Timbo Slice

I liked the match in a lot of ways. I thought it was built right, they hinted at things from previous matches, Cena's escape was actually smart as opposed to him just breaking the cuffs. Orton did bring it a bit and everything was clean, but there wasn't anything about the match that screamed memorable. It reminded me of the Flair/Sting Clash match to unify the titles, where it was treated like a big deal, but there wasn't much to distinguish it as above their previous matches because of the stakes.

It's not a boring ending. It's that the guy holding the belts at the end is boring.

I do find it funny that Punk supposedly winning so that he's not as pissed off at the booking happened against a group that supposedly has the company's next golden boy. Meanwhile, Bryan jobs clean as a sheet.

I'm trying to figure out why that was so definitive from a booking standpoint, but It was a great match from a work standpoint. Bray is figuring it out a bit.

Brodus threw a fucking heart punch in the match. The Miz is officially a heat suck at this point.

I had reservations about those two teams being on last, but they made it look damn good. Rey getting the better of some reversals he has been on the receiving end of was neat to see.

What's this in reference to? Punk not liking the booking?

Christmas always gets overbooked. Too many story lines that get wrapped up and not always in a satisfying way.

Thanksgiving is always the big draw. Christmas seems like that yearly tradition that a lot of people go to, but the food isn't as good. That damn turkey goes over everyone, I swear.

But if you're a wrestling fan selected to be a part of this vote and you decide that Hulk Hogan isn't one of the biggest wrestling stars in history, there is a total lack of credibility for that voter. It's not about where they "deserved" to be. Hogan should have been on every ballot. Whether it's at 1 or 100. I can't see someone forgetting to put him on a ballot.

El Santo at 11 to me is hilarious. As much as the 10 guys above him mean to wrestling, there is no wrestler who meant more to his COUNTRY than Santo did. I'm sure national impact was gauged (or international impact, which is what I'm guessing helped you drive Londos to the top, Dylan), but I can't see an argument for any wrestler being as big a deal in their home country as Santo was. Only joshi rep I could see going in is Chigusa, maybe Dump. People would make arguments for Bull, Hokuto, Aja or Toyota, but they didn't have nearly the impact Chig or Dump had. Jaguar was more a super worker than a "star." Hogan being left off two ballots reminds me of every baseball Hall of Fame vote ever. I like the idea of the list being 100 "stars" in the sense that it is more of an open interpretation, too. It takes in the entirety of what a wrestler meant to the business rather than specifics.

Bryan didn't get buried. They just didn't go the full monty with him. In the "smart" fans minds, that automatically gets generalized to buried. I really wish that they would sign the Briscoes so that they could join the Wyatt Family. It would be an awesome way to bring them in.

I thought they'd go the streaming route only as a secondary measure. Working with MLB.tv is smart, too, as they are the only major sport that has their online shit together.

"A brief history of the indie scene, plus an interview with Chris Hero, the wrestler who almost became the next CM Punk" Yeah, that sub-headline alone is hilarious.

And HBK as a referee. Not nearly as big a draw as Cena, obviously, but people feel by now that if he's involved with something, it's going to be a big deal and they want to see what it is. I'm still shocked at how Orton is coming away from this like the invisible man. Now you got Cena coming out and calling him an underachiever in the closing angle from RAW. They really don't know what they're doing at this point.

It's not bending over backwards. The idea is that Angle came in as a "legit" guy, "respected the business" and made it better because he decided to be a part of it. He didn't give shit to anybody during his time in WWE, he absorbed everything he could, that word got around to the boys, and lo and behold, there you have it. It's not that they genuinely think he's a historically great worker. It's that he's a historically great legit wrestler that did well in the business for himself.

When Angle was a guest on Steve Austin's podcast, Steve verbally fellated him in regards to his quick ability to pick up the business and how he "worked smarter" in later years. Angle popping the old timers and the boys in the back has always been one of the major reasons his induction was backed. Dylan's reasons are also correct, but it really can't be understated how much Angle's contemporaries and the old timers loved him.

The actual good booking would have had Bryan hold the belt at some point so that Cena could get his win back, but obviously he kills ratings and Orton is awesome or something. I doubt they would have had him actually be the guy to unify the belts, but it would have actually made sense. Orton did this himself by not really changing that much after The Legend Killer phase. And his Wellness suspensions.

Yeah, I found that poetic justice myself. I said from the start that not blaming Orton, yet blaming Bryan for the ratings not being what they wanted was always hilarious to me. It's not like Orton was a draw himself.

So you have put that Triple H vs Randy Orton main event out of your memory huh. As someone who saw it live, you are so lucky I had to look it up because I remembered they had a WM match but was hoping it wouldn't go on last. Boy, was I wrong.

I wanna hear more from the trolls about how Bryan's push was worse than this. Because for all the faults given about Bryan as a main eventer, we now get this string of main events instead?

So Orton finally gets to main event a WM. Great.

What's the point of harping in "Stuff" when Tanahashi's "structure" isn't all that good in the first place?

Yeah, I find it really funny that people are trying to purge the mid card based on work and work alone. Half the people that have been listed offer more to the company than work. WWE building a mid card based on the work biases of what people like us enjoy is pretty hilarious to me. A bunch of those guys are nigh untouchable because of the things they do outside the ring.

I like Taue as a work candidate, personally. Problem is the perception of what he was compared to his peers. Misawa was the Ace. Kawada was the Ace's biggest rival. Kobashi had a rabid following and was a unique draw. Taue was the fourth wheel that made sure the car didn't run lopsided. "Glue guys" don't really get Hall of Fame mentions. Hase getting in was always weird to me. He's as close to Taue as you'll get from a comparison standpoint in the case of draw and stature and Taue kills him in the ring. If Hase is in, Taue has a better case. I agree that this is kind of the chum of the Japanese candidates in many ways, but this is also that sliding scale I was talking about earlier. With Sasaki being in, Hase being in, guys like Akiyama and Taue will get a harder look and with more deep diving into their careers, there's a good chance both of them will get in simply due to Sasaki and Hase being in and being inferior candidates in many ways.