Parties

Clearly a better match than AJ-Jericho or Shane-Taker last year, if only because they decided to have a good fight rather a bad epic. Shane’s cosplaying will always be ridiculous, but it was all far superior to what it could have been, ridiculous Triangle Choke and all. Really weird that two of the more anticipated matches (esp. by the smarkier portions of the crowd) are going on first. I could see this backfiring if the final third of the show is some combo of the usual lame Rock appearance, a creepy Hogan cameo, and Taker and Goldberg riding into the sunset in back-to-back duds.

I definitely like the bumps that Little Beaver took for Bundy more than everything Ambrose has done on several back-to-back Mania bookings. Dude's in a tailspin right now. How could he not be sour when the homies are working HHH and Taker at the top of the card?

People remarking on Baron being reduced to the main show aren’t even mentioning that Ambrose worked Lesnar a year ago. That’s a King Kong Bundy “Hogan main event to midget tag” fall from grace. And I would concur that this was maybe the worst performance I've seen him have in-ring: either something's physically off, or dude profoundly did not care out there.

Is Bo Dallas’ new employment strategy to look like Chad Gable with Neville’s beard? Ending with Sami, Dane, Mojo, Titus, and Jinder seemed weird until you saw the finish. (Jinder gets a pseudo-reward for getting on the gas?) I agree with the idea that Braun and Sami shouldn’t have been in this match if they weren’t gonna win. Going for the ESPN moment isn’t surprising, but you could have easily done it without having a guy who’s going nowhere win. Nothing on this show should feel arbitrary or thoughtless: it’s careless lack of planning and a pathetic thirst for celebrity, even if the Gronk deal came together last-minute. It’s silly for me to gasp at the idea that a cluster battle royal ended up being a cluster, but this wasn't good at all.

It could just be viewing it with fresher, more sober eyes than I’ll be viewing whatever’s happening on this hellscape five hours from now, but Aries-Neville exceeded my expectations. 205 Live has been so bland for so long that this felt like an afterthought, and it’s scary to think a pre-show opener could easily be match of the night. But I was really impressed that they managed to blend such fast, on-target flying with brawling and bumps that made this feel like a truly heated fight. Loved the finish and thought the whole match was paced to tell the right story. You could make the argument that a Cibernetico-type match could have gotten more Cruiserweights on the card, but this seems like as good a match as these two guys could have. Aries has always felt like a guy whose gimmick is that he’s a main eventer rather than actually being one, but he looked like the right mix of wily vet who still has his athleticism.

I have an abnormal love of the HOF for the same reasons I loved the early Slammys: it's fun to see everyone in their idea of Oscar-wear performing the tropes of an award show. In recent years the HOF has of course become something else wherein you have these rebel vagabonds from wrestling's shadier past being formally brought into the light of publicly traded corporate Orlando, and that too leads to a lot of cool, wacky moments. All that said, maybe it was just that I was doing other stuff while watching, but this one didn't seem as compelling as prior years, if only because the talents honored were less my cup of tea (save Rude, whose son really did do a fantastic job). Also: I feel like I would probably enjoy Bischoff as a play-by-play commentator for some company or even WWE (he'd actually be kind of great in TNA right now if he'd be willing to just manage, call matches, or be an interviewer), but his induction of DDP seemed a bit flat, as if he was trying to be what he thought Vince would want and instead was just kinda boring.

This year confirms: my favorite recurring HOF characters have become "Mark Henry leaning on multiple chairs" and "Orton's hot-but-constantly-angry wife." Some good moments and Beth/Nattie came off really well, but this one felt even more footloose than past years in a way that seemed disjointed. Between Morton and Steamboat, I initially wondered if there was something wrong in the monitors or teleprompter that was causing them to lose their train of thought.

Wotan vs. Ultimo Guerrero from recently in San Juan kind of falls into garbage brawling by the end, but the first 2/3rds are wild havoc. Akin to IWA Mid-South in starting off with very good matwork prior to stiff chops, fighting in the seats, chairshots including one that viciously cuts open Wotan, and UG as the old Wahoo vet who the crowd likes seeing massacre a dude. It falls into overkill, but the moments that work have some of the old IWRG magic.

If you're OK with the finish, it really could be Brock-Reigns. Just a juggernaut, fifteen-minute war. I haven't seen Bret-Austin in years, but that would have been my pick then. It's maybe the best balance of match quality and historic moment in WWE history. Though people have rightly acknowledged since that the ace role wasn't really passed onto Austin for another year after that, so YMMV, but I quite like the subsequent dynamic of Canadian Stampede, and Austin feuding with the Harts, Taker, and DX simultaneously. Not the best, but a somewhat underrated one: Rockers vs. Faces of Fear at VII.

