Goodear

Whats interesting right now about NXT Women's Division is that actually feels like a division where people beyond just the title feud have angles and storylines. Can you remember the last women's feud in WWE that did not involve the title belt in some fashion? Its really the only way that the women are going to be able to demonstrate an aptitude to working angles and get more over. I don't see the downside into exploring a women's division when WWE Prime has so many hours of programming to fill and demographics that can be reached through exposing female talent to the main audience. Its not like every male star is drawing major cash either, so what is the harm in attempting to diversify the portfolio?

Neville-King Barrett was too long for a match with such a foregone conclusion of an ending. Barrett has lost any momentum he had from the Bad News gimmick and its killed his heat. He should be moved down the card and settled into a midcard role. Neville going into a feud with Bo seems like a step down for him but I think his work from underneath was solid and his knee selling was effective.

He was wrestling well but his character work wasn't there like it is now. Mostly because he didn't have a character so I don't blame him.

Meanwhile Sheamus and Ryback have a shit hot fucking match. Holy hell. Sheamus has been on fire since coming back after his injury.

NXT was back in form this week with some good storytelling between Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Alex Riley to lead up to the next Takeover special. They did a good inversion of the original manipulation Owens did to get his title shot with Zayn saying Owens had basically been in his shadow his whole career. This then translated nicely into the main event of Zayn versus Riley which Owens overshadowed being on commentary and intimidating the announcers and especially mocking Riley. Enzo and Cass got a nontitle win over BAM and it looks like Carmella might actually be staying with the Sawftees while Alexa Bliss joins Blake and Murphy (maybe?). Blake added a super-douche pony tail to his look and I think it worked. Dana Brook looked better this week against Bayley which shouldn't be a surprise since BayBay is a pretty solid hand at this point and has the crowd behind her. Becky Lynch looked really good grabbing an arm and just working it into a sick armbar for a great squash outing. Adam Rose put Itami over with a nice and simple shine-heat-finish sequence that had no back-and-forth at the end and I think did its job perfectly well. Corbin vs. Rhyno will be happening and I'll endorse that.

Superstars and Main Event didn't really pass the 'I have this on in the background and let us see if this captures my attention' test this week with a Heath Slater-Zach Ryder pairing on Superstars being okay and a Lucha Dragons match against the Ascension being a good showcase for Kalisto. NXT was pretty JTTS centric with Balor and Itami going over guys with their usual sequences and Rhyno running through a guy in under a minute. The Ladies' Triple Threat was probably the best match although Kevin Owens probably had the best performance but suffered from a middle of the road opponent with Alex Riley.

I would be able to share people's view on the botches if he didn't try to repeat spots so often once he had already screwed them up the first time. I really thought one of his weaknesses was in the set ups stages of his spots where his opponents would have to remain stationary for long periods of time so he could set up his spots. The triple jump moonsault the first time I saw it was a jaw dropping spot.

I'm curious as to why you think that Dylan. To me, it appears to be another Abdullah the Butcher standard brawl to me with the highlight being Abdullah's selling of the body punches maybe 5 minutes into the match. The ending strolls around the ring to touch the ring posts struck me as being too casual and easy to really getover any sort of struggle. Jovica did not add much to the proceedings as this was a clear 'Abdullah match' with the usual stuff he does.

I would have to agree with Parv's groupings of butterfly, gut wrench, and vertical of being the 'trinity' of suplexes instead of throwing in all the other variations. All three fit more into the middle of a match more than the other throws perhaps barring the belly-to-back suplex (backdrop driver). These suplexes tend toward being more of the meat in the sandwich than the garnish on top. I especially agree with the vertical being a set up to bigger things as several people would use the suplex to set up a knee or elbow drop. If I had to add anything, it would be the other main variation of the vertical being the snap suplex which seemed like the smaller man's version of the move which used speed and acceleration to offset the loss in power.

Main Event was solid but not spectacular. Bo Dallas going over Zach Ryder in a five minute match was an efficient use of time that didn't wear out its welcome. Emma continued her run of 'okay' matches with Layla that was brought down by commentary. Xavier Woods wasn't absolutely awful working heel against an Uso. Main event of Rusev-Ziggler wasn't very notable outside of an effective transition to the finish. I would catch the opener and jump to the last 3 minutes of the main event if you want to maximize your time.

