Woof

1) NXT - Everything they put out 2) WWE - Special events, Raw/Smackdown if I happen to be home and working on something else so I need backgroud. I'll seek out special moments after the fact as they warrent. 3) Lucha Underground - Followed along season 1 at a distance but I'm trying to keep current with season 2. 4) ROH - TV when I can find the time and I'll usually check out the PPV's well after the fact. 5) NJPW - I'll go through moods where I'll watch a handful of recent big shows. Still trying to get my head around Japanese wrestling enough to make the leap to getting a New Japan World subscription. 6) Misc - I'll check out Evolve shows on occasion if they get good buzz. I watched all of the Rev-Pro YouTube TV spots, but they basically stopped doing them. I also will go through stretches of watching CWF Mid-Atlantic's YouTube show when I feel like just watching some completely fresh faces.

Agreed. Stepping up his in-ring trash talk/crowd interaction is doing wonders for getting him over with me even while his offense remains mostly pedestrian. That "I'm doing pretty well, old man" crack to the dude in the front row last night was gold. The more wrestlers engage the crowd, the more invested the crowd becomes. It's not rocket surgery.

Every week I finish watching NXT and think to myself, "That was a perfect hour of wrestling. No soap opera, no BS. Just wrestlers wrestling and wanting to be the best. Everything revolves around that basic premise and it makes for such an enjoyable product.

Feels a little ECW-heavy to me for the opening show. Half of your performers (10 of 20) were ECW guys at the end. Maybe swap out Super Crazy for Psicosis (I know he had cameos in ECW but he's much more a WCW guy) and then perhaps Homicide for somebody like Elix Skipper or Kid Romeo (Homicide didn't have name value yet and the other two at least had national recognition) to really give Red a meaningful upset. Then instead of the FBI you go with Harris & Storm since they were to become such a big part of early TNA. And as long as we're fantasy booking can we give Road Dogg a better name than BG James? Love the idea. Curious where you take it.

Request: can we maybe not spoil several weeks of NXT (or whatever) going forward for those of us who wish to just watch the shows as they happen and occasionally be surprised? I tune into the podcast to have the current show recapped and talked about, because you guys are a lot of fun and it enhances my enjoyment of what I watch (particularly since I like to re-watch the show after listening to the podcast). It's hard enough avoiding "AUSTIN ARIES SIGNED WITH WWE" spoilers as it is, because I can't avoid the world at large, but knowing how and when he debuts (and under what name) really takes what remaining fun out of it there might be. Thanks.

I'd definitely be interested. They don't get much coverage net-wise, so it's hard to know what we're missing.

