Kadaveri

It's not that it's a sustained heel title run that's backwards, it's that Alexa wins all the blowoff matches clean when she's a 4ft 11 heel. Also her promos running down the babyfaces are always proven right. 1. Bayley wasn't 'extreme enough' to win their kendo stick match, and in that match Bayley is too squeamish to use the stick and loses clean to a DDT. 2. She lost the title to Sasha at Summerslam but spends all the next Raw saying Sasha's never retained the title, she's a choker etc... Beats her clean. 3. She says Mickie James is old to be wrestling for the title. Just beat her clean with a mere punch. If you wanted booking that killed your babyfaces can't think of a better way.

I've just rewatched the tombstone on the stage and Finn's head doesn't connect at all. Kane's safe. Alucard - I think you're underestimating the significance of Alexa winning in the end. It's backwards booking for a heel to yes suffer setbacks but always gets the last laugh. There aren't many movies where the hero wins some battles in the beginning/middle but then loses to the villain at the end.

I didn't know Dave only started covering them that recently. Thanks for the correction.

Is PWG really all that popular? It's never done a show with 400+ attendance, and looking at Google Trends gets about the same search numbers as Chikara. I feel like it gets more coverage among hardcores due to being Dave Meltzer's local indie where he reviews every show more than it having any real grassroots popularity.

I think the reaction is more that loads of wrestlers already don't like him. Like El Ligero just said this on Twitter "Have you met him? I also have, and he spent 2 days acting self-important and arrogant. To the point where the roster asked the promoter not to bring him back."

I'm not personally offended, just interested in what'll happen. It's known that the WWE locker room has a certain culture around respect and seniority, so making fun of someone getting fired when you've just arrived is pretty stupid.

'I'm sorry my bad joke got completely blown out of proportion and may have been seen as inappropriate' isn't a great apology. Also popped for putting 'ENTERTAINMENT' in all caps for some reason.

Lio Rush is busy getting heat on himself on Twitter saying Emma was 'not ready for Asuka'. Edit: Uh oh.

I don't think hard evidence has been presented either way, it's all second-hand reports.

Thinking someone isn't a good wrestler is a valid reason to think they shouldn't refuse to do a job.

Weekly YouTube roundup: Raw Top 5 1. Monday Night Raw falls under siege by Smackdown - 2.5m views 2. Brock Lesnar sets his sights on the "pretender" - 1.7m 3. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose & AJ Styles vs. The Miz, Sheamus & Cesaro - 939k 4. Finn Balor vs. Kane - 847k 5. Kane reflects on his Big Red attack on Braun Strowman - 783k Bottom 3 3. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Alicia Fox - 274k 2. Drew Gulak speaks for WWE Cruiserweight Champion - 180k 1. Jason Jordan vs. Elias - 159k Smackdown Top 5 1. Orton and Zayn battle for spot on Smackdown's team - 1.12m 2. Shane McMahon addresses Smackdown's raid on Raw - 1.11m 3. AJ Styles vs. Sunil Singh - 587k 4. Jinder Mahal responds to Brock Lesnar - 530k 5. Fatal 5-Way Match - Winner Becomes Women's Survivor Series Captain - 455k Bottom 3 3. Can Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan relax - 186k 2. The Bludgeon Brothers are ready to dish out punishment - 183k 1. Bobby Roode issues a challenge to Dolph Ziggler - 136k

Watched the YouTube video of the full feud today. For some reason I thought the bullrope match was the most acclaimed one and I had that at ****1/2 so wasn't expecting this to be so great. My God what a match, in some aspects I think it's the best I've ever seen (I've watched it twice now). My favourite thing about it is Hansen's perfect character work, he's usually this big bully but now he realises he's facing off with someone who can more than stick up for himself and he doesn't like it at all! His heel selling is incredible, the shaking in pain and fear and desperation to just get the hell out of here. He's like a terrified schoolboy, but after all nasty things he's done in Puerto Rico lately it's wholly deserved. I loved the finish. I know it's hardly a conventional finish but I thought it was creative and fit Colon's character well that he'd rush out to save his mates and didn't seem to even be deliberately winning the match. I think all five star matches need to have a distinct, memorable finish so this just added to it for me. *****

