FMKK

A certified work

Bix really ought to stop trying too hard sometimes.

If India ends up being an important facet of WWE business and he's the guy who opened up that market then you have to examine his case as an important drawing card whether you like him or not.

It is pretty much the final prostitution of the sport of boxing. Like imagine if Nike paid Manchester United to start Usain Bolt up front for their next five games. It would get a load of attention but it would make football seem like a joke. That being said, is it just me or has the hype kind of died off after the intial flurry around the press conferences? It's hard to book heel vs heel I guess.

Also, is Dolph Ziggler the worst promo of all time?

Transitioning to AJ vs Corbin would be an odd move given how badly they've depushed the guy in the last week but I'm sure AJ will get something decent out of him given the chance.

Are you SERIOUS?! Jon Jones may very well be the biggest moron in the history of sports. Yes.....and Yes, He probably fucked over Brock since that was his leverage to get another fat WWE deal too. Just for fun, let's review the Jon Jones file: He's undefeated, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, and on his way to establishing a legacy. And then... - He totals his car and is charged with Driving Under The Influence. - He refuses to accept a fight against Chael Sonnen, who was stepping in at the last minute to fight after Dan Henderson got injured. Because he refuses to fight, an entire UFC show is cancelled for the first time ever and UFC 151 never happens. The main problem was how Jones behaves in the media after the show was cancelled. He basically comes across as the ultimate spoiled athlete, entitled and self absorbed. - Jones then spends the next couple of years adding to his spoiled and entitled reputation, as he is accused of ducking fights with both Glover Teixiera and Alex Gustafsson. Jones appears to be especially reluctant to face Gustafsson, who many people thought actually beat him the first time they fought. He also adds to his reputation as a dirty fighter for using illegal elbow strikes against Matt Hamill, and also is constantly getting warnings for poking his opponents in the eyes. - He is accused of writing homophobic slurs on Instagram. In response, Jones claims his phone was stolen and his account was hacked - He then tests positive for cocaine, and gives an interview implying that is one of the first times he ever took cocaine. He asks for the forgiveness of his fans, but comes across as very insincere. - He then is involved in a hit and run, where he is involved in a car accident with a pregnant woman. He flees the scene, and drugs are found in his car. He is finally suspended for six months and stripped of his title. - He swears he is going to stay on the straight and narrow, and then gets arrested for drag racing. Because it's smart to drive like an idiot after you've been arrested for getting in a hit and run. - He comes back after his suspension and wins the "interim" title but then...surprise! He tests positive for steroids. He gets suspended again, this time for a year. - He finally comes back after his year long suspension, swears he's changed etc., and wins the title. Now he flunks another steroid test. This guy is a total moron. He needs to be banned from the sport for life. He probably won't be, but it really doesn't matter. He's totally sullied whatever legacy he might have had, not to mention that he's literally cost himself years of his prime in suspension, and millions of dollars from missed fights and sponsorships. He's kinda killed Cormier's career in the process too. Nothing he does will really matter now. People talk about WWE not being in a great position at times but UFC is fucked!

I guess they just fed him English because they assumed he would get a babyface pop with this crowd? With how Corbin and Rusev have been diminished lately, this roster needs heels urgently.

Kevin Owens has decent promos and all but this feud with AJ has change the channel heat with me and really needed to end on Sunday if not a month ago. He's someone who could use a hiatus in general actually.

Pulled the conclusion from my longer review on the Usos thread in Microscope because I think this match deserves some attention. That was incredible. The first few minutes were relatively routine but well worked tag procedure. The Usos had good strikes as always and have a perfect heel demeanour. Once the hot tag came then shit got real. I've said that the Usos have great ending sequences but here they esentially did three in a row, culminating in a huge nearfall for themselves, a huge nearfall for New Day and then the victory. The crowd were popping huge for the big spots and, although all four workers had excellent performances, I want to particularly shout out Xavier for his awesome forearms and knees. I loved the innovative double team spots too. Low-key WWE MOTYC. ****1/2

