Boss Rock

I think overbooking can be great if it tells a good story and has a logical and satisfying conclusion. Two matches in particular stand out to me. Bayley vs. Eva Marie: The story leading up into this match was that despite Eva Marie sucking, she was the "ideal" women's wrestler to "management" (Vince). Therefore, "management" decided to give her every advantage: crooked referee Charles Robinson, Nia Jax in her corner, etc. Bayley naturally outclassed Eva in-ring but ref bumps, distractions, etc blocked her path. The match was full of shenanigans but told a simple yet effective story of the babyface overcoming the odds and winning. Jushin Liger vs. Taichi: Liger, in his final Best of the Super Juniors, went winless in his first seven matches and faced the heartbreaking prospect of finishing with zero points. Taichi on the other hand, used every dirty trick in the book to earn eight points and have a shot at the finals. Taichi and all of Suzuki-Gun jump Liger as the match starts and cheat relentlessly to deny the legend his last chance at a win. Things look hopeless for Liger after a ref bump as Suzuki-Gun cut up his gear and mask while continuing their beatdown. Taguchi and KUSHIDA finally run in and chase Suzuki-Gun off, allowing Liger to defeat Taichi in a fair fight. Simple, yet effective story of the good guys evening the odds so the aged legend can get one last victory over the tournament's biggest villain.

Any of the Grave Consequences matches from Lucha Underground. If you only have time for one then watch the first one, but all three of them are fantastic.

I didn't watch the whole show, but New-Usos was fantastic, easily the best match of their feud. The U.S. title match was boring when it was just Tye-Corbin but A.J. saved the day in that final seven-minute stretch. WWE Championship match was another mediocre Jinder-dominated match. Main event ran too long but I thought it was very good with a legitimately awesome ending.

So far I'd say Ultima Lucha has delivered as a whole. Most of the matches have been good and the booking has been a complete turnaround from last year's.

Ultima Lucha pt. 2 Battle Royale was extremely short but featured the grand return of Pimpinella Escarlata! Mack won and earned a shot at the Trios titles for next week. The twist: his partners will be Killshot and Dante Fox. Catrina vs. Ivelisse was heavily edited and therefore ran shorter than I expected. A decent and very bloody brawl. Marty vs. Fenix was the clear match of the night. For all of his good character work (even if I think it's been over-done at times), I've never thought Marty was a very good wrestler. But man did he deliver the performance of his career while Fenix was great as always. Tons and tons of blood. And I mean tons. Next week will be the trios match, GOTG ladder match, and Taya vs. Sexy Star. That leaves Matanza vs. Dragon, Cage vs. Crane vs. Mil, and Puma vs. Mundo for the final night.

Need to catch up on Ishikawa's CC run (although I wasn't crazy about the finals with Doering), but his run as champ and in Royal Road were very good. I would still say Kento is the best, even if he overdoes the fighting spirit a bit (although I'd wager AJPW does more finisher kickouts than NJPW).

Along with Mundo, Matanza's the only one who's consistently been able to get heel heat from the crowd. I think a lot of it comes down to him beating all of the crowd's favorites, this time being no exception.

And speaking of the Five-O brawl, I still laugh every time I think of the "Smell of burnt hair!" line from Striker.

Agreed 100% on the thematic brawls. The nunchaku match last season in particular was one of my favorites. Campy in the best possible way.

Wouldn't surprise me.

Looks like Fenix-Marty will be the third match this week as they have a Marty promo on Youtube. So that leaves for the next two weeks: Cage-Mil-Crane Sexy-Taya Dragon-Matanza Pentagon-Havoc Puma-Mundo Trios match? Looks like we may not get a two-hour finale unless the matches they choose are really long.

I only just recently got into classic Memphis, but Lance was great. My favorite moment of his will always be him arguing with Funk during the Empty Arena Match.

Next week has Catrina-Ivelisse and a Unique Opportunity battle royal. Most likely will include another match but not sure which one.

Hell of War was absolutely insane. Easily the most violent match LU has ever done, even surpassing Pentagon-Vampiro. There were some issues with selling, but overall an incredible spectacle match.

Larry Csonka of 411Mania is one who comes to mind. He's one of the few that does star ratings.

I think so. Wanna say No Mercy didn't sell out either.

Nope, it needs to be extremely convoluted and counter-productive. The treatment of faces is absolutely mind-blowing.

LU's Twitter announcing that Texano-Famous B is also this Wednesday.

Great point.

Quoted wrong.

It's very possible she puts over Asuka, but it's still extremely counter-productive to the rest of the division when she wins clean every single time.

Heels beating faces clean is indeed a weird trend. Gets the heels over but kills the faces.

You're right they did, but they took another hit post Mania 32. The biggest issue with WWE is that they lack a top star who can have a meaningful impact on business. Reigns has not at this point and very likely never will. Braun was a guy the audience was legitimately hot for and presented an interesting opportunity to try something new. Instead, they're revisiting the same program from almost three years ago between two guys who don't move the needle.

Apparently the issue is live gates. Both Raw and SDL events have supposedly been having trouble selling out. Only Cena is the real difference maker. And while tv ratings have been declining for years on account of wrestling not being as hot as it was during the AE, Cena was the reason they stayed afloat longer than they did. And TV ratings absolutely plummeted post-Mania 32. They haven't bottomed out yet but they haven't been getting better either. So the main issue is the lack of a top star who can sell tickets and get people to watch the product.

I feel like they will too. And if they structure it like Pentagon vs. the Triad, I think it might work. I think Rey is done this season. Supposedly his daughter's quinceanera was around this time.