WingedEagle

Stephanie reading off draft picks with her Marketing 101 tag lines for each WWE Superstar was like finding out that hostage you've been waiting to be saved took a bullet to the head. As long as the company speaks and presents itself and its characters in that fashion I don't see how they ever reverse the current trajectory.

Tuesday nights. I believe 7 or 8PM eastern.

Last night completely sold me on this show and promotion. I LOVED it . - The opening tag was an incredibly hot, perfect way to open TV and establish Private Party. - Jericho's promo was awesome and did a great job fleshing out characters for him and his group. - The women's tag was fun and I thought it was the best that Bea Priestley has looked thus far in the company. - Loved the main event and almost every aspect of the post-match. Dustin's hot tag was so great, so well built and such a breath of fresh air while at the same time a nice throwback. Jericho and Guevara never wavered from working as and looking like absolute heels. Darby's skateboard entrance. MJF's save and subtle teases of his eventual turn before and after the save. I still don't think he's anything special in the ring, but as a character, - and especially in *this* role - he's been great. More than anything I love how a few, choice stories/feuds are being built. Private Party's elevation. Pac/Omega/Moxley. Jericho/Cody. Jericho/Darby. Jericho's crew vs. babyfaces at large. Its so nice to watch a wrestling show with simple, clear feuds, agendas and roles. The show flew by, and perhaps most importantly, began and ended with something awesome. Tough to complain about a show like that even if there were things I didn't care for or just didn't connect. Jimmy Havoc is a zero for me. He looks and works minor league and doesn't belong in HD on a prominent station. Moxley/Spears wasn't particularly heated and did nothing to grab my attention. The post-match with Omega and the weapons reeked of WWE until Pac's sudden interjection breathed life into it. I thought every match other than the main event probably went a few minutes too long, but those are kinks they can easily work out. Less is more, and in this case not shoehorning in a ton of matches is for the better, even if those they deliver are a little long. Everything has time to breathe. I didn't think I'd be so into the company based on the few clips I'd seen of BTE and what I'd read about it as absolutely nothing on there was of interest to me, but this has been terrific through 2 weeks. All the more impressive that they've been patient and resisted hotshotting anything.

Nothing offensive like the finish to last night's main event, but this show has felt like an absolute throwaway.

Odd that they haven't even uttered Rollins' name yet. Surely they're not that shook by the reaction last night.

I would love to know how Vince, Heyman, etc. are handling the crowd's reaction to this dumpster fire.

Well this has gone way too long.

"We're telling stories to the WWE Universe."

Seth does not look happy. Fingers crossed this is over by 10.

Main event time. We could be out of here by shortly after 10!

I know it was a lot shorter and had a nonsense finish, but I really liked Bayley/Flair last month at COC better than what we're seeing thus far tonight. Zero energy or intensity this evening whereas at least they went hard in limited time last month.

Also really odd to to open with 2 of the 3 matches that were actually promoted for more than 24 hours.

So that was a pretty great opener. For the first half or so it felt like a series of big bumps chained together, but the back half things really came together as they started working towards a finish. The spots and bumps became bigger and stiffer, with nice progression towards the end. Really solid match.

Yes. Absurd pricing for a hat, and presumably that doesn't even factor in PWT's ridiculous shipping fee, which is the main reason I don't throw money at them.

