WingedEagle

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.

Due to when I grew up and not being remotely into boxing I never developed any special appreciation for or connection to Ali. Just something I completely missed out on. That being said, this weekend has produced so much incredible reading that I absolutely couldn't turn away from. Also have quite a few fights, docs and clips queued up on the YouTube machine for when the time is right. Looking forward to checking out some classics.

Stupid clipboard. Is it fixed now? Looking good, Billy Ray!

Sarge certainly would've taken issue with the link as yet another example of American greed, but I'm looking forward to the article Having not read it yet, curious whether the idea for Summerslam is a rematch or pushing the Mania match back and headlining that show with something else. Certainly seems like a rematch could've worked, but may have required changing the layout at Mania a bit and then a hot angle to ensure Slaughter's heat over the summer. You likely take that the route of the Desert Storm Match they ran at MSG. Pair that with the wedding and I'm sure the show sells just as well as the Hogan/Warrior tag.

This was really frustrating. Let's get this out of the way -- it was a really, really good match. I loved Danielson heeling it up from the intros, to spitting at Roddy, bailing and otherwise going out of his way at almost every turn to play the heel other than outright cheating. Really terrific job working that role here. The chops. My god, the chops. These were loud, blistering, incredible chops. By the end you could see the sweat flying off of their chests. Danielson bled from them. Throw these hard and you're going to engage me. There was also a lot of of focused work on various body parts - Roddy's arm or leg, perhaps his neck, Danielson's back. This is always simple psychology that if all else fails will usually keep a match interesting. What held this back for me is despite two wrestlers with diverse, focused offensive arsenals going at it for nearly 50 minutes is their lack of commitment to sell much of anything along the way. Plain and simple, other than the chops, which are basically a shoot, and Roddy's leg down the stretch, both wrestlers were content to pop up regardless of what type of impact just occurred or stop selling any limb that may have just been focused on, even if for an extended period. If they were more committed on that front this may very well have gone down as one of the best ROH matches ever. The structure was there. The impact, offense and diversity was there. The intensity was off the charts and you had a clear heel and face dichotomy layered on top of it. Watching this shortly after their first title match a week earlier these blemishes were more apparent than they may have been in the moment. But they were there. That being said, this was a nearly 50 minute match that didn't feel anywhere near that long, and had a great finish on top of everything noted above. That still makes for a pretty great match, even if it came up a bit shy of its potential. ****1/4

As a feud, with twists & turns over time I can see Lawler/Dundee taking this. But their matches have never measured up to Flair/Steamboat or the best from All Japan for me. Just night and day.