The Man in Blak

I feel like they could have told the same story much more effectively in half the time. But, at the same time, that was part of the point - Lesnar was just toying with him. The zombie sit-up sequence from the desperation AA was glorious. Almost worth the $9.99 on its own. I have NO idea where they go, unless they feed him Reigns now and build to Cena/Lesnar III or Bryan/Lesnar at WM. Reigns is light years away from being able to hold up his end of a "competitive" match with Lesnar.

I've defended Orton before, but he sleepwalked through that match; headlocks and standing around galore. Couple of hot moments from killer counters from Orton (powerslam on the spear, jumping RKO), but this made both guys look bad. EDIT: And while this was 75% on Orton, Reigns didn't exactly light up the arena either.

I guess I'm in the minority in that I feel like the Steph/Brie feud has been a car crash ever since Steph got arrested. Nikki turning on Brie for the finish after weeks of getting beat up non-stop is just a cherry on the sh*t sundae, really.

Still not a fan of Rusev's gimmick and his TV matches are getting a bit samey, but he took this match on his back and made it interesting. He FINALLY sold the leg work by modifying the Accolade, rather than doing his same schtick and then deciding to grab his ankle in pain afterwards. If you're having him go over, this was the way to do it.

Er, what happened to the Flag Match stip? My stream hiccuped at the start of the match.

Actually, I think the "frenemies" deal really suits Paige - her ongoing commentary after she shoved AJ Lee off the stage ("Oh, she's fine!") is by far the best bit of personality she's had in WWE.

I can't believe they just put RVD over Cesaro clean. Not fond of the match either.

I apologize if this has been asked and answered before, but what is the story on Lesnar's remaining dates? Can he realistically have an extended run as champion? I threw out the Rollins scenario earlier because I was still under the impression that Brock is a part-time asset; If Rollins managed to skate with the title until Royal Rumble, he could lose it to Brock there to set up Reigns/Lesnar (or even Cena/Lesnar III) for the title at WM31.

What if they have Brock win with interference from the Authority (he is their Plan C, after all), then have Rollins cash in with an Authority-aided beatdown after the match? - protects Brock and gives him an instant angle to return with (against the Authority) - protects Cena - instantly gives Rollins fuel to crank up his cowardly-ish heel act: "I cashed in on Brock Lesnar and WON" - can either build to Reigns/Rollins, Ambrose/Rollins (especially if Ambrose wins earlier in the night) or even Cena/Rollins for future PPV main events through the rest of the year

Is there a "neither" option? Or a "I side with Vince on the night of Montreal, but I side with Bret for every other night in 1997" option?

They had a promo to open the show where they said they wanted to be remembered like the most famous tag teams in WWE history, naming off the Hart Foundation, the Road Warriors, Edge & Christian, and the New Age Outlaws. Naturally, they segued that into talking about watching the WWE Network, which the crowd responded to with the "nine-ninety-nine" chant. Rybaxel interrupted their promo (to a complete lack of an audience response) and said that they accept the challenge. Then RVD interrupted them to say "What's up, guys?" and accept the tag team challenge with his tag team partner...Sheamus. Then Corporate Kane came out and announced that there would be a Triple Threat match between these three teams later in the evening, which really ended up mostly being Rybaxel vs Sheamus & RVD with the commentators playing up the possibility of the Usos losing the tag titles without actually being pinned. Usos retain with some Triple Threat trickery, tagging out RVD right before a frog splash on Axel and then landing a splash of their own on RVD for the win. Not the best match of the night (see below), but there were a few clever moments. Other Main Event stuff: - Seth Rollins, who looks like a doofus wearing his new shirt to the ring, faced off against Kofi Kingston, who is apparently back to his face act. (Maybe they dropped it because of what's going on Ferguson, MO?) Decent little match with a hot finish that focused on a couple of really nice hope spots for Kofi. - Sheamus and RVD have a backstage interview with Renee Young to explain why they formed as a team. Apparently, it was Sheamus's idea because...Rob Van Dam is laid-back?

The Main Event match between Swagger and ADR is mostly unremarkable, but the opening promo duel that got them there seems like a weird misstep. It's like somebody realized that they were running a show close to the border, so they pencilled in a (surprisingly effective) babyface promo segment for ADR, set up Swagger & Zeb in opposition...then remembered at the 11th hour that Swagger & Zeb are working as faces against Rusev right now.

The thing that strikes me about the diagnoses on this podcast (which was a fun listen) is that there are so many guys that are tagged to "disappear." We're looking at a WWE that's already having a hard time creating unique and meaningful matches to fill all the TV and PPV time that they create - who do you use to fill in the midcard and uppercard after this shakeup, if you ask a dozen guys to take a vacation? Also, I'd really love for someone to explain the idea of Ryback being some sort of "main event or bust" ace-caliber guy that's worthy of getting the "Lex Express" treatment in the (hilarious) scenario where Rusev, the guy that barely has enough offense to fill out a ten minute match with Jack Swagger, runs roughshod over the entire WWE roster. I've gone back and watched Ryback's PPV resume in WWE so far, including HITC 2012 where he was supposedly ruined, and I just don't get it. He was getting "GOLD-BERG" chants on the very first PPV match he ever had. The fans booed him at Survivor Series 2012 when he put down both Cena and Punk in the triple threat. Even before the admittedly lousy finish at HITC 2012, I'm not convinced that he ever had the crowd's support in that match against Punk. Yes, he has a decent power moveset that he pulls off fairly well. He also has a personality that's alarmingly close to Lump and Loaf in the Ren & Stimpy pro wrestling episode. Yes, people were chanting "FEED-ME-MORE" in 2012. People also clap along with Kofi Kingston when he claps his hands in the air after a boom drop. What, exactly, are you seeing in this guy?

