NintendoLogic

Saying that someone wouldn't be any worse than Jinder as champion is looking at it backwards. The goal should be to rebuild the title, not degrade it further. Kofi going over at Wrestlemania was the only sensible outcome given the build, but it was plain as day that he wouldn't have legs as the top guy when Bryan had to virtually exhaust his bag of tricks to make him look credible. Simply put, Kofi doesn't have the aura of a world champion. He doesn't come across as a larger-than-life superstar or a super tough guy, and he's not a good enough worker to compensate for his shortcomings in those areas. It might be different if Smackdown were loaded with top-tier heel workers who could accentuate him and make him look good, but the pickings are pretty slim unless Joe and/or Nakamura discover the fountain of youth. But Owens or Shane as champion would be even worse. There's no reason for the historical top title in the promotion to be a midcard comedy belt, especially with the coming move to Fox.

I think it's safe to say that Becky Lynch, the next Stone Cold and the hottest star in the industry, has cooled off quite a bit the past few weeks. Feuding with Lacey Evans is obviously doing her no favors, but I think a bigger issue is that we're in the You Deserve It era. WWE storytelling is so wretched that the fans take it upon themselves to invent their own stories, which invariably leads to them getting behind someone because they're being unfairly held back or they have an inspirational life story or they've been around forever, so why not? But when they actually reach the top, it's not as fun to rally behind them because they're no longer the underdog. So the fans lose interest and move on to the next shiny new toy. I thought last year that Daniel Bryan cooling off to the point where he had to turn heel to remain a top guy was a reflection of WWE's incompetence, but I'm starting to think that such a cycle is inevitable with the current fanbase.

It wasn't WWE who reported the Sheamus concussion, it was Dave. When somebody tears a rotator cuff or something like that, they announce it on wwe.com right away. It's only concussions that lead to long absences with no official explanation. If it was nothing serious with Bryan, you'd think they'd just say so to put an end to the speculation.

All Dave has said is that Bryan is out of action. And recent history has shown that when WWE is all hush-hush about the nature of an injury, it's usually concussion-related. But that's impossible because Bryan is a wrestling genius who came back to work a safer more mat-based style.

I'm surprised they didn't do the opposite and keep them split up to send Andrade a message about punching above his weight.

@El-P, I'm counting on you to attend this and provide us with a house show report.

Well, there you go.

I believe Kevin Nash once said that Vince would rather make a million dollars with his own idea than ten million with someone else's. His longstanding aversion to running with anything he can't claim complete credit for is one of the things that makes WWE booking simultaneously so fascinating and so frustrating. He may have made more money promoting wrestling than anyone in history, but he's also left more money on the table than any promoter ever.

Is there a worse move in wrestling than the Panama Sunrise? I don't think it was possible to make the Canadian Destroyer any stupider, but Adam Cole managed that feat by adding a bunny hop off the middle rope beforehand.

In other news, the NXT Name Generator has finally come up with something for Punishment Martinez. He shall henceforth be known as Damien Priest.

New Japan set a company record for revenue this past year even though their mainstream exposure is only a fraction of what it was in the 80s and 90s. A big part of that was Omega and the Bucks raising their international profile. And I get the impression from what I've read that Okada is roughly as well known in Japan as Roman Reigns is in the US.

Duke and Shafir are both green as hell and being paired with them has cooled Baszler off quite a bit. As for the women's tag titles, the problem with the IIconics as champions, besides the fact that they're terrible, is that all the established teams are heels once you remove Sasha and Bayley from the equation. If they're just transitional champions for the Sky Pirates to vanquish, then fine. But a long reign full of awful matches against thrown-together babyface teams will make the belts completely meaningless.

He told the story on The Kevin Steen Show. https://www.bodyslam.net/2018/02/18/michael-elgin-shares-story-with-kevin-owens-about-urinating-on-a-female-wrestling-fan/ I wouldn't say this rises to the level of a criminal offense, but it's still pretty sleazy and not a good look for a company as image-conscious as WWE.

I can't really blame someone for blowing up at McAfee. Common sense should tell you that the biggest event of the year of the company that just hired you isn't the time to be fashion-forward.

He also bragged about peeing on a woman without her consent.

The story now is that the writer (RD Evans, aka Archibald Peck/Mixed Martial Archie/probably some other crap in Chikara) quit. Apparently, Vince kicked Evans out of Gorilla after hearing Bret say his name, then Evans said that he'd do Vince one better and quit on the spot. Granted, that's not much better.

I've decided to update my list to reflect my GME ballot. Matches in bold have seen a rating upgrade from my previous list while ones in italics have seen a downgrade.

Top three for 2019 is up with the caveat that I still have yet to see a match from this year that really knocked my socks off. I also made a major revision of my selections for previous years. To wit, I revised my top three for 1974, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013, and 2015.

After finalizing my GME ballot, my selections are as follows: 70s-Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson, 7/24/76 80s-Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Toshiaki Kawada, 12/16/88 90s-Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue, 6/9/95 00s-Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, 4/25/04 10s-Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, 4/7/13

Looks like I'll be the first one to post my officially submitted ballot. I copied all the match names from the thread titles, so any typos, wrong dates, and other errors are in the original. I would add that there are at least seven matches that probably would have made my list if they had been nominated. But it's my own fault for not being involved in the nomination process. The way I see it, if they really were among the 100 greatest matches of all time, someone else would have nominated them.

Honestly, 31 was the last good Mania. At the very least, Lesnar/Reigns was the last Mania match that felt worthy of the biggest show of the year .

Is this show seriously still going on? I just got back from out of town.

My ballot is in. I'll post it and my thoughts on putting it together after Wrestlemania.

Doug Dellinger must have been responsible for security at the ceremony.

Glad to hear it. There are a couple of matches that would be locks for my ballot but aren't in the nominee section. Here are the threads nominating them. It looks to me like they qualify. https://gweproject.freeforums.net/thread/834/manami-toyota-aja-kong-1994 https://gweproject.freeforums.net/thread/214/njpw-man-eliminaton-match-1987