Jimmy Redman

I haven't made a MOTY list in years, let's give it a crack. No order but these are the matches I remember going apeshit for. Almas vs. Gargano - Takeover Philly Women's Royal Rumble Asuka vs. Nia Jax - Elimination Chamber Women's Elimination Chamber PCO vs. WALTER - Janela's Spring Break Clusterfuck - Janela's Spring Break Ladder Match - Takeover NOLA Ember vs. Shayna - Takeover NOLA Gargano vs. Ciampa - Takeover NOLA Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka - WM Ronda/Angle vs. Hunter/Steph - WM Dream vs. Ricochet - Takeover Chicago Gargano vs. Ciampa - Takeover Chicago Nia Jax vs. Ronda Rousey - MITB Shayna vs. Kairi Sane - Takeover Brooklyn IV AJ vs. Joe - Summerslam Buddy Murphy vs. Cedric Alexander - Super Show Down Shayna vs. Kairi Sane - Evolution Becky vs. Charlotte LMS - Evolution Ronda vs. Charlotte - Survivor Series Fuck if I can remember anything from TV. 2013 Stace is so mad at me right now.

So I wrote that whole Forgot About Dre bit about Charlotte on the last page this morning and unbeknownst to me... https://twitter.com/MsCharlotteWWE/status/1064606375060238336

I for one welcome our new shoot style overlords.

