Ready_Willing_Gable

I adored the Dudleyz return as did just about everyone with a pulse, but to be fair, I went into that episode of Raw thinking 'its Brooklyn, Enzo & Cass are gonna debut to a huge pop" We got the huge pop but not Enzo & Cass, which is a mild shame but can't complain about this. That NXT tag scene is still bubbling under nicely waiting for the right point. I don't see New Day losing the titles again, but if they did I'm sure it would only be short until another team got the rub Bubba Ray has actually improved his character value drastically in his TNA run, so while tag teaming is obviously gonna be the priority right now, I'd like to see a couple of singles programmes out of him and maybe a heel run that can wipe that mediocre 2004 run out of people's minds (he was obviously a good heel in ECW but on WWE when he couldn't spit in people's faces and that it wasn't translating at that time). Him doing some kinda programme with an Ambrose or Owens would be droolworthy

That's what irks me about today's fans. Fair play that a good portion of the fans don't genuinely think he sucks, as that's just deluded. Just presumably the aim of perma-booing him is the anti-"big match John" mindset people who don't want him in the Hogan position. When he's getting by far the biggest reactions on shows, it's gone from being a protest, to him just looking like the big draw. McMahon's have got your money in their pockets and they ain't gonna change a damn thing about how they book and promote Cena. If you hate it that much, stay at home.

Sasha, BUT we aren't gonna see that on Raw. not just cos its a more fast-paced environment, because of their insistence it's the 'divas' division, Total Divas. It all points to the same thing, that women have to act a certain way on the show. They promised us a revolution, but apart from clocking up a few more minutes on average they haven't altered their mindset one jot. They still have them doing 'pinkie swears' and generally just acting catty and rubbish. They just show themselves up all the time now by putting over NXT, where they don't have to act like that, and women on the microphone is all that much better for it. Also the senseless constant putting over of Ronda Rhousey when they have no aggressive, supremely confident character that can hold a candle to her. As someone with little interest in UFC, I just watch her fights JUST to see her enter the ring, with that look like she'll destroy anything put infront of her. It's such a contrast to how WWE portray women, and it seems like that has not gotten across to them....WHY Rhousey is such a success. We certainly don't tune in to see a bit of boob or arsecheek, do we? Fights would be over too fast to catch any anyway Personally I expect Raw matches in general to be nothing special, that's kinda why they're on TV, and as like I mentioned earlier, how many classics do we expect Neville for example to have on the main roster? One every now and then, we're never gonna see him in a programme/match comparable to the Zayn one. I think the key in making something, ANYTHING out of this supposed women's revolution is changing the philosophy for the PPV matches. I believe even Nikki Bella, if they rehearse and work on a match worthy of being a title match like Sasha and Bayley have been able to do, we'll get somewhere. If it stays as it is, we won't. We also need simplicity/relatability in storylines and variety in talent, which they've decided to do the opposite of, soooo... I don't think its any of the talent's fault that they're not that over, when the crowd were so open and accepting for their debuts. Except Paige, another key element of this working is stop handing a mic to Paige

The 'swastika has other meanings' argument only gets you so far when one of your pics is a pony with a hitler tache. It's funny how dense she is to think she could excuse that. At least all these horrible wrestling people throughout history generally have the sense to keep it in the privacy of their own homes, not proudly announcing it to the world and expecting to be heralded as 'so much more awesome than most girls' or whatever the dumb fuck dreams of at night. The Harris fucks work for TNA so what do you expect there.

I'm sure Lesnar once said something along the lines of "I don't fucking like gays, I want to make that known, write that down" or something. Wrestling's a moral pit anyway I take your point

Vince was never a real wrestler though so it makes sense for him to get his arse handed to him in much swifter fashion. HHH is still loads younger, fitter and not technically retired. I can completely concur with you HHH has come off as a snivelling politicing piece of shit at times, but given how he has probably less than 5 matches left in him I don't see how it will negatively affect him as booker going forward. We know he's a student of the game, which is something Vince really doesn't come across as in today's era. And we've seen him showcase some fantastic booking, giving focus and true shine on all 3 of his divisions. The only person on NXT who isn't a jobber who hasn't really been booked well is probably Solomon Crowe. Everybody else he's kept looking fresh and important and that's what WWE needs at a time when Sheamus is the holder of MITB and has crickets for reactions. The only real issue for me is the balance of what works at Full Sail/a crowd almost entirely made up of smarks and what works on a more broadly spread platform.