I think I learned the word "Censored" from that angle. Wrestling's got a lot of vocab for the youth.

AJ's read on the RKO in that match is such a great spot, and one where the WWE camera angle actually seems perfect.

My first ROH show was seeing Mick Foley make an appearance in Boston where he mimed calling Vince on his cell phone to endorse Samoa Joe. Cool to see them doing a backstage segment here something like 12 or 13 years later.

Not sure what to make of the finish (multi-woman match at Mania, I reckon), but Bliss-Naomi over-delivered. Bliss has been surprisingly tough since NXT, and she was a hell of a heel here. Her nearfall reactions to the ref reminded me of Flair or Gino, actually. Everything on this show's been more entertaining that it needed to be for a Clash of the Champions two weeks after the Rumble. SD special events have been making use of the brand's interesting roster.

Good thread! Interesting idea. Came too early: Chris Colt: An en vogue guy at the moment, who seems ideal to have flourished more in ECW, late 90s WWF, or 2000s indies. His physique may have been an issue in any era, but adding prime Colt into the Corino/Tajiri equation or brawls with Foley could be interesting. Ryuma Go: Phenomenal late 70s junior who should have been a phenomenal 90s junior. Whatever kept him from excelling in his time, he who went from looking like Fujinami’s equal to spaceman wingnut working indies in costume. In fact, Fujinami is a costume sounds a bit like Liger. Steve Grey: This could be said of several elite WOS guys – and in a sense it’s an odd hypothetical given that they paved the way for subsequent styles – but Grey might have been Bret Hart or Danielson in another era. Naoki Sano: If born 10 years later, he’s a Japanese version of Low Ki who’s in the mix with Joe, Styles, Danielson, and company. Came too late: Dean Ambrose: First guy who came to mind. Feels like he could have been more in the 80s, where he could have bled and cut more interesting promos to get around his ring work. As of now he sometimes feels like Piper in a moment for WWE that renounces everything that worked for Piper. Ryback: Always something of a throwback, he seems like an obvious opponent for mid-80s Lawler, late 80s Hogan, or early 90s Sting. Cesaro: Could have been the top star in a territory (feels like a Canada guy for various reasons). Dustin Rhodes: Could have been a 70s/early 80s NWA champion or something in that ballpark were he his dad’s age.

NXT, 2/8: Decent episode illustrating both strengths and flaws in the current NXT setup. Highlight may have been the two video packages hyping Tyler Bate’s match with Trent Seven next week. Having the UK guys on this show will be a huge asset right now. Also thought Roode’s promo was good. Sanity feel like a total scrub TNA stable, and it isn’t even Young’s fault. Wolfe and Cross in particular seem so low-rent and corny to me. I did like that two other babyfaces actually came out to save the babyface getting beaten up by four heels, and to set up a main event at that. I barely watched Liv-Kaye as they’ve been so bad in recent weeks, and it was so quick. Revival-Heavy Machinery was fine, formulaic tag work, but I was a little disappointed in HM based on their look/pedigree, as this division could really use a third team that’s worth a damn. Revival aren’t terrible on the mic, but it was one of those promos where you realize someone’s just enthusiastically saying absolutely nothing of interest. Tye/Strong/Jose vs. Young/Dain/Wolfe was solid in that you can see them getting back to the wise NXT strategy of mixing homegrown guys with indie favorites, but I still get the sense that none of these 6 guys look like major players. Damo may well end up having the best WWE career of any of them, actually.

Great episode, possibly my favorite BTS to date. So much to like: Prazak really gets the format of the show, and there were a lot of fun, obscurely weird things going on in wrestling that week. Plus Cornette being handcuffed to the high school's principal, the intense Slick Johnson hatred, and the Memphis section being delivered entirely in Corey-Voice was 2017's first six-star performance. I died at "They threw cocaine in the eyes of Jerry Lawler, Dave," then died again that much harder at the entire Ronnie Lottz saga. Addendum: I vividly remembered that Bastion Booger co-host spot, as the back page of WWF Magazine soon after ran a full page closeup of Shaw chowing down while seated at the announce table. In hindsight it feels like classic Vince to have one day sized up Bastion in the hallway and said aloud, "You like food, do ya? Ha ha! Yes. We'll give you all the food you want. You'll see."

