sek69

Considering this show was in April and the title change was in June, watching Baba work a nothing match on this show made me wonder if he was just there to make sure no bullshit happened with his guys.

Akeem wasn't like the worst gimmick ever or anything, it's just so petty and childish to come up with a gimmick just to make fun of the other company's booker. Plus they did it again with Virgil too. Funny how that seems to get forgotten about in all those teary-eyed Dusty tributes WWE produced.

IIRC, they started doing the excessive zooming gimmick when the Shield started as a way to potentially cover up guys being pushed as bad assess missing on strikes and/or they didn't trust three guys new to the main roster to "work properly" right off the bat. Why they are still doing it is beyond me. It seems so counterproductive to have your TV production nausea inducing to the point you have to look away.

So Buck Zumhofe is pretty much the AWA version of Chris Benoit for me now, every time he pops up in a match it just takes me out of it.

Nak has shown to be much better at promos so far. Of course he has the advantage of not having to deliver reams of bad WWE writing too. They just have him hit the key points, which with his charisma make him look like the Rock compared to everyone else.

Wasn't expecting AWA to be the next territory to have stuff added, but I'll take it. Hope the 70s tv from 24/7 is next.

I kinda like how Matt Hardy gives no shits now. I mean, it's not like anyone's buying a TNA PPV no matter what so why not let him do some Adult Swim at 4 AM level stuff.

That interview segment pretty much sealed it for me that Balor is going to get kneecapped on the main roster. Dunn already hates accents, and Finn has shown he kind of sucks at WWE style promos.

Mr. Fuji doing his best Charlie Chan-esque Asian accent when he's Hawaiian. I mean, he's ethnically Japanese but you know what I mean. On a similar note, Italian Hero Santino Marella.

The thing with that is Cena's been such a security blanket on Raw, they can't go more than a week with him off the show for non injury reasons.

I might be the only one, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Bobby Roode can do in NXT. For some reason it just seems like he's going to be another guy set to have a career renewal after TNA.

I was thinking that, or at least AJ/Cena as the top Smackdown feud for the summer.

Also I seem to recall someone (one of his doctors?) trying to claim the coconut angle was proof he has long term brain trauma.

Certainly a 73 year old who's been taking bumps for well over half his life having dementia is not out of the realm of possibility, right? It has to be just as possible as Snuka fooling multiple doctors and lawyers and getting his family to lie under oath? I'm sure his family believes it, or at least believes he didn't kill her. I'm also sure his body is a wreck from taking bumps, if nothing else from years of doing the Superfly Splash on those hard-ass rings of the 70s/80s. All the medical tests and experts seemed to agree he's no more or less impaired mentally than any other 73 year old person.

Workers never quit working.

My grandfather was a big wrestling fan, and when he'd go to Florida for the winter he'd watch shows there and became a fan of Dusty Rhodes. I would spend summers at my grandparents' house, and the only thing he'd watch on TV besides baseball and Jeopardy would be NWA wrestling on TBS. I'd watch it with him and got hooked. It didn't hurt that it was around 1986 and it was really really good. I started watching it at home and my mom didn't like it and just figured it was a phase I would grow out of. That obviously never happened. When I started watching the WWF it was right when they were hitting their peak too, right between WM 2 and 3. So I guess starting to watch when the biggest two companies were on a roll played a big part in me still watching today.

There was something on one of the recent daily WON updates where Ospreay already is having back issues which he said is causing one of his legs to go numb. That will probably curb his style more than any criticism ever will.

I also think it's funny Vader of all people is taking it upon himself to tell the youngin's how to work. I love the guy, but "legit beat the shit out of your opponent" isn't the best working style either.

I'm still not sure what everyone's upset about here. The whole "mirroring each other's moves into a standoff" spot has been around for decades, I don't get why it's an issue here. Sure, theirs was way more intricate but it comes off to me like old baseball guys still bitching about the DH rule. I get why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but that particular horse is well gone from the barn.

Their main focus the last two years is to keep Roman strong, and the whole gimmick is that the MITB is pretty much a guaranteed title win. There's no reason for them to create a second title (and thereby risk recreating the main issue that sunk the brand split the last time) unless they wanted another belt for the briefcase holder to win

Reigns won't lose, the winner is going to cash in and win on the Smackdown titleholder. That's probably the whole reason they are going to go with two champions.

Having a Money in the Bank match with mostly "new era" guys only to have Jericho win and ultimately fail to cash in seems like a colossal waste. Especially when they are going to need to elevate some guys to fill 5 hours of TV a week with a split roster.

I loved the whole exchange between Aries and Nakamura, especially the "me too" line.

I fear for what will become of Mauro with Vince being more heavily involved in producing Smackdown.

If more than one person is the top star, then nobody is the top star. Because that really hurt Cena from becoming the top guy during the original brand split. Seems pretty simple that someone could be the top guy on Raw and someone else would be the top guy on Smackdown but then just accepting the very simple logic of that (and how that would keep a top guy for each touring group) would eliminate hundreds of message board posts and tweets bitching about "omg devalued titles!" Except that the top guy on Smackdown will almost inevitably be slotted as a B+ player, and just like the last time it leads to no one going to SD branded shows.