The Man in Blak

I'd agree that Jericho compares favorably to RVD and Batista, but that's a back-handed compliment -- Batista finally got the rust shaken off just in time to leave again and RVD still looks like he's moving through molasses. To me, Jericho's trump card throughout his entire career has been his promo work, though his Michael-Keaton-in-Batman schtick for Wyatt has been an awkward exception. I've never seen him as a spectacular hand in the ring and, even when he's been good-to-great, he's almost always worked as a heel. Seeing him run through his babyface act at three-quarters-speed, complete with unironic "yeah, baby!" call outs to the crowd, doesn't really do anything for me, especially when he's stuck with someone like Miz. It kept Heyman on TV and gave him numerous opportunities to say "BRRRROCK LLLLESNAR" over and over again in promos for Cesaro.

I just feel like they don't really have the right narrative going. I'm a fan of both guys, but Wyatt is swinging and missing by mocking the "save us" Jericho stuff, and Jericho is swinging and missing with the quiet-and-serious "along came a spider" junk. (It doesn't help that Jericho looks like garbage in the ring, though age and rust will do that to you.) It's a fantasy booking angle where they wrote "Jericho/Wyatt" on the blackboard, told both guys to rock it on the mic to build the feud, and walked away...without realizing that they've left both guys without any real ammunition to build it. For Wyatt, all of it feels like a second-rate rerun of his Cena promos, which went absolutely nowhere. Meanwhile, Jericho is doing a fine job of boosting himself and getting some of those precious Y2J chants -- which I'll admit is important since he has to "rebuild" his history for new fans --- but he's falling flat once he leaves the Y2J schtick to connect back to Wyatt, partly because he can't find the right note, partly because he has so little to work with. Wyatt attacked him...because? And then, whenever Jericho tries to return the favor, the rest of the Family shows up - rinse, repeat. It's a crappy storyline and, on paper, Jericho and Wyatt might normally be good enough to salvage it. In reality, though, neither guy is apparently up to the task. And I'd say Wyatt's heat has been damaged much more by his booking vs. Cena than anything that Jericho is doing. The mystique is long gone.

That was cooler than anything I saw TNA do with Sting. Shit, I'm not even a big fan and I marked out a bit. Did the announcers reference it ? Unless I missed it, the announcers never mentioned Sting by name. They teased "an unlockable player" for WWE 2K15 that was only available through pre-order. I'm guessing that wasn't piped through to the arena crowd, though, because they had a HUGE reaction to Sting showing up on the Titantron...then started to boo a bit when the 2K15 logo came up and it became clear that he was only appearing in-game.

Okay, I'll be the killjoy: why is Bray Wyatt selling anything that a sixty-five year old man is dishing out?

Interesting discussion in that episode, though I was a little surprised by the verdict at the end. I guess that's what happens when your case is at the mercy of the whims of the court.

Finally caught up with Main Event...and that was a really odd show. Sheamus/DelRio in a mediocre Last Man Standing match...just because? Bret Hart strolling out for Jericho's interview segment to pick up cheap heat for Montreal, with Damien Sandow playing Shawn Michaels? A 6-on-1 handicap match against Nikki Bella that was actually a 5-on-1? Weird show.

I can't speak for anyone else, but Triple H's 2002-2003, which included the Katie Vick angle, was one of the biggest reasons that I withdrew from wrestling and eventually stopped watching altogether for 10+ years. It was a painful run and it came at a time when it seemed like the backstage politics were starting to get incredibly poisonous: WCW getting buried as a whole, Austin leaving instead of being hotshotted into a TV loss to Lesnar, Shawn Michaels coming back to work specifically with Triple H at SummerSlam '02. Maybe it's unfair, but Triple H's push at that time seemed symbolic of a new stubbornness with WWE; they were going to do things their way with their guys, even if it wasn't all that good, because they were the only show in town and they could get away with it. Triple H returning from his quad tear as a face after two solid years of heeling, complete with inspirational U2 music to commemorate his return, is a great example.

