NotJayTabb

TM is their initials, and +61 is the international dialing code for Australia

I thought the "In Defence of Pierroth" piece on SC was great, mainly for puncturing the idea that people like "bad" wrestlers for valuable Internet Points

Johnny Curtis is the single most under-utilized wrestler in the entire WWE. Here's a guy who won the 4th season of NXT, meaning he must have garnered at least some interest from the public. Doesn't get his promised mentor tag title shot because R-Truth suddenly got caught up in the Awesome Truth storyline. Gets a couple of promos on Smackdown, gets squashed in his debut, then ends up back on NXT for the brilliant Redemption series. Goes on to be by far and away the standout of the series, hilariously sleazy and putting on solid matches in the ring. The backstage skit where he and Maxine kidnap Matt Striker is one of the most intentionally funny backstage bits the WWE has ever done ("Why do you have chloroform?" "Why DON'T I have chloroform?") Finally, he gets called up to RAW, but is given a gimmick that should be hot death. Seriously, who saw "husky-voiced ballroom dancer" lasting 6 months? Yet Johnny Curtis fully embraced the role of Fandango, giving the character a shelf-life that I certainly didn't see coming. Fandango has been pushed, he's been de-pushed, been turned face, barely even made TV, yet through it all, he's maintained a level of commitment to the character. I saw him on a houseshow in a total jobber tag (Fandango/Sandow vs Rose/Slater) where none of those guys was getting regular TV, yet as soon as Fandango came out, he was bang on character, slinking around the ring, riling his opponents with hip thrusts and dance moves, and he got the crowd into a total nothing match. He's a good worker who isn't given enough chances to show what he can do in the ring, but still offers enough glimpses that you can tell he know's his way round the ring. I'm delighted to see the Breezango team, because at least he's finally getting another regular role on TV, and there's potential for them to be a really good tag team going forward. It also means more great Fandango skits, like the recent Pokemon Go bit where Fandango totally steals the show. When guys like Ziggler, who don't have half the charisma, talent or commitment, are getting world title shots, it really feels like they've missed the boat on Johnny Curtis.

I think people got on the hype train because Kennedy had the Vince seal of approval that basically guaranteed a big push. As I recall, Vince personally chose to give his middle name for use as Anderson's new surname, then he started getting PPV matches with the Undertaker pretty early into his run.

I assumed that he picked on Jose because he was frustrated at losing to Nakamura, so decided to take out his frustrations on the happy dancing guy who he assumed was no threat, and is now in a situation where Jose is more fired up than he expected.

Ha, I actually thought the Shane Twins seemed ok in the ring (based solely on them dragging something watchable out of a past-it Road Warriors and Nasty Boys in XWF), but both these gimmicks were appalling. Trust TNA to take something as surefire a muscular, competent twins and instead use them as masked penises.

I think dropping Roman back to the midcard when he already gets some of the loudest reactions on each show would be a mistake. For better or worse, he's currently getting heel heat most of the roster would kill for. The trick is to use that reaction to get the most out of it. There's definite signs that they're positioning him towards a heel run - feuding with then-face indy darling AJ Styles, positioning him opposite debuting face indy darling Finn Balor, even his new thicker beard seems to scream that he's turning to the darkside. Roman's already one of the best wrestlers on the roster, so a run of matches against Balor, Zayn, Cesaro etc. If people still think he's being carried and boo him, fine. If they realise how dumb it is, chanting "You Can't Wrestle" at the guy who had the WWE MOTY in 2015 and (in my opinion) has had the MOTY for 2016 thus far (vs AJ at Payback), then he can be a face again organically. I will say turning Rollins face seems like a bad idea though. He's a good face worker, as the Shield run showed, but the only way he'll stay face is if he's given an injury angle where someone permanently injures his voicebox, because his nasty, nasal voice is promo-death.

