C.S.

From Twitter: Kind of a dickhead response by Colt, no? Mick, all class, lived up to his reputation as one of the nicest people in wrestling with his reply to that:

I'm getting this too, on Roku. Watchlist does work for me though.

Geno Mrosko of Cageside Seats typed out a full transcript of the interview. I know I'm in the minority, but I much prefer text over audio. For one thing, it's a lot quicker to get through. http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2014/11/28/7301549/cm-punk-tell-all-interview-with-colt-cabana-transcribed

Because everyone tuned in expecting Sting. The internet diehards knew he wouldn't be there, but most of the audience thought he'd show up. Lots of disappointed fans. WWE really dropped the ball. Nothing new there, unfortunately.

I met Foley, and he was super cool to me. Granted, it was at a book signing, so while it's more or less his job to be nice in that type of environment, he didn't have to go the extra mile, and he did. It was a signing for, I believe, the third book. I had it already, so I went in there and bought Scooter - his work of fiction which was released around the same time. The bookstore security douche refused to let me give Scooter to Mick to sign - now, keep in mind, the "rules" were never exactly made clear by the store in the first place - but Mick immediately objected and said, "Why not? I wrote it!" or something alone those lines. He winked at me after the fact, or maybe it was a smile...something friendly like that. We might have shaken hands too, I can't remember. My point is, Mick was very nice in a warm, heartfelt, genuine way.

Yeah, Arn did look bigger, but what do you expect from an aging wrestler who has been retired for 15 years?

I watched a few things on the Network last night: Usos: 10 Hours to Houston: Remember the old "Before They Were Superstars" DVDs? That makes its return - by name - with this special, so I'm assuming we're going to get more of these and eventually a DVD/Blu-Ray. That's just speculation, but I hope so! This was short but great for what it was. Very touching stuff about their uncle Eddie (Umaga). They seemed closer to him than their own dad, Rikishi. I had no idea they were childhood friends with Roman Reigns. Well worth a watch. ECW Exposed Part 2: I wish this and the Usos special were longer. Like the first Exposed, there was nothing groundbreaking here, but I think I preferred the follow-up overall. They dispensed of the bios and old footage entirely and just answered fan questions from Twitter, which made for a faster-paced and more entertaining show. Batista: The Animal Unleashed: The first Batista documentary, "I Walk Alone," was surprisingly good. This one is more of a mixed bag. They spend too long going over Batista's jujitsu and low-rider hobbies. Other than his cool Eddy Guerrero car, those portions didn't really interest me. (BTW, If anyone watches this, please tell me if Joey Mercury and Kofi Kingston were in the jujitsu clips, or if I'm just imagining things.) I'm glad they at least touched on Batista's mixed reaction at the Royal Rumble, but that's where the documentary ended. I wish we could've gotten another hour about WrestleMania and the other PPVs Batista appeared on before leaving again.

Some random observations about out of the ring matters: - Putting aside the wrestling quality of the women's match, what really struck me was how fucking generic most of their costumes were. Practically interchangeable. The men would never be allowed to get away with that. Then again... - It struck me last night that Dean Ambrose's costume is just a cleaner version of Luke Harper's dirty swamp outfit - and both of them are only a couple of shades removed from the Brooklyn Brawler. Just terrible. Even in the mid-90s, everyone looked unique and memorable. Even the shittiest gimmicks - Mantaur, etc. - stood out costume-wise. Now? It's a race to see who can be the most generic.

Yeah, the Show turn wasn't planned ahead of time (storyline-wise). That was made obvious by Hunter's surprised, startled reaction to it. Who knows where they go with it from here, but at least it's something interesting for Show, which was more than we could say for his character only a few hours ago.

