Boss Rock

I dug the ladder match a lot, but thought Almas-Black was better. I'd still go Bucks/Cole vs. Ospreay/Ricochet/Sydal at PWG or Tiger Mask-Dynamite, heh.

2015 Reigns was pretty much his marquee year as an elite perfomer, even if to me he made the leap @ Summerslam 2014. I mean, while Rollins kidnapped the belt, Roman was having bangers with BIG SHOW (way less mobile than when he fought Braun, mind you), Wyatt (to this day, his best match was at HiaC 2015 against Roman), goddamn Alberto Del Rio, and against Cesaro and Ambrose at Survivor Series. The Sheamus feud was also fucking incredible, so yeah, I'd say that he's made that second leap before ER'16 I'm not really as high on Reigns' 2015 as others. The Big Show LMS match was indeed great, but I thought the Wyatt feud was a bit of a drag. Granted none of that was really his fault as Wyatt is pretty mediocre, but I thought he lost a good chunk of the year to that feud.

It would be a solid move but I have my doubts that the WWE can be patient enough to let that build for a year.It wouldn't surprise me if Summerslam or the Survivor Series is as long as they could execute a build between the two without feeling they had to have the match happen. If they can do a full build to Mania that would be great, but I'm skeptical. I think an easy first interraction is at Survivor Series as the captains of their respective teams who manage to never touch during the match. That is, if they want to keep treading water with Charlotte on Smackdown, which has been pretty tedious now for at least 6 months. I was originally thinking they move Charlotte to Raw next week, but I could see her feuding with the IIconics (terrible trademark) and Alexa for a bit and then winning the Rumble next year. If they move her to Raw now, it may be tough to keep her and Ronda separate for a while.

I think Youtube numbers are also pretty heavily bolstered by international viewers.

A.J. is interesting as I agree he was already one of the best in the world in 2005, but I feel like it was his jump to New Japan (and later WWE) that really put him into GOAT conversation. He was always a terrific high-flier, great babyface, and top-notch bumper, but his skills as a ring general able to get the most out of almost any opponent I think began after leaving TNA. As for Reigns, I'd argue he made two leaps: Mania 31 and Extreme Rules 2016. Mania was when he first proved he could deliver in a big match setting and Extreme Rules was when he began to regularly deliver bangers almost every single week.

Loved this match. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Just so much intensity and urgency throughout. Black is out for payback and he takes it to Almas immediately. Luckily for Almas, Zelina is there to even up the odds. Tremendous bomb-throwing match competed at break-neck speed. And it never seemed excessive or unbelievable. They both made you think "Yes, I'm in pain. But I've got to put him away NOW". Zelina continuously interfering only for it to backfire in the end made for an incredibly satisfying conclusion. Legitimate MOTYC. ****3/4.

If they make Taker-Rusev a sprint like they did with Cena at Mania this may be oddly enjoyable.

Totally agree on the finish to Charlotte-Asuka, even if I thought it was one of if not the best match of the night.

Something seems to be wrong with the url now.

Striker bugs me and he can be downright offensive at times, but he also had an all-time great call when Cortez Castro took a taser to Joey Ryan's crotch.

Really felt like late-2016 SDL was the best creative period since Bryan and the Shield. And it seems like Raw has gotten better with telling stories (apart from the Reigns-Lesnar nonsense).

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.