Just to follow-up my post from earlier: Rybaxel got another interview segment for Superstars and Ryback referred to Goldust/Stardust as "painted-up freaks" this time, so maybe there were some conversations about that. Then again, they replayed virtually all of the Main Event interview before the rematch with R-Truth and Xavier Woods, so one step forward, one step back, I guess. Hearing that R-Truth has a new album coming out makes sense now, as both of the matches with Rybaxel have been laid out to shine him back up a bit. The return match on Superstars was considerably better too - crisp flying somersault senton from Xavier Woods to the outside, smarter tag work from Rybaxel. Rybaxel wins it, giving them some momentum against Goldust/Stardust for the PPV, I guess.

Gorilla Monsoon and Shawn Michaels on commentary for this morning's Raw Flashback from 1995. Kill me now.

They don't have to erase history -- the Network would have some big-time holes if they did -- but I think it's worth questioning what they choose to highlight through the live feed, even when it comes down to interstitials. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Piper himself, trying to find a Piper interview without so much of a hint of racism or homophobia is like Jacque Cousteau trying fo find a dry spot in the ocean. (How do you think he got so far?)

As someone who had never seen a single match of Young Andre's work, I found Roussimoff/Kobayashi to be fascinating. Andre makes his living on the extra-curricular details here, perfectly timing moments of awesome old-school heeling and remarkably expressive selling in equal measure. The first fall is certainly methodical, but smart. The headlock and headscissors counter provide a slow burn to escalate from later and build a narrative of Andre's remarkable height difference being a strategic pivot point.The flash Tombstone (!) to end the first fall would have usually seemed out of place but, coming on the heels of a body slam that "woke the giant," it was a great dramatic moment that put Kobayashi in the hole by one fall already. The second fall starts out conceptually sound -- Kobayashi smartly avoids Andre's next enraged attack and capitalizes on the hand injury that results from it. But, from there, it fizzles. The work on Andre's hand doesn't end up going anywhere, as he continues to resort to nerve pinches anyway; meanwhile, those nerve pinches don't seem to wear down Kobayashi sufficiently either. Andre forfeits the second fall by DQ, which works well as a compliment to the ending of the first fall: the giant's rage giveth, the giant's rage taketh away. The pace mercifully picks up in the final fall, which is punctuated by some surprising over-the-top bumps from Andre. Kobayashi doesn't strike me as being especially fiery or engaging in his comebacks here, but I don't really know his character; maybe he's more of a "stoic warrior" type? At any rate, Kobayashi rallies back, including a series of hope spots with the Boston Crab that pop the crowd. Eventually, he sends Andre out of the ring and, in a brilliant spot, Andre's foot gets tied up in the bottom rope, leading to a countout win. The giant's size, which was such a pronounced part of the strategy at the start, finally works against him. Setting aside the second fall, which never really found a sturdy narrative footing to work from, this was a very clever match. I don't know that I'd be interested in watching it again, as the actual ring work isn't overly remarkable outside of a handful of moments, but it certainly drives home the idea of Andre as a surprisingly nimble and expressive big man. Cool match.

I thought it might have more to do with this, though you never know: http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe-raw/2014/5/27/5755016/renee-young-ribbed-no-shoes-interview-evolution-raw-backstage-pass-wwe-video-news

