Goodear

I clipped out stuff so pardon that. I think the real issue with the Moxley promo was its placement right after the Omega car crash. Why is this unhinged lunatic waiting? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to jump Omega when Santana and Ortiz hit the Bucks? It could lead to a possible Inner Circle connection and that wouldn't hurt to build some stakes and 'will he, won't he' to the program. As it stands, he seems more worried that the internal consistency of the promotion doesn't make sense. For a promotion where there seems to be a hardcore match every week, I'm not sure why they wouldn't count. Why does anyone want to be in them? The ring work point feeds almost every one of your other points. The tough guy cowboy, the undercard women, the comedy workers and the veterans ALL work the same and its more of the same. I just wonder if this can work in six months. The stuff they do that works (which has been Jericho and Cody specific) is the only stuff that feels different. Everything else seems like bomb throwing and kick outs and its already merging into a mass of stuff.

I don't know how there can be a proper hot tag when there aren't any heat segments.

What evidence of the "listening to the fans" talking point is there?

Remember when they inserted Debra into the Rock-Austin build? Same principle.

WWE has gotten too big to concentrate on the actual show. They mass produce so you get McDonalds level food but there sure is a lot of it. It's reliably subpar. They would have to significantly contract in order to reverse to a more specialized, well thought out product.

I would agree with this. The internal consistency of having a move lead to a stretcher job is much harder to swallow when all of the matches contain so many wild spots. I'm not sure its enough to do the move on the floor and cripple Daniels but have Stunt take it later in the ring with a double stomp chaser and not do the same to him.

I wonder if this is a casting issue and Janela would be better off as a wrestling/manager. That way his bumps are the payoff to angles. Now he's being thrown out there to do long losses to Moxley and Omega. I don't know that its really helping any of them to go this route.

I think my main issue with Page is that the idea of a "Hangman" is an awesome character. Page just doesn't live up to my head cannon because he's seemingly trying to fit in with the current crop of workers going back and forth and hitting stuff like shooting star presses. It paradoxically reduces the character by increasing his in ring moveset. He comes off like a guy dressed as a cowboy but it doesn't inform his performance.

So its supposed in the spirit of Southpaw Regional Wrestling.

So the joke is this gimmick sucks so we are going to intentionally put out something that sucks. Hilarious?

Shawn Spears is about where I thought Cody was when he left WWE. Competent but not mind blowing guy who would benefit from a change in scenery.

I have thoughts about the Librarians... Way too many thoughts. I have feelings about gimmick wrestlers and what makes a great character and how that can differ from a great 'wrestling' character. For example, the Million Dollar Man is a great character because who can't write for an evil rich asshole? But how does an evil rich asshole wrestle? That's a different story and I think the gimmick fails in that metric as opposed to say Lord Steven Regal who was an uptight British dickhead and wrestled the way you'd imagine with lots of fancy technical stuff and a lot of disdain. The Librarian concept really fails both of those tests because who has strong feelings about Librarians enough to want to fight them? And if a Librarian wanted to fight you, what that would look like would be really unclear in your mental movie. Regardless, it could work in some regards if really drilled into and produced in a way that worked to the talent. Bates seems horribly miscast in the role as undercard gimmick heel. She's uncommitted to the bit and so she overuses the basic trappings of what the gimmick could be by going to the shush way too much to be effective. She doesn't seem to interact with the crowd very well and that's really what the role needs. It needs the crowd to hook in and She's almost cheeky in acting like she's above the material. Avalon is better in the role than Bates by a mile. He is hurt by the current style of the promotion of back-and-forth and should instead be doing lots of shine for babyface to start, do a heat segment and go into the finish. He should not be trading spots and momentum because that's for 'good wrestlers' and that is not what this role calls for. I think he'd be better off stooging and stalling and yelling at the crowd to be quiet than working for star ratings. He's suitably annoying looking and I like his facial expressions. If they got some good introduction 'music' for him, he would do well interrupting people and getting smashed in response. He should probably be working in non traditional gear in order to fit the character rather than tights and a robe.