I'm not even a Sting fan, and I knew his return was coming, but I still got goosebumps. I can't believe anyone is actually bitching about that. It was an incredible moment! And the match itself was a clear MOTY contender IMO. Fun as hell, unpredictable all the way through, and an awesome star-making moment for Dolph Ziggler. The only thing missing was an "RKO outta nowhere" from Randy Orton. Really wish they had fit that in somehow. I was waiting for it all match. Bray Wyatt is probably the most overrated guy on the roster at this point. Either his style doesn't mesh well with anyone else's or no one has figured out how to carry him yet. Great character, but most of his big PPV matches have been disappointments (and I was the lone defender of a couple of his bizarre Cena matches). The post-match between Ambrose and Wyatt felt like such a fake corporate setup for TLC, which does the antihero Ambrose no favors IMO. To be fair, I was never a fan of their feud in the first place. I didn't like how it came about (at Hell in a Cell, at the expense of the Ambrose/Rollins feud) and I wasn't particularly excited to see them against each other tonight. Still, I do have high hopes for their TLC match. I was hoping Bunny would end up being Darren Young, hellbent on revenge against his stupid partner Titus for breaking up their promising team, but still no reveal...yawn. Just move this along already! I love the hell out of Mizdow's act, and I'm happy to see him and Miz (who I consider one of the fed's most underrated assets himself) with Tag Team gold. I didn't see the pre-show. For some reason, it took me to the Randy Savage DVD preview instead. Stupid WWE Network...

The WWE Network update with the Watchlist, etc. got added to Roku. You may need to force the update through the menu settings. It's a welcome feature, but the app is much slower as a result now. Every time you click on a show or add anything, it has to reload the options. Also, it wiped out my "resume" settings for the Foley episode of MNW. If that happens every time there's an update, that would be next to useless. WWE Network still feels like a clunky beta product, but at least features are finally being added that every other service in existence launched out of the gate with. Two steps forward, one step back...

Yep, even J.R. himself seems pretty clueless about this. He always talks about the "new and unique" experience of watching PPVs on his iPad.

As horrible and irresponsible as that sounds, and it is, weren't steroids legal back then and/or its effects not widely as known?

I'm not a fan of the guest host concept, or Larry the Cable Guy, but his presence at least makes sense because of the movie. The movie itself sounds like a baaaaaaaaaad idea, but it is what it is.

That's what I was wondering too. If it's just snippets from the DVD, I'd rather wait for the DVD and see the whole thing.

The airbrushed singlets, while mostly unmemorable (IMO), at least worked for RVD's character. They don't work for Ryback at all.

I watched the WWE Countdown episode about best ring attire. It was nothing substantial, of course, but it was good for what it was. Dusty Rhodes being on the list was a real head-scratcher. And while I don't entirely agree, I can understand why Undertaker made it. As a kid, I remember thinking that Razor Ramon's ring gear, while never fancy, always looked sharp and colorful (not to be confused with Scott Hall's nWo gear, which was cheap looking and horrendous). Alas, he didn't make the list. I'm a bit surprised RVD didn't make the list, but after thinking about it, I can't remember one thing he wore. Yeah, he had the cool "airbrushed" look, but he didn't make it memorable the way Rick Rude (who is on the list) did. No Sting either, but like Rude/RVD, that's understandable because Warrior did make the list. I would've put Great Muta in my top ten, but I can understand why that didn't happen on a show like this. On a side note, Adam Rose came across really well here as one of the "talking heads" - at least IMO. It makes me think that the WWE is missing whatever it needs to tap into to make that character work. Wouldn't be the first time! Weird seeing people like Naomi, Cameron, and Rosa Mendes commenting on '80s stars though. Brooklyn Brawler and Terry Taylor being asked to comment on this topic must've been a rib on both of them. Ditto for One Man Gang and Hillbilly Jim. WTF? Funny little segment with Michael Hayes trying to defend the fanny pack look. And to think, he was once the coolest of the cool. The former Shield also had talking head segments, and it made me realize how fucking bland all of their gear is. They don't necessarily need better gear to break out into the next level, but it sure as hell wouldn't hurt.

