WingedEagle

Much as I don't like AJ being slotted there, that is how you get rid of him if you're not keeping him around till the finish.

Is it just me or does Styles look hurt?

Taylor Swift? Too easy.

Very pleased they didn't change up his gear, gimmick, name, finisher, nothing. They let the 2015 wrestler of the year come in as is.

And his entrance music immediately vaults into elite status with Sasha & Bayley.

STYLES! #3 no less. This is interesting.

Post-match more than made up for the match, which was a major letdown and I thought vastly inferior to their Raw outing a couple weeks back.

They can't job a new outfit, can they?

Apparently on an island here but New Day's ship has sailed. Not only did they not clear the shark on first jump, they fell into its jaws and were spit out on the other side.

As mentioned elsewhere, my thoughts afterwards were just how much more this could've been with more selling and psychology and slowing things down just a notch. But nitpicks aside, this was about as a great as a match of this style can be. They were pulling off spots and counters in such rapid-fire succession that you can't help but be amazed. Really looking forward to seeing Ospreay develop. Sky is the limit. ****1/2

That was awesome. Love that those tables came into play and weren't just a tease. Props for the conclusive finish as well.

YEAH! This is how you run a gimmicky spotfest!!

Liking this match a whole lot more than I expected. No putzing around, just some hateful spots and use of weapons. Would like some falls to get over the LMS stip, but that's minor quibbling. Let's see where they take it.

Remind me where Sandow has been since Mania?

Most overrated on the roster if not for Bray.

The prospect of a Hunter win doesn't trouble me much. With the state of the roster due to booking and injuries, a Reigns coronation at Mania seems like the wise direction.

MLW teased a big return on twitter, if anyone is interested. Likely just snark, but they threw it out there anyways.

I'm essentially completely on board with #2 as its basically my approach as well. If someone wants to point to some interviews or records where Flair says that Terry Taylor actually laid out their series of matches and carried him the whole way then I'll rethink who's responsible for those occasions, but otherwise its a huge feather in Flair's cap. One of the most interesting parts of this project has been seeing certain folks flesh out why they appreciate a given wrestler for reasons other than being a part of great matches. Can't say they've influenced what I think of a given wrestler or match, but they've certainly given me some different things to think about when watching, even if at the end of the day I liked and appreciate the same things I did at the beginning of the day. #3 I struggle with a bit. A rabid, hot crowd will always make me rate something higher than if that crowd weren't there. But why? Watched a Horsemen 6-man against Magnum, Billy Jack Haynes & Sam Houston yesterday that was just terrific. Billy Jack got to look like a superpower freak press slamming everyone, while we got a nice, long run of Magnum as face in peril with the Horsemen using every heel trick in the book to great success. Yet most of the way the crowd reaction was really just polite, at best, until the close. Don't quite know what their problem was -- morning taping after a long bender the night before? Fight in the crowd? Point is this match was terrific even if the crowd didn't care. Opinions are like assholes, and on this occasion the crowd at this taping had the wrong one. But I still wish I could pinpoint when & why a crowd's reaction does or doesn't matter to me beyond simply saying they got it right or wrong.

I also wouldn't discount the fiery, comeback babyface aspect of his character. Would flip that switch on a regular basis and it could be counted on to succeed all the time, especially with blood.

What about an over-reliance on it?

Curious if perhaps we're not exactly overrating these flaws but rather discussing them too much? Yesterday I watched Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll from last weekend's RPW show. Talking about it with a friend afterwards and right after saying it was amazing, the next things I brought up were (1) the general lack of selling throughout the match as they'd routinely move from spot to spot, (2) the limb work that really went nowhere yet was a part of the finish, and (3) how if they were to just slow it down and put a bit more emphasis on selling so as to tell more of a story it could've been a real classic. After all of that I still thought Ospreay/Scurll was a ****1/2, amazing match. It just so happens that its "flaws" were some things I generally look for in a match and part of many of my favorite matches. Which makes their absence here standout and perhaps receive undue attention when thinking about or discussing the match. But the fact remains the spots were so incredible, were woven into the match so seamlessly and at such a pace with such smooth execution that they had me slapping the couch and enthralled the entire time. Its sometimes certainly easier to get caught up in what doesn't work when those are front-page talking points and may distort the fact that they may have had zero impact on the match whatsoever.

For never-happening-in-this-lifetime-or-the-next- fantasy booking, that was spectacular fun.

I should explain that the reason I won't do this is because I hate fair-weather-ism. I need a more thorough-going look at WoS to get a measure of if he's really the only guy to come from there. When we did the album thing a few years back, I was against guys voting on the couple of rap records they liked when they were little more than day-trippers, tourists. Hadn't done their rap homework. What can I say, I have a puritanical streak. I can't vote in an area where I feel I haven't done my homework. I won't vote Hase unless I watch a good chunk of Hash, Liger, Muta, and other 90s NJ types as well. Just what I'm like. Naturally, people can do what they like with their lists, but that's my own thing. My opinion on Lucha really does mean jack shit, so an endorsement for Casas or Cota from me means absolutely nothing. Genuinely how I see it. I'd rather not give a meaningless endorsement. That's one way of looking at it, but I'd simply see it as you found Casas / Cota impressive enough to rank without speaking at all to your thoughts of lucha elsewhere.

Its really true. If you cut the classics and just kept the squashes it'd still be a hell of a set.