SomethingSavage

To be fair, Austin *did* cost Bret the Rumble and the WWF Title against Sid. Just wasn't the cage match, which came later and had Austin trying to get the belt back onto Bret so he could benefit from the headline bout at Mania. The stipulation was attached over a weekend or something (off-screen, basically) and only referred to on TV after the decision had been made. It's just one of those things they used to do alot, but we rarely see anywhere anymore.

Sounds like the tail end of 2015 all over again. I mean, yeah. Nobody was about to cheer an ice cold Sheamus. But also, nobody gave a single solitary shit about an ice cold Sheamus. So, even if the matches were great, nobody really cared. A new level of apathy awaits us with any kind of a Roman/Corbin or Roman/Jinder feud. That much is assured.

Anyone who *needs* protection isn't worth protecting though. Eat a steak wrap and toughen up, pal. #wweLogic

Last summer - in the buildup versus Brock.

Any chance Jeff would ever approach the same level of popularity that he held in '09? Feels like that ship has sailed, but I wouldn't mind it at all if I was wrong about that.

I'm perpetually out of the loop when it comes to these things, but is Jericho scrapped from the card altogether now? Or was the Taker match just reshuffled again?

So is it the general consensus that Rollins and Balor will be moved to Smackdown? Because I've seen some folks on other sites talking about how it'll create all these "dream match" scenarios. ... *sigh* ... I like the in-ring action of their matches well enough and all, but it's like flipping into the middle of a fight scene in some foreign language film with no subtitles. The action might catch your eye and look really cool, but all investment ends when the fight's over. There's no context or character to invest in or anything. Who are they? What are they meant to stand for? I mean, cross fit fanaticism? If I had to guess..? It's just that, without those things to anchor their matches, then there's really no "dream match" for them. A dream match involves those elements - it's every bit about the essence and core of the characters clashing as it is the "moves" they do to one another amid that clash. Don't get me wrong. I'd give AJ/Seth or AJ/Finn a watch. And they'd feel like fresh, solid matches for the most part. But, without a story involving definitive characters, those aren't anything close to what I'd consider "dream matches."

I used to get a kick out of the show for some of their side tangents and impersonations. Followed along through the 30 Years of WrestleMania series and everything. JP (iirc) was always good for a laugh with that stuff, even though there were times you could tell he'd try really hard and do anything for a laugh or for shock and awe. But yeah. That Nancy and Chris bit from their Bash at the Beach 96 review was too fucking much for me. The guy was LITERALLY pretending to be Woman, attempting to fight off Benoit, and crying out for him to please not kill her. And this grown man who brags about how he books his toy collection and his No Mercy video game is chuckling through it, like he finds it so clever and witty. I gladly left that shit alone after that.

I'm not even someone who actively avoids watching old Benoit matches or anything - it honestly doesn't register with me if I'm just watching wrestling - but those shirts? Jeezus. That sounds like the definition of trolls just doing stupid shit to get a reaction, which is equally as annoying as the snowflakes who stand guard, forever ready to feel publicly offended about anything & everything in the first place. But yeah. There's a line, and those shirts are on the wrong side of it. Reminds me of that episode of Lapsed Fan, where the one co-host who always goes on about playing with his toys thought it was amusing to do a Woman impression and literally beg for Chris not to kill her. Completely turned me away from their podcast altogether. In both instances, it just comes across as a desperate, childish cry for attention.

Any chance Daniel Bryan could win to make up for all the non-Greatest Rumbles he should have won, or...?

The build would've been fine if it had felt like two forces colliding. Charlotte didn't need a streak of her own going or anything, but she was coming in with one of the coldest, dullest calendar years of any champion. I had a similar issue with Reigns challenging Lesnar. The guy was just losing left & right to the Miz on a weekly basis back in January. He lost to Rollins like it was nothing special in the Gauntlet match. Roman had next to no momentum before that one win in the Chamber. Just awful, nonsensical booking. People like to pretend these guys appeared to be on a collision course for 3 years. Hell, it wasn't even 3 months. That's a fantasy narrative that existed in fans' minds. Nowhere - at any time - was that presented as the case on TV with any sense of consistency or continuity. At all.

