Coffey

After watching the show with my buddy last night, I'm surprised that when I came on here after he left that so many people were upset with the booking. I thought it was a pretty straight forward show. Heel got help to cheat to win the ladder match for the women, Usos fled like cowards to retain from the babyfaces that were winning, main event heel snuck in to win at the end and evil foreigner heel champ retained via shenanigans as he's only had the belt for a month. I didn't think it was bad at all. It was pretty par for the course, actually. Honky Tonk Man used to run away to keep his belt all the time. That's what the Usos did. MITB has had people run-in/help before too, like Rhyno/Spike/Lita at X-Seven. Don't think that was all that different, people are just hung up on it being the first women's MITB & Big Hog being a dude. Jinder/Orton was kinda long but they had a lot of extra stuff to help fill the time, like the Legends at ringside and the two dudes w/ Jinder & table spots. I think people are overreacting.

Hulk Hogan made people care. People bought into the storylines, let themselves get emotionally involved in his matches & angles & actually care about the outcome. It didn't matter if it was André the Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Sgt. Slaughter, Kamala, Earthquake or anyone else... if The Hulkster was involved, people cared & paid attention. It didn't matter if the end of the match was always the same. Look at Wrestlemania X-8... that crowd went nuts for Hogan when he "Hulked Up" against The Rock. It was nostalgia for sure, but it was nostalgia from when wrestling was still fun... when it still felt like magic. When you could let yourself get immersed in the show. People remembered what it was like to be a kid & just have fun again. I did. Fuck, I cried. I literally cried when Hogan "Hulked Up." Manly tears of nostalgic joy. I remember how big a deal it was when Sgt. Slaughter, Col. Mustafa & Gen. Adnan hit Hogan in the fact with a fireball. Or when Zeus blocked the cage door on Saturday Night's Main Event. Or when The Mega Powers were going to collide. Or when Earthquake squashed Hogan on the Brother Love Show. Everything that fucker did was a big deal. It was memorable. Nowadays, maybe just because I'm older, because of overexposure, I don't know, but the shit all just blends together. The nWo stuff doesn't work without Hogan. WWF, eating up territories & the cable TV & PPV jump doesn't work without Hogan. Wrestling isn't what it is without Hogan. Hulk Hogan is professional wrestling. That's what comes to mind. It's not even like his matches were bad... and he had so many memorable moments, it's insane. No one has ever made me, personally, care about wrestling more than that man. He's the reason I became a fan. He's a reason I'm still a fan thirty years later. The people my age, we grew up with Hulk Hogan. He was in cereal commercials. He was on Sports Illustrated. He was on Johnny Carson. He was a hero when we were kids and a villain when we were rebellious teenagers.

I actually thought the show was pretty fun. Jinder/Orton felt like an old school match from the early 90's. Women's MITB was fine. Main was fine. Fashion Police are still funny. Usos/New Day was good. I'm glad Jinder retained & Corbin won as those were the two I was pulling for. Doesn't seem like anyone got hurt. Don't care about Mike Bennett & Maria at all but whatever. Naomi/Lana was a throwaway match & I missed the preshow match but the show was fine to me.

Not me. I watch NJPW & WWE PPVs & NXT Takeover. That's pretty much it for new stuff. Oh, if they do UK stuff on the Network, I watch that too. I mostly get my wrestling fix from that stuff & old (mostly WCW) PPVs. I just can't do RAW & Smackdown anymore & haven't for a few months now. They catch you up with video packages of everything they deem important anyway. I have lost all interest in Independent promotions like ROH.

Dominion was fun but I felt like Okada/Omega & Naito/Tanahashi were both lesser than their previous Tokyo Dome encounters. I liked the War Machine/GoD match (although not the ending) & the Jr. Title match though. I expected more from the Suzuki/Goto match but all-in-all, really glad with the show & that I watched it. Time flew by while watching it with a buddy & eating some pizza. That's when wrestling feels the best to me, when you're having fun and lose track of time.