"Good" is in the eye of the beholder, I guess -- in this instance, Ryback issued a standard big guy heel challenge, barely managing to get the word "challenge-ing" out in the process. The crowd was so enthralled that they immediately launched into half-hearted "what?" responses the second he picked up the mic. Maybe it was just a bad day at the office, but I've never heard Ryback say anything remotely compelling other than "FEED ME MORE." Though, for bonus points, he also called Stardust & Goldust a "painted up bunch of hermaphrodites", which is an awesome follow-up to WWE's involvement in the NOH8 campaign for LGBT support a couple of months ago. So, sure, I probably graded him down for BAU delivery of bigoted crap. It means that I'm being overly snarky about WWE's treatment of the Shield break-up, which is a home run that they've managed to play into a standup double. Slotting him in the secondary MITB match and having him bounce off of recent IT title fodder like Ziggler and Kingston isn't the most inspiring payoff to Rollins for betraying the Shield when they were at the top of the heap. Other than taking little shots at Rollins in interviews, Reigns isn't even involved or even apparently interested in any sort of revenge for the betrayal. It just feels like a missed opportunity so far. I get that they need to establish Rollins as a credible singles threat and, to that end, a push through the midcard is probably the best way to do it. It's also establishing Rollins as the lower-tier guy in Evolution, though, which seems to run counter to the already-flimsy motivation for betraying the Shield as a "business decision" -- why sell out for a second-rate return? Why not even tease the possibility of some dissension in Evolution over Rollins' defection: how does Orton feel when HHH introduces Rollins as "the future of the company?" How does Rollins feel about Orton, a guy he's already beaten over the last two PPVs, getting the shot at the title at MITB? (Of course, the WWE's designation of who's an upper-card guy and a lower-to-mid-card guy nowadays is utterly arbitrary, so maybe Rollins will get crammed into the main event after the PPV. After all, Alberto Del Rio lost to RVD in both the IC tournament and the Beat the Clock a month or so ago and now he's got a world title shot in the MITB Main Event.) Aside from that, the six-man tag was just lazy booking, much in the same way as the 4-on-3 tags were on Smackdown and Raw before -- it's getting all of the guys in the ladder matches out in the same ring at one time. Whoopty-doo.

Main Event thoughts: - Ziggler gets an extended promo from on top of the ladder, where he reminisces (perhaps too much) on his cash-in after WM29. A long pause draws out "Let's Go Ziggler" chants, then Ziggler ties it up by saying he'll take back what's rightfully his at MITB. If you squint, maybe you'll see WWE planting the seeds for a heel turn - Ziggler looks a little too desperate to reclaim past glory at times here - but he works the six-man tag that follows in total babyface mode. - The six-man tag wasn't memorable, unless seeing Seth Rollins slumming it in the IC title tier was some kind of fantasy booking home run for you. Rollins wins with a curbstomp. - Bo Dallas after beating a Fandango dealing with Layla and Summer Rae (again): "women...are mysterious creatures." Not quite as funny as the "Mr. Butterfingers" line after Titus slapped the mic out of his hand, but I'll take it. - Rybaxel beat R-Truth/Xavier Woods in a match that the crowd sleeps through. Killings is fairly energized here, so naturally he gets to eat Axel's finisher in a finish you could see coming miles away. Really awful bit of psychology in this match too, as Ryback draws Killings into the ring with a mocking "Wassup"....only to turn around and try to pin Woods while the ref is sending R-Truth back to the corner. Awful match... - ...which, naturally, leads to mic time for Rybaxel to challenge Stardust/Goldust at MITB. Ye gods. These are two guys that should never be allowed to hold a mic ever again - both of them come off poorly here. - Final segment is a Renee Young in-ring interview with Roman Reigns. Reigns asks Renee to take off her heels because he smells a trap -- this Shoeless Renee thing has got to be a rib, right? Reigns still isn't quite hitting the notes he needs to on the mic yet - he tries to get over "assess and attack" as some sort of code for him, but the crowd doesn't buy it. Triple H videobombs the interview to announce Kane/Reigns for Smackdown and Kane comes to the ring for a quick go-nowhere brawl segment to end the show. Kane is an utter heatsink that gets absolutely nothing from the crowd here. Very skippable Main Event, if you ask me.

Naomi wants Paige's title. They're both faces so there's mutual respect there. What didn't you get about that segment? Actually, this was my fault, as I missed the Main Event match between Paige and Naomi that apparently sparked this. I certainly got the "mutual respect" intent they were going for -- you couldn't not get that, since that's mostly what Paige was driving home on commentary with the sledgehammer of plot. What I didn't follow was where it was coming from, but I get it now, having seen the Main Event match from last week.

