NotJayTabb

One thing they've done well recently is start reviving the tag division that had died a death at the start of the year. Basing the division around the three most charismatic teams, with the Colons included as workhorses, is starting to show results. The Usos especially have been on fire since they won the titles, totally natural and comfortable on the mic, and their match with the New Day could well steal the PPV. The question really is why put him in MITB in the first place? No-one thinks he'll win and he's utterly dreadful.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: Really big fan of #CCK, Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos. Such an incredibly fun team, especially live. They've got great chemistry, both in ring and personality wise. Last fun match you saw: The main event of NYWC's Psycho Circus show from earlier this year. It's like a strange mix of Survivor Series, Wargames and Cage of Death. Easily the best Bull James performance I've ever seen, he works the whole 40 minutes of the match and takes some nasty bumps, including a hiptoss into a mousetrap covered board Wrestler you want to see more of: Kip Sabian has been making a few waves in the UK recently, only seen a bit of him so looking forward to checking out more Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): House of Pain Wrestling in Cotgrave on 27/5 Match you're most looking forward to watching: Not so much a match, but I'm going to the WCPW World Cup Japanese qualifiers in Manchester next month, where Jushin Liger is one of the participants. WCPW is pretty blah as a promotion, but seeing Liger live should be great Last fun interview/promo you saw: Any one of the Fashion Files segments on Smackdown. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Probably something on Segunda Caida, I visit there every day Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: The Between The Sheets episode based on 2003, that was really fun Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: I've just downloaded Attack Pro's Press Start 5. I've only watched bits so far, due to an exam I've got tomorrow, but the bits I've seen so far look tremendous. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling):I genuinely remain amazed at just how much stuff is out there and how difficult it is to keep up with things. I also genuinely enjoy the challenge.

Been two years since this thread was last posted in, and a whole lot has changed. Primarily in relation to the Miz, who really was one of the highlights of the WWE in the past 12 months. Miz pretty much single-handedly made the IC title scene interesting in the past year, despite being paired with deadmeat Dolph Ziggler and unmotivated Dean Ambrose. Charlotte too has excelled in the past two years. At the time, I voted Miz, because Charlotte still didn't convince me that she was a great wrestler, but her catalogue of matches in the past two years is actually pretty good. Still, however, I'd again vote Miz, but on his own strengths this time rather than my lack of faith in Charlotte. Wondering if everyone felt the same as they did two years ago, or if Miz's last year has won people over?

Man, Jarrett carried Michaels and Angle to arguably their best ever singles matches. Edge hasn't got anything that comes close to either of those.

Really good stuff here right from the get-go, as Shirai fires off a blow right from the handshake, only to get caught in a big sleeper right away, showing how dangerous Baszler can be. Baszler works Shirai’s arm early door, and I love how they kept coming back to the injury throughout the match. Shirai sells it throughout, just little touches like not being able to properly grind her elbow into Baszler’s ribs on an abdominal stretch or giving it a quick shake in between moves so you know it’s still bothering her. Baszler locks another sleeper in on Shirai, this time in the corner from the top rope, and Io does this amazing limp body hanging sell. They fight outside, which is where Shirai takes over, dropkicking Baszler’s head through a chair, blasting her with a thrown chair and hurling her into the crowd, where Baszler only just makes the 20 count back into the ring. Shirai challenges Baszler to strike her, fighting through Shayna’s kicks to the leg, but not being prepared for Baszler to mix it up and kick the injured arm instead, which puts Io down. Baszler gets this amazing Falcon Arrow into a sleeper, and this leads to probably the only weak point of the match – the ref checks on Shirai, who is out, and rather than award the match to Baszler, he makes her break the hold and pin Io, only getting a two count. Very odd. Baszler lets herself get distracted talking to the ref, and this is her downfall, as Shirai hits a straitjacket German suplex, a tombstone and a moonsault to pick up the win. Great stuff.

Every now and they I come across the spreadsheet I used to make my list and end up having a little re-jig, most recently last Friday (slotting Roman Reigns and Mark Andrews into the 99 and 100 spots). I don't think it's something I can ever be truly 100% happy with, but I've no regrets about doing it, was a really fun project.

Also of note. Tyler is 20, Pete is 23, and the AoP are 22 and 23. That's an awful lot of talent in some very young wrestlers

Just an all round great show. Weakest match of the night for me was the women's title match, and that was still good. For all that people don't get excited by the former TNA guys in Young and Roode, both delivered strong performances tonight. Young came across as a purely solid heel, did nothing that might cause fans to start cheering him and delivered a few big moments -the wheelbarrow cutter on the floor looked nasty. For a show that looked merely ok on paper, having the WWE MOTY in the first hour of the show, one of the best executed turns in years on the second hour and zero bad matches made this a really well balanced card

On a brighter note, as someone who first saw both Tyler and Pete wrestling in a tiny room at a Coventry WMC, watching them steal the show whilst still adding new details to their repertoires, was amazing

Yeah, the worst thing about the finish to the women's match is that it makes it inevitable that they're building to Ember winning the title, when she's easily the least interesting option

Last nights performance in the Braun match was another feather in his cap. I know "LOL keep Roman strong" is a HILARIOUS thing people like to say, but he selflessly made Braun look incredible last night. Fought realistically from beneath, sold the shit out of his injuries and managed to have a very good match whilst being comprehensively beaten. Roman's timing is excellent, making his comebacks after letting Braun hurt himself (by running full force into the ring posts). Even kicking out of Strowman's finisher came off well, as his kick out had no force behind it, instead he barely lifted a shoulder in a way that said "he's still in it, but he's basically done" and then took the clean loss. Really great performance

Yeah, I found I'd forgotten about Rosey until the fans were chanting "You deserve it" after the injury angle, which triggered my memory and felt a bit off to me. The guy has come back shortly after the death of his brother to cleanly and comprehensively put over Braun in a v good match - I'd maybe have wanted to give him a break for once. Big fan of Roman refusing to be put on a stretcher, fully aware that last time he was on one, Braun came along and threw him over. And thus it was that he was able to evade the Braun assault this time - Roman slamming the ambulance door on Braun in utter desperation to fend him off was great.

