Loss

I started off loving this in the early stages, with Styles doing his roll-through/taunt combo off of the side headlock, his typically great bump off the high back body drop and the way that the crowd elevated him to Cena's level and he ran with it. He looked like the most major league of major league heels. After that, the match declined for me, but hear me out. I can see why people saw this match as Finisher Spam, and for a while it drove me crazy too. Not even the kickouts so much, as I knew to expect that coming in, but the long dead space after each kickout. It just seemed to lack creativity. The whole reason they do that extended sell is to protect the finishers, but an even better way to protect the finishers would be to only use them for finishes. But I digress. They ended up bringing me all the way back after Styles kicked out of the middle rope AA. Cena had worked this very simple, straight-ahead strategy of taking big moves and hitting big moves in the past when facing especially tough rivals -- The Rock and Kevin Owens are the first that come to mind. And the key to his success in those cases was always just his ability to outlast his opponent. His ability to absorb offense was his biggest strength, so he could always take one more move than his opponent, and as long as he was one step ahead, even if it was only one tiny step, that was enough. I compare it to playing checkers with my uncle, who always beat me, but would take a jump to land a jump (or sometimes three jumps), so while he won every time, the win was never decisive. He had zero interest in running up the scoreboard. So I saw the finisher spam here not so much as a match choice because that's what pops the people (although it did, and that's fine), but because they wanted to show that a trusty Cena match approach wasn't going to be enough this time. When Styles kicked out of the middle rope AA, the look on Cena's face said it all. He knew someone was finally going to beat him twice. He didn't have anymore ideas -- he had thrown his hail mary and Styles was still there. I thought JBL's "looking in a mirror" comment was astute and matched exactly the story I thought they were trying to tell at that point. When Cena saw Styles rising to his feet and reality set in. Styles, to his credit, knew at that point that no single move, no matter how big, would get the job done, so he had to pull a two-move combo to get the win, and that's what he did. Yes, this had the long stretch of finisher kickouts that drives some of us nuts (usually self included), but I really thought it was a necessary evil to serve the bigger objective -- they went through their finisher spam so that at the end, they could flip the whole match concept on its head, and good riddance! Me saying that contradicts and challenges so much of what I've always said about how the WWE style isn't a place for nuance, but the game is changing, and this match seemed like an attempt to capture that story in a microcosm. Styles didn't just beat Cena, he cracked the code. ****1/4

What singles matches are those? He had only actually had one pay-per-view singles match before the Rumble, which was a win over Randy Orton that got **** in the WON. The line on him in late 2014 wasn't that of a guy who'd been exposed at all. He wasn't red hot and on fire, but he'd been out a huge chunk of that time with an injury anyway.

When I watched how he worked with Big Cass, I'll admit I did think, "Wow, imagine if Roman Reigns would have been able to work with Roman Reigns."

Actually, that was a rumor that started on its own because people were so convinced by Kevin Owens' acting that he had no idea. It was nothing perpetuated.

Dave flat out said that's not true in the WON, that everyone involved knew the plan.

The reason I say the Bryan incident is because Roman Reigns was cheered after Rollins turned on him in 2014 all the way up until the Royal Rumble.

This just cuts through all of the tribalism and political-philosophical talk and other shit that often comes with my wrestling fan experience in 2016 and gets back to what it's all about at its core -- two guys beating the piss out of each other. This is something that benefits from the way it's filmed for sure -- up close with no commentary, which makes the aggression and stiffness of the shots stand out even more, and it helps that they wrestle the match in such close proximity to each other too. The match starts at a pretty crazy level of intensity and maintains it for the entire 14+ minutes -- it predictably gets bloody because how can it not when the violence quotient is so high. I'd call this manna from heaven for anyone who enjoyed the Tenryu-Hashimoto series or some of the high-end Lawler slugfests. Even though I have a huge deficit for the year, I can't imagine liking anything more than this for the year. Maybe the best thing I've seen all decade. *****

So ... Renee Young's attitude about being in a trailer last night when she was interviewing Heath Slater was really off-putting. Was she afraid she might get some of the poor on her shirt? I loved the segment, though. Heath Slater is The Man and can't no one tell him any different. Rhyno was tremendous in that too.

