Cap

Yep... loved this one. I liked it almost as much as the Lee match from the night before. the grappling was top notch here. There is great, intense work and some particularly good limb selling. ****1/4

Yeah, this is solid motivation to not join a bunch of other message boards. I surf through CSS sometimes but that is about it. I haven't seen much about the hair (haven't really been anywhere but here in a few weeks), but the Roman thing is such a drag. I am so tired of talking about Roman and reading about Roman and I generally like the guy.

I am also endless entertained by Billy Corgan's fandom/involvement in wrestling. The mere fact that we can say "Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins is buying the NWA" is amazing.

DIY vs AOP vs Revival - YES Really strong work and well put together. They made the absolute most of what they had I think and the match really delivered on intensity, action, and storytelling. Lesnar vs Goldberg - YES I guess. It is a really great short match and it did what it was supposed to do. Lee vs Day - YES Emphatic yes! This is pretty easily my favorite match of the year so far. The last 15 minutes of that match are just fantastic.

I actually reviewed this one and wasn't sitting down to watch it with any focus, but it sucked me in pretty quick. It was better than it had any business being I though. I especially loved Lorcan's stiff shots at the end as a way of escalating the violence. As much as i liked Galloway in Evolve, this more his style, pace, and stage. Good stuff. ***3/4

With Strong, Ohno, Black, and Galloway in the mix, NXT is pretty exciting right now. I really want Strong, Ohno, and Black especially to get singles feuds with blowoff matches at Takeovers.

Redman was hitting on the term and its uses pretty well a page back. Defining what a "casual fan" IS is just sort of a fools errand. Talking about how the term is functional and what it has been used to demarcate in the past is all we can really do. With the internet dispersing wrestling fandom's presence on line you can't really use forum, social media, or any kind of internet engagement with wrestling as a way of discerning casual fans from any other kinds of fans. This is why I said somewhere months back that I kind of think IWC is more or less a worthless term now. It is a community that probably still exists in practice, but it is no longer defined by the internet, just as casual fandom is no longer really defined by the internet. What's more, I think the internet has made EVERYTHING so accessible that I am not sure even engagement with the WWE really defines a casual fan. Sure, it is the primary way to go about understanding casual, but that is only because the WWE is - for better or worse - the center of the wrestling universe. I got a buddy who knows a hand full of WWE wrestler names and has maybe watched one WWE show in the last 3 years, but he also has a passing interest in indy wrestling (in NYC) and sort of watches some older wrestling from time to time with friends. He probably knows more about Kaiju Big Battle than he does WWE and will probably watch more indy wrestling that I send him or he goes to on a whim than he will SD or RAW. He has very little investment in any of it. He is - to me - the operational definition of casual, but because of the internet his casual fandom is manifest far more through indy wrestling than WWE. I guess in my eyes "casual fan" is always relative. I mostly see it used to refer to an abstract population that the WWE appeals to and in context that is usually just defined as someone who watches less wrestling and is supposedly invested less in wrestling as an art form or something otherwise valuable than the person using the term. I have a friend who loves the WWE and knows a good bit about WCW, WWE, and ECW history. He follows regularly (work schedule permitting), but he doesn't know much about indy wrestling or lucha or japanese wrestling or british or territories. To me, sometimes he seems like a casual fan and even though he knows a ton about wrestling his opinions seem guided by the WWE narrative. That says as much or more about me (or any person using the terms) than it does about him (or the person being labeled). To me he seems like a casual fan, but to the people in the bar he owns he is the biggest wrestling fan in the world. It is like any art form. If you are really invested in it as an art form even someone who is also fairly invested may seem casual to you if they aren't invested as much or even in the same way. I suppose I think the terms i still relevant to a degree, but it is largely a comparative statement that tells us as much about the one(s) using it as it does the one(s) being labeled "casual". If it isn't being used as an abstract pejorative to dismiss people it is to me more or less functional as a way of referencing degrees of investment with wrestling (emotion, time, energy, money, etc). I guess once you get to a certain point it would be hard to rationalize anyone (even those more invested) to call you casual, but there isn't some hard cutoff point.

