Bierschwale

D-Lo was also EuroContinental champ in '99 for about a month, before Angle won them and called himself that. D-Lo's definitely a contender for "least memorable wrestler of the era" despite being a huge fat dude who was really mobile. The Droz accident would be what takes him out of that consideration, which is kinda sad.

Well, he dominated HIAC and TLC, and came out on top at SS without winning and NoC without having a match. I just think that it's the "reason to believe" factor. I'm a huge Ambrose fan because he's the most charismatic guy in the company and at worst around #7 as a worker, by my incredibly scientific ranking system. But if I go into a match like I did last night thinking "When are The Ascension going to coming out and schmozz this?" (somehow, they did something worse), like a lot of people, you can't get around it being a bad thing and them giving people a reason to stop caring because they don't think that he'll actually win.

If you go back to SummerSlam 2013, the "definitely satisfying/inoffensive/it didn't matter, anyway" main event finishes would be SS '13 and '14 (because that was definitely a win even if it was a mess), TLC '13, WM, Extreme Rules, Payback, MITB, and Battleground '14. Some of those were kind of shitty as matches like ER, or nobody really cared about the match (SS '13 and Battleground '14). So 8 for 17. That's pretty bad.

I don't think that they're bringing it back as an actual title, but that Rusev will just pull the signature heel move of turning the US title belt into one for his own country, so it makes no sense to use the European title except for weird nostalgia purposes because Russia has as much enmity with the EU as they do the US. But if they bring it back and Lana unilaterally declares that he's also the European champ, and he wears both belts, that would be great. "RUSEV HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF NATO, MAGGLE!"

I'm beginning to think that they've pretty much followed the plan with Ambrose exactly as they wanted. He couldn't even beat Rollins in FCW. He was almost always the fall guy in The Shield who could just do the talking that Reigns/Rollins couldn't. I can't ever remember him getting the pin in one of their six-mans. He only has three singles match wins on PPV, the last being at NoC 2013. He's like a JTTS who can still main event a PPV.

I can't stand Kane as a heel, but he just had a great tag title reign a year and a half ago, settle down.

I didn't care about the Reigns return because he was barely even gone in the first place. He just cut an interview on NXT three days ago.

The Reigns/Rollins pushes are pretty remarkable in their terribleness. I hate them both so much.

I'm enjoying the stairs match as R&D for stair spots, even if it is molasses slow.

I agree, even though it makes no sense at all. Jericho is going to be the guest GM for RAW on Monday. Why wouldn't he just give him #1 contendership back, or put him in a match for it? If the Anonymous GM can make a match where Cena can lose it, why can't any other GM give him a chance to get it back?

This is the kind of living the gimmick I approve of. The Hulkster is slacking. I especially love it if Dustin did Cody's paint for him (stab in the dark, Cody probably has it down by now) but didn't bother to do his own, because the Stardust character is insistent that he's not Cody Rhodes.

Chris Masters in Crockett seems too easy, but... yeah. Also, because Cesaro was brought up, a Cesaro/Masters babyface hoss team is my current "why isn't this happening at this very moment" idea. If we put them in early WCW, I'm definitely thinking of them and Barry/Dustin having the most nuanced version of the Luger/Sting-Steiners match ever.

Bray definitely needed a Susan Atkins or two (so a Patty Krenwinkel, I guess). Either that or a Swamp Bride who could have been his relative equal. Paige's heel turn culminating in her joining up with the Wyatts would have been a much better way to do "LOOK, MAGGLE, SHE'S NUTS!" than the "frenemy" search.

The Elimination Chamber PPV no long exists, so...

Which is why it will be great when Reigns beats him at Fast Lane as his "final test" before Lesnar at 31.

I like that series, too, but I always felt that limiting it to just WWF/E and not including the companies under the library now was a mistake. Those first five SuperBrawls are just sitting there for you, guys. But that also gave me the most pointlessly mind-straining dilemma ever when I tried to cook one for September and had to pick between Bret-Lafitte and Mero-Pillman for '95.