Hi, like the concept and length. Chad, you may want to check out Bateman on Championship Wrestling from Hollywood which is free on the Fite TV app. His gear is darker there and they add a shirt to the look which I thinks helps cover some of his odd physique. On the most recent episode uploaded, he had a nice match with B Boy which was pretty strike heavy structurally. Bateman has some idiosyncrasies that can be off putting like his 'stinger' selling neck injuries but he's overall enjoyable to me.

Liked it up to the very end where you guys felt the need to talk about Kane for some reason because if anyone really had a ton of "bloom" ever, it sure isn't Kane. It's like him winning the Wrestling Observer "Most Overrated" Award because we have to be as cowardly as possible. Maybe next you can take that Giant Gonzales down!

Poor Summer Rae, why does no one see her value? She was one of saving graces of the Rusev-Ziggler angle and was great in the BFFs angle in NXT. She's one of those people who does the most with the shit they give her and then they take away the shit so she has nothing at all. Sad face frown man.

I was thinking the other day about some of the staples of this era of WWF wrestling and what has extinguished due to time. I was wondering if you guys think the post match humiliation gimmick could ever some back as part of someone's character. You never see guys getting bills shoved down their throats, getting covered with snakes or getting wailed on with nightsticks anymore. I say bring it back personally. What post match shenanigans worked and which didn't?

I thought Daniels had a late career renaissance where he finally put his character together with the team with Kaz being the turning point? I remember being in awe of Ahmed Johnson and thinking this dude was going to be the next big face in WWF. I even caught a glimpse of him in Global as Moadib and thought he had big potential. Then he kept getting hurt and his tights kept going up his shit and he got more and more unintelligible. I've soured on Mick Foley a lot and the twitter thread brought that back to mind. While an extraordinary bumper, Foley did some things that were quite frankly stupid dangerous (like why did he ever think a sunset flip to the floor was a good idea?). He's like the death match bumping definition of excess.

After Parv hits you guys up on your Shawn Michaels love (listening to your Rushmore episode now which doesn't have a reaction thread) can you have someone else shake you by the Kurt Angle?

So my question would have to be about the makeup of managerial stables during the Heenan, Hart, Fuji and Slick era. I think that by looking deep into their respective families, you can find some patterns to who was with who and why. Slick's "Big 2" of Bossman and One Man Gang were a subversion of typical white power structures (cops and bikers respectively) who both ended up having to answer to a black man. OMG obviously would become even more controlled as he became Akeem and became a "African" figure. Mr. Fuji was someone who would revel in pain and torture with his guys like the Powers of Pain and The Berzerker during this period with that motivation to cause more punishment often being their Achilles heel. Hart tended towards misfits like the Rougeaus and Honky Tonk Man who would want some form of adulation that they did not deserve. Heenan actually had two patterns of dumb meatheads he could rip off like Haku and Hercules as well as wish fulfillment characters like Rude, Perfect and Andre who were the physical talents he couldn't be (sexual tyrannosaurus, super athlete and the embodiment of wrestling power) . Do you guys have any thoughts or am I completely off?

Nice return to form from Will, he really does help move the show as a host along and helps provide some structure the show was lacking. Devon is still kind of finding his feet and doesn't come off confident or with a clear voice. He just sort of goes along with the rest and doesn't add a great deal to the program.

I think I was having a bad day. Regardless, I think you were reaching for that point when a gag goes so far past being funny that it is funny again but it went even longer than that.

Just a tremendous listen, I think the weakest part may have been trying to rank it in context with other great matches? I'm not sure we really needed to put it up against a historical context in this setting.

I think you may need a color guy to breathe some more life into the show. You guys seem to have a very mellow tone which lends itself to looking back with a retrospective analytical air but it may not fit with the feeling I would get looking back at wacky WWF hi jinks. I don't know how one can carefully scrutinize Buddy Rose in WWF without embracing the absurdity and I don't know that you hit that mark.

Some of your drops and side things like singing as... Hacksaw Duggan maybe? are so long and stupid and god damn it could maybe have a life span of 15 seconds but it goes on for what feels like 10 minutes and it made me literally turn the stupid thing off. So it could have gone the rest of the show but I will never know because life is too short to be so annoyed.

I too question the main roster's ability to get Bayley based off the bad fumbling of Emma the first time around. They really don't get how to use 'fun' as a character trait. Maybe if Smackdown gains more of an identity without having to cross over with Raw, they can protect Bayley better there than they would otherwise.