MoS

I'm also interested to see where Mox fits in the larger main event scene. They have done a much better job of building PAC as a star than I had expected. Page is not working at the main event level though. He can be Hager's first victory in a match.

How many people think Jericho right now is genuinely the best he has ever been? Because I absolutely do. I still think they should pull the trigger on Cody at Full Gear though. The fans are molten for him.

Jim Cornette has opinions on this match as well -

The crowd did not really care for anything Baker did, but they were hot for Riho and it was a fun match. The right person won; I was scared they were making Baker the champ. The commentary of the show is so refreshing and delightfully different than what we see on WWE shows. They are not perfect by any means but they are east and not grating to listen to throughout the show, and I cannot say that about WWE main roster commentary. Thank fuck I don't have to listen to stupid bickering on commentary.

Britt is just not as over as they want her to be. As much as it might enrage Cornette and some others, it's great just how over Riho is becoming to the crowds through her matches.

I've really liked the pacing of the show so far.

They need to give Mox some solid interview time soon, in the ring with Tony. Perhaps at the start of the 2nd hour. I think he'll absolutely ace it. His promos since leaving WWE have been excellent.

This made me laugh. Dave does have a sense of self-awareness and his dry humour can be funny

Of course Jeff's wife is a "paranormal enthusiast".

Nyla Rose is green, but I feel she has a lot of potential and she can be everything WWE wishes Nia Jax was.

I am not watching, but I saw this tweet. Nintendologic recently made a point about WWE wrestlers being more like performance artists who are glad and honoured to be in WWE, and this tweet really illustrates that. WWE actively inculcates and expects that attitude from its wrestlers and even its fans, really. Sasha is one of the top heels in the company and was in the hottest match of the night at their most recent PPV. Forget about the glory days, can you imagine, from, like, 2002-2011 (Post-Attitude/Cena era), top faces and heels like Cena, Triple H, Orton, Taker, etc thanking Vince McMahon, WWE and the network for drafting them to their brand? When did WWE fully enter this gratitude era?

Orange Cassidy in 5 seconds seemed a bigger star than so many extremely talented WWE rookies. Now I want to see an AEW-booked Dream.

Retaining more than 1.1 million viewers is excellent for AEW. And they had a much better show than last week's to boot.

Also, is it airing on TNT, or is it showing baseball? I am watching on Fite TV in India. Being pre-empted won't be a factor long term, but I think it would be a bit bumming to have its 2nd show bumped.

That was the best promo Jericho has cut in this decade probably.

Just needs a "survive and prevail" line and "WWE Universe" and it will be perfect

I cannot believe I am saying this, but to be fair to Seth, he did a decent job given what he had to work with. His expressions are still terrible and he cannot cut a decent interview to save his life - although a lot of that has to do with WWE scripting every single word of promos to ensure all the catchphrases and their favourite terms are mentioned in the promo - but this booking was always going to kill both him and the match. It was genuinely terrible booking, and I am honestly shocked WWE did this once again for Hell in a Cell, a gimmick which promises the absence of such fuck finishes. From what I have read, they did not even have an impromptu dark match between Rollins and Fiend to send the live crowd home happy, and that is not just incompetent booking, it's genuinely contemptuous, spiteful booking.

A finish by ref's intervention in a gimmick whose selling point is that it does not end until one wrestler pins or submits the other? This is legit bullshit.

So the Fiend is strong enough to kick out of 500 curb stomps, but not strong enough to remove all the stuff on his face even when Seth is taking about 5 minutes to set shit up?

Rollins is terrible, but the WWE is doing him no favours by having the most over wrestlers in the company be in the first two matches. I dread the kind of smoke and mirrors that will probably be present in the main event.

The crowd has popped the most in this match not for any of the elaborate, contrived spots involving 10 objects and taking 20 seconds to set up, but for Becky and Sasha punching the crap out of each other repeatedly. It's not as if I am saying something that's not been said a million times in these parts either. WWE makes pro wrestling more complicated than it really is.

He is absolutely better than Rollins. Rollins is terrible as a main eventer. He is probably the best wrestler they have on the roster. However, he is also in the era where the WWE brand is basically the only draw. Not only does that restrict the growth of the wrestlers, but it is doubly draining when the WWE brass and management are always pushed as the bad guys, and heat almost always goes on the promotion and not individuals.

One time when he seemed finally over the hump was after Vince killed himself to get him over, and he was booked like a badass and fans started cheering for him, and his title win was welcomed. Then Hunter came back and won the Royal Rumble to become champ, and of course Reigns had to chase the almighty God-King, where the focus was on Hunter so he could have his WM main event epic, and even though Reigns won, we were back to square one. It's amazing how a promotion built on the back of badass babyfaces has forgotten how to book badass babyfaces.

I get your point about net neutral not being bad. However, when Reigns had initially started getting a main event push, mixed reactions to him were countered with the example of John Cena, and the fact that he sold merchandise. I am sure the merchandise argument still stands today - although given how pushed he is and how long he has been a main event wrestler, he should be selling a lot of merchandise - but Cena was a proper draw who would get a lot of fans to tune into his segments and buy tickets for his matches. Reigns, for whatever reason, has not come close to it. It's certainly an indictment of WWE's general creative direction and booking over the last 5 years or so.

Listening to Meltzer on the Observer radio, the Roman match remained flat as far as ratings are concerned, and the Rollins match lost viewers. Some of it was inevitable, since the show opened with Rock and that was always going to be the highest rated segment no matter what, but it is telling that the two biggest stars/faces of the company are pretty much non-factors when it comes to drawing viewers. Seth, from what I have read, actually drives viewers away from his segments and matches consistently.