Listened to the Souled Out '97 episode. I find Tony strangely compelling. There are a couple weird moments: like Conrad's shows with Flair and Pritchard and Cornette's with Last, these aging vets sometimes come off to me as cantankerous old men. Not even so much toward the business, but more toward everything but the business, where they say mutter about their wives and take some oddly prideful relish in their cursing and insults, in a way that feels very "Show us on the doll where Vince Russo touched you." (I sort of suspect it comes from trying to imitate things like comedians' podcasts and Stern and O&A, but that's a whole other aside.) Still, I found Tony's stories to be engaging, and even if the topic was kind of a non-starter selected by fans, he's obviously very smooth on the mic and knows how to stretch. It may just be nostalgia, but it's kinda just nice to hear his voice and have him doing something in wrestling again. I'll keep with it for at least a few more.

I feel like I've seen a bunch of four-way matches on US indies recently, albeit as undercard fodder. Agreed on the idea that more use of trios matches would make sense, as they have lots of booking flexibility. AJPW-style precursor to main event title matches, WAR-style assembly of fun random dudes, 2013/2014 WWE-style means of continuing storylines without advancing them by just letting good workers go for 20 minutes, keeping a lucha pace, telling two or more stories at once in combining a singles and tag feud, etc.

Loved many things in that Hara match, one being that the sunset flip is a major highspot shown again in slo-mo Instant Replay. I prefer the knockdown-dragout approach of Fujinami-Go, but this is its own thing: methodical, technical excellence, with such a cool, rare pace to the finish.

A testament to all of the matches people have listed is that I would happily see them again right now, like some wrestling equivalent of stumbling across Goodfellas halfway through on cable and inevitably watching the rest. 80s set favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Lawler vs. Dundee, “Loser Leaves Town” (’83, ’85) Lawler vs. Mantell (3/22/82) Fujiwara vs. Yamazaki (7/24/89) Reed vs. Murdoch (9/22/85) Mr. Olympia vs. Chavo (6/24/83) UWF vs. New Japan (3/26/86)

If last night was day one of a Reigns heel turn, then the WOR talk of "exciting stuff that people are gonna like" isn't totally off, even if it got many fruitlessly daydreaming of a big match for Joe or Nakamura or a wild game-changing angle. I do think Mania is lacking a big storyline in terms of a developing story for week-over-week TV. Brock-Goldberg has its appeal, but the build is two guys sporadically growling. HHH-Rollins will get way too much focus for a feud that's likely to suck. Cena seems adrift despite winning the title. What will people remember about this year's Mania five or ten or twenty years from now? Probably a Reigns turn, if anything.

The WWE "gotcha!" approach didn't work here. Say what you will about HHH beating Roman to stroke his Flair-LARPing last year: at least it's an ethos. Two weeks ago Orton was an afterthought made to look hapless against American Alpha, tag champs deemed unfit for the show. Orton-Bray is a midcard match, Orton-Cena is an abject disaster. If anything I'm most baffled by Meltzer and Alvarez (who did call Orton's win earlier today) hinting last week at a fun and surprising Rumble/Mania direction, which has to either be changing dramatically over the next month or been changed in recent days. I guess Orton is the Venn Diagram where Vince's senility meets Hunter's dynastic dreams? Overall I wouldn't say this show was actually much better than last year's Rumble. 2016 had a very fun pre-show tag melee, Charlotte-Lynch with Sasha's return, Kalisto-Del Rio, a good New Day-Usos tag, and AJ's arrival standing off with Reigns. TBH I think this show was missing some of the prior year's spontaneity.

Odd to say this about a show that I generally enjoyed throughout, but wow was that void of much in the way of surprise. On one hand I think you have to give them credit for having a stacked roster and choosing to focus on who they have rather than a bunch of cheap pops for nostalgia and returning acts. They are in some ways doing what people have implored them to do for years, but the eye obviously isn't fully to the future when your most protected acts are Taker, Cena, Brock, Orton, and Goldberg, who literally could have been your starting five about 15 years ago.

Rumble (26-30): Biggest pops of the night by far were Goldberg eliminating Brock and Taker's entrances, so damned if they didn't get this over. Did not love the casual tossing of Rusev, Harper, and Corbin, in keeping with what Matt's saying about how this company's forgotten how to push more than five people at once. But goddamn did I love #30. Courage to Undertaker for pulling his straps down when he has classic Tenryu-Torso. Really liked the elimination of Taker as it felt ominous rather than telegraphed, and I liked both the callback to Survivor Series and the sense at the end that any of the final three really could win.

Rumble (16-25): middle of this has felt really dead despite entering all of my favorite dudes. Big E, Sheamus, Rusev, and Cesaro were all fun, but crowd is waiting for someone like Diesel or Kurt Angle or Tony Garea to show up. The story quickly became one of Wyatt Family dominance, and while I liked Harper's big moment, this felt like a meandering second act.