Coffey

To be honest, I don't think beating The Undertaker at Wrestlemania even matters anymore. Now that the streak is over, he doesn't bring anything to the table. I didn't realize while it was going on how important that Streak was to his Wrestlemania draw. I mean, he gave everything to WWE & had a long & tremendous career. He's had a lot of great matches & feuds & memorable moments. Now he's showing his age & his body is totally worn down. I don't think there's a rub there to give. Just like the Wyatt's beating him wouldn't really matter. I think all that is left for The Undertaker at this point, is to officially announce his retirement, do one last Wrestlemania entrance & go into the Hall of Fame. The Streak can't be broken twice. 'Taker winning anymore now doesn't matter. If someone were to beat him, you're the second person to do so & it was against an old, broken down version of The Phenom. I just don't think that's appealing.

Still months to go, stuff to watch & some placement tinkering to go... but right now on my list he's #24.

Then you should list the five. I think top three best babyfaces are Tito, Morton & Steamboat.

I gotta admit, I have more interest in Goodhelmet's list than my own at this point. Super curious what the last ten names on his list are going to be. I know his list & mine will look nothing alike.

Tito Santana is on my list. I might be the high man for Tito, actually. I think Tito Santana might be my favorite babyface of all-time. I just love the way he dies. His comesbacks & fire are great too, but he's just so good at dying. He made everyone he wrestled look like a god. Even when he was squashed in a nothing match at Wrestlemania by The Barbarian. His selling of the top rope Clothesline just made it seem so much more brutal & impactful. Tito was good at what he did. I remember hearing/reading about how it was down to Tito Santana Vs. Bret Hart for whom WWE was going to groom for the top spot after all the steroid trials & Hulk Hogan drama. Tito & the Latinos or Bret & the Canadians. They went with Bret. I'm not sure about the validity of this story but it's certainly fun to think about. Especially now seeing how big the Latino market is in the United States & for pro-wrestling. Would Tito have worked at a top guy if he never took on the El Matadore gimmick? I don't know. Bret was pretty damn good... Of course Ricky Morton is noted for his great babyface work & he comes to mind too but Tito is up there for babyfaces for me.

I think this is a crazy statement. Why does someone have to have a career that long to be included? Rick Rude, in example, is 100% most definitely on my list & he wasn't active for too many years. If we chopped the last ten years of Ric Flair's career off, for another example, would anyone think less of him? Okada will be on the bottom of my list. He's one of the reasons NJPW felt rejuvenated to me & I like his "big match feel" for the main events he's in. Of course, I like Tanahashi too & I know there's not a lot of love around here for him either. Both will probably be on the bottom of my list. Nakamura too. I'm OK with this. We all like different things in our rasslin' but one thing I don't look for is to make sure their tenure was at least X amount of years, ya know? Three years of high level stuff is a long time in this industry to me. I mean, it's not twenty of course but it doesn't make the matches he had worse because he's only done them for three years instead of five or seven, that just makes his number on my list lower than those that have done it for five or seven. I think I'm talking in circles now... but yeah, he's on my list. I think he's done enough already to be on there. We have people making cases for Trish Stratus, for Christ's sake.

I feel like some of the latest Samoa Joe stuff in NXT has put him over-the-top for me & he'll be on the bottom of my list. No one was better, in my opinion, in 2005. His ROH run was a lot of fun. As has been mentioned, there's some hidden gems for his TNA run but he mostly felt like he wasn't really wanting to be there. It came across that way onscreen. Still, his Finn Bàlor feud & their NXT: Takeover London match put him on the bottom of the list for me. Gotta give some love to Joe.

So will Mauro be calling Smackdown tonight?

Asuka Vs. Nia Jax or Asuka Vs. Bayley would both be matches I would be interested in seeing. Nia Jax Vs. Bayley in a rematch I would be fine with as well. I think Dana Brooke is improving a lot too. Watching Emma & Dana try to thwart Nia Jax would also be entertaining. Despite losing some talent to the main roster, the NXT women still feel fine to me. As mentioned, they can still debut Athena too.

She looks like she has lost weight. A lot of weight, I would even say.

I would like it more if Brock came out at like #26 and there were already like six or seven people in the ring. Then he can throw all of them and the new entrants out. That way you can work a different story the first half of the Rumble too.

Great show but I was surprised no titles changed hands. I could have seen every single belts switch & none of the changes would have shocked me. That's just good story-telling. I loved Bayley's never give up attitude & Nia getting more & more frustrated. Baron Corbin is gonna fuck around & get uber good.

Everything from her that I've seen as a manager/valet screams to me that she's in the Dawn Marie role from ECW. Dawn didn't really do anything either, just look good in a super short skirt & occasional cat fights. That's all I've ever seen Veda do - come out wearing a super short skirt & then just kinda stand around. Even then, they have Maria, so it's weird to me.

