Alucard

Bad times. Smackdown was pretty great in 2009 with Rey/Jericho and Punk/Hardy. Got pretty terrible when Taker came back though. Not to mention we got a bad Kane world title reign in this period as well. Summer 2009 for Smackdown is super fun, and then basically the moment 'Taker comes back everything gets flushed. They spent so much time building up Punk and Hardy, and then 'Taker comes back and its like, "Ha, sorry, these little men couldn't possibly beat the Dead Man, screw them." But from the moment they moved Jericho and Punk over until then, the wrestling is on par with the Smackdown 6 era. Agreed, SD had a big new stars feel at the time when they headlined one show with Punk & The Hart Dynasty vs Morrison & The Hardys. Punk/Morrison had an awesome series of TV matches while of course Punk/Hardy had the big feud, plus Rey had a handful of great matches with Morrison and Ziggler.

Agreed. The Alexa/Becky talking segments during this feud have been some of my favorite mic work this year. Loved their first match in Glasgow and tonight ruled too. Both women are excellent. Happy for Alexa to get a run

Agreed, they were really going overboard in hyping it up as the main event, and it really should've been.

Agreed, Lashley's become my favorite guy in wrestling. I wouldn't have taken the title off of him either but the matches have been good stuff and he continues to absolutely kill it on the mic. I loved the first two Lashley/Edwards matches and this would've felt more fitting if they kept that momentum building instead of Edwards winning the title coming off a losing streak. The title change match was short but this past week was good stuff.

Agreed, I think it's been on fire this year and the best it's been since 2012.

Having not read Foley's books, this thread has cracked me up good

Agreed, when she has something to do like the excellent feud with Dana Brooke & Emma, fans are very into it and behind her. Especially the Asuka/Emma match last year, one of my NXT favorites.

Saving that for Mania... Definitely my first thought when I saw Survivor Series for this.

Always liked Wendi Richter

Welcome back! Though I'm currently getting a "bandwidth exceeded" error when I click on it, I look forward to catching it eventually. Have missed the reviews!

Where he returns and wins it then the question is which title will he challenge for! ; ) Already seems crazy that just 2 months ago, Ziggler pinned Styles to become #1 contender for SummerSlam on the first SDL

I've been underwhelmed by it so far. TJ Perkins does nothing for me and I'm just not getting in to his matches at all. The matches so far on Raw feel like random TNA X Division matches from the weekly PPV days when they just throw random indy guys out there and the crowd's had no reason to care.

I don't hate Zayn the way I can't stand guys like Rollins and Ziggler I just don't "get" him. Nothing I've seen from him in WWE says he's anything more than "just another guy." There are plenty of guys who manage to stand out despite shitty booking either in a "this guy is a great character" way like Rusev or by always putting on a good match like Cesaro or Sheamus. Sami Zayn doesn't do either and I feel like if he was "the best babyface in wrestling" the way some people hype him up as then there would actually be some evidence of it in the past 6 months or so instead of having to point way back to his NXT run. Agreed 100% with this and the first post on the subject. Always found the overrated "best babyface" stuff to be a ridiculous exaggeration, never saw him as anything special.

Smackdown Live is the best. I think Raw has gotten worse lately while SDL, which has been good since the split, has been absolutely on fire since killing it at Backlash. Can't wait for that to hurry up and happen. Going from heated rivals to lovey best friends has been the worst. I can't stand this attempted babyface turn at the moment. Nothing's changed other than who he feuds with, everything about his character screams heel to me.

SDL has been a very solid show all around since the draft. I think it's been consistently better than Raw almost every week. Agreed. Like we're just supposed to forget he was bragging about taking out Balor, the actual likable face, a week ago. I much prefer Seth as a heel

Storm supposedly finished up with TNA again at the tapings last month and told the live crowd that we might be seeing him with an old friend again real soon, so there's at least a chance he might end up back in NXT. If nothing else, his final match with Lashley was pretty great.

Is it time to put to rest the idea that Sasha is a great promo? I mean it's been over a year and she continues to struggle in that department. Looking at it objectively Charlotte has destroyed her at every turn. I will give her a slight pass because she seems uncomfortable as a face but it just isn't there yet I agree, felt like her character lost any edge as a babyface. I despised making Sasha and Bayley instant BFFs after their "heated rivalry" a year ago. Definitely agree with Charlotte destroying, she has been on fire lately.

I wish, but Luger was in the last two games as well. Part of the WCW DLC in 2k15 then on the roster in 2k16. Lately whoever was DLC in the previous game is added in to the next game, Fujinami was in last year as part of the Hall of Fame DLC with Alundra Blayze, Bossman, Larry Z, etc. Looks like they included most of everyone in the previous game with a couple cool new additions like Asuka.

They have a brawl at the Hardy Compound on an upcoming Impact, leading up to The Great War at BFG.

I'm down with this! I thought Sorenson was total money, when he cut that promo at Destination X 2012 post-injury in the neck brace... man I was pumped for his eventual comeback for revenge against Zema Ion, who won the X title that night.. perfect story but unfortunately he never returned. Since he's worked a few NXT matches this year, I'd like to see WWE give him a shot.

Awesome match. I loved Shane/Kazarian, great team and gear, and their work with Styles may have been their best. The Styles Clash off the cables is one of my all time favorite Ultimate X spots.

MVP at No Mercy 2006 was a great one to me. In the weeks leading up with him in the crowd and hyping up the most expensive contract he signed, I wasn't expecting him to be anything special. But the moment he debuted, everything clicked. The music (which had been released on WWE's latest "The Music" volume without anyone using it), the entrance, the ring attire, and the big debut against Marty Garner were all perfect.

I'm still watching and enjoying Impact as well, I think the show is very good more often than not. Agreed with Lashley's year, he's become one of the best dudes going today.

I don't see anything special in Bayley, or sami zayn.

I agree on Broken Matt and Lashley. Both are two of my favorites right now. Lashley is perfect in his role and has become fantastic on the mic. I actually think TNA has done a good job with the flow of feuds and story progression though. Drew/Lashley was a nicely built long title feud that has transitioned well into the Drew/EC3 rivalry while Lashley has multiple possible challengers that they can cycle in and out, like Eddie Edwards last week. Also thought the introduction of Moose has been very well done and a match between him and Lashley already feels big.