NXT was a miss this week with a subpar main event with Sami Zayn and Rhyno going too long to be effective (probably Sami's worse outing in months and months). Dana Brooke debuted and looked green. Solomon Crowe got outworked by CJ Parker of all people and looks like hot garbage with no future.

Nope. She's basically been stripped of the whole dancing gimmick and is "more aggressive" now,

Summer Rae had a nice heel performance this week on Main Event against Emma (who has been dialed way back) with some nice verbal work. She needs to never throw another clothesline again though cause she is too damn tall and skinny for that. The tag match from the prior week with Summer and Cameron against Paige and Emma was also not too shabby and worth a watch.

I feel like I have tried to like CMLL more than I should have and while I can appreciate the athletic performances, I hate the storytelling tropes and all the production stuff around it (I do not need to see the apathetic crowd or the dancing girls again, thank you). This does not apply to Rush. Rush has an exemption because he will punch you in the mouth. Hey Japanese wrestlers, standing there when a guy forearms you in the mouth does not make you look tough. It makes you look too dumb to duck. I would rather watch 10 Demolition matches then a single match from the Road Warriors. This applies to a lot of tag teams by the way. Miz~! People love the Miz! I love the Miz too!

1) Limb selling affecting the outcome of a match and the performances involved. 2) Southern Tag Formula including cut off spots, hope spots, hot tags and heat segments. 3) Ole Anderson stomps 4) Ronnie Garvin striking 5) Mark Henry and the Hall of Pain 6) Rock 'n' Roll Express misdirection offense 7) The Diamond Cutter 8) The Big Bossman 9) ThaMonstaMeng 10) Gaining a later life appreciation for Mr. John Tenta

So you hate Johnny Sorrow? But you always introduce him as your buddy!

Its one thing to boo the product because you don't like that Ric Flair is a cheating bastard or because Hulk Hogan is a hypocritical douche. I'll even support being upset because your guy didn't win because you wanted that release from the storyline presented. I think its another thing entirely to go to a show to boo Roman Reigns because he's not Daniel Bryan and you don't like his push. For example, going to a Royal Rumble and booing Rey Mysterio when Daniel Bryan isn't entered in the thing is weird when he's not promoted to even be in the match. Or going in knowing the main event and being upset it doesn't change on the fly. There is a sense of entitlement to some wrestling fans that just doesn't get that shows aren't made for them personally.

People hate rich, smart and good looking people that show off their gifts. Simple psychology at play there.

I hate 'hate watching' wrestling with so many people actively wasting their own time basically to say just bad what they just watched was. Maybe I'm just busy or something, but I can't see making time to watch something I'm determined to not like. People who pay to go to shows to deliberately not enjoy themselves are even worse. How much disposable income do these people have?

I'm flying to New Orleans for the Animal Care Expo. I'm not watching the show unless its somehow on the plane.

From that list, there are quite a few that stand out to me as not being important in the actual long term. I don't see any that really kept a guy from reaching a position he either reached later or couldn't reach due to issues other than the loss. Nash vs. Goldberg - Goldberg was predominately made by the fact that he never lost. I'm of the mind that booking people with undefeated streaks is a dicey proposition that fails as often as it succeeds. Goldberg is obviously the best case scenario of it working ever. However, he couldn't never lose and dropping a fall to Big Kev with a metric ton of interference isn't the worse thing in the world. It was far worse what happened after that, that reset the company to before Goldberg had the belt at all which was the problem. Triple H vs. Booker T was a major case of the booking being completely messed up and the wrong guy going over. But I never felt the loss hurt Booker T as it much as it fed into the Triple H is holding people down narrative. I don't think it really hurt Booker's heat or subsequent angles. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe was in TNA who we have a thread calling the worst booked company in history. If he couldn't recover from a loss to Kurt Angle in 10 years with the company, the company must be awful. Oh wait. Vader vs. Michaels is Vader being past it and getting the quick push to a title match before people realized it. He never recaptured the magic after the Flair and Hogan series of matches. Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior being on the list as far as hurting Hogan is funny considering the narrative has become Hogan scooping Warrior's heat at the end to put the spotlight on himself. Backlund vs. Diesel was starting to phase Bob out as he was a million years old. I don't think I would have booked it in 8 seconds and played it all over television like they did but Bob was clearly there just to transition the belt from Bret to Diesel. CM Punk vs Orton I don't even remember and I would not be able to tell you that Punk was leading the Nexus at the time if I didn't read it in the old thread. I can't imagine it hurt Punk any since he went on to much bigger things with no consequences. Steamboat vs. Honky was Steamboat on his way out of the company. His heat wasn't hurt at all showing back up in the NWA after. I'm going to be heading out soon so I don't want to keep going down the list.

