FMKK

Flat ending for the La Luchadora reveal though. Bliss is a good character but she isn't over enough or good in the ring enough yet

Pretty good Smackdown yet again. I enjoyed seeing Lawler but it took the crowd a while to get behind him. Wish he'd have got a few shots in on Ziggler.

Edgelord anti-snowflake rhetoric and centrist liberalism is something I did not think would go hand in hand Murder is good I guess

Supposedly Shane McMahon is making a big announcement on Smackdown tonight so we may see him enter the Rumble and then set up a Mania programme from there.

There were definitely some boos in the crowd after it was over as well. Very uncomfortable atmosphere. Interesting that the tribute tweets they showed were all from people who have been in wrestling for decades or were brought up in it. Kinda like that old school 'cult of the business' mentality that was all too happy to sweep that sort of shit under the carpet. Bret, HHH, Charlotte, Stephanie, Foley, Rock and Reigns were the ones featured.

Why?

Aaaand they did a big tribute video on Raw. Didn't think they'd go that big.

A Dusty Finish working against the heel team makes no sense

Rusev is so under appreciated, stuck in a feud with a comedy tag team who can't really work

https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/820717351066664960 Rock tweeted earlier that Jimmy Snuka has died.

I feel like Undertaker vs Cena is such an obvious match that I have no idea why they wouldn't do it. It's one of the last really big matches they have that hasn't been done to death and with Taker getting up there and Cena being more of a part timer, time is running out on having the chance to actually book it.

If they really want Bayley to get over big, Stephanie really should take a few bumps for her.

Jesus Christ, I almost hope Michaels' movie does well so I never have to see him on WWE TV again. That was brutal.

I felt like it was more of the former of the latter in all fairness. The overall story is about whether Cena is still rightfully the top guy so it seems fine to me to acknowledge his connections and his star power as the reason he got into the match. The Cena character acknowledges this in his new catchphrase he's been using to justify himself "Why? Cause I'm John Cena. Recognise." The vast majority of the contract signing promo was about the key issue of whether Cena still had it in him to be the top guy or whether Styles had surpassed him. They also referenced Cena being on TV and movies more frequently and how he once called out The Rock for being a part timer. To me, it's quite a basic story set-up between two rivals with a well delivered pair of promos and some references to 'real life' stuff to add intrigue and extra buy-in from the audience but it all stayed within the realm of kayfabe and any of the heel slights on Cena are going to be disproved when he wins the title anyway.

Really hope this 'I'm John Cena, recognise' becomes a permanent catch phrase. It's one of the better ones they've come up in a long time and really captures the motivation of his character.

Agree on the Big E point. I think he really has what it takes to elevate himself beyond all the guys currently in the Raw main event scene. He probably needs a bit more of a serious edge but I bet Vince will love him cutting Rock comedy promos. Wasn't there speculation around the back end of 2013 that there were big plans for him in the future? Obviously those never materialised but the opportunity is still there. As for Balor, having someone back to have fresh matches is a plus of course but to me he's far too similar a worker to Rollins and Owens to make much of a difference. So much about those guys in the ring just seems, I dunno, substance-less? Insubstantial? Maybe shallow is the right word. Besides, the demon character, which could genuinely be something interesting if built with subtlety, has no reason to exist outside of 'the paint looks cool.' The more I think about it the more I want them to just go fuck it and have Braun win the Rumble.

Heat evolves, just like everything else in wrestling. People have phones and tablets now - even in the biggest of big spots, some of them are going to be filming it, rather than living in it. I also just believe that people react differently. People evolve. That may be so but the Naito vs Tanahashi match just before had better sustained heat than the main.

Agree with the criticisms of the main event. There's just something about Omega that I dislike. I'm not entirely certain that I can put my finger on it. He has like this goofiness to his facial expressions and his movements sometimes that takes me out of the match. I also agree with the Shawn Michaels-esque criticisms of him. Everything feels like a 'performance' rather than a match or a fight or a struggle. In saying that, I thought the finishing stretch of the match was very strong. I disliked how Omega seemed to blow off the fact that he was hit with three Rainmakers without much concern but I guess that's just the NJPW style so there's nothing that can be done. Given that the previous match was quite methodical and went 25 minutes, this could have done with more intensity out of the gate and being nonstop action for 20 minutes rather than stretching out for as long as it did. The match meandered for half of it's run time and then had a strong New Japan-style finishing stretch for the second half. I feel like that formula is wearing thin with me though and I'd really appreciate some deviation from it when appropriate. This would have been one of those times. As for the finish, I felt it was slightly anti-climatic but only because I was expecting Omega to win and it never came, but it's smart that they protected his finish. The only other match I watched was the Naito vs Tanahashi semi main. I felt this was far stronger. Tanahashi for me is a superior ace babyface than Okada and Naito's heel mannerisms and shtick are far more entertaining than Omega's. The match had intensity and a sense of rivalry and at times even hatred that the main lacked. The limb work was good from both men and I liked the touches of Tanahashi breaking the babyface code of honour. To me, the crowd seemed more invested in the entirety of this match and followed the story throughout rather than peaking for the climax. Very strong match and the superior of the top two. I watched the main event first because it happened to be starting by the time I turning on to watch. Then I caught the Naito match in a spare half hour afterwards. That's why my comments are pretty much a comparison between the two. Perhaps that's an unfair way to review them seeing that I took them out of order and had seen a lot of the critiques of the main before I saw the semi main, so I had a lot of those in my head while I watched. However, I stand by my general thoughts. As someone who doesn't follow New Japan religiously, it seems strange to me that Naito is in the secondary heel position while Omega gets the top push because I think he's a far superior character based on what I've seen. Is there a particular reason for this line of booking because it seemed to me around mid-way through 2016 that Okada vs Naito was a nailed on main event for WK11.

Raw still continues to be a plodding slog while Smackdown is the best weekly television WWE has done in years. Even the little things like building matches for the next week just go to point out that whoever is writing this show knows what they're doing. AJ and Cena stole the show with their contract signing promos. Cena really has been missed.

Yeah, there is no Daniel Bryan to 'get in the way' of company plans, but on the flipside none of the apparent top babyfaces in the company are actually that over (other than Cena but he's fast becoming a part-time legend) I hope they just keep up the Braun push and even give him the title. A monster heel worker is refreshing in 2017 and makes a change for workrate types on top. The issue is finding strong challengers who can get good matches out of him when so many guys work that spotty style but if they make Braun a killer for the rest of the year then whoever finally beats him could be a made man.

At least Bayley can do something physical with Steph so her taking the belly to belly should get a big pop.

I feel like it started as an ironic thing against the workrate-y Kevin Owens types but honestly, he's been one of the few highlights of Raw for weeks and weeks now.

The only other contender I can imagine along current booking lines is Jericho to set up title feud with Owens but that act is getting stale now and desperately needs to go down to the midcard.

From what I've seen of it, it's not great. The camera work is like Kevin Dunn on a coke bender, just completely all over the place. The stereotype of World of Sport among most of the public in Britain who remember it from the 80s is fat guys who can barely move (Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks) so I don't think kicking off the show with two fat guys who weren't particularly good workers was a smart move to dispel the myth.

So much emphasis was put into the title record that they're now completely directionless now that it's over, which doesn't help. They need to go heel or push Big E as a singles. Looks like the Mania title matches are Taker vs Cena and Braun vs Reigns, which means that they'll probably give Taker the Rumble win but it really should be Braun. We're now at the point where someone getting a strong push is refreshing to see, so I hope it continues.