Loss

I think it's more than that. There's a tendency to say Dave only cares about action and highspots, and that's just not the case. He cares about what's hot and what's new. He cares about what's cool. 1983 Georgia was just not cool. 1979 Georgia was cool when Ole Anderson's booking ideas were fresh. 1981 Georgia was cool when they were regularly doing 6+ ratings on TBS. 1983 was a territory on the decline. You won't find many examples of Dave going out of his way to praise declining territories that are still technically good. In his 1983 year-end issue, he doesn't even mention that match as one that he wished he could have seen live. He listed Final Conflict, which was cool at the time. It was a huge success. Steamboat and Youngblood were super popular babyfaces. Crockett was hot, and Starrcade was coming. This influences what he chooses to watch and what he cares about when he does watch. Always has.

Do you expect that VIP match to make tape?

Sometimes, it's okay that something doesn't hold up. When I say it, I definitely don't mean it as an insult. It just means you had to be there. It's kind of a neutral statement.

That's Wrestling With Shadows.

Creative is responsible for writing lines for people to say, not coming up with an actual direction.

Important. There are matches that are great enough that watching cold is still an awesome experience, but that doesn't mean all matches have to fit that bill to be great.

Every time someone asks Dave who is doing Smackdown or who is doing Raw, the answer is the same -- Vince and HHH. People can be capable of really good things and really bad things all at once.

It's important. There are always exceptions.

Vince and HHH are doing both shows. Same people.

Wrestling has morphed from having really good beginning and middle sections and weak finishes to having really weak beginning and middle sections and strong finishing stretches.

Yeah, please no.

A second watch helped a lot. I don't think it ever escalated to the degree that it seemed like it was going to escalate, but I was paying more attention this time, and there were some key things I missed before. Strong match -- not an all-timer for me, but still great.

I am disappointed in myself but I didn't care for this match too much. It struck me more as a historical landmark than a great match. I'll wait to elaborate until the novelty wears off so I don't ignite a mob.

WCW used to often say Arn and Ole were world tag team champions, even though they weren't. They were national tag team champions, though.

WWE made Highspots stop selling Final Conflict, yes.

The difference is that it seems like when Jericho does it, there's something purposeful about it. I don't know that they are always right but they do have a certain level of faith in him as the guy who can make anything work. What's being described in your post is a lot of aimless flailing.

It was in the WON though that Del Rio isn't interested in being a regular in Japan at this phase of his life, and that New Japan isn't really offering one-time paydays to American talent. Just recalled that.

For that matter, did he leave CMLL on good terms?

Probably not. Just answering question of if they had ever used him before.

NJPW never used him before because of their working relationship with CMLL.

Jericho is not irreplaceable but they haven't given anyone else a chance to take on that role where they go up and down the card, just filling whatever slot is needed, turning as needed, going from main event to opening match as needed, because they have so much trust in their abilities. HHH seemed to see Tyler Breeze that way, but Vince obviously didn't.

If you want to talk about irreplaceable WWE guys, I think you have to talk about Rey Mysterio. Every single attempt to replace him has failed.

There's nowhere left to go with this type of match. If they forget that and try doing it again months from now (which they very well might), then I'd call that a black mark, but it worked here. The moment was created in the sense that they were on a Big 3 show where normally it would be Cena's turn to win, and most fans know that. It's being followed up with a title shot and likely title win on the very next big show, so I'm not sure what more is wanted than that. If Cena does this again and it keeps escalating, I won't defend it. It's the type of thing where if they return to this type of match, I'd probably come back to this and lower the rating because part of what I liked about it was that it seemed like the denouement of that match structure. This is a perfect example of why I always argue that opinions of wrestling matches live and breathe.

This wasn't about beating Cena. This was about beating Cena twice. That rarely happens. Usually, Cena wins the rematch. That's actually been one of WWE's greatest institutions for a while now. This was about the psychology of the rematch where Cena comes back after losing and just wins through attrition. That usually works. It didn't work here. AJ broke the pattern.

An excellent cruiserweight match, the type I haven't really seen since the glory days of WCW. I liked how they used Ibushi's credibility and built-in name value as a great worker to build to things like his first kick, but also to get Cedric more over than he would be for being so competitive. Not a lot to say about this one, but the action was great and Cedric had a career-making performance. ****