Loss

Bryan has been back for two months now and has showed he can stay over working a safer style. I think WWE can breathe easy if he can make it through the next couple of months. It's weird because he's not being pushed super hard, but I can't say anyone else is being pushed as clearly more important either. He's closed the show just as much as Styles and Nakamura and seems to be presented at that same level.

I think he's done some really effective mic work since returning that gets him over more as a serious competitor instead of a sports entertainer.

Roman is over in the sense that fans see him as a star and he typically gets the loudest reaction on every show. He's not over in the sense that he's getting the reaction the #1 babyface is supposed to get, and it's weird that WWE wears it with a badge of honor that everyone projects everything they hate about company booking on to the guy that they see as the future. They overlearned the Cena lesson to such an extreme that they now think if babyfaces are getting loudly booed, then they're doing something right. They also overlearned the Austin lesson to such an extreme that they think the company will go down in flames if they turn their top babyface heel. At least with Cena, you could point to many other things to show that it was working. It's unfortunate because when you look at the roster, Reigns is far and away the best choice to build around for the next 5-10 years, and at one time, there was a real chance to get him over the right way that has been squandered. There was no going back after the 2015 Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania this year closed the book for good. I think it's time to start looking at Drew McIntyre.

I choose to believe they're having Bryan kill time until they establish Andrade Cien Almas a little more, but I know that's not it.

Before you start any more polls, please offer your own take on some of this stuff. It sometimes feels like you're data mining us.

Batista wants to do Shakespeare eventually. I sort of love that romantic idea of going for it on your own terms more than I do making brainless action movies, even if they do rake in tons of money. I'd like to see Rock attempt a serious role that gets an Oscar nomination.

Yeah, the Russian Legsweep is all about execution.

It's really weird to see because I thought he hated all people and life itself. I guess that came later.

DDTs all basically being tornado DDTs in recent year is the result of climate change. (Joke I stole from myself that I tweeted a couple of years ago...)

I'm confused though. Is there anything new here? What did we learn today that we didn't already know?

Fox sees live programming as the future of television and thinks it's a worthy investment primarily for that reason.

Is anyone doing Steve Austin's Hollywood and Vine?

I actually think they look more like stars when they wear street clothes when they aren't having a match.

Not a running powerslam. A powerslam off an Irish whip, a la Buzz Sawyer or Ted DiBiase.

Any move that requires waiting for the opponent to get up to hit it is something I generally hate. Superman punch, Sweet Chin Music, etc. I'm with you there.

What are some moves that seemed to be fairly common in wrestling of the past that you don't see much anymore that you'd like to see more often? For me: - Rolling cradle - Swinging neckbreaker - Flying bodypress - La Magistral - Abdominal stretch (when it's done well) - Flying shoulderblock - Powerslam (as a finisher) - Stun gun - Argentine backbreaker/torture rack - Using a snapmare as a transition - Double axehandle from the top - Reverse roll-up (I refuse to call it a rolling crotch hold) - Gourdbuster - Texas Cloverleaf If these moves are being used regularly by anyone, show me the way! Speaking more generally, I miss really advanced pinning combo moves.

A good time to mention how much I dislike the uppercut punching that Undertaker and Reigns do. Just a personal taste thing -- there's nothing wrong with it. I also don't like European uppercuts or non-Misawa people doing Misawa elbows for the most part.

They dress her like that because they want her to come across as a woman of the people and an excited fan instead of an outsider who thinks she's above it all. Not saying there aren't other ways to present that idea visually, but just saying that's the mindset there.

We need to do an upgrade. It will require taking the board offline temporarily. I've been trying to postpone as long as possible for that reason, but maybe it's worth it to put this behind us.

Peak Internet right here.

I remember when they had a match at a PPV - maybe KOTR? - and Jericho flipped after Wade Keller criticized it. I don't recall what I thought of the match, but I'm guessing it probably wasn't anything special in my mind since the Keller anecdote is my only lasting memory of it. It was a solid match. That whole thing was interesting. Jericho felt like it was a ****1/2 MOTYC that tore the house down. It was probably more like a *** match. I want the gems of all kinds, good and bad though. Matches can suck and still provide a good look at where notable wrestlers were at a certain point in their careers, even if the results aren't so great.

The 3 hours thing was debunked. The source credited an article somewhere else that never even said that.

Has Bruce addressed his substance abuse issues on the show? He has no obligation to do so, but I just wondered if he has opened up about it at all.

That's really dumb on Shimmers part. They're already 2 years behind on shows. They should really work on getting volumes 80-100 out so you can actually know what's going on with the promotion. Im confused because I thought there was some Shimmer on WWN.