Nakamura working with Ziggler makes sense as a first match, as it's a "name" that Nakamura can plough through - picture Tom Phillips calling "he just destroyed a 2x world champion" - who doesn't have a shred of value going forward. If they do something dumb like have Nakamura go 50/50 with Ziggler, I'll despair. If they run a Smackdown tag division properly, they could have a something really special. Usos/Breezango/AA/New Day/Primo & Epico is a really solid base to run from, heck even the Ascension can have some use. They need to overhaul their presentation of AA though. Gable's goofy personality that helped get him over is nowhere to be seen, they're now just Team Angle cosplaying as the Steiners

I don't think it's a coincidence how many guys have had their best WWE matches with Roman in the last couple of years - Lesnar, Big Show, AJ, Balor, maybe Jericho.

The biggest fall has been on the women's side as it was arguably the show's biggest strength for some time. Losing Charlotte, Becky and Sasha at once created a huge void that simply hasn't been filled. Asuka is more than competent, but has also never been established as a firm babyface or heel which prevented her matches with Bayley & Nia Jax from approaching the level we'd seen previously. Jax got moved up far too quickly and they simply haven't brought in anyone who can really push Asuka. I hoped Nikki Cross would get that chance but its not in the cards as of yet, and Ember Moon hasn't made any real impression thus far. Certainly potential to revamp the division with arrivals from Japan & Europe post Mania, but we'll see how strongly any newcomers are featured. I really think Ruby Riot could be absolute money for them with a bit more polish. Historically, WWE have always done well with female wrestlers who've been a bit edgier, a bit "outsider" - think how popular Lita, AJ Lee and Paige have been with female fans. Riot is arguably already a better wrestler than all three of them and hopefully will get better in NXT. Obviously a lot depends on how well she's booked, but I can see her getting more over than the likes of Ember, Liv or Aliyah very quickly

Would it be an answer to make Mauro head commentator on NXT, and leave Tom Phillips on Smackdown? NXT would see Mauro free of the triple threat of JBL/live TV/screaming headset Vince, which feel like they would all be contributing factors to having a relapse. Plus if that did happen, the NXT taping schedule means he'd be unlikely to miss anything.

He had a good match with Sean Waltman on an early 3PW show (A Night For The Flyboy) as a cocky heel. After that, I'm struggling

Going contemporary with Enzo and Cass. Absolutely wretched pairing. Enzo still wrestles like he's horribly untrained, Cass is a terrible hybrid of Test and Edge at their worst and they're the most irritating on-screen presence every week on Raw. Their music is awful, they look ridiculous, their overrated promo schtick involves Enzo machine-gunning out a load of nonsense and Cass awkwardly getting round to the catchphrase. I realised Corey Graves was my spirit animal when he exclaimed with utter glee as Enzo entered the Rumble to die at the hands of Brock. The only time I ever enjoyed them was as NXT jobbers dying at the hands of Mason Ryan for a few weeks.

Big Grizzly is a great hoss here in the UK, surprisingly agile for a big guy, but he only uses it in a way that hurls his massive frame crashing into people. He's only young too, gets better every time I've seen him.

I think it was hindered partly by being in a cage which would make things harder for the audience to see, and that the La Luchadora costume also made it harder to tell who it was. From a distance, it's just a woman with brown hair, and the camera focused on Becky's reaction first, then on Mickie. Slightly concerned that the Nikki/Natalya feud means there's no obvious contender to take the title off Alexa (assuming Becky feuds with Mickie), as Bliss is still not up to much in the ring. I left the Rollins remark in agreement

Every time I think of Norton, I think of that Cat angle. I remember loving the time that the NWO B-team decided to tell Norton that Miller was calling him out, when he was actually doing no such thing, just because they enjoyed watching him beat Cat up. Then the Cat knocked him out with loaded slippers. Such a fun angle

Obviously take my national bias into account, but it does feel like the Brits are owning it on 205 Live. Gallagher feels like the guy most fans are getting behind and is managing to make potential disasters like last nights duel into something fun. He's also got just enough to stop him being a comedy act thanks to those bullet head butts. Neville as the brute heel of the division is great, cutting his best main roster promos and looking like a beast in ring. Even Dar is making his new heel gimmick work, and his match with Alexander the other week was really great.

I got into lucha the same way I got into puro - by finding one guy I really like and letting things branch off from there. With puro it was Liger, with lucha it was El Hijo De Santo. By watching Santo matches, I discovered Casas, who in turn led me to modern CMLL and the web increased from there. As with all wrestling, it just became a case of knowing which names I like and which names make me less likely to watch a match.

Dar's shit-eating grin at Cedric behind Alicia's back was just terrific

Got to love Becky's character commitment to wrestling like a totally different wrestler until the match winning Disarmher