C.S.

At least the right guy won. Aleister Black is a future World or Universal Champion. Adam Cole is a future 205 Live headliner - if he doesn't get called up as Michael Cole's geek younger brother, that is.

Agreed. So sick of these tame PG garbage brawls. They're horrid. This entire PPV has been a snooze. If this is what Triple H's WWE will look like, God help us all. The bloom is definitely off the rose when it comes to NXT. Like Raw and Smackdown, it's now an ice cold brand.

I hope Black crushes Cole, but he won't.

My guess: Baszler locks in her submission, refuses to let go, and gets DQed. Edit: Guess not.

I don't like what I've seen in NXT. Like Sami Callahan before him, he's shown me nothing. I guess some people just aren't good fits for NXT/WWE.

Wasn't he brought in to be a player-coach? Give the guys who need more experience a seasoned vet to work with? I think he's been doing his role pretty well so far. Was he? That sounds like something frothing-at-the-mouth Chris Hero fanboys told themselves to make it okay that their man is losing constantly and isn't over in NXT. I could be wrong though.

Kassius Ohno is the Braden Walker of NXT. Stick a fork in him - he's done.

No thread for the PPV? Unpopular opinion: AoP was the better team in that match. Velveteen Dream vs. Duke "The Dumpster" Drose now. Dream is money and better win.

That's unfortunate, but it at least gives me more time to watch and review the sweet-ass Rockers/Powers of Pain match soup23 gave me last week.

I'm behind on last week's match (but I'll get around to it, I promise!), and my last two partners haven't reviewed the matches I sent them (unless I missed their posts), so I'm wondering if I have crappy taste in matches. I'll PM you in the next day or two, topropepodcast.

Now on WWE.com, which makes it more "official" I guess. http://www.wwe.com/article/enzo-amore-suspended

The mentally ill, ill-tempered, possibly drug-addicted Alberto El Patron apologized to Triple H and blamed Paige for his previous comments. From Reddit user NarcisticPunk: The website source is in Spanish. I used an English translator so the quotes may be a little off. I provided the link at the end of the post. Alberto El Patron recently spoke with mediotiempo about a potential return to WWE. He said the following regarding Triple H and comments he made last year regarding him: “I apologize for Triple H in the issues that we were when I was with my relationship with my former spouse. She and her entire family made me believe that those who affected our relationship were them, specifically him. She made me believe that the videos (compromising of the fighter) and that's all that was out was on the part of Triple H and the company. In his time believed him because he was my partner, it's obvious I defended to the hilt, and then things were different and I apologize with him and his family and understood”. He went onto say that he thinks and hopes he can return to WWE in 2019 before he retires in 2020: “I see very difficult to in 2018, but in 2019 before I go I will definitely do something with them, we shook hands and all is well now. Time heals the wounds”. http://www.mediotiempo.com/lucha-libre/2018/01/18/me-equivoque-y-me-disculpe-con-wwe-alberto-el-patron

Link to this celebrity gossip site?

Wahoos Leg assigned me Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen from AJPW on September 23rd, 1981. His take on the match: "pro wrestling as a kaiju monster movie." That is about as perfect a description as there could ever be. Arnold Skaaland is at ringside for Andre as his manager. The crowd is white hot from the get-go! This is far from the dominant Andre the Giant performance I thought I'd see. Even though there's obviously a size difference between Andre and Hansen, they are equals throughout the match - they go tit-for-tat all the way. It begins with them clubbing the shit out of each other! What struck me the most was the fantastic selling and agility of both men. I was expecting more of a lumbering monster match, but that's definitely not the case here. BTW, if you think Hulk Hogan was the first wrestler to bodyslam Andre, think again! Stan Hansen does it with ease here. In fact, whenever he has the advantage, he tosses Andre around like a ragdoll. And Andre does the same to Stan as well. During the middle of the match, it's seemingly stopped momentarily and officials jump in. Since I don't understand Japanese, I'm not sure what that was all about. After a spell, the match continues. The finish seems sudden. Outside the ring, Andre seemingly reaches under the apron (proving that's not a new spot) and pulls out an elbow pad. Am I to assume the elbow pad is loaded? Who knows. Back inside the ring, Andre uses his loaded (?) elbow to clothesline the referee for no reason that I can see. But what the heck, Andre and Skaaland are obviously the heels here, so why not? The match is thrown out. Andre and Hansen brawl wildly as officials storm in. Awesome stuff! Today's "great workers" could learn a lot from a match like this about how to really work. Note: I've also posted this here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/24308-andre-the-giant-vs-stan-hansen-njpw-bloody-fight-series-092381/

