NotJayTabb

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)

Fully agree, that's why it'll be interesting to see how the Roman matches compare when AJ gets to feud with another good/great wrestler

It'll be interesting to see at the end of the year how the Roman matches compare with other matches Styles will have in the next 6 months. For all the talk about Roman "holding up his end" of matches, Brock and the Big Show didn't have better matches with anyone else in 2015, and Reigns has had much better matches with AJ than Jericho did.

Yeah, the queues for the Shirai/Hojo/Iwatani meet-and-greet was pretty big, and Ogawa was at the head of that (in a boss-looking "Rossy Ogawa" jacket), so I think he'll have seen how popular the Stardom product is over here.

So did anyone else make it to the show last night? Thought it was a really good show, albeit maybe a touch long. Having two 40 minute intervals was a bit much, and the local guys elimination match, though not bad, felt like it was playing to an audience who weren't that invested in it. Still, some really great matches: thought Shirai vs KLR was the standout, they both took some nutty bumps and it felt like a real war. Loved Nixon vs Iwatani too, thought it was a really great night for Nixon. She had three good-great matches throughout the card, she's really improved from the first time I saw her. Female/Hojo vs Storm/Black was a fun squash match, and I loved that submission that ended the lucha match. Liked the venue too, due to it's small size I ended up stood at the bar all night, meaning I had to quickly move as Alpha Female hurled Dahlia Black into the spot where I was stood. Top night.

I love Charles Robinson as a ref. He's really good at not being noticeable, until the referee gets bumped and the fact it doesn't look terrible makes you realise it's Robinson in there. He never does things to distract from the match, and the fact he's been around for nearly 20years is still great is testament to him. Plus he had one of the few good referee matches, vs Gorgeous George of all people in WCW

Zack Sabre Jr placed at #327 this time around, and he's only really been getting US bookings for a year or two, so I can see him placing higher in 10 years. As a wildcard, Mark Andrews wasn't nominated this time, but he's been at worst "good" for 4 years now, crops up a lot in places with good online presence like Progress and Attack!, plus is primarily based in the US so has the scope to get more eyes on him than other BritWres guys. Plus he's only 24, so time is on his side.

Looks like Adam Rose isn't far off joining him. Has been charged with domestic battery and tampering with a witness - all this whilst on 60 day suspension. Doesn't look too promising for him.

I was thinking about the lineage of NXT title, and how in the last batch of champions had been all big name indy guys (Neville>Zayn>Owens>Balor>Joe) and how interesting a Round Robin NXT champs tournament would be, then it suddenly hit me that one of the matches would be Big E vs Joe, and man I really want to see that match.

Given the fact that she's already had a WWE.com interview (plus the fact that she's great), I can see them debuting Nikki Storm and giving her a push from the off very soon too

Alicia Fox has a great looking Northern Lights suplex, always gets a terrific bridge on it

Friday night (06/05/14) saw HOPE Wrestling's biggest show of the year to date, headlined by a title match between champion Jack Jester and Martin Kirby. The late Kris Travis was a mainstay of the promotion and, though not explicitly stated, this title match for his long-time tag partner had a nice underlying feeling of tribute. Both guys are massively popular with the HOPE audience, so there was a 50/50 split in the crowd, and the resulting match was excellent. Given Jester’s slight size advantage and the dominance of his reign, he was in control for a good portion of this match, with Kirby fighting from beneath and putting in enough hope spots to show he was still in it. The end saw Kirby kick out of Jester’s tombstone finisher, frustrating Jester to the point that he grabbed his trademark weapon (some kind of corkscrew) and looked to be thinking about using it. Instead he cast it aside, but the hesitation had allowed Kirby to recover and escape a second tombstone with a backslide for the huge win. Big pop for that, and really great to see a guy like Kirby win a title. He’s an outstanding performer, seems happy to work any role up and down the card, and is capable of having a good match with just about anyone. He’s so good at building heat that last summer Southside Wrestling was able to take a show featuring a Chris Hero/Tommy End match and headline it with Kirby vs a referee Joel Allen bout…and it got the biggest reaction of the night PLUS Kirby carried Joel to a decent bout. He’s got to be one of the most underrated wrestlers on the planet right now. The undercard was good too – CJ Banks became #1 contender to the title by winning a fun fourway match (in which Pete Dunne really shined), Ryan Smile and the constantly-improving Burchill had a really good match which saw Smile hit a pair of insane dives over the turnbuckles and El Ligero and Chris Tyler had a fun match where the “evil referee” subplot added to, rather than subtracted from, the bout. Really great show.

Oh man, decided to watch this last night and I agree, Camp WWE is utter tripe. Just painfully unfunny, bar the Sgt Slaughter bits which raised a small smile. It even looks terrible - Stone Cold is a queasy shade of off-white and someone seems to have submitted a drawing on Kevin von Erich in lieu of Triple H

Fandango is making TV regularly the past few weeks and has a promoted match for next week. Think he's safe for now

If the guy is getting big reactions, they should have at least run with him in some capacity. He wasn't even getting on the C-shows most weeks, he basically disappeared. Obviously, he couldn't do the Miz gimmick any more, but turning him into a comedy Macho Man spoof for a month then totally shunning him makes no sense. Worst case scenario if he doesn't stay over is you've got a guy with some name recognition to put other guys over. But on the rare occasions he does turn up, he still gets a reaction - just look at the pop he got in the Rumble pre-show match.

