FMKK

Dave is back on his what I like is factually great and if you dont like it youre stupid bullshit again. Someone get him off Twitter.

Imagine what the buy rate for this would have been in the PPV era

I don't think it's unfair to suggest that Meltzer often displays a shortsightedness about social issues outside of his wrestling/MMA bubble and that he will vouch for/play down negatives about guys he likes.

Maybe this is unfair but can it really be a coincidence that since the brand split, the worst show by far is always the one where Kevin Owens is pushed as the top heel?

Meltzer said this match was 90% Cesaro but I have no idea what he's on about. His offence was impactful the the arm targeting was great but Roman's selling and willingness to take nasty bumps (like the swing into the barricade or his always brutal shoulder bump to the post) gave Cesaro's attacks a further level of meaning and impact that wouldn't have been there had he been working the other two Shield guys for example. A few weeks ago there was a debate on Twitter about who was WWE worker of the year but this IC open challenge run from Reigns means I think he smokes all the other contenders. Just excellent matches week after week, of which I think this was the best so far. ****1/4

Jericho is looking old as hell but it's good to see him relishing really getting to be a proper heel. Both parts of this angle were really well done and even though I don't think the match will be great and I'm not a big Omega fan, I'm actually somewhat interested to see what happens now. Job done I guess.

Reigns vs Cesaro for the IC title should be a banger. Kane vs BRAUN for the fucking Rumble title shot less so, especially if they book Kane to win.

Would it really be worse than Brock vs. Holly? Seeing the absolute state of Kane trying to do any work in the ring whatsoever in this run, 100% yes

Surely there's absolutely no way they'll actually book Brock vs Kane?!

It also seems like a weird quasi-defence of Elgin. I mean, there's not exactly a ton of fans arguing that what Vince did 25 years ago is ok.

Bray going back to where it all started to find redemption or whatever is totally the sort of bullshit that character would do as well.

I mean, I agree but they've always done it. Alvarez makes an ironic comment/joke, Dave takes it as a serious opinion (sometimes to make his own joke, sometimes the sarcasm goes over his head) and for some reason Alvarez decides to engage in a useless back and forth that will last minutes. It's kind of their thing. Sometimes it doesn't bother me too much when I'm listening in the background or whatever but I must have been more focused today or whatever because it was just so grating. They must have the least chemistry/rapport of any audio pairing around

Six months off TV and a repackaging where he's kept solidly in the midcard is about the only solution. They shouldn't be above throwing him down to NXT for a while to get some buzz back about him.

I want to heard Dave's thoughts on Raw, I really do but his interminable arguments with Alvarez where they spend minutes talking across each other are absolutely unbearable. They spent about five minutes going back and forth over the psychology of Reigns hitting the punch on Jordan after their match last night and it really wasn't anything of consequence worthy of getting bogged down on.

Jason Jordan gets loads of heat for 2017. I actually think he'll be a decent heel promo once her turns.

The weekly TV thread. Hopefully the Reigns open challenge continues and Kane being a heat sink for Braun does not

Tag team titles on the line with Booker and Godust defending. The idea is that they're an odd couple and Goldust thinks he's the weak link in the team. Jericho cuts a heel promo on Goldust backstage, calling him a failure as a father, a husband and a performer. This has decent star power for the mid-2000s WWE tag scene. I love how Dustin throws rights. Faces clean house and Goldust catapults Jericho over the top and onto Christian on the floor. Christian pops up to pull Goldust from the second rope to get the heat and Jericho works over his back. Booker plays a good second, getting the crowd clapping for Goldust to fight out of a hold. Crowd are really into the fired-up hope spots. Christian throws a really good slap. He always used it during his babyface ace run in ECW in 2009 and here he is as a heel 7 years before slapping Dustin in the corner. Hot tag to Booker gets a good pop and he cleans house. He pulls out an old fashioned noggin knocker and teases the spinarooni - he's very over at this point. Booker was never the best worker but he always made for an energetic presence during his best runs. Booker actually gets a three-count off the scissors kick but Christian had his foot on the ropes so the ref corrects it. Back from the break and now the heat is on Booker. Good old fashioned heeling as Christian distracts the ref so he misses the hot tag. Draws good heat as the heels double stomp Booker. Jericho throws in the fake heel tags as well in a further old school touch. Booker almost gets the pin with what JR describes as the "Jack Brisco roll-up." Christian cinches in a chinlock to take control back. Goldy and Jericho are good on the apron at conducting the crowd during the down period. Dustin is an energetic hot tag, getting a double DDT, curtain call on Christian and then a ridiculously close near-fall on Jericho with a powerslam. Crowd are hot. Goldust shows some great babyface resilience by sticking out the Walls of Jericho before Booker breaks it up. Chaos as Christian misses with a wild belt shot and Booker dumps him. Jericho throws him out before getting another super close near-fall with a roll-up with feet on the ropes. However, a Lionsault lands on knees and Goldust rolls Jericho up for the win in 14:40 or so. I watched this after hearing people making the case for Dustin in the GWWE poll and he is excellent here. Great as a babyface in peril, good at conducting the crowd from the apron and showed really strong fire as the underdog out to prove himself. But really, I thought everyone was really good in the this match. Four experienced guys having an old school tag match with all the old tricks thrown in: missed hot tags, heel fake tags, double heat section, feet on the ropes and a hot crowd. This is really fun and its a pity that both of these teams didn't have much longer runs. ***3/4

Man I remember starting a thread here in early 2007 asking if WWE was close to another boom period that's how well the product was being received at the time. Agreed that it was a forgotten strong period for the company I remember seeing all that talk as well. Big money Mania and a legendary run from Cena establishing him as the true ace. If he had actually managed to lead the company to somewhat of a business boom that would really solidify his case as potentially the best ever in WWE. I think the week to week stuff from that period is probably worth a re-evaluation project, though I understand why this may be uncomfortable considering what ultimately derailed the buzz at the time.

They should look to go down that route with some of the cruiserweight guys, though the midcard is kinda thin on the ground in terms of people they could throw into teams

People were quite high on the Wyatts at that point as well, and Bad News Barrett was a fun midcard gimmick. It's ridiculous that they squandered that so quickly really, but Bryan getting hurt really killed the vibe. As well as HHH booking himself front and centre of course.

I liked Loss point about sense of optimism. I think that was a really interesting way to put it. The last time modern WWE really captured that for me was in period just before and after Wrestlemania 30, when it seemed like theyd finally put the Attitude Era to rest in their collective conscious and had five or six hot new stars to build around

Titus probably got into the business too late for them to consider investing in him too much. He should be a babyface tag guy for life though, that suits his skills best. Hes a victim of WWE being obsessed with breaking up teams/partnerships. Darren was a decent babyface in peril as well so Prime Time Players should have just been a team permanently

Smackdown last year got a lot of hype for a while. It probably needs to be revisited but the time from around August 2016 - April 2017 had some very tight week to week booking, AJ having great TV matchs, that hot Miz vs Ziggler feud and Cena popping in as well. There was probably a WWE first of three simultaneous women's feuds running at once for a while. It's all fallen off a cliff post-Mania sadly.

This is up there in the pantheon of great LOLTNA GIFs along with the phantom ref bump in that Bully Ray match and Sting whacking his own head off a chair https://twitter.com/allan_cheapshot/status/936606173867986944

Those CFOS themes have got so damn samey as well. Every single one has these huge awkward pauses in the music.