Yeah, this is just lights out good wresting. The second half of this match especially is so good. Watching it on tape some of the grappling early doesn't look quite as good to me (not really a complaint, it just looked tighter live). On the other hand the facial expressions added to it, as did that massive mark on Chip's neck that really punctuates the shots he took. Lee's caveman hulk up came across more intense on camera too. What really strikes me here is how early/mid-90s-All-Japan-esque Trevor Lee's big epics are in CWF. I thought we got that in the Everett match from last year and maybe even more here. We get striking contests (ones with urgency and ones with ego), bomb throwing spaced out with solid selling, lots of understanding the audiences expectations of match flow and working in little surprises against the grain, lots of stiffness and high impact offense that weaves in nuance. This hit all those notes so well, especially in the last half of the match. To return to that point out understanding audience expectations, that is really my favorite part of this match. There are so many little places where it looks like we are going to see a full on Lee comeback and Day just cuts it off, and that really makes for a strong and compelling story. I really enjoy that when it is done well. Even good matches can seem predictable in the flow once you start watching and get a feel for them. I never felt like I had a handle on this one. That let them add lots of drama without going to the false finish well too often. It also made the 1 count that much more of a "holy fucking shit" moment because by that point it felt like all bets were off. Everything I thought I knew about the match or expected from it before was out the window and that is really rare. It wouldn't have been possible (or at least not as impactful) without the little counters and cut offs they used throughout. By the end of it Day has just thrown everything and has put so much into it. I heard someone on a podcast recently (podcast wasn't that recent, but me listening was - I want to say it was psychology is dead), that real classic matches often have that feeling that two guys just put too much into the match and they are really going to lose something more than a match if they don't win at this point. I kind of felt that way about at least Day and to a slightly lesser extent Lee here. I just loved those elements of the match. In the words of the world's #1 wrestler-turn-magician Chad Collyer, "That's Wrestling, BABY!" I want to give it all the ninja stars in my belt, but I think its probably a high end 4.75 to me right now. I am a little hesitatant to give anything real recent 5 without watching it a few times and giving it time to breath in my head. ****3/4

Ugh... can't wait to get to this later today. I did my live review here and honestly thought it was absolutely epic. I watched the six pack challenge for the first time on tape yesterday in prep for this coming out on the youtubes. I am looking forward to seeing if it lives up to or exceeds my live review of it. Bought a Trevor Lee shirt right after this match and he was glowing. He knew they put on a good one.

I honestly didn't like this one as much. I thought it was good in that it set a tone and everything was fairly well executed, but this was very much a Riddle showcase in a way. it never really felt like he was in danger to me. We never got to the next level grittiness of Thatcher's best stuff. I still liked it, but I gave it what Soup did, ***1/2

This one was a physical spectacle. Christ these two are talented. It was one of my favorite matches of the weekend (maybe my favorite honestly). I gave it ****1/4

I loved this match. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. At first the ending seemed abrupt to me, but it makes a lot of sense. O'Reilly was trying to beat him enough to get him up and once he finally did Lee's massive frame comes down on his head - OUT. This has tons of memorable moments: the double knees off the apron, Lee limping through a kick and demolishing O'Reilly on the comeback, Lee tossing O'Reilly out of the guillotine, the finishers - so much fun. The stuff with the low-blow in the middle was just ok to me. I thought it was ok as far as the match and booking, but I didn't think the execution was great (kinda broke up the flow). I have it somewhere between 4.25 and 4.5 I think. I really liked how Lee was selling everything as the match went and how O'Reilly built his offense to the payoff, so I would probably lean toward ****1/2. Edit: watched a little more Evolve from the weekend. i am sticking with ****1/4.

Called It! Win is a win.... kind of....

Nice! Thanks for doing this. No time now, but i look forward to checking some of this out soon.

Updated a few blank years and 2016 and 17 (so far). I am really excited for Trevor Lee/Chip Day to hit the interwebs (this week, I think) to see if it lives up to my live experience on tape and to see how other people respond to it. Haven't seen Shibata/Okada yet, but Lee/Day is so far running away with the year for me.

I got Kalisto in this one.

I get the feeling that they have the idea that they want to do something with Sami, but they haven't landed on what that is yet, and that is basically ok because whatever they do with him will require him to wallow in the middle being beaten and underappreciated. I always thought he would be a great underdog to challenge an indifferent-to-the-crowd Roman Reigns for the championship (at say... a Summer Slam), but that clearly isn't going to happen for a variety of reasons. Ohh well, I can't imagine they don't actively want to do something to elevate him out of what he is doing right now.

A friend with a very peripheral interest in wrestling recently asked me why people hate Randy Orton so much. It felt like a question that was easy and hard all at once. It was tricky. He isn't "bad" or even particularly offensive (to me at least), but he is just so damn bland and boring now. He asked if his character ever changes and I said not much, even good to bad, it just doesn't evolve all THAT much. He then asked if he was a bad wrestler (meaning specifically in ring ability) and I said, "no, but he isn't particularly interesting either." I explained that Randy Orton is like eating the same pizza (same from the same place with very minimal changes in toppings) for 12 years - 3 days a week. Even if the pizza is good the last thing in the world you want if you get any choice in the matter is that pizza. Once the WWE just decided that Randy Orton on his own was enough to be interesting they missed the mark by a mile. I get why some people like him, and again I am not necessarily against him in principle, I just can't overstate how bored I am with him, especially as the guy on top.

