sek69

Yeah I love watching the post show Raw bits from 1998 and I know they did a load for 1999 as well but did they do any other years? I cant recall them doing any Smackdown related segments. I bought the Raw DVd that had similar bits like Hogan posing with Cena & Batista but what I always found odd with this is why they didnt show the match that took place before the posedown which I believe was Hogan/Batista/Cena vs HBK/HHH/JBL. I watched the Ric Flair retirement Raw and they had the post-show portion which had Taker and then Vince himself coming out to pay their respects.

Seems fitting that Goldberg's return match would also mark the return of what I used to call the WCW Effect of people not liking shows because they didn't like the main event.

As silly as it is to keep Joe in NXT, if it gets Nak on the main roster ASAP so be it.

Also, Ember Moon is probably where this is headed, isn't it? Hold off til Mania weekend and have her hit the O-Face in a massive spot. Based on TV, Ember is going to help Liv kill the Australian girls first.

Nak and his army of violinists need to be on every show from now on.

She is bumping like crazy. I wouldn't mind her getting a coaching gig or a role being an in-ring Finlay style coach for the NXT girls.

Mickie looks good for someone who was run over by a train,

Paul Ellering: leading monsters to win vanity tag team tournaments since 1986.

Whoever designs the ring gear for NXT sure does like those high-ass vampire looking collars for the big events.

It doesn't even make sense from a storyline/kayfabe standpoint to do Brock-Shane. If you go with the idea that he just wants to mess up his sister's show, why go after the guy who's only around once every few months and hardly ever interacts with any of the regular members of the roster? If his goal is to ruin Raw, he should take a lead pipe to Owens' knee or flatten Roman's tires.

Sid was pretty much custom made for the time period he was in. Tall, built, charismatic, with a hint of "this guy might be legit crazy". Sure, he sucked in the ring, but that didn't matter for much of his time in the business.

Joe's reign of terror has been one of the best parts of NXT tv most weeks so I don't get how it's not compelling, but "shruggie emoticon".

Funny that he apparently didn't want to get into details on why he left the AWA. Stan had defenses booked in Japan and Verne wanted him to drop the title so he left since he didn't want to break those commitments. Seems like a fairly innocent story by wrestling terms and not something you'd rather keep quiet.

Takeover main is a rematch of Nak vs Joe.

Yeah I keep hearing people on other sites/shows go on about there not being any buzz for Takeover, and it puzzles me. On paper at least it's a solid show at least and the only match I'm not really super jazzed about is the women since I'm already kind of over the "Asuka vs the person with no chance to win" storyline.

IIRC they would have guys announced as champion at those tapings but not holding the belts if they hadn't won them yet, so if plans changed (or shit happened) they would just redo the commentary.

Lana and Rusev seem like the best couple wrestling has seen in ages, but it's weird having her on the show. They can't keep up any pretense of it being a "reality" show with her pretending to be Russian, but it kills her wrestling gimmick dead even if she keeps pretending on Twitter she's just doing an American accent for the show (in between retweeting creepy obsessed fans).

JR retweeted a pic of Heyman, Dreamer, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Taz on set for the ESPN shouty head show I mentioned earlier so that looks like a thing now.

It seems pretty clear Miz is going to cheat to win and keep rubbing it in Daniel's face. My only fear is that this will lead to a segment where Daniel has to grovel to Stephanie to get Sami to go to SD.

How does play-doh, coloring books, and safety pins do anything to ease these fears, though? It gives people an outlet to relieve stress, which is an important part of mental health and when people mock it, it sends a message that you should just internalize everything which tends to not be healthy. The safety pin thing was just a form of silent protest as far as a I can gather. Just to let the world know you aren't down for this bullshit about to happen.

Seeing the legit fear from folks on my Facebook feed the days after the election who would be directly impacted by Trump's policy has kind of soured me on the typical white dude "buck up buttercup" responses. Yeah, Cletus you can make fun of people being upset when you're not #1 on his list to strip rights from.

There's no such thing as a babyface when BRAND SUPREMACY is on the line, brah! (yes, that was stupid)

Also, the end of last night's show is a fine example of why SD has been so much better than Raw. On that show, their Survivor Series team was told they better produce or face a browbeating from Stephanie. On SD, you had Taker come out and say if they don't win they'd have to deal with him. Say what you will about Taker at this point in the game, but I'd take grizzled grandpa deadman with magic powers over overbearing stage mom in the role of "person the roster should be afraid of". Plus it was nice to see King Booker make an appearance and that Edge rescued Daniel Bryan's old beard from the pound.

They probably got paid a lot for it.

That argument would work better if 99% of the anti PC crowd wasn't just angry they can't be racist/sexist/whatever-ist without any consequences. Gabe's supposed to let a guy who went against direction skate free lest he be seen as an enemy of free speech? Fuck outta here with that nonsense. Part of the deal with free speech is while you have the right to say whatever, others have the right to call you an asshole if you're being one.