C.S.

While no one wants a 60-minute Iron Man Match between these two, this is the epitome of laziness and a huge kick in the balls to anyone who attended this live. I really hope Lesnar is done with WWE after Mania and retreats back to UFC.

I was making a gag? Though it's not like Callihan hasn't been active for twelve years. The weirder blindspot to me is the fact that people are just ignoring how well regarded Callihan was in 2011-12 (14 on the 2011 WKO 100 for instance, 11 in 2012). It's not like he's just some indy guy here. He's also a guy who spent years in the WWE developmental system. To be fair, I did say that it's more likely Shark Boy trained him while Les Thatcher watched. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, "well regarded" = overhyped in this case. When Sami Callihan came to NXT as Solomon Crowe, he was completely exposed IMO. He was the drizzling shits in every way - poor in-ring performances, bad facials and over-the-top mugging that made early heel Jericho look subtle, just flat-out terrible and disappointing. "The hacker gimmick was shit" is an excuse I've heard - but I say bollocks to that, and I'm not even British. I thought it was a great gimmick, timely with numerous creative possibilities, but the problem was in the casting. They cast a mediocre indy goof who was all smoke and mirrors but poofed when it came time to actually deliver.

BTW, speaking of money... I'm not a big fan of Kassius Ohno/Chris Hero, but even he's outraged by Sami Callihan's lack of professionalism. KASSIUS (KASH-US) @KassiusOhno Replying to @TheSamiCallihan Really? Really? There is ZERO correlation between how much money you make & what happened in that ring. You should be embarrassed. ASHAMED. 11:59 PM - Mar 2, 2018

Which is shocking, because Les Thatcher has a great rep. However, I heard it was actually Les Thatcher and Sharkboy who trained him, which makes me wonder if Les stood outside while Sharkboy did all the actual training. Nothing against Sharkboy, which is a fun prelim gimmick, but he's never wrestled anywhere major (unless you count the dying days of WCW as major, or TNA as major, and I don't).

From Twitter: I rarely agree with Cornette, but he's right this time. In-character (presumably) promo from Callihan: He looks more like a fan than a wrestler. What an indy goof. Not a good look for him or the increasingly desperate Impact.

Surprised no one is talking about this... (Or maybe you were at at time? This was filmed several months ago.) Sami Callihan is a reckless indy goof. He apparently legitimately injured Eddie Edwards with this incredibly stupid stunt. I had no use for Callihan when he was in NXT as Solomon Crowe, and he's done nothing to change my opinion since then.

Keller also preferred the Men's Chamber (****) to the Women's (***3/4). I disagree with both of them.

Free book: The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever http://augustafreepress.com/worst-wrestling-pay-per-view-ever-new-book-chris-graham-offers-look-behind-scenes-pro-wrestling-business/ The entire book is on the website, with each chapter in a separate link. I read it the other day. It's short but fun. I'm definitely NOT complaining about something that's free, but I have no idea why he didn't just link to ebook files in various formats. It was easy enough for me to cobble everything together in one file with Calibre and then send it to my Kindle, which is how I read it. I'm reading this now. His humor can be very crude and shocking, but he has an undeniable lowbrow wit about him that's perfect for the carny world of rasslin'. One example: Early on, he mentions wrestlers using wrestling terms for real life - for example, "kicking out" of a bad situation. He follows that up several chapters later by talking about the Verne Gagne nursing home incident. Gagne, who was in the late stages of Alzheimer's and/or dementia, attacked and ended up killing another patient. That patient was a Holocaust survivor. Oliver's quip was something like: "He kicked out of the Holocaust but couldn't survive Verne Gagne." Wow. But as jaw-dropping as that line is, it speaks for how well the book is written and constructed that he wrote something early in the book and gave us the unexpected punchline/payoff several chapters later. This is a great read even if your only exposure to Kayfabe Commentaries - like mine - has been clips on YouTube. BTW, if you're an Amazon Prime member, this book is now available to borrow for free - even without a Kindle Unlimited subscription. That definitely wasn't the case a month or two ago, where it was only (and still is) available through KU. The Kindle Lending Library for Prime members is more limited - only one book a month, a smaller selection, and you have to borrow it through the device.

