FMKK

Such a bizarre match to book. Shows how thin this roster is even with ten million people signed.

I feel like Lashley should be good if he's just kept in short power vs power matches. No need for him to ever go beyond like 12 minutes. If he and Drew did a cosplay Ishii match tonight, it could be good.

This is some wild shit from the lawsuit over Saudi Arabia. Probably a bigger story even that THE GREATEST MATCH EVER

Maybe he only had the Edge vs Orton match at ****1/2 on his spreadsheet

I think the PPV and Raw are taped already so it'll be a little longer before you see the effects of Heyman being cut. Unless they make some drastic edits.

Now that Heyman is out, Raw will actually be somewhat interesting for a few weeks if only to see if all of his pet projects start getting their pushes cut off. I wonder how long Drew survives with the belt after this Backlash show, which is already in the can.

I really don't see any argument for Bryan as wrestler of the year in 2020 so far honestly. Maybe top ten but I think Omega, Okada, Ospreay, ZSJ, Miyahara and Shingo are a fair bit ahead of him. I love Bryan, I really do, but I think there's a tendency to overrate everything he does nowadays because he's a beloved figure and he's surrounded by a sea of shit in WWE. What's the case for him this year really built on, two Gulak matches and the Styles match from yesterday? That's a bit slim imo. In fact, I'd go as far to say that Bryan has had at best a mixed return to the ring since 2018. There have been flashes of greatness in some matches but also pretty long stretches of nothingness that, while they're the fault of the booking and the environment rather than the performer, can't really be ignored.

He still spent a good 3-4 years of the 10s on the shelf though

It's genuinely been about three or four years since someone did the beachball bit in a WWE crowd. Most WWE audiences before the pandemic weren't being 'rebellious', they were straight up dead. And really, the relationship with the fans was damaged by the company first and foremost. I find a lot of that smarky shit pretty cringe as well but when other companies manage to get the desired reaction from their audience on a consistent basis, you have to ask why WWE has consistently failed to for years. Blame can't all be placed at the feet of the fans.

It's amazing how HHH's years of political manoeuvring has essentially been halted by Vince reaching for the comfort blanket of Prichard. Meanwhile, they signed up so many people from the independent scenes in America and Britain to sit around and do nothing while the dictator sits in the bunker and relives the glory days in his head.

Like it or not, the job is to get over with the audience who pay to watch the show, not with PWO. I think Adam Cole is the shits as well, to be clear. But the fact that Bryan was turned so quickly after his mega return is a clear sign that that run was a failure. Anyway, my answer to the question is Danielson or Tanahashi like everybody else. Danielson probably had the better 00s and Tana the better 10s but both have enough of a resume in both decades to make them better contenders than Okada and Omega. Some other outside candidates are Cena, AJ Styles, maybe some of the late 00s indy guys who have gone to WWE like Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and I also think Kota Ibushi, who has been around for longer than people sometimes remember and had his first great match in like 2006 iirc.

It didn't get over though

I mean, that's basically Hirooki Goto's gimmick at this point. He gets his big wins and does well enough but he never gets over the hump in the big one and he gets mocked for it. He still seems to be over with the Japanese fans though. You do see some Western fans work themselves into a shoot and think that he sucks because his gimmick is that he's a choker though.

It's typical of the WWE brain rot they've had since Bryan in 2013/14 that Rhea has getting nicely over and then the company decided to strap the rocket to her by....having her lose all her big matches.

All she had to do was say she was struggling to get the words right or whatever. I kind of dislike the pressuring celebrities into making public statements like this though, if only because it makes it into an empty PR exercise when they figure out that they need a well worded social media post in good time.

There's an irony to all this. More and more of Cornette's show has been taken up by AEW and more and more of his AEW commentary has become frothing at the mouth. How many times has he threatened to stop watching it? Really, Jim has become a podcasting spot monkey.

For all that people say about Corny on these shows, I think Last is the absolute dirt worst

Can't wait for nerds to be demanding the #WindhamCut of the Firefly Funhouse

Who's to say they didn't make a play for them and they just didn't accept the offers?

There are still a few psychopaths online who think Bray Wyatt is an artistic genius so God only knows. That's why I hope they do it to see if there's any ridiculous outrage online! Edge had a bit of a hissy fit online after people buried his shitty match so this branding is either a rib on him or a rib on the audience. Or both.

Booking an entire PPV around a bait and switch isn't going to get heat on Randy Orton. It's just going to confirm to fans why they should never put any trust in WWE to deliver on anything. That said, it would be funny if they do it.

Yeah, the tag league is a rest tour for the big stars anyway. But they've been resting for three months already and probably one or two more before we see proper shows.

On a brighter note, Nia must have laid in some decent strikes because Meltzer and others are reporting that she's hurt Kairi Sane yet again. This time, a deep head cut during a taped match for an upcoming Raw. Maybe Nia ought to get her ass back to the performance centre to learn how to work before she gets a TV push.

This was pretty amusing but the choice quote for me was Dave saying "Edge is kind of a genius." Everyone in the world should aspire to find love like the love Dave has for Edge.

They pulled that before with Cena vs Orton doing a singles match right after a TLC. The crowd shit on it. But at least they won't have that problem again unless some of the PC dorks get brave.