The Usos vs New Day - WWE Summerslam, 20st August 2017 Another pre-show match for the Usos. Smackdown tag titles on the line here and the Usos are working heel, which has revitalised the act. New Day is Xavier and Big E in this match. I like the idea they've played up of ND having 'power' and 'speed' line-ups depending on who's in. Xavier gets some shine, winning a speed sequence with a big forearm then going to work with chops. A heel distraction allows Woods to get nailed with a sweet punch coming from the second rope for the transition. Back after an ad break with Xavier in a chinlock and the crowd clapping him on. JBL is comparing the Usos to great sibling tag teams and honestly, they're among the best. Xavier gets a hope spot shoving Jey off the second rope, dodging a splash from the apron by Jimmy while sitting on top and then hitting a nice missile drop kick. Crowd is still quite enthusiastic for New Day. But Jimmy pulls Big E off the apron in the nick of time to stop the hot tag. I love those spots where the positioning from previous moments comes into play. Makes it seem like the guys are thinking on their feet in kayfabe. Uso matches have lots of nice moments like that. Jey picks up Woods for a samoan drop but instead just runs his head into the buckle. Nasty. Heart attack from the top continues the heat. The Usos have a cocky, bullying demeanour that works really well as heels. They have good sneers. Of course, the cockiness gets the better of them as Xavier counters a back suplex into an inverted sitting facebuster (or something) that looked sweet. Hot tag to Big E who throws some very high angled belly-to-bellies but is caught with a running enziguri after gyrating for too long. Cool double team spots as Woods rolls up onto Big E's shoulders to be powerbombed down onto Jimmy Uso. Then Woods lifts Big E onto his shoulders to drop down for a splash. Crowd pops big for that. Xavier selling his back from lifting E is a nice touch. Usos take advantage of a blind tag to hit a massive double spinebuster on E, who then gets socked with a great punch in the corner to set up the Rikishi ass attack thing. Awesome spot as Xavier cuts off a second attempt and puts his knees up for an Uso to be slammed on top of. The double team spots here have been great. They're mixing in some great looking forearms and punches as well, which I love. Xavier especially has nice strikes. Woods hits a baseball slide outside the ring the other Uso flies out of nowhere to clatter him from off the barricade. Big E's tope is cut off with a super kick and he's caught on the middle rope. One Use jumps from the top to splash him on the apron while the other does the big splash on Xavier in the ring. Crowd bites huge for the nearfall. Awesome sequence. Xavier busts out a koji clutch and then hits a huge shining wizard knee on Jey once he escapes. Awesome tornado DDT to the outside kills Jimmy then they set up for the midnight hour. Jimmy breaks up the pin at the absolute last second to pop the crowd huge again. There's long applause and THAT horrible chant as all four men are down. JBL calls these two the best two tag teams in the world and he may well be correct. Jimmy fires Woods over the top onto his own partner with a nasty thud, before Jey pelts Kofi into the steps. E then does his ridiculous spear through the middle ropes spot. He's all fired up and so is the crowd. He lifts Jey up for his finish but succumbs to the blind tag. Two super kicks to the gut, two to the face and then a double super kick kills Big E dead and the double splash finishes it off to win the titles for the Usos. That was incredible. The first few minutes were relatively routine but well worked tag procedure. The Usos had good strikes as always and have a perfect heel demeanour. Once the hot tag came then shit got real. I've said that the Usos have great ending sequences but here they esentially did three in a row, culminating in a huge nearfall for themselves, a huge nearfall for New Day and then the victory. The crowd were popping huge for the big spots and, although all four workers had excellent performances, I want to particularly shout out Xavier for his awesome forearms and knees. I loved the innovative double team spots too. Low-key WWE MOTYC. ****1/2

Going to get back into this after another awesome Usos match on Summerslam. I'll watch it again before I comment on it but in the meantime, I caught one of the six-man matches Jimmy Redman recommended. Shield vs Usos & Dolph - Raw 30/9/13 I had a big problem with this match. It was Dolph Ziggler. This guy is an abysmal wrestler. The match builds nicely as these six-mans usually do, with the Usos doing that spot they love where they throw the opponent out of the ring to tease the hot tag. That's something they've done in all of these matches so far. Roman cuts it off this time before taking a superkick. The problem comes with the hot tag. Rollins knocks Jey off the apron so unfortunately for all, Ziggler is the one who gets to run wild. He flails around at a million miles an hour, so much so that Ambrose can barely get up in time to feed the next moves. I should give credit in the sense that the crowd are into the guy at this point. There's also a nice bit where he drop kicks Rollins who's coming from the top rope. But then after taking no offensive moves, he starts selling death. At first I thought he was just slowing down to let Ambrose roll him up but after that spot he hits a fameasser, Roman breaks up the pin and he just goes to the corner. He's just lying there. Dead. An Uso comes in and chucks Ambrose out. There was a blind tag to Rollins, then a blind tag to Reigns so when Ziggler springs back up to hit his shitty finish on Rollins he gets speared for the Shield win. I liked most of this match and I enjoy those cute teamwork sequences like the blind tags to put over The Shield as a unit but Ziggler is terrible. He's either a million miles an hour or flopped out dead. In retrospect, he should have been in tag teams his whole WWE career because at least the crowd gets into him sprinting around as a hot tag. But he brought this down a good bit. **3/4