Weekly YouTube round-up. Raw Top 5 1. The Shield match their entrance together for the first time in 3 years - 3.6m views 2. Kane Returns; Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman - Steel Cage Match - 3.4m 3. The Shield arrive on Raw looking for a fight - 2.3m 4. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro & Sheamus - 1.1m 5. Kurt Angle raises the stakes for Raw's Steel Cage Match - 956k Raw Bottom 3 3. Cedric Alexander vs. Gentleman Jack Gallagher - 121k 2. Asuka makes her Raw debut this Sunday at WWE TLC - 96k 1. Mickie James will have the last laugh at WWE TLC - 75k Smackdown 1. AJ Styles interrupts Jinder Mahal's challange to Brock Lesnar - 1.4m 2. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens confront Daniel Bryan - 778k 3. Nakamura & Orton battle Owens & Zayn - 680k 4. Roode and Ziggler clash in WWE Hell in a Cell rematch - 391k 5. Sin Cara vs. Baron Corbin - 336k ... 3. Are the New Day celebrating Rusev Day? - 224k 2. Get an inside look at Jinder Mahal's trip to India - 130k 1. What is Jinder Mahal's Survivor Series announcement? - 90k

He also had this thing with The Milkman last August which never went anywhere.

I see the Hokuto/Aja and Hokuto/Kandori angles have been well covered already but there's also a hot feud between Kandori and Nakano going into this match as well. See my review of the 11.09.93 LLPW tag here. That spot people have mentioned where Kandori dodges Bull Nakano breaking up her armbar with a flying leg drop? It was learned psychology from their previous tag match where Nakano successfully hit it. Another reason why this match is possibly the greatest piece of story-telling in wrestling history.

This is part of the inter-promotional war that had been going on all year now. But really this match is all about setting up the rivalry between Nakano and Kandori; it feels like the other two are only in the match to keep them apart. And what a great match it is. Inoue and Kandori square off to start but Kandori just shouts at Nakano wanting a piece of her, and when Nakano doesn't come out Kandori goes to her corner and has Hozumi start the match instead. Inoue is pissed off that Kandori isn't treating her like a serious opponent and just totally demolishes Hozumi, tombstones her and throws her into Kandori's corner and shouts at her to come out and face her. Kandori gets in the ring, walks towards Inoue, slaps her away disinterestedly and starts trashing talking Bull Nakano again. That got a laugh out of me. Nakano still won't come out though so Kandori just tears apart Inoue instead, constantly giving glances at Nakano in the corner. She throws Inoue into the LLPW corner, kicks her in the head, turns around to Bull Nakano and gives her the finger and smirk haha, then tags in Hozumi. Bull Nakano has done nothing but stand on the outside the whole match so far, and I can't wait to see what's gonna happen when her and Kandori face off. Inoue and Hozumi do some standard Joshi wrestling for a bit and then Inoue tags in Nakano to a cheer. Hozumi throws a load of strikes at Nakano's chest which she wonderfully no sells like a beast and then hard lariats her into the ropes. And again off the ropes. Inoue + Hozumi were relatively competitive but the stage is set now that Nakano and Kandori are both way above them two. Nakano drags Hozumi upside down in the AJW, turns around and gives the finger to Kandori at the other side, then gives Hozumi a sick powerbomb and pins her but at the 2 count actually abandons the pin attempt to go lariat Kandori off the apron to the outside. The first contact between these two in the match and it gets a big crowd roar! Nakano goes back and tags in Inoue and she wrestles Hozumi for a bit more until Kandori gets tagged in. Kandori easily outwrestles Inoue and hits her with a sleeper into a powerbomb, pins her but abandons the pin at 2 to go attack Nakano on the apron in revenge for the previous attack. How great is it that Nakano and Kandori both feasibly had the match won but decided against getting the 3 because they're not leaving this arena without having got to hit the other in the face. These two want to beat the hell out of each other more than they want to win the match! And now Nakano is really pissed and challenges Kandori to come fight her on the outside. Kandori gladly obliges and an awesome hate-filled brawl just starts to break out but then they get separated by the ref as Nakano isn't legal and Hozumi gets involved too. Kandori gets back in the ring. What a let down! Things cool down with Inoue and Hozumi in the ring for a few minutes. Nakano gets tagged in and predictably dominates Hozumi and is about to powerbomb her when Kandori runs in and trips Nakano over. Hozumi runs to her corner and tags in Kandori. The crowd roars, finally 10 minutes into the match it's Bull Nakano vs. Shinobu Kandori! They stiff the hell out of each other grabbing each other by the hair and fight in the ropes like this is a shoot (seriously, this isn't a shoot is it?) only for Hozumi to tag herself back in and the ref to pull Kandori out. Hozumi is grappling Nakano from behind but Nakano is giving Kandori death glares and seems to barely notice. Kandori gets tagged back in and Nakano's too busy preparing to kill her she doesn't notice Hozumi is behind her, who grabs her foot and trips her up whereupon Kandori leaps on her and puts her in an armbar. The crowd gets loud but I'm not sure they bought this is as the finish like I nearly did, and Nakano is strong enough to drag herself to the ropes though she's selling an injury. She tags in Inoue. Go forward a minute and Kandori has got Inoue in an armbar on the floor in the middle of the ring, it looks like it's over but then out of a nowhere a flying Bull Nakano hits her with a legdrop to break the submission! Inoue pins Kandori but Hozumi makes the save at 2. Nakano tries to get rid of Hozumi and grapples with her on the outside but doesn't notice Kandori put Inoue in the armbar again! She charges to break the submission but Inoue taps a second before she makes it! Kandori wins. Great excitement and very solid story telling in this match, almost everything here serves a purpose. Having watched this match the classic 27/03/94 tag is even greater. ****1/2

