Marty

Up here in Canada? Many. This probably isn't comparable, but many only follow the NFL for the sake of office pools or fantasy football. Out of those people, there's a good segment who don't really care that much what goes on, or even have a favourite team, it's just become something to bet on. What I do wonder is if there's a large segment of people who love NCAA football, but could care less of the NFL? I know of some people like that, but is it a noticeable, large group? I knew of a ton of people back in the day who found the NBA boring, but absolutely loved NCAA hoops. Is it the same for football?

I wonder (and am hoping) that Punk and Bryan both being taken out by the Wyatts is the start of THE INTERNET DREAM TAG TEAM~! of Punk and Bryan that will continue for the next couple of months until one or the other's ego (if not both) fucks up the team, and we get Punk vs. Bryan at Mania. Honestly, I'd prefer those two to even get 10-15 minutes against each other than some 20+ bloated affair against a Clique member. It's not like they haven't done rematches at Mania before.

Went a little longer than that. Fine tag match. Cesaro's "holy shit, we won?" reaction was great!

Shawn's been having fun on Twitter too, which makes me somewhat glad this doesn't seem to be a "conflicted Shawn" storyline, and may be a flat-out heel turn. https://twitter.com/ShawnMichaels/with_replies

Exactly! I mean, when I was a kid just beginning to follow WWF, Koko B. Ware was a big deal to me, a fun character. Of course, when I realized he didn't win against anyone who mattered, those feelings were simmered, but even then, his strengths were talked about. Plus on occasion Hulk Hogan wanted to team with him, so he must've had some value, in my mind anyway. And Koko was a JTTS in the WWF, after all. You're getting the opposite of that. Now we're told the current top hero isn't all that big of a deal.

It's a brilliant work on his part. Even if he is being an insecure bitch, it plays perfectly in his character. He is probably the best heel non-wrestling character since Vince in his heyday. I tend to prefer sleazebag Bischoff over current Authority HHH. Vickie had her moments too. Seriously, what's the point of the PPV match? What's more important: The WWE title, or who is perceived as a star? Never mind that HHH's line is one that likely the majority of the audience won't get or care about. I think the line that bugged me was the one where HHH said (paraphrased), "Sure, Shawn, Bryan might win the title, but he'll never be a star." At least Vince was scared shitless of his company's biggest prize going to a beer-chugging violent redneck. Already, the idea of Bryan wanting to beat HHH is seeming more important (since, from Bryan's point of view, it might drill into HHH that he's an "A player" or whatever) than him beating Orton for the title on Sunday.

Amazing!

Credit where it's due: He sold the punch like a champ.

Harley Race

Going to say Tracy Smothers before anyone else does.

You'd be amazed how many people still don't know the difference (or don't care), especially those people who stretched SD screens. Still a lot of them out there. Similar reasons why DVDs are still out-selling Blu-rays. I'm not as surprised. At the end of the day, there's likely a lot of people who buy the SD version and feel it's good enough. At this point, I think the only way HD will completely overtake SD is when digital downloading for everything (TV shows, movies, PPVs) completely overtakes conventional TV.

Please do share. Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales defeated The Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika) in a two out of three falls match, 2-0 at Showdown at Shea on August 9th 1980. Horsemen-Blonds in 1993 and Benoit-Angle at Insurrextion 2001 come to mind as well.

I was thinking and hoping the same thing. Also, on top of all of Total Divas more less being faces, they acknowledged the real life Bryan-Brie relationship for the first time on a regular WWE show tonight. I'm guessing it sets up a Brie-Steph confrontation, which may not be all that appealing, but is an easy workaround PG and all that.

Perfect ending to RAW. Locker room finally shows some balls after an episode that was all heels standing tall.

That would be fun, but is there any reason to turn Lesnar face?

Even when both are faces, when did Bryan *ever* like Miz? Hell, the build to SummerSlam had him telling Miz to shut up so he and Cena do their thing. My interpretation is Bryan is a man of his word, which also means not helping a guy who put him through shit nearly 3 years ago, even if that guy is on the better side.

So Scott Armstrong is corporate heel ref who fucked Bryan by fast counting the pin, knowing the win wouldn't count? Cool. I do wonder what this means for Orton? Actually, I'm getting my answer. Smart storyline.

I've watched a bit of the E's Mid-South set and dug Andre's performance in the 6-man tag (w/JYD and Dusty vs. Ladd and the Samoans). It was weird because in the layout of the set, they were previewing JYD, yet Andre was the star of the face team, being pretty effective working underneath. Second-rope splash was awesome. I think I've seen the Andre-Savage match Phil is talking about and really enjoyed it. I need to rewatch it. Speaking of Savage, Andre does the best interference at WM4 when he trips Savage in the main event. For such a large man, he does it so non-chalantly that you could easily miss it. Finally, Andre disgustedly whisking his hands after eliminating Hogan at the SNME battle royal is one of my favourite WWF visuals, up there with Austin's WM13 crimson mask.

Slasher makes a good point. If Orton got as much offense as, say, a WWF heel tag team in the 80s, the finish fallout of Orton whining about the refereeing works very well.

Cornette's description of Zbyszko in the WrestleRock Rumble was great!

So...umm...back on topic... Heads-up for those in North America interested in this: The first two matches listed in the Blu Ray exclusives (Sting-Taylor and RnRs-Midnights) aren't actually in the US/Canada Blu Ray version. They are, however, in the UK version. Everything else listed in said exclusives is there.

I was there. Good times. Stuff you guys won't see on TV: - Tyson Kidd and Bo Dallas had a fun opening dark match. Bo Dallas is fun as a heel, claiming he was in Montreal. Kidd got a strong home country reaction. Tyson got the win. - Bryan and Orton closed the evening with a dark match for the title, with the Shield running in for the DQ, followed by Kofi, RVD and Ziggler evening the odds and posing to send the fans home happy. Bryan and Orton moreless sleepwalked through the match and it was still pretty good. Those two are clicking together, their match Sunday should be good. - Yes, as reported, the Divas had to re-do their finish. Initially, it was AJ running in for the DQ (bell took a while to ring, in fact) a brawl happens, but she gets away. Second time (which will be the one shown) there's more of a beatdown on her by her three opponents Sunday. Because of how things happened, it wouldn't shock me at all if the re-do was done for Total Divas purposes. Either way, both times the Divas were out, it was pretty heatless except for home country girl Nattie. A cool takeaway from the event were three ladies in about the third row dressed as The Shield, right down to one of them having the same hair streaks as Rollins. For me, they're contenders for that "Memorable Fans" thread. They should be fairly viewable on TV.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/jim-ross-to-retire-26147422

Even better than ONS in '05 when Eddy did a Larry Zbyszko stall to cut the Lita chants. Also, with RAW being in Canada, I was amused at Stephanie's Rod Black impersonation. I doubt that was the intention...but I enjoyed it.

How will they ensure the Knockouts won't take any food supplies?