Show did this on Cena in 2012. If there's ever a Shield triple threat, I want this to be the setup: MITB 2015 is held within 365 days of MITB 2014, meaning that Rollins could still cash in after the new winner receives the briefcase (it's A YEAR, not "until we have a new MITB holder"). The MITB match is first or second on the card, something like Cena-Rollins is the semi-main, and the main is Reigns defending the title against Rusev or Sheamus. Ambrose wins MITB, Rollins wins his match, and Reigns retains. THEN... Rollins finally cashes in and takes the title off of Reigns. He gets to be a smug dick for a minute or so until the shitty dirtbike riff hits, and Ambrose cashes in on him, walking out of the show as champ. I HATE the ten-second title reigns that have occurred with so many MITB cash-ins, but it's never happened against a heel, a heel who just ambushed the champ to win at that, so it'd be fantastic as comeuppance. And Ambrose-Reigns-Rollins is your SummerSlam main event, with all three having held the title in one night. (I'd book Ambrose to go over Rollins, to keep the first Ambrose-Reigns singles match in play.)

New Year's Revolution '05 was the one and only. It's totally unrealistic, but I want SummerSlam to be an outdoor show permanently, though obviously held at stadiums that can hold the crowd noise well. Obviously you're never topping Wembley in '92, but I was legitimately disappointed that the "NY/NJ" hype just meant that it'd be held at the Izod Center in 2015. Who gives a shit about that? That's an arena that will have hosted a PPV not even a year and a half before. It's not special. I wanted the Red Bull Arena. Filling out domes twice a year isn't feasible, but why not an MLS stadium?

What are his qualifications for having worked in NA? Because you could either include all of Chono, Hashimoto, Jumbo, Kawada, Kobashi, and Misawa, or not include them and throw Liger out because of the Summit '90 show. Also, and it's obscenely obscure so no fault to Dave, but Abby had a WWWF match against Lil' Abner Osbourne in 1972, though it took me under a minute of research to find it, unless that goes out with the bathwater because it was still Vince Sr.'s company.

Ambrose's general look works for the character, though there are better versions of it. He's the white trash kid who put everything that he had into being a pro wrestler. The "Survival Kit" promo contextualized it well; he already has everything that he needs to be a fighter and to win. There's no real reason for him to not be a black trunks guy, but he makes the basics work. (Whatever they can do to accentuate his looks would be a good idea-- he was absolutely ahead of both Reigns and Rollins as the "female favorite" Shield member.) Not changing up Harper's look (and if they keep Rowan in the green coveralls, same thing) is an absolute mistake. He even still has the crappy bandanna in his pocket. The "Corporate Kane" image is also ridiculous. It's very weird for them to not keep up on those types of details but... WWE.

Yeah, we ALL know that the Authority storyline wasn't put to bed just last night. There's opportunities for Orton to make a return where he screws them over, but they won't have the blunt force of Sting's debut, so you can save it for a RAW episode or TLC. The "screw with the smarks" mentality is idiotic, but the Sting debut obviously has more value than an Orton return. You might as well go all-in with it.

I thought that he was particularly great during the Rusev/Ziggler spot, screaming for Dolph to beat the count. The match was still at 4-on-4 at that point, it certainly wasn't at its climax. It may have been foreshadowing the finishing stretch too much in retrospect, but it put over how every elimination counted so well.

The CFO$-produced themes are almost all horribly generic. All of the guys with themes that seem intrinsic to their characters have ones that were either produced out of house or by Jim Johnston, excluding Jack friggin' Swagger, of all people.

A crazy idea: a multi-man tag with Sting and Trips as the captains of their respective teams. One-fall, let the young guys do the work and then the old guys get in their signature spots that also book-ends off of tonight. Doesn't have enough GRANDEUR for what the company would want, though, I suppose.

Now THAT was a terrible elimination, for both Ryback and Rusev.