NintendoLogic

As amusing as it may be for people to offer authoritative comments on matches they haven't seen, let the record reflect that Okada/Tanahashi did not contain a single big move 2.9 kick out. As for Bryan, Dave on Twitter said that his Google profile has declined significantly since Wrestlemania, so WWE's master plan to keep him strong clearly isn't working. Since post-comeback HBK was brought up, the contrast between the two is instructive. Shawn was never the top guy, but he was heavily protected both in who he worked with and in wins and losses. It was over a year into his comeback before he had a PPV match that wasn't for the world championship or against a former world champion. And he almost never lost clean, let alone on TV. When he did job, he usually got his win back shortly afterward.

Amazing that it took two agents to put together Bryan/Cass. They couldn't just tell Bryan to go out there and give the big guy seven good minutes? The product is way too micromanaged.

Luger turning down the title win was reported in the March 5, 1990 Observer. Dave was just speculating on the reasons why.

For oldbirds, here's Great Muta vs. Super Strong Machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i2H9CAe1u4

I liked Panther's match with Sam Adonis from last year.

I'll say it: Shawn Michaels. Nearly 24 years between Midnight Rockers vs. Rose/Somers in 1986 and the Undertaker match at WM26.

For the record, I haven't watched WWE regularly in years. I catch maybe half the PPVs in real time and cherry-pick matches with positive buzz from the ones I don't. And I tune into Raw once in a blue moon.

Wasn't it Bill Watts who came up with the spikes and face paint for the Road Warriors? I'm not sure how well the Village People version of the team would have gotten over in the long run. As for Luger, would his career trajectory have changed if he had beaten Flair at Wrestlewar? Supposedly, he was offered the belt and turned it down because he saw the company was going down the tubes and didn't want to be the scapegoat.

Flairs 1981 match with Jumbo was better than the 1982 one. How about Tatsumi Fujinami? 28 years between the Go matches in 1978 and the Nishimura match in 2006.

I'm fascinated by the vitriol this show has inspired. Don't get me wrong, it was a bad show, but people are reacting like it was Heroes of Wrestling. None of the matches were completely atrocious, and two of them were good-to-great. And the booking was just more of the same shit they've been doing the past few years. I guess it's just a case of the audience finally reaching the breaking point.

I'm sure a few gems can be picked out even during TNA's darkest periods. But it's like, I'm sure Nickelback has a few good songs too, but I'm not going to scour their discography to try to identify them. Life is too short.

Cena/Styles at Summerslam is legit one of my least favorite matches of all time. Quite possibly the worst match I've ever seen involving two established great wrestlers. Then again, Cena has been mostly unwatchable since he reinvented himself as a PWG wrestler. But the Roman matches are awesome (I'd say Payback is the better of the two), as is the Lesnar match. Being able to drag something worthwhile out of Suplex City Brock is almost as impressive as doing it with Jinder.

Did the six sides contribute anything positive to the in-ring product? It felt like a case of being different just for the sake of being different.

The Eugene heel turn was wretched. The gimmick as a whole was pretty tasteless, but trying to turn him into a bad guy made it even worse. Am I really supposed to boo a mentally handicapped man who wants people to stop laughing at him? The only way it could have possibly worked is if he had revealed he was faking it the whole time.

Pretty much anything with Aja Kong is worth checking out, as is any interpromotional match with Shinobu Kandori.

I wonder if Vince thinks that kicking out of the Khallas is the one thing Roman hasn't done yet that would get him over.

Did somebody seriously propose in the middle of a match? What an asshole.

Can't say I'll miss it. Too bad my magnum opus elaborating on the differences between neoliberalism and conservatism will never see the light of day now, though.

I'd be thrilled if I never saw another shoulder-first-into-the-ringpost spot for the rest of my life.

Of all the guys they have, Rollins comes closest to checking all the boxes. He's over, relatively young and healthy, and has matches the crowd won't shit all over. I'm worried that the Lesnar and Joe matches represent Roman's future: heels intentionally working as boring as possible to keep them from being cheered over him.

As much as it pains me to say it, Rollins is the one with the most ace potential. Braun is more suited for an Andre/Undertaker-esque final boss role.

WWE's treatment of Cena the past few years has been baffling on both sides. I can't think of any other time when a promotion phased out their top guy while he still had plenty of juice left and he willingly went along with it.

The only source I've seen for Alexa's injury is WWE, so it could be a work. But Nia does have a history of injuring people, so I wouldn't count on it. Stupid clumsy oaf can't do anything right.

My specific Joe recommendations would be vs. AJ at Turning Point 2005 and vs. Daniels at Final Resolution 2006. The 2002 Low Ki match isn't too shabby either.

They have to pull the plug on Reigns now, right? Even the dullest WWE mark could see that he's completely unsalvageable at this point.