goodhelmet

That makes too much sense DMJ. This is a company that claims the brand is the draw but is too stupid to do something that makes sense.

He had already been scheduled for Comicon. He appeared on Kimmel not too long after he won the belt. Hell... look at his regular appearances on Talking Dead. He has sung Take Me Out to the Ball Park at Wrigley. Whatever media appearances you would have Cena do; you have Punk do with "his own" film crew. He could have done Robot Chicken. Fuck man, the more I think about it... he could have been all over the place. I know you are the defender of all WWE booking but this was all about building up his return... not rushing it and it ended up meaning nothing.

Great explanation shoe! I wish you were that articulate on the air

Thanks to everyone for the good response and thanks to Matt D for at least listening to the show. I think the panel all agreed that the show was a blast to sit through.

I talked to Punk leading up to the Summerslam show and he wanted to go further with it but was in a tight spot holding the belt. Less than a month later, he knew the whole thing was fucked once Hunter and Nash got into it.

Keith Lee is probably the big black guy. He may have legit hurt himself as he had to have 3 refs help him back from the ring and it didn't feel like they were telling that type of story. Mike Dell and Rory Fox had a great match back in 2007 on the same show that had Hero vs.Masada MOTYC but i don't think the whole show made tape. I am curious what led to the incident with Dell at the Mohawk.

Completely disagree with Brad. The real money was in seeing Punk holding the belt hostage and appearing with it at various events and media shows setting up the slow burn leading to his return. I think Dylan would agree that it was the perfect time to set up the Cena heel turn and Rey was fucking still over at that point. Rey was leaving after Summerslam to have surgery I think so Cena could have been the one to lay Rey out and take credit for enfing his career. You could have had a solid co-main to help Summerslam and the Punk ' s eventual return would blow the roof off the place.

I went to the NWA Branded Outlaw Wrestling show here in San Antonio. Last time I went to a BOW show, NJ guys were on the bill so it will be fun to see what the locals can do on their own. Papy C vs. Local Mexican Wrestler (Ray Ortiz?) - Papy looks like Neville if he was a little Mexican dude. Same hair. Same height. OK match won by Ray Ortiz (?). Rudy Russo vs. Terrible Temper (?) Vs. JUICY Ramos - fun three way with all action and No botched spots. Temper or Tempo looks like James Hardin on Booker Ts body. Juicy wins with an elbow to Russo. Mike Dell vs. Big Daddy Yum Yum (that's what his shirt said) - I love Dell. Never puts on a bad show. Dell was supposed to fight Charlie Haas but Haas no showed. Yum Yum isn't very good... like the black Van Hammer. I also like Dell better as a heel. Dell pins Yum Yum with a Flying Elbow. Eh... this was ok but Haas would have had a better match. Ricky Starks vs. Carson - Starks looks like a skinny Rocky Mai via in 96 but acts like Gino Hernandez with awesome facial expressions and mannerisms. I love this guy... maybe my favorite local heel after Andy Dalton. Carson wins with a super kick but the match was pretty great entirely due to Starks. ACH vs. Andy Dalton -early on, good match with ACH keeping the Flying to a minimum but still breaking out some jaw dropping moves. Dalton may be the best heel on the indies but he lost the blonde hair and is getting himself in better shape. I sorta miss the mini Buddy Rose gimmick he had going. Dalton wins in a pretty great match by kicking ACH in the balls and hitting the piledriver. They got a little chop happy in places but match of the night so far. Sons of Texas vs. Weazy Wu and One Really Big Black Guy - Weazy Wu could have been a member of Special K... just skin and bones. His partner is huge.. it Marl Henry huge but just a powerhouse. Good solid tag formula with Weazy getting hit with a Doomsday Device for the Sons of Texas win. Franco D'Angelo vs. James Claxton - Claxton Reminds me of a Godwin and Franco reminds me of Taz so think of a Wannabe Godwin vs. A Worse Than Taz and that was about as good as this match would be. Worst match of the night and being too close to the ring really hurt since the Big Boot that won the match for Claxton missed by about 6 inches and for trying to brawl, they worked really light. Overall, one of the best local shows I have been to up until the shitty main event. The Japanese show I went to last year felt more special but this had the better crowd and atmosphere even with less people in the gym. MVPs were Ricky Starks, ACH and Andy Dalton. Fun night of wrestling.

OK right on!!! I actually use your column when prioritizing those shows most of the time and thought your words didn't actually match your rating.

Man, I was just reading your thoughts on the Jericho show with Chris Slade and you gave it a thumbs down? I thought that was one of the best Jericho interviews in a long time. The Tom Jones/Elvis story was great. The Gilmour/Page story was great. The AC/DC stories were great. If you are a fan of classic rock, you have to listen to this interview. Plus, Slade seems like he is the nicest guy ever.

For such a negative group of guys, this may be the most unanimous decision on an event since we started doing reaction shows. Either the creative of WWE should be replaced with the NXT creative or WWE should never be allowed to get its hands on the way NXT is produced. As we said on the show, they need to exist in their own separate universes.

I enjoyed Itami playing face in peril. All of the big spots against the 2 lumbering oafs worked well and I like the idea of the double stomp. I loved the Muta Balor paint.

Not feeling Corbin at all. I hated that finisher.

Did he just call Alex Riley "Alex Shelley"?

Owens debut is exactly what it should have been. I hope stupid WWE politics don't hurt him because he got busted open but it also helped make the debut feel even more special.

PWG Shirt in the crowd. Owens looks amped.

I think all of the matches have a chance of being entertaining but I have reservations on all of them. If everything falls the wrong way as I point out below then I could see it being a thumbs down show. - I am interested to seeing Balor & Itami in the NXT ring but have zero faith in the Ascension. - have liked most of the Divas matches in NXT but I don't ever bank on a Divas match making a show. - The Kevin Owens debut is something I am looking forward to but I have seen great Steen matches and spotty dogshit Steen matches, - Never seen the Vaudevillains and I don't have faith in the WWE producing lucha matches. - I have not been impressed with NEville in NXT even though iL iked his airborne style on the indies, Love Sami Zayn in NXT so I am banking on this match to be good. But will it be good Where you shrug your shoulders or great so I can put it on a MOTY list?

This is what is on the show tonight... Kevin Owens debut The Ascension vs. Itami & Balor Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks The Lucha Dragons vs. The Vaudevillains Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville This show could be great or a complete disaster. I haven't decided which one yet. Still going to check it out.

You bastard

Perfect!!!

I would have to go back and look but did they reference the Super Bowl throughout the entire episode? Could be some Super Bowl rule since anyone promoting the Super Bowl on another network calls it the Big Game or whatever.

About twice the width.

Man... Charlotte's debut felt sort of important... until they had her pinned in her debut. Stupid.

You really seem to be hostile towards Punk, Bill. Ain't nothing wrong with disliking a wrestler. It just seems like your disdain for the guy is bleeding over.

Yep, I wasn't even close.