Boss Rock

The buzzwords and taglines are the absolute worst for me. I hate them with a passion. I remember last year every time someone said Wrestlemania they had to add "The Ultimate Thrill Ride". It got to a point where Triple H, during a promo about how he was going to destroy Seth and end his career, still needed to say "At Wrestlemania, the Ultimate Thrill Ride..." That just kills me.

Tremendous.

I actually absolutely believe that heels should win cleanly (at least sometimes). It drives me absolutely crazy when someone turns and all the sudden they can't win matches cleanly, like overnight. It also gives the faces a challenge to overcome other than cheating, which alleviates some of the intuition to start putting gimmicks around the match that should "even" the odds. I also draw a distinction between bending the rules a bit throughout the match to get an advantage or maybe even going past the line of sportsmanship and cheating to get the actual decision. The former is something that should be built into a heels DNA, the latter should be used fairly strategically. Heels shouldn't win clean ALL the time, but I find the pattern of heels only (or even the vast majority of the time) cheating to win super irritating. Spot on about the nature of Alexa's promos and who has come out stronger (or more accurately not) from her feuds, but I really attribute that to them not sticking with much long term for her (aside from Nia). To me, the Sasha feud left a lot on the table. Sasha and maybe even Bayley came out worse for feuding with her because it felt - at least to me - like things moved forward unresolved ultimately. I also think both of those two at least have been the product of waffling booking for a long time now so I am hard pressed to pinpoint a single thing that caused their decline in standing. Both were overdetermined in my mind. Bayley did get buried in those promos though, but that was at least part on her for not being ready for that. Couldn't agree more. Heels should be credible enough that they can beat 98-99% of the roster clean. If they need loads of cheating to beat even mid-carders (see Seth Rollins circa 2015), then the audience loses interest. I also like the idea of bending the rules/taking a few shortcuts throughout the course of the match even if the finish is clean to ensure the heel doesn't look like TOO much of a coward and the face doesn't look like they were 100% inferior. And I also agree that the Sasha/Bayley feuds suffered because the heel went over while leaving so much unresolved. The heel was basically proven right and that was that.

One of the best TV matches of the year, NXT or otherwise. Pete Dunne played a surprisingly good face in peril the first half of the match and as soon as the hot tag was made to Lorcan, all hell broke loose. It was the best kind of controlled chaos where everyone is nailing big moves but nothing feels lost or distracting. Perpetual underdog Danny Burch getting a win was also very nice. ****1/4.

I do agree that wrestlers usually lost more in losing to Alexa than to Charlotte, but I think that had more to do with Alexa being a bully and her taunts being proven true by beating them cleanly. Charlotte was more "I'm the best" as opposed to "You're a loser who won't amount to anything".

My issue with Charlotte is that she's a good asskicker and heel, but a terrible babyface and promo. Alexa isn't a great wrestler, but is loads more charismatic and a better talker. I personally would have given the rocket to Sasha as she's always seemed to be the most popular and can play face and heel well.

It's been my running theory that she gets booked the way she does because someone in creative wants to have sex with her. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me as they just continually sacrifice better talent at her feet. Bayley, Sasha, Becky and Nia have all taken serious hits because of programs with her. I try not to think like that if I can help it. I do think she is a Hunter or Vince project. More likely Hunter, because Vince can't keep his projects over. I'd say Vince considering she never even got a Takeover singles match. The Horsewomen were always Trips' favorites. Although Trips always seemed to favor Bayley and Sasha over Charlotte, who seems like another Vince favorite.

I'd have her beat Nia in just a few minutes, but every single babyface working underneath for minutes at a time seems to be their MO.

Married for almost 3 years, one kid.

WWE CAN NOT book babyface well at all. Daniel Bryan broke them. We'll see how things go with Ronda.

Hard-hitting, fast-paced, back-and-forth action all tied up in a neat, 20 minute package. Very worthy successor of their 2015 classic and already one of the best matches of the year. Not much more I can say other than "Watch this match." ****3/4

Lariato! on Twitter has an amazing match rec list going all the way back to the 70's: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsZCBTpKjHzdbCpKZ1No1KAdpmOd2OcgSMfC1-oa7pI/edit#gid=0 As for more footage being added, I'm not sure. I think the biggest issue is that TV Asahi owns a lot of it.

Interestingly enough he mentioned in an interview months ago how much he wanted to punch like Lawler, ha.

Barr is a great call. And as broken-down as Tenryu was, I thought he and Okada put together a pretty solid match.

Really liked the Braun and Seth matches. I do think he's long overdue for a face turn, though.

As unfortunate as the circumstances were, Katsuyori Shibata.

Tom and Corey work really well together. Tom actually seems smart enough to be able to keep up with Corey, and occasionally get one over on him. Cole's call of "It's BOSS TIME" actually makes me like Sasha less, makes me not want to see her wrestle so I can avoid that awful call They have arguably the best chemistry of any team. My favorite interaction between them was when Tye Dillinger lost to Oney Lorcan and Corey proclaimed him to be "just a 5" and Tom faux-gasped in horror.

Did Tenryu work a lot of punches earlier in his career? He had some really good ones in a few of the 2000's matches I've seen him in.

This one is my favorite.

My wife and I were lucky enough to get tix.

I'm cool with that too.

WWE is where it all started for me so they'll always be one of "my promotions". I'm not sure I would have ever gotten into wrestling without them. TNA was important in me seeing there was wrestling outside of WWE and Lucha Underground would act as a further gateway to other outside products like New Japan when my interest in WWE was waning. New Japan has been my favorite "current" promotion since then and that ultimately led me to discovering 90's All Japan, which is my all-time favorite of any wrestling.

I've sort of wondered that too.

All of the usual suspects have been nominated and with good reason, but I love a bunch of the lesser-known matches that have been discussed. Not sure I would have ever known about Satanico-Koshinaka if it hadn't been nominated.

Almas was in one of them, ha. And the match with Black was probably one of the best matches of the year.