C.S.

Have to admit – that is pretty awesome. Only problem is – Randy Orton is no Roddy Piper.

Ricochet isn't amazing on the mic by any means, but he has a natural charisma. Cedric is rough all around in the personality dept., but as @tallmike so astutely observed, he has physical charisma (which is what I was thinking too but wouldn't have been able to put into words). I don't think Drew is unsalvageable, but he sounds like a fucking robot. Maybe scripted promos are to blame? I don't know. Or maybe he'd be even worse without them? Was he this bad on the mic in TNA?

Awesome little match. Was hoping it would be longer. Surprised by the clean finish. Was totally expecting Daniel Bryan to interfere.

Randy Orton is a perverted creep... Who's booking this shit?

In the Secret Santo thread, @Jetlag gave me Toshiaki Kawada vs. Tamon Honda (AJPW 1/21/96). I once again can’t sleep and this is long overdue, so here goes… The match starts off with some amateur type wrestling before morphing into a series of suplexes (very reminiscent of Taz, who obviously borrowed heavily from guys like this) to strong style kicks. Then some nice psychology with Honda trying to ground Kawada to prevent more of those devastating kicks and nice selling from Kawada. Everything looks snug and tight. No one was calling these guys fake, that’s for sure! Kawada turns the tables by grounding Honda in return. These two seem pretty even, matching each other move for move and strategy for strategy. Following more hard kicks by Kawada, Honda goes on a crazy flurry of flopping headbutts with an insane airplane spin along the way for good measure. After a few more minutes of back and forth action mixing strikes with submissions, Kawada gets the hard-earned tapout victory. Really fun little match. The only disappointment is that I didn’t get to see the “Kawada smile” made famous on this board by @KawadaSmile.

@Jetlag gave me Toshiaki Kawada vs. Tamon Honda (AJPW 1/21/96). I once again can’t sleep and this is long overdue, so here goes… The match starts off with some amateur type wrestling before morphing into a series of suplexes (very reminiscent of Taz, who obviously borrowed heavily from guys like this) to strong style kicks. Then some nice psychology with Honda trying to ground Kawada to prevent more of those devastating kicks and nice selling from Kawada. Everything looks snug and tight. No one was calling these guys fake, that’s for sure! Kawada turns the tables by grounding Honda in return. These two seem pretty even, matching each other move for move and strategy for strategy. Following more hard kicks by Kawada, Honda goes on a crazy flurry of flopping headbutts with an insane airplane spin along the way for good measure. After a few more minutes of back and forth action mixing strikes with submissions, Kawada gets the hard-earned tapout victory. Really fun little match. The only disappointment is that I didn’t get to see the “Kawada smile” made famous on this board by @KawadaSmile.

Gotta hand it to Ziggler and Roode - that backstage promo wasn't half-bad at all.

Good riddance. Hope they're kept off TV for five years. That won't happen though.

I zoned out. Did this happen?

What the crowd really loves is meaningless rasslin' matches that are overlong for no reason and mostly filled with geek non-characters they don't care about. Haha. If it happens, I called it. Same with King Joe.

Because their post-signing honeymoon push is already over.

This jobber Ziggler-Roode team is...something. They're winning, right?

Ughhh at Miz losing a first round match. Can't wait until he shocks everyone by jumping to AEW after years of misuse.

My prediction: King Joe. (Meh!)

Drew is still a dreadful bore as a character and personality though, and that is always the most important thing in WWE...always.

Or that's bullshit too and she's just playing into the rumors and dirtsheet nonsense. She definitely cared about the Tag Titles, because they were her idea.

I assume you're referring to that post in the other thread. Like it's a fucking crime for people to look forward to a beloved WWE institution with many great matches, moments, and winners. (And also King Mabel, but nothing in life is perfect!)

Which is fucking dumb and counter-productive, especially when everyone knows they were Sasha's idea in the first place.

Or they're looking forward to the return of a beloved WWE institution? It's not like KOTR hasn't had a lot of pretty cool matches, moments, and winners in its history. (Of course, it also had King Mabel. But nothing is perfect!)

Sasha can't talk.

Is wrestling an art form? Yes and no. Movies are widely considered an art form. But would you put all movies in that category? No, of course not. Ditto for books. Video games are debated as an art form, but the same question applies. The same is true for wrestling. Are all wrestlers artists and are all matches art? No. But a few are. That is basically going to be the case for any form of entertainment.

Aries is such a geek that even other geeks think he's a geek. Gallagher is incredible - and incredibly misused - so I hope he jumps ship the minute his WWE contract ends.

I'm really glad you liked it, @Jetlag. Yeah, it was definitely wildly different from the norm of the WWF at the time, which made it really special IMO. BTW, I haven't forgotten about the match you gave me. Just been having sleep issues lately and feeling, well, jetlagged all the time. Hoping to get to it in the next day or two.

They also have a commentator in a lucha mask. As silly as that is, you're not looking at the full picture if you're acting like only Ross and Tony are there. Has it even been confirmed that Tony will be doing commentary?

Dave has no one to blame but himself if anyone is in fact "misunderstanding" him. Most of his tweets are unintelligible gibberish. Hire an editor!