I'm not sure what my favourite moment of the women's entrances was - Nia getting such massive heat and Naomi ROFLing in the ring about it, or Mickie asking Bayley for a hug when she came down and being completely rejected and going all, "Oh, OKAY..." I liked Sonya getting a lot of shine here. I also enjoyed the Corey/Mandy stuff for once because he went full Corey and it was funny and it was kind of paid off when she was eliminated and Renee went "Do you need to walk her to the back?" and Corey sulked silently for a minute. Sasha and Asuka need to wrestle a thousand more times. Give em an hour. Although the more that they wrestle each other the closer Sasha comes to her inevitable death at Asuka's hands. I laughed when Nia screwed Sasha and broke up this workrate segment just to get some more shoot internet heat brother brother. Giving No Fucks, leaning in Nia is awesome and it turns out both of them may be better off from this accident if Nia has finally found her heel character and got some legit heat to play with. But anyway what I actually came here to say was HOLY MOTHER EFFIN' FLIPPIN' FREAKIN' FLAPPIN' FUCKIN' SHIT AT RONDA VS CHARLOTTE. My utter God. It's amazing that this was the pencilled in Mania main event and then suddenly became a consolation prize and a step down from the REAL match on four days' notice and all people care about is Becky now and she's lowkey assassinated Ronda's character and Charlotte is Charlotte and I was pretty prepared for people to chant "BECKY" through this and kill it and instead WE GOT THIS SHIT. AND MOTHERFUCKERS ACT LIKE THEY FORGOT ABOUT FLAIR. Charlotte Flair. People sleep on Flair because she's always pushed so hard and such a lame babyface and Becky has basically been taking her spot from her right before her eyes so when she got the chance she done went full on "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say I'm not in the WM main event..." and tore this fucking shit up. Big Match Char. When she stared death at Ronda and then started out by throwing a fucking WILD punch and then a Holly Holm high kick and then shooting for the knee making Ronda NO SELL AND STALK HER DOWN like the fucking Terminator, YES. Once Charlotte shoot shoved her down as well like, fuck, they ain't playing. Then they just get into this gritty as fuck wrestling match, everything was real and earned and nasty as hell. Ronda being able to roll through and transition into an armbar from literally any position on the planet is amazing and awesome. She's inventing wrestling. She also ATE that fucking turnbuckle and hit the sickest enziguri ever. They're basically having a shoot style match now. That whole top rope thing was amazing. Ronda gets tested and it makes her try something high risk and outside her wheelhouse - going up top - but she's still so green that she doesn't quite have it down yet and takes too much time and gets countered. BUT she hangs on and grabs Charlotte from there - cool as - and does the one thing she DOES know how to do - roll into an armbar. Fucking love it. Charlotte fucking HATED IT every time she was caught in an armbar. Hold that thought. RONDA STARTING TO RONDA UP AND TURNING AROUND INTO A SPEAR WAS THE GREATEST SPOT OF ALL TIME. You can add 2.99 kickouts to the list of Things Ronda Rousey Has Somehow Already Mastered After Wrestling For Five Minutes Better Than People Who Have Spent A Lifetime Wrestling And Frankly It's Unfair To The Entire Rest Of The Business That She's This Good At Wrestling. It literally shouldn't be possible for her to be this great this quickly she's had 11 matches and ALL of them have been good and 3 of them have been MOTYCs and she is THIS DAMN GOOD and you can take your Kurt Angles and your whoevers and absolutely go fuck yourself in the arsehole with them because this is the best legit rookie year in wrestling history do not at me. It's not just the things you'd expect her to be good at like armbars and doing cool moves and projecting badassery. It's her timing. It's her babyface comebacks. IT'S HER SELLING. My God the selling. She bumps like a trooper and eats shit and she sells so damn well and shows so much vulnerability in a way that makes her look like she's been honing this act for a decade and not for 7 months. Unbelievable. Speaking of vulnerability, Charlotte crying out in anguish late in this match ruled, it's something she tends to do a lot - particularly as a heel when she would get upset and cry out for her father to help her. Another nice bit of foreshadowing to bring that back, a sign that she was getting upset at not getting it done and perhaps needing to resort to something desperate. Charlotte never gets enough credit for little things like that. She may have a lame character but she is fucking WORKING it. And then she gets caught in MORE ARMBARS and when it got twisted when they were in the ropes in that last bit she grabbed her arm and you could tell she went, "Nope, fuck this shit." and BLAMMO. WAR CHARLOTTE! I assume this was close enough to the original finish they had for Becky, but it has actually turned out so much stronger doing it with Charlotte. It plays perfectly into Charlotte's crisis of confidence after losing the title and losing to Becky, not wanting to captain SD. She NEEDED a big win here. Needed it. And when she reached the point where she felt she couldn't get it, she lost it. She refused to lose again. And 7 months of frustration, going all the way back to first being screwed out of the title by Carmella cashing in, never really getting revenge for that, only holding the title again for a couple weeks, losing her best friend, losing to Becky constantly, and now possibly losing her Mania spot, and not being able to really DO anything about it because she was a babyface and playing nice, all of that shit was all unleashed upon the world here. It was powerful. Charlotte has almost never looked better. She came off genuinely frightening and unhinged. She was ready to fucking throw down with those refs. Holy shit. Do not fuck with. After Monday The Rock himself would have struggled to get a look in on that Mania spot with how much Becky has blown up, and then Charlotte just did her damndest to take that spot right back. She couldn't possibly have made a better attempt. Ronda is fucking legit. Gets elbowed in the face and bleeds out the mouth. Chest chopped raw. Bleeds out the ear. Charlotte destroys that stick into splinters all over her and fucks her whole ass up. Then Pillmanizes her fucking neck. She got fucking murked here. BUT she is Ronda fucking Rousey and even though it took a million years and a million attempts, she flat out REFUSED to let anyone help her out of this damn building. Badass motherfucking shit. And what does she get for her troubles? People chanting for Charlotte and Becky. Ouch. That moment when Ronda turned around on the ramp to survey the crowd, and her eyes narrowed as she realised they were all playing her off and had ZERO sympathy after watching her nearly die for them... that was quite something. Heel Ronda is going to be INCREDIBLE. I could write a tome about this match. Well I just did I guess. That was my favourite match of the weekend, which isn't easy when Takeover exists. That was my favourite match in forever. It was badass as fuck, and felt genuinely game changing in a way that few matches do. Charlotte reclaimed her time here. Ronda isn't human. And we still have BECKY LYNCH waiting in the wings. My God. There is ZERO chance the women don't main event Wrestlemania 35 now. It's just a question of which ones.

OH. MY. GOD. Pump that shit right into my veins until I die. Holy shit. This woman.

About 2 years ago.