NXT should be used to get people ready for the main roster, not to make people be over in NXT. Ascension & Bayley were both over in NXT & have failed on the main roster. Blame it on booking or whatever but the characters have no connected. If Roderick Strong is going to be called-up to the main roster, bland family man is not going to work. It feels like it sort of sets people up for failure if they do get called-up. It also, as a fan, makes me feel like people are better off a lot of the time staying in NXT, which is the opposite of what a developmental system should be doing. But they wanna tour with NXT at the same time & put a bunch of Independent names on the card. It's just... I don't know, confusing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIhFfluBEp4

I'm sure it has nothing to do with Bayley consistently regressing since being called up and consistently having bad matches and fucking up her spots, as well as being completely incapable of cutting a promo. Meanwhile Alexa keeps improving at pretty much everything & it feels pretty apparent that they see a lot of Trish Stratus qualities in her.

I can't believe they gave Ambrose/Miz 30 minutes but glad Miz has the title again.

I've not watched RAW in quite some time & this card seems really perplexing to me due to that. Although it does seem intriguing as well. The main event should be at least fun, if nothing else.

That's a helluva quote right there.

I watched Starrcade yesterday because someone on here mentioned the card in another thread. Then today I watched Halloween Havoc 1992 because someone mentioned Ron Simmons Vs. Barbarian. I'm seriously considering starting a blog on wrestling from 1987-1994. That's easily my favorite time period of wrestling. Pre-Monday Night Wars, before Hogan jumped ship to WCW. I just need to decide on when to start in 1987. Probably Saturday Night's Main Event from Oct. 3rd, 1987 when the Mega Powers formed. That's the older wrestling memory I can remember. So I'll stop in June 1994. So Slamboree 1994 will probably be the last show I do. Maybe King of the Ring 1994.

This is how a lot of the matches on the brand-specific Pay-Per-Views feel to me. It's a big part of the reason why I didn't like the Brand Split the first time around. They have to fill up each PPV card with matches that even if they were on free TV, I wouldn't care about. If they ran that exact same card from Backlash last night on Smackdown instead, other than being an extra hour, it still just feels like a normal Smackdown episode. None of those matches feel special to me at all. A 6-woman tag, a Dolph match, Styles/Owens would probably main event the TV show, Zayn/Corbin... it was a lot of nothing. Even the Smackdown in-ring debut of Nakamara felt sort of just like your everyday normal Smackdown TV match, not something special. It doesn't feel like they use the TV to build up to the PPV show anymore. It feels more like the TV and PPV shows blend together and the PPV show is just another episode of the TV. Which might in part be because with the WWE Network the model has changed, or because WWE is overexposed & there's too many shows nowadays. There's multiple reasons. There's not really a lot of reason to invest in individuals in WWE nowadays as a fan other than if you think the guy is a good wrestler or not. There's no emotional connection. It's a lot of "can this guy have a good match?" not heat or wanting to see someone win or lose. It feels like we're sort of in a meta-era of pro-wrestling in WWE where the heels are the people that suck, either because they're not good wrestlers or because the WWE machine pushed them to the top, and the babyfaces are the guys that are really good wrestlers, regardless of if they're portrayed on TV as heel or babyface. We're at the end of May, Wrestlemania just happened & it feels like WWE is in coast mode already. So now I guess we're just killing time until SummerSlam.

I would have went with Steamboat. Since he just won the IC belt at that same show & was really over as a babyface. Plus he was freakin' chiseled. I mean he was never going to be as big as The Hulkster size wise, probably not popularity wise (he wasn't going to cut any of those cocaine-fueled Hulkster promos for sure) but I think he's a better option than Jake Roberts. Although Randy Savage on top without having to be in the shadow of Hogan is certainly interesting. When did Hennig come in? They could have tried him as a babyface since he could talk & was such a natural athlete but WWF was really going for that larger-than-life feel & I don't know how believable it would be for the person to beat André, and in this case end his unpinned streak & win the title, with someone that wasn't Hogan. I think Mad Dog's Jim Duggan answer is really interesting. Especially since I really like Duggan but hated what he became in WWF. Before he was turned into the goofball, he was a big dude, that was easily recognizable, over & he had the whole U-S-A thing going on which was such a big deal in the 80's. Maybe WWE switches their booking philosophy gears entirely & tries to run a heel on top instead of a babyface? They had a good thing going with Ted DiBiase.

