Migs

It's Astoria, so there's street parking, although it might be a bit tricky to find. There's probably a garage not far away if you're in a pinch.

Will write more about the show after it airs, but Battle Riot live was a lot of fun. Great venue, which was totally packed and energetic all the way through. Not sure what from the taping other than the Riot and the Middleweight title match is airing on Friday (they taped enough that they must be getting other TV eps out of this) but there was a lot of good and nothing bad.

You can have fun at a wrestling show without being super invested. Live wrestling is fun. I didn't have a particular investment in anything at Backlash and I had a pretty decent time. The length of the shows hurts, here, though, as an unengaged fan is probably more likely to get restless.

I honestly don't know. Personally, I don't really care about Rollins or Ziggler, but Rollins gets reactions, so presumably people were excited to see him wrestle. I haven't seen the match - from what was described, it sounds good enough. Part of it is that the booking is fairly stale and people aren't that emotionally invested in the outcome. What was the last WWE match where you felt like the finish mattered to you? Where you felt good or bad afterwards based on what happened? (I'm struggling. I guess I was happy to see Nak win the Rumble? I was cheering for Mia and Asuka to win the Mixed Match thing because I like dogs? For a bigger response, it might go back to AJ beating Cena?) Group chants are fun, and if the match doesn't really matter to you, it's pretty easy to get sucked in.

Pittsburgh was the location for the Cena-Orton Rumble "hijack." A crowd chanting doesn't make them assholes, anymore, much like people doing the wave during an intense baseball game doesn't make them assholes. Now, can you question their interest in actually enjoying the wrestling, particularly if you feel like the match is compelling? Sure. We can discuss what the match deserved, in the same way people certainly felt that Benoit-Malenko at Hog Wild "deserved" a better reaction than it got. But let's not get moralistic about crowds chanting and entertaining themselves.

This definitely goes along with it. You'd think with their reliance on people like Triple H and Stephanie to be brand ambassadors that they'd switch back to being babyfaces to keep the disconnect between the on-screen and off-screen product to a minimum, but it's a story that they have become very reliant on.

Jay Lethal is not yet announced for the Nashville show and not on the talent list for the Atlanta TV taping, for whatever that's worth.

In Pittsburgh, 20 years after Hell in a Cell.

I believe the commissioner here is Harry Slash, of ECW music fame.

I do think most of the critics are being a little absurd in using this as a chance to prop up WWE for being "safe" when they have significant injuries as well from the accumulation of their schedule. Were Takahashi and Shibata's injuries dumb? Yeah, and Dave is saying as such. But it doesn't make WWE "better" or whatever it is the trolls are trying to say.

That should be rad.

I'm going to that one. Feels like a big night for them, chance to have a home run show that opens up a new market. The Battle Riot should certainly be fun.

Yeah, in terms of New Japan, this would be a great spot for him. Second from the top at all the US shows, a star but not quite as high up in Japan.

This was the better match in the ring, but the heat wasn't as good because Kenny was so obviously winning. The ROH match had much better drama but an odd flow in the ring.

I think you're underrating Nash as a draw and moneymaker somewhat. People were behind him and the Wolfpac is really hot at this point. Should it have ended in him beating Goldberg? Probably not. But I don't think he's easily discarded. Optimally, you'd want him paired off with Hogan and doing their thing (and staying away from most of the rest of the roster), but unfortunately that wasn't happening.

I get the goal with bringing in so many New Japan and CMLL guys to help sell tickets, but now that they're moving to shorter shows (a good idea, honestly), they're not bringing in a ton of their own guys and gals for these shows. Silas went from TV champ to not even on the PPV. Their long-term health is really tied to the health of New Japan in the US (maybe that's the bet they're making).

Yeah, I think Castle's run was the right move; there's no way they could have predicted him getting hurt this being bad and being limited. Particularly given the constraints, he ended up having pretty solid run and proved he's capable of working an ROH main event. I'm not really sure what the direction is for Lethal, but they clearly think (and I agree) that the shows are better with the title adding heat to a non-Bullet Club match. I guess it would be interesting to see them give Taven a crack at a PPV main event, but I think you'd need something really strong on the undercard to prop that up.

Possibly the hottest crowd I've ever been a part of, just an explosion from the Hardys appearance through the finish (and even on through the intermission, which followed this match and saw the Hardys get mobbed in the lobby). As a match on its own, it's a little thin, but the energy really carries this one through and makes it a must see.

I liked this quite a bit as well. Watched this with my wife, who doesn't watch any New Japan, and she was blown away by Ospreay's athleticism.

Rewatched this recently (was live for it the first time). It works here that they don't even make a nod to tag team structure and just go straight for the big stuff. I do think there's a simple story well told here in the upstarts trying to find a way to knock off the big dogs, and thinking they can defeat the Bucks at their own game. Of course, they can't. The Indytaker -> Meltzer Drive double up on the finish worked great to get Rush over as a guy who needed to be put away with the big guns.

A really over the top spotfest. This didn't work quite as well for me as the BOLA six man, but I liked a lot of the innovation and creativity. I also enjoyed the opening comedy portion of the match.

They are terrible sometimes with this stuff. Watched the match and the crowd as a whole didn't seem bad, but there was one side that looked awful. Get the big photo on the side with people! Enjoyed the match, as well. Not a classic, but a fun multi-man match. Castle's injuries seemed to require getting the belt off of him, and Lethal is a perfectly reasonable choice. The Bullet Club guys don't need belts and Lethal's been real strong in the ring this year.

The JCW has mostly underwhelmed me so far, but I'm pretty curious about this combination. Montoya and Youth jump Guido, and Montoya waits in the aisle for Low Ki... who enters from the side and takes him out. Ki does most of the work early, before getting caught by the heels and becoming the face in peril. Montoya and Youth work nicely together as a team. Ki gets the upper hand back at points but doesn't look for a tag. I smell a turn. Ki finally makes the tag... and Guido gives him the Tomikaze, allowing Montoya and Youth to get the pin. The heat segment (which is almost the entire match) is good, but there's not much here to make a strong recommendation.

IPW appears to be a Pennsylvania indy. Love the top 10 list, which includes the Sandman, Crowbar, Chris Candido, and of course, champion King Kong Bundy. Looks like pretty good sized crowd, though. Guido taunts a young fan in the front row on the way in. Guido was supposed to face someone else, but they're not here, and Mikey is the replacement. This is pretty fun. They mostly keep it in the ring. Of course, there's some meandering brawling, but the IPW set is so weird (potted plants?!?) that it's somewhat amusing. After seeing these guys in a couple of three-ways, it's nice to see them just work their match - sort of an indictment of how messy and pointless most indy three-ways had become at this point. Really nice series of reversals leads to the Whippersnapper and the win for Whipwreck. Nothing earth shattering here but a very enjoyable outing from both guys.