Coffey

Last year, on this board, I said they wouldn't do another one. Just wanna acknowledge that I was wrong & face my shame.

Helluva match here, boys!

Bryan needs to get a more heel theme song.

This was how I felt. Weird match. I expected more from those two. I thought they were going to be pushing Drew to the main event soon, but he's fucking around with Finn and Dolph. Finn that earlier in the night was basically a lumberjack. Finn might have the worst finish in WWE.

Admittedly, I've not followed WWE TV in forever... but one person going over pretty much an entire stable seems crazy to me. Not to mention, last I remember, Nattie was basically a jobber. But good for her, the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

I don't like when people in the 18-21 year old demographic get a pass because "oh, they're just young." That's no excuse. You're old enough to know right from wrong. Social media may be a new(er) thing but people still know what they're saying & putting out there. Dude did dumb shit & should face the consequences of said dumb shit. That's how it works. At 18 years of age you can vote in elections & serve in the armed forces. You're damn sure old enough to know that posting slurs on the internet is not a good decision.

It's interesting to me how much my tastes seem to differ from others. In example, WALTER, ZSJ & Ospreay aren't even on my radar, let alone at the top of my list. In fact, I've never seen a ZSJ or WALTER match that I've liked. I actually stopped watching matches from them because after watching about five pimped matches I was like "...I don't get it." I literally at this point go out of my way to avoid their matches, much like The Young Bucks. So there's definitely a big disconnect there with me. There are wrestlers that came around like that often for me; highly praised online that I don't get a lot of enjoyment from. Used to be Prince Devitt & Kevin Steen. I do like Fenix & Pentagon but Fenix lives & dies by how many spots he blows (kind of like Sabu of old) and Pentagon is just going through the motions right now for me. That being said, the top wrestlers this year for me are Okada, Omega & Gargano. Probably with Gargano at number one.

I've been watching a lot of Terry Funk, Harley Race & 70's-80's wrestling lately. I just watched the Flair/Race World Title match with the Bob Orton/Dick Slater run-in at the end. Really enjoyed it. That Piledriver Flair took was gross! I definitely have a style & era that I prefer. Race, Funk & Flair, despite how serious they were, could still stooge with the best of 'em. Funk with his wobblely-legged sell, Flair of course with the Flair Flop & Harley's great rope teeter-totter. Enough to be entertaining, funny but not too over-the-top or killing of credibility. They're so good. X4.

WWE are legit going with the "well everyone else is doing it!" defense, like a twelve year old child.

EDIT: I guess it's the Brett Wayne match.

Where the Hell is this Jake Vs. Sawyer match y'all are talking about? I can't find it on the Network. Is it under WWE Hidden Gems? I even tried searching for it & can't find it.

I do not believe anything would change in the hypothetical scenario suggested by El -P. WWE thinks all of their roster & all of their fans are expendable & have demonstrated that multiple times over the years. If anything, they would probably make a joke about it on-air, like they did with #CancelWWENetwork. They're still getting the FOX money and the Saudi money. Nothing in WWE changes until Vince McMahon dies.

Maybe they'll hire Fallah Bahh.

I don't either but if I'm being honest, it's more so because of how bad the Greatest Royal Rumble was than it is anything to do with politics. Like, the stuff going on in Saudi Arabia is terrible, no doubt, but if that news didn't come out, I still wouldn't be watching this show because how distracting it is having all of those jobbers in the front row that don't give a fuck.

No words for whatever that Su Yung/Allie skit was. Also that LAX match might be the most dangerous match I've ever seen. Goodness.

This is exactly where I'm at. Thought there would be a thread for it but I guess iMPACT! still isn't to that level. Makes sense, they burned a lot of bridges. I'm sure a lot of fans have been burned by TNA one too many times. But the last show felt really different, so I'm hoping tonight will be more like that. Like my buddy Matt said to me on Twitter, it can't be worse than a current WWE product, so why not? I've not been watching very much modern wrestling from anywhere lately. ROH, NJPW, MLW, WWE, nothing. It's mostly just been old shows on the Network. So seeing someone current again will be a nice change of pace for me. I did watch Slammiversary & I watched some parts of Hell in a Cell but I don't watch any weekly TV anymore. I'll still watch NXT TakeOver shows & probably big WWE PPVs like Rumble & 'Mania but it doesn't feel like they care about the fans anymore for the most part. There's a big disconnect with WWE for me. Wrestle Kingdom in January is always fun but between now and then, I'm not really sure how much wrestling I'll be watching at all, so I hope the show tonight is good.

Eh, no worries. I think you're just stating the sentiment that a lot of us feel. You can tell that even a lot of the talent weren't comfortable last time, let alone wanting to do this twice a year for a decade. I understand WWE is a business but even corporate greed should have a freaking moral line-in-the-sand SOMEWHERE. Ya know?