I missed all of Raw except for the 2nd half of the Barrett/Ziggler match, so catching up... - The last major wrestling event that I watched before coming back for WM30 this year was WM20, so clearly I've missed a lot of what's gone on with Vickie Guerrero as a character. But, regardless, that opening segment was a high-wire act and I'm not sure it really worked for me. Even beyond the Eddie stuff, which may never stop feeling exploitative, the "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" catchphrase doesn't really build any sort of babyface sympathy for me but, judging by the reactions online to this and the segment later on, clearly I'm an outlier. - The Wyatt Family's new music is bad. Really bad. The abbreviated entrances, where they cut the lights and skipped the music, were immeasurably better than this, which reeks of the WWE trying too hard to co-opt the singalong deal. Of course, if they actually want people to stop singing along... - I never noticed it before, but the tag belts look awful. Good lord. - The Paige/Naomi "confrontation" after the Alicia Fox match...I have no idea what was going on with that. At least they gave Paige some time on commentary, I guess. - RVD is officially more interesting on the mic than in the ring. So, it's come to this. - Rollins smartly tweaks his "I destroyed the Shield" speech that got BO-RING chants a few weeks ago to include direct call outs to the other former Shield members, then goes out and puts together a decent little match with RVD. Plus, the follow-up promo, where he actually rationalizes a surprisingly logical reason for including Ambrose in the MITB match. His strongest night as a heel so far? - Ambrose is laying on the bug-eyed facials a bit thick, but he's still thriving in the proto-Austin hellraiser role they've given him. - Barrett keeping his pre-match promos short? Good. Barrett going for the cheap sports heat with the Redskins name controversy? Not a fan. - Not as impressed with the Barrett/Ziggler match on the second time around, but it was still a better than average match for TV. That bullhammer shot at the end is still great. - "Mud" wrestling as a blowoff for anything in 2014 is embarrassing, but credit to Steph for making the most of it. Her face before getting thrown into the "mud" was eerily Vince-esque. - Not as enthusiastic about the "Wish Upon A Star" routine with Stardust, but Goldust's delivery, especially the final line, was hilarious. - Virtually no reaction at all for Big E in the ring, then even less with the microphone leading up to the Rusev run-in. (Though who knows what in the world he was going for with that speech.) Just turn him heel, stick him with Titus O'Neil as the New Prime Time Players, and put most of your wasted talent in one tag team. They'll be easier to mismanage that way! - Reigns cocking his fist like a gun and pounding his fist into the ground before the Superman Punch is almost as bad as Orton's "coiling up" routine. That said, spearing Kane after being announced as the 8th participant (why?) was a nice ending.

I only caught the back half of that Barrett/Ziggler match, but that half alone might have been the best match I've seen on Raw since WM30. Easily the best Barrett match I've seen since I started watching again. I take back all my doubts on Ziggler. His one weakness was overselling the "oh so close" facials for all the near falls -- he never had anywhere to elevate to because he was one step short of talking to his hands, Warrior-style, before the commercial break. But both he and Barrett brought a real energy that totally sucked the crowd in. I was worried that Barrett might be cueing up for the Big E treatment after losing to Ziggler before, but that was a HUGE rebound. That Bullhammer (and the spit/tooth it knocked out of Ziggler mid-air) was glorious.

Having caught up with Smackdown, did Titus O'Neil piss in someone's cheerios backstage or something? Two roll-up pins by Adam Rose in the span of a minute? They might as well dress him up in the bunny suit and have him join the Rosebud entourage, at this point. I feel like Ambrose has done pretty well for himself, but the other two are definitely struggling a little bit. Reigns' mic work in the opening segment was all right but, while he drew the reaction they wanted by confronting Cena, he's only going to be able to ride off of the Shield momentum for so long. He's going to have to elevate his mic work, especially if they end up hotshotting the title onto him at MITB for a main event run. (Though I'd be very surprised if that was the case.) His brawl with Orton to close the opening segment was dreadful too, though that's as much on Orton as it is on Reigns. Rollins is in a similar situation, in that he's still drawing good heat from the turn, but he's getting virtually nothing out of everything else he's doing. Even with Cole and JBL serving up softballs, I'd say he mostly whiffed on his commentary during the Ambrose/Kane match. And, even though the booking let him down by putting him in the ring with a JTTS like Kofi, you could almost hear the crickets chirping during his match. (Also, yes, he looks like a complete putz for being left out of the MITB title match.)

