Jimmy Redman

Five second booking idea. Becky wins MITB. Because she's a babyface and respects Naomi they set a date in advance for their title match. Summerslam, big deal, put it over. Keep the tension between the faces and heels as the heels are put out that none of them won the briefcase. Naomi and Becky go all out and have an epic title match at SS. Late, the heels come out to interfere and ruin it. Charlotte comes out to chase them away only BAM, heel turn, lay the faces out, hurt Becky, Charlotte has her Horsemen, etc. Charlotte wins the title off Naomi. Can defend against her and Nikki in the fall. Becky returns fully pissed and goes after the Horsemen, eventually facing Charlotte and beating for the title in glorious babyface revenge. Anyway I hope nobody dies in MITB.

Charlotte in NXT? She was green as a tree in NXT, she has improved a million miles on the main roster.

If you think Nakamura's aura was diminished by NXT I question whether you are watching the same shows. When he debited on SD people were singing every note of his song. They built a PPV around his in ring debut. Him just showing up is a special event. None of that happens without NXT and him getting over like gang busters there.

I think the key there is that they have no idea how to book a super white meat babyface on the main roster.

I think for me it was Sheamus. MITB had been around for a few years which kind of introduced the idea of a midcard/not quite ready guy being able to win the world title (Punk in 2008 for example) but those had the mitigating circumstances of cashing in while the champ was dead. Here was a guy who had been around for five minutes in a fair fight with Cena in a PPV match. It was just going to be a routine one-and-done title defense for Cena, and a good learning experience for Sheamus. They basically marketed it as "hey we know you're sick of Orton, so we're giving a random new guy a title shot just for shits and giggles". And it was a tables match so Sheamus didn't have to lose too cleanly while they continued to build him up the card in the next year or so. ...and then he just...won. It was so weird. And it also opened the floodgates for the slew of midcard champions we had over the next few years. But none of the geeks winning after that were quite as shocking, because they'd already done it first with Sheamus.

I'm basically using the same criteria as i would have for GWE, and I don't see a problem reconciling that with the NJPW. Broadly speaking the criteria seems to me to just be rating their on screen performance as wrestlers. (Excluding drawing and off-camera contributions, things like that.)

Oh Jesus. Yeah, of all the women she's the one who could pull it off. Good talker and quick thinker and solid wrestling mind. God damn, why did this never happen.

Co-signed. And I like the woman. I'm not sure who they can get if they really want a woman. Renee is an option, but she feels like a totally wrong fit for this tournament. She was great on NXT getting over people's characters and motivations and the storyline stuff, but I don't know how much she'd add to a wrestling-heavy tournament full of indy workers. I'd rather they just go for good commentators.

You can go to cagematch.net and pull up someone's matches, then filter by company to get just WWE. That should give you an idea of how long their runs were at least.

Cheers mate.

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Can a couple of you obliging blokes push my Layla and Kelly noms through before they get lost in the shuffle? I'll tell all your friends not to laugh at you, I promise.

Oh wow, well if commentary counts that just got King and JBL into my plans. 6. Layla

I wanted to point out that Kofi Kingston made your top 35 WWE wrestlers in GWE. With an extra 18 months can Kofi crack the top 30??? Why stop there?? Mostly I'm wondering just how high I will put Layla. You should definitely get into it though. Rey needs you!

Well, ok. Back down the rabbit hole I go.

I think this is a very astute observation. We as WWE fans are always cranky, but also extremely acquiescent and ultimately malleable to whatever ends up happening in WWE despite our expectations or wishes. We have to be, or else we'd actually stop watching. You already had people saying shit like "well just as well they gave him Kane as his first program because LOOK AT HIM NOW HE'S FRAIL AND INJURED AND RETIRED WHAT KIND OF TOP GUY" as it was. If he'd never had WM30 and then suffered the same injuries and retired just the same, you'd have loads more people spouting the same lines about how of course they couldn't go with Bryan, he's too broken down to be trusted and we knew this all along. WWE included.

I feel like the one vs RVD on WWECw is a strong possibility. It's famous for the big gash on his back but it was also a great match.

Word. Although the idea of Cena being endeavoured and becoming an indy super worker to eventually get back into WWE a la Bryan is something to behold.

Just because there's a brand split doesn't mean you necessarily have to put a brand's world title on a useless jobber. It does happen, that doesn't mean it has to happen or it should happen.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU?! HOW DARE YOU?! HE TOOK A BULLET FOR YOU! SAVED YOU FROM CERTAIN DEATH! HE SACRIFICED HIS WHOLE LIFE FOR YOU! AND THAT'S WHAT YOU DO??? YOU ARE A MONSTER! I watched this 24 hours ago and I'm still mad. I hate you Tommaso Ciampa! You are a bad man! The little touches made this - the self-sacrifice in the middle of the match, the pulling the knee pads down, even the sitting there together to evoke memories of the CWC match. Good Lord. Also Bate/Dunne was fucking bonkers and I loved it. It was already hitting maximum power at the first standing O, and somehow they levelled up like 10 more times after that. Those guys just made themselves. Fuck a Bobby Roode though. For a guy who is such a supposed "old school heel", he sure as fuck doesn't like doing anything heelish in these title matches. His shoulder was totally fucked up and he still decisively beat Hideo clean as a sheet. Poke an eye, pull some tights, do something. Christ man. Not sure where Hideo goes after that.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA JINDER FUCKING MAHAL. I am laughing to cover my pain. Get fucked. In January Bray Wyatt won the Rumble to challenge for this title and John Cena won it to tie Ric Flair's 16 world titles record. Now...just get fucked, everyone. Also yeah Nak/Dolph sucked ass in all possible respects. What a shitshow that was. WWE has this weird ass habit of taking the most anticipated debuts and saying 'You know what? We're really trying to get behind this guy, here's our chance to showcase him in the ring for the first time, soooo this match should be all about...the other guy!" Tag title match was a fucking riot though. I am all in on Tyler Breeze: Deep Undercover and Master of Disguise.