I am thinking about booking up my hotel next month. I definitely plan on going next year. I was at 30 and the whole weekend was an absolute blast.

I see that combo for End (Black) and hope you are right that he has a bright future in the E for it. I am a huge Tommy End fan so I would hate to see them miss the boat on him. I would agree that Trek is quite liberal on the whole, but it isn't because the Federation are Commies. I would actually argue that - at least TNG - the federation is framed as a neo-liberal utopia. It is a happily diverse organization that's primary mission is to go out and bring people into the fold, with express intentions not to colonize or even interfere (wonderful intentions, thought he execution is somewhat strategic and hit or miss). It is for sure a liberal narrative, one still rooted in fears of communism as a cultural/political phenomenon. I have always read many of the federations "enemies" as warnings against popular articulation of the "communist threat" (particularly the borg). It is a really pop take on these ideologies/economic models/political models with no exact one-to-one correlation, but the show doesn't focus enough on economic issues or production issues to really do much other than provide sort of vague cultural/political treatments of the issues.

Orton beating Bray like that killed everything momentum wise for me. I went back and watched Brock/Goldberg this morning and liked it a lot more in a vacuum than I did after Orton deflated the room.

I am all for the idea of Reigns vs Brock next year. Keeping Brock busy for his limited engagements wont be a problem. He can defend against Rollins, Owens, Balor, Joe, and even Cesaro or Zayn if they really wanted to push it and have fun matches really highlight him and build him (back) up a bit over the course of the year. I'd honestly have him go over Reigns once this year too (either at the rumble or Survivor Series) to build the bad blood and remind everyone what kind of beating these two can put on each other. The trick is keeping Reigns busy for that amount of time. I'd like him to full embrace his grey area position and feud with many of those guys listed before. Other than that it is impossible to tell what we get next year. If they do Goldberg again i am not even sure who he faces other than Cena or HHH. Neither is that compelling to me, though I would assume Cena could make it good. I really hope Styles is in a big title match next year. I don't think it will happen, but I'd love to see Dragon back in the ring for a proper send off.

I see a lot of people felt the way I did about this being the tale of two halves. I really liked the first three matches. I thought they all over-delieverd in a way. I liked Brock/Goldberg fine, but I wasn't a fan of the build at all so I was hoping for more violence to make up for it. I imagine I will like it more on rewatch. I kind of feel the same way about Taker/Reigns. Aside from a that one spot where they couldn't make the tombstone reversal work, I didn't think it was bad, but the match itself felt like it was flatter than it should have been. I am not 100% sure Reigns is quite ready to deliver the kind of drama and acting that they wanted from him to make those moments work. I am on board with Reigns and I think he is overall good, but this required a skillset that I am just not sure he has just yet. The goodbye was very well done though and that was the real show. I think Orton winning was easily the lowlight of the show and really killed the momentum (another reason I might have been a little more down on Brock/Goldberg than others - I was still frustrated). I really don't understand what the point of all that was. Orton getting the best of Wyatt is just not interesting to me and doubling down by making him champ to boot seems like such a waste. All of this just felt like it was designed to rebuild Wyatt and add a layer to him and then he gets knocked out by Orton.... bleh. Tag Ladder and the couples tag were both fun. They were well put together and did exactly what they were designed to do. I could not care less about Cena/Bella, but the whole thing was pretty well done. I am also not as into the Hardy's (I like Matt, but don't really care for Jeff), but again, that was a lot of fun and really felt like a big moment. I couldn't get into Rollins/HHH. I actually said "ohhh fuck off!" during their thousand reversals segment. Just not my thing. I'll watch it again because it might be better out of the context of 12 hours of wrestling (which is more or less what I watched yesterday).

I thought this match was good. It was what it needed to be, for sure. It was - for me - the highlight of the second half of the show for sure. I guess I had hoped for more violence given that I was not a fan of the build, but maybe i will feel better about it on rewatch (I was pretty tired by this point yesterday). Edit: Just rewatched it and it was a little more satisfying. It was intense and got a lot into very little time. I'd probably give it ****1/4

Dylan, nope... not me. Soup, I think - on live review - it was every bit the match Lee/Everett was form last year, and that was also in my top 10 and got 3.75 ninja stars from me. I currently threw ****3/4 snowflakes at this. I am always a little skeptical of my own live review, but I would be shocked if this didn't land right around that area.