Oh lord, guys, everyone is manufactured. Its WrestleMania for pities sake. Has anyone considered Undertaker for shear volume?

I'll be the Devil's Advocate. Wins and losses mostly matter in terms of moving people up the card and establishing their relative roles within the company. While this is an important thing, it is not the most important thing when it comes to wrestling promotion. I would argue that it is more important to fill roles up and down the card to have a cohesive tiered product. One of the main issues WWE has is that those tiers have become muddled with the amount of television produced week to week and so your IC champion is placed in a position where he jobs constantly because they don't have the depth of, say, WCW in the early 90s. Granted their problem was bloat and crazy contracts, but rarely would you see Cruiserweight Champions jobbing to Heavyweight Contenders just as a way to kill time. Anyway, back to wins and losses. After being established through whatever means (admittedly wins), people tend to stay where they are despite whatever happens next if they are good at their role. Mick Foley, Scott Hall and Daniel Bryan are good examples of people that were able to stay over and in their roles despite not coming out on top all the time. Perception is more important than reality here especially in today's internet age where people see wins and losses as company edict more than ever.

WWE RAW 3/30/15 Welcome back. So last we saw the WWE, there was a Wrestlemania thing. It was nice and all but now we have three hours to fill. Are you adequately prepared for fun? I’m going to split this out by Hours (H) and Segments (S) with six segments per hour. Bare in mind some segments are longer than others so ... whatever. H1S1 Shield Promo - Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose Establish that this was “Plan B” for the Shield from all the way back from when they broke up the first time. They realized they couldn’t fight the company itself and win so they bided their time, allowed Seth to infiltrate the Authority and blow it up from within. They were all willing to go at it tooth and nail to sell the ruse, it didn’t matter to them who got to the title first. Rollins is now the insurance policy, should by some act of God, someone beats Reigns, he is going to have to go against Seth right after. Daniel Bryan wanted to ‘ruin the plan’ by hijacking Roman’s title shot. We can’t have that, so Dean took away his WrestleMania moment just out of spite. Brock Lesnar only held the belt for so long because he’s been ‘hiding’ this whole time. H1S2 Match 1: Sheamus vs. Curtis Axel Axel is of course miffed that he was never eliminated from the Andre the Giant Battle Royale. Get out here Sheamus! I’ll make you pay! Until he jobs. Brogue Kick for a welcome back moment. H1S3 Miz pays Adam Rose Backstage, Miz comes up on Adam Rose and notes Adam has a match with Damien Sandow later on tonight. It sure would be a shame if something happened to him out there. Oh I don’t know where this envelope of Marine 4 money came from. It must be yours! H1S4 Match 2: Adrian Neville vs Heath Slater Inset Promo from Slater: “You eliminated me last night, now I’m going to get you back!” Showcase for Neville. He’s gotta go over big here because we haven’t established the undercard as more difficult terrain yet and if Neville does that work, its just going to make him worse. Want to establish the deadlift German to set up the Falcon Arrow. H1S5 Match 3: US Title Rusev © vs. R Truth Truth makes a go of it, Rusev is coming off a major win and can sell some lingering issues from the match. Truth gets some near falls with some roll ups but Rusev takes him down and breaks his back to make him humble. H1S6 Paul Heyman vows revenge Heyman live via satellite. Brock Lesnar may never be the same and thats bad news. The Shield took his one friend in the entire world, he will not rest until he has his boot on their collective throat. H2S1 Match 4: Damien Sandow vs. Adam Rose Adam gets off early and works over Sandow with heeling tactics. Might I recommend the fish hook? I’m a mark for the fishhook. Sandow comes back with the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. He’s mad but confused, what caused Rose to come at him like that? H2S2 John Cena Promo - Bray Wyatt Guest Stars John Cena starts off with a maudlin promo about he let down himself, the