This is a great albeit strange match. I have no idea what the alignments of this match are meant to be, they both seem to acting cocky heelish to each other and both are getting cheers. It's ok though. The match starts with Ozaki circling Hokuto who is just standing there hands of hips barely acknowledging her. Ozaki slaps her face a couple of times and shouts at her, Hokuto ignores her, gently pushes her face away, turns her back on her and walks off, only for Ozaki to grab her from behind for a German suplex. The charisma of both performers makes this really compelling to me even though I still don't know what's going on. This isn't the usual joshi style of the time as the pace is a lot slower (not that there are fast bits in it). Ozaki gets Hokuto in some kind of knee bar and they spend the next two minutes having a great Flair Figure 4-style battle just slapping each other until Ozaki is forced to relinquish the hold as Hokuto wins the strike battle and switches to a headlock. The match feels like a battle of wills more than a contest of wrestling skill. Ozaki is resorting to biting now and gets Hokuto back in that knee bar, who gets to the ropes. Ozaki drags her away, stands on her foot and stomps her knee repeatedly with her other foot and puts her back in another knee-hold. I don't know what these submissions are called or if this is Ozaki just improvising like Zack Sabre Jr does. Every now and then she'll drag Hokuto up for a suplex (Hokuto is consistently selling that knee, not putting weight on it) and pin attempt before going right to it. But everything changes now. Ozaki goes to the top rope for a splash or something but Hokuto dodges and makes Ozaki look kind of stupid just bouncing to the floor. I wish I understood what Hokuto then says to her as it gets a big reaction from the crowd before she starts her comeback. Hokuto gets cheered in her comeback, puts Ozaki in a Texas cloverleaf, and now the crowd is chanting for Ozaki. Make your minds up dammit. Hokuto bites Ozaki in revenge for the previous incident and gets a 4 count, again wish I understood what Ozaki shouts at her for doing that as it gets a crowd laugh. The match really escalates at this point and they start dishing out some big moves, albeit Hokuto is mostly failing in her attempts. Ozaki does a fantastic somersault dive to the outside to take out Hokuto, runs straight back in the ring and does a series of squats to the crowd's amusement while Hokuto slowly gets back in the ring. Ozaki is on top for most of this segment hitting powerbombs and superplexes and Hokuto is barely surviving and still has that hurt knee. Hokuto gets in a comeback though, counters Ozaki and throws her out the ring and goes top for a somersault dive onto Ozaki on the outside. Hokuto then hobbles back into the ring, lays down and starts doing press ups. Crowd cheers and applauds. Ozaki is pretty pissed and comes back to attack that knee again. Being proper brutal about it now locking in a submission and the crowd is buying a submission finish here, but Hokuto gets to the ropes only for Ozaki to hoist her up and powerbomb her instead. 2 count. Couldn't give a blow-by-blow account as this point as it turns into the super-fast Joshi pace all of a sudden with Hokuto getting the worst of it, but it's all well done and exciting. Ozaki goes for a top rope move to finish Hokuto off but get dodged and crashes to the mat (seriously Ozaki that's the 2nd Hokuto's made you look like a goof doing that). Hokuto goes straight at her with a slam and then hits the Dangerous Queen Bomb. 1 2 3. Great match that did a good job of standing out stylistically. ****1/4

The storyline explanation came two weeks after the fact, not years. On the December 13th 1999 Raw Stephanie does her promo explaining her actions and reveals the whole "Triple H abduction" wasn't real, it was all part of a long plan for revenge on Vince for orchestrating her kidnapping in April by the Undertaker in a 'false flag' to get at Austin. By 1999 WWF standards it was pretty logical bit of continuity.

Dave's lobbying pretty hard on the board for Big Daddy to not be inducted. Says only North Americans who never saw him in context in Britain think he should be in. I find that very difficult to believe. Big Daddy is the only wrestler I think most people here over the age of 35 have heard of other than Hulk Hogan.

