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Lol wow. This is going to burn out even faster than I thought. Who the fuck is going to pay $30 a month for this? Who was even paying $20 a month?

I liked this a lot. I'm still not 100% sold on Kenny, but when he's good, he's really good. Ishii coming in extra cunty and grumpy, the beating Kenny took, and the match not pretending to be some protracted epic with body part work that will be shrugged off so Okada can hit all of his spots anyway...I mean one of them can hit their spots anyway. A lot of hatred, a lot of bombs, and a pretty different match from the NJ Cup meeting, which was also far better than anything else on the card that night. I always like Ishii's stuff more when it's not just lazy "let's spend the whole match hitting each other really hard over and over" bullshit that he'd always do with Shibata and Honma. I think he's always at his best when he's the one delivering all the beatings while the other guy has to come up with something else to compete.

What I'm really, really sick of, it it was very prominent in HHH/Rollins and Okada/Suzuki, is leg work that guys OVER sell so much that when they start their comeback, it's essentially no selling. Since all of their signature moves are things that require jumping or using your knee for a neckbreaker/tombstone, Rollins and Okada both did the literally can't walk thing half way through the match, but then minutes later were hitting all of their signatures that require them jumping OVER someone's head, or climbing up to the top rope and jumping an extra 10 feet in the air. It's a reliance on having to get your shit in that really gripes me. If a fighter injures their leg, they're not going to keep throwing head kicks and attempting triangles. They're going to switch up their game plan. If a basketball player hurts his leg, he's not going to keep doing giant dunks or fancy footwork. Or, let's take it out of sports: If you're in the gym and you do something that hurts a body part to the point where you can't use it, you aren't going go back and do that lift again in a few minutes because of adrenaline. That's not how that works. You don't blow your knee out on the squat rack, slap it a few times, then go back to doing squats. Of course, all of this could be alleviated by A. Not over selling so early into a match or B. Not being afraid to not get your normal shit in and change it up for the sake of storytelling This also taps into my other big pet peeve right now of guys being too hurt to hit their finisher, yet hitting it anyway a few minutes later. The most recent example I have is Roode/Itami, where Roode couldn't hit the DDT because of the work on his shoulder (which wasn't his lifting arm to begin with so that shouldn't have stopped a DDT anyway), but then went on to hit 3. Itami couldn't get Roode up for the GTS due to leg work, does it without a hitch a few minutes later. In the case of both, they've had multiple finishers in just WWE that they could have used in those situations. Roode could have gone for a figure four. Itami could have gone for one of his 70 strike variations. But they're stuck to the rigidity of signatures/finishers instead of challenging themselves and the audience to do something different. It's something that's really been hampering my enjoyment of wrestling recently and I don't know why. Just a sudden "wow, I'm sick of this formula" since it happens literally everywhere in every promotion.

If lynching is the only word you think fits in that situation, you have a very odd perspective of life and wrestling

They threw him out of the fucking ring. They didn't kill him. Again, this dude was involved in an angle later in the year that had a simulated attempted murder via garroting. To call both sides ganging up on a the Muslim guy to eliminate him from a wrestling match a lynching is absurd. Especially as by that point, he was fully a heel who constantly interrupted people and annoyed the shit out of everyone for no reason. The word lynching carries a pretty heavy weight in America still. To use it in the context of a group of guys eliminating a wrestler from a battle royal is wtf as hell.

I feel like there are plenty of words to use other than lynching considering all that happened was he was thrown out of the ring and he was featured in a angle later in the year that featured terrorist style garotting of a fellow wrestler. The incident in the Rumble was running a dude out of town, not fucking lynching him.

https://youtu.be/ugCZDjwHK64 Omg, the Calgarian government officially has a policy of Don't Hinder Jinder.

True, but they could do this angle without the cheating and he could be a very positive face role model and it'd be pretty neat. Faces cheat all the time, too, so the cheating aspect is pretty inconsequential these days. Sami is of Syrian descent, LP. I don't believe it's ever been mentioned on screen outside of his tights and maybe one of his earliest promos in NXT. They've had him do pieces for Youtube when they do Middle East tours, though.

SD is now what people were pretending it was at the start of the split. The Maharajah of Muscles and his Punjabi Celebration What's weird is that Jinder could easily be a face and it'd be a great thing where he overcame racism and being treated as a joke and now has become a hero to his people and first champion of his kind in the company. Instead it's 2017 and just him coming out gets USA chants, which proves his gimmick right that Americans are shit bags who hate him because of how he looks/sounds and don't actually want diversity they claim to accept. I mean, there were people booing the dancers, for fucks sake.

He hasn't even had one show as champion yet, hard to say he's a useless jobber. It might end up being good TV and a good reign. Certainly not useless from an international standpoint, either.

Curious as to which moves you've never seen before, as all of their moves except Dunne's pretty ridiculous finish were either famous puro moves, early 2000s indie moves, or shit the Destroyer would have done.

Idk, AOP feel like they get their role and their size and how it relates to their role far more than you should ever expect guys in their early 20s to understand. Neither of those dudes are even 25. One of them started TRAINING in 2015. The other in 2016. I'm not going to hold it against them that they climbed a ladder too quickly or slowly a year or two into their careers.

It FELT like Dolph was calling the match himself, as he'd do something, then yell or roar, then stand around very, very slowly picking Nakamura up like he was thinking about what to do next, which would inevitably be something ultra basic like a chinlock/elbow drop/body slam, then back to the yelling and standing around confused part. It was fucking weird. But really, Dolph spent the past 5 months having trouble with and regularly losing to legit lower card guys in Crews and Kalisto, and I think 2 weeks ago on SD he got dominated by Sin Cara and barely eked out a win. So of course he then goes toe to toe and controls most of the match with Nak, because a heel has to control the match I guess. While they were repeatedly talking about how Dolph is a former 2 time champ and all his accolades, that doesn't match up with the past 5 months of TV where he's been a joke and regular punch line that no one takes seriously.

