Loss

Yeah, the Ambrose-Reigns friendship has been pushed so hard that it has come across to me as a really, really long foreshadowed heel turn by Ambrose.

I guess the Ambrose turn on Reigns they've been teasing forever will finally happen, maybe even as soon as this Monday night.

I really, really hate that fucking briefcase.

This is the chance to make a tippety-top star out of Cesaro, Ziggler or Kevin Owens. That doesn't even necessarily mean one of them should win the title, but just that great showings that are talked about and canonized after could help put someone over the top. I have zero faith in any of that happening, though.

I don't think we know enough about who moves numbers at this point to say who is and isn't doing it, especially since all we have is second hand information from Dave to go off of. It's unfortunate and I say that not to question Dave's credibility, but because everyone in WWE has an agenda, and despite what people say, even numbers have opinions.

That being the logic for putting AJ back on basically proves that guys are put on the ballot too soon.

The whole thing suggests lots of voters are in the wrong buckets.

Bryan not doing well with current wrestlers surprises me because wrestlers don't seem to care as much anymore about who draws money and everyone seems to take pride in the performance aspect. Contrast that with Benoit, who performed in an era where wrestlers seemed to value drawing money a hell of a lot more, yet he commanded a lot more respect among his peers than Bryan does ... for whatever reason.

What Kudo did great in that match was not work like everyone else. She worked a more basic, slow-paced style, which was a breath of fresh air during a time that the pace was constantly escalating.

On the flip side, it's very possible she was actually coached by Vince to act like that.

Suplexes and powerbombs in lucha libre matches annoy me to no end. It's an unnecessary add-in of American/Japanese stuff that works against what makes lucha something cool and distinct.

In the case of Paul E.'s absence, I suspect that they felt they had enough going on in the match without adding him at ringside. This more than any match on the card was the one designed to get over the wackiness of the Lethal Lottery concept, and maybe they thought -- right or wrong -- that Paul E. at ringside would add another layer to everything that would only muddy the water.

In the case of Luger, he had used up almost all of his appearances, but was World Champ. In their class ineptitude, WCW didn't realize this until a few months into his title reign. So they shot one angle to build to the match where he'd drop the title, but they couldn't use him more than that. They *could* have used him for extra dates, but they'd have to pay him extra money, which they didn't want to do. So the end result was the Sting vs DA feud to carry the shows with Sting-Luger almost purposely being treated as secondary to that since Luger was on his way out of the territory anyway.

I liked the WWE vs Alliance match at Survivor Series, even though the booking going in was what it was. It was cool seeing Jericho at the end with Austin and Rock being portrayed as being as close to their equal as the storyline would allow. Edge-Test on the undercard I remember being shockingly good too, but I haven't seen it in years.

I don't have a problem with Steamboat's selling being overly theatrical as much as I do not always thinking it was the appropriate selling for the particular moment. His bounce up and throw shadow punches selling of Luger's three clotheslines at Bash '89 was maybe my least favorite moment of his entire career. Still, it's a minor issue at best, and not enough of an issue for me to knock him down a peg or anything like that.

I think the issue with Charlotte is that she has a great look and some awesome natural talents. She can also be carried to a great match. But she needs a certain amount of booking protection. With a few more years in NXT, she might have picked up on everything and I don't have a feel for if she is improving with more WWE time or not. But she's the classic example of someone who can contribute a lot and be fun to watch, but she has to be booked with a scalpel -- only opposite great ring generals, little to no promo time, camera angles that get over her height and physique, losses that are rare and have an impact when they happen, etc.

Swagger has shown that he can get over with the right booking, is pretty solid in the ring and has the type of background that would have made him a star at one time. I'm with Dave that he should try to get fired so he can go to New Japan. I think last week and this week were better and more focused shows than I've seen in a while, even if they weren't great or anything. Charlotte was mentioned above, but I think Becky Lynch is one of the worst promos I've ever seen. Plus, she did a terrible job conveying the idea that she wanted revenge on Paige in that four-way match -- everything was just so forced because her acting is so bad. I do think Paige is tremendous though, and she's in a role that suits her well. Paige and Sasha, that's your future.

My biggest problem was that they booked themselves into a corner with the WM31 main event. They stuck with that match as their plan for months despite plenty of evidence that they should change course, which to me means you have the balls to give a finish and live with the consequences of it.

Where does this idea come from that the people who are complaining are the problem? If you're tired of hearing it, be mad at WWE for giving reason to say it.

They're certainly expected on Japanese and especially Lucha shows, and nobody holds it as a symptom of those shows sucking. There's not a wrestling company in the world as overexposed as WWE.

I'm guessing (not sure I'm right, but guessing) that the idea there is that people are tired of everything formulaic about WWE. Six-mans have become something to be expected, and are a symptom of the show's lack of spontaneity.

I remember Batista walking out with HHH and Orton when Evolution reunited last year, and how strange it was seeing Batista as the smallest guy in the group. That's not at all what his role was in that group the first time around. Still, Batista looks far healthier today than he did ten years ago, but I think most top stars of this era look healthier in general. HHH in some ways looks younger than he did a decade ago too.

The interesting thing about Arn to me in this time period is that the late 90s were in some ways really suited for him more than his actual era was. Talking may have been more important than it ever had been at that point, and there was a heavy focus on promos in both companies. Arn did more of the traditional great promo than the catchphrase-filled ones that dominated the WWF at the time, but that was another way I wish WCW had distinguished itself more -- an equally big focus on talking as was happening in the WWF, but fueled by a different set of values over what made someone an interesting person to hear speak. I hated Rock promos at the time because of the overabundance of catchphrases, but that's what they had to be, and I don't fault him for that one bit. Still, WCW's best bet was to deliver the more heartfelt and off-the-cuff Real People Talking interview segments, and I wish they had done more of that. They even had Bret, for whom that speaking style was a huge strength, and now I have to check out before I get depressed.

To anyone who kept watching, how was Yoshida as the 2000s progressed? I know the Fujii match from 2003 gets a lot of praise, and I can't imagine her ever slipping below very good as long as she worked that style.

I guess YMMV on the Kandori matches being "interpromotional" since they were after that era. But they did work each other in each of their home promotions as part of Kudo's retirement tour and they were in some multi-person matches together, and I loved them all. I'm comfortable calling Kandori Kudo's best opponent after Toyoda, and even then, I think Kudo and Toyoda only achieved greatness opposite each other once.