Evolution nearly killed me but I'm back! To talk about Candice Michelle going from the worst wrestler in the world to the unlikeliest of workrate heroes, carrying Beth Phoenix in their matches, doing Eva Marie a decade early, why the narrative about her career is bullshit, and so on. http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-all-eyez-on-candice-michelle/

Marty the AMW XXX cage match from 2003 is definitely good. AMW were the early workhorses of TNA, along WITH AJ. The AMW Naturals ladder match from 2004 is a must too.

Y'all fucking around about Shane, meanwhile Becky ethered Ronda again, Rey Junior is still on some GOAT ish inventing wrestling at the age of 143, and MANDY WAS MEAN TO SONYA AND SONYA HAD TO FIGHT HER AND THEY JUST LOOKED AT EACH OTHER LIKE ARGH WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING PLEASE PLEASE NO DON'T DO THIS YOU ALREADY LEAD SONYA AROUND AND MESS WITH HER POOR GAY HEART DON'T LOOK AT HER LIKE THAT JUST BECAUSE SHE HAD TO SAVE YOU FROM BEING BEATEN TO DEATH BY NAOMI GIRL DON'T DO THIS TO HER DON'T DO THIS TO ME.

Ronda had to start out shootin' on Becky about clown school and shit because when they do the face to face promo Ronda is going to get ethered.

After watching it 7 times in 24 hrs when it happened I've been reluctant to revisit this match ever since because it was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and I was scared it wouldn't feel the same in the future but I've watched it twice this week in my Evolution daze and GUESS WHAT MOTHERFUCKERS it was exactly the same and still amazing and remains the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. A great, great, great match.

G'day my dudes I'm high and I'm still thinking about Evolution and I realised I NEVER SAW THE KICKOFF SHOW. UNTIL NOW! Renee, Paige and Beth is so sweet a panel that I've just been diagnosed with Diabetes. They're adorable. Renee is already talking about the lump in her throat. Nope. Sasha and Alexa is a hilarious pairing. Any chance to bring up Abu Dhabi, as if that's what they're doing in KSA. Eww. Poor Alexa, missed out on the Rumble and now this. Sasha already in full makeup fucking LOST HER SHIT 2.7 SECONDS AFTER OPENING HER MOUTH. NOPE. Woke Feminist Cole is Bae. I bet you he's still mad that Meiko lost. AS LONG AS I LIVE I will never get tired of watching Becky go "Oi luv moiself" with THAT FUCKING PETE DUNNE SMIRK before beating the crap out of Edge. Edge mate, you need to stay away from women on Smackdown. First you were outworked by Kelly Kelly, now you're getting flamethrowered by Becky. The absolute best thing though was BETH BEING ALL OFFENDED that Becky dissed her husband and quietly going, "I don't get hot over much, but that made me hot." SHE IS SO ADORABLE. I am 1000% here for Becky running through Beth on some PPV but so please make it happen The Road Dogg. I love Trish so much. Her point about how her and Lita were opposites with their own fanbases but now they're like combined into the same fanbase is something I never thought of until now. Her looking so darn excited to have another face off with Mickie just makes my heart sing, knowing that it came and the people went banana. CARMELLA. Who the fuck would have thought three months ago that Carmella would be the next babyface in wrestling? Mental. Sometimes The Road Dogg knows what he's doing. A broken clock and all that I guess. All the girls LOVE Nattie. To a woman. I absolutely love this because I get it. I don't think a lot of guys really get Nattie. But every woman has a Nattie. And if they don't, they need one. R-TRUUUUUUTH! He came out to tell Paige that he had just spoken to Paige in the back farken Jesus haha. He's going to win the battle royal and face Carmella. This shit is absolute fucking genius, how. Just how. R-Truth is the most underrated comic genius in company history. 2011 #neverforget. And then he shoot asked if he could take his mic hahaha fuck. I will never get tired of this MYC shit as long as I live. I just found out about the original booking and even though I never even considered such a thing, the more I think about, Tegan going over Io was making a lot of sense until she got injured. OHMYGOD MARIA MENOUNOS!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY SWEET DARLING GIRL, MARIA WAS ON E! AND DANCING WITH THE STARS AND SHE AIN'T NEED THIS SHIT AND SHE STILL WORKED WRESTLEMANIA WITH BROKEN RIBS AND A TORN UP FOOT SHE IS THAT BITCH SHE IS A MOTHERFUCKING WRESTLER MY DUDE. I just ran screaming to my mother in joy. I'm so genuinely glad that she's here. Her couple stints obviously let her into the secret Divas Sisterhood of Eternal Life she looks fantastic and now I'm kind of mad that she didn't enter the Battle Royal and toss everyone out. R-Truth finding Carmella's mum is the fucking best. OH. MY GOD. OH MY GOD. EVE MARIE TORRES GRACIE. HOLY SHIT. This hasn't been remotely what this is about but OHMYGOD EVE TORRES HACHE MACHE. I've said this so many times it's probably lost its meaning but it's really no exaggeration that Eve Torres has not aged a day since 2013. ALSO OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE WAY BETH IS LOOKING AT HER. MY POOR HEART. Seriously look at Beth's sweet little face just fucking gazing at her. 17 pieces of fanfiction just spontaneously burst into existence after that look. I just can't get over how beautiful Eve Torres is. OH MY GOD WHY ISN'T EVE TORRES IN THE BATTLE ROYAL. Beth and Eve shouting out Fit Finlay was sweet and good and necessary and frankly hasn't happened enough. On the list of people who made this happen he is easy Top 5. Oh wait Eve said she wished she was in the Battle Royal too so maybe she's injured or pregnant or something. Fingers crossed for the Rumble. These women give me life marking out over Kairi the Pirate and Shayna Baszler. Charley Caruso is a bit of a close talker, Ronda looks like she's answering questions out from under her. Also Ronda going from Smilin' Ronda to MDK Ronda back to Smilin' Ronda was positively sociopathic. The best part about the Ronda/Nikki feud was this package with the snippets of the girls marking out after Ronda's Wrestlemania match. That's cool. The Bellas are such Bellas that them saying something so wrestling-y as "Match of the Year!" is genuinely weird. Ronda taking the slap and laughing and going, "I will end you." was some badass motherfucking shit. Ronda is terrifying. It's so cute how the current girls are rushing to the defense of the Bellas. Renee is straight up shootin' sis. She's hot. Renee is the best at everything. I'm so invested in all this I just had a fucking ball going back and watching the damn preshow. I may watch this whole shit again now. Or maybe watch the Rumble again. Or just put it all on a constant loop until I die.