The story decompression with Ambrose and Rollins wouldn't feel so grating if they had done this lumberjack stip for Battleground. As it stands now, though, this is absolutely brutal. Other things about their handling of Ambrose lately that have been awful: - Main Event last week: Having Del Rio interrupt his promo, step in the ring, KICK HIS BAD ARM, and escape from the ring without any retaliation from Ambrose at all until the match later on. - Raw: Having Ambrose effectively steal Alicia Fox's post-match schtick as a distraction tactic during the Rollins/RVD match. Pouring soda into the MITB briefcase? Really? If Ambrose is really so consumed with revenge on Seth Rollins, why is he goofing around? (Better yet: why isn't he waffling Heath Slater with a chair to give him the instant DQ win?) That said, that Raw match with Del Rio was absolutely solid.

You didn't think that he built any sympathy for Zayn in the NXT Arrival match? Sure, he's not an especially expressive heel, but would playing to the crowd be in line with his stoic strongman character in the first place? Is a small package win in a non-title match on Smackdown really the same as a small package loss in a title match on PPV, especially with the latter happening seconds after Cesaro used the swing?

Eh, I think "losing to Sheamus immediately after delivering your signature move and, thus, crushing any semblance of credibility for your recent heel turn" counts as a pretty significant example of poor booking. (Is it the worst that Cesaro has had to deal with? I guess that's up for debate.) I do agree that the heel turn itself did start the decline before Payback, though, because people instinctively wanted to cheer for the guy; I just think the loss to Sheamus (and the nature of that loss) greatly accelerated the process. I'd also disagree that Cesaro's matches have lacked emotion -- he's been involved in some of the best matches that WWE has put out this year. (Brotherhood/Real Americans on Main Event, Cesaro/Zayn on NXT Arrival, maybe even Cesaro/Cena on the 2/17 Raw.) If we really mean "storyline-driven" when we talk about "emotion," then I would ask if Cesaro's really been given the opportunity to have that sort of match to begin with.

Cesaro's been a dead man walking ever since Sheamus gave him a clown nose at Payback by insta-winning immediately after the Giant Swing. There was a fair amount of pushback here at the time, but I think you can trace a very noticeable decline in the crowd reaction to him after Payback, especially once he dropped the Swing altogether. They're going to have to rebuild him whenever (if?) they decide, in their infinite wisdom, to finally get behind him for real.

It's really weird to hear Randy Savage working as a heel-ish announcer on the 4/27/91 edition of SNME, just a little over a month after he lost the retirement match at Wrestlemania VII. Though he does admit to knowing how hard Sherri can hit when she interferes in the Hart/Dibiase match, I guess.

They do use some of the Confidential segments as interstitial footage on the live feed - I've seen the WWE Cribs segment for Trish Stratus that way, along with a couple of old Mr. Perfect promo videos. It seems like, for a lot of this stuff, they're happy to hide it on the live feed, rather than having it out there as separate, searchable clips.

I guess I'm an exception to the rule, then, because while YouTube may have the content, most of that content is delivered with questionable video quality. Then again, I'm not sure I'm a lapsed fan that came back because of the Network specifically, as much as a lapsed fan that heard about the Network, checked out the product and saw Daniel Bryan, and then jumped onto the Network out of curiosity.

Er, what? Not sure if you're being serious, but pushing for collections, which damage the recipient's credit rating even if they pay up, over a grand total of $50 per person (assuming they bailed after the first month) would not only be a spectacular waste of time and resources, but it would also attract a ton of bad PR with fans and investors.

Whoever had "immediately" in the pool wins, I guess: http://network.wwe.com/shows/vault/video-vault Hopefully, they'll add stuff here that we don't already have on the service, but leading off with the SummerSlam 88 main event isn't an encouraging sign.

Ah, I didn't realize that the previous CoD footage had been scrubbed in such a way. That makes sense.

Like I said a few pages back, I truly think the forced long-term commitment is what stung them and this is one of the specific areas where they got burned: people that thought they were trying out the Network for a month or two, like any other online content service, only to realize that they were locked into an unwanted six-month commitment through the fine print. With the per-month pricing structure that they're introducing (which I think is really smart) and customers becoming more familiar with what the product offers, I'm guessing the cancellation percentage will drop dramatically. EDIT: Also, I'm renewing, if only because I'm actually watching more old stuff via the Network than the current product, which has mostly been awful since Bryan was sidelined. I am surprised to hear, though, that there was stuff on the Classics on Demand service that isn't on the Network -- why would they hold that stuff back and immediately invite unfavorable comparisons to their previous service?

I actually wouldn't mind a secondary champion dropping a non-title match every once in a while, as long as it: - was played up by the announcing team as a moment of complacency and something that doesn't happen very often - was further used to build a storyline (with promos!) from the champion and the challenger chasing him But that's not what really happens. What happens is that they throw a non-title match on the card, they talk incessantly about Twitter or the main event while they're wrestling, say "Wow, Challenger X has beaten the champion!" once the finish happens, and then we never hear a word about it from anyone, wrestlers or commentators, until the rematch. Though, even if they treated all of their non-title losses in that way, it would still be overkill at this point because they've driven that trope into the ground.