Allow me to disagree it is a perfectly acceptable match regardless of how many snowflakes you toss its way.This would be my pick. Also, I dont even think Misawa-Kawada from 6/6/97 is a good match, much less a *****+ match.All of that said, Dave has far less head scratchers than I do in a fraction of the time. Ive had to go back and reconsider my original lunacy more times than I can count. Care to share any specific examples? I've never been a star ratings guy myself, but I have done plenty of written reviews and categorizing that I'd see later and wonder what I was doing or thinking when I wrote that. There's absolutely something to be said about putting stock and value into instantaneous reactions and feelings "in the moment", but I can't help but feel that time & distance allows critics to put things into perspective also. I'm not pointing fingers or singling out Dave (or anyone, for that matter) - because it's all subjective. But I truly do wonder how "great" or classic some of these modern matches will be in ten or twenty years. Plenty of them already bleed together in my mind. There are certainly some exceptions, but there are also a truckload of them that just feel so similar and nondescript. So many of them look outstanding in the moment, but then nothing sticks with the viewer or gets committed to memory. Part of that is consumerism and how we view a lot of our media nowadays. It's a recent phenomenon, in which everything is instantly available and then immediately disposable. A side effect of that is - in my opinion - too much stuff gets overblown and exaggerated as the "best thing ever." But then "ever" turns out to mean, "until the next good thing drops" and quickly surpasses it. Time will tell though. The truly great stuff will hold up, will stand out, and will have lasting life with people. But I fully believe a lot of these 4 to 5 star rated matches fall off and aren't as remembered in the long haul. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

So, what's the winner of this Greatest Rumble get anyway?

Adam Pearce. I know I'll likely get next to no agreement on that, but no shits given. I'm a big fan of Pearce. He falls into the same category as Corino for me - in that he looks, feels, and functions like a man out of time. He's plucked from another era and dropped into a new age. His style stood out like a sore thumb among alot of the Indy workers he faced for a time, but the guy kept up fairly well. Even so, his greatest appeal never came from his "work rate" or whatever. The guy's greatest strength came in some of those killer promos. YouTube's littered with some fine examples. The "One Last Ride" interview always springs to mind immediately, but there are plenty others. His ring work wasn't all bad though. He was slower and more plodding than most by modern Indy standards, but he could hang in there. His lariat packed a wicked punch, and he was constantly coming up with neat new ways to "lure" guys into it. For a long time, his go-to finish was a Piledriver, and that was equally glorious. Pearce would just FLATTEN and ruin guys with it. Once he started transitioning more toward the Lariat, he would alternate back and forth - using one as a fake out to lead into the other. It was something I'd love to see more guys do. Pearce could charge a guy with the arm loaded for the Lariat. Naturally, they would duck. So Pearce would stop short, pull them in, and just DRILL 'em with the Piledriver instead. Pearce deserves more credit for being such a smart worker, for sure. I think he was fully aware of his limitations as his athleticism began to falter, as he seemed to focus more on thinking of new things to do and how to do them sensibly. Oh. And his Seven Levels of Hate tour with Colt Cabana was just fucking aces. It's absolutely the highlight of Colt's career, and it was the last time the NWA Championship really felt like anything halfway significant. Their rivalry spanned two years and featured everything - fireballs to the face, stretcher jobs, neck braces, sportsmanship, betrayal, dog collars, steel cages, and everything else imaginable. Fantastic stuff, and Pearce's promos remained stellar throughout. So yeah. That's my outside the box pick for underrated guy. I realize he's far from anyone's favorite, and he's not necessarily my favorite *anything* either - but it'd be cool to hear him talked about more than he is, if nothing else.

I remember being pleasantly surprised by the Wyatt HIAC match, although I haven't watched it back and may just be confusing my reactions for it with the Rusev match from the following year. What did Reigns do in the back half of 2014 that was any good? Not being sarcastic - I'm genuinely curious if any of it's worth seeking out, because my interest was DEAD for awhile following the one-two punch of Bryan's injury and the Shield breakup. Talk about a fucking drop off after such a great early 2014.

Women's devolution aside, how can the same company that preaches Americana and puts on Tribute to the Troops head to Saudi Arabia? Doesn't Vince know they financed 9/11 and then covered up the report that proves it? Jesse Ventura told me all about it. In all seriousness, they're in the business of making money. Look at the upside that they can afford to do things like run a women's only show with some of the profits, I guess? I don't know.

What is Hero's deal in NXT anyway? Is he strictly talent, or is he helping to train/coach up the green guys also? I saw a shoot (RF, iirc) after he was released a few years back, and he was asked about the circumstances surrounding his release. At the time, Hero seemed to indicate it was a two-step process. First, they were riding him really hard about his weight. They kept suggesting that he wasn't taking his training at the performance center seriously. So he cut down and got crazy lean via juice cleanse for awhile there. Then they started to crack down on him for trying to coach some of the newer guys. Apparently, Hero was offering advice and words of wisdom to some of the new hires - and he was reprimanded for trying to be a coach instead of just a talent. So yeah. Just curious as to whether his deal is different this time around.