If you're one of those fans who hates 'overbooking' and wants clean finishes you probably won't like this. This match is a lot of fun. I don't know the backstory other than what the commentary is telling me but the stipulation is if any of Klinger's heel stable Rise interfere in this match he will lose the title by disqualification. Obviously one of them comes to ringside about 10 minutes in anyway only for Ilja to lariat him off the apron. The 4 others from Rise come marching down to the ring and Klinger looks like he might be in trouble and step inside, the referee starts warning them to get out. Then 4 anti-Rise wrestlers march down the aisle and there's a 4 vs. 4 standoff in the ring which spills out into a brawl all over the arena with bodies and chairs flying everywhere. Meanwhile Klinger has taken advantage of a distracted Dragunov to beat him down, Dragunov's chest is turning bright red through all these chops but he keeps fighting through it against the odds until eventually one blow is too much and he collapses from it but takes down Klinger in the process with a last act of defiance flying headbutt. The extra Rise man distracts the referee while Klinger gets his title and is about to knock out Dragunov with it only for Da Mack to come down to ringside, snatch the title off him and knock him out with it. The referee doesn't see it but sees Klinger on the ground with the title next to him and looks like he's about to call for a disqualification but Dragunov denies it. Unfortunately for Ilja when question by the ref Da Mack admits it was him and the ref disqualifies Ilja with a look of regret. Rise then storm the ring and beat down Dragunov and hoist him up for Da Mack to hit him with the title belt. Yep, Da Mack was in on it all long. Avalanche and some other guy (sorry!) storm down from outside and help fight off Rise in what is now a 7 vs. 6 skirmish. Commentary is outraged that Da Mack would help Rise. The crowd is really behind Dragunov throughout this whole thing and he's got sympathy for how he's been screwed out of his title shot. He was clearly the superior wrestler in the 1 vs. 1 segment of the match so the sense of injustice is strong throughout. I'm giving this ***1/2 for how much I enjoyed this piece of chaos.

By far the best match of the opening night of WxW's tag team league. Have to say this match is much better when Walter is in the ring, Thatcher gets a bit boring when he's in there too long but Walter's hot tags are amazing. The 1st one when he charges in and throws both Briscoes across the ring twice each before doing his pose makes me believe this man could single-handedly take out an army if he wanted. The Briscoes are a lot more low-key but keep everything churning along nicely, Mark gets a good bit of shine when he takes out Walter with a moonsault to the outside in a spot which feels a lot more chaotic by the crowd being so close. ****

Disagree. If you remember The Shield were really over as an act as soon as they arrived in WWE and didn't even have a match until a month later. Their promos (mainly Ambrose) and gimmick as the 'hounds of justice' vigilantes was very well received. Nothing wrong with this. The Shield excelled because it's three guys who have next level chemistry teaming with each other that makes the act greater than the sum of its parts.

Weekly YouTube round-up. Hell in a Cell Top 5 1. Shane McMahon sends Kevin Owens crashing onto the announce table - 800k views 2. Jinder Mahal tosses Shinsuke Nakamura over the barrier - 526k 3. Shelton Benjamin makes his first pay-per-view appearance since 2010 - 514k 4. AJ Styles on the shocking end to Shane McMahon's brutal match - 472k 5. The New Day punish The Usos with a host of weapons - 471k Hell in a Cell Bottom 3 3. The Ascension just want to be friends with Breezango - 98k 2. Jinder Mahal has a message for his critics - 60k 1. Is Natalya proud of how she retained her title against Charlotte Flair? - 46k Raw 1. The Shield Reunite - 6.9m 2. The Shield will take on the world - 1.3m 3. Braun Strowman wants The Shield - 1.178m 4. Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto - 1.171m 5. The Shield will compete at WWE TLC - 865k ... 3. Apollo Crews vs. Elias - 146k 2. Finn Balor responds to Sister Abigail's threatening words - 121k 1. Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali vs. Jack Gallagher & The Brian Kendrick - 99k Smackdown 1. Sami Zayn explains why he helped Kevin Owens - 1.7m 2. Beware the Bludgeon Brothers - 738k 3. Usos offer the New Day a truce - 712k 4. Baron Corbin vs. AJ Styles - 641k 5. Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev & Aiden English - 508k ... 3. Bobby Roode calls out Dolph Ziggler - 339k 2. The Smackdown Live Womens division comes to blows - 283k 1. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella - 254k

Thanks Loss, really appreciate all the time you put into this site.

The first four HIAC matches were not for any belt and didn't main event their respective cards, so this isn't true. You can still keep the stipulation for only the most intense feuds and have cell matches for secondary belts if that's how the cards fall.