I've caught up on the last month of NXT TV in time for Takeover. I honestly had no idea it was this weekend until today. The MVP was clearly Nikki Cross. The big Nikki/Ruby brawl from weeks ago was awesome. And her interview was fucking glorious. I like how it was presented as kind of a giant fuck you from the NXT production crew. They tried to do the interview but she was such a fucking lunatic that they just threw their hands up and went, well, what bits CAN we use? And we're left with a couple of false starts and her cutting a wild promo way too close to the camera. They didn't even bother cleaning the lighting up. And they put in those super obnoxious static breaks just to hammer home the message: "And this is just the footage we could use guys. Imagine what we couldn't air! She trashed all our stuff, tried to eat the boom mike...I think she actually bit one of the techs. Fucking BIT the guy! He went home crying. Don't ever leave me in a room with that psycho ever again. Surely Full Sail can get me some other video production work experience where I won't turn up to class with scratch marks all over my face and a sore groin..." Also fun was reaffirming that NXT, even in its current sleepwalking mode of booking, is still the land of miracles because they actually made me give a shit about Roderick fucking Strong. How they made this douche into a super sympathetic underdog babyface in a matter of 10 minutes is a wonder and a marvel. God bless this show. So much so that by the time they did the No. 1 Contender's match, it was weird that Roddy wasn't going to win it. It almost seems like a wasted opportunity to not capitalise on that goodwill right away. Great match though. During it I really liked Nigel explaining that back work makes it harder to kick out of pinfalls, so even though Roddy's finish is a head kick, his backbreaker offense still makes sense because any damage to the back is going to help you win a match in the end. The timing Black has on that spin kick is out of this world. I couldn't give a shit about all of these kicks suddenly permeating wrestling as finishers (why is Drew Mac's finisher a Yakuza kick? Just makes him look like he's copying everyone else) and to me they all kind of look the same, but I could watch Black hit his finish all day. Heavy Machinery are kind of great as goofy babyfaces, and the eventual hoss match with the AOP is going to rule. Speaking of AOP, they're having a ladder match at Takeover, and they are so dominant and DIY are so insane that I'm slightly scared that someone is going to legit die. Should be awesome though. A good sign for the women's division is that they're introducing all these new people who are distinct and recognisable. Ruby is the punk rocker. Evans is the sheila in the vintage fashion outfit. Sonya is the MMA sheila. There's that giant lady called Gonzalez. Kimberlee and Candice are indy girls. Plus all of the established girls like the Aussie sheilas, Liv Morgan and Aaliyah. Judging from the battle royal crowd Full Sail has decidedly turned on Aaliyah. Speaking of that battle royal, HOLY FUCKING JESUS EMBER MOON'S MOTHERFUCKING DEATH. WHAT IN THE JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ALMIGHTY. Is she dead? That was insane. She fucking FLEW into that fence. Was she shot out of a cannon? Does Asuka have super strength? And are we sure she's not dead? Asshole In Chief Asuka is great though. The more she holds the title, the longer she's undefeated the cockier she gets, and the more she walks around thinking she can do whatever the fuck she wants because nobody can step to her. Regal can send all the girls he wants at her, she'll kill and eat them all. Fuck you. I super need more Douchebag Asuka interviews by the side of the pool though. Enjoyed Gallagher and Bate just going full WoS with the wrist levers and monkey flipping and crazy pinfalls and bendy hurty arm work and Nigel trying on his Kent Walton. I only wish he'd have talked about Gallagher being the one in the striped trunks. Did Patrick Clark really need to be given a Prince gimmick? I feel like he had enough heel charisma as himself that he didn't need to be boxed into such a derivative character. But I suppose let's see what he does with it. Roode is so boring though, fuck. I assume the plan is for Drew to fuck him up in Brooklyn, and I cannot wait.

All I know is that on Raw, Sasha hit Alicia Fox with a tackle and girl bumped so hard she ended up BACK ON HER FEET. Fight forever.

Barrett didn't really find his groove as an in ring worker until after his ship had well and truly sailed. There's a lot of quality in the 2012-2015 period. But in 2010 that was irrelevant, he came in as a genuinely good promo and performer and an interesting character, and they DID fuck him up and not give him nearly as many chances as Edge got.

Well, there's Rey.