Childs

The Naito-Suzuki match felt really long to me. They don't seem to mesh that well. It's like the match belongs entirely to the guy who's on offense instead of feeling like a competition between styles. And I never love it when Suzuki goes down like a church mouse after dominating most of the way. I actually think White-Okada would be a good direction for the Dome, though I wouldn't be particularly excited for the match. But I don't want to see Okada in the main event, so that probably colors my view of it.

This is not a good thing overall. We needed a long break from Brock.

Did Vince pay him $10 million this time?

You know Ziggler has been waiting his whole career to do the HBK cell bump.

What are Braun and Roman selling exactly?

Seth Rollins's punches are every bit as shitty on top of a cage as on the ground. So we know that at least.

If I were booking, I'd put a Bill Watts-style moratorium on tables. Such a tired fucking trope.

Joe's one-night pivot from family stealing thug to guy with legit beef is strange booking to say the least.

You're right. It's just frustrating when they book a feud that calls for it, especially one between two good/great workers, and can't deliver. It shouldn't be disappointing, because we all know the limitations. But it still leaves a bad taste at times.

Did Brie bust Miz open hard way?

That's nonsense. I've seen plenty of great brawls between middle-aged men with big guts and bad knees. WWE just isn't very good at booking blood hatred, and Joe and AJ have not transcended that.

Yeah, I don't get what they were going for there. It was just a match -- good because they're good but not heated at all.

The match has been good, but they haven't built on what they set up at Summerslam.

It's super-weird that AJ-Joe is on Hell in a Cell but isn't in the cell.

McIntyre was the only guy I like in that tag, but it was very good. Formula is our friend, and Dolph-Drew actually understand how to be heel champs.

Becky-Charlotte worked for me. Felt sufficiently nasty without becoming a full-on grudge match, which seemed appropriate for an opening chapter. Not the smoothest work but I wasn't looking for that.

Well, whenever you leave the crowd that silent at the end of the opener, you've done something.

But you have to respect Randy Orton's ability to be equally boring in every setting.

The red cell looks silly.

My thoughts, transported over from the New Japan thread ... Ishii-Omega was disappointing. Not bad but they didn't touch their G1 match or their best work from last year. They failed to hook the crowd (or me) for the first 20 minutes. And even though they picked it up over the last 10 (some great counter spots including an out-of-nowhere lariat from Ishii) they never achieved the feel of a big-time main event. Part of the problem was that, unlike in the G1, no one thought Ishii had a prayer. And these guys have done so much to each other over the last year and a half that it's hard for them to push it to another level. But I was really looking forward to the match, and it left me a little deflated.

Ishii-Omega was disappointing. Not bad but they didn't touch their G1 match or their best work from last year. They failed to hook the crowd (or me) for the first 20 minutes. And even though they picked it up over the last 10 (some great counter spots including an out-of-nowhere lariat from Ishii) they never achieved the feel of a big-time main event. Part of the problem was that, unlike in the G1, no one thought Ishii had a prayer. And these guys have done so much to each other over the last year and a half that it's hard for them to push it to another level. But I was really looking forward to the match, and it left me a little deflated.

Kota Ibushi is an incredible athlete, no matter what you think of him as a worker. If you go old school, Jumbo and Jack Brisco stood out. Buzz Sawyer maybe. Kiyoshi Tamura was ridiculously fit and coordinated. Minoru Suzuki has aged unusually well as an athlete. I'm not ranking these guys, just throwing out some examples that came to mind.

I didn't get into this at all. Ospreay was at his hammy worst, and Ishii-Omega achieved little of the intensity we've come to expect from their singles matches. Of course they did some spectacular stuff but nothing that left a lasting imprint.

Bryan vs. Hardy was the toughest choice of the five, and I do think Hardy's peak star power is underappreciated at this point. But I still chose Bryan, because if I had to tell the story of WWE over the last 20 years, his 2013-2014 run -- and all the weird ripple effects from it -- would be a more important chapter than anything Jeff did. I don't know if that's the correct way to assess historical importance, but that's how I looked at it.

The Okada-Scurll match was too long, and Okada needs to improve as a hierarchy worker in general. But the main event did not need to be twice as long as it was. Maybe five more minutes? I'd rather have it at 12 minutes than 28 or whatever. The reactions to All In have been fascinating. I give those guys all the credit in the world for pulling it off. But the people talking about it about it as an all-time great show feel like those who really wanted it to work in the first place. I thought it was pretty comparable to Summerslam -- long, generally entertaining, a few really good matches and some crap. It was obviously more momentous as an event, and I'm glad to hear it was so fun to attend. But listening to Meltz and Alvarez, you'd think they blew WWE out of the water, and I just didn't see that.