MoS

I mean, we are talking bottom of the barrel here. Mauro can be good when he's restrained or produced well and Cole is completely artificial and basically a video game announcer, but he is not actively annoying as often as Graves.

I feel like, despite this being a handicap match, this match is making Miz and Morrison the faces. They are using smart strategy while Strowman keeps bumbling into their traps like an idiot.

That was awful. Corey Graves is the worst commentator ever and anyone who disagrees is wrong and has horrible taste.

Credit to Bruce Prichard, this Sasha-Bayley angle is being done really well. It's solid long-term storytelling.

I know Raw was taped, but as far as Backlash goes, wasn't just Edge-Orton taped and everything else is live? They could easily have redone the taped Raw if Vince had decided to change the finish.

I know it's too early to say given Heyman was removed just a couple of days ago, but hopefully Crews retaining is a sign Vince won't get cold feet on him. I've been a fan since his Uhaa Nation days.

It probably still would work as a general rule if WWE did not spend all their time hyping all such events from the past, because they book as if the current era sucks and the real cool stuff is available on the award-winning WWE Network. I think it was Loss who once said WWE has now become a legacy promotion, and if you keep focusing on your legacy, you cannot at the same time expect fans to not remember such incidents. Particularly in the internet era where everything is available at the stroke of a button.

I'm not a big fan of Bobby Lashley but to call him "chocolate Jake Hager" is ridiculous. Lashley has done plenty of solid to good stuff in his career, whereas literally the only way Jake Hager is tolerable is if he is mean-mugging for Jericho in the background.

I had the advantage of being able to ff through the commercial breaks. Absolutely loved the match. Bryan has been having solid-to-great matches every week since the pandemic began, at a time when no one else in WWE was able to figure out how to have good matches without a crowd. He's a wrestling genius imo.

Is the AJ-Bryan match worth checking out?

It would be really funny if HHH, for so long the ultimate hardcore heel for marrying his way to power, ultimately is turned face by the same sect of fans cuz they can only imagine how gruelling and soul-sucking being Vince's son-in-law and heir apparent must be.

So total cringe then. Thanks, I will def not be checking it out.

Speaking of ratings, would like to ask Americans here: there's some show called MTV Challenge Total Madness that's doing massive numbers in the target demo. What is it, cuz going by the title, it has the potential to be both awful and awesome.

SD doing 2 million to Raw's 1.7 million actually reflects poorly on SD, since it's on broadcast network while Raw is on cable. The fact that SD's viewership has gone below 2 million a bunch of times despite being on network TV is even more damning.

The ratings have gone down in the last 2 weeks since the protests in America exploded. It's been observed that for whatever reason, the AEW audience/viewership is affected more by news/current events than WWE/NXT. I guess because for those who watch WWE live, it's a force of habit a lot more than watching AEW is for its fans.

As far as modern NJ, I love Okada, but Tanahashi leaves me cold and completely unimpressed. He has been over and a star for a really long time and I respect that, but his 2010s work is very underwhelming. I started really liking Okada when NJ moved on from Tana-Okada.

I haven't seen a lot of Tana's 2000s work. What are the matches that show where/how he was as a worker back then?

I remember Austin once surprising me by coming out in favour of marriage equality. I would be hopeful but for my own sake, not too much. Also, wasn't it established that the confederate flag thing was by a fake Austin account? Gargano is a good character as a dickhead heel, but man, I would not have Keith Lee eat any pinfall for any reason right now.

Hard to look past Daniel Bryan imo. He's been great since 2002 and retirement aside, has been churning out great stuff every year since then. Someone more knowledgeable about lucha than myself can list contender(s) from there.

Really liked the show overall. Not looking forward to Cody-Hager. And how can Cody accept a challenge for Fyter Fest when he is defending every week?

A match where a limb injury played into the finish! OTOH, I bet Cody is not able to make Hager look good.

Mox is excellent on promos, and I always mark out for a good park-lot brawl. Cage has such an impressive presence.

Sammy-Matt is the perfect oddball couple. First feud, then if Sammy turns face, they can team up as well. Matt Hardy being a crazy man with multiple personalities that get triggered at different times is pretty great imo. As long as he doesn't magically change clothes and/or seem immune to drowning.

Glad Sammy got a win. Dark Order still sucks, but at least it's in the midcard again.

Cassidy is a huge star, and Jericho made him look like one on commentary. And only Chris Jericho can pull off using a bunch of oranges as an evil dangerous object in a world where sledgehammers are used for 2-counts.