I think I would genuinely rather have Jinder Mahal on top than Kevin Owens. I don't know if that says I like Jinder too much, dislike Owens too much or my tastes are just... odd. I know that Owens wasn't in that match but I just keep thinking how he's in the top mix & I'm not a fan at all. Smackdown should be built around A.J. Styles. He's the best thing they have going right now & it would let them build to A.J. Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura down the road. I would watch the fuck out of Ron Simmons Vs. The Barbarian. Especially if we're talking WCW early 90's era Ron Simmons. I loved his feud with Lex Luger & prefer Barb over Lex usually.

Jinder ain't great... but he's new. Something different. Orton is the same old shit. He isn't new. He has been a jobber since around 2010. Probably longer. The only difference is that he is a jobber thanking god that champions don't have to deal with wellness tests. I mean is he even Hindu to begin with? I know he is Canadian. He new in the main event scene. Randy Orton is like a sixty-seven time champion. No one gives a shit anymore.

Jinder ain't great... but he's new. Something different. Orton is the same old shit.

This looks quite dreadful on paper. I'm hoping that the Tag Title match turns out pretty good. I'd like to see Breezango get a bigger role. They've been pretty funny to me lately and I've always liked both of their work. I liked Fandango when he was solo both before and after Summer Rae. Dillinger/English sounds like the worst pre-show match ever. That would have pissed me off if it were on an old Sunday Night Heat card. I'd rather watch a jobber squash. Harper/Rowan again. No one will care again. Owens/Styles will be a finisher/kickout Indy spamfest. Orton/Mahal is fucking Orton/Mahal. Nak/Zig I assume will be a showcase for Nakamura on the main roster & I've not cared about Dolph since AJ Lee & Big E. came out with him. Zayn/Corbin, I don't know. Never been super high on Zayn but he's great at dying & getting sympathy. I think I won't watch this one live & I'll read what happens and if there's good word of mouth about some of it, I'll check that out. Don't feel this one is worth the time investment. I've been watching Starrcade 1993 today and enjoying it, so I feel like I've had my wrestling fix for the day. Plus NXT last night was fun.

I could see AoP getting called up after they eventually drop the tag titles, yeah. Just like they called-up Nia Jax before she was ready. I still think AoP are pretty bad. They're super green & awkward. Clumsy is a good word. They'll get better, as NotJayTabb pointed out, they're still super young but they're nowhere near ready yet. I think they're right where they should be. On the developmental show, learning from others & getting featured on TV (Network). Last night was their first time on top of a PPV. That's gotta be a big deal for them. I want to see them succeed. If they were on the main roster now (or in the near future), I feel like they would become the next American Alpha or Ascension. They have had a couple of good showings recently but I hope WWE doesn't jump the gun & lets them develop for quite a bit longer. There's certainly no rush.

Pretty sure that just made Ciampa the top heel in NXT.

Johnny Gargano might be the best babyface in all of WWE. It was only a matter of time until #DIY split. Had to have known something was up when the tag match was going on last, yeah?

So the tag titles are going on last? Did Ciampa get cleared to wrestle?

Not sold on Ruby Riot at all but Nikki Cross would be a good person to finally dethrone Asuka. If feels like they're building to Ember Moon/Asuka again but I think Nikki is better.

Match was awesome. I already nominated it in GOTNW's 2017 thread. So good. Those two guys impress me more & more with each showing they have. I wish that match would have been on the main roster just so more eyeballs would have seen it. Good shit.

Nominating - UK Championship: Tyler Bate© Vs. Pete Dunne - NXT Takeover Chicago (5-20-2017) Incredible match. Got a standing ovation twice during the match & after the match. I saw moves I've never seen before & said "holy shit" more than once during the match. Just fun pro-wrestling.