NintendoLogic

It told the right story. He turned the guy's chest to hamburger with one (1) chop. It got a simple chop over as a lethal weapon. There was nothing excessive or masturbatory about it.

The more I think about it, the more Lesnar destroying Balor after their match bothers me. The main issue for me isn't that it made Balor look like a geek who didn't belong in the ring with the real stars, although WWE doesn't exactly have a surfeit of genuine top guys. It's that it completely negated the story of the match. Lesnar not being able to hit the F5 due to the injury to his abdomen and having to win with the kimura was a fantastic story, and it went right down the drain when he started tossing Balor around with no ill effects.

Orton doesn't even recycle! Take that, hippies! Destroying the planet to own the libs.

I have a confession to make, and this is as good a place as any to put it. I don't really get Becky Lynch. I have nothing against her, but I don't understand how she's become the most popular wrestler in the company. And it's not like she just caught fire out of nowhere. Even when she was toiling in the midcard, she was always more over than her push. The question is why when she doesn't really excel at anything. She's decent in the ring, but she's not a best bout machine by any means. She's pretty good on the mic but nowhere near the best. She's attractive enough (and like it or not, appearance is a major part of the equation for WWE women), but she's hardly a stereotypical bombshell, nor does she have that AJ Lee hot-but-attainable vibe. Maybe being solid across the board is better in WWE than being outstanding in some areas and subpar in others since any weaknesses get put under a magnifying glass. But regardless of why she's so over, she unquestionably is. It doesn't matter much to me either way since I don't watch main roster WWE outside of the PPVs, so I have no emotional investment in anyone on the roster. But I can't think of any compelling reason not to go full steam ahead with her, so they might as well do it. And that means facing Ronda one-on-one at Mania. Adding Charlotte to the equation would only confuse the issue and dilute the heat. Even if you think that Charlotte would improve the quality of the match, there's no reason to think that Becky and Ronda would stink out the joint without her.

There's a difference between sloppiness that conveys a sense of struggle and sloppiness that exposes the business. Sasha's quarter-speed armdrags are an example of the latter. And while we're at it, let's admit that Ronda's punches are Shane McMahon tier.

I was only half paying attention to Sasha/Ronda when it happened, so I went back and watched it again. I too was impressed by Ronda's arm selling, but the match overall was nothing special until the last few minutes. With the women working high-profile matches on major shows, it's become impossible to ignore how markedly inferior even the best ones (or at least the US-trained ones) are to the top men from a technical standpoint. They're less explosive, their execution is sloppier, and they telegraph everything worse than a Punch-Out character. That doesn't mean they can't get over or draw money. It doesn't even mean they can't have great matches. But calling them the best wrestlers in the company, let alone the world, is laughable.

I thought that the wonkiness of Balor's offense actually enhanced the match. It came across like he wasn't planning on having Brock's stomach as a target and had to adjust his gameplan on the fly. And if Finn's strikes were giving Brock that much trouble, he must really be hurt, so he might actually lose.

It should be remembered that the Jericho/Brock confrontation was largely driven by Michael Hayes trying to work Jericho and pretending that the finish to the Orton match wasn't planned.

Made my first pick for 2019. I'm going to hold off on top 3 until after Wrestlemania unless some matches blow me away before then.

It was pretty apparent that I was an extreme outlier in how much I enjoyed Bryan/AJ, so I went back and rewatched it. I still thought it was fantastic, albeit perhaps not the MOTY I initially pegged it as. The dead crowd hurt it quite a bit, but it's the kind of match that played better on TV than in a stadium. When a match is built around targeting a body part, it's the subtle details that take it to the next level, and a sequence like Bryan blocking the Phenomenal Forearm by kicking AJ's injured arm followed by AJ having to go up the turnbuckle because he can't springboard is probably going to go over the head of someone in the nosebleeds.

If Becky is facing Ronda at Mania, she shouldn't have tapped clean to Asuka. Now it looks like she's ducking the real champion.

I'm actually pretty sanguine about this outcome. Brock delivered in a big way in his match with Balor, and there's no reason to think he can't do the same with Rollins.

Seth Rollins really is an RVD disciple.

I guess the no man-on-woman contact rule has been rescinded.

I had been pleasantly surprised that Joe didn't come back to eliminate Ali, but that was even worse.

If you took a shot every time Cole said "quite the rivalry," you'd be on your way to the hospital right about now.

Christ, how many fucking save spots are we going to get this year?

"I don't like that name, Kingslayer." That has to be the first genuinely funny thing Lawler's said in years.

Him against Joe was like Kikuchi against Jumbo.

To think people were complaining about 90 second intervals between entries. This show would be going on until February without them.

I was kind of hoping for an El Kabong spot. EDIT: Looks like all I had to do was ask.

Judging by his traps, Elias has been paying visits to Jinder Mahal's...personal trainer.

I wasn't 100% in love with the finish, but that was the second-best match of the year so far. Bryan/AJ was more of a classic title match while Lesnar/Balor was a David vs. Goliath fight. The key is that neither one felt like a 2019 wrestling match.

Even with the godawful finish, that was the best WWE match in over a year and the match of the year so far. These fans can kiss my ass for not appreciating that masterpiece.

You would think that WWE would have cut ties with Flo Rida after he somehow managed to lose a scripted rap battle to Bo Dallas.