I can't believe we waited so long for someone to dethrone Tully, and another heel has the title within hours of the change. You're a cruel booker, man :-)

Ambrose v Ziggler sounds like an utter trainwreck. I think Ambrose is at his most effective fighting from beneath - he's not the biggest or the strongest guy, but he's a scrappy fighter and he works well as a never-say-die type fighter. He's best paired with a Rusev or Reigns character, someone who can overwhelm him, forcing him to sell and make well-timed comebacks. It's why he was so effective as FIP in the Shield/Wyatts matches. Ziggler has really shitty looking offence, which will give Ambrose nothing to work with in that department. Even worse, Ziggler is incapable of actually selling any damage beyond a big bump, so we're going to get them spamming superkicks/rebound lariats for 10-15 mins. In terms of match quality, Ziggler is maybe the worst possible match for Ambrose on the roster.

When a stable is so rubbish, you have to Google what it was called, you know they weren't exactly memorable, but that was the case when I just had to go to JBL's Wiki page to find out his band of lackey's were called The Cabinet. JBL wasn't exactly setting the world alight his title run, so I've no idea why they thought adding Orlando Jordan and the Bashams at his side would help anyone. The only thing memorable about the Cabinet was that John Cena needed to lose the US title before facing JBL at Mania, with the net result that the biggest star in post-millennium WWE ended up losing a title to Orlando Jordan. To put the lameness of the Cabinet in perspective, they were sort-of feuding with Kurt Angle's rubbish stable of himself, Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns, and it was Kurt's boys who looked more credible. Just a waste of time

Really good chance for the BritWres guys to make an impression. Never seen a bad Andrews vs Dunne match, and I don't expect them to start here. Gallagher will win a lot of fans, but I think Haskins could be the standout, especially as his only real US exposure is his very brief TNA run.

Except that they seem to be focusing a decent amount of attention on the Shira brothers and haven't really done anything with Dar. Wouldn't be surprised to see Gurv Shira beat Dar and be ZSJ's QF opponenet. That's something that's thrown me off in the predicting, because I would have gone with Dar if not for the amount of time they spent pushing the Bollywood Boyz and ignoring him. I can see why you'd make a fuss out of a Bollywood tag team, but part of me hopes their largely ignoring guys like Dar or Nese is more a red herring than a time issue, so they can tell a story of someone quietly being the "breakout star" after not paying much attention to them. There's a 90 second special promo look on Dar on the WWE YouTube channel, which not all guys are getting, and they posted the footage of his qualifying match last month, so in my head they'd given him some build up, but yeah, you're right about the Bollywood Boyz getting a bit of coverage too. Still, there's always a chance of Dar/ZSJ

ZSJ/Dar in the quarters seems quite likely, and would be a great match

Just out of interest, what is Act Yasukawa's current status? I know she retired last year and moved into managing Oedo Tai, but I've not seen her on the shows I've recently watched. For example, I'd have though she'd be on the 16/6 Oedo Tai v Thunder Rock card, but she wasn't. Oedo Tai still wear her t-shirt in the pre-match promos, so I guess she's still about, but it seemed odd to me.

Having just returned from two weeks in France, I've thoroughly loved the Euros. Being the only Wales fan in a five-person motor home had some sad moments (the hour spent in the Lyon fan park where I spent a mute hour sipping water in a daze after the cruel way the England game finished) and some highs (arrogantly swaggering back to the motor home from the only bar in St Ettiene that showed Wales v Russia, bellowing "top of the league, having a laugh"). Went to some fun games (Iceland/Portugal had the amazing Iceland fans, Albania/Romania surprisingly turned into a good game of football), met a load of really sound fans from a range of nations and ultimately had a terrific time. The only fans who slightly got on my wick were Northern Ireland, who were bloody everywhere and far too over-the-top with their "look how much FUN we are" bollocks. Only so many times I can hear that Will Grigg chant, which is why I hope we stuff them tomorrow

Well, I for one am glad to see this back off hiatus. Mainly because I really want to see who finally dethrones Tully.