I thought Cornette's breakdown of the Daniel Bryan match was pitch perfect. It's one of those things that -while watching it in the moment, I could tell there was something weird and "off" about the structure of the match. But I couldn't quite express it or put my finger on it. Could've been exhaustion. Could've been apathy. Either way, I thought Corny nailed it. I know some people consider his rants & views on the business to be outdated. And, in some cases, that can be true. But I thought he put my own thoughts into words here and even offered the best possible alternative layout for this match.

He was quite good toward the end - for the majority of those last two matches - once his meds kicked in or whatever. He settled way down after that.

AJ spent a decade having good to great matches - often even with mediocre opponents. But, realistically, a lot of people were never going to overlook the stigma of TNA enough to give him his due for most of that. To some, Styles had already made his case. But it's also true that this stuff was happening in a forest where nobody was around to hear it, so to speak. There's a lot to be said for building buzz and momentum on a greater scale, which is exactly what he got once he fled TNA. His work didn't change that drastically or anything, if you really look at it.

Haven't made it through the full show yet, but got some free time to watch a bit of Supercard of Honor. Ian and Colt just might be the best commentary team in wrestling right now. I've enjoyed them together for awhile. They're normally on point but wise enough to sprinkle in some humor here and there. Knowledgeable enough to cover all the bases, but they don't come with all the built-in baggage or hang-ups that plague the WWE commentary teams. Some of their promos to hype this show were just awful. "Just wait until you see the performance we put on in New Orleans!" Ugh. Almost nothing in wrestling is built up to be a fight anymore. It's all about performing. Just the dirt worst. Silas Young's okay when it comes to keeping that sort of stuff grounded though. Cody's promo was surprisingly solid, too. Nothing outstanding, but it was decent trash talk. The insult comparing Omega to an underground rock band was a fitting shot. Punisher Martinez is at the other end of the spectrum. This guy could really use somebody to speak for him. It's been awhile since I've seen him, but he seems to be coming along nicely. Terrible promo, but he's impressive enough with some decent offense. Also glad to see he got away from the pleather Nash pants for his ring gear. What in the actual fuck is Scurll supposed to be? His gimmick is this giant casserole of crap - it's six shades of layered shit - one goofy gimmick piled on top of another. He's got bird masks and vulture wings and pirate eye-patches and ironic facial hair and hipster man-bun hair and on & on & on & on. Looking at him is practically an exhausting assault on your eyes. I get the sense that his entrance and look actually COULD be something special and memorable, but he's just all over the map with it. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I feel like everything about Scurll's act could benefit from some streamlining. He's essentially a Portlandia character come to life.

😆 😆 😆 That's awesome & absolutely on point. I'd never made the connection before, but that's totally the perfect description of Striker in my eyes. I finally caught a couple of hours to catch the rest of Takeover. Mauro was surprisingly much better toward the end of the show for some reason. He started off as terrible as ever - continuously going back to some strange talking points about "players one and two" and each wrestler turning into a "pile of coins" after each strike. Fucking bizarre one, that guy. But you could tell AS SOON as he got caught up in the action - right around the time Almas scored with that sweet corkscrew dive to the outside. After that, he abandoned the weird bullshit almost altogether. Actually, I can't recall a single reference or anything from the main event. His calls were pretty focused and straightforward for the most part. He wasn't his usual, intolerable self. Didn't mind it a bit.

Okay? I never insisted that it *was* unique to pro wrestling, so..? Congrats, I guess? I mean, you're winning an argument with yourself here essentially. So there's that.

The same wrestling that tried to reform the nWo five or six times, even after holding onto it for a good two years past its expiration date in the first place? The same wrestling that reunited two grumpy middle-aged men and had them behave like a couple of rebellious, rulebreaking teenagers? The same wrestling that constantly tries to clone whatever successful gimmick it finds? The same wrestling that hunted high and low for the "next" Hogan for a decade? The same wrestling that has historically trotted out legends - well past their prime - to diminishing returns and even embarrassing, business-exposing performances at times? Come on, man. Wrestling has always been about finding one thing that works and then proceeding to run it until the wheels fall off. And then ride it out some more. This funky, ass-backwards, troll-the-fans meta booking philosophy is something that sprung up only recently. It's baffling, stupid, and stubborn. And it's a recent phenomenon that's certainly more of the exception than it is the standard rule that's almost always been used.

In a post shoot interview age of podcasts and docu-series, Hogan sticking to his carny roots warms my heart. He's old school well after it's cool, dood.