C.S.

Rumor/Potential Spoiler: Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Jimmy Hart) The tag team, not the stable, so no Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, or Davey Boy Smith. Supposedly according to PWInsider, which I never go to because they had a rep for massive spyware years ago - no idea if that's still the case.

I only watched the Network show, so the "epic struggle" of Dream wrestling five times in one night didn't really come across to me, despite the commentators hammering it incessantly. Maybe they figured a long-ass tournament would be overkill for viewers? Sure, so why can't they figure that out for even longer-ass PPVs? Because of the weird formatting, I wasn't nearly as invested in this as I normally would've been. Then again, it probably doesn't help that I got spoiled on the winner. But the right guy won, because what I saw was a 23-year-old kid carrying and surpassing "grizzled veterans" all the way through (on the Network, at least). Out of everyone else, Zach Gibson made the biggest impression on me. Humberto was okay. Drew Gulak has a much better look than he did in his CWC/early 205 days, but he's still a bland bore in the ring. Jordan Devlin made no impression on me, so if he's the next big darling, I don't see it. Cole and Bate were fine, as they always are.

To be fair, they were limited by how long/short the actual Super Bowl Halftime is, so I understand it - and I was expecting it, so the match was fine to me.

Fun little match. Nothing will beat Foley vs. Rock for me - because as ridiculous as that was, it was a true spectacle - but this was cool, and I hope it's something we get every year going forward. SPOILER FOR THIS AND WORLDS COLLIDE:

Fun little match so far. The WWE Performance Center looks incredible. I now want a studio show set there every week. The crowd is molten hot for such a small crowd. HBK looks like he's on his way to Sturges for Road Wild. Not sure what to think of his commentary yet. Having occasional minor feed quality issues, which makes me wonder if this has a bigger audience than WWE anticipated or if there's some other issue. The last NXT TakeOver had 1-2 small glitches for me, but Rumble was perfect while this is not, so go figure. I rarely have problems with any other streaming service, so I can never figure out why WWE Network is so finicky sometimes.

Anybody watching?

Zach Gibson vs. Humberto Carrillo was okay. I was more impressed with Zibson. I wasn't feeling Drew Gulak vs. Jordan Devlin at all. Maybe it's just me? Cool gear and look for Gulak though. He's come a long way from his "bland science teacher" beginnings in the CWC and early 205 Live.

Anybody watching this?

And if Becky won the Rumble for the same reason instead of Charlotte? If that's the case, people are probably lining up to have Jax potato them.

There's no way Shayna gets fired for anything - not if they want to keep Ronda happy.

The problem with using Nia Jax as a "monster" is that she can't pull it off in the slightest. It doesn't matter what the size difference is - she's not intimidating at all. Is it a case of her being too beautiful? I don't know. I see beauty in all women, but wrestlers like Chyna and Kharma pulled off the same role a hell of a lot better than Jax is.

While all of that is true, being in the ring with the dull Roode and the robotic Balor probably didn't help. With that said, yeah, Hideo Itami showed me absolutely nothing. For as much as I bag on Asuka and Hero at times, at least Asuka brings it in the ring and Hero is decent enough in his "trainer" role or whatever it is - Itami in NXT/205 was a bland bore both in the ring and as a personality.

Easily the biggest disappointment since the original Sin Cara. Whatever had in Japan and ROH, he didn't bring with him to the WWE. He was also the victim of bad luck (multiple injuries) and bad timing. When he was called down to 205 Live, I knew he was dead in the water. I'm glad they actually let him go. Maybe he can be an asset somewhere else (AEW?), because it was obviously never going to happen for him in WWE.

That belt is a work of art. I want to buy it right now!

The end result would be Becky making Charlotte tap because they'll want to protect Ronda, so leave Charlotte out of it IMO. Same as Bryan tapping out Batista instead of the champion Orton at WM30 (which no one cared about at the time and it didn't hurt Bryan at all, but I still thought it was stupid booking).

Holy shit! Time for you to start the "Wrestlers who are better than Seth Rollins" thread.

Gargano-Ciampa from the first round of the CWC. I bet a lot of those first round matches would fit the bill.

Only in wrestling would someone as "eccentric" as Hayes have an executive position.

Drunken Jericho is the absolute worst, but is it sad to admit I'd still root for him over lazy d-bag Brock?

Jericho and Brock got into a backstage confrontation after Brock concussed Orton at that one SummerSlam. Safe to say they probably don't like each other.

Re: Asuka I had a friend who was there live, so I made it a point to ask him about Asuka's crowd reactions. He said Asuka was over with the crowd and it was actually a pretty split crowd between her and Becky. It didn't come across that way at all on TV, at least not for me. So, I stand corrected. (BTW, is this the first time anyone on a message board, ever, has admitted to being wrong? It's a rare occurrence, at least.)

Yeah, WWE usually has the World Title challenger at Mania lose a meaningless pre-show match at the Rumble.

I might be hallucinating a decent singles PPV match that Seth actually won, but you're right that it's mostly been three-way matches and multi-man affairs.

Not who I would've picked to win, but on the bright side, Seth has had the best matches with Lesnar out of anyone, and Bryan vs. Seth would be good too. #SilverLinings and all that.

So, remind me again why the men's Rumble main evented? Lynch was a far better winner and bigger act.