The Chief

Talking Smack has been consistently good. If anyone has been skipping it because they think it's another version of the Raw Pre-Show, which I originally did, check it out. And Bryan came off like a total douche there. Miz was absolutely right in everything he said.

You hear a lot of wrestlers say how unless they have total faith in the guy giving, they don't like taking the Hammer Bomb, Razor's Edge, etc because they can't control the fall. It's a blind bump. Of course it's up to the guy taking the bump to tuck their chin and protect themselves, but the guy giving has to control the direction. He has to guide you so that you can fall flat. There's only so much you can do if you're getting tossed like a dart.

Even by Scott Keith standards that's pretty ignorant.

Agreed. They better not put the belt on him, he needs to be punished for this shit.

Was the injury from the turnbuckle powerbomb? The same move that he almost killed Sting with?

Looking forward to the inevitable Shane vs Brock match where Shane gets in more offense then Randy did tonight.

Sasha and Enzo are getting hard to watch in ring. Both of them look like they're one botch away from permanent paralysis.

Had no clue this was already starting. Jesus, they already had a match?

Loved tonight's show. Watching with tons of non fans and they loved it too. If I can say anything that hasn't been said yet, I hope Billie Kay doesn't slide into a welcome mat role. She has great timing and if she can click with a character, she'll be something special.

This is the second week in a row that Bubba has stared down D-Von after a loss. They've been subtle about it which WWE usually doesn't do. I wonder if there's a Bubba singles run in the works?

This is interesting. If somebody can knock him out, I want to say he gets a Dan Severn-like WWF career but do they give him the chance to work a mic if he does? He will get over if he can talk and as a heel he can play up the loss as a crybaby. Or do they try to bury him since they hyped him up as a world class legit athlete and he let them down? The Brawl 4 All was a vehicle to get Doc over and look how quickly they gave up on him, does the same thing happen to Angle? If Angle wins, then gets killed by Butterbean which I'm 99% sure would be the outcome, that's even worse because look how much of a zero Gunn became in their eyes after that. Thanks! Swagger was a guy they immediately pushed and I believe he had an undefeated streak for a while as FCW Champion. He wasn't in ECW until the Fall, but he was under contract so this could work timeframe-wise. I could see them using this as a vehicle to debut him.

Re: three hours - even when these shows are good these are tough to get through since we are STILL using the same pairings of guys. They need to get this cruiserweight division off the ground yesterday to add some variety. I really like the chemistry between Foley and Bryan. On paper, you would think these guys would be best friends but it turns out they're so similar they annoy the hell out of each other. Babyfaces that can't stand each other is a dynamic they've never really done, it's refreshing. I don't care what anyone says Braun Strowman is awesome.

I respect anybody who can say "screw it, this isn't working for me so I'm going to do something else" especially in WWE's system. As far as self help, if you're not happy you should do something else, and apparently that's exactly what he's doing. Why should that be seen as a failure? Ryback was one of the better workers on WWE TV in the past year so if he wants to bitch that they didn't better utilize him, he has every right to. But hey, "Musclzzz suck" or whatever. If this was Cesaro or someone similar doing the exact same thing everybody would be point this out as another attempt by the evil WWE machine to hold somebody down.

Surprised there hasn't been more mention of this here. Is it because it's JBL, who internet smarks are conditioned to hate? Anyway, it was brilliant. In fact, I consider Legends With JBL to be hands down the best show on the Network. There was some ridiculous hate thrown Michael Hayes's way after that episode of Legends With JBL, just because Hayes is usually unlikeable and has a checkered past, but I thought he came across great and very honest with JBL. You couldn't convince some people here of that though. They were so predisposed to hate Hayes that their judgment IMO was severely clouded and compromised. It has nothing to do with JBL. Booker has told his story a million times on podcasts and interviews, there was nothing new here. That speaks nothing to the quality of the show or "predisposed smark hate." The show was well done enough it's just covering territory that we've already covered.

Despite the fact that they're both statements that contain words, how????

Has this ever been confirmed outside of Punks tirade?

Ryback is WAY better than he gets credit for. Now I really wanna see The Ryback go on a rampage through PWG/Evolve/ROH so smarky geeks can cry about how he only has two moves immediately after he executes a top rope Frankensteiner.