I haven't paid enough attention to NXT in a while after the relatively weak period with Balor/Joe/Nakamura on top but i should probably pick it back up from the last few months. Who are the likely call-ups here, Roode, Authors of Pain and Asuka?

In terms of organising where they want to go, Raw booking has been pretty on point at the top of the card recently. Look at how they gradually built the Rollins/Ambrose reunion into the Miz feud and then transitioned it into the Cesaro/Sheamus programme. Or even the elevation of Braun and Joe to the main event. It gives me some degree of hope that they've got a plan to extend Braun vs Brock beyond No Mercy and protect the big matches they have on tap.

WWE tweeting about the beach ball from their official account has to be one of the stupidest things they've done in a while. Don't encourage it

They have 4 HUGE matches to be made: Roman/Lesnar II, Braun/Lesnar, Cena/Roman and Cena/Braun. The main event teased people just enough for the first two matches, so I guess maybe we can get something for post-WM 2018 regarding the last two. This is as stacked as the main events have been in some time. Quite the turnaround from the dismal Rollins and Owens title reigns that dominated the last couple of years

Why would they take the title off Brock when Strowman challenging him one on one is so obviously the big match everyone wants to see?

They didn't lose though. Roman ate the pin and you can go Lesnar vs. Braun or Joe and the crowd will be hot for it still. But Brocks not around often enough for those programs to be done immediately. He's going to be on Raw tonight and has already been advertised for the Raw PPV in September. Seems very likely they do Brock vs Braun there. Didn't realise that he was advertised for the next PPV but I assumed the obvious way to go was just to write him off TV for a bit with a Braun attack angle tonight.

This was something I was trying to grasp at earlier in this thread. You've summed it up perfectly here and it would be interesting to have further exposition of the theme. It just seems very sad that Twitter has broken him and he's willing to sacrifice his credibility working a troll gimmick. P.S. It's not really, really great imo

Why obsess over this?

This is a strange and yet apt observation and something I've considered before in terms of comparison to wrestling. I don't think there's anyone who really follows panto properly. It's something that usually comes around at Christmas and Easter as family entertainment/school field trip fodder. Basically fairytales and the like performed on stage with broad, comedic and exaggerated performances that encourage the crowds to boo and hiss at villains etc. They usually have local actors and then a few mid-level celebrities and TV/soap opera actors in main roles to draw the audience. It's all on the level of good, campy fun and the crowd participation and heat is mainly on an tongue-in-cheek level (maybe less so for the youngest children) so maybe the comparisons doesn't work as well to wrestling where the heat on heels tends to be more vocal and visceral. So it's not quite 'true heel heat' in that sense, although I guess uk wrestlers are maybe more comfortable with playing the role of panto villain? But there are comparisons to be made between the mediums and I'm now thinking about how/of panto is similar to the territories in terms of the regional organisation of the performances and the travelling drawing cards. Who's a bigger draw between Les Dennis and Keith Chegwin?

Brock vs Braun vs Roman vs Joe for the Raw title Jinder vs Nak for the Smackdown title Ambrose/Rollins vs Sheamus/Cesaro for Raw tag titles AJ vs Owens w/Shane as ref Orton vs Rusev Cena vs Corbin Alexa vs Sasha Usos vs New Day Naomi vs Natalya Cass vs Big Show w/Enzo in a cage Thank that's about it

Huge pop for the Ambrose and Rollins stuff this week. Amazing what some thought out weekly booking can do. Revitalised two stale characters, made the tag titles seem important and got a huge reaction. Hope they add Roman down the line

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/status/897184182253666304 I may be reading into this unfairly but it might be nice for Dave to actually acknowledge his personal taste and discuss it more openly rather than presenting his ratings as if they were objective facts

Jeez, the crowd just turned on Bayley bad there. No TV in Canada for another ten years lol