I noticed that some sort of theme music documentary was added to the Beyond the Ring section (I'm not sure when, but it must have been very recently). I don't recall anything like that ever being released on DVD/Blu-Ray. If so, it would be the first original content added to Beyond the Ring (everything else there is taken from old DVDs/Blus).

That is absolutely fucking insane. What the hell?

Wasn't that just because the blood and guts ECW crowd shit all over it? That's what I remember, but I haven't seen the match either, and it's been 20 years, so I could be wrong. Yeah, ECW fans eventually showed appreciation for stuff like Malenko/Guerrero, but I believe this match pre-dated that series. On that note, a couple of ROH fans I know were pretty adamant about how boring the Bryan Danielson 60-minute (or 90-minute or whatever it was) match was a colossal bore. I didn't see that match either.

Another one: The New Foundation. Remember that Owen/Anvil team? Okay, "New" anything generally doesn't work, but I thought they were AWESOME together. It didn't last though - I think because Anvil quit/got fired/whatever it was. Their replacement was the lesser High Energy team of Owen and Koko. That sucked. They had no chemistry, and I remember Owen saying they didn't even like each other behind the scenes. I also kinda dug The New Blackjacks (Windham and Bradshaw), but I never expected them to get a major push, so I wasn't necessarily disappointed when they didn't.

I don't know if I agree with Pillman. He did very well for himself in WCW and would've been a major player in the WWF if not for injury. Even if he had fully healed, he died before anything could really happen. Ditto for Owen. I hesitate to label them "disappointments" when death put a stop to their natural career trajectory. The only disappointment here is that they unfortunately died before their time.

Explains why Styles kept repeating "video on demand" like a mantra during the ECW Exposed special. In those bits, he appeared to be a huge Network shill - or at least a parody of one (which may have been the point). Speaking of which, was anyone else disappointed by Exposed? It had some fun banter between Heyman and Styles, but most of it seemed forced. It was also too much of a clip show for people who knew nothing about ECW. I'm not sure longtime fans would've learned anything new. I liked that they made fun of WWE in various "subtle" ways - particularly the "comedy." The thing is, ECW's comedy - when taken out of context and shown in clip form, as it was here - didn't come across as funny either. Some of the omissions were surprising too - no big segments dedicated to RVD, Raven, Dreamer, etc. Granted, they didn't have much time, but still. Also, did anyone else notice that the Dudley fact was shown twice, and was the only fact used? I was expecting Styles and Heyman to go off when it appeared the second time, but I am guessing they had no idea.

Whoever said Muhammad Hassan, good call. The WWE really botched that one - turning a potentially sophisticated storyline into yet another simple-minded foreign heel angle - but when the mindset is "it's just rasslin'," that's what happens. Another one: Matt Hardy. He was on fire with his "Matt Hardy: Version 1" character, his MFer (Mattitude Follower), Matt Facts, etc. For a time, he was a far more interesting character and wrestler than his brother Jeff ever was. Matt was one of the more creative wrestlers ever, really. Unfortunately, he was a political causality of the Edge/Lita bullshit. Edge's career soared, but Matt and Lita were never the same after that. I'll add Jeff Jarrett and Brian Christopher: Both of them were played up as big deals in PWI. They were the "indie darlings" of their day. Christopher was a fun tag wrestler in WWF, but never the major heel the mags led us to believe he could be. Most of Jarrett's time in both the WWF and WCW was a disappointment, but I personally thought he was really on fire during that short period where Debra managed him in the WWF, Owen was his tag team partner, and after that when he was playing a chauvinistic asshole in that feud against Chyna. (It was certainly Chyna's best feud!) His heel character was at its apex then, and he was one of the highlights of the show IMO. He flat out didn't work when he was pushed down everyone's throats as a WCW main eventer who had "stroke" with the "powers that be" and all of that other nonsense. But he didn't really come in with his chauvinistic WWF character either, which was a huge mistake. Instead, he morphed into something a lot blander while being pushed a lot harder. It was a recipe for disaster.

About time! Hope this is a universal upgrade across all apps and platforms.