The Chief

The bottom line is just Smackdown tries more stuff and it's interesting. And not in a Vince Russo throw a million things at the wall kind of way, they just do something different each week. If you miss an episode, maybe you'll miss a heel turn. Or a random Spirit Squad or Headbangers return. Or a killer Miz promo. Maybe this guy is now gonna fued with this guy that he's never wrestled before. Curt Hawkins vignettes? Sure, why not? It doesn't have to be earth shattering five star matches each week, it's just good fun weekly wrestling television with at least one unexpected event each episode. Meanwhile on Raw it feels like we're still seeing the same old feuds we were seeing before the draft. There isn't much about the show that's fresh or must see.

That's the problem with Lesnar that Loss alluded to, you have to resort to desperation tactics like this because they haven't done jack shit to make anyone on their roster look like they belong in his league. Rusev could have been in that league but that ship has sailed, I would argue that ship has sailed with Reigns as well. Lesnar vs. Crippled Steve Austin! Lesnar vs. The Rock because....reasons! Lesnar vs. Hogan! Lesnar vs. Cena...again! Lesnar vs. Taker XII: Taker's Revenge! When was the last time Goldberg even worked a match? He's a guy whose weaknesses you needed to hide in even the best of times. Put me in the "morbid curiosity" camp but this kind of stuff really doesn't appeal to me. What exactly is the end-game with Brock?

I forgot about Zayn almost paralyzing himself at Battleground. I can't recall a time in company history where there's been so many really scary botches. Cesaro the other night. Sasha at Summerslam. Enzo earlier in the year. Probably more I'm forgetting. It's uncomfortable to watch. What's changed? Surely their luck has to run out eventually?

A good point was brought up on Between the Sheets today about how they really don't book episodic TV anymore. An hour into the show and the two matches we've received so far happened last night.

It's PR. They have a pat ourselves on the back "We. DID It!" division for the women, seems like they just want one for the guys too.

RE: Virgil For some reason, Virgil was always prominently featured in the WWF Magazine. I remember an article on a Virgil vs. Kato match from Prime Time in 1991 that I shit you not was at least 3 pages. Even as an eight year old I thought that was dull as fuck and would rather read text books. Does anyone remember Virgil's feud with WWF Magazine? This was around 1993 so Virgil hadn't been relevant in a long time. They did an angle where Virgil was pissed that he wasn't talked about in WWF Magazine anymore. The Magazine said that Virgil needed to stop whining and pick up some wins. Then they would do tongue-in-cheek praise for Virgil, like dedicating an entire page to a picture of him clotheslining a jobber.

Teaming with jobbers is the lowest of the low. As a kid I always thought name guys could do the occasional job but if you were actually put in a team with a jobber you were the absolute dirt worst and the company thought nothing of you. Total zero status. I remember Skinner did this within a few months of debuting! Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to this every week!

Did you see the skull masks yet?

Loss beat me to Matt Hardy, first guy that came to mind! So I'll say... Chuck F'n Palumbo

But you still can be....

Why does the Network no longer work on a phone unless you enable location settings?

I always thought that was weird. Who carries prescriptions with them at all times? My doctor phones in all of my my prescriptions, I never get a physical copy. Hornswoggle said something similar happened when they surprise tested him and he couldn't provide documentation right then and there. Isn't this something the office should be able to verify with minimal effort? Am I missing something here? Just another odd thing for JR to demonize someone for.

I do watch the C-Shows so I'm at least interested to see what they can do with Swagger vs. Corbin. Their Superstars/Main Event matches were a blast.

You don't hear much about Suburban Commando as a part of Taker's mythos. Looking back I wonder if it's more important than we give it credit for. He had the Hogan stamp of approval immediately upon entering the company. By the time the movie came out he was about to have his main event program with Hogan. I don't think that's a coincidence. How different would things be if John Nord got that spot?

I didn't really have any concerns about AJ's in-ring work in WWE and of course he's been great. I am surprised how great his character work has been. I had reservations about him working as a heel and he's crushed any doubts. I wasn't a fan of his heel work in TNA but he's a total natural now.

That's a strawman argument. "Plenty of people would accept millions of dollars to get knocked out" is true, but how many of those people would actually put forth the effort into training for that position? He's not just some bum they pulled off the street, he actually did train to do this, trained hard and wanted to win. He didn't just accept a tough man contest payday to buy a sandwich.

He wanted to fight. He did. Win or lose, 99.9999999% of the population can't say that. That's ballsy for someone who really isn't a natural athlete. I respect him. And lol at the HHH reaction, a guy who probably has never been in a "real" fight in his life

I haven't played one of these games in years but my big beef is that they never really progress. Sure, they add shit but they take away miniscule things from the previous years release that add up when you compare them. -sobs and goes back to his No Mercy cartridge-

Can we get Eric Stefanowicz on a PWO podcast? To this day I still don't believe ECW Sal Bellomo is the same person. I want DNA evidence, fingerprints, etc. And that Piper vs Brisco match is amazing. Not sure why it doesn't have a rep but I think it's right up there with the Bret match in the "see what focus can do for Piper" mindset

He was probably one of the oldest living wrestlers, period. Who has him beat? Dominic? Don Leo Jonathan?

I feel like this has been in development for ages, wasn't Liev Schreiber attached to the project at one point?

I really dug this show guys! I remember Bobby Heenan had an ongoing thing going in the Magazine where he said Shane Douglas looked like Kim Basinger. I always thought that was funny. I was surprised to see Douglas worked some Superstars matches, I though he was one of those kind-of name-guys that only worked Prime Times, mostly losing I'd like to hear you guys go into detail about those types of guys. The guys who weren't true jobbers but they were never going to get an action figure and rarely, if ever worked the syndicated shows. I'm talking about the Jim Powers, Scott Casey's, Al Perez's, Tim Horner's and Chris Walker's of the world. They moved away from this around the time Raw launched but there used to be that grey area between jobber and superstar.

I agree with this. Not to take anything away from Last Battle of Atlanta as those Duggan brawls are awesome.

The super kick to the back of the knee is nasty, hopefully they can keep that move protected as a game-ender for The Usos.

"I'll do the job, but there better not be any cameras there." Could you imagine what would happen if someone tried to pull that shit today?