Yeah, the overuse of imports really bugs me with some promotions. PCW and Southside do it a lot, and it can get to a stage of overkill. I remember last year Southside ran a show just up the road from my house, and almost every match had an import in, normally going over the UK guy. Like, the card had Chris Sabin, James Storm, Johnny Gargano, Andrew Everett, Candice LaRae, Joey Ryan and X-Pac all either beating a UK guy or just facing another import. Only Zema Ion lost to a regular, and that's only because Mark Haskins was the champion. The matches were all ok, but who on that list of names realistically will have sold a ticket? X-Pac, maybe Storm? Who benefited from LaRae beating Nixon Newall in the worst match I've seen Newall have? What purpose did Joey Ryan handily beating Ryan Smile serve? It's no coincidence that my favourite BritWres companies, like TXW or HOPE, fill their cards with UK guys and generally have better shows. TXW got more value out of Rob Terry than Southside did with a card full of non-ticket-selling US indy darlings.

I think 2-3 hours is about right. I think that meets the right margin of getting your moneys worth vs overstaying your welcome. The last show I went to was the BEW/Stardom show in London, which was great but there were 2 30-40 minute intervals for meet-and-greets, which were interminable for someone like me who was on their own, standing, low on phone battery and checking their watch because of knowing I still had a 3 hour drive back to Nottingham ahead of me.

I always thought Repo Man was unfairly lumped in with a load of Wrestlecrap. Barry Darsow didn't have a great physique and was a ratty looking man who was already under contract, so I think this was the perfect role for him. Darsow played the role to the hilt as well, so this minor lower-card character became wholly entertaining and memorable. That has to be considered a success.

Was quite interested to spot Regal had chimed in on the "controversy" “I watched the match and was shocked. You need to start doing real stuff like people from my era like kip ups,flying head scissors,cart wheels and criss crosses. Get a grip! When I started the job in ’83 a lot of the older fellas used to say that Marc Rocco and Marty Jones (who were the real pioneers of the CW style) had killed the business because they did to much. Although they may not admit it anymore, most of the heavyweights in Europe thought the brilliant lightweight and middleweight wrestlers were bad for the job because their style was “not believable enough”.. Every country I worked in before I came to the US had different styles and ways of doing things.As long as there’s effort then it’s right.If the people paying you are happy and you get reactions then make your stuff as good as it can be with what skills you have.May not be for everyone but that’s ok.In the match I saw two fellas who looked like fighters having an excellent,hard competed match in a different style.Win win!”

I think Savage taking money out of Vince's pocket by taking the Slim Jim's sponsorship to WCW with him is a more realistic cause of the split than the Savage/Steph rumour.

Hopefully this leads to the return of the Bragging Rights show as a Network special. I always liked the dynamic of teams that didn't really get on, but would try and put their differences aside for one night. Something about heel Jericho and face Matt Hardy celebrating together with their winner trophy in 09 made me quite happy.

I'm perfectly happy for New Day to keep the tag title as long as possible, as it delays the inevitable Enzo & Cass title reign. It's odd, because part of me gets why they're so popular (people like to chant along with wrestlers) and another part just doesn't understand why (because they're obnoxious loudmouth arseholes). Cassady in particular is a lousy promo - the "spell it out for you" spiel used to be Enzo's bit, but I think they gave it to Cass because everything else he says sounds terrible. Before the Payback aborted match, he cut some dreadful promo about Hey Arnold that made no sense and would be torn apart if given by another wrestler. The only time I ever liked these two is when they debuted in NXT and got squashed weekly by Mason Ryan. But, they're massively popular. They're going to win the tag title and probably hold it for a long time. I've come to accept it, though it doesn't mean I'm going to like it

Watching some old C-shows from 2014, it's really interesting to see just how average AJ was compared to a lot of the roster, especially when you watch people like Layla or Alicia Fox managing to get watchable stuff out of the Funkadactyls. It came to the point when I was watching tiny AJ barrel over Natalya with clotheslines that I realised she was having a worse match with Nattie than Aksana did a month earlier.

Shirai/KLR was probably split 2/3 in favour of Kay Lee. Iwatani was cheered in her first round match against a heel, but Nixon was heavily favoured in the second round match. Hojo was pretty much unanimously cheered. We also got a Heidi Katrina match, unadvertised, against a tiny Italian wrestler (Laura DeMatteo?) who was less than physically imposing. Totally forgettable, other than them badly blowing a tilt-a-whirl spot (where Katrina stood in the middle of the ring, waiting to grab an opponent who was supposed to run towards her, but instead stood still....then eventually decided to run into the move)