The Chief

That totally felt like a big deal, good for them.

If they were planning on having Bray face Taker they should have booked him as more than just another guy for the past year. Talk about a match where neither option going over helps anybody...

God damnit, these finishes, this crowd. What a bummer of a show.

Both Barrett and Ambrose really need something and it's not each other. Just seems like both guys should be better than where they are.

I dug the match and I'm glad Kidd and Cesaro went over but that's two awkward finishes in a row.

Was that because Dusty went off script last time they had him on live? Probably. Dusty's mic work could totally light up this angle and it's such an obvious thing to do.

They've put such little effort into the Rhodes breakup I'm not going in with high expectations. The split only happened last week and they wouldn't even use Dusty outside of a pre-tape. I'm expecting Stardust to win a 4 to 5 minute inoffensive pedestrian match but I would really, really love to be proved wrong.

The point is that they've moved away from the cookie cutter stuff with the types that they hire. Whatever happens on the main roster with Vince is a different story entirely. If Samoa Joe's not getting an offer, it's because of other factors not his body type.

Definitely not. In fact, Joe would probably have to lose at least 30lbs before they'd probably even consider offering him an NXT deal. It kind of parallels Takeshi Morishima's WWE tryouts back in 2008 (I think) where he really impressed everybody, but they hated the fact he was so overweight and either they refused to sign him based on that, or he wasn't willing to lose weight and it fell through. These days in WWE, it seems to only be acceptable to be overweight if you're like a Big Show or Mark Henry type. That's not really a bad thing, since WWE had a number of performers over the years who were dangerously overweight and encouraged to remain like that as it was part of their image, eg, Dusty, Yokozuna, Mabel, etc. I'm glad they've turned around their stance on it, although it sometimes goes too far, especially in regards to the Divas, who are often asked to lose weight even if they are a healthy size (Mickie James comes to mind) to fit some kind of idealised skinny female mold. This statement would have made sense six years ago but doesn't really hold weight today. They have guys like Bull Dempsey and Kevin Owens on the roster, they're not only looking for underwear models anymore.

Jericho's twin girls were on the show open today, he brought them on a weekend house show loop. The girls noticed that they had the same matches on back to back nights and the same guys won both times. Their theory was that the guys who were winning and the guys who were losing were both using the same strategies from the previous night, so the participants shouldn't have been surprised that the results weren't different since they didn't change their game. That's friggin awesome And Pat Patterson is the guest. Check this out!

Wow, it's hard to find podcast topics that haven't been done to death, I can't believe you guys did this. Awesome!

So Rhyno wrestled on NXT last night. He squashed a job guy then had a brief staredown with Finn Balor backstage. The commentary put over how NXT is a place where careers start and where careers can be reborn, which is a really cool idea if they run with it. They need a couple veteran hands on their roster that can work around the horn with the younger guys. And if we get anything resembling a 2009 ECW Christian run out of Rhyno, then that's just icing on the cake.

This is old news from 2012, but I don't think it's been brought up here and it completely shocked me: http://www.wrestlingwithpopculture.com/2012/georgia-wrestling-now-welcomes-remembrances-of-jason-speed-and-mr-donnie/ Mr. Donnie not only alive, but involved in a Toys For Tots benefit. What. The. Fuck.

If current WWE talent relations and developmental was in place 10 years ago I could absolutely see them at least giving Joe a chance. Now? Eh, stranger things have happened but it would shock me if they made an offer.

And hey, the Prime Time Players are back! But those Ascension matches will not be pretty.

Oh Christ, they're really running with Bray Wyatt vs. Undertaker.

Tell me about it. I was looking forward to some "I NEGLECTED YA!"

Damn I'm pumped to hear The Dream. This has the potential to be really good.

I really like this Cena.

There were plenty of ways to put that match together differently to make it more effective though, even without anything more strenuous being done. I agree. They really needed to shave ten minutes off that thing. I do think a great worker can go with some tools missing from his toolbox. We've got hundreds of examples of guys working through muscle tears, broken bones, etc. However, I think if you have an injury or condition that prohibits you from taking a single bump without risking serious brain damage, paralysis or death, you just shouldn't be wrestling at all. Not a smoke and mirrors match, not "working around" a stroke, nothing. It's not how I want to remember any of these guys and it's kind of uncomfortable to watch.

Connir and Vickter

For all of you fantasy bookers out there who are lining up your next five Undertaker WrestleMania opponents, your one last Hulk Hogan run, your wish for Steve Austin to risk permanent paralysis, your total unwillingness to accept MAJOR factors such as age, injuries, career ending surgeries: You should surrender all complaining rights if these matches actually happen. It bothers me that people who realistically expect these things are the same ones complaining when Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon isn't a good "match."

In fairness to Kane, I enjoyed all the Bryan stuff before they ran it into the ground.

After three years, five pages and 83 replies, this is really great insight. The sort of contribution to the board we all value. Keep it up! What about when he done that bad storeyline and rooined the booking?

Thanks cheapshot, I'm pretty sure it's not my Fire since all other streaming apps are working just fine. The app is working better now, but I did email their customer support to let them know about the issue. We'll see what they say. It's odd because I notice the problems are much worse when I'm watching something that's 30 minutes to an hour. Longer shows like PPV's don't give me nearly as much trouble. They really need to implement some better troubleshooting on their website. It's not easy trying to figure out how to contact someone once I've run through all of their options (is your internet plugged in? is your WiFi transmitting a signal? sigh...). Or at least some kind of 24 hour notifcation system to let you know if they're experiencing problems.