SmartMark15

I appear to be one of the few that just really enjoyed this match. Elias' promo to start was just wonderful then you had a decent if slow opening segment til Cena comes in looking more and more like a grizzled Ace every day. We all know the fun starts with BRAUN though. I happen to be a big fan of Braun murderkilling all the humans which means this match was just fun for me. How many times have we seen the let's-all-gang-up-on-the-monster story? To see Braun just power through all that Bullshit especially after the Shield Bomb was amazing. Reigns won but who expected anything else and then Braun murders him too. I mean, has anyone in the last few years been as well booked and protected as Braun Strowman? If it works, it works. ****1/4

I seem to be one of the few that preferred the BRAUN STROWMAN MURDER HOUR more than the women's chamber match. I thought it was a lot of fun especially with Braun murdering folks and kicking out of everything.

Really fun match. Simple and efficiently booked. Everyone looked great and the final three really looked wonderful. Sasha finally going full-on Boss on us, Alexa being that sneaky little chickenshit (my god, her facial expressions), and Bayley being the plucky underdog Iron Woman for sticking through the match. All very good stuff. ***3/4

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This was pretty fun. Perhaps I'm missing something from not being familiar with the Golden Lovers' past work but this was little more than a particularly well executed ROH style tag. I do like how hot the crowd was and there were some nice little character moments (that kiss spot worked much better than I expected). Fiery babyface Omega works very well and the tandem spots with Ibushi are pretty much the highlight of the match. Loved the stereo Golden Triangle Moonsaults and the Golden Trigger is a nice new finisher to establish for the pair. Marty's more annoying habits came out here though. Constantly calling spots, always showboating for the crowd. Talk about a complete waste of a gimmick and persona. Overall, this was fun but not spectacular for me. ***3/4

These two are magic together. Fast, quick, exciting action all deeply rooted in a simple babyface vs heel dynamic. The result is as painful as the match is wonderful. What a wonderful merging of two of the best booked feuds in the world today. ****1/2

The same formula works for Backlash 2000 for both Austin's interference and The Rock's eventual victory.

As an example of how not to do this, the Triple vs Seth Rollins one from last year's Mania really took me out of it. Maybe it's just me but HHH's overblown transformation into the King of Kings was pretty laughable.

I love The Miz "Hate Me Now" promo. What I find interesting though is that that video, along with Cena's hype video from that same night, highlighted how bad the build to the match was as they couldn't even cobble together a single cohesive video to highlight the storyline.

CM Punk for all of MITB 2011. The whole build and that night transformed him into a superstar.

It was just two hours of good booking all around. Everyone looked going into the PPV.

So the WWE decided that this week, they're gonna put together close to two hours of just real good solid wrestling and what a shock, it was awesome! Seth and Roman start the match, getting some good exchanges going with Roman really bringing the tightness and stiffness to the match. Roman's timing and character work really is something else. Something as simple as standing up to a charging Rollins says so much and really creates a very heated moment that ups the intensity of the match. Exciting and hot finishing stretch that protects both guys but does a lot to help out Seth Rollins. Seth takes on John Cena next. Seth jumps Cena to start forcing Cena to work the opening minutes in his neon green shirt. Cena comes with methodical heel-esque Cena. I like this iteration of Cena personally. The guy's been on top for over a decade and he shows it. He saves energy by really picking his spots against Rollins and even taunting Rollins, giving Rollins a good heel character to play off of. They show a lot of chemistry in the finishing stretch as they exchange big moves and let Rollins get a clean win on Cena. The crowd is all the way behind Rollins at this point. Elias rushes in to charge Rollins and goes after the bad leg allowing him to pick up the pretty quick win over Rollins. At around this point, the match starts to dip as we get some in picture simultaneous promos to the competitors who've just finished. I didn't mind it so much as it was a nice way to fill the time as the highlights of the match were pretty much done. Balor comes in and him and Elias have some decent exhanges. Elias is just a very good wrestler with his basics. Snug strikes and good energy. Here's hoping he goes a long way. Balor able to get to the win until Miz comes out and picks the bones and uses The Miztourage to get the win. Miz with some amazing facial reactions when he realizes Strowman is last and then we get the Braun Strowman Murder Hour. Always a good time. That standing dropkick is ridiculous. This was just very good television all the way through with two incredibly great matches to open and an all-time performance by Seth Rollins. ****1/2

I don't think I'm way off base by saying that was a career best performance by Rollins. A crazy good performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caubb-Ia3dc One of my absolute favorites. Love the music here, gives the whole story a sense of gravitas.