Well they definitely are, you can see that by them having her walk out of matches and editing boos into the video packages and Cole trying the old Punk/Bryan "some crazy idiots in the crowd are buying into her bullshit" angle. But in this specific case it's just Becky being Becky. And if anyone on earth thinks that stuff will get her booed they are insane. But funnily enough, I actually came in here to talk about Charlotte. She has been tremendous this week. I feel sorry for Charlotte because she's being forced into this babyface role that nobody is buying and she's trying to work this emotional betrayal angle for the story but it's impossible to garner any sympathy for her so she comes off a bit lame. None of this is her fault. But honestly, if you ignore the fact that she was the heel in the match, Charlotte was a fantastic babyface in LMS. She played her role perfectly, staring absolute daggers at Becky and showing just how much she has grown to hate her for what she's become and how much she needed to beat her once and for all. She bumped and sold like a motherfucker and absolutely ATE some stupid ass shit. And then did the big Charlotte Up and busted out of the pile and went after Becky on some glorious, righteous babyface revenge shit and she looked fantastic. In that moment, honestly Charlotte has never looked more like a babyface than in that moment. AND THEN SMACKDOWN. She turned up to TV and talked to Paige and put a big smile on for the camera because hey this is WWE, and then Paige said the words "Be the captain of the Smackdown women's team at Survivor Series" and CHARLOTTE'S WHOLE FACE DROPPED. Because as soon as Paige said that it INSTANTLY hit Charlotte that she wasn't going to be in the Champ vs. Champ match like she planned. Because she wasn't the champ. Because she lost. Because she couldn't beat Becky. And she was SO invested in this match and SO determined to win and SO devastated that she lost that she can't even bring herself to think about the damn Survivor Series match, when normally she'd jump at that kind of opportunity. She had no plan for after this match. It took Paige repeating Charlotte's own babyface inspirational platitude back to her to try to prod her out of this funk. I'm just saying Charlotte is the world's worst face but this is more concern for a big loss than pretty much any babyface ever shows in this company and in general her selling and emoting has been pretty fucking stellar throughout this feud and particularly this week so maybe she's not actually the world's worst face after all. Also I was half asleep but did they really follow up the history making first ever all women's PPV WWE Evolution with a Smackdown with literally no women's matches?