Even though I was slightly underwhelmed by the card coming in (it was just lacking something special on paper), they once again over-delivered in my eyes. There was nothing here I didn't like, outside of a few nitpicky moments. Anyway, some thoughts... ~Right off the bat, I hate the way Greg Hamilton does ring introductions. Everytime he says "the following CON-test" I wanna punch him. The way he puts that hard break in the middle of words is aggravating. You gotta go UP vocally at the end to sell the excitement. ~Emma is tremendous in this heel role. She carries herself like a badass, which is hard to do when you're not an imposing physical specimen ~The spinning backfists from Asuka looked great and I'm legit shocked WWE has never given that to a main roster guy in hopes of making it a killer finish ~Enzo is actually turning into a decent worker. He used to be a guy who could talk and sell a beating, but he's slowly added some sneaky offensive stuff to his repetoire and it makes him a more interesting overall package ~I can't tell if Cass is any good or not, since he doesn't usually do much outside of take hot tags. His singles stuff last year while Enzo was out was really "blah", but I have to assume he's improved since then. Not sure when we'll see it though. ~Loved the way Dawson cranked on the headlock early on, really leaning back with it. That's one of those holds where guys will grab it and just stand upright, making it look like nothing's happening. The simple act of putting space between you and your opponent and then leaning in on him turns it into something of note and more guys should do it. ~The camera work in these early matches from whoever was on the floorcam was making me nauseous. You can follow the action without yanking the camera to follow each punch, numbnuts ~Props to the ref for not acknowledging the heel blind tag he didn't see. It pisses me off when refs disallow a babyface tag so vehemently and then turn around and allow a heel tag seconds later. The heels need to earn it, not just have the guy shrug off the rules just because it's a cheap way to get crowd heat. If the heels (and ref) work it right, the timing should be that when he turns around he's not sure if they even changed out. It's about creating confusion on what happened, not just blatantly ignoring it. ~I totally bit on the false finish where Enzo got pulled out of the ring off of the pin attempt. Love that spot when timed well ~Corbin shouting "GO BACK TO RING OF HONOR" killed me. I love that he apparently thinks anybody who has indie cred went through there at some point. ~Probably the best Corbin match I've seen to date. His crowd interaction in the early parts kept things interesting and his selling has really improved. This was the first time I saw him where I thought, "yeah I can see him on the main roster". ~The slow mo on Crews' standing moonsault made it look GORGEOUS. ~Not that there was anything you could do about it, but Corbin's win more or less told me Balor was retaining. Corbin needs a straight-up title shot soon and this win puts him into that spot. ~Bayley vs Nia started kinda clunky for me even though I could see the story they were telling, I almost thought it was gonna just go down as a total style clash, but hot damn did they ever hit their stride in the last 2/3's ~Nia stands around too much when she's on offense. Couple of times there I thought to myself that she really had no clue what to do next ~The crowd chants were cute, but man audiences need to learn to pick their spots. It's cool in the opening parts of a match where the pace is slow and the wrestlers aren't doing a whole lot, but once the action kicks in it needs to be saved for moments when the babyface needs a pick-me-up. They broke out into the Bayley song about 3/4 of the way through when Nia was actually doing stuff and going for pins and it made it seem like the audience wasn't into the actual action that was going on. ~I haven't really seen much of Balor outside of his NXT run and I gotta say, this is probably the best he's looked in that time. I usually struggle with him because everything he does looks good, but it doesn't really grab me. Here I was buying into his offense more. ~Lots of credit for the above to Joe, who sold really well I thought. I love his big guy selling, where he won't just go down on a solid shot, but he'll sell the shock of it and get wobbly. He makes smaller guys earn their knockdowns, which totally makes sense given how thick he is. Really fun show overall where once again I can't take issue with any of the booking. We had one ref bump that didn't even play into the finish, and no other bullshit. That's the way a supercard should go. Decisive finishes that position guys for the next round of build. Save the shenanigans for weekly TV (and even then use it sparingly so it carries weight). Week in, week out, NXT delivers a show that deserves my full attention and is never just "background" for me.

Well that's easy to do when you don't book any filler matches for the card to begin with.

Well a budget is a budget. Sometimes cheap is necessary, especially in a business like wrestling that is more often than not a money loser. I won't ever hold it against them for being prudent from a business sense. I still maintain that the bottom of the card is the bottom of the card for a reason. Bob Evans is taking a spot, but its a spot no young wrestler should want, because its not a spot that has any growth potential attached to it. He's filling a necessary but thankless role. Not everybody on the roster has to be a potential main eventer. I guess the argument could be made that the guys you're talking about should be there in place of the likes of a Ferrera or a Diesel, but I dunno, is anybody else in one of those spots gonna be any different? Ferrera is fine as the plucky underdog who usually gets beat. I don't think they see him as a future star, which is exactly why he's where he is. Diesel isn't much to me, but again, he's playing the weak link of a stable. I'm not sure I'd wanna see somebody I like in that role, because that kind of stink can be hard to wash off. I don't see the point in bringing in guys with upside if they're just gonna float at the bottom of the card until the company clears some of the deadwood in the midcard. Sure, maybe somebody will catch fire, but the odds are pretty slim if all they're ever doing is dark matches and TV jobs to the likes of Moose. Better to save those spots for guys who won't really be hurt by their placement there.

The part about the Reigns push that kinda cracks me up is that the on-screen story is "the people in power doing whatever they can to prevent rising star from becoming the face of the company", whereas the off-screan story is "the people in power doing whatever they can to annoint rising star as face of the company". It's so meta it's eaiting itself.

