C.S.

I hope this Ebersol league fails so spectacularly that Vince immediately gives up on his doomed XFL vanity project instead of pissing away the family fortune.

Not that I would have necessarily wanted Ultimate Deletion at Mania, but this is the same show that's had matches like the Hollywood Backlot Brawl between Piper and Goldust, so it wouldn't be that out of place.

Amazing news! Truly made my day. I'm so happy for Bryan. But I really think we're getting some combo of Bryan, Shane, KO, and Sami. Anyone expecting anything more is really setting themselves up for disappointment.

I'll give credit where credit is due, KawadaSmile - a really excellent post there. With that said, I still find it extremely problematic that lead babyface announcer Cole shit on the match right before it aired. Are his comments being blown out of proportion? Maybe. But there was no reason for them in the first place. Matt Hardy will probably do battle royal duty, you're right - and I don't necessarily have a problem with that, even, especially when Sasha and Bayley are likely in the same boat, and I'd take a singles match between them over any expanded role you could possibly give Matt. I'm kind of surprised Ultimate Deletion wasn't at WrestleMania itself, but that's hardly something I'm going to criticize too much.

Yeah. Matt Hardy got so buried he's spent the last few months appearing on TV, doing his own vanity project and got basically all of his family to appear in the last match of the feud. So buried. Besides, with the result of the match, it's quite possible they are going to rewrite Bray. I would be down for an amnesiac Husky Harris slowly rediscovering himself as Bray, as much as I hate the wrestler. Did you even read my posts? I'll answer that for you: no, you didn't. You just wanted to get on your little soapbox. You're having a conversation with someone, but it isn't me and may not be anyone in this thread. So let's try this again... Buried BY MICHAEL COLE. Buried by not having the match show up on Hulu - UNHEARD OF for the main event, even though the Hulu version is shortened. Bray is dead as a character, thank God (and good riddance), and I'm guessing it's back down the card for Matt after this. WWE has made it crystal clear what it thinks of Matt Hardy and the Broken/Woken Universe. They may not necessarily be wrong, but the match was pre-taped and they could have chosen not to air it. Instead, they decided to be petty, have stooge Cole bury it, and then literally bury it by not having it on the Hulu version of Raw or at least WWE's YouTube channel. Anyone who missed Raw is having to resort to third-party YouTube videos just to see the match. That's ridiculous! I honestly don't know what to think of the match after watching it - I can certainly understand why people would think it's a piece of shit - but WWE's actions have been downright baffling and bizarre.

A burial of Matt Hardy and the match. Bray Wyatt is so ice cold and such a supremely bad character that nothing is going to bury him further. He won the WWE Title last year, beating Cena and AJ in a result that was quickly forgotten about, and completely eroded by the time he dropped the title to Randy Orton at Mania three weeks later in a cockroach match.

Wow... Ultimate Deletion was cut from the Hulu version of Raw, and Michael Cole called it "obnoxious" before the match. It may very well have been - I can't say because I haven't seen it yet - but this feels like a straight-up burial and reeks of Vince turning against a character and idea that wasn't his own.

Farooq or The Rock would be ideal. (Fat chance on the latter!)

Now official: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-hall-of-fame/wwe-hall-of-fame-2018/article/mark-henry-wwe-hall-of-fame-2018-inductee

I recently signed up for another Kindle Unlimited trial, and while the glory days of great wrestling books being on that service is long gone, there are still some good ones. I just finished Dusty Wolfe's book. (Dusty Wolfe, for those who may not remember him, was a "journeyman" wrestler - jobber - for the WWF and WCW in the '80s and '90s, but he did a lot more than that and actually wrestled all around the world. You might remember him as "Dale" Wolfe if Dusty Rhodes happened to be there while he was.) Hoo boy, while the book is badly in need of an editor and way too long and dry at points, it's actually a pretty interesting look at several eras of wrestling from a guy who's been everywhere, wrestled everyone, and seen everything. It also doubles as a travelogue of sorts. My favorite part are his little "ADD" observations at the end of each chapter. They're one or two sentence mic drop statements. There's one about Jerry Jarrett always having to bail Jerry Lawler out of jail because of The King's "preferences" when it comes to the opposite sex. Wow!

Mark Henry will be added to this year's Hall of Fame, according to the upcoming WrestleMania Magazine. wrestlingincThe new #WrestleMania magazine reveals that Mark Henry will be inducted into the #WWE Hall of Fame. Thanks to Wrestling Inc. readers Chris and @JAAKKKEEEE https://www.instagram.com/p/BgeSWspAolK/

The Headshinkers smoke the Usos as characters and it's not even close. What are The Usos supposed to be exactly? Gangsta brothers? Hip hop Samoans? Guys who shout "Uce!" randomly for no reason? Whereas, you knew exactly who and what The Headshrinkers were. Simpler is better. In-ring, it was a different time, but I'd put The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiners up with any Usos match if you're willing to realize there were different styles and constraints between eras. Promos, come on! Headshrinkers were forced in a box, played the typical "savage" Samoan stereotype of the era, and did it very well. Longevity obviously goes to The Usos. Did we ever find out why Samu left so suddenly and had to be replaced by the miscast Sionne (Barbarian)? That version of The Headshrinkers was a colossal waste of time. Overall, The Usos are a very good team and certainly doing their family legacy proud.

The angle was wretched and Bruce's justification of it is worse, but Booker T has always acted like it was no big deal - even in his book. Whether that's how he really feels, who knows, but he has never spoken out against it. You can say he doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds him because he has a WWE job, but there were plenty of years in TNA where he could have spoken out and/or cut one of those shoot interviews about WWE that made TNA look second-rate, didn't draw money, and no one cared about.

Ehh... Am I the only one who considers Trish wildly overrated? There were at least a 5-6 other women during her era who were better than she was IMO, and that's in WWE alone.

I have sub-zero expectations for this show.

They announce the "main event" first to get the most out of ticket sales. I wouldn't expect any names bigger than Goldberg at this stage. The one exception was the last-minute addition of Bruno, knocking Mick Foley from the headline spot.

Hillbilly Jim may have played a simple country boy, but he's surprisingly articulate and did a decent job on color commentary for the standards of that era. Was he Jim Ross? No. But he was never expected to be either. His speech will be just fine.

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.