Smackdown, The Good: - The set/stage. Really like the new look and the side-camera they utilized during entrances. Finding a new spot in buildings an alternate hard cam would arguably freshen up the TV product without needing absurdly "original" ideas. - The Rock was awesome and clearly tried to give Becky a bit of his shine. To what end I don't know given how the women were thrown out there later in the show, but there was a thought behind this. - Daniel Bryan on commentary. Always a bonus when it happens. Extra points for his authoritarian comment making the air on WWE TV. - Brock making the title matter again. Elimination Chamber and the Smackdown gauntlets earlier this year were fantastic, and Bran/Kofi was a legitimate low end MOTYC and one of the great Mania moments, but this was a title reign heading downhill ever since and gaining speed along the way. Brock's matches can still feel like the biggest thing in the company so hopefully that's the case going forward. - Cain Velasquez throwing strikes from the mount. He moves very well in and around the ring, and looked great raining down strikes on Brock. The Bad: Its umbrella time, because I'm now ready to rain all over the rest of the show. - The Women. The MSG tag was rough in spots but intense, well laid out and hot. This seemed like a version of that edited for time constraints, with the edits taking away everything that made the first one work. But keeping essentially the same finish for unknown reasons. I was genuinely excited for this match when it was announced, but it turns out they literally booked it just to parade them out and scream "THESE ARE OUR FEMALE SUPERSTARS.' I loved the Bayley heel turn and was patient with the slow pacing of development on that front since then (don't ask why I even bothered giving it more than a moment's thought), but the entire presentation of this match and the wrestlers was as though nothing ever happened or mattered. - The 8 Man tag team match and Lumberjacks. Jesus Fuck. Honestly, I was so sad watching this match and those lumberjacks. Hasn't anyone in the company ever heard that less is more? Where's Waldo doesn't work with stars . If you throw every single piece of shit you have against the wall, you've just got a wall covered in shit. Nothing at all stands out. How is your dedicated audience that's familiar with the wrestlers, their histories, personalities, feuds, ups and downs supposed to care about everyone blending together, much less any new or infrequent viewers you're hoping to retain? Why should *anyone* care about *anything* when there's a lot of clutter on the screen? The same point arguably holds for the women's match, though at least they stand out a bit because they're women on a show dominated by men. I'm not advocating for Orton, Zigger, AJ or anyone in the match. But pick somebody and try to paint them as somewhat special or worth paying attention to. - Tyson Fury. Are you fucking kidding me? How does this do anything but cut into any interest/heat for the KEY ANGLE on this show and going forward (Cain)? This is Mad Libs. For general audience purposes you can fill in the blank with boxing or MMA, it doesn't really matter. I think Cain and MMA mean more to the potential audience. If you disagree, make Fury the focus of an angle with Brock. If not, why is he there to water it down and distract from it, never mind take away creative efforts and television minutes from someone on the roster who may be part of a solid program 1, 3 or 6 months from now. If there's a positive to this (outside of an edict from Fox/ESPN that you're basically given no choice but to obey), please let me know. - Cain Velasquez's look. Why did he have to take his shirt off? Why did he have to wear a knee brace for the limited physicality we saw? None of this will matter if and when you get him over, but first impressions do matter and the first impression that much of the WWE UNIVERSE (strike me down now, please) got of Cain wasn't that of a devastating striker or incredible smooth and athletic heavyweight, but rather the guy with a guy who has the 930AM appointment for physical therapy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Presentation matters. Act like it. On the bright side, none of this may matter next week when there's no Rock to take up 15-20 minutes, (maybe) no shoehorning in half the roster just to scream WE HAVE STARS and for all we know there may be no Cain/Fury after the next Blood Money show. On the other hand, this felt on the whole incredibly depressing. Yet I'll be there on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and next Friday, subject to DVRing things. But what about anyone who hasn't been watching for over 20 years? Why the fuck would they want to do this again?

Yes! Forgot to mention that as well. It just goes to show you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

I really like the overall aesthetic of Dynamite. I don't think its a stretch to say that Dynamite looks and feels like Nitro. The stage and color scheme/lighting in the building seem like a direct callback to that era. Call it familiar, nostalgic or whatever you'd like, but its nice and different from what we're used to seeing from televised wrestling.

Perhaps its simplistic but I wonder how much smartphones subdue crowds a bit in this era. Not at all defending the product, but I don't think people's attention was as easily diverted during that period. Its almost as though there's a hire threshold to reach that level of engagement.

Yes, been that way for a while. Load times between folders and threads always have a brief pause.

I'm happy to eat crow on what I said about Nyla earlier. At least for one night. It was far and away the best match on the show and they worked a really smart and fun match around the size difference. Involving Omega in the post-match didn't make much sense, but I really dug everything else. its not fair to say there's nothing they can do to make me care about Jack Swagger, particularly as I"ll be watching every week, but there's almost nothing they can do to make me care about Jack Swagger.

Some early thoughts: - Cody/Sammy seemed a bit slow until the Brandi bump. Very much by the numbers until they built to some great near falls without overdoing it. I've never quite understood the hype about Guevara but he didn't take anything away from this. The Jericho angle afterwards was nothing amazing but perfectly solid and credible without overdoing things with any shenanigans. - I've never quite gotten the buzz about MJF. He's certainly a heel but the only time I've ever really gotten into him is hanging around as Cody's sidekick. Too over the top on the mic and he works like a passable manager. - Pac/Page seemed a bit too long but solid throughout. Page looked better than he has thus far in AEW. No complaints about extending this feud, perhaps to the PPV. - Much like MJF, I still don't get the hype about Nyla Rose. In her case perhaps its push rather than hype, but same idea. Hope she shows something here.

I may have missed it but was that limo before the main event for Lashley/Lana? Or a tease for something on Friday?

I'm much more interested in NXT as the lineup and roster is more up my alley, but feel like I should check out AEW live as its potentially a much bigger event. I've enjoyed most of their shows but not blown away to the point it feels like appointment viewing. But the prospect of well funded competition with real exposure is definitely interesting.

I can't say the lineup released earlier this week blew me away, but I'm very excited to head to the Hammerstein show tonight. Tanahashi & RNR should be a blast, the main event has potential if everyone goes hard and the young lion matches look pretty fun as well.

Daniel Bryan popped in to remind everyone that he's still one of the best wrestlers alive, and delivered Erick Rowan's career match.