WWE Universe and ‘Merica BY GAWD by not being able to beat Rusev. He’s going to give the Devil his Due... BWACKWAHHHHAAAA “Only one devil here John…” Bray establishes that since he went through the Undertaker, he is aiming to right the wrongs from last year’s Mania and go through John too. Commentators play off the Buzzard aspect of the character that he is trying to ‘pick the bones’ of the WWE H2S3 Match 5: Prime Time Players vs. Los Matadores Trying to start rebuild the tag division a piece by having them take on a more prominent role in the company. We can’t just have guys get wins just before they get a shot at the champs and then cycle them down. That being said, less parity in the division is key and the PTPers are going to be the upper midcarders of the division and Matadors the enhancement talent. PTPers go over with a Gutcheck popping up a Matador into the Clash of the Titus. H2S4 Authority Backstage - Stephanie rallies the troops The remnants of the Authority (Kane, Big Show, J & J Security) are backstage where Stephanie tries to get them psyched up to take down the Shield tonight in the main event. Triple H is at home recovering from his beating. “Big Show you’re the world’s biggest athlete, Kane you’re the devil’s favorite demon, Jamie, you’re a former cruiserweight champion, Joey… … ... “ Truth be told, I just like that bit. “Come back victorious or don’t come back!” H2S5&6: Match 5: IC Title Dolph Ziggler © vs. Stardust Inset interview from Dolph “Shield or not, I’m the IC champion now and I’m going to be the best IC Champion ever. Cause all I do is steal the show.” Goldust joins the commentary team as “Dustin” sans facepaint. Now commentary additions usually SUCK and I hate them but we have a high concept here to get over and that is Cody is “addicted” to being Stardust. Ziggler goes over countering the disaster kick with a superkick and the Zig Zag. Post match, Dustin gets into the ring with some water and tries to wash the paint off Starrdust but Cody manages to escape. H3S1 Daniel Bryan addresses the Shield backstage Backstage, Bryan speaks to Rene Young about the Shield and how no one knows how it feels getting screwed by The Authority more than him, but that doesn’t mean what they did was right. And they poked the bear by costing him the IC Belt and he’s not going to just step aside while they run roughshod. H3S2 Match 6: Naomi vs. Natalya Continuing the Usos vs Brass Ring Kings feud, the ladies involved go at it in a singles match. Natalya goes total heel at this point as Kidd trips Naomi coming off the ropes and Natalya gets the pin as a result. This causes Jimmy to get into the ring and start to fight Kidd in an impromptu match (old ECW style) H3S3 Match 7: Jimmy Uso vs. Tyson Kidd This time Naomi provides the trippage so Jimmy can get a superkick for the pin. Cesaro gets into beatdown mode on Uso and holds Naomi so Natalya can get in a free shot. Cause we be heeling. H3S4 Wrestlemania Recap Stills show off the big moments of the PPV culminating on the Shield taking over the World Title Picture. H3S5&6 Match 8:Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose) vs. The Authority (Kane, The Big Show, Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury) Lots and lots of Shield messing people up to end The Authority as a faction going forward. There’s not a whole lot to protect here so I’m not going to bother. I think Segment before the break will just be entrances so its not going to be super competitive. Kane and Show are basically going to get so sick of each other and getting pounded that they leave rather than continue to get beat on which leaves J & J to get picked apart with Rollins putting the exclamation point on it with a curb stomp for the finish. Post match, The Shield sets J & J up for Triple Powerbombs because they are bad people. Dark Bonus After the Show concludes Randy Orton, Ryback and Daniel Bryan run the Shield out of the ring. Culminating with a finisher train (RKO on Rollins, Shellshock on Ambrose, Knee to Reigns) we send the kids home happy.

I don't know that I would agree with your take there Dylan. I would suggest minimalism implies some sort of decision on the actor's part as opposed to limitation where no other choice is possible. I'm thinking primarily of guys like later years immobile Andre who wouldn't be able to do more even if they really wanted to. Will beat me to it.