In the Match Review Trades Thread, Wahoos Leg assigned me Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen from AJPW on September 23rd, 1981. His take on the match: "pro wrestling as a kaiju monster movie." That is about as perfect a description as there could ever be. Arnold Skaaland is at ringside for Andre as his manager. The crowd is white hot from the get-go! This is far from the dominant Andre the Giant performance I thought I'd see. Even though there's obviously a size difference between Andre and Hansen, they are equals throughout the match - they go tit-for-tat all the way. It begins with them clubbing the shit out of each other! What struck me the most was the fantastic selling and agility of both men. I was expecting more of a lumbering monster match, but that's definitely not the case here. BTW, if you think Hulk Hogan was the first wrestler to bodyslam Andre, think again! Stan Hansen does it with ease here. In fact, whenever he has the advantage, he tosses Andre around like a ragdoll. And Andre does the same to Stan as well. During the middle of the match, it's seemingly stopped momentarily and officials jump in. Since I don't understand Japanese, I'm not sure what that was all about. After a spell, the match continues. The finish seems sudden. Outside the ring, Andre seemingly reaches under the apron (proving that's not a new spot) and pulls out an elbow pad. Am I to assume the elbow pad is loaded? Who knows. Back inside the ring, Andre uses his loaded (?) elbow to clothesline the referee for no reason that I can see. But what the heck, Andre and Skaaland are obviously the heels here, so why not? The match is thrown out. Andre and Hansen brawl wildly as officials storm in. Awesome stuff! Today's "great workers" could learn a lot from a match like this about how to really work. Note: I didn't read any other responses in this thread ahead of time because I didn't want to be inadvertently influenced by anyone else's opinions.

I hope this doesn't lead to a downward spiral for Paige. How much is Sloppy Sasha to blame, if any?

I hope this doesn't lead to a downward spiral for Paige. How much is Sloppy Sasha to blame, if any?

What happened to Meltzer?

For all of the great things I hear about the Briscoes, it's a shame they probably torpedoed their big league chances by acting like backward homophobes. No sympathy from me though. They deserve to be marginalized to the indy ghettos of wrestling for the rest of their careers.

But I said neither. I don't blame Vince and I didn't say everyone carries Nakamura, though I can see how my post could be misconstrued as such. Rather, I was pointing out how good AJ is as a carrier. If we get the same Nak we've been getting all along, it will be another AJ carry-job. If Nak turns up the volume though, of course it'll be tremendous. Like I said, I started out red hot for Nak. I was super into him after that Sami Zayn match. But it didn't take long for the bloom to fall off the rose, for all of the reasons already mentioned by me and several others in this thread.

Don't know - didn't see it - and it doesn't change the fact that Nakamura has become a phone book spokesperson on Smackdown.

Did who carry who? I hate he/him posts without any reference to who he and him are supposed to be. I mentioned a half-dozen people in my post.

I wonder if part of the reason for that is because he's wrestling in front of the "smart" (but really dumb as rocks) ROH audience, who expects everyone be a "good worker" (meaning, wrestle in an indy-riffic spot monkey style). I'd love to see him re-molded in NXT, where Triple H and the trainers there would be smart enough to re-calibrate his style.

Silas Young was one of the few wrestlers that impressed me in my sporadic ROH viewings. I place a higher value on having the total package though. In addition to being decent in the ring, he also has a fantastic character. Most of these other "super workers" that have no character, facials, or crowd interactions don't do a thing for me. Silas Young is one of the very few who could succeed on Raw or Smackdown. BTW, this is not meant as a slight against any of the other wrestlers you mentioned - most of whom I haven't even seen yet - just my specific impressions of Young from a show I watched a few months ago. As for Gotch, I get the impression from the few "shoot interview" clips I've seen is that he has a bad attitude and was his own worst enemy at times. Whether that's actually the case, who knows, but I don't think he's doing himself any favors by sticking to his failed WWE gimmick. It just makes him look like a big league castoff instead of someone fresh and interesting who has been revitalized on the indy scene. For all of the criticisms I and others have leveled against Cody Rhodes, the one thing you cannot argue is that he has changed things up and raised his stock. Grimm seems to be doing more of the same ol' same ol' that didn't exactly work for him in the first place.

Nakamura has no business winning the Royal Rumble or "main eventing" WrestleMania (it wouldn't be a true main event because Smackdown will forever be treated as the castoff b-brand no matter what), and I say that as someone who was red hot for him after his NXT debut against Sami Zayn. He truly seemed like something special. However, even before his main roster call-up, he was already losing his shine. Tepid matches/lack of chemistry against overrated workers like Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode didn't help, but those were masterpieces compared to what we've seen since (except maybe the Cena match, which was good but not great). Granted, there's only so much you can do with "That Indian Guy" but Nakamura has clearly been phoning it in. If he wins the Royal Rumble, get ready to hear something worse than boos: crickets. No one will react or care. Sure, he'd have a banger of a match against AJ Styles. Everyone would be quick to credit Nak for "going big" on the big stage. But no, it would be AJ carrying his ass and delivering a good match because AJ almost always delivers good matches (unless it's against KO). Even the lazy lump of shit Brock Lesnar looked good against AJ. At this point, AJ Styles could take Disco Inferno to a five-star (well, okay, maybe 3 and 3/4) match at WrestleMania.