I need to watch more of Piper's pre-WWF stuff but, as far as his mid-to-late career stuff goes, there aren't many other wrestlers that were more perfectly suited for the larger-than-life character work that typified the Rock 'n Wrestling era. When it comes to selling, timing, mannerisms, and engagement with the crowd, he's better than most, even if he's sometimes inclined to go overboard. When he's reined in, Piper can be a very smart worker that gets a lot out of very little, which makes him perfect for short, sprinty brawls and heated blowoffs that don't punish him for being too cute/subversive with no-sells or require greater development of a story through in-ring mechanics. (And hey, what a coincidence, those same matches ring true with his slightly-unhinged "Hot Rod" gimmick as well.) As a talker, he's certainly one of the most over-the-top, evocative guys that's ever been behind the mic -- and being emotive and evocative basically wins the battle by default in professional wrestling -- but he also can tend to be a little one-note at times and I can completely understand why he'd drive people up the wall. Hell, when he spends most of a pre-match promo for the Rude cage match squawking the lyrics to "Roxanne", taking those huge Piper wheezes between every sentence, he drives me up the wall too. I think that's ultimately why the program with Bret through WM8 is my favorite Piper work (that I've seen anyway) and, really, one of my favorite WWF matches ever. I don't know that it would have worked as well in isolation but, both in and out of the ring, the mutual respect angle actually forces Piper to go somewhere other than "crazy," which plays really well against his past history. The interviews aren't exactly nuanced -- he's still Hot Rod after all -- but he ends up dialing back the over-the-top delivery once Bret makes it clear he wants his belt because even Piper, finally a happy fan-favorite champion, realizes that Bret may push him somewhere that he doesn't want to go. And the match at WM8 cashes in on all of that drama, with Piper using his remarkable ability to read and connect with the crowd to tease one betrayal after another, letting the crowd down and bringing them back up. Piper's in-ring work is on point here -- he lays in his shots beautifully and smartly works on the cut mid-match with a nasty headlocked punch and a bulldog, while also selling Bret's retaliations convincingly. Then there's the final sequence, which weaves both the in-ring work and the higher-level dramatic arc into a perfect finish. The match, along with the run-up, masterfully built Bret Hart into a legitimate singles competitor, but this is hardly a carry job; if anything, I think Piper actually does the lion's share of the work from an emotional standpoint. For me, the only other Piper match that comes close is the Valentine dog collar match, though I still need to see more of his territory work. The Valentine match is a brutal struggle that delivers a totally different flavor than the Bret match, but I'm not a fan of the finish and, even though the occasional slowdowns drive home that this is an ugly, sprawling, and potentially uncooperative grudge match, they also make it drag a bit on re-watch. It's certainly worth seeking out, though. I actually think the Piper/Hennig match, fun as it is, showcases some of the worst aspects of both guys. (Plus, the finish sucks.) Hennig gives away so much of the match to Piper and oversells so much that he might as well be wearing a clown nose. Piper, on the other hand, can't help but ham it up and chew all of the scenery that Hennig is giving him, eye-poking him on the ground for a laugh and no-selling a kneelift ten minutes into the match so that he can do a kneelift of his own. And the Piper/Rogers match was all right, I guess, but not really all that interesting without the curiosity of seeing Piper's earlier work. The first few minutes are hot, but it doesn't really go anywhere. (Unless you consider Rogers' busted in-ring double-axehandle "attempt" to be a prime destination, I guess.) The ending is a standard TV heel finish. Maybe I'm just a grouch.