This was great! Simple story of Dunne putting money in the bank with arm and finger work that allows him to get out of tricky situations down the road when Roddy is throwing big backbreakers. Loved how consistently Roddy was able to sell the damage to the hand and it really paid off for the finish. Exciting, high octane action with a simple story that helped the layout of the match wonderfully. Great stuff. ****1/4

Really enjoyed the finishing stretch. The crowd was pretty dead for it to start and so was I but everything from the slaps to the face onwards really turned up the violence and intensity which made this a surprisingly entertaining watch by the end. Gulak really did shine with his character work and that was really one of the highlights of the match. ***3/4

Really enjoyed this but that's gonna happen when you have two of the best going at it for a nice long match like this. You have Roman with some great arm selling during Joe's control segment, then some great tense false finishes towards the end that played into the stipulation of the story. This did drag a bit too much for me in the middle but that finish was really hot. Roman continues to be one of the absolute best in the world. ***3/4

Sasha vs Becky being the highest rated WWE women's match surprises me especially since the Brooklyn Sasha vs Bayley match is typically given the most attention from that year.

https://youtu.be/dtj7kXmoUg4 Episode 2 covers our favorite WWE matches of 2017! No overlap at all on either of our lists so it's a pretty diverse group of picks!

BIG LADS WRESTLING. Oh boy was this wonderful. Just the level of violence these two got to with some ridiculously brutal strikes. WALTER'S chops, Thatcher's uppercuts, it all hit so well and both guys know how to sell it too. I'm a big mark for a missed chop into the ringpost spot so I loved everything happening around WALTER'S hand. And of course, how can I not mention WALTER just chopping his partner in the face. Lovely, lovely stuff. ****3/4

This was awesome with Sasha really starting to lean into her Boss persona once more. She's starting to really show that classic ruthlessness and cockiness that made her an all time great women's worker and it was on display here. Some simple things like Asuka trashtalking in the corner or Sasha hitting the ropes just to hit a slap. Little stuff like that really ups the aggression on what would have normally just been a TV match. Then there's the kick. Kadavari is right in that Sasha does seem to land on her hands first which is a relief because it was a visually horrifying spot and that really got the crowd right back into this. That led to an incredibly hot finishing stretch with both ladies showing off some of the best of their stuff and ending with a great Banks Statement countered into an Asuka lock. What a time to be a women's wrestling fan in the WWE. ****

What a beautiful, brilliant match. Though I haven't seen their previous matches on NXT TV, I'd heard here of their legendary chemistry and my god was it on display in this match. They moved so smoothly and yet with such deep intensity that allowed the match to just build and build and build. There are those unique matches that are able to capture the beauty of a false finish. There were so many moments when this match could have conceivably ended but the more it grew, the more tense and high stakes everything got. Johnny Gargano has been and continues to be the greatest babyface wrestler in the world today. No one draws the amount of sympathy, emotion, and dedication that he does on a regular basis in almost every match he competes in. The beating he took against the LED board, the brutal double knees into the ringpost, all fantastic spots that Gargano sold perfectly (all 5 star moments as well, might I add). *****

The Battlecade X8 main event finally came out and it was a lot of fun, of course! All Stars continue to run rampant on CWF Mid-Atlantic. As great as the match was, I can't help but notice how all match long, the announcers are talking about how a knick or a cut won't end the match but you can barely see any of the blood that actually ends the match. Crazy heel moment to close out the show and I still look forward to Trevor Lee knocking them down.

First episode of a new podcast featuring myself and my fellow stand-up comedian, Rene Cruz Jr. In this first episode we talk about our picks for the WWE Wrestler of the Year in 2017. We provide a pick for WOTY and an honorable mention each so check it out!

With the current climate, I made some assumptions about the nature of the problems but of course I could be entirely wrong.