Cowboy Hats 4.0

So what was this about?

AJ/Bryan lived up to the hype! And I couldn't/wouldn't have been upset had anyone here mentioned the finish, but getting to watch it days later without having been spoiled was a nice treat. I didn't realize Hulu puts up Smackdown immediately (or close to it). I had assumed it was still a one month delay, so I'm glad I checked. I have the basic Hulu subscription, with ads, so was shocked when no ads played during this match. The intros and outros to commercial breaks were still there, of course. I believe it was five in a match that had less than thirty minutes of airtime. That's a lot! But it was the ideal way to watch, as even off the DVR would have required a few seconds of fast forwarding.

They got me to watch Orton/Edge purely because of the absurd name of the match. It was fine, not bad by any means, but nothing anyone needs to go out of their way to see. Maybe it's not worse than their booking, and I know this isn't a new point, but this company's editing and camerawork makes it really difficult to watch a match. I really don't understand the thinking behind it. Is it just that a madman once thought his product should look like an action movie and he's never let go of it? And while bodies in the crowd is better than literally no one, this company can't help but be weird about it. I don't know the exact differences to explain why AEW feels so natural about it in comparison, but it may be that the AEW wrestlers in the crowd seem like they are just hanging out. The NXT interns seem to be in designated spots, dressed in company shirts, all chanting 'this is awesome'. Cringey stuff. And I feel for anyone in the NXT crowd that eventually turns into a star and there will be video of them chanting 'fight forever' during a 2020 Edge match.

I’ve been reading you for way too long to feel this confident that Otis’ answer is Rock/Mankind at Royal Rumble ‘99?

Woah...haven’t thought of the name in over fifteen years, but was a reader and fan at the turn of the century. Thank you for the write up.

Lack of muscle mass? Have any body shamers gone after Chuck? If so, please direct me to those sources. I purchased the two PPVs since AEW started weekly television, but I really can’t justify fifty smackers on this one (as I just dropped...a lot on an Other Half ipa delivery order).

Would love the real scoop on Undertaker abducting Stephanie McMahon.

What has the ratings situation been, generally, during quarantine? Any bump in viewers?

An incredible story. Thank you.

Did they really take away his first name?

Not in favor of adding more matches to the mix. Both nights came in around three hours, right? And that's without a concert or mini-HOF ceremony. Skipping around a three hour show the night of or the next morning was reasonable. Anything more and we're back to it being a chore. Watched Flair/Ripley live, but couldn't get back to things until the show was over. Frustratingly, the network app took at least twenty minutes for the show to post (around 10:45 pm EST the live feed was on whatever they were showing next and there was no WM Part II link for a while). Once I got on, skipped to Lesnar/McIntyre (no matter the result, felt bad for Drew after watching the well done Chronicle of him earlier in the day) and then the Funhouse. I considered Orton/Edge, but my willingness continued to fade as I continued to rewind the feed and was coming to terms with just how long it was. Before then, even, I was checking out comments here and considering avoiding spoilers, I skipped a whole page of comments during this match. Two pages later and the comments were still going! I can probably handle a 15 minute trainwreck, but this just seems like too much.

From a sad man's memory: WM 20: Orton, Batista and Flair v. Rock and Foley WM 21: Orton v. Undertaker WM 22: Orton v. Angle v. Mysterio WM 23: MITB? WM 24: Orton v. HHH v. Cena WM 25: Orton v. HHH (main event) WM 26: Orton v. Rhodes v. Dibiase WM 27: Orton v. Punk WM 28: Orton v. Kane WM 29: Orton, Big Show and Sheamus v. The Shield WM 30: Orton v. Batista v. Bryan (main event) WM 31: Orton v. Rollins WM 33: Orton v. Wyatt WM 34: Orton v. Rusev v. Mahal v. Roode (?) WM 35: Orton v. Styles WM 36: Orton v. Edge Can't hold all against him (Kane, Wyatt, US title four way, MITB), but yeah, not a great record. Offhand, would be willing to revisit the Evolution tag, Undertaker and Punk. Maybe Rollins.

Samesies. What time does it start? Do we know how many hours each night?

Fun enough show given the circumstances. Wrestling was real sloppy in parts. Wrestlers in the audience, split between faces and heels, was real fun, and even just having the few of them shouting at times helped give some kind of atmosphere.

Good stuff

Personal match rankings: 1. Omega/Page v. Young Bucks 2. Pac v. Orange Cassidy 3. Darby Allin v. Sammy Guevara 4. Moxley v. Jericho 5. MJF v. Cody 6. Hager v. Dustin 7. Nyla Rose v. Statlander Only seven matches! And agreed with the tweetman. Maybe I'd revisit one of the top three matches above someday, so it wasn't a show with MOTYCs, but I still had a lot of fun with this. Don't love dropping $50/event, but if they hold it to four or five a year, I could probably justify it (certainly helps when they are as well built to as this one). The problems I have with all the kickouts in this generation of wrestling is somehow lessened during a tag match, so last night's really worked for me. Must be the suspension of disbelief isn't completely ruined because most pin attempts are broken up by a partner.

Are you suggesting a...collective of some kind? Really dug the thirty minute iron-man, but the no selling just gets so tiring. Really bottomed out on that about halfway through with Pac kicking out of some crazy move only to immediately roll out and run around the ring looking for a chair.

Yeah, super pumped for Revolution. Genuinely excited thinking about the card! And while multi-man tags in a go home show is usually pretty lame, the way they handled things this week, I’d be very down with an Inner Circle v. Moxley/Darby/Rhodes tag next week. They showed Omega/Page watching tv backstage. Hmmm... They really should just scratch the rankings idea. Great in theory, but five months in it has been meaningless. They don’t even show the rankings on television.

(iii) Evolution, (iv) Lesnar and (v) the brand split

Well, that’s nice.

Best episode of Dynamite, absolutely, but...an ominous sign showing Arn in that three-quarters angle of him watching the Dustin match on a television. I suppose not every WWE trope is inherently terrible, but not a fan of seeing this one show up.

Would a Bayley match even make the main card, then?

Da Card: Men's Royal Rumble Confirmed entrants (26/30): Brock Lesnar (No. 1), Roman Reigns, King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Elias, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Otis, Tucker, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Braun Strowman, Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Kofi Kingston, Big E, The Miz, John Morrison Women's Royal Rumble Confirmed entrants (8/30): Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, Natalya, Sarah Logan, Mandy Rose, Carmella, Dana Brooke Universal Championship 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt (c) v. Daniel Bryan (Strap Match) Raw Women's Championship Becky Lynch (c) v. Asua SmackDown Women's Championship Bayley (c) v. Lacey Evans United States Championship Andrande (c) v. Humberto Carrillo Roman Reigns v. King Corbin (Falls Count Anywhere) Sheamus v. Shorty G

First one I'm not watching since 2011. Really just no interest at all, even for dropping $9.99 on a theoretical hour of fun (the men's Rumble itself, not the other 3.5 hours).