Why? Vince might have final say over the product but I am willing to bet Triple H has a ton of input over tbe main shows and it's...not that good? Stephanie also isn't going to let her husband turn it into 1980s NWA if that is what you're thinking. She is just as big a part of the problem as Vince is. It is easy to do an one hour show weekly with little to no interference from networks. I wouldn't be quick to anoint him the savior of WWE just yet. He is proven at making his losers still look strong and important You mean the same guy who had his wife slap around one of their very few bonafide stars (Batista)? Or do you mean when he cut a promo designed to completely undercut John Cena before their match at Wrestlemania? Or the time he did a racist angle with Booker T...then went over after a delayed pin to prove he was right all? Or the fact he rarely if ever shows his ass for anyone as an authority figure when showing ass has been the one thing Vince has always understood to be a necessity? You're right. He's gonna be so awesome! I have taken loads of issues with certain HHH wins and antics through his wrestling career. I'm not mad on his tweener authority role at all (which is at the forefront of the show today even though he's only supposed to be the NXT owner) either. That has little to do with his qualities as a booker, that have shone through. Maybe he had a certain polticized input for the bullshit like the Booker T match, but I don't think he WROTE it.. that's not really relevant to this point in my eyes

I think we all do, but just thinking about myself shortly after I got into wrestling and started following it online. The star ratings were a big guideline for me, and I can't recall a 4 and a half that stuck in the throat as much as this one did. That's all I'm saying. Meltzer's ratings will continue to be a valued reference point for years to come.

Ew, she's fucking vermin. Even ignoring all the racist and homophobic slurs, what a complete misogynist! Always disgusting to see that kind of mindset from women. I love how she goes on about Suicide Girls being tattooed, insecure, attention-craved people. WAKE UP DARLING! lmao. Projecting much? Freedom of speech is all very well and good until you have some twat thinking they're 'EPICSAUCE~~' for 'JUST SPEEKING MY MIND BROE'. It's like, nah know when to zip it Waste of space, all I can say is I hope all her career and relationship prospects come crumbling to a swift halt. Karma

Why? Vince might have final say over the product but I am willing to bet Triple H has a ton of input over tbe main shows and it's...not that good? Stephanie also isn't going to let her husband turn it into 1980s NWA if that is what you're thinking. She is just as big a part of the problem as Vince is. It is easy to do an one hour show weekly with little to no interference from networks. I wouldn't be quick to anoint him the savior of WWE just yet. I'm not saying it would be the quick solve to everything. Just he knows how to put focus (and the right kind of focus seemingly) and great matches on in all 3 divisions. He is proven at making his losers still look strong and important, which has been a huge problem on Raw for ages now with so many dead lowcarders who were once midcard title or even WWE title holding prospects who have developed into nothing, primarily cos of the way they've been booked. It's time, for me, to begin the next era. We need more up-to-date philosophy. This is also an aside, but look how much better New Day have become since they've clearly been told "yeah, do what you like out there guys" and they've prospered like nobody could imagine. Vince wanted them to be faces, and it didn't work. The style and feel of the show just too often shows itself up as being out of touch. Yeah, just their entire philosophy just keeps getting shown up, and you can't really do that. NXT has built the cult fanbase to such an extent that if it carries on this way, fans aren't gonna wanna even see their fav guy turn up on Raw. Which is ludicrous. The whole developmental as a brand thing was a test run for HHH which you can only say he's passed with flying colours. I have no idea what input he has on Raw, but you don't have to be a long time wrestling fan to spot the key differences of how they present their roster to you compared to Raw

The very night before though, Bayley v Sasha WAS near-perfect though and gets given the same rating. There's only one increment between 4.5 and 5 so yes I think people equate that rating as being near perfect. The wrestling before hand in Cena/Rollins was servicably fluent and crisp but it didn't tell much of a story like Brock v Taker or Bayley v Sasha. Jon Stewart, even if you like the idea of him being the deciding factor in a god damn title v title match (who's next? Ellen Degeneres gonna decide Wrestlemania's main event?), he nearly fucked the spot up (he ran up to Cena at first, then to Rollins, then back to Cena when surely he should be putting over the tease of that he was really gonna hit Rollins, THEN he nearly took the chair out of the ring with him before the decisive spot.) It was a complete shitwreck and a definite blotch on his credibility in my eyes, giving it anything more than 3 and a half is massively pushing it. On the biases point, I have a bias, just for a pure example, for ROH's Kyle O'Reilly at the moment, but I didn't clock his promo from this episode of ROH TV where he called himself "the Michael Buble of puroresu" and think "that was great". Biases should be reasoned with/toned down or you're not a great critic.