That's the best Chicago crowd in years. They self corrected and booed people trying to start CM Punk chants. IN CHICAGO.

Jinder isn't really good, or even good. He's serviceable enough, but he did bust ass last night and Orton weirdly was more motivated than he had been in about 3 years, so the match came off a lot better than expected. Like, I swear to christ that Orton/Jinder was a better match than the Orton/AJ match before WM. Orton couldn't get motivated to put in the effort against the best dude in the world, but was for Jinder. It's pretty weird, but Jinder can be fine with good opponents. The thing is to me that he really looks and sounds like he truly believes he should be champion, and that confidence will carry him. Also El P, if you skipped Usos/Breezango, you fucked up. That match was probably the most I've seen the crowd, wrestlers, and announcers enjoy themselves in a long, long time.

Awfully curious how instead of going the clear route of "Jinder really isn't that good of a wrestler" of being the reason why you're not happy with him being a champion, most people are jumping to steroids (which when the fuck have wrestling fans ever given a shit about dudes on steroids, Balor/Rollins/Cesaro are on gear and no one cares) or "India". And at this point, I'm seeing a lot more "India" than steroids.

#MaharajahOfMuscles #JuicyJinder #PunjabPrince #VishnuVerified #AndNew #blessed

Same ugly clash of styles the Roode/Nakamura matches had. There were some flashes of that old KENTA swag, but the fire is long gone in Itami. I'm so sick of the "guy hits finisher, doesn't make pin for a few seconds/opponent rolls to the floor, kick out" shit, as there is zero drama in it anymore. It felt extra cheap on this show because they wanted to get the GTS pop in Chicago, which didn't even work since 30% were chanting for Punk, 50% were booing those people, and the remaining 20% popped. I was very irked at Roode's selling when he couldn't lift for the DDT, since the injured arm wasn't even the arm you lift with for that move. I'm also tired of matches built around taking away someone's ability to hit their finisher, them being unable to hit it at some point during match, then powering up at the end and hitting it anyway. In this case, two in a row. The rigidity of HAVING to win with your finisher or a roll up has worn on me in a way I didn't realize until this match. Why they have 40 year old 80s mid carder transplanted to 2017 Bobby Roode doing 20 minute "epics" with Nakamura and Kenta (and winning) is beyond my scope of understanding. Even worse is they'll probably put him up against Tommy End next, so he can have another awkward match with a guy whose offense is mostly hitting really hard.

Except it wasn't reckless at all, as the replays showed it didn't actually hit Gargano. That it looked so BRUTAL yet actually wasn't is the opposite of reckless. That spot had zero margin for error from any and all of the three involved in it, and they pulled it off 100% perfectly.

Are you suggesting that Raw/SD is better than most of the PPVs in the past few months? NXT TV has been a complete waste of time for about 2 years, not 3-4 months. I'd also argue that most Takeovers have been 1 match shows for most of the past year.

20 minutes of Strong and Young was DEATH. Jesus Christ. I can't even figure out how EY has a job in WWE, let alone his own stable and 15-20 minute matches every Takeover. UK match stole the show as expected. You know you're putting in work when an American crowd is chanting for a foreign country. Women's match was better than expected, but Asuka's reign is getting dull since they have nothing for her to do since she's so clearly better than EVERYONE they have, to the point where they're just sticking her in multi person matches to give the illusion of losing the title by someone else getting pinned. There's zero drama with her in a singles match. Roode/Itami was the same brutal clash of styles that Roode/Nak was, but at least Itami got to show some flashes of his old self a few times. I was annoyed with Roode's selling of the arm during the DDT, because he lifts with the other arm. Itami looks like he needed another 2-3 months in the PC getting back into shape before returning to the ring. Also annoyed at having him hit the GTS just to get a finisher kick out. There's not even any drama in a finisher kick out with a delayed pin or guy rolling to the floor, so it was completely pointless other than to get a pop for hitting the move. The ladder match had some crazy spots, particularly the decapitation spot to Gargano, the double ladder dives where both members of DIY got completely fucked, and the ladder German suplex. I felt the swerve coming in the ring after the match, but then the credits popped up, so the turn actually swerved me and was awesome. Ciampa getting real heat, with it being a call back all the way back to the CWC. Their singles match at the next Takeover is going to have so much heat. Overall, I had ZERO hype coming into this, and so ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Who blames Seth's career-long terrible grasp on in ring psychology on booking?

Pete Dunne is pretty legit, but man, Trent Seven is so lol. Comes out like he can't even move his arm and his first offense is...big strikes with his bad arm. This dude with a suave beardy dude gimmick who is in reality a flabby, pasty Englishman with a ratty beard who uses the Rainmaker as his finish, emerald flowsion for a near fall, and was really doing spinning back chop > burning hammer set up is hilarious. The UK show is going to tank as hard as 205 Live if the quality of this show is indicative of the weekly series. Everyone they've used on the shows have been scrubs outside of Dunne and Bate. Just move them to NXT and call it a day.

I never noticed the WCW ring outside of Superbrawl 2000. But FUCK the ECW ring.

Steal these hands, plehboi. WWE lawyers actually contacted us about 2ish years ago. They don't think we're stealing content. They were worried about a link to a bootleg Network stream and asked for it to be taken down, but otherwise they are fully aware of what's on the site, and don't view it as stealing.