WingedEagle

Finished it this morning and it was an incredible. Harrowing and fascinating. For those that think they don't want to ever see or hear anything Benoit-related, that's me. No interest in looking back on the Observers or anything else written about the tragedy. Zero need to watch any matches or think about this story at all. That being said, this offers a unique perspective that is worth hearing.

How was the close of King of Gate? Anything I need to check out from the end of the series?

Definitely interesting how they weaved the suspension into the storyline. It makes sense given he's still pushed as part of the PPV main event, but I wouldn't have necessarily expected it. It remains to be seen how this impacts the type of crowd response he sees going foward and whether they tweak his role because of it. Am I the only one who found Cena/Rollins and AJ/Ambrose underwhelming? When those matches were announced I was pretty hyped for them but thought the former was by far the worst of their pairings to date without much flow before the predictable finish, while Ambrose seemed to gel less with AJ than even Jericho did. Not sure what was in the water in Tampa last night.

Has anyone actually said that? No.

Pretty sure pot is only a fine now and not an actual Wellness violation. Only the "fake pot" that idiots like Evan Bourne used is part of the Wellness Policy. Meltzer tweeted that synthetic pot is apparently a violation. True greens remain a fine.

Ambrose seemed slightly toned down on the mic this week. Slightly. Not quite the full on tweak parody he'd become, but further along that spectrum than I'd want from someone with the big belt. Overall thought he carried himself well and was presented in a much more legitimate fashion than I thought possible after the direction of his singles run going back for quite some time. Seems like the pops for Shane O Mac have fallen by the wayside. Very expected once the nostalgia wore off, but we're clearly in for a full serving going forward. I was really excited at the teased face turn for the Wyatts before they disappeared due to injury. Looked to be a fresh and necessary reboot of the act with a lot of potential. Unfortunately they seem to have returned in the exact same role, soon to be followed by the never-ending True Blood promos. And in a program with New Day. These TV segments will give me a lot of time to check in on other things or make phone calls. Matches have some potential if New Day doesn't play it for comedy, but not sure what the ceiling is if Strowman is heavily involved. Really dug AJ's mic work and the presentation of the Club this week. Hopefully they find a natural, compelling way to shift this to the top on Smackdown if that is indeed the plan. Loved Roman/Rollins once again. Not at the level of the PPV, but a really good match and interesting that they worked it with Roman as the babyface selling and getting cut off, which lo and behold even seemed to produce genuine babyface pops for his comebacks. Can't quite put my finger on it, but the way they teased and eventually arrived at the double countout just didn't feel right. Perhaps because they both looked to make it back right as the ref reached 10? May have worked better had they both been laid out on top of an imploded table for the entire count. Either way, really solid TV main event.

I assume this was known before MITB & Raw and that plans for Battleground were made with this in mind. But we shall see in the days and weeks ahead.

Watched the show last night. Cena/Styles was good but far from the MOTYC I wanted and talked myself into in advance. Cena looked a bit off in his return and the finish did them no favors, even if designed to extend the feud. They just didn't have a good rhythm most of the way and it felt like they were jumping from spot to spot without of a plan for tying them together. The stretch run was pretty hot and exciting and I even dug the near falls until the Club showed up. The ladder match was about as good as it could be at this stage in its lifeline. We've seen most of what can be done in this setting, but they found creative ways to let almost everyone shine, and between the Cesaro springboard and Owens suicide bump there were more than enough cool and fun moments to make this enjoyable. Just not sure there's any juice left for the match to steal the show as it might in earlier iterations. I loved almost everything about the main event. From a strong lockup to Reigns acting as a smug heel early on and Rollins delivering hot babyface comebacks to Reigns's power offense and ability to sell as a big without playing dead, this was fantastic most of the way. Then he takes out the barricade in a spot we've seen on multiple occasions, but with the added wrinkle of doctors coming out to sell some sort of injury. Which at no point looked like death. Then 2 delayed Pedigrees to finish him? Really don't understand that as it didn't seem to put him over as resilient before going down, nor Rollins as a killer. Why not have Ambrose cash in on Reigns and not paint the title with quite so stark a shade of hot potato? These 5 minute title reigns don't benefit anyone as far as I can tell, so very curious what the long-term plans may be for everyone involved coming out of this. Hoping they have something very big planned for Summerslam. They've put together some great three-ways over the last 2 years (Rumble '15 and Fastlane this year), so while I'm not exactly hot for this one, the potential is there and with the backstory you'd think it would headline a "big" show rather than build towards such a big show. On to Raw tonight and Dominion tomorrow!

So incredibly disappointed this is going up against game 7. Slight chance I decide to be dead tired tomorrow and watch this after the game, but odds are it gets pushed to tomorrow night and Raw to Tuesday.

This is definitely my biggest GWE takeaway. I've still got a ridiculously long playlist compiled during the process that I've barely scratched the surface on. Which is great.

Hopefully it is the end of his run in WWE. Been long overdue. Not a big believer that someone his age can change, but if he does have more time on his hands maybe he'll put it to good use. Or a least listen to Chris Rock when it comes to domestic matters.

This was very intense and pretty heated for the duration, however, it was under 5 minutes. Would love to see what they can put together over a 15+ minute match. Okabayashi looks fantastic every time I see him. Really need to dig deeper there as I've only seen a few touted matches but he seems right up my alley, moreso than Sekimoto. Could probably go about ***1/4 - ***1/2 given how long they went here.

Thanks, will check it out tonight or tomorrow.

Is this available online?

Thanks for the update. Will at least try to catch Eita/Susumu this weekend as time may make it difficult to check out the full show.

That scream was some straight up Jurassic Park madness. Jax got robbed!!

I am completely sold on Jax. She knows how to use her size, how to sell on her feet and then gradually more before going down. Really impressed with her in all big matches thus far.

I really like how Jax works. Simple, methodical, and always great use of the visual size difference between her and the other girls.

So what's the deal with Nia Jax? They give her ring music that sounds fitting for Maryse or Eva Marie, but outfit her like the heel from The Little Mermaid.

Yeah, he did that quite regularly in Japan, he sucks at selling leg work. He did blow it up. Not sure why Aries quit on it either. Really liked the tease of the leg and neck that he focused on early but then just dropped. Thought the finish was great and conclusive without needing a ton of near falls or any craziness.

Huh. Who are these guys?

Suspenders are not a good look. For anyone.

Definitely wouldn't be surprised if this game is over early as well, but that still means tape delaying the second half of Takeover and going dark online. First world problems!

Big decision will be whether to put this on the computer when basketball starts or save the second half for after the game.