4 stars. I can't really fathom how Cena/Rollins can be considered better unless you for some reason fucking love Jon Stewart and always wanted to see him do something in WWE, which consists of apprximately zero people. It was complete crap for gawker shares and that's why I'm surprised and disappointed such a prominent critic (THE wrestling critic, he practically writes the history books folks) would rate it so highly. Taker/Brock had a questionable ending too and there is the question of "should Brock lose to Taker in the first place?" but as a complete package, blew Cena-Rollins out of the fucking park. Even if the wrestling in Cena v Rollins was more crisp or whatever, one of my least favourite match endings ever and it stands out more than most things. Like if he rates the Bucks/IWGP Junior Tag matches 4 and a quarter or whatever, good for him! I would call it overrating, but I appreciate a good spot-fest when done right, and groan when people whinge over and over about them. But this? Near-perfect? Do me a favour..

I disagree with Meltzer a lot, and it's okay to. I think the mistake most people make, and I made for a long time, is to hold his opinion as gospel. In the end his opinion is just an opinion. One that I think is crazy a lot of the time, but it's genuine and it has merit. We all have opinions that go against the grain or seem way out there. Let Meltzer have his, disagree with him plenty, but dismissing him entirely because he doesn't see eye to eye with you on a few matches is overkill. OH, sure I always took the 'its one guys lone opinion' approach. but giving this a 4.5 just seems to take the meaning out of that spell, how god damn long was it, where Meltzer didn't give 5 stars to a single WWE match. Was the gap between Austin/Bret '97 all the way up to Punk/Cena 2011? This being so close to 5 saps a lot of meaning out of that for me.

Yeah, I mean I think the entrants after Dalton, Silas and Bushwacker were like Moose, Dijak, Watanabe. Not a huge amount for the crowd to react to other than doing the 'Moose' chant in his entrance

Even if that tit Jon Stewart conveniently evaporated into thin air before the match and they worked out some crazy All Japan-esque finish....not as fucking good as the match at Takeover, jeez. I thought I was generous giving it 3 and a half

Yeah I'd concur with this. Cool setting, some matches felt more like house matches but Strong/Okada broke the mould. Bushwacker Luke was a nice "haha, what?" moment, but I too want Dalton Castle to win everything he takes part in. I wonder if that'll be Alex Shelley's last match on this card too, with him suffering broken teeth and his family pressuring him to quit. Also worth mentioning the Bucks who turned the obnoxiousness up to 12 in their ~movez~ match. I feel like I'm totally alone in the world not adoring or despising the Bucks, but when they go all the way it is a laugh.

shouldn't matter but Meltzer gave Cena v Rollins at SS the same rating as Bayley v Sasha at Takeover *dismisses his opinion for life*

Roddy Strong is a great dude, but that promo was abysmal. He needs to drop the Mr. Plain Wrestling Dude 'character', start being an obnoxious gym-rat bro, constabntly bragging about how much better his cardio is than others. His promos are a running joke til then

Raw matches bomb all the time due to WWE's general philosophy of wanting the next segment on as quick as possible, it's just more under the microscope now as they attempted to push their women which is another story. Well actually it isn't, because the 'divas revolution' (wonderfully contradictory phrase there too guys) seems to be centered around them having more regular Raw-style matches + excessive tags, just a higher quantity of them. Squeezing everything they can out of a little angle, rather than y'know organically setting up a match with a storyline that wouldn't confuse or annoy us, then giving that match its due time. Until then expect no change with any of the women. It's not even that other Raw matches bomb, how many classics has Neville had since he got promoted?. It's all time and focus, which they lack the drive to do when it comes to it. I feel like they many missed opportunities for better matches at Summerslam as well, lots of stuff that could've flourished/been more over had it been given more focus, it just got so shown up by Takeover in every way.

I think freshening up the Wyatts with Braun Stowman (which also was badly needed after a poor year for Bray) and this feud will in turn help Roman. Roman Reigns v Big Show was somehow the best match at Extreme Rules, now obviously they shouldn't job this huge guy out immediately, but a sympathy angle with Stowman could open up a cracking programme. It hasn't proved the magic fix so far but keep him glued to Ambrose, Ambrose is gold. I was glad to see them enter from the crowd together again in this latest episode of SmackDown. Keep them together, keep them big, now the tag division looks like it could pick up steam, maybe have them doing something there. If Roman's still not over after a while and PPV fans still get on his back, just bite the bullet and turn him heel for a while. Ambrose really should be rocketing to the WWE title within the year anyway. Roman Reigns as a heel winning his first title could be awesome heat too, though I'm not 100% certain he'd be able to pull it off, he seems too chill. We'll see, I dislike Reigns boos (also dislike Cena boos, in fairness) but do think he does need some overall work/paying dues/improvement until I can deal with the guy in a Cena-esque fit, which I don't think they necessarily need a replacement for.