Wow, this was easily my favorite Between the Sheets to date. I think my favorite part was you guys fantasy booking a 1988 Brawl 4 All. So I got to thinking, what would a Brawl 4 All be like....in 2008? I tried to follow the same rules, so no main guys like Batista or Cena. I left "pro boxer" Big Show out because something tells me they wouldn't want him in there legit killing people. I also tried to cast guys in specific roles similar to the 1998 tournament instead of just naming 16 guys. And I fully disclose I do not know who's tough in real life outside what I hear in shoots so I'm making a lot of this shit up. I apologize in advance but this is going to be a long winded post... Playing the part of Steve Blackman: VLADIMIR KOZLOV And his opponent playing the part of Marc Mero: ELIJAH BURKE Blackman was a tough one because I really can't think of anyone from 2008 that gave off the aura of sheer terror that Blackman did. I picked Kozlov because he seems legit and he is scary. There was a very stiff and robotic style to his work that made me feel like he was always pulling his punches and wasn't used to "fake" fighting. Plus, we get a guy with a Sambo background! I think UNDEFEATED boxer Elijah Burke as Marc Mero speaks for itself. I could totally see Burke going in there with no wrestling game at all and just straight-up boxing. Playing the part of Mark Canterbury: MIKE KNOX Playing the part of Bradshaw: SHAD GASPARD I feel like you need a complete nobody like Knox in there as he was barely used until the end of the year. I could totally see Knox having no skills and just throwing bombs. Bradshaw was a tough one but I feel Shad would fill the role nicely. Big tough dude who probably has no skills but could wind up a mean haymaker. Plus if you hear stories about what Shad was like backstage, I get the feeling a lot of wrestlers would enjoy seeing him get his ass kicked. This is your token zero-skill slugfest. Playing the part of Brakkus: EZEKIEL JACKSON Playing the part of Savio Vega: PRIMO COLON Jacked up steroid dude who hasn't even debuted on TV yet? Big Zeke! I feel this is the easiest match so far. And for a scrappy Puerto Rican guy? Carlito is too important so let's use Primo Colon! I know nothing about Primo's reputation, but I'm going to pretend he's a tough bastard who really surprises people with how good his boxing game is. This is my fantasy tournament so I'm going to pretend Primo wins this by decision due to Zeke thinking this was going to be a work and getting spaced out after the first punch. Playing the part of Droz: RICKY ORTIZ Playing the part of Road Warrior Hawk: CHUCK PALUMBO I picked Ortiz for the football background. He's a great athlete who never really transitioned that into pro wrestling. Hawk was damn tough, but I settled on Palumbo. Palumbo is mostly a tag team guy and something tells me big Chuck can take care of himself. And Chuck's best days were definitely behind him as he was out of the company shortly after this. Plus he was also involved in an attempted murder angle that year but instead of suicide, he attempted vehicular manslaughter on Jamie Noble. And looking at Ricky Ortiz's Wikipedia page for this led me to discover that he married Layla El? How did I not know this before? Damn, nice work Ricky... Playing the part of Bart Gunn: DEUCE Playing the part of Bob Holly: BOB HOLLY Cranky Bob is still pissed at the results from 10 years ago so he throws his name in the bucket because he wants to teach some punk kids a lesson. And his opponent needs to be a tag team guy who literally has no individual identity, how about Jimmy Snuka Jr. Deuce! And just like Bart Gunn destroying people surprised everyone in 1998, we're going to pretend that Deuce has the meanest left hand in the business and completely shocks everyone by knocking out guys left and right. he wins the entire thing and is quietly released after they bring back Floyd Mayweather at next year's Mania to trounce him. Playing the part of Pierre: SHEAMUS Playing the part of Steve Williams: JIM DUGGAN Sheamus was just signed to developmental and Pierre wasn't even on TV at the time so that's my connection. And something tells me Sheamus would be chomping at the bit to enter this thing. Now for his opponent we need an aging dude who was extremely tough back in his day and even with a few thousand miles on him and half strength he's still tougher than 90% of the roster. And if he also has Mid-South connections, that's a plus. Who the hell fits that qualification in 2008? Hacksaw Jim Duggan! This is my favorite fight of the tournament. And trust me, Jim Ross will remind us of Jim Duggan's collegiate background every chance he gets. Playing the part of Godfather: SHELTON BENJAMIN Playing the part of Dan Severn: CHARLIE HAAS This is in the spirit of the New Midnight Express break-up angle! These are probably the two highest-pushed guys in the tournament. The Haas/Severn connection is due to the amateur background and both guys being bad promos. In addition to being an outstanding amateur wrestler, something tells me growing up in Orangeburg, SC made Shelton a pretty damn tough street fighter as well. He's probably the most well-rounded guy in the tournament, you might even say he's a SUPREME fighting machine. Even pulling his punches (they're buddies), Shelton takes care of Hass fairly easy. Haas tries to wrestle but Shelton surprises him with punches. Playing the part of 8-Ball: BAM NEELY Playing the part of Scorpio: NUNZIO Because each guy is so low on the totem pole, this is relegated to just clips. Neely is just a big dude who throws bricks. Nunzio beats the bigger dude because he's a Billy Robinson trainee. People are surprised how well Nunzio takes care of himself in the tournament. He's actually got some decent boxing game (he threw shadow punches before matches in ECW!!!) and can definitely go on the mat. I think this would be awesome and now you have me wondering what these would be like in various years. Screw Cruiserweight Classic, if you want a Network-only tournament, bring back the Brawl 4 All!

If they're doing this Cruiserweight thing on Raw I almost feel they just throw Gallagher out there and let him sink or swim. He's so unique I feel he'll get over the second he's introduced. He's definitely got the WTF factor.

Reigns vs Rusev is something they could have built the company around in 2014 but... reasons. I'm looking forward to their matches.

A Braun Strowman squash immediately followed by Mark Henry bringing back the Hall of Pain is a great way to get on my good side!

Yeah, they had a three-hour Raw special scheduled before the Benoit situation derailed everything,

He wasn't good but this was during a weird time where everyone they bringing up through developmental was so identical, if you did anything different to stand out you were considered good. See also: Carlito. They have the entire year up now. I really loved that anniversary show they did in December that had the random appearances from Bastion Booger and Sunny. Much better than the terrible 2003 anniversary show.

Del Rio was in the battle royal.

I must be an idiot because I liked Smackdown a lot better than Raw, until the Dolph win at least.