I guess it's just lacking that one "must see" element for me. There's no debut being hyped (Hideo, Owens, Crews), no long-term story being blown off (Sami's quest for the title and subsequent face-off with Owens; Bayley's title quest; the ladies being the main event), nothing that grabs me in the "I MUST WATCH LIVE!" way. Which I suppose is good because I won't be home when it initially airs. I think part of it might stem from me never really being able to accept Joe as a heel. He plays the part just as he should, but it always feels like he's doing just that: playing the part. He comes across as way too reasoned and respectful a guy off-camera. Owens can be a real dick on social media, and a guy like Corbin just oozes douchebag at times on Breaking Ground, so I find them easier to hate. Joe is just one of those guys who takes me out of the moment when I watch him go heel because it doesn't feel organic. Which I admit is my problem, not his, but it dampens my enthusiasm for the show even though I fully expect a really good in-ring product from him and Balor. Sometimes being a fan of this stuff is just hard, man, you know what I'm saying?

Every promotion needs an undercard of guys that can eat losses without consequence. That's what most of those guys are. If you got rid of Cheeseburger and gave his spot to some up-n-coming indie darling, what good would that serve? He's a pre-show/break-up-the-main-card-with-comedy guy. The problem with their roster right now is they have too MANY mid-card guys that aren't really trending anywhere. Adding more to that mix won't solve anything. They can't even find a role for the Briscoes right now, and cutting Will Ferrara isn't going to solve that problem.

I'm surprisingly underwhelmed heading into tonight's Take Over. I really enjoy the weekly product and I think all the matches have been built really well, but for some reason this one is lacking sizzle for me. I still expect it to be a good show, but usually by this point on the day-of I'm in full on mark-anticipation-mode. Not so much today, Anybody else feeling the same way?

Updated with November's matches.

Come on. Whatever you think of how he's running the company, Vince is an all-time great character who hasn't been on TV for like a year. The crowd is just supposed to sit there?

My bad. He was merely making him sweat out a commercial break. That Vince. What a ballbuster.

Oh, and Vince stepping out of the limo got the biggest pop the company has seen in months. So fuck you, Philly.

So Vince just interrupted a match to announce that he wasn't gonna do anything for awhile so we should watch a match? Classic WWE logic on display.

They learned nothing from their precious Attitude Era that they're always blowing themselves over. Austin went to the next level thanks to the McMahon fued, which was Austin CONSTANTLY getting the better of Vince at every turn. Mr. McMahon was made to look like a fool over and over again and the people love Austin for doing it. Stephanie meanwhile neuters every face the fans even hint at getting behind, without ever showing ass or getting her comeuppance. If they're not going to do the authority figure angle correctly, they shouldn't do it at all.

Does that mean the Raw from Dallas with that super hot 10-man tag is up? Cuz I haven't seen that since it first aired. That's some nostalgia I'd be willing to indulge right quick.

Fair point, but given all the injuries and the general dearth of stars on the main roster you gotta believe they'll be looking to poach from NXT soon, and they don't have much depth in the singles ranks. Now that they've established some tag teams they need to focus on singles guys. The idea is to have depth at NXT for when the need arises up at WWE level, and right now, the need has arisen.

That's the thing about the tag division right now; it's hard to single out any one team because they have six really solid teams that each have a distinct look and feel. I like all of them for different reasons. You could have the belts on four out of the six teams and it wouldn't feel wrong. The Vaudevillains need to finish turning back to heel where they belong and the Hype Bros aren't title worthy, but they're solid teams to flesh out the division. My concern right now is the singles division, where it's basically Balor, Joe, Corbin and Crews. James Storm is still in the "he's here to be here" phase. Who's next? Tye Dillinger? He's a one-man mid-card at this point. Everybody else is either a straight-up jobber or a floater like Ciampa who we're not sure is meant to last beyond whatever taping cycle he happened to be at. Hopefully they can do something with Sampson''s new gimmick when he re-debuts, though he doesn't inspire much in me yet. I'm hoping there's somebody out on their live circuit that is ready for a decent TV push, just to liven it up.

+1 for the guy with the giant Cornette head

An entire hour long show dedicated to shilling their product and they interrupt the one fresh match with ads. Not paid ads, mind you, but ads for their own network, which you are presumably already watching. Heaven forbid they take away 3 precious minutes from what the misfits on the pre-show have to say. Sometimes I think this company actively hates wrestling.

Which was helped a great deal by Dana's gasp and "oh shit" face immediately afterwards.