Just happened to jump onto the Network on a lunch break at work to rewatch Bret/Piper, but I ended up watching most of Eddie Guerrero's Wrestlemania Rewind on the live feed, including Guerrero/Angle at WM20 and post-match comments from CM Punk (!), instead. The live feed may seem like a waste, but it ended up hooking me for the better part of an hour when I only intended to go there for a quick 15 minute match.

yeah it's just like that time they burned Hogan/Warrior at the Royal Rumble and nobody wanted to see them wrestle after that. It's funny you mention Hogan/Warrior, because that was exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that. I'm not talking about burning Reigns/Rusev as a matchup, even though teasing it at the end of a battle royale certainly foreshadows to it. (And, if you're going to foreshadow it and not build to it, you're wasting time.) I'm talking about giving it away on free TV, instead of saving it for a PPV finish like the Royal Rumble. Hogan/Warrior was a special moment because it happened at a special event and it foreshadowed the main event of a future show. Reigns/Rusev might end up going somewhere soon (though that would be baffling, since he's not even all the way out of the Shield breakup yet), but giving away a Hogan/Warrior-esque confrontation between the two as the final sequence to the third battle royale WWE has had in as many months leaves money on the table.

It took them three tries to get there, but Rollins/Ziggler finally landed on a decent match. Rollins still has some work to do -- his "mean streak" in the ring still leaves a lot to be desired -- but he's been gradually tweaking his moveset in the right direction. He dropped the rolling suplexes (complete with "Eddie! Eddie!" chants) after the Main Event match and, while he teased some of his old high-flying moves, he only integrated them as hope spots for Ziggler to counter. The first turnbuckle powerbomb counter spot was incredibly awkward, but it was nice to see Rollins use that move without having it directly lead to the finish. Good fire from Ziggler throughout as well. Beyond that, I thought Raw was uneven, but interesting at times. When you're running comedy most of the night and your one inspired moment is Damien Sandow, dressed in a Lebron James jersey, being thrown out of the battle royale in Cleveland in record time, it's a bad day at the office. Things weren't too bad in-ring, though -- Stardust is a nice step forward for the ongoing Brotherhood subplot and the ending sequence to Cena/Kane hit the right notes. Having said all of that, what's with burning Reigns/Rusev as the final of a battle royale on free TV?

I like Rusev too, but for completely different reasons than you. I think the "evil foreign heel" act is embarrassingly awful and regressive, but Lana yelling "RUSEV...CRUSH!", fist clenched dramatically in the air, makes me laugh every single time. Rusev looked like his head was going to explode at that moment in the Big E match and it was great. They could skip the entire opening entrance/promo schtick and it would improve Rusev dramatically in my view, but that would forfeit the cheap political heat that they're so desperate to earn.

I haven't caught Raw yet off of DVR, but the opening segment of Main Event has the crowd chanting "BO-RING" quite loudly at Seth Rollins as he attempts to explain the rationale for his turn. This, of course, is coming on the heels of Triple H effectively burying Daniel Bryan as former champion. "You people deserve better. You deserve a champion that can defend his title." And now Ziggler comes out (again) to interrupt, gettting virtually no reaction. They're firing on all cylinders tonight.

If there's ever a time to really push a legitimate Women's division, it's now: they have a gaping hole in the midcard, they have a wealth of talent between both WWE and NXT, they've got two shows that have gradually built up and trained an audience for women wrestlers (Total Divas and NXT). If they're not already building to this sort of play, then what are they doing? If now's not the time, then it never will be, because the logistical excuses -- "how do we fit in TV time for a whole division," "why are we paying and building talent that can't ascend to and supplement our uppercard" -- are never going away. WCW managed to find a way to build and cultivate a Cruiserweight division that was virtually on its own and still, miraculously, over for a long time. WWE should look to their Cruiserweight approach, dig through all those Nitros through '96-97, and take some notes. The Women's division doesn't have a built-in purpose and slot on each card as the opening "crowd priming" match, but it can certainly be an attraction in itself. The long-term benefits of building a broader and more inclusive audience should be self-evident to a publicly traded company like WWE, I'd think.