I was reading about the upcoming changes to the WWE Network. With the new potential pricing scheme. It feels like it's better for all people that are currently not subscribers but punishes those that are currently subscribers. Like, it's currently $10/mo. to watch everything w/out commercials. Now it's going to be $15/mo to watch everything w/out commercials? Unless I am blatantly misreading it. So to continue with the WWE Network as I have been using it, it's an additional $5/mo. Which, I mean, that is just $5/mo. But I also have Hulu and Netflix already. So if we're doing $10/mo. for Netflix, $10/mo. for Hulu & $15/mo. for WWE Network, suddenly I'm up to $35/mo. so it's like I'm paying for cable all over again. That's in addition to the $60/mo. for internet. And WWE Network is a tough sell when you're budgeting & your partner doesn't really watch it. I'm a big wrestling fan. Have been my whole life. Love WWE Network & watching it semi-regularly... but it's not worth more than Netflix or Hulu to me. And part of the appeal - a big damn part - of streaming services was to get away from commercials in the first place. The constant ads are why I stopped watching most live sports, even. Like, have you tried to sit through an NFL or MLB game lately? It's insane. I just don't have the patience for it anymore. I've been spoiled. This is what the future of entertainment is going to be like with everyone cord cutting. New Net Neutrality rules, new internet packages & picking & choosing which streaming services you want to use but you'll still be giving the cable monopolies the money they were getting before from television only now they'll get it from streaming sites. And if companies do start throttling speeds or having you get Netflix packages, you know WWE Network isn't going to be included in those because it's not a big enough service. Let alone services like NJPW World. So it'll turn into a buffering nightmare. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Honestly, I've been falling out of favor with Netflix. Hulu feels better to me lately. The quality of the Netflix originals appears to be dwindling & they're losing a lot of their content. Once Disney starts up a streaming service too... it's going to get hectic.

Just a heads-up, the New Japan DLC hit Steam today for Fire Pro Wrestling World for $20.

You know who is a really interesting case for me? Jushin "Thunder" Liger. He's been so good & so consistent over so many years, at least for me, it's hard to just pick one specific year. His body of work is pretty remarkable in that regard. He's obviously slowed down as he's aged but his matches haven't really regressed all that much as he adapted his style over the years. I think of his Super J Cup performances, his WCW run & feud with Brian Pillman, even his semi-recent NXT appearance, not to mention current NJPW work as he still shows up on most big shows. Kind of crazy body of work.

I just watched & live-tweeted (with pictures) the WARGAMES match from Fall Brawl 1994. What a tremendously fun match! Everyone in the match was really great. The backstory to the match was a lot of fun too. Dustin Rhodes was teaming with Arn Anderson & then Arn Anderson turned on Dustin. Dusty Rhodes stepped up & said he wanted to replace Arn because nothing is stronger than the bond of blood. Dusty Rhodes then went to a biker bar to recruit The Nasty Boys. Colonel Rob Parker had been having heart/chest issues. They find out Parker has to wrestle instead of Meng. And the finish is Parker in the Figure Four while both Nasty Boys take turns dropping elbows on his chest until he surrenders. It was a really good match. A fun brawl. Surprisingly no blood. Terry Funk before getting in the match took off his boot to use as a weapon. He then proceeded to get beaten with his own boot by every member of the babyface team. He also took a Piledriver in-between the two rings & wound up stuck in the hole between them. It was great. Bunkhouse Buck was really good too. He took a mean Piledriver. Sags gave him a running Powerslam into the cage. It was just a really fun all-around wrestling story & match & watching it made my boring Monday more enjoyable. My one complaint is that before the match they announced that Hogan/Flair at Halloween Havoc would be a cage match & then spent considerable time during the Wargames match talking about Hogan instead of the eight men in the Wargames match.

Isn't the Full Sail crowd mostly just the old TNA-mutants that people have hated forever? Isn't NXT in the same city/area that iMPACT! used to tape in? The same fans that would chant for Lance Hoyt & take him out for beers after the show? The NXT crowd has been bad pretty much from the beginning, I thought. When they don't travel.

When Shawn Michaels himself was in The Rockers no one thought he was one day going to be the first Shawn Michaels: main eventer either. Wrestling isn't about how good you are. It's about who you're friends with. Especially in WWE nowadays. Politics will always matter more than talent. Adam Cole seems to be a Triple H guy. Regardless of what you think of him as a performer, that's worth a lot in WWE land.

My favorite part of the main event was Brock kicking in the door then using the door as a ladder to get into the ring. Just as a reminder that he's an insane athletic freak of nature. Even with a worked door, that was a really cool visual.