Timbo Slice

At this point, there are restrictions on how to access the Network. It's a similar restriction rule to blackout policies in pro sports. Right now, it's I believe US and Canada only, so if you run off an international proxy, you will indeed get geoblocked.

WWE has been a bit more lenient on content being available online and I think that had to do with the Network opening. If they're going for more of that Hulu Plus mentally where it becomes On Demand the day after it runs live, it would make sense. Matt hit on an idea that I think has to be done at some point. If you can build up a big rivalry over a long period of time and you have a big-time blowoff match, putting up all their matches in one spot to watch in chronological order is almost a no-brainer. Hell, some type of wrap-up of everything leading up to any PPV-level match would be great, but that's a hell of a production job to do that for every match on PPV.

Sin Cara was the biggest drawing wrestler in Mexico for a few years and couldn't figure it out. My point isn't that they wouldn't acknowledge his past accomplishments. My point is that the WWE sees all wrestlers on an equal playing field and only care about what you can do to help them make money, regardless of what you've done before from a work or drawing perspective. It's a setting issue, not a resume issue.

Well, it's not about him being Japanese. It's about WWE thinking he can make them money. Japan isn't that big of a market for WWE. They don't have much to pull from there, so he'd have to have an intangible that gets him over more than, "Top guy from Japan's top company."

It's like any series of matches: The more of the series you see, the better the matches at the end of the series become. I think it's really hard to craft a match completely based on previous matches. The wrestlers will have their winks and nods to those who have followed it, but that's just more icing on top of the cake. You could go into that match having never seen those two guys wrestled before and it doesn't take away the fact it was a good match. It's just that piecing together certain parts from their other matches makes it better. I don't think matches are catered to a specific audience in that way.

I remember hearing something about him being able to speak it, but when the whole "Okada to WWE" talk came up at the beginning of last year, reports said that Okada was multi-lingual (I think it was 4 languages) and English was one of them. That's why I went that way. Good lord. Nak's current gimmick with his "YAAAOWWW!" scream while cutting English promos...I kinda want to see that now.

Liked the Dandy/Satanico match, especially the opening mat work. I'm not sure I can put it ahead of Cena/Cesaro or even Cesaro/Bryan, but it was fun, nonetheless.

It's also important to note that the only time Zayn beat Cesaro WAS on a fluke. And he's spent the last year trying to prove it wasn't. Even in the 2/3 falls match, his only fall came on a flash pin off that boot in the corner. Cesaro's confidence was totally warranted, as was Zayn's faith that he could beat Cesaro because he technically had two pinfalls over Cesaro, albeit after Cesaro had already wrestled and with Cesaro caught off-guard to start the 2/3 falls match. They really know how to make Zayn look good and look like "an equal" to Cesaro while Cesaro is still clearly the more dominant wrestler. I'm not saying the quality is like Misawa/Kawada, but the booking style makes me think of it right away, where Zayn can only get the wins that don't matter that much in the big picture and Cesaro is still the better man.

It's mainly used as a bridge or litmus test of sorts. Since the weekly NXT shows began, they've sent wrestlers down to NXT to give shine to guys they like. While guys like Cesaro can do it well with Zayn, you also get stinkers like Kofi going down to work Rusev a few weeks ago. It's not necessarily a showcase for the main roster guys. It's to show that the NXT guys can hang with those on the roster already, which, to the fans who watch both the main shows and NXT, makes them feel like when they get called up, they deserved it.

Okada speaks English, and I don't think any of the other four do, which makes him almost a de facto choice. Problem is that his gimmick wouldn't translate to the United States that well. He could definitely work, and I think he would benefit a lot working in the WWE style, but it's still a long shot.

The Sheamus match was on Raw but it was mid-show. When looking through his matches for the WC end of year podcast, I saw that the main event matches were mainly tags. He hadn't gotten a chance with much singles stuff.

It's not shocking they opened with the match, as WWE's old standby has been that the most important spots are the opening and ending matches.

Opener was good, but I'm not sure I'd say it's better than the Cena match. It was definitely exciting, but there were a couple moves in there that I think were done just for the sake of doing them to get near falls. That being said, there were some great moments and it did the best thing a match could do in putting the losing wrestler over, as well. Zayn is a made guy at this point. The showcase matches weren't that great, as Rawley should be running dudes over in less than 2 minutes. For whatever reason, he takes punishment for too long before making a comeback. I get the Rusev beatdown, but it wasn't really impressive. Divas match was good, but I really wish they would figure out a way to work more uptempo. I'm not saying they have to be Manami Toyota, but they're being taught to work a similar style to the guys and picking up the tempo would help the good workers like Emma and Paige really shine. Main was a good match but I wonder how much faith they have going forward with Bo Dallas if they're talking more about becoming action-oriented. His personality is what got him over as a heel and while he's good in the ring, there are a lot of guys on the roster who can do laps around him. Happy to see Neville as the champ, as he'll get some exciting matches out of whoever they put him against.

I think that had more to do with Page having to lay out everything, though. That Pillman match was obviously called as it happened because they just started throwing bombs after the 10 minute mark. I wouldn't put that on Mero.

John mentioned it during the DVDVR 90s poll in his WCW Pimping Post, talking about how Brian was getting frustrated with the booking and felt like he was getting "stuck" with Badd. Not sure what his source was, but considering Brian ended up joining the Horsemen at the next PPV, the match with Badd ended up being a great segue into his movement up the card.

Yeah, that match sold me on Mero as a worker. At some point in 94 or 95, Mero really turned it up a notch and had some pretty good matches. The story is Brian trying to show up the booking team by taking a "schlub" like Mero and leading him by the nose, but Mero was MORE than up for the task. Great, great match.

Yeah, it seems like they still have some holes to fill overall. A lot better on VOD for me at this point. Was able to fast forward through the event a lot easier. Seems like they've fixed those issues.

If Punk isn't there on Monday I'll be shocked.

Another question I have for the VOD people who are finding success: Anyone else having trouble fast forwarding? I was trying to get to Sasuke/TAKA on Canadian Stampede by fast forwarding through the HHH/Mankind match and it just stalled out on me.

Yeah, I just tried it again a few minutes ago and nothing budging. I think they're realizing it's a lot more than 20%.

Looks like they've prioritized the live stream over everything else, which is odd considering the Shows portion should be easy to manage. Instead, the PPV section has horrible streaming capabilities. They really need to boost that soon. I'm trying to watch GAB '92 and it's buffering at 6:30 on my Apple TV with an ethernet connection, not Wi-Fi. So there are some issues there that need to be fixed pretty quickly or else they've rendered the major part of their service basically useless.

But that's what made them great. It wasn't about the individual talents of the wrestlers. It was about wrestlers being paired off thanks to the booking leading into the match. Booking, not talent, made Wargames.

CESARO/SHEAMUS TO START. FUCK YES.

That's the match of the year right now. And as much as I loved Cesaro/Cena, I'm not sure it's close.

Yeah, I don't get why they would bring Larry out unless they were gonna give Rybaxel the rub. Kinda sad.