(BP)

I'm always impressed with the way Cena can walk the line of being an intense babyface/dickhead heel in situations like the Zayn match. He's really perfected playing to the split audience.

The first one I thought of was Sam Sheppard, the physician who was convicted of murdering his wife and was the basis for The Fugitive. Even though he was later acquitted, he had trouble returning to medicine. He married George Strickland's daughter, and Strickland trained Sheppard and booked him as "The Killer" to capitalize on his notoriety. He wrestled a few dozen matches in the early 70s until his death. Famously, he invented the mandible claw using his knowledge of anatomy.

One of the things that really hurts Orton is having Cena as a contemporary. When they were both coming up Orton was much better at the fundamentals than Cena. As their elevation and exposure increased, Cena outgrew Randy by leaps and bounds. They were given relatively similar opportunities for years, and while Cena pretty quickly became great at the house style, Orton took a lot longer to become pretty good.

I'm really curious about this. I haven't listened to or seen a lot of his shoots or interviews, but I was always left with the impression that Flair had trouble expressing how or why he did things. Looking forward to hearing his thoughts.

It'd be really strange for them to run the Brie angle from Monday unless they had a pretty good idea one way or the other about Bryan's future.

Whoa that was some hard way.

Hogan's version of events is that the casting director's brother was a wrestling fan and agent who recommened him. He said on Jericho's podcast that he's aware of rumors of Skaaland and Apter taking credit, as well as the Monsoon thing, but none of it's true. Sounded reasonable, even coming from Hogan.

Sheamus/Dolph isn't ending until Sheamus kisses someone's ass while Dolph sleepers him, he gets stinkfaced, or has a donkey sit on his head.

Ziggler and Sheamus are doing some worked-shoot thing that may have gotten out of hand, at least in as much as it's not so PG on Sheamus's Twitter. I wouldn't dare guess if there's actual heat.

Based on who's on the card, the only person I wouldn't mind Bray starting a program with tonight is Harper. It'll probably be Orton though. Maybe he'll figure out a snap RKO out of the crab walk. That's be cool I guess...

There were several different Shawn eras post-comeback. The early "I can't believe he can still go like this" stuff like Summerslam 02. The "disorganized, chop somebody then pull up his loose tights" Shawn who could occasionally have awesome matches. "Epic" Shawn, forever laying around with HHH because they were given too much time. "Mr. Wrestlemania" girdle Shawn, going through the motions on TV but still putting on a clinic from time to time on PPV. And of course, "DX 2:Electric Boogaloo" Shawn, dogging it in tag matches mostly and hocking merch. You know what? I loved all of it at the time, and so much of it is goofy fun now. He'd still have at least a handful of great matches every year. The comeback was worth it for, "I just kicked Stan," alone. HBK and Foley got me in to wrestling, and even if they've dropped in my "official list" of esteemed wrestlers, they are great pro wrestling characters.

The jealous boyfriend was Mike Knox. I didn't think much of him during his WWECW run, but I liked his intellectual Brody-knockoff gimmick from 2009 Smackdown. I think he had a short stint in TNA after his release.

Dustin seems to be about done. There were references to the Europe tour being his last one there, he had the Cena birthday singalong last week, and he wrestled in classic Goldust paint in Zurich. I think he's quietly going back to being an agent or trainer.

Bryan could work Saturday Morning Slam-style matches for another few years, stay over, sell merch, and cash out. Hopefully he's wise enough to know that at this point.

The Horsemen should have beat the NWO at Fall Brawl. Hennig in the NWO didn't do anything for anyone. Losing Wargames could've set up the NWO dissention angle they did shortly after anyway, and they could've imploded and moved on after Starrcade. It was sort of a harbinger for the illogical booking that was going to be a hallmark of NWO stuff for the next year and a half, and it's no wonder Flair assumed it was to embarrass him.

The Mr. McMahon-Elder Statesman transition started with the limo explosion angle/Benoit murders. I think it was a mix of having taken it as far as it could go and needing to change the public perception of the company with the PG initiative.

Heels getting beaten to a bloody pulp and then eeking out a victory in the most underhanded way possible. Extra points if they have to be carried from the ring but still manage to raise their arm in victory on their way out.

Cody is emphatic that he wasn't interested in a Goldust program on his non-WWE Twitter. He seems invested in the gimmick based on the Mr. Sinister entrance gear he came up with. I just think he thought it'd be cool to work differently as Stardust, but it's just not coming across well.

I think Cody potatoed Cena at some point, because Cena looks pissed and his head is swelling. I can't remember the last bad Cena match I saw, but here we are.

Neville got his first loss going toe to toe in a competitive match with the World Champion due to interference. If they'd kept up any kind of win streak it would have been against the Slaters and Fandangos before losing with no fanfare to someone in the midcard and trading wins with the intercontinental title crew for forever. I think this was better.

Was there any actual evidence that Savage and Hogan made amends before Randy's death? I can't imagine everyone taking Hulk's word for it considering his prism of reality. Maybe Lanny said something and I missed it.

Carmella had Skyler heat? I guess that makes sense.

This came from a place of ignorance more than stupidity, but someone asked me the other day if I had heard that Rey Mysterio's son had killed someone. I didn't even know where to start.

Brock F5ing ladders onto dudes would rule.

Theoretically, Kane and Show are a good fit because Reigns works better with large guys that take most of the match. The problem is they both have a really light touch and Reigns needs to work a stiffer style coming off of Brock. Plus, the obvious go away heat they have. He should work Harper, but he won't.