I'd rather just see Taker not wrestle & go into the Hall of Fame. Do his big entrance & get to say goodbye in Texas. He doesn't need to wrestle anymore.

Finally a payoff!

Are they actually going to do a WWE Title change on free TV? That would be different. Haven't seen that in forever.

It just doesn't make sense from a continuity perspective. What was Stephanie McMahon going to say if Roman's music didn't hit? It's just shitty writing.

Stephanie McMahon came out, irate, and seemed like she was going to fire Roman Reigns. She even got out the "you're..." part before being interrupted by Roman's theme song & his entrance... which she waited for. Then after emasculating Roman by slapping him twenty times, she leaves the ring saying "I'm not going to fire you because my husband told me not to. But Vince will be here later & he might." So what was the fucking point of that segment? Steph to get heat off of Roman & say Vince is coming later? Why does Steph need heat? Why try to diminish what you garnered with Roman at the end of the PPV last night? This company is so counter-productive it's fucking unreal. In five minutes, Stephanie managed to hurt Roman's heat & contradict herself & let us know that the opening was pointless. That's a whole new level of shit. Unbelievable. "Here's the guy we want to be the top guy, I'm gonna make him look like a geek & oh, by the way, my dad will be here later to talk to." Wow, thanks WWE!

Here's a question: if he were in better shape, would he be worse off as a heel? I feel like a lot of the ammo people have against him is his weight. It's an easy target.

They ALWAYS put negative signs for heels on camera. Agreed but is it always something like that?

They also seem to make sure signs like "Diet, Owens, Diet" always make it on camera.

My biggest issue with him is the same issue I had with Daniel Bryan (whom is not fat at all) - he just looks like a normal dude. Not just because of his crazy beer gut but because of his awful beard & terrible ring attire too. It's like he's trying to go out of his way to not look like a star. Seriously, he's wrestling in basketball shorts, like he's still getting $20 a night in front of 50 people. I don't grasp why anyone would pay money to see normal dudes. Where's the draw? We're in a weird era where everyone seems to be all about workrate (both fans and wrestlers) but the ratings are going down every week & no one on the roster feels like a star. I do think that it is more a mentality that was instilled into me from the WWF 1980's style shows though, where I like wrestlers that are larger-than-life, or guys you wouldn't run into at the store while out shopping. I'm not clamoring for a return to a roster of a bunch of jacked-up, steroid-abusing Warlord type wrestlers either, of course. It's not like guys like Harley Race or Terry Funk were body guys. I just never questioned their toughness though. Kevin Owens, I just can't buy him as a wrestler. I can't buy Dolph as one either though & he's in really good shape. It just feels like they don't care about coming off as stars & WWE doesn't care to present them as stars. Everything about Kevin Owens is just super generic. His theme song is generic, his ring entrance, his merchandise, his "KO" logo, everything. So for me, it's not so much that he's fat, it's the overall presentation. But if he is getting bigger, that shows, to me, a lack of dedication to his job, which would probably be frowned upon by management.

Ending was great & left a good cliffhanger for RAW. Problem will be if they do the whole "you're fired unless you win the Royal Rumble" gimmick, or make him #1 in the Rumble. That will get any good will he had from the crowd tonight when the show ended to be completely erased.

Sasha Banks Vs. Becky Lynch was added to the pre-show. That could be good. Maybe Sasha can even come out to her own theme music!!!

I was actually curious if anyone would remember to make the thread... I didn't know if there would be a lot, or any really, interest in this show. I feel bad, as a wrestling fan, where the top promotion in the world can have a card with a ladder match on it, a match that is super dangerous to the performers, and there be so little fan fare heading into it. I love Kalisto & wish he would get a solo push for a midcard title. I just hope he doesn't get too crazy trying to shine bright in that match with the opportunity given to him. One of the Uso brothers just came back from injury, so of course putting him in a ladder match makes sense... Kofi will probably try to do something nuts as well. Del Rio/Swagger could surprise but Del Rio doesn't seem to give a crap in WWE. He's in straight up "cash them checks" mode. He was great in Lucha Underground. Owens/Ambrose could be good... but I expect an Indy spotfest of making all moves mean nothing & kicking out of everything until the crowd chants "this is awesome" instead. Shame. Ambrose also needs to get that rebound lariat out of his repertoire entirely. The other matches I wish I could fast-forward live. Rusev used to be one of my favorite things in the promotion too. Shame. Reigns/Sheamus should be a good match. No clue on the ending though. They should just have Reigns go over clean in the middle probably without any shenanigans because the ratings are so bad but instead it'll probably be overbooked League of Nations/Authority stuff, with Sheamus retaining & RAW opening with another 20 minute Sheamus promo until they get under a 2.0 rating. A Shoutbox for a live PPV where I have subpar expectations would certainly enhance my will to watch, I think. Y'all are good people.