taker, Cena, Big Show, Flair, Kane, RVD, Angle, Jericho, Edge, Benoit, Mysterio, Lashley, Booker-T, JBL, Eddie Guerrero and Christian working at the top of the card, not to mention special attractions like Hogan coming in for brief feuds. To put it into perspective, only four of those twenty names have been regularly active in the last couple of years when Punk and Bryan have started to get decent pushes. Back then, moving to WWE could easily be construed as a bad move, and nobody was too surprised when he chose TNA.

I think people overestimate how much it was a bad decision for Samoa Joe to go to TNA. Sure, he would have come into WWE as Umaga, but that character was one dimensional, limited and had no real legs long term. How long do most monster heels last on the back of a mega push before they end up being 'comedy' faces who read poetry or dance around in ridiculous gear? There is no way of saying whether he would have ended up like Albert or Great Khali instead of like CM Punk. In fact, for the first year in TNA it seemed like a fantastic decision on his part. He was booked perfectly, had some amazing matches, was really over, won the title. Sure, things have declined dramatically since then, but not to the point where his character is a laughing stock, and I'm sure he still earns decent money. Don't forget, at that time WWE had no real track record of giving indie guys good storylines and opportunities, and they also had a huge roster of established, big name stars who were dominating the main event scene. It is no surprise that Joe thought he would get more opportunities in TNA. He certainly wasn't the only one to turn Vince down in that time frame either: I remember AJ Styles and even Danielson declining development deals. It is only in the last three or four years that they have started pushing the indie guys, and that is mainly due to Danielson and Punk being extremely talented all round workers. Joe was brilliant in the ring but he didn't have the total package of Danielson, Punk or even Sydal who has a great look and spectacular moveset. He is a case of lost potential, either that or he just was peaking in 2003-2005 and was always going to go downhill from there both physically and character wise. His aura is gone now, but in 2004 he legitimately had a claim to be one of the best, most exciting wrestlers on the planet. Maybe a last shot in WWE would motivate him again. Lets not forget that he has done better than some of his ROH contemporaries as well. He isn't on the level of the successful WWE guys, but he has certainly made more money and had bigger pushes than the likes of Low-Ki, Nigel McGuinness, Alex Shelley, Homicide, Colt Cabana, Paul London, Jimmy Rave etc.

I like watching full shows. You can always fast forward the bad stuff, but sometimes the bad stuff turns out to be entertaining, or at least funny or sometimes interesting at the very least. I actually stopped watching wrestling for a long time when I solely watched comps. There either wasn't enough variety or, worse, all the matches were that good that it almost got boring and tedious. It's like with music - does 'Breathe' mean so much if it doesn't have 'Speak To Me' leading into it? I have no interest in hearing a #1s set by The Beatles, because I'd rather hear the full album. I want to hear stuff like Piggies, Why Don't We Do It In The Road, Revolution 9, throwaways that are often just as interesting as the better songs, especially when you have heard the good songs over and over. If you're into electronic music you see a lot of this principle. A badly paced mix to me is one with banger after banger, and even though the songs may be individually stunning, they don't mean anything when they are played back to back. A proper mix needs restrained tracks, filler, placeholders that bridge the gap between the bigger songs which mean a lot more when they finally arrive at peak time. Hearing 'These Days' by Petter on some commercially minded Ministry of Sound set with a bikini clad woman on the front pales in comparison to hearing it built to and mixed properly on James Holden's seminal 'Balance 005' mix. You feel rewarded, like watching Flair/Steamboat in the context of Clash IV rather than on a generic 'Best of Flair' comp. I suppose the yearbooks go some way to redeeming this problem, adding variety and promos instead of just big lauded match after big lauded match. And it is true that wrestling, like electronic music, doesn't always live up to the ideal. There are a lot of badly built mixes, and there are even more badly built shows. For every perfectly paced attitude era Raw or NOAH supershow there is a ROH card or WWE PPV where sitting through the whole thing really is a waste of your time. I suppose it is best to use context and cherry pick. Late 60s and 70s rock is clearly an album genre, where it is considered in classic rock circles to be blasphemous play less than the full record. Conversely, there probably isn't much to be gained from listening to a full length album from The Carpenters, or someone modern like TATU, when the aim was to make a bunch of singles. It is the same with house or garage LPs from the late 90s, which were usually collections of dancefloor orientated twelve inches that sounded better in the context of a mix. It is the same with wrestling - some people are better at putting together full shows than others. Watching an hour of ECW television must be a lot more worthwhile than watching two hours of TNA straight - with TNA, like with The Four Tops, a 'Best Of' really would suffice. Note: It does help to alter preconceptions, though. Some people might see The Beach Boys as a surf pop act and just cherry pick the famous singles. They'd be missing out on the beauty of Pet Sounds when heard as a whole, and lovely album tracks on 'Sunflower', and late career gems. And in the end, to make comps and yearbooks worthwhile, someone has to sift through the rubbish. The other complication is that one mans trash is another mans treasure. I could go on for hours about this, so I'll stop now.

Bit too far back, mine would be mostly from 2005, and a lot of it was just posted on the board itself before efforts were made to revitalize the main site. I did have a cursory look for it once but most has gone for good I fear. Crazy to think Smarkschoice has been gone for nearly seven years - it was only active for about four in the first place.

How I used to enjoy watching Smackdown and Velocity back to back in 2002-2003, probably the height of my serious interest in US wrestling. I went back and reviewed a lot of the stuff for Smarkschoice in 2005 or so, but since that has disappeared into the internet abyss I can only throw a few things out there, mostly without dates: Shannon Moore/Matt Hardy vs Rey Mysterio/Brian Kendrick Ultimo Dragon/Billy Kidman vs Akio/Sakoda Ultimo Dragon/Paul London/Billy Kidman vs Akio/Sakoda/Tajiri Paul London v Akio x 3 And of course: Chris Benoit vs William Regal (7/16/05 WWE Velocity) Chris Benoit vs William Regal (10/1/05 WWE Velocity) Chris Benoit vs William Regal (5/13/06 WWE Velocity) But I assume they are in consideration anyway since my versions are off that six disc Finlay/Benoit/Regal comp that was going around. Some of those matches on the WWE.com list ring a bell as well, they must be worth including especially as they will be so short. The Cruiserweight Title should be brought back actually, added some much needed variety to the shows.

I'm not saying they should necessarily recreate it, I was just wondering if they would try something similar. There is a lot of symmetry between the two situations. True, but they hand title reigns out like nightclub flyers these days. Benoit had been in and around main events for four years before 2004. Closing Wrestlemania as a face winning the main belt is still the ultimate sign you are a major star, and nobody has done that in the last ten years except Rock, Cena, HHH, Batista and Taker.