Mate if I went through this for every PPV I'd have a heart attack. I'm still thinking about it. Luckily for my health I'm pretty sure I'll never care about anything this much ever again. Although I thought that after the Rumble too so.

I think you've thought about it way more than the company has. I'm pretty sure it's just Becky spouting whatever cocky shit she can.

So this was absolutely a thing that happened. I already have a written review up HERE and a podcast review with Steven/Grimmas up HERE (let's hope I remember how links work again before I finish this) and I've just watched this show for the THIRD TIME and to be honest I haven't slept a whole lot since God knows when and I was so excited yesterday I legit forgot to eat so I am more delirious than ever now positively flying amongst the waves and so yeah boys we all know what that means! THE JIMMY REDMAN INSANE DRUG ADDLED SLEEP DEPRIVED RAMBLING STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS POST ABOUT WOMEN'S WRESTLING. (TM) This is way more women's content than I've ever had to ramble about before, so my apologies if I use too many words and like crash the board beyond repair.

Without wanting to ignore the real life situation you find yourself in, and Godspeed to you over there my dude. But my one contribution to offer about all that is that I know you said you missed it, and I know I'm me, but if you want wrestling to take your mind away, watch Evolution. 100% watch it. It was a great show, but more than that it was a fun, enjoyable, positive, escapist show and one sure to put a smile on your face more than almost anything else I can think of.

