Steenalized

Funny thing is that I too thought of Swagger when he came on last night. He's one of the few guys who won't be dwarfed by Brock, though he is quite a bit thinner. He has amateur credentials, so you could build it up as facing Brock in a 'pure' wrestling match or something like that. You'd absolutely need Zeb to carry his promos, but I think it could be done for one of the B shows. The only problem is that now he's lost two in a row. Not exactly inspiring to go against Brock.

Typically, yes. Maybe they just had the German team stick around since they're already there for Summerslam. Whatever happened to the French announcers?

The fact that Mark Henry isn't a multiple time WWE champ is a damn shame.

In essence, it does mean full control for Bret. That's a fine job by him and his attorney getting Vince to agree to that. That doesn't invalidate the clause. It also does bind Bret in that if he offered up a finish and Vince didn't like it, then it doesn't go through. Hogan is a prime example of having full creative control with the ability to override anyone else.

Here is where such a clause falls apart. Vince tells Bret to lose by pin fall. Bret says he'll lose by dq. They don't agree, so what happens? Really hard to enforce such a weird clause in a weird business. Then it doesn't happen. You don't enforce it by compelling action, you enforce it by prohibiting action. In effect, if Vince doesn't want this to happen he shouldn't put the title on Bret in Bret's last 30 days, otherwise he's at a legal standstill.

Hey, it happened to the USFL

I'm surprised by how warm the reaction is, it's not like the WWE pushes him big time as a Vegas guy, though he is announced as from there. Still, I hope it's the start of something for him and not just a flash in the pan.

Objection. "Reasonable" as a term of art appears in contracts all the time and generally means you have to act in good faith. "Reasonable creative control" in this context meant that Bret and Vince both had to agree. Reasonableness isn't an issue to the validity of Bret's contract expectations, though actually proving damages may be hard.

Hah, do I look like a jury? Clearly the creative control was something bargained for so it must have some value. How to quantify it, I'm not sure.

Why didn't Bret sue then if that was the case? I am actually curious about that... Also, if you breach a contract on the last day of the contract, and pay all monies owed, you haven't suffered any recoverable loss. Except Bret suffered expectation damages when his creative control was breached, whatever that may be.

A non-title match where the champion loses by distraction finish? There is no more WWE finish than that. EDIT: They then follow it up with the most WWE-possible gimmick choices. No DQ, No Holds Barred, Falls Count Anywhere.

I tend to multitask while watching Raw, but I never think of him as that obstructive. He's bad, yeah, but heel Cole was far worse.

Reigns' push being inorganic is a matter of timing and degree. At this point, I think Ambrose clearly gets the bigger reactions, but it's Reigns who's the chosen one. Reigns was definitely over with the Shield, probably the most over, but he was also positioned to be the most over. The WWE wants him so badly to be their new top dog. He was/is getting over, but not to the degree they think he is or think he should be. And now with Bryan gone they're accelerating that.

MLS teams average less than a game a week at home, so it shouldn't be a big deal. It's not exactly asking the Jets or Giants to rearrange a home game.

When was the last time an inorganic super push worked for them?

I hated Reigns-Orton, but I'm so disinterested in Orton that I should recuse myself. It was a fifteen minute hole at the back end of the show.

Long term booking, this may be a mess for WWE and I easily see them mishandling this. But for tonight, I'm in love. It stands out as so different from what usually happens. Different isn't inherently good, but I think this delivered. Cena put Lesnar over in such a big way and now its undisputed who the top dog is. This is what I hoped for in the WWE thread, albeit it went a little longer.

BINGO…end of story... The WWF was in deep trouble…that belt showing up on WCW TV would have finished them and Vince knew it. He gave Bret outs and he wouldn't take them…Bret wanted all that money, he needed to do the right thing. Put yourself in WWF's place, I know I would have done the same thing to save not only my company, but all those jobs contained within…Sure Bret and Vince had a great relationship, but Bret quickly took that money from Bischoff..who's to say he wouldn't take more to bring the title. Plus, Bret turns the belt in on RAW and leaves? REally? That would have been AWFUL for WWF as WCW would have been all over that saying we have your champ and he couldn't be beaten. Sure its in the past, but the opinion was the question and who's side was taken at that time... Bret pulling a Madusa wasn't going to happen. WCW themselves wouldn't let it happen, given Vince's lawsuit against them at the time.

That was beautiful in its simplicity and uniqueness.

Holy crap

Superman punch attempt, not spear. That makes more sense but still looks bad and I think it's a terrible counter. Orton's powerslam, on the other hand, looked amazing.

I hate that counter spot. Why is Reigns trying to spear him in the neck

It was obvious what would happen, as a lot of stuff tonight has been. Hasn't stopped me from enjoying the hell out of it.

Stephanie is also twice the size of Brie.

Total Divas is pretty big.