It seems like Charlotte was really loved in NXT and was met with apathy on the main roster until they turned her and brought in Ric as her corner man. I'm not sure why. Someone who followed NXT more at the time can probably explain the difference.

Miz triggers both of those ideals and Kevin Owens triggers neither one. This is why Miz gets real heat and Kevin Owens is liked.

Not to take away from that post, but it feels like we are in a time where the worst label a person can have -- far worse than anything related to how they look -- is that of being Undeserving. The worst things you can be in the current WWE narrative are either to be Undeserving or Someone Who Is In Wrestling For Fame And Fortune.

Dusty had the book before Watts, during Watts and after Watts. His role was to execute a vision that wasn't always his during each regime change. Watts brought in Ole as a road agent during his time and Ole stayed on after he left, taking on lots of Watts' old duties but never taking the title. Flair got the book because the wrestlers liked him and because Ted Turner loved him. That's pretty much all there was to that.

I don't really like it either, but you can't go back.

I do wish if people were going to criticize Owens, they'd leave his look out of it because talking about it only exposes how superficial the person who says it is. If you have a point to make about it KO on the merits (which that post did admittedly contain), make it but stick to that.

That was an incredible piece of work. Lots of unconventional choices that worked better than you might think, specifically with Bockwinkel using the side headlock as a base, which is normally a babyface position in a match. I suspect they made that choice because it was rare for him to get a chance to work a match like this as a heel without having to defend a title -- it freed him up to toy with the usual formula, and to follow it through by taking the first fall. Instead of having to sell the idea that Tonight May Be The Night, Tito could overcome the odds. This match had a pretty big lack of heat in the early stages and they really won the crowd over with two great fall finishes and a red hot third fall that was just the culmination of some really tremendous build. It was great exercise in patience. It didn't feel like they got rattled at all by some of the early silence. They knew they were going to payoff the early work, so they just stayed the course. That was pretty cool. I feel like that opening test of strength was the type of thing you expect to see between Choshu and Hashimoto in a dome in terms of attention to detail and drama. It may not have had that level of heat to accompany it, but the spirit was definitely there. A super match, but more than that, something that I suspect is a bit novel for both guys -- the opportunity to do a title match in working style without being boxed in by the politics of an actual title being defended. ****1/2

I think Reigns is better week-to-week than Zayn. Zayn doesn't seem to have ***1/2-**** matches on TV all that often.

I feel that's overstating things a bit. It's not that people were having a temper tantrum over that one Rumble, it's that it represented the company taking what it knew the fans wanted to see and giving them a giant middle finger. So in turn the fans did the same thing to Roman knowing he means as much to the company (well, Vince at least) as Bryan did to them. It's petty, yes, but considering the company's history it couldn't have happened to more deserving folks. Why does Vince get cheered when he shows up? Why not take it out on him?

Roman Reigns is a convenient scapegoat on which people project everything they don't like about WWE, a role formerly filled by John Cena. At this point I just think, Jeez, yes, Daniel Bryan should have won the 2015 Royal Rumble, but is that really worth a nearly two-year temper tantrum?

They are trying to draw on the road. They need guys at a certain level to do that.

I don't think we'll ever get WWE vs NXT unless they are willing to blow up the NXT brand. There's no way for it to end where NXT would remain viable when it was over. And I suspect they know that.

Your gimmick is more to take something that was said one time (about Stephanie vitriol being rooted in misogyny) or a handful of times in a short period of time (in the case of labeling you 90s guy) and continue to rant about it for the next 11 years.

Because she wants to be seen as caring. Philanthropy is the new PR.

Reigns I thought did a very good job in that match last night, but I also wish he could tighten up his execution on a few moves, mainly his clothesline.

Stephanie already fined Brock a measly $500. The whole point is that she's being insincere. How is that not translating? She's feigning concern.

I don't think that's a fair description of Kevin Owens. I'm not a huge fan of his wrestling style, but I am a big fan of his promos and persona, and I think that has more to do with why people like him than his wrestling style.