I think I read somewhere that Dillenger has a player/coach role in NXT, so he's probably in the perfect spot right now. You can pop him in the ring with anyone and he'll get a reaction, but he's also going to be comfortable putting people over. As said above, his prospects of long term employment look better than some of the guys who've "made it" to the main roster.

WWE main roster Kevin Owens vs Dean Ambrose (WWE Royal Rumble, 1/24) – YES Really fun car-crash of a match. Ambrose feels like he’s been in second gear for the past 6 months, but this a load of fun. Both guys looked like warriors coming out of it, and bonus points for a LMS match not ending via a goofy burying/tying up opponent spot Triple H vs Dean Ambrose (WWE Roadblock, 3/12) – NO Nothing captivating about this one for me, and I never like matches where the regular worker looks ineffective against the barely-even-part-time late 40’s executive. Between this and the WM match, HHH had some real rotten matches this year Charlotte vs. Natalya (Roadblock 3/12/2016) - YES Thought this was the only match on the Roadblock show that made it worth my staying up until 4am. Not sure why, but I think these two are each other’s best singles opponent. Sasha Banks vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch (WWE WrestleMania, 4/3) - NO Best match on the card, but still pretty forgettable. Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens (WWE Payback, 5/1) – YES Considering the position they were put in after the Enzo incident, I think they did exceptionally well to not only put on a great match, but also bring some life back into a crowd that was understandably uneasy. Roman Reigns vs AJ Styles (WWE Payback, 5/1) – YES WWE MOTY for me so far. They managed to overcome some septic booking here, with the two McMahon spots really pointless (and after the first one, you knew there was going to be a second). Roman looked as comfortable as he has in a year, and I totally bit the Phenomenal Forearm/rope break nearfall. WWE NXT Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sami Zayn (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) – YES I don’t think I like this match as much as a lot of others do (in that I think it was only great rather than blowaway MOTY), but it still deserves a Yes. Really felt like a big time match. Bayley vs Asuka (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) – YES Yes, albeit I thought I’d enjoy this one more. Still, the ending run was terrific, and the only way Bayley’s title run should have ended was like this, with her going down fighting until the last second. Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor (NXT Take Over: Dallas, 4/1) – YES Thought this was pretty easily the best match at Takeover, and one where the blood stoppages actually helped the match. Joe really helped bring Balor out of his shell here, felt like a nasty fight. American Alpha vs. The Revival (NXT Takeover Dallas 4/1/2016) - YES Only the 4th best match at Takeover, but would have been match of the night at Mania. Big fan of the Revival, these two teams matched up really well.

That's the one. Man, that guy was so cool before Vince started writing him "Suffering Succertash" promos.

I used to like Abyss' Black Hole Slam, but only when he'd do it to a pre-"Rockstar" Spud in 1PW and give him an insane number of rotations before slamming him

Has it? He gets a huge reaction on every show, probably the biggest on the card. A mixed reaction, but a reaction nonetheless. All heat is good heat in the current climate. Noise shows people care one way or the other. Gone are the days when traditional heels and babyfaces will get the 'correct' reactions all the time. I've been to 3 house-shows headlined by Reigns since the backlash started, and he's gotten a huge reaction each time. Easily the loudest on the show, so I wouldn't say the push has been a massive failure. Last show I went to was a month ago, and there were plenty of Reigns shirt's on display in the crowd. As for when we got onboard with Reigns, I've liked the guy ever since he started to shine in the Shield. I think early in 2014, he was the obvious breakout star of the group - best look, most potential to improve as a wrestler, and a real charisma. I remember his promo after the 3rd Wyatts match where he asked the crowd "What's my name?" and he got a great reaction. He looked like a can't miss. Obviously, they managed to blow that due to clumsy booking, but by that time he was proving his working credentials by having the best match of the PPV three times in a row (vs Bryan, vs Brock and vs Big Show in early 2015)

Ambrose has definitely regressed as a worker in the past 2 years. I was watching an old Main Event from 2014 last night, and there's an Ambrose/Henry match which is terrific. Ambrose does all sort of stuff he wouldn't do nowadays, like this nuts rolling senton from the apron whilst Henry is down, and the whole match is based around Ambrose destroying Henry's leg so he can't get up, them pummeling him on the mat. Nowadays, his offence looks so bad I'd struggle to buy him fighting Kalisto, but here he's diving from the second rope to punch Henry in the knee and working painful looking leglocks. Now obviously Mark Henry's superior selling helps, but I was watching Ambrose and wondering where on earth that guy had gone.

I'm pretty sure it was also Fox news who brought in a terrorism expert, who claimed that the city of Birmingham was a Muslim stronghold and that white people didn't go to Birmingham (think it turned out 20% of the city were Muslim), which was news to those of us who used to regularly pop to Birmingham to go to gigs in the early 00's