Kostka

Just curious what the argument would be for Shawn Michaels over John Cena. Obviously not overall value/importance, but I understand that isn't the question proposed. Is he really better based soley on ringwork? I don't think Shawn had the range in opponents and I think Johns best matches are better (unless you count the Midnight Rockers v Rose/Somers matches...but I mean singles matches where he's the big contributor). I also think John is a much better big match babyface worker. Also, I too think Mysterio is better than Guerrero at this point. Rey is every bit as good or better in terms of working different match roles against a bucketload of different opponents and pulling out quality matches out of them on a more consistent basis. Rey/Riley vs Miz/Swagger tornado tag from Raw last year was amazingly great and that was all Rey Mysterio carrying 3 sub par workers on his back all the way through. None of those guys have done shit anywhere near as good as that match since. Everywhere you turn there's a good or great Mysterio match against a completely different opponent, in a completely different setting, in a completely different place on the card. That's one of the main reasons why I think Raw is such a shit show lately, because even on the worst of Raws, you could at least count on Rey to provide a good match somewhere on there. He's deeply missed.

Control segment.

The only thing Cody Rhodes has over Drew McIntyre is last name and WWEs insistence on pushing second/third generation guys. Drew is better in every way, and even had a better match with Christian recently with no storyline on the C Show.

I agree. Big Show is actually a much better babyface than he is a heel IMO. I don't care for him in longer matches. He's not as good as Henry at working lengthy control segments.

That was easily the worst Cena/Big Show match ever. Shows control seg was as flat as a pancake, and everything afterwards was as overbooked as overbooked main events get.

Best part of the match was Bryans entrance jacket.

That triple threat was pretty sloppy.

Christians heel run was awful and his return was basically a cold turkey face turn. It will take some time for the crowd to warm back up to Christian like they were in 2009, but at least he's a face again and has a spot on the card that plays to his strengths.

I think this has been a really good show so far. I'm watching it in my new home theater, so everything seems louder than it probably does on regular TVs. Two really good matches, a fun comedy match, an entertaining spot fest that set up a tag team feud, a decent divas match and a pretty clean Sin Cara/Hunico match. Solid and eclectic show.

Lawler/Cole should've been worked more like Cena/Ace. I didn't care for the mid match mic work portion of the match, but it was at least amusing. Cena abusing Ace was entertaining, and Ace only getting minor cut off spots off of dropping Cenas arm over the ring barrier and a low blow was pretty cool. Very Lawler/Hart-esque. Saw Big Shows turn coming from a mile away, but it was a plausible means of a victory for Big Johnny. Cena/Show should be a good series of matches.

I prefer the structure of Bryan/Sheamus. I'm a fan of 2/3 falls matches where each fall plays a part into the next. Punk/Bryan was like a hybrid of 90's New Japan Juniors, WWE Main Event Style and 2000's US Indy Style infront of a hot crowd. I liked it a lot.

I liked it, but I didn't think it was better than Bryan/Sheamus last month.

I always hated Orton on the mic. Jericho has always been extremely overrated on the stick as well. Jericho in general is amazingly overrated, or maybe I'm just tainted by his awful return. Fuck Jericho, man, seriously. I hope he goes away and never comes back. He's useless IMO.

I thought Brock gave one of the best heel performances I've ever seen. He was such an overwhelming wrecking machine, a scary asshole...truly unstoppable... his expressions were perfect...stiffing the piss out of Cena, throwing him around, ripping his arm off, tying his feet together with his own fucking chain...that insane spot where he fell on his head, got up and laughed about it... wiping Cenas blood on his chest and licking it off. Lesnar definitely should've won this shit clean, but awesome fucking match.

Lesnar was fucking God in that match. What an amazing ass beating, what a fucking dick. Felt like Rocky vs Ivan Drago or some shit. I loved it, even though Cena winning seemed premature.

Sheamus/Bryan was excellent. The way each fall built to the next felt almost like an old school NWA title match or something. Beautiful pacing and Bryan came off as the fucking smart wrestling machine that he needed to. Bryan worked an 06 ROH title match on WWE PPV. I loved Sheamus' selling the arm through his whole comeback of the third fall. The crowd booed because Bryan is untouchable right now, but they really built to that comeback like a motherfucker. Awesome polish hammers. I agree that the lack of AJ in some capacity knocks this down from being the true MOTY for me, if only because her involvement in this storyline was too heavy to not include... which seems like a weird complaint, but truly great matches tie together important story points. Sheamus just....won. Which was awesome though, anyway you slice it. Great match.

I like Loss' post about Cena being the perfect protagonist that he needs to be for the people who love him, while at the same time, being the perfect ANtagonist that he needs to be for the people that hate him. It's this weird middle ground character that never really needs to change, because the reactions to him never change. The Punk match last year in Chi-town and the Rock match most recently in Miami support the fact that this "dynamic" is still going strong and doesn't seem to show signs of a shelf life. Has there ever been a character in wrestling history like this? I know that there's been babyfaces that have been booed, but I can't think of any other top faces where the company banked on those booes and played to them. Dropping Hogan/Jake Roberts because Roberts was getting face chants never would have happened if this happened now and Roberts was working Cena instead, for example.

I thought the finish worked perfectly... If it actually set up a Punk/Henry PPV title rematch. I still think it was a really good match, though, with well timed comebacks, nasty cut off spots and crazy crowd heat. Henry's trash talking deserves all the praise it gets. It's amazing.

Lesnar/Angle is the only time I hated Brocks matches (mainly the godawful iron man), and that was Brock getting plugged into Angles shitty, deteriorating formula. Angle has that same match with everyone on the TNA roster every week. Brock did, however, have rockin' matches with Benoit, Taker, Guerrero, Rock, Mysterio and Big Show that I can think of offhand...probably more if someone wanted to revisit the tv from that period. Yes, he was in there with good and great workers, but that was more a smart booking means to protect him and essentuate his strengths. He was a puppy with big paws. There aren't many Lesnar vs lesser opponent matches because well, he didn't work very many of them, and when he did, they were usually squash matches built around his incredible power spots. I wouldn't call Brock a GREAT worker at any point (I'd argue he was on his way to that title and would have become great had he stuck around), but he delivered against all the marquee guys he worked programs with. Taker/Lesnar remains my favorite HIAC match of all time. I do recall a surprisingly good Lesnar/Orton match from 2002 that showed that Brock COULD carry, or at least that's what I remember thinking at the time. Orton was shit in that period.

To the Cena heel turn people, how is this really all that different from Cena vs another babyface + crowd or hometown heel that has been the booking structure for Cenas character since 2006?

Yeah last years Taker/HHH had a tighter home stretch of nearfalls (mostly because it was more contained) and the pre-home stretch of last years was also far superior to this years. It was that fucking annoying "ZOOM IN ON THE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BACK AND FORTH DIALOGUE BECAUSE WE MAKE MOVIES~!" shit that kills the flow in a lot of forced, current day WWE "epics".

It was like an extended version of last years match, with the added bonus of bad Michaels acting.

They kicked out of stuff a bunch of times, layed around in between, and Michaels did some awful sad faces in the corner. DRAMA~! I bet this will be Match of the Decade.

First hour felt like a mediocre episode of Smackdown.

I'm in agreement with this, besides the "consistently" entertaining part. I thinks he's sparingly entertaining the same way I think his performances are hit or miss. I think he's been a big ball of flashy suck since his return.