Timbo Slice

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.

The tag match had the awesome Sheamus/Cesaro interactions that turned up the whole match another notch going forward, but Cesaro/Orton was really great stuff. Orton knew he had to step it up in there and the finishing stretch was pretty fantastic. If that was on Raw, it would have been a better finish, but it was still great.

I think Bryan's shoulder thing gives him a target and he'll be jobbing, but I think that the next night, he'll be a part of the Main Event. The Shield/Wyatts match has me absolutely amped. Batista/Del Rio is an absolute afterthought at this point, and with Del Rio supposedly on his way out, the crowd could shit all over the match.

It's mostly because they interface with Apple products and let you play stuff through iTunes on your TV. People who use Amazon Instant will have no appeal with it. That being said, HBO Go is on there and if you have a Comcast account, you can actually use it on there, as opposed to the other boxes.

Yeah, Flair/Steamboat wasn't a draw. It was booked as a draw finish, but Steamboat got the shoulder up when Flair bridged back on the flying chicken wing. I always hated the idea that matches had a shorter time limit than normal, which made a draw a formality. A lot of 30-minute, 10-minute, 15-minute draws. That type of stuff. Takes away a lot of the drama. As far as matches themselves go, The Flair/Jumbo 83 match was a great draw. Kobashi/Kawada in 95 (both draws, the 60-minute in January and the 30-minute at the Carnival, even if the booking itself stunk.) Still haven't seen the heralded 1/15/95 draw between the Four Pillars of Heaven. If Rock/HHH counts, Rock/HHH. And if that counts, then Steamboat/Rude at Beach Blast 92. My exception to that short draw rule is probably Taue/Misawa from 04. Taue was a fucking king in that match. Another one of those times were booking kills the result, but the match itself was good stuff. On the negative side, Bret/Shawn, Angle/Brock...maybe a few others.

Segunda Caida (segundacaida.blogspot.com) is a good one.

So, knowing how this works, the Network will report their (probably big) earnings, but at the same time, it's destined to be in the red come Q4 2014. And the $260M for rights fees right now still looks hilarious. They should be looking for a similar number while looking to expand on the streams they have already, especially considering TV rights fees are only going to matter for a few years longer before networks get smart to consumer demand for Over-The-Top apps...like the WWE Network.

A 30+ year career. Remarkable. The saddest thing is to see the greats not be able to end it on their terms.