sek69

Daniel Bryan is like the wrestling version of Final Destination, and every match you're waiting for fate to get their revenge. I don't even know if he's doing it on purpose, but when he does his top rope dropkick where he lands on his back he stays still for a moment before doing his kip up. Every time he's done it since his return I think for a second he got his bell rung from doing the move.

Not a match per se, but I enjoyed the whole series of events that led to Brutus breaking away from Johnny V. Plus the Barber gimmick is one of those things everyone remembers from that era so that has to count for something. He probably should have retired after the injury, but I'm sure he had major bills to pay (plus being a Friend of Hogan was a pretty sweet gig to have).

My pet peeve (and this dates back all the way to when Vince was annoucing) is that everyone seemingly has to have a "*Gimmick* One" based nickname. Like how Bobby Roode is the "Glorious One" and Goldust was always the "Bizarre One".

Byron seems to be getting better at being the third wheel, so to speak. He doesn't usually add much of value but he doesn't step all over the others to get his shit in either.

The stereotypical blonde isn't usually my thing, but Missy Hyatt was amazingly attractive before she went crazy with the plastic surgery.

Yeah, modern day Drew is certainly a good choice.

The agenting on the show seemed to be done to ensure the most frustrating outcome for the fans possible. The bell to bell on the show was fine, other than Nia nearly killing someone again, but nearly every match seemed to be produced in the most ass-backwards way possible. The lone exception would be Miz-Seth, which is probably why everyone loved it way more than expected.

Would it be fair to give him credit for Piper? It seems like Georgia was where he really put it all together, which is odd since you'd think Ole and Piper would have driven each other crazy within seconds of meeting.

On that note, Negro Casas has certainly had some great matches the last 3 years, so pegging him at 2015 seems to be selling him short.

Tommy Rich was a Jim Barnett guy (not in the sleaze thread way), if I'm remembering the timeline correctly.

Well if you remember the famous ECW promo, Dusty had nothing for Steve Austin either. If anything, wrestling has a history of nearly every top guy getting released/passed over/ignored at some point. Not sure if the "Cena was about to be endeavored before Steph heard him rapping" is exactly as true as we hear it, but he was Generic WWE Guy #69787987 before he got the Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick. Foley only got a shot due to JR lobbying for him. Looking back, it seems like the only guy who was clearly a star who was pushed as such from the jump (not counting territories where the owner's kids got pushed) that I can recall would be Goldberg. Of all the things WCW fucked up, they knew the guy was money from the start.

He always seemed to be an alright guy, if not a little obsessed. However he is a textbook example of not patterning your life after a wrestler like he seemed to do with Benoit, and then...well.....let's just say he didn't handle it well.

IIRC the idea was someone flipping channels would see the six sided ring and it would be eye catching enough for them to stop to see what's going on. Which...okay, I guess that's not the worst idea. The flaw in the logic is that that person would likely get driven back away again by what was being booked inside said ring.

It's still mind boggling that they feel the best approach for a guy largely viewed as being pushed down people's throats because it's who Vince wants as the top guy is to go with a "screwed by the management" gimmick. I can't tell if it's the company being so out of touch they might as well be on another planet, or the best trolljob ever.

KO gets a lot of hate, but I like the little things he does like shaking his head when whipping Braun into the ropes to try the pop up powerbomb. Conveying the sense of "I'm not sure this is going to work, but it's my best shot" is the kind of thing you don't see much of in wrestling anymore.

Mauro would be so much better (and easier to listen to) if he wouldn't try so hard to shoehorn pop culture refrences into his commentary that make him sound like the "hello, fellow kids" meme.

What's nice is since Smackdown started in August 99, Having the first year up is pretty much the entire time the show was relevant as far as storylines go.

Yeah this has been leaving me scratching my head, you'd think he'd be a guy Vince would go crazy to push, but I guess maybe he's proof Vince's age phobia (Lashley is 41) is stronger than his muscle fetish. But if that's the case, why'd they even bother bringing him back?

lol @ that quick cut away from an entire section leaving at the finish.

Tons of people leaving, "beat the traffic" chants, another successful Roman main event.

Joe running laps around him in every conceivable way will surely be the thing that finally gets Roman over as the top guy.

Three matches so far on this show involved working a knee injury. As much as I've enjoyed the show the agents have sucked laying it out.

Shoutout to that lady sitting front row near the ramp looking like a tatted up Veda Scott.

Time for Shinsuke: Destroyer of Balls