Seeing all this hype stuff dropping now, we're less than 24 hrs away from the PPV and it's starting to truly sink in to me that it's actually happening. (The Trish/Sasha/Toni panel they just livestreamed did me in. It flips me out when I see these Aussie girls in WWE marking out about wrestling or my faves in my accent because it's a very stark visual representation of like, "Yep, that's exactly what I would be like." That's exactly what I WAS like meeting Trish. It's eerie.) I think, much like the Royal Rumble, my brain has managed expectations by largely avoiding thinking about it too much, lest I start fantasy booking a better card or let all of my wildest Divas Invasion dreams get me carried away. There are enough of my wildest dreams coming true as it is. The fact that it's happening at all is one of them, and underneath it all it's important not to forget that. The idea of WWE being able to sell an entire PPV of just women's matches would have sounded insane only a few short years ago - a time when we were still quibbling about whether a women's match could headline even an NXT Takeover, let alone a PPV. Everything that has happened in this "Evolution" since 2013 has gone well above and beyond anything I could have envisioned for the women when I was watching them grind in their bullshit spots and just hoping that one day they could get 10 minutes to wrestle instead of two. And it's my full time job at the moment to write about the accomplishments of the Divas Era and the talent therein, but it remains that it was THEIR full time job to push against the ocean trying in vain to get any wrestling done. There have been issues in the lead up to this. Some matches were thrown together and the build squandered to a certain extent. The underlying reasons for doing it at all and the political shitshow the company is in right now put a bad taste in one's mouth. But at the end of the day, we get a PPV full of women's matches, and that makes me happy. I'm not happy for the company for their corporate hand wave. I'm happy for the women wrestlers who will have never had this much time to wrestle in WWE ever before. I'm just happy that the women wrestlers get time to wrestle. It's 2018 and the more normalised women's wrestling gets the more odd that statement will sound. Good. But it really wasn't all that long ago that they didn't get any. So I remain happy for them that they get this kind of time to wrestle. Ultimately that's all I really want for them - opportunities to wrestle. Because I know they can take it from there. Think about people like Trish and Lita, who accomplished so much in their careers and are HOFers, but nevertheless if these guys have a fun little 12 minute tag team match at this PPV it will still be the longest match either of them have ever had. Plus I know how much it will mean to them to tag together. I know how much it means to literally everyone - I've already seen over the weekend pretty much every wrestler to a woman has been crying all over social media about this being real life. And I sure as heck know I'm not going to be able to remotely handle it when it happens. (I should sell tickets to watch me watching this show.) So I refuse to be cynical. It means too much to me, and it means too much to the women. Plus, get a load of this fucking card. Yeah the battle royal is a waste but everyone gets a payday and I get to have a mini Rumble Pt. 2 with all of my Divas faves interacting with everyone in sight. And for you guys, a genuine Molly Holly sighting. Mainly I'm just psyched for entrances - if I don't get to hear "Holla" et al. I'm going to fucking riot. Speaking of (segue!) the Riott Squad trios will probably rule. Everyone rules. Trios matches rule. Sasha and Bayley get to do spots instead of being in the battle royal. Crazy Mary Dobson and Heidi Lovelace are teaming together on a WWE PPV, what even is this life. Trish Stratus, my sun and stars, moon of my life, is going to go to fucking work. I like Alexa and I'm bummed for her but this is one of those DIVAS INVASION BITCHES! times because I never realised how much I needed Crazy Ass Alicia Fox and Trish to interact until right now and now I'm pumped. Plus Trish and Mickie are in the same match so honestly if this whole match was nothing but Trish and Mickie punching each other and selling it I would be happy. They are the GOAT punch sellers. I'm super not going to cope with this whole thing. I can't cope with any of it really. Kairi vs. Shayna is going to BANGGGGGGGGGG. It banged at the MYC I, it banged at the last Takeover and it's gonna bang now that Shayna is pissed about losing the belt and is going around actually murdering people for sport. Dudes Kairi Hojo and Io Shirai are working major singles matches on a WWE PPV. What even IS this life. Io vs. Toni is gonna be sick too, and from following the MYC I am honestly more hyped for this than anything. Actually that's a lie because I'm hyped for so many things. But this is one of them. Either of them could win which is exciting, and they're gonna go all out to steal the show and Io may even possibly hit the moonsault! Anything could happen! How can anyone not be pumped for Ronda vs. Nikki. Have you not SEEN Nikki forearm literally the entire world into the next dimension??? She can be as stiff as all get out here and Ronda is going to take it and sell her ass off probably because she is a professional wrestler daddy and then she's going to Ronda up and kill her to utter pieces and it's gonna rule. OH AND ALSO, WAR BECKY FUCKING LYNCH. People complaining about the build do not watch Smackdown because I haven't been this hype for a blowoff in a long ass time folks. WAR BECKY is giving less fucks now than ever before and Charlotte is going to get got. LMS means brawling, it means weapon spots, it means more brawling, it means TIME. YESSSSS GAGA. This is real main event fuck what ya heard. Imagine in 2015 being told that Becky Lynch would be the biggest star of the Four Horsewomen. She's been lowkey the best promo and character in the company since 2016, I've been saying it for ten damn years, and now she's been given the ball this is the greatest "run with the ball" run we've seen in literally years and years. I certainly haven't been in love with a wrestler this desperately in literally years and years. So I guess my point is how can you not be fucking excited for this show.

I feel like, if anywhere, PWO and the Matt Ds of the world can appreciate when I try to sell the surprisingly cerebral way in which Bra and Panties matches were worked. Yes, this is what I went with as my go-home for Evolution. http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-the-psychology-of-bra-and-panties-matches/

They may not necessarily have been blindsided, but even if they knew, seeing him out there giving that speech and crying with Rollins and your husband... of course they'd be fucked up when you throw to them 2 seconds later and they have to try to do their jobs.

Yeah I super fucking loved that match. Nikki rules and Bianca just keeps getting better and better. I adore Nikki's involvement in the angle so I loved the finish too.

I have no interest in watching the show.

So I pretty much could have booked a better Smackdown nostalgia show in my sleep. But alas.

It wasn't just the Live Sex though. Ratings went up after he won the title and remained up until literally the day they replaced him with Hunter as Cena's new challenger. People were into Edge as a new top guy, I hate to say it but it's true.

Edge was the next big star on Smackdown in 2002 before he broke his neck. It's a flat out lie.