El Dragon

For your fantasy booking bullshit of the evening, I'd really dig a Girard/Ciampa heel team with Elias Sampson as there manager just playing the Guitar as they destroy jobbers.

I will say, in retrospect, getting rid of the Brand Split appears to have been a big mistake to begin with. The main reason people argued for the brand split is that it led to having more over stars that didn't get in each others way. Now we are about 5 years later without it, and the main problem is there are so few people give a shit about because the old timers ate all of them up.

I'm in what I call "Horses not Zebras" camp regarding the hit stuff. WWE has completely fucked up the booking of a guy who seems like a handpicked star. Is this either because A: There is a political hit against him or B: Because the WWE has failed at booking anyone effectively for years now. The obvious answer is usually the correct one. And if they have a hit out on Reigns, then they must really hate the rest of their entire roster since they've basically sacrificed the entire thing just to get Roman over.

Can we talk about whoever is training tag teams being awesome? Jordan and Gable, Dash and Dawson, and Blake and Murphy are all awesome.

Real life dragons too. And a guy who is an alien... or spaceship? Or whatever Aerostar is. Also, Giant Cannibal Monster.

I will also cite the increasingly common "Lucha Underground is wrestling's Mortal Kombat" description, I'd point to you that in LU is disconnected enough enough from the real world that the idea that a badass fighting woman can use her intelligence and an over confident monster to get some good hope spots in as completely reasonable. She got her ass kicked, and her moves were set off Mil making mistakes. This wasn't a Sexy Star match like from last season which insulted your intelligence and made you want her off screen. This was about as well done as you could ask for it to be.

That was about as good of an hour of wrestling as your are likely to see. the opener was great, the segments were awesome and compelling, they actually completely sold me on the finish in the main even though I knew there was 0 shot, and Shao Muertes is brilliant.

This little stretch (I'd basically say the point things changed can be looked at as when the SHIELD broke up and Wyatt out right lost the Cena feud) has been pretty dire overall, if you discount NXT. The talent is very much there to put on some really freaking cool stuff, but the writing isn't, the booking isn't, and in terms of from the company, the hunger isn't. This era from WWE just screams of "Playing it safe because we have no competition so we don't have to do anything but holding steady", which is a problem when it just puts them in a holding pattern of keeping certain people over at the expense of absolutely everyone else.

I do think it's incredibly interesting that in the last few weeks there were two Wyatts Interrupt The Authority segments, and both times the Wyatts got a massive pop that dies out as soon as it's clear they are still supposed to be loner heels. Some people say the Wyatts aren't over. I think the fans are just waiting for them to do something interesting with them. Bray Wyatt right now should be trying to "take down the machine" not just be guys who are part of it. Make that switch, they will be the most over act on the show, regardless of if they are faces or heels.

She retired.

As a long term TEW fan, I'll jump into say this is my most anticipated game of the year the moment it was announced I know more about the Cornellverse then most people know about anything, because I have that weird thing that when I get really interested in something I break it down to science. I think the Cornellverse is significantly more interesting to book then the real world. Wider array of interesting promotions, no real personal connections to wrestlers, and more general room for creativity. As said, it's hard to push someone you watch in real life and don't like or to completely drop them off the card if you like them.

Dean Ambrose to me is a classic case of a guy who has shown in different settings he can be really really good, but in his current role he's really really not. He's a very good seller, yes, but his offense is the worst in the company. Him and Bray Wyatt are my standard bearers for "People who have been hurt the most that they don't just do arena brawls anymore". Both should be fist fighting and bleeding, not doing what they are. And even that has been pretty hit or miss. I thought his matches with Seth this Summer were firmly in the "mediocre to good" range, which isn't bad but they were being given main event spots.

I would guess Nakamura is more a NXT draw then a WWE draw if I had to guess. Honestly, both Styles and Nak feel like they are gonna be in NXT, and it's a basis for pushing it as a complete brand in and of itself officially. Just my call.

Watched until the main when I conked out. Opener was a good time that got fun the later it went, but is most certainly not my type of match. Way too much Young Bucks control early on, as I find them an incredibly boring team in control of a match. Things really picked up once they finally got Ricochet and Sydal involved, and no part of me will ever be able to dislike them since they are arguably the most graceful high flyers who feel like they still have tons of impact I've ever seen. Last 5 minutes was fun for a spot running contest, but wasn't fond of the finish. Briscoes/Yano winning made me smile, though the match wasn't anything to write home about. I hate the Lethal Combination so damned much. Elgin feels much better in New Japan then he feels on the US Indys. He manages to feel like a big deal there were as he just feels like he's trying too hard to be a big deal in the states. I'm still not crazy high on him as a wrestler, but understand why he's getting over. Enjoyed KUSHIDA/Omega a lot in the late game. KUSHIDA feels like the obvious pick for Junior Ace for New Japan, they just need to run with it. Tag Title Match was probably the least shitty Makabe has looked from what I've seen, and Honma is still a really fun. Anderson and Gallowes feel like a good team that are incredibly repetitive if I had to guess as a non watcher. Lotsa bitching about Goto/Naito in places. I liked it just fine, and liked the finish. Naito feels like he's got some really cool shit going around him, but isn't a complete act yet. Goto seems like a title challenger right now, so giving him the win makes sense. So here's the thing with Ishii/Shibata. I'm generally not a fan of "lets go out there and hit each other as hard as we fucking can" matches. It's largely what turned me off RoH circa Nigel/Danielson series. That said, if there are any two guys that are really good at the "Dick Measuring" style of wrestling, Shibata and Ishii are most likely 1 and 2. I find it very compelling and lost myself in the match, and I felt they sold when they needed to sell to buy that these guys are trying incredibly damn hard to prove they are the tougher man. So yeah, I enjoyed the hell out of this, even if I'm note huge on Ishii style of matches. Nakamura/Styles was really fucking good. I would put more thought into it but I was kinda wearing down strongly in the finishing stretch. Nak's charisma caries so damned well in big matches.