I'm sure there was some chatter in the Elimination Chamber thread about Bray winning the World Title on last year's show, going nowhere right after that, and losing on this year's show to midcard Matt Hardy. I wonder if this explains why his push has eroded. Either way, it's not a good look for him. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5391035/WWE-Bray-Wyatt-not-paying-wife-treating-JoJo-Offerman.html

Could be this... WrestlingInc.com: WWE Reportedly Not Publicizing Drug Testing Policy Violations From NXT And Developmental Talent

It's still better than BIGLAV? I don't know what that is, but it indeed sounds terrible.

If I never hear the phrase "political hit" again, it'll be too soon - easily THE dumbest thing to ever come out of this board!

I'm drifting off...a sure sign that a match isn't good.

Very good women's Chamber match. No one cares about Absolution and never will, so having them the first two eliminated was fine. Sonya is probably the next Tamina, but Mandy might go places. I hope we get Sasha vs. Bayley at Mania, but I doubt it - or if we do, it will be a pre-show match. Bliss deserved to win. Unlike most of the division (and that includes Sasha and Bayley, sadly), she's actually over. Bar vs. Ted and Penelope is a nice piss break match. Our bladders thank you, WWE.

Wasn't The Club supposed to face The Revival, or did I hallucinate that?

Not sure if this has been posted here, but an awesome series of tweets on the history of "The Golden Lovers" Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi: https://twitter.com/EffingBoring/status/967145669038260224 I knew none of this, but I was instantly spellbound. Really good stuff, complete with some nice gifs too.

So the NXT system of honing talent works? Let's hope they can hone those bland indy geeks Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O'Reily. They're been boring charisma vacuums in NXT.

I think it's his WCW run combined with him overpushing himself during the early days of TNA. I remember people aching for Jarrett to lose his title to Raven on one of the PPVs, but it didn't happen. In retrospect, a junkie like Raven was at the time probably couldn't be trusted with the responsibility. Raven ended up winning it anyway though, I think. Typical "LOLTNA" stuff, I guess.

Yeah, it was absolutely horrendous, which doesn't give me much faith that WWE would still be able to replicate what made the originals so good.

I honestly felt bad for Mike Graham during those roundtables. He always came across as everyone's over-eager puppy dog little brother and either never had much to contribute or was talked over by the louder, more boisterous personalities on the panel. Doesn't change the fact that his "talking head" appearances on WWE documentaries were obnoxious as hell. I think there's an old thread on Wrestling Classics that I started about one of them. Edit: Here it is. http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=116022#000000 WC's search engine feels like using a web browser with AOL circa 1995, which is oddly fitting, but still...

IMO, Mike Graham's death is the only reason people aren't a lot more critical of that idiotic quote. No disrespect meant to the dead, but I'm willing to wager Graham never a drew dime himself - or at least certainly drew a lot less dimes than J-E-Double F-Ha Ha-J-A-Double R-Ha Ha-E-Double T-Ha Ha - That's Double J, Jeff Jarrett.

Time to dispel an awful rumor:

Fun match between Nick Aldis (formerly Magnus) and James Ellsworth for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. A classic? No. But enjoyable. I really liked the emphasis on the rules. I'm not sure if that's an NWA edict or something Championship Wrestling from Hollywood - where the match took place - already does. It's the first match in Aldis's "Ten Pounds of Gold Crusade" where he defends the title 20 times in the next 60 days all over the world. He's facing Colt Cabana in China in April. They do need to work on their presentation a bit though. The audio, for example, was a bit rough to understand at times and slightly out oot of sync. Again, not sure if that's a CWF or NWA issue.

On his birthday... Yup! But I have no sympathy for him, honestly. He's an abusive idiot, and this was the inevitable result. The charges were dropped - he was not cleared of them. With that said, I hope it was a one-time mistake and he cleans up his life - I know he's been through a lot.

Keep in mind, guys, Ospreay is still pretty young - only 22 or 23 years old. Even AJ Styles admitted he didn't understand wrestling psychology at that age.