I'm not sure if I'd agree with you on EC3's in-ring. He's not Aries or anything of course, but TNA's heavyweight scene has never really been notorious for having the best matches on a TNA card, and at least he's fitting that bill okay. I liked his match with Rockstar Spud from earlier in the year, mostly because of the story value (Spud is like their one real good babyface atm, but I don't know that they realise that) but it was a good in-ring product as well. Also from a couple weeks ago, nothing spectacular but a nice enough match with PJ Black in the GFW thing, probably enjoyed it more because I genuinely wasn't sure which direction they would take it in, when even their good TNA Title matches lately seem so telegraphed. The bar is generally set pretty low with the standard of the rest of the show right now so I'd say he firmly is above it. They can't be arsed to write X Division stories anymore and they only have 2 compelling tag teams now, the women have sunk too, firmly into eye candy territory with the Dollhouse obsession, so EC3 is the show. If NXT gave him another chance, I could free up 2 hours of time on Thursdays

He's not too bad I guess. It really didn't help that he was brought in to form a rival faction against The Beat Down Clan, which though pointless faction warfare TNA do too much of, could've been workable if The BDC didn't totally crumble with Homicide's injury, the Hernandez debacle and the loss of Low Ki, it obviously became a farce. Now he's been feuding with one of the generic guys from his faction who's obviously been asked to play heel at a moment's notice. Also been competing in King of the Mountain Championship matches (sigh) and looks to be spearheading the TNA v GFW wars which hasn't been as bad as it sounds on paper, but still coming off relatively tame. Lashley isn't so bad either in my estimation, just they don't book him strong enough for me to care, so I don't. Anderson's a fucking embarrassment though, I can't believe he's still doing that routine. Hardyz only go so far as faces for me nowadays as well. For me though, it's so deflating to see this guy EC3 who is absolute gold, he's unbeaten, he's the champion, he's a cracking heel, he's in exactly the position he should be, but it doesn't really mean shit because he so easily.outshines every babyface that tests him on the mic. With Kurt Angle out and seemingly focused on a Eric Young-feud, that ain''t changing any time soon. I don't WANT anyone to defeat their heel champ, that's pretty crazy. Can't recall a timeframe in a wrestling company anything like it.

I've heard reports of Liger at MSG are wrong, though it is still highly possible he'll work more dates for NXT

It is when the WWE tag team scene prominently features Los Matadores and The Ascension. Time for something new wouldn't ya think? Once this Dudleyz feud is over, New Day/Enzo & Cass will be gold. They're not just catchphrase guys like Carmella is, they are perfectly capable of making it entertaining each night. God damn I can't wait to see New Day & Enzo&Cass riff off of each other They do remind me and a lot of people of NOA. I didn't particularly like the NOA but in tag team wrestling, establishing a routine is pretty important and Enzo & Cass usually go above and beyond. Xavier incites the crowd by going "NEEEEWWW DAAAAY..." and waiting for the "sucks", the clapping - what I'm saying is it's not the only two elements about them. It's that routine to fall back on if but far from all they have.

On the last set of tapings before he went to Japan he was postioned as a face. they ruined Elgin with this for me. He had some good G1 matches and can obviously work the style, he should just stay there. Michael Elgin was a pretty intriguing moody heel for ROH earlier this year, he was ruthless, calculated but also impulsive. Like Steen without the talking skills but I was still intrigued. Then they just rushed him being a face and every time he's come out, it's still been crickets from the crowd, also he's still looked moody so I dunno exactly how comfortable he is in the role. Should spend the next couple years in Japan imo so he can be fresh for a comeback some other time For ROH heels, I hope when Aries comes in for some reason that he's at the forefront of The Kingdom and fights Adam Cole. Also if/when TNA croaks, The Hardyz would likely be some good heat if WWE didn't bring em back In general actually, TNA still has some good heels on their books, just mostly godawful babyfaces. EC3, Eric Young, Bram, James Storm, Bobby Roode are all very good character value guys. It's the Anderson's, Lashley's and Galloway's that are holding the product back.