Boss Rock

I think with Braun they've found a good balance, at least for now. Like the concert segment with Elias. The bass bit was hilarious, but then he immediately beat the crap out of him. I also think Braun has the charisma a lot of folks don't when doing these types of segments and understands his character better than most. Now if they put him in a New Year Baby diaper like Big Show then yeah, they'll have gone too far. But right now they've done a great job reinforcing that he's a monster even when he's having fun.

Braun also has the character stuff nailed down. Dude is super versatile as he can do comedy, serious, heel, or face.

New season starts on June 14. They said it will be around 22 episodes or so, around the length of season 2. Think that will definitely help as I felt the length of last season sort of caused stories to get stop-started around the halfway point, especially with the Cueto Cup.

I plan on catching up on some stuff I've had saved and will definitely nominate the Gargano-Ciampa match from this weekend.

Thought this match was better than a lot of folks give it credit for, but the hype surrounding it as well as the comparisons it would inevitably draw to their last match definitely made this a disappointment. The action was very methodical and there was some cool back-and-forth action that seemed to be building to a crescendo, but it just never happened. I liked the finishing sequence as it was creative and unexpected and the heel turn was great, but it just never went into that second gear they seemed to be building towards. All in all a good match sullied by huge expectations that were never met given the talent of the two. I'd give it ***3/4 to ****.

Monty Brown is always the correct answer!

I still think Bryan and Ronda are the ideal top stars right now and you can also work in A.J, Braun, and Lashley with them.

Wrestlemania 13. Atlantis-Villano is great but I feel like it doesn't really get going until the blood starts flowing. Hart-Austin is pretty consistently great and urgent throughout.

Dave's scoops in WWE have been shaky at best lately so I usually take that with a grain of salt. But the online scoopster consensus seems to be that the finish was changed at time that day.

Part of my deciding to attend live this year was KNOWING it was going to be his moment, so I was pretty bummed when he lost. On another note, I just finished listening to the reaction show with Zellner and Dem Hales Boys and they had been talking about all kinds of backstage machinations that had possibly taken place before the match. Has any of that been fleshed out further yet? One report from Justin Barrasso at SI that the finish was changed that day because Reigns wasn't getting the responses they had hoped and they were hoping to get a better one at the Rumble. Not sure how accurate that is though.

Hes still been a featured star for five years or something so if he was going to damage ratings it would already have happened. I know they arent the be all and end all but he tends to be in the top bracket of stars on their YouTube videos so theres obviously some interest in him, just not from the sorts that go to the shows - especially the big ones. Besides, Seth Rollins got a 9 month title run that only ended due to injury even though it was an all-time ratings killer. I dont think thats the primary concern. I think there was a bit of a ratings drop-off when he became champ in 2016 but that's more or less kind of stabilized.

The only downside is that they risk alienating the fans who do love him.

He had a really good showing against Ospreay at Sakura Genesis. Bit of a long match, but dropped a lot of the hamminess and was much more of a merciless killer.

Kenny being on the show is basically a given, so I think they have a really good shot at this.

Indeed. It's just not happening. That being said, Bryan and Lashley being back means they have a couple interesting options.

I do sort of feel that they're eternally shook, but they've also dropped pushes flat when there was a feeling things weren't working out. It's just baffling as all hell.

Roman being a whiny conspiracy theorist who gets promptly destroyed by Joe on the mic is...I just don't get it. I take issue with a lot of WWE's booking but they've shown a few times in the past that they know how to build someone up. Jinder got all the bells and whistles of lackies and a cool entrance and rarely lost. A.J. beat Cena three times. Braun only has two clean losses and is frequently featured destroying things and/or people. It seems odd that they would just have no clue on why Reigns isn't working with this kind of presentation. I really wonder if there really is some kind of backstage creative resistance to Roman being the guy that's causing him to look like a fool.

Come on Zeus!

Haven't seen much of Cole's indie in-ring work, but his heel character in ROH was really good. Such a sleazy scumbag, reminds me of Edge in a good way (I always found him easy to dislike as a heel). But he also reminds me of Edge in a bad way in that he really needs to rely on garbage match stips to work a good match. That being said, he showed a lot of fire in the match with Ohno and while it's easy to give Ohno the responsibility for that match working, I think Cole COULD be better.

Greatest Takeover by a mile and quite possibly the best WWE show ever.

And the fact that she was able to pull it off with one hand and submit her seemed a little overkill.

At least when he became Swagsuke. Haven't really seen any of his pre-King of Strong Style stuff.

I liked the A.J. match too but unless they're saving something bigger for the rematch, it's clear he's no longer the spectacular big match worker he used to be (And even then I think his coasting in NJPW is a bit of an overstatement. Dude usually made an effort in every singles match).

It is indeed incredibly contradictory booking compared to his card placement.

Finn is older too. If they were smart, they would build around Ronda, and make sure that she doesn't get wheeled out every week and suffer from the same overexposure and 50-50 booking. Having her wrestle on a random Raw against Dana Brooke or Alicia Fox won't do anything to keep her special. Slightly off topic, but I can see WWE building to Ronda-Charlotte as the main for WM35. If that is the case, then Charlotte beating Asuka was the right move. I would have preferred it being via pinfall though, so you could still play up the fact that Asuka had never been submitted, and it would protect her own submission specialist billing. I also think a Asuka/Rousey submission match for the right to face Charlotte at WM would have had some money in it too. Ronda-Charlotte main-eventing next year definitely looks like what they're going for.