NintendoLogic

Yeah, the Pedigree that put Punk down was the third of the match. It wasn't a burial, just an overbooked mess. Just the latest example of PPVs being used to build anticipation for Raw rather than the other way around.

Main event started out as a really good brawl and ended up a total clusterfuck. Miz and Truth came out and attacked both guys, then Johnny Ace came out and sent a text message, then Nash came out and attacked both guys. He jackknifed Punk and tried to do the same to HHH, but HHH hit him with a sledgehammer. Then he Pedigreed Punk for the pin.

Chris Kreski is rolling over in his grave.

Last night, the simultaneous tag spot was done in a way I liked. Evan Bourne was getting worked over, but then he hit a move that knocked R-Truth loopy and both guys headed toward their corners. Truth tagged first, and Miz prevented Bourne from making the tag. When it's done in such a way that it creates suspense as to the outcome, I think it's fine.

Cheers to Mark after years of ups and downs. Funny that his first world title win comes on a night when Cena wins his 10th. (or is it more?) That kind of sums up the year for WWE: we'll try a few new things, but in the end it's back to business as usual. 12, actually. I had to check on Wikipedia to make sure. I can hardly think of a more fitting commentary on the current state of the WWE than the fact that I've literally lost count of how many times Cena has been champion.

No-selling a few strikes is fine. No-selling the entire body of the match is not.

I think the argument's getting a little muddled. If someone's trying to argue that Lawler never no-sold at all, of course that's ridiculous. Arguing that he didn't no-sell everything that happened prior to his comeback sequence the way Warrior often did is much more accurate.

"15 minute Iron Man Match with Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong" has disaster written all over it.

Yeah, he was an on-screen authority figure for a while.

http://www.fcwwrestling.info/cesaro1.html Well, it's not nearly as bad as most of the other names they've come up with.

It makes perfect sense in theory - heel teams working Southern tag style tend to make frequent tags anyway, and the guy playing Ricky Morton needs the tag because he's been getting his ass kicked and his partner is fresh. One guy is sticking to the game plan his team has been running the whole match - and is a especially vital now that he's in a slightly vulnerable position - and the other guy just plain needs to get out. Seems logical to me. Sure, except for two things. One, as Mad Dog pointed out, the spot is usually preceded by the FIP hitting a single big move that leaves the two in an equally vulnerable position. Two, it never works. The incoming heel always gets blasted by the incoming face.

A babyface who gets over based on his looks and appeals to female fans is hardly unprecedented. You can argue with the execution in Shawn's case, but the concept is fine.

If this was the standard, there would be no babyfaces in wrestling.

Tonight's Smackdown reminded me of an alternative match structure common in the WWE that I absolutely hate: the tag match built around the simultaneous hot tag. How the hell does this make sense even in theory?

Misawa was good at that too. There'd be times when he'd hulk up and elbow the fuck out of the other guy, but he'd go back to selling once the adrenaline rush passed.

I would distinguish between "selling" and "babyface selling." The former is intended to convincingly convey pain and vulnerability. The latter is intended to generate sympathy and build anticipation for the comeback. The two often overlap, but they don't have to. Kawada was great at the former, not so much at the latter. Not that he couldn't, it just wasn't what he was going for. Also, I would submit that Warrior and Goldberg had the best shines. It's just that most of their matches consisted entirely of the shine segment.

Doubtful. Bull's a big enough name that they'd be really hyping her if she was on board. And I don't see her having her first match in over a decade in front of a couple hundred gaijin.

Speaking of drugs, Dave has written about how the main reason there are fewer drug-related deaths in Japan is because the cultural taboos against recreational use are a lot stronger. There seems to be something to that, since a few guys have been blackballed from puro after being busted for pot. So why wasn't Bull blackballed from joshi after getting busted for cocaine? Oh, and I checked out Bull's blog, and this is apparently what she looks like now: Sad.

I kind of alluded to this in the other thread, but the big one for me is Chris Benoit. When I first got into serious match analysis in late 2004/early 2005, he was probably my favorite wrestler of all time. Then all the unpleasantness happened, and I shied away from his work for a while. The first time I tried to get back into his work, it still held up. But as my wrestling horizons expanded, his stuff did less and less for me. What it comes down to is that he was great at the little things but pretty weak from a big picture standpoint. Of course, there's also the fact that he made his mark in the NJ junior style and the WWE Main Event Workrate Style, both of which I've completely soured on. In fact, I'd argue that most of the stuff Kurt Angle gets bashed for can be traced back to Benoit. German overkill? Check. A supposed finisher used in every match as a nearfall spot? Check? Excessive application of submissions? Check. And on the "playing one's role effectively" front, there was the period where he was billed as the best technical wrestler in the WWF while his matches were 75% punches and chops.

That's really depressing. There was a bunch of stuff in the Japanese media a while back about her dramatic weight loss. She even wrote a weight loss book. If nothing else, the lengths they had to go to to make her look like a monster is pretty telling. That reminds me, didn't AJW force Aja Kong to bulk up because they didn't think someone who was half black could get over as a babyface? On a somewhat related note, I think it's interesting how most of the 90s joshi stars have aged really well. The one on the right in the picture above is Takako Inoue, and she's still a total fox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqRD3R5mBfU Never forget...

Disagree. NXT Season 3 was more perversely entertaining. Goldust/Aksana getting married with Dusty and Cody there + Dusty's big kiss on Aksana + Aksana walking out > Phil and Paul's yammering. Plus NXT Season 3 gave us odd stuff like Naomi wrestling in a Hamburger Helper Hand. Stuff like that at least drives a "WTF?!" out of you, as opposed to a "End this, please" like last night's segment did. And then there was Michael Cole's gong. Plus Punk's commentary that one episode (an excellent source of comparison right there). I meant in the sense of the only real reason to watch is to see how hilariously bad it can become. For all of WWE Creative's faults, they've generally had the good sense to steer clear of "everything you're watching is fake, but this is real" nonsense. Now, all bets are off. I also want to note that Ditch was right and I was wrong. The writers aren't mailing it in. You can't produce something this bad without a sustained effort.

This angle has officially entered NXT Season 3 territory.

But wasn't it true that WCW never had much penetration in Canada so to a significant portion of the Toronto audience, it was if Hogan had simply fallen off the face of the earth for nearly a decade?

I'm going to reiterate my belief that Wrestlemania being in Miami won't be a significant factor in how the match is received. If it were in American Airlines Arena, sure. But in a stadium, South Floridians aren't even going to be close to a majority of the fans in attendance. It's like the Super Bowl in that regard. Cena's definitely going to get booed out of the building, but that would happen anywhere in the country.